‘28 Days Haunted’
Paranormal experts visited CT’s‘haunted’ inn featured in Netflix series
Pull up to Captain Grant’s Inn located a stone’s throw from Foxwoods in Preston during the day and it’s picturesque, rustic and set back just far enough for the driveway ride to let you take in all its New England majesty. Come back after the sun has set and it’ll appear as if someone is looking out the window on the top floor…even though no one is there.
According to local legend, it’s Mercy Adelaide Grant, the wife of the inn’s 19th-century owner, who can be spotted in the window. She allegedly waited years for her husband to return, only to die while still waiting for him. She was later buried in the cemetery behind the inn.
The historic inn was used as a filming location for the Netflix show “28 Days Haunted” and paranormal experts recently visited the inn for four days in February to film their experience for a documentary. The experts also hosted paranormal enthusiasts and those hoping to spot ghosts during the event. Nick Grossman and Charles Rosenay, co-founders of ParaConn and the Salem Paracon, weren’t there for the original Netflix taping, but
they were on site for the return. What’s more, after selling out the February experience, they’ll be returning to host another ghost tour event in August.
“Sean Austin, a premiere psychic investigator, was the main guy, and he’s one of our team investigators. But he’s not a Connecticut guy — he’s known nationwide,” Rosenay said. “He did such a great job, the show got incredible ratings...I thought, let’s go back to this place and bring
people with us! I told Sean he could host it and he jumped all over it.”
The “during the day” part of the stay occurred upon check-in, while the “after sunset” portion happened after an orientation about the nature of the “haunting” of the inn, how to use some paranormal investigative gear and dinner at Valentino’s Restaurant.
Grossman handled the gear tutorial, the tour of both cemeteries behind the inn and across the
street as well as the inn tour. The gear included “spirit boxes,” dowsing rods and something Grossman said he was excited about called a “Polterscript.” The device converts energy into words or, at the very least, letters and “yes” or “no.” Attendees at the event (including this writer) reported hearing words and phrases during the experience.
The cemetery tours included a recently discovered crypt on the property of the one adjacent to the inn, which “ghost hunters” said they were able to climb down into and check out for themselves. That is until the final night of the February stint.
“Six of us went back a short while after the main group had explored there, and the crypt was now impossible to enter. An array of branches, trees, and chunks of wood were carefully spread out throughout the entrance to the crypt. It looked like the branches were cross-hatched. Someone or something did not like us entering there,” Rosenay said. “There’s no way a human — or even a group of people — could have done this in that short a time.”
He relayed this story at breakfast where guests were joined by the inn’s owners, Ted and Carol Matsumoto, who prepared the meal. Carol said she believes there are “at least 300 spirits occupying the property” and has written a book about them. One being Mercy, another being a little girl named Deborah, who died at age five in the 1700s and is also buried in the cemetery behind the inn and then the 298 others.
Rosenay, Grossman and Austin will return to do it all again the second week of August. It is limited to only five guest rooms. Guests looking to either stay the night, or just visit for the investigation, are asked to email CTParaConn@gmail.com for an application. The investigation starts at $99 per person while rooms at the inn are an additional $299 per night.