Private Residence Investigation in Philadelphia

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Date: May 10, 2003

Time: 10:30 p.m. - 1:30 a.m.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous

Solar weather: solar flares active, geomagnetic storm

Investigators Present: Paul Murdoch, Randy Givler, Hillary Murdoch, Andrew B. - guest investigator, Dean - resident of house

Equipment used: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, RCA digital voice recorder, Sony digital video camera with Nightshot, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Sony Hi-8 video camera with NightShot, Extech IR thermometer, Sony Mavica, Panasonic digital recorder, Sony portable stereo cassette recorder, NightOwl Cyclops Nightvision scope, Olympus D-370 digital camera

History: The semi-detached house is a rental property. The current residents moved in approximately six months ago. We are still researching the history of the home. The family, in the few short months that they have lived there have experienced the following phenomena:

· Apparitions - Dean's wife has seen an old man literally walk out of her bedroom wall. After our initial visit, she also saw two women walk down the stairs, then disappear.
· The sensation of being touched - many times residents of the house have been awakened by a faint tapping on their bodies.
· Unexplained odors - the strong odor of sulphur is often smelled. No cause has been found. Also, the smell of menthol cigarettes has been smelled around the baby's crib.
· Things moving by themselves. Doors have been witnessed opening and closing by themselves. Also, a burner on the gas stove once turned on by itself. While Dean's wife was looking around the stove for an explanation, she witnessed the bolt unlock on the basement door, which is right next to the stove, open by itself.
· The sound of unexplained footsteps on the stairs and in the hallways, also a "whooshing" sound, which accompanies the sighting of apparitions. Voices have also been heard.
· Other unexplained phenomena - the baby often seems to watch movement which no one else can see. Also, the baby's toys have turned on by themselves.

Investigation: We arrived at the house at 10:45 p.m. Randy and Paul began taking control pictures and background readings. I unpacked my equipment so that I could measure each room with Andrew. I took my notebook and pen out, out them on the dining room table, and then proceeded to lift out the rest of my stuff at the same table. When I went to get my pen and notebook about two minutes later, the notebook was write where I'd left it, but the pen was nowhere to be found. I lifted up everything on the table in that area to see if it had rolled underneath something. I also looked under the table, but could not find it. Frustrated, I walked out to the kitchen to tell Paul and Randy what happened. When I walked back into the dining room to get the notebook, there was the pen sitting right next to the notebook, in plain view!
  At 11:05, I set up my infrared video in the living room, and we all went down to the basement for an EVP session. Just a minute and a half into the session, I was able to track an orb moving around Randy, at one end of the basement. Soon after that, Dean, who was in the center of the room, began to feel cold, but we were unable to record a temperature change.
  At 11:20, we moved into the living room and dining room. Randy sat on the stairway to the second floor with his video camera. Three minutes into the recording session, the cat, which was settled on Dean's lap, began meowing, jumped off Dean's lapped, and ran over to the wall, watching something that the rest of us could not see. We were unable to get any photographic evidence that the cat was reacting to a paranormal event, however.
  At 11:35, we moved into the kitchen. At 11:39, Randy caught an orb moving diagonally in front of me, then shooting toward him. He caught another orb moving around the kitchen about six minutes later. At this point we decided to go sit in the living room and take a break.
  At 12:15 a.m., we all headed up to the master bedroom. I set up my video camera in the hallway, pointing down the hall into the master bedroom. I was standing against the wall next to the crib, and Randy was in the corner directly across from me with the infrared video camera. Dean informed us that I was standing right next to the spot which his wife witnessed a man walk out of. Not much more of a minute later, Randy let out a loud "whoaaa!" Then he explained that he saw an orb come out of the wall at that exact spot! The footage was so spectacular that we all gathered round Randy to watch the orb come out of the wall on replay. We then repositioned ourselves around the room. As we were doing so, Randy said that he smelled the strong odor of sulfur. No one else in the room smelled it. Then the EMF meter, which Andrew was holding steady as he sat on the bed, jumped to 3.5 for a few seconds, then dropped back down to the .1 background reading. Right before we moved out of this room, I saw something move across the hallway floor from left to right, very quickly. The object looked to me like a faint orb.
  At 12:40, we all moved into the small back room. Andrew ran down to the dining room to get fresh batteries, while we got situated in the back room. When he was down there, he noticed that a smart card that he placed on the dining room table earlier, was now on the floor under the opposite side of the dining room table. The cat was accounted for during this time.
  Because we did not get any results in the back room, we decided to spread out on the second floor. Andrew and I stayed in the back room, Randy and Dean went to the front bedroom, and Paul stayed in the childrens' room doorway, to cover the hallway. We began an EVP session at 12:50 a.m. About a minute later, Randy got an orb whiz past him on video. Two minutes later, I felt something brush past my left arm as I was standing in the doorway to the back room. When I stated what I felt, Paul took a picture down the hall, in my direction. The picture shows me looking down at my left arm, with an orb on the right side of my head. The next picture shows an orb moving down the hallway toward the front room. Randy told me later that he experienced that same sensation, of someone brushing by him, when he was in that back room earlier taking EMF readings.
  At 1:00, Andrew and I moved to the front bedroom while Randy and Paul moved to the front bedroom on the third floor. Dean sat at the bottom of the steps between the second and third floors. At 1:04, I asked if whoever was with us could please touch one of us. Andrew said that he felt three taps on his foot. Fifteen seconds later, he felt three taps on his shirt collar. This is when Dean informed him that he and his wife have often been awakened in the middle of the night to the sensation of soft tappings on their backs. Paul, Randy and Andrew had not been informed of any of the strange occurrences experienced by the family prior to this point. At 1:07, I asked again if whoever was with us could please touch one of us. Almost immediately, Andrew felt three taps on his chest. About a minute later, Dean, who was standing in the hallway with his back to the children's room, said that he felt a fingernail being pressed into his shoulder blade.
  At this point, we sent Andrew up to the third floor with Paul to see if the phenomenon would follow him. About three minutes later, I asked again, that whoever was there to please touch one of us. Just a few seconds later, Andrew yelled down that something was tapping on his leg. Paul took a picture of him, and got a nice, pink orb hovering over the bed next to Andrew!
  By this point, we were all getting pretty exhausted, and had a long drive home, so we gathered our things and headed home.

Conclusion: During our investigation, we obtained several instance of orbs on video, as well as a few EVPs. We obtained four moving orbs, and were able to track orb movement in the basement, dining room, and second floor hallway. We experienced phenomena such as the feeling that something brushed against us, things being moved around unexplicably, and Andrew experienced strange tapping on his chest back, and legs.
  Due to the data collected and our experiences while at the house, we believe that there is paranormal activity within this home. We believe that there are at least two ghosts present, because two distinctly different voices were captured during the team's recording sessions. Further research into the history of the home, as well as future investigations, must be done in order to draw any possible conclusions.

Special thanks to Dean, his family, and the other residents of the house for their cooperation and honesty.

Submitted by Hillary Murdoch