O’Keefe’s Hotel
Sunday 8th of November
Unnatural Episode 5: O'keefes Hotel
This was going to be one interesting night, we had a little knowledge on the ghostly happenings (included at bottom of O’Keefe’s write up) but we had no knowledge on the historical side, we had scoured every web site we could think of to find any information…. We came up empty, the owners were away with other business issues, and so we couldn’t ask them anything about the history… it seems to be a pub without history. We arrived around 7pm and started discussing the night’s investigation; we did some small pieces like taking photos and getting cut away shot of the inside and outside of the building.
There was a party downstairs in the outside eating area, so we waited for them to finish their gathering (which they seem to be having a good time) oh thanks for the warm up music of ghostbusters; it got the night of to a great start. They slowly start to wynd down and were finished by 2am, we have the video cameras going up stairs, and we are hoping that the interaction of the party has help capture some evidence?
For the four hours we had, we did have some interesting moments, was all of the ghostly… well that a positive No, there were the odd moment that had us scratching our heads, we can not classify O’Keefe’s as Haunted, is there unusual activity going on… yes there is. We never felt uneasy at all, in fact it was a very pleasant investigation… only our camera’s can tell us if there is ghostly things that go bump in the night at O’Keefe’s. So to the owners and the staff we believe you have nothing to fear from any thing ghostly, they (the ghosts) seem to like interaction and are more active in this period… oh Sarah does like to be included in conversations and she does like the fact that people talk about her. All in all we wouldn’t say O’Keefe’s is haunted, there aren’t any negative energies within the walls, but there is the odd spat of activity that does happen. So for you back packing fans of pubs with spirits (besides the one on shelves) this might one place to spend a night or two?
Our Personal Encounters
Jodie: One very interesting thing happened to Jodie (her explanation will be up soon). Jodie found a napkin on the floor and placed it back on the pile of napkins, it was not placed neatly (and for a reason) when Jodie entered that room again she noticed the napkin was placed neatly back in the pile, but both Jodie and Mike felt something unusual with the dining room down stairs… what the reason is we do not know.
Mike: A lot of times encounter’s and activity does happen when there are two or more people and on this night it happened to Mike & Jim. As they walked about conducting an m.v.p. session, they noticed a small piece of chocolate and that became the focal point at that time.
Jim: The strangest thing to happen to me also happened to Jim, it has to do with chocolate, Jim placed a pieced of wrapped chocolate (which mysteriously appeared) on a dining table, no one went into that room before me as I was downstairs and Mike & Jim were up stairs, I found the piece of chocolate on the floor and placed it back on the table, when I mentioned this to Jim, he was a little shocked to know the chocolate fell to the floor… bizarre indeed.
Drew: It was around 4am and I am not 100% positive I saw what I hoped I’d saw. I was looking through the viewfinder on the camera it was focused on the main door way, I looked up and saw what looked like the back of a small person (around 5ft) move into the dining room area, I quickly followed and walked into a room of pure darkness, there was nothing or no one around, it’s hard to say if it was ghostly as there could be a rational explanation for it. So I sat in the room for 45 minutes, just listening to the sounds of the building, as I was taking some photos I noticed an S shape misty worm on my digital still camera, I captured it four times, each time before I would take the photo I asked if “Sarah was present”, it was on the 5th one when I asked if it is Sarah could she please move from that spot, nothing came up in the photo or any after it, I went through different methods to find the cause, it defiantly was not a natural element, I really cannot say until we study the images closer, but I am hoping its something unnatural, I am also hoping the 8mm camera picked up anything around that time?
Thank You
Team Strigoi wishes to Thank Rebecca & Grant for allowing us to investigate O’Keefe’s, all the friendly staff who was interested in what we were doing. We enjoyed the night greatly and look forward in conducting another investigation there in the near future?
O’Keefe’s is an affordable backpacker’s pub, great meals, in the centre of town, a great selection of Tasmanian beers & wine, friendly staff, what more could one ask for… oh it also comes with it’s own ghost(s).
If you go in and ask about Sarah or any other ghost tale they know, they are more than happy to talk to you about it. So if you in Launceston, why not stop in… what harm can it do.
The images below are a real mystery, during these photos I had a camera rolling and you can clearly hear me ask questions towards Sarah… is this her responding?
Five striking images
Picture 1: The first sign of something close by.
Picture 2: The angle of the camera is slightly different, but strange anomaly was still in shot.
Picture 3: The anomaly is still in close range, was this anomaly Sarah the resident spirit.
Picture 4: By this stage I thought it maybe camera malfunction but it’s the next photo that blew us away.
Picture 5: Before I took this shot asked if Sarah was present could she move from shot… to prove that she was there… and this was her response. No anomaly appeared in the photo, was it Sarah’s way of letting me know she was there… I bloody hope so.
The Ghost History of O’Keefe’s
Sarah: is the most active spirit, Sarah has appeared to several staff and owners. Sarah is sometimes seen descending the stairs and walking the hallways upstairs. Sarah is a harmless spirit, who seems to enjoy the atmosphere of the pub. Sarah is seen wearing a Victorian dress but little is described about her facial features.
The Friendly Spirit of the Bar: This spirit belongs to a patron and O’Keefe’s was his watering hole, he would greet people by placing a warm hand on one’s shoulder, this was his way of welcoming you to become his mate. Well the old fella hasn’t left, in fact he still hangs out in the bar, a few people have felt a soft hand on their shoulder, they would turn to find nothing and ono one behind them. If you encounter this kind spirit don’t be frightened as he is harmless and seems to like having coming into the bar.
Room 5: The room is meant to have a over powering sensation of dread or uneasiness, it seem that a year or two back, two young back packers from the Asian region booked room 5 at O’Keefe’s, within 5 minutes of checking in they were checking out, with a expression and body language of pure terror. It seems something had been in the room the moment they walked in, they described a dark shadow lurking in the corner; it gave off an unfriendly feel. For this story we think it may have been over active minds, when one stands at the door, traffic goes by and casts a dark shadow on the wall, it looks solid but it moves when cars go past. This can give the impression that there is something’s standing there watching you. We believe there is no uneasy feelings or anything nerve shattering, we spent a lot of time in this room together, or on our own, no one had any unnatural feeling whilst in that room… we believe the room is not haunted.
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