Article 1
Local ghost hunters investigate possible haunting in Franklin
By TOM VAN BUREN Staff writer for The Derrick/News Herald
Mark Fornof (left) and Ryan Ashbaugh, members of the Oil Region Paranormal Investigation Team, spend much of their free time investigating the possibility of paranormal activity in the area. Photo by Jerry Sowden
Lona Haggerty thinks she has a ghost on her hands.
The owner of Lona’s Restaurant and Pub and the adjacent Celtic Cafe in Franklin, Haggerty has found that strange occurrences that once were negligible — unexplained noises, a wine glass balancing at an unnatural angle — have escalated.
Glasses are breaking. Something is throwing silverware. Bottles slip from the shelves, as though pulled by some unseen force. The unexplainable activity has been increasing for nearly two months.
She doesn’t want rid of whatever spirit she believes may be haunting her business — she only wants answers. So she calls in a local team of specialists to investigate, to try and contact whatever spirit may be lurking on Liberty Street. She calls in the Oil Region Paranormal Investigation Team.
Worth the wait
The team’s first ghostly apparition was a twig.
In October 2007, only months after creating the group, founders Mark Fornof, Ryan Ashbaugh and Scott Robinson traveled to the Gettysburg battlefield in search of their first big find. The site of the 1863 Civil War battle has a reputation for being haunted, the spectres of soldiers supposedly still roaming across the open field and through the surrounding trees.
As the three men combed the woods, snapping pictures in the dark, Ashbaugh noticed a peculiar anomaly in some of his photographs — a glare of indeterminate shape appearing in the frame. The men focused their efforts on photographing the object. They were thrilled at discovering what seemed to be an apparition on their first major ghost hunt, in a reportedly haunted historical landmark.
It was too good to be true. After carefully inspecting the area, the group discovered that its anomaly was nothing more than an oddly shaped tree branch, reflecting the flash of the camera.
On the audio recording of their investigation, the men can be heard venting frustration with their first major disappointment. They were deflated and pessimistic.
And over the voices of the three men, a raspy fourth voice can be heard, whispering.
“We’re worth the wait,” it says.
There was no one else in sight.
Gathering evidence
The group, however, had no intention of simply waiting. In the two and a half years since, the team has completed more than 20 volunteer investigations of private homes, hotels, office buildings and cemeteries and grown from three to nine members of self-described skeptical believers.
“Being a good team means not being close-minded, but not being so open-minded that every single thing that happens, you say it’s a ghost,” Ashbaugh said.
The group prides itself on debunking supposed hauntings and finding rational explanations for unexplained occurrences. For every apparent sign of a haunting it finds, it tries to recreate the evidence itself to prove it occurred naturally.
“That’s what we find more often than not,” Ashbaugh said. “Squeaky floorboards, doors banging, neighbors. If you live in an apartment, it’s usually not haunted.”
Fornof agrees that finding conclusive evidence of a haunting is rare.
“It’s hard for us to say that something is really a ghost,” he said.
Whether or not the evidence is concrete, though, even a small amount of closure on a personal mystery comes as a relief for many clients. An April investigation caught video of two shadows racing through a Clarion woman’s living room, a phenomenon she had earlier described.
“I had never seen anything like it,” Ashbaugh said. He and Fornof say that despite her concern, the woman was relieved to find out that the shadows weren’t just a figment of her imagination.
Others aren’t as receptive to the idea — many investigations are canceled at the last minute by clients with cold feet.
“Everybody wants to tell us what’s wrong,” Fornof said, “but they don’t want to actually admit that there is that big of a problem that we have to come help them.”
Ghost caught on camera
Back at the Celtic, Lona Haggerty doesn’t deny that an abnormal force may be at work. In fact, she’s a vocal believer — and she may have caught her building’s renegade spirit on camera.
The night of Monday, Nov. 23, Haggerty and an employee were standing behind the bar in the restaurant section of the building when a glass shattered on the counter behind them. The footage taken from a nearby security camera shows the glass fall from outside of the frame, several feet over the women’s heads and behind their backs.
