Marion, Ohio - What they find is open to interpretation, and they’ve answered the skeptical questions from naysayers time and again.

But six friends who started a paranormal investigations group about four months ago believe in otherworldly phenomena, and they believe they’ve found haunting evidence at a couple of Marion spots.

Eerie Paranormal, who describe themselves as professional paranormal investigators, are self-taught and inspired from television shows and Internet research about how to detect signs of spirits.

It started as a simple hobby. They purchased similar equipment that the Ghost Hunters on the Syfy channel use, read up on how infrared light and digital recorders work, among much other research. Then they put it all to work investigating a home that one of the group members said his mother suspected was haunted.

Rusty Beard talked to his mom about checking out her house on South Seffner Avenue for the white nurse that she had sensed.

“No one really knew what to do,” he said. They had the equipment and had done the research, but this was the first time out.

They had digital recorders, camera, camcorder, and other sensory equipment. They tried to eliminate factors that could have caused the sensations, like ventilation and drafts.

When they finished their searches and recordings, they thought the effort was a bust. No one had heard any voices or felt anything out of the ordinary.

Only after sorting through hours of audio recording did they come across three five-second clips they thought sounded like a child asking to play, and telling them he was ready.

It wasn’t the kind of evidence they were expecting to find. Beard asked his mom about it, and she wasn’t surprised.

She thought she had told him about how she would wake up and feel like there was a child jumping on her bed.

It was a promising find for the group, who has made Eerie Paranormal an official hobby outside of the members’ full-time jobs. Beard and three others, Bob Lawhun, Ben Meade and Gary Hunley, work together at North Central Ohio Rehabiliation Center. Meade’s wife, Terri, and Hunley’s wife, Darcy, also are part of the group.

They’ve since done two other residential investigations, and then decided to approach Marion Cemetery Superintendent Jim Riedl about doing research there.

“I’m very protective of this property,” he said. “You won’t find a business that’s any more vulnerable than this.”

He often shoos people out of the cemetery as dusk approaches.

“There’s no reason for anybody to be in a cemetery at night. It draws suspicion,” he said.

But when Darcy Hunley approached him with the group’s proposal, she was prepared with a plan for the investigation. She’d done research and drawn up liability waivers.

“It sounded like a legitimate inquiry, and it certainly didn’t hurt in any way,” Riedl said.

After about two weeks of sorting through the evidence they had gathered the night they spent about four hours in the cemetery, they shared four short recordings collected at the receiving vault, where bodies used to be kept until their graves were prepared.

It was in that same spot, sitting on the step of the receiving vault, that Lawhun swears he was tapped on the head - with two gentle, successive touches.

“I just started talking,” he said.

He asked any spirits, if they were around to give him a sign. He suggested a tug on his shirt, to push over one of his teammates, anything. When he said, “Tap me on the head,” it happened.

It’s moments like that, he said, that make people believers in the paranormal.

A black, cast-iron gate was behind him, the space behind the gate enclosed by the stone walls of the vault. A bush was to his right, and the space on the step to his left was empty.

“If you can come up with a way to explain that, I’m all ears,” he said.

In the area to the west of the vault the group says they found the audio evidence they shared with Riedl on Tuesday.

Referred to as an electronic voice phenomenon, Hunley said the digital audio recorder picks up sounds on different wavelengths not distinguishable by the human ear.

The group sorted through 16 hours of audio, four hours taken from each of their four recorders during their investigation from about 11 a.m. one evening to 3 a.m. the next morning.

Hunley’s voice is distinguishable on the few-second recording.

“These mosquitos are crazy,” she says.

Then, she said, a voice that sounds much louder says something like, “I’ve come home.”

Though Hunley didn’t hear the sound during the investigation, she remembers talking about the mosquitoes, and jumping because she thought she heard something behind her.

That clip and the three others from the investigation had to meet the approval from all six group members before being presented as evidence of paranormal activity, she said.

They’re still sorting through photographs from the night that they believe are orbs.

“It’s hard to differentiate between orbs and dust balls,” said Angie Yazel, office manager at the cemetery, who is a full believer.

She’s worked at the cemetery for 14 years, and the second week she was there, she swears someone tapped her on the shoulder when she was working. But nobody was there.

Now and again she hears shuffling across the wood floors and recalled a co-worker saying he came face-to-face with a black shadowy figure for a few seconds when he was alone there one day.

“There’s just a lot of experiences that come with the business that we’re in,” she said.

During their investigation, the group checked several areas of the cemetery, including the Merchant Ball on the northeast side of the cemetery that has attracted national attention because of theories about how the 5,200-pound granite sphere shifts about a quarter of an inch a year.

But the evidence they’re presented so far is from around the vault. They plan to work out parameters for a second visit in the future.

Riedl was impressed with the group’s professionalism and presentation, but wasn’t sure about the recordings.

“I definitely believe in spirits, not that I’ve come across them here,” he said. “… out walking in the evening, I live in a cemetery, sometimes, you just feel, like a presence.”

“Whether I agree that I heard what they heard, that’s another story,” Riedl said. “Whether I hear it or not, I don’t know. My hearing’s bad anyway.”

For now, Eerie Paranormal can do about two investigations a month, with plans to do a residential investigation in Bellville, another at Brownella Cottage in Galion, and possibly the Monnett Schoolhouse.

“It’s open to interpretation,” Gary Hunley said. “We just know it’s not us.”

When doing an investigation, the group is looking for explanations for moved objects and strange sounds, whether it’s from placement of an odd air vent or a ghost.

Ben Meade joked that maybe the group could get its own television show.

“We’re funnier than the guys on Ghost Hunters and way better looking,” he said with a chuckle and a grin. - Jessica Cuffman

The Eerie Paranormal group stands outside of the President Warren G. Harding receiving vault in Marion Cemetery

Source - http://www.marionstar.com/

Melissa Watson at the faucet on the sink that sometimes seems to move all by itself

Seattle, Washington - The Heartland Cafe has a ghost. That’s the report from multiple witnesses and while this isn’t new (a brand new ghost might be creepier) the haunting continues as it has for years now. The Heartland Cafe, at 4210 Southwest Admiral Way, is a Wisconsin themed restaurant that moved into the space once occupied by the long time West Seattle landmark, the Admiral Benbow Inn. Their motto is “Serving Midwestern Comfort food like mom used to make.”

But it’s doubtful that your mom had a ghost in the bathroom.

Jeff Loren, a co-owner said, “I’ve heard from two of our waitstaff that they’ve seen the faucet actually move while they were standing there. I haven’t seen the ghost but I’ve been told the ghost is a long time story.”

Waitress at the Heartland, Melissa Watson said, “For the longest time we’d go up into the bathroom and the faucet would be on and we just figured it was someone being lazy or maybe somebody who had too many drinks but it has happened since this place opened. Rosemary, she went in one night (it’s always the hot water on the left hand sink) and she turned it off and then she went to the other sink and she was rinsing her face off and the faucet that she was using turned off and the faucet next to her turned back on.”

Jay Wergin Co-Owner of the Heartland had this to say about the ghost: “There have been some odd happenings around the Heartland Café. I’ve been told about flying spoons in the dish pit, beer cans that move on their own in the Benbow Room, but more importantly, the running water in the ladies room. As the story is told, the ghost had a thing about turning the water on in the ladies room. So without ever telling my employees about this story, suddenly they are recalling incidents of running water. In one case, it was our late night server Nicole who works until 4:30am on weekends. Well she is the only female working during this time and she would enter the ladies room and find the faucet running. In another more recent occurrence the faucet moved on it’s own.

“I’ll tell you, speaking for myself, that it is down right spooky to be alone in that building late at night. Maybe it’s just the age of the building, or maybe the fact that it was a building full of haunted soles for so many years as the Admiral Benbow, Chart Room? You can only imagine over the course of 50 years what might have transpired in there? After all, Frances Farmer once drank there.

“Taking into account that the building is made up of so many rooms, plus an attic space and a unfinished basement. There are plenty of hiding places for a ghost or whatever you might dream up, to be hiding behind. I see shadows casting across the floor all the time when I’m up there alone, not to mention sounds that I can’t identify too.

“We first realized there was something unusual going on when I had my office upstairs and I’d hear footsteps and walking around. I thought it must be crows on the roof or something that were walking around. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of noise. I better go up and take a look to make sure nobody’s up on the roof.’ There was no one there. So I thought maybe it was coming from next door.

“But I finally realized that it had to be somebody walking around up there that I wasn’t seeing, but I was hearing. So, one Sunday we were closed and I came back down to work and was here in the back where the safe was. And I heard somebody out in the hall. I thought I had left the door unlocked and maybe a customer had walked in. And so I called out, ‘Who’s there? We’re not open.’

“And I came out in the hall and I saw this long skirt. I didn’t see a head, but I saw the shoulder. I saw the long skirt. Long dress, black shoes, just go around the corner. And I thought, ‘Well, my goodness, who in the world is that?’ So I hurried real fast to look and she had disappeared. I thought, ‘Well!’ So I went to the back door and looked up and down the alley. Nobody there. I thought, ‘Well, must have been the footsteps I heard upstairs walking around. There’s somebody in here that’s not here when we’re around.’

“So another Sunday I came down here and the cleaning man was here. I said to him, ‘Will you quit turning the water off and on in the restrooms.’ He was out front cleaning where the coffee shop was and he says, ‘I’m not in the restrooms, what are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, why is the water going off and on all the time?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Is someone in there?’ So he went down and looked and there was nobody there. He said, “There’s nobody in here. What are you talking about?” So I thought, ‘Well, I’m losing my mind.’

“Pretty soon, the water starts again, off and on, off and on, off and on. Finally he said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said ‘Well, we’ve got a ghost around here. Evidently it is playing a game with us.’ The cleaning man was Lithuanian and he was from Europe. He finished his cleaning and didn’t stay around. He got out of there real fast. It bothered him quite a bit. The girls who work here have heard it too and one of the girls swears up and down that the ghost pushed her down the stairs because it doesn’t like her.

“Sometimes on Sundays when I’m here all by myself, I try very hard to be quiet to see if she won’t come around again. Nobody’s ever seen her from the head up. All that we’ve seen has just been part of the long skirt and the legs. So we don’t know whether she’s young or old. I’ve kind of wondered if on this space that the Benbow Inn sits, back in the early days, none of this was here. Did somebody die or were they killed or was there a house here? Maybe they just never moved on from this place so they’re still around here.” - Patrick Robinson

Source - http://www.westseattleherald.com/

The Copper Queen Hotel has a reputation for being haunted.

