Editor’s Note: In light of the season, The Echo decided to write about some spooky Cal Lutheran lore. Happy Halloween!
Stories of alleged ghosts haunting California Lutheran University residence halls have circulated for many years. Most students have heard different stories about the ghosts and typically believe the rumors to be true.
Junior Resident Assistant for Grace Hall Casey Townsend shared some of her personal beliefs and experiences with the supernatural.
“I am definitely a ghost believer. I love spirits and stuff, I used to grow up with my mom watching videos and TV shows, all that stuff,” Townsend said.
Townsend also said that she’s heard some stories on campus regarding ghosts.
“I was a commuter my freshman year so I wasn’t living at the dorms, but for my friends, it was mainly like the stuff in Mt. Clef about a ghost named Timmy, who was apparently a construction worker’s son who had died, I guess, during the construction, when he was, like, playing,” Townsend said.
Townsend says her friends have had personal things happen to them while staying in the dorms, allegedly tied to Timmy.
“My friend told me that, apparently, he just kinda haunts like the 400 area, so like a certain section, and students will hear, like, knocking on their windows or, like, their blankets getting pulled off of them, which is kind of funny,” Townsend said. “He’s apparently not like a scary ghost, like, he just, he’s just there, he’s just a kid, he’s just a prankster. If you acknowledge him he, like, goes away, I guess, is what some people have said.”
Senior AJ Gonzalez, who currently lives in Mogen Residence Hall, said they have had a personal experience pertaining to ghosts on campus.
“I used to not really believe in ghosts, but then, after, like, last year where, I’m pretty sure it was a ghost that, like, lived in my dorm, I kinda believe in it now,” Gonzalez said. “It was the first day of junior year in my new dorm, still in Mogen by the way, and I went to bed for the night, but the whole time, like, you know, like, when you’re pretty sure someone’s looking at you, like, you kinda know it, that’s how I felt the whole night.”
After Gonzalez’s first encounter, they said that with rest of their roommates, they experienced more situations they all suspected were linked to ghosts.
“After that, it was mostly just, like, things being moved without, like, anyone being like, ‘Did you move that?’, and I’m like, ‘No,’ … but that was, like, the most that really happened,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said that their roommates eventually named the ghost.
“I kind of got over the ghost cause my roommates actually named the ghost. They named her Mary Ann, and then after that I was like, ‘Mary Ann leave me alone, I’m tired,’” Gonzalez said.
The USC Digital Folklore Archives, a database that lists and describes paranormal activity and folklore around the country, makes reference to the story behind Timmy’s paranormal existence. The website states that allegedly no one was aware that a little boy died on the property until they were doing renovations to the residence hall and found his body.
“‘A little boy was here during the construction of the dorm and was killed during the construction. No one found his body and no one knew that he had died … Before he was found, strange things had been happening. Even now, the rooms that are over where the body was found are the most active rooms. People say that doors violently slam and open, noises can be heard,’” the website states.