Posted: 10/16/2025 11:22:57 AM EDT
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Just in time for Halloween: who has spooky stories? I’ll start: My grandmother (born in 1906) worked her way up from nothing to become a head nurse at Buffalo General. She swore that on more than one occasion, a patient would die, a doctor would confirm, the time of death recorded for the death certificate, and then: - the dead person would suddenly sit bolt upright, eyes open, and then collapse back onto the death bed. She found it unsettling, although she got used to it happening from time to time. What have you got? |
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I got nothing. 25 years working for the Coroners office as transport 30 years working for a funeral home at the same time 50,000 + cremations performed over those years. Nothing spooky ever happened. Now, I absolutely believe spooky stuff can happen. But, the I have faith in the Power of Christ, and none of it ever happened to me with anything related to the dead. |
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How about gross enough to give you nightmares lol. Med examiner had herself a bloated rotten/one on the table. The stuff she sucked out the abdomen and transfered to a jar for lab analysis was the grossest shit I've ever seen or ever will see. Think brown/red/pink mix of goo with chunks of rotten corpse guts suspended in it. I've seen a lot of nasty crap but that takes the prize by far.  Also all the women that work in their are pretty hot and have a dark sense humor. It's a very emotionally confusing place to work in. 
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| 30 some years keeping them chilled and all other sorts of medical refrigeration. Mostly gruesome stuff but nothing spooky. I once tripped over a severed leg in a bag ,on the floor in clinical pathology. The staff thought it was really funny. I worked in a basement room in the old pathology building and it clearly once was a driveway that was walled off and incorporated into the building. On the wall was a hand painted arrow with undertakers bell written on it. The brass bell button was really old and beefy, so i unthreaded it and took it home. It now serves as my garage door opener. |
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Quoted: How about gross enough to give you nightmares lol. Med examiner had herself a bloated rotten/one on the table. The stuff she sucked out the abdomen and transfered to a jar for lab analysis was the grossest shit I've ever seen or ever will see. Think brown/red/pink mix of goo with chunks of rotten corpse guts suspended in it. I've seen a lot of nasty crap but that takes the prize by far. Also all the women that work in their are pretty hot and have a dark sense humor. It's a very emotionally confusing place to work in. I feel bad for the medical examiner that had to autopsy the dudes from the Byford Dolphin incident.
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Quoted: Also all the women that work in their are pretty hot and have a dark sense humor. It's a very emotionally confusing place to work in.  Linda Fiorentino really nice legs wearing sheer, shiny pantyhose in the 1997 movie Men in Black I saw the documentary that confirms this. |
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Quoted: 30 some years keeping them chilled and all other sorts of medical refrigeration. Mostly gruesome stuff but nothing spooky. I once tripped over a severed leg in a bag ,on the floor in clinical pathology. The staff thought it was really funny. I worked in a basement room in the old pathology building and it clearly once was a driveway that was walled off and incorporated into the building. On the wall was a hand painted arrow with undertakers bell written on it. The brass bell button was really old and beefy, so i unthreaded it and took it home. It now serves as my garage door opener. That is AWESOME!  Reminds me of my dad, who talked about all the med students who threw up the first day of their cadaver study in med school. But, he also said, by the third or fourth day of dissecting the cadavers, guys were cutting with one hand, and eating the sandwich they’d brought for lunch, with the other hand. |
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I was probably 19, working Housekeeping at a hospital in Louisville Kentucky, while attending school at night. I hadn’t been there long when I was told it was time to clean the morgue. The guy that was to show me how to do it was black, about my age, very friendly. It was a small area with a three drawer “body fridge” for body storage and a normal chest freezer for keeping parts in. You walked through this room to get to the autopsy area, which is what we needed to clean. The guy showed me around. I noticed all of the bits of flesh hanging on the brain scale and on the autopsy table. The table had a removable grate on it with a drain underneath. He’s standing beside me and we are washing out the autopsy table when, from the body storage area we hear “ohhhhh”. He looks at me with eyes that were twice normal size and says “Did you hear that?” We both ran out the door. We learned later that we had left the water hose running when we dropped it on the floor. Flooded the morgue a little but it had floor drains. The crew we worked with thought we imagined it, but we heard later that dead bodies can make strange noises. Glad I never had to clean that room again. |
