Paranormal Society checks mansion and New College for ‘spirits’

SARASOTA — Andrea Knies had wandered away from the group when she first felt it.
It was like a bug — a spider, perhaps? — crawling up her arm. She thought she must have stepped into a spider web as she brushed her arm and moved closer to the group.
But the feeling returned.
Knies rubbed her arm harder and inched closer still to the group as they asked questions to empty space in New College’s Caples Mansion, formerly the home of Ralph and Ellen Caples during the turn of the 20th century.
When Knies felt it again, she got goosebumps up her spine.
“The third time it felt like something took a finger all the way up my arm,” Knies said. “I had chills on the back of neck I’ve never experienced before. I finally said something, but I didn’t want to admit it was paranormal. I said, ‘Can we turn on lights and check for a spider web or bug?’”
After minutes of searching, the group found nothing — not even a cobweb or a dust bunny.
Knies was guiding members of the Bradenton Paranormal Society through the building as they hoped to find evidence of something supernatural. They concluded that both the Caples Mansion and New College’s College Hall, formerly the home of John Ringling’s brother Charles, are haunted.