Below, you will find descriptions of some investigations we've completed, along with our findings. Not every investigation is listed, as some clients have requested total privacy.
Folly Beach Home - Brandie and Barry
We were called to the aid of a young lady and her fiance having trouble settling into their new home. The reported activity included; objects being moved, voices, apparitions, dark figures, feeling of being watched, footsteps, and hostility.
Once we arrived at the home, Barry did an EMF sweep throughout the entire house, while I spoke to the client about what we were going to be doing. We were shown the hot spots, and the animals were put outside to avoid contamination of evidence.
The EMF readings proved dangerous throughout the entire first floor of the house. Every wall radiating out about 2 ft. had a "danger" reading. This could explain the feelings of hostility and being watched. Once that was established, we went through attempting to debunk some of the claims. We could not find any explanations for the moving objects. We tested the theory of voices coming from outside, but even with close neighbors, nothing could be heard outside. Next, we set to debunk the footsteps from upstairs. We did notice the floor popping and creeking as the night went on, but those were simply the house settling and wouldn't be mistaken as footsteps.
While we had no personal experiences during the investigation, Barry had an unsettling experience immediately following it. Barry went home and fell asleep shortly after the investigation, and immediately began to dream. The dream involved a dark forboding figure apearing in front of him, and transforming slowly into the pit viper that was being kept as a pet by the clients. After waking he felt extremely sore for two days, with flu-like symptoms. After speaking with a trusted friend of the Catholic faith about this experience, he came to the conclusion it was a possible of phsycological attack. After two days, he was fine, as if it never happened. This holds merrit as it's something both the client and her guests have experienced.
Once we reviewed all the pictures and audio captured on the investigation, we found three audio pieces that cannot be explained. The recorder these were collected from was in the upstairs bedroom with the door closed. The first is what sounds like a female voice either humming or attempting to speak. The second is like the first, but a little higher pitched. Both of these are while we are all accounted for downstairs. The third is a whisper. You can hear me outside the door talking in my normal voice while it's going on, and a whisper wouldn't have been heard outside the door. These pieces can be heard in our "audio files" section.
This evidence is certainly impactful, but I wouldn't feel comfortable calling this house "haunted" with only these pieces. The client invited us to return to get more conclusive evidence.
BEAUFORT HOME - Dave, Brandie, Jared, Barry, & John
Beaufort is a place of beauty, a place of history, and a place of spooky stories and rumored haunted locales. With that in mind, we traveled to Beaufort in order to help a family who had been reporting very strange phenomena for months. Writing on the mirrors, objects being thrown, and numerous shadow sightings and light touching on the hair had been reported.
Upon arriving, we did an initial EMF sweep and discussed camera and audio locations. The EMF sweep came up empty, with the only major hit being the TV in the Master bedroom. Dave witnessed what he described as a white mist moving from right to left over the mom's bed while doing the sweep. During the night, we focused on three main areas: the mom's bedroom, the master bedroom, and a side room. We took turns in teams while the outside folks kept watch at the command center.
At one point Jared felt something tug at his pants leg, but we ruled anything paranormal out due to a cat being in the room. Dave was alone in the room adjoining the mom's bedroom at one point (Jared was one room over) and felt a tugging at the key chain on his belt loop. However, due to a nearby window (and a breeze that evening) we ruled this out. Also, Brandie heard some scratching in the living room, but this also was most likely the cat. John noticed a white object fly by him in the kitchen midway through the night, but nothing more came of it. Towards the end of our stay, Dave sat and observed the client sleeping in his bed, as this was the main place and time the events happened. Five minutes in, a very loud sound was heard, almost like something violently hitting the wall. However, due to the front yard being right outside the window, and the handheld revealing nothing abnormal (other than the sound) we can't draw any conclusions from it.
We also did extensive interviewing in order to properly get a handle on the situations present. The clients were both very accommodating and forthright, and we were more than happy to listen and take it all in.
