Denver Private Residence- Denver, PA- investigated on January 15, 2011- Case #1 of 2011
Investigators Present: Mike Snyder, Shawn Maurer, Greg Burk, and Damen Hoffert - Terry and Judy (the homeowners) and Judy's daughter, Erika, were also present during the investigation
Equipment Used: (4) digital voice recorders, (4) digital cameras, (3) various EMF/K2 meters, (1) FLIR thermal imaging camera, (1) Sony camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) DVR system with 4 stragecially placed infrared cameras, (1) 30 milliWatt laser pointer to set a laser grid for shadow recognition
Outside Atmospheric Conditions: 30-35 degrees Fahrenheit, 23 degrees Fahrenheit dew point, steady barometric pressure at 29.94 in., overcast skies with little to no wind; first quarter moon phase, waxing gibbous moon at 80% illumination
Equipment Used: (4) digital voice recorders, (4) digital cameras, (3) various EMF/K2 meters, (1) FLIR thermal imaging camera, (1) Sony camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) DVR system with 4 stragecially placed infrared cameras, (1) 30 milliWatt laser pointer to set a laser grid for shadow recognition
Outside Atmospheric Conditions: 30-35 degrees Fahrenheit, 23 degrees Fahrenheit dew point, steady barometric pressure at 29.94 in., overcast skies with little to no wind; first quarter moon phase, waxing gibbous moon at 80% illumination
Clients' Paranormal Claims: Terry, the male homeowner, first contacted Mike, RPS's founder, through e-mail after catching a wild piece of audio evidence while the family was playing video games one night. After talking to Terry about some of the other things that occur in the house, Mike persuaded Terry and Judy to allow the RPS crew to investigate the house to see if they could gather some of the same evidence to justify the homeowners' claims.
Other than this one audio clip, the family has caught many other pieces of audio evidence. Terry and Judy have even started his own website of his family's evidence, and the link to it is http://spiritvoices.webstarts.com/index.html -- Check it out when you have time! The family also has claims of hearing the latch on their attic door move and make avery distinct sound when no one is around. They constantly feel like they are being watched in their home. Terry's daughter sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night screaming from her bedroom that is directly next door to Terry and Judi's room. The daughter's room has been a hot spot for many of the family's EVPs which leads RPS to believe that something may be trying to interact with the daughter in her room. Also, the family owns a K2 meter through which they have found some very strange EMF readings throughout their house. One of their most memorable K2 hits came from the basement of the house. At one end of the basement wall is a strange formation of rocks that just don't jive with the rest of the foundation wall. From seeing similar architecture to this in other older houses, the members of RPS believe that these rocks were probably placed, in a very peculiar way mind you, to block off what used to be a makeshift cold cellar that once stored perishable items like certain foods: this was a very common below ground edition to most houses from the era this structure was built in. The question still lingers however; why block off a useful storage area of a house? There also is a valid possibility that a former resident of the house may be trying to hide a part of history that lurks in its walls, but back to the K2 hit that sparked some paranormal interest.
While Terry and Judy were in the basement one night conducting their own investigation, Terry asked if he should move the stones in this rudimentary wall that he has wanted to remove since buyin the house. As soon as he reached for a stone, the K2 quickly shot up to red, its highest level. Was there a spirit trying to communicate its displeasure to the act that Terry was about to commit? Or was there a spirit present that was trying to keep the family safe?
Even with these great claims, Terry, Judy, and the rest of the immediate family has neve felt threatened by the activity that happens around them. They understand the fact that many people lived in this house before that led their own lives with their own joys, hardships, and mixed emotions. Some may have passed on, but some energy may still be there in the house. The family has come to terms with this paranormal reality in their lives and instead of being scared, they have decided to learn from these experiences and have become self-educated on the matter.
