A Paranormal Evening at the Cannery

By K. Lee, on October 14th, 2014

Is it just chilly in the Cannery or are those chills down your spine? Staff are often asked if the Cannery is haunted, but we didn’t know for sure. Now there’s a chance to find out!

This summer, Northern Paranormal Investigations conducted two over-night investigations at the Cannery. Join us for a presentation as their discoveries are revealed!

Presentations will take place at 7pm on Friday, October 24th and Thursday, October 30th. Click here to buy tickets.

The Legend of Lucy Keyes

The Legend of Lucy Keyes is a true story about a young girl who disappeared on Wachusett Mountain in 1755.

Lucy Keyes was a four-year old girl who was born in Princeton Massachusetts.  She lived on a farm on Wachusett Mountain with her mother Martha, her father Robert, and her two elder sisters. 

On April 14th 1755, Lucy's mother was doing some spring cleaning and needed to scour the floors of their home.  The fine-grained sand on the shore of Wachusett Lake was used for this chore, and she sent her nine-year old daughter Anna and her seven-year old daughter Patty to collect the sand.  When the sisters left the house, little Lucy followed them into the woods and was never seen again. 

Search parties were organized immediately to find the missing girl.  The woods were scoured, the lake was drained, but nobody could find any trace of Lucy Keyes. It was if she had vanished into thin air.  All they managed to find was a lock of blonde hair, next to a hollow log.

The local people eventually gave up the search when a neighbour, a man named Tilly Littlejohn, said that he had seen some indians lurking in the woods.  At that time, it was not uncommon for children to be kidnapped by indian tribes. Many people were convinced that the little girl had been abdicted by native americans and spirited away. 

However, the mother never gave up hope and regularly roamed the woods at night, looking for her missing child.  Night after night, the desperate mother could be heard, making her way through the trees and calling out for her daughter.  Her father sold the farm and used the money to search for Lucy. 

No one ever solved the mystery of what happened to Lucy Keyes.  No blood, tracks or clothing of the missing girl was ever found.  Overwhelmed by grief, Martha Keyes began to loose her sanity.  She died in 1786, never knowing what happened to her daughter.

After the deaths of Lucy's parents, a strange incident came to light.  A group of traders who were traveling in Canada came across an Indian tribe who had a white women with them.  The woman spoke no English and had no idea where she was born or how she came to be with the tribe.  The only English words she knew were "Chusetts Hill". 

Years later Tilly Littlejohn, the neighbour who claimed he saw indians in the woods, was on his deathbed. He told his family that he had something to confess to before he died.  He said that years before, he had committed a terrible murder. 

He had been involved in a disagreement with Robert Keyes over a property dispute.  He also resented the happiness of the Keyes family.  One day, he spotted Lucy wandering in the woods all alone.  Filled with anger and hatred, he grabbed the little girl and beat her head against a rock several times until she was dead. 

Then, the evil man set about concealing her body.  He stuffed her into a hollow log and went home.  That evening, he joined a search party that was looking for her.  As they combed the woods, he became nervous and feared that they would stumble on the hollow log and discover Lucy's body.

That night, Littlejohn went out into the woods and dragged her body out of the log. He buried her in a hole and covered it with stones and dead leaves.  To shift attention away from himself, he invented a story about Lucy being taken by Indians. 

Not long after his confession, Littlejohn died. He was never brought to justice for his crime. 

Ever since then, it is believed that the ghosts of Lucy and her mother Martha, haunt Wachusett Mountain. Many people claim they have heard the voice of a women calling out, "Lucy!  Luuuuuuuucy!" as she wanders the mountain.  Once, after a fresh snowfall, a hunter came upon the tracks of a small child's bare footprints in the snow. 

In 2006, the Lifetime Network made a movie about this ghost story called The Legend of Lucy Keyes.  The directors even reported strange noises, equipment malfunctions and abrupt weather changes while filming on location at the family's farm in Princeton, Massachusets.  Some say it was the spirit of Martha Keyes, making sure the family's story was correct. 

News Update

Just to update everyone on a few things:

• Northern Paranormal Investigations is now a TAPS Family Member.  We look forward to the new adventures, new friends, new ideas, etc. that this will bring.  Please feel free to check out the TAPS Family website here.
 

 
• NPI has been very busy with cases at historic locations throughout BC with more to come, and I look forward to sharing more detail as we are allowed.

