A ghostly image on CCTV at Hampton Court Palace

LONDON, England December 19, 2003-- A ghostly image has been caught on camera at Hampton Court Palace near London, a home of King Henry VIII, long reported to be haunted.

The 16th Century palace is well known for alleged supernatural activity, but nothing suspicious has been caught on film before.

However, in October this year, a curious image was discovered on the palace's closed-circuit television footage.

On several occasions security guards were alerted to an open fire door in an exhibition area of the palace.

After securing the door each time, they returned to their office to view the CCTV footage to see who had opened them.

On the first occasion the footage showed the doors flying wide open, but no evidence of why they had.

On the second, the guards were stunned when a ghostly figure in period dress suddenly appeared on the screen and closed the doors.

The same thing happened on a third day, but again no figure appeared.

Stranger still was that a visitor had noted in the palace's visitor book that she thought she had seen a ghost in that area.

One of the palace's "custody warders" (security guards) told the UK Press Association: "I was shocked when the CCTV footage showed an eerie figure in period dress in the doorway. It was incredibly spooky because the face just didn't look human.

"My first reaction was that someone was having a laugh, so I asked my colleagues to take a look. We spoke to our costumed guides but they don't own a costume like that worn by the figure. It is actually quite unnerving!"

The palace, with its 500 years of history, has seen many dramatic royal events from the death of Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, to the condemnation and house arrest of his fifth, Catherine Howard, for adultery.

Over the centuries staff, visitors, workmen and residents have experienced strange phenomena for which there is often no practical explanation.

One area of the palace has been named the Haunted Gallery. It is here that people claim to have seen the ghost of Catherine Howard, and heard her uttering terrible cries.

CNN

Ghost captured on CCTV at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool.

Paranormal experts are investigating an alleged ghost sighting apparently caught on CCTV in the grounds of an Edwardian country house.

Is this the ghost of a long-dead Earl said to appear around the time of the National?

In the eight-second footage, a luminous yellow glow is seen emerging from trees outside Croxteth Hall in Liverpool.

It then heads towards a path leading to the house before disappearing.

Like many old buildings, the hall has a reputation for being haunted, and the mystery light - captured at 3am last month - has left paranormal enthusiasts in high spirits.

One theory among the happy mediums is that it may be the ghost of former resident Hugh William Osbert Molyneux, the 7th Earl of Sefton, who died in 1972.

Another contender is the infamous gambler William Philip Molyneux, the 2nd Earl of Sefton, who laid the foundation stone for nearby Aintree Racecourse in 1829.

A local legend says his spirit appears and strolls the grounds around the time of the Grand National.

Former Most Haunted ghost hunter and TV presenter Jason Karl has seen the footage, and believes it could be an important sighting in ghost circles.

He told Sky News Online: "This is very intriguing. Video footage of phantoms is very rare.

"If this stands up to scrutiny, it could be a very important piece of spectral evidence for the worldwide community of paranormal enthusiasts."
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Alor Setar, MALAYSIA: Students in hysteria after ghostly encounter

A yassin recital at a secondary school in Alor Setar was disrupted when 18 female students became hysterical after they allegedly saw an apparition pass by, reported Kosmo! in its front page.

The students, who were reciting verses along with teachers at the canteen of SMK Langgar, started screaming and raving after seeing a ghastly woman with long hair passing by.

Nor Junaidah Ahmad Fauzi, 13, one of those in hysteria, said the incident happened so fast.

“I could not take a good look at her face (the apparition) but it was scary and terrifying,” she said.

This was the third incident at the school.

Last Sunday, 22 female students went hysterical at 8.30am.

One more incident occurred in the school during the following day.

It is learnt that the incidents occurred after a huge tree next to the school field was chopped down.

The apparition was said to ‘live’ in the tree.
Malaysia Star

USA, Newport, California, March, 2008: Macabre- man keeps woman's body in ice

MACABRE


NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Police thought they were handling a routine drug bust at a ritzy hotel until they opened a large container and found a woman's body preserved on a bed of dry ice.

In the days since the macabre discovery, the tale has only gotten more bizarre.

