Zane
Trace Guest House Investigation #2
Location: Somerset, Ohio
Date: Saturday night, January 18, 2003
Moon Phase: Full
Solar Weather: Normal solar flares, geomagnetic field unsettled
Investigators present: Hillary M., Paul M., Shonda A., guest investigator Brad
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: Little is known about this house, which is three houses down
from the Clay Haus. The house was purchased by the Snider family in the
mid-1980s. The house had been abandoned for at least five years at that time.
The Snider's spent several years renovating the house, and finally opened it as
a guest house just a few years ago.
Apparitions have been seen in this house by guests who did not know it was
haunted. Scott has also had some strange feelings in this house.
Investigation: We arrived at the Zane Trace Guest House at 8:30 p.m.
We purposely did not stop at the restaurant first, hoping to determine if the
guest house his home to it's own spirit, as opposed to the Clay Haus spirits
following us to the guest house. Upon entering the building, we put our
equipment on the kitchen table, and began taking EMF readings and control
pictures. At 8:50 p.m., the three of us were standing in the foyer. Shonda took
a picture into the living room and got a bright orb. As she was looking at the
picture, Paul and I both heard a loud creak on the landing above us. Although we
were the only three in the house, it sounded like someone had taken a few steps
on the second-floor landing. Then Shonda began to have trouble with her camera.
At 9:05, the three of us went upstairs. Shonda and Paul went into the Gold Room
to set up Shonda's video camera. I went into the bathroom, and when I came out,
I heard a noise in front of me, so I took a picture. There was a bright moving
orb on the door leading to the attic! At 9:10, I walked into the Rose Room to
set up my video camera. This is when I discovered that my five-hour battery,
which I had just charged the night before, was completely drained! Paul ran
downstairs to get the one-hour battery, and the three of us sat down in the Rose
Room to attempt an EVP session. At 9:27, both Shonda and Paul stated that they
smelled something. Shonda stated that it smelled like perfume, Paul stated that
it smelled like bacon.
At 9:34, a guest investigator, Brad, showed up. About twenty minutes later, a
member of the Snider family stopped by to speak with us. When Shonda got up from
her chair (in the dark) Paul thought he saw the shadow of a cat jump down from
her lap. My video camera, which was still running, recorded a loud
"meow" as we were all walking down the steps to greet her. Minutes
later, the camera shut off by itself, draining the remaining 30 minutes on the
battery.
Around 10:30 p.m., Scott Snider and a friend came over, and we all went up to
the Rose Room to discuss the results of our past investigations. While we were
holding a conversation in this room, we all heard, several times, the sound of
someone stepping on the bottom step of the stairwell. There was no one on the
first floor of the house at the time. At the end of our conversation, Brad went
downstairs to duplicate the sound by walking up the first few steps. We all
agreed that was the exact sound we kept hearing earlier. Scott, his sister, and
his friend left for the night.
At 12:10, we went back into the Rose Room, but did not get much activity. At
12:17, we moved into the Gold Room. We heard a few noises which we were not able
to identify or duplicate, but obtained few positive photos. We then moved
downstairs. Shonda and I sat in the living room, while Paul and Brad went into
the kitchen. Almost two minutes into the recording, we obtained an EVP which
sounds like a woman's voice. Twenty-five seconds later, we all heard a very loud
noise upstairs on the second floor landing. Immediately after hearing the noise,
Shonda took a picture of an orb on my knee. Since it was getting so late, we
decided to pack up our equipment and move over to the Clay Haus around 12:40.
Conclusion: This time we obtained several voices/noises on our recorder
that we were not able to explain. Also, as a group, we heard several noises in
the house during the investigation that we could not explain. We obtained few
orbs on camera, and none on video. Even so, the EVPs we obtained, and noises we
experienced, make us believe that there is at least one presence in this house,
a presence which is separate from those of the Clay Haus restaurant, just three
houses down the street. We hope to study this site further in the coming months.
Thanks again to Scott Snider and the entire Snider family for their incredible hospitality.
Submitted by Hillary Murdoch