Echoes of the Night Visitor: The House in Marion

Summary of Investigation - 18 November 2000

N. Reiter, L.L. Schillig

25 November 2000

Background:

In October of 2000, we were contacted through Chris Woodyard by a young woman from the Columbus area, whom we will call Laurel. Laurel felt strongly that her family home in Marion presented a unique haunting for our investigation. Laurel's parents, Bill and Angela, still lived in the residence, and continued to experience a variety of unusual phenomena.

After some extensive phone discussion, we determined that the haunting was a somewhat bi-modal case! On one hand, Laurel and her brother had experienced feelings of dread, ghostly voices in the night, and a shadowy apparition in the house in their childhood and teenaged years. Some of this phenomenon continues to occasionally manifest for Bill and Angela to this day.

On the other hand, Laurel recounted a tale of another, more fearsome entity that not only had she seen, but her mother and other extended family members as well, going back at least 4 generations. An unnaturally tall male in a long black coat and 1920's style hat had haunted and dogged Laurel's great grandfather, grandparents, and mother, as well as an aunt, and finally Laurel herself. The entity had appeared at different times, in different locations, in both day and night to the various family members. On at least one occasion, it was seen to spontaneously vanish. Unlike traditional Celtic Bean Sidhe, or family death portent spirits, this entity did not seem to appear at times of death or crises. It would just appear.

As far as phenomena that seemed related to the house itself, we find:

1. Feelings of dread in certain places, mainly upstairs.
2. A male figure apparition (different from the "family" entity)
3. The late night sounds of a man and woman arguing, coming from the region of a closet.
4. Sounds of tremendous damage, such as glassware and furniture being smashed and tumbled, but then no physical damage found when the room was later inspected.
5. Footsteps when no-one else was around.
6. Mysteriously moved or damaged household articles.

Laurel related more of the story. She and her brother had spent their early years in another house in the Marion area. This residence, however, had been severely damaged in a fire, and the family moved to the current house. Very little time had elapsed before the odd and frightening phenomena began to manifest.

Laurel indicated she could find no record of any deaths occuring in the house, however the party who sold the house to Bill and Angela, after their first home was destroyed, was an elderly woman who was quite reluctant to leave her beloved house. The house is a modestly sized, two-story frame dwelling with a basement, dating originally to between 1900 and 1920. It has been added to and remodeled over the years, with most of this work being performed by Bill and Angela. The house is located on a quiet street in an older portion of the town. Little information could be found about the original owners or builders of the house, so we admit that the first several decades of the residence are unknown.

As fate would dictate, an opportunity to visit the house in Marion came about on the 18th of November. We made arrangements to meet with Laurel and her parents in the early afternoon of that day.

Our Investigation:

We were met at the door on that afternoon by Laurel, who had taken the day off work to be there. Laurel is a strikingly attractive young woman who is currently counting the days to her wedding. Her fiance, Tom, had come up to Marion with her and joined us in the discussions and house examination. We were also charmed to meet her mother Angela, a cordial hostess and avid antique collector, and father Bill, an all around supportive and nice guy.

The weather conditions, always noted, were dry and partly cloudy, with outdoor temperature at about 35oF.

We began our investigation by allowing Angela and Laurel to take LS on a dowsing / intuitive impression gathering tour of the house. I followed at a distance, with an initial round of digital photos (Mavica) and a number of shots using a small Canon point and shoot 35mm camera, with 400 speed BW film.

Overall, the house projects a kind and snug feeling, being filled with homey decorations and a multitude of antiques and vintage glassware. Wandering room to room on both floors, and into the basement, LS absorbed a number of impressions, which are recorded in the following section of this report.

I then followed up on my photographic tour with several instruments, each in turn:

• Hall gauss-meter (magnetic fields).
• Gold leaf electroscope
• Ultra-sonic detector
• Anaeroid barometer

We then settled in with those present, and listened to a number of accounts from over the years, dealing with the unusual events in the house, and with the tales of the shadowy familial spectre. All present contributed their parts of the story. LS and I took substantial quantities of notes.

