Investigation Date: 01-24-2009
Site: Private Residence
Location: Cottage Grove, MN
Number of Investigations: 1
Evidence: EVP’s

Reason for Investigation Request

This case was brought to us by the owner through our website who had concerns with haunted activity that was mainly centered on her 7 year old son. The family consists of Husband and Wife with 3 children: Daughter who is 16 yrs old and 2 sons ages 7 & 4.

The owner and her 7 year old son have had many “freaky” incidents occurring in the home. At their previous home they had used an Ouija Board in fun. Things started happening shortly thereafter. When they moved to the current residence a niece borrowed the board and then activity picked up again. Their pastor recommended burning the board which they did.

Since that time a baby monitor moved 3 to 4 feet off the dresser on its own. The 7 yr old son has seen 2 apparitions: one of a teenage boy the other an old woman, which he states looked very scary. The Son also reports being pushed on the stairs. He also will go up the stairs low to the ground to avoid seeing in the parent’s dresser mirror. The Son states he just does not like the mirror and is afraid to look at it.

The owner’s husband had a dream one night and saw the spirit of an old woman coming to him. He described it as a negative feeling, scary woman. The husband didn't tell the children of this dream but the 7 year old came in one day and described this woman and she matched the dream the father had.

The client has had incidents walking upstairs where she felt as though she walked into a negative energy said it felt as if someone was right up in her face. Activity will lessen for a couple weeks and as soon as they start feeling more comfortable something will always start up.

Research and Background on the Property

The house was actually built in 1998 (not 1995 as previously stated) and the current residents are the third owners of the home. The area just south of the address and south of the Mississippi river is called Grey Cloud Island which was home to people referred to as the “Woodland” people. It is not clear if they were Dakota (Sioux) or Ojibway (Chippewa) but numerous artifacts and burial mounds have been uncovered by archeologists and the University of Minnesota in this area. The area for which the home currently sits served as the Woodland people’s dumping grounds as well as one of the primary burial sites of these people. Between 1882 and 1903 archeologists Theodore Lewis and Jacob Brower mapped more than 150 mounds on and around Grey Cloud Island, of which only a few dozen exist today due to agricultural, residential and excavation/mining (limestone, sand, gravel, etc.) reasons.

Succeeding the Woodland people was a settlement that was never completely realized. Joe Brown came back to the site of where he made a great fortune in fur trading with Native Americans in 1856 on the island of Grey Cloud to found a city he called Grey Cloud (hence how the island came to be named). The island and the neighboring northern land around Grey Cloud were plotted for residential areas: churches, storefronts, freight wagons, and steamboats were planned for this large metropolis. Unfortunately this was never realized due to the financial panic of 1857 and the growing city was practically abandoned. It is written that “within a generation, a few decaying buildings and cellars full of debris were all that remained to call attention to Joe Brown’s dream city" (Vogel, 1989).

As previously mentioned, the home was built in 1998 as the 7th addition to the “Sandy Hills” development. Before the development the area was a mostly grassy/plains area due to deforestation from the late 1800s which can be contributed to the Grey Cloud Lime Kiln (lime-making activities) and wood-burning steam boats and also was a sparse farming area.

Investigation Details

Weather Conditions
Temperature: 5°F
Dew Point: 9.6°
Wind: 15 mph
Moon: 59% Full

Our investigation involved 6 team members along with the owners, the Client and her husband. We arrived on site at 9 p.m. and began with a tour for the members not familiar with the home. We then began to set up cameras in 4 areas of reported sightings of apparitions. One pointed at the Master Bedroom, one in the Master Bedroom in the direction of the closet, one in the direction of the laundry room and also one in the direction of the young son's room. At 9:30 p.m. we split into 3 teams to begin the investigation.

2nd Floor- Area of the majority of reported activity

Master Bedroom:
As always, baseline readings of the area were taken with EMF readings ranging from .3 to 2.0 and temperature averages of 68 degrees. The first team in the Master Bedroom immediately experienced battery drainages in 4 devices which had new batteries in them. There was an EMF meter set on the mirrored dresser facing one of the video cameras. We found that this dresser was continuously causing the meter to spike (continuous light blinking). This would come and go in 10 to 5 minute intervals. EMF readings when it would come on would be at a 1.0 to 2.0. Temperature in this area that had previously been 68 degrees had dropped to 64 degrees by 10:09 p.m.
The 2nd team members heard movement on the stairs that the 1st floor team denied making. This team also heard a scratching noise on the wall. No other noted activity was reported from this team.
TCPS’ 3rd team to this area did EMF readings of all clocks, television and cords and were finding readings quite high ranging from 130 to 199. We were to later to find that the wall where the bed and dressers were against was the area where the wiring from the fuse box in the basement ran up. A space heater in the daughter’s basement bedroom was found to cause the spikes in the EMF meter on the dresser whenever it would come on.

7 year old Son’s Room:
In the young son's room, the temperature was 66 degrees on baseline with EMF readings at .3 to 1.7. This room had a different feel all together then the Master Bedroom as it felt much lighter. Two team members did have experiences in this room. One felt a creepy crawly sensation up her lower back and hip while the other member felt as if his hood was tugged on. There was a two degree drop in temperature to 64 degrees which within 5 minutes the temperature went up to 68 degrees with an EMF reading of .6.

Main Floor:

Baselines were taken at the beginning of each shift with EMF's ranging from .3 to 8.5 and temperature on average of 70 degrees. The living room was the focus of the investigation and should be noted that this area is directly under the Master Bedroom. One team was experiencing responses to questions using the KII meter especially when the husband was asking questions. One of the investigators did report having a strange, uneasiness while in the living room.

Two teams, while sitting in the living room heard rustling coming from the kitchen floor area that could not be explained. It is an open floor plan with the living room, dining room and kitchen where if anything had moved in that area it would have been easily seen or noticed. One team also heard a different noise like clinking sound coming from the kitchen area but the owner ruled that one out due to the ice maker. At one point one team did have a temperature drop to 64 degrees in the living room area.

Basement:

Focus of this area was the daughter's bedroom. Baseline readings were taken with EMF's ranging from .3 to 7.0 with the average temperature at 60. This room seemed to be the source of the high EMF's as the Meter Box was located here on the same wall as the Master Bedroom and living room. There is an electric space heater also in this room located near the meter box. EMF's coming from the daughter's alarm clock were 100.0. All teams noticed a correlation with EMF spikes to the space heater turning on. This was confirmed with each team on alternate floors.

One team in this room had a few experiences of a cold breeze by the closet area. Also while they were in the outer family room had heard what sounded like something sliding on the dresser in the daughter's room. No source of this sound was found. A second team while in the daughter's bedroom heard a noise by the bathroom in the other room but upon investigating the sound nothing was found. The owner experienced a tickling sensation also in the daughter's room.

Our investigation concluded at 2 a.m.

Final Analysis

This investigation proved to be very interesting although evidence wise we obtained a few EVP's and nothing on Video. The majority of activity in the home can be explained by the high EMF readings that are found going up the wall from the Meter/Fuse box along with the space heater. High EMF exposures can cause multiple symptoms ranging from illness to hallucinations, dreams, etc. Especially the alarm clocks being near the head of the bed could be a cause of the dreams. This theory of course doesn't explain all the activity.

We do feel that the young son does have psychic abilities and also, along with the client, may be EMF Sensitive which could be increasing the experiences for them. At this time based on the evidence we were able to obtain we can say that paranormal activity is occurring but we are not able to prove that the home is haunted. If the family would be willing we would like to do another investigation at a later date.