Ghosts & The Supernatural – Many people ask how I got started in the paranormal investigating business and are interested in my first cases. Below is a blast from the past, a case from my early career in paranormal investigating.
“I See Dead People” is the famous line from Sixth Sense. I do believe there are psychics, sensitives or if you want to call them intuitives that exist in this world. Of course, there are a lot of fraudulent psychics that eye only one thing and that is all mighty dollar sign. A real sensitive will assist others in a time of need and do not ask payment for their services. This Sunday, August 19, 2007, I would meet up with a real sensitive. Her name is Sally Howard. She has been aware of presences throughout her whole life. I gave Shannon ‘Ms. Macabre’ McCabe, President of H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California a call and briefed her about my upcoming meeting with Sally. Shannon was quite intrigued and told me to find out her story. I called Shannon on Saturday, while she was conducting the 2nd Tour of Haunted Places in Placerville. She had a good turn out with 33 members showing up. Her core members: Michele Stump, Jennifer Baca, Chris Grissom, Cherie Vincent, John Wachter aka Vlawde and Michelle Paykel were ready and willing to assist Shannon throughout this full day tour. Shannon told me that when she met up with everyone at the 400 Main Street Parking Garage, the HPI members were eagerly waiting for the tour to start! From the enthusiasm in Shannon’s voice, I could tell everyone was having a blast, but my thoughts were about the sensitive I would meet on Sunday. Why is it that some people can sense ghosts, while people like myself can’t? Yes, I have seen a full body apparition with my own eyes, I have been touched by an entity, but it’s not because I am a sensitive, I was just fortunate to see and feel these entities after 40 some investigations into the paranormal.
As I drove over to Shari’s Restaurant in Greenhaven to meet up with Sally Howard, I was greeted with a big smile. Sally has a long story and it seems like ghosts have followed her throughout her whole life. It appears that Sally’s whole family may be intuitive and that the deceased members of her family come to visit often. Let’s start from the beginning and follow Sally’s life to her present day home in Greenhaven.
Home in Cleveland, Ohio:
When Sally Howard stayed in Cleveland, she would visit with her sister a lot. Her sister was obsessed with the movie The Exorcist and carried around The Exorcist book with her at all times. Her sister dabbled with the Ouija Board and she also felt like she had a psychic connection with Sally. Sally noticed that her sister’s personality started changing. It had seemed that her sister was becoming meaner. One night Sally experienced the bed that she was lying on moving. Another night, Sally hears a gun go off, she runs into her sister’s room and learns later that her sister for no apparent reason fired that gun. When asked initially why she fired it, she had said that she accidentally fired the gun, her sister later confesses to her that she fired the gun purposely, but didn’t understand why she fired it. Sally’s sister started becoming more macabre as there was now a sculptured snake and a dagger displayed in the house. Then the final night that Sally stayed with her sister, the most strangest thing occurred. Sally was sitting on the couch, she was paralyzed, unable to move, she looks towards her sister’s room and sees an odd man-beast. An entity with the body of a man and a head of a goat. This goat head demon then slithers to the floor and starts crawling. Sally starts praying in her mind and the man-beast vanishes. When Sally relates this story to me, she is filled with positive energy. Perhaps it was her robust positive energy that vanquished the negative energy of this creature. She never encountered the entity again, but she has never been back to her sister’s house again either.
Home in Pittsburg, California:
Sally is visited by her 10 year old deceased cousin, that appears like an angelic figure to her. Sally is lying on her bed and for no apparent reason falls off the bed, she looks up and her 10 year old cousin is looking down at her. It almost appears that her deceased family members watch over Sally and perhaps they are the ones that keep the goat head demon at bay. Perhaps Sally was pushed off the bed by some negative unseen force? Sally believes that her deceased Aunt Lorraine once jabbed her on the leg, causing her leg to bleed. Sally was talking somewhat negatively about her aunt Lorraine and shortly afterward she felt the jab on her leg. Aunt Lorraine was sort of an oddfellow, she had one long toe nail, which became a family conversation piece. Could it have been Aunt Lorraine’s toenail that jabbed Sally in her leg?