Acquaintances said Monique Trepp, a 33-year-old aspiring model, died a year ago and that her boyfriend, a convicted drug dealer, held a wake for her at the hotel where he lived for three years. Authorities said she had been dead "a while," but released few other details.

The person who likely knows more, Trepp's 46-year-old boyfriend, Stephen David Royds, made a cryptic statement from jail, where he's being held on $1 million bail on felony drug charges and a warrant from a 2002 conviction for selling cocaine.

Authorities have not said whether they will prosecute Royds for keeping her body or not reporting her death. An autopsy found no signs of homicide. Toxicology reports were pending, but authorities have said Trepp likely overdosed on drugs.

"Right now, we only have sufficient evidence to support the drug-related charges," said Susan Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney.

Silence surrounding the case has baffled those who know the couple. The pair acted strange at times, but were polite and engaging, said Arturo Flores, general manager of Tapas, a restaurant the couple frequented.

A driver would chauffeur them a few hundred yards from the Fairmont Hotel across the street to Tapas, where Royds and Trepp drank liberally, paid cash and tipped waiters with lottery tickets.

"We saw these people on a daily basis. Just because you see they are weird doesn't mean they're bad people," Flores said.

Police had been tailing Royds for some time when they arrested him last week. An informant said he was selling cocaine on the beach, Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Trepp's body was found stuffed in a giant Rubbermaid container packed with dry ice in Royds' executive suite, which goes for up to $400 per night.

A hotel spokeswoman said Royds had negotiated a discounted rate because of his extended stay, but did not elaborate.

Christmas presents and drug paraphernalia were scattered across the room, said Dennis Conway, assistant district attorney.

Royds used multiple aliases, including Mel Proffitt, a variation on the name of Kevin Spacey's character in the 1987 TV series "Wiseguy," about a drug kingpin, Conway said.

In a jailhouse interview, the New Zealand native told The Orange County Register that "everything that happened was for religious reasons." He repeated the sentence four times, but said no more.

Royds' public defender did not speak after a court appearance Monday and did not return phone messages left by The Associated Press.

Flores said Royds told wait staff at Tapas that Trepp died a year ago and he held a wake in her honor.

"He was quiet, kept to himself, but then he got social again," Flores said.

Royds often engaged staff and customers in long conversations about the Iraq war, the economy and politics, Flores said.

Trepp never shared stories from her past and would talk mostly about fashion and cosmetics.

Mike Smith, the property manager at Trepp's apartment complex, said her rent checks bounced every couple of months and that she was working as a stripper.

"She was real cute, a blue-eyed blonde, a typical beach girl," Smith said. "Whenever I talked to her, she was always going to get a better job and she was going to go back to school. She was always kind of running between the raindrops."

Smith said he believes he saw Trepp as recently as November, when he went to her apartment to report another bad check.

Calls to her younger brother, Allen Trepp, were not returned and her grandmother, Ramona Trepp, told the AP she hadn't seen Trepp for 20 years.

Royds' father, John Royds, told The New Zealand Herald he hadn't seen his son in 20 years, when he moved to the U.S. to pursue downhill skiing. He said they hadn't spoken in nearly eight years.

Sometime after his arrival, Royds got into drug trouble. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing and selling cocaine. He was awaiting sentencing when he disappeared.

In 2005, Trepp was charged with several felonies in Colorado, including possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, court records show. But she disappeared after a man posted bail for her, attorney Mark S. Rubinstein said.

There were still outstanding warrants for her arrest when her body was discovered.
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INUVIL, SRI LANKA, April, 2008: The Ghosts of Inuvil

SUPERNATURAL


The residents of Inuvil and the neighbouring townships and villages in north Sri Lanka have been plagued by two strange ghosts in recent times. Although they have their unique habits with one emitting strange rustling noises and other a kind of sweeping strong wind impacting on a large tree often quite frightful, they sometimes appear at a distance like a monster shooting out of the ground and towering into the clouds.

