Local Paranormal Team Claims It Caught Photo of Ghost

[PPI Brian]

Found this story on the Anomalist and thought it was worth sharing with our PPI forum family:

(Springfield, MO) -- The Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team has explored some of the areas most haunted homes.
Their skeptical team members always take hundreds of pictures in the dark.

But their most recent trip brought back a shocking image that is making believers out of the biggest of skeptics.

"The first thing I want to do is disprove it." says Robert McCall, skeptic and co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team.*

Robert spends a lot of time disproving apparent haunting in the region.   "A lot of times people think there is a presence in the room and it turns out the room is where the breaker box is.  Or your meters on the outside of the wall and there is a lot of energy there.  Sometimes people think they are hearing things and it turns out they are just hearing things."

But something that happened during his latest ghost hunt left Robert with no explanation.  A family in north Springfield contacted the group because of some odd things that were happening.

"All the lights were shut off and the doors were locked," says Robert.  " I came around to lock up the front door and as soon as I turned the corner I heard a growling disturbance on my EVP and seen something darker then dark move around in the hallway so I just started taking pictures of a completely dark hallway with nobody there."

There was no one in the hallway but something else showed up on camera.
"When I first seen the picture, I saw a reaper," says McCall.  "Typical of what you would think."  Now it almost looks like a mother and child."

"First I thought that maybe he took a picture of himself in the mirror," says Courtney Cunningham, co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team.  "But when we switched it to black and white and filtered out some of the contrast I was terrified.  And I was a huge disbeliever at first that picture changed my mind."

And now this team of skeptical ghost hunters has a few less skeptics.

"Ghosts are real - ghosts are very real," says Courtney.  "You just got to believe in something bigger then yourself."

Robert says the photo has been sent off to a paranormal investigative organization in the St. Louis area for authentication.

In the meantime, if you are interested in the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team, check out their Facebook page.

(*Note - The Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team is not affiliated with another local group called Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigations. This story includes a corrected web link to the Team's Facebook page)

(After this story originally ran it was discovered another ghost hunting team operated under the same name. Subsequently, the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team changed their name to the Panther Creek Paranormal Investigations.)

Here's a link to the story:
http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=500207

And here's the image in question:

[PPI Tracy]

Interesting.  Thanks for sharing this, Brian.

He said he "heard a growling disturbance on my EVP."  If he heard it outright, it would be an AVP. (I'm assuming this wasn't after he listened to his audio, but while he was actually at the investigation, as it took place).  If this was an AVP, I wonder if it was captured on his voice recorder.   He should post the audio, since he's already posted the pic.

Update:  Well, this is a bummer if it's true.  Below the story are two comments to go along with it............

From:
Amity Sturgeon 2011-08-05 22:49
Robert you're the biggest joke out there. If you're going to get on public television and tell your story on that picture you might want to tell them the same story you told us. Remember how when you told the story to us you said that Jon and his fiance were at the apartment with you and that the bathroom light was on too.. I don't remember you telling them that part of the story. You got fascination out of scaring the poor woman out of her own apartment and you're going to give other paranormal groups in Springfield a terrible name. If you're going to lie on public television make sure that the group that came into the apartment after the picture was taken and proved it was fake doesn't find out that you're playing everyone.

From:
-1 #1 Mikal Mullaly 2011-08-05 17:43
That "reaper" or whatver it is, is actually a ghost capture app that you can download...I pasted it on my facebook page if you want to have a look. Nice try though. The skull and the baby were a a really nice touch.



Oops..... I see damage control in this group's future   (OMPIT's) 

[PPI Debra]

The deception rate is so high in paranormal research. (source The Trickster and the Paranormal, by Hansen)
Same with the UFO community.

Makes me nuts.

[PPI Tim]

Oh well, I guess you can call this one DE-Bunked. I say debunked because after all the new information revealed, this guy went from paranormal investigator to paranormal entertainer.

[PPI Tracy]

Oh well, I guess you can call this one DE-Bunked. I say debunked because after all the new information revealed, this guy went from paranormal investigator to paranormal entertainer.

Hey, you just made me think of a phrase we can coin as our own when we debunk something online. "E-Bunked"!  Ha!  Love it.