Home

The elderly woman who owns this house lives there alone. She has lived there for many, many years. “Adele” saw Robin’s picture in The Scranton Times along with an article about paranormal investigators and decided to give her a call.

“I’m just so happy to talk to someone who doesn’t think I’m crazy,” Adele told Robin during their first telephone conversation.

We interviewed Adele in her home. “I just want some peace,” said Adele as she relived her experiences for us. They come mostly at night when she is sleeping. She would awaken to see shadowy figures moving toward her from the living room. Without getting out of bed or really moving much, she would clasp her hands together and ask Jesus to help her. This usually makes them dissipate.

She also told us of basement noises in the night. One night she was actually brave enough to go down to the basement after hearing a loud screeching. When she entered the laundry area she could feel something staring right at her. It then screeched so loud that it nearly scared her into a panic, but she steeled herself against it and her fear. She asked it to leave her alone. Though the noise stopped, the feeling of being scrutinized intensified.

“I just stood there, terrified, because I knew that if I left it would know that I was afraid,” Adele remembered.

She has had occasions when locked doors and windows have opened and items, including money, have disappeared. “Why do they steal?” she asked us.

“How long have you been having these experiences?” we asked. “Decades,” was her answer.

Adele is a spiritual woman and she believes that her faith in God has kept her unwanted guests at bay. She went on to give us a brief family history including some stories of her estranged sister and a troublesome nephew.

After our interview, we were very interested in investigating her house, though we had our suspicions that not all of her “guests” were paranormal in nature.

August 20, 2005

On the night of the investigation Adele was ecstatic to see us. “I kept praying that you would really come. I think now I will get some relief.”

Both Robin and Tom had already interviewed Adele, so after our initial introductions, Pat was assigned the task of conducting the video-taped interview. Pat had a list of questions and the notes from Robin and Tom’s interviews. Changing the interviewers allows us to check whether or not a client’s story changes each time it is told. Adele’s stories never wavered. Robin would later relieve Pat, so that Pat would be able to participate in the investigation of the house.

Following is an account of the investigation particulars:

Set up:
 Bedroom: A night vision camera was placed in the bedroom facing the front door. Later this camera was moved due to EMF readings in another part of the room.
 Basement: (1) low light and (1) standard camera were positioned at opposite ends of the basement.
 Kitchen: (1) camera was positioned in the kitchen to record the interview with the owner.

Investigation:
 Robin made a sweep of the house with her still photography camera.
 Tom and Dawn attempted to debunk windows and doors that were reported to open on their own.
 Tom and Pat made a sweep of the house and grounds for EMF’s and EVP’s. Note: During this sweep the bedroom night vision camera was moved, due to an unusual EMF elsewhere in the bedroom.
 Later, Robin and Dawn made a second sweep for EMF’s and EVP’s.

Technical Review:
 Photographic: Robin noted a “black orb” anomaly on several pictures that was later found to be dust trapped inside the camera’s lens. No photographic paranormal activity was recorded.
 Video: No visual paranormal activity was captured on any of the cameras.
 Audio: The night vision camera’s microphone caught what sounded like a little girl for a brief moment during Tom and Pat’s EMF/EVP sweep of the bedroom. The digital voice recorder also picked up this voice. Our hopes for a good EVP were dashed when our review of the Interview tape revealed the disembodied voice to be none other than our own Robin. While conducting the interview of our host, she interjected with the question, “How old is your sister?” and her volume was such that her voice was picked up by the equipment in the bedroom, but her pitch was distorted by the walls making sound like “a little girl” on the other microphones. Thankfully we had enough equipment running at the site to cross-reference the incident. No EVP here, too bad, but we were there to eliminate the normal.
 EMF: Tom and Pat registered a momentary spike on the EMF detector at the front door. It was not repeated. They also got a slightly elevated EMF in the center of the door from the porch to the living room. Also of note was a sustained high EMF in the corner of the bedroom (closest to the bathroom wall) at the night stand. [Upon finding this reading Pat suggested that we move the camera that was already in the room to face this corner, Tom agreed and the camera recorded from this vantage point for approximately 1 hour capturing nothing abnormal] [Robin and Dawn registered similar readings in this area.]The alarm clock and lamp were turned off and did not register high EMF’s. The electrical outlet was outside of the area where the high EMF was found. The electrical service comes into the house in a completely different area. Without opening the walls (which we will not be doing), we have to label this EMF as “unexplained”. Robin and Dawn a registered high EMF reading on the porch that lingered for several moments but was not repeated when they later returned to the area.
 Debunking: The owner reported doors and windows found open along with items and money missing from the house. Tom and Dawn found the doors to be secure, if properly locked, but found that (2) of the basement windows were able to be opened with little trouble. One of these windows showed signs of tampering. We surmise that a non-spiritual “visitor” entered through the basement window and exited through the front door, leaving it open.

Investigators Review:
 Robin and Dawn reported a feeling of being watched along with both experiencing “hair raising” on their arms and necks. This occurred in the back yard. Upon returning to the spot with a video camera in hand, the phenomena were not repeated.

Investigation Status: On going.

To see the next installment see Cypress House: Revisited.

Back to Investigation Files