Arrival
Noah and John arrived at Riverside Theater shortly after 6 pm. They met Jason and unloaded their equipment. John then went to park the car while Noah met with the security guards and started setting up some equipment. Jason then went upstairs and the security guards stayed at the back door to let people in. John arrived back at the theater shortly thereafter and Chris P had joined him. Everyone began setting up their equipment while the class members sat in the house seats and talked amongst themselves.
Several members from a class Noah taught at UW-Waukesha were also on the investigation.
Noah had a couple class members take outside readings while he continued setting up equipment. Then Chris P took three class members with him to do baseline EMF readings around the theater. Noah then took some class members with him to set up his camera in the Laundry Room in the Basement. John then showed a couple class members how to set up his voice recorder in the Laundry Room in the Basement while Noah took three class members to set up the cameras and equipment on the upper floors and to shut the lights off.
Once Noah and John had set their equipment and got the lights off on the upper floors, they returned to the stage to find that Gravy had arrived. Gravy started setting up some of his equipment while Noah went to the Basement with some class members to finish turning off the lights.
Once the Basement was dark, Noah turned off the lights on the stage and split the class members into three groups. Group 1 was led by Noah and John, Group 2 was led by Gravy, and Group 3 was led by Chris P. Group 1 went to the upper floors, Group 2 stayed on the Stage/House, and Group 3 went to the Basement.
Claims of Activity
- Full-body apparition seen in one of the back seats of the floor-seating area
- Footsteps heard on the stage floor
- Men’s bathroom door on 3rd floor opened while Jason was at the sink. It stayed open for a while before closing quickly. When he went out the door he saw a shadow at the end of the hallway which then ran toward the balcony area and then disappeared
- Children have been heard running and laughing on the 4th floor
- Light in the Light Booth has turned on and off by itself
Investigation
2nd Floor Hallway – 8:16 pm
Group 1 – Everyone spread out throughout the floor and observed 5 minutes of control silence. After the control silence, Noah realized that the cameras on the 4th Floor and Light Booth were not started, so he and John left to start those cameras while the class members started an EVP session.
Once Noah and John returned to the 2nd Floor, they joined in the EVP session. At 8:35 pm, the class member at the end of the hall saw a flash of light above the plasma ball and then heard a noise. The flash of light was not captured on the video camera and the noise was not captured on the audio recorders.
No other events happened and the group moved to the 4th Floor Hallway
END TIME: 8:38 pm
Stage – 8:12 pm
Group 2 – Everyone spread out throughout the theater area with two members on the both sides of the stage. The group observed silence for 5 minutes and then began an EVP session. At 8:22, 8:25, and 8:29 pm there was the sound of shuffling on stage right near the back. There was also the sound of metal banging near the stage ropes on stage right that was heard by multiple investigators. None of the shuffling sounds were caught on audio recorders.
Around 8:35, the group members moved to different locations of the theater. The group remained here until the end of the EVP session. Nothing was reported to have happened.
END TIME: 8:48 pm
Laundry Room – Basement – 8:11 pm
Group 3 – The group spread out in the Laundry Room and sat for 5 minutes of control silence. After the control silence, an EVP session was started.
There was one tap heard and a possible knock response but due to the loud ambient noise it was hard to determine if the noises were natural or not. Due to the noise, the group moved to another part of the Basement.
END TIME: 8:25 pm
4th Floor Hallway – 8:43 pm
Group 1 – The group spread out in the 4th Floor Hallway and began by taking a couple minutes of control silence. After the control silence the group started an EVP session.
During the EVP session one class member thought he was hearing voices. Noah came over to see if he could hear them as well. It was determined it was most likely coming from one of the other groups. As Noah and John were trying to locate the source, John thought he was picking up on a little girl in the utility closet at the end of the hall at 8:50 pm. John felt that the energy in the closet was negative. Nothing was captured on audio or video during this time. No other events happened and the group ended the session and returned to the stage shortly thereafter.
END TIME: 8:55 pm
Poker Room – Basement – 8:28 pm
Group 2 – Everyone spread out in the room and took a few minutes of control silence. An EVP session was attempted, but no activities occurred and the group ended the session and moved back up to the Stage.
END TIME: 8:52 pm
At this point everyone met back on the Stage to discuss any activities that occurred. Then the groups switched locations with Group 1 going to the Basement, Group 2 going to the upper floors, and Group 3 staying in the Stage/House area.
Laundry Room – Basement – 9:15 pm
Group 1 – The group spread out in the Laundry Room and took 5 minutes of control silence. After the control silence an EVP session was started.
At 9:22 pm, a female voice was heard after Noah asked a question. Unfortunately, this was not captured on any audio recorders. Then at 9:28 pm, while some of the group was taking some EMF readings, some other group members thought they saw a shadow move near where the refrigerator is. Unfortunately the camera was not pointed in that direction.