There are times when sounds like a constant monotonous wail are heard as coming from a chekku, the traditional oil extractor used in our villages from time immemorial with the pulley on the main body turned round and round pressing the oil seeds like sesame by a pair of oxen merry-go-round style. On other occasions the sounds are like the creaks and croaks of heavy doors. People traveling late night on the Jaffna-KKS Road and also on the Manipay-Inuvil Road via Uduvil have heard these sounds particularly on New Moon and Full Moon days. The rustler is more active on New Moon days and the croaker dominates the two hours past midnight on Full Moon days.

Some people in Vaddukoddai, six miles from Inuvil, reported hearing similar noises in the compound of a house along College Lane that was demolished a few years ago. Some expensive Burma Teak rafters and other fittings had disappeared overnight under extremely mysterious circumstances.

Inuvil residents have consulted local priests, Hindu and Christians both Catholic and Protestant but have had no answers or even any explanation. Finally, they approached a well recommended magician and exorcist from the Eastern Province who prided his training in India and his Guru as someone who could command orders to the nastiest of spirits and ghosts. Called the Ahala Antha-Intha Appuchamy Manthravathi of Vantharamoolai, he arrived in Inuvil one New Moon day and set up his hut assisted by his two sishyas near the Maruthanamadam-Inuvil junction.

The same night he started his pooja having commanded a supply of three white cockerels, a black he-goat, five dozen white eggs and a whole supply of vegetables, red rice, thirty husked and twelve young coconuts, a bunch of kappal bananas, two gallons of coconut oil, camphor and two cartloads of neem (vembu) twigs with leaves all green and fresh. Sharp at 12 00 midnight, the Ahala Antha-Intha Appuchamy Manthravathi beating his udukku drum went into a trance and violently danced for two hours screaming defiance at the devil when suddenly a gunny bag of tamarind fruits appeared from nowhere.

This was supposed to be a clue and for the next fifteen days, the magician pursued it with all kinds of inquiries in the area. When the Full Moon day approached he demanded the same supply of pooja material but this time he wanted two black he-goats saying both ghosts may try to attack him. Once again at the appointed hour he went into a trance to the udukku beat and the dance of the devil in which his two sishyas too joined. But nothing happened until 3 00 AM when a whole heap of twigs from a Mahogany tree was piled up in front of the hut from nowhere and suddenly it caught fire with frightening shrieks coming out of it.

The magician collapsed on the ground with sweat flowing out of his body. When he finally recovered, he told the people who had assembled around him that the two ghosts plaguing them are no ordinary ones. They are the spirits of two that have lived very long lives, have been of immense service to the community and were likely to live for many more years but a greedy man had brought about their ends.

This explanation puzzled the people who had invited the magician to exorcise the place of the ghosts. When the magician had rested a bit, they heaped a lot of questions on him. Having had a good breakfast on pittu and mutton curry along with other choice variety of food all freshly made for the pooja, he asked the group to follow him.

He walked along the Chunnakam-Jaffna Road and as he got near the Inuvil McCleod Hospital, he turned into the yard, walked a little distance away from the main gate and pointed at two spots in different places. Again the people could not understand what he was trying to convey. He sat on the ground under the shade of a Mahogany Tree that was planted by American missionaries some 150 years ago and said that on the two spots stood two beautiful full-grown trees, one a Mahogany and the other a Tamarind.

Both were adored by the hospital people, one for the shade and the other for the tamarind fruit. Unfortunately, both were cut down by a greedy man who had access to the trees and made virtually thousands of rupees by selling them illicitly. Out of the wood of one, rafters, doors and windows have been made and that accounts for the creaking noise of a sad ghost as well as the windy roar and the other was used to make a chekku.

The spirits of the ghosts are obviously seeking revenge and until this is achieved, the people of the area cannot propitiate them. Inuvil may have to live with these ghosts, now known as Mahogany and Tamarind, for some years.
SOURCE

UGANDA,APRIL 2008: Uganda: Ghosts Worry MP Okumu

SUPERNATURAL


Kampala

GHOSTS are haunting the people returning from internally displaced peoples camps in northern Uganda and they need prayers, Aswa county MP Reagan Okumu has said.

Mary Karugaba reports that the MP asked religious leaders to go and pray for the people, especially those from areas where atrocities were committed by the LRA rebels.


