RPS Investigations
Investigations - 2010
Private Residence- Reading, PA- January 22, 2010- Case #1 of 2010
Conditions- clear night, temperature in the high 20's, light winds, first quarter moon phase, 43% of full
Investigators- Team 1- Mike Snyder and Paul Laplante
Team 2- Shawn Maurer and Scott Henry
Equipment Used: (1) digital camcorders with infrared extender attached; (3) digital cameras; (1) infrared thermometer; (2) digital voice recorders; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) battery-activated motion sensor
Time of Investigation- Arrived at 8:30 p.m.; Walkthrough for all members of the group except Mike who did the initial walkthrough on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. The investigation began around 9:15 p.m. and ended around 2:15 a.m.
History: The residence investigated has been owned by the current residents for about the past 4-5 years. The house was previously owned by the same family for over 60 years. As far as the current residents know, the house was built in the early 1920's. When the elderly gentleman who owned the house died, the widow decided she could not keep such a big house for herself and decided to move into a nursing home. The son of the couple decided to sell the house to the best bidder, though it needed a lot of work. The house was sold reasonably cheap, due to the extremities of work needed to be completed, to the residents who currently reside there now. From talking with the current residents, the son who sold them the house, who was only in his mid-to-late 60's, had just died unexpectedly of heart problems in December 2009; however, the widow is still alive and in her 90's.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- Mike received a call from one of the residents on January 15, 2010 after his roommate said, that a few days beforehand, he had seen a full-body apparition at the top of the staircase going to the second floor of the house. The roommate had been sleeping on the couch downstairs with his head resting away from the stairs so he could see straight up the staircase from his position. The roommate claimed he has just woken up and was just sort of lying there, when at the top of the stairs he saw a full figure; however, he explained that he could see right through it. He described it to look more like the shape of a man; however, he could not really see any other features. He looked away for a second, maybe thinking that he was imagining things or going crazy, and when he looked back, nothing was there anymore. The roommate explained he was home by himself, except for their two dogs. The thing that makes this claim a bit more credible is that at the top of the stairs directly lies a bedroom about 3 feet from the landing of the last stair. This is the master bedroom of the couple who lived there previously, before the elderly gentleman died. Did the stairs have something to do with his death, or could this apparition have been a residual motion that the man re-enacts over and over again in the house, but this was the first time it was ever caught by the two? The current homeowners do not know how the elderly man died.
Seeing this apparition was enough for the current homeowners to give RPS a call; however, they started to describe a few more things that have happened at the house in the past few years. For years, the two have been putting money into the house to try to rebuild its value, but it seems like every dollar they put into it, more things begin to go wrong. That may have nothing to do with the paranormal and the elderly man that still might live there; however, things just seem to break all the time. Items sometimes get moved all over the house as well, and two roommates always say it wasn't them. The two dogs look up sometimes for no reason and especiallly look up towards the stairs where one of the roommates saw what he deemed a full body apparition. One encounter was described very vividly. One of the roommates was sitting at the computer in the living room, while the other was sleeping in the bedroom where the elderly man had died. At the top of the stares, they have installed a safety gate so the dogs don't run a muck around the house, and can only stay on the lower floor. The roommate on the computer heard the gate latch move like it was being opened, and was expecting his roommate to descend down the steps in a matter of seconds. That did not happen. At the same time, the roommate sleeping in the elderly man's former bedroom heard the same unlatching noise from the gate and expected his roommate to hear his roommate walking up stairs to go to the bathroom or something of the such. However, that did not happen either. At the time, the two did not discuss this occurrence. Only weeks later did they collaborate on what happened that night and they were both baffled.
Findings During the Investigation- Findings were disappointing at best. Early in the night, Team 1 was receiving a few solid K2 hits in the basement. Team 1 tried to bring out the spirit of the elderly man by luring him with one of his past activities, smoking cigarettes. With the K2 meter sitting on a cement floor, Team 1 was receiving some hits that ranged from the second green LED light to the third LED, which is a yellow. The yellow light ranges in the area of where a paranormal force may be present between 2.5-7 MiliGauss. At one point, the yellow LED held for over a minute until it slowly faded away. Some of the recorder evidence from the time in the basement needed to be dismissed immediately due to noisy neighbors. However, RPS tagged the recorder the best they could as they heard noises coming from next door. While Team 2 was downstairs they heard what sounded like something banging into a chair in the kitchen, and anohter noise. When they went upstairs to follow the noise, they could not tell if a chair had been moved; however, on inspection of Shawn's equipment case that was sitting on top of the kitchen counter, Shawn say that one of the latches had been unlatched. Shawn seemed fairly convinced that he had latched both latches; however, he was not completely sure. At one point of the night, both teams thought they were experiencing some major activity, but it seemed that their equipment tainted that experience. Team 2 was in the basement and Team 1 was in the second floor bedroom where the elderly man died. Shawn had just transmitted something to Mike on the walkie-talkie when unexpectedly, the motion light flashed on that was on the top of the steps on the second floor and the K2 meter spiked up to red, the highest reading, for about a quarter of a second. Immediately, Mike and Paul got back on the walkie and told Shawn and Scott what happened. As they conversation persisted through the walkie-talkies, the motion light turned on another 2-3 times. At the time, RPS thought that they had really stumbled upon some big evidence that something paranormal did exist in this private residence. However, during RPS's break time, a discovery was made. The radio frequencies between the walkies' transmissions were interrupting the air of both the motion sensor and K2 meter. This did not happen during every transmission; however, it did happen on most occurrences. This was a big letdown for RPS, but it had also been a first. Never before had RPS run into a case of the sort, at least not to their knowledge. The same walkie-talkies, K2, and model of motion sensor had been used on previous investigations and no other disruptions had been documented. So, basically, any evidence from this investigation that involved the motion light being tripped or the K2 meter hitting extreme marks had to be thrown away, due to the fact that RPS is unclear on why this happened, but it can definitely not be deemed paranormal.
After the radio frequency argument was put to rest, the teams were a bit disappointed, and nothing happened or seemed to happen in the next two hours of the investigation, except for the motion light shining a bright shade of blue when most walkie-talkie transmissions ended. The team wrapped up their investigation around 2 a.m.
Data Analysis and Findings- RPS has not sat down together as a team to discuss any EVP, photo, or video evidence found through the night of the investigation. More will be posted as soon as it is available.
The Reveal: No official reveal was completed for this investigation. The evidence was given to the roommates and RPS let them decide what to think of the evidence captured. However, they were both reminded if they ever needed anything in the future, RPS was only a short phone call away.
Private Residence- Reading, PA- January 22, 2010- Case #1 of 2010
Conditions- clear night, temperature in the high 20's, light winds, first quarter moon phase, 43% of full
Investigators- Team 1- Mike Snyder and Paul Laplante
Team 2- Shawn Maurer and Scott Henry
Equipment Used: (1) digital camcorders with infrared extender attached; (3) digital cameras; (1) infrared thermometer; (2) digital voice recorders; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) battery-activated motion sensor
Time of Investigation- Arrived at 8:30 p.m.; Walkthrough for all members of the group except Mike who did the initial walkthrough on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. The investigation began around 9:15 p.m. and ended around 2:15 a.m.
History: The residence investigated has been owned by the current residents for about the past 4-5 years. The house was previously owned by the same family for over 60 years. As far as the current residents know, the house was built in the early 1920's. When the elderly gentleman who owned the house died, the widow decided she could not keep such a big house for herself and decided to move into a nursing home. The son of the couple decided to sell the house to the best bidder, though it needed a lot of work. The house was sold reasonably cheap, due to the extremities of work needed to be completed, to the residents who currently reside there now. From talking with the current residents, the son who sold them the house, who was only in his mid-to-late 60's, had just died unexpectedly of heart problems in December 2009; however, the widow is still alive and in her 90's.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- Mike received a call from one of the residents on January 15, 2010 after his roommate said, that a few days beforehand, he had seen a full-body apparition at the top of the staircase going to the second floor of the house. The roommate had been sleeping on the couch downstairs with his head resting away from the stairs so he could see straight up the staircase from his position. The roommate claimed he has just woken up and was just sort of lying there, when at the top of the stairs he saw a full figure; however, he explained that he could see right through it. He described it to look more like the shape of a man; however, he could not really see any other features. He looked away for a second, maybe thinking that he was imagining things or going crazy, and when he looked back, nothing was there anymore. The roommate explained he was home by himself, except for their two dogs. The thing that makes this claim a bit more credible is that at the top of the stairs directly lies a bedroom about 3 feet from the landing of the last stair. This is the master bedroom of the couple who lived there previously, before the elderly gentleman died. Did the stairs have something to do with his death, or could this apparition have been a residual motion that the man re-enacts over and over again in the house, but this was the first time it was ever caught by the two? The current homeowners do not know how the elderly man died.
Seeing this apparition was enough for the current homeowners to give RPS a call; however, they started to describe a few more things that have happened at the house in the past few years. For years, the two have been putting money into the house to try to rebuild its value, but it seems like every dollar they put into it, more things begin to go wrong. That may have nothing to do with the paranormal and the elderly man that still might live there; however, things just seem to break all the time. Items sometimes get moved all over the house as well, and two roommates always say it wasn't them. The two dogs look up sometimes for no reason and especiallly look up towards the stairs where one of the roommates saw what he deemed a full body apparition. One encounter was described very vividly. One of the roommates was sitting at the computer in the living room, while the other was sleeping in the bedroom where the elderly man had died. At the top of the stares, they have installed a safety gate so the dogs don't run a muck around the house, and can only stay on the lower floor. The roommate on the computer heard the gate latch move like it was being opened, and was expecting his roommate to descend down the steps in a matter of seconds. That did not happen. At the same time, the roommate sleeping in the elderly man's former bedroom heard the same unlatching noise from the gate and expected his roommate to hear his roommate walking up stairs to go to the bathroom or something of the such. However, that did not happen either. At the time, the two did not discuss this occurrence. Only weeks later did they collaborate on what happened that night and they were both baffled.
Findings During the Investigation- Findings were disappointing at best. Early in the night, Team 1 was receiving a few solid K2 hits in the basement. Team 1 tried to bring out the spirit of the elderly man by luring him with one of his past activities, smoking cigarettes. With the K2 meter sitting on a cement floor, Team 1 was receiving some hits that ranged from the second green LED light to the third LED, which is a yellow. The yellow light ranges in the area of where a paranormal force may be present between 2.5-7 MiliGauss. At one point, the yellow LED held for over a minute until it slowly faded away. Some of the recorder evidence from the time in the basement needed to be dismissed immediately due to noisy neighbors. However, RPS tagged the recorder the best they could as they heard noises coming from next door. While Team 2 was downstairs they heard what sounded like something banging into a chair in the kitchen, and anohter noise. When they went upstairs to follow the noise, they could not tell if a chair had been moved; however, on inspection of Shawn's equipment case that was sitting on top of the kitchen counter, Shawn say that one of the latches had been unlatched. Shawn seemed fairly convinced that he had latched both latches; however, he was not completely sure. At one point of the night, both teams thought they were experiencing some major activity, but it seemed that their equipment tainted that experience. Team 2 was in the basement and Team 1 was in the second floor bedroom where the elderly man died. Shawn had just transmitted something to Mike on the walkie-talkie when unexpectedly, the motion light flashed on that was on the top of the steps on the second floor and the K2 meter spiked up to red, the highest reading, for about a quarter of a second. Immediately, Mike and Paul got back on the walkie and told Shawn and Scott what happened. As they conversation persisted through the walkie-talkies, the motion light turned on another 2-3 times. At the time, RPS thought that they had really stumbled upon some big evidence that something paranormal did exist in this private residence. However, during RPS's break time, a discovery was made. The radio frequencies between the walkies' transmissions were interrupting the air of both the motion sensor and K2 meter. This did not happen during every transmission; however, it did happen on most occurrences. This was a big letdown for RPS, but it had also been a first. Never before had RPS run into a case of the sort, at least not to their knowledge. The same walkie-talkies, K2, and model of motion sensor had been used on previous investigations and no other disruptions had been documented. So, basically, any evidence from this investigation that involved the motion light being tripped or the K2 meter hitting extreme marks had to be thrown away, due to the fact that RPS is unclear on why this happened, but it can definitely not be deemed paranormal.
After the radio frequency argument was put to rest, the teams were a bit disappointed, and nothing happened or seemed to happen in the next two hours of the investigation, except for the motion light shining a bright shade of blue when most walkie-talkie transmissions ended. The team wrapped up their investigation around 2 a.m.
Data Analysis and Findings- RPS has not sat down together as a team to discuss any EVP, photo, or video evidence found through the night of the investigation. More will be posted as soon as it is available.
The Reveal: No official reveal was completed for this investigation. The evidence was given to the roommates and RPS let them decide what to think of the evidence captured. However, they were both reminded if they ever needed anything in the future, RPS was only a short phone call away.
