Arrival
Gravy arrived on location at 6:45 pm and met with the client and her boyfriend. At 7:00 pm, Denys and Noah arrived at the location. Gravy, Noah and Denys brought in their equipment before walking around the house and the property to discuss some of the claims. After informing the neighbors on both sides of the house, the client left the property and stopped by the district precinct to inform the police that we were there for the evening. This was particularly important because the house had been vacant for some time now and it would have looked suspicious to neighbors with vehicles in the driveway and lights form flashlights shining in the house.
With basecamp set up in the Dining Room, Gravy, Noah and Denys began to set up their equipment. They walked around the house discussing claims to determine the most effective places to put equipment. Gravy made sure the kitchen cabinet doors were closed since there were claims of them opening.
Part of figuring out where to put equipment is determining if some of the claims could be debunked or have possible natural explanations. Noah checked cabinet doors to see if any were not level and could open or close on their own. After checking several cabinet doors it was determined that they did not move on their own based on their current condition.
Gravy investigated the window pane where the image of the man appeared. Since this claim only occurred once and happened several years ago it was hard to determine if there was once a smudge on the window or an object causing an odd reflecting anomaly on the window that would have caused the client to see an image through pareidolia. Pareidolia is the process in which the brain creates images from random patterns. Faces are the most common image seen when pareidolia occurs because people are trained to recognize faces since birth. However, this would not explain why the image of the man would disappear eventually.
Gravy, Noah and Denys went outside to look at the exterior of the building to see if there was a possible way for an intruder to enter the bathroom window. It was noted that the 1st Floor bedroom had a lower roof line and, despite the weeds, several years ago when the event happened, someone could have climbed up onto the roof, shimmied along the 8-10 inch ridge over to the bathroom window and climbed in. How the intruder exited and the speed at which the intruder would have had to leave is still a mystery though. There are still too many unknown factors that can lead to an explanation and it is only speculation that an intruder could enter and exit the house unnoticed.
Later in the evening, a train was heard in the distance and Gravy, Noah and Denys went up to the Master Bedroom to see if the train had any bearing on the movement of the ceiling light. The train was too far away to have any effect on the light. It was also noted the light was not observed to have moved at any time throughout the night.
At 7:45 pm, Noah and Gravy went outside to take outside weather conditions using a Kestrel 3500 weather station. After which, they went inside to take EMF and temperature readings using a Mel-8704R-Vibe. During this time, Denys had left the location to take care of a personal matter. He returned at 8:05 pm.
Upon Denys’ return, all PIM members started their control recorders. Every member of PIM is equipped with a Zoom H1 digital audio recorder, as a control recorder, an Extech RHT50 data logger and a UV flashlight, which they carry on their person. Control recorders are not only used as another recording device but also to discriminate the sound contamination that an investigator might create during an investigation. Control recorders are started and time stamped prior to all other equipment being started and time stamped. Time stamps, from a designated atomic watch, are used as a point of reference and make cross referencing easier during evidence review.
The Extech data logger measures humidity, temperature and barometric pressure at one minute intervals. This device allows us to graph these changes and compare data to other devices that might have measured or recorded an event. They are not only carried on each person but placed throughout a location as well.
Equipment on the 1st Floor included a Sony HDR-CX160 full spectrum video camera which was placed in the Kitchen facing the sink area and the doorway into the 1st Floor Bedroom. A touch flashlight was placed on the counter in the vicinity of the man seen in the window and was in view of the camera and another touch flashlight was placed on the fireplace mantle in the Living Room. Also placed in the Living Room was a Tascam DR40 digital audio recorder using two types of stereo microphones. One is designed to record only sound waves while the other is sensitive to both sound and EMF frequencies. This allows a later comparison of the two sound tracks to see if anything was recorded in the EMF waves that was not recorded in the sound waves. This is done as there is a theory that Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is actually recorded from the EMF spectrum and not the audible spectrum. A Sony HDR-SR5 was also placed in the Living Room facing the front door where the shadow of the medium dog was reportedly seen.
Equipment on the 2nd Floor included a Sony HDR-SR5 video camera in the Master Bedroom covering the hallway where claims of footsteps, doors closing and the light in the Master Bedroom would swing. A Zoom H1 audio recorder was placed at the top of the stairs and would cover all audio for that level.
During setup, Gravy and Noah were in the 1st Floor Bedroom when a female sounding moan was heard at 8:50 pm. Unfortunately, this sound was not captured on audio recorders. The sound came from the Living Room area where Denys was at the time but claimed it wasn’t him that had made the sound.
Once equipment was set up and baseline readings were done, Noah, Denys and Gravy left to go to McDonalds to cool off in a climate controlled area. The house lacked power so there was no air conditioning leaving it very hot and stuffy. This also allowed for the equipment to get baseline readings of the house without humans and give it time to settle after the moving around of the investigators.
Gravy, Noah and Denys returned a few minutes after 10:00 pm and were standing in the Dining Room and Kitchen getting their equipment ready when Noah and Denys heard footsteps coming from inside the house on the 2nd Floor. Gravy, being in the Kitchen, was furthest from the staircase and did not hear anything. Thinking that someone might have entered the house, why they were gone, they proceeded with caution to makes sure someone wasn’t in the house. After searching the house and they confirmed no other people other than PIM members were inside, Noah, Gravy and Denys started their control recorders.
