Out back was an ancient barn, although not as old as the cottage. We decided not to enter the barn, but remained outside until the rest of the team arrived.
I found an old well not far from the house, which was capped off and now sported several dying potted plants.
Soon after, Victoria and Peter arrived on-site. Peter had the key and we entered the cottage by the back door, into the kitchen. It was obvious that the cottage had under gone numerous renovations and upgrades over the years. The back part of the cottage, where the kitchen was, had been added around 1890. Peter explained that the building had been moved to its current location in 1873 from about two miles away. The team did a quick tour: on the main floor was a powder room; a kitchen that opened up onto the main room, or studio as it was currently called; and two mid-sized rooms on the north side. Stairs led from the main room to the second floor and we filed up them. At the top of the stairs was a large open area, to the right was a small bedroom, and at the rear of the building was a larger bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. The floor was uneven underfoot.
The team fanned out to different rooms in the cottage and prepared their personal equipment — digital cameras, digital recorders, and gauss meters for reading electromagnetic fields. Paul wanted our first camera set up in the rear bedroom, facing toward the large open area and the stairs. The high-quality, built-in microphone on this camera would capture all sounds of movement and, hopefully, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). Paul checked the lighting and gave me the thumbs-up sign to begin recording. Next, Paul and I moved downstairs to the front entrance and set up a second camera facing through the main room toward the stairs. The built-in microphone on this camera was designed to pick up sounds as low as 15 Hz, with this frequency we would be able to record sounds and voices outside of our normal range of hearing. (Human hearing is from 20 Hz to 20 KHz.) We placed a third camera in the kitchen facing the back door. Our audio/video surveillance was now live and recording.
As we were setting up, Peter told us some of the history of the building and the move from its original location to where it now sits. In its long history, the building had been used as a church, a private residence and farm, a rental home, and a business. Peter had pulled a list of names of people associated with cottage from the local archive, but it was incomplete. As Peter started to describe how the cottage had been moved, Paul, standing near the base of the stairs, heard a male voice from upstairs say, “Yes.”
Paul moved quickly up the stairs and looked past the large open area to the camera. Nothing was there. None of us were on the second floor at the time we heard the voice, and since we had searched the second floor just moments ago, we knew there no human intruders in the building. Was it the voice of a spirit agreeing to what Peter was saying about the building’s history?
Victoria entered the northwest room on the main floor and immediately felt nervous. She wasn’t frightened; just a nervous feeling washed over her. As she stepped out from the room the feeling vanished.
Joanna, one the team’s mediums, arrived on-site.
[As Peter welcomes her into the kitchen, his digital voice recorder is hit by a charge of static.]
Joanna handed Peter the Google Street View photo that he had sent to her earlier. As a medium, Joanna is sensitive to spirit energy and can receive psychic impressions from photographs.
“So, what did you get [from the photo]?” Peter asked.
“Interesting,” she replied. “I felt an older European couple and the husband was very abusive; a strong man, not fearful. This house was his, the wife was his property — that kind of mentality. He’s not scared of us and his presence is all over the place.”
[Male voice EVP: “Right.”]
[As Peter and Joanna talk in the kitchen, a male voice is captured on audio saying “Plain Friday.”]
When this EVP was later reviewed, we were unsure who he was talking to or what the meaning of this phrase was. Was it meant for us?
Paul, Victoria, and I moved to the bottom of the stairs and were about to enter the kitchen when all three of us heard a woman briefly humming, but unfortunately this was not captured on any of our recording equipment. Because it was not captured in a recording, this was not an EVP. Instead, it is considered a “disembodied voice” because it was actually heard by us in real time.
I looked to Paul, who raised his eyebrows, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: two physical manifestations of voice in such a short time. This place seemed extremely active. There was no telling at that time what we might encounter next or what EVPs were being captured.
Peter and Joanna moved toward the studio. Peter said, “So this male …”
“He’s just following us, so where we are, he’s going to be,” Joanna stated.
[There is a static burst on Peter’s digital voice recorder.]
Joanna looked back toward the kitchen and said, “Not so much in the kitchen, that wasn’t his place.”
Joanna stepped into the studio. “He tolerates the people here. He is curious and has some intrigue about them. If he wanted them out, they’d be out.”
Peter stopped and looked around.
“What’s the matter?” I asked him.
“I felt like I walked into a cobweb. It touched my forehead.”
Everyone had passed through this doorway many times since we arrived. We examined the doorway, the ceiling, and Peter’s hair, but found no evidence of a spider web. It had been observed at other haunted locations that a spirit’s energy may cause a person who comes into contact with it to feel as though they had walked into a spider web.
Walking into the northwest room, where Victoria had felt the “nervous feeling,” Joanna was quick to report experiencing a shiver. “I am getting constant shivers here. I think he spends a lot of his time in this room.” Joanna leaned against the west wall, facing the front window. “I think he would watch out the window so that he could see out, but not be seen. He thinks people can still see him. I think he did this with his wife as well, to monitor her. I am not getting a name though.”
Marilyn moved to the northwest room and stood in the doorway. She gasped involuntarily, but said nothing.
Joanna looked at Marilyn and exhaled loudly. “I think it’s just his energy all around us.”
“Oppressive?” Peter asked.
“Not necessarily. I am surprised. I assumed it would have been, yet it’s not. I almost feel like he lost his aggression when he lost his wife. Or maybe just because so much time has passed. He just couldn’t control anybody now. But he still likes to think that he is in control, so that is why I said if he wanted the people here out, they would definitely be gone.”
“Do you think he likes our company?” Peter asked.
“No, no. He’s curious only, but he doesn’t like what I am saying. It is, quite frankly, pissing him off,” Joanna said.
“Is he speaking to you?”
“I’m feeling like he is, um … a little more combative because he could only beat up his wife.… Not so strong anymore … Oh, he didn’t like that.”
Peter moved past the northwest room as Marilyn stepped out and reported that she felt it was claustrophobic.
[The voice of a male is recorded on Peter’s digital recorder: “They had me.”]
“I don’t fear him though, because I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle,”