The Aberdeen Hotel was built in Houston Texas in 1909 and was the brainchild of a Scotsman named Andrew Souter who had arrived in the USA in the late 1880s without a cent to his name but in the thirty years built a chain of high class hotels across America.

No expense was spared and the Aberdeen soon gained a reputation as the finest hotel in the city and quite often was visited by politicians and film stars

All went well until the morning of Monday the 6th of June 1918 when a chambermaid by the name of Eileen O’Reilly reported to her superior that she could not find Room 28

At first an elaborate practical joke was suspected but it turned more serious when the Wilbur D Jefferson the hotel manager was called to investigate

Room 28 was on the third floor of the hotel and was positioned on the corner of the building

The sequence of room numbers on the third floor ran from 16 to 28 and it was obvious to Jefferson that Room 28 had vanished.

He contacted the owner straight away who ordered that the third floor be closed immediately under the guise of decoration and that the staff that were aware of the incident be handsomely paid for their silence.

The floor remained closed to guests for the next six years until during an annual safety inspection it was noted that Room 28 had returned

At first both Souter and Jefferson were undecided whether the floor should be opened to guests and left it vacant until January 1927.

It was then that the floor was reopened although Room 28 remained locked and was used as a storeroom

The Great Crash of 1929 damaged Souter’s empire considerably and in 1930 he sold his hotel chain to a Warren G Thompson an oil tycoon

Thompson was not told about the mystery of Room 28 and soon after the room was let even though Jefferson was not keen

The years passed by and the Room 28 incident faded into history until Thanksgiving Day in 1940 when a family named Parker stayed in the room

As Eileen O’Reilly had noted over twenty years previously Room 28 had once again ceased to exist

But what was more troubling was that the Parker family had vanished along with the room

This caused a great stir in the city and soon the FBI were called in as they suspected foreign interference

Both Jefferson who was by now retired and Eileen O’Reilly were interviewed at length about the 1918 incident

But the trail became cold and to make things more difficult Andrew Souter died the following year

Although not forgotten Room 28 was placed on a back burner as by now America was involved in the Second World War

Dale Chapman who was the FBI agent in charge of the investigation however did not forget about the case although he too suspected that either the whole thing had been an elaborate hoax that had gone too far or that America’s enemies were responsible

He even considered the theory of a time warp which had been suggested by some

Then on the 3rd of February 1946 Room 28 returned along with the Parker family who were totally unaware that they had been missing for nearly six years

When interviewed Phillip Parker noted that nothing had really happened to the family and he was as surprised as anyone when his hotel room was visited by the FBI

Top scientists were called in to try to interpret the mystery of Room 28 and although there were many theories nothing really came of their investigations

The Third Floor of the Aberdeen Hotel was closed permanently to the public and Room 28 was wired up by a number of agencies to study the phenomena

In 1953 the room vanished again but returned a few days later however nothing was recorded that was of any use to the investigation

On the afternoon of the 28th of June 1963 a group of five girl scouts were able to break into Room 28 due to lax security and the room vanished soon after along with the five young women

But to date it has not returned and the five girl scouts and been declared dead although Agent Dale Chapman who is still alive still monitors the mystery of Room 28 on a frequent basis from his home in Florida

The Aberdeen Hotel is due for demolition in 2021 and one wonders if Room 28 should return with the missing girl scouts whether it will be able to find its original location should the hotel cease to exist

From Great American Mysteries by Gillian White Jones