Ghostbusters at the Old Historical City Cemetery - Sacramento

It's April 7, 2007, Saturday. The time is 10:00 a.m. H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California take claim to this cemetery on this day for about a couple of hours! On this sort of cloudy gloomy day, H.P.I. Paranormal Investigators entered the main gate of this old historical cemetery on Broadway in downtown Sacramento. We have a good turn-out, the investigators are: Shannon McCabe/President/Lead Investigator; Tim Hawkins; Wendy Smith (Shannon's mom); Carol Gillis; John Wachter aka Vlawde/Lead Investigator; Kristen Sheley/Researcher; Paul Dale Roberts/Ghost Writer; Julie English; Cherie Vincente; Jennifer Baca; Anusha Wickramasinghe; Michelle Paykel; Emily McCarthy; Dandamudi Veerendranadh aka Vee.

There is a historian at this outing and he relates all kinds of historical information about this cemetery, which can be found at this site: http://www.oldcitycemetery.com/ I will give you a quick history lesson. The cemetery was established in 1849 and some of the people that are buried at this cemetery died in the 1850 Cholera Epidemic outbreak. We noted many graves are marked by the secretive organization known as the Freemasons. I'm a Rosicrucian (A.M.O.R.C. Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosae Crucis) - Key Number 5000030 - Member since 2001, so of course I took interest to this. One tombstone reads: The Founder of the Order of the Native Sons of the Golden West - General A.M. Winn Born: 4/27/1810 - Died: 8/26/1883. The Sutter family is buried at this historical cemetery also.

This is the 3rd time I have been to this cemetery. The first time was when I went on the Halloween Twilight Tour with a psychic. The psychic saw many entities near and around the cemetery. She told the group that there was 3 women by a tree and that if we placed our hands into the area where the ghostly women were, we would be able to feel something. So I tried it and I felt a rubbing movement on my hand. My son Jason and ex-wife Patricia tried placing their hands in the same area and they felt a coldness. The second time I went to this cemetery was with my black Chow T-Rex and my Jack Russell Terrier Pika. Pika came to an area of the cemetery and was barking like crazy, he wouldn't stop. He was barking at plain air, while T-Rex laid down and ignored the barking. I believe Pika may be an intuitive.

Well, here I am again, my 3rd time around, this time with H.P.I. Since it's daytime, I figured we were not going to encounter any ghosts. So I decided to ask some of the investigators their experiences with the paranormal. Here is what some of them had to say.

Cherie Vincente: One time she did an investigation at Mt. Vernon Cemetery and was using her EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) monitor to see if she could pick up ghostly voices. She felt like an entity followed her home. The entity actually touched her on the neck. Her second encounter was because a woman died of a drug overdose behind her home. Because of her size, they had a hard time getting her out of the house. She had been dead for 3 days in her home. After the woman died, Cherie saw a clear shimmering image and her TV would go into static mode. Could this been the dead woman who died in the home behind her house?

Jennifer Baca: "When I lived in Michigan, my ex-sister-in-law and I did a seance and I felt like we summoned a spirit guide named 'White Feather', an Indian woman. Once when I was taking a nap, I felt a brushing against my hair. This happened to me twice."

Tim Hawkins: "When I lived in Carmichael, California, I lived with a ghost, that I called 'Melvin'. Melvin would visit my house guests. He would open the door and check on my guests. Once he threw a picture. I once heard crying in another room and there was no one there. There was this strange column of odor, that smelled like a burning smell, it moved around the house, I chased the column of odor around the house until it dissipated. Sometimes there were missing objects in the house."

Anusha Wickramasinghe: "While in Sri Lanka, I always felt presences in my home. I am a Buddhist and we have strong beliefs in reincarnation. I am considered a 'sensitive', because I can feel certain things. When I was at Mather A.F.B., I once felt a spirit walking behind me, I heard a spirit's voice call my name. My mother at Mather A.F.B. once saw a man in white and the ghostly entity walked away. When my mother went to investigate, there was nothing there."

