HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Woman shares ghostly encounter in downtown Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS – Many years ago in downtown Idaho Falls, a young orphan girl around 11 or 12 was allegedly murdered in what was then the Rogers Hotel and buried in a wall in the tunnels underneath the city.
Kathy Nave is the owner of Ghost Walk Idaho Falls, a company that provides tours of buildings in downtown Idaho Falls known to be haunted. She tells EastIdahoNews.com the spirit of the young girl, whom she identifies as Amy, continues to occupy the Roger building years after her death.
“There’s many eyewitnesses that have seen her run up and down the stairs. In the ladies room on the second floor, they have heard her laughing and giggling,” Nave says.
Nave says she’s also seen Amy and has pictures of her ghost.
Amy’s story dates back sometime in the 1940s. Merchants and shops lined the streets and many of them secretly had brothels on the top floor. Nave says there were at least 100 at the time.
“When those women had babies, the police force would go in and take them all. They were there to work, not have children,” says Nave.
The police then set out to find homes for the kids. Rich couples from out of town would come in on the train and adopt a “healthy and white” child. Those that weren’t adopted were sold. Children that were sick, disabled, or of a mixed race could not be sold and were thrown in the river, Nave says.
Some of the brothels took in some of the girls to work as slaves. When they were about five, Nave says they were put on the auction block.
The owner of the Rogers Hotel reportedly bought Amy to help out the maids.
“The guy that was over all the hotel maids was a drunk and a mean old man. He would come and find Amy every night, have his way with her and then beat her up,” Nave explains. “When she was 11 or 12, he went too far one night and killed her. He went down in the tunnels, cut a hole in the wall and buried her there.”
Years after Amy’s death, Nave’s heard numerous stories from people who claim to have seen her. One of the most recent sightings was about three years ago. The company who bought the Rogers building hired a group of contractors to come and gut the upper floors for a renovation project.
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One night after work, they joined a tour group with Nave’s company and heard Amy’s story.
“They kept looking at each other when I was telling this particular story,” says Nave. “The next night, they were waiting for us and they said, ‘Before you start talking, can we share what’s been happening upstairs?’ They shared the story of this little girl. They described her to a T and what she was doing.”
Nave says she’s seen her, too, and claims to have photos of the girl’s ghost.
One time, she went through rolls of undeveloped film with a friend. Many of the undeveloped photos were old pictures of buildings in downtown. One of them was a photo of a girl Nave recognized because she looked similar to the girl in the photo she had.
“Her picture was in there and I just started screaming, ‘I know who that is! Look!’ I pulled up (my picture) and I told him what I had found out through research. We just couldn’t believe it,” says Nave.
She declined to share detailed pictures with EastIdahoNews.com because she wants people to see them on the tour, (the last tour of the season was on Friday) but she shared several that she believes show traces of her presence. Take a look at the picture below. Do you see her?
Most of Nave’s alleged encounters with Amy have occurred in the early evening hours before it’s too dark. If you ever find yourself near the Rogers building at that time, take a look and see who or what is there.
