Is Abandoned Prison Haunted Or Just Spooky?

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. -- In South Jersey, a centuries-old prison has been closed for decades. But there are some people who say that unexplained lights and random voices prove that the prisoners are still there.

NBC 10 sent the bravest among us -- reporter Mike Strug -- to check it out.

The old Burlington County Prison is now a museum. It opened in 1811, and over the years thousands of inmates were housed behind those solid-stone walls. More than a few were hanged from its gallows. Some think that if you were a ghost, it would be the perfect place to hang out.

Members of South Jersey Paranormal Research -- ghost hunters -- joined Strug on his quest for spirits.

"We're actually on a hunting mission and we look for spirits and energy," said Debra Thornton. "I actually joined SJPR to disprove it and I can't."

"There are people who would say you're a kook. This is just crazy," Strug said.

"I understand that, but I'm just a normal person. I have a family, I work and this is just a really cool hobby," said Susan Bove.

When you turn off the lights in a 200-year-old prison, it is spooky. But ghost hunters want to know if it is actually haunted.

As they were videotaping, Strug thought he spied something.

"Hey, roll that back. What was that little blurry dot that flew past my right shoulder?" Strug asked.

"It's energy. I mean, we equate it to spirit energy, but, you know, it's energy. They're usually very quick moving, but not always. I mean, we've had ones come into the frame of the camera, stop, change direction and seem to move with real purpose," Bove said.

"It sounds spooky. It is spooky. We'd be a liar if we said we didn't get scared sometimes," Thornton said.

With ghost hunters wandering everywhere in the dark, sometimes they scare themselves. But Marisa Bozarth, who is the museum coordinator, and not a ghost hunter, said that she has seen more than orbs flying around the old prison.

"Twice I've seen what they call shadow people," Bozarth said. "Once it actually looked like it was running up the steps. ... It was after hours. The second one I saw actually looked at me, which is a little nerve-wracking. And I couldn't really go anywhere. I was behind my desk. (It) walked right through the gift shop, turned its head and just kept going. Got to the door and it disappeared and I left."

Bozarth isn't really sure if she saw a ghost or if it was something else.

"I don't know what I saw, to be honest with you. It looked like just a regular old shadow of a person, but I was the only one there and it didn't look like me," Bozarth said.

Canon Camera explains on its Web site that orbs may appear in still photos shot with a flash. It said that the flash could reflect off of dust in the air. But that didn't explain spots of light dancing in the air, or shadow people or voices that the ghost hunters report mysteriously appeared on the recordings.

"I was asking people to be quiet and I was cursed out downstairs by a ghost," Thornton said. "There were only two of us down there. It was quite incredible."