We spent a week and a half reviewing potential evidence, as there was a LOT of audio and video recorded. Here's what we came up with ... As far as video, we came up with nothing. As stated above, the loud sound from the end of the night was heard, but the video had a bad angle and could too easily be dismissed. We have a few pieces of audio which we were left with, none of which are definitively paranormal in nature, but are still unexplained at this point. We caught some knocking and moving around, mostly while no one was inside (teams were switching out). It only happened a couple times, and due to the dogs and animals being able to crawl up under the house, we have to keep an open mind. The strangest thing we caught was moaning; twice to be exact (once in the master bedroom and once in the mom's bedroom). It's hard to say what we have there ... it sounds like different things to different people. The thing to keep in mind is that with a cat around, and neighbors not too far away, we can't rule those things out. It's a very strange sound indeed.
So when it's all said and done, we caught some weird oddities on audio, but nothing we can stand behind and call paranormal. With nothing on video but some fairly strange audio clips, we are unable to conclusively prove anything one way or another. It's possible there could be something, but more time and more research (both by us and the clients) will in the end lead to an answer. The family was incredibly supportive and welcoming, and we would love to return and give it another go in the future for sure.
CHAPEL OF EASE - Dave, Brandie, Jared, & John
Since we were in Beaufort, we decided to check out the Chapel of Ease. We arrived in the afternoon, so no video equipment was used as the lights and cars going by would've made it pointless. We did record some audio (taking care to note passing cars) and snapped quite a few pictures. Nothing came up from anything, but the location is very picturesque, and it was impressive to see the structure still standing after over 200 years. Perhaps one day a night investigation might be possible.
ARCHDALE ST BUSINESS - Dave, Brandie, & Barry
We were called out to investigate a local business amidst reports of strange activity when one client was working late at night. Her claims were auditory in nature, and consisted of hearing approaching footsteps (which seemed to halt once she called out), and picking up weird audio mumbling and murmuring when recording for interviews. We set up cameras all over the building and split into two teams, one on the upper floor and one on the second floor office level.
Our initial EMF sweep didn't provide any possible solutions so we set about attempting to make contact and generally listen for oddities. Throughout the night there were little thumps and odd sounds here and there, but nothing definitively paranormal. At one point Dave noticed the light in one room blocked out for seconds at a time, but upon switching over to that room nothing turned up. This also didn't show on our cameras.
Shortly after midnight, Brandie and the client were alone in the building when the client felt a slight movement associated with a thud to her right and the two needed to step outside and allow for whatever happened to be captured without any obstruction. The event was captured on video, but provided no anomaly or anything we can pen down as paranormal. It was an interesting experience to note though.
When reviewing the potential evidence, there were several audio pieces that we came up with, but most were inconsequential. We captured a thud when no one was in the building, a weird sound that might be a cooling unit cutting on upstairs, and a breath which occurred in a 2nd floor office as we were re-entering the building on the floor below. We did however capture a solid class A EVP, in the form of a voice that seems to join in to Brandie and the client's conversation. It's unclear what exactly it's saying, but it seems to agree. Worth nothing is that the voice definitely is male, and at that time Dave was giving Barry a ride back to his car, thus only the two females were in the building.
In the end, there seems to be some auditory phenomena going on at the building, but certainly nothing evil or threatening. We will definitely return sometime in the future and leave our equipment running all night and see what turns up.
STRAWBERRY CHAPEL - Dave & Brandie
Brandie and Dave visited that beacon of teenage ghost hunting during the summer, and were fortunate enough to be there when the caretaker was there, thus we were able to get at least on the property (not in the actual chapel). Also, we were treated to some wonderful stories of treasures that were once buried on the premises, and also unfortunately about vandalism. We were thankful for the opportunity to investigate briefly, and take lots of pictures to go along with our audio we recorded. The audio came up empty, but we actually captured a very strange image in our pictures. Swing on over to the Photos page and check it out. We can't say definitively that the place is experiencing paranormal activity based on our visit, but the picture leaves it open to debate for sure.
