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In the past few years, there have been several investigations into the paranormal at the University of Maine, but one haunting reigns supreme. The third floor of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house is home to the spirit of Evelyn, a housemother who died mysteriously in her bed one night in the 1950s.

Evelyn is a kind specter and grandmotherly protector of the brothers who has earned a reputation for causing a ruckus.

“A couple months after [she died], they started seeing these weird things happen, hearing these weird noises — creaks and stuff,” said Rick Dube, pledge educator at the fraternity. “Late at night you can see some red light and a shadow going back and forth underneath the crack of the door.”

As housemother, Evelyn lived in the top floor and took care of chores such as cooking and cleaning.

Evelyn is known best by the Beta brothers. According to Dube, she will often make noises and flick the lights, especially when there are things going on in the house she disapproves of. She is particularly active when a girlfriend of one of the brothers is being unfaithful. Many of the brothers have had some sort of run-in with the ghost and are eager to tell the tales.

“I’ve been here during Christmas breaks, and it’s kind of weird to be the only person in the house late at night because everything’s dark and all you hear is footsteps,” Dube said. “I used to sleep [near Evelyn’s room], and it was like 4 a.m., and I heard footsteps right above me. The thing is, right above me there’s like a six-inch gap, so there’s no walking around right above where I was.”

“When I slept up in the attic, I would push a chair in front of that doorway just because looking down that hallway towards her room freaked me out,” said Nick DeHaas, public relations chairman at Beta. “I didn’t even know about Evelyn at that point. It was just weird.”

DeHaas’s current room is almost directly below Evelyn’s.

According to Jason Tarr, historian at Beta, the brothers believe Evelyn decides to approve or disapprove of the women in their lives. Brothers will often take girls up to Evelyn’s room to put them to the test. If nothing happens, Evelyn approves; if something out of the ordinary occurs, they might want to find a new date to formal.

Sometimes Evelyn will take things a step further when it comes to females in the house. Tarr told an exceptionally frightening tale of what can happen to unfaithful women when they tangle with Evelyn.

On what Tarr described as a “typical Friday night,” a brother’s girlfriend decided to go off with another brother. The two made the regrettable mistake of copulating away from prying eyes in what they thought would be the safety of Evelyn’s room. During the middle of the deed, the woman became hysterical and fled from the house in naught but a T-shirt. She haphazardly clutched it to shield her private areas. The next day it became evident the girl had become petrified when she saw an old woman staring at her during the act.

Another incident, which occurred about two years ago, took place when a brother took his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend, Jen, on a tour of the house. According to Dube, who related this tale, Jen had been drinking, energetic and chatty the entire night.

“She went in and she just randomly sat at the desk and started playing with things like pencils,” Dube said. “At that point she was just quiet, and she was just looking up in the far corner playing with all kinds of different things on the desk. Then the brother was like, ‘Jen, we’ve got to go,’ and she wasn’t responding. She didn’t say anything, just stared off into space. All of the sudden she looks right up at him and she says, ‘Evelyn’s a bitch.’ Then she just walked [out of the room]. She was chatty all the way up to that moment. She just stared in that corner for the longest time, like five or six minutes straight.”

Previous investigations have concluded a mixture of results, but all point to an unearthly presence. As recent as two years ago, a reporter told of uneasy feelings in Evelyn’s room but believed imagination played a big role.

In 2003, a team of paranormal investigators went in search of spirits and found numerous peculiar occurrences. Drained batteries and “orbs” — strange marks on photos investigators look for — were abound in Evelyn’s room, and other strong spiritual energies were felt throughout the house. So much so that one investigator claimed to become ill and fled from the house.

Back in 2001, a medium — someone who claims to communicate with the dead — was called into the house and confirmed Evelyn’s presence. Even then noises, creaks, slams and run-ins with girlfriends were all commonplace for the mischievous, matronly spirit.

If Evelyn can be characterized by one thing, it’s her high moral fiber. For a supernatural being, she has a surefire sense of right and wrong.

Joel Emery, a brother who lives directly underneath Evelyn, had his run-in with her on the day after he was initiated. He said he went into the attic to grab his belongings and picked up a pair of sunglasses he knew belonged to another brother with the intention of bringing them to him.

“I put [the glasses] in my backpack and me and my girlfriend both whipped our heads around because we heard a really loud shriek and what I thought was a window closing,” Emery said. “I literally took the sunglasses out of my bag and put them back on the counter. I don’t know if she thought I had the intention of taking them from another brother or what.”

Emery immediately went back downstairs and asked other brothers if they had heard the noise, which he said was very loud — no one had heard anything.

Evelyn has a way of making believers out of skeptics in a way most spirits can’t.

“I’m not someone who typically believes in this sort of stuff, but after hearing the stories and having this happen to me, I really do believe in her,” Emery said. “A lot of brothers try to deny it, but I think it’s always in the back of their heads that this place is mildly haunted by someone who obviously cares a lot about this place. I think she just cared so much about this place that she’s still here.”

The stories stand for themselves, but this reporter’s investigation couldn’t be complete without a trip to Evelyn’s room. From the moment DeHaas and I ascended the stairs, a feeling washed over me. Even on our first trip, while daylight still entered the room, I got a dizzying feeling. I felt we were in her space — not intrusively, but as welcomed visitors.

When we returned that night, the feelings of dizziness were even stronger. Nothing too out of the ordinary appeared as I snapped some photos, but an uncomfortable feeling would intermittently wash over me. The feelings were fleeting, but one thing was certain: DeHaas and I were not alone in that attic.

DeHaas put it best himself when we were up there.

“To be honest, I don’t believe in ghosts, but the things that happen up here are unexplainable,” he said.

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