Beddington
Saturday February 19, 2005
Investigators present: Tom, Matt, Jeremy
Length of visit: 3hours
We had been contacted the week before by the homeowner who needed our help immediately. Strange things had been happening in the basement since moving in almost two years ago. It was centered on a pantry that had been constructed by the previous owners.
The current owners told us the pantry door would never stay closed and things would be moved inside and just outside the room. They decided to place a bible outside the room on a shelf and one inside the room on a shelf. Both were open to random pages. When they came into the pantry later, the bible was closed. Also, they had placed an old devotional book that a soldier might carry on the outside shelf on top of that bible. This devotional was missing when they returned to check on the bibles.
Not knowing what was going on, the owners assumed the worst, a demon or evil spirit. They opened both bibles again. This time, they placed a crucifix on top of the open pages of the one in the pantry. The next morning, the crucifix was lying next to the bible and the bible was closed and moved from its original location. They contacted us shortly thereafter.
The team arrived at this split-level residence on a quiet street at 13:00. We went through our extensive questionnaire to determine what might be happening in this home (our questionnaire is designed to eliminate several possible causes for suspected paranormal activities). We found that the homeowners had never had anything paranormal happen to them prior to moving into this house. Their teenage son was not a focal point. Nor were the military artifacts that had been collected over numerous years a cause. So what could it be?
We took a tour of the entire house before entering the basement. The upper floors had no discernable activity, with the exception of an unusual compass reading around the upstairs bathroom. This unusual compass reading was replicated in the third level bathroom. We determined that two possible causes could account for this - all the plumbing was concentrated along this central access and the heating ducts/electrical wiring followed the same path to connect all four levels.
Then we entered the basement. We were shown the pantry and where the bibles had been placed. The one in the pantry itself was on a shelf about two metres high. This ruled out the family dog messing with it as Tom had initially suspected (when discussing the matter with the homeowners on the phone, Tom had visualised the bible being on the floor and, because the door would not stay closed, that a dog was going into the pantry and pushing the bible around. Tom did not know the family had a dog until the team arrived at the location). Matt and Jeremy inspected the construction of the room including the door and frame. They were impressed by the construction and commented how, for an amateur piece of workmanship, it was very well built. They tested the door mechanism and how it latched into the doorjamb. They could not make the door open when it was closed all the way. The mechanism latched properly with little effort and would not budge even when all team members took turns trying to push the door open from the inside. The room itself was of simple construction and did not have any other entries. One hypothesis at this point was that there may be air pressure changes causing the door to not fully close and/or create an outward pressure inside the room that pushed the door open. We discovered this was not the case.
We left the pantry and began talking with the homeowners again. During this conversation, Tom noticed a crawlspace under the third level. The homeowner said that they had only been under there to put a few things away for storage when they had first moved in and had not gone under for several months. Tom and Jeremy used their flashlights to illuminate the dark area and began discussing whether someone should go under to investigate. Then the homeowner said there was a light and turned it on. The crawlspace had very little in it - a few small boxes piled in the far corner, some Christmas decorations near the front and a small pile of wood for the third level fireplace directly beneath the third level bathroom. Tom decided that, as he was the smallest (midget) member of the team, he would go into the crawlspace to see what was there.
Working his way between the water heater and a water softener, Tom crawled over to the small boxes. As he was crawling he felt that he was not alone. It turned out he was right. The family dog decided this was great fun and joined him on this under-floor adventure. Tom looked into the boxes and found only unused family items, the kind that are always placed into a seldom accessed storage area. As his knees began to hurt from crawling on bare cement, he noticed that the dog quickly exited the area. Turning around to head back to the only place someone could enter/exit this space, Tom made a slight detour to the pile of firewood. He noticed that the wood did not sit directly on the floor. Rather, it was on a small wooden frame that kept it about five centimetres above the floor. Ready to continue his exodus, he took a second look and noticed something underneath this wood stand. Shining his flashlight onto the item he called to Matt and Jeremy for one of them to quickly come and take a picture. Jeremy clamoured into the space and Tom pointed out what he needed documentation of - the missing devotional.