• The other weekend, I went along with Peter and another member from Vancouver Paranormal Society, also joined by Cathy from Edmonton Paranormal Society (both fellow TAPS Family Member Teams) to the Maritime Museum in Victoria. Vancouver Paranormal Society had set up a wonderful private investigation at this location and we are much appreciative for the invite. Many thanks to Christina at the museum for hosting us that night. It was of course, an epic night. And again, thank you Peter! 

• We are in the beginning stages of getting ready for COLDCON in November, so please keep an eye out for more information on that.

• We are also in the beginning stages of some Halloween presentations we will be doing at an as-yet undisclosed location.  We will provide more information as soon as we can.

I think that covers most of it for now, if not...you shall see my typing soon enough. 

Happy Haunts!

Nikki
Co-Founder/Case Manager

Historic Investigation - July 19, 2014

Well, getting all our gear ready for tonight's investigation.  This will be the first time this historic location is investigated for paranormal occurrences.  We might get nothing, or we might capture some pieces of history. 

 

This location is large and the history behind it is so interesting.  At this time we can't share the details/location/history etc., but hope to be able to do so in a few months.

 

I purchased some new equipment recently and had great success with it at the last investigation I was at (will post about that one soon).  I can't wait to try it out again tonight, if the atmosphere allows it.  Sometimes, certain types of equipment just aren't able to be used in certain locations.  For example, if you investigation a location that has high EMF due to the make-up of the place (equipment, wiring, compounds etc), then an EMF meter/detector/trigger object/etc. will be completely useless and other equipment will need to be used instead.

 

I will also update in a couple days how our investigation went, even if nothing happens.  So stay tuned for that and other news/happenings/ramblings. 

 

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

 

Nikki Peterson

Co-Founder/Case Manager

Northern Paranormal Investigations

TAPS Family Member - Victoria

CANADA DAY FESTIVITIES!

COME CELEBRATE CANADA's 147th BIRTHDAY AT TOWN CENTRE PARK

 

Visit Northern Paranormal Investigations on Tuesday July 1, anytime between Noon and 8:00PM, admission is free!

 

Checkout the following website for more information, location, map, direction: http://coquitlam.ca/parks-recreation-and-culture/arts-and-culture/special-events-calendar/canada-day.aspx

 

Our team will be located in the Onni Community Village, and we will have new EVP on display to listen to, and a few photos/video to view.

 

Come by and tell us your own haunting stories, we would love to hear them!

 

This will also be a great time to book an investigation with us, if you are in need of one. 

 

See you all there!

 

 

 

Road Trip Investigation!

Last weekend, we travelled to Kamloops for a very interesting investigation.  For now, the location is a secret but hopefully in time we will be allowed to share. 

 

Kamloops welcomed us with open arms, and it was such a treasure to be there.  Of course, as soon as we arrived, it was off to Tranquille (and boy did we take the scenic route and almost end up in a movie!) Anyways, who goes to Kamloops looking for ghosts and doesn't stop there?  For those who do not know about Tranquille, here are a couple great sites to peruse:

http://www.we-love-kamloops.com/2011/04/tranquille-sanatarium-kamloops-bc.html

and http://blog.jordankeats.com/history-of-tranquille/. 

 

Here is a site that has AMAZING photos:

http://www.pbase.com/readschaad/tranquille. 

 

Here are a couple photos I took while there (mobile phone, bad quality photos, etc etc)!   (the post continues after the photos)....

 

 

 

 
 

Anyways, after our walk down the road between Tranquille Sanatorium site and the river (always making sure we were in the areas allowed, never trespassing), we headed back to the hotel for some ghost talk amongst our team and guest investigators from Coldspotters (thanks Calvin, Amanda and Marlene for joining us).  Much fun was had, and it was time to rest up for our big day. 

 

Next day. We wake, run around town exploring, get ready for the investigation, head to site and BOOM! Action starts. We set up our equipment, we do all our base readings and base photos.  We get the complete tour done.  We hear stories, experiences. We are......drawn in. 

 

Time to start!   What the heck was that we saw on the DVR screen?  (DVR - Security cameras we have set up in various locations).  Wow...this is going to be an interesting night for sure.   We are super excited, curious and maybe a little apprehensive, but we set off on our first round of EVP sessions.  

 

We ended up doing many EVP sessions, and after a lot of us having minor personal experiences I know that I at least am excited to delve into the  40+ hours of audio, video and photo to review.  Good times indeed, but if we can find something to take back to the Client, then it will have been more than worth it.  The experience was once in a life time, and while it was hard emotionally, if we can do something good and bring something to the Client then it was more than worth it.  This is why we do what we do.  I wish I could share more about it all, but for now, must remain silent due to confidentiality agreements.

