Arrival
The group arrived to the outside gate at 7:30 pm. At 7:45 pm, Anthony, our guide, came down to open the gate for the group and show them where they could unload their equipment. The group went to the main office/gift shop area to sign waivers before returning to their vehicles and unloading their equipment.
Marc Eaton, a Professor from Ripon College, and two members of PIM East Coast, Josh and Michael, were guest on this investigation.
It was decided that base camp would be on the 2nd Floor. Equipment was brought to the 2nd Floor where they began control recorders. Once all of the equipment was inside, the group then took some time to walk around the exterior of the building and do group photos while it was still daylight out.
The group then returned to the 2nd Floor and continued unpacking and assembling their equipment before moving it to the predetermined locations.
While gear was being set up, Jann went around the interior of the building to do baseline temperature and EMF readings in the areas that would be investigated most. Due to the size of the location, baselines were not taken in every part of the building.
At 10:29 pm, all the equipment was placed and recording. In order to get a baseline reading with no one in the building, the group decided to go back down to the office/gift shop to take a short break and make any souvenir purchases. It was during this time that investigative groups and starting locations were determined.
It was decided that the groups would be Michael, Gravy, and Jann in Group 1 and Noah, Missy, Josh, and Marc in Group 2.
The group returned to the 2nd Floor, gathered any last minute equipment and split up into their groups to begin investigating.
Investigation
Due to the size of the location and the number of investigators, it was decided to split into two groups. The first group included Gravy, Michael, and Jann, the second was made up of Noah, Missy, Marc, and Josh.
5th Floor – 11:31 pm
Group 1 – The group situated themselves throughout the 5th Floor on the Kid’s Room side of the building. Gravy sat in the middle of the room with a handheld camera aimed at a ball, Mel-8704Vibe and a touch flashlight. Michael and Jann sat on either side of the room. The group observed several minutes of silence before starting an EVP session.
One of the claims of activity on this floor is object manipulation. It has been documented that balls, in the middle of the room, can move on their own. The group did not experience any of this activity. It was noted that new windows were recently installed around the exterior of this room. It is hypothesized that in the past when these windows weren’t present, a small breeze could have caused the balls to move around the room thus appearing to move on their own.
During the EVP session in the Kid’s Room, Gravy began to ask questions referring to a tragic death of a women and her small child. Gravy referred to the baby doll trigger object that was in the Solarium. Jann felt the baby doll was too offensive and in the process of removing it, she began to feel sick to her stomach. Meanwhile, the group decided to move to the other side of the 5th Floor and continue their EVP session.
During their EVP session, the group attempted to debunk the shadows reported to be seen on this side of the 5th Floor. Again, before new windows were installed, it was possible that shadows could have been cast by the lights from the surrounding city lights or the moon. With the windows installed, there was too much reflection to see if a shadow was being cast and made it harder to see into the room.
The group ended their EVP and debunking session and went to meet up with the other group. Jann wanted to remove the baby doll from the location feeling that it was offensive to the female entity that occupied the 5th Floor.
END TIME: 12:21 am
3rd Floor – 11:30 pm
Group 2 – The group spread throughout the 3rd Floor hallway covering the area between Gravy’s camera and Michael’s camera. The group observed several minutes of silence before beginning an EVP session. It was noted that the tree frogs and street noise was very easily heard from inside the building and could account for mistaken sounds of voices.
During their EVP session, Josh noted the EMF detector had a slight spike when asking a question regarding a doctor or a nurse. Since the spike was not a significant amount (0.0-0.5) and no other activity was recorded at the time, the event was dismissed as anything paranormal.
Moments later, another spike (0.0-1.3) occurred on the EMF detector when Noah asked a question referring to the homeless gentleman that had fallen to his demise in the elevator shaft. No other activity was recorded at this time and, again, this spike was dismissed as anything paranormal as it was not reproducible.
At 11:46 pm, the group situated themselves around the dog toy trigger objects (provided by PIM East Coast). While moving to the new location, Marc began to explain that he had felt a strong presence behind him while he was near the elevator shaft. Unfortunately this was after the fact so no readings were documented.
The group observed silence before beginning an EVP session at 11:54 pm. At 11:57 pm, Noah felt something brush against his left leg after asking for something to come to closer to him. The group noted that they could hear the other group two floors above them. At 12:01 am, Missy saw something about 2 feet tall dart across the end of the hallway.
The group ended their EVP session here and moved to the Operating Room on the 3rd Floor to finish the remainder of the EVP session there. At 12:07 am, the group observed silence before beginning their EVP session. It was noted again that there was a lot of outside noise contamination on this floor.
At 12:17 am, Noah and Marc both heard what sounded like a women or child humming or singing. No source of the sound was found and no audio was captured of this. No other activity occurred during this time and the group ended their EVP session.
END TIME: 12:22 am
At 12:30 am, both groups met on the 3rd Floor to discuss any events that have occurred and to split into new groups and move to new locations. While the group discussed the next locations they were going to visit, Gravy and Josh went back to the 5th Floor to replace the baby doll back without Jann’s knowledge of it. Gravy wanted to test whether or not Jann was being affected by a female entity on that floor or if she was being emotional over the baby doll on her own accord.