Later in the evening, while LS shared a number of our own adventures and theories with the family, I made two more photographic and instrument survey trips throughout the house. Our GE tape recorder was set up with a low noise C-90 cassette near the upstairs linen closet where voices are often heard in a whispered state of argument. Approximately 30 minutes of tape was run in this location.

We also made first use of a new tool, a high intensity solid state (LED) blue light, for the purpose of looking at the claim that ghostly residua or presences will illuminate under short wavelength light.

By evening, we bid our hosts goodbye with handshakes and hugs, and took our leave with promises to return to Marion at a future date.

Physical Investigation Results:

Instrumentation:

The first floor of the house seemed to be relatively uneventful, from an instrumentation perspective. No magnetic or electrostatic anomalies were noted. We did observe a peculiar "moaning" sound with the ultrasonic detector that seemed to emanate from the family room somewhere. This was traced down to the computer monitor flyback transformer!

On the second floor, we did find a region of magnetic distortion that did not seem to have an immediately recognizable source, such as duct-work, conduit, appliance, etc. This was in the closet of the room that had once been occupied by Laurel's brother; now called the "babies room". The centroid of the distortion was about 2 meters from the floor, at dead center of the closet. Magnitude was about .1 gauss maximum (25% earth field)

At one point in the evening, near the door to the upstairs bathroom, I heard a momentary unusual sound through the ultrasonic detector headphones. It was similar to a bullet whine or "ping". It did not re-occur.

We observed a very slight lowering of barometric pressure, near the upstairs linen closet; from 29.230 inches to 29.210.

Upon later examination of the EVP tape run near the linen closet, we find at one point about 20 minutes into the sequence, a single chime sound, like a bell or a gong. This has recently been attributed to one of Angela's clocks. No other anomalous voices or sounds could be ascertained.

Photography:

(click pic to enlarge)

Several interesting photos were found, from over the course of the evening. All were from the Mavica camera. Copies of these have already been forwarded to Laurel's family. We find:

1. A fairly clear orb image superimposed in the doorway of the upstairs bathroom, at about 1.75 meter height (digital photo).
2. A small orb image seen in a shot (digital) of the middle landing of the stairway.
3. Two faint orb images seen against the west wall of the family room. (digital photo)
4. A curious, but probably explainable image that seems to be a patch of gold light against the east wall of the dining room, over an antique chair. We attach this one for reader review.

LS Intuitive and Dowsing Results:

The following notes are transcribed from LS journal, and record her observations and impressions:

Basement:

• A dowsable area was found near the water heater, but no impressions were received.

Ground Floor:

• Front Living Room: A tall male, benevolent presence was sensed in the corner to the left of the fireplace.
• Dining Room: A strong dowsing response was noted over an antique side table. No specific impressions were received in this area. Another strong dowsable response was found directly under the chandelier, but again no specific impressions were received.
• Kitchen/Dinette: An elderly female presence was detected around the sideboard in the dinette area. She seems to be concerned about something that is hers; a very possessive personality. There was also a dowsable response near the refrigerator, but no impressions.
• Family Room: No impressions

Upstairs:

• Staircase: A child’s presence was sensed on the landing. Images of play near a small closet were detected. Very benign presence.
• Master Bedroom: The same woman that was felt in the dinette also has strong energy patterns in this room.
• Baby’s Room: An odd dowsing response was noted in the closet. The rods did not behave in their normal fashion. The right hand rod repeatedly swung to the right. No impressions. (NR note: This is the same location as the substantial magnetic distortion)
• Bathroom: Very strong dowsing response in front of the window. A male presence is detected. I felt an increased heart rate and somewhat short of breath when in this field. I would anticipate that this was a physical condition of the male at the time of the energy imprint.
• Office: The same male that was detected in the bathroom is felt in this room, especially near the closet. It is a very strong presence. This energy is also felt in the hallway between the bathroom and the office.

