Supplemental Investigation Report
Mississippi Belle
Submitted by Erin
This investigation was very much looked forward to as our first joint investigation with another team. IPRA came up from Iowa to join us in this investigation of the Belle and it was our pleasure to have them along. I knew in advance it would be hectic, and it was!
After introductions in the banquet room shortly after 9 P.M. both teams began setting up equipment. Our team had an investigation plan, which we tried to stick to as best we could as the night progressed.
Office/Boiler Room Area:
Rich and I teamed up and went down to the office first. We chatted with Jeanette from IPRA there for a bit as she was setting up some of their audio equipment down there. Josh showed up with the camera to document anything that was going on, which there wasn’t much of at that point, but we all heard some interesting noises coming from the hallway leading to the boiler room. In the boiler room we noticed that one window was open letting in freezing cold air in and with the heat from the boiler, it was making quite a mist and frost was forming around the edges of the window, much like you’d find in an older home freezer. The boiler itself, along with the pipes leading from it made an assortment of strange noises so it was difficult to tell if there was anything odd going on or not. Basically, we found the office/boiler room area void of anything of interest to us after being down there for a little over an hour.
Banquet Room:
After taking a short break we followed our plan to sit up in the banquet room for a while. As cars came across the bridge strange lights would dance across the south wall of the banquet room, but that was definitely the light coming in from the window area on the north wall. I didn’t necessarily feel anything in this area this time whatsoever. Andrea came up after a bit and tried using the dowsing rods in the center of the room. Nothing was noticeably responded to when she was working with the rods. Judy had come up and Juli as well with Kevin. Judy was checking out a cell sensor and Juli took over with the dowsing rods at that point. Judy asked me if I’d like to try one more time down in the office/boiler room.
Office/Boiler Room (part two):
We headed back down to the boiler room, made sure the light was off and closed the door down there as best we could. Although I certainly felt the presence of a male in there, he didn’t seem to want to communicate with us at all. A few odd noises were noticed, that couldn’t necessarily be contributed to the actual boiler or the workings of it, so it may have been an attempt, but unclear about that. I felt a poking at the front part of my right arm near my shoulder and then it was almost as if the pressure of a single finger sat there for a bit. Judy didn’t have a camera however, and when she thought to ask for mine, the sensation stopped. It did happen one more time however very, very slightly.
We went down to the office where Jacqui was sitting wrapping up the audio equipment that her team had placed there earlier. Just before she headed upstairs I pointed out some photos that had been taken of the Belle at the time it was The Corner Bar. Judy was standing in the hallway when I thought I had seen something brush past her and she reported that she felt something brush by. Then we went upstairs to the dining room.
At this point, Jacqui asked Judy and I to take part in one of her team’s experiments. She asked me to select a photo from the few that I had showed her in the office so I went down and picked the one with three photos of the Corner Bar times on it. I brought it up and was instructed by Jacqui to set it on a table in the center. She then had Judy, Hope (one of the owners), and I think it was Michelle from the IPRA team sit with our hands folded on top of the table. She asked us to concentrate on the photo, think of Hastings and the old times as she spoke of it all. Soon she asked me to take over speaking and all I could think of was William and Mahala Felton and how this new place (the Belle) was situated where their first little hospitality hostel, The Buckhorn once stood. So I rattled on about that for a bit and soon Jacqui wanted to relocate us along with the photo to the south basement/wine cellar. We went down there and I brought the photograph. I’m not sure how many people were down in that cellar, but the focus of attention was around IPRA team member, Eric, who was holding a blinking EMF meter and rapidly firing questions and demands towards whatever it was making the meter blink. It seemed the meter would blink and stop on demand. Someone shoved a video camera into my hand and I couldn’t get close enough to actually video the meter at all so I tried to focus on faces and human reaction to a seemingly non-living human interaction. I had feeling of extreme confusion, which weren’t my own feelings, but rather those of whatever entities were possibly down there. That this was too much, and too fast. I got the feeling of extreme frustration, that questions could be answered if given time and some space as well, neither of which was being afforded. I was glad when this was over.
North Basement:
After this, Judy and I had originally intended prior to the “experiment” to check out the north basement area so we headed down there. Reports from Tim and Josh were that things were happening down there and I wanted to experience something that night! So down we went, including a slight trip on the stairs on my part! Tim was down there and I stayed with him for a bit as Judy decided to leave and I can’t remember where she had said she was going. Tim and I were in the dish room when he started seeing something right in front of him. My camera didn’t want to work correctly at that point, but I did manage to get some shots in which nothing turned out. We experienced some lighting changes while down there, like an ensuing darkness was taking over the entire basement area. I felt as if we were not alone and again sensed a male presence, but not the same one as I sensed in the boiler room at all. We couldn’t get him to communicate in any way however and our time was coming to a close. Some members of the IPRA team came down to collect their equipment, and uh….we just couldn’t help but not mention we were there until they noticed…..hee hee! Ya know, sometimes you have to have a little fun on investigations!
We then collected our equipment and bid our good-byes to all around. It was nice to have the experience to do a joint investigation with IPRA. Their methods are a bit different from ours in that they seem to group together more-so and we spread ourselves out. I went into this expecting it to be hectic and it was as I had thought it would be! Overall though, I think it all went well for our first joint investigation.