'Who Ya Gonna Call?' Carroll County's Very Own Ghostbusters

According to Lin Conroy, Westminster is one of the most haunted cities in Maryland. She said she's not surprised since Carroll County sits atop limestone.

"For some reason, I don't know why that is, areas with high concentrations of limestone just have more paranormal activity," Conroy said. "Maybe in 200 years they will be able to explain it but today we just can't."

Conroy, an employee of the Carroll County Historical Society, is the founder of the Carroll County Paranormal Research Group and has spent several decades investigating paranormal activity.

A native of Denver, she said she started doing paranormal investigations with friends as a hobby, "before it was popular". 

"It's just a fascination. I've always had that urge to answer the question, 'what's beyond'," Conroy said. "Of course none of us have ever answered that but I still like to explore that possibility."

Conroy and her family moved to Carroll County three years ago as a result of her husband's military career. She started the Carroll County Paranormal Research Group about one year ago because she said the county didn't have anything like it.

She said that as exciting as it is, most of the time her investigations turn up nothing.

I go into it [an investigation] very open minded," Conroy said. "Your goal is to find the reasons or causes for what's been told to you, what you've been given, so if someone says, 'it's always cold in that room', well maybe there's a heating problem or a vent closed."

"We look for realistic reasons to explain things and put people's minds to rest. If I can't debunk or explain something, sometimes I will reach out to other people in the field, show them photos, audio, and see if they can explain it. If not, then you set it aside as something you can't explain at this point," she said.

"We don't go in and say, 'ok, where's the ghost'."

Conroy said that she is sensitive to some haunted places but she doesn't claim to have special powers or to be a medium or psychic or a channeler.

"I have never felt a thing in Cockey's and I'm in there all the time. We just did [an investigation at] Cockey's and we did catch footsteps in the middle of the night and a door shut," she said.

"But we went over to the Shellman house, I was bent over trying to get something out of a trunk and I could have sworn someone was right behind me, I could feel it. I turned and no one was there. I'm just a person who sometimes can feel something creeping up," she said.

Conroy said that she has a small team of people who work with her including her son who takes care of the technical side of things. She said they are interested in investigating some of Carroll County's ghost legends including Legh Master's house and the Opera House on Main Street.

But she said that what makes Westminster so intriguing to her are the stories that haven't made it into the books.

"I think the most interesting part of Westminster is that there are more things going on here than the legends and folklore," Conroy said. "There's so much out there that nobody knows about."

"Some homes on Green Street have some very interesting tales that we'll be investigating and bringing forth. These aren't getting in the legends book but they are out there, and a lot of them."

Conroy said one of her most interesting experiences in Carroll County was at Henryton Hospital in Marriotsville. Henryton, opened in 1922 to treat patients with Tuberculosis, was closed in 1985 and has sat vacant since.

Conroy was at Henryton Hospital to do some preliminary information gathering for a potential investigation. She said that while she was there, several unexplainable things happened.

First she said a piece of debris flew past her head, actually touching her hair. Second, she heard a crash against a door she was trying to open, even though when she was able to open the door, the room was empty.

Finally, when she was listening to the audio recording of the event later that week, she heard a mans voice responding to a comment she had made. She heard a man say "But this person needs help" immediately after Conroy said into the recorder "We are now leaving the administration building".

The Carroll County Paranormal Research Group does not charge a fee although Conroy said that they go through a process to determine if a home or business warrants an investigation.

To learn more about the Carroll County Paranormal Research Group, visit their website at http://www.cc-prg.com/.