Whangarei Residence

529The team road-tripped its way up country to Whangarei, the northernmost city in New Zealand, at the request of a frustrated young couple living in a home that appears to be having much regular, ongoing activity. From being touched and scratched, electrical appliances being tampered with and the fridge door opening by itself. They have had feelings of being taken over and have witnessed objects fly across the room. An incident of the whole house suddenly becoming pitch black dark as they sat inside, when it was daylight outside. The couple reported apparitions and claimed to have recorded their own EVPs.

They claim to have seen a man standing in the wardrobe in the back room, a feeling of being watched in the shower, Sam is having dreams about people who seem to be haunting the house, Sam is seeing flashes of light around the house, the cat is being taken over by unknown forces and they had also taken many photographs which they feel show possible spirit activity.

Whangarei Residence - Hallway

Details about the couple:

  • Age: Late 20’s.
  • Both non-religious.
  • Both suffer from mental and physiological illness. From a history of Depression, anxiety, ADD and A.D.H.D to G.O.R.D (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) and Marfan’s Syndrome.
  • Both have a history of abuse.
  • One is allergic to most medications, even pain relief and suffers an eating disorder.
  • Both of the clients appeared to have a long history of unusual experiences, relating tales of spirits attached to them, premonitions, as well as the activity in the house.

Leading up to our investigation, we asked the couple to keep a log of all the activity as it happened. We were also given 13 hours of video footage they had recorded over the weeks leading up to our visit.

The following is the log of their experiences:

20th September – Me and Ants were lying in bed. Would’ve been early hours of the morning. I was on my back, had my head tilted towards Ant’s, and felt something run down the side of my head. I didn’t really think anything of it as it only lasted a couple of seconds and thought it might have been a huge spider, so I carried on doing what I was doing. About 10 seconds later, it happened again, going down the side of my head. I was getting a bit worried. Then, about another 10 seconds later, I was looking up at the ceiling and it started from the top of my head going back. I absolutely s–t myself! It felt like someone was walking their fingers down my head!

 

23rd September – Early hours of the morning. Ants and I were in bed. We were facing each other. I happened to look behind him and saw a face lightly glow behind him.

 

30th September – Around 10 pm. Ants got scratched up his arm the same night around 4 or 5 in the morning. I woke to Ants convulsing. I then had a vision of me being strangled. A voice spoke through Ants saying “Painters must die, Ants must die.” Later, Ants come to and said he had had a nightmare of being strangled and had died. He has recently been painting the spare room and back porch.

 

1st October – Not sure of time. Was early hours of the morning. Heard four banging noises about 5 seconds apart, coming from the kitchen.

 

3rd October – 5 pm. No lights were on. Curtains open. Was pure daylight and there was ‘darkness’ flickering. The whole lounge flickered and went dark for a couple of seconds. Could hear a surge when it happened. There was nothing that could have gone past to cause the dark flickering. It was as if it were dark and the lights were on and the lights flickered, but during the day.

 

5th October – Around 6 pm. Went to Church. Just before we walked in, I started getting really anxious and almost had a massive panic attack. Started calming down half way into the service. Had a lady praying for me. She was quite close to my face. I didn’t move, but felt something lunge out of me and I felt something attack her. Though not physically. Later that night I saw half a figure in my laptop screen. A little bit later, saw a couple of black orbs go past.

 

6th October – Not too sure what time it was. The cat door was locked and we heard it open. The cat freaked out. When we had a look, the cat door was unlocked.

 

7th October – Ants had a dream that we were at a hotel. We were standing on the balcony. I walked up to him and pushed him off. He woke up in the morning with a sore tail bone. Later on, he said it wasn’t me and that it was someone pretending to be me.

 

8th October – Around the evening. My cat was sitting on her pedestal. She jumped down in a hurry, and hid in the hallway cupboard absolutely petrified.