History: This section may update frequently as Terry and Judy are constantly learning new facts on the Mishler family, the first family to live in this house. The house was built in 1790, by Jacob Mishler, who was one of the first settlers of the Denver area. The house is of a very simple design from bottom to top. The basement is a solid foundation of large stones and dirt floors. The first and second floors without later homeowner renovations would have looked like almost exact replicas of each other floor: 4 rooms of almost equal size split by heavy walls and solid door frames. In the attic, you can still see the hand-crafted wood of the roof trusses. This small, square, 30' x 30' house was built in the late 18th century, but is still in reputable repair. The Mishler family that settled the region was very instrumental in progressing the growth of the area of what we know as Denver today. Later generations of the Mishler family moved on from the area, prospering in other places like Somerset County, PA, the Altoona area, and even as far as Ohio.
The house has quite a history of residence. Not only serving the Mishler family as a household, it also resided many other families including the current one, Terry and Judy. The house also held a private practice doctor's office, an Orioles' Den (a fraternal order), and was even rumored to be a church at one point. So not only may be there be residing energy remaining from the residents that once lived in the home, but energy could be trapped in the house from the businesses that ran there too. Most likely, the doctor was not able to successfully treat everyone that walked into his practice, meaning a patient probably drew their last breath within those walls, especially in a time where diseases like smallpox, polio, yellow fever, and tuberculosis ran rampant and killed clusters of people in very short time periods. If the building was a church, it at least momentarily held the bodies of the deceased for a short amount of time, even if they are not resting there today. All of these things need to be taken into consideration in explaining what spiritual energy may still exist within the home's walls.
Investigation Notes and Experiences: The crew had a few strange experiences during the night of the investigation. The first notable one occurred while Shawn and Mike were investigating the second floor. Shawn was standing in Terry and Judy's master bedroom and Mike was sitting on the floor of the Terry's daughter's bedroom, of whom was mentioned previously of awakening in the middle of the night screaming. While asking a serious of questions while conducting an EVP session, both Mike and Shawn heard a knock or light noise come from the opposite side of the floor, in a room the family has nicknamed the "cold room", simply because of the fact that the heat does not work in the room. When Mike and Shawn asked who made this noise, there was no audible response at the time; however, data analysis after the investigation led us to capture an interesting EVP saying "We did it." The interesting thing about this EVP is that a spirit said, "We", proving that the spirit who communicated with Shawn and Mike knows and understands that there is at least one if not more spirits still residing in the building.
The other strange occurrence during the night happened when all 4 investigators were spread out on the first floor and homeowners gave RPS quiet and went to the second floor and the attic for a brief moment of time. Though RPS's recorders on the first floor could hear the homeowners talking quietly, walking on the floor, and giggling softly occasionally, no sounds they made could reproduce what two of the members of RPS, Shawn and Mike, would hear with their own ears. All four rooms of the first floor were covered by an investigator: Mike was in the dining room, Shawn was in the kitchen, Damen was in the living room, and Greg was in the bar/game room. As each member was throwing out questions to conduct a collective EVP session, a loud scream came from what Mike heard his left side, which would have been towards the kitchen where Shawn was. Shawn had the opposite experience where he heard it coming from Mike's direction toward the dining room. As Mike and Shawn talked it over and stopped the recorder to do a live EVP review, Mike and Shawn both agreed the sound came from above them as well. If looking at a blueprint of the house, the room right above where Shawn and Mike would have claimed to have heard the noise would be the laundry room in between the "cold room" and the bathroom, but also where the attic entrance is situated, which is also where RPS stationed command central for the night, so RPS's DVR system was sitting in this room. At the time, RPS did not know that Erika, Judy's daughter, was watching our cameras on the monitor and did not hear that same disembodied scream that Shawn and Mike thought may have come from that room. Mike's recorder was played back, and the scream was caught on the recorder and was played back for Terry, Judy, and Erika to listen to. RPS even tried to re-enact the scene to see if any of them talking or giggling on the second floor could have mimicked what Shawn and Mike heard, but the attempt to re-create the scene was unsuccessful.
A few other pieces of evidence were captured and can be heard by clicking on the following link: . All evidence from the house was in audio form; no video evidence was caught from the DVR system or Shawn's Handycam and no photographic evidence was captured by the 4 digital cameras in use that night.
