Investigator discusses Illinois hauntings
BLOOMINGTON - Normal resident Cindy Charlebois isn't quite sure whether there are ghosts among us and whether there are places in Illinois that are truly haunted by them.
But she is interested enough to at least find out a little more about it. She was among approximately 75 people who attended a program on "Illinois Ghosts and the Afterlife" Sunday at Bloomington Public Library.
"I have a lot of friends who have seen a lot of things," she said. "I haven't seen very much, but it is very interesting. I haven't gone looking for a whole lot, though. It scares me just a little."
Terry Fisk, a paranormal investigator and author, led an hour-long program at the library and discussed locations in Illinois he has visited and investigated.
"Illinois has a lot of great stories to tell," he said. "Throughout the state and wherever I go to do programs, I always hear of new places and new stories."
One of the most famous, he said, was the story of "Resurrection Mary," which he described as the most famous case of "the vanishing hitchhiker" in Illinois and probably the world.
"People, and a lot of times it's cab drivers, in Chicago, ... have seen apparitions of a young woman on the side of the streets near Resurrection Cemetery," he said.
He explained that in 1939, a man attended a dance at the Willowbrook Ballroom and met a young woman in a white dress. They danced several dances and then he offered to give her a ride home. She gave him an address on Damen Avenue, but when they approached the cemetery, she vanished.
After hours of looking for her, he never found her, but later went to the address she had provided. Her mother showed him a picture, which he believed to be of her, then explained that she had died in a car accident five years earlier.
"I'm fascinated by the stories," said Bloomington resident Amanda Moreland. "There has to be something to it. Too many people have seen and heard too many things over the years for there not to be something to the fact that there are ghosts."
Fisk has written several books on ghosts and suspected haunted places along with co-author and researcher Chad Lewis. Fisk also has worked with medium Allison DuBois, who was the real-life inspiration for the CBS series "Medium," and several other researchers and authors.
Among the places he visited was Cumberland Cemetery near Wenona in Marshall County, rumored to be the home of the ghost of a little girl named Lucy, Fisk said.
"This is one of the most haunted cemeteries in Illinois," he said. "Talk to the people around it. They have some amazing stories to tell over the years."
Lori Anne Cook-Neisler/The PantagraphParanormal investigator Terry Fisk signed a book for Cindy Charlebois of Normal after he spoke at Bloomington Public Library.Lori