As Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos approach, it has become evident that Citrus is no stranger to paranormal activity.
History professor Bruce Solheim, who has had paranormal experiences and teaches a paranormal history class, has witnessed paranormal activity at Citrus.
Solheim has also published a number of paranormal books such as his “Timeless” trilogy, “Snarc” comic series and “Anzar the Progenitor.”
“Citrus is a very haunted campus, there are a lot of things going on at night,” Solheim said. “During the day we don’t really notice it because there are so many people, but at night when you are alone then you start seeing shadow figures, hearing things, there are all kinds of things going on.”
Solheim mentioned several locations around campus where he and the custodial night staff had experienced strange activity.
“I think for most people the paranormal is normal, but they are taught that it is not,” Solheim said.
Solheim has led paranormal investigations around campus during his paranormal history class at citrus and says they discovered that multiple spirits reside on campus, including the ghost of a former custodian named Ed.
Custodian Supervisor Larry Franks said “I have had guys come up to me and talk to me about the things they have seen, some have even shown me photos and videos of things they saw.”
Custodial employee David Vazquez said that his experiences have been mostly limited to where he has worked.
P1 Building
“It started off kind of weird,” Vazquez said.
One night while cleaning, a water bottle that Vazquez put on a table fell over. He placed the water bottle back on the table, but did not realize that it would only be the beginning of the strange activity in that room.
“A couple weeks later I put my vacuum backpack on the same table and then I was walking away from it and I turned around, I don’t know why, but I did and the vacuum hose started swinging kind of crazy,” Vazquez said.
He said it looked like a ghost was playing with the vacuum hose because of the way it was moving. After 10 minutes of watching the vacuum move, he said he built up the courage to put it away.
Vazquez said that two weeks after that had happened, he was vacuuming in a classroom when his vacuum repeatedly turned off while being plugged in.
“I was kind of like, ‘oh, this place is haunted, but there isn’t anything I can do about it,’” he said.
Vazquez also said he has video evidence of a spirit moving the vacuum cord after putting it away.
The Playground
The child development center playground is home to many spirits and a dark entity.
“One of the night custodians said he was cleaning inside the old building, and he was looking outside the windows, and he saw a shadow figure moving outside in the playground,” Solheim said.
After hearing this, Solheim decided to conduct his own investigation with professional equipment and a psychic medium.
“We identified a number of spirits that hang out in the playground. There is a young girl who hangs out by the swing set,” he said. “The medium said that there was a non-human entity that is there that is malevolent.”
Solheim believes that the figure the custodian saw was that dark entity.
Math Buildings
“Our old supervisor said that when she was in the old math building that all the doors opened, and she is a tough lady, so she went back and closed them all,” Vazquez said.
Vasquez also said that a coworker that had left Citrus said that he saw a light on in the new math building, walked in and turned it off, only for the light to turn on again by the time he walked out.
C1 Building
Vazquez said that another ex-coworker covering the second floor of the C1 building heard a noise in the bathroom. He went to see if someone was in the bathroom without permission, and after entering the bathroom, saw the stall door banging against the stalls.
Performing Arts Center
Vazquez said he gets an “eerie feeling” when working in the PA building, and has seen things move on their own.
“This place is definitely haunted. When I was there the red rope they use for crowd control started moving on its own,” Vazquez said.
In addition to this experience, Sohiem says that people have seen apparitions and felt people walk by them in the empty building.
“The custodians don’t call it the performing arts building, they call it the paranormal activity building,” Solheim said.
These are just some experiences from the custodial night staff at Citrus. Custodian employee Travis Rice declined to share his experiences.
