Wow it's been a while since I last posted here! But since I only post my investigations I guess it makes sense... and considering we're not as famous as TAPS or PRS (yet LOL) our investigations are few and far between.

Anyway! Last night we had an investigation at a personal residence.

The client: A woman by the name of Joyce. An older lady, sweet as ever who looks strikingly like Mrs. Doubtfire.

The claim: Joyce claims to experience unusual noises from unexplained sources (bangs and crashes), a sense of feeling watched, extreme paranoia in the basement (her dogs flip out whenever they are near it) and sometimes someone sitting on the bed while she sleeps. She also goes thru light bulbs and batteries in the home at an unusually high rate. When her land lord was asked about the incidents he refused to speak of them. The area of highest activity is the basement.

The history: Joyce's home is located in the country on a nice little hill between Bloomington and Brown County. The previous people who lived there were a couple by the names of Ruby and "Elmer" (because we don't know the husband's name) Purdue. Ruby was an avid gardener and people would come from all over to see her flower garden and she was also said to have a little canning workshop in the basement where she would often be busy with projects etc. Elmer had a stroke and was more or less homebound and Ruby spent most of her time looking after him despite the fact that she had cancer. Ruby refused to go to a hospital because she didn't trust anyone else to look after her husband it was only after he died in the home that she sought medical treatment. Eventually though, Ruby fell victim to the cancer. After that the home sat vacant for three years until their son decided to clean it up and put it up for rent. That's where Joyce comes in.

The investigation: Chris, Todd and I arrived around 8PM Saturday April 26. Once we interviewed Joyce and learned of the home's history she took us on a tour and we set up shop. We set up one video camera in the basement and one in the bedroom alone with a voice recorder.

While the guys were setting up the cameras I did an EMF sweep of the two hot spots and found that the readings were everywhere. I could be standing in one area and getting a steady 2 then move about 3 feet and the needle would shoot all the way to 10! But as I got the readings I noticed that the basement was full of loose wiring, a breaker box as well as lots of open light sockets. Things like this will cause an EMF meter to react. The highest reading of course came from the breaker box which is located directly below Joyce's bedroom. Given there was so much interference from shoddy wiring etc we decided that the EMF detector was basically useless tonight.

Once we were all set up we shut off the lights and made our way to the basement to see what we could find. We did some EVPs (which are currently being reviewed) and took a LOT of photos. After about an hour or so in the basement we went up stairs and did the same routine of photos and EVPs in the bedroom.

At around 11:30 we decided to call it a night.

The findings so far: I had 1 experience while I was in the basement doing some EVP work. I was walking around asking questions when all of a sudden I walked smack into this FREEZING COLD spot near the stairs. It wasn't a breeze, it was just plain COLD. I stopped and instantly my recorder, which was fully charged and had only been in use for about 20 minutes, up and died. At that very moment Christ snapped a photo of me and just to my left you can see a spherical orb of light (which I think is dust but hey what a fun coincidence!).

We took a lot of photos and in many of them you can see what might be considered as orbs. Personally I tend to rule out orbs of any sort. It's way too easy for them to be dust or a reflection or whatever... but there was 1 photo the blew my mind. (and it's gonna be posted later for sure!)

It was taken in the basement and it showed a perfectly solid, perfectly spherical globe emanating its own light. And behind it, it left a trail. Now I am not saying this is an "orb" or anything. I'm just saying we've never seen anything like it, and thru the rest of the night we got nothing even close to it in our other photos. If a seasoned photographer looks at it and says "Oh that's a glare" or "Oh that's a camera glitch" I will surely believe them. But right now, for all intents and purposes that thing is paranormal to me.

Conclusion: I can't really say for certain if Joyce has any crazy stuff going on at her place until I get the EVPs back. But right now we have managed to wrap up some of her claims.

Her paranoia in the basement and the bedroom: As I said before both rooms had crazy high and erratic EMF readings. High EMFs can cause in some people a sense of anxiety and paranoia and sometimes even nausea. That and well, it's a basement. Most people for whatever reason are scared of basements. It's just a natural thing.

The bed: This one is at moot because we didn't experience anything unusual in the bedroom. I personally think the high EMFs might have something to do with her feeling that way, playing into the paranoia they can cause.

The noises: We didn't experience any loud bangs or crashes while we were there. And during our investigation we were unable to find anything that would make a sound similar to what Joyce heard so that experience is also at moot.

The light bulbs: This house is old. Not ancient, but old enough. The wiring in the basement is all over the place and I wouldn't expect it to be in the best shape anymore. I advised her to have her land lord consult an electrician to see if the wiring might just be shoddy.

So that's the investigation. I'll post the photos when I get them and I'll let you know if we caught any good EVPs (I tried to upload the last one via youtube and it wouldn't let me... bummer)

I have always had a huge interest in this particular Cemetery ever since I heard of its existence my freshman year at IU (2000).  So much so was I interested that one could almost go so far as to call me obsessed.  I read all the legends and knew everything about it I had just never been there.  I became so deeply obsessed with this place that it even began to haunt my dreams.  So when I learned this was to be the site of my first ever investigation I was thrilled.

History: Stepp Cemetery is a small, (way) out of the way cemetery located in the Morgan Monroe State Forest. It was established in the 1800's. No one really knows much about its exact history.  Local lore says that it was founded by a religious cult called Crabbites, who were apparently known for conducting rituals that included snake handling, orgies and speaking in tongues.  More logical (and consequently less interesting) lore says it was simply started by local families.

Legends:  The cemetery itself is rumored to be quite haunted and has more than a few legends and ghost stories behind it.   The most popular legend being of that of The Black Lady.   The story goes that she lost her baby and was so grief stricken that she would visit him every night sitting upon an old tree stump keeping a constant vigil over the grave.  Some people have reported hearing her weeping in the night. Others have reported actually seeing her sitting on her stump (which in my mind is odd, and I'll explain why later)

Other variations of the Black Lady tell of a woman who lost her husband in dynamite explosion at the quarry where he worked.  The man was buried at the cemetery and she came to watch over him.   Another version says that in the 50's a young girl was murdered and her body was left at the cemetery.  The girl's mother  watches over the cemetery looking for her daughter's murderer.

The stump in and of itself is filled with mystery as well. It looks like a chair and rumor has it that if you sit on it, you'll die within a year. But according to fellow Ghost Hunter, Tony who we met on our investigation today the only thing that's happened to him after he sat on the stump was that he just went further into debt from funding his paranormal hobby.   I have now renamed it "The Debt Stump"... still won't sit on though.  Along with killing you (or draining you of your funds) within a year if you sit on it, It is said that the stump doesn't burn.  And from the obvious black smolder marks all over it, it looks like plenty of people have tried.

My investigation

First impressions: We arrived at the cemetery at about 2:30 in the afternoon and after a short walk down a muddy path there it was.  It's small maybe 50 feet in diameter.  The graves range in age from as far back as the 1800's to as recent as 2004... which was a shock to me as I had no idea people were still being buried out here.  (which leads me to believe that it was in fact started merely by local families and not some crazy cult).  The graves themselves are oddities as well.  One particularly creepy grave reads "Never at Rest". Which personally I find a strange thing to put on a modern 1990's tombstone.  One of the older markers reads in faded letters "Old gardeners don't die, they just spade away."  A cute little pun.  ANYWAY The cemetery's layout is haphazard at best.  The graves are facing every which way and are scattered in small groups throughout the little clearing.  Some are so old and damaged you can easily mistake them for old stones in the ground and won't even notice them until you are standing on top of them.   As I looked around my first thought was that the only disturbing thing about this place was the amount of litter and crap that people left at the graves.  The desecration this place has suffered at the hands of vandals is truly saddening. 

The first thing I sought out was the infamous Stump Chair.  I was directed to a tree stump toward the center of the cemetery.  I approached and had a look... well it looked KIND OF like a chair.  The top of the stump sloped upward giving it a chair like look.  If you look even closer at it you can see where the top is also worn in certain places giving it the illusion of where someone's legs might have rested on the edge.  One entertaining finding was there was hardened candle wax on the stump.  10 bucks says someone was out performing a seance.  

Next I headed about 15 feet further up the way to the grave of Baby Lester dated 1937 I believe. The grave is just a flat white slab about 1 foot square.  Much to my disdain I found all sorts of stuff littered at the spot. Everything from loose change, a pen and some m&m's to a the business card of a Chinese restaurant... all placed on top of the small slab and arranged around the edge.  Seriously, what is with people?

