We visited a home in Middletown, CT, where the client had recently lost her husband. She was hearing unexplained noises and could feel a presence around her. This is the story of what occurred during our visit, based on our readings, observations and experiences.
A full house.
Earlier in the year, a woman from Middletown, CT had lost her husband after an illness. She felt as if he was her life partner, and continued to be distraught over the loss of her loved one.
In their bedroom, an urn with his ashes sat atop a desk in the corner. In front of this urn, a box was leaned up against its base, containing a cross on the right side of the box, and a poem laid on the surface of the left side. This woman reported that she could feel some kind of presence around her.
And the urn would make noise.
– – – –
January 2, 2010. Early evening, on top of a hill. The wind was brutal, and it was hard to stand outside for any length of time. Moving quickly to the warmth of the client’s home, we entered the house and made our way to a room toward the back, with a couch, chairs and a large screen TV.
After a brief discussion with the client, the crew went upstairs while Vic stayed with the client. We followed a spirit into a bedroom, and asked that spirit to talk to us. He told Crystal to pick up a book that was sitting on a desk. It was a large comic book, over 500 pages in length. The spirit then asked her to turn to page 421. The comic was about a person who had passed on, and their spirit was talking to the loved one they left behind. Crystal read it out loud – the spirit character in the comic said that he is always there, and blesses them from heaven.
We bookmarked the page and put it back on the desk.
Through Crystal, this spirit said to me “How can you tell where I am?” He didn’t understand. It was hard to explain – even to myself, much less a spirit. I told him “I just do – I don’t know how or why.”
We left this room, and were led to the master bedroom. It was in this room that we were able to find out more about this spirit. We hoped to get his name and be able to conclusively identify him.
There were four small dogs in this room – it was rather noisy at first, and we did our best to get them to stop barking. Once they were quiet, Crystal and I started asking questions. We first tried to get his name – Crystal kept hearing multiple names, including “Senior Pancho’s.” We decided that we would call him Pancho at that point, to keep things from getting confusing and so he would know when we were addressing him.
I was then pointed to a chair at the desk in this room.
It was another spirit.
We asked what his name was, and Crystal was able to tell us – she was able to hear it more distinctly than when we asked Pancho.
His name was Brian.
Darlene entered the room and we started a conversation with Brian. We were able to find out a number of things, but the one thing he was focused on the most was this:
He wanted a joint.
Crystal was able to see a man in his late 30s, pony tail and all, just sort of hanging out in this chair. He told her that the only time he left was when he tried to find his connection. He also told us he was repeatedly unsuccessful in this quest. I asked him some questions about this, and whether he preferred a joint or a bowl. He told Crystal that he liked joints the best.
I decided to try and give him what he wanted.
I told him to close his eyes, hold out his hand and he should begin to feel a joint between his fingers.
I then asked him if he could see it.
Apparently he did. Crystal told us he was already smoking it by the time I asked.
– – –
We moved into the next room, led by Pancho. As we sat down on the bed, Crystal could hear a voice, telling her this:
“Don’t you even knock?”
Oops.
We left the room and closed the door. Being polite, we knocked this time and asked if we could come in. Crystal told us she said it was okay. We entered the room again and sat down. Asking who she was, she gave us her name – Emily. We learned that she thought she was single, was in her own home and she didn’t understand what we were doing there. She thought our questions were strange, and we started to wonder: did she know she was dead?
Trying to continue our conversation with Emily became difficult; she was not receptive to our questions and did not want to hear what we had to say. She became confused and frightened – and she just didn’t care to listen.
So she got up and left the room.
– – – –
As Emily had left, we went downstairs, still following Pancho. The next room to check was the living room in the front of the house. Crystal sat down in the middle of the couch. We were joined by Pancho on Crystal’s left, and when I sat down at the end of the couch to her right, Crystal heard Emily say, “Don’t sit on me!”
I told Emily to move over.
So we all had a great time, sitting on the couch, talking about this and that. One of us referred to Pancho, and Crystal heard “Don’t call me that!” I asked, “What do you want to be called?” and she heard James. Crystal had heard so many names in the past hour that it was getting a bit confusing. That’s when she heard a new name: Bob.
Bob?
It was getting pretty crowded in that room.
I commented to the team that this group of spirits probably congregated here from time to time, and Crystal acknowledged that this was the case.
Moving onto the rest of the rooms on the main floor, we didn’t find anything else notable – but James did continue to follow us around. As we returned to the TV room to talk to the client, we were told that we hadn’t seen all of the rooms yet. There was a basement, and this turned out to be most important of all.
– – – –
We walked down the stairs to the basement and Crystal, Julie and Darlene walked toward a room on the left. I was stopped – there was something under the stairs. I called out, ‘There’s something here.”
It was a small boy.
They came back to see what I was talking about, and Crystal could see a little boy crouching in the back of the space under the stairs. It was clear he was scared, and I kneeled down in the area to talk to him. I asked him, “What is your name?”
Crystal said “Timothy.”
“Why are you here under the stairs?”
“I’m afraid of my daddy. He hits me.”
