A woman living in a Valleyview home with her family says strange things have been happening to them since they moved into the house four years ago — so she contacted a pair of ghost hunters to check things out.
The resident, who did not want to appear on camera or be identified in this story, moved into the home four years ago with her three children. She agreed to allow Castanet Kamloops to tag along for a recent visit by a pair of paranormal investigators, to see how it worked and document the process.
She said she noticed something was off the very first night when she heard footsteps upstairs and her belongings had obviously moved.
“I run downstairs like ‘Somebody's in my house [on the] first night.’ Grab a paring knife, because that's going to save me. But I thought someone was in my house,” the woman told Castanet Kamloops, describing the first night in her new home.
“I came downstairs because of just how bizarre [it was]. I heard the walking [upstairs] I see the totes are in front of the TV [that has just been moved]. So it just made me feel like somebody was in the house for sure…So I'm searching my house, high and low. Nothing there. I just think that I'm crazy because I must be overtired from the move.”
When the woman heard about the Canadian Paranormal Foundation, she reached out and asked for help.
Jason Hewlett and Michael Stewart, paranormal investigators from the Canadian Paranormal Foundation, have been to the house a number of times to observe and track the strange occurrences.
“This one has been really interesting because rarely do we get a case to return to a location over and over and over again. And the homeowner has been very open about it to us — like her talking about our experiences, about us coming back,” Hewlett said.
“For me, it's been really fascinating. I've done residential cases before and you get it once, maybe twice, but this was our fourth time.”
Over the years, this woman and her children have had more paranormal encounters. Some of her neighbours have reported seeing shadows in the windows when no one is home.
One neighbour is even fearful to enter the home at all.
“My mail lady who's retired now says that she sees things in my window all the time. Neighbours say that they see things in my window all the time. My neighbour next door, before she left who lived there for 20-something years, said she saw things in my window all the time and heard things when nobody was home,” the woman said.
She said when she reported the situation to her landlord, they said previous tenants had similar stories, but was told this wasn’t really a “selling feature when you're renting a place.”
The upstairs bedrooms have been a particular hot spot for the ghostly presence, the client said, often frightening her three young children.
“I can't have any chairs in their rooms without something on it, or they’ll say that something watches them when they sleep,” the mother said, pointing out a bright nightlight in one of her daughter's bedrooms.
“She was never afraid of the dark before we moved in here.”
Despite witnessing the paranormal activity firsthand, the woman said she denies any irregularities when her children ask.
“I say it's the train. There's no train going by,” she said.
“It's because they're little, and I don't want them to freak out. And they know that I'm full of it.”
The woman said both her older daughters have called her out on her attempt at providing a rational explanation for the activity while her 5-year-old son keeps telling her about the ghosts in the house, but she continues to tell them “there's no such thing as ghosts.”
The investigators have now been able to set up multiple trials using laser grids, motion detectors and a device called a spirit box which uses radio frequencies to communicate with potential entities.
“We've heard noises and movements, we've had our motion detectors go off on different floors. When we've been in the basement, they've gone off upstairs. And we've picked up sort of shadows moving front of our cameras,” Hewlett said.
“And that's a lot of activity in one location over four visits.”
The investigators said having the ability to visit the same home multiple times strengthens their findings.
“From a research standpoint, the biggest problem in the field of the paranormal is rarely do you get to develop a theory and test it over and over again,” Hewlett said.
“Here, we get to do that. We get to come up with ideas where we get to continuously put pieces of a puzzle together.”
After a few sessions in the house, the investigators said they believe two entities are present, a female spirit on the upper floor and basement, and a male spirit on the main floor.
“The male likes to act up in a more physical fashion, moving objects and slamming doors, things like that. Whereas the female is more sensations, the sensation, the big watch, shadows, things like that,” Stewart explained.
Before contacting the investigators, the resident was unsure if there were two separate entities but said she referred to them as Frank and Francesca.
The woman said she’s become used to Frank and Francesca, and doesn’t see herself moving out because of the paranormal activity.
“Actually I'm quite cozy with it. ... It's just there. It's just a part of the family,” she said.
“I’ve had an opportunity to move to one of the other units. But I put a lot of work into this place, painting and whatnot, that it doesn't bother me enough to, and plus, it's kind of a cool story.”
“It's not like I'm in danger of being hurt or anything. It's just there.”
Stewart said in many cases he's investigated, the resident decides to live with the entity.
“It's a lot more common than you would think. Most people, once they get used to that these entities aren't harmful, they come to deal with it as background noise, is pretty much what it becomes,” Stewart said.
The woman said sometimes, she still gets scared when it's dark and she’s alone, despite knowing she’s not in danger.
“I’m just living here, me and my ghost. It's fine for the most part. It's fine for the most part. It's just — it gets sometimes a little bit creepy, especially when you're by yourself and something happens and you're like, ‘I have to still live here. I still have to go to sleep tonight,’” she said.
“I guess it's just the fear of the unknown. Because you know it's there, but it's just like something dark and shadowy looking at you. You have that fight or flight instinct.”
Despite the two investigators already recording paranormal activity at the house, they said they plan on continuing their sessions in the Valleyview home for research purposes.
“I know this is kind of Halloween season. It's all supposed to be very scary, but it's really not, in the end. It might be startling, but this is just a very natural phenomenon,” Hewlett said.
