KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Jean and Debbie Guillot, the current owners of The Preston County Inn, were told by the former owners it is haunted by the ghost of a woman named Stephanie.
“I don’t know if Stephanie is her real name or not,” Debbie Guillot said. “That was the name that was in the disclosure papers. I don’t know where the name originally came from. I do know she was a blonde.”
Guillot said she’s smelled rose perfume in the hallways by the guest rooms, even when no women are staying there. Anytime the Guillots put out a particular candelabra in the hallway, one candle is always knocked off.
But the most unusual ghost story they heard came about nine months ago from a retired Army colonel with 30 years of service who was staying at The Inn. He checked out at 3 a.m. to catch a flight. But he took time to call Jean Guillot.
“When he came downstairs, it was dark. He set his key down at the front desk. And he said this shape thing passed right through him and gave him the chills. He said it just made his hair stand. It just dropped his body temperature, and he could feel it pass through him,” Jean Guillot recalled. “He said he ran out of here, got in his car and sped off.”
The man told Jean he had never been so scared in his life.
An electrician told Jean Guillot about working in the crawl space under the old part of the building.
“As soon as he got to where he was working, his light went off,” Jean Guillot said. He crawled back, and the flashlight came on. He crawled forward, and the light went out at the same spot. After three attempts, the man gave up.
“I just don’t believe it,” Jean Guillot said of the haunting. “But every once in a while, it’s almost like you see something out of the corner of your eye. It’s got to be old age, right? And glasses?”
Old age and glasses had nothing to do with the events paranormal investigators Christina Lee and Clyde Callicott from Ghostly Getaways said they experienced Saturday night at The Inn.
Once dinner guests left for the evening, the two began their investigation.
“We were hit with conversations. There were a bunch of them,” he said. “We were told to sit on the couch. Christina’s phone shut down, and mine was vibrating.”
They heard a sliding noise behind the bar. When he investigated, there was nothing there.
Callicott said once the activity quieted down, he and Lee went back upstairs and waited for midnight.
“I was filming while Clyde posted on Facebook,” Lee said. She videoed several orbs in the room.
“Before we went downstairs, we put a plastic cup in the middle of the room. When we came back, the cup was on its side,” Lee said.
While they were in the lobby, a female voice was recorded saying, “female,” “husband” and “veteran.”
“I got a real quick smell of rose perfume,” Callicott said.
When he and Lee returned to the couch, “something tapped my leg. I had on a ‘Walking Dead’ shirt. We heard the words ‘mister’ and ‘scary.’ ”
They wondered if the voice was a child’s. “The shirt looked like it had monsters on it,” he said.
Both Lee and Callicott were surprised at their findings.
“There was a lot more activity than I thought there would be,” Lee said.
One of the things she photographed was a mist next to the door in their room.
“When I asked for something, I got tapped. I heard movement behind the bar. A cold breeze went across my shoulder and I smelled the perfume for a second time,” Callicott said.
Neither he nor Lee believe there is anything harmful at The Inn. Debbie Guillot agreed.
However, she added, Stephanie does let her presence be known. A guest who stayed at The Inn for about two years saw Stephanie.
“She saw her peeping out the window and thought it was me,” Guillot said.
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Story by Jeniffer Graham, Dominion Post