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Investigation 2
Newport, R.I.
April 6, 2009
RISEUP was invited to investigate claims of paranormal activity in this location by the director of the 19th-century Newport edifice. Ken and David DeCosta met with the director in his office on March 26th, 2009 and were given a tour of the location as well as a rundown on the reported activity and the specific areas where the activity seems to be at its apex.
As has been the case in so many other sites we have investigated that hold great historical significance, the whereabouts, name and personnel involved in its operation will be withheld per their request to discourage any future inquiries about paranormal investigations from outside sources as well as out of sheer respect for their responsibility to preserve its memory and current state as a functional, significant piece of Rhode Island history and not as merely another "haunted location."
On this particular night, we were accompanied by Sandra Lindsay, a psychic medium from Mashpee, Ma. To supplement our experiment here, we agreed to enlist her services to determine the relative merits of using an intuitive on investigations.
Temperature: 48 degrees (outdoors)
64 degrees (indoors)
RISEUP Investigators Present: Ken DeCosta
Dave DeCosta
Chris Blanchette
Ryan Lantini
Jay McCray
Shayna Drinkuth
David Grady
Geographical and Historical Data
Data withheld to protect the confidentiality of the investigation.
Activity
Reports of the apparition of an African-American male in a small basement cubicle; the relentless feeling of a presence on the third floor; the apparition of a woman moving across the floor in a second-floor room; the sound of footsteps and feeling of a presence in an empty second-floor ballroom; another presence is felt in a second-floor art room; erratic electrical activity in the first floor library.
Additionally, we recorded a Class A EVP on the third floor of the building in a place we deemed "the sick room" as visitors have reported a feeling of illness and sadness in that location.
Orientation
The group arrived at approximately 5:15 pm and went about the business of setting up stationary cameras paying particular attention to the grand stairway (below), the third floor area, the game room and the library.
Sandra Lindsay would arrive an hour into setup along with Lindsay Hill, who often joins us on our investigations as an interested observer. Sandra was given the opportunity to tour the mansion before we began the investigation in order to record her impressions and give us the option of focusing on any "hot spots" she might encounter.
She immediately sensed the presence of a gentleman in the second floor ballroom. She described him as having some sort of affliction or deformity and was very curious as to our intentions there. She felt he would make himself known to us at some point and would attempt to interact with the group. Interestingly, she said she felt "drawn" to that room as she drove up to the mansion. We would only note that this is indeed a place of reported activity inside the dwelling which includes tales of a man peering out the window. The picture below shows the exact spot where Sandra said the man was present during our walk-through including the window to the extreme right where he is said to watch passersby.
The next stop was the game room where there were no true impressions of anyone or anything in that area. This is the place where we recorded what can only be termed as a musical-sounding anomaly near the rest room, a place of reported activity.
In coming to the unused master bedroom, where a woman has been reported floating through the atmosphere, Sandra got a sense of thickness as if the floor of the room was a kind of sinkhole. She described it as if "standing in deep water." She opined that this room may be a portal or vortex where spirits may enter this realm.
The craft room emitted a happier feeling. This also falls in line with other psychic impressions gleaned by other intuitives before her.
When we came to the third floor, in a storage place (below) that leads to the hidden-away area of the sick-room/fireplace zone of the house, she picked up the impression of a man who remained there, perhaps out of shame for some misdeed he had committed. Sandra felt this may have involved a child and the gentleman had traveled here on a ship from overseas. His presence in this cluttered room may have reminded him of the hold of the ship he may have stayed inside during the voyage.
Entering the sick room area, Sandra immediately felt the presence of the child or children who might have stayed there. She too felt a heaviness about the place, as if there was a residue of great sorrow or hopelessness.
***It should be noted that at this point of her walk-through, Jay McCray - who was documenting the event on video - felt quite plainly a pulling on his back pocket where he kept his cell phone (turned off at the time). There were five distinct tugs which he likened to a small child tugging at him as the movement was in a downward plane. Jay said nothing at the time, but brought this to everyone's attention outside the building after Sandra had concluded her walk-through. Jay is extremely grounded and maintains a skeptic's perspective during all investigations, so his testimony was met with extreme interest by the entire group.***
Investigation
The group split up into teams and proceeded into the various areas we had narrowed down to be the focus of this particular investigation. Sandra Lindsay accompanied a group led by Ken into some of the more active parts of the mansion.
Dave DeCosta led a group accompanied by Jay, Chris and Ryan into the first floor game room, library and parlor where they conducted EVP sessions.
Later in the investigation, Sandra accompanied the team into the art room on the second floor where she surprised the group with a startling claim; she told us that a woman was indeed present and she was someone who we knew to be a great benefactor for the mansion. this woman - according to Sandra - was particularly interested in ken who was conducting the EVP session, Sandra asked ken if anyone in his family had ever worked for this woman or knew her in some way. this could not be confirmed, nor was it something that - on the surface at least - made a great deal of sense.
During the course of the investigation, there were some vocal anomalies that were captured, but none of the magnitude of what had been recorded on previous visits to the mansion.
Conclusion
As this would be our final visit to the location, as the director was leaving for another position and there was little interest in pursuing any further investigations by the board of directors, we are left with one inescapable conclusion: there is indeed a noticeable amount of paranormal activity that surrounds this place.
Some very compelling audio evidence - particularly that which was captured on the third floor by three investigators who clearly heard the disembodied voice caught on recorder - established the location as very active, though not in an overt way.
Investigators were touched, doors were opened by physical manipulation and shadowy figures were seen in close proximity to investigators.
It is equally apparent that nothing sinister or malevolent has occurred, nor does it seem to be a potentiality or a factor in terms of interaction with those who frequent the building.
We leave the location with some wonderful corroborating evidence to back the claims made to us and a greater appreciation for the building's rich history and a wish for comfort and eternal peace for those who inhabit it from the afterlife.