Voices, a shadow figure, and gray figures near Waverly Hills Sanatorium, 1993
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Indianapolis, tells Art Bell that as a high-school senior in Kentucky in 1993 they took a jogging shortcut through the grounds of the abandoned Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The caller says they heard a chorus of voices that stopped when they told them to. The caller says they saw a black, shadow-like figure with red eyes in a shed window. They met a bearded man with a Rottweiler who vanished after telling them not to look back. Then they saw more than a hundred gray figures in a field. The caller says they ran to school and that nobody believed them until they later learned the site was said to be haunted.
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The story as told
[name withheld], calling from Indianapolis, tells Art Bell that the events happened in Kentucky in 1993, when they were a high-school senior who had recently moved to the area. [name withheld] says they missed their school bus one morning around the beginning of November, so they jogged a shortcut, passed a golf course, and reached the grounds of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. [name withheld] says it was abandoned at the time and that they did not know it was said to be haunted. [name withheld] says they stopped on the west side of the building, near two shed-like structures, and turned off their headphones. They then heard “strange sounds, voices,” which seemed to the caller like hundreds of them all around the caller. When [name withheld] told them to “shut up,” the voices stopped at once. [name withheld] says they looked at the shed window to their right and saw a black, shadow-like figure with red eyes. They felt things around them and ran down the hill toward some railroad tracks. There, [name withheld] says, a man and a large Rottweiler appeared out of nowhere. The man, in a trench coat with a long beard, did not answer when [name withheld] asked whether the dog would bite, and the dog nudged his pant leg. [name withheld] says the man asked who the caller was. After [name withheld] gave their name and said they had just arrived from Chicago, the man told them to leave and not look back. [name withheld] says they ran down the tracks toward Doss High School and looked back, and the man and dog were gone. In the field behind them, [name withheld] says, they saw more than a hundred gray-looking figures watching them. [name withheld] says they ran to school, that for a long time nobody believed them, and that they later found out the place was famous. Asked by the host what happens after death, [name withheld] says they are not sure but think there is probably a heaven and hell. [name withheld] guesses that the figures may be “damned or cursed.”
Reported events, in order
- 0:04
The caller gives their name as [name withheld], from Indianapolis, and says they are calling about a story from when they lived in Kentucky in 1993.
- 0:18
The caller says that at the time they were a teenager, a senior in high school, and had missed their bus to school.
- 0:39
They place the events around the beginning of November and name Valley Station, Kentucky.
- 1:23
They say they took a shortcut at a jog and reached the grounds of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, which they say was abandoned around 1993.
- 2:00
They say they jogged west past the hospital building and passed two shed-like structures.
- 2:28
They say they stopped to take a break and turned off their headphones.
- 2:38
They say they heard strange sounds and voices, apparently hundreds, all around them.
- 2:54
They say they told them to shut up, and all the voices stopped at once.
- 3:10
They say they saw a black, shadow-like figure with red eyes in the shed window and ran down the hill.
- 3:38
They say that at the bottom of the hill, near railroad tracks, a man and a large Rottweiler appeared out of nowhere.
- 3:52
They describe the man as large, in a trench coat, with a long beard. The man did not answer when asked whether the dog would bite, and the dog nudged his pant leg.
- 4:13
They say the man asked who they were, and they answered with their name and said they had just arrived from Chicago.
- 4:51
They say the man told them to leave and not look back.
- 4:59
They say they ran down the railroad tracks toward Doss High School, looked back, and the man and dog were gone.
- 5:11
They say they saw more than a hundred gray-looking ghosts standing in the field, looking at them.
- 5:22
They say they ran to school, that nobody believed them for a long time, and that they later learned the place was famous.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 2:38
The caller says they heard strange sounds and voices, apparently hundreds of them, all around them after they switched off their headphones.
- observation· 2:59
They say all the voices stopped at once when they told them to shut up.
- observation· 3:10
They say they saw a black, shadow-like figure with red eyes in the shed window.
- observation· 3:31
They say they felt things around them as they ran.
- observation· 3:38
They say a man and a large Rottweiler appeared out of nowhere near the railroad tracks.
- observation· 5:11
They say they saw more than a hundred gray-looking ghosts standing in the field and looking at them.
- interpretation· 4:19
They say that at the time they thought the man might be angry because they had walked through a marijuana field.
- interpretation· 6:09
Asked about an afterlife, they guess the figures may be “damned or cursed.”
- host statement· 5:43
The host tells the caller their story “really is true” and later describes it as hundreds of spirits.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a direct, firsthand story with named places, a stated year, and a consistent sequence of events. The caller says they did not know the site’s reputation at the time. It is not backed up by anyone else, and several ordinary explanations (a real man walking a dog, noise heard after removing headphones) fit parts of it.