Grandmother’s Home in Pennsylvania:
Sally said that her grandmother’s home is definitely haunted. The old furnace shutter door constantly opens and shuts on its own accord. The dining room light switch would come off and on. Silverware around the house is always being moved around or repositioned. Uncle Bobbie, who is deceased makes his presence known in the house. Her Uncle ‘Happy’ aka Harold was once visited by his deceased ex-wife that stood on the side of his bed watching him. Uncle Happy appears to be a sensitive because he will never forget seeing the ghostly presence of two twins that appeared before him, looking down at him from the top of the stairs. The two twins he finds out died in a fire in that home.
Home on V Street in Sacramento:
While Sally stayed at her home on V Street, her grandmother astrally projected herself to Sally’s home. Sally saw her grandmother fully dressed and she just peered at Sally. Sally’s grandmother was alive at this period of time. Another night Sally had her family come over and the brass lamps were turning off and on by themselves. The neighbor heard footsteps on the stairwell and there was no one there. When the occurrences happened, Sally felt something telling her that it was only her deceased father trying to communicate with her. A lot of strange happenings occurred at this V Street apartment, even some outside influences happened here. One day a frantic neighbor came over and told her that he was cursed by the Oakdale Witch, he went to use Sally’s restroom and an unseen force pushes him into Sally’s bathtub. The neighbor felt it was the Oakdale Witch that caused him to be pushed into the bathtub, because he constantly ridiculed this residential witch. During Christmas time in her home on V Street, she snapped a picture of her two children by the Christmas tree and a fast moving orb was captured on her regular camera.
Home on 26th Street in Sacramento:
While Sally lived at this location, she was constantly being harassed by the Church of Scientology members. They were trying to persuade Sally to join their cult. After being mentally exhausted hearing the ranting of the Scientologists, she went to bed and instantly started astral projecting…leaving her body, when all of a sudden there was a loud banging on the door, she went back into her body and looked to see who was knocking, only to discover that there was no one at her door. When Sally was telling me this story, her daughter calls her on her cell, only to tell her that the microwave almost blew up. Sally says that it’s weird, but when she relates her stories, sometimes bad things start happening and here was a good example of that.
Home in Greenhaven:
When Sally was merely dating her ex-husband, she would have her ex-husband sleep in her son’s room. Her ex-husband had a spectacular evening one night in Sally’s son’s room when he woke up to see an entity standing over him, watching him. He had a hard time getting the image out of his mind. One day, he was looking through Sally’s photo albums and came across the entity that was looking over him. It was Sally’s grandfather! When he saw the picture, he looked as white as a sheet and yelled out…”That’s him, that’s him! That’s the ghost that was looking down at me!”
Sally has felt the presence of her grandfather, she has even smelled his scent in the house. Another odd thing that occurred in this home is one night at 2am, the whole bedroom lighted up. Her bedroom was as bright as sunshine and Sally actually got scared. When she felt scared the light in her bedroom diminished and everything went back to normal.
Sally still is being watched in this Greenhaven home, at times she hears a penny drop for no apparent reason and one night her deceased grandmother held her hand, while she laid in bed.
I felt like a prosecutor as I repeatedly would ask certain questions over again. I was looking for any inconsistencies in Sally’s stories. There was none, all of the stories were reiterated again as if the stories were playing back on a cassette tape. Sally has an amazing life and when I was sitting next to her, it’s almost like her aura engulfs my own aura. I could feel this surge of positive energy engulfing my own energy. Before, I met up with Sally, I was still tired from a block party I attended last night with my romance novelist friend Gloria Ramos, in which there was a large assortment of food, live music, jacuzzi retreat and every kind of drink under-the-sun. When they had the joke contest at this block party, I went up and told two of my best jokes and won a huge patio umbrella. This block party lasted late into the evening and I still felt drained on Sunday, when I met up with Sally. But, as we sat together and I wrote her story, her energy seemed to boost my own energy, there was something definitely different about Sally and I believe it’s because she is an intuitive. I can only wish I could see with her eyes, because this is one woman that has a foot in our own reality and another foot into the world of the paranormal.
As I finished this story, I got a call from Michele Stump, HPI Researcher. Michele is looking into the possible residual hauntings of 25 victims of serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng in Calaveras County. Michele asks…”are you up for this investigation?” My answer….”why not?” How odd, that I would get a phone call about this investigation, because I had just finished watching the movie with Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, called ‘Vacancy’, which is loosely based on the Leonard Lake/Charles Ng murders. There are always an abundance of investigations with HPI, my job is never done.
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations