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Gilbert's Furniture Showroom- Reading, PA- February 12, 2010- Case #2 of 2010
Conditions- clear night, temperature in the low 20's, 10 mph winds; last quarter moon phase, nearing new moon, about 2% of full
Investigators- Team 1- Mike Snyder, Shawn Maurer, Scott Henry, and Rich Fox, Jr.
Team 2- Rich Fox, Sr., Jay Livinghouse, Paul Laplante, Julie Bennis, and Samantha (high school reporter)
Equipment Used- (3) digital camcorders all with NightShot, and one with a infrared light extender; (7) digital cameras; (5) digital voice recorders, all of which that were used in both live and static situations throughout the night; (2) CellSensor EMF meters; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- The majority of the team arrived around 8 p.m. when the store was closing; inital walkthrough was completed earlier that day by Mike, Shawn, and Scott; the rest of RPS was shown around the floors and were made aware of the 'hot spots'; equipment was set up and checked for battery life; groups were established throughout the building; the investigation began at 9 p.m., and lasted until around 3:15 - 3:30 a.m.
History- Gilbert's Furniture Showroom, and in fact all of the buildings in the historical district of Penn Street, have a long and glorious history. It wasn't long ago when Reading use to be a city that people from all over would venture to for shopping and entertainment purposes. With such a long past, there is no wonder that there may be some spirits left behind. Denton Buckley, Sr. is the owner of the furniture showroom situated on the corner of 3rd and Penn in downtown Reading. Mr. Buckley moved Gilbert's to this location in 1985 after buying the property from Elmer Resnick, who was the owner of the Brighter Furniture Company. The name of Elmer will come to play a little bit later in this article. The Brighter Furniture Company had owned the property since at least the 1930's. RPS found this out after receiving a newspaper article from Denton Buckley, Jr. which showed that a fire had taken place in the building in 1939, which was called one of the biggest Penn Street fires ever recorded. The majority of the building was almost immediately razed and rebuilt. Arson was believed to be a main cause of the fire.
Before the Brighter Company occupied the building, evidence shows that the Worley Hardware Company occupied the building, but the dates of this establishment's opening and closing have not been revealed to RPS. Worley's specialized in wholesale and retail sales of seeds, hardware, builder's supplies, stoves, furnaces, house furnishings, and was a distributor of many kinds of Dupont heavy chemicals at the time.
When the Buckleys bought the property in 1985 from Elmer Resnick, they also bought some of the adjoining structures to make one larger structure as they began knocking down walls. What they came across as they started knocking down walls startled them. Where the ballroom now sits in Gilbert's Furniture Showroom on the 2nd floor once sat what may have been an illegal speakeasy back during prohibition. This ballroom was once part of one of the adjoining buildings. It was well known that this building held a social quarters in the first floor back in the day; however the 2nd floor seemed to look more like a private club: the Buckleys described the room as being very darkly light, having a full-lenghth wall mirror for where the bar used to be, and an antique piano that still sits in Gilbert's Furniture today. Everything else was stripped down: new lighting was installed, and everything from the room was moved out and disposed of except for the piano. Even before the social club resided in the property, a bank operated out of this building.
Gilbert's Furniture Showroom has now flourished in its current location for almost 25 years. However, all the employees can safely say that they are not alone at their place of business. Due to the storied history of Penn Street and all the tenants that used to occupy these, most employees tend to believe that something still lingers around them in the vast selection of furnishing, carpeting, and sleepwear needs that Gilbert's Furniture Showroom offers.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- Where to start? Employees and customers of Gilbert's have claimed to see and hear many things over the years that could be deemed paranormal. The first floor seems a good place to start and then to work up to the 3rd floor. The basement will be covered last, due to the fact that RPS had some odd findings there, on the side of the property that used to be property of the social quarters/restaurant and bank.
The First Floor: The first floor of Gilbert's holds all kinds of different varieties of home furnishings from dinette sets to matresses and bedding supplies, carpet samples, and living room sets. The Gilbert's staff mainly hovers around this floor, due to the fact that all the computers and office space are in the back corner of the store. Denton Buckley revealed a few of his experiences with the unknown to RPS. One night he stayed late to catch up on some paperwork. As he was sitting at his desk, he heard a book slam on the ground from the small conference room nearby. Wondering how the book fell from the shelf, he went to check it out. Denton went in the room, put the book back where it belonged, and went back to his desk. Surprisingly enough, the book that he had been working on at his desk was now on the ground, and as he went to pick up this book, another book fell off a shelf in the showroom. At that point, Denton explained to RPS that he knew it was time to leave for the night. Other staffers from Gilbert's said that they have had the radio in the 1st floor office turn on and off unexpectedly, but Denton's claim was the most spectacular one. Almost all the staffers have said that they have heard footsteps upstairs on the second floor while no one was on that floor.
The Second Floor: The second floor of Gilbert's is where the most claims have come from, from both staffers and customers. Customers who consider themselves sensitives say that most of the energy in Gilbert's centers around the second floor ballroom, the room that the Buckleys uncovered after buying the property, looking as if it was just somewhat abandoned many years ago. On this floor is where most of the staffers believe lives the spirit of a little girl that runs around at her own free will. Ron, brother of Denton, Buckley had the most memorable experience on the second floor. Ron was working late one night. It was about 1:30 a.m. when he was taking some merchandise up to the second floor on the freight elevator. As the door opened to the second floor, Ron could not believe what he saw. There just 10-15 feet in front of him he saw Elmer Resnick, the old owner of the Brighter Furniture Company, sitting in a recliner. The only problem with this is that Elmer had died years before Ron saw him that night. For a few seconds, the two, one alive and one dead, stared at each other. At this point, Ron closed the elevator door, headed back down to the first floor, and left for the night. Ron was excited by the situation, but did not lose his composure. He had already witnessed something of the same sort in his own house. Also claims of footsteps running rampant on this floor is also a very well known oddity. Just for a fun fact as well, a small spiral staircase is located on the first floor that leads up to an abandoned section of the second floor of the building that used to owned by the bank and social quarters/speakeasy. This staircase is hidden away so well that the staff of Gilbert's forgot to tell RPS about it during the walkthrough and the whole RPS crew missed it during the investigation. The well-hidden section of the second-floor used to house some tenants years ago, but has been abandoned for many years due to the fact that there isn't a lot of space and Gilbert's does not wish to put the money into heating and renovating this area for commercial use. RPS did get to check out this small area a few weeks before the reveal and snapped some pictures; however, nothing paranormal was present in those images.
The Third Floor: The third floor has far less known claims than the first and second floors. This floor is much more primarly used as a storage floor. One worker, however, described to RPS a time when he had moved some boxes on this floor, walked away from them for a few minutes to work on another project, and then found that the boxes had been moved again. In that amount of time that he was gone, he did not know of any other workers that had worked on that floor besides him. Also, these boxes were not light, and would have taken tremendous force to move them, if in fact a spirit did move them. On this floor, there have also been reports of stray footsteps similar to those from the floor below.
The Basement: RPS did not receive many claims from this floor, however the historical architecture of the basement side of the old bank and scoial quarters/speakeasy building led RPS to conduct quite a thorough investigation on this floor. Since Gilbert's Furniture Showroom sits on the foundations of two buildings, naturally the basement itself is split into two separate areas which do not connect in any way. The basement floor of Gilbert's is a showroom and a workshop/repair area all rolled into one.
Investigators- Team 1- Mike Snyder, Shawn Maurer, Scott Henry, and Rich Fox, Jr.
Team 2- Rich Fox, Sr., Jay Livinghouse, Paul Laplante, Julie Bennis, and Samantha (high school reporter)
Equipment Used- (3) digital camcorders all with NightShot, and one with a infrared light extender; (7) digital cameras; (5) digital voice recorders, all of which that were used in both live and static situations throughout the night; (2) CellSensor EMF meters; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- The majority of the team arrived around 8 p.m. when the store was closing; inital walkthrough was completed earlier that day by Mike, Shawn, and Scott; the rest of RPS was shown around the floors and were made aware of the 'hot spots'; equipment was set up and checked for battery life; groups were established throughout the building; the investigation began at 9 p.m., and lasted until around 3:15 - 3:30 a.m.
History- Gilbert's Furniture Showroom, and in fact all of the buildings in the historical district of Penn Street, have a long and glorious history. It wasn't long ago when Reading use to be a city that people from all over would venture to for shopping and entertainment purposes. With such a long past, there is no wonder that there may be some spirits left behind. Denton Buckley, Sr. is the owner of the furniture showroom situated on the corner of 3rd and Penn in downtown Reading. Mr. Buckley moved Gilbert's to this location in 1985 after buying the property from Elmer Resnick, who was the owner of the Brighter Furniture Company. The name of Elmer will come to play a little bit later in this article. The Brighter Furniture Company had owned the property since at least the 1930's. RPS found this out after receiving a newspaper article from Denton Buckley, Jr. which showed that a fire had taken place in the building in 1939, which was called one of the biggest Penn Street fires ever recorded. The majority of the building was almost immediately razed and rebuilt. Arson was believed to be a main cause of the fire.
Before the Brighter Company occupied the building, evidence shows that the Worley Hardware Company occupied the building, but the dates of this establishment's opening and closing have not been revealed to RPS. Worley's specialized in wholesale and retail sales of seeds, hardware, builder's supplies, stoves, furnaces, house furnishings, and was a distributor of many kinds of Dupont heavy chemicals at the time.
When the Buckleys bought the property in 1985 from Elmer Resnick, they also bought some of the adjoining structures to make one larger structure as they began knocking down walls. What they came across as they started knocking down walls startled them. Where the ballroom now sits in Gilbert's Furniture Showroom on the 2nd floor once sat what may have been an illegal speakeasy back during prohibition. This ballroom was once part of one of the adjoining buildings. It was well known that this building held a social quarters in the first floor back in the day; however the 2nd floor seemed to look more like a private club: the Buckleys described the room as being very darkly light, having a full-lenghth wall mirror for where the bar used to be, and an antique piano that still sits in Gilbert's Furniture today. Everything else was stripped down: new lighting was installed, and everything from the room was moved out and disposed of except for the piano. Even before the social club resided in the property, a bank operated out of this building.
Gilbert's Furniture Showroom has now flourished in its current location for almost 25 years. However, all the employees can safely say that they are not alone at their place of business. Due to the storied history of Penn Street and all the tenants that used to occupy these, most employees tend to believe that something still lingers around them in the vast selection of furnishing, carpeting, and sleepwear needs that Gilbert's Furniture Showroom offers.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- Where to start? Employees and customers of Gilbert's have claimed to see and hear many things over the years that could be deemed paranormal. The first floor seems a good place to start and then to work up to the 3rd floor. The basement will be covered last, due to the fact that RPS had some odd findings there, on the side of the property that used to be property of the social quarters/restaurant and bank.
The First Floor: The first floor of Gilbert's holds all kinds of different varieties of home furnishings from dinette sets to matresses and bedding supplies, carpet samples, and living room sets. The Gilbert's staff mainly hovers around this floor, due to the fact that all the computers and office space are in the back corner of the store. Denton Buckley revealed a few of his experiences with the unknown to RPS. One night he stayed late to catch up on some paperwork. As he was sitting at his desk, he heard a book slam on the ground from the small conference room nearby. Wondering how the book fell from the shelf, he went to check it out. Denton went in the room, put the book back where it belonged, and went back to his desk. Surprisingly enough, the book that he had been working on at his desk was now on the ground, and as he went to pick up this book, another book fell off a shelf in the showroom. At that point, Denton explained to RPS that he knew it was time to leave for the night. Other staffers from Gilbert's said that they have had the radio in the 1st floor office turn on and off unexpectedly, but Denton's claim was the most spectacular one. Almost all the staffers have said that they have heard footsteps upstairs on the second floor while no one was on that floor.
The Second Floor: The second floor of Gilbert's is where the most claims have come from, from both staffers and customers. Customers who consider themselves sensitives say that most of the energy in Gilbert's centers around the second floor ballroom, the room that the Buckleys uncovered after buying the property, looking as if it was just somewhat abandoned many years ago. On this floor is where most of the staffers believe lives the spirit of a little girl that runs around at her own free will. Ron, brother of Denton, Buckley had the most memorable experience on the second floor. Ron was working late one night. It was about 1:30 a.m. when he was taking some merchandise up to the second floor on the freight elevator. As the door opened to the second floor, Ron could not believe what he saw. There just 10-15 feet in front of him he saw Elmer Resnick, the old owner of the Brighter Furniture Company, sitting in a recliner. The only problem with this is that Elmer had died years before Ron saw him that night. For a few seconds, the two, one alive and one dead, stared at each other. At this point, Ron closed the elevator door, headed back down to the first floor, and left for the night. Ron was excited by the situation, but did not lose his composure. He had already witnessed something of the same sort in his own house. Also claims of footsteps running rampant on this floor is also a very well known oddity. Just for a fun fact as well, a small spiral staircase is located on the first floor that leads up to an abandoned section of the second floor of the building that used to owned by the bank and social quarters/speakeasy. This staircase is hidden away so well that the staff of Gilbert's forgot to tell RPS about it during the walkthrough and the whole RPS crew missed it during the investigation. The well-hidden section of the second-floor used to house some tenants years ago, but has been abandoned for many years due to the fact that there isn't a lot of space and Gilbert's does not wish to put the money into heating and renovating this area for commercial use. RPS did get to check out this small area a few weeks before the reveal and snapped some pictures; however, nothing paranormal was present in those images.