Body Chute – 12:50 am
Group 1 – The group spaced themselves down the Body Chute but were cognizant to remain within visible range of the camera that was placed at the top of the Chute. It was noted that sounds echo throughout the Body Chute. It is possible the sounds of people walking in the Chute could be the echo from that of living humans shuffling. It was also noted that bats also occupied this space and could be heard flying up and down the Chute. There are also many sounds, including crickets and frogs, from the outdoors that can be heard all throughout the Body Chute due to the fact that there are ventilation shafts approximately every 30 feet in the Chute. The outdoor sounds can give the impression that there is something else in the Body Chute or create sounds that people are talking.
The group observed silence for several minutes. At 12:57 am, before beginning an EVP session, there was a sound of someone running at the top of the Chute. There was also a popping noise which was attributed to natural sounds of the area. Noah went to see where the sound came from and, using his FLIR camera, he confirmed there wasn’t an animal at the top of the Chute. When the group arrived to the location, there were several raccoons seen on the grounds and it was noted to keep a close eye out to make sure they weren’t in the building as well. Noah was unable to discover what caused the sound of someone running.
At 1:06 am, Missy heard a knocking sound; again Noah went to see what the cause was and found nothing. Missy then heard a humming noise at 1:09 am. The source of the humming sound wasn’t found and no audio of the sound was captured.
Shortly after, Jann felt nauseous and left the Chute for a while. The group moved to the corridor leading to the Chute to continue the EVP session. While the group was in the corridor, Noah noticed that the roof was corrugated steel and items falling from the many trees near the building could make the knocking noises that group had been hearing. No activity occurred during this time and the group started to head back to the main building to meet up with the other group.
As the group entered the main building, they heard knocking noises. Noah radioed to Josh and it was determined they were knocking from the floor above. The other group said they were getting responses and wanted a little more time for their EVP session. Noah, Gravy, Jann and Missy situated themselves in a room on the 1st Floor and kept silent. While observing silence, the group heard a noise like something falling that came from a different area then where the other group was situated. To confirm this, Noah radioed the other group and had Josh, Marc, then Michael knock in order to see if the knocking was one of them and to determine where each one of them was located. Group 1 then continued their knocking experiments and Group 2 heard three faint knocks in response to knocks from Group 1 coming from another section of the 2nd Floor. Unfortunately the knocks were too faint to be captured on the audio recorders. Their knocking was not the cause of the knock heard and no source of the knock could be found.
No other events occurred and both groups ended there EVP session and met up with each other on the 2nd Floor.
END TIME: 1:42 am
2nd Floor Hallway – 12:44 am
Group 1 – The group spread apart from each other in the hallway but within sight of each other for an EVP session. The group started some control silence, but within 2 minutes at 12:46 am a motion light that was positioned in the hallway was activated. After some experimenting with flashlights and other equipment, it was discovered that the two-way radios could set off the motion light.
We continued with the EVP session till 12:59 am when Marc thought he saw movement in the room which was serving as the group’s basecamp. The group went in and looked around but found nothing.
No further events were noted and the session was ended.
END TIME: 1:06 am
2nd Floor Hallway, West end – 1:12 am
The group spread out and did a few minutes of control silence. At 1:14 am, Marc reported hearing voices outside, but the voices stopped shortly after Marc had heard them.
At 1:17 am, Michael tried calling the alleged ghost dog, though nothing was heard at that time. The EVP session continued with no further events and was ended a short time later at 1:25 am.
The group then walked down the hall on the 2nd Floor to the East end of the hallway. At 1:32 am the group spread out in the hallway and started an EVP session.
At 1:34 am the group was doing a knocking experiment trying to see if a knock could be received in response. After Michael knocked twice, the group heard two knocks in response. Josh radioed Group 1 and that group had heard the knocks as well. The knocking could have been a shifting of the building and further experiments did not yield any positive results.
No other events occurred and the session was ended a short time later.
END TIME: 1:41 am
Both groups met up for a short break before splitting up and moving to new locations.
2nd Floor East Wing Hallway – 2:07 am
Group 2 – The group situated themselves throughout the East Wing Hallway of the 2nd Floor and observed silence for several minutes. Gravy and Noah believed to have heard a female voice but the source was not determined and no audio was captured via digital recorders. The group ended their EVP session and moved to another part of the East Wing.
END TIME: 2:20 am
Body Chute – 1:59 am
Group 1 – The group traveled down the tunnel till the edge area illuminated by the camera, and spread out. A few minutes of control silence was done and then an EVP session was started.
No events occurred during this session and it was ended a short time later.
END TIME: 2:15 am
Morgue – 2:20 am
The group spread out and did a few minutes of control silence before starting and EVP session.
No events occurred and the session was ended a short time later.