 

10th October – Around evening. The front door closed by itself.  Early hours of the morning, there was a loud stomp coming from the lounge. A couple of hours later, there was a tapping sound outside the bedroom door. I had a dream that I was able to see a man. His head only. In quite a bit of detail. I don’t know who this man is. In my dream, his name was Greg. There was also a TV that was either recording in in the kitchen, or was playing back.  There was someone in the kitchen. Whoever it was, I was kinda scared of them. I couldn’t really see who they were though.

 

10th October – Around 4 or 5. There was a random noise. Ants went to have a look and the fridge door was wide open.

 

11th October – 12.02am. Lights off, curtains shut. Ants sitting next to me, with laptop on my lap. Saw 2 white flashes of light on wall on the right. Looked like a light on the lounge wall, then the 2nd flash on the wall next to bedroom door. Couldn’t have been cars. The lights were in the wrong position to be car lights. The car would have to travel toward the house on a angle and that is impossible. Ants saw it too.

 

11th October – Around 2.45 am. My cat was lying on me. She jumped off for no apparent reason. She almost levitated off me. She looked upset and distraught as to what happened.

 

11th October – Around 1.30pm. Was brushing my teeth at the hand basin, leaning forward a little and lost my balance and started to fall backwards. Around 6.30pm. Ants is cooking dinner. He had turned the oven onto 180. When he returned the oven was now on 150. He turned it back up again, sat down to let it cook. Went back to check on it and it had turned back down to 150 and also turned off at the wall.

 

12th October – 3.55 pm. We pulled into the driveway. Ants saw a blonde haired girl standing in the spare bedroom window. The curtains in the hallway had been pulled off. It wasn’t like that when we left and as far as we both knew, the cat was outside. After we got home, Ants fixed the curtain. I went into the lounge and my cat was sitting in the box. We gave her some pats and she jumped down. Then, about 10 seconds later, she ran back into her box. She looked scared.

Whangarei Residence - Spare Bedroom

Investigation

It was a cool night. it rained very lightly on and off most of the night. After a pre-investigation dinner and planning session, the team headed to the location, arriving at 8pm. Noted on pre-entry – Outside the property, along the fence line of the corner of a main road and a side street, were two large green power boxes. EMF readings from this were off the scale when the meter was held up to a meter away from the boxes.

The rented house in one of Whangarei’s many scattered suburbs, Maunu, seemed very normal and unassuming on entry. The property was originally registered in December 1935 and has had 13 owners. Our clients rent the property from the current owner who purchased it November 2012. Property was on the intersection of a main road and side road and got a lot of traffic for the region.

Spare bedroom felt a little clammy and damp, however that was a known issue with that room. Insulation had recently been installed in the ceiling. It is just down the road from the main Whangarei Base Hospital. The house was undergoing renovation. The bathroom appears to be new and the house had recently had insulation installed all around. There was also painting in progress.

Outside, a separate garage on the back of the section which was accessed by going outside through the back door. It was a cool night, it rained very lightly on and off most of the night. There was very little wind. The title documents gave a list of former owners, however there was no information to say whether anyone had died on the property.

None of the names were familiar to our clients apart from the property’s current owner.
Team members at this investigation – Mark, Barbara, Matthew and Jessie.

Home first impressions

Barbara – The house was an older home (probably about 1930s) and had the same floor plan as the first house I owned! (Interesting as that also had a ghost attached to it!!) The house was cosy and warm and had a well lived in feel to it.

Jessie – It was a very neat and tidy house. Its actually felt quite inviting and comfortable.

Matthew – The house seemed typical of the era. Not a lot of furnishings or possessions. Nothing that stood out as being strange or unusual. The spare room seemed oddly vacant, however it was being repainted. It generally felt like that room was being avoided.

Whangarei Residence - KitchenTemperature Fluctuations –

There were quite big differences in temperatures around the house. This was due to poorly fitted insulation and drafts coming through closed doors and windows. The temperature varied from 15 degrees (right in front of the front door, which obviously let a lot of cold air in underneath it) to 19 degrees in the lounge.