"This (ghosts) issue poses a big challenge to the returnees especially in my village where the rebels slaughtered 21 people, lined them along the road and also buried others alive. People no longer sleep at night. They see ghosts and make a lot of noise," Okumu yesterday told journalists at the parliamentary buildings.

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MUMBAI, INDIA,April 5,2008:Children stumble upon old skeleton in deserted house

MACABRE


MUMBAI: The nightmarish memories of 26/7 that had almost faded suddenly resurfaced in an abandoned bungalow in Chembur's Collector's Colony on Friday. Children searching for their lost cricket ball in the vicinity stumbled upon a skeleton. The preliminary conclusion reached by the police is that the skeleton could be that of an aged maidservant who was trapped and drowned in the dilapidated house on July 26, 2005 when several low-lying areas of Mumbai were submerged under several feet of water.

The bungalow, 19-B, belonged to Janaki Shamiropa who died at the age of 70 in 2002. Since no relatives had come forward, her maidservant of nearly 20 years ended up living alone in the rundown cottage spread across an area of 1,400 sq ft. Locals told the police that they had not seen the household help, who was about 60 years old, after the deluge of July 26.

In the last few years, the cottage had been widely shunned because it was believed to be haunted. Uncut grass and foliage grown wild had almost covered the exterior. Locals said they had not seen a light inside the cottage for years.

On Friday, a cricket ball from the adjoining playground landed in the house. When the kids entered the cottage looking for it, they came face to face with a skull. "The children ran out helter-shelter and shouted that they had seen a ghost inside the bungalow,'' said P Panchunkar, senior inspector of the Chembur police. Grown-ups who went in to check after the kids saw a skeletal frame lying in one of the rooms at the entrance to the bungalow.

The skeleton was draped in a sari and a torn blouse and there were bangles on both wrists. The Chembur police called in a forensic expert who took away the skeleton to ascertain the cause of death.

DCP (Zone 6) Niket Kaushik said they were not taking any chances and were trying to trace the maid's relatives.
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FRANCE, Charleville-Meziers, March, 2008: The Ogre of Ardennes

MACABRE

A Belgian teenage girl, whose escape from self-confessed French serial killer Michel Fourniret led to his arrest, took the witness stand on Monday at his trial for seven murders.

Her escape put an end to a killing spree that allegedly began in 1987 and ended in 2003 when the then 13-year-old girl managed to undo the ropes tied around her wrists, jump out of Fourniret's vehicle and alert the police.

She told Belgian investigators that Fourniret had boasted to her that he was "worse than" Marc Dutroux, Belgium's most notorious criminal sentenced to life in jail in 2004 for child kidnappings, rapes and murders.

The girl, identified only as Marie because she is still a minor, took the witness stand with her back to the courtroom to protect her identity.

Fourniret, dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes," on Monday repeated his threat to "boycott" the trial being held in the town of Charleville-Mezieres near the Belgian border, if it was not held behind closed doors.

When the presiding judge asked him if he had anything to say about the events of June 2003, when the girl was abducted, Fourniret replied: "I am burning to talk about them but I cannot."

The court heard last Thursday at the start of the trial how Fourniret's wife and co-accused, Monique Olivier, had agreed to find virgins for him if he killed her first husband.

Fourniret, 65, is being tried for the rape and murder of six young women or teenage girls in France and one in Belgium, who were aged between 12 and 21 and who were either strangled, stabbed with a screwdriver or shot.

Olivier, 59, is on trial for one of the same murders and complicity in four of the others.

Fourniret, a former electrician, on Thursday admitted to being "devoid of human emotion" in a text he submitted to the presiding judge. In the meandering document, he said he would "boycott" the trial because it would be a media circus if it was not held behind closed doors.

He played down Olivier's role in his crimes, saying she "fell into the odious nets of a manipulator" without any scruples, who led her into "a perverse game."

The charges against the couple state that Olivier would play a key part in her husband's meticulously-planned schemes to abduct young women.

Their first attack, barely two months after his release in 1987 after a prison term for sexual assault, set the tone for the others.

The couple allegedly drove up alongside 17-year-old Isabelle Laville and asked her for directions, and then persuaded her to get into their van and show them the way. She was abducted, raped and murdered.