The Third Floor: The third floor has far less known claims than the first and second floors. This floor is much more primarly used as a storage floor. One worker, however, described to RPS a time when he had moved some boxes on this floor, walked away from them for a few minutes to work on another project, and then found that the boxes had been moved again. In that amount of time that he was gone, he did not know of any other workers that had worked on that floor besides him. Also, these boxes were not light, and would have taken tremendous force to move them, if in fact a spirit did move them. On this floor, there have also been reports of stray footsteps similar to those from the floor below.
The Basement: RPS did not receive many claims from this floor, however the historical architecture of the basement side of the old bank and scoial quarters/speakeasy building led RPS to conduct quite a thorough investigation on this floor. Since Gilbert's Furniture Showroom sits on the foundations of two buildings, naturally the basement itself is split into two separate areas which do not connect in any way. The basement floor of Gilbert's is a showroom and a workshop/repair area all rolled into one.
The other building's basement seems to have some history behind it. This basement looks as if it may have been part of the old tunnel system that used to run under parts of downtown Reading. The doors with archways also show common designs of early architecture. Two vaults still stand in this basement; the one really looks like it could have been a primary money vault when the property was a bank or a cold storage vault when the property was a social quarters/speakeasy. For some reason, all of the members of RPS were lured to this old tunnel style basement. Maybe it was because of the unique architectural style or maybe it was the fact that most of the staffers at Gilbert's had never dared venture into the areas of the building they didn't find to be comforting. RPS's willingness to explore this basement paid off in the end with some of the best EVPs they have ever received. Check out these audio clips on the EVP page.
Findings: Once again, a floor by floor method will be used to explain some of the happenings during the investigation and some evidence that data analysis revelaed to RPS:
First Floor: A few moments of unexplained activity were experienced on the first floor by many members of the RPS crew. Earlier on in the night, while Mike and Rich, Jr. were sitting near the conference room and cubicles in the back of the building, both members heard a loud bang come from the loading dock area of the store. Both Mike and Jr. thought that maybe someone walking by the outside of the store banged on the door. Mike and Jr. quickly rushed out to the loading dock and found nothing that was out of place that may have fallen or anything that would have been able to make such a loud noise. Mike then went outside of the store and banged on the door and asked Jr. to listen to see if the same sound could be reproduced. Mike tried a few times; however, the sound of rapping or banging on the door was not the sound that Mike and Jr. had previously heard. Shawn and Scott also had a few experiences on the far side of the first floor, the part of the floor that used to be another building that once held a bank and a social quarters, before the Gilbert's staff tore down the walls to make one big showroom. While sitting and conducting some EVP sessions on this side of the floor, Shawn and Scott both heard sounds coming from above them. This did not happen just once, but numerous times during the span of a few hours. At the time, RPS did not know about the small abandoned apartment that existed above them on a part of the second floor that is not connected to the second floor of the current Gilbert's showroom. The second floor showroom is only accessible through the main staircase and the freight elevator. RPS did not find out this abandoned apartment existed until Shawn and Mike revisited Gilbert's to try to debunk some evidence that data analysis revealed. Could there be something that lingers in this small abandoned dwelling? RPS does not have the answer to this question; however, directly above the sounds that Shawn and Scott heard lies this apartment that has been long forgotten about. The biggest piece of evidence that came from the first floor was a picture taken by Mike while him and Jr. were in the middle of the first floor, relaxing on a living room set while conducting an EVP session. While Mike was snapping some pictures during the EVP session, Jr. quickly elevated himself from the loveseat he was sitting on, moved about 10 feet away from the area that Mike was snapping pictures from and started looking around frantically. After repeatedly asking Jr. what was wrong, Mike finally got an answer from him. While Mike was snapping a picture, Jr. claimed that in a mirror that was in the camera flash's path, he saw a figure run by in the reflection of it. By where Mike and Jr. were positioned, this figure would have been moving about 10-15 feet behind them in an area of the store that housed dining room sets. Surely, Jr. was a bit disturbed by what just happened, but for the time being, Mike and Jr. went on with the investigation, snapped some more quick pictures and continued with their EVP session. Also, Jr. and Mike also tried to debunked what just happened thinking that maybe the reflection picked up someone walking by the store's front or side windows that are large display windows; however, they both concluded that the mirror's reflection would not be able to pick up anyone walking by the side windows due to the angles and also there were too many objects that cluttered a clear sightpath into between the mirror and the store's front windows.
Second Floor: Though most of the reports of activity came from this floor, the night was very uneventful on this floor; however, data analysis did show some evidence of paranormal happenings. Personal experiences were limited on this floor on the investigation night. Elmer was not seen sitting in a recliner, a little girl was not seen or heard running around the Barca lounger area or in the ballroom. One piece of possible evidence was found in the ballroom, however. Shawn and Scott were investigating the ballroom and Shawn decided to sit down at the old piano that still sits in the room. From the point that Shawn sat down at the piano and then stood back up, RPS collected three pieces of evidence: an EVP, a video clip, and a orb in a picture. RPS does not put too much stock into orbs because all they really show is free-flowing energy, which does not mean that there is necessarily anything paranormal about it; however, when an orb captured in a picture correlates with other pieces of evidence, then things start to piece together like a puzzle. The EVP clip begins with Scott asking a spirit to play something on the piano and to 'tickle the ivories' and soon after a voice came over the recorder that had a completely different tone from both Shawn and Scott. At the RPS data review meeting, everyone present agreed that the voice almost sounded similar to that of a jazz musician with that raspy, yet mellow voice that has almost become synonymous of jazz artists back in the '50s and '60s. The more interesting part about this is that during the reveal presented to the staffers of Gilbert's, Ron Buckley explained to RPS that many colored jazz musicians loved coming to Reading to play music and be free in a world that was just barely coming around to accepting the fact that African-Americans deserved the same rights that the rest of United States' citizens had possessed for over 150 years. Did RPS come across a spirit that just enjoyed coming back to this room that used to be a speakeasy/social quarters because he had his best memories here of being a free man? RPS may never know this; however, it did raise an interesting discussion. In the same time period of capturing this interesting EVP, an orb was captured on both a video camera and a digital camera while Shawn was sitting at the piano. As Shawn sat down at the piano, he placed his camcorder on top of the piano. As he sat down and told the spirit to sit next to him and play a song, an orb lowered near his left shoulder and seemed to just hover next to his head. In the picture that Scott took which was probably a bit before the orb captured on the camcorder, the orb was captured a few feet higher. The picture is posted on the pictures page; however, RPS is not considering this concrete evidence.
One more EVP came from the second floor. This EVP came from Jay's recorder while it was running static in the ballroom. Jay's group that included himself, Rich, Paul, Julie, and Sam were all on the third floor, and Mike, Shawn, Scott, and Rich Jr. were all on the first floor. The voice seemed to be that of a little girl and this was definitely not bleed-through from the third floor where both of the female investigators were stationed. The little girl says one word, but RPS will leave that up to you to decide what this girl said.
Third Floor: Though many claims were not given from this floor, RPS still caught two EVPs on this floor. Within 6 minutes of beginning the investigation, the first EVP was captured on this floor from Rich's recorder. The moments leading up to capturing the EVP would be best described as Jay looking for the source of a sort of whirring noise that he had been hearing for about a minute or two. He was looking at one of the closed doorways to see if it was the source of the noise; however, as he was doing this he ran into a piece of wood or furniture that was next to the door and made a very loud bang. Soon after this, a stray voice comes over the recorder that seemed to bark out an order or command. No one reacted to it, and the tone of the voice sounded nothing like anyone's voice that was presently on the floor at the time.
The second EVP came at the end of an EVP session while Mike and Jr. were in the 3rd floor. Mike and Jr. had been sitting around on the floor for about ten to fifteen minutes had not heard a single stray sound or had any EMF hits on the K2 meter. It was getting close to RPS's lunch break, so Mike decided to wrap up for the time being. This is all heard on the clip. As Mike is getting up from his sitting position, Jr. says something in the context of that whatever was in the store was being a wuss at the present time. Soon after that, an audible deep breath that almost sounded like a hiss was recorded. Was a spirit that was on the 3rd floor angry at Jr. for calling it a wuss? It is a possibility, but RPS does know the hiss/deep breath did not come from either Jr. or Mike.
The Basement: One personal experience and two EVPs totalled the evidence that was gathered in the basement. No evidence was gathered from the side of the basement that was actually the original property of the Gilbert's store's foundation. All evidence was gathered from the basement that used to belong to the building that once housed the bank and social quarters/speakeasy. The personal experience was Scott's. The whole first group was in the basement at the same time for a short section of a shift of investigating. As that time was expiring, and the group slowly ascended the stairs up to the first floor, Scott felt something touch him on his shoulderblade. Mike and Jr. were the first ones out of the basement, and Shawn was following close behind. Scott was the last one coming out of the basement and as he felt the touch, he immediately stopped dead in his tracks. Shawn heard that Scott had stopped walking, turned around and saw Scott standing motionless halfway up the staircase. Shawn asked Scott what was wrong, but he did not respond right away. Eventually he told Shawn that he had been touched on the back, and immediately the two started looking for anyway to debunk the feeling Scott just had on his back. There was nothing hanging down from the ceiling that could have rubbed against Scott or nothing protruding far enough from the walls next to the staircase that could have caused such a sensation that Scott reported feeling. The 4 investigators went back down into the basement for a few minutes to take some pictures and perform some EMF readings; however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary after Scott's experience.
Two EVPs came from within one of the vaults on the basement level. The amazing thing about these EVPs is that these were recorded while there was no one on that level of the building. The first basement EVP could almost be classified as a Class A EVP, and the second one is a bit weaker. The proof of these EVPs is almost undeniable even when a group like RPS tries to go about and debunk its evidence as much as possible. The vault that these EVPs were recorded in muffled many sounds around it to almost nothingness. Even if an investigator was within 10-15 feet of the vault and speaking in a normal conversation voice, the acoustic setup of the vault would almost completely stop the sound waves before it even reached the entrance of the vault. This vault was about 8-10 feet long and the recorder was sitting on a shelf inside about 4-5 feet back from the door. After reviewing recorder segments before and after the clips in question, many members of RPS concluded that these voices could have only been as loud as they were only if that had come from inside the vault or right next to the entrance; however, once again it will be noted that no investigators were in the basement while these audio clips were captured.
The Reveal: The reveal with the staffers of Gilbert's was completed by Mike, Shawn, and Scott. Overall, the reveal was considered a complete success. Most of the staffers, including Ron and Denton Buckley, were not surprised that RPS had caught some type of evidence that paranormal activity was present in the building. It seemed they were more startled by the fact that most of the evidence was in audio form, that of which RPS could not hear during the time of the investigation, but only heard later in data analysis and review. Ron was definitely surprised by the EVP caught in the ballroom around the piano, that RPS described to sound like a raspy-voiced, mellow early to mid-1900's jazz musician. The story that Ron told RPS about the jazz musician that came back to the property to walk around as a 'free man' was just way to coincidental for RPS to ignore. That story seems to solidify RPS's EVP even more, and that type of past moment that supports a piece of evidence is great to learn. The video clip and picture were also shown to the staffers of Gilbert's. Even though there was only the possibility of an orb in both the picture and video, Shawn, Scott, and Mike did find it relatively important that three pieces of evidence were caught within a 5-10 minute time frame, which supports every piece that much more.
The staffers were given copies of each piece of evidence, and thanked by Shawn, Scott, and Mike for the opportunity of being able to investigate such a historic building on Penn Street. The members of RPS asked the staffers if they could come back and do another investigation in the near future. None of the staffers had an issue with this, because every staffer at Gilbert's has had some type of experience happen to them at the showroom, and many of them are very interested about what is occurring around them on a daily basis. Having accomplished what they needed to during this investigation process, Shawn, Mike, and Scott left Gilbert's Furniture Showroom at that point looking forward to the next time they would walk into that building.
