Meeting Place of the Dead. Richard Palmisano

recorder on the kitchen counter facing the front of the house. Peter closed the back door behind him.

      “We don’t have the key today so we have to have someone remain here,” I stated.

      Paul volunteered to stay behind.

      We took his food order and headed out. Paul remained outside for about ten minutes.

      [The main floor camera records a strange light moving up the wall along the stair banister.

      Peter’s digital voice recorder captures activity in the kitchen: A single hollow-sounding pop, movement culminating in a tap on the counter, then multiple pops, and ending with a sound like someone’s arm falling to rest on a countertop.]

      [The surveillance camera on the upper floor captures audio activity on its microphone as well as a shadow that moves quickly from the corner of the room toward the hallway. It then crosses the room toward the bathroom in front of the camera, and as it passes the camera there is a buzzing sound, like high-energy static. There is the sound of either small Christmas bells or bells on a cat’s collar and then there is a bang next to the camera.]

      Paul re-entered the house through the back door to warm up and remained in the kitchen, looking from time-to-time through the doorway into the studio.

      Paul slammed the back door shut as he stepped outside again.

      [Immediately in the upstairs bedroom there is heavy walking in the room, even though there is carpet, the footfalls sound like they are on hardwood]

      [On Peter’s digital voice recorder, there is a definite rustle of clothing followed by taps and more movement, close to the recorder, then away from it. Something is rattled; sounds like something toppling and wooden spoons rattling together. Like someone is searching through a kitchen cupboard.]

      We arrived back at the house and found Paul waiting outside in the cold. Everyone entered the house. [Peter’s digital recorder immediately captures a deep male voice yelling nothing but nonsense, sounding like “Yagobbity!”

      A young woman or boy’s voice follows, saying, “He’ll go.”]

      On the upstairs camera there is a bright flash toward the camera. There is no one on that floor at the time.

      The team spread out in the kitchen and dug into the food.

      [The camera positioned by the front door captures audio sounding like either someone having sex or possibly that of someone giving birth.]

      After lunch, the team moved off into the main floor, taking up positions in the various rooms. As Paul stood in the studio he saw someone outside.

      “Somebody outside?” Paul called out.

      “I don’t know, why?” I asked.

      “That window right there”— he indicated the southeast window — “something just passed, it looked black, going up the driveway to the back door,” Paul said.

      “Pete?”

      “Yeah?” Peter replied from the kitchen.

      “Anybody in the back?” I asked.

      Peter looked out the kitchen window. “Don’t see anything.”

      “It was black, like somebody wearing a black coat …?” Paul said.

      “Could’ve been somebody,” I said.

      Peter went out to investigate. When he re-entered the house he reported that he hadn’t see anyone outside.

      Peter started activating and placing EM Pumps around the ground floor. (These pumps create a small electromagnetic field, which provide energy for spirits to manifest.)

      Victoria reported feeling pressure in the northeast room, once the EM Pumps were activated, almost to the point of feeling dizzy.

      Peter started turning the EM Pumps off one-by-one. As he did, he asked out loud, “Would anybody like to talk to us?”

      [Peter’s digital voice recorder gets a reply: “About what?”]

      Victoria said, “I still feel pressure in my head.”

      Peter asked, “Is it as intense as it was before, with the boxes on, or ...?”

      “Uh ... comes and goes. Not as intense as that, because I was feeling like, almost dizzy, but I definitely feel it across my forehead,” Victoria reported.

      I headed upstairs to check the surveillance system. As I knelt next to it, I saw a black orb approximately the size of a golf ball come out of thin air and spin past me before diving down into the floor and vanishing. The sight almost caused me to fall backwards and I scanned the room.

      [The camera catches a black shadow dart from the small room and vanish down the stairs.]

      I passed Peter heading upstairs alone with the parabolic microphone as I headed back down to the studio. Peter settled in the large northwest upstairs room.

      Peter started asking questions. “Is there another male in the room with me?”

      [Male voice on his digital recorder replies, “No.”]

      “Is there anybody upstairs with me?”

      [A female throat-clearing sound is recorded.]

      Peter noticed a chill envelop him from his spine outward as he sat against the northwestern-most corner of the room. He also recognized the possibility of a draft associated with sitting against an outer wall. However, this was the first time since he had been sitting against this wall that the cold had been felt.

      After visiting the second-floor landing, then the smaller bedroom, Peter descended the stairs.

      [With no one on the second floor the surveillance microphone records a male saying, “Baruba, Baruba.” Its meaning unknown.

      Then a male calling for “Henry.”]

      The team packed up and we called it a night. It would be a few days before we discovered what we had captured in our recordings.

      Conclusions:

       It became evident to me that the spirits in the cottage were divided. One camp seemed friendly and willing to help and communicate with us. The other camp seemed aggressive toward us, and it appeared that they knew they had an upper hand on us as we were not able to see and/or hear them. It was as though they were taunting us.

       The property owners had told us that the place had never been investigated prior to us coming on-site; however, it seemed like some of these spirits were old hands at dealing with paranormal investigators, like they had been through this many times before. This certainly put me on guard.

      4

      Peter’s Visits

      January

      Earning the trust of our clients is an incredible feeling, especially when we’re dealing with so many unknown factors regarding the paranormal. Allowing otherwise total strangers free reign to investigate one’s private property is not something most folks are willing to do.

      After three worry-free investigations, the confidence of the property owners in our work — and in us as trustworthy people — continued unabated. This was certainly made apparent during the first two weeks of January.

      Though the next formal investigation of the cottage property was scheduled to take place during the last week of January, the owner furnished us with a key and granted us access while they enjoyed a two-week vacation out-of-country.

      Safety is Priority #1 to The Searcher Group; one of our team rules is that we never, ever, conduct an investigation alone. Because of this cardinal law, we now had a problem to overcome. Here was this tremendous opportunity to collect more data from this haunted location, but no one on the team was available to investigate until the end of the month. No one, that is, but Peter, the local boy.

      Painfully