Mississippi Valley Paranormal

On January 30, 2010, at 6:30 pm MVP was given the chance to perform an investigation at Skellington Manor, the former Masonic Temple in Rock Island, IL.

We met with Kimmy a friend of Mike and Penni Steen, whom are owners of Skellington Manor. Kim took members of the team through the building and showed them the different floors and told of reports of activity. Members split up into 2 teams. Team 1 was Diana, Jordan, and Becky and team 2 was Bob, Steve, and Stephanie. Team 1 stayed on the main floor while team 2 went to the 4th floor. Throughout the night, teams alternated floors and tried to hit all of the reported activity spots.The following are personal experiences that were reported by team members.

Steve writes this: Stephanie, Bob, our escort, and myself were in the process of investigating the 4th floor of Skellington manor. This floor has been considered a hot spot by the client. There were many animatronic horror displays left from the Halloween haunted house that the manor holds every year. We were doing an EVP session, and I had my IR camcorder pointed down a narrow hallway that was used by staff to get from room to room. I could see the wall at the end of the hallway, then all of a sudden a shadow slipped in from left to right, blocking out the end of the hallway. I panned my camera back and forth a little to make sure I just didn’t move the camera from it’s original position. I could see nothing, it was totally blocked out. I mentioned to the group that I could not see the end of the hallway anymore, then the camera refocused and cleared to reveal the wall again. I said to the group that I could see again, and BOOM! Something hit the camera, jolting it sideways. Of course I was excited about what just happened, and a little uneasy. Did whatever hit my camera hit it out of anger, or by accident in passing? I tend to think it was the latter, because nothing felt or seemed malevolent the whole night. All I knew is something that I could not see hit my camera. There was nothing there to bump the camera against, and I was holding the thing as still as possible. I was able to catch the shadow, and the sound of the hit on video and audio. Later that night, we had finished the investigation and had started to break down. ,I along with Stephanie, Jordan and Bob returned to the 4th floor to get Bob’s camera. We were standing in the same area where the event with my camera took place, when I looked over Stephanie’s shoulder to see a dark shadow that was shaped like the head and shoulders of a person move through the room behind her. The room in question was what we called the meat locker. It was a room in which body bags hung from the haunted house along with some fake body parts on the wall. Whatever I saw blocked out the body parts on the wall as it strolled by. I did not mention anything right away as I thought it may have been a trick of the eyes, when Stephanie mentioned seconds after I saw this, that she had felt something brush by her, hitting her hand along the way. We looked into the room to notice one of the fake body bags swinging slightly back and forth, as if something had brushed it walking by. We unfortunately did not have any equipment with us at this time, so it just became a personal experience. These are two experiences I will never forget. I honestly believe there is something to this place.

Diana writes, as for personal experiences, I can’t say that I had any except for Jordan and I possibly seeing a shadow down the end of the hall when we were in the locker room on the 4th floor.

Steph wrote, My personal experiences…

I heard some noises in response to our questions around the time in which Steve saw some distortion in his camera and before it was hit. I felt there was more than one entity around us at that time. The two guys there thought they heard what sounded like a wind chime but I did not hear it. When we went into the other room a curtain that our guide said had been closed earlier during our walk-thru was now open. There had been no one up there between those times. Towards the end of the night while me, Stephen, Bob, and Jordan were tearing down Bob’s equipment, I was speaking to the group about various horror movies and just basic conversation when I suddenly thought I saw something move very close to me in the corner of my eye. I also felt a breeze and a sensation that something had just passed me very close and very quickly. I whipped my head around to look in the direction in which it was going but saw nothing. I was standing in the doorway between the execution room and body bag room. I felt that whatever it was went from the execution room and around me into the body bag room.

Beckys report of personal experiences included unexplained noises and a possible shadow across the wall in the locker room. The group had a fantastic time investigating this historic building and trying to validate the existing claims of activity.

The following are photos that were taken at Skellington Manor. Photos do not claim to be paranormal.

PHOTOS

Old Lockers

Unexplained glow by the Chucky room.

Something manifesting next to Becky??

Check out the circled areas

Preparing to investigate

Jordan and Diana meet one of the residents

Visitation time for Steve and Stephanie

Bob and some friends

Steve and Jordan

AUDIO

Noise

DW_A01263 (2)

DW_A01262

hey

I won’t tell anyone your secret

sound of something hittling my camera 4th floor

UnexplainedVoice

Whisper

VIDEO

steve (2)

On Feb. 6th ,  2010 a team that consisted of  4 MVP investigators paid a
revisit to a davenport home we affectionately call “the house of
clocks.”  Investigators included Becky, Bob, Jordan, and Steve.  Upon
arriving we had gone over the client’s journal  of events which she was
asked to keep.  The client said that the home had been fairly quiet since
our last visit except for still seeing the grey mist in the bedroom, and
hearing some bumps and bangs once in a while.  After the clients left, we
gathered up our gear and set off to the bedroom, a considered hot spot from
our last investigation.  Many questions were asked with what seemed like a
few bumps and knocks in response.  We did note that many of the  mechanical
clocks in the home do make a slight thump before they chime, also the
furnace ducts make thumping noises from expanding and contracting.  What
was strange is some of the knocks came in response to questioning.
     Many of the knocks were heard by Jordan who was sitting in the
adjacent bathroom which is right off the bedroom.  She claimed that they
were coming from within the walls.  This could have been water piping, but
no water was running at the time.  Jordan also claimed to have felt cold
breezes in the bathroom as well which were later debunked as air moving
through the skylight.  Steve claimed to have seen some shadow activity
toward the closet and  bedroom door, but was not caught on video.  After
completing our EVP session in the bedroom, we had decided to take a break
and change batteries.  Steve had left his digital recorder running in the
bedroom alone.  Bob decided to go back into the bedroom alone to place a
recorder in there as well.  While placing the recorder somewhere near the
dresser, a loud and clear EVP was caught on Steve’s recorder.  We believe
the EVP says “Don’t touch that!!!”  This was the only EVP caught that
night.  What is strange about it is the voice sounds similar to an EVP
caught on our first investigation of the home.  That EVP was not included
in the first report, due to further analysis, but has been included in this
report for comparison.   We then regrouped and investigated the living
room, kitchen, and sun porch areas of the home.  Steve noticed that some of
his audio had strangely been deleted, could have been a malfunction with
the recorder.  Bob also reported having lost audio, which makes this even
stranger.
     We concluded our investigation and packed up around 10:00pm.  In
analysis we found that we did not catch any of the residual voices that
were found on the first investigation.  A couple of strange pictures still
being  questioned by the group are included.  No real video evidence to
speak of.  What we have included is that there may be a presence still in
the home of what we believe to be an elderly man.  How he got there still
remains a mystery being the fact that the condos are only about 7or 8 years
old.  This presence seems to show intelligence due to it’s response to
questions, and to Bob’s actions that night.  We don’t believe him to be
malevolent in nature, nor do we believe he poses any threat at this time to
the home owners.  He may be merely confused.  Due to lack of activity and
further evidence we cannot say for sure that the home is haunted, only that
there could be an intelligent presence in the home.  Due to this
possibility the case status remains open.

AUDIO

angry whisper at bob clock house bedroom
knockandpop
unknown mine enhanced
unknownyea cold (2)
angry whisper at bob clock house bedroompart2

PHOTO

*Photos do not claim to be proof of paranormal activity and are
posted purely for entertainment.


Zoom H2 in action