House of the Accused

7/23/201 1

General Information

Investigators: Christy, Ashley and TJ

Equipment used: DVR, (5) IR video cameras, personal audio recorders, digital cameras, geophone, and various EMF meters

Initial Interview:

The homeowners live with their 2 small children & an adult male roommate. Some of the current experiences in the home include:

The feeling of being watched and not wanted.
Doors open and close on their own.
Objects fall off shelves.
One of the homeowner’s dog’s jumps up and barks at nothing.
Footsteps heard throughout the house – sound like they’re walking on a hardwood floor, however the house is carpeted.
The daughter sees a man at her bedroom window. She calls him her friend.
Hot and cold spots are felt at various locations in the home.
Several people have reported a feeling of dread and being unwanted near the workshop in the backyard.

There have been no deaths in this home.

Historical/Factual/Relevant Info:

The property investigated is a single family home constructed in the early 1900’s and was the original house in the current neighborhood. At one time the house served as the primary residence for a family who owned over 100 acres of surround property. Over the years the 100 acres was subdivided and sold off creating the current neighborhood which is located approximately 5 miles from downtown Sherman, TX. The house was purchased by the female homeowner’s family in the 1940’s and has remained in the family since. The current homeowners recently inherited the house from the female homeowner’s father and have been living there for approximately 5 months. The homeowners have a 4 year old daughter as well as an 18 month old son. The majority of the alleged paranormal activity in the home centers around the daughter, but everyone in the home as well as several friends and family members has also reported possible paranormal experiences there.

During the investigation three significant historical facts became quickly apparent:

· Tragedy and Sadness – The homeowners family has experienced and extraordinary amount of stress over the past few years. The prior homeowner (maternal father) was recently deceased under rather distressing conditions. The fraternal mother recently was very ill and had to have a limb amputated. Lastly, the male homeowner recently returned from an combat deployment.

· Sickness – The homeowner’s four year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer and has recently been diagnosed in remission after a strenuous series of chemotherapy. The daughter and family have been obviously traumatized by this experience and will be working through the secondary effects of this experience for a long time to come.

· Traumatic Historical Occurrences – In May 1930 a major race riot occurred in Sherman, TX over the alleged rape of a Caucasian woman by an African-American man with significant mental disorders. The riot ended in several deaths, to include the defendant in the case, the town being placed under martial law for several days, and the hanging in effigy of the defendant in town square. The instigator of the riot, Mr. George Hughes, lived in the same neighborhood and the property in

question. See newspaper article below for full report on the riot. We will also show pictures of courthouse before the riot, after the riot and then the current and new courthouse.

Click the PDF file to read the Newspaper Article on the Riots of 1930 in Sherman, Texas

HouseoftheAccused-newspaperarticle.pdf

Investigation Report

Client Interview

We arrived at this residence at approximately 7:30pm and an in-home interview was conducted with the homeowners and their children. During the interview with the homeowners, our audio recorders picked up several electronic voice phenomena (EVP), one of these in particular our group believed to be that of a woman saying, “It’s depressing” and and “It’s not gonna be all you.” After the interview was completed, Christy and Brook came into the residence and were prepared to help the group get the equipment set up. Brook was in front of Christy and reached out to open the door but could not get in. The door appeared to be locked. After several attempts of trying to open the door, it suddenly opened up on its own.

Setup

The group began setting up equipment throughout the home based on the areas where the clients told us their most active areas were. During this time Christy was looking at the monitor seeing what angles the cameras were set up at and she happened to see a woman in the kitchen area over by the window who was there for a moment and then gone. When Christy looked up in real time at the area she didn’t see the woman any longer. We played back the DVR video to see if the woman’s image was actually captured on video but she wasn’t there.

Walkthrough

After we set up our equipment, we began our walk-thru of the home. One of the first incidents that happened while our group was there was during the walk-thru. Back in one of the bedrooms where the adult roommate of the house lived, Christy heard a man’s voice say “Hey.” Photographs were taken to document the event. While we were in the back part of the house where the daughter’s room was, all members present comment about how they were feeling watched from something unseen outside of the bedroom window. Christy saw a man’s face staring in through the window. The man appeared to be African-America and had his tongue sticking out and his eyes appeared to be bulging out of his head a bit. During this same time we had activation on our K2 Meter. One

investigator had also gone around the back side of the shop building to take photographs and while back there alone he heard two loud knocks on the back wall of the metal shop.

Also during this same time and while we were walking out of the shop, Ashley heard footsteps coming from the side of the garage. Photos were taken for documentation purposes.

Sweeps

After the walk-thru was done, we began our sweeps of the location. In various areas of the home the electro-magnetic field (EMF) baseline read high but this was expected due to the location being an older home and having older wiring. Since the home was smaller in size, there were two members watching the digital video recorder (DVR) cameras and around 10:00pm things started to get really active. In the dining room area where we had our stationary base was set up, we heard footsteps. Our geophone was actually able to pick up on the footsteps and our DVR cameras captured our base camera shaking on its own.

