“It’s darker than outer space out here,” I said to my brother, Richard, as we drove through the night.

“It’s darker than the inside of a coffin,” he responded.
“Yeah,” I thought, “that’s better. And definitely more fitting.”

Following a trail of jet-black roads, the two of us had traveled to the outskirts of Alamance County. We were trying — desperately at this point — to find a Halloween-themed attraction in the map-dot town of Snow Camp.

Finally, just when it seemed the darkness was going to swallow us, we saw it. The building looked more like an archaic stockade than an actual house. As we pulled up to the property, I saw a rickety old sign welcoming us to “The Original Hollywood Horror Show.”

Those familiar with the property will tell you it houses one of the scariest Halloween attractions in the state. But tonight wasn’t Halloween; it wasn’t even October. So why had we come to a spook house that was still more than a month away from opening?

Call it curiosity.

You see, those who are truly familiar with the property will tell you it houses something more than a Halloween attraction. They’ll tell you it houses something unexplainable — something paranormal.

After a quick look around, we met with Dean Jones, one of the two masterminds behind the Horror Show. Nineteen years ago, Dean and his brother, Starr, bought the estate with the intentions of creating an elaborately evil Halloween attraction. But over time, the brothers began hearing stories about the property.

As local legend has it, a man murdered his entire family at the estate in the 1930s. More recently though, several Horror Show workers unexpectedly passed away. It’s these workers — or, more importantly, the spirits of these workers — that reportedly keep showing up.

“Things happen here that we can’t explain,” Jones says. “You hear things and you feel things that aren’t really there. I just thought it was time to get some answers.”

To provide answers, the brothers contacted a group of upstart ghost hunters known as the Winston-Salem Paranormal Society.

Paranormal Beginnings
Simply put, the WSPS seeks to explain the unexplainable. The group researches, investigates, and documents paranormal activity throughout the Southeast.

“Our goal is to try to scientifically disprove that something paranormal exists,” says Sarah Sherman, who co-founded the group with Tonya Denny. “We try to come up with explanations as to why something might be happening.”

The group was started in the fall of 2007 by five women: Sherman, Denny, Summer Foskey, Michelle Kindley, and Machelle Runyon.

The five evolved from another paranormal group, the Triad Ghost Trackers. A few months after forming, the group recruited Joe Baretincic to serve as technical manager and Michael Mathai to act as assistant technical manager. J. David Michaels — a noted psychic — also signed on to help with the metaphysical side of the investigations.

With a team in place, members began using social networking sites such as meetup.com as a recruitment tool. Now, a year since its inception, the WSPS has more than 200 members. While the group meets in its entirety every month, the investigation team — or those who actually go on the ghost hunts — is still limited to the core members (with occasional exceptions).

The team spends most weekend looking into cases that have been brought to their attention. Aside from private homes and businesses, they also investigate legendary sites throughout the Southeast. They’ve been to Kentucky to tour the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. They’ve been to Wilmington to investigate the USS North Carolina. And tonight, they’d come to Snow Camp to investigate the Original Hollywood Horror Show.

The Investigation
The time was now 11 p.m. Richard and I, along with Winston-Salem Monthly photographer Jay Sinclair, stood in the foyer of the estate watching tech-man Baretincic get the equipment in place. As he lined the property with infrared cameras and EMF meters, I asked him where the group gets the funding for its investigations.

“Our own pockets,” he said, laughing. “It’s an expensive hobby.”
Twenty minutes later, the equipment was in place and the investigation was set to begin. The members decided to break into three smaller teams and scatter to different parts of the house.

We followed Sherman, our group leader, down the estate’s foreboding corridor. After stepping over a few dismembered “body” parts, I asked if they were skeptical about investigating a commercial attraction.

“Normally, we would be,” she said, “but one of our most successful investigations actually happened at another Halloween attraction, so we’re trying to keep an open mind.”

We eventually arrived at a small room located deep inside the estate. The investigators set out their chairs, turned on their Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) devices, and dimmed their flashlights. The investigation was officially under way.

Sherman began by simply talking to the darkness. “Is anyone there?” she asked. “Let us know you’re here.” This continued for what seemed like an eternity. As we sat in complete stillness, I heard Jay whisper, “Have you ever heard an old house this quiet? There aren’t any creaks or bumps — nothing.” He was right.

A few more hushed moments later, Sherman asked me to try and communicate with the spirits. Now it’s important to note that I’m not a firm believer in ghosts. Still, I don’t deny that they could exist. So, with as much reverence as I could summon, I said “Make your presence known, ghost.” (Seemed like a reasonable thing to say.)

It was then that the deafening silence was broken. Somewhere in the surrounding shadows, there was a loud bang against a conjoining wall. In a fury of adrenaline and hysteria, I catapulted backward, nearly landing in Sherman’s lap. “Whoa!” I yelled. “Did you hear that?”

“I heard it,” Jay said, remarkably subdued. “I accidentally bumped into the wall.” Whew.