The Reveal: An evidence reveal was set up with Terry and Judy on a Friday afternoon in February and was conducted by Shawn and Mike. Shawn and Mike went over all personal experiences from the night including the two mentioned in the above section, played all audio evidence and explained why they felt that these clips were solid, documented paranormal evidence, and then opened the floor to Terry and Judy for any questions or concerns about the investigation process and the evidence. Terry and Judy were pleased that RPS was able to document paranormal existence in their home, something of which they had expected for a number of years and have just recently began documenting themselves. Mike and Shawn thanked Terry and Judy for their time and for the opportunity to investigate their home and made their services available to them for any future questions and concerns. In fact, Mike still keeps in close contact with Terry and Judi, which is something he likes to do with all of his clients. To find evidence of an intelligent haunt in a house is a great find, but also to find homeowners who don't mind living wth it as long as it isn't acting violently is even a greater feeling, because these spirits once too roamed the earth in their own time period.
Other than this one audio clip, the family has caught many other pieces of audio evidence. Terry and Judy have even started his own website of his family's evidence, and the link to it is http://spiritvoices.webstarts.com/index.html -- Check it out when you have time! The family also has claims of hearing the latch on their attic door move and make avery distinct sound when no one is around. They constantly feel like they are being watched in their home. Terry's daughter sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night screaming from her bedroom that is directly next door to Terry and Judi's room. The daughter's room has been a hot spot for many of the family's EVPs which leads RPS to believe that something may be trying to interact with the daughter in her room. Also, the family owns a K2 meter through which they have found some very strange EMF readings throughout their house. One of their most memorable K2 hits came from the basement of the house. At one end of the basement wall is a strange formation of rocks that just don't jive with the rest of the foundation wall. From seeing similar architecture to this in other older houses, the members of RPS believe that these rocks were probably placed, in a very peculiar way mind you, to block off what used to be a makeshift cold cellar that once stored perishable items like certain foods: this was a very common below ground edition to most houses from the era this structure was built in. The question still lingers however; why block off a useful storage area of a house? There also is a valid possibility that a former resident of the house may be trying to hide a part of history that lurks in its walls, but back to the K2 hit that sparked some paranormal interest.
While Terry and Judy were in the basement one night conducting their own investigation, Terry asked if he should move the stones in this rudimentary wall that he has wanted to remove since buyin the house. As soon as he reached for a stone, the K2 quickly shot up to red, its highest level. Was there a spirit trying to communicate its displeasure to the act that Terry was about to commit? Or was there a spirit present that was trying to keep the family safe?
Even with these great claims, Terry, Judy, and the rest of the immediate family has neve felt threatened by the activity that happens around them. They understand the fact that many people lived in this house before that led their own lives with their own joys, hardships, and mixed emotions. Some may have passed on, but some energy may still be there in the house. The family has come to terms with this paranormal reality in their lives and instead of being scared, they have decided to learn from these experiences and have become self-educated on the matter.
History: This section may update frequently as Terry and Judy are constantly learning new facts on the Mishler family, the first family to live in this house. The house was built in 1790, by Jacob Mishler, who was one of the first settlers of the Denver area. The house is of a very simple design from bottom to top. The basement is a solid foundation of large stones and dirt floors. The first and second floors without later homeowner renovations would have looked like almost exact replicas of each other floor: 4 rooms of almost equal size split by heavy walls and solid door frames. In the attic, you can still see the hand-crafted wood of the roof trusses. This small, square, 30' x 30' house was built in the late 18th century, but is still in reputable repair. The Mishler family that settled the region was very instrumental in progressing the growth of the area of what we know as Denver today. Later generations of the Mishler family moved on from the area, prospering in other places like Somerset County, PA, the Altoona area, and even as far as Ohio.
