photo by Jessica St. James

Guided by Billy Sawyer, ghost hunters head down the upstairs hallway of the old Chesapeake Community Center setting up audio equipment in the hopes of capturing paranormal activity.

Are the spirits about to speak?

Public can check out Chesapeake ghost hunts

By Benita Heath | The Tribune

Published Friday, October 23, 2009

CHESAPEAKE — Do you believe in ghosts? Do you wonder whether all this stuff about the paranormal is for real?

Then you will have a chance to test out your own theories at one of three ghost hunts the Chesapeake Community Center is sponsoring next week.

Each hunt runs from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $25 at the door for each night.

This past spring members of two Lawrence County paranormal societies did separate searches for any paranormal activity in the one-time Chesapeake school and both came up with some visual evidence.

Now they will help others check out the center as they play guides at the trio of ghost hunts.

“We do have evidence of a haunting,” David Maynard of Quest Paranormal Investigations in Ironton said.

A colleague from Paranormal Research and Investigations of the Ohio Valley came up with the sighting after reviewing camera evidence after their investigation.

‘They caught a shadow person in motion. It looked like a girl, four-feet tall and solid black,” Maynard said.

“It was in the treadmill room on the first floor. As they went in, it is standing there and it turns to the right and walks into the shadows and is gone.”

On a subsequent investigation Maynard’s group said they experienced an actual sighting of paranormal activity.

“Myself and one of my team went in the upstairs hallway heading in an easterly direction to the far end,” Maynard said. “We hadn’t taken more than a few steps when there was the outline of a person standing at the end of the hall watching us. We saw it with the naked eye.”

As to whether Maynard is an actual believer in people coming back from the dead to haunt old familiar places, he admits he is a skeptic.

“I am not convinced spirits are human souls. They are kind of like a residual imagery or kind of energy,” he said.

Those wanting to participate in next week’s ghost hunt must be at least 16 years of age and can only bring handheld equipment like cameras and tape recorders. There will be only 30 tickets sold each night.

“We get everybody there at 10 and have several guides,” Maynard said. “We will do everything you do in a ghost hunt. Walk about. Take video. This is for people who have an interest in the strange and unusual people, who always wanted to ghost hunt. This is not like a haunted tunnel. There is no trickery of any sort. This is a legitimate ghost hunt.”

Tickets are available at the Chesapeake center at (740) 867-4532 or from Maynard at (740) 533-7619.

All the proceeds from the hunts will go toward roof repairs at the center.

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