JAMES ISLAND HOME - Dave, Brandie, & Barry
We visited a home on James Island following up on reports of doors opening and closing, feelings of nausea, and other weird sounds. We spent the better part of 3 or 4 hours there, utilizing our handheld cams and audio recorders, as well as EMF detectors. Barry picked up a huge EMF hit in the kitchen, and we were able to determine that the fuse box was contributing off-the-chart EMF readings. If we even simply stood in the kitchen, our heads would begin to hurt and we'd become dizzy. We think this definitely explains the feelings of nausea and possibly even seeing things. There were no audio or video hits, but we were very happy to determine the cause of some of what's going on. We may return on a different night in the future and give it another go.
CARETAKER'S HOUSE - Dave, Brandie, Jared, Barry, & John
We were called out to investigate a Caretaker's House experiencing multiple claims of paranormal activity. The house was built in the mid 1900s, and was initially occupied by a Caretaker who operated a farm on the original road to Charles Towne Landing. The home is now a summer residence, but at times housed different family members from the current occupants. They had witnessed shadows moving rapidly between rooms, objects being misplaced, the TV cutting on (even when they weren't living in the residence for months at a time), and even a female apparition appearing at the foot of the master bed.
During our initial sweep with one of the owners, we detected absolutely no EMF readings of note, surprising for a house half a century old. Later, we began the investigation, setting up our command center outside the house, limiting the ambient audio present. During the first hour, Brandie and I heard a metal "ting" sound coming from the bedroom on the right upstairs, while we were in the upstairs room on the left. We placed one of our best audio recorders on a table in there and proceeded to attempt contact. Later on, we were downstairs and were clearly hearing noises upstairs. While standing at the base of the stairs, we asked for two knocks to signify that someone/something was there, and within 5 seconds or so got two knocks back. Unfortunately however, this was the only time we were successful in this, meaning we need to rule it out as coincidence.
John and Barry also heard the metal ting during their first hour, coming from the same room on the right. After sitting in the room for a while and hearing it again, they were able to determine that the sound was coming from the metal lamp in the corner. They also felt a cold draft upstairs and heard a dragging sound, like furniture lightly moving across the floor. This was captured, but honestly could be a million different things, so it had to be discarded. Not having much success other than the drafts and the ting, they moved downstairs and attempted to contact the apparition seen in the master bedroom. At one point they heard a knock when asking about a Bible laying on a table in the room, but this was not heard upon reviewing the audio placed in that room.
After reviewing the video (we left our DVR cams running overnight - resulting in over 12 hours total of footage from each of the four cams and we were operating two Nightvision Sony Cams with SiMA lights) and audio (four recorders that each recorded 4 hours), we had some interesting results. From the master bedroom, we captured a deep voice that seemed to be reacting to John and Brandie having a conversation. The knocks we heard at the base of the stairs were captured, but as I mentioned earlier were the only time we asked for a response and actually got one, so we have to rule it out as pure coincidence. The metal "tings" heard by every every member of our team were captured on 3 occasions, which is awesome because they back up personal experiences. Lastly, we were able to capture a very disturbing deep voice upstairs. This occurred when the entire team was outside (John and Barry were updating us on what they had seen on the DVR cams during the first hour, and Brandie, Jared, and I had just walked outside after finishing our initial investigation). It definitely is a voice, but we can't make out what it's saying. It came from the room on the right upstairs (the same location as the cold drafts and all of the metal "tings"). The fact that no one was in the house and it's so clear is quite a catch to be honest.
In the end, we all agree that there seems to be something going on at the Caretaker's House. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly is there, but the upstairs room on the right in particular seems to be a hotbed of activity. We hesitate calling the place haunted, as we haven't identified who the spirit is and haven't experienced anything more than sounds, but there's definitely something paranormal present. We'll be going back soon to see what else we can turn up.
