Paranormal Investigation: Orange County, New York - 2005

• Site Type: Private Residence - Dual Investigation
  
• Location: Orange County, New York
  
• Date: June 6, 2005 & June 25, 2005
  
• Client Status: Anonymous
  

Case Report

On June 5, 2005, the ISIS Paranormal team set out to investigate a purported haunting in Orange County, New York after being contacted by a family that had been suffering from ongoing paranormal activity. The family, having lived in Orange County for approximately a decade, had experienced documented paranormal activity at their former location, and after having moved to a new location in the same county, reported experiencing similar events in their new home.

Summary:

A large family, consisting of two adults and several children ranging from the ages of sixteen to five reported experiencing sporadic, paranormal events for the past 15 years. Specifically, activity seems to center around one of their teenaged, children who is disabled: a child with a severely limited ability to communicate verbally. Additionally, the family, with Roman Catholic affiliations, had worked with another paranormal group from an adjoining state in conjunction with a bishop who performed an exorcism in an effort to alleviate their difficulties. Unfortunately, the activity continued after the initial exorcism, and when the family moved from the former location into their new home, the family became concerned that the problems that existed in the former location had somehow followed them to the new site. The ISIS Paranormal team was contacted and after conversing with the occupant, was called in to either confirm or discredit whether or not their current experiences in their new home were of paranormal origin.

History:

The occupants report that unexplained activity seemed to revolve around their child since an early age. The child's mother reports that activity began when her disabled child was very young and that strangers would approach her while she was with a her child in public, and comment on the child's " white light ". According to the occupant, a middle-aged woman with a Jamaican accent approached her and her child (when the child was 9 months old) in the store and stated that the child had a very “bright light” around her, and began talking to the child and addressing the child by name. When the mother asked the woman how she knew the child’s name, her response was, “she has told me.” Additionally, other public activity centering around the child has been reported. According to reports, several incidences occurred where the child's preschool teacher noticed a dark figure in the class when the child was in school. Further, the same figure was not present when the child left the classroom. Finally, the child also has been noted to have strange ocular occurrences; despite the fact that the child's vision was tested and deemed within normal limits, the child’s pupils were often found either dilated or fully blown while the lighting in the room would produced the opposite effect in someone else.

The mother has also witnessed unusual behavior at their home. Such behavior consisted of the child either saying “Hi, " or waving, laughing, giggling, shaking her head yes or no, all while the child focused on specific areas of their home. In fact, the mother reports that if she were to walk into the room in front of her child and within the child’s line of sight, the child would tend to look around or over her to continue looking at whatever had caught the child's attention. Further, the mother reports that this behavior increased when the family moved to Orange County in the mid-90s.

After moving to Orange County, the mother reports that even more strange occurrences began. The child had a bedroom adjacent to the parents' bedroom and the mother reported hearing a sound like children running in her child's room as well as the child laughing and giggling in the middle of the night. Because the child had several other siblings, the mother would get up to check on the child half expecting to see her other children awake and playing, but would find only one child awake. As this activity increased in frequency, other family members began reporting experiences.

Another one of the occupant’s children started leaving toys out every night for an “unseen " child. Subsequent and parallel to this experience, the adult occupants reported seeing a young boy at both the back and front door, and they also report seeing what appeared to be a military man who would come into the bedroom at night. The boy was blonde and the occupants guess his age to be between 8-10 years old. Whenever the child was approached, the child would disappear.

The occupants admit that after repeated incidents such as the above reported events that their curiosity got the best of them and they decided to use an Ouija Board to see if they could get results. They report using it only one time and that the experience was unpleasant. The two adult occupants used the board while the children were sleeping and centered their questions on their experiences. When they questioned the board about the little boy that they had seen at both entrances of the location, the response that they receive referred to the child as "Adam" and to the military man as "James.” Further, when asked why they were there, "James" responded that they were their because of the occupant's disabled child by referring to the child’s initials. After this, the male occupant reported hearing a shrieking that the female occupant did not hear.

The occupants report that after this incident activity increased further: They heard noises, growling, and banging. Additionally, items turned up missing, the children were frequently upset, and various members of the family experienced poking and prodding from an unseen source. What's more, the adult male of the household had numerous items thrown at him over the course of time. Additionally, it is reported that the disabled child presented a bite mark with a narrow width, but that extended almost the full circumference of her upper arm: after this occurrence the family contacted outside assistance.

During and after the course of the investigation (conducted by another paranormal team), the occupants continued to experience unexplained activity. The female adult of the household reports having nightmares almost every evening of a man named "Frank,” and being woken up in the middle of the night and hearing her name called. She also reports “Frank” to be tall, of slender build, possessing a thin chiseled face, high cheekbones, a goatee, neatly trimmed black hair that is slicked back and having dark, deep eyes. Meanwhile the adult male reports that he frequently saw an unfriendly blonde woman in a red dress in the basement area of the home. Further, he was also frequented by verbal assaults from the same entity.

