Interview with Investigators, The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO - PHOTO EVIDENCE!

This blog contains a series of interviews done with guest investigators during their visits to The Stanley Hotel on separate occasions. The first hand accounts and photos belong to them and their perspective parties and all names have been changed or omitted to protect their privacy.

The following is an in-person interview with "RL" on 3/18/20, as reported by Emm.

INTERVIEW WITH RL

Describe yourself in 5 words:

RL: Funny, compassionate, intelligent, positive and sunshine-y.

Where do you call home?

RL: North Carolina.

Are you a believer in the supernatural?

RL: Yeah? I guess? Mostly?

What are your views on the afterlife?

RL: People go to heaven or hell.

Do you believe in ghosts?

RL: Yes, they are in an in-between. They can get attached to places or objects (emotionally).

Up until this point, have you ever seen a ghost/spirit or anything you believe to be one?

RL: No but I have felt stuff, energies, but not seen anything. My parents inherited an old farmhouse, my grandma died in it, we can still smell her in it, her perfume, and a man’s cologne.

What were you expecting from this visit to Estes before you arrived?

RL: I had been there before, me and my husband did a tour before. We didn’t see anything before and didn’t get anything on pictures so I didn’t expect much. It doesn’t feel scary when you go, there’s too many people there. It’s very tourist-y.

Who was with you on this visit?

RL: My mom, dad and younger brother.

How long did you stay at the hotel?

RL: We spent the day in Estes but only did the tour at The Stanley

What was your impression when you first arrived?

RL: We’ve been there so many times at that point and have stayed the night before so it didn’t feel any different. They had a pretty Christmas tree up.

You were there for a ghost tour? Tell us about it what the tour was about.

RL: The tour tells us the history of the hotel and ghost encounters that guests could have. It’s throughout the entire hotel grounds. The tour was at night around 7, when it was dark. The tour is usually two hours.

How did the tour start for you?

RL: We met in the lower level where the cafe is. It’s the same level as where the underground tunnels are but they’re behind a closed door. My mom was taking pictures of everything, there were displays everywhere. We were wandering around and looking at everything, it was taking a while for the tour to start and it was their [my family's] first time there. They were saying that because of the type of rock that’s in the tunnels, they said it draws more spirits to the hotel. It’s weird how the hotel is standing because it’s on all rocks. I didn’t feel or notice anything unusual in the tunnels. They turn the lights out and make it really dark so we have to use our flashes for pictures but we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Where did they take you next?

RL: They took us to the music building, where they put on concerts and performances. They talked a lot about the history there, about Mr. and Mrs. Stanley and how the hotel was started. We were told there was a little boy that is known to haunt that area. In the last tour that I did with my husband, the hostess rolled a toy ball across the floor and at one point, the ball stopped and returned back to the hostess. They told us that it was the boy that haunted the room that was playing with the ball.

Next, we went into the basement of that same building and we were told about a young lady that has been seen down there, she wears older clothing and can sometimes be caught on camera.

What were your thoughts as you went through the tour, were you checking your photos as you moved through each area?

RL: No, my mom was taking pictures of everything, we weren’t stopping to check. It was a quick tour, they had us moving back and forth. We didn’t have time to check our pictures because we had to leave. Everything was pretty normal compared to the last tour, I think it’s pretty creepy at night, the tour started at 5.

Did you feel or sense anything out of the ordinary as you went through? Did your family?

RL: My mom was saying something about her chest feeling tight in the concert hall. Afterwards is when my mom was having a hard time breathing and noticed the feeling.

How did the tour end? Were you afraid at any point?

RL: We were rushed on the tours, you’re kind of just running around, they let us look around in the music hall.

Tell us about the picture your mother took.

RL: She took it at the beginning of the tour, of the violin, I didn’t read the sign. She really believes in orbs so she was really trying to catch one on camera during the tour.

She posted all the pictures on Facebook and a person commented on one picture in particular. She circled a part of the picture and sent it back. My mom was pretty freaked out and had nightmares after. My mom believes that it was a ghost, there was no one else that could have been in it. We don’t know who the little girl could have been, they didn’t say anything about children in that part of the tour.

In the picture was my mom and my brother.

LUCY

Visitors to the Stanley are often greeted with the hotel's ghost stories and tales of the paranormal. One of the more famous spirits is that of Lucy, a young homeless girl that sought refuge in the basement of the Stanley to escape from the harsh mountain winter.

Upon her discovery by hotel surveyors, she was thrown back out into the cold. Lucy would not survive the elements and is said to haunt the grounds, often making herself known to guests.

Is our young girl the very Lucy that tales speak of? We may never know.

RL,

We would like to thank you for taking the time to chat with us and for sharing your experiences. We here at The Senders believe that you have, without a doubt, photographic evidence of a spirit. We have analyzed the picture, taking into account all possible theories and have come to this conclusion.

This particular picture has a time stamp, proves no editing and with no use of digital filters. The aspects of the photo are obvious from the items in the case, the glass case itself and the direct reflections of your family members.

In our opinion, there is no other possible explanation for the image of a young girl to appear between the glass and the reflections other than that of a paranormal one.

We would like to congratulate you on your find and look forward to working with you sometime in the future.

Sincerely,

The Senders