Ghost hunters prowl halls of old Idaho TB hospital

GOODING, Idaho (AP) — It was just before midnight when Kelsey Robbins led Beau Beaucher and Tammy Blair through the gutted halls and rooms of the old tuberculosis hospital. The air, heavy with fine sawdust, was frigid, and it clawed through thick layers of clothing to chill flesh and bone.

In some rooms, ancient windows let through the yellow pall of a street light or the brief red-and-blue pulse from a passing police car, but a palpable darkness sealed the old building until it was sliced by the beam of a flashlight or torn by the burst of a camera flash.

The tiny group tried to avoid injury from nails and shards of glass from shattered windows as they scanned an array of devices, recording the temperature, groping for electromagnetic spikes and taking photographs.

In quiet places they sank to the cold hardwood floor to reassure the dead.

"This is a cozy place," Beaucher began. "Is there anybody else in here that would like to talk to us?"

Silence.

"Can you tell us your name?" he continued. "My name is Beau."

Nothing.

"Can you tell me why you stay here?" Robbins then asked.

Still nothing.

This time.

Robbins is a lead investigator with Idaho Spirit Seekers, a Nampa-based all-volunteer group that is searching for evidence of life after death. The ISS, headed by Marie Cuff, uses modern technology — electromagnetic detectors, infrared cameras and digital recorders — to investigate reported hauntings, all in hope of answering life's ultimate question.

This scientific, hard facts-based approach, which is as much about disproving supernatural stories as proving them, has earned the group credibility as investigators of the paranormal, as well as an affiliation with the SciFi Channel's popular "Ghost Hunters" show.

Earlier this month, from 9:30 p.m. until 3 a.m., ISS investigators and guests such as Beaucher and Blair — self-described believers from Mountain Home and Boise — roamed the four floors of the old tuberculosis hospital, now known as the Get Inn, a bed-and-breakfast.