Arrival
The group arrived at the theater around 9 pm. They unloaded their equipment and placed it in the 2nd Floor Hallway. Noah and Tony would walk around with John (of Towne Cinema) for a quick tour of the building. Eric and John(of PIM) started to get some of the equipment set up while Karen and Stephanie went around and did baseline electromagnetic field (EMF), temperature and sensitive readings.
After Noah and Tony got the tour, they started to set equipment up in the 2nd Floor Hallway. While setting up equipment in Projector #1 Room, some film clippings that had been sitting on a cabinet for weeks fell at 10:14 pm. It is not known if this was paranormal as there was a lot of air movement from all of the people moving in and out of the room. Karen and Stephanie would return to the floor a few minutes later.
Once everything was set up, the group headed down to Theater #1 to start setting up equipment there. A few voice recorders were also placed in the Basement Area.
After a few other pieces of equipment were placed in the building the group waited for the movie in Theater #2 to finish so they could start the night’s investigation.
Claims of Activity
- The “Tan Man” – seen in tan clothes with a beard – has been seen several times in Theater #1.
- The shadow of what appeared to be a dog was seen bounding up the aisle of Theater #2.
- A door was opened in the 2nd Floor Hallway
- The sound of children laughing in the lobby was heard when the theater was closed
Investigation
The group broke into two smaller investigation groups. The first consisted of Noah, Tony, and Stephanie the second group was Karen, Eric and John.
Basement – 12:03 am
Group 1 – Noah sat in a chair closest to the old tunnel, Tony sat just inside the doorway to the second part of the basement, and Stephanie sat next to the garbage can full of water. After a few minutes of control silence to observe the normal sounds of the Basement, an electronic voice phenomena (EVP) session was started at 12:15 am. It should be noted the Basement was unusually quiet, especially for a business, and the only noise heard was that of the wind coming down the chimney.
Attempts were made to make contact with anything that may be down in the Basement, but no activities occurred during the EVP session.
2nd Floor Hallway
Group 2 – John sat in the Projector Room while Eric sat mid-way down the hallway – Karen sat in between them. The group took about four minutes of silence to observe the normal noises of the building. Voices and sounds from the apartment down the hall could be heard. At 12:07 am the group started an EVP session. Eric at one point asked if there were any spirits in the hallway to come near him. At that point his EMF detector went up from 0.4 to 0.9. Later on it would be found that the EMF levels in this area fluctuated quite a bit.
The group continued to do an EVP session, and on several accounts Karen claimed to have heard what sounded like clothes rustling in between her and Eric. Unfortunately this sound was not captured on any recorders during that time.
During the session Karen picked up that there was an older-male spirit who wanted the group to leave. No evidence of him was captured.
Noah then radioed the group to switch spots and the EVP session concluded.
END TIME: 12:30 am
The groups met in the Lobby for a brief amount of time and then went to their designated areas for the next part of the investigation.
2nd Floor Hallway – 12:37 am
Group 1 – Tony sat at the end of the hallway in front of Projector Room #1, Stephanie sat at the opposite end of the hallway in front of the manager’s apartment and Noah sat halfway in-between them in the hallway.
After three minutes of control silence it was noted the individuals in the apartment could be heard talking and playing a video game. An EVP session was started at 12:40 am and at 12:41 am a high pitch hum or moan was heard between Noah and Tony. Noah and Tony thought it sounded like a child or woman’s voice – it was noted it did not come from the apartment. When reviewing the audio it was determined that this noise was not paranormal. Later during the EVP session Tony thought he heard the sound of rustling in the Projector Room but this was not captured on audio.
No other events occurred during the EVP session.
Basement – 12:37 am
Group 2 – The group spread out throughout the basement with John by the tunnel, Eric in the middle room and Karen in the room with the garbage container full of water. They noticed there were no external noises heard and no lights were noticed. They took about five minutes of silence to observe the normal noises of the building and then started an EVP session at 12:42 am.
Occasionally a generator kicked on near John, and went it did Eric – who was about 20 feet away – picked up on increased EMF levels with his detector.
No other activities occurred during the group’s session in the basement.
END TIME: 1:02 am
Both groups then met in the Lobby once again and took a quick break. All group members at that point would then head into Theater #1 to conduct an EVP session in the hopes of coming in contact with the “Tan Man”.
Theater #1 and Back Stage Area – 1:10 am
Group 1 – Noah and Tony sat on the stage while the rest of the group sat throughout the seats. They took a few minutes of silence to observe what they could hear. At 1:25 am the group started an EVP session. Shortly after it was started Stephanie reported seeing a shadow moving around in front of her. No other members saw this, and no video camera captured it. It was possible that because there was some lights on in the room from the emergency lights that it may have played tricks with her eyes.
At 1:32 am Tony claimed to have heard a whining sound, which could have been a motorcycle outside. The group continued to do the EVP session when at 1:40 am Noah claimed to have heard a clicking noise from a corner of the theater. It was determined not to be paranormal in nature.
The group then decided it wanted to check out the back part behind the screen. All members headed back behind it at 1:41 am. The group walked around and looked at things a little bit, but then decided to try to do an EVP session.
No activities occurred during this time and the group concluded and headed back to the Lobby Area.
END TIME: 1:52 am
Deciding to take a break before they decided if they wanted to continue investigating or not, the group hung out in the Lobby area. At one point Tony noted from his observations that when a car from outside goes by the theater it is possible to think you are seeing a shadow out of the corner of your eye due to the shadow it makes. He came to this conclusion after thinking he saw someone walking left to right of Theater #1’s door. This is a possible explanation to some of the claims had by those who experienced it.
At 2:45 am the group decided to conclude the investigation and began gathering their equipment. At around 3:15 am they had their vehicle loaded and left the location.
Conclusion
PIM was called in to investigate this location mainly due to the sightings of the “Tan Man” in Theater #1. The group focused its investigation on trying to capture the “Tan Man” on video, which we were not successful in doing. PIM also investigated the other claims in the building, and were not successful in capturing evidence of any other activity. However, PIM believes a return visit to the theater would be warranted to attempt other techniques to try and elicit a response before rendering any final conclusions about the location.
The members of PIM would like to thank the owner of Towne Cinema for inviting them in to investigate the location. We look forward to returning in the future.
