The Weeping Ghost
Kathryn Martinez, NM, USA
August 2005
Ihave been a Police Officer for the state of New Mexico for thirteen years. Throughout my life I have experienced incidents with the paranormal. However, I could never obtain a rational explanation for any of these experiences!
Prior to becoming a Police Officer I was a Detention Officer for San Juan County. I worked the Graveyard shift. Throughout the evening my fellow officers and I would take turns sitting in the "pods". This room was very small. It was the size of a closet. The pod gave the officer access to the control panel and complete visual of all the cell blocks. To the right of the pod was a large steel door that gave you access to the cell block. Once you open the first steel door there is a small hall that you have to stand in while the Detention officer (assigned to the pod)confirms you're safety. The second steel door is then unlocked through the control panel and the officers have finally entered the cell block.
One evening at approximately 0200 hours I was assigned to the female cell block. Lights out are at 2100 hours. Obviously all the inmates were asleep and locked in their individual cells. I was sitting in the pod studying for an exam. All of a sudden I heard a loud crash! It sounded like it was coming from inside the cell block. when I turned on the cell block lights, I heard the loud noise again. When I turned to the direction of the noise I observed the inside metal door leading to the cell block shake! The sound had come from between the two metal doors! I looked through the pod windows and I could not see anyone! The entire cell block had awoke, However they were secure in their cells. I could not explain what had caused the noise.
Another evening I was standing in the briefing room with a fellow officer. We were passing on information in reference to a new inmate. All of a sudden we heard a large group of men fighting and screaming. The sound was coming from above our heads! We started to run out of the room to get a witness but the fighting and screaming stopped. The female officer that was in the room with me started to cry. She was scared to death. We tried to find a reasonable explanation for the noise. However, we could not. We were on the female cell block. There were no male inmates at this detention center!
The Graveyard Officers would only admit to one another that they had also experienced incidents that they could not explain. During our shift we would conduct cell inspections. We all had noticed our hand held radios would start clicking on their own. We would also hear whispering on the air. We could never understand the words. I also noticed items would be moved from where you would place it. The last evening I will describe was the most frightful. It caused the female officer (my fellow witness of the noise of the men screaming and fighting) to quit that very evening.
We were standing outside the cell block building taking our smoke break. We were outside approximately five minutes when we heard a woman crying. We both knew it was not coming from the inside because the steel doors were shut. (You cannot hear anything through the doors) The crying sounded like it was coming from far away. However, the crying seemed to get louder and louder with every passing second! The crying sounded like it was right above our heads. At that moment the crying turned into wailing! We had enough. We dropped our cigarettes and RAN into the building.
I talked my fellow officer into finishing her shift before she quit. I was the only one who knew the true reason for her leaving.
I still do not understand why we were chosen to witness the incidents at the Detention Center.