Unnamed facility owned and operated by the City of Longmont, CO.

Date

November 19^th-20^th 2008   20:00 through 03:15

Weather

Temperature 14.9 F  (averaged)

Dew Point -19.0  F

Humidity 21%

Wind Speed 5mph N/E gusting to 17mph

Barometric Pressure 30.28in

Precipitation (light drizzle) began approximately midnight.

Present:

BCP                                                        CPR                                                        STAFF

Miranda Armstrong                        Brad Carstens                                    Jane

Richard Estep                                   Randy Schneider                               Samantha

Veronica Cepak                                Terry                                                    David

Nikki Bohm                                        Bill                        

Kathleen Paulson                            Bruno

Erik Colnick                                        Robbin Schneider

Kira Woodmansee                          Bob Waddell

BACKGROUND:

The facility under investigation is owned by the City of Longmont. The City and facility employees do not want to attract unwanted attention to their building, quite understandably. Therefore, no content which may be used to identify the structure or its staff members will appear in this report.  Photographs were taken onsite – however, none displayed visual anomalies, so will not be included with the report either. Name of researchers remain unchanged, whereas those of staff members have been changed.  Background history should be sufficiently detailed to explain the phenomena that were reported at this location, and yet vague enough to prevent identification.

Our attention was first drawn to this case by a newspaper report dating back to the mid-1990s, discovered in a research archive. What follows are direct extracts from that article, with omissions to enable anonymity.

                Sometimes, when [     ] Department staffers work evenings alone in their old building, a man’s voice calls their names.

                Which is odd, they say, because they always lock the doors tight and turn on an alarm system that detects all motion in the building.

                “It’s distinctly coming from inside the building,” said [       ]Director “John Smith”, pointing to objects that move mysteriously at night. “That doggone hoist is a regular occurrence.”

                Something unseen works an old chain-and-pulley hoist attached to a high ceiling, out of workers’ reach. Staffers hear chains tugged and rattled, but see nothing unusual when they step out of glassed-in offices to investigate.

                “Smith” never used to believe in ghosts, but he is fairly sure the building is haunted.

                The cavernous brick structure at [    ] was built in 1931. It’s one of several reportedly haunted buildings in the Longmont area.

                [      ] Department workers notice their ghost likes to open and slam the metal doors to clothes lockers in a dim alcove of the building. They’ve never seen their ghost, but they’ve named it “Stanley”.

                “There’s a difference between the normal settling sounds a building makes and the strange noises you hear in here,” said Smith, who offered a tour of the building’s dark, musty basement. “I don’t think you’ll catch any one of my crew coming down here at night.”

On the morning of November 19^th, I carried out a preliminary survey of the facility. Accompanying me was "Jane", manager of the facility. The structure is located on a busy roadside, extremely close to railway lines. Numerous high-voltage power lines are in close proximity, with an electrical substation in the immediate area. It is built on three floors – originally, the structure was a single floor and a basement, but the main floor was partitioned into two floors when the building changed hands ten years ago.

The interior is temperature-regulated with HVAC on a 24x7 basis, as a business requirement. Air currents are constantly shifting throughout the building.

·         Temperature readings unremarkable(both ambient air and surface temps)

·         EMF readings unremarkable with two exceptions – a structural support girder (vertical) running from the basement to the upper floor showed a peak EMF reading of 14 milligauss, and the ladies restroom wall peaked at 12-13 milligauss.  The locations were flagged with high-visibility paper.

·         Rad-4 radiation readings showed normal background radiation levels.

I spoke with "Jane" and her assistant, "Samantha", before the investigation. They were both familiar with the stories attached to the facility, but reported no overtly paranormal experiences themselves. They ventured that any resident spirit may like the presence of females.  Samantha’s husband, "David", professes psychic sensitivity, and all three would be welcome additions to our team for the overnight investigation.

I concluded my initial visit at approximately 11am, and returned with the team at 20:00 that evening. 

 INVESTIGATION

Our team assembled between 20:00 and 21:00. Turnout was excellent, with fourteen investigators and three guests available for work. Two members of the team reported “psychic” or “sensitive” abilities (David and Robbin). In adherence to correct testing protocol, they were separated from the outset and asked to report any sensations or feelings that might occur during a tour of the building. Any information gathered via this unconventional method would be commensurately more impressive if it came from two sensitives rather than one, both working independently of one another.  Please note that Robbin was kept completely in the dark about the location, and had not been sent a copy of the briefing packet that I had issued to everybody else in advance – she had been told only that we would be investigating a facility in Longmont.

