A Michigan ghost hunters group provided a ton of information to a Garden City audience about their investigations.
Many who attended the event Thursday at the Straight Farmhouse already were believers.
The Garden City Library hosted a special, free program on the paranormal by GHOSM, a ghost hunters group.
“We are a group of people from southeast Michigan who all share an interest in the paranormal,” said Robin Lemkie, founder of the group.
The program consisted of a PowerPoint presentation of photos and Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVPs which are also known as spirit voices captured during various paranormal investigations and ghost hunts.
“We used to get strange looks for being ghost hunters,' said Tom Lundy, the GHOSM photographer. “Now we get smiles.”
The audience marveled at what they heard from Lemkie, who started GHOSM in 1995, and Lundy, who has been with the group for about 11 years. They have conducted more than 100 home and business investigations and hundreds of cemetery ghost hunts over the years.
In a photo taken at a Wayne County Cemetery, they showed a ghostly shape coming out of the ground.
At a farmhouse in Sumpter, “sensitives,” who have some psychic ability, were sure that they picked up the spirit of a little boy who told them that he had helped his grandfather with the chickens on the farm and was proud of it.
A photo taken at an Ash Township cemetery showed a male spectre running full tilt.
They have used 35mm and digital cameras to capture the images and during a tour at the University of Michigan Main Union they were told not to take photos of anyone (living) at all.
 |
A photo shows a cemetery ghost who appears to rise from the ground. |
“There is a woman sitting in a chair,” Lemkie said. “She has old-fashioned clothing on and her hair up.”
Lundy also snapped a photo at the Pickle Barrel restaurant in Michigan. He noticed that his flash didn't go off. Examining the photo later, he saw that the order touch pad screen which the employees used was illuminated by a guy sitting in a chair wearing a derby. Nobody was there at the time.
A number of institutions have asked GHOSM to investigate, including the Downriver Council of the Arts and the Bonstelle Theater owned by Wayne State University.
Before Lemkie lived at her home in Allen Park. her daughter and son-in-law had rented the house. They have a blonde dog named Chloe.
“If you look over here, there is a red dog with a hand petting the red dog,” Lemkie said. “It is not the same dog and not a double exposure.”
During the voices segment, Lemkie stressed that the tapes were not “cleaned up.” She said they are exactly as recorded. During a home investigation in Warren Lemkie felt herself surrounded in darkness.
One voice is heard, “Who was it? The other voice says, “Don't know.”
At the second floor of the Scarab Club in Detroit, the phone rang downstairs while Lemkie took a picture. A ghostly subject heard later on tape says, “Telephone.”
“The (live) woman downstairs said that the phone rang twice and nothing showed up on the caller ID at all,” Lemkie said.
The managers of a 25-story high rise in Detroit wondered why they couldn't rent any office on the eighth floor.
“They put us in the freight elevator because the main elevator shuts off at 6 p.m.” While there, the group heard the other elevator run and chime on the eighth floor. Two voices were heard. “One said, ‘Don't do it' and the other said ‘Praise the Lord.'”
The Historic Holly Hotel has long been known to be haunted. Yearly visits from GHOSM and many other independent groups have documented the spirits.
Lawrence Marble, the Garden City Library director, commented during the question-and-answer portion that he used to wait tables at the hotel.
“There are some creepy rooms that you don't want to go into,” Marble said.
Jeff Ballard, a Livonia resident, thought that the GHOSM group did a good job with their presentation.
“It was pretty factual,” he said.
He commented that he has a building a couple blocks away in Garden City that is haunted. He wouldn't identify the location so nobody would come there.
“It's right down the street,” he said.
Source: Observer&Eccentric
