Written by Morgan with Team Brady Pack on 8/17/25
Visiting 1545 N 7th Ave in Evansville, Indiana, during the Halloween season is one thing. Filled with actors dressed up in costume and covered in makeup, the space was filled with designs that we could tell blood, sweat, and tears were poured into. It featured animatronics, tilted rooms, spider webs coming from the ceiling, indoor caves, and gardens, and we anticipated screams and jump scares at every turn. That is your typical haunted house, known as Evansville, Indiana’s The Asylum.
October couldn’t come soon enough, so Team Brady Pack decided to reach out and see if they could find evidence of presence when the place was empty. No actors for miles, sets being re-built and changed for the upcoming season, pitch-black, and hot as hell, we decided to brave an overnight investigation. We did some historical research, had some good conversations about specific ghostly experiences, brought some equipment, and strapped in.
During our research period, we had some trouble finding any records of deaths or any reports of unusual or suspicious activity. The building, built in the early 1900s, was initially owned by The Stone Container Corp in 1926. It then transitioned to Smurfit-Stone Recycling Company in 1998 and operated for many years before closing down the factory. The current owners decided it had potential for Evansville’s newest haunt spot. So they created what was known as the Evansville Nightmare Factory in October 2024. The haunted house attraction performed phenomenally. They scored a solid 9 in their first year open, which is basically unheard of, and is not an easy task to fulfill. Some of the actors during the season reported unusual occurrences, sounds, and an overall feeling of being watched.
Talking to the manager and owner at the beginning of our investigation, they told us some critical details that helped during our exciting night. It was said that there had been a death that occurred there, that a specific shredding machine caused the death of an employee, and that machine was removed, and concrete was placed on top of where it was located. A woman was trapped in a large amount of plastic in 2011 and died from “Compression Asphyxia.” The part of town where The Asylum is located isn’t the best part of town. They suspect that most likely, many people who experienced homelessness hung out around the dock area of the abandoned factory. We were told that there had been reports of a few deaths in that building. The fact that some of the beds, cages, and other equipment and props came from the abandoned Indiana State Hospital added a layer of discomfort and spook that excited us.
We brought a few items to join us on our paranormal investigation. We had a few cameras, some microphones, a recorder, our phones, a spirit-box, some headphones, a few EMF readers, some flashlights, snacks, energy drinks (of course), and an eager drive to communicate with spirits. If there were a spirit there, we would find it, ask some questions, and get some answers about who or what was roaming the rooms here.
We began our investigation at 7 pm-8 pm Central time. We talked to the manager, owner, and several others who were there. He took us through the building and showed us the ropes. What rooms were reported to be more active? We were advised to watch our step in the makeup and costume area and the bathrooms. They also gave us a run-down on their experiences. We decided to make the makeup area our “home base” and started unpacking there. The manager let us know that occasionally the fire alarm goes off and showed us how to turn that off if it goes off, but “it shouldn’t.”
After our tour, we sat down and came up with a game plan. We decided on areas where we would place the Cannon Camera, the Nightvision Camera, the GoPro, and the recorder. We came up with a timeline for what we wanted to do, in what area, and at what time, and we took off. Our first task was to do a complete walk-through with the EMF to get a base reading. The EMF device is often used in paranormal investigations to detect spirits. It is theorized that spirit interrupts the electromagnetic flow and causes spikes on these devices when they are near. During our baseline reading, we didn’t get any spikes. The reader starts at a steady green light and will flick up to red if there is electromagnetic interference. It remained at the first level, with a constant green light the entire first walk-through. We set up our cameras in various spots in the building, and we headed to the dock with the spirit box.
It was probably around 9 pm-10 pm, and we weren’t getting very much recorded activity. Besides the creepy knights and other various props in trailers by the dock area, we felt nothing, heard nothing besides neighborly factories, and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. We decided to take a short break to snack and reevaluate. We started to get discouraged, but we weren’t giving up.
Around 11 pm, we took off with the EMF and went to the cage area, kitchen area, through the sanctuary, by the crematory, and in the caves. It was around this time that we started getting some spikes on our EMF readers. As we walked out of the sanctuary, it started. It spiked, and we were excited. We realized we didn’t grab the spirit box, so we decided to go back to home base and grab it, but before we headed back, the fire alarm started to sound. So we walked back, turned off the alarm, grabbed the spirit box, and headed back. When we returned to the first hot spot, we did get some more spikage, took a fun polaroid picture, turned on the spirit-box, and then the fire alarm went off again! So we went back to turn it off, and when we returned for the third time, it seemed that whatever was there before was no longer there. So we moved on.
After another hour of investigating specific areas and not getting much activity, it was probably around midnight/midnight thirty. As we were walking through a doorway into the kitchen, we started getting more EMF spikes. And this time it started spiking with direct questions! Finally! After hours of little to no luck, we might finally have some good evidence that The Asylum is indeed haunted in real life. After a few intelligent responses, it was clear that the presence we were dealing with was a man, with an unknown place and time of death. We then started getting EMF spikes everywhere in the library section of the haunt. The spirit-box produced the word “people” when asked if there was anyone there that wanted to speak to us, suggesting that maybe more than one presence was walking with us on this hot, humid, and disquieting kinda night. Noises were heard rummaging through the halls. We weren’t getting any more responses in the library, so we verbally said, “Okay, we’re moving on.” A few seconds passed by, and we were mocked by the spirit box, where we heard a clear “move on” coming from our new friends.
As we walked back to headquarters, we received a few more EMF spikes, but nothing more. We felt like we weren’t alone at this point, and we decided to try out some old-school tips and techniques to get more details about the new friends we connected with. We decided to try out a seance. And no better place to start than the sanctuary itself! We lit some candles, placed some crystals for energy transfer, protection, and communication, and began. We called on the spirits around us, but we received no response. We were getting the feeling that whatever spirits we were dealing with didn’t necessarily like the sanctuary. After all, earlier in the night, we didn’t start getting activity until walking out of the sanctuary. So we decided to go back into the kitchen area, where we captured the most evidence of the night, and try a seance there. We reset and went at it. This time with a pendulum and a pendulum board, in the hope of getting more specific results.
Taylor and I began talking. We exerted some of our energy so that the spirits could gain enough strength to overcome the veil hiding them from us. We invited the male presence encountered earlier in the investigation into our circle. After some time getting used to the pendulum for communication, we were led on to the name Nelson. Nelson told us he was 33 years old, and although he told us he didn’t work there, he did tell us he died at the location. We went on for some more time until answers started to lessen, and responses became few and far between. We felt deep down that our chances of getting any more responses were going to be minimal. It was around 3 am, and we decided that it was time to head out and see what we found.
Besides the encounters with the EMF, Spirit-Box, and Seance, we captured additional evidence that suggests The Asylum is indeed haunted. Listening back to our audio, we heard “save them both” come from the spirit box, and we were utterly oblivious to the voice during our walk-through. We took a few polaroids, all but one of which came back as clear pictures even in the dark. The one Polaroid, which was taken where the concrete was poured over the opening where a man had died, came back super fuzzy and dark. It looked like smoke or fog was taking up the photo. There were odd flashes of light and potential orbs in the hallway captured by the camera placed by that same concrete spot.
Overall, we spent about 9 hours at The Asylum. By the end of the night, we knew we weren’t alone, and the evidence suggests that spirits are roaming around inside the building. Thank you again to Nelson, who made every effort to communicate with us. We can’t wait to hear from you again when we return this October for The Asylum’s Halloween Season 2025.
View The Asylum’s listing HERE.