First Floor: A few moments of unexplained activity were experienced on the first floor by many members of the RPS crew. Earlier on in the night, while Mike and Rich, Jr. were sitting near the conference room and cubicles in the back of the building, both members heard a loud bang come from the loading dock area of the store. Both Mike and Jr. thought that maybe someone walking by the outside of the store banged on the door. Mike and Jr. quickly rushed out to the loading dock and found nothing that was out of place that may have fallen or anything that would have been able to make such a loud noise. Mike then went outside of the store and banged on the door and asked Jr. to listen to see if the same sound could be reproduced. Mike tried a few times; however, the sound of rapping or banging on the door was not the sound that Mike and Jr. had previously heard. Shawn and Scott also had a few experiences on the far side of the first floor, the part of the floor that used to be another building that once held a bank and a social quarters, before the Gilbert's staff tore down the walls to make one big showroom. While sitting and conducting some EVP sessions on this side of the floor, Shawn and Scott both heard sounds coming from above them. This did not happen just once, but numerous times during the span of a few hours. At the time, RPS did not know about the small abandoned apartment that existed above them on a part of the second floor that is not connected to the second floor of the current Gilbert's showroom. The second floor showroom is only accessible through the main staircase and the freight elevator. RPS did not find out this abandoned apartment existed until Shawn and Mike revisited Gilbert's to try to debunk some evidence that data analysis revealed. Could there be something that lingers in this small abandoned dwelling? RPS does not have the answer to this question; however, directly above the sounds that Shawn and Scott heard lies this apartment that has been long forgotten about. The biggest piece of evidence that came from the first floor was a picture taken by Mike while him and Jr. were in the middle of the first floor, relaxing on a living room set while conducting an EVP session. While Mike was snapping some pictures during the EVP session, Jr. quickly elevated himself from the loveseat he was sitting on, moved about 10 feet away from the area that Mike was snapping pictures from and started looking around frantically. After repeatedly asking Jr. what was wrong, Mike finally got an answer from him. While Mike was snapping a picture, Jr. claimed that in a mirror that was in the camera flash's path, he saw a figure run by in the reflection of it. By where Mike and Jr. were positioned, this figure would have been moving about 10-15 feet behind them in an area of the store that housed dining room sets. Surely, Jr. was a bit disturbed by what just happened, but for the time being, Mike and Jr. went on with the investigation, snapped some more quick pictures and continued with their EVP session. Also, Jr. and Mike also tried to debunked what just happened thinking that maybe the reflection picked up someone walking by the store's front or side windows that are large display windows; however, they both concluded that the mirror's reflection would not be able to pick up anyone walking by the side windows due to the angles and also there were too many objects that cluttered a clear sightpath into between the mirror and the store's front windows.
Second Floor: Though most of the reports of activity came from this floor, the night was very uneventful on this floor; however, data analysis did show some evidence of paranormal happenings. Personal experiences were limited on this floor on the investigation night. Elmer was not seen sitting in a recliner, a little girl was not seen or heard running around the Barca lounger area or in the ballroom. One piece of possible evidence was found in the ballroom, however. Shawn and Scott were investigating the ballroom and Shawn decided to sit down at the old piano that still sits in the room. From the point that Shawn sat down at the piano and then stood back up, RPS collected three pieces of evidence: an EVP, a video clip, and a orb in a picture. RPS does not put too much stock into orbs because all they really show is free-flowing energy, which does not mean that there is necessarily anything paranormal about it; however, when an orb captured in a picture correlates with other pieces of evidence, then things start to piece together like a puzzle. The EVP clip begins with Scott asking a spirit to play something on the piano and to 'tickle the ivories' and soon after a voice came over the recorder that had a completely different tone from both Shawn and Scott. At the RPS data review meeting, everyone present agreed that the voice almost sounded similar to that of a jazz musician with that raspy, yet mellow voice that has almost become synonymous of jazz artists back in the '50s and '60s. The more interesting part about this is that during the reveal presented to the staffers of Gilbert's, Ron Buckley explained to RPS that many colored jazz musicians loved coming to Reading to play music and be free in a world that was just barely coming around to accepting the fact that African-Americans deserved the same rights that the rest of United States' citizens had possessed for over 150 years. Did RPS come across a spirit that just enjoyed coming back to this room that used to be a speakeasy/social quarters because he had his best memories here of being a free man? RPS may never know this; however, it did raise an interesting discussion. In the same time period of capturing this interesting EVP, an orb was captured on both a video camera and a digital camera while Shawn was sitting at the piano. As Shawn sat down at the piano, he placed his camcorder on top of the piano. As he sat down and told the spirit to sit next to him and play a song, an orb lowered near his left shoulder and seemed to just hover next to his head. In the picture that Scott took which was probably a bit before the orb captured on the camcorder, the orb was captured a few feet higher. The picture is posted on the pictures page; however, RPS is not considering this concrete evidence.
One more EVP came from the second floor. This EVP came from Jay's recorder while it was running static in the ballroom. Jay's group that included himself, Rich, Paul, Julie, and Sam were all on the third floor, and Mike, Shawn, Scott, and Rich Jr. were all on the first floor. The voice seemed to be that of a little girl and this was definitely not bleed-through from the third floor where both of the female investigators were stationed. The little girl says one word, but RPS will leave that up to you to decide what this girl said.
Third Floor: Though many claims were not given from this floor, RPS still caught two EVPs on this floor. Within 6 minutes of beginning the investigation, the first EVP was captured on this floor from Rich's recorder. The moments leading up to capturing the EVP would be best described as Jay looking for the source of a sort of whirring noise that he had been hearing for about a minute or two. He was looking at one of the closed doorways to see if it was the source of the noise; however, as he was doing this he ran into a piece of wood or furniture that was next to the door and made a very loud bang. Soon after this, a stray voice comes over the recorder that seemed to bark out an order or command. No one reacted to it, and the tone of the voice sounded nothing like anyone's voice that was presently on the floor at the time.
The second EVP came at the end of an EVP session while Mike and Jr. were in the 3rd floor. Mike and Jr. had been sitting around on the floor for about ten to fifteen minutes had not heard a single stray sound or had any EMF hits on the K2 meter. It was getting close to RPS's lunch break, so Mike decided to wrap up for the time being. This is all heard on the clip. As Mike is getting up from his sitting position, Jr. says something in the context of that whatever was in the store was being a wuss at the present time. Soon after that, an audible deep breath that almost sounded like a hiss was recorded. Was a spirit that was on the 3rd floor angry at Jr. for calling it a wuss? It is a possibility, but RPS does know the hiss/deep breath did not come from either Jr. or Mike.
The Basement: One personal experience and two EVPs totalled the evidence that was gathered in the basement. No evidence was gathered from the side of the basement that was actually the original property of the Gilbert's store's foundation. All evidence was gathered from the basement that used to belong to the building that once housed the bank and social quarters/speakeasy. The personal experience was Scott's. The whole first group was in the basement at the same time for a short section of a shift of investigating. As that time was expiring, and the group slowly ascended the stairs up to the first floor, Scott felt something touch him on his shoulderblade. Mike and Jr. were the first ones out of the basement, and Shawn was following close behind. Scott was the last one coming out of the basement and as he felt the touch, he immediately stopped dead in his tracks. Shawn heard that Scott had stopped walking, turned around and saw Scott standing motionless halfway up the staircase. Shawn asked Scott what was wrong, but he did not respond right away. Eventually he told Shawn that he had been touched on the back, and immediately the two started looking for anyway to debunk the feeling Scott just had on his back. There was nothing hanging down from the ceiling that could have rubbed against Scott or nothing protruding far enough from the walls next to the staircase that could have caused such a sensation that Scott reported feeling. The 4 investigators went back down into the basement for a few minutes to take some pictures and perform some EMF readings; however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary after Scott's experience.
Two EVPs came from within one of the vaults on the basement level. The amazing thing about these EVPs is that these were recorded while there was no one on that level of the building. The first basement EVP could almost be classified as a Class A EVP, and the second one is a bit weaker. The proof of these EVPs is almost undeniable even when a group like RPS tries to go about and debunk its evidence as much as possible. The vault that these EVPs were recorded in muffled many sounds around it to almost nothingness. Even if an investigator was within 10-15 feet of the vault and speaking in a normal conversation voice, the acoustic setup of the vault would almost completely stop the sound waves before it even reached the entrance of the vault. This vault was about 8-10 feet long and the recorder was sitting on a shelf inside about 4-5 feet back from the door. After reviewing recorder segments before and after the clips in question, many members of RPS concluded that these voices could have only been as loud as they were only if that had come from inside the vault or right next to the entrance; however, once again it will be noted that no investigators were in the basement while these audio clips were captured.
The Reveal: The reveal with the staffers of Gilbert's was completed by Mike, Shawn, and Scott. Overall, the reveal was considered a complete success. Most of the staffers, including Ron and Denton Buckley, were not surprised that RPS had caught some type of evidence that paranormal activity was present in the building. It seemed they were more startled by the fact that most of the evidence was in audio form, that of which RPS could not hear during the time of the investigation, but only heard later in data analysis and review. Ron was definitely surprised by the EVP caught in the ballroom around the piano, that RPS described to sound like a raspy-voiced, mellow early to mid-1900's jazz musician. The story that Ron told RPS about the jazz musician that came back to the property to walk around as a 'free man' was just way to coincidental for RPS to ignore. That story seems to solidify RPS's EVP even more, and that type of past moment that supports a piece of evidence is great to learn. The video clip and picture were also shown to the staffers of Gilbert's. Even though there was only the possibility of an orb in both the picture and video, Shawn, Scott, and Mike did find it relatively important that three pieces of evidence were caught within a 5-10 minute time frame, which supports every piece that much more.
The staffers were given copies of each piece of evidence, and thanked by Shawn, Scott, and Mike for the opportunity of being able to investigate such a historic building on Penn Street. The members of RPS asked the staffers if they could come back and do another investigation in the near future. None of the staffers had an issue with this, because every staffer at Gilbert's has had some type of experience happen to them at the showroom, and many of them are very interested about what is occurring around them on a daily basis. Having accomplished what they needed to during this investigation process, Shawn, Mike, and Scott left Gilbert's Furniture Showroom at that point looking forward to the next time they would walk into that building.
Celestial Connections Holistics Center (Mini-Investigation/Event)- Blandon, PA- March 13th, 2010
(RPS was teamed with the Fleetwood High School Paranormal Group on this case)
Conditions- rainy night, temperature in mid-40's, winds constant from 15-20 mph; last quarter moon phase, nearing new moon
Investigators- Shawn Maurer and Mike Snyder (represented from Reading Paranormal Society); the rest of the groups were comprised of members of the Fleetwood High School Paranormal Club, their teacher, Erin Follweiler, and a few group chaperones
Equipment Used- (1) Sony video camcorder with NightShot capabilities; (1) infrared extender attached to the Sony camcorder; (2) Olympus digital voice recorders, used in both live and static situations; (2) digital cameras; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Shawn and Mike arrived at CCHC (Celestial Connections Holistic Center) at 6:00 p.m. to complete a small walkthrough with the owner of the center, Marie Mulgrew. Most of the students arrived at 7 p.m., at which time Marie held an exercise with the students so they could clear their minds and tune their senses for the investigation in a meditative fashion. At 7:30 p.m., Shawn and Mike held a brief discussion with the students, talking about how RPS goes about their investigations and the whole process that insues. Shawn and Mike also talked about some of their own and the team's memorable moments from prior investigations. At 8 p.m., groups were established, and by 8:15 p.m., the investigation was underway. The night concluded around 10:30 p.m.
History- Not much on the history of the building was shared with Mike and Shawn before or during the investigation. What was shared with RPS was that the building was built in 1845, and up until a few years ago, the Garden Angel Tea Room had occupied the building's confines. Because RPS has been invited back to CCHC by Marie in June, RPS will try to discover more on the history of the house and the surrounding area a bit more. If the building was at one point a private residence, one would have to assume that a prolific person lived there, due to the size of the building; in total, including the basement and the very low-ceiling attic, there are 5 complete floors to the building. Also, the building is situated on the intersection of two current highways, and even back 100-150 years ago, today's current highways were already well-established travel routes. This could also lead to a discussion that this building was used for lodging and tavern or restaurant purposes, almost like many old stagecoach stops.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- No real reports of activity were given to Shawn and Mike prior to the investigation. However, Marie was able to give Shawn and Mike the names of a few spirits that are present at CCHC, because of her god-given abilities to be able to speak to the spirits of those who have passed on. Marie told Shawn and Mike that the most active spirit at CCHC is that of James who resides in the attic. Marie made it perfectly clear that he does not like people in his living quarters. James can be very easily agitated and just wants to be left alone. Victoria is another spirit present at CCHC, and generally hangs around in the first floor main studio room and the kitchen area. Marie believes that Victoria is very protective of the kitchen area and claims it for herself, though otherwise she is very pleasant. There is the spirit of a 14 year old girl at CCHC as well. Marie is not sure of the name of this spirit, but she believes that this spirit was killed on the highway right outside of the building in a car accident. This young girl generally resides in what Marie and the other staffers at CCHC call the 'creepy room'. This is more or less a storage room in the building; however, it is one of the rooms closest to the highway where the lingering spirit may have been killed. And the final notable spirit present at CCHC is that of a man that does not talk to Marie; however, she definitely knows that he resides in the basement and that he is not a nice person. Marie very rarely goes into the basement by herself, and it took a lot for her to go into the basement even during the walkthrough tour that she gave Mike and Shawn. Because this spirit does not talk to Marie, she and RPS believe that he may have some trouble with women in general, but this also put Mike and Shawn at a disadvantage because they didn't have a name or any characteristics to work off of; however, the basement was the area that Shawn and Mike focused on for most of the night. Even though the other spirits had much better definition thanks to Marie, Mike and Shawn felt they could do more good with the spirit in the basement because this is the spirit that generally sparks fear in most of the people that work at CCHC. As members of a group that tries to relieve those fears from their clients, Mike and Shawn targeted this spirit in the basement right away. Other claims at CCHC include seeing an apparition in the first floor bathroom and just general feelings of being watched from afar.
