Selma’s Dunn Nursing Home to be featured on The World's Largest Ghost Hunt this weekend

For the third year in a row, the Midnight Girls & Boys Paranormal Research team will be in Selma to see who may have passed on but never left.  

The team will be part of The World’s Largest Ghost Hunt on National Ghost Hunting Day, which is the last Saturday in September every year. The team will bring equipment you see on any ghost hunting show. During the night, they will live stream their part of the hunt from Selma along with ghost hunters from all over the world who will be hunting at the same time. 

The team has already been to the St. James Hotel and Heritage Village. This year they will be in one of the most haunted buildings in Selma, the old King Memorial Hospital / Dunn Nursing Home.  

The old Dunn Nursing Home at 515 Mabry Street was Selma’s first private hospital. It was started by Selma native Dr. Goldsby King. He opened it in December 1896 as King Sanitarium. It later became King Memorial Hospital and eventually Dunn Nursing Home. Sept. 30 the Midnight Girls & Boys will be investigating to see who from the building’s history may still be “living” there. 

The mission of the hunt is not just paranormal, but also to learn, preserve and pass on the history of the areas where the hunts are happening. Sara Williams of Midnight Girls & Boys said most of the places are old, and putting the spotlight on these historic sites will help bring awareness to areas that owners are trying to preserve.  

“It would be a shame if these places were allowed to rot away or get bulldozed to the ground,” Williams said. In Selma, experts will join the live stream with more detailed history of the building. 

Williams said she and her mother Cindy Doty have always been interested in the paranormal. Williams noted there was a growing interest in paranormal and paranormal research in the mid 1980s, due in part to the movie “Ghost Busters.” By the early 2000s not only was paranormal research acceptable, but there were also TV shows. Now there are even stores and websites that sell ghost hunting equipment. 

Williams said she and her mother went on a trip to St. Augustine, Fla. to the St. Augustine Light House in March 2008. “We wanted to see if we could contact the two little girls who are the ghosts people most report seeing” at the light house, she said. 

Williams said she was not sure about the idea of ghosts because she did not like the idea of spirits being trapped somewhere. Her mother asked the ghosts if they like being here. Williams said they didn’t hear anything at the time, but when they listened to their digital recorder back at the hotel, Williams said, “On the recording when my mom asked if they like it here, just as plain as day, you could hear two little girl voices in unison -- kind of like the twins on “The Shining” -- say, ‘We like it here.’” 

After that, the pair decided to put together a team and to hunt and research and help those who may have “energies” in their homes they do not understand or want. They decided on the name Midnight Girls in 2009, but eventually added the and Boys because there were men on the team. (GIRLS is actually an acronym for Ghost Investigations to Research and Locate the Supernatural. BOYS stands for Believe Only Your Senses.) 

Like the movie “Ghost Busters,” they take calls, and they are ready to believe you. People have reached out to them because of paranormal experiences happening in their homes. “We go investigate and try to figure out what’s going on and who might be there or what energies are there.” They might also “bless the property or offer tips on how to help the energy get better in the homes.”  

In 2016 the Midnight Girls and Boys joined the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt. It was started by Bob and Maria Schmidt, who have a business called Haunted Journeys that gives tours of haunted places all over the world.  

You can join the live stream on the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt Facebook page or on the Midnight Girls & Boys Facebook page. Haunted Journeys also has a Facebook page and a website, and you can find more information here about National Ghost Hunting Day and the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt at this site; www.nationalghosthuntingday.com/the-huntob