Paracon, Manitoba’s second annual conference on paranormal activity, drew celebrity ghost hunters and their fans to Winnipeg’s Marlborough Hotel, a location known for unusual activity.
Sales and Catering manager Grace Rents said she has seen a lot of unusual activity in her seven years at the hotel, including the time she says a skirt on a banquet table tore violently away for no explainable reason.
“I didn’t wait for the elevator,” she said. “I just ran down the stairs.”
Author Chris Rutkowski said the hotel is the perfect location for a paranormal activity conference.
"The Marlborough Hotel has a very unusual history,” he said. “People have reported various things - noises, ghostly figures moving around, strange sounds.”
A few dozen attendees rubbed elbows with their favourite paranormal TV hosts and authors, and shared their own ghost stories.
"I have an interest in the paranormal. I have actually ever since I was very young,” said conference attendee Rochelle Risman. “Because I had my first paranormal experience when I was four years old."
Rutkowski said people seek him out to tell him stories of unusual phenomenon.
"Sometimes people just need some reassurance that they're not crazy. That something did really happen,” he said. “And in most cases I can verify something did really happen and the question is what."
Maureen Flynn wrote a book about the ghost of a murdered guest that apparently wanders the fifth floor of the Marlborough Hotel, leaving her convinced the place actually is haunted.
"When I became aware of Edith at the hotel, I'm inclined to believe it is at this point,” said Flynn.
Anyone looking to find out for themselves need only request a room on the fifth floor.
