Private Investigation, New Lynn

The Haunted Auckland team were contacted and a home investigation was requested by a family who have been troubled by continuing mysterious activity for many years and decided it was time to try to get some answers.

People presently living in the house – Father, Daughter and young son. To maintain our client’s privacy, all names in this report have been changed.

Michael, Susan (and her fiancé) and Peter, were present and spoke of their own experiences in the house. They all reported having witnessed strange phenomena and being made to feel uncomfortable or frightened. The 3 hour initial investigation was mainly to interview the family and to set a ‘gauge’ on what was needed to give them the answers they are looking for. A full photographic sweep was done by all team members inside and outside of the house in the 3 hour period, as well as temperature and electrical field readings in all rooms. Static I.R cameras were also set up in the lounge, plus the fathers and daughters rooms for the entire session. The interview was recorded on 2 digital audio recorders.

 

Background

  • Non religious household.
  • Ex Maori Affairs house.
  • 1950’s dwelling.
  • Two historical sales listed in 1988 and 1992.
  • House is approx 50 – 70 years (or more) old according to the owners.
  • The family has lived in the house for about 18 years.
  • House was lifted and a basement was built underneath.
  • No activity experienced at all in the basement. – A well-known house with a dark seedy past of being a brothel, a drug den and a party house.
  • Marriage break up and a series of upsetting family issues, stress and domestic troubles happening through the years.

 

Weather

Clear night but windy. It was a cold spring night for October. Waning moon, three days prior to the Quarter Moon. Temperature in the building; Downstairs cold, upstairs they had a heater on in the lounge. All rooms had a different degree of warmth.

 

Reported Activity

Two weeks prior to making contact with us, the Susan told us of two occurrences happening to her recently. She awoke in the early hours to get up and have a drink from the kitchen, then went back to bed. She lay on her back for a couple of hours unable to sleep. Her arms were resting on her chest and she was looking straight ahead over the top. She then watched as the door slowly opened and she heard a murmured chattering and footsteps coming towards her bed, then out the door again. The door suddenly slammed immediately after. Not surprisingly, she was quite alarmed, frightened and leapt out of bed running to her father’s room. Michael tells us that she was in a terrible state, could not catch her breath and was in a state of sheer panic and so shocked she could not talk. This has happened twice, about 3 months apart.

Susan also described seeing a white light going past her bedroom one time which terrified her and an unseen presence that frequents her room. Sometimes the presence is seen or felt, at the same time the door bell rings in the early hours. She also described a few incidents of possible sleep paralysis and the sensation of being held down in her bed.

We were told a story of how his good friend and business associate, John, fell off a balcony and split his head open (on a Tuesday), fell into a coma, and died on the following Friday. His funeral was at 10.30am on the next Tuesday. For the past 3 years a remote door bell has been mysteriously rung. When the door has been answered, there is always no one there. Even more strange is the fact that the bell plays a tune that is not programmed into the alarm. The alarm only plays one thing, a series of two notes, high and low, in a traditional ‘bing bong’ manner. The times that have caused confusion are when it suddenly plays a tune. Also, the unexplained ring tune is always in a different sound of what the alarm usually used. Fours weeks after the man died, every Tuesday and Friday the bell rings the tune and always at around 2 or 3 am in the morning. The father believes it may be his old mate John keeping in contact with him. This has happened for 3 years.

On the day of the funeral, Michael, usually late for events and running late for this one, suddenly heard the door chime at about 10.20am. He personally feels it was John telling him to ‘Hurry up and get here!’. Which he did, as the funeral was just up the road from the house. There have been times when the door bell has rung at a ridiculously loud volume, louder than it is made to go. There is no volume dial on the alarm. It has a set volume and tone. One incident described the door bell being rung, but sounding as a broken, sickly and distorted version of the unexplained tune. They feel that this is not his mate John and is something else trying to replicate his friend’s tune.

