Motor City Ghost Hunters

Date:  December 16, 2011
Time:  7 PM to 1 AM
Investigators:  John, Patti, Cathy, Jason, Scott and Joe

Weather:  30 degrees, light snow       

Structural: 2-story condo, with basement, built in 2003

 This investigation was a re-visit to clients that MCGH had investigated for in the past, but this was at a new location.  Prior to moving there in 2011, the clients resided in Waterford, where they experienced a variety of activity that prompted them to contact MCGH.  The team investigated at their home in January 2011.

Activity has now picked up in their new home, which is a condo in Pontiac.  The clients have experienced several things, such as hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, which the one cliet then peeked out and saw the figure of a woman, having graphic and realistic nightmares, seeing shadows, and hearing unexplained noises, such as the sounds of utensils moving in the kitchen. 

The clients are not the only ones experiencing things in this location.  The client’s mother was staying at the home and saw a kitchen utensil fly out of the lasagna tray and land on the floor.  Their young granddaughter is also experiencing several things.  For one, she says she is “seeing the monster again.”  She is afraid to sleep in her bedroom, so she sleeps in a recliner at the end of her grandparents’ bed.  She was pulled out of her chair while she was sleeping.  The granddaughter claims the monster pulled her out of the bed.  (It is interesting to note that the female client was having a nightmare at the exact time her granddaughter was pulled out of bed.)  The granddaughter complained of her arm hurting the next morning.  Also, the male client was watching his granddaughter one day and found her sippy cup in the dark hallway by the back door.  When he inquired about it, she told him the monster told her to put it there.

An interesting note to point out is that the condo complex, in which the clients reside, is newly built in the last 10 years.  It sits on the previous site of the Clinton Valley Center (CVC).  CVC, once known as the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, opened its door in August 1878.  It was the second state mental institution authorized by Michigan Legislature.  At the beginning of its life, the mental institution was treating 222 patients, according to the State Historic Preservation Office (http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/10903.htm).  Eventually the institution was renamed from the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane to Pontiac State Hospital, in 1911, before being renamed Clinton Valley Center in 1973.  The institution housed more than 3,000 patients during the 1950s, according to Asylum: Pontiac’s Grand Monument from the Gilded Age, a book written by Bruce J. Annett, Jr.  The State of Michigan closed CVC’s doors in 1997, eventually demolishing the building in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Valley_Center).  Before its demolition, the site was considered a state historic site, named so in September 1974, and on the National Register, listed in March 1981 (http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/10903.htm).

The clients’ home sits on what used to be the front lawns of the Clinton Valley Center.

 The team arrived at 7 P.M. and met with the clients for a walk-through of the location.  While standing in the kitchen with the clients, Cathy reported feeling a pressure on her right side, almost as if something was pressing down on her.  She was standing in front of the back hallway where the client found his granddaughter’s sippy cup.  During the walk-through, while standing in the master bedroom, John saw a shadow run into the corner of the granddaughter’s bedroom.  It then came out and moved down the hallway to the stairs.

After the walk-through, the team set-up the DVR system, static video cameras, recorders, etc. and then met for a team meeting.

At 8:45 PM, Cathy and Scott went upstairs to investigate, while John & Joe went to the basement.  Jason remained in the garage to watch the DVR.

While Cathy and Scott were upstairs, they began in the master bedroom for an EVP session.  During this time, they heard what sounded like movement/noises down the hallway in one of the back rooms.  Scott moved down the hallway to sit, commenting that it had a “different feeling.”  They dismissed the noises they were hearing as normal house-settling noises.  Nothing else occurred.

John and Joe began investigating in the basement, and John sensed a male spirit in his mid to late 20s.  He described him as tall and slim, with a long face.  He believes it might be possibly trying to lure the granddaughter near the basement steps, which are located off of the back hallway where she placed her sippy cup.  John and Joe also both report seeing shadow movement in the basement.

At 9:40 PM, the team took a break and to re-group.

At 10 PM, MCGH resumed investigating.  Patti and Scott headed to the basement to investigate, while John and Joe went upstairs to investigate.  Cathy and Jason remained in the garage to watch the DVR system.

In the basement, Patti and Scott reported no unusual EMF spikes and the temperature remained at a steady 69 degrees.  Things seemed pretty quiet, so they decided to use the Ovilus with digital display.  Most of the words in the Ovilus didn’t make sense, although some did.  When they asked if it was male or female, it answered “George.”  When they asked why it was here/if it was looking for someone, it said “mother.”  Other words the Ovilus said were: gender, tide, key, stone, cupcake, gravity, work, vast, couch.

John and Joe began investigating on the second floor.  John began in the play room, and Joe went in the granddaughter’s bedroom.  At 10:05 PM, Joe moved down the hallway to check the master bedroom.  At this time, John reported seeing a small shadow enter the granddaughter’s bedroom.  Joe offered to give the “spirit child” pony rides and then tried to play hide and seek.  John believes the little girl’s name is Samantha Amanda, approximately 5- to 6-years-old, with blond hair and blue eyes, and wearing a pink flannel little mermaid nightgown.  He believes she died in a fire in the area around 2004, that she wants to be the granddaughter’s friend, and that they play together running back in forth down the hallway.  During this time, two EVPs were caught (see below).  Also, at 10:37 PM, one of the recorders shut itself off, even though the batteries were at 50% power.

At 10:45 PM, the team took a break and met in the garage.  They decided that Patti would go upstairs, while John, Joe and Scott would conduct an EVP session with the clients in the living room; Cathy and Jason would continue watching the DVR system in the garage.

At 11 PM, the team continued investigating.

Patti headed upstairs where she experienced no EMF spikes or anything out of the ordinary.  Because it was so quiet, she joined the team downstairs in the living room at 11:30 PM.

In the living room, the team began using the Ovilus, which seemed to be corresponding with the clients’ questions.  It said “Vern,” which is one of the client’s grandfathers.  It also said “adultery,” and the client said that his grandfather was an adulterer, which caused a lot of problems with property down south and who of his descendants has claim to the property.  Other words said by the Ovilus were: there, gender, index, comfort, question, while, stone, wonder, end, gender, question, allow, tide, work, key, stone, end, building, Mother, vast, cupcake, indicate, paranoid, wheat, rot, alone, dinner, key, gravity, quiet, while, Calcium, couch, manual, stop, seek.  Also, at 11:59 PM, one of the recorders stopped recording.  When turned back on, it did not have a low battery.

At 12:30 AM, the team stopped investigating and began to tear down equipment and clean up.  While the clients seemed to feel they were communicating with a family member, John asked if they still wanted to get the property and themselves smudged to cleanse them from any negative energy. They did, so John smudged to property, the clients, and the team.

The team left at 1 AM.