Mississippi Valley Paranormal

MVP was contacted by a couple in Eldridge experiencing several unsettling experiences in their small apartment in which they felt they needed some sort of explanation for.  This was their initial report…

We have had many experiences here. We have had cupboard doors shut on their own, or open. We had one time where it sounded like a bunch of boxes falling in one of the kid’s rooms but there was no boxes at all, even scared the cat. Bobie being pushed out the door downstairs, left marks that I took pictures of. We hear footsteps from time to time. We have had something just loudly whisper our names in our faces while trying to sleep, making us sit up straight in bed. There have been times where we have a plate in our hand and all the sudden this force comes from nowhere and knocks it out of our hand. I was sitting by Bobie one time as she went to put a cookie in her mouth, it was like an invisible force just smacked it out of her hand. I sat there speechless, shocked, and in awe. Things have been moved, or disappeared. It has been quiet lately. We are not afraid, just want to know who it is, what they want, why us, things like that. We believe in the supernatural because we have both had experiences all of our lives. We are enclosing some pictures, the one with the TV if you could blow it up, it almost looks like a worm or snake type thing.

The couple also reported that the activity had been quiet as of late and that they had also put a crucifix up not too long ago as well.  If the two things are connected it is not known.

INTERVIEW & WALK-THROUGH

A small team of Steph, Rick, and Becky arrived at the apartment to conduct an interview and do a small walk-thru of the residence.  Steph interviewed the man and woman while Becky took notes and Rick witnessed the interview.  None of the children were present at the interview nor during any of the investigation that followed.  The team was shown the “hot spots” of the apartment such as the kitchen, side bedroom, and bathtub.

More information acquired in the interview was that the couple had lived in the apartment for about four years and the incidents began to start about six months after moving in.  Upon researching the house the couple discovered from their landlord that the previous occupant had been abusive to her children, locking them into closets in the apartment literally and finally the children were indeed taken away by DCFS.  They have not discussed their experiences with anyone else that live in the complex nor has anyone else said anything to them about any experiences of their own.

In addition to the incidents mentioned above, the owners also reported seeing a black shadow moving from one room out into the hallway and into another room around the same time every night.  Also, that one of their cats repeatedly stares at something in the hallway around the same time at night and makes a ruckus trying to get out of the front door.  Eventually, the cat calms down and does not repeat the same incident the same night.  The other animals of the house do not seem to do this at all.  A few of their children’s friend who have stayed in the house have reported not wanting to stay again and not feeling comfortable in the apartment although they had no prior knowledge of the experiences.  The woman of the residence also reported feeling that something is always watching her in the bathtub while she is taking a shower and that she refuses now to take a shower alone without someone in the bathroom with her.

The apartment consists of two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and living room area.  Only a small team would be needed to investigate due to the limited size.

THE INVESTIGATION

Rick, Becky, and Steph returned back to the apartment around 8:30 p.m. with the additional members… Chris, Diana, Amy, and Sarah.  After discussing which members would perform the investigation, Steph, Chris, Amy, and Sarah decided to stay in Eldridge while the other three members left after a short conversation with the owners to do work on another investigation.

The team started out by doing a walk-thru of the place seeing if anything in the apartment contained any strong EMF readings that could be noted and found nothing out of the ordinary.  Chris felt a heavy presence in one of the bedroom’s closets, and the members could see the marks where the previous owner had put locks on the outside of the closet doors.  Steph stood in the bathtub by herself to see if she felt anything unusual, and conducted a very short EVP session there.  All of the animals in the apartment were rounded up and taken out of the two bedrooms so that the team would know where they were at all times.  A DVR was placed in the son’s bedroom with the door shut, and another in the closet of the other bedroom where Chris had felt the heavy air.  This door was also shut so that the outside noise in the other rooms would be diminished.

An EVP session was performed out in the living room and kitchen area with all of the members present after which the team split up into teams with two going into each bedroom shutting the door behind us.  Sarah and Chris sat in the side bedroom, where the couple said the most activity occurs, and Steph and Amy in the other bedroom.  Both teams performed an EVP session and after about 20 minutes met back out into the hallway.  It was decided that the team would leave the apartment for some time while leaving all of our DVR recorders running at different points in the apartment to see if anything would be caught.  Sarah left her DVR in the kitchen, Steph left hers in the son’s bedroom, and Chris left his in the closet of the side bedroom with an EMF detector also in the room lying stationary on a table that was away from anything that could set it off.

After the team returned back into the apartment from outside, the team and now the couple of the home moved back out into the living room and conducted another EVP session with the man of the home also asking questions to see if anything would respond to him.  A flashlight was placed in the hallway strategically facing the room where the owners usually saw the shadow and the members also kept a look out for anything unusual there while the EVP session was going on.

While sitting in the living room the EMF detector that had been left in the same place as when we had left did go off on its own a few times, usually only a beep or two but nothing else happened and the detector did not go off on cue.  The rocking chair, that the couple also reported seeing rock before on its own in the room also did not move during the time we were watching it.  The team wrapped up the investigation around 11:00 p.m. while meeting Becky, Rick, and Diana out in the parking lot to discuss anything significant from our concurrent investigations.

EVIDENCE

After reviewing everything received from that night on the Digital Voice Recorders, other than a few random EMF sounds there was nothing to report.  This also includes pictures from various cameras.  If must be said that there were five cats and one dog in the apartment and it was also windy that night, so many sounds on the DVRs had to be doubted due to these facts or were debunked.

CONCLUSION

Although MVP did not get anything substantial to support anything paranormal or unexplained in the house that night does not mean that anything does not happen there or perhaps will continue to happen to the people who live there.  We informed the owners that they are free to contact again with any questions or if they feel that they are in danger in any way and we can conduct another investigation for them.  For now the case is closed.

Note: We did not include a picture of the outside of the apartment since it is part of a complex and we didn’t want to disclose anything that we did not have permission for from anyone else in the complex including other residents or the landlord.

UPDATE:

The couple has since moved from the location and all the activity has now stopped.  They are very happy that they can now have peace.