Stalking Shadows

by Debi Chestnut

  I’ve yet to hear any stories or experience anything menacing or threatening. That could change though. A ghost hunting excursion to Palmdale Cemetery is always unpredictable. However, the city has stopped allowing people, even ghost hunting teams, into the cemetery at night, due to vandalism. Who knows what else is happening there now?

  I have been there several times recently during the daylight hours, and have experienced some paranormal activity that includes footsteps following me, shadow spirits darting in and out among the trees and grave markers, and, occasionally, the sound of the children playing.

  Just a few months ago, I caught wind, through the words of a friend, that someone had gone into the cemetery and dumped salt around a young woman’s grave. This young woman died in 1881, and I’ve met her ghost on several occasions while investigating the house she once lived in.

  The only reason you would surround a grave, or anything for that matter, with salt is to keep an evil spirit or demon from crossing over the line of salt and roaming free.

  To put salt around a grave would prevent the spirit, if malevolent, from being able to move beyond that point. I can speak from experience and would swear that the young woman in that grave is one of the kindest, gentlest souls I’ve ever met—living or dead, and would do nothing to harm a living human being. The rain and snow have washed away the salt, so her spirit can once again be free; honestly, I’m a little concerned for her, as I haven’t seen her spirit since this incident.

  Personally I’ve never put sea salt around a grave for any reason, nor have I heard of anyone in the paranormal field that has done so either, however that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

  So, the mystique of Palmdale Cemetery lives on. Some of the people who died many years ago are not resting in peace and, in some cases, the living aren’t allowing them to.

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  Chapter 11

  The Haunted Church

  Now, I know you’re thinking, “Churches are haunted ? Aren’t they supposed to be sacred places?” They are sacred places, and that’s exactly why they’re haunted, although not many churches will admit to it.

  According to some pastors I’ve spoken with, they are constantly trying to keep dark energies out of their churches. I’m not sure if they mean that literally or figuratively, but the fact remains there is a spiritual warfare battle taking place right under many people’s noses, and they don’t even realize it—which is probably for the best in some cases.

  One of the reverends I’ve spoken to in the past, but who is not related to the following story, told me that their church fell victim to a demonic entity at one time, and it took a lot of work to get rid of it. I didn’t find this out of the realm of possibility, because many people believe that a demon’s sole purpose is to try to turn people away from God, and what better place to try to do this than at a church, where you have a lot of people. It kind of goes back to that old saying about killing two birds with one stone. You have a ready audience, all assembled in God’s house. There is a lot of irony in a demon coming into a church to turn its parishioners away from the very thing they came there to worship.

  Anyway, our team, Black River Paranormal, was called in to investigate some strange happenings at a rather large church nestled in a small hamlet in the Thumb Area of Michigan. Lights were turned on and off with some frequency, and although the electricity in the church had been checked numerous times by electricians, no problems were ever found, and other types of paranormal activity such as footsteps and shadows had been observed.

  The church grounds are massive. There are two parking lots—one for Sunday mass and one for the cemetery that lies behind the church.

  The original section of the building is adorned by a tall steeple, and also holds the sanctuary, with a balcony that includes seating and the door to the steeple. There is a basement under this part of the church, and the mechanical workings of the church such as the furnace, etc., are housed in a small area, while the rest of the basement contains a pool table and other pieces of furniture. This room’s primary purpose is to be the teen center.

  The addition to the church was added sometime in the 1960s and holds large classrooms, the church offices, an ample kitchen area, and other rooms used for various purposes, depending on the needs and desires of the parishioners.

  When we arrived, the pastor met us at the side door, and seemed relieved that we were there. As I walked through the double doors, I was immediately struck by a wall of energy that tried to push me out of the building. While it didn’t feel especially malevolent, it was obvious something or someone didn’t want me there. The question was why? Pushing through the energy, I joined the team and the pastor in one of the smaller meeting rooms, and went over what activity they’d been experiencing.

  The pastor reported that the teenagers were seeing dark shadows by the pool table downstairs. Also in the basement, there was a small set of stairs that lead to a door to the outside. This is located right by the furnace room. People have seen a shadow come out of the furnace room, and they watched it walk up the few stairs and through the door. When this happened, footfalls could be heard on the concrete steps.

  In other parts of the building, lights would turn on and off at will and various objects were being rearranged in the sanctuary and other rooms, although nothing was being damaged.

  The pastor also reported that her own son saw a man walk out of the cemetery and come up to the double doors on that side of the building. The man then attempted to open the doors, which were locked at the time, and he shook them violently.

  When the pastor’s son walked over to the doors, to see what the man wanted and if he needed help, the man vanished before his very eyes. Obviously, this was very startling for the young man, who immediately ran through the church to tell his mom.