Mark tested front door button and it went off at simple two-tone ring on closer inspection the receiver alarm was basic budget set-up with no dials or buttons just a built-in speaker.

The young son, reported seeing a dark shadow walk past the kitchen in the dark whilst staying up late watching TV one night. Later, when asked about its appearance Peter described it as being ‘darker than dark’, which the others thought was an unusual description for someone so young to use.

A few months ago, around 4.50am, Michael awoke and went to the toilet, on returning his son called out “Dad, did you hear that noise?” Michael did hear the sound but dismissed it due to being so tired. It was described as a high-pitched creaking, screeching sound. Michael went back to bed and was lying there. Soon after, a strange and very pungent odour filled the room. Michael describes it as being like the ionisation of air or perhaps Sulphuric Acid.

Being a light sleeper he lay there for a few hours, unable to sleep. Suddenly he saw a ‘figure’ appear in front of the bed. No detail, but hunched over ‘like an old man’ and made up of a ‘diffused dirty white coloured light’ with a ‘very pale blue aura around it’. It was making the high-pitched creaking sound he had heard before as it ‘floated’ in front if him and moved towards the window. Understandably, Michael ‘freaked out’ and the figure disappeared. He could not sleep for the rest of that morning. The entity gave off its own light but did not light up any of the room around it. Heavy footsteps have also been heard walking through the lounge on a regular basis. Even stranger, the sounds are of hard shoes on a solid wood floor. Unusual because the lounge is fully carpeted and has many rugs laid on it. ‘Shuffling along the carpet’ sounds have been heard late at night. The sounds of ‘furniture being moved around the room’. Again the movement is that of something connecting with a wooden floor. When they get up to check, nothing has been moved. All again at around 3am. The boyfriend, who turned up around 9.30pm, stated during this interview of being woken by the loud sound of timber falling somewhere in the house, again hitting a wooden floor.

A young couple was once seen sitting on their couch. According to Michael, they were in their early 20s and looked completely ‘real’ and solid at the time. The man was sitting on the couch, while the girl sat on the arm. Michael remembers her being ‘rather attractive’. When asked if he thought they could see him and whether or not they were aware of his presence, Michael stated that they both were looking straight at him. They then disappeared. Some time after, an old man with a thick nose and a very grumpy looking face, was seen sitting on the same lounge chair staring directly at Michael. He too suddenly disappeared. He told his ex partner of the incident and on describing the male’s facial features. She got up and started going through her old photo albums, coming back with a photo. It was of her grandfather who had died around 40 years ago. Michael’s description had fitted him perfectly.

An old gang acquaintance of Michael’s who died, a Maori man called Simon who was murdered by another gang member, made an appearance at the house one time at Christmas. He was wearing jeans and faded maroon coloured jacket. Around 6am in the morning, Michael awoke to see Simon standing in his bedroom’s doorway. Simon spoke and said ‘I’ve come to wish you a Merry Christmas’.

Michael explained that this communication wasn’t by mouth and that he heard Simon’s voice enter his head. The apparition then vanished. Doors have been heard slamming. Dark shadows have been seen walking from Michael’s room to the daughters’.

Screeching noises are heard coming from walls.

Cigarette smoke is sometimes detected in Michael’s room by both Michael and Peter.

The family has now been around all this activity for so long now they just accept it and try to live around it.

The daughter now wears ear plugs to bed so she can sleep. Most of the activity happens in either the lounge and in the two upstairs bedrooms and always between 2am and 4am in the early hours. The old family cat that lives there with them, is undisturbed by the activity and never seems to react or get frightened by the regular occurrences.

 

Our initial feelings about the house

Heather – “Downstairs felt totally different to the upstairs rooms. You could sense an odd feeling different from the basement as you walked up the stairs to where the family spent most of their time. There were about a dozen rooms, with a carport and old bus out the back.”

