Investigations

(as told by group founder, Hector Lugo) 2015 was an interesting year. As a group, we spent time touring the East Coast, investigating locations such as Gettysburg, Trans- Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Octagon Hall in Kentucky, an old mid-1800’s jail as well as some other locations.   We held our annual Kansas City Paracon and did other special events as well. However, this year I would like to focus on the better investigations. There were some that just didn’t seem to produce activity like these, not to say they didn’t have activity, we just couldn’t document it for whatever reason. As in years past, the cases are titled so that we know here they took place and to protect the identity of the people. Jean’s house, Kansas City: This investigation took place during the winter. It was a one story house with a basement, detached garage and two bedrooms built around the 1940’s. The owner has had some very interesting events happen, such as one time when she was out, her neighbor saw a male sneak up to her back door like he was trying to find a way in to her home, when out of nowhere a tall black shadow appeared at the same door--but from the inside--and scared off the intruder. She has a heavy metal door rod that she can use to put up against the door to keep intruders out. One day she was in her house when her son had just left. She heard a bunch of noise and went to check it out and discovered the door rod was in place on the same door that her son had just used to leave the premises. She called him and asked him if he had put the rod up, and of course he said “No--that would have been impossible!” She’s had strange sounds and things move, but nothing harmful at this time. We set up in the basement after we checked out the place, because that seemed to be the best location and she had indicated that things have been happening downstairs. We set up some cameras, K-2s, a tuner and flashlights to see if we could make some type of contact. Well, it didn’t take long; within a few minutes we had the flashlight answering as well as the tuner. This went on for about thirty minutes when we decided to do an EVP session. Her son started asking questions, and one particular question he asked was “Dad, are you still mad at me?” You could hear as plain as day a male voice answer “No.” It was so clear it brought tears to him and his mother; they knew who it was. We continued the contact for at least another house with lots of flashlights, tuner and EVP activity. Mayview house: This case has been going on for about a year or so. It’s a small town about 50 miles from K.C. and was a confederate stronghold during the civil war. Not far from there is a confederate retirement home. The house in question is a small two bedroom with attached garage that was added on. Angela, the lady of the house was seeing and hearing things as well as her husband. It turns out they had a friend over one night and he saw something and challenged it. Since that night the activity seems to be tenfold so they contacted us.     We arrived and set up our equipment and did our greet and signing forms process while a couple walked around trying to find the hot spots. We decided to set up in one of the bedrooms. There were flashlights or torches in the closet and on the dressers. Diana and Viv started getting activity in this room with the flashlights and started gathering as much info as they could. We think that we picked up a young black female about 14 years old in the closet area. Diana and Viv were getting some good info, such as that there was possibly a black family, a son, daughter mother and father present. While gathering this info, we find out from Angela that they thought the town at one time was part of the Underground Railroad. It should be noted that during the entire time we were investigating they had two large dogs tied up outside in the yard that just kept on barking and would not stop. After a couple of hours we asked the young girl in the closet if she could make the dogs stop barking and within a few seconds the dogs stopped and did not bark the rest of the night. I still can’t believe that happened. Was it really the spirit or that simple to do something like that? How do you explain it? We couldn’t ask or try it again because the dogs never did start barking again. We did have some interesting pictures taking in the living room that are hard to justify and Kelly, one of our investigators put a ball on a footrest and asked if someone could move it and about a minute later the ball fell off the rest but we are not sure if we didn’t do that from our walking. This case was revisited in 2016 and we’ll follow up then.   Home in Oak Grove, Mo.: This was a very interesting case and that we kept getting some very interesting pictures and activity description that you only see on some of those embellished TV shows (we also went out on this case in 2014--see some of the notes from that page).  