Manteno State Hospital

It opened in December 1930 and at the time was a cutting edge facility, doctors had cottages and dedicated staff to treat their mentally-ill patient. Patients were able to contribute to the facility by growing crops and gaining work skills. In 1939 this changed, the Manteno Madness struck. It was typhoid fever and the administrators were slow to respond. By the time it was contained it had sadly caused 49 patient deaths.

During the 1940’s and 1950’s the population swelled, it was designed for 3,600 patients and 760 staff but by 1953 they had 5,300 patients. The staff had been halved and the overcrowding continued, this and underfunding led to treatable diseases becoming lethal, it led to the premature death of thousands of patients.

Manteno became a testing ground for government scientists and psychiatrists in the 1950’s, the government used the patients for testing the effects of Malaria and uncontrolled STD’s. The area still contains ice-baths used for schizophrenics to break their fits. Marteno also became a TB facility with a very bad reputation.

In 1985 the facility was closed and converted into a veterans’ home. The state hospital cemetery, located nearby, has the remains of 4,000 patients who died at the hospital.

Consequently the place is rumoured to be haunted, and is located in Kankakee County around 90 minutes away from Chicago. The locals don’t seem to happy about people wandering around so be polite and respectful. The only cottage not used for business now is the Morgan Cottage. The Morgan Cottage is at the corner of Juniper Street and West Evergreen Street.

The cottage is said to be in a bad shape and it is best to go during the day, with company. It is out in the middle of the fields and so very quiet, good for investigations but do not go to the main hospital unless you want to encounter the security who will call the police.

Highway of Tears

Highway 16 is locally known as the Highway of Tears and relates to a series of unsolved murders and disappearances of young women. The road runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada. 19 victims have been identified but if the range is expanded it could be up to 40 cases but I will be sticking in the 19 case boundary.

In 2005 the RCMP launched E-Pana focusing on some of the unsolved murders and disappearances of female children and young women along Highway 16. They sought to discover if there was a single serial killer or multitudes of murders.

In 2009 the police were looking for the remains of Nicole Hoar as she went missing in 2002, they were also looking for other women at the property too. The whole thing was part of the ongoing missing/dead in the area. 25th September 2012 and as part of the ongoing investigations they reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police linked the death of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington to a deceased US criminal, Bobby Jack Fowler. There are said to be other persons of interest in cases but to the age of some of them and lack of evidence they are not expecting charges to be made.

The cases have come under fire from the media and locals as there is a consensus amongst some parties that half are First Nation and that until Nicole Hoar there didn’t seem so much interest. Nicole was white Caucasian and seemingly was the catalyst for finally forming a link and actual case basis forming for them all.

I feel like the best way I can give up the sheer scale/concern about this is to simply list some of those victims…

The homicides are:

• 1969, Gloria Moody found in the woods. She was 26 years old.
• 1970, Micheline Pare was last seen on highway 30 after two women dropped her off. She was 18 years old.
• 1973, Gale Weys. Bobby Jack Fowler is the prime suspect, her body was found in a ditch. She was 19 years old.
• 1973, Pamela Darlington, Bobby Jack Fowler is the prime suspect, her body was found the day after she went missing. She was 19 years old.
• 1974, Monica Ignas, she went missing on her way home from school. She was found in 1975 and had been strangled. She was 14 years old.
• 1974, Colleen MacMillan was last seen near her friends house. Her body had the traces of Booby Jack Fowler on them. She was 16 years old.
• 1976, Coreen Thomas, aged 21 days from giving birth she was struck by Richard Redekop’s truck. He was convicted originally but then charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
• 1978 Mary Jane Hill, 31 years hold, Prince Rupert area and found nude along highway 16; cause of death recorded as bronchitis and bronchopneumonia as a result of manslaughter.
• 1981, Maureen Mosie’s body was found the next day by a dog-walker. She was 33 years old.
• 1989, Alberta Williams, her body was found after she had been strangled and sexually assaulted. She was 24 years old.
• 1990, Kimberly Dumais, tiny infant who died after a fire with four people inside. Law enforcement determined the blaze was set on purpose. An anonymous letter claimed responsibility. Other victims were Helga Rochon, Sherri Rochon and Pauline Rochon.
• 1994, Ramona Wilson’s remains were found in 1995. She was 16 years old.
• 1994, Ramona Thiara was working as a prostitute and told a friend that she was going with a customer. She was 15 years old.
• 1994, Alishia ‘Leah’ Germaine was found murdered 9th December, stabbed to death. She was 15 years old.
• 1999, Monica McKay murdered, last seen by friends 31^st December 1999, her body was left by a dumpster.
• 2001 Ada Elaine Brown, the family believe she was assaulted and killed by a man she knew. No charges were raised.
• 2004 Kayla Rose McKay, murdered near Prince Rupert unable to determine if she was murdered or it was suicide.
• 2004 Melanie Dawn Brown, 31 years old in the Prince George area and was found dead in a basement, gunshot wound.
• 2006, Aielah Saric Auger was found dead in a ditch after going missing. She was 14 years old.
• 2013 Tara Lee Ann Williams, 40 years old and found dead alongside Blaine Albert Barfoot police asking for anyone with information to come forwards.
• 2017 Robert (Robin) Marie Sims, 65 years old and RCMP report her own vehicle was used in her murder.
• 2020 Casandra Kale, 28 years old and police noted a dead woman in car with two other occupants. Police believe all three related to one another and foul play has not been ruled out.
• 2023, Chelsey Amanda Quaw, 29 years old, her remains where found 7^th November 2023 in a wooded area on the community’s territory.