A Bit of Debunking- As Shawn and Mike were completing a walkthrough with Marie and two of her friends, the group came across something strange in the attic. Marie said the spirit in the attic, James, does not like to be disturbed and does not welcome new people kindly in his floor of the building. As the group was in the attic, two loud bangs came from the opposite end of the room. Mike and Shawn looked at each other and just waited. Ten to fifteen seconds later, the same bangs occurred again. This time, Mike and Shawn went right towards the noise. As Mike and Shawn approached the area in question, the bangs sounded again, and right away both men knew what was happening. Loose window panes on a windy night were causing the stray, startling sound. The windows faced the eastern side of the building and that night the wind was coming from the east, causing the panes to react violently whenever a gust would pick up. It was easy to assume that this was just James making his presence known to the newcomers, and Marie and her friends would have never questioned that noise before to be anything but something originating from James; however, Shawn and Mike felt it was their duty to go directly towards the noise, just like any other investigator should do.
Findings: For only conducting about a two and a half hour investigation, the evidence from data analysis was extraordinary. A total of six EVPs were captured and are posted on the EVPs page. Most of the EVPs also contain very different sounding voice tones, which generally means that there was more than one spirit captured on the audio recorders. Video and camera images were barren of anything that could be considered evidence of paranormal happenings; however, once again EVPs were RPS's bread and butter on this mini-investigation. And for the most part, personal experiences were kept to a bare minimum as well. A few times during their stay in the basement, Shawn and Mike heard what would sound like a rock fall from the ceiling; however, that could have been caused by the students walking over the floor above or it could also be contributed to the overall structural decay of the building itself. The building is from 1845, so there is some infrastructure problems to take into consideration. One personal experience that Shawn and Mike encountered was something scratching on the cellar door that led to the outside of the building. On video and recorder analysis, the two investigators reacted to every occurrence of this happening; however, the noise was too soft to be recorded onto the microphones of the recording devices. Shawn and Mike tried to debunk this noise through the course of the night, by searching for anything that could have been creating some kind of friction on the door, but nothing was ever found. They searched for branches, animals, or checked to see if a basic gust of wind would create such results; however, nothing was ever conclusive enough to actually debunk the occurrence.
No reveal was done for this mini-investigation. All EVP data was shared between RPS, Marie, and Mrs. Follweiler of Fleetwood High School. Mrs. Follweiler actually went the extra distance and cleaned up the EVPs a bit more by lessening the background noise through the school's A/V department. This procedure definitely cleared up the clips immensely for her and her students to gain a better understanding of each EVPs' importance.
At this point, RPS would like to thank both Marie and Fleetwood High Paranormal Club for giving Mike and Shawn the chance to contribute to the investigation. Teamwork is essential in the paranormal community, and Mike and Shawn were thankful to have the chance to work with such a group of dedicated youngsters who are so interested in a field that deserves as much attention as it is now receiving. Hopefully, with youngsters like this, the paranormal field will continue to grow, and maybe one day everyone will be convinced that we are not alone in this world.
Also, thanks to Marie for inviting RPS back to CCHC in June for a full-scale private investigation. Hopefully, with Marie working with RPS during this investigation, her advanced medium abilities could prove quite useful in tracking down and attempting to communicate with the spirits residing within.
(RPS was teamed with the Fleetwood High School Paranormal Group on this case)
Conditions- rainy night, temperature in mid-40's, winds constant from 15-20 mph; last quarter moon phase, nearing new moon
Investigators- Shawn Maurer and Mike Snyder (represented from Reading Paranormal Society); the rest of the groups were comprised of members of the Fleetwood High School Paranormal Club, their teacher, Erin Follweiler, and a few group chaperones
Equipment Used- (1) Sony video camcorder with NightShot capabilities; (1) infrared extender attached to the Sony camcorder; (2) Olympus digital voice recorders, used in both live and static situations; (2) digital cameras; (1) K2 EMF meter; (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Shawn and Mike arrived at CCHC (Celestial Connections Holistic Center) at 6:00 p.m. to complete a small walkthrough with the owner of the center, Marie Mulgrew. Most of the students arrived at 7 p.m., at which time Marie held an exercise with the students so they could clear their minds and tune their senses for the investigation in a meditative fashion. At 7:30 p.m., Shawn and Mike held a brief discussion with the students, talking about how RPS goes about their investigations and the whole process that insues. Shawn and Mike also talked about some of their own and the team's memorable moments from prior investigations. At 8 p.m., groups were established, and by 8:15 p.m., the investigation was underway. The night concluded around 10:30 p.m.
History- Not much on the history of the building was shared with Mike and Shawn before or during the investigation. What was shared with RPS was that the building was built in 1845, and up until a few years ago, the Garden Angel Tea Room had occupied the building's confines. Because RPS has been invited back to CCHC by Marie in June, RPS will try to discover more on the history of the house and the surrounding area a bit more. If the building was at one point a private residence, one would have to assume that a prolific person lived there, due to the size of the building; in total, including the basement and the very low-ceiling attic, there are 5 complete floors to the building. Also, the building is situated on the intersection of two current highways, and even back 100-150 years ago, today's current highways were already well-established travel routes. This could also lead to a discussion that this building was used for lodging and tavern or restaurant purposes, almost like many old stagecoach stops.
Reports of Paranormal Activity- No real reports of activity were given to Shawn and Mike prior to the investigation. However, Marie was able to give Shawn and Mike the names of a few spirits that are present at CCHC, because of her god-given abilities to be able to speak to the spirits of those who have passed on. Marie told Shawn and Mike that the most active spirit at CCHC is that of James who resides in the attic. Marie made it perfectly clear that he does not like people in his living quarters. James can be very easily agitated and just wants to be left alone. Victoria is another spirit present at CCHC, and generally hangs around in the first floor main studio room and the kitchen area. Marie believes that Victoria is very protective of the kitchen area and claims it for herself, though otherwise she is very pleasant. There is the spirit of a 14 year old girl at CCHC as well. Marie is not sure of the name of this spirit, but she believes that this spirit was killed on the highway right outside of the building in a car accident. This young girl generally resides in what Marie and the other staffers at CCHC call the 'creepy room'. This is more or less a storage room in the building; however, it is one of the rooms closest to the highway where the lingering spirit may have been killed. And the final notable spirit present at CCHC is that of a man that does not talk to Marie; however, she definitely knows that he resides in the basement and that he is not a nice person. Marie very rarely goes into the basement by herself, and it took a lot for her to go into the basement even during the walkthrough tour that she gave Mike and Shawn. Because this spirit does not talk to Marie, she and RPS believe that he may have some trouble with women in general, but this also put Mike and Shawn at a disadvantage because they didn't have a name or any characteristics to work off of; however, the basement was the area that Shawn and Mike focused on for most of the night. Even though the other spirits had much better definition thanks to Marie, Mike and Shawn felt they could do more good with the spirit in the basement because this is the spirit that generally sparks fear in most of the people that work at CCHC. As members of a group that tries to relieve those fears from their clients, Mike and Shawn targeted this spirit in the basement right away. Other claims at CCHC include seeing an apparition in the first floor bathroom and just general feelings of being watched from afar.
A Bit of Debunking- As Shawn and Mike were completing a walkthrough with Marie and two of her friends, the group came across something strange in the attic. Marie said the spirit in the attic, James, does not like to be disturbed and does not welcome new people kindly in his floor of the building. As the group was in the attic, two loud bangs came from the opposite end of the room. Mike and Shawn looked at each other and just waited. Ten to fifteen seconds later, the same bangs occurred again. This time, Mike and Shawn went right towards the noise. As Mike and Shawn approached the area in question, the bangs sounded again, and right away both men knew what was happening. Loose window panes on a windy night were causing the stray, startling sound. The windows faced the eastern side of the building and that night the wind was coming from the east, causing the panes to react violently whenever a gust would pick up. It was easy to assume that this was just James making his presence known to the newcomers, and Marie and her friends would have never questioned that noise before to be anything but something originating from James; however, Shawn and Mike felt it was their duty to go directly towards the noise, just like any other investigator should do.
Findings: For only conducting about a two and a half hour investigation, the evidence from data analysis was extraordinary. A total of six EVPs were captured and are posted on the EVPs page. Most of the EVPs also contain very different sounding voice tones, which generally means that there was more than one spirit captured on the audio recorders. Video and camera images were barren of anything that could be considered evidence of paranormal happenings; however, once again EVPs were RPS's bread and butter on this mini-investigation. And for the most part, personal experiences were kept to a bare minimum as well. A few times during their stay in the basement, Shawn and Mike heard what would sound like a rock fall from the ceiling; however, that could have been caused by the students walking over the floor above or it could also be contributed to the overall structural decay of the building itself. The building is from 1845, so there is some infrastructure problems to take into consideration. One personal experience that Shawn and Mike encountered was something scratching on the cellar door that led to the outside of the building. On video and recorder analysis, the two investigators reacted to every occurrence of this happening; however, the noise was too soft to be recorded onto the microphones of the recording devices. Shawn and Mike tried to debunk this noise through the course of the night, by searching for anything that could have been creating some kind of friction on the door, but nothing was ever found. They searched for branches, animals, or checked to see if a basic gust of wind would create such results; however, nothing was ever conclusive enough to actually debunk the occurrence.
No reveal was done for this mini-investigation. All EVP data was shared between RPS, Marie, and Mrs. Follweiler of Fleetwood High School. Mrs. Follweiler actually went the extra distance and cleaned up the EVPs a bit more by lessening the background noise through the school's A/V department. This procedure definitely cleared up the clips immensely for her and her students to gain a better understanding of each EVPs' importance.
At this point, RPS would like to thank both Marie and Fleetwood High Paranormal Club for giving Mike and Shawn the chance to contribute to the investigation. Teamwork is essential in the paranormal community, and Mike and Shawn were thankful to have the chance to work with such a group of dedicated youngsters who are so interested in a field that deserves as much attention as it is now receiving. Hopefully, with youngsters like this, the paranormal field will continue to grow, and maybe one day everyone will be convinced that we are not alone in this world.
Also, thanks to Marie for inviting RPS back to CCHC in June for a full-scale private investigation. Hopefully, with Marie working with RPS during this investigation, her advanced medium abilities could prove quite useful in tracking down and attempting to communicate with the spirits residing within.
Private Residence- Sinking Spring, PA- Case #4 of 2010- April 10, 2010
Conditions- clear night, temperatures in the range of 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit, little to no wind, humidity steady between 45-50%, steady or slowly rising barometric pressure; last quarter moon phase, waning crescent (about 14.5% illuminated)
Investigators- Shawn Maurer and Mike Snyder
Equipment Used- (1) Sony HD camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) Infrared extender attached to Sony camcorder to enhance Nightshot capabilities, (2) Nikon digital cameras, (1)K2 EMF reader, (2) Olympus digital voice recorders (one used as a static and one carried with Mike and Shawn), (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Shawn and Mike arrived around 8:30 pm to Jess and Billy's house. The investigation started a bit after 9 pm. Two investigation sessions were completed on the 2nd floor by Mike and Shawn, and one session was completed on the first floor with Shawn and Mike in the living room and Jess and Billy sitting in the bedroom, assisting the two by asking questions during EVP sessions and giving an overall status of what their feeling and overall condition was at certain points. Shawn and Mike left the residence around 1:45 am.
History- Not much is known by Jess or Billy on the history of the structure. The residence is not owned by them, but is just rented. They do not have access to the deeds, and have been unable to trace back the dates of the origin of the residence. Only through Billy's parents' friends was the couple able to discover some stories about the house. A friend of Billy's family long ago just happened to live across the street from the house in question. Numerous times they would see families move in, and within a few weeks would move out at a frantic pace. Stories from the Billy's family suggests that in the mid 1950's a husband and wife lived in the house, and the wife gave birth to a child. The mother of the child died while giving labor, but the child did live; however, the young boy's brain was not completely developed and was someone that required special needs for the rest of his life. The father of the child, like most people in this era, felt the child was an embarassment to his name and would lock him up inside a second floor closet/ unfinished room/ storage facilitiy for hours, and days, and weeks upon end. Rights for majority of the mentally challenged community only really began to develop greatly after the Pennhurst Hospital documentary debochery occurred in the early 1980's on national television. A little before, during, and after that time stricter codes were put in place for such mishandled equal people. So back to the father and child. The child spent most of his life away from civilization, freezing in this makeshift room in the winter and sweating profusely in the summer. The story ends tragically that the boy died in this room, of what cause, RPS does not know; however the causes could range anywhere from hypothermia, dehydration, suffocation, malnutrition, or a myriad of preventable and treatable diseases. And just a friendly reminder to the reader: this story was told to us second-hand by Jess and Billy, who had heard it from a family member, and the lineage probably just goes on and on. This story may not be completely accurate.