An inspection of the area shows that there was no shelf or ledge from which the glass would have fallen — it’s as though it materialized in the air, only to fall five feet and crash.
Haggerty says she only wants whatever may be there to know that she doesn’t pose a threat.
“I don’t want rid of it,” she says.
Which is why she called in the team, which admittedly isn’t in the business of catching ghosts — only finding them. At 11 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17, the team filters into Lona’s Restaurant and Pub, eager for the hunt.
Technology of ghost hunting
Steve Hamilton, a team member, sets up an infrared-equipped digital video camera on a tripod. It’s connected to two laptops that will record everything the camera captures — the infrared technology allows it to record in the dark. An LED flashlight is clipped to the brim of Hamilton’s baseball cap.
The team is nothing if not high-tech. Team members unpack duffel bags and foampadded cases loaded with audio recorders, digital cameras, electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors, infrared video cameras and laptop computers, all paid for personally by group members.
Larry Moyer, the team’s technology expert, sets up a command center in the kitchen while team members carry in hundreds of feet of cable on giant spools. The cables connect eight infrared cameras, positioned throughout the building, to a central computer that displays a live feed from each one.
Fornof sweeps the restaurant, taking readings on an EMF detector. He says that when spirits manifest themselves, they generate an electromagnetic field. Taking readings before the investigation will help determine if anything abnormal occurs.
Haggerty is closing the Celtic early so the team can investigate in silence. The crowd next door, suddenly aware of what’s going on, blasts the “Ghostbusters” theme song on the jukebox.
A mystery debunked
The team has solved its first mystery by 11:30 p.m.
Haggerty had reported that a paper towel dispenser in the men’s bathroom had been mysteriously dispensing towels, even when no one is around. On one occasion, she went back to find several feet of paper hanging out of the motion sensor-operated machine unprovoked.
Fornof and Ashbaugh go back to place a video camera and quickly return, laughing.
They had inadvertently triggered the dispenser’s motion sensor with their walkie talkie signals. With the county courthouse across the street, local police outside the restaurant are liable to unknowingly activate it as well when they pass through the area.
“I hate to debunk something so early,” Ashbaugh said. “But I guess we don’t need a camera back there, then.”
They place one anyway. Just in case. Midnight approaches — the investigation is about to begin.
(Editor’s note: An upcoming story will focus on the results of the team’s investigation.)
Article 2
Paranormal team finds no ghosts at local restaurant
(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series following a local team of ghost hunters as they investigate a possible haunting in Franklin.)
At 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17, the Oil Region Paranormal Investigation Team is just now positioning its cameras — but it began investigating the Celtic Cafe in Franklin long before setting foot inside.
Members typically compile information regarding the history of the location beforehand, looking in particular for a history of violence, fire, trauma or death. Older buildings such as this, which was erected in 1806, tend to be subjects of urban myth.
“We try to separate rumors from fact,” says team cofounder Mark Fornof. “(The Celtic) is the kind of building that people will say has been haunted for years, and all of a sudden, six people committed suicide there, and a prostitute lived there, or some girl whose husband was away at war.”
Coincidentally, in October 2009, the team investigated Hotel Tidioute, apparently a paranormal perfect storm — the alleged former home of a call girl who committed suicide when her lover was killed at war.
In her investigation of the Celtic, team member Mary Kay Bachman found no such unsavory history.
A bump in the night
Co-founder Ryan Ashbaugh helped create the group because of his fascination with the paranormal. He’s never experienced a definite haunting firsthand, though, and he hasn’t always been eager for his first.
“Anybody who tells you they aren’t able to be frightened on one of these is a complete liar,” Ashbaugh said. “The first couple we did, I told them right there, ‘If we see anything, I’m leaving’.”
Now Ashbaugh is in the bar area of the Celtic at 12:40 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18, in neartotal darkness. The team has split into two groups, the first of which has climbed up a drop-down ladder to investigate the storage rooms over the kitchen. The second team, led by Ashbaugh, is in the Celtic.