  After the client interview, most of the team returned to their vehicles to retrieve the equipment. Randy and I decided to do a walk-through of the entire building to get a sense of where any ghosts or spirits were, so we’d know where to set up our static cameras and let them run during the investigation of the building and church cemetery.

  We decided to start in the basement, since that appeared to be where most of the activity was taking place, and then work our way through the building one room at a time.

  Upon entering the basement area, I immediately picked up on the presence of a male spirit over by the furnace room. His energy was not threatening, and it felt like he belonged there in some capacity. Making a mental note to revisit this area later in the evening to conduct a more thorough investigation, we made our way up to the main floor of the church. While the energy of the spirit of the man by the furnace room was strong, it didn’t feel particularly menacing, just more protective over the church.

  The kitchen and office areas were unremarkable, so we knew we wouldn’t have to spend much time in those areas later.

  We then turned our attention to the sanctuary, which consumed most of the first floor. Rows of pews, with aisles on either side and down the center, stood at the ready to welcome people for Sunday service. The vaulted ceiling was at least two stories tall, making the room look twice the size it really was.

  Two sets of narrow steps with white railings led up to the balcony area to the rear of the sanctuary. Randy and I made our way up one set of staircases, and we noticed the door to the steeple was set behind the balcony seating area. A narrow aisle separated the balcony seats from the steeple door.

  As I reached for the doorknob to open the door to the steeple, Randy and I both heard a distinct low, throaty growl come from behind the other side of the door! I immediately jerked my hand back from the doorknob.

  “That was interesting. What do you think that was?” Randy asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” I shrugged, and once again grasped the doorknob and opened the door. There was a very small room with shelves on both sides that, at the moment
, was used to store church items that weren’t often needed.

  Randy and I both peered up the center of the room to the top of the steeple. Nothing seemed amiss, and I wasn’t picking up any discernible energy coming from the space. Whatever growled at us a few seconds before was nowhere to be found!

  When we came down from the balcony, we discovered the rest of the team was set up and ready to go. We directed our tech manager to put the cameras in the balcony of the sanctuary and in the basement area, being sure to capture not only the pool table, but the stairway next to the furnace room that led outside, as well.

  With all the equipment in place, and the team members divided into pairs, we turned off all the lights and started investigating.

  Randy, the pastor, and I walked into one of the large meeting rooms. I’d detected a presence in there earlier and wanted to find out who it was. This spirit’s energy was different from the man in the basement, and I was curious as to who he was. I didn’t have to wait long. Once I opened myself up to receive the energy, the spirit made contact.

  “Who are you?” I asked aloud.

  “Samuel,” the spirit replied telepathically.

  “Hi, Samuel, I’m Debi. We’re not here to harm you in any way. Why are you in the church?”

  “I used to come to church here.”

  In my mind I saw a short, older man with a bald head. His hands were calloused from work and his entire demeanor was one of humility. I described the man to the pastor. She didn’t recognize the name or the description of the man, but said he could have been here before she became pastor.

  “Did you spend a lot of time here?” I asked. Spirits generally will return to a place they loved, or were the most content in, when they were alive.

  “I took care of the grounds and the flower beds,” Samuel said with pride in his voice.

  “I’m sure you did a great job. Why are you still here? Do you know you’ve died?”

  “Yes, I’m aware that my body died, but I really don’t have any place else I’d rather be. I loved working around here. I’m buried in the cemetery out back,” he volunteered.

  “It’s a beautiful place to be buried,” I agreed. “Did you need help with something? Have you crossed over?”

  “Yes, I went into the light; it’s beautiful there, but I wanted to come back and make sure the church was okay. Do you know there’s another one like me in the basement? I don’t think he likes me very much,” Samuel fretted. “Course, then again I don’t care for him too much either.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “He keeps trying to do my job. We argue a lot. I’m sure he’s not a bad person. I mean he’s in the church, right? But, if you could try to work out an arrangement with him, where I will stay in this area of the building, and he stays in his, I’d sure appreciate it,” Samuel said.

  “I’ll see what I can do. Thanks, Samuel.” I concluded the conversation with the spirit and decided to tackle the basement next.

  As Randy, the pastor, and I walked through the building toward the basement stairs, we talked about Samuel, and the pastor said she’d look at the cemetery records to see if we could find out more about him. I sent her off to do that, and Randy and I proceeded down to the basement area.

  The air in the basement felt heavier and thicker than in any of the other areas of the church, an atmosphere that wasn’t present the first time I was in the basement. This told me that there was either some type of dark entity, or a rather powerful spirit who occupied this space. Since Samuel told me that the spirit in the basement was a man, I had to assume, until further notice, that we were dealing with a normal spirit, and not anything demonic. My first thought was that the spirit I’d noticed in the basement earlier was beginning to feel threatened by our presence.

