From First-Nation legends to the well-established culture of Catholicism and everything in between, it is well-known that St. Landry Parish is a land of spiritual traditions. But for every claim of the miraculous, there is a flip side that leaves more questions than answers. Barely-there whispers and growls, mysterious shapes on long-winding roads at night, apparitions that leave the body cold and confused, and footsteps that follow you when you are alone, all these are claims that have been experienced across our parish. Some of these claims have even been verified by ghost hunting group, Louisiana Spirits, one of the oldest and most structured investigative teams in the state. Their new director of the state, Marci Lee, is coming with a brand-new South-Central team to investigate St. Landry Parish.
Standing on the site of what has been the seat of Opelousas’ local government for over 200 years and the center of local commerce for 300, the St. Landry Parish Courthouse building as it is known today was erected in 1939. It is surrounded by sprawling, living oaks. On the 3rd floor of this gray-limestone building lies sealed and hidden away the purported site of three executions. Research suggests that Elgie Stephens, the last person to be sentenced to hang in St. Landry Parish and one of the last ten legally executed this way in the state, was the first to die in the newly-constructed courthouse in 1939. His crime was the murder of his wife. It’s said that he left this world saying the Lord’s Prayer with a smile on his face. Brothers Joseph and Matthew Cook were also accused of murder. These farm laborers were electrocuted ten years after Stephens. Their crime is listed as the murder of A. B. Couvillion and the rape of his wife. During the trial, the brothers would blame each other for the murder. The eventual ruling was that they mutually aided and abetted each other in perpetuating the crime.
Louisiana Spirits investigators have visited the courthouse twice, recording audio phenomena on both occasions, which you can listen to on their website laspirits.com. The growls, knocks, whistles, and footsteps can be heard along with the heavy sound of a gavel that echoes the sentencing of many over the years, some wrongfully so while others deserving in the eyes of the law. Could these sounds be the efforts of the dead rallying against unfair judgments? Regardless, the courthouse looms large in the square in downtown Opelousas, where local restaurants and public art displays look on in the shadow of a haunted history.
The Louisiana Spirits gang were not expecting to find activity in Le Vieux Village, there were no claims of the paranormal before their investigation. In one of their reports, they answer the question, “Why investigate if it’s not haunted?”. Their response, “As with any research, you don’t know what you can do until you try. This belief is the largest reason that Louisiana Spirits has pioneered so many reportedly active locations in the state. By not simply going off of haunted tales, we treat any historic location as the next potential haunting. In some cases, we walk out empty-handed, other times we don’t.”
In this case, it would be the latter. The group eventually would record several audio phenomena in the Andrepont country store building, one of several historic buildings from across the parish that found their way to this park.
The store, originally located in Prairie Ronde, an area famous for its non-GMO rice farm, was constructed in the 1880s and operated as a store for nearly a century. The original owner, Emar Andrepont, was a fiddle-maker, farmer, blacksmith, and helped found the Union Bank and Trust Company in Opelousas. While the beauty of his fiddles was not up for debate, he refused to sell them, a wish his family honored after his death.
Louisiana Spirits recorded door slams and low whispers in the store that set an aura of unease in all of the investigators. You can listen to their audio evidence here. Along with this, the investigators also witnessed moving shadows. It could be Emar or one of his seven children continuing their duty in the store for another hundred years.
On the far west side of the parish in Eunice, there’s another famously haunted locale that is open to the public, with many documented stories and eye-witness accounts. Radio station KBON 101.1 FM went on the air in 1997 and was spearheaded by Paul Marx, who was passionate about making a place for local musicians to have their music on the air. Marx would die at the age of 71 in 2019.
Marx dedicated an entire chapter of his book, “Variety with a Louisiana Flavor: A Memoir”, to the ghost stories of KBON. He writes about himself and his employees hearing conversations, seeing shadows, and figures. Here, you can see a shadow figure walking in front of a phone camera set up by one of their employees. While Louisiana Spirits did not find anything during their initial investigation, they admitted to an undeniable feeling of creepiness, with plans to return.
The radio station has had many “visitors” over the years, ghostly or otherwise, and a wall with signatures of local legends marks their visit. If you’d like to judge the veracity of the claims for yourself, there is no need to worry. During his life, Marx claimed the ghosts or spirits were never malicious, just mischievous.
If you’re looking for a haunted overnight stay, there’s another location in Eunice you have to visit. Le Village Guest House is located on six acres of land that includes two on-site venues available for special events and weddings. One of the buildings, a country store, is famous for being the infamous Bonnie and Clyde’s last stop before their demise at the hands of Texas and Louisiana law enforcement. Their plans to rob the store were foiled by a local who overheard their plans and summarily informed a local sheriff.
This time, Louisiana Spirits would document ample audio recordings and personal experiences, including lights that turned on by themselves, growls, moans, and other audio phenomena that you can hear for yourself on their website. Their investigation would suggest that rather than the building, the objects are what bring in the strange activity, judging from strange readings they got from a rosary and ghostly answers from their specialized equipment.
You can keep up to date on Louisiana Spirits most recent investigations over on their Facebook page.
Mary Hawkins is the communications manager for the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission. Contact her at hawkins@cajuntravel.com.