No other events happened during this session and the group decided to move to another part of the Basement.
END TIME: 9:25 pm
2nd floor – 9:09 pm
Group 2 – The group spread out on the second floor and observed 5 minutes of silence before starting an EVP session. At 9:13 pm there were three BOOMs from behind a West side Emergency exit door. It was undetermined what caused this noise. At 9:22 and 9:26 pm there was the sound of scraping on the walls near the main lobby area of the second floor. It wasn’t determined where the sound came from. The coolers on this floor were still on which could account for some of the sounds heard.
At 9:30 pm, some of the group went to the 4th floor. Gravy and two other members stayed on the 3rd floor due to physical restrictions of one of the members. During this time, the 4th floor group reported hearing whispers in the East side hallway. One member reported the feeling of her pant leg being brushed multiple times.
END TIME: 9:55 pm
Stage – 9:05 pm
Group 3 – Everyone spread out in the House and on the Stage. A few minutes of control silence was allowed and then an EVP session was started.
It was noted that at times, the other teams could be heard. No activities occurred during this session and the groups met back on the stage shortly thereafter.
END TIME: 10:00 pm
Poker Room – Basement – 9:41 pm
Group 1 – The group spread out in the Poker Room except one class member that didn’t want to go and stayed in the Mechanical Room. After a short period of control silence an EVP session was started. No events occurred during this session and the group went back up to the Stage.
END TIME: 9:52 pm
All the groups met back on the stage to discuss any activities that occurred and then the groups went to their final locations of the evening. Group 1 stayed on the Stage, Group 2 went to the Basement, and Group 3 went to the upper floors.
Stage – 10:09 pm
Group 1 – Some people stayed on the Stage, and the rest of the group spread out in the House. After a few minutes of silence, an EVP session was started.
At 10:12 pm, there was a sound like a seat flipping up. It was hard to determine where the noise was coming from in the House, but no seats were out of place when checked. The EVP session continued with no further events.
At 10:30 pm Noah got out Gravy’s laser grid to see if any movement could be seen. The EVP session was continued. At 10:46 pm, two loud bangs were heard sounding like doors closing. It was determined that this was caused by the security guards. No other events occurred and the session was ended and the groups met back on the Stage.
END TIME: 10:55 pm
Light Booth – 10:03 pm
Group 3 – The group spread out in the Light Booth. Some control silence was observed and then an EVP session was started. Although some pops were heard, they were not determined to be paranormal. Many things were attempted to try and get a response, but no activities were noticed and the group decided to move to another location.
END TIME: 10:45 pm
Basement – 10:11 pm
Group 2 – Again, due to physical restrictions, the group split into two. One group situated themselves in the poker room, while the other in the storage room area. After 5 minutes of silence to observe the natural sounds, both groups started an EVP session.
The group in the poker room reported the sound of a piano key note being heard when asking questions about a fire. This sound was not captured on audio recorders. No other activity was reported for this area. All members regrouped and moved to the laundry area for the remainder of the time.
By 10:55 pm, the group situated themselves throughout the laundry room and observed silence. One member reported hearing the sound of a female voice in the lounge room. This was not caught on audio. Nothing else occurred during this time and concluded the EVP session.
END TIME: 11:15 pm
4th Floor Hallway – 10:48 pm
Group 3 – Everyone spread out in the hallway and observed a few minutes of control silence. After the silence an EVP session was started.
No events occurred during this time, and Noah came to tell them it was time to meet back on the Stage.
END TIME: 11:13 pm
At this point one last session was done with people going to the part of the building that they wanted to investigate once more. Chris P took some people to the Basement, Noah and Gravy took a group to the 4th Floor Hallway and Light Booth, and John stayed with some people on the Stage.
No events occurred during these sessions, except in the Light Booth Noah and a class member had a stone or pebble fall in between them when a sign was asked for. Since the stone could have come from the ceiling or wall naturally, it was not considered a paranormal event.
Everyone gathered up the equipment and headed back to the Stage. Once all the lights were back on, Noah spoke to the class members one last time and then they left the theater. Noah and the rest of PIM contacted Jason to arm the building and they left at 12:30 am.
Conclusion
No evidence was captured during the investigation.
PIM was very thankful for the opportunity to investigate this location. This was a great location to bring a class so they could experience a real paranormal investigation. Although no evidence was captured during this investigation, PIM is confident that activity does occur in the building and hopes they are invited back to continue their study of the building. Noah would also like to thank his class for being attentive and interested.
PIM would like to thank those who made this investigation possible and hopes that they will be invited back to do a follow-up investigation at a later date.
