If you spook easily, be warned. We spoke to people who were previously skeptics to find out what made them true believers in the things that go bump in the night. There is no explanations for these occurrences, many of which are still happening today. Happy haunting!

The Ghost of Amelie, Lafayette

Maugie and Pat Pastor have been in the restaurant business for ions. Suffice to say, they’ve seen pretty much all there is to see in strange behaviors and are shock resilient. But nothing could prepare them for what they would experience after purchasing T’Frere’s Bed & Breakfast on Verot School Rd. in Lafayette in 1993.

Unaware that the house was haunted when they purchased it, the way it was discovered was reminiscent of an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” Maugie remembers, “The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, a young man stood there and asked, ‘You’re the new lady of the house? Did you see the ghost?’”

The ghost that he was referring to is presumably that of Amelie Comeaux, a woman who became a widow in her early 30s when her husband (and some say her young child as well) died of yellow fever a year into their marriage. Afterwards, she went to live with her younger brother, Onizephaere Comeaux (T-frère), during her “year of mourning.” The details surrounding Amelie’s death are varied. The most popular story was that she too contracted yellow fever and that one day she went in the back yard to rinse her face at the well, falling in and drowning. Because many of the townspeople thought it was suicide, her body couldn’t be blessed in the church and she was said to have a restless spirit.

Maugie says it took a couple months before they saw the first sign of Amelie. “Pat and I were in the kitchen near the laundry room where there were storage shelves with several stainless-steel pots and pans. All of a sudden, we heard a loud ruckus that sounded like the pots falling to the floor. When it stopped, we tip-toed in there expecting to see a mess… and there was nothing out of place.”

While none of the Pastors’ guests actually saw Amelie, Maugie remembers many experiencing strange occurrences. “One man who stayed in the Mary Room said that during the night he sensed a presence and felt a weight on his chest. The next day, a different guest checked into the same room and the next morning told me the exact story.”

There would many other instances in the 21 years that the Pastors had T-Frere’s. One in particular still baffles Maugie. Her younger son was upstairs in his bedroom doing homework when he realized he’d forgotten a math assignment paper and was trying to figure out how to tell his mother so she wouldn’t be angry. Before he had to say anything, the boy claims the paper came floating down from the ceiling. From the look on his face, Maugie never questioned the story.

Mary Magdalen Church Rectory

Next door to Mary Magdalen Church, in the heart of downtown Abbeville, strange occurrences in the rectory are traced back to Rev. Edmund Daull, who lived there from 1930 until 1949. He was witnessed by a local boy to have died from a sudden heart attack while eating lunch in the rectory. His grave lies at the foot of the cross in the church’s old Catholic cemetery.

Kim White, the rectory’s housekeeper and cook for the past 23 years, is most familiar with Rev. Daull’s shenanigans and recalls her first experience. “I was here for about two years when in 1998 I was washing dishes in the kitchen while lunch was cooking. All of a sudden, I felt a pressure in my back between my shoulder blades. I turned and there was no one around. And then I felt it again – this time a little harder. I said, “Father Daull is that you?…and it stopped.”

That would be the start of other baffling events for White. “There was the time I went upstairs to change the sheets in one of the guest bedrooms and when I opened the linen drawers, I found a bowl and spoon in two drawers. The bowls had remnants of dried food that had not been there long. When I questioned the associate pastor and others, no one knew anything about it. The next day, I found another bowl and spoon!”

White isn’t the only one who has experienced strange things. She says not long after an associate priest from Germany moved into the rectory, he told her he was hearing weird noises at night. “One morning he said he was awakened when the foot of his mattress started bouncing up and down. He said he prayed and talked to Father Daull and it stopped.”

Current Pastor at Mary Magdalen Church, Father Louie Richard says he’s heard footsteps on the carpeted staircase of the rectory when he was home alone.

White says Father Daull is remembered for loving his church parish and speculates that because he was the only priest who died there, he never wanted to leave.

Jefferson Davis Home

It’s long been said that the French pirate Jean Lafitte buried treasure on the property of what’s now Rip Van Winkle Gardens, and some say his ghost still lingers. While no one has seen a pirate, there have been plenty of other sightings and unexplainable happenings.

“We hear footsteps down the hall, even on what is now carpet, all the time – weekly,” says Rip Van Winkle Gardens Advertising and Marketing Director Nick Delcambre. “The door to the office will open and close when no one is on the other side – to the point that we’ve put a little bell on the knob.

“One of the more well-known ghosts on the grounds is a little blond-haired girl dressed in a vintage white dress. The resident’s housekeeper has seen her jumping on one of the cottage beds. Another time, one of the groundskeepers was walking out of the café and happened to look towards the theatre door of the gift shop when he saw the little girl opening the door. There was a school house on the site, from the 50s to the 80s, for the children of the salt miners.

“Another thing that’s happened more than once, happened just a couple months ago. I was talking to a coworker and felt someone poke me softly from behind. When I turned around, no one was there. I’ve come to learn that they’re just letting us know they’re here – they’re friendly.”

During the time the reception hall was being renovated, Delcambre went there one night around 11:30 to pick up something he’d need the next day and suddenly the doorbell rang and the rescue birds (in nearby cages) became very excited. “Then, I went to check on something in the main house and as soon as I walked into what we call the second parlor, I literally felt all the hair on my body stand up. I’d never felt that before; I got goosebumps. As I walked into the next room, it went away,” says the man who admits he never believed in “that stuff” before he came to work at Jefferson Island.

Delcambre bartends for wedding receptions at the café on weekends and sometimes will hear or see things at the venue after hours. “In the café’s big mirror, I’ve seen a reflection of someone’s shadow pass; and I’ll hear dishes rattle. No one goes in the café at night alone.”

The paranormal experiences have not been limited to employees at Jefferson Island. A couple who were married on the grounds, spent their honeymoon night in the Cook’s Cottage. In the wee hours of the morning, they were awakened by a banging noise outside. They went out to investigate, but saw nothing. When they turned to go back inside, they reported seeing a very tall man, wearing a top hat standing in their cottage. They haphazardly gathered their things and left at 3 am.