Michelle Paykel: "When I was 8 years old, my grandpa died. I felt like my grandpa would check on me and my sister. There was once a glowing figure at the door, this occurred after he had died. This happened in Carmichael. My daughter saw my father's ghost sitting on the front porch, she was 2 years old at the time."

John Wachter aka Vlawde: "When I was young, from age 4 to age 7, I would hear my name called out. I would see if my parents were calling me, but it wasn't them. When I got older, the name calling stopped."

Kristen Sheley: "When I lived in Oregon, I played around with an Ouija Board. I asked for the entity to make his or her presence known and the smoke detector went off. Never played with an Ouija Board again."

Emily McCarthy: "When I was in high school, my sister and I lived in a house in East Sacramento, somewhere by 40th and R Street. The house, a small brick house was built in the 1920s or 1930s. The doorbell of this home would ring on its own. Sometimes there were knockings on the door and no one was there. My mother saw a woman in a nightgown and she thought it was me. She actually saw a ghostly woman's figure in a nightgown. Sometimes in this house, the lights went on and off on it's own accord. We lived in this house in 1999 to the year 2000. When my sister told her teacher about this house, the teacher was familiar with the stories of this haunted home."

Paul Dale Roberts: Well, let me put my two cents in. When I lived in San Bruno, I heard stories about the Daly City Cemetery. I have been to this cemetery and I never witnessed anything. But, this cemetery was legendary. There were many graverobbings, because grave robbers would steal the jewelry from the graves. The Chinese have a tendency of placing valuable jewelry and money into the graves of their loved ones. People saw ball lightning flying around the tombstones. Legend has it two lovers parked their car and a blue glowing disc landed in the graveyard and the boyfriend went to investigate and never came back. The girl got into the driver's side of the vehicle and drove like crazy to get out of the graveyard and she claimed a Bigfoot creature jumped from the gated arch onto the hood of her boyfriend's car. Legend has it that the girl was last known to be in a mental ward in Napa. Her boyfriend was never seen again and the police thought the girl had murdered her boyfriend and did not believe her lunatic ramblings. So the story goes...

We had a meeting at The Old City Cemetery and Shannon related about the upcoming Northern California Paranormal Conference that will be held at the Brookdale Lodge in Brookdale, California. Special guest is psychic Nancy Bradley.

Shannon discussed the soon-to-be-released H.P.I. comic book. H.P.I. Meets Dracula. Artist is Mike Henderson (former founder of H.P.I.), writer is Paul Dale Roberts and Letterer is Warren Montgomery (former letterer of the comic book Razor). John Wachter aka Vlawde has created a H.P.I. radio site, various H.P.I. members can host the show or be guests on the show and may discuss their paranormal experiences. Tim Hawkins talked about a possible field trip investigation on the U.S.S. Hornet. Shannon elaborated that maybe sometime in the future we can go out-of-state for an investigation. Places that people mentioned that we could investigate was the Bell Witch Haunting in Tennessee, Elvis Presley Mansion, New Orleans. Kristen Sheley said 'let's take it further, let's go overseas, like England!' A note to Kristen, Carol Gillis and I have both been to the Tower of London, one of the most haunted places in London! Another eerie place in England that I personally visited was Stonehenge. England is overrun by ghosts! But, that's my thoughts on the matter!

Now as we were all leaving the cemetery, we were missing one investigator. Some of us were concerned. Did this investigator meet up with some unknown force? Was she consumed by a portal that took her into an unearthly dimensional realm? Was she being held captive at a mausoleum by the undead? Did we need to do a search and rescue for this investigator? The investigator Julie English wasn't missing at all. She was riding around in a motorized Sheriff cart with her arm around the deputy. That Julie, she's a real card! Geesh! For more about H.P.I. check out their web site at:

www.HPIparanormal.net

Paul Dale Roberts, Freelance Writer

www.jazmaonline.com

5606 Moonlight Way

Elk Grove, CA 95758

JazmaPika@cs.com

916 203 7503