The team set up a 4 camera DVR system to record the whole investigation.
Camera 1 – Master Bedroom
Camera 2 – Lounge
Camera 3 – Hallway
Camera 4 – Spare Room

  • 4 static video cameras surveying kitchen, lounge (second view), spare room (second view) and laundry / bathroom.
  • A full inside and outside photographic sweep was done to cover all areas, including the outside garage, under the house and inside the ceiling cavity.
  • Full EMF (Electromagnetic field) scans of interior and exterior taken at intervals.
  • Temperature readings taken at intervals.
  • Communication sessions were attempted.

Upon reviewing our video and audio footage there are a couple of anomalies which are at this time unexplained.

Jessie – At one point Barbara and I were walking out of the Master bedroom back into the hallway. Barbara went first and I followed a few footsteps behind. As I went to walk out of the doorway, I felt a “woosh” of air go over the top of my head. Starting from directly over my eyebrows, as if a sheet was being pulled over it. I immediately said “oh!” and walked back into the room to see if I could get it to do it again. I walked through the door at the same angle and speed as before and could not get it to do it again. Barbara then told me not to tell her what I felt and she tried retracing my steps to see if she could get the same thing happen to her. We both walked in and out of the bedroom several times and she was not able to feel anything whilst I was able to feel it once or twice more in the multiple times I tried it.

Communication session

Barbara – We were holding a communication session when I thought I heard a click beside me (toward the wardrobe area). I commented on it at the time and Jess said she thought that the sound had been her stomach. A couple of minutes later I heard the sound again but this time it was unmistakable and sounded like a camera had just been used beside me. No-one was there and no cameras had been used at that time.

Whangarei Residence - Camera in Spare BedroomSam said that Ants had also sometimes heard a sound like that and had thought it was coming from her phone but at the time this happened her phone was in the lounge.
Everyone in the room heard the sound and had thought it was one of us taking a photo taking a photo but it wasn’t. The sound was picked up on my audio recorder.

Also, during this session, Sam was taken over by a “spirit” during the communications and found herself replying to the questions and comments the investigators were asking. She looked genuinely confused about what was happening and was unable to stop herself at the time, but was aware that she had done it.

Extremely high EMF levels were detected in an area of the laundry / bathroom. This was soon debunked as being the air vent fan and associated wiring inside the ceiling which also ran down the inside wall.

Midway through the investigation Mark decided to search the ceiling cavity to look for any signs of rats, possums or any other vermin that might be living up there and moving around. Ants climbed up into the ceiling with a torch and camera.

Almost immediately he yelled out that he had just seen a face, a “spirit” figure of a man. He was instructed to snap off as many photos as he could, which he did. On reviewing the photos, there was nothing resembling what he had claimed to have seen.

As a trigger test, Barbara leant two cards up against each other and invited anyone/thing present to knock them over, but they remained standing for the whole investigation. At the end of the night Jess and Barbara conducted an Energetic Clearing of the area to attempt to remove any negative energies from the home.

Post Investigation

After the investigation we asked the couple to keep a log of any activity that might happen during the days following our departure. It seemed the visitors were not deterred by the group’s presence.

Sunday 13 October – early hours of the morning. Both Ants and I saw a flash coming from the bedroom. We both looked over at the same time. So it wasn’t that only one of us saw it, we both did. Around 4 am, was cuddled into Ants. Had my back to the wall and I felt something playing with my hair. I put my head under the blanket and it stopped. I told ants that someone was playing with my hair. He told them to stop. They kept going. I told them to stop, twice I think. Ants was firm with them and told them to leave. I tried making a deal with them, that the only way I would communicate, is through electrical devices. I don’t think he agreed. A little while later, I was almost asleep. I could hear voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had the blanket pulled up around my neck and I felt it pull off my shoulder a little and felt pressure going around the side of my neck. As if someone was trying to strangle me. I tried calling to Ants to wake him up. I yelled to leave me alone and they released. Ended up sleeping with the light on.