PRIVATE BUSINESS - Dave, Brandie, Jared, Barry, John, & Casey
At the end of November, we were invited to an old building downtown, currently being used as location for multiple businesses. The reports were of apparitions floating on multiple floors, and various objects moving around. Also, a strange shiny, oozy substance had recently begun appearing on some of the door frames. After setting up our command center and placing various cameras on multiple levels, we set in for the investigation. The first thing we inspected was this ooze. After much observation and brainstorming, we decided to take a sample for analysis.
As we moved throughout the building, we attempted to contact any spirits who might still be lingering. We had no unusual hits on the EMF meters at any point during the night. A couple cold spots were detected from our IR Thermometers, but were explainable at every point by either a small draft from a vent or the layout itself creating strange air flow amongst the many offices.
At one point, a pill bottle was used in an attempt at communication after we discovered that the building was once a pharmacy, hotel, and confederate hospital during the Civil War. Due to a recent sickness I had experienced, we decided to implore any spirits to move the pill bottle we had on hand. At several points, several of us heard it rattle (Casey, Barry, and myself). At all of those occasions, we were sitting motionless in the hall, and the floor was made of braided carpet, meaning that even our attempts at jumping up and down right next to the bottle didn't produce any movement. We even placed a ping pong ball on top of the bottle and left the area (leaving a camera behind) in an attempt to give a potential spirit a chance to rattle the bottle or knock the ball off. Sadly, neither happened.
At one point, Barry was manning the command center, watching the DVR cams, and observed a strange light coming from upstairs, but this was immediately debunked on the spot as a stray camera flare. Kudos to the team.
After analyzing the evidence, we came up with a few oddities. Two audio pieces came up which caught our attention. One sounds like a child's voice saying something, or possibly whining. This was captured on the fourth floor, and thus there is a SMALL chance this could have been someone walking on the street below with a child, although it's a stretch. The other is far more interesting. It sounds like someone murmuring, and was captured by a recorder on the fifth floor, towards the back of the building. Because it was captured higher up, and no other voices were heard at any point on any other recorders up there, this piece is harder to debunk. After testing was done on the oozy substance, we found it to contain petroleum, and therefore conclude that it is most likely residue from an older paint job which may have texture and liquid like properties as a result of heat exposure.
Lastly, we discovered a curious video piece. In a room just inside the entrance to the fourth floor, a small light fades into view, apexes, and fades out. At the moment of the light, it's 1:11am, and Barry is manning the cameras with Tom in the conference room. Jared is in their as well, and shortly after the light he walks back into the area shown in the video. Brandie and John are upstairs. Casey and I were in the room with the camera in question, but were behind it considerably. Casey was sitting behind the desk in that room, and I was sitting in the corner. I was the only one who could see into the area that the camera is pointing towards, but from my vantage point I would only have been able to see the room on the left. Brandie and John had both of my LED lights, and Barry had his in the conference room (the oddity resembles a flashlight coming from that room). At no other point during the entire evening did we witness any other lights coming out of that room. Additionally, we didn't see a single light from a car at any point on any camera (remember we were on the fourth and fifth floors only). It would have been way too low of a vantage point to observe a plane light, nor would a plane be flying south over downtown Charleston that low. The only thought we could come up with was a lighthouse, but there are two problems with this. First, it's the only time it happens. Second, this was caught from the room on the right as you go in, meaning that window faces towards the rear of the building, in the direction of West Ashley. The only lighthouse in the area which COULD be possibly visible from the building's location on King St would be the Sullivan's Island Light, which is to the east, ruling it out.
PRIVATE BUSINESS - Dave, Brandie, & Barry
The clients were reporting strange noises and phenomena at a new location. Sounds of children speaking, doors opening and closing, and the occasional cold draft were what we were up against. Dave, Brandie, and Barry were present and we began around 10:30pm. Right away, we noticed that the walls were quite thin, and in some places there were small holes in the walls, which could allow insects to enter the building. At two separate points, Barry and I both heard what sounded like crickets in an otherwise empty of life room. After further analysis of the audio, we confirmed that most likely these were indeed crickets. Throughout the evening, we also heard taps on the walls and ceiling here and there, and what sounded like buzzing. After conducting an EMF sweep which came up with nothing, and taking into account the thin walls and entry points for insects, we concluded that these auditory events were most likely caused by insects. To further back this up, we captured a fly buzzing around for a while on one of our cameras.
