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Toledo residents
investigate paranormal activity - 20081103
Written by Aya Khalil
People do not have to go to a made-up haunted house for Halloween
fright. They can visit a historical haunted building in the
Toledo area and get the chills.
Ohio Paranormal Research and Investigations
(OHPRI) is a nonprofit organization that investigates alleged
hauntings in the area.
“Everything’s normal until proven
paranormal,” the team members’ shirt states across
the back.
Formed in 2007, the organization enters private
homes and businesses to conduct lengthy investigations and
research to find the truth behind alleged haunting. The group
investigates for free.
They conducted an investigation at Mutz Pub
located in the main ballroom of The Oliver House at Maumee
Bay Brewery in Downtown Aug. 16, where they found uncanny
activity.
“There were dark shadows and anomalies
in the walkie-talkies,” said Don Collins, one of the
investigators.
On Sept. 20, the organization conducted a
follow-up investigation at The Oliver House to disprove “unofficial
evidence.”
The investigations usually begin at 9 p.m.
and end around 3 a.m., said Noah Ankney, director of OHPRI.
“We’re skeptic,” Ankney said.
“We try to disprove a lot of claims.”
The investigation began by setting surveillance
cameras in several parts of the pub. The recording showed
up right on a TV screen they set up in the dining hall.
The team used an electromagnetic field meter
(EMF) to measure electromagnetic radiation in the pub.
The eight team members split up into two groups,
electricity shut off, with nothing but flashlights and digital
voice recorders to record EVP, which is electronic voice phenomena,
Collins said.
The team asked questions such as, “How
are you?” “What are you doing here?” in the
digital recorders. This is so when they listen to the recordings
later on, they might hear some replies.
Throughout the investigation, the team members
were alert and tried to find any paranormal activities.
“We try to be scientific,” said
another team member, Kelly Scheufler. “We’d be so
excited, more than freaked out.”
Scheufler said she heard many “weird
things” at the Aug. 16 investigation. She heard someone
say “no” in the walkie-talkie and shadows in the
courtyard.
“We try to dismiss everything,”
she said. “It’s not menacing, but we feel there’s
something going on here.”
The Oliver House, built in 1859 as a hotel,
is the oldest building in Downtown Toledo that’s still
in use, said Justin Richard, the manager of the building.
“It’s one of the top 10 most haunted
buildings in the state of Ohio,” Richard said.
Richards said presidents have stayed at The
Oliver House, including Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
The building was designed by Isaiah Rogers,
a well-known architect, and was built and named by William
Oliver’s family, Richard said.
He said during the Spanish-American War, the
hotel was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
“It was used for so many different things,”
Richard said. “It was the only building in the area.”
There are many outlandish stories people have
heard about the building, according to the team members.
Some employees have seen a man in a blue suit
wandering around, while others have seen little children peeking
out of the windows from empty rooms.
After an investigation is complete, the members
record all the data and findings. They watch the video and
hear the recordings.
For the Sept. 20 investigation, Ankney said
the group had some experiences that were caught on video and
audio.
“We were breaking down for the night,
and a group of four of us were walking in Rockwell’s
[Steakhouse] and we were just about to make our way down into
the lobby when we stopped to talk about one of the bars. While
we were standing there, we heard a chair move within Rockwell’s,”
he said. “Later we found out that after we had left,
[Richard] went back to get his camera bag and when he went
to leave the aisle way he just walked through … had a
chair in the middle of it that he said moved at least seven
feet … On our video system about two hours in, one of
the artist rooms in the hallway near the lobby lights turned
on and off for no reason.”
Whether the alleged claims are true, OHPRI
respects what they’re investigating.
“[We are] respectful as possible to whatever
is here,” he said.
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