After my heart re-entered my chest, we again tried to contact the spirits. But by now, the conversation had gone from intense to amusing.
“Ghost, if you’re there, can you turn up the air conditioner?”
“Ghost, if you’re there, can you bring me a drink?”

And, perhaps the most effective request of the night, “Ghost, if you’re there, remain completely silent.”
We eventually joined up with the other members in a mock graveyard behind the estate. While the location was different, the results were largely the same — a few timid moments followed by a few good laughs.

“A lot of times, we’ll keep it lighthearted while we’re investigating,” Denny said. “To make it through this stuff, you kind of have to.”

As we waited (and waited, and waited), the conversation naturally drifted into ghost lore. Many members confessed that personal experiences had sparked their interest in the paranormal.

“Not everyone is a believer,” Denny said. “We hear people say all the time ‘Oh, there’s no such thing as ghosts.’ I think a lot of times, you have to have your own experience before you believe.”

As the hours passed, though, it seemed less and less likely that my “experience” was going to come tonight. Around 3 a.m., Richard, Jay, and I decided to call it a night. While the house was certainly spooky, I was fairly confident that it wasn’t haunted.
Or was it?

A Haunting Revelation
Nearly a week after the investigation, I contacted Sherman with a few follow-up questions. I wanted to see if anything noteworthy had occurred after I left the site — convinced the answer would be “no.”

Turns out I was partially right. Sherman explained that nothing had happened the rest of the night, at least nothing substantial. But after she got home, things got interesting.

The night after the investigation, Sherman says she dreamed she was back inside the Horror Show estate. This time, however, she came across the spirit of a little girl. “She was begging me to come back and help her,” Sherman recalled.

Curious, she decided to contact Michaels, the group psychic. After listening to the dream in detail, Michaels shared some chilling news. Believe it or not, he’d had an identical dream the night before.

The matching dreams were only half the story, however. Baretincic noticed several unexplainable orbs in the infrared video, and Sherman picked up a few mysterious voices in the EVP recordings.

Because of the mounting evidence, the group has planned a follow-up visit to the site. This time, they’ll be accompanied by Michaels. While another night spent idling away in a cryptic home might seem a bit daunting, it’s what the members of the WSPS live for.

“We spend so much time investigating places where we don’t get any readings, that when we actually do get something — even if it’s just something small — we get excited,” Denny says. “It makes it all worth it.

“As far as we’re concerned, there are still a lot of mysteries in this area. All we’re trying to do is provide some answers.” W

To learn more about the WSPS, go to wsparanormalsociety.com.

Terms from the Crypt

Apparition: A spirit whose physical presence can be seen, filmed,
or photographed. This includes vapor-like images.
Cold Spots: An unexplainable
drop in air or object temperature. Spirits are said to draw energy from their environments, which causes temperatures to drop around them.
Electromagnetic Field (EMF): A field created by the combination of electric and magnetic energy. These fields are also believed to be created when spirits are present.
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP): Unexplained voices that only become audible when recorded and played back. These voices are often thought to be spirits trying to communicate with the living.
Infrared Cameras: Cameras that can film in the dark, allowing operators to view part of the visual spectrum the human
eye cannot.
Orbs: Small areas, usually white in color, which become visible in videos or photographs. While skeptics claim they’re caused by dust particles, many researchers say they’re physical representations of spirits.
Poltergeist: German term used to describe active, sometimes mean-spirited spirits that can reportedly make noise, play pranks, and follow people around to varying locations.
Residual Hauntings: A recurring event that is believed to be imprinted on the surrounding environment. They involve no interaction with the living.

Seeing is Believing?

Private homes, local businesses, and legendary haunts — the WSPS has explored them all. Here’s a look at the group’s findings from some of its most successful investigations.

USS North Carolina (Wilmington)
Story: The battleship was struck by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine in World War II. Six crew members died.
Reported Findings: Heavy EMF activity reported. At one point, a walkie-talkie was mysteriously switched on and a voice whispering “Sarah” was heard over it. At 4 a.m., members reported hearing lines of boots storming down the halls, although they were the only ones on board. The group later learned that 4 a.m. marked a shift change aboard the ship. They believe the noises were deceased sailors reporting for work.

Kersey Valley Spookywoods (High Point)
Story: Although it’s a commercial attraction, the site is reportedly full of paranormal activity, including the ghost of a musician called the Fiddler.
Reported Findings: After provoking the Fiddler into action, objects were allegedly hurled across the room and one member’s hair was pulled. An unknown voice was also heard over the EVP recordings saying “get out.” In addition, several members reported seeing shadows and hearing footsteps in the woods.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Louisville, KY)
Story: The defunct Sanatorium housed tuberculosis patients in the early to mid-1900s. It’s estimated that more than 60,000 people died here.
Reported Findings: The group experienced several incidents, including doors opening by themselves, unexplained shadows, and flying objects. At one point, members reported hearing a woman’s voice crying “help me,” although no one was around. The apparition of an elderly man dressed in a hospital gown was also documented.