Chairs stacked on top of each other with a vacuum cleaner on top of the chairs. Large furniture placed on the basement stairs. Items disappearing and being found somewhere else, such as Doug’s credit card missing from his wallet and being found inside the frame of a picture hanging on the wall. Tacks in their shoes, items being thrown. Once the small kitten was thrown from the top of the stairs and landed at the bottom landing, they took it to the vet to have its back leg splinted from the impact. There was writing on the mirrors with shaving cream and hand and foot prints coming down from the ceiling onto the mirror. Toilet brush thrown as well as the camera placed inside the toilet bowl with water. There were other things going on such as they had had boxes of light bulbs they saved that were burning out, like one or two a week and they had an electrician come out to check for electrical issues and they found none but couldn’t explain what was causing all the bulbs to burn out, they even switched light bulb brands. The family was having some very difficult times. They lived in a three bedroom apartment with five kids from 9 years to 16 years old. The two boys stayed in one room and the girls in the another, cramped quarters for all, and you know the 16 year old girl did not approve one bit. The ex-husband was also causing issues, the mother had medical issues as did a couple of the kids but they had more social or mental problems. So can you see where we are going with this? Yep, poltergeist activity is one of the problems. Viv and Diana picked up on this pretty quick from the 16 year old girl and she refused to meet with us. We interviewed the entire family separately and found out some interesting things. We do believe that the 11 year old girl was also responsible for a lot of the activity for attention; we think she may have done some of the writing on the mirror but that didn’t explain a lot of the other activity.  We set up and did an investigation and captured a pretty good EVP that kind of blew the case out of the water. We were in the boy’s room and across came a young girl’s voice that said, “Hi Hector, you played baseball.” I never, ever mentioned that I loved playing baseball and played it to my early 20’s before I gave it up for a real job.   So the question was where do we go from here? There are questions about how much of the activity is by them and how much is by entities? This is an ongoing case and I’m pretty sure Viv will add some pics of this case to this file. We have been there two more times and the activity seems to show a pattern, it seems to only happen in the fall, why is that? We will probably go back again to see what else we can find.                                            Brandi’s House: This was one of those cases where it was more of a mental issue then paranormal. There were a couple of people that brought negative energy to the case that we had no idea was going to be present. It was just Diana and I and the people at the house were convinced that they had entities present and they may have, but there was no way we were allowed to investigate the way we wanted that we could be of any service to her so we left after a couple of hours.    The reason I mention this case is because we get these kind every once in a while and probably will continue to get more. It’s mostly a waste of time and energy for us and them. This was a primary interview and that’s what was good about it. We didn’t have our group and we didn’t set up any equipment or sign any forms to do an actual investigation, so it was never an actual case but an interview and greet that we use to decide if we would continue a case. This was not one of those. East Coast Trip: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Gettysburg, Franklin Jail and Octagon Hall: Once in a Blue Moon you need to explore places you have heard about and have to see for yourself and that are what we did in June of this year. We all got together and planned this cool trip. Everyone had been assigned a location that they were responsible to make arrangements for and it all turned out great! These are short recaps of each location. The first location we investigated was Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. We did two investigations, one during the day and one at night, both by ourselves (day tour did have a guide, which helped us for the night case).    Because of the size of the location we stayed together as a group on each floor or area. Once on the floor we broke off into smaller groups and one would start at one end and the other at the other end then we would get together and compare notes. In my group it was Pam, Kim, Diana and I, the other group was Viv, Gary, Edna and Kelly. Each group had some pretty good activity throughout the numerous sessions. I know that we were down in the lower level in the old original part of the hospital where the Confederate soldiers were treated and we had some really good activity with the K-2 meters and videotaped the action. That’s where I took the picture of what appears to be a spirit coming out a wall and walking across the floor. That picture will be attached to this report. The other group had some pretty awesome activity in the cafeteria area. They had set up and were doing EVP sessions when Edna captured some interesting pictures of lights and they felt like someone was there with them. The second location was Gettysburg. Viv did an excellent job of finding a house that all of us could stay at a few miles from the battlefield. This is a location that every paranormal investigator has to see at least once. We drove around the touristy areas and found spots we thought would be of interest. We went to all the major battle spots, but they were full of people so we focused on taking pictures. Luckily Viv had made arrangements for our group to meet a local paranormal team, and they took us to a location that we got to investigate on our own. Then we went to Sach’s Bridge, which was awesome! At the field we walked around the battlefield near a pond and somehow Diana lost her recorder. I went searching for it and could not find a recorder but I did find a spirit that followed me around that would activate the K-2 meter when I talked with it. The rest of the group joined up with me and we continued to get activity till we left. At the bridge we had some interesting events take place. Viv, Gary, Edna and Kelly were with the tour host at the other end of the bridge as they were introduced to a male spirit named “Tennessee” that would puff on a cigarette set on a rail and then knock it off, which was pretty cool.  