Paranormal research team looks into Auburn University Chapel

The Alabama Paranormal Research Team staked out the Auburn University Chapel on Saturday night in search of Sydney Grimmett, the ghost of a Civil War soldier who is said to be seen in the church’s rafters. But whether Grimmett was present that night is a mystery.

The night was quiet until the end, when power readings began to increase and there was a water incident in one of the restrooms.

“It was really odd, I can’t say for sure the ghost of Sydney Grimmett lives in the bathroom of the Chapel, but there was definitely some odd
phenomenon,” said team member Faith Serafin.

Serafin, John-Mark Poe, Michelle Smith, Cassie Clark and Shane Clark brought voice recorders, video recorders, equipment aimed at capturing electromagnet fields and other gear to the 158-year-old church to record and identify paranormal phenomenon.

“There was originally a group of planters (plantation owners) that set it (the Chapel) up as a hospital for the regiment ... ,” Poe said. The regiment came from Texas, he said.

“(The person) who is said to be in here is one of those Texas men who died,” he said.

“Supposedly he got shot in the leg and got gangrene and died here and was buried out at Pine Hill (Cemetery),” Smith said.

Most of the paranormal activity happened when the chapel was the university theater.

“That’s when they had everything that went on,” Smith said.

At the theater’s new location, the Telfair Peet Theatre, students leave candy out for Grimmett, who is said to have followed the group.

Once the investigation began, most of the spooky stuff took place in the women’s bathroom, not the rafters.

The power reading increased in the bathroom and there was an eerie feeling. Hand-held radios buzzed unexpectedly and, at the end of the night, the water was found dripping from a faucet despite being off before the investigation began.

“It sounded like the water in the bathroom went on. ... The water was dripping like someone had turned it off quickly. ... I know when I was in there earlier I had turned it off,” Serafin said.