Article by Brent L. George

March 25, 2016

The S.P.I.R.I.T. team was dispatched to a warehouse in the oldest section of Elk Grove, California. The new leasers of the warehouse space had begun extensive renovations to the office portions of the warehouse in order to set up their new business. As renovations progressed, employees began to complain of a feeling of being constantly watched, feeling an oppressive atmosphere, experiencing lights flickering, and hearing unexplained sounds.

This was a very large warehouse space with a full office addition inside of the warehouse, so flickering lights, sounds that cannot quite be placed, and dust orbs should all be expected in such a space, and not necessarily considered to be paranormal, unless there is corroborating evidence.

The Investigation

Flash photography was conducted throughout the warehouse space, as well as throughout the renovated offices. Not surprisingly, there were dust orbs in many of the warehouse shots. However, two orbs did stand out as possible paranormal anomalies, due to being brightly self-illuminated – the first of these was taken in a storage room where employees said they felt very uneasy.

One anomaly was found in one of the warehouse photographs. The anomaly may be subject to a phenomenon known as “matrixing,” which refers to the human brain’s tendency to try to make order out of a jumbled or unclear image, and in particular to see faces or human forms. This natural tendency is something that must all be taken into account when taking photographs or video during any paranormal investigation. While ultimately inconclusive, the anomaly is nonetheless interesting.

Upon initial inspection, there does not appear to be anything out of the ordinary in this photograph of the office complex built into the interior walls of one end of the warehouse:

Note the chair with the large monitor in front of it outside one of the office walls. Plastic wrap, packing supplies, and paper are stacked in the chair. Note that none of these materials are at all above the headrest of the chair. One of the yellow and grey columns is also reflected in the screen. There is nothing in the photograph that should be reflecting above the headrest of the chair, except for the yellow and grey column. However, closer inspection reveals what appears to be a vague and misty human figure (its back to the camera) sitting in the chair! Again, it should be noted here that this may well be nothing more than matrixing.

Ultimately, the photograph is subject to personal interpretation, and is not clear enough to be deemed conclusively paranormal. It is included in this article only as a curiosity.

The next phase of the investigation included an SB-11 Spirit Box session in one of the upstairs offices.

The group received several Class A spirit box responses, including the response of “Jim” four separate times in response to us asking if any spirits wanted to tell us their name.

The spirit box responded with “Seven” when asked how many spirits were present, and then followed up with a “Did you copy?” response.

When asked, “Do you want us to help you leave?” we heard the spirit box response “Yes!” When asked “Are you still with us?” we got the response “Working on it.” In closing the spirit box session, the final spirit box response said “Letty” (the client’s first name).

Taken together with the self-illuminated orbs and the anomaly with the chair, there does seem to be spirit activity taking place in the warehouse and in the warehouse offices.

This should perhaps not be surprising – the warehouse complex dates back to the Korean War when it was a military storage complex, and renovations often tend to stimulate previously dormant spirit activity. In this case, paranormal activity in the warehouse could not be confirmed beyond the spirit box responses, and therefore the nature or reason for any such activity could not be established.

The team conducted a full basic cleansing of both the warehouse and office spaces, which included saging, burning of a white candle, and sealing with holy water.

A later follow-up message from the clients stated that the activity had calmed down and employees no longer felt uneasy while working in the warehouse.   

Conclusion:  Inconclusive

Classification – Probable latent haunting by previous occupants

The Investigation Video