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Undisclosed Location
December 17, 2009
This particular project is one of an extremely sensitive nature. In submitting this case file, no pictures, location information or names can be listed. It concerns a military installation and one particular building that has long been rumored to contain a wide variety of paranormal activity and we had listened to many of these stories over the years from a wide range of people familiar with the complex and the goings-on there.
It was a fortunate coincidence then that we were contacted by the person who manages this property asking us to come out and conduct an investigation there. We had to be cleared for entrance and were not to discuss or disclose the particulars or the nature of our visit. While it is common knowledge that supernatural activity has been witnessed, there is no interest on the part of the administration to entertain or acknowledge its existence publicly.
In common military terms then, this would be a "covert" operation.
RISEUP Investigators Present: Ken DeCosta
Dave DeCosta
Chris Blanchette
Tom Stewart
Ryan Lantini
Geographical and Historical Data
All pertinent information must remain undisclosed to the public.
Phenomena
Apparitions have been seen in various areas of the establishment. One particularly startling event took place when a staff member watched in awe as a human figure floated through a mirror that was hanging on a wall of the building's atrium and disappeared right through the wall.
Various staff and sub-contractors have heard disembodied voices as they perform their tasks. They are quite certain no one was responsible for these sounds as they were either quite alone or in close visual or audible contact with anyone present.
A coloring book that is normally left out for the children of guests to entertain themselves with was thrown into the trash barrel after one function held there. When closing up that night, the book and some torn out pages was found in a an adjacent room lying on the floor. The trash barrel had not been moved from its location at all at that point.
The manager has shut off the lights, secured the building, and started to drive away when they have looked back to see the lights have come back on again. The lights have to be turned on manually and this has happened on multiple occasions.
An service elevator to the second floor has been known to behave in a very erratic manner, closing its doors and travelling between floors without the benefit of human interaction. This particular elevator is not designed to do so without being manually operated. More startling is that apparitions have been seen entering, exiting and standing outside of it. As this is a crucial piece of apparatus necessary to internal operations, the elevator's "malfunctions" have been inspected and it always checks out to be in exceptional working order.
Lights come on and off by themselves in a large social function room. Electricians have been dispatched to work on the problem and have left abruptly, vowing not to return because "something" very strange happened to them while performing their duties.
Shadows have been seen darting about inside the boiler and storage rooms by staff members and maintenance people.
Kitchen utensils and pots and pans have been seen and heard banging against each other with no one present that could have been responsible. A shadowy figure has also been seen in this area.
Orientation
The establishment was closed for the off-season which afforded us the opportunity to enter without drawing attention or disturbing anyone's routine. We checked in at the gate and met the manager inside. We were given a tour of the building and became familiar with the claims of activity and the areas in which they occurred.
Our base would be set up in a small alcove off the atrium and we would run 6 static cameras throughout the building. The establishment was large enough to accommodate multiple teams simultaneously. We were also accompanied on this investigation by a small film crew interested in documenting the investigation, although their interest and process would be inhibited by the same restrictions placed on us by management in terms of disclosure.
Investigation
Tom, Ryan and Chris began their night by exploring the atrium and examining the phenomena of a full-figured apparition floating through the wall through a full-length mirror hanging there. On the other side of the wall is a rest room.
Mirrors can play a huge role in misidentification and depending on the angle one is to it, it's quite easy to misinterpret a reflection of a shadow caused by or coupled with ambient light as something anomalous. This in and of itself does not explain away the idea of a full-bodied, three dimensional apparition floating through a room and going through the mirror. A camera trained on the spot revealed nothing out of the ordinary. It is a sensational claim and we could not develop any alternative explanation for it, so it remains an intriguing personal experience.
Another static camera was placed on a table where the coloring book was originally placed the night it was found on the floor. It was our hope that something would case it to fall off the table. It was our good fortune to be using the same book in the experiment. Later on, we placed the book in the same trash barrel it was removed from that night to try and elicit some physical action, but in neither case did this prove successful. Again, barring anyone simply forgetting what they did with it that night and when, we have no explanation for the coloring book being transported from one place to another.
