We were recently called in to investigate the childhood home of a dear friend of ours who very recently lost her father. To protect her privacy the exact name and address will be withheld, but for the sake of this investigation we will call it the “H” house which is located in Westlake, Ohio. It is a nice two-story house on a quiete residential street.


The “H” family have been the only people to inhabit the location since the house was first built in 1960. During that time, three deaths have occurred there over the years. The first was our friend’s grandmother who passed away in 1975 in a small downstairs room that was an add-on to the main house. Mrs. H passed away in the upstairs main bedroom after a long illness in 2000, and Mr. H recently passed in the same room this July (just two months prior to this investigation) after a battle with cancer. The house was recently sold and was about to transfer to the new owners, so we took this as an opportunity to visit one last time not quite knowing if anything would turn up. (Please click on all images to see them full size. Allow time for the page to fully load - the photos are well worth it!)


FIRST VISIT - 9/17/06 -
We began our first visit by covering the basement both with photographs and audio recordings, and working our way up, one room at a time. Orb activity was seen in the basement, and an especially bright one in the nearby room which served as Mr. H’s workshop. Some activity can also be seen near the stairs leading up to the main floor. A very faint EVP was picked up here, but consists of a single one-syllable word that is almost unintelligible. Click on the links to hear both a raw version clip (H1) and an enhanced version clip (H2), and a filtered version clip (H3) which are presented here for what it's worth. We would be interested if anyone has any ideas as to what it might be saying.



Nothing was picked up in either the garage, small spare room, kitchen area, or hallway. However, while in the dining room I noticed a feeling of being followed, or that someone was standing behind me, so I turned and caught this very bright, glowing orb just in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room.





More orb activity was picked up in the living room, though it was light compared to what was to come.





We then moved up to the second floor which consists of three smaller bedrooms, an attic area, and the master bedroom in which both Mr. and Mrs. H passed away six years apart. Nothing was picked up in either of the house’s two bathrooms, or upstairs hallway. One small orb is seen in the doorway leading up to the attic steps, as well as a rather bright one in the attic itself.





One of the smaller bedrooms had some orb activity as well, which is the room just down the hallway and closest to the main bedroom. Some of the orbs have a very definite bluish or purple color, traditionally associated with a sense of peace or tranquility. At left is the best example out of two or three colored orbs we caught that night, highly unusual in themselves.













It was in the main bedroom where we found the most consistent activity. Here are a few photos taken in that room representative of the orb activity moving about that room. One could almost follow their movement on the camera’s screen and predict where in the room they would show up in the next shot.











While orb activity alone is not necessarily an indication of a spirit’s presence and is not even accepted as evidence by some, when taken in conjunction with clear EVP activity that is recorded simultaneously one has to think twice. At the same time that these photographs were being taken, our audio recorder picked up a very remarkable EVP that was clearly an intelligent response to our presence there, indicating that the spirit was aware of us. As members of our team were discussing the house our recorder picked up the phrase “I see you”. While it cannot be said with any certainty that this is or isn’t the voice of Mr. H, readers should note that the human voice is a product of our physical body, being produced by a larynx and vocal cords, and no one knows what will happen once the spirit is separated from the body, or as a result of the effort needed by those who have passed on to vocalize anything that can be heard in the range of the living.

Click on the links to hear both a real-time version of “I see you” clip (H4), and an enhanced version in which the background noise is suppressed clip (H5). A shortened version of just the "I see you" segment is presented both normal clip (H6) and enhanced clip (H7) to make it easier to hear. This was recorded at precisely the same time as the above orb photographs were being taken.



SECOND VISIT - 9/20/06 -
Needless to say, such positive results meant that we should immediately return and try to conduct an even more extensive investigation of the house, covering not only the entire structure but also focusing on the areas of previous activity. Our goal was to spend a longer amount of time at the location, and seeing if we could repeat or add to some of our previous findings. We returned three nights later.











We began by covering the floors in the same order. While results were minimal in the basement level, we began to notice more results on the main floor which consisted of the dining room, kitchen, and the small ad-on room. But that was nothing compared to what came later.

The smaller upstairs bedrooms contained very little of interest, but the main bedroom was extremely active, much more than on the previous occasion. This visit occurred at night after dark and compared to the previous afternoon visit seemed to make all the difference. Fully one-third of all the photographs taken in this room contained something of interest, but only the most interesting are presented here.





















At one point I began to engage in what seemed like a one-sided conversation with whoever was present in the room, and was almost getting an immediate visual response to my questions. Not knowing which of the three spirits who passed in that house might be present, I began by addressing questions to all three while sitting in the darkened room. Every time I spoke directly to two of the individuals, I would get no response in the photographs that were then taken, but when I addressed the third, I would get orb activity in each of the photographs taken at that moment. I soon discovered that I would get some kind of visual response whenever I addressed Mr. H directly, but not with any of the others, when the photographs would be empty. For those who feel all orb activity is merely dust in an empty room, this would be hard to explain how you could train dust to respond only to a certain name.











For about a ten or fifteen minute period I began to feel almost as if I were engaged in a two-way conversation. If I joked or prodded Mr. H into showing himself, saying things like “come on, you can do better than that!” the orbs captured immediately at that point would not only be brighter and more numerous, but seemed to have crossed the room to be closer to the camera. There was also a point when the orb activity seemed to take an interest in the camera equipment set up in the room and be concentrated in that area.











