Naked man arrested in cemetery says he was just trying to photograph spirits

A man photographed naked in a Mississippi cemetery says he didn’t mean anything crazy by it, he was trying to capture pictures of spirits, or do orb photography. The man, 47 year-old Robert T. Hurst, of 208 Mitchell St., said he was in the cemetery conducting his year-long hobby, orb photography, which is capturing circles of light at night, some of which appear to be faces. As for why he was naked the night he was caught by a game camera set up by cemetery staff, he said skin can be the best canvas for such photography.

Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Shane Tucker said the department received a great deal of community response to its request for aid in identifying a man who was photographed naked and setting up his own camera on a tripod by a game camera in the cemetery. The community information provided Investigators Christa Groom and Shane Edgar with several leads, but none of those tips led to the man for whom they were looking. Instead, it was information from a Picayune Police officer that put the investigators at the suspect’s front door, Tucker said. The officer told the investigators that he remembered pulling a man over on a routine traffic stop recently that resembled the man in the picture.



Using that information, the investigators identified Hurst and made several attempts to contact him, but the efforts to make contact were unsuccessful, Tucker said. “It was obvious he was avoiding us.” Tucker said. On Friday, Capt. Kelvin Stanford finally made contact with Hurst who turned himself in and was booked for indecent exposure, Tucker said. “This is one of the craziest things that I’ve ever seen,” Stanford said, who has 15 years of law enforcement experience. On Friday, after Hurst was taken into custody, he sat down with a reporter to share his side of the story.

He said for the past year he’s been taking photographs of orbs, which is done at night. Orb photography can capture images of circles of light, that at times look like faces, especially on the skin, Hurst said. “I’ve got some great pictures, it’s really fascinating,” Hurst said. Initially he intended to only take off his shirt, but then took off the rest of his clothes, which he said was stupid. “I didn’t mean to expose myself to anybody and it was stupid,” Hurst said. “You never know who’s watching,” Stanford said.