INDIANAPOLIS -- Central State Hospital closed its doors for good in 1994. Some 20 years later, Maggie Zoiss and her husband were asked to investigate what, if anything, might still be roaming the halls.
The hospital – originally known as the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane – opened in 1848 on Washington Street west of downtown Indianapolis. It was built to treat psychiatric patients, and at its peak had as many as 3,000 under its care.
The former pathology building that still sits on the site now houses the Indiana Medical History Museum. Other portions of the old facility have either been torn down or lie long abandoned.
ALSO READ | These are the most haunted places in Indiana | This Haunted Indiana Road Trip is only for the brave
In 2006, Zoiss and her husband – who founded a group called Indiana Paranormal Investigations – were asked by documentary filmmaker Dan Hall to help make a film at Central State.
On the 10-year anniversary of that film's release, Zoiss spoke with RTV6 about the experience of investigating the abandoned insane asylum.
Zoiss said she originally got into paranormal investigating after seeing another group on TV.
"I didn't realize that people even did that," she said.
Zoiss said she and her team experience something inexplicable very soon after setting up in the old administration building.
"We began our investigation in the admin building, and we set up a base camp there in one of the rooms on the second floor," Zoiss said. "It was hot. It was the summertime and we were trying to figure out how to open up the windows. And one of our first experiences there was trying to get these windows open and all of a sudden three of us heard a voice say, 'Pull down from the top.' I asked everyone in the room who knew how to get the windows open … everybody said they didn't know how to open the windows, they didn't say anything."
Zoiss also said she heard a second voice at the asylum -- a childlike voice that would change her family's life forever.
Watch the full interview in the video player above to see more.
