I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost

By Kameron Court and Caitlyn Nix

Ever wondered if Texas Tech is actually haunted?

GeoSciences Building

The geosciences building at Texas Tech. Kameron Court/ The Hub@TTU.

There are numerous ghost stories most students have heard, and we did some research to try to determine whether they are fact or fiction.

A custodian by the name of Sarah Alice Morgan was horrifically murdered by a student in the then-Biology building in 1967. The student, Benjamin Lach, snuck into the building to steal keys and get access to his tests’ answers. She caught him in the act, and he slit her throat with a scalpel. This was an incident that shook up Texas Tech at the time.

Benjamin Latch

Court documents involving Benjamin Lach, the student who was convicted of murdering a custodian. Kameron Court/The Hub@TTU.

Another story is about a male student who died in the tunnels beneath the school while trying to sneak into the girls’ dorm. Rumor has it that you can still hear him screaming at night.

And, the last possible haunting is of another male student that got dumped by his girlfriend, so he committed suicide by jumping off a building during the Carol Of The Lights ceremony.

Bill Dean, an associate professor in the College of Media & Communication and the vice president of the Texas Tech Alumni Association, has been involved with Texas Tech for 49 years and has heard many different possible ghost stories.

Bill Dean

Bill Dean

“Well, first of all, I don’t believe in ghosts,” he said.

Dean was at Tech during the time of the murder of Sarah Alice Morgan. Dean said the atmosphere on campus was very tense when people found out about Morgan’s death. However, there are no reports to confirm the stories involving the student in the tunnels or the student committing suicide.

“Back in the day, students frequented those tunnels because they could go through the tunnels and wind their way up in a building to try and get into a professor’s office to steal exams,” Dean said.

However, if someone died in there, there would be a report of it somewhere, he said.

Capt. Stephen Hinkle of the Texas Tech Police Department said he has heard of all three ghost stories.

“All the officers have heard about them,” Hinkle said, “but I don’t believe we have ever gotten a call pertaining to that.”

Hinkle said the tunnels are still in use today, but they are off limits to students and mainly used for maintenance.

“Not a lot of people know about the tunnels,” Hinkle said, “And if they do know about the tunnels, they just don’t understand the sheer velocity, how big the tunnel system is under this campus.”

Dean offers this advice if you think you might encounter a ghost on campus: “I guess if you believe in ghosts, don’t travel alone.”

And, as always, if you find yourself unsafe, contact the Tech PD.

‘I won’t say the officers won’t laugh at you if you tell them it’s a ghost, but yeah, knock yourself out,” Hinkle said. “Give us a call.”

About JOUR 4350

JOUR 4350 is the multiplatform news delivery class, which is the capstone class for journalism majors within the College of Media & Communication.