SJPR Investigators tell the stories that didn't make the web pages... These will be continually updated as our tales unfold....
Hainesburg Mansion
~
Hammonton ~
SJPR Party
~ Upper
Moreland, PA
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| SusanBove' SJPR Founder and Co-director sbove@sjpr.org |
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The Girl in the Mansion
It was the weekend of April 28, 2006 that five SJPR members traveled to Columbia, NJ. We were invited to conduct a joint investigation by the members of our "sister group," North Jersey Paranormal Research. We have had a long-standing, working relationship with NJPR, but had never physically worked an investigation with them. We were very excited to make the trek to the beautiful Hainesburg Mansion! Our investigation spanned two nights and included several significant events and resulting evidence. For me, the story that follows was exceptionally profound...
I was drawn to the back of the larger parlor that at the
time served as a gift shop. I looked out through the glass
of the french doors in the back of the room, soaking in the
view of a side yard. As I gazed into the darkness, my mood
became melancholy. I was then suddenly overwhelmed with a
profound sadness and rising fear. I knew these were not my
emotions, but rather those of a young female who was
nearby. I felt I was looking outside through her eyes and
felt sad that I couldn't go out. It wasn't that she wasn't
allowed to venture outside, but that she was not mentally
capable to do so - perhaps agoraphobic (fear of crowds/open
spaces). It was also possible that her child-like demeanor
would have left her easily manipulated by the unscrupulous.
As I looked around the room, the fear I felt grew. I
had a strong urge to run upstairs to "hide" in one of the
smaller rooms where I would feel safe. I continued to
walk around the back of the parlor when I came to the
entrance of the kitchen. The building at one time had been
used as a restaurant, so there was some industrial-sized
appliances in this room. As
I stepped through the doorway, my flashlight beam crossed a
large picture of a girl that was hanging on the
refrigerator. I drew in a sharp breath at the sight of her
and instantly knew that she was the one whose emotions I was
feeling. It was an intense encounter. I could not
take my eyes off of her.
As we were discussing my experience, I felt the strong need
to hold the original picture - I even expressed this aloud
to my fellow investigators. The picture hanging on the
refrigerator was not the original, but rather a blown-up
copy. A couple of the investigators present referred to her
as "the creepy girl," to which I took immediate offense. I
told them not to call
her names, as I felt it was hurting her feelings. I found
it difficult to tear myself away from her, but the
investigation eventually ended and we went back to our
hotel.
On our trek around the mansion during the Friday night
investigation, we saw many things that we would have liked
to purchase. This included items both in the gift shop
and around the upper floors of the house. We had
decided to go shopping there the next day. We also
wanted to meet the owner and thank her in person for
allowing us to investigate the mansion. Since the investigation was
arranged by NJPR, we had not had the pleasure of meeting the
owner.
During our visit with the owner, I shared with her my
experience with the girl and my fascination with her
picture. As we chatted, a woman and her teenage daughter
had approached the counter with their purchases. The woman
overheard me asking the owner if she has the original
picture of the girl, to which she replied, 'No.' The woman
at the counter asked, 'Do you mean the picture of the girl
hanging on the refrigerator?' The owner and I both
looked at her in surprise. I reiterated my story to the
woman, who then said that she had the original
picture! She sent her daughter home to retrieve it so I
could see.
While we were waiting for her daughter to return with the
picture, the woman explained that she was friends with the
previous owners and the picture was found in a box of old
photos in the attic. She herself was taken with the
picture, so the previous owner gave it to her.
The picture finally arrived. It was mounted in a
pretty little frame with a ribbon and bow around the
top-right corner. To my absolute
astonishment, I was holding the original picture that I had
literally "longed" to hold the night before. I
half-jokingly asked the woman if she wanted to sell the
picture, to which she replied, 'Oh, no. I could never part
with her.'
We found that we became quick friends with the current
owner, the woman, and her daughter. Without ever having met
us before that day, the owner invited us back that night to
conduct another investigation. In fact, she was to leave
the key for us - pretty trusting of us strangers! We liked
the woman and her daughter so much, we invited them to join
us for a night of ghost hunting, which they excitedly
accepted!