Meanwhile, Pam, Diana, Kim and I were at the other end of the bridge and started getting the K-2 meter to go off in just one spot but it went all the way to red and that was on the middle of the entrance to the bridge like there was someone there to give us approval to enter the bridge. Most of the two groups met in the middle of the bridge to do EVP sessions and Diana and I wondered off to where the K-2 was going off when we both heard a cannon blast, felt like a whose go by our heads and then there was a splash in the water by the bridge. Before we could re-act to that first one another one just like the first went off. Diana and I were like”what the Hell, and both ran into the bridge for cover’ Edna came towards us and asked what the hell was that, she heard the second one. Needless to say, we returned the next day to the bridge and investigated it for a short time. There was a group setting up for some kind of re-enactment, so we left but it was awesome. I’m hoping to go back sometime in the near future. We left West Virginia and Pennsylvania and traveled about ten hours to Franklin, Kentucky. There we had till 3 pm before we needed to be at the Octagon Hall, so we decided to check out the small town and we ran into the old Franklyn, Kentucky jail from before the civil war days, and took the tour. It was pretty neat to see that and the old courthouse and square. We arrived at Octagon Hall and met with the people that were in charge and we talked for a while as they gave us a quick tour and some history of the place. Bill handed me the keys and asked that when we leave at 9 am to just leave the keys on the main table and lock the entry gate behind us and wished us good luck. Well, we started out as one group and we met in the large dining room and made plans. There were all kinds of civil war and Indian artifacts all over the house in glass cases. If you want more history on this location, just go to Octagon Hall in Franklin, Kentucky. I recommend this location as a special trip of itself. We decided to first investigate the battlefield and cemetery behind the house while it was still daylight, which was interesting. They had a couple of slave houses as well as a cooking house. There were some barns and storage sheds around, along with a shelter with tables you could sit on. Pam and Diana captured an awesome EVP of a female saying something. After a while I somehow thought I misplaced my digital recorder so I told them I’d be right back and I went into the Octagon Hall to see if I left the recorder on the table. I looked around and could not find it. There is a room where they keep all of the video equipment that’s permanent and that room has a side door that goes out into a landing area. On this landing area you can go to the dining room on your right, the gift shop straight ahead, and stairs on your left and just past the stairs on the left was the entrance. I just crossed over onto the landing when I looked up and saw two tall dark shadows of men standing at the far end of the gift shop when all of a sudden one of the shadows was on me within a foot or so and said in a male voice “You shouldn’t do that, you need to get out!” I raised my hands and took a left out the front entrance and went down the stairs, apparently faster than I thought because the other group members saw me and asked me if I was alright, that I was white as a ghost. I explained to them what just happened so we all went back in to see. I was sitting at the dining room table when Edna said, Hector, look at the doorway, I turned and really wasn’t sure what I saw, it seemed grey as it disappeared. Edna said she saw a tall male spirit in a long grey coat just standing there looking at me. I wonder if it’s the same one. Remember, we are in a Confederate house and I’m Indian, maybe they thought I shouldn’t be there but half the house had Native American artifacts. Anyway, I still catch grief from Diana and some others over this because they caught me doing “mock one” leaving a haunted location. Everyone has their experiences with spirits and I’ve had my fair share, but this one was seen by the entire group…they call it my “Code Brown Encounter.” Their day will come with a spirit encounter, it’s just a matter of time and it’ll be funny like mine. We did get some good EVPS and active sessions during our time there. Ben’s house: This was interesting due to the fact that it dealt with Native American spirits and they were not happy about what was happening. This is a nice two story house with a basement with woods about fifty feet behind it and then the Kansas River further down.  Ben contacted us because they were having some unusual activity. Here is some of the activity he described. He has two large dogs and they were kept in a room with a metal door near the garage, both dogs chewed the metal door so bad he had to replace it. The dogs refused to go near that room so he kept them in a pin close by. Another issue was broken dishes found on the kitchen floor. They would go to sleep at night and wake up the next morning and he’d find broken glass all over his kitchen floor but all the cabinet doors were still closed. He opened the one where that type of dish was kept and it was high up above. This had happened numerous times. There were numerous times that people saw a figure of an elderly man peeking out the top bedroom window out into their driveway and they wondered who he was. There were the strange sounds and footsteps up on the upper