END TIME: 2:27 am
2nd Floor West Wing Hallway – 2:26 am
Group 1 – The group spread throughout the West Wing Hallway of the 2nd Floor. After observing a few minutes of silence, the group began an EVP session. This time they started out by asking for responses to knocks with no prevail. At 2:39 am, Jann and Missy heard what sounded like footsteps accompanied by a dog collar bell or keys jingling coming from basecamp area. The source of the sounds weren’t determined and no audio was captured on digital recorders. It was also noted there were several bats flying through the hallways.
END TIME: 2:50 am
Surgical Room – 2:59 am
Group 2 – The group spread out and decided to do an EVP session. Gravy decided to put out a touch flashlight to see if anything might manipulate it. However, no results were captured and the session was ended a short time later.
END TIME: 3:04 am
At this point Gravy and Marc went to join the rest of the group on the 5th Floor and Michael and Josh went to the 4th Floor for a quick walkthrough before joining everyone on the 5th Floor.
5th Floor – 2:55 am
Group 1 – Since activity had occurred earlier in the night on the 5th Floor, Noah sent Jann and Missy up to the 5th Floor together while he remained at the foot of the stairs. As Jann and Missy arrived on the 5th Floor Missy suggested they go to the West side of the floor to try and EVP session. However, Jann wanted to go on the East side where the Kid’s Room was. When they moved to the East side of the floor Jann discovered the baby doll that Josh and Gravy had replaced earlier in the evening without Jann’s knowledge.
Missy and Jann then began an EVP session. At 3:04 am, Noah joined them on the 5th Floor. At 3:09 am, Missy had a tightness feeling in her chest. It slowly dissipated but was not attributed to anything paranormal.
3rd Floor – 2:57 am
Group 2 – After checking the equipment to confirm it was still running, the group spread themselves out in the Operating Room on the 3rd Floor and began an EVP session. No activity occurred during this time so the group split up. Marc and Gravy went to the 5th Floor to meet up with Group 1 and Michael and Josh went to the 4th Floor.
END TIME: 3:12 am
At 3:14 am, Marc and Gravy joined the group on the 5th Floor while Michael and Josh remained on the 4th Floor to do an EVP session.
The group began an EVP session. Michael and Josh joined the group at 3:22 am. No activity occurred during this time.
END TIME: 3:30 am
As both groups broke some equipment down, Anthony found them and informed them it was time to start breaking down everything. The team retrieved all their equipment and packed up and left at 4:00 am.
Conclusion
No evidence was captured during the investigation.
PIM had a great investigation at this amazing location that is a combination of beautiful architecture and rich history. Although we did not find any evidence during our investigation, the history of this building leads PIM to want to investigate it further. PIM looked into the reports at this location along with what is known historically about the location. This is what PIM found out.
The claims about the Body Chute are largely unfounded. It was never used to transport bodies as there used to be a power station at the bottom of the tunnel so there wouldn’t have been room to load up bodies into a hearse. The claims center on hearing footsteps in the Body Chute while you are walking in it. This is not surprising considering it is a 500 foot long echo chamber that is filled with bats, bugs, and snakes.
The claims about Room 502 and the 5th Floor also seem to be exaggerated. There is no record of any nurse committing suicide on the property, although there are two death records for nurses which state the cause of death as tuberculosis, which is not surprising considering where the nurses were working. The pipe that was supposed to be used to hang one of the nurses wasn’t installed until after the tuberculosis hospital was converted to a geriatric hospital in the 1970’s. Room 502 is also listed as a nurse’s station but it actually was a patient bathroom. The 5th Floor was supposed to house the mental ward at Waverly Hills. There actually were no mental patients housed on the 5th Floor, or anywhere at Waverly Hills. The 5th Floor was used to house children for a time and then patients that were ambulatory and almost ready to go home. Essentially the 5th Floor of Waverly Hills Sanatorium probably was the happiest place in the entire building.
The only claim that PIM was able to find any solid evidence for was that of the homeless man and a white dog that are seen on the 3rd Floor. There is a documented death of a homeless man and dog with their bodies being discovered at the bottom of the elevator shaft in the Basement. However, how soon after this occurred that the haunted claims started to happen is unknown.
It seems that the vast majority of claims did not come about until after the current owner’s purchased the property on Ebay. The previous owner did some haunted events, but there weren’t half the claims at the time the current owner’s took over. This combined with the increase in popularity of haunted locations shortly after the current owner’s took over the property is probably the real cause for the majority of the “hauntings” reported at Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
Overall, this is a very massive building that was once very run down. At PIM’s recent visit, we saw that a large portion of the windows have been replaced on the 1st and 2nd Floors along with most of the windows on the 5th Floor. This helps keep outside noises out of the building and cuts down on the wind that was prevalent throughout our investigation (and part of the design of the building to help keep fresh air moving in the wards which was believed to be the main source or a cure for TB). The owner’s also have fixed up a room on the 2nd Floor that can be used for meetings or wedding receptions and includes some bathrooms! The investigation was very fun and interesting to say the least but from the claims that are reported at this location there isn’t a lot of fact to back them up. PIM isn’t saying there couldn’t be something going on at Waverly Hills Sanatorium, but some new claims would be needed for us to return any time soon.
