A Residential Investigation In Wheatland, CA

Investigators: Scott wolf – Lead Investigator; Calvin Ansted – Asst. Lead Investigator; Faye Navarro – Case Manager

Our team has been incredibly busy the last couple of months. We have been on some incredible investigations. It seems like each case brings us something new and exciting. Many of these cases leave us with more questions than answers. This case was no different!

Wheatland, CA is a relatively small town of about 3,400 people located 40 miles north of Sacramento, CA.

The Investigation

On a typical case we would usually send out a small team to conduct an interview and a short preliminary investigation to attempt to collect any evidence that would suggest to us that a larger investigation is warranted. This case was a little different. Our client was extremely eager to determine if we could find answers to the activity they had been experiencing. We were also extremely busy with a case just about every weekend so, we decided to conduct a more thorough investigation. We knew it may be difficult to get back out to conduct a full investigation, after the preliminary, with all the other cases we had pending. We always attempt to reveal our findings to our clients as quickly as possible after an investigation.

After sitting down with our client and conducting an interview we spread out over the house and began collecting readings to determine normal levels of EMF (electromagnetic field) and temperatures throughout the house. This allows us to determine if our readings during the investigation are normal or possibly the result of paranormal activity. This also allows us to determine if there are any devices or areas in the home that are giving off high levels of EMF.

Some older appliances tend to give off a high amount of EMF. It is also possible to have high EMF readings in wiring within the walls if the wiring is older or if there is a potential spot where electricity could “bleed” out through break downs in the protective coatings of the wiring.

These high EMF areas are extremely important to note since they can cause dizziness, hallucinations, paranoia, and nauseasness. If activity is reported in these areas it could be due more to the high EMF and not paranormal activity.

While we conducted our sweep we observed relatively low EMF levels throughout the house. As I moved into the kitchen I did notice that I suddenly began to feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. When I investigated further I found that I was getting high readings from my KII meter near the refrigerator. In order to determine a more precise measurement of the EMF from the refrigerator I used my MEL meter to take a reading. The MEL meter is a more advanced and precise meter that is able to measure exact amounts of EMF as well as temperature at the same time. The readings were very high.

I then asked Faye to come over to the kitchen and stand next to the refrigerator without telling her what I experienced. She reported the same feelings that I had.

We had to keep in the back of our mind that any experiences taking place around the refrigerator could be the result of high EMF. Although, the client never mentioned that the activity was taking place in this area.

With our sweep completed we turned out the lights and began our investigation. We started out in the living room conducting an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) session. We all sat in sort of a circle around the room.

I began asking questions and within a couple of minutes our KII meters started going crazy. Sometimes they would go off right after I asked a question and other times they would go off randomly. It seemed rather odd after a while.

As I looked across the room I noticed several lights blinking near the computer and determined that the cable modem for the computer was on. In order to ensure that the modem wasn’t causing the KII meters to light up I asked our client to turn it off. Even after the modem was off we were still getting the readings from our KII’s.

During our session it seemed as though whatever was causing the KII’s to go off was almost moving around us. Faye’s KII would go off, then mine, and then Cal’s. For most of the time it seemed like the focus was around me.

Before we started our investigation I had set up a video camera in the hallway to the bedrooms to attempt to capture the little girl that the client reported seeing. About 30 minutes into the investigation I had to go and change the DVD in the camera so I moved into the hallway.

When I reached the camera I realized there was still about 2 minutes left on the DVD so I decided to sit down and wait until it was finished. As I sat quietly waiting I began to hear what sounded like 2 people whispering in the hallway right in front of me. I could hear 2 distinct voices but I could only make out what one of them was saying.

As soon as I heard the whispering I called out to Faye and Cal and asked them if they were whispering. We make it a point to train our investigators not to whisper on cases because many of the evps we capture are in the form of a whisper and it makes it difficult to determine if what we are hearing is an EVP or another investigator. I will admit it is a very difficult thing to control because it’s just natural to want to try and be as quiet as possible during an investigation. In this case they informed me that it wasn’t them. I quickly went out to the living room and told them exactly what I had heard. I have to admit that it’s really cool when you hear something like that with your own ears instead of later during your audio review.

We continued our EVP session for a bit longer and then we decided to break up and position ourselves throughout the house. Faye and Cal stayed on one side of the house and the client and I moved to the other side.

The client and I positioned ourselves in the single bedroom on the other side of the house to conduct an EVP session. We were in there no more than a couple of minutes when I started getting this feeling like whatever was in the house either didn’t like that room or just didn’t want to follow us in there. I told the client what I felt and suggested we move.

There was an additional living room area on our side of the house so we sat down on the couch and began our EVP session. Aside from a couple of strange “thuds” that we couldn’t explain we didn’t experience much in the first 10 minutes or so. I wasn’t even getting any readings from my KII.

