A Local Hunt

Location: Boyett Residence; Searcy, AR

Date: November 26, 2011

Recently, SPI investigated the home of Susie Boyett. Since this was a local investigation, all of our members as well as our young, part-time investigator Julia (a niece who is very interested in ghost hunting) were able to join us.  The two primary “hot spots” in her home were a bedroom upstairs where lights apparently flicker on and off, and the basement, where a woman felt a deep and unexplainable cold sensation while working on a mural.

Upon arriving, we set our computer up in the downstairs office/library and placed infrared cameras in two of the upstairs rooms and the basement.  We then broke into groups and began the investigation.  Initially, there did not seem to be much taking place.  The lights did indeed flicker upstairs, and while down in the basement, I thought I saw a shadow pass into a dark corner on the opposite side of the room.  Obviously, neither of these experiences offered concrete, tangible evidence of the paranormal.

Later in the evening, my dad went upstairs to investigate the bedroom “hot spot.” My dad and my sister had both experienced an unexplainable heavy feeling in this room on a previous visit to the house. I went into the room next door with a flashlight, a K2 meter, and my iPhone, which was running the Ghost Radar app.  This app has received mixed reviews from paranormal investigators.  No one really knows how the application works, but most of the people who use it do tend to encounter something unexplainable.  On this evening, it apparently proved itself as a thought-provoking tool.

The iPhone’s screen becomes a green and black radar.  If the radar picks up energy, it produces a spot on the screen, which can be blue, green, yellow, or red, depending on the strength of the signal.  The app also claims to look for patterns in the signals it is reading, to see if the energy is “intelligent” and trying to communicate; if it notices a pattern, it will produce words.  While we were in Ms. Boyett’s home, the Ghost Radar produced the following words: “Jones”, “judge”, and “Ellen.”  All of these, in some way or another, are directly related to the house’s history.

While the Ghost Radar app was running, I also performed an experiment with the flashlight.  I twisted it so that it was powered off and asked if anybody or anything was around to turn it on.  The flashlight flickered and came to life.  When I asked the presence in the room to turn it off, it did.  This phenomenon occurred again in front of my parents, even after trying it with my dad’s flashlight.

The Ghost Radar readings and the flashlight experience were the only pieces of solid evidence that we collected while in the house.  But something else occurred after our investigation was over.  Ms. Boyett called my dad again a few days later with a strange story…  Apparently, the morning after our investigation, she found a note that had been missing for almost a month.   It was on the floor with three damp tissues.  And neither the note nor the tissues had been there before.

Our investigation of Ms. Boyett’s home was brief but intriguing.  It was the first time anyone’s actively attempted such an investigation in the home, and it’s reasonable to think that a follow-up could stir up more activity.

Mitch