The date is July 21, 2007, Saturday. H.P.I.Paranormal Investigator Brian Colbert shows up at my home at 4pm. We head out in my vehicle, affectionately called the Ghost Tracker, and head over to Paranormal Investigator Jennifer Baca's residence. She is waiting with paranormal Investigator, Cherie Vincent. We all try to pile up in my Dodge Stratus and everyone is complaining that they feel like sardines. So we move all of the equipment over to Jennifer's Ford Expedition that she calls the 'Spirit Seeker'. Everyone is happy, they now have leg room......sigh. I fight over the music with Jennifer and finally convinced her to play 'Let's Get it Started by the Black Eyed Peas'. Wouldn't that be the right song? We're getting started on our investigation and traveling 2 hours to the small town of Murphys, CA... I would think so.
We have to meet up with the rest of the team at the a local Sacramento coffee house. The other paranormal investigators for this mission into the unknown are: Shannon McCabe, Tim Hawkins, Markus Stout and Carol Gillis. Before heading out, my team and I were starving! We stopped off at Camino Real Mexican Food at 2700 Broadway in Sacramento. This place has great service and great food! Now that we whetted our appetites, it was time to follow Tim Hawkins to Murphys, CA.
After a long two hour ride, we finally arrive in Murphys. We stop off at Wild Grape Restaurant and Art Gallery for some sodas, we listen to the soft rock band on the patio. I chatted a bit with the waitress and she said the owner of this place claims that she saw a woman ghost apparation in this establishment. The waitress has never heard or experienced anything at this restaurant. After we down a few sodas, we head across the street to D.E.A. Bathroom Machineries at 495 Main Street, Murphys, CA 95247 Email:
info@deabath.com Website:
www.deabath.com Cherie Vincent did some research about the haunting activity at this establishment and contacted the owners for an investigation. Cherie with her blue hair is one of our best scouts and she did an exemplary job in setting up this investigation.
We met Tom Scheller, President - Email:
TS@deabath.com and Kathy Lachman, who run this establishment. They briefed us on the history of D.E.A. Bathroom Machineries. Tom related the following to us:
1. At times they smell cigarette smoke in a corner of the room on the first floor. The odor comes and goes and no one has smoked in their store since 1976.
2. Footsteps are heard on the stairwell when no one is up there.
3. The sound of children having conversations are heard on the 3rd floor.
4. One time the postman stepped into the store and a shelf bracket fell down on its own accord. It fell down into the middle of the floor, not at an angle. Basically, a very unnatural fall.
5. Items on shelves have been pulled off by an unseen forces, levitate and then fall to the floor.
6. Once an apparation ran in front of owner,Tom.
7. An unseen entity walked down the steps, the footsteps could be heard, then it opened the door and went out. The door made a clicking sound as if it were being opened and closed.
8. A customer of the store claimed to see a male apparition.
9. Tom found a secret compartment in the floor and found bricks with names & dates on it. Example: Joe -1918- 1951. Tom thinks these might be bricks from the Oddfellows club that resided here before him. Possibly memorial bricks from folks that died.
DEA Bathroom Machineries was once the (IOOF) International Order of Oddfellows Fraternity hall. IOOF was known to assist the widows and orphans of miners and loggers.
While we set up video cameras, video monitors and audio digital recorders, we broke up into 4 teams. We got a breifing from lead investigator, Tim Hawkins. Each team was composed of 2 investigators, and each team took a certain section of the store to investigate. Each team would spend 30 minutes in their area and switch off with another team. I don't know all of the findings of this investigation, but while we were there, Shannon video taped what appeared to be a ghostly hand coming out of nowhere. I snapped some digital photos of Shannon and noticed that there were 2 orbs that seemed to follow her around the staircase area. Sometimes there would be one orb, or two orbs and I was able to trace the orbs movement by snapping my pictures. Eventually two orbs were hovering over Shannon's head. After the orbs departed, I went into the office area and smelled cigarette smoke, it lasted for a couple of minutes and then dissapated. Cherie felt a tugging at her hair while investigating the downstairs.