Barbara – “Downstairs felt fine and was relatively clean and tidy. Upstairs was quite eerie. The layout of the house was strange and there had obviously been alterations made for the lifting of the house which left odd little alcoves at one end of the lounge and at the other end of the house where the toilet was only accessible by walking through Michael’s bedroom and wardrobe. The house was quite cluttered in places and the kitchen was old but had all the cupboards removed. The upstairs part of the house (apart from Susan’s bedroom ) was in need of a little TLC particularly Michael’s room where the dust was quite thick in places.”

Mark – “On entering the house I had a strange unexplainable sense. It felt odd to me, a weird atmosphere. I don’t know what it was. It was just an odd unnerving feeling. Upstairs was in complete contrast. It was comfy and warm. Nice plush leather lounge suite to sink into and rugs underfoot. Rather cluttered in areas and in the process of some ongoing renovation, but an OK feeling home when you got to the top of the stairs. Michael is a hoarder of books, the young son’s a budding Heavy Metal guitarist and the daughter has the cleanest most Gothic / Vampire inspired and stylishly decorated bedroom in the house. All up an interesting multi personality house that perfectly suited those that live in it.”

Michael’s Bedroom

Heather – “The father’s room stood out the most to me, it was claustrophobic. The room felt small and damp. The ceiling seemed lower than the rest of the rooms in the house. The atmosphere in the father’s room kept changing, at times it felt normal and then other times it felt like it had something to say. The temperature would drop when I was alone in there.”

Barbara – “In Michael’s bedroom, Karen joined me for an EVP session and I recorded some odd noises which could be stomach noises but this seems odd as it only starts when I ask a question. Also usually when we catch stomach noises we say so for the recorder and in this, neither of us says anything, which to me indicates we didn’t notice any noises at the time. It is also interesting that about three minutes later Karen asks “Was that your stomach” and when I say “No” she tells me she heard a growl!”

Susan’s Bedroom

Heather – “The daughter’s room had a ‘Goth’ appearance to it, but the atmosphere was lighter than the rest of the house.”

Barbara – “Susan’s room was painted red and decorated with many Goth styled statues and figurines and was obviously in better condition and much cleaner and tidier than the rest of the upstairs area. She claims she has problems in her bedroom. She will wake at night because she hears noises in the lounge and has had her door opened after hearing noises. Something whispering and chattering enters her room and stays there for several minutes before leaving and closing the door behind it! She also feels like something is watching her at night.”

Peter’s Bedroom

This room was locked during this session so we didn’t get to look in.

Kitchen and Lounge

Barbara – “The first time we went there I thought the lounge, kitchen and Michael’s room all had a similar feel to them. I felt slightly on edge in those rooms and felt like there was something off with the energy in those rooms (like something had happened there and there was residual negative energy still in those areas). This feeling was stronger in the lounge but to me was also evident in Michael’s room and the kitchen. I do think the alterations that have been made to the house are affecting the energy flow of the home and this will be accentuating the accumulation of energies in that house.”

 

What needs to be done?

Heather – “I think we only touched the tip of the iceberg as we were there only for three hours. There seems to be a lot more to be found out about the history of the house and the area, and we need more time to investigate this. We need more time to explore the house to see if we can record, see or hear any of the doors being opened or closed, dragging furniture on wooden floors in the lounge or footsteps in the lounge. White lights moving across the bottom of Susan’s bed, dark shadows at the end of Michael’s bed, moving through his bedroom wall to Susan’s room. Peter said he saw something in the kitchen that was darker than dark. The other son (who doesn’t live there) could smell smoke in the downstairs bedroom, which I think we all could smell. He heard the doorbell ring on a Wednesday instead of the usual Tuesday or Friday, as mentioned by Michael that it was his friend John saying hello.”

Mark – “Reading through the huge list of activity we knew we had a massive case ahead of us with a lot of areas to cover. The only way to do this would be to spend a night (or more) continuously monitoring the entire house. I.R video cams and a multi camera DV-R system rigged in every room. Audio recorders placed in every room too. I would like to try a few more trigger objects as our time for this session was limited. A return visit was definitely needed.”

