Old Warner Robins jail becomes haunted for a special reason

The Warner Robins Police Department is turning its old jail into a good cause and nights of fun for the community.

Proceeds from the department's Haunted House being held in the old jail will be donated to the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation.

After Joanna's death at age 6 in 2005, her parents, Jeff and Misty McAfee, created the foundation to combat cancer in children.

"The money raised during the event will help to fund our year-end research grants," Jeff McAfee said. "Most of the focus of our foundation these days is research, especially the kind of cancer that took our little girl."

Joanna died from alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive childhood cancer. Depending on the size and location of the tumor, a child diagnosed with the same kind of cancer that Joanna had has about a 15 percent chance of survival.

"It is very aggressive and very difficult to treat," McAfee said.

Aimee Ingle is one of the volunteers at the Haunted House. Her husband, David, is a Warner Robins police officer. According to Ingle, most of the adults -- and even a lot of the kids -- who are volunteering have a connection with the police department, either as employees or family members of employees.

Both of Ingle's children are volunteering as well. Her son Jace is dressed in a tuxedo as Jigsaw from the "Saw" movies and her daughter Jordan is a zombie inmate.

The Haunted House starts off with some rules -- including the fact that nobody will actually touch you and you shouldn't touch anybody either -- before guide Michael Myers, from the "Halloween" movies, takes over the tour.

"You go through different sections, with different creatures, creepy clowns, zombies. There's a butcher shop, Freddy is in jail with zombies" Ingle said. "It is pretty scary but nothing extremely gory. It's fun to be scared, especially when you know that no one is actually going to touch you."

The Haunted House is located at 800 Young Ave. in Warner Robins and will be open 7-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. The price of admission is $10 per person.

The night of Halloween, the police department will host free and kid-friendly trick or treating at the Haunted House from 6-7 p.m.

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 10:33 PM with the headline "Old Warner Robins jail becomes haunted for a special reason ."