I began moving my KII around to see if I could get anything. As I did my KII started lighting up when I moved it around to my left. The lights only came on when I moved it and never very long in one spot.

I then began to focus on the area right next to me on the couch. Each time the lights would light up in an area that matched the exact outline of where a person would be sitting. It was almost like someone was sitting next to me! If this was actually a spirit sitting next to me or not I can’t say for sure. I do know that it was really cool and it got the attention of our client.

Something strange I noticed throughout the night was that as I walked around the house my KII would light up as though something was following me. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a problem with my KII so I asked Faye if we could switch and see what happened. The same thing happened when I used hers. At one point of the night Faye was videotaping and asked if the spirit liked following me around and my KII lit up all the way.

At the end of the night we decided to conduct a “spirit box” session. A “spirit box” or “ghost box” as it’s also known is a radio that has been specially modified to continually scan radio frequencies. The theory is that the spirits are able to communicate via the white noise in between the stations. The continual scanning makes it nearly impossible to make out a sentence much less a word from a radio station. We typically have our “spirit box” set to the AM frequencies due to there being less stations on this band.

I won’t go into a lot of detail, in this section, about the outcome of our session. I will talk about that in the next section. All I can say for now is this was the most amazing session I have had in all my time using the “spirit box.”

So, after a couple of hours investigating we wrapped up and thanked our client for the opportunity to come into their home and investigate. I know our client was excited about what he had witnessed because he told us he would now be sleeping with a nightlight on!

The Evidence

We all went home and reviewed our audio, photos, and video. Aside from some dust orbs we didn’t capture any photo evidence. We also didn’t capture anything on video. I did share the portion with our client of when I heard the whispering in the hallway. The whispering was difficult to hear on the video but I was able to capture it on my voice recorder. My main goal was to show the client my response and provide proof that it wasn’t Faye or Cal.

As for the whispering in the hallway, I distinctly heard a man whisper “I don’t want to.” After I had asked Faye and Cal if they were whispering I went to the living room and told them exactly what I had heard. While it wasn’t the best quality on audio you can still make out what he said. 

We captured a male voice after I asked if it was still with us say “yes”, what sounded like a female say something that was difficult to understand, and an additional female voice saying something to the effect of “papa won’t let me in.” Her voice was so clear it sounded like she was standing right next to us. A classic class “A” EVP. All in all some good EVP evidence.

Now for our “spirit box” session evidence. We got two excellent responses during our session. One was absolutely incredible! It was by far the most amazing response I have personally heard from a session.

The first response came after I asked the question, “did you die in this house?” Several seconds after I asked the question we got a clear response from a female that said “yes.” My next question was, “what year did you die?” Again, several seconds later we got a response from what sounded like the same female say “January 1 1968.” At first it sounded to me like she said 1958. When I asked everyone if they heard it I was surprised that our client spoke up first and said he heard it and thought she said 1968. Usually our clients don’t know exactly what they are listening for so they don’t hear what we do. It is very rare to get a response to a question that is that long.

The Reveal

A couple of weeks after our investigation we sat with our clients to go over the evidence we had captured. They were quite impressed at our evidence and couldn’t believe that we had found something to verify the activity they had been experiencing. They were rather shocked after hearing some of the EVPs.

After reviewing all the evidence they had only two questions that they wanted answered, was their house haunted and if it was is there any indication that they needed to be concerned about the spirits. It didn’t take us long to come up with our answers. We all agreed that the house was definitely haunted and that the spirits were harmless.

Judging from the evidence we were able to determine that there were three possible spirits active in the house. We had heard a man, a young girl, and a woman on our audio. It seemed the woman had the most energy and we all agreed it was probably her who had been following us around most of the night.

Before we met with our client we did some research to attempt to determine if there was any record of anyone dying at that location. We also checked to see if there were any young girls or middle aged women that may have died around the time of the date given on the spirit box in Wheatland. We found that the only women that died were very old and the date of their death was before the house was built.

The house was built in the early 60’s. We have no way of knowing what was on the property before the house was built. We do know that there were several ranches located throughout Wheatland. It is quite possible that the spirits may have died on the property before the house was built and when I asked if they died in that house the spirit may have been referring to the house that existed at the time of their death.

It is believed that when a person dies and their spirit remains in the location they died in they are almost suspended in time. This is why, on investigations, you can sometimes hear what sounds like boots walking on a wooden floor in a house that now has carpeting. At the time the person died the home may have had wooden floors.

Our client expressed an interest in having us come back at a later date to investigate further to try to identify who the spirits were. We let them know that we would enjoy coming back but it may not be possible to identify the spirits.

We have a very busy schedule of investigations coming up in the next couple of months but we are hoping to be able to get back in sometime soon.