Hunt: Abandoned Gila County Jail

(Me, Julie in our dorky ghost hunting vests, every pocket brimming with tools and necessary items)

It was a crazy weekend. I will have a great deal to report on here in coming days. Our team, POE (Paranormal Observation & Experimentation), did a 2-night hunt. The first night, we hunted in a huge schoolroom we rented in a B&B. The second night, we got an abandoned jail to ourselves. I still need to sort through all the audio and video to see what evidence we accrued, but suffice to say that both places proved to be more active than we imagined and in ways we hadn't imagined.

I'm going to be showing pics and videos from the hunt at the jail in coming days, but I figured I'd break it up and tell you in this post about what happened at the prison. The four of us had the prison for 3 hours alone. It was a 3-story narrow building. The bottom floor housed the maximum security which was a bit submarine-feeling. The second floor was divided between men's on one side, women's on the other. There was also a cell that sat alone where a man awaiting trial was shot by a sniper through the window from the building across the street and he died. There was also a hanging there and a man who leaped to his death from a catwalk that lead the prisoners to the courthouse. The top floor was a huge open room and left for cots for lesser criminals. When I was there 5 years ago, I saw a full-body apparition up there and so I was excited to go again and see what happened. I had a good sense of the man and his life and name and personality. I hoped to use that to help with an EVP session.

We began by putting recording devices in the areas I pointed out as being particularly high energy. Then, we went outside. We divided into teams of 2. The first team went in to the bottom floor maximum security and walked around, talked out loud, asking questions, listening, and using the FLIR thermal imager. When the pair left, the next pair went in and went through the second floor. I was on that team and we ran into some very strange EMF readings. We traced them with several meters. We made some speculation about what might be happening and decided to study it in other rooms. In the mean time, we stood there, asking questions and peering into the cells from the guard's walk. I watched as something dark and about the height and width of a man blocked out about 5-6 bars as it moved along and then moved back. I looked behind me to see if there was anyway something moved that could have blotted the light, but there was nothing. I raced over to the cell and we began to ask questions.

We switched off again. This time, the other pair went up to the second floor and we waited outside where we did more EMF testing. We found some intense EMF readings alongside the building, but at times they would vanish and it was hard to determine what was happening. We did consider that there were power lines nearby and a microwave repeater station.


(Julie and FLIR)

It was then our turn to go into the maximum security section downstairs. My partner and I went around the guard's walk and I turned a corner and ran right into a pocket of prickly electrical feeling energy and broke into immediate goosebumps. It disappeared and then I continued on to the corner where I ran into the same feeling again, except this time it also presented a kind of vibrating feeling in my body. It lasted much longer than the earlier one. I studied the area around me, fully expecting to see a full-body apparition. It was a similar feeling in the body that I've had when it's about to manifest. When it was gone, we went and asked questions with the recording devices around and met the other half of our team.



The four of us went up to the attic room where I had seen an apparition before. We set up two chairs. I sat in one chair and put a laser grid between myself and the other chair. We set an EMF meter on the chair and a recording device. The others stood across the room away from me and I began a half hour long interactive EVP session, asking questions, probing the room with my mind. I changed tactics often to find what might strike a cord. I asked him to come forward. I asked him to get near the meter and set it off. I then said that I was lonely and could use a friend. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a hand around my left arm, just above the elbow. The arm became covered in goosebumps and the hairs stood on end, up the arm and along the left side of my neck and left cheek and jaw area.

We heard a few sounds and ran video with IR, FLIR, and studied the laser grid looking for anything that might happen. When we were done, we had to pack up and leave. We all had some strange experiences there, but the review of video and audio will tell much. I would be utterly shocked if we don't get any EVPs from this amazing hunt. The place felt very uncomfortable and disturbed that night. The EMF was insane, the barometric pressure dropped in some areas where sensations were felt of pressure and "weirdness."

Even though it was very hot and humid and we were all worn down, the team went back to our haunted room at the inn and talked for hours about the field of paranormal research, theories, philosophy and such. We are the think tank I always dreamed of forming where we don't have any preconceived notions and we seek ways to come up with new testing methods and theories with open minds.

I'll be sharing the other hunt we had the night prior at the haunted B&B. I will also be sharing lots of video and pics and eventually audio when it's been reviewed.