Barbara – “Lots more cameras, trigger tests, infra-red cameras, stay the night.”

 Conclusions

Heather – “I thought the investigation when well, Michael reminded me of an old uncle that would tell war stories at family gatherings. The family was obviously concerned with what has been going on in their home and are looking for peace of mind. There was definitely something going on in the house, particularly Michael’s room seemed to be the centre point for it all. Not sure if this is because he has the ability to see and relate to individuals from the other side. Whatever it is or who, they seem to follow him through the house and have made connections with his children. There is so much more to find out, that this feels like it’s just the beginning of something that needs further investigation.”

Barbara – “I felt the investigation went really well . The lounge, kitchen and Michael’s room all had an eerie feel about them. Susan’s bedroom had a different sense about it. I felt it was a negative energy in there (like there was something wrong but I can’t think why!). The whole upstairs feels like something wrong with it. I think that if the stories are accurate that the house may be haunted. However we did not witness or hear any activity so could not confirm how accurate their stories are. It is hard to ascertain if the reported haunting is intelligent or residual although due to the lack of interaction between most of the reported happenings and the occupants of the house it sounds as though it is more likely to be residual. The head of the household seems to be a gifted psychic and as such would attract spirit activity. He has seen many full apparitions in various forms from solid human forms to white glowing apparitions and dark shadows. Some of these apparitions have communicated with him and others not. However Michael’s apparent gift to see spirits and have receive occasional messages from them indicates that there is also some intelligent spirit activity around him. Unfortunately there is also a nasty side to the activity with all members of the household having difficulty with noises in the lounge at night. These noises have been described as footsteps on a hard floor, a noise like someone stumbling, rustling and scuffling and the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. Upon investigating these noises nothing is ever found.”

Please refer to session two of this New Lynn investigation.

One comment

  1. Nazeema Banu

    Very interesting account. Enjoyed reading it and I sympathise with the occupants
    having lived (and survived) a horribly haunted apartment that I had bought brand new in the late 80s in Singapore. I only found out much later that the whole area had been one large cemetery which had been quietly cleared in the small island to make way for these lovely apartments.

    I was forced to live in the apartment for 5 years as any apartment bought from
    the government at a subsidised rate cannot be sold for 5 years. I had a baby
    and a toddler and a live-in household help from another country and all of
    the disturbances began in the maid’s room as she was very strongly mediumistic
    which I did not quite understand at that time. There was quite a large group
    of spirits haunting the place and some were very sinister and angry compared
    to the others. I was quite mediumistic as well and could sense some of them
    and communicate with some of them in my sleep.

    The maid’s room was the worst affected and there would be carpentry work going on the whole night above her room and the door to her room would open
    at exactly 2.00 am every night. A lot of the activities would begin at 2.00 am.
    The worst thing about the whole thing was that both the maid and I were
    very ill and had the same kind of symptoms which stumped the family
    doctor who was treating us. He once came to my house to treat me as I
    was quite ill and told me ‘ don’t quote me -but there is something very wrong
    with this house – either move away or send back the maid as she seems to be
    the trigger for the whole thing’. He was the only one to sense that something supernatural was seriously affecting us.

    I could not convince my husband and my parents that what was happening in
    the house was not something we imagined. My husband used to travel for work quite often during the period and the whole house will become visibly darker and start playing up the moment he left for the airport. The maid would then be knocked
    out for some reason and they would have some fun with me as I had a toddler and
    a baby to handle. Terrible years but I survived them and we eventually sold the apartment five years later. I was ill for many, many years. It took me a long time
    to recover from the whole thing. I promised my boys that I will write down the whole account as a story but I never did. I used to entertain family and friends with the whole story and everybody used to enjoy it as it was a first person account. :)

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