  I made my way over to the furnace room with Randy and his video camera in tow. Immediately, I could sense a male spirit that wanted to make contact.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “I worked at the church,” the spirit answered.

  “That’s funny. That’s what the guy upstairs said,” I quipped.

  “Maybe, but I’m the real caretaker,” the spirit insisted.

  “Okay, look. Is it possible that both of you worked at the church, but at different times, and probably different eras?” I asked.

  “It’s possible, I suppose,” the spirit begrudgingly admitted.

  “Are you the one who scares the kids and appears as a dark shadow by the pool table?” I said.

  “Yes, that’s me. Darn kids are so loud sometimes. I do it to quiet them down,” he admitted sheepishly.

  “Will you show yourself to me, please?” I said. In my mind’s eye, I saw a big burly man with ruddy skin and kind blue eyes. His hands were massive, and he had to have stood well over six feet tall. His light brown hair was bushy, and he was wearing work clothes from the middle- to late-1800s. Now things were beginning to make sense.

  When I saw Samuel, he was wearing work clothes from the mid- to late-1940s. I took the time to explain this to the spirit, and asked him to please not scare the teenagers anymore. I also told him that I would talk to Samuel and ask him to stay in the newer part of the church, while this spirit must remain in the original section of the building. The spirit agreed.

  During the time I was working out this arrangement with the spirit, Randy was videotaping everything, and said he could see the shadow of a large man on the staircase leading from the furnace room to the outdoors. This confirmed that Randy and I were seeing the same spirit. Although Randy isn’t a medium, nor accustomed to seeing spirits, every once in a while a spirit will put an image of itself in his head, or show themselves to him in some way.

  Randy and I left the basement and worked our way back upstairs to see how the rest of the team was making out. As we passed by the office area, the pastor stopped us and said that she’d found a Samuel buried in the cemetery, and gave us the location.

  Gathering the team together, we left the church and turned our attention to the cemetery. I gave the rest of the team Samuel’s name and approximate location of his grave, and we fanned out in search of his burial place.

  We finally located his tombstone under a tree in the middle of the cemetery. This at least confirmed that a man named Samuel was a member of the congregation at one time and had died in the early 1950s.

  Many of the team members spent a great deal of time in the sanctuary balcony, trying to debunk the growl Randy and I heard. They tried everything they could think of, from listening to passing cars and trucks, walking across different parts of the old, worn, wood floor, etc. They even conducted a complete search of the steeple room and the rest of the building, looking for any type of animal that could have made the noise. They reported that they didn’t even find any signs that an animal had ever been in any part of the church. And they couldn’t duplicate the noise, or explain why the growl was heard in the first place.

  This made me a little uneasy. It meant that there could possibly be some type of inhuman entity present in the church. Randy and I spent the better part of two hours conducting EVP sessions, taking pictures, and reaching out asking the being to identify itself. No matter what we tried, we were met with total silence. Even upon playback of the audio, nothing was heard that we couldn’t explain.

  Around two o’clock in the morning, I decided to call it a night. The rest of the team wanted to stay later and do more investigation. I bid everyone a good night and got in my car to leave.

  As I pulled away, I happened to glance up at the steeple, brightly lit by flood lamps. There, at the very top, I would swear, even now, that there was an impish demon hanging onto the top of the steeple looking right at me, in a mocking manner.

  I called Randy on his cellphone and told him what I’d seen. The next day, he telephoned to say they were at the site until about four o’clock in the morning, but they found no si
gn of the demon I’d seen.

  Last time we checked, the pastor reported that things have calmed down considerably. No longer are the teenagers being frightened by a dark shadow, and items are remaining in place. Still, I have to wonder if somewhere, waiting for the right opportunity, the demon I saw is waiting to strike—only time will tell.

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  Chapter 12

  Home Sweet Haunted Home

  While it’s not unusual for the owner of a house to haunt the place after they die, every once in a while you come across a very unique case. The Loop-Harrison mansion is one of those cases. The house was built in the 1800s, and the people who have lived there throughout the years have retained almost every object from previous owners. This not only preserved history, it also left a multitude of objects for spirits to come back and live in after death.

  Close to the tip of the Thumb Area in the State of Michigan stands a glorious mansion. It’s built in the style of a house that looks like it appeared in the movie Mary Poppins—a large Elizabethan mansion that is absolutely gorgeous.

  Dr. Loop, a country doctor, built the home for his adoring wife in the 1800s. Together they raised two children, Emma and Stanley, in the home. The good doctor added a side entrance that led directly into his office, where he would see his patients.

  History tells us that Dr. Loop performed more than one surgery on the massive, wooden kitchen table, and that not all of his patients lived through their operations.

  The house itself is three stories tall; the third story constitutes the attic. It sits on ten acres of property that now is home to many historic buildings that have been moved there from their previous locations. The original barn Dr. Loop built is now home to a very popular community theatre.