Haunted History in Texas

Date: September 14, 2024
Location: Presidio la Bahia, Goliad, Texas

For Don’s birthday this year we decided to go on a ghost hunting adventure with the newest member of our family team, granddaughter Lilly. What better place than a National Historic Landmark in the form of a Spanish colonial fort dating back to 1749?

Presidio la Bahia was home to one of the bloodiest massacres in Texas history when the state was seeking freedom from Mexico in the 1830s. On Palm Sunday in 1836 over 300 soldiers were mercilessly slaughtered in the Goliad Massacre, including Colonel J.W. Fannin. While all of the deaths that day are tragic, the story of Colonel Fannin’s death seems to stand out. When it came time for his own death, he asked the Mexican soldiers to at least do him the mercy of shooting him through the heart instead of the face as they had his men, and he asked them for a Christian burial. Both requests were declined, and the Mexican soldiers stole his watch after shooting him in the face and threw his body on the pyre to be burned with the others. You can learn more about the site and the history of the Goliad Massacre by visiting the Texas Historical Commission's website.

In the present day, visitors to the Presidio often report seeing shadowy figures of the long-dead soldiers as well as hearing gunfire and screams echoing through the fort. Other reports include seeing a woman in white wandering around outside the chapel and seeing a short friar walking the courtyard. We approached this investigation hoping to experience even one of these frequently reported incidents, and while we didn’t necessarily have those encounters, we did not leave disappointed. 

After checking in for our night’s stay in the on-site quarters (a cozy little two bedroom suite with a kitchenette and living room), we explored downtown Goliad while we still had daylight so we could see the historic courthouse and the massive “hanging tree” that still grows on the front lawn. After the short drive back to the Presidio we got our equipment set up and began exploring the fort. Early in the night, while out exploring the barracks, Don and John caught an EVP of a male voice saying a quick “no” when asking if anyone wanted to interact with the REM-POD.

Later, around 11:30, when Lilly went out to explore the barracks the group had an interesting experience where there seemed to be an extra shadow being cast on the fort wall, following behind Beverly and Lilly. Around the same time, the K-II meter Bev was using, which had detected no EMF spikes previously, registered low levels of energy in the area. While they weren’t able to capture this brief experience on camera, the personal experience and possibility of something following her was enough to send Lilly running back to the quarters!

Throughout the night we all had some small experiences, such as my flashlight not wanting to stay on in the barracks, but working just fine when walking around the fort and Beverly hearing someone moving around in the kitchen around 3:30 a.m. while she was watching the infrared monitors. At that time, Don was out in the courtyard and the rest of us were lying down for a break. We also captured several unexplainable sounds on our audio recorders, such as strange rumbling sounds when it was a very quiet night, heavy breathing, and several soft vocal responses that we weren’t able to discern. 

At one point Don captured a male voice, perhaps the friar who has been seen near the chapel, responding “yeah” when asking about who else might be buried around the chapel. From our research, sightings of the friar often begin with a misty form seeming to rise from the ground before it takes shape and moves off. While we didn’t see a fully formed apparition, we did capture a bluish misty shape on our infrared camera in the courtyard.

In the images below, you can see that in the first image there is nothing on the left side of the monitor, but in the second image, captured just 5 seconds later there is a blue mist. Watching the footage in real time, the mist started at the ground and rose up before it disappeared from view. When this happened, Don rushed outside to where the camera was located in the courtyard outside of our quarters, but there was nothing visible to the naked eye.

Perhaps the most interesting EVP of the night happened around 1:30 a.m. when Don was in the courtyard at the memorial for Colonel Fannin with his audio recorder. Don mentioned that if there was a message the Colonel wanted to share with the world, we could try to make it known if the Colonel would talk to him. After that statement from Don, the recorder captured a soft male voice saying what sounds like, “I did nothing wrong.” The audio clip of this and the other EVPs mentioned above can be heard by playing the short video below.

We were really hoping to see one of the often reported apparitions during our stay, and while that didn’t happen we all had a good time and had a few little instances that gave us goosebumps and made us feel like there is definitely a ghostly presence at the Presidio. Hauntings aside, we also greatly appreciated learning about the brutal history of the place and being able to spend time alone in such a unique, historic structure. Goliad may be a bit off the beaten path, but it was well worth the journey to southeastern Texas!

Hayley

Upcoming Hunt in Texas

 

The SPI team is looking forward to making a trip to southern Texas this September for a ghost hunt at Presidio la Bahia. This Texas Historical Commission site is a fort dating back to the Spanish colonial period (established in 1749) and was home to one of the bloodiest massacre's in Texas history when the state was seeking freedom from Mexico in the 1830s. Over 300 soldiers died in the Goliad Massacre, and visitors to the Presidio often report seeing shadowy figures of the long dead soldiers as well as hearing gunfire and screams echoing through the fort. You can learn more about the site and the history of the Goliad Massacre by visiting the Texas Historical Commission's website.