landing overlooking the living room area. They had seen shadows running from the landing going to the stairs and down into the basement. We asked what had changed in the last six months since the activity had been noticed and he wasn’t sure but he did know that his house was built next to a Native American burial ground and it was well documented, he even showed us a picture from an article addressing the burial ground and who was buried there. It was the son of a Kansas tribe Chiefs son with other tribe members nearby. It appears the burial grounds have been disturbed by some company that wanted to build a bike trail between the woods and the river just plowing the area down, including trees but for whatever reason they just stopped behind his house and left not repairing any of the damage they created. We spent a couple of hours doing a primary investigation and decided that we would come back at a later date. After doing more research on the area we returned about a month later and decided that we would do a special Native American ceremony. We included Ben as Angela; from the Potawatomie tribe joined us for this session. The first thing we did was a saging of everyone and then we took special offerings and our Peace Pipe with us out near the back woods. As we were doing the peace, two deer came out of the woods from different directions and walked up within yards of us. They were not scared as much as they were curious, it was really awesome. The deer stayed till we finished our ceremony then they just turned around and walked back into the woods.  We continued with Angela taking Ben and having going to the edge of the wooded tree line and feed the spirits. We then focused on the interior of the house. We broke off into small groups and started our investigation. Ben was not going to stay in the house by himself that night so he asked his neighbor if he would go inside with him to remove some things he needed. The neighbor asked him why he needed him to into his own house and Ben explained what was happening. The neighbor didn’t believe him but went in with him while he got what he needed and they left. That next morning Ben got a call from his neighbor’s wife that he needed to come over and talk with them. It appears that the neighbor that went with him into that house woke up with major scratches all over his back and needed to go to the emergency room to have it looked. Now the neighbors were deeply concerned so they became part of the investigation and they lived about twenty yards from Ben, same woods.  Based on all the info we had we decided to do a special sage cleansing of both houses and speak with the spirits and try to explain that these people had nothing to do with the decimation of their burial grounds. All the activity seemed to have stopped since then and Ben, being Native American from a tribe up east, packed up for a few months and went to learn his people’s way so he could better understand what and how to deal with his ancestors better. Once in awhile I’ll get an email from Ben saying things are still good and he leaned a lot from that experience.   Connie’s House, Sugar Creek, Mo.: This was a new house for Connie, even though the house was built in the early 1900’s. One story, two bedrooms with an attic and a basement. Connie was experiencing some activity and was wondering if maybe some of the spirits from the gym had followed her to her new home.   We set up some equipment throughout the house with focus on the attic. Diana picked up a small girl running around up there so she set up at the far end to try and communicate with her and she did have some activity during her sessions.  Meanwhile we had also set up in the basement with other members and I stayed in the dining room area speaking with Connie and one of her friends that was very familiar with the area and its history. We got on the subject of one entity that I had seen and it was a man in what appeared to be a sheriff or policeman from way back during the turn of the century. He had a long jacket with a black strap with his gun holster and gun attached; he had a pointed nose a cowboy hat and seemed to be related to the house somehow.  Connie’s friend right away said that not far from the house use to be a large park from the turn of the century and people from all over would come to enjoy it. There was a main entrance and that they had six officers or sheriffs that patrolled the park, like park rangers. She and Connie started going through their cell phones and found a picture of the park and the six officers posing at the entrance and there in the middle was the same person I had seen with the coat, belt, hat and facial description. Connie’s friend said that back then as part of their pay the park had some houses it owned and that it could be possible that he may have lived in one of those and that one could have been the house Connie had just bought. Now, whether that’s true or not we don’t know for sure, we have to do more research--but the fact that there is a picture of the person I saw was incredible enough for me. What are the odds of describing someone that was actually there? We started some EVP sessions upstairs so Connie went up to join them. After a few minutes Connie started back down the attic stairs when she fell all the way down hurting herself. So we shut down the investigation and left as Connie was taken to the Emergency room to be seen. She was bruised pretty well but would live to see another day. We plan on returning at a later date.

Photos of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, WV. Click for larger photos

YouTube video by one of 10th Dimension members when visiting Trans-Allegheny in 2009