Martindale
Friday November 18, 2005
Investigators present: Matt, Tom, Ryan, JJ
Length of visit: 2hours 45minutes
The team arrived around 18:25. We began rather informally, standing on the front porch with those who smoked (the homeowner and three of the team members). The homeowner began telling us about the incidences that had been occurring in his home for quite some time - unusual smells in the basement stairwell, items being moved and a roommate who had the covers ripped off their bed while they were just waking up. The homeowner has also experienced a clicking in his portable phone that he feels only happens when this presence is very close (within 2 metres). This happened at least twice during our visit.
One commonality through his recollections is his preschool child. It appears the activity increases when the child visits. This is not a case of a poltergeist, however. The incidences had been going on for at least eight years. The child seems to be the focus of late because the homeowner believes he "has not paid enough attention to the entity". He feels the entity wants more attention and by focusing on his child is "a good way to get and keep my attention". We asked that the child be in the home during our initial investigation to determine if the child increased activity while we were there. Our second visit will allow us to conclude if the child is a factor.
This private residence almost didn't happen. The homeowner and Tom (CAPI's main contact) had enormous miscommunication at the outset that was the fault of neither party. We were first contacted shortly before moving to our new web host (our previous web host was having major technical difficulties which prompted the move, including bizarre occurrences with our email - it was sporadic at best and when we did receive emails, they were not always complete). It was because of these technical difficulties that we did not get the first email in a whole state. The pictures that were attached never came through and the text was corrupted. Tom thought it was spam.
A while later we received a heated email (interestingly in its entirety) that questioned our professionalism. This was completely understandable - if we could not even respond to a simple email asking for help, why did we have an email address in the first place. About two weeks after this, the original email, with all pictures attached and intact and the text in its original state, was delivered to Tom's inbox...who knows what had happened to it. Around this same time, our client sent another email, again asking for help. Tom responded with an apology and explanation of what had happened. Thankfully further miscommunication was averted, the incident was resolved, CAPI's reputation was not damaged and our client was happy to invite us to investigate his home.
After finishing their smokes, the homeowner and team proceeded into the home where Tom had begun setting out equipment. We were invited to sit in the front room for our formal interview. The homeowner's child was so fascinated with all these new people that it was difficult to go through our extensive questionnaire to eliminate any non-paranormal influences that may explain the apparent activity in the home. The homeowner did not want the child scared by the discussion, so to ensure the child was not frightened, the team did not mention anything paranormal when interrupted but told the child how cute they were and how much more exciting stuff there was on the TV in the other room.
Through all of these often funny interruptions, we discovered that over the past eight years, the homeowner had come to accept that an entity of some sort was "living" with him and may have followed him from another city. It was only when it began to "attack" his child that he feared it was a demon and wanted it gone. He contacted a priest who came in and blessed the home. When they came to the basement stairs, a fishy smell accosted them. The priest spread holy water, said a prayer and the smell disappeared. It never came back.
The homeowner thought his days of dealing with this were over but when he discovered the entity was still there, he began consulting others - mostly lay people from varied religious backgrounds including Muslim, Hindu and native spiritualists. He asked each to come and remove "whatever this thing is". One taught him a 'banishing spell' that seems to work for short periods.
We began our tour of the home - Matt and Ryan took the second floor, while JJ and Tom started with the main floor. JJ noticed an energy in one corner of the main floor near the couch. Using his compass, Tom noticed small variations in the same location and took some pictures. Nothing else out of the ordinary was found on the main floor, nor was anything found in the basement.
Meanwhile upstairs, Ryan and Matt were fascinated by the 'roommate room' - currently an empty bedroom where each of the homeowner's former tenants had lived. They were using the EMF detector and found very unusual readings along one wall, but only when the device was pointed into the middle of the room. The EMF detector is a small handheld unit that measures the electro-magnetic energy of anything it is pointed at. Normally, you would have to point it at a device (like a TV) and be in close proximity for it to read the energy emitted. It is when the EMF is pointed into an open space and there is a reading that we become very interested. This room became the focus of the remainder of the investigation.
The team converged on this empty bedroom after thoroughly checking the rest of the home. Each team member found an unusual cold spot near the window, but decided that its proximity to the window may have been a contributing factor. Many photos (both 35mm 800ISO and 3MP digital) were taken of this room, especially of the closet area. It is just outside the closet that the consistent anomalous EMF readings were being recorded. We checked each outlet in the room to eliminate them as a source for our readings and found one that had extreme readings. However this was not connected with the anomaly. We did encourage the homeowner to have this outlet checked by an electrician to prevent any possible dangerous event. Then, with no warning, the anomalous readings ended. It was at this time the team decided the investigation should end.
We gathered again in the front room on the main floor to discuss our findings with the homeowner. We told him that what we sensed in this home was a male energy that did not seem to be negative. JJ had a strong feeling of a red haired young male who seemed connected in some way to the homeowner. At that time, the homeowner did not understand who it could be. We also told him that whatever energy we were feeling during this investigation seemed to be centred in the empty bedroom on the second floor.
Finally, we discussed the possibility of returning to the home to perform a second investigation without his child being there. This will allow us to determine if the energy level is lower or the same with the child absent. He was receptive to this and suggested we contact him in the New Year.