Missing people are:

• 1970-1979, Tracey Clifton, went missing last seen Prince Rupert area walking Highway 16 after an argument with her mother.
• 1970, Helen Claire Frost, Prince George area and was reported missing after 2 days thinking she was at a friends house.
• 1983, Shelly-Ann Bascu went missing, near the Athasbasca river, personal items with blood drops matching her DNA were found. She was 16 at the time.
• 1989, Doreen Jack, 26rs old and last seen around Prince Rupert. Family went missing after taking a job with daycare.
• 1989 Cecillia Anna Nikal, 1989 she also had a cousin who was murdered a few years after she went missing.
• 1990, Delphine Nickal went missing in 13th June, she was hitchhiking east from the town of Smithers, she was 15 years old at the time.
• 1995, Lana Derrick was last seen in October that year. Fowler was in jail by then and so could not have been convicted for the crime. She was 19 years old.
• 2004 Margeret Nooski, 89 years old and missing from Fraser Lake, this poor lady was suffering from dementia and struggled to walk. RCMP think she may have got lost trying to get to Prince George.
• 2005, Tamara Chipman went missing when she was 25 years old.
• 2005 Mary Madaline George, from the Prince George area, she was last seen walking towards a clinic in Prince George.
• 2005 Tamara Lynn Chapman, 22 years old and went missing, search efforts from her family was not successful.
• 2007 Bonnie Marie Joseph, 32 years old and was due in court but never showed up. Her ID and belongings were found by a lake.
• Beverly Warbrick, went missing from 2100 block of Oak Street in Prince George.
• 2011, Madison Scott vanished near the road after going to a party. Her tent and truck were located but she is still missing. madisonscott.ca
• 2014 Anita Florence Thorne, 49 years old and reported missing, they found her car, with purse inside and unlocked.
• 2017 Frances Brown, 53 years old and went missing, last seen out picking mushrooms and police launched a large search. She is deaf in one ear.

Whittingham Hospital

(Tea-break reading)

It opened in 1873 and grew to be the largest mental hospital in England. It pioneered the use of EEG’s and was so large it had a church, farms, telephone exchange, railway and much more. It officially opened on 1^st April, 1873 and already had 115 patients, the capacity was for 1100.

In 1878 it was expanded for another 700, in 1884 a sanatorium was added for patients with infectious diseases and by 1915 it had grown once more, there were a recorded 2,820 patients there. A railway line for the asylum built in 1887 was used for staff, passengers and supplies like coal and this ran until 30^th June 1957.

In the First World War patients were treated there, any casualties were buried in the private cemetery and civilian use resumed after the war. Post War it became part of the NHS and was renamed Whittingham Hospital and in July 1967 there was a meeting due to concerns about patient treatment, cruelty and fraud. Initially the complaints were suppressed but eventually the accusations could no longer be hidden away.

Patients were left untreated, some only got bread and jam, or ‘slops’ and some were left outside. Patients had witnessed other patients being dragged by their hair and other such allegations. As a result some staff suffered criminal punishment, two members of staff were jailed for theft and another was jailed for manslaughter when an elderly patient suffered an assault and died because of it.