After awhile he seemed to lose interest in this game, and the orb activity trickled away to nothing. I continued to cover the rest of the house, with minimal results the further I moved away from the bedroom area, with some areas showing no activity at all, which also argues against the dust theory. Before ending the evening four of us gathered as a group in the main bedroom to say our goodbyes: myself, my wife, our friend (daughter of Mr. H) and my mother-in-law, Mary, who was a friend of Mr.H’s in life. Almost immediately activity picked up again and seemed to be responding to our presence.


For doubters who believe that orbs are mostly dust or similar particles (and in some cases they may be) I present these two photographs by way of comparison. Close to 300 photographs were taken over the course of two visits, and only about 40 or 50 showed anything out of the ordinary. These two views of the same bedroom were taken along with the orb photographs, and are representative of the majority of the shots that were taken showing no activity of any kind just seconds apart from those photographs showing orbs. It was common for activity to appear in a single photograph or two, totally disappear in the next few shots, only to reappear again in response to a question being asked or something being said on our part. If it were something such as dust you would expect it to remain in the room regardless of the photograph being taken, but the majority showed nothing at all. I have yet to hear an explanation why dust particles would appear one moment, completely disappear five seconds later, and then reappear in the next image. These two examples help to illustrate that point.











The first two enlargements are of something different that night that we can’t explain: they seem to be glowing “squiggles” of some kind, showing some kind of movement (perhaps a type of energy), different from the orbs captured that night. The third image is clearly of an orb caught in motion in the darkened room, ruling out all the usual suspects (raindrops, dust particles, or insects). There was clearly much more activity in the house during our nighttime visit than there was during the day!


One final touching image was captured just before we left the house. We all gathered to say our final goodbyes knowing that we would be unable to return to the house after that night, and telling the spirit that it was time to let go of the house and move on, saying our own goodbyes, and asking if there was any final message he would like to pass on to us. A photograph taken at that moment showed something very different from the usual glowing orbs captured that night and unique in all the photographs: you can plainly see an glowing object off to the side in this photograph, and in the enlargement you can clearly make out that the object appears to be a heart! Perhaps he was aware of what we were saying and this was his way of saying a final goodbye as well. I have never before seen anything that looked quite like this, and coming in direct response to the love we were expressing at that very moment.


Three EVPS were recorded during this second visit. The first is just an oddity: while in another room snapping photos, just as you can hear the shutter snap, you can hear a whistle in the background CLIP (H8) and an isolated, amplified version CLIP (H9). I was alone in the house at the time, all electrical appliances were removed or shut off, the windows were closed, and it was at night with no birds in the house or anything similar. The house was totally still except for the snap of my camera shutter, and it was almost as if something was trying to get my attention.


The next two EVPs were rather remarkable. At the point we were all gathered in the bedroom saying our goodbyes, we picked up the same voice – and the same voice as we had recorded on Sunday three days before – responding to what we were saying. In the first clip my mother-in-law, Mary, was commenting on her friendship with Mr. H, with an unknown word being recorded during this time. We would welcome suggestions on what you think it might be saying. The full segment is at CLIP (H10) and an isolated, amplified version of the voice at CLIP (H11).


The final EVP recorded that night was just a few minutes later, again when Mary was saying that it was time for Mr. H to let go of the house and move on. We recorded a response that we're not totally sure of the interpretation; it seems it could either be “I know” or “my house”, depending on who is listening, and we invite your suggestions on this. The full segment is at CLIP (H12) and an isolated, amplified version of the response is at CLIP (H13). We would be interested to hear what other listeners think. No other EVPs were picked up during three hours of recording.


Another piece of circumstantial evidence that fits into the overall investigation is that just before leaving I took outdoor nighttime shots of all four sides of the house and back yard. Nothing unusual showed up in any of them except one: orbs were captured outside the second floor windows in the house where most of the activity occurred and ONLY in that area, nowhere else. A final goodbye as we were leaving? Again, this is something that is hard to explain as random coincidence once you start putting all the pieces together, and clearly argues in favor of a conscious presence at that location.


CONCLUSIONS Taking everything into account, we’re left with the conclusion that it is Mr.H who is present at that house. His passing relatively recent, about ten weeks prior to our visits, compared to the other deaths that have occurred in that house (six and one thirty-one years ago, respectively). The house was built for the family, and he loved to tinker and do things there. He spent the better part of his life at that location, raised a family there, and lived all his happiest moments there. Activity seems to be concentrated especially strong in the upstairs bedroom where he died, and not randomly throughout the house if it were a product of mere chance.


Activity was also most prevalent in those same areas consistently over two separate visits, and did not change from one visit to the next. Audio and visual responses both indicated his presence was aware of our being there and was clearly happening in response to our activity there, and tried to let us know of his presence in more than one instance. Perhaps he hasn’t yet been able to let go of the house, or perhaps he was keeping watch over the property as long as it remained in the family until it was able to be sold and become the home of someone new. Maybe he still felt a responsibility toward the house that would only end when it left the family, sort of like being “unfinished business”. Perhaps now that his job is done he is free to move on to his final rest.