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Quoted: I was probably 19, working Housekeeping at a hospital in Louisville Kentucky, while attending school at night. I hadn’t been there long when I was told it was time to clean the morgue. The guy that was to show me how to do it was black, about my age, very friendly. It was a small area with a three drawer “body fridge” for body storage and a normal chest freezer for keeping parts in. You walked through this room to get to the autopsy area, which is what we needed to clean. The guy showed me around. I noticed all of the bits of flesh hanging on the brain scale and on the autopsy table. The table had a removable grate on it with a drain underneath. He’s standing beside me and we are washing out the autopsy table when, from the body storage area we hear “ohhhhh”. He looks at me with eyes that were twice normal size and says “Did you hear that?” We both ran out the door. We learned later that we had left the water hose running when we dropped it on the floor. Flooded the morgue a little but it had floor drains. The crew we worked with thought we imagined it, but we heard later that dead bodies can make strange noises. Glad I never had to clean that room again. Some one (not dead) was messing with you. It worked. |
| Nope, none. It doesn’t take long to get used to slinging bodies. The biggest issue is that my hospital uses the cheapest, made in China body bags that rip open if the transporters forget to put a hospital sheet between the body bag and the aluminum tray. Oh, and dropping one that goes spat is a rite of passage…. |
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I worked graveyard security in a nursing/bio college that had a dissection lab. Some stories: It isn't uncommon for medical people to donate their bodies for study and for transplant parts. After the "harvest*," the bodies go to the lab. So frequently, someone in the lab will encounter a doc or nurse they knew in life. I learned this when I heard some of the instructors talking about "Mary." They had a team of new students observing their first dissection. They pulled the sheet off the cadaver and one of the female students became hysterical. It was the body of her uncle on the table. They moved her to another team. They break up bodies for different schools, so the dental students would get an entire head. The dental students got to sever the head to take to their work area. At the school, someone had a contract to preserve the bodies. Over a Christmas break they screwed up and the bodies became decayed and pretty gross, with spider web lacing all over. Someone mentioned that bodies sit up on the table; this is pretty common, and always within the first 24 hours or so of death. The body dies in stages, and I guess some parts take some time to react to the loss of oxygen. AAAAnd there are a few Youtube videos about interns pranking newbies. *"Harvest" is exactly what it resembles. A fresh cadaver starts turning bad very quickly, so the collection team is very "efficient" in its techniques... meaning, they're pretty fast about removing needed organs. About 30 minutes after the grieving family sees Grandma for the last time, she's unrecognizable. ETA I mentioned working graves in that facility. I did rounds every hour or so. There was always a door that didn't fully shut and would glide open as I approached it. Good thing there wasn't a prankster behind that door: I carried a 3-D cell Maglite all the time. Also, the air handling ducts had shutters that sounded exactly like doors closing. |
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Quoted: You are supposed to check for those, but if you don't have a wand, they can be missed in a fatty. We are a cemetery, not funeral home. No licensed funeral directors at my place. We just receive them in a bag & box (usually Matthews cardboard). Not allowed to open by law(NY) unless FD present. Had a 610 pounder last week. We average about 6-700 per year. |
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Not so scary, just icky. I worked for a large community college in Albuquerque. They expanded and remodeled one of the buildings and found human bones, complete skeletons. Police were called, and work stopped while the police investigated. They called the UNM Anthropology department, who decided it wasn't a crime scene, but a historic grave. Seems that the site of the building was the site of a mass grave dug during the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu epidemic. So many people were dying so fast that they couldn't hold regular funerals for them; they just planted the bodies. I do think that they had some way of cataloging some of the bodies but many were unmarked.* When the building in question was first built, there were stories of workmen driving earth moving equipment across the field next to it and the equipment would rock back and forth as it drove across a grave. SUPPOSEDLY they dug all the bodies up and relocated them to a nearby cemetery which was started just for the purpose. And BTW the buildings in that school ARE haunted. There are lots of stories about supernatural stuff happening. *In New Mexico, entire tribes were wiped out. So many people got sick there was no one to care for them so they all died from neglect. |
