*All pictures in this story are the property of Kahuna Research Group
This article is brought to you by the Kahuna Research Group.
Kahuna Research Group visited the old Hilo Memorial Hospital and what remained of the original nursery after an intense fire occurred there in the past, fatally injuring both nurses and infants. Nothing says paranormal hotspot like an old hospital, especially one where many traumatic deaths took place. Nowadays, people report hearing the faint cries of babies thought to have passed in the blaze. We decided to investigate to see if we could record any crying sounds on film – and to see if anything else catches our attention.
Strangeusa.com, a website that claims to have the ultimate collection of the strange, writes this about the old hospital:
“Located in Hilo town at the site of the old hospital in Kaumana. Pass the old basketball court; take the access road around the main building to the rear parking lot. Years ago the old nursery broke out in flames burning the nurses as well as the infants. You can hear babies crying through the halls and strange noises all around you. There are definitely spirits there.”
For a paranormal team that is relatively new to the scene, this seemed like the perfect place to investigate. It would give us some additional training as well as more of a perspective on what we might have to deal with in the future as the Big Island’s premier paranormal research group. KRG member Jason previously contacted the current hospital administration and got our group permission to spend the afternoon investigating the grounds – something we always try to do.
Upon arriving at the hospital, we checked in with the staff and let them know we were about to begin. There are many buildings on the property. The main building can be seen in the picture above, and the old nursery building to the right of the main building seen below. Today, only remnants of the burned down nursery remain. We thought it was peculiar how the remains were not completely removed from the property, demolished like you’d think they would be. We started with the old burned out nursery which was the main reason we were there, but eventually explored the other buildings as well.
 The old nursery entrance, with police tape from what must have been a more recent incident.
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KRG’s Jason Obenchain with the IOD40 checking for subtle electrical disturbances.
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We started our investigation within the taped off area of the old nursery, moving into the building with caution and apprehension. It was apparent that whoever had worked there had left in a big hurry. Fires will make people do that…
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We sat down at the far end of the building and attempted to make contact with the spirits via our sensitive Marcie. She used a crystal pendulum that would swing in response to her questions. We set up a digital recorder during our questioning to attempt to get an EVP at this time. The IOD40 (Ion Detector), energy probe, and multiple digital cameras were also employed here.
After a few minutes of asking questions, Marcie, being a sensitive, indicated there was a child spirit in the room with us. After further questioning the spirit, Marcie said the child was acting scared, but not of us, scared by another spirit that was at this place. The child told Marcie that the other spirit, named John at this point, was particularly evil-spirited and didn’t want any of the children to move on to the light. There’s always something keeping the spirits from moving on, and finding out exactly what that is is what we as a group are trying to accomplish.
After conversing with the spirits, and learning what we did, we headed off to investigate the other building on the property where people reported other paranormal activity. KRG’s Zach Royer and Marcie Grover snapped these photo before leaving the room where contact was made:
This photo shows multiple spirit globes (orbs) with the biggest/brightest one hovering above the chalkboard.
The next part of our investigation took place in the main building, seen below. It definitely looks the part if it proves to be haunted! The first floor is currently in use as a hospice daycare facility for the elderly and there’s a pharmacy school that is renting part of the third floor as well. We spoke with a lady from the pharmacy school who was taking a cigarette break behind the building, and she told us she’d heard of the “crying babies” phenomenon.
The following paragraph was taken directly from KRG investigator Jason Obenchain’s notes:
“Back of building A, spoke with woman that works for UH pharmacy school. She mentioned that she was aware of the crying babies and that the fire that occurred on the property happened a long time ago. She spoke of a female janitor that no longer worked there that had paranormal experiences.“
Following the nursery, and after an initial walk around the entire complex, we felt it was time to move inside. After checking in for the final time, we made our way past the employee area of the hospice facility, which was on the way to the stairwell leading to the upper floors.
Here we thought it best to ask permission from any spirits to go further with our investigation out of respect. Jason employed his digital recorder and Marcie with a pendulum and her sensitive abilities. No sign or word was given for us to leave, so we moved on. After asking permission, we went upstairs where we found only locked doors. It seemed the investigation was quickly coming to an end… However, after another check of the door handle, one of the locked doors unlocked somehow..leading to a section of the building we never planned to investigate. Jason is a security guard outside of the group, so he’s very familiar with checking door handles. He was genuinely intrigued when the door opened after he had just checked it.
 
Jason and Marcie asking permission from any present spirits to continue our investigation – out of respect. |
Did something unlock the door for us to continue? We honestly feel the answer is yes! There could be a number of reasons for the door to open, one being the age of the hardware. It is an old building, so the possibility of failed hardware exists. Either way, the investigation continued.
The images below of a face in the background were taken in the hallway behind the door that was locked. An EVP was also recorded here, but may not be suitable for posting because it contains racial profanity (the n word), verified by multiple people. If you are with another paranormal group and would like a copy of that EVP for further analysis, please contact us. A write up from Sensitive/Investigator Marcie describes the EVP entirely:
Although the whole site is nice and active, I had the best contact with a spirit in the third floor of the occupied building. Using a crystal pendulum I conducted an EVP session on the third floor landing (pictured above). I made contact with a man whom I believe to have worked there in the late 40s or early 50s. I believe his name is Jim or Jimmy, most likely a WWII veteran who stayed in after the war. I sensed a tall, slender fellow in coveralls holding a mop. As usual, I was informing the spirit of “current events” such as Hawaii being a state and a man from Hawaii was actually the President now. Just after I said “and the good news is he’s a black man” a distinct male voice was captured on the digital recorder muttering a racial epithet “he’s a n****”. As unfortunate as that is, it backs up my sense that Jim was indeed most likely a product of the segregated armed forces of WWII where racism was unfortunately rampant.
 KRG’s Zach Royer taking digital photos caught by surprise – DO YOU SEE A FACE in the background by the doorway? |
Conclusion: At no time during our investigation did anyone hear any crying babies, but let it be noted we were investigating during non-normal hours (normal hours for paranormal investigations are between 10pm – 2am). We had to investigate during the day because of permissions – but feel a nighttime investigation would yield stronger results. The door unlocking on the third floor was particularly strange, leading to us capturing an EVP, but nothing super conclusive. The overall feeling of the place is eery, just as you would expect it to be, but that doesn’t make it haunted.
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