Photo By SubmittedLindsey Evans of Wooster took some time out from her excursion at the Mansfield Reformatory to hang out with Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” hosts Nick Groff (left), Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin.

Photo By SubmittedLindsey Evans (left), Julia Dansberg and Louise Evans recently spent three days and nights at the Mansfield Reformatory in search of ghosts and paranormal activity. While there each of them had the chance to experience eerie feelings, including tingling sensations on their necks, hearing knocks on the doors when nobody was there, and having post earrings move.

By LYDIA GEHRING

Living Editor

WOOSTER -- Paying more than $200 to spend three days at the notoriously-haunted Mansfield Reformatory with the Travel Channel's "Ghost Adventures'" hosts was worth every penny to mother and daughter Lindsey and Louise Evans, both of Wooster, and Julia Dansberg of Congress.

In fact, the trio enjoyed their time so much that each said if they had another opportunity to spend some ghost-hunting time with Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin, they would jump at the chance.

During the three-day excursion to the former prison, a television crew for "Ghost Adventures" was filming Bagans, Groff and Goodwin, as well as the others, including the Evanses and Dansberg, who had been chosen to be a part of the experience.

While there, the trio, who each believe in ghosts and other paranormal activity, said they experienced some of the most eerie feelings they've ever had.

"While we were in E section (of the Reformatory), we all stood in separate cells," Lindsay Evans explained. "While I was in mine, I felt this tingling sensation on both sides of my neck. When I went home I had two scratches on each side. Another time, we heard a knock on a door in a far-off corner but there was nobody there."

Dansberg said the group they were in, which had about 25 people in it, took radio waves on their tour to see if they could hear the ghosts talking, which they did.

"You can't hear them with the naked ear but you can hear them on the radio wave," she said. "And they weren't talking very nicely. ... They told us not to wear dangly earrings because if they moved we couldn't blame that on the ghosts. So I wore posts and they moved. I had prepared my mind for this experience, so I was ready for anything to happen."

Mother and daughter, Lindsey and Louise Evans have always been believers in the paranormal. They used to live in what they say was a haunted house.

"One night I saw the perfect silhouette of a man standing next to my bed," Lindsey Evans said. "He was mouthing words but I couldn't hear what he was saying. Other times, this ghost would throw things on the floor, we'd hear boot steps, he'd stare at the Christmas tree and even unscrew the screws from the kitchen chairs."

Louise Evans thinks their ghost may have even followed them to the Mansfield Reformatory.

"When I actually saw the photos that we took, the feelings that I had, it's really strengthened my belief in the afterlife," Louise Evans said. "If you weren't a believer when you went in, you sure were when you left."

Although the experiences she had searching for ghosts with the "Ghost Adventures" hosts are ones that will last a lifetime, Lindsey Evans said she learned a lot about the history of the Mansfield Reformatory while on the trip.

"You go over and you look at all of those empty cells and imagine what it was like when they were filled," she said. "There's so much history of how many people lived and how many people died there."

Living editor Lydia Gehring can be reached at 330-287-1655 or e-mail living@the-daily-record.com.