Another interesting thing witnessed by two of our members and revealed on DVR camera to all members present was the movement of our cameras. We had two stationary DVR cameras set up on the table, each one facing a different direction. Mark and Ashley were at the table watching the cameras when all the sudden they saw one of the DVR cameras appeared to shake back and forth. (see video clip) Then after about 3 or 4 shakes, it stopped but then began to do it again about a minute later. Ashley and Mark immediately tried to recreate the camera shake and began moving the table and thumping the table with their feet beneath the table, etc. and nothing they did allowed them to recreate the incident. While the entire group was reviewing back the video, we noticed strange lights

that were a yellowish-copper color flying by the mirror hanging on the wall in the dining room wall. Then shortly after this time, Christy saw white colored light streaks shooting off from the dining room area into the living room area. This was also captured on our DVR cameras.

Throughout the investigations there were a couple of breaks that were taken. One particular time two group members saw a shadow run from the side of the house into the back yard. Another time Christy heard a man’s voice say, “Hey,” really loud. She looked around the side of the house but didn’t see anything or anyone. During this time Christy’s audio recorder captured a man’s voice saying, “Outside”

We spoke to the homeowner’s 4 year old daughter who we asked to describe the man’s face she was seeing and she described a black man with his tongue sticking out and his eyes large and round. She also stated the man had brown eyes too and she sometimes saw him in her TV when the TV was off.

Sit Down

We did a short sit-down but had nothing happen. It was as if the house had gone totally silent. From the beginning of the investigation up until around 11:30pm, the house was very active with little things happening off and on, but then suddenly after 11:30pm, the house seemed to go totally quiet. When we asked the homeowner about the activity times and patterns, he told us that the house didn’t really have much happen after around 11:00pm to 11:30pm each night. He did state that it seemed to be the most active around the 10:00pm hour. With the activity pretty much at a halt, we decided to wrap up for the evening.

Conclusion:

We feel like this home has a mild haunting taking place. We believe there to be 2 spirits present in the home. One spirit we feel is a woman who may possibly be a past family relative. This female spirit also appears to be very forthright with her opinions of family affairs taking place within the home. She also feels like she may be connected to the female homeowner’s side of the family. The other spirit we feel is a black man who was connected to the neighborhood and town, who lived and died by the hands of vigilantes back in the 1930’s. The family’s daughter has also confirmed seeing this same black man in the home and often times refers to him as her “friend.” We do not recommend the daughter of this family to pursue a friendship with this black male spirit due to the mental state and capacity he was in during his life and at the time of his death. We do not feel like either of these spirits would cause harm to any of the family members so there is no immediate threat, more so just menacing in nature. In summary, we did not detect nor do we believe there to be any immediate threat to the occupants’ well-being.

Psychic Investigator’s Comments

When we arrived in the town where this home was located, we stopped to eat before arriving at the location. While we were sitting at the table waiting on our food to arrive, I told the team that I felt like this home had an upset black man haunting it. I didn’t think any more about it until I arrived at the residence.

I waited outside with one other investigator while the team conducted their in-home interview. When they were finished, I came inside the residence and began helping the team set up equipment. Right after we had gotten the cameras set up, I happened to look up at the monitor checking out the focus and angle it had been set up at when I saw a woman standing in the kitchen. I had just seen her from the shoulders up and it was very quick before she disappeared. We rolled back the cameras only to see nothing in the recorded footage. I then figured that I had seen her with my spiritual eyes rather than my physical ones.

I also began picking up on a crazy but angry black man while we were doing my walk-thru. We were in the daughter’s bedroom and I was sitting on the bed over by the window. I had the feeling of being watched by someone outside of the window so I happened to look over at the window and that is when I saw this black man staring in at me. He had a round face with large round eyes that were bulging out a bit and then he had his tongue sticking out. I then felt a tightening around my neck and it was a bit hard to breath. I felt like this black man had been lynched. I also felt however that he was caught doing sexual acts with women and younger girls and felt like he was caught but wasn’t brought to justice the way others felt he should have been. I then saw this angry mob of people yelling at this black man and then I saw this man being dragged and then suddenly there was a rope around his neck and there he was hanging from a large tree that had long extended branches. I felt like the man who had led the lynch mob lived on the same street of this home and after talking to the homeowners, we learned he lived just a few doors down from them. This spirit didn’t feel like it wanted anything in particular but more so was around just because of what had taken place in the past with him. I felt like perhaps he was still hanging around the neighborhood as well maybe hoping to confront the man who had done this to him once he came back home from prison.

I had also picked up on another spirit energy that felt like it was a family member connected to the family home and I thought that perhaps the spirit may have been male but I wasn’t sure and was not able to get the spirit to come forward and give any information about them.

I feel like the female spirit present in the home is there because she is family member from the past but I am not totally 100% sure. I do feel like the black man is here from the past as well due to the way he was treated and he has crazy vengeance in his mind.

Also while doing our walk-thru of the outside area of the home and back yard/shop area, one of our investigators was taking photographs with a Night-Shot (IR) Camera and had a strange misty type image appear throughout his photo with light streaks on the bottom right side of it. In his 2nd photo he also captured the mist again but as it is moving out of the frame. He attempted to recreate the photograph but could not duplicate it. Other group members took several photographs with their cameras trying to recreate the photo as well but were also unsuccessful.

evidence collected

There were 12 EVPs that was recorded during this investigation and 1 sound clips.

There was 1 positive photo and 1 positive video clip.