Maplewood Ghost Attack

It's not every day that a weird paranormal story originates near your own home town. But I suppose it was about time. For anybody who doesn't know, I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is one of Minnesota's Twin Cities, the other being the state capitol, Saint Paul, across the Mississippi River. The metro area includes both cities and the surrounding suburbs, with a population of about two and a half million people.

Maplewood is one of suburbs on the Saint Paul side of the metro. It's home to the headquarters of 3M corporation, the makers of post-it notes and a whole slew of other household and industrial products. It also is the site of today's story, which made the local alternative newspaper City Pages. According to the article, a Maplewood woman claimed that she was attacked in her home by two ghosts. She stabbed one of them with a kitchen knife and then lost consciousness.

The alert, which a user posted to imgur late last night, tells the story of a woman who was "unresponsive" and behind a locked door when her family found her. She was holding a large kitchen knife, and was covered in blood. Her body had no visible wound that could have accounted for that much blood loss.

Medics were called, and the woman eventually came back to consciousness. It was then that she told her version of the events that had led to her discovery in that state. "She claimed that she was attacked by two 'ghosts,'" the crime alert says, "and stabbed one of them in the chest before she went unconscious." Aside from the blood that covered the woman's face, neck, and hands, there was a trail that led all over the house — but did not extend outside it.

Of course, the Maplewood Police Department is not Ghostbusters, so they are treating the mysterious incident like a potentially serious crime. That would mean a live, human stabbing victim somewhere out there, who managed to escape the woman's home alive, though without leaving a blood trail.

I'm going to come right out here and say I have no idea what happened. The presence of blood suggests that the attackers were people rather than spirits, but why is the woman reporting ghosts? Was this a home invasion during which the attackers dressed up as the killer from Scream? There are special effects that the attackers might have employed to make it seem as if they were ghosts, too, but that seems like a lot of work to go to in order to convince one woman she is being haunted.

I'm sure the truth will eventually come to light. The attacker most likely figured out how to stop the bleeding before leaving the house, which would explain the absence of a blood trail leading outside. I know if I were stabbed and my attacker was unconscious that's what I would do. It might also be possible to identify the attacker by his or her wound, since it probably will require medical attention above and beyond basic first aid and hospitals report cases of knife and gunshot injuries to law enforcement.

More than anything else, I want the attackers identified so I can get some idea of why they felt the need to convince this victim that they were ghosts, and why they attacked her in the first place. Home invasions are usually robberies, but there's no mention of whether anything was stolen.