In August, Katie received an email from a single mother in West Hartford, Connecticut, asking for help with a potentially malevolent spirit or spirits. The email stated that after moving into her new home, approximately two months prior, strange events began to take place.  Below is a report of our investigation into the claims and our findings.

HISTORY:

Research on the residence provided no clues for a cause of paranormal activity. We discovered the house was built some time in the 1940′s on a previously unused plot of land. There were no suicides, murders, or unusual deaths tied to the home. However our research did reveal that there was one accidental death in the 1980′s that occurred outside in close proximity to the residence, but not in it.

CLAIMS of ACTIVITY:

During our preliminary interview, the client described several different unusual phenomena. Feelings of paranoia, nausea, sensations of being watched, heavy foot steps in the attic, disembodied voices, movement of beds, sudden temperature changes and the appearance of a shadowy figure. Also one of the residents claimed to have written a message on a piece of paper in Latin, a language she was not fluent in, after waking from a strange dream. The exact content of the message is unknown, and unfortunately the paper had been thrown away before we were able to examine it.

OUR INVESTIGATION:

We investigated this residence for two nights.

Day 1:

The first night Katie, Sue, Rob, Aaron, Jean and I met with the client and spoke with her and the other residents at length regarding the activity they had experienced.  She stated she was willing to have us start our investigation right away, so our group toured the residence, plotting camera placements and the investigative strategy. Our team decided to place cameras in the living room, the attic and the small computer room at the rear of the residence. These were the areas the client described as the most active.

Jean and I took EMF readings throughout the residence using a Lutron EMF-822A to establish base line readings. It was at this time that we discovered the client’s home was being bombarded with unusually high EMFs. We detected fields ranging in strengths from 1.2 mg to as high as 26.8 mg and radiating as far as six feet away form the walls. Many of the areas where activity was reported were within areas where our baseline EMF measurements were very high. After our preliminary scouting was finished and cameras were in place, we split up into two teams of three, and began our investigation.

Our teams concentrated on separate locations for a predetermined time and then rotated locations. Each team conducted communication sessions in each area of reported activity. With each change of location team members would communicate any phenomena, explainable or not to the other members.

A few hours into the investigation, one of our teams set up for a communication session with the residents, and gave them an opportunity to confront what ever may have been in their home. During this session, one of our team members and two of the occupants noted a sudden cool breeze. We were able to determine that a poorly sealed window was the source for this occurrence. The rest of the session proceeded without further incident.

While in the attic, one of the teams did note what sounded like footsteps coming from the staircase leading to the attic. However, we were able to explain the sounds. Earlier we heard children playing in the apartment downstairs, and the apartment building’s walls were poorly insulated. These factors led us to the conclusion that the sound was echoing through the walls and into the stairway leading to our clients upstairs apartment and attic. Later during our evidence analysis we timed our digital voice recordings against the audio recordings from our video cameras and determined this to be the likeliest cause for the disembodied footsteps.

During one of our communication sessions, our K-II meter lit up in apparent response to Katie’s questions. Though we tried to duplicate the activity, we were unable to, and were also unable to determine if the K-II activity stemmed from an ethereal source or from a surge in the faulty wiring in the home.  Later review of video and audio recordings from that session did not reveal any corroborating evidence, so we are unable to decisively call this occurrence paranormal.

Before concluding for the evening, we communicated our team’s general impressions to the client and our recommendations concerning the high EMF readings, and set up for a follow up investigation the next week.  We also told her to get in contact with us should anything occur during the week.

The week passed without incident.

Day 2:

NESSS members Sue, Jean, Rob, Aaron and I arrived at the residence at midnight for our follow-up investigation, as the client had stated that much of the activity she had experienced had occurred in the middle of the night.  Aaron and I took more EMF readings with the Lutron EMF-822A and compared the measurements against those from the previous week. Our measurements coincided with little or no variance.

Again remote cameras were set up in areas of claimed activity and we split up into two teams and set about our investigation. Our teams conducted EVP and communication sessions in the same manner as the previous week. In one of the rooms, Sue stated that she was having difficulty remaining in the room due to unexplainable heavy sensation. This feeling escalated to a headache and we ended the session. Later, Jean and I returned to the room and conducted an EVP session. Both of us were live-listening through digital recorders and noted hearing a young girl’s voice, but were unable to discern the words. Unfortunately the voice was not captured on either recorder, for reasons that remain unexplained.  Neither of us could find a normal source for the voice.  Our clients, though in the home during our investigation, were quietly sitting at the opposite end of the house.

Other than the previously mentioned event, both teams noted different phenomena throughout the evening, but were able to identify them as normal in origin. Later review of audio recordings revealed that, because of the poorly insulated walls, sounds from the street outside could be heard often at times in a volume mimicking whispers and at times even ethereal-sounding voices.

We were also able to determine that the shadowy figure was in fact shadow coming in through the front window. The street in front of the residence ran from east to west and was heavily used. A tall tree in front of the home would cast a shadow on three different walls when a large truck heading in a westerly direction passed by the residence. The feelings of paranoia, being watched and nausea we could only attribute to the high EMFs in the home. We were unable to duplicate the sensation of the beds moving or shaking, though while in one of the bedrooms Sue did experience a mild vibration on the bed.  We determined this was likely caused by a passing truck. Many of the sudden temperature fluctuations were a result of drafts coming in through uninsulated windows.

Before departing, we once again communicated our initial impressions and set up a time and date for the following week to disclose our findings.

Our team analyzed and re-analyzed evidence collected from both investigations. The recordings from both day’s communication sessions came up empty. Also the remote cameras placed in different rooms came up empty, except for one that was placed in the attic. While analyzing video from this camera, Jean noticed a motion blur in one frame of the video which we were unable to explain.

CONCLUSIONS:

We determined that the client’s home was not actively haunted, but may have a residual presence that was not malevolent.  We also advised her to speak with her landlord regarding the unshielded wiring.  We also gave her a short list of steps to take, including attending to the drafty windows and moving the beds away from the higher EMF fields.  We recommended that she affirm and imprint her presence with fresh paint and new furniture, and suggested she go through with a party she had planned as a way to impart positive energy into the home.  She seemed satisfied with our explanations for what was causing her experiences and explained that after our first visit the “activity” almost ceased.

Group members keep an open line of communication with this (and all) clients in case of any further problems.

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