Evidence for and against
- It is firsthand narration of a continuous sequence by the person who says they experienced it.
- The specifics could in principle be checked: Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Valley Station, Kentucky, Dixie Highway, Doss High School, and the year 1993.
- The caller says they had no prior knowledge of the site’s reputation, which answers the idea that suggestion shaped what they saw: [quote withheld]
- Nobody backs it up. No other witness speaks on air, and no documentation is offered.
- Some elements are extreme and cannot be verified in scale, such as [quote withheld]
- The episode with the man and the dog is consistent with an ordinary encounter with a person walking a dog, and the dog physically touched the caller.
- The transcript is heavily fragmented for part of the call, so some of the setup is hard to reconstruct.
- Who is speaking is uncertain at one point, where a line is labeled as possibly the host.
- 0:18
- 1:31
- 3:10
What the model inferred (not said on air): My component judgments (closeness to the source high, specificity moderate, alternative explanations partly fitting, care in their claims moderate) are my own reading of the transcript, not statements made by the caller.
Nothing beyond the caller’s own word is presented. The caller does supply checkable specifics, including a named site, a year, and road and school names, but none is verified. There is no physical evidence and no second witness on air.
Evidence for and against
- A named site and year that could in principle be checked: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Named local landmarks: Dixie Highway and Doss High School.
- No photograph, recording, document, or mark is claimed.
- No second witness speaks. The caller says [quote withheld]
- The host’s remark [quote withheld] is the host’s response, not independent evidence.
- The fragmented transcription in the middle of the story makes it hard to confirm whether any detail was offered that was not captured.
- 0:04
- 1:25
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placing it in the range for checkable specifics that were given but not checked is my classification under the scoring guide. The transcript contains no supporting material beyond the caller’s words.
The story builds from voices all around the caller to a red-eyed shadow figure at a window, a run on foot, and finally a field of more than a hundred gray figures watching the caller. It ends unresolved. There is mild implied threat and an explicit instruction not to look back.
Evidence for and against
- The voices are described as surrounding the caller and numerous: [quote withheld]
- A black figure with red eyes in a window, and the caller’s stated fear, followed by running.
- The climactic image of a field full of watching figures: [quote withheld]
- An ominous instruction from the man: [quote withheld]
- The encounter with the man and dog is conversational rather than violent.
- The caller adds an ordinary worry (a marijuana field), which lightens the passage.
- No physical harm is reported.
- Tone and pacing cannot be judged from a transcript, and no such judgment is used here.
- 2:38
- 4:51
- 5:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score reflects my judgment of how the story would land on a listener, not any claim about whether the events happened.
The separate elements (a shadow figure with red eyes, voices with no source, gray ghosts) are familiar ghost-story motifs. But the combination with a vanishing bearded man and Rottweiler who warns the caller not to look back, followed by a field of watching figures, gives the story a distinctive shape.
Evidence for and against
- An unusual pairing in an otherwise stock haunted-site story: [quote withheld]
- A large-scale closing image rather than a single ghost: [quote withheld]
- The voices stop on command, which is a specific story beat.
- Black shadow figures with red eyes and gray ghosts are recurring motifs in this kind of archive.
- An abandoned sanatorium is a standard haunted-location setting.
- This is a provisional model score. The published value is computed compared with the rest of the archive and carries little weight in the pilot.
- 3:52
- 2:59
What the model inferred (not said on air): The originality rating is my judgment of the content. No comparison with the rest of the archive was available for this analysis.
Scoring confidence 0.62 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story only.; No documentation, recording, or photograph is claimed.; No second witness speaks on air.. The originality score blends the model's score (58) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The man and the Rottweiler were an ordinary person walking a dog on or near the grounds. The dog physically nudged the caller’s pant leg, which fits a real animal. · They describe the dog as a large Rottweiler that [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The sounds the caller took for voices may have been ordinary noise (wind, distant traffic, or a real crowd) that they noticed only once they took off their headphones. · They say they had headphones on at first ([quote withheld]) and only heard the sounds after they [quote withheld]
- Running alone at speed on unfamiliar ground in low light could produce the impression of shapes and presences. · They say they were new to the area ([quote withheld]) and felt that [quote withheld] while running.
What stands out
The story combines four strange events in one short sequence: a chorus of voices that stops on command, a red-eyed shadow figure in a shed window, a solid-seeming man and dog who vanish, and a field of more than a hundred gray figures. Most callers report a single event. The caller also says they knew nothing of the site’s reputation at the time, and the bearded man gives an explicit instruction not to look back.
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