Im hiding under the covers tonight 
BY JAMI KINTON
News Journal
MANSFIELD -- They've spent the night at some of the "Most Haunted" places in the country, yet members of the Mid-Ohio Paranormal Group say they found more paranormal activity at 236 Bowland Road.
Clear Channel Radio disc jockey Barry Howell said he has owned the Mansfield home for six years, and the oddities have been consistent.
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"Shortly after I moved in, the basement flooded and we probably got three feet of water in there, which ruined the original hardwood walls," said Howell, 36. "Once we got the water cleared out, I pulled off the panels and started drilling and putting up wood slats on the walls. At one point, I reached back for my drill and it wasn't there."
Howell said he found the drill on top of the supply cabinet on other side of the basement. The batteries had been removed and were floating in a nearby sink.
"I couldn't understand how that sink was even holding water," Howell said. "There was no stopper for it, so I never even used it. I stuck my hand down in the water to see what was plugging the drain, and there were just rocks and little pieces of debris in the hole. It was the middle of the summer and that water was freezing cold."
Howell said the house was built in 1942 and he is the third owner. To his knowledge, no suspicious deaths or murders ever took place inside the home. He still owns the house, but recently moved out.
"I've had things fall off the walls upstairs for no reason. I've had pieces of furniture break, vases break. One time a picture fell off the wall, yet the nail head was still in the wall, so someone literally would have had to lift up the frame and drop it on the floor," Howell said. "I've seen shadows in fully lit rooms and something was constantly messing with the thermostat."
Friend Dave Cunningham, a test lab engineer for Hi-Stat Manufacturing Company who has a key to Howell's home, said one of his strangest experiences at the house occurred last winter.
"When I walked inside, I could see the light on in the basement and could hear the dryer running," Cunningham said. "I said, 'Honey, I'm home!' and I heard, 'All right!' and I just walked in the living room to watch the Cavs game."
A half hour later, Cunningham said Howell called his cell phone and asked him to come outside to move his car.
"Dave said to me, 'Why don't you just go outside and move it yourself?' " Howell said. "I said, 'What? I just got home.' "
From the driveway, Howell said he watched as Cunningham walked outside with a confused look on his face, looking at Howell and then looking back toward the house.
"I said, 'You were just here. I just talked to you like 30 minutes ago,' " Cunningham said.
When Howell walked into the house, he went to the basement, opened up the running dryer, found nothing inside and no one around.
Last June, Cunningham suggested Howell place a small cassette recorder overnight. Howell said the device is sound-activated.
"When I woke up the next morning, there were 68 revolutions," he said.
After analyzing the tape, Howell heard what sounded like an old woman and young girl.
"I could hear the girl breathing heavily and it
sounded like she was right up against the recorder," Howell said. "What I made out was, 'Ball, ball... Where's my ball?' "
Howell said he believes the older woman said, "I'll come in there."
After playing his recordings during his radio shows, he was e-mailed by a member of the Mid-Ohio Paranormal Group who asked to spend the night at his home.
The Lexington-based group has investigated dozens of haunted places, including Lock 4 Park in Canal Fulton and the West Virginia State Penitentiary.
On Jan. 25, equipped with infrared-enabled cameras, nightvision camcorders, non-contact thermometers, motion detectors, digital voice recorders and ElectroSensor Electromagnetic Field detectors, the group camped out at the Bowland Road home from 7 p.m. until 3:30 a.m., gathering nearly 80 hours of recordings.
Lead investigator Mark Berry said the group collected 18 to 20 EVPs, or electronic voice phenomena, which he said is alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices.
"All but two EVPs were caught in the basement, but there are only seven that we're comfortable with," Berry said. "If we can't verify where every member was at the time, then we discard what we found. To go into a house for that amount of time and catch that many EVPs is pretty uncommon."
The group interviewed Howell first and then strategically placed their recording devices throughout the two-story house.
During part of the investigation, Berry said the group sat in the basement without light and asked random questions.
They didn't hear responses until they played back the recordings.
When Berry asked the question, "Did you used to live here?" a low voice can be heard replying, "I did."
Shortly after their arrival, a recording also picked up a whispered "Hello," above two of the investigators' chatter.
Both were quick and slightly muffled.
"If you ever hear a normal-sounding EVP, it's probably fabricated," Berry said.
Co-lead investigator Aaron Seif said coins appeared on floors throughout the house periodically through the night.
"Especially on the basement stairs," he said. "The six of us probably walked up those stairs 10 to 15 times each, and every time, we would find coins scattered along the steps. We'd pick them up, come back, and more would be lying there.
"We probably left with a handful of coins by the end of the night."
Around 8:59 p.m., Berry said the group placed two balls on top of two dimes in the middle of the basement carpet.
A short while later, Berry said one ball moved approximately four feet from its original position.
Later in the night, while all group members were in the basement, six distinct footsteps were recorded from upstairs.
"Were any of you wearing heals?" Howell asked the three female members after listening to the recording.
"No," answered investigator Amanda Seif. "We were all in tennis shoes -- and all six of us were in the basement at the time."
Other recordings and pictures captured included a human-like shadow in the attic, random flashes of light in the basement and audio recordings sounding like "Hey" and the name "Amanda."
Howell said he was comforted to hear the investigation findings.
"It's nice to have a third party saying they've found stuff like this," he said. "I would hear this stuff every day and it almost became normal to me."
Aaron said the difference between his group and most others is that their group sets out to prove that places are not haunted, rather than proving they are.
Berry said he's well aware of paranormal-scoffers.
"We know there are many more people out there who don't believe in these kinds of things than those who do," he said. "It almost takes a personal experience and even those won't always change the minds of skeptics."
Berry said the group may return to the home during the daytime to investigate again.