The only oddity came through on one of our recorders. We utilize an IR Thermometer to detect temperature fluctuations (which has an orange glow to make it easy to read in the dark), and at one point, after setting the unit on a table next to an audio recorder and asking "Where is my toy?", we recieved a very loud knock. I did not hear the knock at the time, and it seemed possibly in response to my question, given that the IR Thermometer (toy), was on the same table half a foot away.
After going over everything, we have concluded that the facility is not experiencing paranormal activity, and is definately not haunted. We can only base our findings on what we found and experienced that one night, so we don't want to discount what others have heard prior, but we honestly don't believe there's anything to be afraid of. All of the sounds save for the weird knock could be explained by insects and normal sounds. And, although we can't identify the source of the weird knock, the age of the building and acoustics have forced us to label the event as inconclusive.
MAGNOLIA CEMETERY - Dave, Brandie, & Jared
CPS did a light-hearted investigation of Magnolia Cemetery on a balmy morning/afternoon. We don't normally go to graveyards to investigate, but Magnolia is home to many famous politicians, Civil War generals, and others. It's also famous for having some very odd tomb designs, such as baby strollers, pyramids, and headless torsos. We really were interested to see if any spirits were lingering around and wanted to speak with us. We spent hours walking the grounds and checking out all the weird tombs, even going in ones that were open. There wasn't really much to report, except for two oddities. First, when Jared was about to snap a picture into a tomb that had caved in, we heard what sounded like a "hello." The only other person besides CPS on the grounds was the caretaker in the office, about 1/4 mile away. We have no explanation for this, and analysis of the audio proved inconclusive.
The strangest thing happened when Brandie and I were walking around the northern area. We had been reading the gravestones as we walked past, and at one point Brandie was looking towards the small lake there, and asked if I would take a picture with her standing under a tree in front of it. I obliged, and turned around (out of the glare of the sun) to set the camera up for the shot. I happened to glance up before I turned around and noticed the name of the gravesite directly across from us: Bruns (Brandie's last name). We did some research and found that this is the only site anywhere in the cemetery bearing that name. Coincidence? Probably, but it sure was odd...
In conclusion, the atmosphere there is very peaceful, and we can't report that the place is experiencing any paranormal activity at all. It's lovely there, especially when we went in the spring. Check it out!
POOGAN'S PORCH RESTAURANT - Dave, Brandie, Jared, & Barry
Poogan's!!! One of our top 3 locations to visit in Charleston...and it was a memorable one. The evening started off innocently enough, which 4 of us splitting into two teams, one upstairs and one downstairs. Jared and I experienced a slight draft upstairs, and a weird EMF reading every now and then. This seemed to fluctuate greatly, and we were unable to find a source. Downstairs, Brandie and Barry were hearing the occasional knocking or whirring from the Bar area, which we later determined was the ice-maker. Later in the evening, Jared and I heard some strange sounds from the Bar area (kind of a scratching noise), while we were sitting in the Banquet Room. Later, we captured an EVP on that audio recorder saying "Help Me". Overall though, we weren't really having a lot of experiences, which may be attributed to the fact that the supposed ghost (Zoe St Armaud) was very reclusive, and the reports seem to indicate she likes to come out and play when the place is empty or there's only one or two people present.
As we began taking down our equipment, Brandie and I were upstairs in the kitchen and very distinctly heard a woman's voice speaking twice. We could not determine the words, but sent Jared and Barry up there to see if they could experience it. About 10 minutes later, they called on the radio to ask if Brandie was speaking a few seconds prior, which she was, but later (after debunking) we determined her voice to have been unaudible by Jared. So, all 4 of us experienced this voice. However, due to the constant whirring and other kitchen noises, we were unable to audibly capture it on any device. As we were packing our equipment up, we heard footsteps upstairs and raced up to find the source, but were unable to experience anything else, or provide an explanation for them (we were all downstairs).
