A little girl's voice is heard in a McKendree University building.

An unseen visitor pounds on a door near Millstadt.

A young boy is constantly running up and down the stairs of a Belleville theater.

Ghost stories - people may not always believe them, but love to hear them. Others see a lining of truth in every tale.

"There's a reason I'm a believer," said Suzanne Hutcherson, of Swansea, a freelance writer who loves ghost stories. "More and more people tell me stories about what has happened to them and I'm always glad to listen."

And there's no shortage of creepy tales from Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties.

This month, the Journals combed archives and files to examine the most bloodcurdling, spine-chilling and just plain peculiar stories about our region. We found lots of tales - and fewer explanations. You decide.

McKendree University, Lebanon

Founded in 1828, several historic buildings dot the campus of McKendree University in Lebanon, some with reported ghostly visitors.

Alumni Relations Director Jeff Campbell may have experienced one.

"I don't want to feed into the haunted myth story," Campbell said. "There are always stories about things you can't verify."

But he does have a ghost story.

As a McKendree student in the 1980s, around midnight or maybe 1 or 2 a.m., he went to the Holman Library to hit the books in a 24-hour study area.

"You couldn't get into the main part of the library, but there were tables where you could study," he said. "It was quiet. My wife - she was my girlfriend at the time - was with me. We heard a door open and anticipated someone coming in. We heard footsteps and watched, and no one came in. We looked and no one was there."

Chris Mondy, a junior from Troy, compiled a DVD called "Ghosts of McKendree" for an anthropology course two years ago.

Most of the stories he collected center around Bothwell Chapel, built in 1858.

"Mostly hearing," is how he describes those encounters. "Some hear people at the organ playing music, others hear someone walking around."

The spooky sounds makes sense: Troy Taylor, author of "Phantoms in the Looking Glass," calls Lebanon "one of Illinois' most haunted places."

Saxtown Road, St. Clair County

One of the oldest ghost stories in the area centers around Saxtown Road outside Millstadt. Five members of the Steltzenreide family were murdered there on March 19, 1874. Like many ghost stories, fact and legend have blended through the years in the telling of this story.

Hutcherson, the writer, recounts the story, relating gruesome details of the murder, replete with a violent struggle. One account has one of the victims clutching a mass of red hair.

"But I have not found that in any accounts of the murder," Hutcherson said.

Another home was built on the foundation of the house where the murders occurred and the owner of the home, Randy Eckert, also experienced the unexplained. He and his wife lived in the home from 1986 to 1989 and now rent it. When asked about strange occurrences, he chuckles.

"Every time on the anniversary we would have something weird go on," he said. "There's always a dog barking in the distance and sounds like they're a hundred years old."

There also was someone pounding on the door.

"I could see the door moving from the knocking but no one was there.

"It was what it was," Eckert said. "I'm a sane person. It was a strange, unexplainable occurrence. I never had anything like that before or since."

Miners Theater, Collinsville

Built in 1918, this old theater at 204 W. Main St. in Downtown Collinsville has a long history of visits of the supernatural variety.

Generations have reported noise and strange events.

Legend has it that the ghost of a 1920s flapper pushed from the catwalk by a jilted boyfriend still holds court in the space, which also housed victims of an influenza outbreak, many who died in there. Another ghost, named Lola, is said to haunt the stage and dressing room. Some actors also suspect a series of spirits in the catwalks.

So storied are the apparitions that the Western Illinois Society for Paranormal Research has inspected the theater, which is also part of a haunted tour of Collinsville sites this fall.

"Gates of Hell," Collinsville

Known to generations of Metro East residents, the "gates" are a series of concrete railroad bridges along Lebanon Road east of Collinsville. Strange noises and ghoulish screams are said to emanate from the tunnels.

One myth has it that if a motorist drives through all seven and stops at the last at midnight, they'll be taken to the afterlife. Better hurry, though: the Madison County Highway Department is considering tearing down one bridge to make way for a wider Lebanon Road.

Cahokia Mounds, Collinsville

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site was home to Native Americans who built one of the greatest cities in the world. In 1250, more people lived there than in London.

Some believe spirits still walk as they did in the days before Columbus arrived. Others report bursts of light and unattended campfires on the grounds.

Three Mile House, Edwardsville

Perhaps the most widely-circulated haunted story site in the Metro East, the former plot off Illinois Route 159 near Route 11 north of Edwardsville once held Three Mile House. It was the oldest building in Madison County at the time.

The structure was built by in 1852 by Frederick Gaerter as a hunting lodge, although it's believed to also have been a Civil War hospital and stop on the Underground Railroad.

Later operated as a restaurant, it became known for a colorful cast of ghosts, including a lady in black who smelled of lilac, a runaway slave named Tom who committed suicide there and a 12-year-old girl, Celia.

The eatery burned to the ground in 1985, although it's unclear whether its inhabitants perished with it.

Odd Fellows Cemetery, Granite City

"The Illinois Road Guide to Haunted Locations" by Chad Lewis claims this old graveyard off Illinois Route 3 teems with spirits.

It's hidden in a thicket of brush just north of the new Lowe's super center beside a large retention pond.

The cemetery holds the bodies of about a dozen people, many from the 1850s. Many of the headstones are toppled and broken.

One woman buried at the graveyard, Lucinda Irish, is said to haunt Schaefer Road, which cuts through the graveyard.

Huxabuchel area

Around Main and Vandalia streets in Edwardsville is said to once have been inhabited by an old woman who was believed to be a witch. According to some, Hexabuchel means witch's back.

Eagle Park, Madison

Eagle Park in Madison is said to be inhabited by the spirits of rival gangsters killed by East St. Louis mobsters in the day. The mobsters used the location, just off Illinois Route 203, as a dumping ground for bodies.

Lincoln Theater, Belleville

But Dave and Sandy Schoenborn of Belleville, owners of the Lincoln Theater at 103 E. Main St., can probably challenge for the title of "most haunted." Reports of strange events abound.

Schoenborn relates several stories.

"My technician spends a lot of time working in the projection booth," he said. "He tells me, 'That little kid has been running up and down the steps bothering me.' It usually happens when he's working by himself."

Schoenborn said the spirit is "more of a prankster."

"My one friend said he came in and saw a white thing floating up in the balcony a few years ago," he said. "He saw it clear as day, a woman was up there."

Schoenborn also wants to hear from his patrons about their experiences and has created a Facebook page to collect them.

"Our spirits - none of them are malicious," he said.

Maybe not malicious, but just a little bit spooky. Happy Halloween.

Our sources for this story

Suzanne Hutcherson has published several haunting tales and likes collecting such stories. She can be reached by e-mail, bhutch@accessus.net or at suzanneh@webster.edu

Troy Taylor, author of "Phantoms in the Looking Glass," calls Lebanon "one of Illinois' most haunted places." He conducts history and hauntings ghost tours through the town. At www.illinoishauntings.com

Suburban Journal archives also provided past newspaper accounts for sites and incidents