Working alone inside an old theater at night is already an unusual job. For police officers Dave Murphy, Morgan Matthews and Josh Thomas, however, the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City became much more than a security post.
In 2006, several officers and employees reported strange events inside the historic theater. Doors appeared to move on their own. An empty elevator behaved as if someone were using it. A hooded figure was reportedly seen inside the building. And one officer claimed to see a figure sitting in the theater through an infrared security camera before it disappeared into the ceiling.
The stories eventually led Dave to investigate the theater’s history. What he found gave the reported haunting a possible connection to a deadly fire decades earlier.
Dave Murphy Starts Working at the Capitol Theater
In 2006, Dave Murphy was a new police officer living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His first assignment was as a protective service officer responsible for security at several county facilities.
One of his first posts was the Capitol Theater, a historic building that required security around the clock. Dave was assigned to replace another officer, Morgan Matthews, who had been working there before him.
Morgan was supposed to train Dave. But from their first meeting, Dave noticed that Morgan was unusually quiet and distant. Their relationship was strictly professional.
The theater had three floors and a basement. Security officers had to check every room, lock doors, turn off lights and make sure the building was completely secure before monitoring the security cameras from the control room.
For Dave, the job initially seemed simple.
That changed on his third day.
The Bathroom Door That Apparently Slammed by Itself
Dave decided to perform the security rounds alone while Morgan stayed in the control room.
The basement was particularly unsettling. It was large, dark and filled with unused rooms and corridors. An old piano stood in the middle of a hallway.
Dave eventually reached the third floor. After checking almost every room, he came to a rehearsal room at the end of the hallway.
The room had no normal door. Dave looked inside and saw nothing unusual.
Then, as he stepped back into the hallway, he heard a loud slam behind him.
It was the bathroom door.
Dave immediately suspected that someone had broken into the building. He called Morgan on the radio and asked him to come upstairs.
The two officers searched the bathroom with their weapons drawn. There was nobody inside.
But something bothered Dave. The bathroom door had a hydraulic hinge designed to slow the door as it closed. According to his account, it should not have been capable of producing the loud slam he had just heard.
The officers searched the third floor, then the second floor and eventually the basement.
Nobody was there.
Yet the second floor presented another strange problem.
All the Lights Were Suddenly On
Dave had carefully turned off the lights and secured the rooms as he made his rounds.
But when he and Morgan reached the second floor, they saw that the lights were on.
The doors were also open.
Neither officer had heard anyone moving through the building. They searched the rooms but found no intruder.
The incident was eventually treated as an unexplained event rather than proof of anything paranormal. Dave even began to wonder whether he had made a mistake because he was still new to the job.
Then he learned that other people had experienced strange things inside the theater.
Blair Fuller’s Terrifying Elevator Story
About a week later, Dave arrived at the theater while employees were still finishing their work.
He overheard Blair Fuller, the theater’s senior accountant, telling other employees a ghost story.
Dave asked Blair about it.
Blair agreed to explain what had happened.
He said he had once been working late in his third-floor office when he heard an elevator operating inside the building. That was unusual because he believed he was alone.
He watched the elevator indicator move from the basement to the first floor, then the second and finally the third floor.
The elevator doors opened.
Nobody was inside.
Then the doors remained open.
The elevator’s alarm eventually began sounding, as if something was preventing the doors from closing. Blair could see nobody standing in the doorway.
Blair eventually walked into the elevator.
The alarm stopped.
Then he noticed that the basement button was illuminated even though he said he had not pressed it.
The doors closed, and the elevator began traveling down.
It stopped at the basement.
Again, nobody was there.
Blair stepped out into the dark basement and immediately felt uncomfortable. He returned to the elevator and went back upstairs.
But the strange events were not over.
When he returned to his office, he found the drawers of a large filing cabinet pulled open.
He was alone.
Then the drawers began slamming shut one after another.
Blair checked them afterward and said they did not appear to be positioned in a way that would make them close by themselves.
After that night, Blair decided he would not work at the theater after dark.
Morgan Finally Reveals His Own Experience
After hearing Blair’s story, Dave told Morgan what had happened to him.
Morgan’s reaction surprised Dave.
Instead of dismissing the story, Morgan admitted that he had also experienced something strange.
Morgan said he had once been alone in the building when he heard whispers close behind him. He followed the sound toward the basement.
When he reached the basement, he thought he smelled smoke.
He searched the area but found no fire.
Morgan told Dave that he had always felt uncomfortable inside the building.
For the first time, Dave and Morgan realized they had something in common.
They both believed something unusual might be happening inside the theater.
But they were police officers. Neither wanted to report that they thought the building might be haunted.
So they came up with another idea.
They Bring in a Neutral Witness
Dave and Morgan decided to invite Dave’s friend Greg to the theater.
Greg did not know why they had really invited him. He thought he was simply getting an after-hours tour of the historic building.
The officers wanted him to experience the theater without being told about their previous encounters.
They took him through the building, beginning in the basement.
Then they noticed something.
A basement door that had previously been secured was standing wide open.
Dave and Morgan became suspicious.
They approached the door with their weapons drawn.
As they got closer, the door suddenly slammed shut.
Then the doorknob began violently rattling.
It sounded as though someone was inside trying to open the door.
The officers tried to open it.
They could not.
Eventually, they forced the door open.
There was nobody inside.
The room was empty.
Greg was terrified.
Then he claimed that he had seen a hooded figure sitting in the corner.
The officers looked where he pointed.
There was nothing there.
Greg left the theater soon afterward.
For Dave and Morgan, the incident was different from their earlier experiences because another person had witnessed part of it.
The Theater Gets New Infrared Cameras
The strange incidents had another consequence.