"We're not saying Barry's house is haunted, but there's definitely some paranormal activity going on there," he said. "Once you open your eyes and mind, it's amazing what you start to see." jkinton@nncogannett.com 419-521-7220
BY JAMI KINTON
News Journal
MANSFIELD -- They've spent the night at some of the "Most Haunted" places in the country, yet members of the Mid-Ohio Paranormal Group say they found more paranormal activity at 236 Bowland Road.
Clear Channel Radio disc jockey Barry Howell said he has owned the Mansfield home for six years, and the oddities have been consistent.
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Howell said he found the drill on top of the supply cabinet on other side of the basement. The batteries had been removed and were floating in a nearby sink.
"I couldn't understand how that sink was even holding water," Howell said. "There was no stopper for it, so I never even used it. I stuck my hand down in the water to see what was plugging the drain, and there were just rocks and little pieces of debris in the hole. It was the middle of the summer and that water was freezing cold."
Howell said the house was built in 1942 and he is the third owner. To his knowledge, no suspicious deaths or murders ever took place inside the home. He still owns the house, but recently moved out.
"I've had things fall off the walls upstairs for no reason. I've had pieces of furniture break, vases break. One time a picture fell off the wall, yet the nail head was still in the wall, so someone literally would have had to lift up the frame and drop it on the floor," Howell said. "I've seen shadows in fully lit rooms and something was constantly messing with the thermostat."
Friend Dave Cunningham, a test lab engineer for Hi-Stat Manufacturing Company who has a key to Howell's home, said one of his strangest experiences at the house occurred last winter.
"When I walked inside, I could see the light on in the basement and could hear the dryer running," Cunningham said. "I said, 'Honey, I'm home!' and I heard, 'All right!' and I just walked in the living room to watch the Cavs game."
A half hour later, Cunningham said Howell called his cell phone and asked him to come outside to move his car.
"Dave said to me, 'Why don't you just go outside and move it yourself?' " Howell said. "I said, 'What? I just got home.' "
From the driveway, Howell said he watched as Cunningham walked outside with a confused look on his face, looking at Howell and then looking back toward the house.
"I said, 'You were just here. I just talked to you like 30 minutes ago,' " Cunningham said.
When Howell walked into the house, he went to the basement, opened up the running dryer, found nothing inside and no one around.
Last June, Cunningham suggested Howell place a small cassette recorder overnight. Howell said the device is sound-activated.
"When I woke up the next morning, there were 68 revolutions," he said.
After analyzing the tape, Howell heard what sounded like an old woman and young girl.
"I could hear the girl breathing heavily and it
sounded like she was right up against the recorder," Howell said. "What I made out was, 'Ball, ball... Where's my ball?' "
Howell said he believes the older woman said, "I'll come in there."
After playing his recordings during his radio shows, he was e-mailed by a member of the Mid-Ohio Paranormal Group who asked to spend the night at his home.
The Lexington-based group has investigated dozens of haunted places, including Lock 4 Park in Canal Fulton and the West Virginia State Penitentiary.
On Jan. 25, equipped with infrared-enabled cameras, nightvision camcorders, non-contact thermometers, motion detectors, digital voice recorders and ElectroSensor Electromagnetic Field detectors, the group camped out at the Bowland Road home from 7 p.m. until 3:30 a.m., gathering nearly 80 hours of recordings.
Lead investigator Mark Berry said the group collected 18 to 20 EVPs, or electronic voice phenomena, which he said is alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices.
"All but two EVPs were caught in the basement, but there are only seven that we're comfortable with," Berry said. "If we can't verify where every member was at the time, then we discard what we found. To go into a house for that amount of time and catch that many EVPs is pretty uncommon."
The group interviewed Howell first and then strategically placed their recording devices throughout the two-story house.
During part of the investigation, Berry said the group sat in the basement without light and asked random questions.
They didn't hear responses until they played back the recordings.
When Berry asked the question, "Did you used to live here?" a low voice can be heard replying, "I did."
Shortly after their arrival, a recording also picked up a whispered "Hello," above two of the investigators' chatter.
Both were quick and slightly muffled.
"If you ever hear a normal-sounding EVP, it's probably fabricated," Berry said.
Co-lead investigator Aaron Seif said coins appeared on floors throughout the house periodically through the night.
"Especially on the basement stairs," he said. "The six of us probably walked up those stairs 10 to 15 times each, and every time, we would find coins scattered along the steps. We'd pick them up, come back, and more would be lying there.
"We probably left with a handful of coins by the end of the night."
Around 8:59 p.m., Berry said the group placed two balls on top of two dimes in the middle of the basement carpet.
A short while later, Berry said one ball moved approximately four feet from its original position.
Later in the night, while all group members were in the basement, six distinct footsteps were recorded from upstairs.
"Were any of you wearing heals?" Howell asked the three female members after listening to the recording.
"No," answered investigator Amanda Seif. "We were all in tennis shoes -- and all six of us were in the basement at the time."
Other recordings and pictures captured included a human-like shadow in the attic, random flashes of light in the basement and audio recordings sounding like "Hey" and the name "Amanda."
Howell said he was comforted to hear the investigation findings.
"It's nice to have a third party saying they've found stuff like this," he said. "I would hear this stuff every day and it almost became normal to me."
Aaron said the difference between his group and most others is that their group sets out to prove that places are not haunted, rather than proving they are.
Berry said he's well aware of paranormal-scoffers.
"We know there are many more people out there who don't believe in these kinds of things than those who do," he said. "It almost takes a personal experience and even those won't always change the minds of skeptics."
Berry said the group may return to the home during the daytime to investigate again.
"We're not saying Barry's house is haunted, but there's definitely some paranormal activity going on there," he said. "Once you open your eyes and mind, it's amazing what you start to see." jkinton@nncogannett.com 419-521-7220