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I was a Deputy Coroner for 10 years. I got called to an out building one of the parent adult kids were living in. They wanted a welfare check on him. I walked in and it was pitch dark. Little dog comes running out. After a few moments shining my flashlight I seen a figure sitting on the couch with a winter coat and pants on but the head was a skeleton, completely clean. Thought it was a decoration at first but it was the son. The little dog ate his head clean. All over the floor were piles of hair the dog had thrown up. The Deputy on scene who first had the call was freaked out. I’ll always remember this. Many other stories. |
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Well it may not be too spooky, but here's an odd one for you. I used to work for DoD as a network engineer working specifically in military hospitals and clinics. (DHA) We were at Wright Patterson probably around 2016ish and were looking for fiber paths back to the main hospital. Myself and our Gov PE ended up at the old hospital and the site guy said spooky things happen in that building all the time like the front doors would unlock themselves and whatever else I can't remember. I didn't think much of it other than I figured he was just trying to be funny or get us spooked. We went down to the creepy basement looking for the fiber demark and went about our business with nothing odd to report. Fast forward to sometime last year (still on the project then) and I was watching a UFO video and they claimed that the Roswell crash bodies had been brought to Wright Pat for examination. Then they showed some footage of the camera crew going into the basement and I was like shit, I've been there! I'd completely forgotten about it. I had to call the gov guy and confirm that we went in that creepy basement and he remembered it too. It just made me wonder if all the crazy stories the site guy told me at the time was related to the alleged alien ghosts... Who knows. |
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I used to go hunting just outside the minuscule town of Trappe, Maryland, every weekend during my teen years. Here is a true, but very creepy local story which happened in Trappe: https://www.washcoll.edu/people_departments/offices/miller-library/archives-special-collections/archives-blog/Hoe%20in%20the%20Wall.php |
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Quoted: I used to work at a major trauma center as a patient transporter among other jobs. Sometimes when moving bodies they will groan, fartr, burp etc. One time I was taking a leg to pathology and I swear I felt it move. Ha! Grandma mentioned that too: - her very first day, as a novice nurse at Buffalo General, she and another novice nurse were bluntly told: “Go move the dead body in the ER onto a gurney and wheel it down to the morgue in the basement.” She’d never so much as touched a dead body before that moment. She and the other novice sheepishly went in, and positioned the gurney next to the operating table, but neither of them wanted to actually touch the cadaver. So they used a sheet, and through the sheet, worked together to roll the body over onto the gurney. As the body rolled onto the gurney, it let out a loud groan, like “oooooooohhhhhh” (as air left the lungs). They both ran screaming from the room. After a stern talking-to from the head nurse, she went back in and finished the task, lol. |
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Quoted: I was a Deputy Coroner for 10 years. I got called to an out building one of the parent adult kids were living in. They wanted a welfare check on him. I walked in and it was pitch dark. Little dog comes running out. After a few moments shining my flashlight I seen a figure sitting on the couch with a winter coat and pants on but the head was a skeleton, completely clean. Thought it was a decoration at first but it was the son. The little dog ate his head clean. All over the floor were piles of hair the dog had thrown up. The Deputy on scene who first had the call was freaked out. I’ll always remember this. Many other stories. OMG! - that’s awful. |
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We were training, kicking in doors playing with breaching equipment and doing CQB in a hospital scheduled for demolition (Alachua General Hospital). During the whole day I had the constant feeling that we weren’t alone. So much cool stuff to explore, but you know what? Not one of us ventured off by ourselves. Very unsettling. |