Bisbee, Arizona - Many hotel guests would complain if they were awoken by bumps in the night or if they found their things had mysteriously disappeared from their dressers. But not visitors to the Copper Queen Hotel, a rustic old place that is considered Arizona’s longest continuously operated hotel.

The Copper Queen is haunted, or at least that is what the owners claim and what numerous guests have affirmed over the years with stories about mysterious voices, odd sounds and smells, and even levitating objects. For many, a quiet, uneventful night at the Copper Queen, which dates to 1902, is a dire disappointment.

“Oh, oh!” a non-ghostly woman exclaimed in surprise when she rounded a corner on the fourth floor one recent evening. When she realized she had encountered another non-ghost, she seemed disappointed. “Have you seen anything?” she asked.

The front desk clerk’s voice grew low as he told how he heard a female voice one evening while riding the elevator between the third and fourth floors, even though he was the only physical being inside. And he swore up and down that he once saw a room key floating in the air.

At his side were the ghost journals, accounts left by guests over the years of their encounters with the hotel’s resident spirits. So compelling are some of these tales that they have been compiled into a book that came out this month. Adding credence to the hotel’s claim of three resident ghosts, at least for those who believe in the paranormal, was the hotel’s appearance in an episode of the Ghost Hunters show on the Syfy Channel.

One Copper Queen guest. Tina Lavon, wrote about how she had tried to take a photo in the hotel but the camera said it had no memory card. The scary part is, she insists it did have a memory card.

Others wrote of hearing whispers, of the remote control for the television not working or of a cellphone battery mysteriously losing power. A child wrote of losing her stuffed animal only to have it mysteriously reappear later.

Nine-year-old Devan heard breathing over his shoulder when he was reading the ghost book. Other guests said coins disappeared from the desk in their room, which legend has it is the handiwork of Billy, a young ghost, who died long ago in the nearby San Pedro River and supposedly now has the run of the Copper Queen.

Southern Arizona’s Most Haunted, a book on Bisbee and other reputedly haunted locales in the southern part of the state, recounts how Billy has been seen jumping on the leather couch in the lobby.

“The Copper Queen Hotel is haunted by over 16 spiritual entities,” said the book’s author, Renée Gardner, who has been named by the local Chamber of Commerce as the official ambassador to the ghosts and spirits of Bisbee. She conducts walking tours of ghostly spots around this old copper mining town, as well as a special driving tour in a secondhand hearse.

All the spirits supposedly roaming around the Copper Queen, and some guests perhaps pretending to be spirits themselves, mean a lot of potential for mischief.

A guest named Roxana wrote of a ghostly incident that occurred when she showered.

“My husband and daughter left our room and I got in the shower,” she said. “When I was in the shower I heard the bathroom door shake. When my husband and daughter returned I said, ‘Very funny.’ They swore they hadn’t returned to scare me.”

Another guest, Natasha, wrote about something that may or may not have happened as she and her stepfather were dining one night. He had locked the door to their room, No. 401. She had seen him. But when they got back, their door was wide open.

There have been rooms that got phone calls with no one at the other end of the line, a photograph on the wall that moved, a shaving kit that fell to the bathroom floor and mysterious taps on guests’ shoulders by invisible beings.

“My husband and I are believers but skeptics at the same time,” wrote a woman who heard strange sounds in Room 316 at 2 a.m.

On Thursday nights, ghost experts lead guests through the creaky old building in search of mischievous Billy, a former prostitute named Julia Lowell (who is said to have taken her life in the hotel and now pays particular attention to male guests) and a mysterious bearded man in a top hat and black cape who smells of cigar smoke.

Not all guests have ghostly encounters. On a recent night, the old elevator did make some groaning noises, but they seemed more mechanical than supernatural. From the hallway on the fourth floor, one could hear sounds from guest rooms, although they seemed to be CNN. Nothing appeared to have moved in Room 404 from late one night to the next morning.

Yes, for some guests, the Copper Queen is not the least bit scary, offering little more than a good meal, a lively bar scene and an uninterrupted night of slumber.

“Absolutely nothing happened to us of a ghostly sort,” a guest named Crystal wrote in the journal. “The only sounds we heard were from the noisy people upstairs.” - Mark Lacey

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/

Source - http://www.carthagepress.com/

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - As a full moon rose over Laurel Hill Cemetery on a sweltering July night, Frank Cassidy took his place in front of a crowd of about 100.

“I am a medium,” he said, clicking through a slide show of photos from his paranormal investigations, as attendees swatted at mosquitoes. “We see the dead, we speak with the dead.”

The audience nodded attentively, straining to see orbs and ectoplasmic mists in the photos as Cassidy talked about staying positive on the job. He warned attendees about negative energy forces called “psychic vampires,” then paused.

“No, Edward Cullen will not be here tonight,” he deadpanned.

Not long ago, claiming to speak with the dead might have gotten Cassidy, the co-founder of the 2-year-old ghost-hunting group Free Spirit Paranormal Investigators, laughed off the stage.

But these days, with no fewer than 11 paranormal reality shows on cable and legions of curious fans flocking to supernatural-themed events, ghost hunting is drifting into the mainstream. And although several 1980s movies featured paranormal professionals - hello, Ghostbusters and Poltergeist - it is now the real-life dramas that are giving ghost hunters a new found cachet.

Cassidy and a half-dozen Free Spirit members were on hand at Laurel Hill in East Falls to guide guests through the cemetery’s bi-annual ghost hunt, a 5-year-old event that typically draws more than 100 participants.

That night, attendees were just as serious as their guides about searching for evidence of the paranormal.

Toting an electromagnetic field meter (electromagnetic disturbances can signify that an otherworldly presence is nearby) and a voice recorder, Kerry Michael Urda, 45, of Overbrook, paid $30 to wander the graveyard after hours. He conducts paranormal investigations in his spare time.

Trudging toward the grave of Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, Urda hadn’t seen or heard anything yet, but his spirits remained high.

“It’s never too early for ghosts,” he said - it was only 9:30, hours before the proverbial “witching hour.” Ten minutes later, near Civil War general George Gordon Meade’s grave, he paused.

“Did you feel that? I thought I touched a cobweb, but there aren’t any cobwebs here,” Urda said, examining his hand.

Next to him, his longtime friend Steve Dibartolomeo, 46, of Springfield, laughed. He’s gone on several expeditions with Urda, but labels himself a skeptic. “I just like the history,” he said.

Standing with a group of about 15 around Kalas’ grave, Free Spirit investigator Rami Livelsberger, 35, placed a voice recorder on the ground.

“Harry, are you here with us?” she asked. “The Phillies won today! What do you think of that?”

There was no response - at least none that human ears could hear.

Amazingly, lack of evidence does not discourage anyone - in Laurel Hill or elsewhere.

Popular demand prompted Ghost Tours of Philadelphia to expand its offerings of a ghost-story tour to include a weekly $22 ghost hunt that takes people inside the historic Powel House. The 25-person tours, offered since last summer, have been filling up regularly, said Eileen Reeser, a tour manager.

“They’re hoping that something will happen. Of course, we let them know that some nights we’ll get absolutely nothing odd happening,” she said. “It’s not Hollywood. It’s not like the TV shows.”

Once, though, Reeser said, a group heard footsteps in the empty ballroom of the Powel House. And sometimes ghostly images show up in pictures from the tours. “You have to wonder - is it a ghost? That’s the intrigue,” she said.

Ghost hunting isn’t generally a full-time profession. The members of Free Sprit Paranormal Investigators are electricians and small-business owners, college students and insurance agents.

L’Aura Hladik, who founded the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society in 1998, heads an organization of more than 700 members but maintains a day job - like most paranormal groups, the society doesn’t charge for house calls.

“I would say the popularity for ghost hunting has always been there, but I think there’s an increase in the ease at which one can broach the subject,” said Hladik, 46, of Hackettstown, N.J. “There’s so many shows on television - it’s made it easier. Back in the day, you did everything incognito.”

And the number of homeowners willing to phone in a bona-fide haunting is increasing, too. In 1998, Hladik and her team fielded three or four calls for help per month. Now, they get 50 to 100 calls a month.

Some, of course, aren’t exactly Amityville Horrors.

“Sometimes it’s just a shot of WD-40 and the squeaky ghost is gone,” Hladik said, laughing.

But some hunts really are bone-chilling. On one expedition, Hladik and her team spent the night in a house where, she said, they saw no evidence but inhaled what smelled like rotting flesh for hours.

When they finally left, they discovered that their equipment would no longer work - the handiwork, Hladik suspects, of an elemental spirit.

“That thing was tracking us as much as we were tracking it,” Hladik said.

Even traditional ghost tours that don’t involve a hunt aren’t immune to the occasional haunting, said Steve Sarachman, founder of the six-member Philadelphia Area Paranormal Society.

On a ghost tour with his 6-year-old daughter and a few society members, the group stopped in a cemetery near a grave.

Almost immediately, Sarachman said, his daughter began to complain about feeling cold.

“I look to my right and see what looks like a little girl bending over a headstone. When I turned around, she was gone,” he said. “We went to the headstone, and sure enough, it was for a girl, 11 years old.”

While they might sensationalize paranormal investigations, television shows such as A&E’s Paranormal State and Syfy’s Ghost Hunters (and maybe even Animal Planet’s The Haunted, which focuses on, yes, hauntings involving animals) can lend credibility to the ghostbusting set.

But a few late-night viewings of Ghost Hunters do not a ghost hunter make, investigators stress. Maureen Carroll, the public relations coordinator for South Jersey Ghost Research - which traces its roots back to 1955 - said her group requires new members to take six months of in-class and practical training before they’re sent out on an investigation.

“People watch the shows, buy equipment, and think they can go out without training,” Carroll said. “I say that’s like watching ER and thinking you can perform surgery.”

And, investigators say, there’s something to be said for having a skeptic or two on a ghost hunt.

“They make much better researchers and investigators,” said Hladik.

Skeptics weren’t out in force for the Laurel Hill investigation, though. Even parents toting their kids said they were open to an encounter with a ghoul or two. - Aubrey Whelan

Image: About 100 people turned out last month for Laurel Hill Cemetery’s biannual ghost hunt

Source - http://www.philly.com/

Mobile, Alabama - Firefighters in Mobile are trying to come up with a logical explanation for a mystery at the central station downtown.

Something weird caught the attention of a firefighter passing through the museum room of the Central Station early Monday morning.

