Preliminary Report – ROTHD -14012011

This is a preliminary report from a privately rented property located in South Yorkshire. Recommendations would follow this report with regards to the property however further access would not be permitted due to the current occupants relocating.

As this was preliminary, the equipment used was for observational note taking purposes. EMF meters were simply to register the property electrics.

People Present:-

Helen *****.

Jody (Occupant).

John (Occupant).

Neil (Occupants friend).

Steve *****.

Timothy *****.

Reports:-

1. BT phone ringing with caller display showing its own number.
2. Child interaction with purported entity.
3. Random bangs coming from the child’s bedroom located above living room.
4. Baby monitor randomly playing two young girls voices.
5. All accounts happen in the evening between 12 and 4am.

Note:-

• Current occupancy has been approx. 18 months.
• Property is rented.
• The partition between this house and next door is a thin partition.
• Next doors occupants could be heard throughout the evening.
• The basement is wider than the upstairs, the family explained that part of the basement ceiling formed some of the next doors room.

Building Observations:-

General: The property was dated and need of some restoration in addition to bringing the property up to current standards in terms of central heating, double glazing, etc.

The electrics through out the house seemed dated with one switch giving off reasonably high EMF from a distance of approx. 50cm away.

Basement: The basement consisted of what seemed to be poorly wired electrics with occasional wires being exposed. A couple of instances sparks would come from open wired boxes.

Electrical wiring seemed to be dated and in need of replacing.

A window opening where there were no glass thus leaving the room open to the elements.

Structural supports had been placed below the floor boards under the main beams. Supports appeared to be slightly angled although no measurements were taken. Occupants stated this had been there for since before they moved in.

First Floor Living Room: Along the ceiling was what could be described as the old fireplace flume, it was almost like a conduit trailing around the room. (see living room snapshot for clear understanding). A small section was covered by a wooden seal, upon the occupant removing the seal a large amount of black dust (possibly from old burning of wood and coal?) fell into the room, there was a clear chimney flume.

Front door had been bricked up, a letter box was present through the wall.

Noticeable feel of a draught coming from the window.

Child’s Bedroom: The window was a little draughty.

There was for some reason a false partition in the room which seemed to stand no clear purpose. Knocking on the partition created a hollow re-verb sound as though it was hollow behind. This was an end terrace and that particular wall was not connected to the next property.

Notes Of The Evening:-

Jody and Steven positioned themselves in the child’s bedroom and followed a more spiritual path of calling out whilst awaiting responses. They set up one camcorder and one Dictaphone.

The occupants also placed a baby monitor within the child’s room and in the living room.

Located downstairs was John, Helen and Timothy. Neil, the occupants friends spent the first part of the evening in the dining room sleeping.

Through out the evening one of three EMF meters (0 – 50mg at 1Khz) would respond whilst sat on the floor, at first there seem to be a pattern however after further investigation we found that changing the battery resolved the fluctuations. Throughout the property high EMF readings correlate with bad or dated wiring giving off what appeared to be incredibly high readings.

Other incidents maybe reported separately within Stevens report. As I was not present in the room with them (Jody & Steven), I am not qualified to account for their experiences.

Cold spots were reported however the property is dated and requires upgrades to the windows and various other parts of the building. Cold spots were not monitored and thus could have formed due to expected temperature drops in the evening. The body is not an accurate temperature reading device and thus due to the nature of the evening many accounts could be put down to psychological reasoning.

Summery:-

Because the occupants are now relocating it is impossible for us to further investigate the property and any claims of paranormal phenomena.

Although the experience maybe very real to the family and I can’t account for the happenings they have encountered, from this evenings investigation I do not believe the property is haunted. There were the occasional knocks and bangs which I believe do require further investigation however I believe they are the result of many logical factors such as:

• The property has been split into two at some point with only a thin partition separating two living spaces. The residents next door could clearly be heard throughout the evening.
• The basement window had no glass and thus allows an uncapped amount of noise, wind, water through. Basements can be an ideal place for echo due to having little sound absorption.
• Poor electrical throughout the property with various sockets/switches giving off high EMF.
• Property is located next to a main road.
• Property it located near an industrial plant.
• Property is located near high voltage power-lines.
• Existing flumes throughout property could be a haven for sound vibrations and potential animals seeking shelter.
• False Partition in child’s bedroom which sounds to have space between it and the outer wall brickwork.

Because of all these uncontrolled variables it would be hard to distinguish if there is anything of a paranormal nature occurring and thus would be hard to control for any kind of testing or experimentation.

No investigation into infrasonic levels have been conducted at this property.

Early in the evening when discussing the first instance they experienced it was made clear that the child woke one evening terrified of something within his room. And would not settle down until removed. This occurred various times.

It was only after this instance that the family started to notice strange phenomena within the house, there was also a suggestion at the time it could be paranormal. It is entirely plausible through random natural happenings that suggestive thought took hold here whilst the child appeared to be petrified for its own well being. The suggestion that something paranormal could have taken its grip over the 18 month residency. A young child is not always capable of separating fact from fiction especially where dreams and nightmares are involved.

I believe that the first occurrence may well have been the child having a nightmare and because his experience was indulged it led on to further experiences, again through subconscious suggestive thought. Various happenings were then matched with paranormal phenomena as that seemed the logical conclusion to the family.

The instance with the telephone calling its own number, the ringing was not confirmed with the telephone company as a fault and therefore should be discounted at the moment. The phone was plugged in and the line was active.

If the family were not relocating so soon I would however have liked the opportunity to investigate the various happenings further through a three week study of remotely monitoring the property. I would also have like to investigate the false partition in the child’s bedroom.

Recommendations:-

These recommendations are not practical as the family are relocating however they would be as follows:

• Seal off the basement open window.
• Bring the electrical wiring up to date including checks by an electrician on the current system for safety purposes.
• Bring the central heating system up to date.
• Bring the double glazing up to date.
• Bring the insulation up to date.
• Look into the false partition.
• Look into the chimney flume and the possibility of removing it as it is redundant.
• Sound proofing the partition between the two properties to ensure sound leakage from the occupants next door is not so predominant.

This report forms no scientific basis, its purpose is for internal documentation of purported paranormal occurrences. This report is the opinion of its author (Timothy) and accounts for his personal involvement in case no. ROTHD-14012011. It is not designed to prove nor disprove the existence of anything paranormal.

This report was written for Ghosts-UK – http://ghosts-uk.net