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Quoted: We were training, kicking in doors playing with breaching equipment and doing CQB in a hospital scheduled for demolition (Alachua General Hospital). During the whole day I had the constant feeling that we weren’t alone. So much cool stuff to explore, but you know what? Not one of us ventured off by ourselves. Very unsettling. I believe it!  Also: the very first response coincidentally mentioned my faith; our common faith (thanks for that). And it’s my understanding of the testament of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, as well as the testament of our Father (the Old Testament/ Torah) that our God is often the God of mystery. We were not created to understand all of His ways. And His holy Bible repeatedly mentions angels, Satan, and Satan’s minions. Do I understand what all things are or what they mean? No. Again, I don’t believe God intended us to understand everything. So I don’t ponder too deeply the unknowns; I just try to be still, know that He is God, and to take it all on faith that: He’s got this. He has his reasons for everything. And His plan for me is to follow Jesus. But I digress: the old pagan holiday of Halloween is approaching and I grew up in Edgar Allen Poe’s hometown: Baltimore. So let the spooky stories of the season continue! |
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Quoted: I worked graveyard security in a nursing/bio college that had a dissection lab. Some stories: It isn't uncommon for medical people to donate their bodies for study and for transplant parts. After the "harvest*," the bodies go to the lab. So frequently, someone in the lab will encounter a doc or nurse they knew in life. I learned this when I heard some of the instructors talking about "Mary." They had a team of new students observing their first dissection. They pulled the sheet off the cadaver and one of the female students became hysterical. It was the body of her uncle on the table. They moved her to another team. They break up bodies for different schools, so the dental students would get an entire head. The dental students got to sever the head to take to their work area. At the school, someone had a contract to preserve the bodies. Over a Christmas break they screwed up and the bodies became decayed and pretty gross, with spider web lacing all over. Someone mentioned that bodies sit up on the table; this is pretty common, and always within the first 24 hours or so of death. The body dies in stages, and I guess some parts take some time to react to the loss of oxygen. AAAAnd there are a few Youtube videos about interns pranking newbies. *"Harvest" is exactly what it resembles. A fresh cadaver starts turning bad very quickly, so the collection team is very "efficient" in its techniques... meaning, they're pretty fast about removing needed organs. About 30 minutes after the grieving family sees Grandma for the last time, she's unrecognizable. ETA I mentioned working graves in that facility. I did rounds every hour or so. There was always a door that didn't fully shut and would glide open as I approached it. Good thing there wasn't a prankster behind that door: I carried a 3-D cell Maglite all the time. Also, the air handling ducts had shutters that sounded exactly like doors closing. 1) No they don't. The only time you are going to see movement is during a standard condition loaded cremation if the main flame is centered on the chest area. The arms will raise somewhat as the muscles constrict due the consuming heat & flame. 2) True, organs are removed, and it is done quickly. "Grandma" is certainly recognizable, she just needs cleaned up and prepped to look nice. They are taking organs & sometimes bones, they are not cutting her face off. |
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Quoted: 1) No they don't. The only time you are going to see movement is during a standard condition loaded cremation if the main flame is centered on the chest area. The arms will raise somewhat as the muscles constrict due the consuming heat & flame. 2) True, organs are removed, and it is done quickly. "Grandma" is certainly recognizable, she just needs cleaned up and prepped to look nice. They are taking organs & sometimes bones, they are not cutting her face off. I imagine that they take the eyeballs for corneas, don't they? I sure wouldn't want to view the body in that condition! |
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Some strange stories from the college: The elevators all had emergency telephones in them. Every grave shift, at about 1:40 AM, we'd get a phone call from an elevator in the oldest building in the campus. All that would come through would be a "bang bang" sound like someone hammering on a metal filing cabinet. One night: Phone rings. Dispatcher: "College security, what is your emergency?" Phone: "bang bang. BANG bang... bang.... bang" An officer who was visiting in the dispatcher's office takes the phone. Officer: "Aww, come on, let's see what you can REALLY do!" Phone: "BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG" until the officer hung up. This phenomenon lasted until they did a complete remodel of the building, replacing the elevator. *********** |
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Quoted: Trust me she slept there because the alternative was worse. Her birth giver was a crack whore sociopath. Edit: also yeah she is big tiddy goth lady Quoted: Quoted: Photo of wife's pointy canine teeth please. Trust me she slept there because the alternative was worse. Her birth giver was a crack whore sociopath. Edit: also yeah she is big tiddy goth lady Shitty parentage aside, that's pretty metal. Mary Shelley would be proud. |