Date Of Investigation: Saturday, June 21st, 2008
Investigation Site: Private Residence, Neosho, WI
Investigators Present: Amanda M and Matt S, Kyle Y (Wisconsin Independent Society of the Paranormal Guest Investigator)
Clients/Visitors Present: This time we had the clients T and P present, and the three kids. The oldest, D, is T's stepson and is 6 years old. M is 4 years old, and the youngest H is 2 years old. Also present were T's friend B, and P's cousin but they mostly sat outside around the fire with T.
Equipment Used: Canon PowerShot AS60 Digital Camera, Sony Cybershot 8.1 Megapixel Digital Camera, Olympus WS-300M Voice Recorder, Olympus VN-3100 Digital Voice Recorder, Trifield Standard EMF Meter, Trifield Natural EMF Meter, Dual Infrared Non-Contact Thermometer/Air Probe Thermometer, Motion Sensors, JVC GR-D33U Digital Video Camera, Sony Handycams, Wildview Model STC-TGL1 Motion Detection Camera
Weather Conditions: Clear
Average Temperature Outside: 78 Degrees Farenheit
Average Temperature Inside: 1st floor was 78 Degrees Farenheit, and basement was 73 Degrees Farenheit
Solar Activity: Normal
Geomagnetic Field: Quiet
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous
Our Investigation: We arrived at the house at about 7PM, at which time Kyle was given another walk through. We asked T and P if they had experienced anything since our last visit, and P said he was squatting down in M's room when he was pushed down and then the room got colder. P's cousin was with him when it happened and verified that there was a temperature change. T's stepson D's (who we suspected might be a poltergeist agent) mom recently turned herself in to the police...apparently she had been beating up her other kids and when D was over there she locked him in a closet. She's going to prison. T and P had no knowledge of any of this, and they've since cut off all communication with her. If this is a poltergeist case, we think the trauma probably caused to D from this is what caused it. Also, D had another experience recently where he saw an apparition of a kid who looked beat up. He could be projecting it from his subconscious.
The next thing we did was take base readings and decide where we wanted to set up our equipment. We placed one camera in the basement in the room where D used to sleep (all three kids are currently sleeping together on the main floor), and another one in the second floor bedroom where we had one last time. We put motion detectors around the cameras, and set one on the basement stairs. Kyle had a motion detector that took a picture every time there was movement, and we set that in the basement. He also had a hand held camera that he carried with him the entire investigation and used to videotape our EVP sessions.
At 8PM we got started on our investigation. Matt had been on another poltergeist case with his old group where they had gotten some results by letting the family just behave like normal, instead of sitting still and being quiet like you normally would on a ghost hunt. Since psychokinesis is unconscious, this makes sense. So we tried it for the first couple hours while we waited for the kids to go to bed, and focused more on getting visual evidence.
The kids fell asleep at about 10PM, then we shut all the power off in the house and asked for everyone to be quiet so we could begin doing some EVP recordings. The kids all slept in one room with P, and T went outside and had a fire in the backyard with B and P's cousin.
The remainder of the investigation followed the same procedure as last time. We wrapped up at about 2AM.
Findings/Personal Experiences: When we were doing our first EVP circle in the basement, the motion detector on the stairs went off. Matt threw out his other one that he thought might have been malfunctioning last time. This one was tested and was working fine. The motion detector was facing away from the wall towards where Kyle was sitting, but he was sitting pretty still and shouldn't have been in range. But just to be sure, Matt moved it so it would be facing the wall away from us.
During another EVP circle in the basement later, all three of us heard a voice say "hello". We had voice recorders and a camera running, but we didn't catch it on tape. It wasn't very loud. We radioed T immediately. She said she had said "hello" because she was on the phone, but she was keeping her voice down because she didn't want to interfere. It was true they had been keeping very quiet, and if it was her that one word was all we heard from them the entire time. But at the same time, someone DID say "hello" right about then. So it was probably a living person.
