River Valley District Library Port Byron, IL October 18, 2008

by Becky on Nov.12, 2009, under Investigations

On October 18^th, 2008, seven members of the group conducted an investigation at the Port Byron Library in Port Bryon, Illinois. The group members present were Becky, Steph, Diana, Amy, Sarah, Maria, and Pat.

We arrived around 6:00 p.m. and began our interviews and walk-through. From Steph’s interview with the owner, it was found that the elevator went up and down on its own and that she often felt a presence watching her in certain areas of the library… mostly around the entrance to the woman’s bathroom. While exiting the bathroom she often feels something behind her coming out of the bathroom with her. Otherwise there has been no other activity however the presence in the library is often felt quite strong. There has not been any patrons that has reported any activity to her, but often times the workers speak about the “presence”. It is believed to be one of the previous librarians of the library who had passed on.

The history of the place is that the land it is built on is Native American burial ground. There used to be a house next door that has since been torn down but allegedly, there was paranormal activity in that house as well.

Sarah reported that during the walk-through she and other members had encountered a cold spot that dropped the temp to around 27 degrees and then it went back up again to room temp.

The members split up to start the investigation… Steph, Diana, and Amy stayed downstairs and Becky, Sarah, Pat, and Maria when upstairs. Nothing was reported in the group downstairs as they made sure to cover the various parts of the library including the children’s area, which was told to us to be the previous librarian’s favorite part of the library. We experienced nothing by the woman’s room door or by the elevator area at the time.

Diana and Amy in the Children’s Room

Upstairs Sarah reported… “We had the temperature drop on command. The starting temp was around 65. I encountered a cold spot on the wall in the little hallway that the elevator opens up into. The cold spot was briefly around 30 before it returned to the starting temp. We then asked if the temp could go down to 60 degrees which it did. We asked it to go lower which it did, but would not go lower than 57 degrees.”

Becky reported… “The temperature in the upstairs part of the library by the elevator lowered. We then asked it to go lower to 55 and it started lowering in response to our requests. At one point, my right arm got extremely cold with goosebumps and my hair stood up, so someone took a picture of my arm.” MVP member Pat correlated seeing the drops in temperature at this time.”

Steph left her audio recorder alone by the elevator doors downstairs while Diana left her EMF meter next to the recorder before going upstairs to join the team.

While everyone was upstairs and conducting an EVP session, Steph heard a sound behind her right behind the “Exit” door sounding like someone was scratching on the door. Becky also heard this and came over when Steph reported that she heard it. Nothing else was heard.

Steph, Amy, and Diana stayed upstairs while the rest of the team went downstairs to investigate. A few sounds were heard from the “break room” area but they could be explained from all the kitchen appliances in the room. Before leaving the room was checked of all equipment left alone. Sarah’s audio recorder was left on one of the tables in the room with no other equipment around.

Downstairs the entire group continued to investigate parts of the library. After some time the Ouija board, which was placed in the center of the library due to it being Halloween time, was finally decided to be used after some debate among the members. MVP as a rule doesn’t use a Ouija board in our investigations but since the board was there we decided just this once to use it as a tool.

The Ouija board

While Steph and Diana were doing the Ouija board Becky reported… “I thought I heard books being moved on a shelf. I turned on my flashlight and pointed it at the noise. While looking down the aisle I saw something move by the globe down at the end. It wasn’t a shadow, it was like the table the globe was sitting on had been moved. When looking again after reporting the action to the other members, the table was in the proper place as if it had moved back.”

Nothing happened however on the Ouija Board itself.

Sarah reports… “Downstairs, while Steph and Diana were doing the Ouija board, one of the times Becky was flashing pictures I saw a dark shadow move in between the rows of shelves. It was not my own shadow as I was standing in front of one of the bookcases, in the center aisle, so when cars went by I did not cast a shadow. After Becky saw the weird thing with the wooden globe stand, we went and sat back in the corner. I was monitoring the temp back into the opposite corner. All of a sudden I got another drop in temperature. What was strange, the little laser dot from the gage had been on the back wall. When I got the drop in temp, the dot moved much closer to us, being maybe 5-6 feet away. There was something solid enough there that the laser was not able to pass through it for a moment.”

Maria and Pat attempted to do the Ouija board but again nothing happened other than Maria hearing a noise behind her that she couldn’t explain.

After the investigation was concluded and we gathered our equipment Sarah went upstairs alone to get her recorder. She reports… “The recorder was not of the table that I had placed it on when we had first gone upstairs. I turned on the lights and looked around then came back down to ask if anyone had moved it.”

Steph, Amy, and Diana all confirmed that they had not and had remembered seeing it on the table when they left. No one had gone upstairs after that including the owner of the library who had been in our sight the whole time downstairs.

The team went back upstairs and Sarah’s recorder was found on the opposite side of the room sticking up in the middle of a roll of duct tape. The batteries had gone dead.