Haunted House May Be Spooked After All

[monte_9501]

I found this article at this site
http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/10...r-all.html

qctimes.com - Mike Kennedy believes there is more to life after death.

Kennedy says he's noticed objects being moved when he's alone and saw his great-grandfather after the man died. And his experience working at Skellington Manor in downtown Rock Island to set up the animatronics that are part of the new haunted house there has only solidified his belief in the otherworldly.

He's heard women's voices whispering when the only woman in the building was in the room with him. And one night as he closed up the building, he saw an image that gave him the chills and made the hair stand up on the back of his neck.

"I was walking up the stairs and an apparition walked across the top of the stairs," he said. "It was just a faded white image. It looked like somebody that was in a dress."

Kennedy said the image disappeared into what was called the Women's Parlor when the building was owned by the Masons. The room's purpose is still signified above the door.

Multiple volunteers working to set up the haunted house have reported experiences similar to Kennedy's, so Skellington Manor owners Penni and Michael Steen, who used to own Terror in the Woods in rural Scott County, hired Brenda Bonay, the lead investigator with Mercer County Paranormal Investigators organization, to check things out.

Bonay got into the business of investigating paranormal activities after growing up in what she says was a haunted house in Wapello, Iowa. The family would hear the sounds of people running up and down the stairs when everyone was in the living room, and they often would find writing on the walls, even after her parents took all the crayons away from the children.

The first thing Bonay does on any case is to try to provide a plausible explanation for any seemingly ghostly activities. She's able to successfully debunk about 85 percent of the cases she receives, but she was not able to do so at Skellington Manor. Investigators say they witnessed a door opening by itself, picked up unexplained readings on an electromagnetic field detector and recorded what is known as electronic voice phenomenon, or voices that can't be heard with the ear but are picked up by recording devices.

Bonay asked questions such as: "Is anybody here that would like to say something?" and "Are you a man? Are you a woman?"

The recording picked up sounds of male and female voices, and, in one instance, she was able to make out the phrase, "Who's there?"

Bonay believes the building truly is haunted and that visitors to Terror at Skellington Manor just might experience a real ghost as they make their way through the haunted house filled with actors, props and spooky images.

"There's a very good chance, if they keep their eyes and ears open and use all five of their senses - their eyes, their smell, their touch, just an overall feeling, goosebumps - they're likely to experience something paranormal," said Bonay, who added that she has never felt threatened on her multiple visits to the building.

As for Kennedy, his experiences at Skellington Manor haven't scared him off.

"It's kind of neat to have a 'haunted house' in a real haunted place," he said. "So hopefully we don't disturb them too much, and if we do, hopefully they'll play with us."