The University of Toronto building at 1 Spadina Cres. as seen in January 2001, when 50-year-old artist and lecturer David Buller was found stabbed to death in his studio in the building. The unsolved murder has fed speculation that the University of Toronto building is haunted. Globe and Mail
My sister-in-law just emailed my the following article, because she knew I would be interested and most likely post it on here. I think the main lesson is to always be very careful when going on paranormal investigations, whether they be for fun, or not. You never know what forces are at play when you open doors! Also, it’s not wise to mix alcohol and dark places so keep a clear head if you do wish to take a chance and explore the unknown. Ghost Hunting and investigating haunted places is no joke. I wish more people would take it more seriously. I know that accidents happen too, but I believe that we can prevent a majority of them.
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Police were treating the incident as an alcohol-fueled death by misadventure, and not as a ghost-hunting expedition gone wrong as it had been reported earlier
by: Timothy Appleby
TORONTO — The Canadian Press Last updated on Thursday, Sep. 10, 2009 04:20PM EDT
In a mishap that ignited a frenzy of speculation about ghost-hunting and the paranormal because it occurred at a 19th-century downtown university building rumored to be haunted, a 29-year-old Toronto woman plunged four storeys to her death in a small courtyard early Thursday when a chicken-wire screen she was crawling across gave way.
The unidentified woman and a 34-year-old male companion appeared drunk and said they had gained entry to 1 Spadina Cres. through a downstairs bathroom window, according to a witness who briefly spoke to the intruders and called campus police after a scream was heard.
Pitched at a 45-degree angle, the chicken-wire screen connects the third and fourth floors of the building, constructed in 1875 as an annex to the Knox College Presbyterian divinity school.
The man apparently made his way across the divide successfully but the woman fell through, said the witness, who was on a late-night visit to the office of a student newspaper when he encountered the pair.
The woman was carrying some small tea candles and a pink parasol, he recounted, requesting anonymity.
“She had an assemblage of stuff, I thought she was an arty type.”
But there was nothing unusual about the couple’s appearance, he said, and nothing to indicate they were on a “ghost-hunting” mission, as has been widely suggested.
Shortly before, he had spied the pair scaling a wrought-iron fence surrounding part of the building – a pointless exercise, he said, because they could have walked around it.
“From what they told me, it was just urban exploration,” he said. “What they indicated to me, drunkenly, was that they had just happened upon the building.”
Neither of the two are believed to be university students.
Police were treating the incident as an alcohol-fueled death by misadventure.
The intricately structured Gothic-style building has a rich history. At one point it served as a medical research lab, and eight years ago a university professor was murdered there.
But police rebutted a tide of suggestions that the couple were “ghost-hunting” when the accident took place.
“I don’t know where the expression ghost-hunting came from,” said Staff Sergeant Dave Vickers, fielding a mid-morning blizzard of media inquiries.
“I think the reason [the couple] went up there was because they were trying to access a building that was rumoured to be haunted. But ghost-hunting? Somebody’s taken that to a whole new level.”
