By LESLIE FARK
of the Journal Star
For the last 14 years, a modest home on a quiet residential street in Pekin has sat empty, longing for a family to again fill it with life.
A Realtor has tried relentlessly for years to sell the two-bedroom house. The price has been reduced and updates have been made - including a kitchen remodel - but each time she brings in potential buyers, they're scared off by an unseen presence.
"A couple would come through the house and one of them would suddenly look at the other and say 'We can't live here,' and they would leave," said Rob Conover of Pekin, a paranormal investigator who has been featured on the Discovery Channel and TV shows such as "Sightings," "Unexplained Mysteries" and "Scariest Places on Earth."
Conover was contacted recently by the Realtor of the Pekin house to "clean," or rid, the house of ghosts. Cue was invited to accompany Conover on his recent sweep of the home, which became the backdrop for a double-murder suicide and arson on Jan. 20, 1993. The Realtor has asked that the address and names of those involved be withheld so as not to prevent the future sale of the home.
Small-town tragedy
Police said the man who lived in the home shot his 10-year-old son in his bedroom, then chased his wife into the basement, where he shot her before turning the gun on himself.
Before firing a bullet into his head, the man started two fires - one by the front door; the other in the basement when he punctured a gas line.
While the first fire burned out, the second caused a flamethrower effect and caught the basement's ceiling and stairwell on fire, trapping the husband in the basement. With no hope to escape, he knelt down next to his wife and shot himself.
The search for spirits
"We don't have far to go," Conover told me, his three assistants and Journal Star photographer David Zentz as we drove to the home one gloomy evening last week. We were going to see if the house had any paranormal activity and try to clear out any lingering spirits.
My stomach was in knots and my heartbeat raced with uncertainty and excitement as we gathered equipment and walked toward the house. I believe in ghosts and paranormal phenomena, but have never personally experienced one. I hoped that whomever was frightening buyers would show themselves tonight and solidify my beliefs.
I asked Conover why we waited until dark.
"Because that is when (spirits are) the strongest and we're the weakest," he said
After fumbling with the Realtor's lock box, we walked inside and stood in a vestibule that led upstairs to the kitchen and main floor or downstairs to the basement. The house was quiet except for the sounds of passing cars, the headlights of which lit up the pitch-black interior.
Conover moved ahead of us up the stairs and walked into the living room and adjacent bedrooms. He then went alone into the dark basement.
"We got energy in two places," he said. "We got energy in the basement and energy upstairs."
Back upstairs, Conover led us into the bedroom he sensed was the little boy's. As I entered, I could feel a slight drop in temperature, which reportedly indicates that a spirit is present. But I was not convinced; as far as I knew it could have been a draft from a window.
The flash from the digital camera of Emily Rogers, one of Conover's assistants, lit up the room. She was hoping to catch evidence of a spirit or entity, either by an orb, mist or human form.
Another of Conover's assistants, Bill Homel, set up a video camera with infrared night vision, with the lens aimed at the hallway leading into the bedroom.
"We hope to catch light or fog moving in case the spirit of the little boy appears," Homel said.
Another hi-tech camera was positioned in the basement, where Conover was experiencing the most energy.
"This is where she died," Conover said to me as he waved his hand over a spot on the cement floor by a wall where a mattress and box spring rested.
A new staircase has since been built and the basement rehabbed. There was no evidence of a fire or the grisly crime that occurred here more than a decade ago.
"It's everywhere," Conover said as he walked around the basement. "I'm completely surrounded with energy. It feels like you stuck your finger in a light socket, but there's no pain. Just this cool electrical shock from head to toe."
The only thing I sensed was that the atmosphere around me was heavy, especially in a back room of the basement. My left arm tingled, but I couldn't tell if it was because I was tense or if a spirit was present.
Conover - who 17 years ago was a private detective who didn't believe in ghosts or psychics - began talking to his surroundings in the basement. His assistants and the Journal Star photographer went upstairs to conduct their own investigation, while I remained behind with Conover.
"Right now I'm thinking there's only one entity here," Conover told me.
I sat on a stool next to the water heater, out of Conover's way. The basement was so dark I could barely see my hand outstretched in front of me.
"I'm talking to the spirit in the house," Conover said. "I'm here to help. I'm not here to harm or scare or bother anybody. I'm here to help you. God sends me to places like this to help people like you. ...
"What happened in this house was horrible," Conover continued, speaking into the darkness. "It wasn't done by a man that had his mind straight. It was like somebody suffering from mental illness due to alcoholism. You were sick and weren't in your right mind."
Silence. The spirit wasn't responding to Conover.
Conover begins again, "God sent me here to offer you a second chance at having peace in your life.
"Now if you're listening to what I'm saying, all you have to do is do something to let me know you hear me. You can do that by making a noise, showing yourself or showing me some light, moving something. It lets me know you're listening to me, that you hear what I'm saying."
I waited excitedly for a reaction from the spirit Conover sensed. Nothing.
"Sometimes it takes awhile," he tells me. "I know he's here. I know he's close by us."
Suddenly, Conover tells me he smells smoke. I sniff, but all I smell is a musty basement.
"Can you do something to let this lady know that I'm not just talking to thin air?" Conover asks. "Can you give me a light or make a noise that we can tell is coming from you?"
Conover allows several minutes to pass.
"His energy is very strong," Conover said. "I can pick up on (it) very easily."
The hair on the back of my neck stands up as Conover says "there you are" to a presence I can't see.
It takes Conover several more minutes to coax the spirit to go toward the light that will lead him to Heaven, where his wife and son await him. Using the Bible, Conover prays to God to circle the house with protection and give the spirit courage to cross over.
Before the spirit leaves, Conover said, he confessed that after killing his wife and puncturing the gas line that he was going to meet the cops outside and have them shoot him.
Instead, the broken gas pipe triggered a fire that set the stairs on fire and he couldn't escape.
"Can you sense the atmosphere is changing?" Conover asks.
I walked through the basement. The tension, the stuffiness I felt earlier, was gone.
Apparently, Conover successfully motivated the spirit to leave the house.
I told Conover I was disappointed that I did not experience a paranormal event, but I believed him and was still a believer.
"I've had them (spirits) do that before where they just don't want to do anything to let anybody else know they're here," Conover said.
The upstairs crew didn't experience a paranormal event during the two-hour investigation, either. No solid evidence was detected by the cameras, video cameras or digital voice recorder the team used.
"He just wasn't that interested in scaring anyone," Conover said as we left the house. "He was mild and docile. That surprised me. He was reluctant to go.
"I wouldn't hesitate to put anyone in this house. I'm sure this house will sell now."
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/102507/EN ... MH.030.php
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