Investigation Site: Elsing's Second Hand Shop, Stoughton WI

Investigators Present: Barry, Kurt, Krista, Mark, Rhonda and Matt (Midwest Preternatural Research).

Investigation Overview: The group showed up around 3:00 in the afternoon and spent time talking with Vicky, doing base readings around the shop, and looking for causes of the sounds recorded on the first investigation. No sources for these sounds were found at this time. At 5:00, Vicky, Phil, and the group members left the building for dinner, leaving digital audio recorders running in the shop in an attempt to catch any possible EVP. We returned to the shop and began the investigation around 8:00 PM.

The investigation followed a pre-written schedule set-up to maximize area coverage while minimizing noise and visual cross-contamination. See attached schedule.

The investigation was fairly uneventful, with none of the group members having any unusual feelings or experiences. Events from the first investigation, such as the EVP sessions, were recreated in an attempt to get the same results as the first investigation, but were mostly unsuccessful.

The investigation wrapped up around 2:00 AM. Vicky slept on the main floor in the toy room, while Mark, Rhonda, and Krista slept in the front room on the main floor. Matt, Barry, and Kurt slept downstairs in the furniture room.

After this, there were some personal experiences that will be addressed in the next section.

Personal Experiences:

Krista reports that she did have a minor feeling of temperature change and apprehension during the first EVP session, but nobody else in the group reported feeling anything out of the ordinary, and if they did, it was certainly not to the extent of our first investigation there.

Krista's recorder shut itself off while she and Kurt were trying for EVP on the main floor by the back aisle, but this could very easily have been a mechanical or electronic glitch.

Some strange noises were heard during the night, but again, they could very easily have explanations for them (people outside the shop, etc).

After bedding down for the night, Vicky, Krista, and Rhonda all heard unusual sounds on the main floor, where they were stationed. It sounded to them like someone walked up the steps from the basement and walked into the main room. At this time, Barry, Kurt, and Matt were downstairs, and can verify that nobody walked upstairs at this time.

During the night downstairs, Kurt and Barry also heard several unusual sounds. At various times, it sounded as if someone was walking quietly through the furniture room, but turning on the flashlight revealed that no one was there. On a few occasions, it also sounded like someone was walking in the hallway outside of the book room, but nobody was there. Every now and then, murmuring could also be heard, but it was very faint.

Auditory/Photo/Video/Physical Evidence:

Video evidence – None

Photographic Evidence – One photo, showing an unusual image. It appears as if it could be the camera strap, but the strap is located on the other side of the camera and would have to be positioned very awkwardly to catch it like this.

Audio Evidence – Throughout the evening, several recorder were kept running at various points around the building. There are two clips of what sounds like an unidentified child-like voice, but they are VERY faint and VERY short, and can only be heard well after editing the original audio. Due to this, HPI hesitates to call these "EVPS", and instead labels them as "Unknown".

* PHOTO AND SOUND CLIPS SENT SEPARATELY*

Final Analysis:

While the investigation was, for the most part, uneventful, there were once again some interesting personal experiences. The sounds heard both upstairs AND downstairs after going to bed for the night are VERY noteworthy, especially in relation to very similar experiences other paranormal research groups have had. 

So, even while this investigation may not have yielded very substantial results, every investigation adds to the collected data. The personal experiences we had were very noteworthy, also, and may provide a useful background to future investigations by our group or others.

HPI and Matt would like to thank Vicky and Phil (and Otis!) for being such gracious hosts. Haunted shop or not, we truly love spending time with them. And we would be more than happy to return to the shop for more investigations in the future.