Mike contacted RPS's selected empath, Marie Mulgrew, in regards to this house. Marie was able to complete a partial reading of the house off of an EVP that RPS captured from the house on the first floor. The voice was that of a woman; however, that will be discussed into detail more in a later section of this article. Marie believes that there are two spirits inside the house: one of a woman and man of different bloodlines. The one, Mike and Marie are convinced, is the woman that died while giving birth. Marie gave the suggestion that the second is the husband of the woman. She resides on the first floor, and he hangs out on the second floor. Take it for what you will, but reasons for why they may still be there makes sense. The woman could be there because she is looking for something: maybe her baby. The man may just be trapped on the second floor, maybe for how he treated his child that had special needs, of which none of those were met, and in an act of karma when he died his special needs were not met when it came time for him to cross over, and maybe those needs will never be met.
Reports of Paranormal Activity: Jess and her daughter were the first ones in the house. At the point when they moved in, they noticed nothing out of the ordinary in the house. Only when Jess and Billy got engaged and Billy moved in around the end of 2009 did things start to get a little weird in the house. The first report of activity came when Jess and Billy were finishing up moving his stuff into the house. Billy's deoderant and cologne were placed on the kitchen counter while they ran another errand. When they came back to the house, both the deoderant and cologne were gone, but no one had been in the house after they were in. At first, a reader of this article would think that they were robbed; however, that is very unlikely since nothing else was misplaced or taken from the house. To this day, Jess and Billy have not found this misplaced deoderant and cologne. Stories begin to mount as Billy's length of stay in the house increases. Billy works in a medical services job, therefore he owns a police/fire scanner. Numerous times this scanner will go off like there is a emergency call being broadcasted to the local EMT or fire houses; however, he has discovered that these calls are false and are only being broadcasted on his scanner. Numerous times, the scanner just seems to die when there is no reason that it should have. One may think he could be in possession of a faulty scanner; however, 9 times out of 10 it seems to work just fine. Some of Billy's other things have seemingly moved without anyone else's help and show up in very strange places. This has happened with Billy's cell phone on a number of occasions. Billy has also just recently been scratched inside the house as well. Billy works a late afternoon-into-evening shift and came home as fast as he could one night when Jess had called him and said he needed to come home as fast as possible. She was experiencing a very uneasy feeling in the house most of the night and she wanted him back at the house as soon as possible. As Billy walked in the back door, he felt something touch his back: it wasn't anything very forceful or painful, but he knew something had brushed up behind him. As Billy walked into the bedroom, Jess knew that he had experienced something. Billy explained what had happened and lifted his shirt for Jess to examine his back. Sure enough, around his shoulderblade area were two thin scratch lines; however, no blood was drawn. That was the most physical experience that had ever happened in the house; everything else done was something that seemed to be done in a playful or taunting manner. To top everything off, Billy refuses to enter the second floor of the building alone; even if someone goes with him, he still feels very uneasy.
Billy has not been the only one prone to experience activity ever since the two moved in together. Jess has also begun to experience her share of strange occurrences. Many of the things she witnesses or feels occurs in the first floor living room, kitchen, and hallway area, but she has even felt a prescence sitting on the edge of the bed and even claims to have seen a shadowy figure standing around the couple's bed. Jess has also reported feeling her feet being touched while laying in bed, but the more monumental experiences have happened in the living room area, which is also where Shawn and Mike stumbled upon an EVP during the investigation. Jess has seen a full body apparition of a woman in white manifest itself inside the living room and walk back into the hallway and just seemingly disappear. This has only happened once, but that one time was enough to stir her interest in what was happening inside her house. Also, in one of the corners of the living room, on the opposite side of the computer stand, Jess had reported seeing a shadowy figure, that seemingly fit the profile of a typical adult male stature. Also, the computer stand has witnessed its own share of experiences. Every night, Jess puts the computer into sleep mode. The only way to activate a computer out of sleep mode is to shake the mouse around fairly violently: a slight tap or even someone walking around on the floor surrounding the computer would not kick the monitor back on. The same applies for any updates to any website the computer is still running like Facebook, Myspace, etc.: a computer in sleep mode would not turn on for such things. Shawn and Mike even tested Jess and Billy's computer. Mike moved the mouse around in a loose, circular motion and the monitor did not activate; however, when he used a tighter circular motion moving the mouse, the monitor screen popped up after about 5 seconds. An object has also fallen off the top shelf of the computer stand and landed right in front of the keyboard. That may not seem like a big deal, but the item in question was a candle snuffer. Just picture a typical candle snuffer: the regular 7-8 inch handle and that piece attached to the bell-shaped piece that actually suffocates the oxygen supply to the candle. This snuffer was sitting on the top shelf of the stand the way you would normally place a snuffer on a shelf: with the bell-shaped piece facing down to give stability to the whole snuffer so it would not move. This snuffer was reported to have fallen off the top shelf and have landed where a keyboard would normally sit on a computer stand. One would normally expect such an object to land on its side if it would fall from a few feet up and back; however this snuffer landed with the bell-shaped piece still face down, just like Jess had placed it on the shelf of the stand. Though, it is not impossible to recreate such a fall, 999 out of 1000 times, this snuffer would land on its side. Shawn and Mike did not attempt to re-enact such a scenario, mainly because they did not want to break Jess and Billy's snuffer; however, Shawn and Mike more and less considered this common sense of the effects of gravity and force. For the most part, these are the reports coming from Jess and Billy's firsthand experiences. Most importantly out of this whole ordeal is that the Jess and Billy's kids are not being targeted by the activity in the house; it is only Billy that feels that something is going after him. Because of all of these occurrences, Jess and Billy both decided that they should try to receive some help from a group that carefully examines such occurrences. Luckily enough, RPS was given such a chance to investigate this residence, and more importantly the chance to help a family seeking some kind of assistance and guidance that they themselves could not handle.
Findings: The house seemed to be absolutely silent the night of the investigation. Shawn and Mike completed two investigatory sessions on the second floor and one on the first floor with Jess and Billy joining in with that session. Nothing was found on the second floor: no video, photo, or recorder evidence. Not even a stray or out of place sound was heard by Shawn and Mike. A static recorder was running in the closet/deathtrap the special needs person was supposedly kept in and apparently did in, and was running for the whole night, but every sound heard was either coming from the road nearby or from other sources that Shawn and Mike could readily explain. On the first floor, RPS was able to catch one clip that definitely just explains itself. At the time the clip was produced, Shawn and Mike were trying to make a deal with whatever spirit was present. They were saying that if the spirit would make a sound, they would leave, but then again maybe not because that would make them want to stay longer. At the time, Shawn and Mike were just joking around having a good time, when a lady's voice comes in, clear as day in a very serious manner. Apparently, the spirit was not happy with the fact that Shawn and Mike were having a good time at the expense of her credibility. When this clip was heard by RPS's chosen empath, Marie, she strongly suggested that the spirit present was not unhappy with Jess and Billy being there, but the fact that Shawn and Mike were indeed disrespecting the truth the house holds. That one clip made those five hours in the otherwise silent house completely worth it. Amazingly, everyone that heard the clip agreed what was being said, and all were going it to listening to it without being told what was said, making it one of the top 5 EVPs that RPS ever caught.
Reveal: No official reveal was done for this investigation. Mike sent the recorder clip through e-mail to Jess. Both Jess and BIlly heard it, got back to Mike, and all agreed on what it said. Mike had a discussion with Marie, RPS's empath, about the house when Jess asked if she could find out the names of the two spirits that Marie felt were present in the house. At this point, Mike felt that his area of expertise was no longer needed and he decided to tell Jess to give Marie a call so they could talk person to person instead of everything being relayed through a third party. Before Mike gave the phone number to Jess, Mike asked her to keep a log of all the times that her or Billy felt strange in the house or experienced something that they could not explain. Mike told Jess to check back every few weeks or so, just to see if things are improving inside the house. Hopefully, with a list of activity, Mike may be able to find a pattern of events that could explain why some of things are going on. Technically, this case can still be considered open for more analysis, but then again, all of RPS's clients have been told that anytime they feel something strange is going on or they have a question, they can contact the group at anytime.
Investigators- Shawn Maurer and Mike Snyder
Equipment Used- (1) Sony HD camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) Infrared extender attached to Sony camcorder to enhance Nightshot capabilities, (2) Nikon digital cameras, (1)K2 EMF reader, (2) Olympus digital voice recorders (one used as a static and one carried with Mike and Shawn), (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Shawn and Mike arrived around 8:30 pm to Jess and Billy's house. The investigation started a bit after 9 pm. Two investigation sessions were completed on the 2nd floor by Mike and Shawn, and one session was completed on the first floor with Shawn and Mike in the living room and Jess and Billy sitting in the bedroom, assisting the two by asking questions during EVP sessions and giving an overall status of what their feeling and overall condition was at certain points. Shawn and Mike left the residence around 1:45 am.
History- Not much is known by Jess or Billy on the history of the structure. The residence is not owned by them, but is just rented. They do not have access to the deeds, and have been unable to trace back the dates of the origin of the residence. Only through Billy's parents' friends was the couple able to discover some stories about the house. A friend of Billy's family long ago just happened to live across the street from the house in question. Numerous times they would see families move in, and within a few weeks would move out at a frantic pace. Stories from the Billy's family suggests that in the mid 1950's a husband and wife lived in the house, and the wife gave birth to a child. The mother of the child died while giving labor, but the child did live; however, the young boy's brain was not completely developed and was someone that required special needs for the rest of his life. The father of the child, like most people in this era, felt the child was an embarassment to his name and would lock him up inside a second floor closet/ unfinished room/ storage facilitiy for hours, and days, and weeks upon end. Rights for majority of the mentally challenged community only really began to develop greatly after the Pennhurst Hospital documentary debochery occurred in the early 1980's on national television. A little before, during, and after that time stricter codes were put in place for such mishandled equal people. So back to the father and child. The child spent most of his life away from civilization, freezing in this makeshift room in the winter and sweating profusely in the summer. The story ends tragically that the boy died in this room, of what cause, RPS does not know; however the causes could range anywhere from hypothermia, dehydration, suffocation, malnutrition, or a myriad of preventable and treatable diseases. And just a friendly reminder to the reader: this story was told to us second-hand by Jess and Billy, who had heard it from a family member, and the lineage probably just goes on and on. This story may not be completely accurate.
Mike contacted RPS's selected empath, Marie Mulgrew, in regards to this house. Marie was able to complete a partial reading of the house off of an EVP that RPS captured from the house on the first floor. The voice was that of a woman; however, that will be discussed into detail more in a later section of this article. Marie believes that there are two spirits inside the house: one of a woman and man of different bloodlines. The one, Mike and Marie are convinced, is the woman that died while giving birth. Marie gave the suggestion that the second is the husband of the woman. She resides on the first floor, and he hangs out on the second floor. Take it for what you will, but reasons for why they may still be there makes sense. The woman could be there because she is looking for something: maybe her baby. The man may just be trapped on the second floor, maybe for how he treated his child that had special needs, of which none of those were met, and in an act of karma when he died his special needs were not met when it came time for him to cross over, and maybe those needs will never be met.
Reports of Paranormal Activity: Jess and her daughter were the first ones in the house. At the point when they moved in, they noticed nothing out of the ordinary in the house. Only when Jess and Billy got engaged and Billy moved in around the end of 2009 did things start to get a little weird in the house. The first report of activity came when Jess and Billy were finishing up moving his stuff into the house. Billy's deoderant and cologne were placed on the kitchen counter while they ran another errand. When they came back to the house, both the deoderant and cologne were gone, but no one had been in the house after they were in. At first, a reader of this article would think that they were robbed; however, that is very unlikely since nothing else was misplaced or taken from the house. To this day, Jess and Billy have not found this misplaced deoderant and cologne. Stories begin to mount as Billy's length of stay in the house increases. Billy works in a medical services job, therefore he owns a police/fire scanner. Numerous times this scanner will go off like there is a emergency call being broadcasted to the local EMT or fire houses; however, he has discovered that these calls are false and are only being broadcasted on his scanner. Numerous times, the scanner just seems to die when there is no reason that it should have. One may think he could be in possession of a faulty scanner; however, 9 times out of 10 it seems to work just fine. Some of Billy's other things have seemingly moved without anyone else's help and show up in very strange places. This has happened with Billy's cell phone on a number of occasions. Billy has also just recently been scratched inside the house as well. Billy works a late afternoon-into-evening shift and came home as fast as he could one night when Jess had called him and said he needed to come home as fast as possible. She was experiencing a very uneasy feeling in the house most of the night and she wanted him back at the house as soon as possible. As Billy walked in the back door, he felt something touch his back: it wasn't anything very forceful or painful, but he knew something had brushed up behind him. As Billy walked into the bedroom, Jess knew that he had experienced something. Billy explained what had happened and lifted his shirt for Jess to examine his back. Sure enough, around his shoulderblade area were two thin scratch lines; however, no blood was drawn. That was the most physical experience that had ever happened in the house; everything else done was something that seemed to be done in a playful or taunting manner. To top everything off, Billy refuses to enter the second floor of the building alone; even if someone goes with him, he still feels very uneasy.