Dave and Morgan had been documenting unusual events as possible break-ins. Because no intruders were ever found, the city decided to improve security.
On September 15, new infrared cameras were installed.
Unlike the older cameras, the infrared system could show dark rooms even when the lights were off.
Morgan was working alone that day.
He sat in the control room and watched the new camera feeds.
Then he saw something in the theater.
Morgan Sees a Hooded Figure on Camera
One of the cameras showed the theater’s seating area.
Morgan noticed what appeared to be a person sitting in the middle of the theater.
He zoomed in.
The figure appeared to be a man wearing a hood with his head lowered.
Morgan watched the figure.
Then it looked directly toward the camera.
The account describes the figure as having dark, sunken eyes with a red appearance.
Then something even stranger happened.
The figure appeared to rise from the seat and disappear into the ceiling.
Morgan immediately quit the assignment.
Dave Hears Piano Music in the Basement
Morgan’s experience was not the last.
Two weeks later, Dave was working alone in the theater.
While sitting in the control room, he heard piano music.
At first, Dave assumed the sound might be coming from outside.
But as he moved through the building, he realized the music was coming from the basement.
It sounded like upbeat ragtime piano music.
Dave knew there was an old piano in the basement hallway.
He went downstairs with his weapon and flashlight.
As he descended the stairs, the music became louder.
When he reached the bottom, he turned toward the piano and shined his flashlight at it.
At that exact moment, the piano’s key cover slammed shut.
The music stopped.
There was nobody in the hallway.
Dave returned to the control room and told his supervisor that he did not want to be assigned to the theater again. That became his final shift there.
Josh Thomas Has a Similar Experience
For about two months, the theater had intermittent security coverage.
Then veteran police officer Josh Thomas was assigned as the full-time security guard.
Dave knew Josh but had not told him about his experiences.
On Josh’s first day, he was alone in the theater.
He eventually called for backup.
Dave happened to be nearby and responded.
Josh explained that he had been in the basement near the elevator when the elevator suddenly started moving.
He had not called it.
The elevator traveled down to the basement and opened.
Nobody was inside.
Then the elevator alarm sounded, even though there was apparently nothing blocking the doors.
Josh became frightened and called for assistance.
Dave went inside with him to search the building.
Then they split up near the stage.
Josh suddenly told Dave to stop because he thought Dave was whispering in his ear.
Dave had not been near him.
They compared what they had heard.
Then Josh looked toward the back of the theater.
He saw something behind Dave.
The Hooded Figure Appears Again
Standing in the back row was a hooded figure.
Its head was lowered.
Dave turned around and saw it too.
According to the account, the figure looked up at them. Its eyes appeared sunken and red.
Then it ran out of the theater.
Dave and Josh immediately treated the incident as a possible intruder and chased after it.
But after searching the theater, they found nobody.
There was no person to arrest.
The hooded figure had seemingly disappeared.
Afterward, Dave finally told Josh everything.
He explained why he had requested reassignment, why Morgan had quit and what Blair had experienced.
Josh now knew he was not the first person to report something strange inside the theater.
Dave Investigates the Theater’s Past
After the experience with Josh, Dave decided to investigate the theater’s history.
He wanted to know whether something in the building’s past could explain the reports.
According to the story, Dave discovered that a serious fire had occurred at the theater in the 1940s.
More than 600 people were reportedly inside at the time.
Almost everyone escaped.
But one young man did not.
He was an usher who had been helping people escape. After getting outside, he repeatedly went back inside to help others.
Eventually, he became trapped in the basement, where the fire was located.
He died in the fire and was reportedly the only fatality.
That discovery gave Dave and others a possible explanation for the strange reports.
Is the Theater Haunted by the Usher?
The theory is that the reported ghost could be the young usher who died in the basement.
Some details of the stories seem to fit that theory.
The smoke smell reported by Morgan could be connected to the fire.
The repeated incidents involving doors could be connected to a person who died inside the building.
The basement, where several strange events reportedly occurred, was also where the young usher supposedly died.
But there is an important point.
This is only a theory.
The story does not establish that the young man’s ghost caused any of the reported incidents.
There are also no confirmed explanations in the transcript for the unusual events.
Was the Capitol Theater Really Haunted?
The accounts are certainly strange.
Several people reportedly experienced unusual events independently. Blair described the elevator and filing cabinets. Morgan reported whispers and later claimed to see a figure through a security camera. Dave reported the slamming door and piano incident. Josh experienced the elevator, whispers and the hooded figure.
Dave and Morgan even brought Greg into the theater without telling him what they suspected. He reported seeing a hooded figure after witnessing the basement door incident.
Still, strange experiences do not automatically prove that a building is haunted.
Mechanical problems, old building systems, lighting, acoustics, human perception and other factors can sometimes produce unusual experiences.
The transcript presents these events as reported encounters rather than scientifically proven paranormal activity.
That distinction matters.
The Story of the Haunted Capitol Theater
What makes the story interesting is not simply the claim that the Capitol Theater was haunted.
It is the way the reports accumulated.
One officer heard a door slam.
An accountant described an elevator moving by itself.
Another officer reported whispers and the smell of smoke.
A third-party visitor reportedly saw a hooded figure.
A new security camera appeared to capture a strange figure.
Another officer later reported seeing a similar hooded figure in the theater.
And finally, Dave discovered the story of a young usher who had died in a fire in the building’s basement decades earlier.
Whether these events were paranormal, mechanical or simply unexplained is still a matter of interpretation.
But according to the account, the Capitol Theater continued to attract stories of strange experiences. Since the events of 2006, the story says that dozens of other people have reportedly described incidents that they could not explain.
For Dave Murphy and the other officers involved, however, the question was much more personal.
They had been asked to protect an old theater.
Instead, they became part of one of its strangest stories.