After we completed our investigation, we briefed Tom and Kathy of our initial findings. And explained that we need to pour over our photos, video tapes and digital audio recorders before we can make any conclusions.
This store sells many antique bathroom neccessities, we even saw a designer toilet that had the price tag of $10,000! I got a kick at looking at the wooden bathtub from the 1800's. Sometimes old furniture can be haunted, I wondered if possibly this store became haunted because they have so many antiques?
After the investigation was complete, I broke out my ice chest and we snacked on some Colby cheese, Ritz crackers, fig newtons, chocolate chip cookies and chased it all down with Pepsi! It was a loooooong night!
Anyway, I look forward to Shannon's findings and conclusions, that is found at the bottom of this article. HPI is planning a fun filled event. This is what Shannon has to say about it:
"Saturday, August 18, 2007, is our 2nd annual guided tour of Haunted Placerville, CA! We will be going to a bunch of places on Main street, and I'll give you the history and HAUNTED history of each place. We'll talk with the employees, take pictures, get EVP's... Some of the places will let us walk thru their haunted areas! We did it last year, and were doing it again! This is an official H.P.I. Fundraiser so we might be able to buy some more equipment!
Some of the many stops on our tour include:
Hangman's Tree Bar
The Hillsider Saloon
Historic Cary House Hotel
The Cozmic Cafe- or Pearson's Soda Works- They have underground caves we can explore!
Hidden Passages Bookstore
Tomei's Restaurant
The Druid Monument
The Sequoia House Restaurant
The Placerville Union Cemetery
We'll stop for a bite to eat at the Cozmic Cafe... They'll let us upstairs for a mini investigation also! And I encourage you to purchase from the vendors on our tour, they love that!
We'll have the full itinerary laid out soon. But expect to have an entire afternoon of ghostly and historic fun! This tour is okay for children, but a lot of the establishments are bars.. so they'll have to wait outside. Thank you!
What to bring:
Video Cameras
Cameras
Voice Recorders
EMF Readers
Comfortable walking shoes
A little spending money
See you there!
Shannon McCabe"
If the HPI crew gets any interesting EVPs, photographs from this tour, I will mention all of that in my next ghostly investigation article!
Other Possible Investigations that HPI may be setting up are:
1. A prominent parapsychologist makes claim that EVPs can be found anywhere and everywhere. HPI may take on this challenge and test our HPI investigators for this assignment.
2. I received an email from a paranormal investigator in Florida, that has been gathering EVPs at areas off the side of the road, where car accidents have occurred and there were fatalities. On his EVP, he makes claim you can even hear the car crash and people screaming. We may test this experiment out.
3. EVPs can be gathered at jails, prisons and hospitals. This might be another good assignment.
4. A test for newer members of HPI, to go into a home, not knowing any of the history and let them decide if the house is haunted or not haunted. Put the newer members to the test, especially the members who are intuitive.
FINDINGS: We have lots of pictures of orbs. Most of them with intelligent activity following Shannon up the stairs. 2 EVP's picked up so far. A smell of cigarette smoke when no one had smoked there since the 1970's.
CONCLUSIONS: "Sure seems haunted to me....Sure was a cool building! We have a ton of evidence to go through to make a real judgement call, but because of the EVP's I am going with a "spook factor" of 7.5!" Shannon McCabe, President, H.P.I.
Before I close this article, I want to mention that HPI is always willing and assist new ghost hunting groups. On July 25, 2007, Shannon and I were preparing for a board meeting at the Coffee Garden. We arrived at 6:30pm to meet a new ghost hunting group called C.P.I. (California Paranormal Investigations). The members that showed up were: Brian Watts,
David Watts, Tara Bryan, Leah Bryan and Nick Watts. Shannon and I gave them helpful tips on where to investigate hauntings and how to promote their group. For more information about this new ghost hunting group, they can be reached by email at:
mcculloch5905@hotmail.com or
CPInvestigators@hotmail.com Good luck CPI!
Paul Dale Roberts,
Jazma Freelance Writer
H.P.I. Ghostwriter/Paranormal Investigator
www.jazmaonline.comJazmaPika@cs.com
Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:02 pm
