Ghost-hunter wants to scare up local stories

By SUSAN KOOMAR

Ron LaBar loves a good spook story — especially if it's true.

His informal group of ghost hunters, the Eastern Pennsylvania Paranormal Society, wants to hear of local hauntings, especially in downtown Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg.

Their hope is to map out candle-lit ghost tours in time for Halloween.

"I'm looking for locals who have some stories that we can research and present," said LaBar, an amateur ghost buster who lives near Marshalls Creek.

Labar got hooked on hauntings in 2000 when he visited New Hope.

"It's an old town where they have a lot of ghost stories. We went on a ghost walk and it was like 'Wow, there are really cool things here,'" he said.

On a Gettysburg ghost tour, LaBar and his wife were listening to the tale of the Farnsworth House marksman when his wife said she felt something on her back. LaBar snapped a photo.

"There was this energy you could see in the picture," he said.

At Columcille, a Stonehenge-type park south of Stroudsburg, LaBar says he took a photo that shows a purplish haze in one of the towers.

"There's the face of a woman in Victorian garb and she's holding a baby," he said.

On Wednesday nights, you can guarantee LaBar is watching "Ghost Hunters" on the Sci-Fi channel. He has become so fascinated with amateur spirit searching that he invested in an EMF (electromagnetic field) detector, temperature gun and video camera.

Now, he just needs more ghosts. Pocono ghosts.

"I'd like to do this in my own hometown instead of outside the area. I know there must be stories here," he said.

LaBar has a few stops to get a ghost walk started. In East Stroudsburg, an Analomink Street house rented by college students is reputedly also occupied by "Betty," a spirit seen near an upstairs bathroom. A building at East Stroudsburg University is allegedly menaced by an "ice-cold entity that defaces name plaques and steals items," said LaBar.

In Stroudsburg, the "Rain Boy' case involved a young man and mysterious streams of water that materialized out of thin air and made it seem like it was raining — sideways — inside a house. The story was featured on "Unsolved Mysteries." The Ann Street building where it happened was torn down to make way for a parking lot.

LaBar also knows tales of tormented suicide victims that haunt Henryville and ghostly figures seen at Fort Depuy in Shawnee-on-Delaware.

One of his biggest challenges is getting permission from property owners to explore the unexplained. As part of his push to gather local legends, LaBar is sending a letter to Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg business owners seeking their help.

"A ghost walk will help attract attention to our downtown area with all the visitors we have," he said.