Sams Report
Undisclosed location: Ex school – sessions 1, 3, 5, 7,
Session 1: October 15 2016
Session 3: November 11 2016
Session 5: December 9 2016
Session 7, February 3 2017
Session 8: March 3 2017
First Impressions of the building:
They say that first impressions are everything, and I guess (in reality) the same saying could have been applied here when I reflect back on entering the building for the first time. The first room upon entering was much like a common room; it was friendly and inviting, decorated with motivational artwork that I can only assume was created by current students at the school. The room had a modern feel, with couches surrounding a TV in the corner and a number of computers humming away on a mezzanine floor. It felt like a very relaxed environment. This room was used as the team HQ on the night and has been for every other visit since; however, we have not been able to document anything in this room at this stage for privacy reasons. Following through the next door from this room led to the downstairs hallway. It was in this hallway that (as a first impression) felt a little uneasy. It was dimly lit, only a sliver of light poking through a stained-glass window halfway up the stairs, in the middle of the hallway, that seemed to last only a few seconds as the sun quickly set and night officially fell. The thing is, when you enter a building for the first time you really don’t know what to expect, everything is new and unfamiliar and as an investigator you’re fully aware of your purpose for being there and more often than not it’s because to some degree there is a person or people who believe that the building may be haunted, so given what you know and with the building being uncharted territory, expectations as well as the senses can often be heightened.
There were many doors along this hallway that led to offices or workrooms, some of which appeared to be arts-and-crafts studios for the students. At the very end of the hallway were two locked doors with glass windows; one appeared to lead to a large, stainless-steel-looking kitchen area, and the other to what looked like a very open, large area – possibly a hall or performance area.
Back to the stairs – these lead to the second floor (obviously). Much like the first-floor hallway, these stairs were covered in a pea-soup-coloured linoleum that was lifting and splitting in some places, groaning under the weight of every step. The stairs were littered with white paint flakes from the walls, suggesting that people didn’t go up to the second floor very often, and if they did, it wasn’t to clean.
A large dark coloured cupboard sat at the top of the stairs, and beside it, a similar coloured and very old-looking desk pushed in up against the wall in a space that seemed almost made for both of them. A red and a blue poker chip had been placed on top of the desk side by side; their relevance (if any) was unknown, but I found them intriguing all the same.
A heavy windowed door separated the stairwell and the second floor. It was allegedly always locked; however, for the purpose of the investigations, we were allowed access.
The heavy door groaned in almost a stereotypical haunted-house style every time it was opened; it was very telltale and obvious when anyone entered through to the second floor that night.
There were obvious signs that neither staff nor students ventured upstairs very often; the walls were covered in a light dusting of mildew and the rooms were virtually empty aside from old phone books, the odd coat hanger or piece of rubbish – one room even scattered with bird feathers, perhaps at one stage one had gotten in and not known how to get back out.
The second floor consisted of a long hallway, much like the first floor, only carpeted and with large rooms on either side that looked as though at one stage they were shared bedrooms and study areas, and at the end of the hallway, another heavy windowed door that led to the shared bathroom/toilet area. Upon opening the bathroom door, we were all met with an unexpected heavy gust of wind, a completely different sensation from the rest of the building, which I can only describe as humid and dense. It was apparent that the heavy flow of air was coming through open glass slat windows; the pressure was still surprising to me, however, considering that it wasn’t particularly windy outside at the time.
To say the bathroom was in need of a bit of a clean would be an understatement. Every surface, from the walls to the floor, seemed covered in a thin layer of dust and dirt. There was a row of toilet cubicles to the left with rusted and creaking hinges and fixtures, and on the right was a row of showers, all with the doors open except for one in the middle of the row that had seized shut in the “engaged” position for eternity. In the centre of the bathroom was a row of stainless steel sinks, one of which contained a mysterious wad of filth, more than likely toilet paper that had been left to block the sink and had just grown gross over time.
On first impression during the first visit (session one), I would have to say yes, the building did have an eerie feeling to it; every creak and groan made me look twice over my shoulder, and none of the dark and powerless rooms was entered without a torch. I think this had more to do with the building being unfamiliar to me and not knowing what to expect at any moment. That sense had all but gone by the time I attended the 3rd and 5th visits. By that time, I was more familiar with the surroundings and able to move around with less caution. The eerie, creepy feeling I had during the first visit had all but gone, and the building actually felt like a comfortable place to be.
At the time of writing this report, we have recorded 9 visits to this building, with numerous occurrences and events that have raised eyebrows and warranted further investigation. The following is a list of experiences I was present for and witnessed at the time.
Session 1: Stairs
Towards the end of the session, the whole team had gathered at the bottom of the first-floor hallway stairs to conduct an EVP session. We had formed a circle at the bottom of the stairs. Both Mark and I were opposite the stairs with cameras (Mark with a still camera, and I was using Mark’s low-light camera rig with a GoPro attached). Audio recorders and EMF/temperature meters were placed at the centre of the circle. Questions were asked throughout the EVP session but other than a door banging rhythmically in time with a breeze in the kitchen (which we had no access to at the time and could not close properly) the session was relatively quiet, until of course we all heard what appeared to be the sound of the door to the second floor opening and closing followed by what sounded like very “weighty” footsteps coming down the first few steps of the staircase. In my opinion, these footsteps sounded like they were outside what I would consider normal building creaking sounds. While the sounds and reactions of the team were captured on film, there was no camera aimed at the top of the stairs or at the door itself (as the stairs go up and around a corner). Many team members reported feeling cold during this EVP session, which is worth noting given that it was otherwise a rather warm night.
