Private Home
Muscatine, IA

Rick was contacted by a couple from Muscatine who wanted MVP to come to their home to do an investigation. They had been experiencing unexplained noises, footsteps, voices, shadowy figures and lights turning off and on during the two years they have resided at the residence.

A crack team consisting of Rick, Becky, Stephanie, Bryce, Mike, and Char was assembled to investigate the home after the April Meeting on Saturday, April 26.

THE INTERVIEW

The MVP team arrived in Muscatine at 5:45 pm and proceeded to interview the clients and conduct a walk-thru.

Stephanie and Becky interviewed the couple and received the following information:

There are 4 occupants in the home, 3 downstairs, and 1 upstairs. The owners have lived in the 100 year old home about 3 years and have done some remodeling during that time. They believe there were 2 deaths in the home, one of the original builder, and one of a female owner who may have died from diabetes.

All members of the family have witnessed some kind of unexplained occurrences. The husband, wife, and their son reported hearing footsteps upstairs after the upstairs tenant had left for work at night. They have heard loud noises that sound like objects being dropped and kitchen chairs being slid across the floor. The son reported hearing music from upstairs when no one was home.

There is only one entrance to the upstairs apartment, a set of interior
steps, so the couple would be aware of anyone coming and going. Only the owners and the upstairs tenant have keys to the upstairs apartment. In the downstairs area, they have experienced a light being turned off and on in the living room, noises in their kitchen and basement, and dark shadows in the bedroom doorway.

The client showed us a photo that was taken that day of strange symbols that had appeared on the leg of the upstairs tenant's computer chair. On the base of the chair were the initials "JHS" and what resembled an inverted trident. The tenant reported they were not there when he left for work.

The husband says he has come to terms with the fact that their house may be haunted, the wife is slightly afraid. They both would like some answers.

THE WALK-THRU

The initial walk-thru was conducted by Bryce, Mike, Rick and Char. We were only able to check out the downstairs area and basement at this time, as the upstairs tenant was sleeping.

The team took temperature readings, EMF sweeps and photos of the two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and basement. Temperatures were constant at 70 degrees F with only a few degrees variation between rooms. High EMF readings (1-3 milligauss) were obtained on the floor of the kitchen area and the hallway leading out to the stairs. An investigation of the basement showed wires in the ceiling emitting high EMF readings (25 milligauss plus) and a fuse box with very high EMF
leakage (over 100 milligauss). The wires ran under the kitchen area which accounted for the higher EMF readings in this room.

We also examined the living room light which reportedly turned off and on by itself, and could detect no loose wires or other factors which would cause this to happen.

No other discernable phenomena was witnessed.

After the interview and walk-thru, it was decided to return to the house at 9 PM to do a walk-thru of the upstairs area and begin a full house investigation.

THE INVESTIGATION

The team returned at 9:00 PM and began an initial search of the upstairs apartment. Equipment consisted of a Sony mini-DVD camcorder with NightVision, three digital camera, three DVR voice recorders, a digital thermometer and two EMF Detectors.

The owner gave the team a walkthrough upstairs. He pointed out the areas where noises and footsteps were heard, specifically the front living room and the kitchen. He also pointed out the computer chair with the writing in the dust on the chair's legs. He then pointed out the attic, where no activity has been reported, but some members of the team wanted to investigate it nonetheless.

Following the walkthrough, we went lights out and the team split up. Mike, Bryce, and Char started downstairs in the clients' bedroom while Stephanie, Becky, and Rick were upstairs. In the downstairs bedroom, there was significant noise contamination from a party going on at the next door house.  Upstairs in the front room, Steph, Becky, and
Rick all heard some noises coming from the other end of the hallway in the kitchen area.  These noises were caught on tape as they sounded like "tinging" or metal against metal noises.  At this time Bryce radioed us from downstairs that they were hearing noises in the room above them which was the kitchen area in the upstairs.  The upstairs team
indicated that they were hearing noises in that area as well and went to investigate the kitchen. 

While in the kitchen Becky's recorder was left alone in the front room of the upstairs, where the three of us just were, and some noises were caught at that time which we heard when we reviewed the tape.  We found nothing in the kitchen at that time.

After approximately 15 minutes, the teams switched locations.Upstairs, Bryce, Mike, and Char started in the front room with the chair. Some unexplained noises were heard before they moved to the next room over, the TV/bedroom. Mike discovered a large vent that amplified noises from other rooms. It was in this room that several more unexplained noises were heard. They briefly investigated the kitchen before going back downstairs.

The team decided to concentrate all their efforts upstairs, where most of the activity had taken place during our investigation.

Rick, Mike, and Bryce went briefly into the attic, but because of all the dust and the party next door, it was a poor location for investigation.

The whole team convened in the front room, placing a motion detector in the kitchen and the hallway. They conducted an EVP session before splitting into three smaller teams, Bryce and Char, Becky and Mike, and Rick and Stephanie. Mike and Becky stayed in the front room, Bryce and Char went into the TV/bed room, and Rick and Stephanie went into the kitchen. More EVP questions were asked and the team wrapped up following this, around midnight.

EVIDENCE

After listening to all the audio, we were able to isolate several EVPs.
Becky and Steph spent several hours with the audio, and sent their findings to all the members. After much discussion, these are the EVPs we feel are valid, along with comments...

