Springfield Ghost Society

10:00 AM
Our caravan of investigators arrived. We were in the bar on the first floor for a short time while the owner briefed us on some paranormal events that have taken place inside the hotel.

10:30 AM
After the briefing the group of investigators went into the hotel. We set up our equipment throughout the hotel and in the basement.

10:45 AM
I began my investigation in the basement. The basement is very large and has many rooms. One section of the basement had been damaged in a fire. I am unsure of when the fire happened. Many of the beams/floor joists are blackened from the fire.

At one end of this burned area a small group of investigators were "sensing" a presence. I too could feel a sense of uneasiness. There was also a foul odor, which, as Jenny put it, smelled like a dead person. I had to agree with her. It was very unpleasant.

At the very end of this room was a liquor storage room for the bar upstairs. The door to this room was shut and had a padlock. The padlock was not locked. While several of us were standing outside this door, the door began to rattle moving the padlock.

We decided to go inside and have a look around. Jenny thought she saw a person crouched down in a corner of the storage room. None of the rest of us could see this person. When she looked again the person was no longer there and was apparently one of the ghosts/spirits hanging around the hotel.

I decided to set up my tape recorder inside the storage room. Cheryl had her tape recorder set up outside of the storage room several feet from the door.

After setting up my recorder we all left the basement and went upstairs into the hotel rooms. As we walked away we were talking. Our footsteps and voices can be heard on Cheryl's tapes and mine. One of us had said something about "stop". I cannot make out the entire sentence on my tape. On Cheryl's tape a very strange sounding voice mocks whoever was talking and the word "stop" is very clear. I did not pick up this voice on my tape.

While upstairs I took 50+ pictures with a disposable 35mm camera. I had 3 or 4 pictures with a bright orb in them. There was so much dust on the 3rd and 4th floors that many pictures had dozens of orbs in them. It is difficult to say whether or not the pictures with bright orbs are anything other than dust.

11:45 AM
I decided to go back to the basement to retrieve my tape recorder. All of the investigators were upstairs and I had no desire to go to the basement by myself. I asked Carl if he would mind going with me to get the recorder. He said yes and we took a set of narrow, winding stairs to get to the first floor. We were alone and no other investigators were close to us. Carl was in the lead going down the stairs. At the same time we both turned around because we had heard someone walking down the stairs behind us. But no one was there and they could not have gone back up the stairs that quickly. Carl said he thought he saw something behind me and took a picture. The picture has a large bright orb on the staircase.

12:00 PM
I set up my recorder upstairs in a room I believe used to be a dining room. I did not hear anything unusual on this tape.

Approximately 1:00 PM the investigation was over.

Diane Senalik
SGS Charter Member