They continued abducting women with similar ruses until 2003, authorities say.

Fourniret was charged earlier this month in two other cases which do not feature in the trial opening Thursday - the 1990 murder of British student Joanna Parrish and the 1988 killing of Frenchwoman Marie-Angele Domece.

Olivier was charged with complicity in these kidnappings and murders.

Fourniret has admitted that he needed to go hunting for a virgin at least twice a year, prosecutors said, adding that he was obsessed with virginity.
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BLACKPOOL, BRITAIN: March, 2008: The Haunted Pub

SHIVERS of fear have chilled the spines of landlords at a Lytham pub.
Ghosts of a mother and son, who are thought to have made a suicide pact and drowned themselves in the early 1900s, are said to haunt the Ship and Royal, on Clifton Street.

So much so, Lee Jane, 30, and girlfriend Gemma Rogers, 27, are the first licensees in five years to dare live in the building.

The couple report hearing bath water running upstairs in a derelict area of the building which is boarded up and has no plumbing.

Mr Jane, who has run the pub for six months, said: "That area is part of the former Royal Hotel and there are 20 derelict rooms upstairs which don't have any electricity or plumbing.

"Nobody goes up there, it's all boarded up for health and safety reasons.

"But we hear water running, like from a tap. A mother and son who lived here are thought to have made a suicide pact and drowned themselves."

Mr Jane describes other recent spooky moments which have made staff at his pub scurry home in fear, including an internal telephone system which rings by itself.

He said: "There were four of us in the pub one night and we'd just finished cleaning up when the internal phone rang.

"There was no-one there when we answered and there was no-one in the building to ring the phone in the first place.

The office was all locked up so no-one could get to it."

In 1983 The Gazette reported another sighting of a ghost at the pub.

A tall dark figure, thought to be the departed soul of the late Squire John Clifton who died in Tenerife in 1928, was seen on the second floor.

It was not the first time.

In 1978, The Gazette reported: "Ghosts do have their acceptable faces. The case of interfering Charlie is the toast of the Ship and Royal.

"Charlie, thought to be the ghost of squire John Talbot Clifton, likes revisiting his favourite hostelry, orders meat from suppliers and tampers with the inn's files for what reason no one knows."

But Mr Jane says the ghosts won't frighten him and his partner away.

He said: "It's a bit spooky, but I keep an open mind. It doesn't stop me sleeping!"
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Spoleto, ITALY: The haunted house of Spoleto

After enduring howls in the night and creaking staircases for the past three years, an Italian family is preparing to sue the previous owners of their house for not telling them it was haunted.

Gaetano Bastianelli, 57, and his wife Stefania paid €120,000 (£94,000) for the modern home in the Umbrian town of Spoleto in 2005 - encouraged by the fact that all the furniture and fittings were left by the owners, right down to the coffee cups. "We considered it the deal of the century," said Mr Bastianelli.

The couple claim they were unaware that the house in Santo Chiodo road had been built close to the disused Pozzi Ginori cemetery, or that strange goings-on at the address during the 1970s had necessitated an exorcism - and prompted a visit from Perugia University's paranormal research team.

"The ghosts started their haunting on the first night," said Mr Bastianelli, a former long-distance lorry driver. "I woke suddenly at around one or two in the morning. There was water seeping from under the bathroom door.

"The hot water tap was pouring out boiling water and the room was full of steam. My wife was stunned, because she had turned off everything before going to bed."

He claimed that by next morning, malevolent spirits had left "luminous green mould all over the walls".

After that things got worse. He said the sound of chains rattling had alarmed his 10-year-old daughter, and claimed that the lawnmower and his wife's car had spontaneously combusted.

Now Mr Bastianelli has engaged a lawyer, Antonio Francesconi, to sue the previous owners for failing to inform him that the house was haunted.

"We have a good case," said Mr Francesconi. "Under article 1490 of Italian law, you have to tell buyers if there is anything wrong. I think that the previous owners will settle out of court."

A local historian, Sergio Grifoni, confirmed that an exorcism had been performed on a girl in the house in 1977.

"The local papers at the time said a girl had been possessed by the devil and had been taken to the bishop. Nothing helped, until Pope John Paul II prayed for her."

