When Lesley Ann Hyde was six years old, playing with Barbies in the quiet of her childhood home, she heard a voice—maternal, soothing, yet speaking in a language she did not recognize. It was only later that she would come to understand it as Arabic. Stranger still, she understood what the voice was saying. From that moment on, Lesley Ann realized she might be different from most people.
The voice stayed with Lesley Ann over the years, a presence she believed was a guardian angel. This ignited a fascination with the unknown and the paranormal, leading her to ghost tours whenever and wherever she traveled. Eventually, in 2018, that fascination became tangible when she founded Southern Ghost Girls, an all-female paranormal investigation team based in Alabama and dedicated to uncovering the spectral echoes of the past.
Still predominantly female, Southern Ghost Girls has added some male investigators, too, and has grown to about a dozen members. In 2025, the group is experiencing its most successful year yet.
“We’re already pretty much booked through October,” said team member Zak Pitts as the team prepared to lead an early February ghost tour of the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama—a place with as much history as it has mystery. Famous for hosting recording artists from the Rolling Stones to the Black Keys, Cher to Lana Del Rey, and Willie Nelson to Paul Simon—it also has a reputation for something else: lingering spirits.
As the team prepared to investigate the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, team member Brian Watson set up a camera on a tripod to document the evening's events. Suddenly, his head snapped around, his eyes locking on me with a look of bewilderment.
“Someone touched me,” he said, his voice hushed but certain. “Just kind of tapped me on the shoulder.”
I was standing four feet from him. No one else was close. I hadn’t seen or felt a thing. I could only shrug, offering the kind of wordless acknowledgment that often comes with the unexplainable.
As the night unfolded, the team’s equipment sprang to life. REM (radiating electromagnetic) pods and magnetic field meters flared with energy. A service bell rang on its own. A flashlight sitting atop the studio’s famous grand piano would go off and on, seemingly in response to unseen forces. The investigation began with an exercise called the human pendulum, in which a volunteer acts as the "bob" of a pendulum, swaying subtly under the influence of forces beyond the visible when asked questions by patrons gathered for the experience. Was it subconscious movement? Or something else entirely?
For the Southern Ghost Girls, these moments are not just proof of the supernatural but a connection to history itself—a glimpse into the echoes of those who once walked these halls, their stories still waiting to be told. Besides questions to or about musicians of the past, inquiries were made to spirits who may have inhabited the grounds for centuries and even to “residents” of the large cemetery across the street.
Sherri Hankey, who joined the Southern Ghost Girls in 2019 after attending one of Lesley's events, explains the team's success: "We're all open, respectful, and here to help. We want to know the stories of the spirits we encounter, and we want the folks at our events to participate as well."
The Southern Ghost Girls' passion for the paranormal runs deep, forged through personal experiences with the supernatural. Sherri's journey began at age 18 during a visit with family on a naval base in Hawaii, where she witnessed an older gentleman in a timeworn hat materialize and then vanish before her eyes. Though initially dismissed as a dream, Sherri's family later confirmed the ghostly visitor's strange habit of appearing and causing subtle disturbances. These profound encounters have shaped the team's collaborative approach to ghost hunting.
The personal experiences of the Southern Ghost Girls team members further underscore their connection to the paranormal. Zak Pitts, for instance, was invited to join the team after one of Lesley Ann’s events. At 16 years old, Zak awoke one night to the unmistakable sound of a woman's voice commanding, "Get out." His dog began barking furiously. As it turns out, an intruder was trying to break into the home at that very moment. This encounter marked the beginning of Zak's relationship with a guardian spirit named Emily, who attached herself to him because he reminded her of her father.
Team member Brian Watson—the one who felt the mysterious touch at the beginning of the evening—had his own chilling encounter at just 5 years old, when he looked up at a ceiling vent and saw a woman staring back at him, an experience that left him terrified. Throughout his life, Brian has continued to witness unexplained phenomena in his homes, from scratching on walls to pounding sounds and shadowy figures. Despite sometimes questioning the validity of his experiences, reassurance from his sister and shared stories with the team have convinced him that his encounters are very real.
Meanwhile, in addition to ghost hunts and paranormal investigations, the group has expanded to host other types of events, such as interactive mystery dinners, and venturing outside of Alabama as well. On March 14, the group will host a St. Paddy’s Irish Murder Mystery Dinner at Birmingham’s Arlington House. Later they’ll lead a couple of March Madness Ghost Hunts—one at The Lowry House in Huntsville and another at the Old Historic Jail in Jasper, Georgia.
As the Southern Ghost Girls continue to push the boundaries of paranormal investigation, their growing success and deep personal connections to the supernatural have transformed their passion into a powerful collective force, one that is shedding new light on the mysteries that linger all around us.
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