When Jeremy and Tom had extricated themselves from the crawlspace, they presented the devotional to the homeowners. The team then inspected the external area of the crawlspace to see if someone would be able to lean in and place a book under the far side of this pile of wood. We determined that the only way this book could have been placed there was if someone or something was physically in the crawlspace. But finding the devotional on the floor AND having the family dog follow him into the space helped Tom put his initial image of bible and dog together. However, this connection did not happen during the investigation but as he was writing this account!
The homeowners were quite shaken by the discovery of the devotional. They removed themselves from the basement and went to the kitchen to get something to drink (coffee). Jeremy, Matt and Tom stayed in the basement to discuss the next course of action. Tom would go upstairs to alleviate the homeowners fears, Matt would continue to take digital photos and notes and Jeremy would set up his digital voice recorder and digital video camera (we like Jeremy...he has cool toys!) to document the door area of the pantry. Just before this conversation took place, all three had gone into the pantry and examined the door and frame one more time. The pantry door was firmly closed by Jeremy as he was the last to leave the room. During the conversation, about the time Jeremy was deciding where to place his digital voice recorder, we noticed that the pantry door was open.
We were very excited. If the door would open by itself while we were there to witness it, we thought we should be able to video the door opening. Jeremy set his audio recorder on the exterior shelf on top of the bible there. He then set up his video camera facing the pantry door. After this, we all left the lower level and Tom returned to the main floor to discuss events with the homeowners. Matt and Jeremy stopped on the third level to take some photos and begin to interpret what, if anything, they sensed in this home. After a few minutes, Matt and Jeremy joined Tom and the homeowners on the main level.
We all sat in the living room and discussed the events that day. We told the homeowners about our witnessing the pantry door being closed, then being open in the span of 30 to 45 seconds. We also began to alleviate their fears that whatever is a part of their home is not evil or menacing. The homeowners told us that after the devotional had gone missing, the pantry door did not open by itself and the area in the basement felt calmer. We determined that, to us, the entity is somewhat mischievous and possibly felt more comfortable having taken the devotional to a hiding place. We told the homeowners that if the devotional went missing again, they might not find it this time. The upside is that the entity might become calm again and not bother the owners.
It was during this conversation that Jeremy decided to go and check on his equipment. The recording devices had only been left for about 20 minutes but he felt that he must check on them. When he entered the lower level, he found that the pantry door was still closed and that the audio recorder had stopped. He checked the device and noted that it had stopped recording approximately 20 seconds after he had placed it onto the bible. He restarted it and came upstairs to debrief us. We decided to let the video and audio devices record for another 20 minutes or so.
The team had planned on performing the investigation in an hour and a half to two hours, but when it started to close in on three hours, we decided to leave. Part of the reason for staying longer than planned was to counsel the homeowners and to ensure that we had allowed enough time for our recording devices to capture anything paranormal. The team thanked the homeowners for inviting us into their home and proceeded to leave. As we were putting on our shoes, one of the owners asked how much they owed us for the investigation. We told them that they did not owe us anything because we cannot, in good conscience, charge for our services. Besides, helping people is payment enough for what we do. They thanked us again for helping them and we left.
We have reviewed the collected data. We found nothing on the video, except for a closed door and Jeremy checking his audio device. We found that the audio device did not malfunction but seemed to be turned off a few seconds after Jeremy had initially put it down. There was nothing on the second portion of the recording. Of the 55 pictures taken, only one had a possible orb.
We have concluded that the entity the homeowners claim is male, is not a threat nor is it harmful to them. We have asked that if the activity increases to a level that they are not comfortable with, they contact us again so we can perform a follow-up. They have chosen to live with this entity for the time being.
