THE STORY
Reported Haunting
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, is famously rumored to be haunted by its 19th-century rector, Father Henry David Jardine. Following a Victorian-era scandal and his tragic, mysterious chloroform death in 1886, local folklore claims his spirit returned to pace the Gothic sanctuary and linger on the locked second floor. Witnesses have long documented hearing phantom footsteps echoing through empty rooms, and in the year 2000, church members officially unearthed his historical remains and reinterred them beneath the altar.
The grand St. Mary’s Episcopal Church began holding services here in the 1800s, and it is believed to be haunted by the spirit of an early rector, Father Henry David Jardine. Father Jardine was said to be a controversial character in his day, leading to some disagreements with church members and officials, and his death in 1886 was ruled a suicide. Witnesses attribute the unexplained sounds heard around the building to the fact that Father Jardine’s spirit remains here and is looking to clear his name.