Horrific Hauntings : Haunting of The Capitol City Theatre (Part I)

Dave in Capitol City Theatre.

 In 2006, Dave Murphy became a police officer in Salt Lake City, Utah. His first role was protective service officer which put him in charge of the physical security of the county facilities. His first facility was nothing but the Capitol City Theatre. This theatre was a landmark in the city as it had been in it since the early 1900s. 

 Dave met his partner Morgan Matthews when he first reported at the theatre and he appeared to be an “all work no fun” guy. The first thing Morgan did after meeting Dave was taking him to the control room on the first floor of the theatre. This room had monitors that showed the feed of cameras located all around the theatre. The cameras, however, were not in their best shape and could only tell what was in the frame only if there was ample lighting. Since the lights were almost always turned off during the night, the cameras were literally useless then. Later, Morgan took Dave to the basement of the theatre. Dave was astounded by the sheer size of the basement and he was creeped out by its eeriness. Standing there was so disturbing that, Dave literally ran out of it when they were done with this area. Dave was given a tour of the second and third floors of the theatre as well.

 Once they were done with the tour, Morgan told Dave about the two inspection rounds they had to do during their shift. The officers in charge had to do inspection rounds during the beginning and end of their shifts. This check was to make sure the doors were locked, the lights were turned off and to ensure that there were no intruders inside the facility. Once the rounds were complete, they headed back to the control room where they spent the rest of their time. That night Dave was hopeful that he would get to know more about his partner but, Morgan was not quite interested in speaking to him and cut short every conversation Dave started.

The first obscure event

 Morgan accompanied Dave for the first few inspection rounds and on his third shift, Dave set out to do the rounds all on his own. After checking the remaining rooms of the theatre, Dave finally proceeded to check the rehearsal room. This room was located on the third floor of the theatre and it had no door. When Dave was about to exit this room after doing a thorough check, he heard a door shut close on the hallway. Dave initially thought that it was the work of an intruder and slowly walked towards this door taking his pistol in his hand. He figured out that it was the bathroom door that shut close and he informed Morgan through the radio to check if someone was there on the third floor.

 When Morgan checked the camera feed, he saw no one on the floor but because of the seriousness in Dave’s voice, he decided to go to the third floor to check it himself. As Dave stood near this door investigating, he noticed that the door had a hydraulic hinge and this meant that there was no way someone could have shut it close. As Dave was about to enter the bathroom in search of the intruder, he was joined by Morgan. The police duo searched every nook and corner of the room but found no one inside. When Dave and Morgan were sure that the intruder was not inside the bathroom, they came to the conclusion that the intruder must have been running out of the bathroom and accidentally slammed the door on his way out. So, they started investigating the other section of the theatre with their guns still drawn out.

 As they slowly walked down the stairs, Dave noticed lights turned on in a room on the second floor and all the other rooms on this floor had their doors wide open. Dave was confused by this sight as he himself had closed those doors and turned off the lights. The duo’s suspicions of intruders grew stronger and they thoroughly scanned the entire theatre. However, despite completely checking the entire theatre three times, they could find no trace of an intruder.

Morgan Petrified

 A couple of days later, Morgan was caught up all alone on his shift. While he was sitting in the control room monitoring the feeds, he heard whispers coming from the hallway behind him. Because of the experience he had two days back, he immediately took out his pistol and slowly walked down the hallway in the direction of the whispers. With every step he took towards the whispers, they moved farther away from him. Following the whispers, he eventually reached the stairs leading to the basement. As he neared the basement, the whispers stopped but, he heard someone cough in the basement.

 Morgan was convinced that it was an intruder and slowly walked into the basement with his gun held high. He checked every room in the basement but just like the previous time, there was not a single trace of an outsider. Frustrated by this, he started walking back to the staircase. On his way to the staircase, Morgan saw smoke coming out of the door of a room beside him. Anticipating a fire, he immediately opened the door and turned on the lights but he saw nothing unorderly inside the room. As he searched the room for fire, the smell of smoke slowly dissipated from the air. He checked all the rooms in the basement for fire multiple times but just as always, there were no traces.

Tales of an Accountant

 A few days after this incident, Dave turned up quite early for his shift and when he entered the theatre, he overheard one of the theatre employees speaking about phantoms in the theatre. Dave was intrigued by his conversation and told him about the experience he had in the theatre. This man who was an accountant took Dave to his cabin on the third floor and narrated the experience on his last night shift.

 That day, the accountant was all alone in the theatre since it was late in the evening. He was doing his work in his cabin on the third floor when he heard the elevator engine turn on. As he looked out of his cabin through a window to see what was happening, he saw the elevator going to the basement of the theatre and coming back up. As he kept staring at the elevator door curiously to see who was coming up, the door opened to reveal an empty elevator. Morgan told himself that it could have been routine maintenance and continued with his work.

 A few minutes later, he was disturbed again by the alarms of the elevator and when looked out of his cabin again, he saw the elevator door failing to close fully as if someone was obstructing it. He walked into the elevator out of curiosity and the moment he was fully inside it, the doors closed and the elevator started moving towards the basement. When it reached the basement, he slowly walked out of the elevator and shouted, “Is anyone there?” but all he heard was silence. The eerie silence in the basement was too much for him and he rushed back into the elevator and went back to his cabin. While he was sitting in his cabin thinking about the strange event that preceded, he heard banging noises from the hallway beside his cabin. As he slowly walked out of his cabin and peeked into the hallway, he saw something that would make him run out of the theatre in fear. (Continued...)