 

Monday 14th October, 12.40am – Had my hand on the mouse pad of my laptop and the tip of my index finger went kinda tingly and my finger slowly lifted up. I had no control of my finger. Well, I could’ve, but was letting them control it. They then slowly let my finger back down onto the mouse pad. Was a weird sensation, but kinda cool at the same time. About 10 mins later, the tap dripped. It normally does, but it wasn’t the normal dribble sound it would normally make.

 

Monday 14th October, around 11pm – Ants saw my cat. Only problem, my cat was outside!! Half an hour later, I saw a white flash by the opening that separates the kitchen and lounge. About 10 mins later I had a black dot appear right in front of my left eye.

 

Wednesday 16th October, around 9pm – Laptop was sitting on my lap and it started lightly rocking up and down. Did that about 6 or so times until I put it on the ground, in case they threw it.

 

Saturday 19th October, around midnight – There was feedback through the amp. It wasn’t the fridge turning on or off. It was a different noise to when the fridge turns itself on and off. It happened a few times that night.

 

Sunday, 27th October, around 9 am – Was at aunty and uncle’s place. I was sitting at the end of the table. Had Ants on my left and my cousin on my right. In the corner of my eye I saw something black drop from behind my cousin. Almost down to the ground. I looked at Ants and he had seen it too.

 

Tuesday, 29th October, around 8 or 9 pm- Heard feedback through the amp and then heard footsteps running down the hallway.

 

Thursday, 31st October – I turned the shower on and walked out of the bathroom to take my hair tie out of my hair and take my ring and necklace off. I heard something fall or get thrown in the shower. I walked in and saw that my razor had fallen off the soap dish.

 

1st / 2nd November – Early hours of the morning. I had a random dream / nightmare. I saw Ants face. It was transforming into something else. Something else was coming through him and it wasn’t exactly a nice feeling watching this happen. I also dreamt I attempted to strangle Ant’s ex.

 

Saturday 2nd November – Was on Skype with a mate from Australia. He left to go to the shop for 5 mins. After he left, there was static feedback. So I got my phone and recorded it and asked questions. I don’t know if I got any reply back.

 

Monday 4th November – Was on Skype with Ant’s brother. We left it running while we went out. When we left, the back garage door was padlocked and the front garage door was shut. I used the remote to close it. When we returned, I opened the garage as we entered the driveway. We noticed that the back garage door was now wide open. The padlock was sitting on the toolbox on the back bench. Nothing had been taken. Got inside and Ant’s brother was still on Skype. He said that he saw something inside and that they were still there. I took pictures of the area he said he saw something. still cant work out how the garage door unlocked and opened itself.

 

Tuesday 5th November – Had gotten up in the morning and walked into the lounge. The inspirational note I had pinned on the wall was on the ground. The pin had been pulled out too. There were no windows open as we don’t sleep with them open.

 

Wednesday 6th November – 6.45ish pm. We were both sitting on the couch. I’m sitting on Ant’s left side. Ants felt something rub his right shoulder, then squeeze it.

 

Thursday 7th November – Around 11 pm. My cat was at the front door and let out a loud cry. I hadn’t heard her cry like that before. Was a creepy, scary cry. We both jumped up and she was looking through the cat door. I looked through the cat door and couldn’t see anything. So I placed the BB gun in front of the door. Nothing happened till I was in the bathroom going to the toilet. Was around 1am. My cat come into the bathroom too and then she went to the bucket under the window and randomly started growling. Then took off out of the bathroom. I went into the lounge after I had finished and she was on her cat pedestal. I was patting her, reassuring her. She was staring over my head at something. It was a hard stare, as if something was there.