Ken and Dave spent a great deal of time in the social function room performing an EVP session. There were two things of note that occurred in that time: While sitting at a table, something was thrown that hit another table or chair a short distance away from us. This was also heard by the head of the film crew who was taping at the time. We went to the area where we heard the object land, but other than a champagne bottle cap lying on the otherwise vacuumed and cleaned carpet, we could not definitely ascertain what the object was or where it came from. What was clear and certain was that something was propelled in that direction because of the significant sound it made upon impact. This signaled the object had velocity behind it when it hit, more so than something that may have simply dropped from the ceiling.
One audio clip was generated that piqued our interest and it reflects a certain level of respect and discipline one would find on a military setting and interestingly enough, one that has a great deal of enlisted people from the Southern states. Taking only a small leap of faith, we believe our affirmative response at 0:03 seems to be in that dialect. We'd call this a strong Class B EVP.
Both groups investigated a pub located on the second floor where anomalous voices are heard, chairs are moved and display lights come on by themselves. This is also the area where the elevator in the hallway makes its stop to deliver supplies. A static camera was placed outside its doors and a recorder left in place. Both methods resulted in nothing of any substance being documented. Some strong EMF readings were taken on the bar's surface, but were quickly attributed to wiring running through it.
Attempts to conduct EVP sessions in the kitchen area proved futile as all surfaces were stainless steel and coolers run constantly. The constant hum reverberated through each session, effectively droning out anything that could be captured. Holding our recorders in hand (not our first method of choice) did not alleviate the problem to any great extent.
We had one occurrence in the kitchen area that at first resulted in what we thought was a tremendous "find", but subsequently was proven to be something less than that. While reviewing video footage we clearly saw a shadow move into frame in a doorway and slowly retreat out of it. When we first reviewed snapshots we saw no clear entrance into this doorway and were fairly certain none of us were responsible for it.
As this came within the same time frame of the object hitting something in the social room just off the kitchen, we were intrigued by the possibility we had caught something quite fantastic. We checked all time stamps on video and matched them against audio but still could not state the shadow belonged to any of us.
The final step was to digitize the video and try to determine if it's form matched anyone present that night. The video was broken down frame-by-frame and cleaned up to eliminate as much camera pixleization as possible. It started to become clear that this was not what we had hoped. The final step was to review photos we had taken in the area on our walk through to determine if there was a clear path into this doorway or if it was somehow blocked by a serving cart we were sure blocked it. Our answer became quite clear when we saw the cart did not block the doorway and the figure was in fact Ken who had ever so briefly wandered past it and peeked into the room. We then saw a reflection on the shiny surface of the stainless steel cooler to the left of the doorway and immediately saw it was created by the IR light on a hand held camera. This absolutely limited our options as to the identity of the "shadow person" and effectively debunked the footage.
While disappointed, we congratulated ourselves nonetheless with our attention to detail and our willingness to go to great lengths to validate our evidence. The whole process took the better part of a week to review and complete, but was well worth the effort.
The film crew had their own experience in the boiler room when they heard a sound that resembled something hard hitting metal. Upon checking around, they saw a penny that had landed on a flat surface that they were certain did not exist when they walked by the same spot earlier.
Conclusion
For the most part, we could not refute any of the actual claims that originate from the location. Nor could we support them through documentation. The audio clip we recorded was certainly interesting, but does not necessarily speak to a wide-spread haunting of the establishment. While we assume an object was propelled inside the social room, we could not claim to have found it nor saw it or recorded it in flight.
The very nature and expectations of the people who staff the location lend itself to honesty and practicality in their work. We do believe that people have seen and heard things inside these walls and based on its history, the establishment may truly be a haven for residual energy. Perhaps that is the one common thread that runs through all the claims; the idea that there are not a lot of reports, if any, that center around an intelligent presence that is cognizant of those who work and visit. The real potential that the energies of departed souls who continue to frequent the building and go about their normal routines and actions still remains. It is not threatening in any way or form, but the occasional sighting still may leave those who witness it quite unsettled.
The point of our visit was to try to document some of this activity and validate the claims people have come forward with. In that regard we failed to provide anything solid and indisputable, but most times it is difficult to expect positive results done in a vacuum with only a small amount of time allotted in which to do so.
We leave there grateful for the opportunity to investigate such a beautiful and time-honored institution. There will be no follow-up, but we leave quite certain that all who venture inside the doors are quite safe, if not quite alone.