For famous TV paranormal investigators, after years of ghost hunting, they probably think they’ve pretty much seen it all. But for Amy Bruni of Kindred Spirits, the notorious Waverly Hills Sanatorium proved her wrong.
In the most recent episode of Kindred Spirits, Bruni and paranormal BFF Adam Berry discovered that even a location they had visited previously can produce new surprises when one of its ghostly residents turns dark and violent.
But, perhaps more importantly, behind that dark turn and the violent behaviors, there can often be a reason. Suffice it to say, spoilers follow.
Kindred Spirits highlights the Waverly Hills Sanatorium paranormal investigation in a behind-the-scenes video
Bruni and Berry did a behind-the-paranormal-investigation video discussing the complexity of this case at Waverly Hills where Bruni was surprised to see her first fully-formed apparition. We’re not talking shadow people or transparent figures, but what appeared to be a full flesh and blood person in a hallway that suddenly disappeared.
For many Kindred Spirits fans, it was surprising to find out that she had never encountered this before given all of her years working with Ghost Hunters and doing private investigations. Even as experienced as Bruni is, it’s fair to say from her reaction that it kind of freaked her out.
Berry also saw the full apparition which occurred when they were trying to engage an extremely uncooperative spirit who would do nothing but scream in their ears. They were doing an EVP session at the time and had attempted to do some SLS camerawork, but Berry’s equipment kept shutting off.
Bruni and Berry use paranormal research to discover the story behind the angry spirit at Waverly Hills
Through detailed research, the Kindred Spirits duo was able to find one particularly tragic case where while a man had been treated for TB at Waverly Hills Sanatorium, his wife was murdered. Then he found out she had been having an affair.
Then, because he was confined to Waverly Hills and couldn’t care for them, all of their children had to be turned over to the state. So here he was dying in Waverly Hills with a murdered wife who was cheating on him, and then he had to turn over his kids to the state.
And you thought you had a bad day.
By identifying the man and why he was so angry, Bruni and Berry were able to explain to the owner of Waverly Hills why the spirit on the fourth floor was so hostile and threatening paranormal investigators.
Bruni discussed how she hoped that would lead to a better understanding of future paranormal investigations and illustrate the importance of doing thorough research and not making presumptions.
“It’s the story that kind of sat and wasn’t told for so many years and we brought it back to life and told his side of it… you can never judge a book by its cover. You can’t judge an apparition or a ghost by the activity that they are manifesting.“
Why come back to Waverly Hills Sanatorium?
Although Bruni and Barry have investigated Waverly Hills Sanatorium before, they felt a special calling to return to the location, according to Bruni.
“Waverly Hills is really how Kindred Spirits was born for us. Waverly Hills was the one place where we always felt guilty about walking out and not providing any kind of resolution for the ghosts that were there because we had this extremely powerful experience in the nurse’s wing. We were communicating with nurses who were… asking us to pray for them, and we just left them. And every time we talked about doing Kindred Spirits, we kept coming back to that moment at Waverly and how we wanted so bad to go back and fix it and find out who was there and why they were so desperate.”
Well, that’s one angry ghost Kindred Spirits has sorted out. But with estimates of anywhere between 8,000 to 50,000 deaths at the site, it looks like Bruni and Berry have got their work cut out for them.
Kindred Spirits airs on the Travel Channel on Thursday nights at 10 pm ET.