According to hotel employees, she said she was waiting for a gentleman to join her. After five days, Kate took her own life. There have been many putative ghost sightings, and other potential paranormal events at Hotel del Coronado since then. There have also been Kate sightings in hotel hallways and along the seashore. Another very “active” area is the resort’s gift shop, Est. 1888, where visitors and employees routinely witness giftware mysteriously flying off shelves, oftentimes falling upright and always unbroken.
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| Kate Morgan |
The room Kate checked into was 302, which is now room 3312. But that is not the only haunted room. Room 3502, which was once a maid's room, is also considered haunted. Both rooms have experienced oddly functioning electrical equipment (lights turning on and off, etc) and cold breezes. Maids report that objects are moved around by unseen hands. Guests in the rooms have experienced oppressive feelings and curtains that move even though the windows are closed.
However, according to author and historian J'aime Rubio, the identity of the woman found dead on the steps of the Hotel del Coronado was none other than Charlotte "Lottie" Barnard of Detroit, Michigan. There is a Charlotte Barnard listed as living in Detroit in the 1890 & 1891 Census. Her address was at 351 High Street (West) and amazingly around the time of the death of the Beautiful Stranger, Charlotte Barnard disappears from any further listings in either the Census or the Detroit Directories. After extensive research of the Coroner's Inquest report, documentation and archived newspapers, it seems that the Kate Morgan theory does not stand up when analyzed thoroughly. Rubio's research claims that Kate Morgan may not have died, but disappeared to San Francisco and was later listed on the San Francisco Census in 1900.