EVPS

1. EVP - Yes.wav  This was taken during the walk-thru upstairs in the house with the team and client. Steph mentions cologne while leaving the kitchen and Bryce speaks then Rick answers her in a whispery tone. Then she says a few seconds later "I bet it's that" (which was the bathroom) and while walking down the hall there's what sounds like a voice saying... “yes.” It happens right at 13 seconds and it's very clear. I don't believe it was any of us at all as it is so random and sounds like RIGHT by the recorder. It's kind of creepy.

2. EVP - Noises on Command.wav  At 29 seconds, right after Rick asks, can you make those footsteps, you can hear some thumps. They sounded like they came from the upstairs hallway.  Steph, Rick, and Becky were in the front room during this time.

3. EVP - Chuckle.wav  This was when recorder was left on its own in the upstairs front room and the entire team was downstairs.  At around 4 seconds, you can hear a faint chuckle.
 
4. EVP - Whistle - Tinging.wav  Whistle is about 16 seconds in.  Also includes the tinging sound Rick, Steph, and Becky heard while in the front upstairs room. Sounded like it came from the kitchen.

5. EVP - Deep Voice - No.wav This was while Rick, Steph, and Becky were investigating the tinging sound in the kitchen.  The "no" is isolated about 2 seconds into this EVP.  A few seconds before the beginning of this EVP Becky had said "did you make the silverware move" while in the kitchen and you can hear a male deep voice sounding like it is saying no.

6. EVP - Whistling - Noises.wav  This whistle and "footsteps" were when Rick, Becky, and Steph had left the front room upstairs to investigate the tinging noises in the kitchen.  The whistling is about 4 seconds and the footstep 16 seconds.

7. EVP - Whistling.wav  This is when Steph and Rick were in the upstairs kitchen alone at the end of the night. It sounds kind of like whistling in the background that is strange and we didn't hear it at the time.  The whistling starts at about 10 seconds.

8. EVP Walkie-Talkie Disturbance.wav   This is the walkie and emf meter both going off when we were in the downstairs kitchen.   The walkie-talkie made unexplained noise breifly, Steph picked it up then put it back in the same place.  The walkie-talkie then began to make further unexplained noises... it was not moved nor touched at this time.

9. EVP Walkie-Talkie Disturbance - Other Recorder Closer to Walkie.wav   This is also the walkie going off in the downstairs kitchen. This is from Becky's recorder which was lying right next to the walkie-talkie.  No cause was found of the noise.

We were also able to record instances in the kitchen when the EMF meter and the walkie-talkie went wild for several minutes. We were not able to find an explanation.


PHOTOS

We took several photos that displayed "orbs" but because of the dust in the air, we do not consider them as evidence.

VIDEO EVIDENCE

1. At 12:50, Becky and Steph are in the upstairs bedroom. They hear a “tinging” sound coming from the kitchen and go to investigate.

2. While in the downstairs kitchen, the EMF detector and the walkie talkie go off several times. Here are the most notable examples…

17:37 EMF detector goes off
19:00 EMF detector goes crazy
19:20 The walkie goes off
19:32 The walkie and EMF detector go off
20:56 The EMF detector goes off
22:07 The EMF detector goes off
22:39 The EMF detector goes off
24:13 EMF detector goes crazy
24:48 EMF detector goes off in response to a question
26:01 It’s the cat!
27:25 EMF detector goes off
29:50 Steph smells bacon!

3. 33:00 Team hears footsteps or noises in upstairs kitchen.

4. 60:22 Video camera is stationary in upstairs kitchen. A small, bright orb shoots by at lower right of screen.

Another unexplained phenomena involved a computer chair with the letters "JHS" and an inverted trident written on the base in dust. No one at the house was able to explain the source of the writing. Rick did some research on the web and came up with some possible explanations...

JHS- In the Latin-speaking Christianity of medieval Western Europe (and so among Catholics and many Protestants today), the most common Christogram is "IHS" or "IHC", derived from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, iota-eta-sigma or ΙΗΣ. Here the Greek letter eta was transliterated as the letter H in the Latin-speaking West (Greek eta and Latin-alphabet H had the same visual appearance and shared a common historical origin), while the Greek letter sigma was either transliterated as the Latin letter C (due to the visually-similar form of the lunate sigma), or as Latin S (since these letters of the two alphabets wrote the same sound). Because the Latin-alphabet letters I and J were not systematically distinguished until the 17th century, "JHS" and "JHC" are equivalent to "IHS" and "IHC".

INVERTED TRIDENT- The trident, symbol of the bull-horned, master of the heavens, has since been inverted by the Christians to become the symbol of a monster, the symbol of the Devil, of unspeakable evil. The syncretist tolerance which characterized Greek religion was replaced by the ideals of the Judaic faith.

Steph advanced the theory that maybe the Jesus reference and the symbol is a manifestation of good and evil... like a dual personality?  Or perhaps one is trying to warn of the other?  OR possibly during the investigation distract us from another?


CLIENT FOLLOW-UP

Becky called the clients Friday night, May 2nd, and talked to the husband. First she asked him how things have been since we were there. He reported that the light has gone off and on again, and that they have heard footsteps upstairs and in the basement, among other things. They said that they have been keeping a log which they will share with the team. She asked him if we could come to the house and present our evidence on Saturday the 10th. He was very agreeable to it.

CONCLUSION

Based on the EVPs and the unexplained writing on the computer chair, as well as the continuing activity, we feel another
investigation is warranted. We have scheduled a follow-up investigation for Saturday, May 17th, after our monthly meeting.

CASE OPEN PENDING FOLLOW-UP INVESTIGATION