At 21:30, Jane and Samantha kindly offered our team a tour of the facility. We learned the history of the building, drew up sketch maps, and asked questions as the tour progressed.

When asked to report their impressions, the following was noted:

·         David reports sensing a “violent accident” on the ground floor, states it happened in the past, right next to the antique TV stored there in the new section of the building. Does not feel it is a current or active energy. Reports on the second floor that there is a “presence” or active energy of some kind against the back wall in the room containing numerous hats. 

·         Robbin did not pick up anything on the ground floor. She reported seeing some kind of shape passing across the second floor balcony. She also reported (along with Randy) an oppressive feeling in the room containing hats, in approximately the same location that David reported the “presence” or active energy.  A locker in this area contained numerous artifacts left at the travelling Vietnam War Memorial.

At 22:00, everybody reassembled at our “base station” in the newer section of the building. As coordinator of this investigation, I created four teams. One team was detailed to cover each floor of the structure, with a fourth acting as a reserve, or central response team – in the event that phenomena were to be reported on one of the floors, the CRT would be dispatched to that location to provide extra personnel and equipment. Initial assignments were broken down like this:

·         Team 1 – Randy, Kira, Nikki

·         Team 2 – Brad, Erik, Samantha

·         Team 3 – Miranda, Bruno, Kathleen

·         Team 4 (CRT)  – Terry,  Bill, Richard, Jane (Jane detached to another team shortly after)

·         Mobile 1 - Bob and David

·         Mobile 2 - Robbin and Veronica.

All teams were issued with EMF meters, probe and IR thermometers, digital still cameras, and digital audio recorders.

The Central Response Team had Trifield meters (Natural and Standard), and a Monitor 4 Geiger Counter.

At 23:30, teams were deployed to their starting positions.  Team 1, supervised by Randy, were posted to the basement. Team 2, supervised by Brad, were posted to the  ground floor (at the “accident” spot reported by David).  Team 3, supervised by Miranda, were dispatched to the 2^nd floor (outside the  Vietnam war memorial memorabilia locker).  Team 4, supervised by Terry, were held centrally for response as the CRT. 

Mobile 1 (David/Bob) and Mobile 2 (Robbin/Veronica) were dispatched to roam the building, with the intention of picking up on any feelings or unusual activities reported by a “sensitive”, and then investigating it. Mobile 1 chose the first floor (ground floor), Mobile 2 chose the second floor. 

All teams established radio contact with each other, and with Richard, who was acting in the role of command/coordination.  Investigative activities were carried out for a period of one hour, before returning to home base at 00:30 for debriefing.

 Team 2 reported a knocking noise from above them (four or five raps) while in the office.   Team 3 reported K2 hits in the area of Vietnam closet when conducting a Q&A – see the attached transcript at the end of this report for more information. Team 1 (the basement team reported nothing significant).  Robbin reported seeing shadows, which she believed to be human-shaped, up on the 2^nd floor. Robbin also reported hearing children laughing on the 2^nd  floor. David reported chasing a ”male energy, aged  between 40 to 60 years” throughout building , on several occasions – his partner, Bob, did not get any anomalous readings during any of these pursuits.

At 00:50 team changes took place. Team members were shuffled, and floor assignments were changed.

Heading down to the basement  now was Team 3, comprising Miranda, Bruno,and  Kathleen

The ground floor (1^st) team was now Team 1, comprising Randy, Kira, and Bob

Heading up to the second floor now Team 2, consisting of Terry, Erik, Samantha, and Bill

Mobile 1 consisted of Gary, now being assisted by Veronica, roaming on 2nd

Mobile 2 consisted of Robbin, now assisted by Nikki and Jane,  roaming on 1^st (ground)

At 01:00, all teams dispersed to their new locations, as listed above. Brad had to leave, due to a work commitment the following morning.  This second investigative period lasted for one hour and fifteen minutes, concluding at 02:15. At 02:20, all teams converged on home base for debriefing. Results of the second investigative period were as follows:

Team 1 (Ground floor team) – Randy and Bob witnessed a “shuffling or scuffing noise” coming from one of the aisles. Bob logged this incident as taking place at 02:00. No anomalous readings were detected on any instrumentation. It occurred only once, and they were unable to locate the source.

Team 2 (Second floor team )– Terry felt like she was being touched lightly on the head beneath her cap, and Margo felt something lightly brush her hand.  No anomalous readings were detected on instrumentation.

Team 3 (Basement team) – were forced to leave the basement part-way through, due to “bad smell” that some team members found particularly nauseating.  An ad hoc CRT Robbin/Richard/Nikki/Jane took over, without suffering the same deleterious effects. No K2 responses to questioning were obtained in the basement, no anomalous activity occurred. Voice recorders were employed in a Q&A session, attempting to communicate with any entity that might be located there.

