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Still in a pair of jeans soiled with the day's work, 58-year-old Richard Marsteller reclined in a porch chair, watching a stranger read his wife's diary in the last slivers of daylight.
"So everything in here happened after you moved?" asked Darren Holland, who wore a hat with the initials YCPRT stitched in plain white letters.
Most of it did, Terri Marsteller, 43, told him. The ghostly image of a young boy, flashing before her eyes in a dark potato cellar, happened earlier, while she was working at the family's repair shop nearby.
"How about you? Have you seen anything?" Holland asked.
"I haven't had too many 'experiences,'" Richard said. "I can't hear very well. She hears all the bumps and noises, and I tell her to go to sleep."
Holland handed the diary back to Terri as Ned, the Marsteller's black cat, scurried past.
"I think I have a pretty good idea what's been happening from reading this and talking to you on the phone," he said.
With that, Holland, director of the York County Paranormal Research Team, started his preliminary investigation of the Marsteller property.
Holland's interest in the supernatural started about 15 years ago, and he said his work attracts more interest than a skeptic might think.
While the scientific community remains doubtful that ghosts and spirits exist, most people feel differently. A Gallup poll
Holland gets the most phone calls this time of year from paranormal believers feeling the Halloween spirit.
Terri Marsteller, unlike most of Holland's clients, did not turn to YCPRT out of fear but out of curiosity. She logged her experiences in a diary and found Holland by chance while cruising the Internet.
Terri first led Holland into a TV room with four easy chairs and a framed drawing of the Marsteller family tree, dating back to the 1860s when the farm was started. One morning during breakfast, Terri heard a cupboard in the room open and close. She said no one was in the room at the time.
Holland scanned the room with meters looking for abnormally high electromagnetic fields. Holland said that some people who report paranormal experiences might be hallucinating because of high electromagnetic energy in their home. Or an electrostatic force could cause an object to move. So Holland first checks for a "scientific" explanation in the environment.
"It may be nothing paranormal, but still could be cause for concern," he said.
Holland continued into the living room, where a heavy door occasionally swings open on its own, Terri said. Richard's mother, Betty, sat on the couch, watching the evening news and playing with her infant grandson.
"I was just wondering one thing," the 85-year-old said. "Is it possible it can follow people?"
Richard and Terri moved from another property on the 175-acre farm after Richard's father died about a year ago.
"I've lived here since 1945, and all that time, I never saw anything," she continued with a playful smile. "When they moved, Terri started seeing things. We're blaming it all on Terri."
"It's possible she's just more in tune with what's going on," Holland said.
Terri can recall a handful of ghostly experiences throughout her life, but she said they were few and far between until she moved.
Richard, a bit of a skeptic, reported only a couple of strange incidents, including a shadow he saw moving across the upstairs hallway.
"But that could have been the cat," he said. "She sees things the rest of us don't. I think she's crazy."
He laughed as Terri slapped his shoulder in mock anger.
"Actually, I don't know what to make of it," Richard admitted. "I'm open-minded."
The investigation continued onto the second floor (where lights have flickered spontaneously), to the attic (where Terri has heard footsteps) and the basement (where no incidents have happened yet, although it looked spooky enough). Holland found no unusual electromagnetic readings anywhere.
"So that's good news, but the bad news is we still don't know why you saw these things," Holland said.
The next step would be a full-scale investigation, if Holland thinks one is warranted. He can't take every case since he doesn't charge anything. But he suspected he would continue investigating the Marstellers' property.
A full-scale investigation involves installing cameras to record hours of footage then viewing the footage for anything out of the ordinary.
Holland swears ghost hunting is duller than people expect. In 15 years of searching for paranormal activity, he has never "seen" a spiritual being. He has heard voices. He has witnessed objects "moving of their own accord." And once, while in a haunted prison, he said something forcefully knocked his cap off.
Holland tells the Marstellers he can't promise much. Even after a full investigation, he might not find anything.
The Marstellers didn't seem to mind.
"I'm just curious if it can be explained," Terri said. "Some of our friends believe us, some of them just look at us. No one actually says, 'You're crazy.'"
If nothing else, they'll have some entertaining stories to tell at their up-coming Halloween party.
And what will their costumes be? Ghost Busters, of course.
"We thought that would be kind of ironic," Terri said.
wmalcolm@ydr.com; 771-2101
About the Marstellers
Names: Richard and Terri Marsteller
Ages: 58 and 43
Occupation: farmers and mechanic shop owners
Ghostly experiences: reports seeing shadows, lights turning on and off, doors opening and closing
About the ghost hunter
Name: Darren Holland
Age: 36
Years ghost hunting: 15
Ghostly experiences: says has seen objects move, heard voices on audio record and had his cap spontaneously knocked off
Ghost hunter tools
· EMF meter: detects electro-magnetic fields in AC or DC.
· TriField Natural EM Meter: detects DC current, which tends to be natural electricity, rather than AC currents, which are usually man-made.
· Infrared camera: this night-vision device will record thousands of hours of footage, which paranormal investigator Darren Holland said he reviews for paranormal activity.
Ghost movies
· Ghost Busters (1984): Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.
· The Friendly Ghost (1945): Depressed by the antics of the other ghosts, Casper leaves home to make friends. After unintentionally scaring several potential pals, Casper befriends two young children.
· A Christmas Carol (1984): An old man who hates Christmas is taught the true meaning and spirit of Christmas by ghosts who show him his own past and present. He is also shown what the future holds for him if he doesn't change his behavior.
Source: www.imdb.com