The episode was confirmed by Fr Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican's senior exorcist, who said: "Pope Wojtyla carried out an exorcism on this girl who was rolling around on the floor of her house."

He could not confirm whether the house was the same one in Santo Chiodo road.
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Pennsylvania: Officers Say Police Station is Haunted

Ghosts are taking over a police station in Pennsylvania. At least that's what the officers who work there will tell you. Now the police department has hired paranormal investigators to look into the hauntings.

"The door slamming is something everyone at this station has heard." slamming doors and creaky floors are one thing but what police officers, staff, even the Mayor of Homestead say they've personally witnessed in the building that cannot be explained away.

We'll start with the phantom typist "there were 20 of us in meeting and the typewriter against the wall started to type by itself."

When we turned it on - the backspace key seemed to be stuck? or was it? Others can't explain the attic door that no matter how many times it's bolted springs open.

Or the bursts of bone chilling air that blows through enclosed hallways and around old cellblocks. "there are always noises in this room." "he shined his flashlight then that's when he saw the shadow."

I have to admit it i was skeptical all the up to the door slamming. Something my photographer denied. "did you do it? I didn't do it. Yes you did! The mysterious happenings aren't all inside the building.

The mayor showed a broken down sidewalk sweeper that somehow started up last November without a key and without a battery. "Occasionally we'll be here typing up reports hear the back door footsteps look out there's nobody there. do you buy this, do you believe there a class five full roaming vapor? That's the first i've heard that term but it's possible something's here."

Paranormal investigators say they did find something in the boiler room, but that the staff will have to wait until their investigation is complete to find out what they believe that something is.
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Haunted America: Rhode Island College

Rhode Island College, our beloved school in which we receive our education, has been discovered to be haunted. It turns out there have been ghosts lurking the campus for a long time and they are large in number.

Rhode Island College has been around for over a century and a half. It has seen many students come and go, as well as professors, doctors, and the like, but it appears that many of these students and educators may still be here.

There have been many paranormal sightings and activity over the entire campus. Sometimes they can be of students that used to attend just walking among us in the halls of the buildings or maybe even in the quad, as well as professors. Many reports have been made about students seeing a certain Professor Lloyd Matsumoto. He has been reported to have been seen in the Fogarty Life Science Building as well as here in our Anchor office. He has been known to say things like how the Red Sox are the greatest baseball team ever (poor soul). No one is sure how or why his spirit is haunting the campus, but it is believed that it has something to do with bovine feces.

There have also been reports of entire rooms full of ghosts having classes. According to the reports, these classrooms of ghosts are said to appear during free period. Now, according to the school policy, classes are not supposed to take place during the free period, as it is supposed to be a time for the students to get involved with campus activities or to just take a break. As such, there shouldn't be any actual classes taking place. So, unless the policy is being broken, there really is no other possible explanation.

Other reports have been made about ghosts being seen in the parking lots. Apparently, the ghosts, as well as their cars, can be seen throughout the day driving all around them, trying to find a parking place, especially a nice spot that is the shortest distance from their destination. These ghost drivers may have died trying to find a place due the lots being so packed everyday.

So is Rhode Island College truly haunted? I would say so given these undisputable facts. So be careful as you go throughout the campus. That person walking next to you in the quad or that professor giving you a lecture may not be of this world.

And don't get me started on the vampires in the dormitories.

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USA, OHIO: TV show finds strange episodes at Prospect Place mansion

TRINWAY - One does not have to tell residents of Southeastern Ohio about Prospect Place mansion.

Stories of the house and grounds being haunted are widely known. However, now the whole world is aware of the possible paranormal activities at the estate.

"In the past couple of weeks our contacts have gone up 150 to 200 percent," said George Adams, owner of the house.

The Sci Fi Channel series "Ghost Hunters" aired an episode Wednesday that was filmed at the mansion.

The show follows Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson and other researchers of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) as they travel the country visiting supposedly haunted locations to either prove or disprove ghostly claims.

Adams said that various e-mails had been sent over the years on having the show come to the house and the series finally contacted them on the matter.

"I myself try to look at everything with a rational eye and I think that's what the Ghost Hunters do," said Adams.

