Here's a ghost story for thanksgiving. Let us not forget that the original thanksgiving was celebrated by dead people... go with it.
Early this year my office got a call from a local group calling themselves the Paranormal Research Office Of Fayetteville, or “PROOF.” The group invited my office to send in a reporter to tag along on an investigation of a house at 247 Coolspring Street, downtown. Realizing that this could possibly be a dangerous assignment (“Scooby Doo” is a cautionary tale), they sent their most expendable reporter: this is my story.
The PROOF Is Out There
By James Johnson
8:00 p.m.
I arrive on the scene, accompanied by photographer Albert Stichka and our creepy quiet friend Maia Miller, who was asked to come along merely because of the eerie vibe she gives every situation.
Upon pulling up, the Scoobies and I (I’m more of a “Fred” ) were greeted by PROOF leader Jerry Holland.*
Holland wasted no time introducing his crew.
Tim Kuntz, a computer tech and as of recently, a reformed mullet wearer - he regrets nothing. Jenna Garcia, parapsychologist and reluctant ghost prodder (“If there is a ghost in the room, please give us a sign by touching one of the men in the room … anyone but me,” chanted Garcia in a not-so-proud moment). And finally, Andy Nunez, a joyless man who gets his kicks from trouncing the strongly held myths of others.
“For me, the thrill is when you can debunk one of these ghost stories,” Nunez said. “You’d be surprised how much fun that can be.”
After being formerly introduced, Holland set about the business of giving us the background on the house we were about to enter.
Apparently, the house, which doubles as an office space, has had a long reputation of being a prime creep-out zone. Holland said that he has heard testimony dating back more than 20 years of a ghostly woman appearing in the window.
Not only that, but residents have reportedly heard loud unexplained footsteps upstairs, and expressed feeling as if they are being watched.
8:15 p.m.
The boys had just gotten done unpacking an array of ghost hunting tools that would make even Casper go pale (if he had pigment to begin with). Electro Magnetic Field detectors, motion detecting video cameras, night vision and of course, lots of batteries. All that was missing was a proton pack - but alas, Christmas only comes once a year.
Altogether, the gadgets have cost the group well over $300 (rough estimate), and there is another $100 put into preparation for the average investigation. Still, Proof performs their investigations free of charge.
“This is my hobby,” Kuntz said. “If I collected stamps, would I expect someone to pay for my stamp collection?”
8:30 p.m.
The Proof crew had decided to split up into teams (as horror movies have taught them nothing). I tagged along with Holland and Kuntz, who decided to hold their first investigation inside the attic.
My fear of height, combined with my dislike of enclosed places and allergy to being eaten by attic monsters, kept me waiting patiently at the bottom of the attic steps.
“You may want to come look at this,” came Kuntz voice from above.
“Jinkies,” I thought. “Have they found a clue?”
What they had found was a brief glimpse of a creepy moving shadow that had passed by in the attic, in an area where nothing was in a position to cast a shadow. Kuntz and Holland were amused, but weren’t ready to call this case closed quite yet.
9:00 p.m.
Not much has happened yet. It turns out, ghost hunting, just like any other form of hunting, includes a lot of waiting. One notable difference is that at the end of the day, no one gets to eat ghost. Snack break to the rescue!
10:00 p.m.
The snacks are delicious. It is difficult to be scared when munching on some Chips Ahoy.
Once everyone is together, I do a quick head count to ensure that everyone had survived the first half of the ordeal. Amazingly photographer Stichka lives. I had pegged him as a “red shirt” the instant I met him.
“He’ll die one day,” I quietly assured myself. “Red shirts always die.”
Though obviously a certain amount of belief has to be involved for the Proof groups to be able to invest this much effort into an investigation, Kuntz notes that the group is far more interested in finding the truth behind a ghost story than adding fuel to any myths.
“I’d love to find any hard undeniable evidence of a ghost, but I also want to make sure we’ve taken every step to debunk it,” Kuntz said.
For the most part, Kuntz said that they have managed to debunk most of their cases. One example was with a family claiming that a ghost had been killing their fish. Upon investigation, Proof found that there had been a carbon dioxide leak near the area where the fish were kept.
Another easy to debunk ghost story are the ones involving people finding ghostly orbs in their photos.
“You want orbs? Just shake a rug and take a picture,” said Holland. “You’ll get an orb from the flash reflecting off of the dust.”
10:30 p.m.
After overhearing that the Proof group would most likely be remaining in the house until 3 a.m., I decide to call it a night. We shook hands, said our goodbyes and left, confident that nothing interesting or eventful would happen for the rest of the night. Stichka lives to die another day.
The Interesting and Eventful Stuff That Happened
As Holland had warned me, most of the good ghostly happenings happen late after midnight.
“After you guys left at about 12:45 a.m., Tim says to me, ‘did you see that?’ Over my shoulder Tim said he saw a shadow almost peer out over the staircase... I decide to switch positions so that I can spot it if it happens again,” said Holland in a more recent phone interview. “After a while, I saw this shadow peer over before moving back. We went after it, taking pictures like crazy.”
Holland said that while the group now feels that “something is going on,” in the house, they will have to do another investigation to debunk it.
*Members of Proof asked that their first names be altered so as to protect their day jobs.