So, much later that night, we gathered back at the mansion.
The woman and her daughter arrived and I explained to them
what they could expect during the investigation. Just
before we were to begin, the woman handed me an envelope. I
was completely overwhelmed when I opened the envelope to
find the picture of the girl, along with the little ribbon
that had adorned her in the frame. The tears
immediately began to fall from my eyes.
The woman explained that after she and her daughter returned
home, they discussed the irony of the day's events. She
actually felt like I was supposed to have the picture. To
add to the coincidences, the previous owner who gave her the
picture was named Suzanne and my name is Susan. These facts,
combined with my intense experience with the girl, convinced
the woman and her daughter that I was meant to own the
picture of her. So, after longing to merely hold the
picture, I now own it. I will treasure it always.
My colleagues and I have studied the picture and found that
it was cut from a larger one, perhaps to fit a frame at one
time. Based on my impressions of her and her expression in
the picture, we feel she may have had some mental
disabilities.
On the back of the original
picture is the partial word, "reen," which leads us to
believe her name may have been "Maureen." We also recorded
an EVP during the discussion of her name that said,
"Developing picture, Maureen."
Astonishingly, we also captured two EVP of a female we believe is Maureen herself. One was recorded during my encounter in seeing her picture, when she implores, "Hear me talk." The second recording was captured during the investigation on the subsequent evening. As we talked about her, she says, "Call me back."
We put her age at around 13-15, based on her build and
psychic impressions. We felt she was very well cared for
and protected by her family. We are not sure about the
clothes she is wearing. It could be a nightgown, or perhaps
a Christening or Confirmation dress. I have been told
recently that families often kept their mentally challenged
kinship in nightgowns, as it was easier to care for them.
It is a good possibility that we will never really know
anything concrete about her, but my experience was very real
and one I will never forget. I also find the chain of
events that lead the picture to me extraordinary. What are
the chances that the woman who owned the original picture
would be shopping in the store and overhear my story? It
solidifies my personal belief that everything happens for a
reason. We just don't always see the big picture at the
time.
To experience what we captured during our investigations of the mansion, click on the respective links: 1st investigation 2nd investigation
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Debra
Thornton SJPR
Co-director
“One
Possessed Hook, Please”
South
Jersey Paranormal Research had the pleasure of investigating the
Hainesburg
While Susan Bove' was talking with Kim, Kelly Groff and I walked
through the kitchen to the other side of the house to browse.
As we were walking to the front of the room, Kelly said
that “someone” was trying to get her attention.
Kelly is very intuitive to spirit.
She said, "I'm going to ignore it.
We are shopping, not working."
I was about 2 full steps ahead of Kelly and we were the
ONLY two people on that side of the house.
Suddenly, we heard an object drop.
It sounded a little heavy.
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to Kelly as she
was looking right at me. We
were a little taken back.
I
walked forward to investigate what had fallen.
Next to a table, a solid metal hook had fallen and landed
on its side. I
picked it up and put it back.
We went to the other side to tell Susan what happened.
We couldn’t recreate the fall at all. No heavy
trucks had driven by, etc.
We really felt that the hook had been moved to get our
attention, especially since Kel was dismissing signals she was
receiving.
While
we were examining the hook, we saw it was really pretty.
Susan decided to buy it.
At the checkout, Susan hands it to the shop owner and says, "One possessed hook, please." We all had a good laugh. By the way, possessed hooks go for about $7.50 these days, as Susan likes to say.
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Sherri
Halpin SJPR
Co-director
A Fish Story
As my fellow investigators mentioned in their stories, our group traveled to North
Jersey for a great weekend at the Hainesburg Mansion.
These two days provided all of us with quite a few tales for the
folks back home and I'd like to share my favorite experience
with you...
At one point on Friday night, we were all quietly concentrating
and trying to pick up on any mental imagery that we could and
nearly everyone was getting images that were easily connected to
the Mansion. I got the oddball image ... a taxidermed
fish, stiff and waxed, and ready to be hung above a mantle.
