Gabriel Guardado
CONTRIBUTOR
In December of 1955, 20-year-old UNO student Carolyn Nevins was murdered outside of what is now Arts and Sciences Hall. The murderer was never found. To this day, many wonder if the spirit of Nevins still haunts the building.
Cases like Nevins’ murder are what sparked the creation of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s paranormal society.
“We first started out with the UNO UFO study group, and then we began working on the different paranormal aspects in that group,” Kyle Finley, president of the paranormal society, said. “We ran into the ghost hunting group on campus, MAPS, the Metro Area Paranormal Society.”
MAPS originally came to study the cold case of Nevins. Finley said the paranormal society kicked off investigations of its own on the Nevins case with the help of faculty advisor David Pares.
“It was an ongoing investigation, and students have compiled data,” Pares said. “We also contacted former relatives of Nevins but we have not yet come to the conclusion of the paranormal activity.”
Pares said the paranormal investigative process involves collecting and analyzing data. Safety is a top priority.
“When we go out to investigate, we have a policy to protect the group of students investigating,” Pares said.“In some areas, you have to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into. During some of our investigations, we’ve had hair pulling and backpacks being pulled.”
The Paranormal Society focuses on the scientific side of the paranormal world. The group meets up on Saturdays at noon in the Durham Science Center to talk about the paranormal world. But that’s not all they discuss. Other topics include sociology, religious studies, philosophy, physics and chemistry.
“We’re a scientific group who looks into the paranormal realm. We always have a skeptical mind
when looking at this kind of stuff,” Finley said. Earlier this month, the paranormal society hosted its annual Paranormal Summit. During the summit, the society shared its investigative techniques with paranormal community groups and held a ghost hunt on campus after the event.
The paranormal societies’ latest investigation involves a haunted car known as Elvira. Elvira is a 1970 Cadillac, in which many claim there has been a record 496 deaths in the vehicle. The paranormal society plans to investigate the haunted car in hopes of finding new research and data to prove skeptics wrong.
“People can laugh at the paranormal, but we collect data and do scientific research on these topics,” Pares said. As for their original case on Nevins, the Paranormal Society has been able to gather data, photo evidence and most importantly EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) on the still ongoing case. Whether or not the investigation will one day come to a close, Carolyn Nevins may still be walking the halls of the Arts and Science Hall.