 

If/when we are able to share anything we might have found EVP/Photo/Video-wise, we will.  We are also hoping to get back up to that area again sooner rather than later for more investigations in Kamloops, but we are so busy for the next....many many months, so hopefully we can return to Kamloops for multiple investigations next summer. 

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful night, enjoy the full moon and a beautiful loving weekend.

 

Nikki

Co-Founder/Case Manager

BCIT Radio Station Interview

Check out the latest interview between NPI's Founder Darryl Pearson and BCIT's Dakota Miller:

BCIT Radio Station Interview

Mandy, The Haunted Doll

Mandy, The Haunted Doll

Mandy, who now resides at the Quesnel Museum, is a girl you will never forget meeting.

Just to look at her—all you see is a pretty doll that has been around for about ninety years and looks it. When she was first donated to the museum in 1991, she was dirty, ripped and cracked.

There are people out there who say that Mandy has unusual powers. Her donor claims she would wake at night to hear a baby crying in the basement, but when she would go down to look, only an open window with its curtain blowing in the breeze would be found.

Now that she was residing at the museum, staff and volunteers there started experiencing weird and unexplainable events; lunches would disappear from the refrigerator, only to later be found put away in a drawer; footsteps would be heard when there was no one around; various objects in the museum would go missing, either forever—or to be later discovered in some random spot. Most people working at the museum just thought everyone was being a little absentminded.

When Mandy was first displayed in the museum, she did not have a “home” there yet. In the beginning, she sat facing the public entrance, where people would talk about her and the way she looked so cracked, broken and sinister. But eventually she was moved to another part of the museum.

Mandy was placed by herself in another part of the museum, away from other dolls, because she would apparently harm them. Since then, there have been many stories making their way around about Mandy.

One visitor was videotaping Mandy when their camera’s light started going off and on every 5 seconds. As soon as that visitor went to another exhibit, the light on the video camera stayed on. Some visitors claim that they can see Mandy’s eyes follow them around the room, while others say they have seen her eyes blink.

If you think that there is anything paranormal about Mandy, go visit her at the Quesnel Museum, BC or look her story up online.

Robert The Doll

Photo by: Susan Smith

Robert currently lives at the Fort East Martello Museum and Gardens, in Key West Florida.  Here is his story as posted in the museum:

ROBERT THE DOLL

 

 

For over 100 years, Robert has been blamed

 for every type of misconduct.

 

There are many theories about why Robert behaves the way he does.

Some say it is voodoo.

Some say that it is an ancient curse.

Still others insist that Gene Otto's ghost has returned to the doll

he loved so much. Or that is has something to do with the fact

that the house at 534 Eaton Street was already haunted

before Gene and Robert shared it until Gene's death in 1974.

 

In 1903, Robert was given to the four-year old Gene Otto.

As Gene grew up he blamed everything bad on Robert;

every type of misdeed, treachery and mischief.

 

By the time that Gene was married and a successful artist,

Robert had taken the blame for a lifetime of error, sin and folly.

By then Robert's face had changed and his eyes became more

changeable and expressive. For years, Robert has been seen

and heard moving around: shifting positions and even

giggling behind people's back. Although well worn,

Robert has not mellowed with age. Even the fort cats

keep their distance while staring at him.

 

It used to be that people just talked about Robert's shenanigans.

But these days they have been sending more and more cards and

letters... some to apologize and some demand apologies.

Robert seldom replies, but he does like keeping his fan mail.

 

If you should notice lots of things going wrong,

just "blame it on Robert."

 

 

 

Now, I would never personally blame a doll that had nothing to do with actions in my life, but to each their own I guess. 
 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

 

Robert, otherwise known as Robert the Doll, Robert the Haunted Doll, or Robert the Enchanted Doll; is a doll that was once owned by Key West painter and author Robert Eugene Otto. The doll is said to be possessed by evil spirits, and has a terrifying reputation.

The doll, which is supposedly cursed, has become a fixture of ghost tours in the Key West area since it was inducted into the Fort East Martello Museum. Aesthetically, Robert resembles an early 20th-century American Naval officer. Contrary to popular belief, however, the doll's hair is not made of human hair, but rather, it consists of a synthetic material resembling wool yarn.

