Researchers experience spiritual activity at Academy
Paranormal group hear, see and smell things that they say are abnormal
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:10 AM CST
Submitted photo
Greg Myers (kneeling middle) looks at some pictures taken in the antique mall as Daily Journal Information Technology Manager Brad Giessing (standing) looks on. Elliot LaChance is seated.
By CHRIS CLINE
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Strange smells, a door that opens and closes, noises from the attic and the presence of dark shapes have members of the Missouri Paranormal Research group convinced spiritual activity is present at the Arcadia Academy.
Most of the group arrived at the Academy during the afternoon hours of Oct. 21. Greg Myers and his wife Judy and their children arrived on Oct. 20. Most of the team members spent the night in the Arcadia Academy's Bed and Breakfast. Besides team members, no one else stayed in the bed and breakfast that October evening.
Some team members interviewed the owners of the complex while others spread out throughout the complex.
“The general idea is to identify potential hot spots,” Greg Myers said. “We will then lockdown those areas later on.”
Myers said lockdown mode is where cameras, voice recorders and motion decetors are put in specific areas.
While Melanie Oyler, daughter of the owners, was being interviewed in the antique mall, team members spotted a black apparition near an old washing machine in one of the rooms on the floor.
Melanie said that room was used as an infirmary for the nuns and the children during days of the boarding school.
Theresa Reavey, an investigator with the group, said later in the evening while Steven LaChance and she were in the same room the she started feeling light-headed and nauseated. “Steven said he was also detecting something,” Reavey said.
Reavey said another unexplainable incident occurred later in the Bed and Breakfast.
“I was supposed to stay in one of the rooms,” Reavey said. “However, we were all in the main room where the television was. Someone saw the door to the room open up halfway by itself. So the group went inside the room. An overwhelming burning smell was present in the room. I checked the heater in the room and it wasn't even plugged in.”
Reavey said she refused to sleep in the room after the incident.
“When I was lying in bed that night in a different room that overlooked the ledge patio area, I saw a solid something walk across it at about 4 a.m.,” Reavey said. “I saw it because we kept the light on over the patio area. If I had to pick something as to what it was, I would say it was a child. When we looked we didn't see anything out there.”
Tom Halstead shared a room in the bed and breakfast with LaChance's son Elliot.
“When we finally went to sleep that night we kept hearing a man and a woman's voice coming from the hallway,” Halstead said. “It sounded like they were talking outside. We also heard footsteps, but when we looked no one was there. What's really strange is that we had motion detectors set up in the hallways and nothing set off the detectors.”
Halstead said he also experienced a strong odor coming from the room that Reavey was supposed to stay.
“It was a very strong odor,” Halstead said. “Then all at once it was gone.”
Tim Clifton said he didn't have any experiences at the academy until he was getting ready to leave about 2:30 on the morning of Oct. 22.
“Tom and I were on the second floor saying good-bye to the group,” Clifton said. “When we got to the stairs we heard a knocking coming from the attic area. We then heard like a chair being dragged across the floor. We decided to go up to the attic to investigate. When we got the top of the stairs we were greeted with a strong odor.”
Clifton said in the attic there were two rooms.
“One room had some furniture in it while the other room was empty,” Clifton said. “Tom could hear knocking going on in the empty room. When we went into the empty room the odor increased by 10-fold. It felt like the temperature raised 10 degrees. I took my flashlight and shined it up into the widow peak. You couldn't see the boards or anything. A black mass had engulfed the light coming out of my flashlight.”
Clifton said other team members then entered the room.
“The black mist went to the left of us and went into the closet,” Clifton said.
Clifton also said he found some startling evidence of paranormal activity during an Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) session.
“We were in the basement conducting an EVP session,” Clifton said. “Most of the team was present along with the reporters. During the session we asked several questions and asked anything present to talk into the recorder. No body felt anything at the time.”
Clifton said after reviewing the recording from the session, an entity had answered the questions that had been asked.
“This was startling because we have done EVP's before, but they aren't usually question and answer sessions like this was,” Clifton said.
Tracy Guittar, a sensitive with the group, experienced a little boy in the antique mall.
“He couldn't have been any older than 8 years old,” Guittar said. “He was short and came up to about my elbows. I kept trying to talk to him. He started to fade away so we walked out of the room. As we were walking out of the room a rocking horse started to rock back and forth on its own and I heard a knock on a closet door next to it.”
Melanie Oyler was also a witness to this incident.
Guittar also said she had an episode in the freshmen dorm area.
“We encountered the ghost of a Civil War soldier,” Guittar said. “He was very restless and I don't think he was very happy that we were there.”
Greg Myers said during the encounter with the soldier the temperature would fluctuate in spots between 53 degrees to 44 degrees.
“When I arrived with my family on Friday night I saw what I believed to be the ghost of Monroe,” Myers said. “It appeared to be a human male with sandy blond hair. He walked down the hallway of the bed and breakfast and went down to the basement without a flashlight in the dark. When I talked with the Oylers the next day they said that I was the only male in the bed and breakfast that night.”
Myers said after talking with the Oylers, the description of the man matched that of Monroe's.
“From our experience the academy definitely has spiritual activity going on,” Myers said. “To what degree we can't determine from one preliminary investigation. We still have several photographs and EVP's which need to be analyzed.”
Greg's wife Judy said she experienced hearing a priest delivering a sermon in the courtyard area.
“While everyone else was taking the tour of the complex on Saturday night, I was out walking with my children,” Judy said. “We were walking through the courtyard and I heard a priest giving a sermon. It was almost like he was singing it. It only lasted about 30 seconds. My 10-year-old daughter heard it, but my two sons who were also with me, did not hear it.”
Steven LaChance said he also didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.
“When I laid down I felt something tap me on the shoulder,” LaChance said. “I continued to lay there and the next thing I knew, I felt a really loud breath in my ear. A light then shot through the wall. The place is very much spiritually active.”
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