Haunted Lafayette: Inmates may still haunt old Benton County jail

In the small town of Fowler sits an old jail with a big story.

Going behind bars.

News 18's cody melin joins us in studio this morning.

Cody, what story do you have for us today?

Good morning, marlee.

Today's story once again takes us a short drive out of lafayette, this time, over to fowler.

That's where the old benton county jail might still have some spirits, locked up.

"it's a pretty old building."

Built in 1876, just 3 years after the town of fowler was established, the old benton county jail is home to years of history.

The jail housed numerous inmates through 1997.

The most infamous, jacob nelling, may have stuck around long after his time behind bars.

"in 1883 he had brutally murdered a 15-year old girl.

She was strangled and stabbed to death with a pocket knife."

Nelling never had his day in court.

"some concerned citizens broke into the jail, dragged him out, and they hung him about 200 yards from the family home."

Many people believe he now haunts the jail ever since the day he was lynched.

The activity isn't confirmed to be nelling, but paranormal teams often pick up strange sounds when recording in the building.

"voices, growls.

I've been here in a lot of those instances, and been in the near vacinity...and i didn't notice anything...so they pick up a growl, they pick up a sound and i can tell it wasn't anybody in the room...it just came from somewhere else."

Snethen told news 18 he's seen and heard weird things in areas other than the cells.

That includes the living space that used to house the sheriff and their spouse.

"we have consistently had motion-activated devices going off in the middle of the night.

Knocks.

Voices."

Snethen says the activity in the jail has spiked in the past year.

In fact, while we were there, a parnormal team was investigating overnight.

About an hour in, they appear to capture what sounds like a growl while in the former women's ward.

"nats: growl sound effect...then the team laughing..."that's so awesome."

"we heard it.

I mean like plain as day."

At ather point in the night, the team may have visually picked up on a spirit using one of their devices.

"if anyone's here can you light it up all the way?"

(pause for suspense and device to light up) "thank you.

Awesome."

"i'd rather find out what it is and prove that it's not the afterlife or a spirit or whatever.

It's that when you can't explain it that i find most interesting."

Although the former jail holds some heavy moments, the fowler community has adopted the stories as their own american haunting.

"there's not been a lot of...doubters.

In fact is seems as if the town embraces the kind of haunted-ness of the town, if you will."

So if you're ever in fowler and see or hear something odd... "be open to the possibility that it could be something else."

It does cost money for teams to investigate the jail, but the money goes right back into the community.

Snethen told us the money is going towards helping out the fowler theater as it struggles through the pandemic.

I want to give a quick thank you to the paranormal team as well for letting us join along with them.

If you'd like to learn more about fowler's haunted history, i'll have more info on wlfi dot com.

Cody melin, news 18.