Mysterious Events at St. Landry Parish Courthouse in Louisiana Defy Explanation

Opelousas, LA (KPEL News) - Have you visited any of the places that are said to be haunted in Louisiana? The Bayou State is peppered with historic buildings that are not only beautiful, but have a story of their own to tell. Deridder is home to the Gothic jail which was investigated by an organization of ghost hunters in late 2023. Plantations, like The Myrtles in St. Francisville and Oak Alley in Vacherie, are stunning and reportedly home to several spirits and mysterious experiences.

Government building are not immune to the paranormal. The Calcasieu Courthouse in Lake Charles and the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium are listed as two of the haunted places in Louisiana. And now, another courthouse may join that dubious list of locations for unexplained occurrences: the St. Landry Parish Courthouse in Opelousas.

The current facility in Opelousas was built in 1939 but the first courthouse and jail were stood at that location in 1805, according to the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court. The original facility was destroyed in a fire in 1886. Fast forward to 2021, and it was understandably time for an upgrade. The $3.4-million renovation project began, and that's when strange occurrences began.

The project is nearly complete, but the old boiler room is being rehabbed to house an emergency operations center. The St. Landry Parish Public Information Officer Eman Boyd says peculiar and potentially dangerous incidents stared happening in that room:

A piece of metal flew out of the wall and hit the floor. Earlier that day, in the same room, a light fixture fell apart.

You can actually see something fall from the ceiling of the empty-of-humans room in the video below.

While the video and incidents in the basement are certainly intriguing, even more bizarre is the major water leak that shut down business at the St. Landry Parish Courthouse on April 1, 2024.

Boyd says a mixture of water and sewer (gross!) flooded the Clerk of Court's office, housed in Room 206. The stench lingered for days, as you would expect from such a catastrophe.

What wasn't expected is what happened when they called in experts to fix it.

Boyd explains:

Despite multiple attempts by plumbers to locate the source of the leak, no definitive explanation could be found.

She says that, as renovations continue to transform the courthouse into a more modern facility, peculiar occurrences are raising questions they hope to address about the building's potentially haunted past.