‘Haunted’ old hospital horror story for students
Twelve University of Idaho students thought they’d find some scares early Monday at an abandoned Colfax hospital.
Instead, they’ll be haunted by their arrests.
The dozen students were charged with trespassing when Whitman County sheriff’s deputies discovered them roaming the halls of St. Ignatius Manor Hospital shortly after midnight.
The students told deputies they had heard it was a “haunted insane asylum.”
Maybe they watched the 1999 movie “House on Haunted Hill.”
At least the UI students got out with their lives, unlike many characters in that thriller about an abandoned mental institution haunted by murdered patients.
“For people to go there late at night when it’s completely dark, someone could get hurt,” said Colfax police Officer Bryce Nebe.
A 14-year-old boy was injured on the hospital grounds last month when he fell into a well, plummeting 40 feet before stopping his descent by bracing himself against the brick shaft.
The hospital at 1009 Mill St. has been plagued by trespassers since it was shut down several years ago, Nebe said. It’s owned by out-of-town investors.
Nebe described the inside of the hospital as a pitfall of broken glass, moldy and rotting floors and walls, and hallways littered with appliances and other materials.
“There are rumors of hauntings, so people think it’s fun to go in and play,” said Whitman County sheriff’s Sgt. Jodie Hamilton.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, those arrested Monday were Brian James Rainey, Christopher Lucas Tate, Joseph Lee Sonnen, Kai Peter Jensen, Christopher Clyde Huntley, David Michael Arnold, Brian Joseph Bialke, Tanner Cord Parker, Nicholas Todd Batten, Robert Charles Buxbaum, Craig J. Chandler and Jacqueline Kelley Wuebben. All are 18 or 19 years old.
Rainey said he thinks police overreacted.
“The whole thing is lame and has been blown way out of proportion,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“One of our buddies told us that it was an old mental hospital, obviously an urban legend or whatever,” he wrote. “We were there to check it out, and because there were no ‘no trespassing’ signs and doors were open, we didn’t think anyone would care if we went in and checked it out.”
Deputies and police officers caught the students after neighbors reported seeing flashlights in the building.
The students came out when they were told officers were there with police dogs.
Rainey said he and his friends cooperated with police and expected to just be told to go home.
Hamilton said he hopes publicizing the students’ arrests will discourage other trespassers, while Rainey said signs and boarding up windows and doors would do the trick.
For others, rumors of evil ghosts are enough.