Co-Director Kelly’s Blog
I felt very TAPs-like last weekend. My team, Fringe Paranormal, and our sister team, Weston Paranormal, completed a two-night, three- location investigation complete with overnight accommodations. We were on an island that had just finished up their summer party season. Most of the businesses were closed or in the process of closing for the winter, so there was very little outside world contamination. We were able to access our locations whenever we needed and had the freedom to investigate however we wanted. It was a ghost hunters dream come true!
This caused me to really reflect on the beauty of multiple night investigations. One of my biggest frustrations as a ghost hunter is when we don’t find any evidence of the paranormal during an investigation. Especially at a residential location. Someone has contacted us, trusted us with information they feel will make them seem “crazy”, allowed us into their home…and we get nothing. Truthfully, it’s happened more times than not. I feel like the odds are stacked against us during these times. At a recent investigation we had a home-owner tell us she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and then a loud banging on her door like someone wanted in when no one else was home but herself. How many times had this happened? Once. <insert whiny voice here> Once in the six or so months she’d lived there? What is the likelihood it’s going to occur again in the one night we’re there?
It’s no wonder to me that so many teams fake evidence. Everyone who’s watched a paranormal show expects that if a location is haunted something is going to happen every time you go there. These things could include: hearing voices and/or footsteps, being touched and/or scratched, or, in the case of several shows, being demonically possessed. You feel horrible when you can’t show your client something. Even so, we refuse to share any evidence that could be even remotely explained away.
So it’s obvious your chance of catching something paranormal greater when you can have more time on your side. There’s one location we’ve been to about five times. Almost every time we’ve gone we’ve gone we’ve caught something. But once we went and got absolutely nothing. The place was flat. Imagine if that had been the only time we went.
With more time, you also have the luxury of testing and possibly debunking results you’ve found. During our island weekend, we started getting some K-II hits in the lounge of the hotel we were investigating. All of a sudden we realized there were workers pressure-washing the grills on the outdoor patio. Yes, at about 10 PM. Apparently cleaning in the pitch black in sub-zero weather is optimal for outdoor grills. Party islands are a little odd. Anyway, just when we began to wonder if the two had anything to do with each other, the cleaners stopped and the hits stopped, too. We didn’t really understand how water hitting the window could set off an EMF detector, though. On a one-night investigation, this would have been left to theory. Luckily, on this investigation, the crew was out again the next morning. (I’m betting they missed some spots the night before.) As they started washing, we ran to get the K-II again. Sure enough, every time the water hit the windows, the lights would spike. I’m still not sure why, but with the extra time to debunk, we realized the two were in correlation with each other and the K-II hits did not have paranormal origin.
The extra time allowed us to do some hands-on research, as well. One of our really cool locations had a family legend attached to it. We decided then to take a little field trip during the day to see the family’s mausoleum at the local cemetery. We learned the names of all the members of this historic family, which in turn allowed us to personalize our investigation.
All this makes me wonder if we should just as a matter of course make all of our investigations multiple night investigations. If a full weekend is not possible, then we should at least set up two different dates to investigate the same place. It could only make our findings more in-depth and accurate.
Fringe Paranormal 
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