Apparently, voice recorders can pick up voices that are not limited to the “living…”
TranscriptionGear.com recently donated a set of Olympus DS500s to The Ghosts of Ohio. One of our employees, Wendy, is a longtime member of this group. She’s been on at least 100 hunts at private homes, businesses and historical buildings.
The donated recorders were used at the South Main Elementary School in Bowling Green, Ohio. The South Main Elementary School was built in 1890 and is described as a “hotbed of unexplained activity.” The additional recorders enabled every member on the investigation team to use one and take it home to review for evidence. Prior investigations had this task fall on one or two members of the group. Now, everyone is involved and more evidence can be captured.
The additional recorders have played a huge role in the group’s most recent hunt. Wendy believes her recorder picked up a disembodied voice at the old school. They are currently reviewing the file to confirm who the voice came from. She says, “We have a scientist in our group who is running the recording against the voice signatures that everyone in The Ghosts of Ohio has on file. This eliminates the voice coming from one of us. Once we do that, we might be faced with an unexplained voice in a room where 3 of us were sitting.”
Wendy has a lot of cool stories from past investigations, but her favorite is from Farnam Manor in Brecksville, Ohio. She recalls,
Our director, James A. Willis, and I were in the upstairs room of The Farnam Manor, in Brecksville OH. As we stood there in the dark, quietly talking about the investigation, I started smelling flowers. For a second, I thought the owner might’ve thrown flowers or potpourri on the fire burning in the kitchen. Once I realized it was February and there were no flowers, I noticed the smell was getting stronger until I could actually taste the alcohol of the perfume in the back of my throat. Jim was looking at me oddly, but saying nothing, so finally I asked, ‘Jim, do you not smell that?’ He admitted that he thought it was me. I replied, ‘Do you really think that I would break the cardinal rule of no scent during an investigation?’ He thought it was my deodorant when I moved my arm! I almost smacked him. We followed the scent trail through the room until it disappeared into a wall. He still tells this story when he gives presentations.
The Ghosts of Ohio does hunts when they are requested. But the group tries to do one or two paid hunts in the summer. Guests will be invited to these hunts and spend the night learning about paranormal research. You can sign up for their bi-monthly newsletter at www.ghostsofohio.org for more information. Or check out www.strangeandspookyworld.com to get Jim’s full schedule of presentations, coming to libraries all over the state of Ohio in the month of October.