That’s when Steve Huffman got a call.

“He said, ‘We’ve got a little unusual situation downtown that you might be interested in.’ And I said, ‘Okay what would that be?’” Huffman said.

The alarm system was lit up.

“The number four, which is a blue light, and the number ten, which is a red light,” he explained.

There’s just one little problem.

“The old alarm system, the Gamewell Alarm System, hasn’t been used in over 40 years, and far as we know it’s not connected any longer,” explained Huffman.

The batteries to power the panel were taken out 40 years ago, and the wires which ran through another panel on a different wall were ripped out years ago.

So where did the power for the light come from?

“Some say it’s the ghost of Laz Schwarz which was the city commissioner and mayor in the early 1900s,” Huffman explained.

Huffman said the stories of a ghost haunting the central fire station have been around as long as he has.

“In some cases, they actually thought they saw someone walking around the building. In other cases, things would move,” said Huffman.

Huffman admits firefighters are notorious jokesters, but he said one of the ghost stories came from someone who never joked.

“We were joking, saying he didn’t have a sense of humor, and when he said he saw a ghost, out of all the ones I’ve heard over the years, he’s the one I would believe,” added Huffman.

Schwarz served as mayor and commissioner of Mobile from 1911 to 1917. The fire station was dedicated in Schwarz’s honor in 1925, the same year he died.

“Some people seem to think that maybe his spirit still walks this building. Now, why he would be in this building, I don’t know,” Huffman said.

Of course, the lightning strike that knocked out the computers at the central station on Sunday might have something to do with the mysterious lights, but we kind of like the ghost story better. - Renee Dials

Image: The Central Fire Station in Mobile Alabama

Source - http://www.fox10tv.com/

New South Wales, Australia - It could be one of the most bizarre reasons ever offered by a speeding driver - “A ghost made me do it.’

But that is exactly the story being put forward by superstitious motorists hitting speeds of up to 180km/h on a road north of Newcastle, supposedly to conjure a ghost.

Port Stephens police have issued a warning to drivers after it emerged that young people were driving at dangerously high speeds along a stretch of Lemon Tree Passage Rd to conjure the spirit of a 20-year-old motorcyclist killed in a crash with a speeding driver in the area three years ago.

A handful of videos have been posted on YouTube, allegedly showing a ghostly bright light appearing in the rear windscreen of cars that start driving at dangerous speeds.

Some locals are convinced the light is that of the motorcyclist’s ghost, in pursuit of people who drive dangerously.

It might sound far-fetched but speeding to summon the ghost has become such a concern that police have issued a warning about the behaviour.

“It’s alleged that if you drive at speed in a manner dangerous, a bright white light comes in behind you and that’s what they are calling the Lemon Tree Passage ghost,’’ a police spokeswoman said.

“There have been several phone calls that people are going out there and while attempting to get footage for YouTube these cars are travelling at excessive speed.’’

The YouTube videos posted so far do show a bright light clearly visible, sometimes close to the car and other times in the far distance.

But the source of the light is unclear.

“We want speeding drivers to know that the only bright light they’ll be seeing in their rear windows will be the red and blue lights of a police car,’’ the police spokeswoman said. - Neil Keene

Source - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

Columbia, South Carolina - A 34-year-old cold case murder in Sumter got a new look earlier this week, and it is from an unexpected source.

A group called the Sumter Ghost Finders visited the graves of a couple who were found shot to death in August of 1976.  Their goal: to find out who they were and who killed them.

“Are you here with us, honey?” asked the human voice on the recording.  The response?

“Yes.”

It is a voice from beyond the grave, according to Elliott Davis and his band of ghost finders, one that they are trying to help.

“We’re not adventurers or thrill-seekers, we don’t go out at midnight trying to scare up ghosts,” he reassured, “We’re in it to find out why, what happened to them, who shot them and at least their names.”

They are working the case of a couple murdered in Sumter County, two people that have never been identified and their killer never found.  “The couples’ bodies were found August 9, 1976,” explained Davis, “We’ve been working on the case since 2008.”

Descriptions of the couple were put out across the United States and Canada, where authorities thought they may have been from.  Even their dental records were released in the hopes a dentist would recognize the work.

But all these years later, they still do not have a clue as to who they are.  That is where the Sumter Ghost Finders enter the picture.  They are not going through the evidence to get their information - they are going directly to the source.

Through Electric Voice Phenomenon recordings, they say they have captured the voice of the woman, and Davis has brought in two women who say they can communicate with the dead.  “When we first walked into the cemetery, all you feel is confusion,” explained one, Lacy Thompson-Harper, “When you actually get up to the woman’s grave site, it’s just sorrow.  It’s complete and utter devastation and loneliness.”

She and the other woman do not call themselves psychics, but say they are sensitive.  Thompson-Harper described the victim by saying, “She went from being really happy to watching what was happening to her.”

Davis asked questions too - in French, the language the couple may have spoken in order to get answers.  On an earlier visit, they say they recorded the woman referring to the man as Jean-Pierre.

But, they have not been able to get any further.  For the Ghost Finders though, it is just a step closer to gaining the spirits’ trust and learning their fate.

Even though they did not get complete names or find out who killed them, the group says they did not walk away empty-handed.  Both women say they saw an orange in color, rusty El Camino with a blue interior associated with the murder, and saw that the woman may have had a Native American background.

If you have any information that could help with the case, call the Sumter Crimestoppers at 803-436-2718.  Sumter Ghost Finders are also looking for people who can speak French to converse with the victims.

Sydney Cummins & Lauren Eleazer

Source - http://www.wltx.com/

Queensbury, New York - If you have some things that go bump in the night, there’s a new company that may be able to help you figure out just what it is.

Jim Berkowitz and Eileen Higgins have recently opened Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team and will investigate any potential paranormal activity free of charge.

Berkowitz works for the post office, and Higgins is a nurse, and the business is the pursuit of a hobby. Both have had personal experiences with the paranormal, and now have the equipment to discover and record this activity.

“Like most people, my interest in the paranormal began with personal experience, and it got me curious,” Berkowitz said. “We can help someone validate what they’ve seen or heard, or discover a natural event that’s causing it.”

Berkowitz said his first experience with the spirit world was when he was 10.

“My dad had a friend with a huge house on Lake George, and whenever we’d go there, I always saw a woman staring at me from a window across a courtyard,” Berkowitz said. “My mom was very sensitive and somewhat psychic, but my dad didn’t believe in this stuff. One day, the woman, in a Victorian-style dress, appeared and chased my father and brother out of the house shaking her fist.

When he got home, he was white as a sheet, and my mom said, ‘You saw her, didn’t you?’”

Higgins said her first experience was a little less dramatic, but frightening nonetheless.

“As a teen, my mom bought an old house in Glens Falls, and I had just gone to bed one night when I heard footsteps on the stairs,” Higgins said. “I thought it was my brother, but he wasn’t there. The footsteps got closer and closer to my bed, and I ran out the door and didn’t sleep well for a while.”

A couple of years ago, the pair ran a janitorial company and were cleaning an old building on Warren Street at night.

“I always felt we weren’t alone in that building,” Berkowitz said. “On our third night there, a woman in a black dress walked by the bathroom.”

He asked the staff who worked in the building the next day about the woman, and some of them confirmed that they had also seen a woman in a black dress.

“One employee quit her job after she saw the woman float through a wall,” Berkowitz said.

Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team has four investigators along with Berkowitz and Higgins. Two of them recently spent time with a crew from SyFy Network’s Ghosthunters at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire.

“Since shows like Ghosthunters have been around, there have been a lot of paranormal groups popping up,” Berkowitz said. “We started ours to do things the way we want to, when we want to.”

The group has equipment that includes digital cameras and voice recorders, electro-magnetic field detectors and other meters used to detect and record any paranormal activity.

“A lot of what we do is ruling out more conventional causes,” Higgins said. “Very often what people are hearing can be banging pipes or other natural things.”

Having a ghost in your home is not necessarily a bad thing, Berkowitz said.

“A lot of people are afraid of what’s going on, but a spirit is not necessarily something to be afraid of; the ghost on Warren Street is benevolent,” he said.

“Sometimes the spirit doesn’t want you there, or they are trying to send a message to someone. It’s easy to misinterpret, since they can’t speak directly to us.”

Higgins said there are a lot of theories of why a deceased person’s spirit remains behind.

“It could be they really liked a place when they were alive, or maybe they misbehaved and are afraid to move on,” she said. “My sister died very suddenly while she was doing laundry, and for awhile, the cellar light near the washer kept coming on. I think she didn’t know yet that she was dead, and kept on doing her work.”

Berkowitz said there was another old house on Warren Street that had burned in a fire and was boarded up when he was a teenager.

“We were in that house in August. It was sweltering outside, but it was freezing in that house,” he said. “They say a woman and her baby died in that fire.”

After the house was demolished, a nursing home was built on the spot, and residents often hear a crying baby.

“They called the police once, because they couldn’t find the baby,” Berkowitz said. - Nancy O’Brien

Image: Theresa and Misty of Queensbury Paranormal Investigation Team on a ghost hunt with Jason Haus and Grant Wilson from SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters

Source - http://poststar.com/

United Kingdom - The pen is mightier than the sword – an iconic proverb coined by Victorian novelist, poet and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839.

It’s a phrase which makes regular appearances to this very day; just like its creator, the ghost of whom is said to haunt the gothic Times Territory stately home where he once lived.

Lord David Cobbold, the great-great-grandson of Bulwer-Lytton, made the revelation about Knebworth House on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.

The 73-year-old told how he hears the whispers of his ancestor and other spectres on the estate, which has been home to the Lytton family since 1490.

“I hear them and feel their presence but my wife sees them,” he said.

“I have the feeling that Bulwer-Lytton is still there.”

Lord Cobbold, who established Knebworth’s tradition of hosting rock concerts back in the 1970s, added: “It’s the spirit of the house.

“You just feel that this is a rather special place to be.”

Born in London in May 1803, Edward Bulwer-Lytton attended Cambridge University before becoming a Member of Parliament and a prolific novelist.

His many popular books include The Caxtons and The Last Days of Pompeii.

He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866 and died at Torquay, in Devon, in 1873. - Chris Richards

Image: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Source - http://www.whtimes.co.uk/

Katrina Pierce, owner of the Riverfront Bar and Lounge

Wrightsville, Pennsylvania - Katrina Pierce was writing the daily specials on her menu board as she had done every day since Feb. 19 when a man behind her whispered, “What are you doing?”