Session 3: Piano Music
From the beginning of session one at this location, we had been broadcasting live on Facebook. We found that it is a good way to give fans and team members who were unable to attend a look around the location and involve them in the investigation. Usually, we would set up the camera in a room or hallway and let the guests monitor for any potential sounds or movement, which we would then review ourselves later. For this session, Mark had brought along a trigger object in the form of one of his own personal Halloween props – a motion-activated creepy clown doll. During the live feed, the clown was set up at one end of the second-floor hallway, and the feed was left to monitor the clown from the opposite end. At approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes into the live feed, Piano music can be heard playing very loudly until Mark enters the shot. While I’m not entirely convinced this music was paranormal, its source remains a mystery. I was taking a break back down in our base area whilst monitoring the live feed, and I could hear the music as loudly as if it were playing in the same room I was in, and it appeared to be playing just as loudly on the live feed, which was recording in the upstairs hallway. The name of the music piece being played, as well as the source of the music, is unknown.
As Murphy’s law may have it, there always seems to be some sort of activity that happens when we’re all packing up ready to go home. As I entered the second-floor door to do a general sweep to make sure no gear had been left behind, I was met by a team member who was packing up her cameras that had been set up in the hallway. She had a ponderous look on her face and asked me to walk toward her. “Did you feel anything when walking down that part of the hallway?” she asked, to which I replied, “Not really”. She claimed to have felt an isolated “warm spot” close by when walking down the hallway herself, which I hadn’t felt myself feeling as though the night was considerably warm anyway.
Session 4: Knocks (via live feed)
I wasn’t physically present during the 4th investigation; however, I was able to join as a guest via the live Facebook feed. During this time, I witnessed an EVP session in the second-floor main bathroom, in which one team member asked for a response by knocking. Mark begins with the question “Are you there *Leon?” To which almost immediately a knock-knock can be heard as if in response to Mark’s question. h “Ok, Leon, can you just come into this room and do a really loud knock right in the middle of the room… please?” Again, a much louder knock-knock is heard immediately after the question. Mark asks again, “Was that you, Leon? I just need to double-check that it was. Can you do it one more time, Leon? Just knock really loudly, OK?……..GO”
Again, a single loud knock can be heard in response. Another random knock can be heard a few seconds later; however, I believe this knock was different and much louder than the others, making me think it’s unrelated to the communication they seemed to be receiving. I was a witness to this communication via the live feed and heard the knocks clearly. I feel as though the knocks during the EVP session are very intriguing and warrant further investigation and follow-up to try to re-create/investigate the source of the sounds or possible communication again.
*During session 3, Mark sat in the Bathroom by himself during the live feed; during this time, the guests watching the feed believed that they could hear children’s voices in the bathroom. One guest believed they could sense the spirit of a boy named Leon, who was afraid of Mark’s creepy clown in the hallway. During this ( and following ) visits the team have heard on many occasions what could possibly be a child-like voice during EVP sessions and have since referred to the name Leon in an attempt to encourage a response.
Session 7: Seeing something in the downstairs hallway
Closer to the end of the night, during session 7, the team were all sitting around the table in the downstairs lobby that we’d set up as our HQ for the night. We were discussing the location and monitoring the live feed whilst having a bit of a snack break.
As I sat at the table, I happened to look up in the direction of the door, which led to the downstairs hallway. The door was wide open, and I could see clearly into the hallway and into the room directly behind it. However, as I looked up, a slight movement caught my eye. What I was looking at appeared to be about the size of a basketball, cloudy/smoky grey in colour, and about 2-3 feet off the ground. As I looked up, whatever this was quickly darted past the door frame and (I assume) down the hallway in the direction of the stairs. It was very quick, only a matter of seconds and caught me completely off guard. Unfortunately, no other team members had seen it, and it happened all too quickly for any evidence to be captured. I’m open to the possibility that this could have occurred due to tired eyes or a trick of the light, but I do find it interesting that it coincides with other team members’ personal experiences in the same hallway.
The live feeds
From the very beginning, session 1, we began rolling out the live broadcasts from this location via Facebook. It was not only a great way to connect with the followers and show them around the location, but it was a good opportunity to show the viewers what we do on investigations (which really isn’t like what you’d normally see on paranormal TV shows) and it even also gave the viewers the opportunity to take part in the investigation, using the live feed as a camera for everyone to monitor and comment. This part of the live feeds became quite popular and was used for the majority of the investigations. It meant that our followers could connect with us and one another while also marking in the comments section if they believed something may have occurred on camera, making it easy for us to go back and review at a later date. Even though the live feeds could be considered a bit of a distraction for the team at times, I think the idea behind it is a huge success and an important tool that will be useful for future investigations and locations.
Is this location Haunted?
It’s not often that we have the opportunity to investigate any location as often as this one (myself visiting 6 times out of the 9 investigations to date), and with each visit, there were varying degrees of “happenings” that raised questions for the team to discuss and investigate further. And yet, even on the occasional visit, we felt as though the investigation was rather quiet and uneventful. With activity seeming to occur more often during earlier visits, the location becomes quieter during subsequent investigations. Could our own expectations and unfamiliarity with the location be the cause of thinking that more activity was occurring in earlier investigations? Or could the cultural blessing that was performed on the building at the beginning of the year, around the time of session 7, be the reason for the apparent decline in reported activity?
As always, in my opinion, saying that this location is haunted would still require more investigation. Yes, there are certain experiences that I can’t explain; however, with time and patience, I think there is still a possibility of capturing something remarkable at this location.