The ghostly tales from Colorado’s Stanley Hotel are well-known and well-repeated, thanks in part to the fact that it inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Now a ghost tour visitor believes that they’ve captured a photograph that lends credence to one of the hotel’s creepier legends.

Ohio native Stephanie Reidl was recently visiting the famously haunted hotel and decided to embark on one of the Stanley’s nightly ghost tours. After listening to their guide recount tales of the building’s numerous ghosts, Reidl and her coworker began to snap photos on their way to the concert hall basement. Upon reviewing the photographs, they captured the usual scattering of “orbs” – which we won’t get started on – but one particular image caught their attention.

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The snap shows their tour guide descending the stairs, but to his left, hiding behind a table, appears to be the ghostly image of a young, dark-haired girl in a pink dress, her eyes reflecting in the camera flash. It’s an undeniably spooky image that they believe shows Lucy, one of the Stanley Hotel’s most famous phantoms.

“We were told to take lots of pictures, I’m sure to try and capture orbs or ghosts,” Reidl wrote. “Many green orbs were caught in pictures, but I don’t think anything is as creepy as this photo taken by my coworker- a little girl in a hot pink dress, who was definitely not on our tour… I am convinced this is the ghost of Lucy.”

According to the hotel, Lucy was a young girl about 13 years of age, believed to be a runaway, who had been squatting in the Stanley’s basement for some time many years ago. When maintenance men came to survey the basement before some major construction below the concert hall, the stumbled onto Lucy and she was forced to leave. That very night, temperatures dropped below zero, and she was later found dead, frozen by the elements. Today, many of the hotel workers and guests have claimed to have seen her.

Reidl says that she understands the skepticism that she might face by posting the image online, but swears that the photo is genuine.

“Though I doubt if anyone would believe me, but there was only ONE time throughout the tour where I felt any strange energy or feeling, and it was right here, heading down to the basement of the concert hall.”

Could Reidl be the first to finally capture an image of Lucy making her presence known from beyond the grave? Or was someone’s currently-living child wandering the halls of The Stanley Hotel at nine o’clock, hoping to scare guests on a spooky ghost tour? We want to know what you think! Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, tweet us @WeirdHQ, or leave your comments below!

Want to head to The Stanley and meet Lucy for yourself? Come join Planet Weird (and Ghost Hunters Amy Bruni, Grant Wilson, Ghost Stalkers’ John E.L. Tenney, Psychic Kids’ Chip Coffey, and lots more) when we head to the haunted hotel with Strange Escapes in April, 2016! We’ll be there with the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult (yes, including the Dark Mirror). For more info, check out the official Strange Escapes website!

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