Pierce turned around. No one was there.

She dropped the marker and ran into the back kitchen.

It wasn’t the first instance in her restaurant that she can’t quite explain, so she called in the professionals at Ghost Hunters Inc., a group of Pennsylvania residents who investigate paranormal activity.

A team of eight Ghost Hunters investigators will attempt to contact the spirits Pierce believes are present throughout her restaurant.

“Right before we opened, I came in to make sure the fridges were conditioned,” she said. “I walked into the kitchen and heard loud, organ music coming from the bar. I looked out in the bar and it stopped.”

She has also heard bathroom stall doors whipping open and shut, but stop when she walks into the bathroom. And then there’s the walking and mumbling the barmaids have told her about—sometimes when the bar’s empty.

“I do believe,” Pierce said. “I don’t know if I’d call them ghosts, but I believe there’s something out there.”

Pierce, a real estate agent for 17 years, was curious about the building’s history. She collected anything she could find to give her a glimpse into the past. Neighbors from the block had given her pictures of the building, one of which she hung out in the bar area.

The picture is from sometime between 1890 and 1920, Pierce guessed. It’s of some men standing in front of the bar, then called Abel Brothers Storefront.

Pierce pulled paperwork from York County and discovered the Abel brothers—Samuel, Milton and Albert—owned the building and sold beer, ice cream and milk. In 1937, they petitioned to sell beer, sandwiches and light lunches.

The picture of the brothers, secured by a picture hanger, constantly falls, Pierce said. But it doesn’t fall to the floor and break. It falls straight down, onto a ledge.

Allen Phillips, the founder and lead investigator of Ghost Hunters Inc., examined the picture and the hook. He said it’s impossible for the picture to fall the way it does without breaking.

“Someone has to physically pick it up and place it on the ledge,” he said. “We’re thinking it’s the Abel Brothers.”

An old picture of the buildings original owners routinely falls without breaking

Phillips started the ghost hunting service in 1974 with his brother and best friend. To this day, it’s still just a hobby. The investigators all have full-time jobs and don’t charge a fee to their clients.

“We want to get evidence that there is life beyond the grave and to debunk any other kinds of sounds,” Phillips said. “We do scientific research in a paranormal world.”

The group did a preliminary investigation Wednesday night and said they found heavy activity throughout the building. Investigator Scott Wise said he could immediately feel a presence as he walked up to the second floor.

“I just felt, like a heaviness, then it lifted up,” he said. “It’s all over.”

The group will split up into teams of two on each floor. They will use tools to attempt to contact the spirits during the four-hour investigation. An electronic voice phenomenon tool will record a spirit’s response to the investigators’ questions. The recorder can replay any noise.

The electromagnetic field detector will indicate if there is a spirit in the room. On a scale of 0.1 to 50, 50 indicating the most activity, the investigators said the Riverfront Bar and Lounge exceeded the scale during their preliminary investigation.

“I kept it to myself until the barmaids said they were hearing things,” Pierce said. “I just want to know I’m not hearing things.”

Pierce will be part of the investigation Saturday. She said she doesn’t want skeptics to write her off as crazy and encourages people to experience what she has.

“They have to come see for themselves I guess,” Pierce said. “Just come here and hang out.” - Amanda Dolasinski

Source - http://www.yorkdispatch.com/

A group of ghost hunters walk along the shore of the Androscoggin River

Dixfield, Maine - Shards of brown beer bottles and the sun-bleached white carapace of a long-dead crawdad competed for the attention of Mike Watts and Jennie King on Saturday on the rocky shore of “Island No. 10” in the Androscoggin River.

However, Watts, a Farmington iron worker, and King, a college student from Brewer and the newest member of the Bucksport Chapter of the Bangor Ghost Hunters Association, were looking for the remains of Kimberly Ann Moreau.

The 17-year-old Jay teenager was last seen leaving her Jewell Street home on the night of May 9, 1986, with an unknown person who was driving a late-model, white Trans-Am.

She was wearing a white blouse, blue jeans, white high-top sneakers, and a man’s class ring engraved “Mike 1987” and “Mike Staples.”

Images of human bones and white high-top sneakers exposed to the elements for 24 years weighed heavily on the minds of Watts and King as they slowly waded through poison ivy and brush to a woody debris field about 40 feet inland.

They paused long enough to poke the ground with long, thin metal rods used to find bodies buried underground.

“If a body’s been underground for years, there’s going to be a hollow down there,” Watts said.

They left a metal detector near the crawdad, 7 miles downriver from the Mexico boat launch where they and other members of the Ghost Hunters set off at 3:40 p.m. Friday in canoes on the search.

“My daughter was dead within four hours, I’m going to say, of when we last saw her,” Dick Moreau said.

“So, it’s never been any hope we’d find her alive,” he said. “It’s finding her remains and putting her to rest down there at the Holy Cross Cemetery. We got a stone there for her last year, with her picture right on it.”

Kim was declared legally dead in 1993. Her case remains unsolved.

Dick Moreau, who has spent the past few decades searching in vain for closure, mentally gripped a slim ray of hope at a Route 2 pullout along the river a mile east of the Dixfield police station.

“No one’s ever searched the river to my knowledge,” he said, standing near Ghost Hunters team leader Harold Murray, its psychic Felicia Woodbury, paranormal investigator Tamra Terry, and King.

He’d trucked their gear and canoes to the launch after they drove in from Bangor. Watts, a gold prospector, joined them there to help during the four-day search.

Previous psychics who’ve helped Dick Moreau told him that Kim was within a 5- or 6-mile radius of his house.

The Ghost Hunters, a team of volunteers who search for lost Maine towns, signs of paranormal activity and unexplained phenomena, began helping him in June 2009, searching land within that radius in Jay, Livermore Falls and Canton.

This weekend, they’re searching islands and river banks from Mexico to Livermore Falls. By 11:30 a.m. Saturday, they’d searched eight islands.

An hour later, Murray, a self-taught archaeologist, Terry and Woodbury, a self-professed psychic and ghost whisperer, searched Island No. 9 while Watts and King did Island No. 10.

“The psychics have pinpointed where she is, they just can’t give me a road map to get to her,” Dick Moreau said.

“I’ve had them say, ‘She’s on the side of a brook, and there’s some big rocks and big trees,’ and I said, ‘You know what? I live in the state of Maine. I mean, how many rocks and big trees and brooks can I find? Give me something that is very, very unique that I can find, and now you give me something to go by.

“Like if you told me I’m going to find her and there’s going to be a big white birch and there’s a gray granite rock there, or there’s a black granite rock. Now, I’ve got something to look for,” Moreau said. “That makes a heck of a lot of difference. But that’s what it’s always been: ‘She’s over there and that’s what you’ll find.’”

They’ve never had that missing specific until now with the Ghost Hunters sleuthing for Kim, he said.

“Harold has something specific to search the river, but I don’t know what it is,” he said.

Murray said he was keeping mum on the detail so as not to disappoint Moreau if it doesn’t pan out. He said they have information of possible activity on the river.

Prior to launching on Friday, he pointed out islands on the river in Dixfield on a DeLorme Maine Atlas and Gazetteer opened to pages 18 and 19, while sharing search plans with Watts and the team.

“We’re going to start searching the islands right down here, because this is what we had, that she was brought to Dixfield,” Murray said. “We saw it in a report that someone said she was thrown in the river right in the next town, so I said we’re going to do it. We came up here, to Mexico, just in case someone was wrong with the location.”

It’s the team’s first missing person search; an experiment, Murray called it. They’ve searched the Meadow View area of Canton, which is 4.3 miles by air from the Moreau home, and where Woodbury and other Ghost Hunters psychics may have found a lingering spirit.

“Ever since my great-grandmother died in 2000, I’ve been able to see ghosts, and I’m considered a psychic,” Woodbury said.

“I see ghosts and speak with them and they speak to me,” she said. “There’s one spot, in Meadow View, that I picked up on something, but I don’t know. I know the other psychics on our team did pick up on something, too, but they didn’t confirm what it was. So, I don’t know if it’s Kim or not.”

“We do investigate the unexplained and Kim’s unexplained,” Murray said. But this weekend, they’re looking for Kim’s bones and not her ghost.

It’s renewed hope for Dick Moreau, who has taped more than 10,000 missing-child fliers to telephone poles in the search radius since Kim went missing.

“We had a lot of things indicating other places, like the party scene in Canton down on Meadow View, and I still don’t rule that out, and that’s the hard part,” he said.

“At least this will give us answers and eliminate another possibility,” he said. “But I’ll be honest with you. The only way we’re going to find her is with God’s hand guiding us, because after 24 years of not looking for much, we’re looking for elbows, knees, those kinds of things. That’s what we’re looking for and it will take God’s help to locate it.

“I said a long time ago, this isn’t about any revenge. It isn’t about anything else, just bringing Kim home, whatever needs to be done.” - Terry Karkos

Source - http://www.sunjournal.com/

Lufkin, Texas - A Lufkin woman claims she saw the ghost of her mother-in-law standing behind her dancing daughter this week.

Dezarae Smith’s 6-year-old daughter, Ivy, and husband, Corey, were on the front porch of their home on Wednesday when a young boy took a picture of the two with his cell phone.

“They were going fishing, and my daughter asked this little boy to take a picture of her while she was dancing,” Smith said. “There were only three people on the porch at the time. I was at work when the picture was taken, but when I saw it, my mouth just dropped. I don’t believe in ghosts, but it made a believer out of me.”

A form stands behind the little girl in the picture, and Smith said you can see the outline of a woman’s face, nose and eyes, as well as a hand.

“I know it’s not Ivy’s shadow,” Smith said. “It’s almost like the figure is facing the person who took the picture and waving ‘Hi.’ Kind of like making itself known. You don’t see that in a shadow.”

Smith’s mother-in-law passed away on July 13, 2007 - three years and one day before the picture was taken. On Tuesday, other relatives had been pressuring the 6-year-old to move forward from memories of her beloved grandmother - a suggestion that upset her.

The young girl and older woman had a very close connection, Smith said, and the two loved to dance together.

“It makes me more sure that it’s Ivy’s grandmother standing behind her, because she asked the boy to take a picture of her dancing,” Smith said. “When she died from a massive heart attack it really affected everyone pretty bad. It was very unexpected and no one knew she was sick or even had heart problems. For the first two years of her life, Ivy would live with her grandmother off and on. They had a very special bond. Even now, Ivy will sit in her room talking to herself and no one knows who she is talking to.”

