Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin along with the tech team, Billy and Jay, took us to New Castle, Indiana. We were introduced to Steve Miller the current owner of Thornhaven Manor. A home on 1,000 acres of woods, meadows, marshland and an orchard built in 1845 by Simon Powel. This imposing edifice has been empty, except for spirits, since the 1970’s. Steve said that the first he knew of it being haunted was when the realtor was showing him the property. He heard a scream and heard a door slam. A couple who are the owner’s friends were visiting and heard footsteps in the kitchen.
The home has seen death: one little child, Lizzy Powel, the youngest to die, at 2 years old, and one murder; Ruben Bailey, a caretaker, was poisoned with rat poison by a son-in-law. Some hobby investigators have captured a scream on audio and played it for us – wow! It was freaky and came from the front entry area. Then a thermal image they captured was shared of a figure in a frame, but only in one of several! You could make out that it looked like a woman behind one of them.
Nick went into the house and Zak and Aaron waited outside for another interview. Nick got dizzy at the bottom of the stairs and then he heard a scream. Zak was just starting the interview of a woman when he heard a car screech and interrupted to mark the time. Nick radioed to ask them if they had heard the scream outside and Zak informed him of the car. So, the scream the present owner had heard and the one Nick just heard was officially debunked. But then, Nick asked if anyone was in the house and immediately heard dragging footsteps, upstairs and no one besides him was in the house. They then wrapped up the evening to research the next day and ultimately do the lock down.
Checking into the history of the manor, they found that Simons grown son had also died in the home. He had a leg injury received in the civil war. Zak thought that maybe he would walk with a limp. The father also had a type of palsy and used a cane. The wife of a son, Emilia, also had mental illness and left a note and went off to drown herself in the river. The woman caring for Emilia went to find her and felt “lead” to the river where she was found.
At this point we were taken to a commercial for the official “fan lair” of Ghost Adventures on the Travel channel, where they will be taking questions, live on Halloween night at 11 pm.
Nerve center was set up outside in a tent. Billy and Jay set up an experiment using a teddy bear connected to light sensors. As the guys were driving back to the house the teddy bear lit up like a Christmas tree. Zak was anxious to get into the house, having heard about it while in the car.
Billy and Jay had also put a doll in a chair with an Ovilous sitting next to it. Zak began asking questions to the spirit of Lizzy. “Flower” came from a spirit voice. But there was no flower in that room. The entry way had a table with a flower on it however. At that moment Jay heard footsteps and a door slam hard! During lock down they were wearing masks as there were contaminators in the house. They began by the table with the flower on it, suddenly the words, “questions…here…” showed up on the SB7 spirit box. Zak started asking who was there, “Ruben, Emilia, Lizzy”? “If any of you are here, tell us your first name” said Zak. “Hide, spirits” came through the box. Zak asked again, “What is your first name”? Then the answer came, “Lizzy”, but it was in a woman’s’ voice so he asked “Emilia”? And the word came through, “Emily” which could be a nickname for Emilia. Right when the word Emily came through, Zak popped up from his chair as if he’d been zapped by electricity. He asked if she was looking after Lizzy. A ball of light was seen flying behind Zak. The thermal camera saw a super cold spot upstairs in the view finder. But it wasn’t seen on the night vision camera. A view from the room directly beneath it reviewed water damage, debunking that spot.
Back in the nerve center they saw a flashing of light from a pod device. Then the camera seems to be messed with and you could actually hear it as if someone was touching it. Then the focus went in and out like someone was playing with the camera. Right away the teddy bear began to light up! Zak said the house is an electromagnetical hot bed. Zak decided that since most activity happened when no one was in the home, they’d just stay out and watch the camera’s and talk to the spirits from the nerve center. They heard an unexplained “knock” sound. Dragging footsteps were heard. Zak then went upstairs. At the top step, his walkie talkie turned on by itself the exact spot it had during a walk through earlier! He also felt uneasy and cold. He asked if the spirit was trying to communicate through the walkie talkie. Then he felt frozen, at that exact time, a shadow was seen on camera.
Zak, Nick and Aaron returned to nerve center. They found that when Jay compared the scream captured by the amateurs to the car sound and it matched almost perfectly, thereby debunking the screams altogether. This made the home owner feel somewhat relieved. The guys gave Nick a turn in the house and upstairs at the very top of the stairs, he had something small thrown at him. They couldn’t be sure it if was a piece of something from the ceiling just falling or if something had been thrown. But, Zak wondered if the area at the top of the stairs was some kind of portal to the spirit world. In 88 still pictures taken by Billy, one captured a little shadow, the size of a 2 year old. It is not in the picture directly before or after; a ghost of Lizzy? We may never know.