After the investigation the family was referred for an exorcism and the rite was performed. During the exorcism the family reports that the disabled child, who is not only nonverbal but does not have the ability to walk, appeared as if the child was ready to get up off of the couch and lunge at the Bishop who was performing the exorcism. Additionally, according to witnesses, the child’s face changed dramatically: the coloring in her face turned grayish.

Other extraordinary events occurred during the exorcism. The occupants report that they were having a discussion in the kitchen with the bishop when they noticed a knife out of place by the drain board. Witnesses report that at first the knife was facing outward, and as the conversation continued the knife was slowing moving around, the blade becoming more visible upon each glance. This continued until the knife was nearly hanging off the counter. Witnesses then grabbed the knife and immediately tucked it into the drawer to stop an incident from occurring. Further, witnesses report seeing a black figure rush through the bay window during the exorcism.

According to reports and to the family's dismay, three days after the exorcism the male adult of the household, possessing a physique of 6 ft. 4 in. was punched in the mouth by an unseen force and knocked unconscious. Upon regaining consciousness he was infuriated. Fearing what would happen next, the female adult reports that she gathered all of her children and began rushing them down the hallway to remove them from that area of the home. Immediately upon doing so, household items began flying out of all the adjacent bedrooms, and the bathroom and were hitting the adult male square in the back as the family fled down the hallway. At this point, the adult female reports that it was evident to her and her family that the exorcism was unsuccessful. In fact, unexplained activity continued until they move to their new home; the family reports seeing a small girl around Christmas as well as seeing the entity referred to as "Frank" and other dark, shadow figures near the children's swing set.

The family moved to the new home in Orange County this past year, and it was not but one month before activity started occurring in the new location. According to the female adult of the household, the children and her spouse began to report seeing things outside their windows, yet, because she had moved to a new location and believed that she had left such activity behind her and her family, the female had written off such reports as being of mundane origin.

Other incidences are reported in the new location. For example, the occupants recall an incident where just prior to the closing of the house, a man who was installing the fence entered the pool area of the site and discovered an old Ouija board on the grass. The adolescent that was helping him take the measurements for the fence just looked at the board and said, “Oh, that's not good.” The occupants walk past the board to the other area of the pool and when they went to leave and go past the board once more the board was gone. According to the occupants, the only people present during this incident were the four people mentioned in this retelling and that all individuals remained within eyesight of each other at all times.

Other instances of events in the new house include the following: one of the children reports hearing knocking on the bedroom wall, other children report scratching, the family pets are upset for no reason whatsoever, and despite the fact that the family has an alarm system in her home they woke up one day to find the back door open and the alarm never having been triggered. Additionally, the family reports that the downstairs light comes on and off by itself, the adult male has been scratched (a scratch that healed within 24 hours) as well as mysteriously bruised (bruising that went through all phases of coloring within 24 hours and disappeared), and some of the family members experience nightmares on a fairly consistent basis.

Case Disclosure:

Our team of three investigators, two females and one male, arrived at the occupant’s current home at just before noon on June 6, 2005. The sky was clear and there was no geomagnetic activity noted. We began our investigation with a full, taped interview. During the interview process we discovered that although they had moved, the family still owned the former location and they were willing to allow us to check out the location for any activity.

We decided after the interview to head over to the former location first, to conduct EVP and EMF sessions, and to take photographs and temperature readings. We began by taking photographs of all the rooms in the upstairs of the location: the kitchen, bathrooms, three bedrooms, dining area, and additional living spaces. We then proceeded with EMF and EVP readings of the upstairs location, while at the same time conducting an EVP session. We began taping the upstairs of the location. Midway through the session, the tape recorder turned off and we believed, at first, that we had run out of tape. When we checked the tape recorder we found that not only did we have plenty of tape left, the recorder had shut off by itself. We turn the recorder back on and proceeded to the basement of the location. We repeated the investigative process in the basement with no remarkable temperature readings or EMF results. Upon our conclusion, we returned to the new location where the family is currently living to again repeat the investigative process.

Photographs were taken of the entire home, both upstairs and downstairs with both a digital camera and a 35 mm camera with 4 rolls of 400 speed film.

EMF readings on both visits were unremarkable without any positive results caused by mundane causes. Temperature readings during our first visit to the former location however, were quite remarkable. Before beginning a temperature analysis, we compared our thermometer reading with the reading provided by the household thermostat: our thermometer read 90.5 degrees Fahrenheit, while the wall thermostat read 90 degrees. Thus, we determined a .5 degree differential of the two thermometers. The air conditioner was not on and the temperature inside the house was easily explained to the hot June weather outside. Conversely, what is less easy to explain are the sudden temperature spikes to 138 degrees in the middle of the living room, and the 150 degree spike in the hallway. We followed the 150 degree temperature spike from the middle of the hallway all the way up to the ceiling, where the temperature began to drop. Upon reaching the ceiling level, the temperature dropped to 141.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Considering the fact that heat rises and that the level of the ceiling registered 8.2 degrees lower than the area precisely in the middle of the hallway, makes the 150 degree temperature change, not only remarkable, but difficult to explain away. Such facts, in combination with the wall thermostat remaining at 90 degrees upon second check, indicate positive temperature results for paranormal phenomenon. Photos of the former location proved unremarkable upon our first visit; however, EVP samples were astonishing.