We are excited to spend the night in this historic location and hope to experience some of the ghostly activity for ourselves! Check back later in September to see what we find!

Date: September 4, 2022

Location: Villisca Ax Murder House, Villisca, Iowa

After several delays due to the pandemic and busy schedules, we were finally able to head north to Iowa to investigate the small-town farmhouse made notorious by a grisly, unsolved murder in 1912. The tragic and brutal murder of six young children and two adults has brought countless ghost hunters and thrill seekers to the quiet town of Villisca, nestled in southern Iowa farm country. 

We arrived in the late afternoon, just as the day’s final tour was wrapping up, to collect the keys and learn more about the house. Although I didn’t know it at the time, our most intriguing finding occurred in those first few moments of wandering around photographing the outside of the house. Upon zooming in to look more closely at the house, I noticed a small (but fairly obvious) face peeping out of the upper half of one of the kitchen windows. As you can see in the images below, the face appears to be that of a young child, but it is hard to discern enough detail to tell whether the child is a boy or girl.

Full-size image - window with face circled in red

Zoomed-in image showing what appears to be a child's face peeking out the window.

Upon entering the house to start setting up for the night, Don was very quickly hit with a heavy feeling in the upstairs of the home. This isn’t surprising given that the entire Moore family was murdered in their sleep in this part of the house. 

Despite the immediate impressions, the house was relatively quiet while we were inside. We captured one possible EVP of a quiet voice responding “uh-huh” to a question, but it wasn’t distinguishable enough to publish. Our infrared cameras recorded multiple orbs of varying brightness and size, particularly in the upstairs rooms, but we caught none in our still photos. 

Our personal experiences were the most noteworthy occurrences besides the initial photo. Early in the evening, my dad and I were sitting in the children’s room upstairs. I was sitting on the very edge of one of the beds (pictured) while my dad sat on the floor asking questions. We both heard the bed frame rattle, and the bed shook briefly as though someone had sat down or jumped onto the head of it. Oddly, when I played the audio track back, I did not hear the rattling on the digital voice recorder we were using.

My mom and I were in the same room an hour or so later, and she was reading a children’s story aloud to anyone who cared to listen.  The voice recorder that we had been recording with for several minutes completely shut off midway through the story, and strangely, the file that had been recording was no longer on the device when we turned it back on... Perhaps the children were politely letting us know they didn’t want to be heard that night.

We left the house with a definite feeling that the spirits of those who so tragically died there are still lingering. We are pleased with the unique photo we captured, and we all had some interesting personal experiences, but, like many other popular haunted locales, it seems that the spirits at this one may be growing wary of all their still-living visitors poking around day and night for evidence of a haunting.  

Hayley.

 

Villisca Murder House Investigation This Weekend

After several delays, the SPI team will finally be heading to Iowa this weekend to investigate the famous Villisca Ax Murder House. The house has a fascinating history and is famous for the eight brutal murders that occurred there in 1912, which remain unsolved to this day. The house is said to be one of the most haunted in the country, and we are excited to check it out for ourselves after months of waiting! Check back soon to see what we find!

Here's a great recent article about the 1912 murders: https://www.desmoinesregister.com

Source: The Des Moines Register

Upcoming Investigation

This spring the SPI team will be heading north to Iowa to investigate the famous Villisca Ax Murder House. The house was the site of eight brutal murders in 1912, with six of the victims being the Moore family and the other two being young friends of the Moore children. Although someone confessed to crime, the confession was later recanted and the crime remains unsolved. Today the house is said to be one of the most haunted in the country, and after seeing and hearing about it on TV and in podcasts, we are extremely excited to check it out for ourselves. Check back in April to see what we find!

Source: The Des Moines Register

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the SPI family!

Local Church Investigation Reveals 31 Word EVP

Date: August 14, 2021

Location: Local Church 

 

On the morning of August 2^nd while picking up his tools to leave a remodeling job in the sanctuary of a local church, Don glanced up and out of the sanctuary into the reception area of the church and saw something entirely unexpected – A gray shadowy figure walking, swinging arms and moving legs included, across the reception area towards the stairs that lead up to the office. 

 

This sighting lead Don to ask church leadership for permission to investigate, which was happily granted since many members of the church staff have heard unexplainable things there themselves. And so, on August 14^thwe (Don, Beverly, and I) packed some small pieces of equipment and ventured to the church on a Saturday evening to see what we could find. 

 

Shortly after arriving we began experiencing things. EMF levels throughout the church were low, with the EMF and KII meters never showing any spikes. We set up in the reception area and began asking questions with the REM pod. On multiple occasions almost immediately after we captured asking questions or asking something to approach the REM pod would light up and beep for several seconds in response. 