We told him his dad wasn’t there any more, he was safe with us, and we were there to help him. However, as we still had to check the rest of the basement, we said we would return in a short while.
After walking into an adjoining room, Crystal kept getting the impression that the room had changed. The color of the room, a bright blue, didn’t look right. “This room has been painted,” she said. Pancho commented to Crystal that he really liked the new color. She also could also see a framed picture of a muscle car on the wall – Pancho let Crystal know that he felt the wall needed one.
We next walked into a room that appeared to be used for building and fixing things – there was a large workbench, a rotary saw, and plenty of tools and electrical parts. Part of the walls were covered in a yellow paint with fingerpainted streaks. The first thing Crystal said upon entering was “Where did it go?” There was a project missing – a project that was never completed, and James was guiding us in all different directions trying to figure out where it was. We couldn’t find it.
Crystal then started hearing about a riding mower that was missing. James kept asking where it was. As we were led into another room, I was drawn to a door at the back of this room – I asked the homeowner what was behind this door, and she told us it was the space underneath the porch. James was of course, still with us in every room we went into, and he was leading us around.
He was looking for the mower.
He led us back into the room with the yellow paint, and we followed him as he made an immediate left through a closed door to another work area we had yet to see. It was funny, as there was an adjoining door to its right that was already open, and they both went to the exact same place. As we walked in, he led us to a set of windows that looked under the porch. He hadn’t given up on the riding mower yet.
We did however, and went back upstairs.
– – –
We entered the TV room and sat down with the client. We started discussing who and what we had found in the house, when Crystal heard a voice from someone looking for pizza. Brian had come downstairs, and had the munchies. I tried the same trick as I did upstairs and had him picture a pizza in his mind. Suddenly, he had his hands on a slice and seemed quite happy.
As in the last investigation, Vic set up his equipment, continuing with the testing of Frank’s Box technology. I set up a laptop to capture the audio, and we positioned the microphone in front of Crystal, Darlene and myself. Since Brian was already in the adjacent kitchen, he seemed like a good candidate for our first EVP session of the evening.
Well, maybe not the best candidate, but we knew he’d have fun with it anyway.
What is your name? Brian.
Why are you here? To smoke a blunt.
Did you live here? No, well maybe now.
Are there any other spirits here? Joy to the world!
Well, it was the season.
Do you want to leave or stay here? Smoke here.
Were you married? No.
Did you have children? Maybe. How many? 20?
What did you do for work? Followed the Grateful Dead.
Are you angry or happy? Stoned.
Are you sad or lonely? No.
Are you hurting? Numb.
Do you know what year it is? 1983.
Do you know where you are? With Bob.
Bob?
What year were you born? 1937. Your birthday? Oct. 19.
Where did you grow up? Schenectady.
How did you pass away? Dazed.
Were you religious? No. Grateful Dead.
We continued to ask Brian questions, but due to his altered state, it was proving to be a little difficult. We did find out that he would go to concerts as a ghost, had an accident on a forklift, and worked somewhere in Middleboro, NY. Or as least that’s what he could recall. What he couldn’t recall was how he died, but he believed it had happened somewhere around Hartford, CT.
One more thing he told us: Bob can’t speak.
Bob? Silent?
For the second EVP session of the evening, we chose to talk to Emily. We didn’t want to make the mistake of walking into her room unannounced as we did before, so we stopped before entering. And knocked. I asked Emily if we could come in, and she gave us permission to do so. After asking her if it was okay to ask her a few questions, we started the session.
What is your name? Emily.
Why are you here? I live here.
Are you waiting for something or someone? My husband.
She had earlier said that she was single.
Did you live here? I live here now.
Are there any other spirits here? What?! Who?
Were you married? Yes – still married
After these responses, we were now convinced that Emily was not aware of her own death, and we would have to take a more careful approach – especially since we knew she was prone to getting up and leaving the room. I indicated to Darlene that she should ask the rest of the questions as if they were not about the past.
What do you do for work? Electrical Engineer.
Are you angry or happy? Nope.
Are you sad or lonely? Not any more.
She then volunteered: Mother passed recently.
Do you know what year it is? 1993 or 5
Do you know where you are? My house. In Middletown.
What year were you born? 1963.
Where did you grow up? Durham.
Are you religious? No.
We went on to ask her a few more questions about her family. When asked if she had a brother, Crystal determined that she had a brother, Dave. She was getting over her mother’s death. She also said that she was married and things were finally working out between her and her husband. Her mind appeared to be confusing facts about her life – she had earlier said she was single, and was now married as far as she could recall.
We decided it was time to break the news.
I told her she had died.
The idea that she had passed made Emily mad. Being the bearer of bad news, Crystal had to fight back the urge to punch me. As Darlene, Julie and Tyler watched, Crystal started waving her arms in the air, fists clenched, with a mixed look of frustration and anger on her face. This anger then turned toward Darlene, while she was attempting to calm Emily down. The more we said, the angrier Emily became. Until the breaking point.
Crystal left the room. She couldn’t take it anymore.
The rest of us followed her out, and I closed the door behind us.
Would Crystal be able to go back into the room? See Part Two…
