THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital is one of New Jersey's best-known abandoned haunted institutions. Visitors have reported shadow figures, disembodied screams, phantom footsteps, and apparitions believed to be former patients and staff. The abandoned buildings have become a frequent destination for paranormal investigators.
Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital opened in early 1931 and operated for many years, but not without problems. Rampant deaths at the hospital were frequently being investigated. An adjacent cemetery holds nearly 1,000 graves. Over 130 patients became ill from food poisoning in the 1970s, four of whom died. The hospital was closed in 1998 because of patient abuse and rampant spending practices. The building was then slated to be used for military training with explosives. Legends abounded about an abandoned slaughterhouse on the property and a resident “murderous farmer” who would lure victims and kill them. Witnesses claimed to see shadow people in the area until the slaughterhouse was torn down. Trespassing was such a problem that in 2013, the hospital was torn down as well.