The hospital closed in 1995 and parts of it have since been demolished. The church and St Luke’s main entrance block stay because the church in particular is grade II listed. Invariably it is now a spot for ghost hunters and urban explorers until its full fate has been decided.

[[File:St Johns church, Whittingham Hospital (geograph 2315764).jpg|thumb|The disused St John's Anglican Church in the hospital grounds, a Grade II listed building[21]]]

Skrunda 1

Located in Latvia the place is a ghost town, a former radar station from the soviet era that is located 3 miles north of Skrunda. The site had two Dnepr radars and at the time of the soviet collapse it had plans for a Daryal radar being constructed.

Latvia and the Russian Federation signed an agreement in 1994 to use the radar station for four years and then dismantle it. The deadline to dismantle it was 29^th February, 2000. Russia asked Latvia fr an extension as they wanted to finish the new Volga station under construction near Baranovichi in Belarus, Riga then rejected the requests. It was verified closed on 4^th September, 1998 by European inspection team.

5^th May 1995 and American demolition experts blew up at 19^th Storey Tower at Skrunda-1. It had housed a former Daryl radar system, it was one of the most advanced bistatic early-earning system in the world. Bistatic radar is the name given to a radar system that compromises of a transmitter and receiver that are separated by a comparable distance to the expected target distance. The radar system was part of the USSR’s continued attempt to monitor the skies for anything from the west, incoming bombs or nuclear missiles were the threat they perceived to be highest before the USSR collapsed. The demolition brought Latvian’s to the roads to watch it and the event was released, Latvian leaders, diplomats and other officials all took to champagne toasting. The event was sponsored by the USA who were the Soviet Union’s main nuclear rival. It cost 7 million USA dollars for the destruction and US firm Controlled Demolition Inc were hired.

1998 New Year also saw a statement from the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urging Boris Yeltsin (Russian President) to complete the withdrawal of their troops as promised in 1994. Skrunda-1 was stripped of its assets and the last Russian troops left in 1998. 60 buildings were vacated, including apartment blocks, a school, barracks and officers club. The buildings were all empty and some have been demolished since.

The Latvian government decided to sell the area as a complete lot, 5^th February 2010 the 40-hectare town was sold at Auction in Riga. It was won by Russian firm Alekseevskaye-Serviss, it lasted only two hours and a bidder from Azerbaijan who pulled out, the winning bidder and runner up then both pulled out. It was then brought by Skrunda municipality in for 12,000 euros and half of the area has been given to the Latvian National Forces as a training ground.

February 2016 the municipality began to admit tourists for 4 Euro per individual but as of 21^st October, 2018 this was cancelled.

Https://iis-db.stanford.eu

Dnepr henhouse – wavelength 1.5-2 metre range.

Www.mfa.gov.lv – Latvia takes over the territory of the Skrunda Radar System, 24.03.2004

lsm.lv – ghost town used as a military training ground. 22^nd July 2015.

There is another ghost town called Irbene, Latvia, that had a secret radar centre, “Звезда» that was abandoned in 1993 after the soviet collapse.

By ScAvenger (Jānis Vilniņš) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54312072

Hugeunot Cemetery

In St Augustine’s Florida was a protestant burial ground from 1821 to 1884. Prior to American occupation the Spanish city of St Augustine was mainly Catholic and the only cemetery, Tolomato Cemetery, was reserved for that religion only. A protestant burial ground was needed so the new one was opened.

It was opened just before an outbreak of yellow fever, which claimed a lot of lives. It has around 436 recorded burials for the period and though named the Huguenot Cemetery it does not likely have anyone of the sect buried there.

In 1882 Judge Stickney made a business trip to Washington D.C. and was not feeling too well. 5 days later he died, most likely from typhoid and a brain haemorrhage, his body was sent to St Augustine for burial, it amassed quite a crowd. He was then buried at the cemetery.

In 1903 his children then had his body exhumed to be reburied in D.C, George Wells was employed to carry out the task. He had quite the crowd around him as he opened the coffin lid. After 21 the judge was in excellent condition for a dead man. The crowd heard a noise, two drunks were singing and making a scene. They then sprang upon the dead man, Mr Wells managed to get order restored but in the fracas someone had stolen his gold teeth.

Rumour has it that Judge Stickney wanders the cemetery still trying to find either his teeth or the culprits.