TV Producer Looking for Haunted Travel Experiences

Have you ever had a paranormal experience when you weren’t expecting to? Like when you were on vacation?

These days I’m always on the lookout for one, but once upon a time I wasn’t. And that’s when it happened.

Haunted at the Shilo Inn

One of the first stories I shared when I started Haunt Jaunts was about my experiences at the Shilo Inn in Salt Lake City back in the late 1990s.

I had a few weird experiences before that in my life, but as a child and teenager. I was in my own home for those. This one was different. Me, all alone, in a hotel room. Unnerving.

I’ll briefly recap:

I was not alone in the room. I’m sure about that now. Back then it was easier to dismiss and try to rationalize what was happening.

Something flew at me. Or possibly someone. From the closet as I was heading past it on the way to the bathroom first thing one morning.

Then there were the drawers and the sounds of children giggling coming from them. Couldn’t be happening. How would children get in my room, much less the drawers?

But it was so real, and yet surreal, at the same time.

The Shilo Inn’s Dark History

I had been in Salt Lake for business. Upon returning to my office in Phoenix, I learned some dark history from a co-worker who had grown up in SLC. 

Back in the 1970s, a woman had committed murder and suicide, quite possibly in the hotel I’d stayed in. 

My co-worker wasn’t sure it was the same hotel. It might’ve been called something different back in her day. But when I described what part of downtown I’d been staying in, that fit the location.

Anyway, fast forward a decade. No longer a paralegal. No longer living in Phoenix.  The Shilo Inn post had garnered several comments from people with key info. Such as a link to a news article that described where, yes, a woman really had killed herself and thrown her seven children out of an 11th floor balcony.  After her husband –who believed himself to be God– had killed himself when the FBI was investigating his cult.

I wasn’t always entirely sure the story my co-worker told me had happened. Don’t get me wrong. She wasn’t the type to make things up. But to learn it had? And had such crazy roots?

Well, as I wrote in an update to my Shilo Inn story, there was an even more chilling twist to the tale: one of the seven children had survived the fall. 

That experience has always haunted me. And is perhaps among the reasons I have an affinity for haunted hotel rooms. I’m always trying to recreate the experience in attempt to prove such things do happen.

TV Producer Looking for Similar Tales

This experience is also why I’m writing this post. A TV producer stumbled across my Shilo Inn experience. She reached out and asked if I’d want to talk about it. Her company is in the process of possibly developing a new show about people who’ve had paranormal experiences while on vacation.

Have you? If so, they’d like to talk to you. Here’s the details:

TV documentary production company is developing a series on first hand accounts of paranormal encounters while on holiday or traveling. If you want to share your experience and want more information on the project, please send an email : englishdevelopment@pixcom.com

Be sure to tell them Court from Haunt Jaunts sent you. And then be sure to tell me if the show ends up happening and your story is used!