I mentioned this aloud to the group for documentation purposes
and since this didn't mesh with any of the things that the
others were seeing, I just moved on. I didn't get anything
else connected to that fish for the rest of the evening.
When we returned to the mansion for our "shopping
spree" on Saturday afternoon, our wonderful host suggested
that we take a short trip to the Paulinskill Viaduct, which is
within 10 minutes of the Mansion. It was a lovely day, so
we took her advice and went. The Viaduct is a massive,
concrete structure that runs along a swift moving river.
From the graffiti on it, we could tell that it's a popular teen
hang-out spot and we walked toward the river, checking it all
out. When we got to the edge of the water, we looked up
and saw a beautiful air-brushed drawing of several trout,
swimming along. Near the fish was written: "He sleeps
with the fishes." We all chuckled, recalling my odd
image of the fish from the previous night and moved on down the
length of the river. Not 20 feet away, we came across a
moving sight - a simple wooden cross surrounded by a fishing
pole, lures, unopened beer cans, and river rocks painted with
loving phrases. As we stood near this touching memorial,
one of the other investigators looked up and saw a plastic page
protector nailed to a nearby tree. She took a closer look
and what she saw surprised us all - a sun-faded photo of a
man holding a freshly-caught fish ... with the Hainesburg
Mansion in the background.
After returning home and doing some research on the Viaduct, the
reason for the memorial became clear. In 2003, an avid
fisherman named Thomas Hoffacker had taken his own life by the
river's edge. His family and friends placed the
memorial at his favorite fishing spot.
Thanks, Tom, for sharing your story with me! R.I.P...
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Kelly Groff SJPR Investigator
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Rorie Hirschmann SJPR Board Member
An SJPR
Holiday Party - The little crying boy...
I should preface this with the fact that I do not normally
hear/see/feel things during investigations. I sometimes
will feel cold spots, but I am not as sensitive to things as
other members.
A few years ago we were having an SJPR Holiday party at a former
member's house. It was a cold night in the middle of
December and all the soda was in buckets on the side (screened
in) porch. Around 10:30 or 11:00pm I went out for a soda.
While I was out there, I heard a small child whimpering.
Now, the first thing that came to my mind is that a small child
was outside in the cold...I thought to myself, Who would let
a child out this late on such a cold night? (It was
probably in the 40s). When I didn't see anyone in the immediate
area, I wondered if it could be coming from the windows of the
house next door. Then I thought, Well, who would have
their windows open on such a cold night? I went back
inside and found the home owner, she was talking to another
member of the group. I asked if there were any children in
the house next door. She explained that they did not have
children (nor did they seem to really even like children).
She asked me why. When I explained what had happened, she
just smiled and looked at the other member. What I didn't
know at the time was that the house was haunted by a small boy,
a woman, and an old man. The home owner explained that at
one time the house was an orphanage. She said she often
felt that the small child was with her. She said sometimes
when she had people over, the small child spirit would become
scared. So...I ask you... was he who I heard outside?
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Deb Thornton SJPR Board Member
One of the best things about ghost hunting is….you never know what will happen next. More often than not, nothing out of the ordinary occurs. The lights are out and the group is working on capturing evidence. Then, out of the blue, a paranormal event occurs and it’s incredibly exciting.
On an investigation in Upper Moreland, PA, SJPR assembled at the home, broke into teams, and went to work. Another investigator and I were in the old country kitchen of this historic home. We decided to sit in the enclosed porch just off the kitchen. The floor was natural slate stone. The old door was securely latched leading to the porch.
My team member and I walked towards this door. I reached out to open it and promptly jumped back. The door had unlatched and opened slightly, just as I reached for it! Totally amazed by this, we closed the door and tried to re-create the door opening. We walked towards it, jumped up and down a bit, rocked from one foot to the next. Nothing opened that door again.
That is exactly the stuff that makes ghost hunting a real adventure.
To see and hear what evidence we captured during the rest of the investigation, click here.
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