Team members take pictures and electromagnetic field (EMF) readings throughout the area. Beer bottles sit on the bar in tiny mounds of baby powder so that any phantom movements can be detected. Ashbaugh places a digital voice recorder on a cocktail table and begins an electronic voice phenomena (EVP) session.
EVP sessions are designed to record voices and paranormal sounds that may not be heard otherwise. Ashbaugh asks questions of whatever spirit may be present — is anything listening, could it show itself in some way, how long has it been there. He asks it to make a knocking sound of some kind to alert the team of its presence.
A loud bang is suddenly heard from the back room of the bar. Ashbaugh cautiously approaches the doorway.
“Not trying to sound bossy or anything,” he says, “but we don’t chase things. You need to come out into this area.”
The knocking stops. Nothing appears from the back room. The EVP session ends at 1:45 a.m.
Etch-a-Sketch EVP
At 2 a.m., the teams reconvene, swigging soda and coffee to stay awake. The team members all have regular jobs — co-founder Scott Robinson arrived at the investigation at midnight having come straight from work.
Ashbaugh sets up an Etcha Sketch on the restaurant bar, where owner Lona Haggerty says the most inexplicable activity occurs. Ashbaugh explains that an apparition could, in theory, manipulate the toy’s magnetic powder to convey a message.
“This has never worked once,” Ashbaugh adds.
The team splits up again, with Robinson and Fornof leading an investigation in the restaurant bar and dining room. They conduct another EVP session, inviting the supposed spirit to break a glass like it had before or make any attempt to communicate. Again, nothing appears to happen until the session ends at 3:30 a.m. The Etch-a-Sketch screen remains blank.
The team continues this pattern through the night, investigating the building roomby room in teams before finally leaving the Celtic at 4:30 a.m. without witnessing any major activity.
“This is how it goes,” Fornof said. “Sometimes our most boring investigations give us the best evidence.”
He has to be back at work in two and a half hours.
Not as seen on TV
Finding a ghost among the dozens of hours of audio and video recorded during the investigation is neither as fun nor as easy as it looks on television. After its night at the Celtic, the team has collected more than 40 hours of tape — not including audio.
“It’s grueling, and it’s punishment,” Fornof said. “Imagine staring at a picture that doesn’t move. They don’t show that on TV; they show them sitting there for about a minute.”
“They make it seem like three guys do it all,” Ashbaugh said. “And every five seconds, it’s, ‘Oh, look at this! And look at this’!”
Reality shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Paranormal State” suggest ghost hunting is a suspenseful thrill. And while they give the field publicity, the local team has found that the shows ultimately sully its reputation.
“We get so many people, friends, saying, ‘Take me on an investigation’,’” Fornof said. “They think it’s going to be like going to the haunted house at Halloween. But we’re serious about it. We take this seriously.”
Despite a booming national interest in the supernatural, such as with the 2009 film “Paranormal Activity,” many are apprehensive about expressing belief in ghosts. One client, after calling the team several times, finally invited members to investigate her home — on the condition they travel in one car and not wear clothing identifying themselves. She planned to tell any inquisitive neighbors that they were relatives from out of state.
Businesses often express a private interest but decline investigations for fear they might lose customers.
“A lot of people are worried about what the neighbors are going to think,” Fornof said.
End of an investigation
By Monday, Feb. 1, the team members have finally slogged through the hours of video and audio recordings they captured two weeks earlier. The research and preparation, the late hours scouring the restaurant for clues and two long, tedious weeks of studying video evidence have all built up to this moment: the final results of the investigation.
“We didn’t get a darn thing,” Fornof said.
The video, the audio, the Etch-a-Sketch, the baby power — no conclusive results. Fornof is disappointed, but then, this isn’t the first time the group has been let down.
“That’s just the way it goes, sometimes,” he said.
Haggerty isn’t surprised either, though she hasn’t given up on her ghost. The team will return to conduct a second investigation later this spring.
Until then, the group will continue combing the region for any evidence of ghouls, poltergeists and otherworldly apparitions. In the world of ghost-hunting, patience is a virtue — and as the team learned in the woods of Gettysburg more than two years ago, anything they find will be worth the wait.
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