WISCONSIN RAPIDS NEWS

PART 2:

The All-Night Investigation

By Demrie Alonzo

Hair-Raising Moment

I didn’t know what to expect when the flashlights were turned off and we stood…silent…in the pitch dark. I was the last one to turn off my flashlight, psyching myself into not freaking out once I could no longer see so much as my hand in front of my face.

The silence was deafening. I strained to here the breathing of my two companions to make sure they were still there and hadn’t left me alone in the basement of this very creepy old school house.

“Can I ask a question?” I said into the darkness.

“Sure,” said the voice of Shelley Wood who stood several feet away from me and near the blocked-off staircase.

“If the idea is to listen, why do we have our flashlights out?”

“It makes it easier to listen…to concentrate,” responded Grant Rucinski.

I wanted to keep them talking, just to not be alone, but I knew the whole purpose behind this venture was to do some serious listening and recording with advanced electronic voice phenomenon devices. My voice on the tapes wouldn’t be welcomed.

Something blew softly against my ear. I immediately turned my flashlight back on, blinding the two team members. Wood was taking readings near the back wall; Rucinski stood about four feet from me and looked startled. I did a full circle around myself with the flashlight and didn’t see anything but the two people and the camera at the other end of the room and then I moved several feet away from where I’d been standing.

I apologized and turned the light back out. Instantly, the air blew against the side of my face again; not exactly air, more like blowing. It was warm air and I swear I could smell coffee. Again, my light went on, but the other team members turned theirs on as well, seemingly oblivious to my reaction.

The Set Up

The team arrived at 4 p.m. to begin the all-night investigation of the old school house. I showed up with my flashlight, notebook, pen and a big cup of coffee. There were 8 of us for the all-night excursion. The River Cities Paranormal Society Wisconsin Rapids Chapter consisted of Jonathan Wood, Anna Shrieber, Grant Rucinksi, Matthew Pelot and Shelley Wood. Joining us were two members from the River Cities Paranormal Society Kansas City Chapter, Rick Hart and Kari Morrison.

The quiet, abandoned school house became the hub of more activity it’s seen in 30 years, back when children actually attended the school up until 1977. I tried to stay out of the way as the team unloaded their equipment and hauled it all up to the main floor. Since the building offered no electricity, Rick Hart’s truck served to power all the equipment. Originally eleven cameras were set up, but technical problems reduced it back to 8 cameras. The DVR system they have can record up to 16 channels of video simultaneously, but tonight we would have to settle for half that.

There are only a few pieces of equipment specifically designed for paranormal research. The Mel Meter 8704, designed by Gary Galka, was designed to not only detect EMF readings (electro-magnetic fields) but temperature readings as well. Paranormal investigators often find a change in temperature when detecting low-frequency EMF readings. This device helps them to monitor both at the same time when encountering paranormal activity. The device was named after Galka’s daughter, who died in a car accident; the “87” was the year she was born and the “04” was the year she died.

The Investigation

It was time to do some exploring and testing with equipment. One team went to the second floor to take some EMF (electronic magnetic field) and EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) readings. I decided to join Jonathan and Shelley Wood and Rick Hart down in the basement.

It was damp and humid yet chilly in the huge basement which consisted of several rooms. The air felt thin and, even with all of our flashlights, the darkness blanketed us. I stayed close to the team.

The two men set up the devices and spoke to the room, much the way they had in the pre-investigation. They invited any spirits in the room to come in contact with the small, touch-sensitive flashlight in the boiler room, where the original 1908 boiler still rests to this day.

Nothing happened.

They repeated this a few times in various places, and then the last place was in the middle of the main room of the basement with the flashlight hanging from an old pipe. The same questions were asked and the flashlight began to flicker. Wood attempted to get the flashlight to respond to direct questions, but there didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the flickering. At one point, however, I was standing close to the flashlight, leaning forward to watch it flicker, and it went off and then, when it came back on, the whole thing was wiggling, as if someone had bumped it from below. I jumped back, completely surprised by the movement. No one on the team was near enough to have touched it. Then we watched it move several more times, as if something was attempting to maneuver it.

At one point, when we were all watching the flashlight move, a loud clap of thunder caused us to jump out of our skins. Over the walkie-talkie we heard one of the female team members say, “I think I need to change my underwear!”

It was after midnight now and the entire team went outside to watch the lightning dance across the sky. It was time to do some EVP readings with only two team members in the building at one time so there wouldn’t be other noises caused by the rest of us in the building.

It was nearly two a.m. and Wood allowed me to go in with one of the teams doing EVP readings. I followed Shelley Wood and Grant Rucinski back inside and groaned when I discovered their destination was once again the basement…my least favorite place.

Close to 3 a.m.

After the “blowing” incident in the basement, I could not bring myself to go back inside. I thanked the team for allowing me to participate and hurried home, still rather unnerved by the whole thing.

A few days later I touched base with Jonathan Wood. He said they recorded over 32 collective hours between the 8 cameras. I asked him what they do next.

“The process for reviewing all the video is a slow and difficult one,” he explained. “Our policies indicate that 2 people per DVR must be viewing 4 cameras worth of material at the same time. We look for motion, investigators moving into specific areas, and any odd anomalies. Sometimes, areas in the footage recorded are rewound and played back at slow motion many times in order for us to determine what might be going on in that section of the recording.”

I asked him if he could share some of the experiences the team had on this particular investigation.

“Some of our members experienced strange sounds that might have been footsteps. At one point, I made mention to Kari from our Kansas City chapter that while sitting on the first floor, the sound of high heel shoes was walking across the floor above us. Nobody was on that upper floor at this time. Later on in the evening, one of our investigators, Anna, heard a sound like this and not knowing what I stated to Kari earlier, mentioned to her the exact same thing I said. Anna had no idea I said this or made an observation of a sound such as this one.

“One of our investigators heard what sounded like a child speaking during the investigation. No children were present. Audio analysis may or may not reveal this.”

I asked about the “next step” in the process, after the video and other devices were reviewed. “We do a full, detailed report,” says Wood, “including any moments of evidence which is copied and given to the client.”

Wood said this was “one of the neatest” investigations his team has had the opportunity to do.

“With each investigation, we are one step closer to understanding the paranormal world.”

The Future of Paranormal Research

There is still so much to learn about the paranormal and true scientists and explorers like the River Cities Paranormal Society are not only always looking for new members, but donations of or towards equipment. “There are some great devices out there we would like to use, but they are cost-prohibitive.” 

If you would like more information on RCPS or how to donate to their work, go to www.rcpswi.com.