(Photo courtesy of SyFy)

Left to Right -  Dave Tango, Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Kris Williams, Steve Gonsalves

 

Church of St. Andrews Church – Staten Island, New York

You have to hope that you can believe a priest when he’s telling you that the paranormal is alive and well and in his church.  The church was originally built in 1712 and has been expanded many times since.  During one of these expansions a construction worker dug up a skull in the basement and eventually 17 bodies were uncovered.  This unrest may very well be the reason for people seeing shadow figures throughout the church, feeling cold spots, and the tale of a drummer boy who walks and plays his drum while walking in the graveyard.  A lady who calls herself the “photographer” of the church was down in the Catacombs of the church….a very eerie spot with old empty wooden caskets and tombstones all around…and found a noose hanging from the ceiling  in one of the pictures she had taken.  Was this a practical joke by humans or spirits?

 

TAPS co-founders Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes were the first to investigate.  As they were in the Chapel, they noticed a figure walk past one of the back windows but found no one around.  Kris Williams and Amy Bruni were in charge of investigating the Catacombs of the church.  This area is where the 17 bodies were found during renovation.  They tried the technique of provoking the spirits and at one point Kris thought she heard some shuffling of feet but nothing else made contact with them.  Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango tried there hand at debunking the shadow figures seen in the upstairs of the chapel and could at least create a shadow figure by walking fast past the window.  So are bystanders just seeing people walking in the upstairs area?  Kris and Amy again tried to provoke the ghosts but this time in the main chapel.  There were some unexplained noises and the believed that just maybe they were getting responses coming from the front of the church followed by another sound that came up right behind them.  Steve and Tango began trying to get in contact with the Drummer Boy in the graveyard but apparently he was on tour with “The Dead.”

 

The team believed they could debunk the “noose picture” saying that it was most likely a piece of hair or thread caught in front of the camera, so no excitement on that one.  Outside of the experiences by the team mentioned during the investigation, TAPS didn’t have any real evidence to show the client.  One interesting item was that there was a young drummer boy who was shot and killed during the war and was buried on the property so of all the claims by people, the drummer boy may be the most real paranormal experience at the church.

 

Benton House – Chicago, IL

The Benton house was finished in 1909 and serves as a community center and originally owned by the Daly family, a well known political family in Chicago.  The Benton’s eventually took over the property and “Ma” Benton may still be roaming the halls, slamming doors shut, and putting out fires in the fireplace.  Footsteps have been heard in the empty halls at night and shadowy apparitions have been noticed by more than a few workers in the center.  One worker heard a voice say “Gaylord was hurt here and his family was lied to.”  Finding out who Gaylord is would certainly need to be a focus on research for the team.  Maybe they could research why parents would give their son such a horrible name.

 

As Jason and Grant began their investigation they both believed they saw a small figure, maybe that of a child, run from the hallway into a room.  This would be one personal experience they could both share.  Steve and Tango were in charge of checking out the gym where people have felt a strong presence in the room so much that they have stopped what they were doing and looked around only to find nothing.  Both didn’t seem to feel anything out of the ordinary and could not get any responses to their attempts at contacting the dead.  Jason and Grant spent time trying to debunk the fire in the fire place going out when talking about ol’ Ma Benton, who actually died in the room.  Nothing to report on this one…but what will the cameras show later?  Jason and Grant tried to debunk the door slamming in the upstairs library area.  The workers believe Ma Benton is the one doing the slamming so they called on her to close the door.  On queue, the door began closing and the viewers were shown to commercial.  The door actually seems to close pretty easy by itself and add in some wind coming in from the window and you got your ghostly door closer.

 

The team didn't have any actual evidence to show to the clients, but Jason and Grant did mention the ghostly child they saw running into a room and based on this said they wouldn't mind coming back for another investigation.  Looks like the team ended the night 0-2.

 

Meatloaf is on next week’s episode.  I guess he could have been called Gaylord.

 

Story by: Chad Alan

 

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