The team said on the episode that they believed there was some paranormal activity at Prospect Place, but did not give it an official stamp of being haunted. However, Adams stated that he felt that this did give them some vindication and validity to stories that have circulated over the years.

"Stories of dead bodies and such are a little extreme," he said. "We're not even really sure what paranormal means. It could be a quirk of physics, but something goes on here beyond the realm of known science."

Adams said that those who have toured the facility have reported everything from just an uneasy, queasy feeling to the sensation of being touched or hearing strange noises.

"Obviously something goes on here and it captures people," he said. "Everybody who goes on a tour has something happen. Every tour comes away with something, even if it's something little."

During their investigation, the Ghost Hunters uncovered two incidents that struck them. The first was when two investigators tried to coax a child ghost to play with a ball they had and footsteps were heard around them and they felt the floor shift as if someone was walking.

Adams said that since the Ghost Hunters were there they have obtained video of the ball moving on its own in another experiment and odd activity has seemingly increased.

The second incident was when investigators were approaching the barn and a thermal imaging unit detected a shape shifting black spot in the upstairs window. It registered too cold to be a person or animal.

"That was the prime piece of evidence they could not explain. They said they had never seen anything like it before," Adams said. "Even in my opinion it was unbelievable and interesting."

One myth the Ghost Hunters did debunk was the story of a small child, Constance Cox, who fell to her death and now haunts the home. They uncovered that she really died of consumption at 21.

Adams said the story was the result of a "previous misunderstanding" from a volunteer tour guide and they were aware of the error. The guide asked historians if there was anyone close to a young child who might have died in the house and then embellished the story.

However, they did uncover that some sort of incident did happen involving a bounty hunter in the estate's barn, but they could not confirm if he was hung as the story goes.

It's also been documented that the house was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War era for escaped slaves. Some stories have the ghosts of these former slaves haunting the house and that some also made animal sacrifices in the house's ballroom.

"There are many stories and local legends and there are usually some grain of truth to them," said Adams.

The mansion is currently home to the G.W. Adams Education Center, established as a non-profit organization in 2005. Adams sits as CEO of the group. The 29-room mansion was built in 1856 by his relative, George Willison Adams.

Adams and his partner Felix Spector, who died in December 2007, purchased the house from the Longaberger Company in 2005. Adams and the center's board of directors are currently working on renovations of the home and grounds. He said that the Ghost Hunters appearance will hopefully help drum up more funds for renovations, operation and maintenance.

The board of directors are looking to hold a barbecue and hoe-down later in the summer at the estate and other possible events.

At the end of the episode Adams invited the Ghost Hunters back for another investigation and they said they would love to return. He said they are in contact, but a second episode has not been planned.

Source

AUSTRALIA, TOWNSVILLE: Ghost yacht found off Australian coast , April 2007

The cutlery was set for a meal, laptop computer screens flickered inside the cabin and mobile phones and sunglasses were placed on the table in front of the empty chairs - but there was no sign of the crew.

Australian rescue officials admitted they were baffled today as they searched more than 1,000 square miles of shark-infested waters off the coast of Queensland for three men who disappeared from a catamaran that was found drifting near the Great Barrier Reef.

"It’s almost like they have just stepped off the boat," said the rescue helicopter pilot, Trevor Wilson, who lowered a swimmer onto the white-hulled Kaz 11 yesterday. Entering alone, the rescuer came across a chart table set for a meal, mobile phones and three wallets. The lights, radio and two laptop computers were on.

Reports named the crew as Derek Batten, 56, and his neighbours, Peter and James Tunstead, who are brothers, aged 69 and 63, from Yunderup, near Perth.

Coastguard and police were today trying to piece together the last movements of the boat to help them narrow their search area.

Keryn Grey, James Tunstead's daughter, said the three men had been on the voyage of a lifetime, sailing back from Queensland to western Australia and planned to anchor every night near the coast. She said the families hoped the men were in a dinghy and had been unable to stop the boat drifting away.

"That’s what we are hoping, that they forgot to anchor it and it’s drifted off. The three idiots," she told Seven Network television.

