He was alone in the bathroom on the fourth floor of Zura Hall.

At least he thought he was. He heard a man’s voice rumble throughthe room. He looked around. No one was there.

Was it a ghost?

San Diego State University graduate Dana James thinks it was.

He lived in Zura Residence Hall for two years, and said hesometimes thinks supernatural things happen there.

“I used to get chills when I was the only one in my floor,” Jamessaid. “I heard so many stories about Zura that I don’t know what tobelieve.”

Many students who have lived in Zura, SDSU’s oldest dormitory,have heard stories about murders, suicides and hauntings there.

The truth is that a student was murdered there in 1974.

That year SDSU freshman Tanya Gardini was stabbed, strangled andsexually assaulted in her dorm room in Zura by Ellis Lee Handy Jr.

Handy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the case.

Gardini lived in a three-room suite in the southeastern corner ofZura.

She is the only student to have been murdered while living in anSDSU residence hall.

Since then, students have claimed they hear ghostly voices on thesecond, fourth and eight floors.

Since then, many scary stories about the old dorm have circulated.One Zura resident adviser, who wished to remain anonymous, said manystudents report hearing the sound of dropping marbles in thebathroom.

She also said students have reported seeing mystic figures roamingthe halls. A small man dressed like Charlie Chaplin is said to turnthe televisions on and off in the television lounge or the residents’rooms.

Blanca Rosales, a Chicano/Chicana Studies senior, worked in Zurain Summer 1998.

“It is a scary dorm to work by yourself,” Rosales said. “When Iwas working there, we used to work in pairs because neither onewanted to work alone, especially the eighth and ninth floors.”

She said another story is that someone jumped out of the balconycommitting suicide. Zura does have an eerie feeling especially in thehighest floors, Rosales said.