Neighbors and co-workers agree the form is a ghost, Smith said, but husband Corey was slightly skeptical.

“When I show it to people, they get chills on their necks and arms,” Smith said. “My husband wasn’t sure it was a ghost, but when I pointed out the details, he came to agree it was a ghost.”

If anything, Smith said this experience is helping her family gain peace.

“We think that Ivy’s grandma is still there and protecting her and telling her that everything is going to be fine,” Smith said. “It’s just confirmation that her grandma is watching over her.” - Melissa Hayes

Source - http://lufkindailynews.com/

Portland, Maine - A group of volunteers who normally search for signs of paranormal activity and unexplained phenomena are joining in the search for a woman missing since 1986.

Kimberly Ann Moreau went out with some friends on the night of May 9, 1986 and never returned home.  Her family and police have spent the past 24 years searching for answers.

“There was a mention that she might have been thrown into the Androscoggin River at a location, so we are going to go down there because no one has searched the river,” explained Harold Murray, the founder and lead investigator with the Bangor Ghost Hunters.

“Kim’s case is the first case for Bangor Ghost Hunters being a missing persons.  There are a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of unexplained things.”

The group has met with Dick Moreau, Kim’s father, numerous times over the past year.  They have searched forests and fields in the area and followed leads developed by looking through information gathered by the family and investigators.

“I’m not saying we are going to go out there and we are going to find her,” said Murray.  “The odds of us finding her are pretty astronomical.  We might come across something that might help Richard and his search.”

“At this point we haven’t been successful finding her anywhere else,” said Dick Moreau.  “Another set of eyes says how come nobody has ever looked down the river.  We’ve gone through and thought okay, what are the things that have not yet been done, and searching the river was one of them.”

A group of about 20 volunteers from across the state will meet on Friday in the town of Mexico, Maine, to launch their canoes loaded with gear.  They are hoping to search islands in the river throughout the weekend for any trace of Kimberly Ann Moreau.

“I’m a father.  I have a daughter.  I would be doing the same thing that Richard Moreau is doing, too,” explained Murray.  “He wants closure.  If it was my little girl, I would be doing the same thing.”

“There is a hope that we are going to come across something, somebody will finally speak, I mean how much longer can you hold it?” questioned Moreau.  “We are going to be there until she comes home.”

“If anybody does know what happened to Kim, if this was your daughter, wouldn’t you want to know?  Please come forward and give us the information,” added Murray.

If you have any information related to the disappearance of Kimberly Ann Moreau, you can remain anonymous and contact the Bangor Ghost Hunters at 1-207-659-4053.  You can also find more information about the group by clicking here to go to their web site.

The group is also welcoming more people to join their search and are looking for some logistical support for their effort, like places along the river to stop and recharge their gear.  - Chris Marine

Source - http://www.wcsh6.com/

Abingdon, Virginia - To the naked eye, the caretaker’s home is all that is left of the Washington County poorhouse on Walden Road.

But the property’s owner believes that more than just the building remains.

“Everybody always says, ‘Oh, the house has spirits, the house is haunted,’” owner Donna Bise said.

The home, built in 1865, is now the Maple Spring Inn, a four-bedroom bed and breakfast that hosted its first guest in January.

Bise said the property has been in her family for several generations, and she has been salvaging the dilapidated house since 2004.

Contractors working on the building have come across some strange stuff, she said, including water that runs on its own, doors that slam shut of their own accord and other phenomena.

So Bise called the Haunt Masters Club, a Tri-Cities area paranormal investigation team. Club members conducted an initial investigation of the area and returned to check out “hot spots” Saturday night.

The group spent several hours in the inn, conducting electronic voice phenomenon sessions, or EVP, checking temperature and electromagnetic radiation with a gaussmeter and videotaping rooms with infrared cameras. They will analyze the footage and report the findings to Bise.

“It’s not like you see on TV but just like you see on TV,” investigator Maggie Ryan said, explaining the groups’ technique.

Justin Guess, one of the group’s founders, said that June 19, when they first investigated, they isolated two audio messages: “I’m over it.” and “You shouldn’t have slept around.”

But before the club even goes to an allegedly haunted place, they research the area. Guess found deeds to Bise’s land dating to the 1700’s when King George II owned it. He also found records of other owners, an old map of the property and old pictures of the house and the poor farm house.

“What makes us different is we’re also a folklore investigation group,” Ryan said. “We use a more scientific approach and keep weeding out things until we come to the things you can’t explain.”

Bise said she wasn’t concerned by the possibility that her inn might be haunted.

“Not only have I wanted to know if there are any paranormal activities here, but I was interested to learn the history,” she said. “Just the history has been intriguing to me, if we don’t find anything else.”

Ryan said she feels that this area is home to paranormal activity in part because of the area’s history.

“Look at the history of this area,” she said. “We had the Civil War, the building of a nation. You can’t not have some sort of something left behind.”

One of the group’s founders, Jacob Denton, said one of the main things about the Haunt Masters Club is the group’s dedication to research.

“We have learned a lot about history through ghost hunting,” he said. - Allie Robinson

Source - http://www2.tricities.com/

United Kingdom - She was the last woman ever hanged in Britain and she could still be haunting a churchyard in Penn. Or so a paranormal researcher believes.

Author and photographer Eddie Brazil, 54, has been researching for his book about haunted churches around England.

His work has led to him to the idea that the ghost of Ruth Ellis – who was executed in 1955 – may be returning to the site where she murdered her lover David Blakely.

The first tale of ghostly apparitions comes from a Penn farm worker who was killed when he fell from his horse in the 18th century.

His ghost was said to appear up in the churchyard.

In 1980s the figure of a woman in white was seen to leave the churchyard by the east gate and walk down the hill which runs by the side of the churchyard.

Hazlemere resident Eddie explained: “Nobody knows the identity of the apparition but the Crown Public House across the road - they have a woman in white.

“We found out that David Blakely, who was murdered by Ruth Ellis, is buried in Penn churchyard, – and they used to drink in the crown pub.

“She told Blakely’s parents that she loved him and ghost identification is a weird business.

“We thought could it be the ghost of Ruth Ellis still pining for Blakely?”

Eddie said he is a believer in ghosts and thinks eventually science may prove their existence.

“It’s my opinion that ghosts do exist. There’s a theory gaining ground on the scientific table in the last few years called non-locality theory which suggests mind and brain are separate, that the mind acts through the brain, but when you have bodily death the mind or consciousness can carry on in some from.

“The analogy would be like a television or radio signal which requires the nuts and bolts of the television to convert the sounds and pictures.

“If you were to destroy the TV or radio i.e have bodily death you wouldn’t destroy the signal or consciousness.”

Eddie, who had his first paranormal experience at age of 10 in London, wants to hear from Buckinghamshire residents about their own sightings and stories – not just about churches – but all paranormal activity.

Eddie’s book, including the tale of Ruth Ellis, will be published next year.

Eddie co-wrote recently published The Borley Rectory Companion, the complete guide to the most haunted house in England, with colleague Paul Adams and veteran British ghosthunter, Peter Underwood. - James Nadal

Source - http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/

Tarrytown, New York - On June 26, 14-year-old Rachel Lambert saw something a bit unusual in a photograph she took earlier during her trip to Washington Irving’s Sunnyside.

After seeing Tim Burton’s film, “Sleepy Hollow,” Rachel pursued her interest in the paranormal and convinced her family to take a trip from Rotterdam, N.Y. to see what the town of the horseman is really like.

They ended up wandering the estate of Tarrytown’s Sunnyside and as they did, Rachel saw something strange in a window of Irving’s cottage. She snapped a picture and moved on, as not to miss any of their tour guide’s fascinating historical speech.

When Rachel got home the next night and viewed the picture on the 27-inch screen of her computer, she found that the creator of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow had not let her down.

She and her family were able to make out a figure that looks like the head and upper body of a ghost holding a quill pen. Rachel determined that before her eyes was a picture of the ghost of Washington Irving.

Rachel’s father Ed believes that his daughter’s sighting of the spirit may not have been a sheer streak of luck. Just before the family stopped outside the cottage, they were having a conversation with the guide about Rachel’s achievements as an English honors student and her dream of becoming a writer.

They additionally spoke about her interest in Sleepy Hollow and how she had planned out sights to see and goals for the trip, which included stopping at Washington Irving’s grave in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery beforehand.

The family thinks that Irving’s spirit may have overheard this conversation and acted. Perhaps Irving’s thoughts were, “I’m gonna let her see this and do this for an aspiring author,” as Rachel’s father put it.

When Historic Hudson Valley, the organization entrusted to maintain the estate, was contacted, spokesperson Rob Schweitzer said he was “unaware” of any ghosts at the estate.

But some ghost enthusiasts maintain the Sunnyside is known for holding the spirit of Washington Irving.

“The legend says he still haunts the house,” said Donna Davies, of Haunted Hudson Valley. “He passed away in the house. If he was going to haunt any place he would haunt Sunnyside.”

Another ghost hunter, Linda Zimmermann, has written many books on the hauntings in the Hudson Valley and agrees with Davies’ assessment in her book Ghost Investigator: Hauntings of the Hudson Valley, Volume 1: “Irving made his home at Sunnyside in Tarrytown. Some people claim that to this day, he still resides in his beautiful mansion. That are reports that Irving’s spirit walks the halls and rooms of Sunnyside, and that he particularly favors the tower know as the Pagoda. It seems to be poetic justice that the man most know for his ghost story would pass on and create one of his own.”

Rachel was certainly excited by this sighting and claims that she is now even more interested in Sleepy Hollow, Irving and ghost stories. As for her parents, Rachel’s mother emphasized that they have always been open about the paranormal with their children and allowed them to explore its possibility rather than fear it.

Ed however, stated that he always thought there could be a potential for the spirit world, but that there are also other scientific ways to explain such mystical events. “Do we make these things up in our minds or are they there?” he initially thought. But after taking several close looks at the photograph he said, “I think it’s there.”

Many family members and friends that were shown Rachel’s photograph were similarly shocked by the image and questioned their ideas about the spiritual world.

“I think it made some people believers,” said Ed Lambert.

Some even said that it looks like there are several ghosts in the image, besides Irving’s spirit. The Lambert family believes that some kind of paranormal investigation should be done to determine what is really in the photograph and at Sunnyside.

The Lambert family plans to return to Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown in the fall to see the scenery of the season, and perhaps to further explore the possibility of the supernatural in the villages.