Claims of Activity
- Client’s sons were sharing the bedroom on the 1st Floor. The youngest son (3 years) would be seen and/or heard talking to someone. When asked who he was talking too, son would reply “grandpa.” This was nearly 2 decades ago and both of the son’s grandpas were still alive at the time.
- The client was looking out the kitchen window above the sink at night when she saw a figure of an older man wearing a fedora reflected in the window. She looked behind her and opened the window to see if someone was outside but nothing was there and the reflection was visible for some time before disappearing.
- A medium dog sized shadow could be seen by the front door. This was experienced almost daily and was seen from the Living Room. This shadow like activity continued up until a few days before the clients husband had passed away in the house.
- The ceiling light in the Master Bedroom would be seen swinging. This occurred regularly between the hours of 10:00 pm and midnight. The client would see it swinging with the lights on and off.
- Doors on the 2nd Floor were heard closing
- Several years ago the client told her son to get in the shower. After hearing footsteps upstairs and the bathroom door closing, the client yelled up to her son only to find him standing beside her. She called the police thinking it was an intruder. The 2nd Floor bathroom window was open. Client said her dog was in the backyard and did not react to anything out of the ordinary.
- Object manipulation such as keys, a vase and flashlights occurred over the several year span the client had lived there
- Kitchen cabinets would open on their own
- Activity seemed more prevalent during renovations to the house
Investigation
1st Floor – 10:23 pm
PIM members spread themselves throughout the 1st Floor but were careful to be with in eye shot of each other. This is a practice that PIM follows should an investigator experience something there would hopefully be two investigators to corroborate the event.
Denys sat in the doorway between the Living Room and the bedroom. Gravy sat in the Kitchen and Noah sat in the Dining Room.
They observed several minutes of control silence before beginning an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) session. Control silence is the practice of sitting quietly and getting accustomed to the normal sounds of the building structure. It allows for investigators to get a baseline of normal building sounds.
An EVP session is conducted by asking several questions but leaving a minimum of ten seconds between each question in the event a response is captured on a nearby device. Investigators speak in full voice and tag any abnormal noises they might make or hear during an investigation. Common noises that investigators tag are stomach growls, accidental whispering and shifting or moving noises they might create that could be mistaken as something paranormal during evidence review. It was noted that street noise could be heard. The house is set back from the road but the road is busy.
At 10:47 pm, Denys heard a popping noise come from the bedroom of the doorway he was sitting in. Neither Gravy nor Noah heard the noise and a source could be found. It was decided it was a building noise. No other events occurred and the group ended the EVP session and moved to the 2nd Floor.
END TIME: 11:00 pm
2nd Floor – 11:08 pm
The group situated themselves throughout the 2nd Floor. Gravy sat in the East Bedroom. Noah sat in the Master Bedroom and Denys sat at the top of the stairs. After observing control silence they began an EVP session.
At 11:27 pm, Gravy tagged the sound of a clock ticking in the room that he was sitting in. A minute later, there was a loud sound of glass shifting. Upon further investigating the glass on the clock that Gravy heard had shifted. Noah said that he noticed, while setting up equipment, the glass of the clock was cracked. Although the event is interesting PIM thinks this might have been a coincidence. Though the sound of the glass was captured on audio recorders there were no responses to any questions leading up to or following the event. The data logger on Gravy, who was sitting closest to the clock, did not show any drastic changes in humidity, temperature or barometric pressure at that time. At the time of the event, barometric pressure was 987.7 hPa, temperature was 79.7F, and relative humidity was 80.3 %. No other activity occurred during this time.
END TIME: 11:55 pm
During this time the group took a short break and went outside for some fresh air.
1st Floor – 12:10 am
The group situated themselves throughout the 1st Floor. Gravy sat in the Dining Room. Denys sat in the Kitchen and Noah sat in the Living Room. After observing control silence, they began an EVP session. It was noted that a voice could be heard from a man that was walking along the sidewalk.
No activity occurred during this time and the group moved upstairs for the last session of the night.
END TIME: 12:45 am
2nd Floor – 12:50 am
The group situated themselves on the 2nd Floor. Gravy sat in the Master Bedroom. Noah sat at the top of the stairs and Denys sat in the East Bedroom. After observing control silence they began an EVP session.
No activity occurred during this time and the group ended the investigation.
END TIME: 1:09 am
The group broke down and packed up their equipment. After packing up their vehicles, they left the key in a secure location and informed the client of their departure.
Conclusion
PIM had an interesting night. The footsteps heard from the 2nd Floor and the broken clock glass shifting were intriguing events. Activity that is considered coincidence is still interesting because there will always be a small percentage of lingering doubt that it was truly coincidence. Unfortunately the owners of this location no longer own the house so there may never be another opportunity to investigate the location unless activity occurs for future homeowners. PIM could only hope they would be the group contacted to further the research at this location.
PIM would like to thank the owner’s for allowing them access to their home before it was sold.