HAUNTING ENDEAVOR Nicole and Michael Kobrowski Explore the Unexplained Writer / Kara Kavensky Photography Provided
The official website for Unseenpress.com, Inc. touts “Real Ghosts. Real History. Real Indiana.” Co-owners Nicole Kobrowski and her husband Michael are partners in the unique business of ghosts, and many people have engaged in their haunted tours, haunted overnight experiences, and consultation services for help with supposed unwanted spirits and entities. Nicole has been fascinated by the supernatural since she was a child. She describes a Scholastic book she read as a child that featured the alleged ax murderer Lizzie Borden. “I couldn’t imagine that someone who donated the bulk of their estate to ‘furry
friends’ could be a murderess, but there is strong evidence to suggest that she was, regardless of never being charged with the crime,” says Nicole, who loves scary movies and has watched Sammy Terry, a television horror host, since she was a child. During the 1970s and 1980s, it was not uncommon to have someone committed to an asylum if they claimed to see ghosts. Although Nicole grew up in an alleged haunted house, it was not a topic of conversation. Much later she and her sisters all experienced events she says were suspicious and inexplicable. Nicole says the family who now lives in that home claims to experience various oddities different from what Nicole and her sisters experienced. Nicole met Michael online during the early days of the internet. They engaged in conversation in a ghost-themed chat room. Michael was in Germany at the time, and Nicole followed her heart and moved to Europe for five years before the two of them moved to the Indianapolis area. 21 / BROAD RIPPLE MAGAZINE / OCTOBER 2020 / atBRip.com
The Kobrowskis started participating in ghost tours on Halloween in 2001, formally incorporating Unseenpress.com, Inc. at that time. Their tours, known as Historic Indiana Ghost Walks and Tours, combine history from their extensive research and a healthy dose of ghost-related content. Tours are currently scheduled in downtown Indianapolis, Westfield and Noblesville. “As the crowds grew over the past couple decades in Broad Ripple, we had to curb our walking tours due to the size of our tour groups and the massive number of people out and about in the Broad Ripple Village,” Michael says. Some parts of Broad Ripple are tied to stories of hauntings including Broad Ripple Park, The Monkey’s Tale, Butler University, the Indiana School for the Blind, Crown Hill Cemetery and Broad Ripple Brewpub. One local story includes a little girl supposedly seen on the swings at Broad Ripple Park. Historical reports indicate that a young girl died in a roller coaster accident when the park was home to a large amusement park more than 100 years ago. Legend has it that on a still day with no wind, a swing was moving. The girl has been
