PRINCESS ANNE -- The volunteers who give Sunday afternoon tours at the Teackle Mansion and are frequently asked if the Federal-era house is haunted.
Now they can give a new answer
Maybe.
On Friday night, a group of researchers armed with audio and video recorders set out to find evidence of paranormal activity in the mansion which has had numerous owners and tenants since it was built in 1802. The mansion is now owned by the Somerset County Historical Society, which operates it as a museum.
Although no one in the group has witnessed anything unusual, most have heard of a ghost sighting several years ago.
At the time, a college student was allowed to stay in a bedroom in the south wing while serving an internship at the mansion. He awoke one night and saw an apparition of a woman in the room.
The bedroom in question was the first room in the mansion set up with an infrared camera Friday night. Almost immediately, researchers downstairs who were watching the room on a television monitor noticed what could have been an orb move in several places in the room. At one point, it zig-zagged across the TV screen.
"It's not usual to set up a camera and say 'Oh look, there's stuff happening,' " said Steve Frey Jr. of Pocomoke city, a field investigator with Eastern Shore Paranormal.
It's possible the orb was only dust -- something the researchers will try to determine later when they play back the tapes and compare them with other tests made that night, said Christine Power, co-director of the group with her husband, James. The researchers also use electromagnetic field meters and infrared thermometers in the same areas being recorded by the cameras.
"It's not an exact science yet," she said. "Hopefully we will see all three things together."
Their findings at the Teackle Mansion will be presented to the Historical Society in January.
The Powers, along with other researchers who have joined the group, have conducted investigations at 11 other sites since they started in 2004. Of those, only two clearly "had something going on," she said.
One was Nazarene Cemetery in the Pocomoke Forest where they were able to record a voice that can be heard on their Web site www.spellfyre.com.
The other was a private home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia where several tenants reported experiences and a child was having conversations with someone, Power said. The group recorded a loud bang, but were never able to explain what caused it.
Power said the "Holy Grail" would be either to see a full- blown apparition or to actually communicate with a spirit. So far, she has not had any experiences she can't explain, but she and other members of the group are hopeful.
"We're always looking for new places to investigate," she said.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /612250311
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