The Kaz 11, a 40ft (12m) catamaran, was spotted by a coast patrol aircraft on Wednesday but the coastguard only boarded the boat yesterday, 80 nautical miles (148km) east of Townsville, where they found lifejackets and no sign of damage apart from the ripped sail. A dinghy was lashed in place and the engine was ticking over in neutral.

"It looked like the boat had been recently abandoned," said Jon Hall, a spokesman for Queensland state’s Emergency Management office.

"They got on board and said the engine was running, the computers were running, there was a laptop set up on the table which was running, the radio was working, the GPS was working and there was food and utensils set on the table ready to eat, but no sign of the crew," he said. "It was a bit strange."

Jason Jesse, senior constable of the Townsville Water Police, said that preliminary analysis of the GPS system had enabled rescuers to narrrow down "a good possibility" that the crew have been missing since Monday or Tuesday. There were no life rafts found on the boat and Mr Jesse said investigators believed the men had set sail without them.

"I'm not a medical expert... but if you've been in the water for four days without any flotation device, it doesn't matter where you are, you would normally be in trouble," he said. "The sea is an unforgiving place."

Mr Jesse, who was also on board the helicopter when the eery find was made, said the Kaz 11 had been spotted for the first time on Wednesday afternoon and that a coastal patrol aircraft had tried to make contact with the vessel after seeing the damaged sail.

A flypast on Thursday spotted the boat drifting and again failed to raise the crew. "Then the alert was well and truly raised," said Mr Jesse, who described the find as extremely unusual.

"It's definitely unique in the sense that all the people who were onboard are no longer on board," he said.

The Kaz 11, which started its voyage in Shute Harbour, around 186 miles (300km) south of Townsville, is presently being towed into shore, where Mr Jesse said it would be examined as a crime scene, although there was no evidence of foul play at this stage.

He said the police were in touch with the families of the missing men and that at least one of them, later named as Mr Batten, had some sailing experience.

Greg Connor, a forecaster with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, said the sailors would have faced moderate southeasterly winds of about 35 kph (22 mph) on their voyage, typical for this time of year. "It would have been excellent sailing conditions," he said. "There’s no reason to believe this is a weather-related incident."

In Shute Harbour, five miles (8km) south of Arlie Beach, a popular setting-off point for sailors and backpackers visiting the Whitsunday islands and the Great Barrier Reef, local sailors said the Kaz 11 was bought recently in a private sale.

Barry Haldan, who runs the Harbour Side Boat Hire, Bait & Tackle on the jetty, said there was "nothing untoward" about the three middle-aged men who set sail on Sunday. He estimated that the Kaz 11 was five years old and "more than capable" of making the voyage to Townsville, its intended port of call.

Mr Haldan said that the recent weather had been mild, with moderate winds and 1m (3ft) seas and that there was no obvious explanation for the mystery.

"The food on the table is the strangest thing," he said. "It's as if you've got up from dinner and just buggered off, taken off, gone."

He said one theory going around the harbour was that one of the men had gone overboard and the rest had tried to rescue him.

"Someone's gone over, then someone's gone after him and then the other one's gone over, and the next thing you know everyone's in the water and the boat's just motored off."

He said that sharks posed a greater danger to the men than sea temperatures in the Whitsundays, some of Australia's most popular sailing waters.

"You could survive in the water for quite a while but there are a lot of sharks out there though, a lot of tiger sharks. In fact the odds aren't great as far as sharks are concerned."

Frank Nachtigal, the Commodore of the Abel Point Yacht Club in Airlie Beach, said the waters the men were sailing in were manageable for even the most inexperienced sailors.

"They're some of the best sailing waters in the world," he said. "It's a mystery. Where they were, it's just sensational."

Mr Nachtigal said the damage to the sail could easily have happened once it was left unattended for a day or two and added that he had never heard of a similar accident.

"We've heard of boats drifting off anchor when people have come in to shore for a picnic but it seems like this was a different case. Apparently the motor was still running."

Two planes and two rescue helicopters are currently being used in the search, which is being co-ordinated by Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and could widen to an area of more than 4,300 square miles tomorrow. Four ships are also being used and a military helicopter may join the search..

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