Mobile 1 – David’s opinion was that the male energy was afraid of him, and was fleeing him. As David would enter an area containing the energy, he stated, the energy would leave the area almost immediately.

Mobile 2 - Robbin stated that she saw a human-shaped shadow in basement.

At 02:20, following the second debrief period, Miranda, Bill, and Terry all headed home. Teams were shuffled for a third and final investigative period.

Basement team is now Erik, Veronica, David, and Samantha

Ground floor team is now Bruno and Kathleen.

Second Floor team is now Randy, Kira, Robbin, Nikki, and Jane.

Richard central/coordinator.

At 02:30, all teams were deployed to locations for the third and final rotation of the day.

The heating was turned on because the building was becoming extremely cold, weather outside was cold and drizzling.  Various banging, thumping, and knockings were heard throughout this hour, consistent with the operation of the heating system. Bruno recorded a 10 F rise in heat at the ceiling level after the heating came on, so the vast majority of these sounds can be explained by the expansion of the roof due to heat rising.

With the exception of the heat-related noises, the third investigative period was quiet and uneventful. We gathered together at 03:15 to debrief, and then shut down the investigation. I asked the two “sensitives” for their overall impressions regarding the presence of an entity or energy in the building.

David’s impression – “a male, who did not work here, and does not want to be discovered.”

Robbin’s  impression – “a male called either Leon, Lennie,  Henry/Harry, or Daniel, with the last name of Decker. A man in a white tshirt with sleeves rolled up, hardhat, work boots, crouched by a broken pipe in the basement. Also, a second entity:  a male in red shirt, approximately fifty years old, who did not work here. Neither want to communicate or draw attention to themselves.” 

POST-INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS

The contents of all digital audio voice recorders were listened to in raw form, before being downloaded to PC hard drives, and then run through the Audacity software suite. Despite this enhancement of quality, no audible anomalies were detected.  No electronic voice phenomena are present, and no answers appeared to the questions asked during Q&A sessions when we examined the sound files.

All photographs taken were downloaded and scrutinized. No light anomalies appear to be present on any of the images.

Video footage from multiple camcorders has been reviewed and analyzed. No visual or auditory anomalies appear on any of the footage.

CONCLUSION

Our investigation did not cover conclusive evidence of paranormal activity at this particular location. Subjective findings, such as those reported by “sensitives”, were not supported by objective, recorded data. This is in accordance with the background information supplied by Jane and Samantha, who have not encountered active paranormal phenomena in recent years. The last time that the building was reportedly active (in a paranormal sense) would appear to be before it changed hands, back in the 1990s.

We at Boulder County Paranormal, and our colleagues at Colorado Paranormal Research, would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to Jane, Samantha, and David, for accompanying us throughout the night and for making us welcome in their workplace.

ADDENDUM:  K-2 SESSION TRANSCRIPT

Coverage of a Q&A session recorded on the second floor (located at the table with ceramics) does show activity on the K-2 meter in response to certain questions. When EMF levels are at normal, or background, the K-2 displays a single green LED. Subsequent LEDs illuminating mean that EMF levels have increased slightly above background. Paranormal researchers employ this device during Q&A sessions, inviting “whoever or whatever” may be present to communicate by increasing EMF levels to indicate a “yes” or positive answer. Many of the questions during our Q&A session resulted in no increase in EMF levels. I have documented the questions that resulted in two LEDs illuminating (a potential “yes” answer) below. Video footage of this session is now stored in the BCP archive. Questioners were Robbin, Bruno, and Kathleen.

·         Do you have children?

·         Was your wife pregnant?

·         Are you tired? (Asked after an extended period of inactivity)

·         Do you have relatives in this town?

·         Were you in the air force?

·         Were you retired?

·         Did your wife have an accident?

·         Have you been in this building recently?

Requests to state a name onto the voice recorder and to affect a temperature drop yielded no results. It is worth pointing out that, at the time when background EMF levels spiked, no artificial sources of electromagnetic energy came within range of the K-2 meter, and the device was not moved in any way – it remained static on a sturdy tabletop.

I cannot state whether these increases in EMF levels are paranormal in nature or caused by a more mundane explanation, but can assert that the investigators present did their utmost to follow scientific research protocol at all times. We are unable to offer a compelling cause for the anomalous K-2 readings, other than a hardware issue with the unit itself. The device has not acted abnormally since then. Batteries were new and fully charged.