Billy has not been the only one prone to experience activity ever since the two moved in together. Jess has also begun to experience her share of strange occurrences. Many of the things she witnesses or feels occurs in the first floor living room, kitchen, and hallway area, but she has even felt a prescence sitting on the edge of the bed and even claims to have seen a shadowy figure standing around the couple's bed. Jess has also reported feeling her feet being touched while laying in bed, but the more monumental experiences have happened in the living room area, which is also where Shawn and Mike stumbled upon an EVP during the investigation. Jess has seen a full body apparition of a woman in white manifest itself inside the living room and walk back into the hallway and just seemingly disappear. This has only happened once, but that one time was enough to stir her interest in what was happening inside her house. Also, in one of the corners of the living room, on the opposite side of the computer stand, Jess had reported seeing a shadowy figure, that seemingly fit the profile of a typical adult male stature. Also, the computer stand has witnessed its own share of experiences. Every night, Jess puts the computer into sleep mode. The only way to activate a computer out of sleep mode is to shake the mouse around fairly violently: a slight tap or even someone walking around on the floor surrounding the computer would not kick the monitor back on. The same applies for any updates to any website the computer is still running like Facebook, Myspace, etc.: a computer in sleep mode would not turn on for such things. Shawn and Mike even tested Jess and Billy's computer. Mike moved the mouse around in a loose, circular motion and the monitor did not activate; however, when he used a tighter circular motion moving the mouse, the monitor screen popped up after about 5 seconds. An object has also fallen off the top shelf of the computer stand and landed right in front of the keyboard. That may not seem like a big deal, but the item in question was a candle snuffer. Just picture a typical candle snuffer: the regular 7-8 inch handle and that piece attached to the bell-shaped piece that actually suffocates the oxygen supply to the candle. This snuffer was sitting on the top shelf of the stand the way you would normally place a snuffer on a shelf: with the bell-shaped piece facing down to give stability to the whole snuffer so it would not move. This snuffer was reported to have fallen off the top shelf and have landed where a keyboard would normally sit on a computer stand. One would normally expect such an object to land on its side if it would fall from a few feet up and back; however this snuffer landed with the bell-shaped piece still face down, just like Jess had placed it on the shelf of the stand. Though, it is not impossible to recreate such a fall, 999 out of 1000 times, this snuffer would land on its side. Shawn and Mike did not attempt to re-enact such a scenario, mainly because they did not want to break Jess and Billy's snuffer; however, Shawn and Mike more and less considered this common sense of the effects of gravity and force. For the most part, these are the reports coming from Jess and Billy's firsthand experiences. Most importantly out of this whole ordeal is that the Jess and Billy's kids are not being targeted by the activity in the house; it is only Billy that feels that something is going after him. Because of all of these occurrences, Jess and Billy both decided that they should try to receive some help from a group that carefully examines such occurrences. Luckily enough, RPS was given such a chance to investigate this residence, and more importantly the chance to help a family seeking some kind of assistance and guidance that they themselves could not handle.
Findings: The house seemed to be absolutely silent the night of the investigation. Shawn and Mike completed two investigatory sessions on the second floor and one on the first floor with Jess and Billy joining in with that session. Nothing was found on the second floor: no video, photo, or recorder evidence. Not even a stray or out of place sound was heard by Shawn and Mike. A static recorder was running in the closet/deathtrap the special needs person was supposedly kept in and apparently did in, and was running for the whole night, but every sound heard was either coming from the road nearby or from other sources that Shawn and Mike could readily explain. On the first floor, RPS was able to catch one clip that definitely just explains itself. At the time the clip was produced, Shawn and Mike were trying to make a deal with whatever spirit was present. They were saying that if the spirit would make a sound, they would leave, but then again maybe not because that would make them want to stay longer. At the time, Shawn and Mike were just joking around having a good time, when a lady's voice comes in, clear as day in a very serious manner. Apparently, the spirit was not happy with the fact that Shawn and Mike were having a good time at the expense of her credibility. When this clip was heard by RPS's chosen empath, Marie, she strongly suggested that the spirit present was not unhappy with Jess and Billy being there, but the fact that Shawn and Mike were indeed disrespecting the truth the house holds. That one clip made those five hours in the otherwise silent house completely worth it. Amazingly, everyone that heard the clip agreed what was being said, and all were going it to listening to it without being told what was said, making it one of the top 5 EVPs that RPS ever caught.
Reveal: No official reveal was done for this investigation. Mike sent the recorder clip through e-mail to Jess. Both Jess and BIlly heard it, got back to Mike, and all agreed on what it said. Mike had a discussion with Marie, RPS's empath, about the house when Jess asked if she could find out the names of the two spirits that Marie felt were present in the house. At this point, Mike felt that his area of expertise was no longer needed and he decided to tell Jess to give Marie a call so they could talk person to person instead of everything being relayed through a third party. Before Mike gave the phone number to Jess, Mike asked her to keep a log of all the times that her or Billy felt strange in the house or experienced something that they could not explain. Mike told Jess to check back every few weeks or so, just to see if things are improving inside the house. Hopefully, with a list of activity, Mike may be able to find a pattern of events that could explain why some of things are going on. Technically, this case can still be considered open for more analysis, but then again, all of RPS's clients have been told that anytime they feel something strange is going on or they have a question, they can contact the group at anytime.
Morlatton Village- Douglassville, PA- Case #5 of 2010- April 24, 2010
(3 structures were investigated in one night: The White Horse Tavern, George Douglass Mansion, and the Mouns Jones House, all of which are approximately 100-200 yards away from each other)
Conditions- periods of showers, temperatures in the upper 40's to low 50's, light to no wind, dropping barometric pressure, relative humidity from 50-85%; first quarter moon phase (waxing gibbous), about 89% illuminated to full
Investigators- Team 1: Mike Snyder, Greg Burk*, and Doug Eisemann (tenant at the White Horse Tavern)
Team 2: Shawn Maurer, Paul Laplante, and Joe Woytko*
* = substitute investigator at the current time of the investigation
Equipment Used: (1) Sony HD Camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) infrared extender attached to the Sony camcorder to enhance Nightshot image, (4) digital cameras, (2) digital voice recorders (1- RCA, 1- Olympus), (1) CellSensor EMF meter, (1) K2 EMF meter, (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Mike, Shawn, and Paul arrived around 5:30 p.m. just to do an initial walkthrough with Doug Eisemann, White Horse Tavern tenant, and also the caretaker for these buildings as appointed by the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County. Joe and Greg arrived around 7:30 p.m. and the investigation was started a little after 8 p.m. Both groups rotated between the three structures and finally ended up in the White Horse Tavern around 3:30 a.m. for a joint meeting/investigation session and discussed some of the nightly events.
History- The brief history articles written on this website cannot do justice to the expansive history of all 3 structures that have been turned up and exposed by the Historical Preservation Trust of Berks County. Therefore, a links are present below for each structure's history community significance. And to build on the fact of the historical significance of each structure, it is important for the members of RPS to state that Old Philadelphia Pike, where these structures now stand, held a very key role in the development of all sorts of transportation and roadway improvements from the early 1700's and even into the 1800's. Constant petitions led to the establishment of roads connecting from all parts of the original colonies, and a vast majority of these early roads connected right to Philadelphia, which later spurred growth and development into nearby Reading. From such developments, Reading's economy prospered up into the mid-part of the 20th century, especially with the development of a rail system that connected many established cities into a cental hub located squarely in Reading, which at one time was home of many resorts and luxurious shopping centers. Our life as we know it now as citizens of Berks County, can directly be drawn back to the settlers of Old Philadelphia Pike, a once prominent road, not just for genealogy standards, but for the sake of our ability today travel from city to city and to having numerous options on how to get there.
Here are the links to the 3 structures along Old Philadelphia Pike:
White Horse Tavern-------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/whinn.html
George Douglass Mansion-------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/gdmansion.html
Mouns Jones House------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/mjhouse.html
Reports of Paranormal Activity- This investigation for RPS was actually a bit of a first. This was the first investigation where RPS had little to no reports of activity occurring within a structure. However, due to the age of the historical structures and their importance, RPS was happy to set a night aside to complete an investigation. No claims were reported from both the Mouns Jones House and the George Douglass Mansion. Only during RPS's presentation to the Trust members' board did they get a claim from the Mouns Jones house, that of which came from a board member who claimed to see orbs in a picture taken outside of the structure. Two miniscule claims came from the White Horse Tavern. One was a general claim that sometimes people have smelled cigar smoke in the old tavern of the structure, which is still amazingly intact except for the alcohol. Another claim came from Charlie Adams, a noted author on ghost lore in this region of Pennsylvania, and more famously known for his knowledge of Berks County claims of the strange and paranormal. Before a public reading from his new book in September of 2009, Charlie went to the White Horse Tavern to scope out a place in the structure that would set a great mood. This was all relayed to Mike, director of RPS, in an e-mail between the two. While Charlie was scoping out the building, he explained that he felt a 'presence' around him. This was the spot where he decided to read an excerpt out of his new book to a small group of people.
Findings- Mouns Jones House- Sadly, no evidence of any kind was found while investigating this structure. As the Preservation Trust's history link claims, the Mouns Jones House is the oldest known standing dwelling in Berks County, and it is almost disappointing to think that nothing lingers still in a structure that has seen its share of events for about 300 years. While investigating the house, Team 1 did experience a few K2 spikes; however, the same kind of spikes were discovered at the White Horse Tavern. No other kind of evidence was collected with these spikes, in which case RPS usually disregards these spikes due to the fact that K2 meters not only pick up electromagnetic fields, but also changes in all kinds of frequencies in the immediate area which can be caused by anything like a stray gust of wind or a cell phone in someone's pocket updating on its network.
George Douglass Mansion- This was probably the most active structure during the night. 3 EVPs were captured in the attic of this building, and also one of RPS's substitute investigators, Joe, was touched on his hind quarters. Video evidence shows that no one was near Joe as he was touched, and this video may be posted just to let the viewers see his bewildered reaction. The EVPs are posted on the EVPs page. Though the members of RPS could not exact agree on what the EVPs said, there are definitely some stray voices in these clips that don't belong there. Reword that, these voices were not those of our investigators. The spirits have as much of a right to be in these structures as we do. RPS would easily put stock in the fact that the attic of the George Douglass Mansion may in fact have been used as servant quarters back in the mid 1700's when it was built. Just to face the facts, slavery was not abolished until the Emancipation Proclomation was delivered by Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg in the 1860's. George Douglass was a very well-to-do man in his era, and with the size of his mansion and his societal status, it is hard to believe that a man of his class did not possess slaves to tend to his and his family's needs. Also harsh truths tell us that even if slaves were allowed to stay in the main house of a wealthy owner, they were more than likely kept in the least desirable area of the house. The attic would have been cold as ice in the winter, and sweltering hot in the summer. No real evidence is valid behind this theory; however, RPS was definitely open to the possibility that the voices heard could be those of servants still attempting to tend the the now deceased family's needs. One of the EVPs in this bunch from the George Douglass Mansion seemed to catch either a scream or a unoiled door with squeaky hinges opening. While comparing this sound to the recorder's(which was stationed on the 2nd floor's stairway handrail) audio and video's audio capabilities (the camcorder was running in the attic at the time), the sound from the recorder seemed to be much louder, which tends to make RPS believe that the sound in question either originated from the first or second floor. Strangely enough, no investigators were stationed on the first or second floor at the time; they were all in the attic.
