Towson Investigation
Location: Private Residence in Towson, Maryland
Date: Saturday night, August 31, 2002
Moon phase: Half
Solar Activity: Active flares, no storms
Investigators present: Hillary M., Shonda A., Investigator-in-Training Cassie A.
Equipment: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, Kodak DC280 digital camera, RCA digital voice recorder, Sony digital video camera with Nightshot, Pentax PC-550 35mm camera, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Sony Digital-8 Handycam, Extech IR thermometer
History: The semi-detached house was built in 1952. The current owners
have lived there for the last two years, but the activity only started about six
months ago. Not much is known about the history of the house at this time,
except that the house was empty when the current owners bought it, and it was
purchased from the bank.
The current owners have experienced objects being moved, window blinds being
opened and closed, and footsteps echoing throughout the house when they are
alone. One night, after hearing someone on the steps to the second floor, and
then hearing the doorknob to their bedroom turning, they called the police. The
police searched the home, but found nothing.
Investigation: We arrived at the home at about 9:10 p.m.. Immediately
upon arrival, Shonda began interviewing the owners while Cassie and I moved from
room to room taking EMF readings and control pictures. We noticed at this time
that there were several highly reflective surfaces in the house, making spirit
photography especially challenging. We only found unusual EMF
readings in one spot in the home - at the top of the steps and in the short
hallway upstairs. In these areas I recorded several fluctuations, from a
background reading of 2.0 to spikes of 3.5-4.2. We were unable to find any
explanation for these readings, and were unable to track the anomaly.
At 9:45, the owners were nice enough to retreat to the front porch,
giving us time alone in the house. I set up my infrared video camera in the
upstairs hallway, and Shonda set hers up at the base of the stairs, looking up
the steps. I then set a digital audio recorder in the dining room, and the three
of us went down to the basement to start an EVP session. While in the basement,
I did get two faint orb pictures. We also obtained two EVPs on the audio
recorder in the dining room. We did not, however, get any moving orbs on either
of the video cameras.
At 10:07 we headed up to the first floor living room and dining room to
attempt an EVP session there. As we were setting up our equipment, Cassie, who
was sitting on the couch, remarked that she had just watched the EMF meter shoot
up to 4.2, then go back down to .2, so I took a picture in her direction. I was
rewarded with a nice, bright orb just to the right of where she was sitting. I
then moved over to the base of the stairs and took a number of pictures up the
stairway. It was then that I got a possible moving orb at the top of the stairs
(which I did not know until reviewing the pictures later). We then began asking
questions to see if we could get whoever was with us to make some noises for us.
At 10:15, we did hear a strange noise, but we were unable to determine what it
was, or where it was coming from.
At 10:30, we headed up to the second floor. We obtained no EVPs, or
anomalous pictures or EMF readings during this period. However, Shonda and
Cassie did hear a "ping"-like sound coming from the bottom of the
stairs. The noise did not show up on the video camera, though, which was sitting
at the base of the stairs. At about 10:45p.m., we
headed back downstairs. As Shonda and Cassie went down the steps, I took a final
picture of the second floor hallway. This picture actually revealed a strange
anomaly on the floor, shaped like the anomalies I had gotten in the living room
earlier. We left the site at around 11:00.
Conclusion: Due to the EVPs and pictures obtained, we do believe that there may be an entity in this house. However, because of the number of reflective surfaces, and the fact that we obtained no proof on video, we cannot come to a definite conclusion based on this investigation. We hope to conduct a more thorough investigation in this house in the spring.
Submitted by Hillary Murdoch