Express staff creeps in the shadows with ghost hunters

By Michelle Steinhebel, Lebanon Express writer

Don't rush to check your calendar. It isn't Halloween.

Last week, myself and staff photographer Jeff Smith went on an adventure: A ghost hunt of the upstairs apartments at the Lebanon Express office. We were led by investigators with the Lebanon group Ghost Talkers NW Paranormal.

Why do a ghost hunt here?

Over the decades, some employees in the Lebanon Express office have felt an unseen presence, even at times when they have been alone.

Those feelings have always been explained as Mrs. Grace Scroggin, a former resident of one of the upstairs apartments, fell to her death 52 years ago while trying to enter the second floor through a window.

Last month, we approached Ghost Talkers NW Paranormal to see if they would do an investigation into the vacant apartments above the Lebanon Express - mainly Mrs. Scroggin's old apartment.

Getting started

Last Tuesday, a crew of eight investigators met at the office at 9 p.m. to start setting up for the evening.

They came armed with several electronic gadgets: Digital and regular tape recorders, digital movie cameras (with night vision), electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors, field cameras like those that hunters use, a barometric pressure gauge, an infrared thermometer, and compasses.

Most of the rooms in the three separate apartments were bugged with some type of surveillance.

A little before 10 p.m. three investigators - Bri Barnes, Mike Phillips, and Emmett Washburn - did an initial walk through of the building to identify any areas that might interfere with the investigation.

During the walk through they collected base readings for EMF, temperature, and other information.

"This way if something happens in the initial walk through and happens during the investigation we know it's nothing paranormal, or something that can't be explained," Bri said.

During the commotion of setting up, Stan Freitag thought he heard five knocks near the living room of the main apartment.

"That to me makes that room a hot room," he said. He expected the living room to have more activity than some of the others. Temperature wise, the room was also hot - 91 degrees to be exact. We picked the hottest day of the year to do the investigation.

'Is there anybody here?'

Investigators went through the building for 20 minutes in teams of two, with photographer Jeff Smith and I tagging along.

The first group to go through the building was Heather Barnes and Lisa (last name withheld).

"Is there anybody here? We'd love to talk to you," Heather called.

The four of us remained silent and motionless, waiting for a response. Silence was all we heard.

"What's your name?" Lisa asked.

Silence.

"Did you knock on the door earlier?" Lisa said. "If that was you, can you knock again?"

The group gave me an infrared thermometer to take readings periodically during the first session. I aimed it like a gun, checking around corners and into small closet spaces. Sometimes I really felt like it was a gun, protecting me from the unknown.

Lisa asked if anyone else felt cold. I checked my infrared thermometer and it held at 92 degrees, but both Lisa and Heather had goosebumps.

Lisa took out her military-grade compass. It read north. She walked into a closet in the largest of the three apartments and it moved 20 degrees northwest.

"Do you guys see this?" she asked. Jeff rushed over and took pictures. Sure enough, the needle had moved.

She moved out of the small closet, and the compass remained 20 degrees northwest, when seconds ago it only pointed north.

Finally a few minutes later it pointed back north.

False alarm

"Mrs. Scroggins, can you reach out and touch that green light?" Emmett asked.

"I know we're asking a lot, but this will just let us know you are here," Heather added.

It was nearly midnight. and again we all stood still, minding our breathing. I opted for shallow breaths during these questions, despite the 90-plus degree heat.

"You see these guys everyday," Emmett said, referring to Jeff and I. "Just reach out and touch them."

A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn't have heard him right. Touch who? Me? I felt something on my neck, but it was just a bead of sweat running down my body.

"Thunk, thunk, thunk."

The four of us ran to the hallway, puzzled at the noise. Mike appeared at the end of the hallway, it was just him coming up the stairs.

I wondered why everyone was speaking out into the empty rooms like this. Emmett provided the answer: "You're not supposed to talk to them like they are dead. They may not know they are dead."

I certainly didn't want to make anyone mad. Present tense it is.

Things that go bump in the night

During a later walk-through, Mike heard a single knock. "Did you hear that?" he asked us. All of us did.

"Was it you?" he asked Stan.

"No."

"I think it came from over here," he said, rushing over to another apartment.