White Horse Tavern- Two EVPs have been posted on the EVP page from the investigation in April. Apart from the EVPs, Team 1 witness some wild K2 hits while sitting inside the actual tavern of the White Horse Tavern. The K2 meter would sporadically jump to mid-range levels, which is indicated by a yellow-lit LED light. Other times the K2 meter would unexpectedly jump to its highest level, which is indicated by a red-lit LED light, and then would disappear, sometimes after seconds and sometimes after a minute or two. This K2 meter was carried with Team 1 through the entire investigation, and only in the tavern of the White Horse did this K2 meter spike in such a fashion, except for the one or two small spikes in the Mouns Jones House. One other personal experience came from the White Horse, and this experience also occurred in the tavern section of the structure. Mike was the lone witness to this experience even though the rest of Team 1 was sitting within 10 feet of him inside the tavern. At one point of the night, Mike thought he heard a door to the left of him shake. This door leads to the outside of the tavern, but is hardly ever used. Mike immediately told the rest of the team, and asked Doug, the current tenant at the White Horse to make sure that no one was tampering with their investigation from the outside. Doug assured Mike that no one was outside, and then Mike even added that the winds were generally calm that night, so much that it would not be possible for a small stray increase to move such a door even the slightest. A noise was caught on the recorder sitting on one of the tables in the tavern; however, the noise sounded more like a table shifting. Some of the tables in the tavern did sit a bit uneven and would wobble with some of the slightest movements; however, Mike is still convinced that this noise he alone heard originated at the door. Getting back to the EVPs from the White Horse Tavern, the one EVP definitely holds some significance. At one point of the night, Team 1 decided to leave a recorder running static in the tavern on the first floor while they investigated one of the bedrooms on the second floor. While up on the second floor, Doug and Greg thought that they had heard a voice coming from down the stairs on the first floor. Remembering that he had not turned his cell phone on silent, which was sitting with his backpack, Mike decided to go downstairs to see if that voice came from one of his music ringtones his phone plays. Surprisingly, when Mike opened his phone, he saw that no one had called or texted him. Baffled, Mike went upstairs and told the group it wasn't his phone, and they went on with their investigation. Not until Mike started reviewing data from the investigation later that week did he make the startling discovery that a strange voice was captured in the recording at the exact same time when Greg and Doug thought they had heard it. Mike was able to narrow down the sequence of events to within seconds. This voice did not just come from the same floor, but almost seemed like it came from the tavern itself. RPS is also convinced that this noise did not come from outside the tavern due to the fact that both Greg and Doug agreed that it came out of their left ears in respect to which way they were standing.
The Reveal- Shawn and Mike presented all of there information not only from this investigation, but also from the investigation of Keim Homestead in December of 2009 and the walkthrough of Keim Homestead with RPS's select medium, Marie. There was a lot of information to go over, but once again, many of the board members from the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County seemed quite interested on what RPS was able to uncover in their investigations. Not only was this meeting significant in the fact that RPS was able to share with an audience the evidence they captured, but Shawn and Mike were also able to present a fundraising idea to the board members that they approved of 100%. Other paranormal groups have begun holding investigations open to the public, and the leaders of RPS have finally decided that they may have enough experience and confidence in the field to follow suit with other groups. And what better place to hold such an investigation than the place where RPS has been most enthralled by the evidence they had collected: the Jacob Keim Homestead in Lobachsville. Since this homestead is owned by the Historic Preservation Trust, the idea had to be run by them first. They graciously accepted, and Shawn and Mike decided on the fact that whatever revenue that this public investigation generates will be split equally between RPS and the Trust. The first public investigation will be held on Friday, August 6th, 2010, and plans are in the process for more to be held later in the summer and fall of 2010.
Shawn and Mike left the White Horse Tavern after the reveal to the Trust board members with ideas swirling in the heads for the future fundraising effort in August, but also knowing that they had a lot of work to do to make it a success.
(3 structures were investigated in one night: The White Horse Tavern, George Douglass Mansion, and the Mouns Jones House, all of which are approximately 100-200 yards away from each other)
Conditions- periods of showers, temperatures in the upper 40's to low 50's, light to no wind, dropping barometric pressure, relative humidity from 50-85%; first quarter moon phase (waxing gibbous), about 89% illuminated to full
Investigators- Team 1: Mike Snyder, Greg Burk*, and Doug Eisemann (tenant at the White Horse Tavern)
Team 2: Shawn Maurer, Paul Laplante, and Joe Woytko*
* = substitute investigator at the current time of the investigation
Equipment Used: (1) Sony HD Camcorder with Nightshot capabilities, (1) infrared extender attached to the Sony camcorder to enhance Nightshot image, (4) digital cameras, (2) digital voice recorders (1- RCA, 1- Olympus), (1) CellSensor EMF meter, (1) K2 EMF meter, (1) infrared thermometer
Time of Investigation- Mike, Shawn, and Paul arrived around 5:30 p.m. just to do an initial walkthrough with Doug Eisemann, White Horse Tavern tenant, and also the caretaker for these buildings as appointed by the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County. Joe and Greg arrived around 7:30 p.m. and the investigation was started a little after 8 p.m. Both groups rotated between the three structures and finally ended up in the White Horse Tavern around 3:30 a.m. for a joint meeting/investigation session and discussed some of the nightly events.
History- The brief history articles written on this website cannot do justice to the expansive history of all 3 structures that have been turned up and exposed by the Historical Preservation Trust of Berks County. Therefore, a links are present below for each structure's history community significance. And to build on the fact of the historical significance of each structure, it is important for the members of RPS to state that Old Philadelphia Pike, where these structures now stand, held a very key role in the development of all sorts of transportation and roadway improvements from the early 1700's and even into the 1800's. Constant petitions led to the establishment of roads connecting from all parts of the original colonies, and a vast majority of these early roads connected right to Philadelphia, which later spurred growth and development into nearby Reading. From such developments, Reading's economy prospered up into the mid-part of the 20th century, especially with the development of a rail system that connected many established cities into a cental hub located squarely in Reading, which at one time was home of many resorts and luxurious shopping centers. Our life as we know it now as citizens of Berks County, can directly be drawn back to the settlers of Old Philadelphia Pike, a once prominent road, not just for genealogy standards, but for the sake of our ability today travel from city to city and to having numerous options on how to get there.
Here are the links to the 3 structures along Old Philadelphia Pike:
White Horse Tavern-------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/whinn.html
George Douglass Mansion-------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/gdmansion.html
Mouns Jones House------- http://www.historicpreservationtrust.org/hist_sites/mjhouse.html
Reports of Paranormal Activity- This investigation for RPS was actually a bit of a first. This was the first investigation where RPS had little to no reports of activity occurring within a structure. However, due to the age of the historical structures and their importance, RPS was happy to set a night aside to complete an investigation. No claims were reported from both the Mouns Jones House and the George Douglass Mansion. Only during RPS's presentation to the Trust members' board did they get a claim from the Mouns Jones house, that of which came from a board member who claimed to see orbs in a picture taken outside of the structure. Two miniscule claims came from the White Horse Tavern. One was a general claim that sometimes people have smelled cigar smoke in the old tavern of the structure, which is still amazingly intact except for the alcohol. Another claim came from Charlie Adams, a noted author on ghost lore in this region of Pennsylvania, and more famously known for his knowledge of Berks County claims of the strange and paranormal. Before a public reading from his new book in September of 2009, Charlie went to the White Horse Tavern to scope out a place in the structure that would set a great mood. This was all relayed to Mike, director of RPS, in an e-mail between the two. While Charlie was scoping out the building, he explained that he felt a 'presence' around him. This was the spot where he decided to read an excerpt out of his new book to a small group of people.
Findings- Mouns Jones House- Sadly, no evidence of any kind was found while investigating this structure. As the Preservation Trust's history link claims, the Mouns Jones House is the oldest known standing dwelling in Berks County, and it is almost disappointing to think that nothing lingers still in a structure that has seen its share of events for about 300 years. While investigating the house, Team 1 did experience a few K2 spikes; however, the same kind of spikes were discovered at the White Horse Tavern. No other kind of evidence was collected with these spikes, in which case RPS usually disregards these spikes due to the fact that K2 meters not only pick up electromagnetic fields, but also changes in all kinds of frequencies in the immediate area which can be caused by anything like a stray gust of wind or a cell phone in someone's pocket updating on its network.
George Douglass Mansion- This was probably the most active structure during the night. 3 EVPs were captured in the attic of this building, and also one of RPS's substitute investigators, Joe, was touched on his hind quarters. Video evidence shows that no one was near Joe as he was touched, and this video may be posted just to let the viewers see his bewildered reaction. The EVPs are posted on the EVPs page. Though the members of RPS could not exact agree on what the EVPs said, there are definitely some stray voices in these clips that don't belong there. Reword that, these voices were not those of our investigators. The spirits have as much of a right to be in these structures as we do. RPS would easily put stock in the fact that the attic of the George Douglass Mansion may in fact have been used as servant quarters back in the mid 1700's when it was built. Just to face the facts, slavery was not abolished until the Emancipation Proclomation was delivered by Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg in the 1860's. George Douglass was a very well-to-do man in his era, and with the size of his mansion and his societal status, it is hard to believe that a man of his class did not possess slaves to tend to his and his family's needs. Also harsh truths tell us that even if slaves were allowed to stay in the main house of a wealthy owner, they were more than likely kept in the least desirable area of the house. The attic would have been cold as ice in the winter, and sweltering hot in the summer. No real evidence is valid behind this theory; however, RPS was definitely open to the possibility that the voices heard could be those of servants still attempting to tend the the now deceased family's needs. One of the EVPs in this bunch from the George Douglass Mansion seemed to catch either a scream or a unoiled door with squeaky hinges opening. While comparing this sound to the recorder's(which was stationed on the 2nd floor's stairway handrail) audio and video's audio capabilities (the camcorder was running in the attic at the time), the sound from the recorder seemed to be much louder, which tends to make RPS believe that the sound in question either originated from the first or second floor. Strangely enough, no investigators were stationed on the first or second floor at the time; they were all in the attic.
White Horse Tavern- Two EVPs have been posted on the EVP page from the investigation in April. Apart from the EVPs, Team 1 witness some wild K2 hits while sitting inside the actual tavern of the White Horse Tavern. The K2 meter would sporadically jump to mid-range levels, which is indicated by a yellow-lit LED light. Other times the K2 meter would unexpectedly jump to its highest level, which is indicated by a red-lit LED light, and then would disappear, sometimes after seconds and sometimes after a minute or two. This K2 meter was carried with Team 1 through the entire investigation, and only in the tavern of the White Horse did this K2 meter spike in such a fashion, except for the one or two small spikes in the Mouns Jones House. One other personal experience came from the White Horse, and this experience also occurred in the tavern section of the structure. Mike was the lone witness to this experience even though the rest of Team 1 was sitting within 10 feet of him inside the tavern. At one point of the night, Mike thought he heard a door to the left of him shake. This door leads to the outside of the tavern, but is hardly ever used. Mike immediately told the rest of the team, and asked Doug, the current tenant at the White Horse to make sure that no one was tampering with their investigation from the outside. Doug assured Mike that no one was outside, and then Mike even added that the winds were generally calm that night, so much that it would not be possible for a small stray increase to move such a door even the slightest. A noise was caught on the recorder sitting on one of the tables in the tavern; however, the noise sounded more like a table shifting. Some of the tables in the tavern did sit a bit uneven and would wobble with some of the slightest movements; however, Mike is still convinced that this noise he alone heard originated at the door. Getting back to the EVPs from the White Horse Tavern, the one EVP definitely holds some significance. At one point of the night, Team 1 decided to leave a recorder running static in the tavern on the first floor while they investigated one of the bedrooms on the second floor. While up on the second floor, Doug and Greg thought that they had heard a voice coming from down the stairs on the first floor. Remembering that he had not turned his cell phone on silent, which was sitting with his backpack, Mike decided to go downstairs to see if that voice came from one of his music ringtones his phone plays. Surprisingly, when Mike opened his phone, he saw that no one had called or texted him. Baffled, Mike went upstairs and told the group it wasn't his phone, and they went on with their investigation. Not until Mike started reviewing data from the investigation later that week did he make the startling discovery that a strange voice was captured in the recording at the exact same time when Greg and Doug thought they had heard it. Mike was able to narrow down the sequence of events to within seconds. This voice did not just come from the same floor, but almost seemed like it came from the tavern itself. RPS is also convinced that this noise did not come from outside the tavern due to the fact that both Greg and Doug agreed that it came out of their left ears in respect to which way they were standing.
The Reveal- Shawn and Mike presented all of there information not only from this investigation, but also from the investigation of Keim Homestead in December of 2009 and the walkthrough of Keim Homestead with RPS's select medium, Marie. There was a lot of information to go over, but once again, many of the board members from the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County seemed quite interested on what RPS was able to uncover in their investigations. Not only was this meeting significant in the fact that RPS was able to share with an audience the evidence they captured, but Shawn and Mike were also able to present a fundraising idea to the board members that they approved of 100%. Other paranormal groups have begun holding investigations open to the public, and the leaders of RPS have finally decided that they may have enough experience and confidence in the field to follow suit with other groups. And what better place to hold such an investigation than the place where RPS has been most enthralled by the evidence they had collected: the Jacob Keim Homestead in Lobachsville. Since this homestead is owned by the Historic Preservation Trust, the idea had to be run by them first. They graciously accepted, and Shawn and Mike decided on the fact that whatever revenue that this public investigation generates will be split equally between RPS and the Trust. The first public investigation will be held on Friday, August 6th, 2010, and plans are in the process for more to be held later in the summer and fall of 2010.
Shawn and Mike left the White Horse Tavern after the reveal to the Trust board members with ideas swirling in the heads for the future fundraising effort in August, but also knowing that they had a lot of work to do to make it a success.
