This Spooky Small Town In Missouri Could Be Right Out Of A Horror Movie

Moses Austin, Potosi's founding father, is believed to have built this shop sometime around 1798. However, it was 1932 when the store, now turned into a house, would experience its first tragedy. F.J. Flynn died of a self-inflicted wound while living there.

Paranormal investigations are on-going at the store. Visitors have reported being scratched or hearing voices. Judy Myers, a sensitive investigator with Missouri Paranormal Research, said she picked up on several spirits, including an abused child running away and a man who hung himself.

The store can be found at South Missouri Street & West Jefferson Street in Potosi.

The source of this haunting coincidentally has roots back to the town's founding father. Moses Austin was initially buried in Hazel Run Mines, however he was dug up and moved to the cemetery in Potosi. The individuals who transported his body noted that after seven years, his coffin had disintegrated, but his body remained in an almost perfect petrified state with only his nose and fingers missing. After being reentered into the Potosi Cemetery, Moses grave was later found dug up with the new coffin lid open. It's rumored that the culprits were the towns-people who had been curious of what they had heard about his preserved body. Regardless, many believe Austin has not been able to fully rest in peace since then.

Potosi experienced its most violent crime in 1870 when three men trespassed into the Lapine family home and murdered the entire family. They first shot the adults, then chopped off their heads. When it came to the children, they used the axe to kill them, mutilating their bodies into several pieces. What was left of the family's bodies were buried at the cemetery in Potosi.

The cemetery can be found on Old 21 and Jackson Street in Potosi.

Descendants of James Long believed their ancestor continued to haunt the house. Many reported seeing ghostly figures looking out the window, when no one was home. Others frequently heard unexplained voices.

The reported haunting led to a paranormal investigation. Investigators outside the home witnessed a ghostly shadow walking past windows and experienced unexplainable moving areas of electromagnetic fields coupled with temperature drops on the inside. They also asked questions to the spirits which were answered by piano notes played by the unseen and even captured the disembodied voices or what is referred to as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) on their audio recordings.

The Long-Banta Home can be found at located at North Mine Street & West Breton Street in Potosi.