Okay, ghost hunting aficionados, let’s jump into the HPI time machine and go back to the year 2009. On October 3, 2009, Saturday, I went hunting for the ghost of the San Francisco Zodiac. I kid you not, read on….
October 3, 2009, Saturday: A couple of days ago, HPI Paranormal Investigator Chantal Apodoca tells me that she has a connection in Napa. The connection is Julianna Fox, former resident of Napa. Julianna would be visiting Napa this weekend, because of the Cajun Festival that is going on. As we arrived and parked at Coombs and Fifth Street, Julianna pulls up in a hot red Tacoma convertible with California Love by 2Pac playing loudly.
Julianna thanked Chantal and I for doing this preliminary scouting mission. Julianna feels she may be a sensitive and thinks she may have seen the ghost of the San Francisco Zodiac at Lake Berryessa in Napa County.
A Little History of the Zodiac at Lake Berryessa.
Students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepherd set up a picnic along the shoreline of Lake Berryessa. Bryan and Cecilia were lying on the ground in a romantic embrace, when Cecelia noticed a strange man lingering by some trees. The next time she looked he was closer and now wearing a bizarre executioner’s hood. He had a white crossed circle stitched in front of his black outfit. When the Zodiac confronted the students, he held them at gunpoint. He promised them all he wanted was their money and he would leave. Bryan and Cecilia were bound with clothes line. When they finally thought that their assailant was about to leave, they were attacked with a foot long knife. Bryan survived the attack and Cecilia died from her wounds. The Zodiac etched a message on their vehicle proving that he was responsible for the murder. The date of this savage attack was on September 27, 1969.
I must say that the Zodiac terrorized the bay area and to this day, no one can forget this serial killer. As I talk about the Zodiac, I notice that Julianna is shaking, she does not want her picture taken for this article, but she wants to take us to the location where she saw a black hooded ghostly figure walking the shore of Lake Berryessa and she wants to show us tonight! Note: Julianna is the friend of one of Chantal’s cousins.
To calm down Julianna we surveyed the Cajun Festival and talked with people like Rachelle Abisia who is the friend of the owner of Uncle Willies Restaurant, where they serve great BBQs, Cajun flavored catfish. This restaurant is in Oakland and by promising we will visit this restaurant, she allowed us to talk with her boyfriend Jason Smith who may have had an Old Hag Syndrome experience. Here is Jason’s story. Jason felt an entity enter his body and saw 3 entities fly around his head. His head board slammed against the wall and the blinds in his bedroom started shaking. This happened in Vista, California. When he moved to Vallejo, California the entities followed him. His body felt possessed and his heart felt like it was about to explode. There were times he had difficult time breathing. Could Jason have experienced the Old Hag Syndrome? Who knows? What is good is that he hasn’t had anymore paranormal experiences for a while. He has never experienced anything in Napa.
By this time, I worked up an appetite and Chantal, Julianna and I dined at the Small World Cafe and Restaurant on beef gyros, chased down by Cokes. Great food and it’s located at: 928 Coombs Street. We talked with some of the customers and one customer named Daniel tells us that there is a private home in Napa in which a family of three live. A mother, father and 3 year old son. One day, the sister of the mother stayed at the home with her husband. The sister’s husband was working on the roof of the house and he was pushed and fell off the roof. The next day there was writing on the shower wall that read: “Evil 2”. The house is reputed to be very haunted.
Daniel also says that at the Blue Plate Diner he saw a strange man that almost had backward feet, walking crooked and whispering to himself. As he watched this strange man, he was astonished to see the man disappear behind an electrical box. Daniel went to investigate and the man completely disappeared. What is even odder is that the day and time he saw this man, 2 women in 2 different homes in Napa witnessed a dark fog that entered their homes.
After talking with Daniel, I am beginning to believe that Napa is very haunted. People at the festival say that the Yountville graveyard is very haunted and sometimes people have seen flying orbs around the tombstones. One lady who refused to be identified claims to have seen a flying man’s head hover over the tombstones. Mitch A. Pilling tells us that in 1973 he was at the cemetery and heard the Allman Brothers playing from his vehicle. He thought this was strange, because the 8 Track was ready to play, but the car engine was not on and there was no reason that the 8-Track should be playing.
A lady named Leslie Hodges tells us that 32 years ago, she had a home birth and the child that was born upon her, died within 5 days. Two weeks later, a huge gust of wind swept through the house. She believes that wind was her child. The child was named Halona. In American Indian that means ‘happy fortune’. Leslie believes Halona is her guiding angel now.
Sally Baldwin ran up to us and had no paranormal stories, but wanted to explain how much she was enjoying the festival! With the Cajun music playing, the atmosphere was truly festive. The Cajun bands deliver a unique Louisiana sound that can’t be matched anywhere in the world.
As we continue our preliminary scouting mission, we learn that on 813 Main Street a woman was murdered. Her ghost still haunts this building location. We visit the Napa River Inn that was built in 1884. Mr. Hatt was the owner of this old hotel and his son who died unexpectantly haunts one of the rooms of this hotel.
It was now time for Julianna to take us to the location where she saw the Zodiac’s ghost. The sun was down and there was a full moon in the night sky. Chantal and I conducted EVP work and took many photographs without any results. During our investigation Julianna tumbles and collapses. As I pick up Julianna, I asked her if she was okay and what caused her to fall like that. Julianna claims that something briskly passed through her. She felt some kind of paranormal force entered her body quickly and exited. If this is so, could it be that Julianna is truly a sensitive and picks up the other side, while non-sensitives like Chantal and I, feel nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Also, if there as an entity that passed through her body, could it have been the Zodiac? When we drop Julianna off at her car, she said that when she passed out, she saw the image of a large knife.
Final Note: Of all the people that we interviewed today, two people claim they have seen dark mists along the shores of Lake Berryessa. Has the Zodiac returned in ghostly form? Well, I would love to know. So readers, if you ever plan to do some camping at Lake Berryessa, please let me know if you run into the Zodiac. I would love to give him a one-way ticket to the depths of Hades. Note: Shannon ‘Ms. Macabre’ McCabe conference calls Chantal and I, while in Napa and wanted a full briefing. Our briefing ended with my words: “No Shannon, we did not find the ghost of the Zodiac.”
By Paul Dale Roberts aka The Demon Warrior
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