"Are you here?" Stan called.

Silence.

He took several readings all of which that came up normal. No ghost here.

Although we couldn't determine the source of the knock, as the investigators are going through the digital and regular tape recorders, they hope the source will be identified.

It may have been as simple as a door closing, or it may be unexplained.

Stan continued exploring the building. One of the rooms was only 50-square feet, give or take, with no windows and only one way in and out.

He opened a small closet.

"Thunk."

Jeff was in another room and heard the noise. He looked up immediately, saw Stan just as he was closing the closet and uttered a relieved "Oh."

We were going to leave the apartment when I noticed the main door to it was halfway closed.

"Did you close this door?" I asked Stan.

No one did.

Strange happenings

As Jeff, Stan, Mike, and I, were leaving an apartment I noticed the door to the hallway was half-way shut.

I knew that door was wide open when we entered the apartment. All of the doors were wide open, since the last thing you want to do is stumble into a door in the dark.

The windows (or at least the ones that weren't sealed shut) were open in the apartment, but no breeze was felt. I would have noticed that. How the door became halfway closed, I have no idea.

Stan said it was also where he heard the knocking earlier.

The smallest things you may not notice in your own home you do notice when you're stumbling around in the dark looking for ghosts.

Your eyes start playing tricks on you after awhile. Did I see something? Was that a foot or a head? Or maybe it was so hot I was becoming delusional.

On another walk through, I know my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.

About halfway through the investigation, I noticed something I hadn't until three hours in: Wind chimes were hung on the wall of a room with no windows. Even stranger was that the middle strand was swinging and the other strands were stationary.

"Why is this swinging?" I asked.

Geremy Barnes and Alicia Lyon checked for any sort of breeze that may have made it's way into the boarded up bedroom.

What I didn't understand was why only the middle strand was moving if there was a breeze. Wouldn't all of the strands move?

The center strand continued to swing for four to five minutes before stopping. Highly unusual.

On subsequent searches I always checked the wind chime, but they didn't move again.

Waiting game

It will take at least a month time for the investigators to go through the hours of sound recordings, video footage, and photographs. After they have all reviewed the evidence, Bri said the group will give the office a DVD of all of the findings.

Once the findings are released, we will share it with our readers.

Although the investigation was creepy, scary, and even sweaty, nothing concrete came out of the hunt to indicate the apartments are haunted.

But the cameras were running and we look forward to seeing if there was something those caught that our eyes didn't.

About Ghost Talkers NW Paranormal

The group started about four years ago and was formed by Bri Barnes, Mike Phillips, and Stan Freitag. They met working the night shift at the Lebanon hospital.

Their first real investigation was done at the Lebanon Elks Club. A plaque hangs in the bar room saying that they consider the building to be "haunted," Bri said.

"People can take that how they want to take it. We're not saying there are active ghosts there, but we did get evidence that we couldn't explain," she said.

Electromagnetic field (EMF) readings were high and recorders picked up someone singing high notes in the ballroom, Stan explained.

"It was the song they sing at the beginning of each meeting," Stan explained. "It was just weird stuff."

Next, an Albany woman contacted the group to explore her historical home, where a woman had died. The investigators asked questions like "Are you here? Can you hear me?"

The response was clear on the recording: "I ammm herrreee..." Stan mimicked.

They've explored cemeteries and other mid-valley homes as well.

Bri said they can keep results confidential if the person requesting the investigation wants that.

"We don't necessarily even have to go to their home and investigate if they don't want us to. We can just consult with them and tell them what we think from our experience," Bri explained.

She stressed that they approach investigations from a scientific standpoint.

"We see what we get and if we don't get anything, hey, that's fine with us," he said.

To drum up more investigations, the group handed out lollipops with their contact information during the Strawberry Festival.

"For some people, it's just for the reassurance that they aren't crazy. There's no turning back once you experience it," Stan.

Ghost Talkers NW Paranormal is open to more people joining their group. If you are interested in joining, e-mail them at hauntings@ghostalkers.com. Interviews with the group are conducted before people are allowed to join and believing in ghosts is not a requirement.

"We prefer to have people who don't believe if we can. It gives us a good balance," said Bri.