Although Rachel is likely to also pursue her interest in the paranormal elsewhere, her recent experience and haunting souvenir caused her to admit, “I think there’s something special about Sleepy Hollow.” - Madeleine Dopico

Source - http://tarrytown.patch.com/

Janice Cohee in the basement of the Chisholm Trail Museum

Wellington, Kansas - A second group of ghost hunters is taking a closer look at Wellington’s Chisholm Trail Museum after they claim to have found evidence of paranormal activity.

Wichita League of Paranormal Investigators Jan Cohee of Wellington and Brendan Brannan converged on the museum, Friday night, setting up night vision cameras, voice recorders and electronic field radiation testers to see if their ghostly lightning might strike twice.

About a year ago, the group was in the museum and says they captured voices, thumps, heaving breathing and responses to questions.

“We had a lot of personal experiences,” said Cohee. “When I was down in the basement, I had my camera in my lap and my legs crossed and it was picked up and put on the other side of my leg,” said Cohee.

“We heard footsteps,” said Brannan. “but it was kind of a cat and mouse game. You’d go in one room and hear it on the other end,”

The two investigators aren’t the only ones who have felt something odd in the museum.

Patty Hatcher, a regular volunteer at the museum claims she saw a man appear in a doorway and then suddenly he was gone.

“I started to say hello and then he was gone - he was just like a tall gentleman,” said Hatcher. “I can hear little footsteps upstairs,”

The two were hoping not only for sounds, but for more visual evidence of spirits in the museum.

As Cohee started her journey into the depths of the basement, she told of her first time in the museum’s lowest level. Traveling to the right of the staircase, Cohee said she not only heard a ghost, but saw one.

“I turned to the right and I had seen something peek around this wall at me and then when I was walking up to it, I heard two taps and I was telling one of the other investigators to come here, that I had seen something around the corner at me and when I went back to listen to the recording, there was a ‘help me’,” said Cohee. “The tapping was a ‘look here’ and you can clearly hear the ‘help me’ - it was a white-looking mass - but you could see the facial features. You could see the eyes and nose, the mouth.”

Feelings of electricity or soft touches are common, Cohee says, and she says she’s experienced some before in the museum, but mostly the spirits come through audio capture.

Brannan related his story from last years hunt as he traveled to the third floor - the former surgical area of the former hospital - in search of ghosts. Near a room filled with old toys, the Wichita man said he got responses to a question asked in the dark.

“I said, is the fire truck your favorite toy, if it is could you please knock loudly twice and then there were two loud bangs in here,” said Brannan. “I was just talking with the people downstairs and they said the guy that owned the santa suit (which is on display in the toy room) was a firefighter, so it’s all coming together now,”

The two ghost hunters traveled in the darkened rooms, asking questions and waiting for responses, all as voice recorders and camera equipment rolled. The two still have to go over footage to make sure they didn’t miss anything, but say more than likely that they will be back.

Museum volunteer Richard Gilfillan of Wellington has seen groups of ghost hunters come to the museum before, but says he wants solid answers.

“People are curious and so am I,” said Gilfillan. “I want to see something, seriously. I want to see something concrete. I want solid evidence that they are here.” - Teresa Lee

Source - http://www.dodgeglobe.com/

The Alexander Inn

Knoxville, Tennessee - Oak Ridge’s historic Alexander Inn is well-known not only for the scientists who once stayed there, but for those who some say are still inside.

Saturday night, investigators with the Office of Paranormal Studies put all the ghost stories to the test.

“We’re ghost hunters. We go around to places where paranormal activity is claimed. We’ll check it out for ourselves and see what we can find,” said Office of Paranormal Studies Co-Founder Clint Ferguson.

“There’s a lot of rumors that it’s haunted. We’d like to find out if it’s haunted or it’s not. If there’s activity here, we’ll find it,” Investigator Pete Fransen said.

Requests to track paranormal activity at the old hotel aren’t rare.

“I get a call probably every week to either take a tour to see the ghosts or somebody wants to come look for ghosts,” Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort Executive Director Kate Groover said.

This time, the Oak Ridge Revitalization Effort decided to say yes.

“A month ago, I took it to my board and said, ‘Look, what are we going to do about this?’ And they said, ‘Let them go. It can’t hurt us,’” Groover recounted.

ORRE, which bought the Alexander Inn last December, has faced consistent challenges with fund-raising efforts to restore the old hotel.

“We’ve been a little disappointed with our fund-raising efforts and so we thought, maybe this will help us do something, maybe it’ll bring us more attention, maybe we’ll get some more national exposure out of it,” Groover said.

Investigators spent six hours studying the deteriorating, graffiti-filled rooms and hallways.

“Sometimes we catch stuff, most of the time we don’t,” Ferguson said.

They used electromagnetic field detectors and night-vision cameras, as well as radios to open up potential lines of communication.

“Capture disembodied voices, voices of the dead,” Ferguson said.

Investigators also checked temperatures throughout the night with thermometers because they believe paranormal activity typically brings with it a drop in temperature.

When studying a room, the team would often ask questions out loud such as, “Is there anyone else here?” or “Would you please make yourself known?”

Towards the end of the evening, some investigators believe they picked up audio on one of their radios.

However, they say more conclusive results won’t come for another few weeks until after they’ve been able to review all the data, including audio and video recordings.

If anything abnormal shows up, the paranormal may become a more normal piece of Oak Ridge’s history.

“We’ll start having ghost tours I guess and charging money for it,” Groover laughed. - Alison Morrow

Source - http://www.wbir.com/

Pontotoc, Mississippi - Lochinvar Plantation is a true part of the old south, steeped in the lore of the southern states and drenched in the traditions of long ago.

Built in the late 1830’s, the mansion was home to the Gordon family for many years and watched over by an old caretaker. The Gordon family is long gone now - but the old caretaker still watches over the place.

Lochinvar was built by Robert Gordon, a Scottish adventurer, in the late 1830’s as a gift for his wife. At the time, Gordon owned a strip of land which stretched all of the way from Pontotoc to Aberdeen, sixty miles away.

Aberdeen was Gordon’s own town. He had founded a trading post there in the early 1830’s and named the place Dundee in honor of a town in Scotland. He later changed to the name to Aberdeen.

It was near Pontotoc where Gordon found the land where he wanted to build his home. The location that he chose had been the land of the Choctaw Indian chief, Chinubi and once the Indians were gone from the area, he began building the new house.

After moving into the grand mansion, the Gordons would have one child, a son named James. His earliest memories of Lochinvar included magnificent parties and his personal servant, named Ebenezer. He could not remember a time when Ebenezer had not been a part of his life. He taught James to hunt and fish, told him stories, supervised his manners and when he was old enough, packed his trunks and watched him leave for the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1851.

As the years passed, the beloved slave grew older and became known by the respectful name of “Uncle Eb”. He remained particularly close to James Gordon and their relationship went far beyond master and servant.

In February of 1856, James married Virginia Wiley and in December of that year, their daughter Annie was born. From that time that she could walk, Annie was attached to Uncle Eb. She followed him everywhere and begged him to push her on the swings and to tell her stories.

Delighted, Uncle Eb took under his wing a new generation of Gordons.

Then came the Civil War. Robert Gordon, now too old to be involved, gave his support and advice to James and they raised a company of Confederate cavalry, the first from northern Mississippi.

Before James Gordon left for service, he called Uncle Eb to see him. “Take care of my family and the plantation,” he told his mentor, “My father needs your help and I need to know that you are here with my family. Don’t let anything happen to them and I’ll be back home soon.” He embraced the older man and told him goodbye.

This began Uncle Eb’s role as the caretaker and guardian of Lochinvar. Every afternoon, he would begin his rounds of the property, making sure the gates were closed, the doors to the house were locked and that there were no strangers lurking around the plantation. He moved his bed to the hallway outside of Annie’s door, where he slept from that night on. He took to roaming the grounds at various times throughout the night, carrying an oil lantern and making sure that everything was secure.

As time passed, he learned other skills and began making repairs on the house and the farming equipment. He learned to cook and prepare the meals and even to darn socks and make repairs on clothing.

Night after night, the light from Uncle Eb’s lantern circled the house, the barn, the garden, the pasture and the orchards, reassuring himself that nothing was amiss and that the people he loved were safe.

One night, while Uncle Eb was on his rounds, a rider approached. It was Captain James Gordon, home for a brief stay at Lochinvar. A few days after he left, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, returning to combat with the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, Armstrong’s Brigade.

Colonel Gordon and Uncle Eb would never meet again.

One rainy night, Uncle Eb was roused from his sleep by a strange sound. He took his lantern outside and crossed the grounds in the storm. He was soaked to the skin before he was sure that everything was secure. A day or so later, what seemed to be a cold developed into pneumonia. In less than a week, old Uncle Eb was dead.

It was a long time before Colonel Gordon received word of his friend’s death. He was in England at the time on a mission for President Davis. On his way home, he landed in North Carolina and was captured and imprisoned. He soon escaped and made his way to Canada. There, he met and befriended an actor named John Wilkes Booth. This casual friendship with Booth later pointed suspicion to Gordon when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Luckily, Gordon was able to prove his innocence.

After the war, Gordon finally learned that Uncle Eb had passed away while carrying out his duties to the plantation.

Many believe that since Uncle Eb died before the war ended and before his guardianship of the Gordon home came to an end, he has not rested in peace in the years since the Civil War.

As the years have passed, his oil lantern is still seen roaming the grounds of the Lochinvar estate. It has been seen for decades and locals believe that the light belongs to the spirit of Uncle Eb, watching over his beloved family throughout eternity.

Lochinvar is a private residence north of the town of Pontotoc. The town is located about 20 miles west of Tupelo on Highway 6. - Kristina Stancil

Source - http://www.allvoices.com/

Beckley, West Virginia - Strange footsteps, voices and even mysterious music sound through the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building when no one can be found making them. Could the historical Beckley building be haunted?

The president of West Virginia Paranormal Inc., Thomas Moseley, says he wouldn’t call it a “haunting,” but he thinks paranormal activity is going on.

A team of six people set up night vision cameras, digital voice recorders, hand cameras and electro-magnetic field detectors and got to work June 13-14.

“We started setting up at 7 p.m., and with all the problems we had, we didn’t get completely set up till midnight,” Moseley said. “We then left at 5 that morning and we did come across some interesting things.”

Problems included everything from cameras not being set up right to battery-powered hand-held cameras going off completely. Moseley said it could have been paranormal, but some of it was not.