 

The EVPs were the highlight of the night. The first was captured upstairs in the office. Don was alone in the office asking questions, and after several minutes of sitting in the office/library he decided to change locations. After saying aloud that he was going to walk away, he gets up, sighs, and then a male voice whispers “Tell ‘em I’m doing just fine.” Moments later on the opposite side of the office there was a brief word captured that sounds like “Hynum”, but was challenging to make out.

 

Soon after this, after checking out the basement and moving into the sanctuary, Don’s audio recorder picked up the longest EVP we have ever captured. Don was alone in the sanctuary while Beverly and I were upstairs in the office. After stating that he was going to walk up the main aisle to the front of the room to see if anyone is near the front door, the following statements were all recorded in the same session, uninterrupted, for a total of 31 discernable words: 

 

“I got this. Call me in the morning. I think we’re in vain. But once you hear it… When you can hear, anybody, tell them, tell them I’m doing just fine.”

 

After listening to this EVP a multitude of times, this is our best interpretation of what is said. The majority of the statements are very clear, but small portions were challenging to make out, especially since the statements don’t seem to be a coherent train of thought. 

 

Back out in the reception area, Don’s recorder captured one last (mostly) intelligible EVP for the evening. He requested whoever was with us in the church to confirm their presence with a loud resounding knock. Instead, he was told a name several seconds later: “Brother Gary Stillman.” Immediately after the name there is another word that we can’t quite discern. At first it sounds like “a pharaoh” or perhaps “of arrow”, but upon closer listening it could be the word “avero”, which in Latin means “I approach”. 

 

Moments later the recorder captured one final word for the evening, and it sounds like “cancer.” Perhaps the male entity at the church was trying to tell us how he passed?

 

Although Beverly and I didn’t see the grey misty figure that started this adventure for us, as a team we captured the most audio phenomena we have ever heard from a single investigation, much less in a span of less than three hours. We’ll call it a Saturday night well spent, and hopefully someday we can piece more of this mystery together. 

Each of the EVPs described above can be heard in the clip below. They are included in sequential order as described in the story above. 

 

Hayley.

The Return Visit: Miss Molly's

Date: April 18, 2019

Location: Miss Molly’s Hotel, Fort Worth, TX

On a Thursday night in mid-April, the SPI team (Don, Beverly, Hayley, John, and a family friend, Karen) drove south into the historic Stockyards of Fort Worth. We were headed to Miss Molly’s Hotel for the second time in hopes of once again encountering the many “ladies of the night” who once worked in the building when it was a bordello.

Our first visit to the hotel took place in 2012, and it was quite a memorable experience for all of us. Enough so, that we have all been interested in going back for several years.

This trip was not quite as exciting as the first, but there was still enough activity to let us know the spirits haven’t left their residence. Our infrared cameras captured orbs all throughout the night, and on multiple occasions the REM pod went off with no one in the vicinity. The REM pod is a type of electromagnetic field (EMF) detector that can be turned on and left alone. When something enters the EMF field the device produces a loud beeping and colorful lights flash. We had REM pod activity in the Railroader room as well as in the central landing area at the top of the stairs. On several occasions we observed EMF pulses with the K2 meters as well. We were not able to get anyone to answer specific questions using either the REM pod or our K2 meters, but we weren’t able to find any “normal” source for the EMF pulses either.

Flashlight turning on and off in Ms. Josie's Room

We also had a few instances where something turned a flashlight on and off, but we weren’t able to get anyone to interact with us this way to answer questions.

On our first visit to Miss Molly’s we ended up with some very interesting EVP recordings throughout the night. The spirits were not as talkative on this return visit, but we did capture one interesting clip. The hotel has two adjacent rooms called “Cowboy” and “Miss Amelia.” Miss Amelia was an employee of the establishment who frequently visited the Cowboy in the adjoining room. Don went into Miss Amelia’s room and began asking questions. When he first asked for confirmation if the spirit in the room was Miss Amelia, he got back a very prompt confirmation of “Amelia.”

The only really personal encounter we had happened again in the Railroader

The Railroader Room

Room. At around 1:30 in the morning, John went into the room alone and laid down on the bed. While he lay there, he had a K2 meter lying on the bed beside him. This flickered off and on intermittently as the REM pod had done in there earlier. At one point, the infrared camera captures an orb that crosses the room and swoops down over John’s leg. Just after the orb disappears, you can see John rise up and look towards his leg. After John came out of the room just a few minutes later he reported that something had touched his leg while he was laying on the bed. When he saw the video, he confirmed that the touch he felt is what made him raise him and look down at his feet. It seems like that particular orb was definitely more than just “dust.”

Our return visit may not have been as eventful as the first, but enough happened that we know the many spirits of Miss Molly’s are still alive and well, keeping the guests of the Stockyards company.

Hayley