Delaware Mortuary Museum
When you combine the love for education and the hobby of collecting funeral home items, you’re left with one of the most exciting collections on the East Coast.
Chris and Jessica Thompson offer tours of this fantastic museum in their home in Delaware to anyone interested in learning the facts and history behind some of the items. The tours aren’t just dedicated to the oddity and collectible crowd; they offer paranormal teams the opportunity to visit and discover what may be attached to some of these items.
I have had the pleasure of investigating this location twice, and both times have garnered some fantastic evidence and experiences, including footsteps, EVPs, and even phantom pains, which I’ve never experienced until then.
One item in particular, a white wedding dress, was highly active for us. You would think this dress’ attachment would be one of love and commitment, feelings that go hand-in-hand with the emotions you would have during an important day in your life. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
This dress was worn by Karen Phillips, a woman who was in the Peace Corps, stationed in Africa. Karen was raped and murdered and customarily, in the area where Karen was found, the women are buried in something white as a sign of purity. She was placed in a travel coffin and transported back to Pennsylvania, where she was from.
The coffin sat in storage for years before Chris and Jessica obtained it. While hearing the origin stories of the coffin, Jessica was curious about the location of the dress. It wasn’t until after they brought the coffin home and opened it. “The second I opened this lid to the Zigler Case, Jessica yelled WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! And there it was, right at the bottom was this wedding dress. 99% of the time you never know where this dress was used, because they can be from anywhere. But in this instance, we knew the time, the day, the place, and where she was buried. It was a very personal thing, and very local tragic thing. And we have that last raw piece of pain, and that still carries a weight. Whether you believe in attachments, that is a heavy thing.” Chris explained.
Jessica has an attachment to the dress and has attempted communication during paranormal investigations in hopes that Karen Phillips is at peace and is okay with her keeping the dress. “I feel weird things around that dress and in the house 5 days a week. I’m not threatened by it, but I can’t explain it.” Chris and Jessica have visited the final resting place and paid respects to the Karen. “Ever since we opened that case, I have had experiences, I feel her presence.”
Jessica was raised in an old unused funeral home in Philadelphia. Her parents hid that fact from her and her siblings for years, but Jessica figured it out first. Her experiences in that home is what led her into the paranormal.
Chris is more of a history guy.
Chris and Jessica are not new to the paranormal by any means. Jessica was a part of a team years ago and says she misses it. Chris is the Skeptic. “One Million percent”
“There has to be such thing as an attachment to items. I believe that, I mean we have used caskets and objects here, that I think have attachments.” Jessica states.
Attachments in the museum aren’t all paranormal. One item that is there is pretty special “in a fucked up way”. Chris and Jessica were asked by a local funeral home if they had an extra piece to an embalming machine, that the funeral home had broke. Jessica offered a new machine in exchange for the broken one, “as fucked up as it is, it was the last thing used on my mom.”
Unfortunately, after Jessica’s Mom passed away, she was neglected prior to burial, and she was not able to have an open casket. For Jessica, “that embalming machine is the last thing that I have that was close to her. Having the machine makes me feel like part of my mom is here.”
Chris was big into “URB-Xing,” short for Urban Exploring, and has had many fun adventures in abandoned places, which is how they got into the realm of oddities.
One fun item in the museum gives Jessica the creeps, a real human skeleton. “It’s just chillin there”, Jessica exclaims.
When asked if they’re specifically looking for attached or haunted items, the answer was, “No, we look at it more through a historical and scholarly way. Maybe we can close that gap, so we can educate. I’m not going to tell anyone that anything is paranormal.” Jessica interupts by laughingly saying “I WILL”.
“The only reason we are into this, is because of our curiosity, and we encourage others to be curious.” Chris says.
“This motherfucker would never be into any of this if it wasn’t for me” Jessica laughed. Chris did not disagree. “Chris was a classic car guy, and Jessica wanted a Classic Hearse. I think our Hearse is what started this whole thing” Jessica says.
“The layering of Curiosities, between Urb-Xing and collecting odd shit is what laid a solid foundation for what this is.” Chris explained
Their goal is to move the museum into a more prominent location after acquiring its nonprofit status and getting its collection out to the public. As of now, the museum tours are by appointment only, and they are open to the idea of paranormal investigations.
You can find them and see some items from the museum at various oddities shows and paranormal conventions throughout the year. You can follow them on Instagram
and if you’re interested in a tour, shoot them a message.