Interviews:

The current residents frequently hear fighting between a male and a female. I would assume that it involves the possessive woman and the man upstairs. I am not clear as to whether or not the male presence in the living room is the same as the one upstairs. They do not feel like the same energy, but it may be impressions left by the same individual at different times in their life.

Intuitive Conclusions (LS):

I do not see anything at the current time that would lead me to believe that this is anything more than a repeating energy pattern. If there is any consciousness involved with these entities, it would take a long-term study to determine.

On the other hand, the visitation by what the family initially believed to be a generational spirit (or form of banshee) is another matter.

The Generational Apparition:

This aspect of the overall case was, to us, possibly the most intriguing. In the weeks leading up to our visit, we had realized that among our six major types of ghostly manifestation, we did not have a category for something that in a more traditional Celtic setting would be a banshee, or Bean Sidhe. It could be also argued that such a being could fit into category six (Non-human Entity).

However, after reading up on banshee studies, we found that the generational entity in this case did not seem to fit the traditional pattern either. Consider:

1. The first appearance of the tall Man in Black seems to have been in the 1930's, to Angela's grandfather. No record can be found of earlier encounters.
2. The Man in Black was seen by an aunt of Laurel's, in a different town and different house in Ohio.
3. The appearance of the Man in Black is decidedly un-ghost like, except for the fact that it vanishes completely and suddenly. It looks as solid as any living person. It's fashion of dress, black coat and low slung fedora type hat, seems right out of the golden age of Film Noir. When it enters a bedroom, it clomps up stairs and across floors as solidly as any real burglar.
4. The entity does not seem to be associated with any death or family disaster. It simply shows up unexpectedly over the years.
5. It does not seem to be a harbinger or messenger. However, we also note that because of it's clothing and hat, and possible creative use of dim lighting, it's face has never been seen!
6. Nevertheless, it seems to be entirely associated with Laurel's maternal family.
7. Angela recounted how in one of the nocturnal visits by the Man in Black, she attempted desperately to awaken Bill, who seemed frozen and unresponsive in bed. LS and I feel that this is a key observation.

This last point was subtly chilling to us. Having both come from a background in the lore surrounding UFO and alien abductions, we immediately agreed that this aspect - undesired non-participant humans being "switched off"- was familiar. We pondered this unsavory but substantial clue that some aspect of the Visitors was involved here.

It is difficult to say just what the Man in Black is. There seems to be no clue as to it's identity as a historical person, nor is there any evidence to suggest that it is some deceased family member.

One last clue exists. In 1992 and 1993, I had spent considerable time examining the case of a husband and wife experiencer couple near Gibsonburg. (Experiences suggestive of UFO abduction or alien visitation) One of the curiosities I discovered in their home, was a specific region of magnetic flux that I could not explain. This magnetized area was in their bedroom closet; one of the points that seemed to be a focal point for the phenomena in their home. In Bill and Angela's house, we found a similar spot in the closet of Laurel's brother's old room...

Overall Conclusions:

It would seem that we have here, as we suspected, a bi-modal case. On one hand, Laurel's parent's house seems to contain several fairly strong patterns of energy, that could be responsible for some of the more benign haunting phenomena there. One of these could be the energy pattern of the older woman who had made the house her home for so many years. The child on the stair landing is another.

On the other hand, we have the generational entity, the Man in Black. While always recognized when it appears, we wonder if some of the other haunt-like strange events in the house over the years may be related to it. If so, "it" does not leave a trail of patterns or intuitively available sensations, like a more human ghost. It has it's own agenda, perhaps forever hidden from the very family that it dogs over the generations.

The important thing here is that Bill and Angela have come to a state of grace with the unusual events in their lives. The Man in Black, or the echoes of whispered arguments from years past will not drive them from their home.

We wish all of our Marion friends well, and look forward to staying in touch with all of them as years go on. We thank them for their hospitality, and for letting us into this strange corner of our lives. Thanks go out once again to Chris Woodyard, for being the courier of yet another fascinating case.

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