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| Image courtesy of the Travel Channel |
In 2011, the "Ghost Adventures" Crew investigated the Rocky Point Manor in Kentucky. In 2013, they return to investigate two homes that served as field hospitals during the Civil War's Battle of Perryville.
The H.P Bottom house is the only house still standing that was in the midst of the battle between the two sides; there are even bullet holes still marking the house. When it was a field hospital, it was overflowing with wounded soldiers, with some even spilling out onto the lawn. Amputations were the most commonly performed procedures within the walls. Kurt, a park ranger, shows the crew an original door from the home that was used as an operating table. It also has a bullet hole in it and it is thought to still have the 150-year-old bloody outline of a body.
Kurt tells the crew about a friend's experience with a sinister energy at the second location; the Dye house. Upon leaving the house, the friend inquires as to whether or not there are any green lights on inside. Kurt tells him the power is off. They return to the house on a different occasion and snap a few consecutive photos in a room upstairs, where it is said that surgeries were performed. Only one photo shows a strange, white mist like anomaly, or vortex.
The crew speaks with investigators, Lee and Jennifer Kirkland, who have investigated the home. Zak produces a photo from 2008 that had been taken on the property. It shows the shadowy figure of a Civil War era man and the couple agree that it is an authentic spirit photo. They themselves captured two class A EVPs inside the home during their small group investigation. The first was a man saying "Who's in there?" The second one, "Hide, they're here." was in another male voice.
Zak then interviews Jeff Waldridge, the first investigator with permission of the state to investigate the battlefields. He heard heavy footsteps upstairs in the Dye house, and later the Kirkland's tell Nick that they heard footsteps as well.
The wood floors of the Dye house are said to be stained with blood, so the guys decide to test these claims by bringing out some Luminol, a chemical spray used in crime scene investigation to detect trace amounts of blood. The Luminol glows bright blue when exposed to the iron found in blood. With Kurt's permission, Zak begins to spray the floors. While it can't be seen in real time on film, they enhance the images of the room, which is covered in glowing blue, meaning the stains are in fact, 150-year-old blood stains.
Before they begin the lockdown, they decide to stir up some activity by having a Civil War re-enactment at the Dye house. Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley, video and sound techs, watch from nerve center. Throughout the re-enactment, everyone feels like they are being watched, as well as a sad and heavy energy inside the house. At one point, Zak has everyone freeze to see if he can capture any residual sounds, but nothing is caught.
It is then decided that they should conduct a Spirit Box session. Almost immediately a man's voice comes through saying, "I'm sorry for ___." Aaron asks if there are any spirits in there, with the same deep male voice responding, "Yes." When Zak asks the spirit to state his name, the same voice tells him "Daniel." He even provides his last name, "McIlwaine." However, when asked if he was a Union or confederate soldier, Daniel responds with "Don't know." The same male voice came through with intelligent responses during the whole session, which is technically impossible, as the SB7 is not programmed that way.
With Kurt staying outside, Zak and Billy go inside the HP Bottom house to investigate. Daniel McIlwaine's name is researched on a database of all soldiers wounded or killed in the battle, to confirm or debunk the voice from the Spirit Box session. Billy busts out the FLIR and heads to the battlefield, while Zak checks out the interior of the home. He comes to a barbed wire fence, with nothing but open field on the other side of it. He notes the weird vibe he feels coming from the battlefield on the other side of the fence. Inside, Zak has received no responses from the Spirit Box in over 25 minutes. He starts snapping full spectrum photos downstairs, when loud footsteps are heard coming from above him. Naturally, he heads upstairs to check it out.
Aaron and Nick are inside the Dye house, using whiskey and a cigar as trigger objects in an attempt to capture spirits on the Kinect camera. Over an hour passes with no action on the Kinect, or the Spirit Box. Zak later wonders if the spirit of Daniel followed him to the other location, since he was holding the Spirit Box when contact was made, effectively making him a conduit.
Back at the H.P Bottom house, Zak lays in a bed with his back to bullet hole riddled wall. He sees a green ball of light moving from one side of the room to the other, but it is actually Billy's flashlight outside. After debunking the light, he hears a loud banging sound and feels the vibration, causing him to jump off the bed. The X-cam downstairs captures the loud bang and seven seconds before the noise, an EVP of a female saying "Come to mommy," is captured. It could be the voice of Mary Bottom, who was at home with her granddaughter when soldiers came into the home and shot her. Zak radios Billy to see if he heard anything outside when the bang occured, or if he was inside, but Billy was nowhere near the house and heard nothing.
When Zak goes downstairs to check what could have made the noise, he discovers that half of their Ovilus X has been thrown off of the table and onto the floor. The Ovilus in question is actually two of the devices, connected to each other with Velcro. Earlier footage shows both devices on the table, tied together.
After three total hours of unresponsive Spirit Box sessions, the crew meet back up with Kurt at nerve center. He found some extremely compelling information out while researching his database of wounded or dead soldiers. Daniel McIlwaine died in battle on October 8, 1862, validating the voice captured with the Spirit Box. They take Kurt to hear the evidence, which he hears clearly. When asked about the evidence they have gathered, all he can say is "I'm jazzed!"
With the intelligent Spirit Box responses from fallen soldier, Daniel McIlwaine, the Ghost Adventures Crew end their eighth season with some of their most compelling audio evidence to date. Season Nine, which is already in the process of filming, will air in February of 2014. So until then, GAC Family, keep up with the guys on Twitter to see what they have in store!