The house has quite a history of residence. Not only serving the Mishler family as a household, it also resided many other families including the current one, Terry and Judy. The house also held a private practice doctor's office, an Orioles' Den (a fraternal order), and was even rumored to be a church at one point. So not only may be there be residing energy remaining from the residents that once lived in the home, but energy could be trapped in the house from the businesses that ran there too. Most likely, the doctor was not able to successfully treat everyone that walked into his practice, meaning a patient probably drew their last breath within those walls, especially in a time where diseases like smallpox, polio, yellow fever, and tuberculosis ran rampant and killed clusters of people in very short time periods. If the building was a church, it at least momentarily held the bodies of the deceased for a short amount of time, even if they are not resting there today. All of these things need to be taken into consideration in explaining what spiritual energy may still exist within the home's walls.
Investigation Notes and Experiences: The crew had a few strange experiences during the night of the investigation. The first notable one occurred while Shawn and Mike were investigating the second floor. Shawn was standing in Terry and Judy's master bedroom and Mike was sitting on the floor of the Terry's daughter's bedroom, of whom was mentioned previously of awakening in the middle of the night screaming. While asking a serious of questions while conducting an EVP session, both Mike and Shawn heard a knock or light noise come from the opposite side of the floor, in a room the family has nicknamed the "cold room", simply because of the fact that the heat does not work in the room. When Mike and Shawn asked who made this noise, there was no audible response at the time; however, data analysis after the investigation led us to capture an interesting EVP saying "We did it." The interesting thing about this EVP is that a spirit said, "We", proving that the spirit who communicated with Shawn and Mike knows and understands that there is at least one if not more spirits still residing in the building.
The other strange occurrence during the night happened when all 4 investigators were spread out on the first floor and homeowners gave RPS quiet and went to the second floor and the attic for a brief moment of time. Though RPS's recorders on the first floor could hear the homeowners talking quietly, walking on the floor, and giggling softly occasionally, no sounds they made could reproduce what two of the members of RPS, Shawn and Mike, would hear with their own ears. All four rooms of the first floor were covered by an investigator: Mike was in the dining room, Shawn was in the kitchen, Damen was in the living room, and Greg was in the bar/game room. As each member was throwing out questions to conduct a collective EVP session, a loud scream came from what Mike heard his left side, which would have been towards the kitchen where Shawn was. Shawn had the opposite experience where he heard it coming from Mike's direction toward the dining room. As Mike and Shawn talked it over and stopped the recorder to do a live EVP review, Mike and Shawn both agreed the sound came from above them as well. If looking at a blueprint of the house, the room right above where Shawn and Mike would have claimed to have heard the noise would be the laundry room in between the "cold room" and the bathroom, but also where the attic entrance is situated, which is also where RPS stationed command central for the night, so RPS's DVR system was sitting in this room. At the time, RPS did not know that Erika, Judy's daughter, was watching our cameras on the monitor and did not hear that same disembodied scream that Shawn and Mike thought may have come from that room. Mike's recorder was played back, and the scream was caught on the recorder and was played back for Terry, Judy, and Erika to listen to. RPS even tried to re-enact the scene to see if any of them talking or giggling on the second floor could have mimicked what Shawn and Mike heard, but the attempt to re-create the scene was unsuccessful.
A few other pieces of evidence were captured and can be heard by clicking on the following link: . All evidence from the house was in audio form; no video evidence was caught from the DVR system or Shawn's Handycam and no photographic evidence was captured by the 4 digital cameras in use that night.
The Reveal: An evidence reveal was set up with Terry and Judy on a Friday afternoon in February and was conducted by Shawn and Mike. Shawn and Mike went over all personal experiences from the night including the two mentioned in the above section, played all audio evidence and explained why they felt that these clips were solid, documented paranormal evidence, and then opened the floor to Terry and Judy for any questions or concerns about the investigation process and the evidence. Terry and Judy were pleased that RPS was able to document paranormal existence in their home, something of which they had expected for a number of years and have just recently began documenting themselves. Mike and Shawn thanked Terry and Judy for their time and for the opportunity to investigate their home and made their services available to them for any future questions and concerns. In fact, Mike still keeps in close contact with Terry and Judi, which is something he likes to do with all of his clients. To find evidence of an intelligent haunt in a house is a great find, but also to find homeowners who don't mind living wth it as long as it isn't acting violently is even a greater feeling, because these spirits once too roamed the earth in their own time period.