In the end, we had a couple unexplained experiences, but nothing major. We captured an EVP saying "Help Me", and a red light bouncing around in the Bar. However, we later determined this light to be a reflection of one of our EMF detectors. Based on our one night at Poogan's, we believe there is occasional paranormal activity present, but it only seems to come out when the place is empty or nearly empty. A reclusive ghost? Could be! Another reason I love living in this city...there's always something out there...
WASHINGTON SQUARE - Dave & Jared
This was a small investigation of Charleston's first public park located downtown off of Broad St. The park is named after either George Washington (who visited Charleston), or the Washington Light Infantry (which contributed 3 companies to the Confederate army during the civil war), depending on where you look. We really didn't experience any activity at all during our time there, except for the odd moment of complete calmness. We were alone in the park the entire time, only leaving when a woman walked in with her dogs.
The video and photos turned up nothing, but the audio was really amazing. We caught one thing, but it's the best EVP we've captured in our opinion. It appears to be a soul in distress saying "Could you help me please?" After conducting further research, we found out that the park was used as a segregated tent-city" immediately following an earthquake in the 1800s. Perhaps someone was injured and needed our help? We can't say that the Park is haunted, as we really had no experiences and captured only a single voice. However, I feel comfortable saying that something paranormal exists there, in the form of a soul in distress.
OLD CHARLESTON JAIL - Dave, Brandie, Jared, John, & Ian
The Jail was built in 1802, but some sort of property has existed on the plot now occupied by the Jail since the late 1600s. We took a large team there, and spent quite a while exploring all areas of the jail overnight, even some areas off limits. We heard some very strange sounds throughout the night, most of which we were able to debunk. However, we did have a pebble thrown at us while there were only three of us in there, all in one room. It was thrown down the hall, and was quite loud. We were locked in, and the other team was outside. As of yet we have no explanation for this.
Other than the pebble incident and the occasional unexplained knock or board creaking, the only other oddities were two camcorders which shut off (once on a Canon & twice on a Sony). The auto-shutoff is enabled, but of course only activates when the unit isn't recording, which they were. Other than that, not much was experienced. However, after reviewing all the evidence collected, we came up with some weird things. We captured the pebble incident from various angles, none showing the pebble itself (which we found later in the hall), but all help lend credibilty to the fact that no one was in the hall messing with us. We also captured a mist floating by quickly in front of the camera at one point. The temp that night was about 65 (weird for early January), and the one or two times we did notice our breath, it floated upwards towards the ceiling. This "mist" goes right to left too fast to be a breath, and is around waist height. One of the team suggested it might be a moth, but it's difficult to say. Finally, we captured some quite amazing audio on a recorder left in a holding cell while the only team in the building was on the floor above that one, on the other side of the jail. It sounds like a door opening, then something saying "hi" or "mine".
In summation, we captured a voice, a pebble being thrown at us, and a weird mist floating in front of the camera. Add that to the camcorders shutting off three times, and all in all we had some fairly impressive activity. We believe the location to have a moderate amount of paranormal acitivity. It all seems to be playful though, so nothing evil as far as we can tell.
ST PHILLIP'S GRAVEYARD - Dave & Jared
A small investigation to close out 2008...we spent an hour or so in the graveyard, during which time no one entered but us. We didn't expect to capture anything, more or less just to experience the place. However, upon reviewing the audio, we captured some sort of voice at the grave of John C Calhoun. He was a staunch supporter of southern rights and slavery, and died 11 years before the Civil War began. I was asking if he knew the South lost the war (I don't provoke much, but he was supposedly a formidable opponent in an argument). Needless to say, I got some sort of response. That is the only time anything weird came up.
We don't believe the place to be haunted. There seems to be an entity possibly lingering (perhaps that of John C Calhoun), but obviously we don't have nearly enough evidence or experiences to deem it more than occasional paranormal activity.