 

Tuesday 12th November – Around 1 am. Was laying in bed. Bedside lamp was on. We were both facing the wardrobe. I was looking over Ant’s shoulder and the wardrobe had suddenly “warped” itself for a second and there was a slight colour change of the door, or in front of the door. I know it wasn’t my head playing with me. Was only the wardrobe door that did it.

 

Wednesday 13th November – Around 2am. Both Ants and I heard a voice come through the Amp. Was talking for about 5 or so seconds, then stopped. They started talking again about 5 min later, for about the same amount of time. Later that night, we were laying in bed. I felt something playing with my hair, so I put my head under the blanket and it stopped. Not sure how long after, I wasn’t asleep. But I had my eyes closed. I felt someone put their hand over my eyes. Wasn’t Ants, he was asleep. He also had his back to me and he didn’t move. Otherwise I would’ve felt him.

 

Thursday 14th November – My cat has been acting really strange. She’s been hiding in a place where she doesn’t normally hide. Something in the house has spooked her.

 

Summary

620Sleep talking, headlights from vehicles, dampness, power surges, natural skin elasticity and general over-imagination could explain a number of the events reported by the clients.
Several of the reported light anomalies in photographs taken by the clients were debunked as reflections off of polished floors and wall hangings.

The odd cyclic hum on the clients recorded video footage was debunked as being sounds generated by the camera as it wrote data to it’s internal hard drive, and did not appear on any of the recordings obtained on our own equipment.

The videos, photographs and journals provided by the clients did prove useful for documenting the occurrences however.

Barbara – I thought the investigation went quite well. It was a shame that we didn’t see or feel any real activity although the people who lived in the house both had personal experiences while we were there.

We did all hear an odd camera click during that session but apart from that the audio recordings had nothing of interest. Upon reviewing the DVR footage there is a strange light anomaly which appears fleetingly on the wall behind where Sam was sitting while we were having our communication session. It looks almost face-like and is only there for a second or so.

Jessie – I felt very comfortable at the house. Although i did get that odd, “someone is watching me” feeling in the bathroom where Mark noticed the very high EMF fields. It definitely gave me the Heebie Jeebies a couple of times. Everywhere else in the house however felt very “normal”. I did have an audio recorder running throughout the night. I had it placed in the wardrobe in the back room where the tenants said they had seen and felt a presence. There was a party going on in the community hall across the road from the house and this provided a lot of noise contamination. Car doors could be heard opening and shutting and people holding conversations. There was even drunken singing heard at one point. The level of contamination led me to discount any audio captured on my audio recorder. I think the investigation went OK. There was only one experience that I had and it did not come with any feelings of fear. The house did not feel haunted at all while we were there. I thought this was odd as during our investigation both of the occupants of the home had personal experiences but I were not able to sense anything and the group was not able to document any real activity. I think most of what they are experiencing can be explained in one way or another but not by calling it a haunting. At this stage I cannot say whether the house is haunted or not.

Mark – The team spent many hours reviewing the video and audio we had recorded whilst conducting the investigation. We also had the arduous task of further reviewing 13 more hours of video footage the couple had given to us. However, at this point in time I have not seen anything that would lead me to believe the home is haunted or couldn’t be explained away by natural circumstances. This of course does not mean that their home isn’t haunted, just that in our time there we weren’t able to document any conclusive evidence or data to back up their stories. We have recommended the clients keep on recording for themselves and stay in touch with Haunted Auckland.

Matthew – Given it was a small house, with four investigators plus the clients present, it was difficult to get a real feel for the atmosphere of the property. From a sceptical standpoint I feel the clients may have been influenced by paranormal-themed film and television and may be attributing commonplace events to supernatural causes. It is difficult to come to a solid conclusion in on this case. The reported events were very subjective and appeared to be centred around the clients themselves rather than the property. I feel that even if the clients moved to another location the activity would follow them. In cases like this it is difficult to separate what is in the mind from what is in the environment.

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