Ghost hunters find woman's body at haunted hospital

Therese Apel | (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger

Show Caption Hide Caption Ghost hunters discover body of missing woman in haunted hospital A team of ghost hunters found the body of a missing woman as they explored the old Kuhn Memorial State Hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

VICKSBURG, Miss. - A team of ghost hunters found the body of a missing woman on Sunday as they explored the old Kuhn Memorial State Hospital in Vicksburg, a site known to be one of Mississippi's most haunted.

Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said Sharon Wilson, 69, appeared to have trauma to her head. Witnesses said her body was found outside Kuhn Hospital, but blood trails indicated she had been inside.

Two men, Akeem McCloud, 20, and Rafael McCloud, 33, have been taken into custody, but Armstrong said they have not been charged yet.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said his office was alerted to the body when a group of people came to the sheriff's office. Sgt. Jason Bailess was working on shift reports and talked with the group who told him that they had been at Kuhn Hospital. They told Bailess they knew they probably weren't supposed to be out there, but they had found a body and wanted to report it.

Bailess went to the scene and blocked off the driveway and called Vicksburg Police Department.

Armstrong said he was in the Delta searching for Wilson when the call came in. Leland Police Department was able to stop the McClouds, who are related, on a traffic stop. When they realized the car was stolen, as was a weapon in their possession, police asked VPD to check on the welfare of the owner of the vehicle.

"We checked, and she was not there," Armstrong said.

Wilson was last seen around 9 p.m. Saturday night by a couple who visited her home. She was reported missing around noon on Sunday.

Inside of Kuhn Hospital is a dark maze of rooms full of debris. Many of the walls are are spray-painted, and many of them have fallen down. It is nationally and internationally known as a hotspot of paranormal activity, with many paranormal groups coming to investigate apparitions and electronic voice phenomena recorded there.

David Childers, co-founder of the Mississippi Paranormal Research Institute, is very familiar with Kuhn Hospital, as he has conducted many ghost hunts there through the years. He said from what he saw inside Kuhn on Monday, it appears at one point Wilson was inside the hospital and was taken outside.

"You could tell where they had dragged someone down from the second floor in the middle of the building, to a grassy area on the left side of the hospital," he said. "On the steps, that's where most of the blood was, and it looked like they dragged her all the way to the grassy area."

Police said the McClouds told authorities they had put Wilson out on the side of the road after robbing her home and kidnapping her on Saturday.

Rafael McCloud was already known from previous run-ins with the Vicksburg Police Department, Armstrong said.

Armstrong says the body was sent to the state crime lab in Jackson for processing. Coroner Doug Huskey referred all questions back to VPD.

Because of the propensity for paranormal groups to visit Kuhn, Armstrong said police don't get a lot of calls there, but there is a lot of activity there. Some groups, like Childers', have permission to be inside the building. Others just go unannounced.

Childers said he didn't know the group who found Wilson's body.

In spite of his experience there, Childers said the old structure is dangerous and should be demolished. He said a ceiling caved in on him and some of his team in a ghost hunt last year.

"Kuhn Hospital has a lot of places inside and out that would be an ideal spot to place a body. In my opinion they should tear it down. It's condemned and is open for things like this to happen," he said. "It's an unsafe environment, there are open elevator shafts, black mold, asbestos, and debris, and people ought to stay away from that place."

"Some spirits just need to be left alone," he said.