Arrival
Taking separate vehicles, Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee (PIM) members Noah, Chris and Karen all arrive around 8:00 p.m. on Friday evening. They unloaded their vehicles and evaluated how they were going to conduct the investigation for the night, as well as how they were going to set up the tables for the following day’s public event.
Vicky and Phil Elsing left at approximately 9:00 p.m. At that point, Chris set up his video camera in the tool area. He also left several voice recorders throughout the store. Karen and Noah went downstairs to do a mini-walk thru, where at one point Karen thought she felt someone caress her back in the back room.
Investigation
Around 9:40 p.m., all PIM members went to the attic to begin the night’s investigation. Karen and Chris both felt there was something toward the middle of the room. An EVP session was then conducted at this point. Karen at one point thought she saw a shadow move near Noah that was about waist-high tall. No other activities occurred at this time.
The group members nmoved to the lower level and began to do an EVP session where different PIM members sat in different rooms: the holiday room (Karen), bookroom (Chris) and hallway (Noah). Karen kept hearing things move near her on the shelves as well as breathing noises in the holiday room. Noah than sat in the room to see if he could hear the same thing. No other activities occurred at this time.
They decided to move into the furniture room and conducted another EVP session. Nothing happened at this time.
It was at this point Noah wanted to try an Ouija board session. Noah asked Karen’s opinion prior where she thought would be the best place, in which she thought the backroom would be best. During the Ouija board session, the planchette did not more, and there were no activities to report during this time. This was the only time the Ouija board was used.
The group then decided to take a break and warm up. Vicky at this time was just getting back to the shop. It was brought to her attention that her inflatable bed had become complete deflated. Upon looking at the bed, one of the plugs had been popped out. She stated it was not like that earlier and she’s never had a problem with it before. It was not known if this was paranormal or not.
Around 12 a.m. everyone in the building went to the lower level. A regular EVP session was conducted, as well as an EVP session using Scott Joplin ragtime music. Vicky sat in the back corner of the furniture room, Noah near the front of the furniture room, Karen on the bottom stair by the hallway and Chris was in the cubby. Prior to the music portion of the EVP session, Karen felt something was near her by the stairs and Chris felt uneasy in the cubby. Whether both instances were paranormal or psychological has not been determined.
While the music portion of the EVP session was carried out, Vicky had gotten an interesting orb-like photo. Shortly after this, Noah would see something interesting on his video camera. Please see video evidence for this.
Karen and Chris went to investigate the bookroom quickly, where at one point Karen thought someone was stroking the top of her head. There was nothing that would have touched her head from the shelves. No further experiences or activities occurred at this time.
At this point, all investigators decided to end the investigation for the night and headed upstairs in order to start setting up for the following day’s public event. Upon getting upstairs, Noah had laughed about something while talking to Vicky. At that moment, both Chris and Karen heard what sounded like a woman’s voice coming from around the toy room/stairs area. Chris was able to locate the voice on two of his recorders. Please see audio evidence.
Vicky then went to bed while Chris, Noah and Karen continued to set up for the next day. No other activities appeared to occur at that time, or while the PIM members slept in the furniture room.
Karen’s Impressions
“Upon starting my walk-through, it was very calm. I started in the basement area – beginning with the holiday room. Around the corner to the back of the room, I felt a male, possibly in his 20’s, hiding in the corner. To me he felt scared and nervous – like he was crouching down near the ground.
I continued to walk toward the bookroom, but didn’t feel anything in there. While I was in the bookroom, Phil came around with Baxter, who was whimpering as we were standing there. Around the same time Baxter was whimpering, I picked up on the male from the holiday room peaking around the corner from the hallway into the bookroom. When Phil left, I didn’t pick up on the male any more.
I headed to the furniture room, where I thought I heard a little girl’s voice come from the cubby – logically it could have been someone’s voice from upstairs, but who knows.
I started walking toward the back corner of the furniture room (opposite the door), and picked up on a negative male energy. The words, “Don’t come in here. Don’t get near here,” were ringing through my head. As soon as I picked up on this energy, my stomach dropped and I started to feel uneasy.
While Chris was setting up the rest of the recorders for the night, Noah and I went to the lower level and went into the backroom around 9:15 p.m. – Vicky and Phil had left already at this point. While in the backroom area, I felt someone had come up behind us and was standing there. It seemed to be upset we were there. At one point when I turned, I thought I felt someone caress my lower back. I thought it was a chair that was next to me, but the chair was too far from me to have done that.
Around 9:40 p.m., Chris, Noah and I headed to the attic. Wow. The heads up there turned. There were several energies in the middle of the room that turned to look at us. Chris also kept feeling like there was someone over in an area where I had felt the presence of an older gentleman in the past.
While up there, we decided to do an EVP session. At that point, I felt a female prostitute, almost my height come over to my right side. In my mind’s-eye I thought she had blonde, curly hair, had red accents in her hair and dress. I kept hearing her say to me, “You could have been good enough to work here. You’re pretty enough to have been here.”
After doing an EVP session in the lower level, we decided to take a break in which at that point Vicky came back. I also had to go to the bathroom. Facing the freezer room (which we kept open), in my mind’s-eye I saw the room lit up bright with a man standing in the middle of the room. He had a white apron on, with a white T-shirt. He stood with his arms at his side and he appeared to be broad shouldered. From what I saw, he seemed very unhappy we had the door open. After meeting up with the group, I asked Vicky if she knew anything about a butcher as I don’t recall any stories about a butcher.
Noah then said Michael saw a butcher in the lower level once, and Vicky stated downstairs use to be a butcher’s area. (NOTE: During the Saturday public event, Vicky introduced me to a man who use to work in the building in the 1960’s when it was a grocery store. I asked him if he knew anything about a butcher, and he showed me that right where the back of the tool and freezer rooms are was where the butcher station and meat department were. He said the butchers use to work where the freezer room, to the bathroom, was. This was ALL news to me.)
Around 12:35 a.m. in the furniture room, I was sitting on bottom stair and kept feeling as if a female was lying at the base of the first section of the stairs. I know Candice the last time her and I were there kept feeling like someone was lying there, but I didn’t feel it at that time. To me, this female energy seemed to be a small-framed girl, long dark hair and appeared to be hurt. I got the feeling there was some sort of an accident where she may have fallen down the stairs.
In the bookroom later, I felt someone was in there and asked Chris to see if he could get anything. He thought he felt something in the same spot I was feeling. Couldn’t pick up on what it was though.”
Conclusion
Several EVPS were caught during the first night of investigating on January 30, 2009. Enclosed in the e-mail sent to Vicky Elsing is a small sampling of these EVP clips. A hard copy of ALL EVPs, as well as a video clip, will be submitted to the owners on a CD.
The members of PIM once again thank the Elsing’s for welcoming the group into their store. It was another successful investigation.