Eugene was given the doll in 1906 by a Bahamian servant who was skilled in black magic and voodoo and was displeased with the family. Soon afterward, it became clear that there was something eerie about the doll. Eugene's parents often heard him talking to the doll and that the doll spoke back. Although at first they assumed that Eugene was simply answering himself in a changed voice, they claimed to have later realized that the doll was actually speaking.

Neighbors claimed to have seen the doll moving from window to window when the family was out. Sometimes the doll would emit a terrifying giggle, and the Otto family caught glimpses of it running from room to room. In the night Eugene would scream, and when his parents ran to the room, they would find furniture knocked over and Eugene in bed, looking incredibly scared, telling them that "Robert did it!". In addition, guests claim to have seen Robert's expression change before their eyes and he often blinked.

When Eugene died in 1974, the doll was left in the attic until the house was bought again. The new family included a ten-year old girl, who became Robert's new owner. It was not long before the girl began screaming out in the night, claiming that Robert moved about the room and even attempted to attack her on multiple occasions. More than thirty years later, she still tells interviewers that the doll was alive and wanted to kill her.

The doll is annually rotated to the Old Post Office and Customhouse in October. Strange activity in the museum supposedly increases during such times.

The doll made an appearance at Taps CON, a paranormal convention held in Clearwater, Florida in May 2008. This was the first time that it had left Key West, Florida in its then-104 years of existence.

The doll served as an inspiration for the Chucky doll in the Child's Play film franchise.



....so, who wants to visit Robert?


~Nikki





Hello!

Sorry it has been awhile since the last post, it has been a crazy hectic year so far. 
Sadly, one of our investigators Lisa had to take a leave of absence while she goes off to Fort Mac to work.  We are going to miss Lisa terribly. 
We have since welcomed to our team, Efren.  We are looking forward to training him and working with him.  Our team continues to grow in so many ways.

Lately, we have been pretty bogged down with investigations, BUT I have some great news to share.  NPI will be doing some more public events come this October, so please keep an eye out for news on that front.

At the moment, we are gearing up for another hectic residential investigation involving multiple units, our yearly Canada Day Celebration Event in Coquitlam, investigations for our events in October, and an out of town investigation we are hugely looking forward to. 

I will try and update more often, we have so much we want to share with you all. 

Take care and be well.

~Nikki

MEET & GREET with Northern Paranormal Investigations

Come join us on Saturday March 8, 6PM for another fun filled meet & greet!  Check out the details on Meetup.com.  Please note that sign-up HAS to be done through the meetup website, link below.

http://www.meetup.com/Northern-Paranormal-Investigations/events/167456302/

Space is limited, so hurry and grab your spot!

See you there!

Nikki Peterson
Co-Founder/Case Manager
Northern Paranormal Investigations

UPDATE!  We are going to be holding a raffle draw at the meetup, winning ticket holder will be joining NPI on an investigation Saturday night, March 15th.  Please note that the winner will have to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to attend the investigation.

CUBAN CEMETERIES, WHAT I LEARNT TODAY...

First I must apologise for not posting sooner.  I guess we all got caught up in the holidays and life and all that fun stuff.  Now we are back at it with gusto!

 

So, I was talking to a co-worker today and was told about their trip to Cuba, and one of the cemeteries they visited, including the storage for bones.  I have been completely unaware of the way they deal with burials/remains there.  So if you already know about it, please bear with me.  Also, my knowledge on this subject is very basic, forgive me.

 

From what I understand, after a quick funeral service, the body is taken to the cemetery where the lid to the tomb is pried off, and the body is laid to rest.  If the tomb is public, the body will get unburied after two years, a private tomb, the occupant can stay longer, unless needed by a relative.  The remains are then put in either a mausoleum, or there will be a building on the property in which the remains are stored openly on shelves, some in open wooden cabinets on top of the tombs, piling up, or some just piled openly in a certain spot. Each cemetery seems to have a different way of keeping the remains that were unburied (by then, bones ...I hope?  I don't know how long total decomp takes). 

 

(Boneyard - Colon Cemetery - Havana)

 

I have heard visiting these places are pretty emotional and described by some as "haunting".  I am left to wonder if there are any spirits remaining, not moving on from their bodies for some reasons.  Maybe one day I can go visit and perhaps find out for myself. 

 

If you have visited one of these cemeteries and had something happen to you there (paranormal in nature), or any cemetery for that matter, please feel free to share your story with us.  Email 

npi.bc.ca@gmail.com.  If appropriate, we will post your story, with your name kept confidential, unless you want to be named. 

Thanks, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Nikki
Co-Founder / Case Manager
Northern Paranormal Investigations