“When the battery-powered cameras went out, we did see a couple of orbs appear,” he said. “When something is trying to manifest, it can draw energy out of things like that to make it go off.”

The building was built in 1931 to honor World War I veterans and housed the theater and arts center. Theatre West Virginia has plans to take over the building in August to set up a year-round performing arts facility.

The team came across the building in an attempt to find local “haunted” places. Upon its research, it came up with the Wildwood House, which it plans to investigate in August, and the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building.

West Virginia Paranormal hasn’t been the only one to investigate the alleged ghostly activity. About four years ago, Soldiers Memorial Theatre director Kathy Zirckle says, a seven-member team from World Paranormal Investigations of Ohio went in the building and took a picture of what it believed was an apparition in the basement.

Although Moseley says the team wasn’t lucky enough to find it, it did find a few things that were strange in that area.

“We did get a couple of electronic voice phenomena on our recorders,” he said. “We had another EVP of a Civil War cadence in the auditorium where they sang something like ‘two soldiers going to die.’ It was strange.”

Moseley says something is indeed there, but they have not finished going through the evidence yet. What they have found is that a lot of claims have been debunked.

“A lot of people talked about a ghostly moan, but there are pigeons living up there and their coo could have been confused with it,” he said. “People also talked about seeing orbs, balls of light believed to be from the beyond, and we did see a few, but to be honest, the place was dusty and there’s a fine line between an orb and a dust particle. Orbs emit their own light. They don’t reflect it.”

For that reason, Moseley says, judging by evidence so far, the building looks to be a “residual haunting.” In this type of haunting, Moseley says, leftover energy from another point in time goes on whether someone is there or not.

“I believe there is paranormal activity at Soldiers Memorial, but there isn’t enough evidence right now to say that it’s haunted,” he said. “I think it’s residual because the EVPs were not responding to our questions, which leads me to believe that it could happen at the same time every night whether someone is there or not. The apparition found earlier, though, would imply an intelligent haunting, so we’re not sure.” - Andrea Lannom

Source - http://www.register-herald.com/

Douglas Myers and his son David

Wooster, Ohio - Whether it’s in his quest to learn more about the city he grew up in and its people, or learn more about spirits lurking around, Douglas Myers is sure of one thing: Don’t believe it until you see it.

It’s what propels him in his hobby as a lover of history and a researcher of the paranormal—otherwise known as ghost hunting—outside of his day job as the sole civilian employee of the Wooster Fire Department.

“Like the elephant’s child, I’m just full of insatiable curiosity,” Myers said of his love of history. “I grew up with a family that never threw away anything, so we were surrounded by family antiques and collectibles, so it’s just part of my nature.”

A Wooster history buff, Myers has a fascination for the unusual, like his research of Ralph Henderson, the first Wooster police officer killed in the line of duty. Harry Glick, who while in prison for the crime, went on to build Ohio’s first electric chair.

“When it comes to local history I have a fascination for the unusual, the everyday man versus the noble pioneer and Founding Father, because there’s lots more everyday men and women in our 200-plus-year history than noble pioneers,” Myers said.

He said he researches the everyday man in hopes of “giving him credit for his sacrifice, that’s a real satisfaction in bringing these people to light, and their stories.”

Wayne County Probate Court Judge Ray Leisy said Myers’ attention to detail and love of research makes him a great historian.

“When you discuss history you sometimes fall into the habit of repeating not rumors, but popular history about what people say actually took place, but when you start checking the detail at that time, it’s been embellished,” he said. “Doug never falls into the trap. He spends a lot of time going back and checking his sources.”

When writing Broken Banks of the Wayne County Frontier, Leisy passed it on to Myers for a quick review to make sure nothing was amiss.

“I’m glad to say I had it right, I try to do the research he does,” Leisy said.

In addition to local history, Myers is a Civil War history fan. On one notable trip, he and his son, Daniel, went to Gettysburg, Pa., to view battlefields, but also to try and see what they could find at night.

“I kept a very open mind, I didn’t particularly believe in ghosts. I kept a skeptical mind. You needed to show me for me to believe it,” he said.

But walking the field one night with his son, he said they heard a replay of part of the battle, cannons and all.

“In the middle of the field, in the middle of the night, as clear to our ears as it could be—Fire! and boom-boom, boom-boom—and dead silence,” Myers said.

It was one of the more “awkward, bizarre and surreal moments of my life,” Daniel Myers said, but helped to give him “new perspective on things.”

“He is a good person, a wonderful father, as a friend he’s there when you need him,” he said of his father. “He’ll help anyone out.”

So that sparked his interest, and now Myers researches sites of hauntings, even local spots, to see what he can find. He said photographing “death curve,” the 90-degree curve near Wooster Memorial Park, produced three orbs in his photo—signs of possible spirits.

Coincidentally, he said, he came across information about a crash there and three out of four family members died at that site.

Some day, Myers said, he’d love to set up a ghost tour in Wooster. “There’s enough stories to really fill an evening of haunted Wooster as there is in Gettsyburg.”

A lover of theater, Myers has performed in local plays and dinner theaters, including a performance of The Philadelphia Story, where he met his wife, Shelly.

“She played the upstairs maid and I just couldn’t resist a woman in uniform,” Myers said.

Both had auditioned for the play at the insistence of two friends.

“It was just one of those things,” she said. “We met and just kind of clicked I guess you could say.”

Myers said his wife of more than 13 years is “very supportive of all my interests ... tolerates my collection, is extremely, mercifully tolerant of my collections and my outings.”

“He’s just eclectic,” Shelly Myers said with a laugh. “He likes whatever he can find.”

That would include collections like “Death Dirt”—soil samples he collected from historical sites, like the ambush site of Bonnie and Clyde, the area of East Liverpool where Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed, or the site of the wreck of the USS Shenandoah.

“I always wanted to see that site,” he said of where Bonnie and Clyde died.

“And what a thrill, it really was. I got there and I am there all by myself, and this abused memorial people had chipped souvenirs off of. I go, I have to bring a souvenir home with me. I thought, oh, how about some dirt?”

Sometimes those collections will be turned into gifts. Like the sample of sand in a Smucker’s jar from Ponte Verda Beach, Fla., where a German sub came to shore given to his daughter, Lauren Chitty.

“He’s all over the place. He likes being funny ... He’s quirky, I’m just lucky he’s the way he is,” Chitty said. - Chris Leonard

Source - http://www.the-daily-record.com/

Tupelo’s Lyric Theater

Tupelo, Mississippi - Tupelo has a rich history that lends itself to the paranormal activity that has been reported around the area.

The town was originally called Gum Pond due to the numerous black gum trees in the area. However, it would be renamed in honor of the Battle of Tupelo that happened during the Civil War.

The area is such a hot spot that Jumpin’ Gene Simmons (not the KISS Front man) the co-writer of Tim McGraw’s hit song Indian Outlaw, wrote a song in 1964 entitled, Haunted House.

A little known fact that also lends itself to the possibility of paranormal activity is that Tupelo was used as a hiding spot for members of the Mafia.

According to Dexter Babin, a life long student of the Mafia, “Although the group, Dixie Mafia, wasn’t a member of the Kosa Nostra. It was actually an association of criminals with different backgrounds.”

Even just being criminals, the possibility that murders were not in the group is small. Murders tragically end lives shortly and lead to the possibility that some paranormal researchers believe lead to ghostly phenomenon.

One of the paranormal hot spots is The Lyric Theater, a historic landmark that is still being used to this day.

The story of particular interest, at least to enthusiasts of the paranormal is the tornado in the 30s that leveled the town. According to Tom Booth, Executive Director of the Community theater “The information about the use of the Lyric during the tornado that occurred on April 5, 1936 is true.”

Many sites have reported that the dead and dying of Tupelo were brought to the Lyric. Surgeries were performed by using the popcorn poppers to sterilize the instruments.

Local legends say that the theater is still haunted to this day. Probably the best time to visit the theater, if you want this kind of experience would be during the annual “Haunted Theater” event in October. - Kristina Stancil

Source - http://www.allvoices.com/

Devon and Tony Bell

Eau Claire, Wisconsin - The first time Devon Bell had a paranormal experience, she thought her husband, Tony, was playing a joke on her.

After investigating the Charlotte Mills Bridge near the small Clark County community of Christie, the couple played back sound recordings from a recorder they had used.

They could hear their voices, which was normal. But there were three separate phrases on the recording they could not place.

One was of a man yelling for help. The second, Devon said, was an order to “Take them,” with the third voice asking if they felt nervous, with a whispered “no” response.

Devon told her husband to fess up to his prank. He told her the added sounds were no joke.

“We could feel like there was something behind us,” Tony said. “I could feel the hairs rise against the back of my neck.”

Devon and Tony Bell are the co-founders of The Haunting Experiments, a local group that researches legends of paranormal activities in Wisconsin. The five-person group is currently working on season one of their webisodes, the most recent of which was released two weeks ago on their website and on YouTube.

Devon said the project process works like this: She researches and writes the stories about the legend while Tony does the video work and occasional special effects. Then she, or another group member narrates the video.

However, these are not necessarily paranormal investigation videos. Devon described most of the webisodes and videos they have produced as “travel videos” of the legends. The Charlotte Mills Bridge project was one of the few paranormal investigations they have done.

“We get more into the ghost lore part of it,” she said.

Ghost legends aren’t in short supply, according to Chris Weiner, the lead investigator of the Chippewa Valley Paranormal Investigators. The Chippewa Valley is rich with paranormal activity, he said, describing the area as a “virtual paranormal investigator’s playground.”

Even with the rich supply of lore in the area, The Haunting Experiments has traveled beyond the Chippewa Valley to pursue ghost lore, traveling as far as Clark County, Devon said.

The group itself began in 2008 as a way for the self-proclaimed “legend trippers” to delve deeper into paranormal lore, which Devon has been interested in since childhood. She said she chose the name, ‘The Haunting Experiments’ because it was different from other groups she had heard of, and because she did not want to be known as the Eau Claire investigators.

“I knew that’s not what we wanted to specialize in,” she said in an e-mail.

The video work started on a whim in 2009 when Tony decided to record footage while they were at the Soo Line Bridge, or the “S” bridge in Eau Claire, with their digital camera. Since then, they’ve upgraded equipment, Tony said.

To date, the group has released about 12 videos, and there will be 12 webisodes at the end of season one, Devon said. The idea for a season of webisodes stemmed from a friend at Eau Claire Public Access who told them about the increasing popularity of the medium.

“We had already made other ghost lore videos, so why not launch something brand new for our group?” Devon said.