Upon reviewing the audio tape we found that the 45 minutes we had spent taping upstairs was completely missing: even more bizarre, only a little over a minute of time was actually blank on the tape. It was as if we had never conducted the session at all. Further, the EVP session resumes as we head down into the basement. The analysis of the rest of the tape proved extremely remarkable: we captured unexplained banging, along with several EVPs including women and children. One EVP, class A, is of an extremely aggressive female screaming, "You bastards, go back where you f__in came from!" A second class A appears of two unidentified females interacting:

EVP one: “Mary, Mary, watch this, listen!"

EVP two: “(Laughter) And it is mum (Laughter)."

EVPs of the current family home also had positive results, with male EVPs being the most prominent. For example, “Wake up,” “behind you, and “set that down” appear. In addition, we caught a female voice saying, “You, and Mary” and a child’s voice asking, “Who is she?” At one point during our first EVP session in the family’s current location we even heard what we thought to be a scream, but was later identified as an a voice saying in a long, drawn out fashion, “Die!”

In the current home, temperature readings were sporadic and minimally remarkable. EMF readings were again produced only by natural origins.

The photos from our first visit to the old location proved remarkable: We did capture a mist near the attic with our thermometer registering at 141.8 degrees. The photos from our first visit to the current location provided numerous orbs, mist, and a rather strange phenomenon where the occupants’ front door appears normal in the photo, but in the mirror provided the image of a skull. We did, with permission of the occupants, perform a cleansing which seemed to alleviate the negative atmosphere; however the solution was only temporary. Approximately a week later, the occupants witnessed “fleeting shadows out of the corner of their eye,” sporadic temperature changes and the feelings of being watched.

Because the EVPs we had captured, especially in the old location, and of the extraordinary temperature changes going on there, in addition to the interview details and photos that the occupants had submitted to us for analysis (both before and throughout the course of the investigation); we were convinced that something more was going on at both locations and scheduled a return visit to repeat the process.

We returned to Orange County on June 26, 2005 for our second attempt at capturing more information about the phenomenon. At the old location we captured some incredible photos near the bay window of a man with red eyes, orbs, energy streaks, black shadows surrounding one of our investigators, and the image of a man in the hallway. Additionally, this go around, we have several pictures that turn up completely black on our digital cameras with no explanation and we experienced difficulty in taking pictures in the hallway of the location. Several large orbs were also noted.

Once again we got positive results with EVPs at the old location, especially in the area of the basement where the purported blonde woman has been seen and where we got the EVP from the aggressive female. This trip we did do things a bit differently however, after photographing the basement and witnessing the video camera moving by itself while resting on the tripod, we decided to leave both the recorder and the video running downstairs while no one was present. We captured strange banging on tape, and a peculiar, long, screaming, hiss sound. We also captured EVPs that directly refer to the occupants and their disabled child.

Video tape proved positive for activity. When we left the video downstairs it tapes the lights going off after we leave the basement and then coming on again by themselves (not once, not twice, but three times). Otherwise, because the lights kept being turned on and off, no other video evidence is evident. EMF readings were again, only from natural sources.

Re-analysis of the current location provided positive results as well. EVPs were captured of men, women, and children. Video results were negative, but we did experience technical difficulties while attempting to take photos at the location—again getting several completely black photos. Again, EMF readings were of no irregular origin.

Conclusions:

After extensive investigation and review of both the history of occurrences and the evidence we collected, we believe that the family is still suffering from the paranormal activity they originally began experiencing at their former location. Our findings validate that they have been and continue to experience paranormal activity. What exists at the old location are at least two aggressive, interactive entities: quite possibly inhuman and several “benign entities.” Further, we theorize that the disabled child possesses the gift of spirit communication. Because the child has little ability to communicate on this level, we believe it is possible that she compensates for the physical loss with an increase in her sixth senses.

The basement of the former location appears to be the heart of activity and we theorize that a portal may exist there. We also believe that whatever was at the old location is now at the new location as well, moving between the two locations: several images from both locations show striking similarities. What’s more, we believe that these entities are drawn to the occupant’s child because of her abilities. Unfortunately, because the child possesses a severely limited verbal capacity, there is no way to further validate such a theory.

The family is again working with a group to attempt another exorcism and we hope that they will be alleviated from their turmoil once and for all. Unfortunately, because paranormal activity is of questionable origin, guarantees of success are equally questionable.

If our team receives any other information and permission (as we are bound by client confidentiality) to share it or if we are asked to return for any reason, we will update this site with any additional findings.

Additional Evidence:

• View our Photo Gallery for paranormal photos associated with this case.



• View our EVP Gallery for Electronic Voice Phenomena captures associated with this case.