The Augusta Mental Health Institute housed over 11,000 deaths, a devastating fire, Maine's only female serial killer, and some of the most chilling paranormal reports in the state.
Content Warning: This episode discusses medical abuse and suicide.
Cosmopolitan Magazine named it the most haunted place in Maine in 2017, and after this episode, you’ll understand why. The Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI) on Arsenal Street in Augusta has over 200 years of dark history — from its origins as the Kennebec Arsenal after the War of 1812, to its conversion into the Maine Insane Asylum in 1840, where patients were committed for conditions including “masturbation” and non-heterosexual orientations.
Kel walks us through the devastating fire of December 4, 1850, when a faulty heating system ignited a blaze that killed 27 patients and one staff member — many of whom were seen trapped in windows as confused patients ran back into their burning rooms. The episode covers the institution’s horrific treatment practices including electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and inhumane restraints, as well as the staggering statistic that 11,647 people died within AMHI’s walls over its decades of operation, with most burial records lost forever.
The episode also tells the tragic story of Constance Fisher, Maine’s only known female serial killer, who drowned her three children in 1954, was committed to AMHI, released without resources, and then drowned three more children in 1966 before ultimately escaping AMHI by jumping into the Kennebec River in 1973. As for the paranormal activity? Contractors report objects moving on their own, lights blowing out, disembodied whispers and screams in the underground tunnels, apparitions of women in hospital gowns, faces in windows, and an unseen force that tugs at visitors’ sleeves. The building is now private property — do NOT trespass — but the echoes of suffering linger.
Paranormal 