The couple said they plan to make a second season of webisodes as well. For now, the couple is pursuing their affinity for paranormal activity as a hobby, Devon said, although someday she and Tony could see themselves pursuing film for a living.

Along with the videos and season one of their webisodes, the group is working on a documentary focusing on the paranormal lore in Caryville, which Tony said will be completed by next spring.

For the documentary, they interviewed Weiner, who said working with the couple is a joy.

“They don’t just go in looking for a thrill,” he said. “They’re in it for the research, the history, and of course to make their documentaries, which is a job in and of itself ... the viewers of these documentaries can live vicariously through those episodes.” - Breann Schossow

Source - http://www.leadertelegram.com/

Culpeper, Virginia - In an unconfirmed report, Bigfoot visited the town of Culpeper last week, leaving a massive dent on the top of the town manager’s work car.

On a more serious note, someone - or something - flattened the top of the 2000 Ford Contour as it sat parked in the lot at town hall.

Culpeper Town Manager Jeff Muzzy, contacted Monday, was at a loss as to what happened.

“It looks like something fell or jumped up and down on it for several minutes,” he said. “I do not think this is personal. In fact, I had not even thought of that as a possibility.”

Though the older model car is assigned to him for work use, Muzzy said he rarely drives it. Instead, the car is more often used by other town hall staff members, he said.

The car is parked farthest out from town hall and closest to Main Street - within a stone’s throw from 7-Eleven. It sits not far from the back entrance to the law offices of Monica Chernin as well.

The car is not identifiable as the town manager’s work car and is parked in a spot reserved, more generally, for town staff.

Muzzy said the town filed an insurance claim for the damage, but he doubted it would result in much money due to the vehicle’s age. The Contour, is still drivable, he said, and was away from its parking spot and in use Monday morning.

“To me, someone just wandered over there and said, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be fun to jump on that car?’ I hate to even give them credit for it,” Muzzy said.

He acknowledged town staffers are still talking about the strange incident. Many theories - including the Bigfoot one - have been tossed around.

Or maybe it was a bear, some have jokingly speculated.

The damage was reported to police, and the incident is being investigated as vandalism. - Allison Brophy Champion

Source - http://www2.starexponent.com/

United Kingdom - A retired Royal Navy officer who has spent years studying ancient texts, believes he has at last solved the mystery of the disappearance of the Holy Grail.

For millions of believers, the Holy Grail is the most precious object on earth.

The chalice, which Christ drank from at the Last Supper and was later used to collect some of his blood at the Crucifixion, is a priceless Christian relic.

Faithful have searched in vain to find it. Finally it has been discovered, overlooked and unrecognized, in the corner of a cathedral in the heart of England.

“I never intended to start out on a search to find the Holy Grail. I was interested initially in researching the links between the Crusaders, England and the medieval saints,” the Sunday Express quotes E.C. Coleman, as saying. Coleman believes that the artifact is the Holy Grail

“However the more I read the more I was led along a trail that explained the extraordinary journey this lost relic has taken.

Historians and academics will be astonished by the revelation that Christendom’s most prized historical object has been under their noses for decades.

In 1889 Lincoln Cathedral was undergoing repair. A group of workmen lifted a large Portland marble slab and revealed the tomb of Bishop Oliver Sutton, who died in 1299.

Inside the grave, archaeologists found a chalice next to the skeleton; it was still standing where it had been placed almost 600 years earlier. It was made of silver, four-and-half inches high and completely without decoration.

“This was the Holy Grail but no one acknowledged it. Subsequently it went on show on a shelf in the Cathedral’s treasury where you can see it today but there is nothing there to say what it really is,” says Coleman, who has just published The Grail Chronicles describing his quest.

“Finding such artifacts in the tomb of a bishop was not at all unusual and putting them there may well have been normal practice in the Middle Ages but this chalice was different,” says Coleman.

Coleman further says: “Previously discovered examples were richly engraved but this one had a simple elegance rendered slightly homely by the use of plainly visible rivets to join the different parts of the stem. I have never touched it but it has been very nice just to be near it. In my own mind and in all good faith I am confident that the chalice recovered from Bishop Sutton’s tomb is the Holy Grail.”

Source - http://www.24masti.com/

Victoria, Texas - An elderly woman was crushed to death and two others injured when they were mowed down by an out of control golf cart.

Also injured in the accident was golf cart driver Amelia Robbins, 72, of Port Lavaca, who lost control when the cart malfunctioned on a steep hill.

The runaway cart picked up speed as it careened down a path, slammed into the side of a golf pro shop and crashed into employee Tyler Bannister, 27, before running down golfer Samantha Bailey, 43.

Ernie Travis, 67, was about to tee off in a tournament at the Guadalupe Crossing Country Club, south of Victoria, when he was struck be the cart, dragged a few yards, and crushed when the vehicle rolled over on top of him.

“It happened so quickly,” said Jackson, who suffered a leg injury. Jackson and Mrs. Robbins were transported to a hospital in Victoria where they were treated and released.

“She (Mrs. Robbins) told us she lost control of the cart when it was suddenly taken over by an evil spirit,” an investigator was quoted as saying. “She claims she was driving the cart when she could feel an evil presence come over her, and then the cart began to malfunction.”

The tragedy occurred as approximately 30 spectators crowded around the club’s pro shop waiting for a nine-hole tournament to begin.

No charges have been filed against Mrs. Robbins, but the horrifying accident is still under investigation.

Police said the district attorney’s office now has possession of the golf cart and will be examining it for possible equipment failure.

James Iseton for Our Strange World

United Kingdom - Mathew Donegan was just another face along a residential street - until he exploded in a ball of fire.

Shocked motorists and pedestrians rushed to aid the stricken Donegan, 26, who in a split second, was turned into a human torch.

Coming to his aid, several citizens rolled him on the ground to extinguish the flames, but not before he suffered second and third degree burns on half of his upper body.

Police who investigated the scene say it’s possible Donegan may have been somewhere, previous to the accident, where his clothing may have absorbed flammable vapors.

“But we have no real idea why a man walking down the street should suddenly burst into flames,” said officer Malcolm Simmonds of the Westbury police department.

Horrified witnesses told investigators that Donegan had just struck a match, to light a cigarette, when the entire top half of his body was engulfed in flames.

“I couldn’t believe my eye,” said Geoffrey Tyson, who was across the street from Donegan. “You couldn’t see anything from his waist up except fire. He was screaming for someone to help him. He was dashing about the road in a ball of flames.”

Several people ran to help and rolled him on the ground to put out the fire.

Donegan was taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol in serious condition.

“There is no evidence at this time that the young man intentionally set himself on fire,” said Simmonds.

The accident is still under investigation.

Arthur Ellis for Our Strange World

Canberra, Australia - With a few strokes of her pencil, psychic Karen Knightley sketches incredible images of men and woman she’s never seen before - faces that come to her from beyond the grave.

Knightley’s uncanny portraits have stunned and bewildered witnesses throughout New South Wales and Victoria.

During a recent demonstration for the Canberra Times, the seer startled photographer Justin Knowles by conjuring up visions of loved ones who had passed away.

Moments after she sat down to draw, Knowles recognized the face on Knightley’s pad as that of his grandfather, William Charles Knowles, who died in 1969.

Knightley, 60, then talked of three brothers and said she felt one them died of a heart attack.

William Knowles, it turns out, had three sons. One of them was Justin’s father - who died of a heart attack in 1993.

Minutes after that, the soft-spoken psychic sketched the wrinkled image of Knowles beloved grandmother, who pass away in 1972.

“I keep getting the word Rosie,” she said. “And she seems to be very fussy about her garden. I see her woman wearing a straw hat and surrounded by flowers.”

The photographer’s grandmother was called Minnie-Rose.

Knowles said his grandmother was indeed very finicky about her garden, which she spent hours a day tending.

Knightley then drew Knowles a picture of his mother, Emily, as a young woman and told him that “Fred” was with her.

“I feel as if he’s coughing up blood,” she said.

Emily’s brother, Sgt. Frederick Lambert, was killed in Afghanistan three years ago.

Knightley also sketched a startling likeness of Knowles’ great uncle.

The psychic insists she deserves little credit for her mysterious abilities. “Sometime I close my eyes and get a mental picture of the person I’m drawing, but usually I feel I have become the person I’m going to draw.”

David Staples for Our Strange World

Vic Barker and some of the model trains at the Brunswick Railroad Museum.

Frederick, Maryland - When an elevator was being installed at the Brunswick Railroad Museum last spring, workers and staff reported strange noises, voices and unusual activity

Supplies were being moved around. Several elevator workers even claimed they saw a woman in a white dress walking around the second floor.

The reports led a former museum board member to call the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society, a Gettysburg-based group that investigates claims of paranormal activity.

The group agreed to investigate on June 5.

Curator Rebecca O’Leary, who has been with the museum since last June, was caught by surprise when group members called and said they would be coming out to look for ghosts.

She said they arrived around 8:30 the night of the investigation with equipment valued at about $30,000, including electrothermal monitors, infrared cameras and audio recording devices. After setting up the equipment around the building, they started their investigation at around 11 p.m. and were in the museum until about 3 a.m.

“We had everything set up from as simple as a digital voice recorder to wireless audio and thermal imaging,” Paranormal Society founder Darryl Keller said.

O’Leary said while she was unfamiliar with the earlier reports or the call to the investigators, several staff members told her that they were uncomfortable being alone in the basement where the offices were moved after the elevator’s construction.

Museum board member Walt Stull said there have been reports of strange noises in the 1904 building over the years, but those noises intensified with the construction of the elevator.

Stull said he has heard unexplained sounds as well, but had never given them much thought.

“I always thought it was the building shifting or something like that,” Stull said. “But we’ll see what they come up with.”

According to Keller, his group goes into an investigation trying to debunk the claims of paranormal activity, which he said happens more often than not. He estimates 70 percent of the society’s investigations outside the Gettysburg area end up revealing no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

However, Keller said that likely will not be the case with the Brunswick Railroad Museum. He said the investigation is nearly complete and he should be contacting the museum this week. He said he was unable reveal the extent of the group’s findings until he reviews the evidence with museum staff, but he said investigators had unexplained experiences.

“There were some things that happened Saturday we were not able to debunk,” Keller said. “We do have evidence.”

Keller also said Frederick County is a frequent location for investigations by the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society.

“We could open up a branch office in Frederick County,” Keller said. - Brian Englar

Source - http://www.fredericknewspost.com/