About 5 minutes later, the battery on Kyle's video camera that was recording in the basement drained when he just put it in about 45 minutes ago and it still had about an hour of recording time left. The next morning when he looked at it, it was recharged about 50% again. Kyle said he watched the last few minutes of video before the camera shut off to see if anything happened. In the left hand corner a white shape comes into frame then fades away over about 2-3 seconds before the camera shuts off. However, Kyle said he can state with 99% certainty that it is either light or a reflection from his hand held camera that he was using at the same time. He says, "It is so coincidental that it amazes me, but I really believe it is a glare."
Shortly after, T radioed and asked us if we had an investigator upstairs. We didn't. When we asked her why, she said that they were sitting outside looking in through the screen door and had just seen a small shadow figure come out of the downstairs bedroom where the kids were, go up the stairs, and re-enter. We went upstairs to check it out. Our first thought was that one of the kids had gotten out of bed, but everyone was asleep and when Matt asked T the next day to verify with the kids that none of them had gotten out of bed, they said they hadn't. She says that they were passed out in the same spots in the same way they were before she went outside, and if they had gotten out of bed they would have woken up her husband and they would have climbed into her bed, which is what they normally do.
We set a camera on the bedroom door and a motion detector, then went up to the second floor to do some EVP recordings. The next day, when Kyle tried to load the memory stick onto his laptop, another strange thing occurred. He was told that the files were present, but they were corrupt and could not be opened. After several attempts, he gave up on his laptop and tried to load the data onto his PC with the same results. He was using a Sony Handycam that recorded onto a ProPlus Memory Stick. Kyle says, "You may question my technical abilities...but please know that I have used this Handycam at least 50 times for various tapings and I have never had an issue with retrieving the data." So far nobody he has contacted can pull anything from the card.
Then when we were sitting on the second floor doing an EVP circle we heard what sounded like something scratching at the window. It sounded like animal sounds. Matt got up to go look out the window and he could still hear it. Then we thought the sound shifted and it sounded like the scratching was coming from inside the room now, from the dresser right next to where Matt was standing. The others said the same thing. It's possible the family could have mice and not know it, or they could have just moved in. This can be proven or disproven by laying out some mouse traps. There was also a bat in the basement that we found later, maybe it found a way inside the walls. We had two voice recorders running in the room with us at the time but neither of them caught the sound because they were too far away.
Final Analysis: We still can't confirm or debunk the activity. The shadows that the clients reported seeing weren't seen by any of the investigators or captured on camera and were seen from outside through a screen door, and the sounds we heard are within normal explanation. The only things we don't have an explanation for right now are when Kyle’s camera battery drained and then the next morning was recharged again, and what happened with his other camera, but we need more conclusive evidence.
This isn't to say there wasn't anything there. Matt was on another poltergeist case before with his old group where they spent approx. 10 hours investigating between two visits, and they only experienced one thing. If D is a poltergeist agent, we think the thing that happened with his mom was probably the cause. Now that she's going away, D won't have the stress and maybe the activity will calm down. However, the activity may continue until D gets over it. Matt emailed Loyd Auerbach who suggested therapy IF T and P think D needs it. He also recommends martial arts classes, but something like Tai Chi or Kung Fu, not Karate (American Karate is about competition, not learning the art). T and her husband can help too by continuing to provide a loving and supportive environment.
We think it would be a good idea if the family got out of the house for awhile and went on a vacation. If there is something paranormal going on, it's caused by stress and being in this house is creating more stress. Then when they come back, we would try to think about something else.
We also think it would help if the kids didn't constantly hear talk about ghosts. We didn't ask to have the kids there for the first investigation because we thought they might get scared, but T said they already tell them everything anyway and the kids are fine with it. Indeed, the kids thought our equipment was "cool" and they were going around with flashlights playing "ghost hunters". But then M would keep getting scared over every little thing, and later during our investigation D was sleeping with the sheets over his head. We think a lot of what the kids have reported could just be because they're scared.