"Jamie's house" - Bolivar, Missouri

 Private residence, Bolivar,  Missouri 

The occupant of this home in Bolivar, Missouri states claims ranging from seeing shadow figures moving (she AND her dogs) to hearing her name spoken by a child. The most intriguing claim is that of a "rotten" smell that moves around through the home. The claims from this home are lengthy including disembodied voices, footsteps, figures, moving objects, "the smell", dogs tracking objects across rooms, etc.

Property history

The history of this home is uneventful. It is a suburban, one story home built in 1974 with no reports on record of any major crimes occurring there. The unique aspect of this home is that once again (like the other home we investigated in Bolivar), all the doors inside the home including bedroom and bathroom doors, had chain locks on the outside. The client stated that several of the items in the home were retrieved from an elderly male neighbor who had died, including the cedar chest and dresser in the bedroom and a few of the large appliances.

The investigation

More than 19 hours of audio, video and photos were capture during the investigation. Every room in the home was investigated with 6 digital voice recorders, multiple still and video cameras, EMF detectors, laser grid, thermal detectors and trigger objects. We collected most of our evidence in the master bedroom (where the chest and dresser are), hallway and living room. We were able to detect the "rotten" smell which the client claimed several times and found it impossible to track. At one point, we thought it was coming from a return flow ceiling vent in the ceiling of the hallway, then it would quickly move to the living room and disappear from the original source. Every time we were tracking the scent, we were able to collect an EVP (all evp's, video and pictoral evidence are below).

Debunking

Midwest Ghost Hunters always feels it is important to highlight that "debunking" does NOT equal "not believing" the clients' claims. We actually find a great deal of pleasure out of debunking claims because it can help relieve the clients' fears. However, with this case, we were able to debunk only a few of the claims. The first was the sound of walking in the kitchen area. We found that the flooring in that area has a recoil where after the floor boards are walked up, several seconds later, they return to original length and make a "popping" sound which could be mistaken as the sound of footsteps in that area. The other was the very outdated electrical wiring. At one point, the two investigators in the home (Chris and Ty) went to garage to investigate and returned to discover that the lights in the kitchen/dining room area had been extinguished. We later discovered that this is due to a poor connection in the switch on the wall. We also experienced blinking lighting in the hallway which was, again, due to the old wiring. At one point, we heard a distant neighbor outside smoking a cigarette and were able to clearly hear him coughing (appropriately, unfortunately) inside the home. We were surprised that the home is well insulated from EMF, though. Even the major appliances such as microwave, refrigerator and television only emitted a small amount of EMF and it didn't radiate further than a few inches from the source. 

All audio, video and photo evidence captured at this home is below...

After experiencing a dry spell of several investigations yielding no paranormal evidence in a row, we figured we were due for one with plenty of evidence and that is what we got with the Bolivar home. It's important to note that at no point did we ever feel threatened or intimidated by the spirits in this home (which we determined to be an elderly male and a young female). The elderly male spirit is consistent with the deceased neighbor where a lot of the items inside the home came from and the client stated that THIS audio sounded like her neighbor used to sound when he would clear his throat constantly. The child spirit is unexplained but the theory is that this is likely a piggyback spirit who has taken up refuge in the home of a caretaker (occupant is a health care worker). After discussing this case with Reverend Crabtree, we advised the client to remove the cedar chest from the home (where most of the activity was collected) to see if the activity subsides. Items such as cedar chests (or "hope chests") are typically emotional items where a spirit may become attached, so we are hoping removing this item will help