It's late at night, and a student is stuck in the computer lab all alone finishing up a homework assignment. The only sound that can be heard is the wind blowing the leaves around outside. Any unexpected noise can trigger fear -- a door shutting, a whisper outside of the room when nobody's there. Maybe it's a ghost, maybe it's the imagination.
There are several legendary ghost stories involving buildings on campus at Southeast Missouri State University. Some ghosts have been seen, and others only make noise with footsteps or slamming doors. Whether the ghosts' stories are true or not, they continue to be told throughout the years.
In the early 1800s, a French fur trader and his wife lived on the property where the Forrest H. Rose Theatre now stands, according to Tom Neumeyer, photographer at Neumeyer Photography. Neumeyer is also one of the tour guides of the Haunted Downtown Tour.
"He was downtown, and back then downtown was a great center of pleasure," Neumeyer said. "A lot of drinking and other things going on."
The French fur trader had an affair with another woman while he was downtown. His wife found out about the affair before the man came home. Since there were no means of transportation, it took the man a while to walk back home. When he finally arrived, his wife greeted him in an hostile way.
"When he came in, she knew what he had been doing, so her decision was to greet him with a dull and rusty spoon and attacked him right where it hurts, and killed him slowly," Neumeyer said. "He more or likely bled to death. That is one of the main ghosts."
According to Neumeyer, the ghost of the French fur trader is temperamental. When he gets agitated he makes his presence known.
The wife of the French fur trader, known as "Mary," has also been seen around the Rose Theatre. Some people associate Mary with the blood stain in Rose Theatre, which is located at the right side of the top row of seats. It is speculated that the French fur trader's wife committed suicide after she murdered her husband, and the blood stain is from her.
"They have poured concrete over it. There's no way on earth that a blood stain could have gotten through concrete," Neumeyer said. "They tried to do everything to get rid of it, and I'm surprised they just didn't cover it up over the years."
Neumeyer said supposedly a sample from the blood stain was analyzed, and it turned out it was in fact human blood.
"I'm a little skeptical on that story because how could you pull blood out of concrete to analyze it," Neumeyer said. "Supposedly, that blood stain has grown in size over the years."
Another, more friendly ghost has been seen sitting in his favorite seat in Rose Theatre, Neumeyer said.
"His favorite seat was in Row D on the north side of the theatre," Neumeyer said. "He has been slightly seen over the years, and he generally was seen during rehearsals, never when an audience was there."
According to Neumeyer, people associate cold spots with the friendly ghost. Cold spots are a certain area that is 20 or 30 degrees colder than the area around it.
When the Rose Theatre was still in use for plays, Neumeyer said they were typically performed during the winter. One of the things he would dispute about the cold spot is that the ghost's favorite seat was next to the exit door that faces the north side of the building. If the exit door was not shut tightly, a cold spot could be felt naturally.
Another building on campus that has paranormal activity is Cheney Hall.
According to Christy Mershon, the assistant director of the Office of Extended and Continuing Education at Southeast, Cheney was built as a dormitory around 1939 and was designed like a hospital in case of an emergency.
By the 1970s the dorm became coed, and a girl who lived there could not endure the stress of finals and committed suicide in her bathtub. Her room would have been reused, but the blood stains could not be removed.
"There is no record of this [suicide] anywhere," Neumeyer said, adding that after the incident strange noises were heard coming from her room.
"I did find one account from 1975 that someone supposedly saw a shadowy image of a girl looking out the window of Cheney, then disappearing down the hallway," Neumeyer said.
Pi Kappa Alpha Lodge, located on Sprigg Street, is one of the few haunted places in Cape Girardeau where the ghost itself has been seen, Neumeyer said.
The building was once Marquette grade school. Allegedly, there was a young girl named Jessica who died in a playground accident.
"She fell off a swing and at the time did not get the proper care, and may have died at the site," Neumeyer said.
Jessica made herself known over the years. There have been stories of people driving by the building at night and seeing her in the windows of the school.
The story changed when the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity acquired the property, Neumeyer said.
"She does not enjoy the louder parties," Neumeyer said. "And, when it has gotten too boisterous, she has been known to cut off the electricity only to the sound system or band's sound system. Not to anything else."
According to Neumeyer, ghosts do not like someone coming in and being noisy because the property is considered to be their home.
When there are only a few fraternity members in the Pi Kappa Alpha Lodge during the night, Jessica has been heard upstairs.
"The sound of skipping, playing, tossing a ball, like a little girl would be doing," Neumeyer said.