So began the investigation.  I was given an EMF meter and got a base reading of .1 to .15... meaning that anything above .15 is considered anomalous.  So I combed the cemetery and didn't get anything unusual.  Chris used his Digital Voice Recorder to try and get some EVP's and Todd had a digital camera and video camera.

We ventured beyond the cemetery to a small pond in hopes of finding the older part of the cemetery. Apparently Stepp is divided into two parts. But we had no luck and the only thing we came across was a possum and a LOT of frogs.

After a couple of hours Chris and I traded off equipment and I had a chance to catch some EVP's.  Chris actually got a .2 reading on the EMF around one of the trees.

We stayed out there for a good 3 hours before we decided to call it a day.  During our visit I was surprised at how many other visitors were there as well. Families with their kids showed up to have a look around along with some hikers passing thru and even a fellow Ghost Hunter. 

Closing thoughts:  I am still awaiting the results of the EVP's from Todd and aside from a couple of digital cameras (with FRESH) batteries up and dying on us our  visit was uneventful.  Perhaps it was because we were out in broad daylight, maybe it was the high level of traffic from visitors, who knows.  A .2 on the EMF is not magnificent.  And as a note regarding the story of the Black Lady on the stump.  The stump is 15 feet away from the grave of Baby Lester (the baby she is supposed to be guarding) not only is it unusually far away but it is also pointing in the wrong direction.  If you sit in it, you're not facing the grave.  So unless there is some unmarked grave near the stump... its legend doesn't exactly fit.

But I will say this.  Even if the EVP's don't pick up anything Stepp Cemetery is a great source of local lore and I very much enjoyed my visit there today.  It made for a good "ice breaker" investigation.  Even if I did freeze my butt off. 

I will post any EVPs and/or unusual photos when I get the results from the guys.

EDIT: We got one EVP during our outing.  One of the guys had the recorder and was just walking off on his own and suddenly you hear this low moan. It was very odd and I attempted to upload it to youtube so I could embed it here... but no dice.  Told me is was a bad file or something. I dunno. Anyway... very quiet investigation.  I'm a bit disappointed.



 

In just about 1 hour I'll be leaving for my first ever Paranormal Investigation but the details of that will be saved for my next entry.  I'd like to kick this journal off with a brief introduction of who I am and why I've decided upon such an unusual hobby.

My name is Angie and I live in Bloomington Indiana. All my life I've been interested in the paranormal.  Having grown up in Batesville, IN a town known world wide for its Casket Manufacturing... it's no wonder.  As a child I would check out book upon book from my school and local library regarding the subject.  I read about everything from Astral projections to Zombies and where once upon a time the matter scared me I have found that as I've grown my fear has turned into more of a genuine curiosity.  What are orbs?  What is an EVP really? Is it really the voice of someone from beyond the grave?  Is that a fog or the manifestation of something otherworldly?   And the most important question of all: How do I turn this seemingly paranormal experience into something logical? Can I?  Add to that a couple strange experiences from foot steps outside my bedroom door in my childhood home and a frighteningly morbid premonition of the death of my sister, I have a lot of fuel for my fire.

I'm not someone who will run into a cemetery and chalk every weird sound or shadow up to the paranormal.  Nor do I claim to be "sensitive" "psychic" or "clairvoyant" I don't hold much stock in these type of things.  Sure, I guess some people out there can see dead people... but I'm not one of them and I'm not going to act like I am. That is the last thing I want to do. 

Now that I'm an adult I realized that there are other people out there like me who want to understand and learn more about these phenomena.  I contacted a local group called the Bloomington Area Ghost Hunters and they have agreed to take me on as their newest member.  They are a small group whose first and foremost goal is to logically explain any phenomena they experience.  Their second goal (and this the most important) is to have fun. 

Today is my first investigation.  We're going to the infamous Stepp Cemetery of Bloomington IN.  I'm a little nervous. But I think I'll really have a good time.

I encourage people to share their experiences and thoughts. I do NOT encourage flaming or hateful comments of any kind.  I realize paranormal investigation is kinda out there.  But if I'm not infringing upon your life with my thoughts please don't be discouraging.  If you think ghost hunting is a just a crock that's fine. You are most welcome to that opinion, all I ask is that you let me have my fun.

With that said, stay tuned for details of my outing.