Do Ghosts Haunt Howell's MainStreet Winery?
HOWELL (WWJ) - The owner of Howell's MainStreet Winery says when she and her husband decided to buy the place and renovate it, the locals would tell her a tale. "They stopped and said, 'You know, a child haunts this place,' " Vyletel said.
Vyletel told WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeil they didn't believe it until they opened the winery and strange things began to happen. Creaking, when no one else is there, furniture moved overnight when she's the only one with a key, and noises when no one's in the bathroom.
- credit: Sandy Vyletel
Vyletel said she's brought in mediums and ghost hunters and they all tell the same story of the ghost of a 7-year-old boy whose parents used to own a store in that spot in the late 1800's.
The Winery's Chef Renee Chodkowsky said she saw Thomas once while she was making chocolate.
"I heard a creak on the steps so I looked up and said, 'Hey Sandy, and looking back at me was this most adorable little boy, about seven-years-old, leaning on the banister, and my first reaction was...(gasps)!"
"My eyes got really big," said Chodkowsky, "and his eyes got kinda big and he whished (sic) around the corner, and he was gone."
Vyletel became more convinced of the ghost tale when a medium told her Thomas described a scene from two weeks before perfectly, right down to what she was wearing and the cake she was frosting.
One day, Vyletel said, a large group came in with one non-believer. As they were talking, a wine bottle exploded for apparently no reason on the shelf behind the non-believer's head. "A perfectly sized silver dollar hole popped out" in the back of the bottle, Vyletel said. "And all of the red wine drained out and all around the table."
Vyletel said she's been told by mediums that the winery is haunted by over a half dozen ghosts, including one that's a cat.
One medium told her that Thomas would like to play with a blue ball, so Vyletel plans to buy it for him.
"I've gotten to where I talk to them," Vyletel joked. "So you probably think I'm crazy."
Can you see the ghost in these photos?
