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Cornish Guardian investigates spooky tale

A Cornish café owner who has been experiencing some spooky goings-on has called on her local newspaper to help unravel the riddle of the mysterious happenings.

Fiona Thompson, owner of The Maple Leaf Café in Bodmin, contacted the Cornish Guardian after receiving an unusual visitor for afternoon tea – a ghost who regularly turns up at around 4pm.

On hearing the ghostly tale, Guardian reporter Ian Shepherd and photographer Ben Stansall decided to undertake a vigil at the premises, along with author Michael Williams, who has been investigating the paranormal in Cornwall for many years, and a medium.

Before the investigation took place, Fiona said: “We would like to try to find out who it could be because there has been a lot of activity lately.

“We think it is a male spirit and have been aware of him since buying the place.

“Several customers and staff have heard things. His favourite trick is opening the front door. He also stands by the till watching people in the kitchen and has been heard coughing.

“Last summer one of my waitresses and I saw a man come in and go upstairs. But when we went to take his order there was no-one there. There was no way he could have come down again without our seeing him.

“He doesn’t seem to be evil but it can be quite spooky being alone in the café.”

The Guardian investigation began at 4pm, on the ground floor close to the main entrance door, which is often heard to open and close on its own at around that time.

Pamela, a medium who uses a crystal pendant to contact spirits (she says the pendant swings one way to answer “yes” and the other to signify “no”), held the pendant out in front of her and asked if a spirit was present.

The crystal started to rotate in the affirmative, gaining speed until it was a blur.

Further questions created a picture of the spirit as a man who had lived there, and had had a relationship with his former sister-in-law after her husband, his brother, had been killed in World War I.

Both men served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry during the conflict and the spirit said he had been wounded, later returning to his hometown of Bodmin.

But the romance was doomed…

Pamela said: “Towards the end, when I was trying to establish why the romance ended, I detected great emotion from the spirit.

“I had the clear impression he was not ready to go on to discuss it. But I think this could change if he realises that he might find eventual peace by telling us what actually happened all those years ago.”

A second investigation is now being organised.

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