Central New York Ghost Hunters capture a terrifying scene from the past

IN JANUARY, 2007, the Central New York Ghost Hunters (CNYGH), based in Syracuse, New York, were invited to investigate an old hotel in upstate New York. (The owners of the hotel have asked to keep its location confidential.) The investigation proved to be one of the most intensely active the group has ever encountered, and produced an EVP – an electronic voice phenomena recording – that is remarkable not only for its length, but also for its terrifying content.

It may well be the most intense, frightening EVP ever recorded.

THE INVESTIGATION

On that weekend in January, CNYGH founder Stacey Jones and several members of the group went to the hotel on an overnight stay for what they thought would be a routine investigation.

They had no idea what they were in for.

Originally built in the late 1800s, the building was in its colorful history the site of some nefarious activity, a fact that might be key to what is heard in the EVP.

On Friday night, Stacey and her group set up their equipment – audio recorders, video recorders and other electronics – and settled in, hoping to document some evidence for the haunting the owners had claimed. Most investigations are relatively quiet, but this night was filled with paranormal activity, including muffled voices of unknown origin, footsteps from unseen bodies and more. Members of the group I spoke with confirmed that it was the most active haunting they had personally experienced.

The real shocker came the next day. On Saturday afternoon at about 3 p.m., two female CNYGH investigators and a member of the owner’s family (also a female) sat on the staircase of the hotel with a digital voice recorder, intending to capture some EVP. They chose the stairway because they had heard soft conversations and footsteps on the floor above, although no one was up there.

When they later played the recording back, however, what they heard were not soft voices and footsteps, but something totally unexpected and completely terrifying.

THE EVP: WHAT YOU’LL HEAR

Stacey Jones describes what you’ll hear on the recording:

“You can [faintly] hear the three females talking throughout the recording. You will hear a female – the family member – say, ‘Hello, baby,’ and another long conversation. Those are all human voices. But what sounds like a struggle or attack is going on as well.

“The male [voice] you hear was not present at the hotel. You will hear a cuckoo clock (which was not present) a ticking of a hall clock (which was there); you will hear what sounds like the microphone being moved (which was not touched) and then the sound becomes clearer.

“You will hear a creaking door and slamming of the door, which is real. Then you will hear a [unknown] woman say, ‘Get off me,’ and what sounds like the woman being attacked. The struggle continues for awhile, and during the EVP you can hear some of my investigators’ conversations. After interviewing my investigators, they said they went and sat on the stairs of this hotel, because they heard from an above floor, what sounded like footsteps and conversations, not what you hear on this recording. When the noises stop, you hear the investigators participate in a lulled conversation. They stated that they started to talk when the noises stopped. In their conversation, you will hear a male voice say, ‘Help me’ several times.”

Download and listen to the EVP

Caution: the recording is violent and may be too intense for some listeners.

It’s a large file, so the download may take awhile. If you’re having trouble downloading the file, try right-clicking the link above and choose “Save Target As…” in Internet Explorer or “Save Link As…” in Firefox to save the file to your computer’s hard drive, then play it from there.

If you still have trouble, try listening to it from YouTube: YouTube version

“The EVP has not been altered in any way, except it was edited for time,” Stacey says. “CNY Ghost Hunters have tried to reduce the noise, amplify and ‘clean’ it up, but found it difficult to make out exactly what was being said. We invite you to download this EVP to see what you can make of it.

Central New York Ghost Hunters (of which I am a member) is one of the oldest paranormal investigation groups in the state.