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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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When BedandBreakfast.com went looking for ghosts among its clients, it had plenty of places from which to choose. The world's largest online B&B directory and reservation network scared up its Top 10 list and named Thornewood Castle Inn & Gardens its No. 1 spookiest B&B.
Bedandbreakfast.com, of course, highlights the castle's notoriety as the set for Stephen King’s ghostly television mini-series "Rose Red," which aired in 2002. Then the Web site notes, "In real life, guests have reported their share of chills and plenty of orbs have been recorded on guest photos taken here."
Owner Deanna Robinson confirmed the ghostly encounters today.
"People who see ghosts and tend to have those experiences, see them here. Those who don’t, don’t," she said.
Robinson once allowed a ghost-hunting group, The Evergreen Paranormal Group, to conduct an on-site investigation. The result?
"They say it's like a vortex" for spirits, Robinson said. "Like a train station with lots of (spirits) popping in and popping out. It's filled with a high energy that’s described as angels...We don't have screaming in the night or anything like that."
If you need a place to sleep – or ghost hunt – this Halloween, Thornewood still has several rooms available for $304-$507 per night.

Thornewood Castle took three years to build – 1908 to 1911 – to the exacting specifications of Chester Thorne, chairman of the board of National Bank of Tacoma and one of the founders of the Port of Tacoma. His dream mansion, designed in a Tudor/Gothic style, features more than 27,000 square feet of living space and 54 rooms, including 22 bedrooms and 22 baths.
Thorne served as a director of and an officer of many corporations incorporations including the Pacific Cold Storage Co., Pacific Alaska Navigation Co., Pacific Steamship Co., Alaska Coast Co., Tacoma General Hospital, Annie Wright Seminary, Rainier National Park Co., and Tacoma Savings Bank & Trust Company.
Robinson says she has occasionally sensed the presence of Thorne ever since she made her office in the part of the mansion where he hung out.
Where else does BedandBreakfast.com say you can find ghosts?
Texas White House, Fort Worth: The ghost here is believed to be the husband of the only family who ever lived in the house. He died here and now haunts his old bedroom (now the Lone Star Room). Interestingly, the ghost sightings occur only when a single woman is staying in the room.
Grand Avenue B&B, Carthage, Mo.: While the "no smoking" rule is in effect for all guests, the former owner is exempt. A ghostly whiff of his trademark cigar smoke wafts through the rooms when he visits here.
Honeybee Inn B&B, Horicon, Wis.: It's believed that a lumber baron named Coton is still hanging around with his female companions. His beloved rocking chair, where he died, rocks by itself, and a woman in a long skirt has been spotted too.
Penny Farthing Inn, St. Augustine, Fla.: Spirited occurrences include midnight tugs-of-war with the blankets, and glasses leaning over and clinking on sherry bottles. One guest described a young lady in his room when he awakened. A few days later, the owners’ daughter described a strange lady in the dining room – identical to the guest’s description.
Inn on Main Street, Weaverville, N.C.: Innkeepers have heard pictures falling off walls, yet never find anything that has fallen. Doors open and close with no one there. Strangely, all ghostly happenings occur on New Year’s Eve.
By The Side of The Road Bed and Breakfast, Harrisonburg, Va.: When the innkeeper went to turn off the basement light, something grabbed her hand, yet nothing was there. Just about every day footsteps are heard in hallways, and doors unexplainably open and close.
Manchester Inn, Ocean Grove, N.J.: Check in to room 316, and ghosts may literally pull your leg. It's been known to happen here, when a guest felt a tugging at her pants leg several times.
Cornerstone B&B, Philadelphia: A floral scent precedes sightings of a ghostly female shape. Innkeepers claim she is an ethereal presence, and her signature perfume always occurs as she gently taps the foreheads of guests.
Inn at Jackson, Jackson, N.H.: Jason, once the inn’s trusted workman, committed suicide, yet returns to check on repairs at the inn. Guests have been awakened by hammering noises, primarily on the second and third floors.
