Written by Paul Dale Roberts, H.P.I. Ghostwriter/Paranormal Investigator
You know, my life has become very surreal, I feel like I walk one half of my life in the paranormal and the other half in reality. What I am about to tell you, gave me chills up and down my spine. I will say, that I actually saw a ghost with my own naked eyes! But, let's start from the beginning. This was a very unusual weekend, to say the least. The date is Saturday, June 30, 2007. I was invited to Marysville by the soon-to-be paranormal investigation outfit called M.P.I. (Marysville Paranormal Investigations). Three women who are fascinated by the paranormal and are in the process of starting their very own paranormal investigation team. The team is made up of No Name #1, No Name #2 and her daughter, No Name #3. No Name #1 an avid reader of my paranormal articles contacted me and told me that she lives in an old Victorian home with No Name #3 and possibly this home is haunted. I was welcome to come up and spend the night. The home was built in the 1930s. Before I left for Marysville, I was mowing my lawn with the help of my neighbor Rukesh Kumar.
When I finished mowing my lawn, I got packed up and headed out, only to return to my home two more times, because I kept forgetting items that Imight need for a stay-over in Marysville. The third time I returned, I was walking out of my house and a car kept slowly going past my house. The driver kept staring at me. I looked at the driver and said..."can I help you?" The driver says..."are you Paul Dale Roberts?" With a quizzical look upon my face, I said.."yes." Come to find out, this guy, with three kids in his car has been reading my paranormal articles and he was in my city visiting his family, he is from Chico. He wanted to show his kids where a real ghost hunter lives. I thought to myself..."Oh, oh, I better not publish my address in my articles, now I am becoming a tourist attraction...yikes!" After talking with the driver for a while, I finally got in my vehicle and headed off for the final time towards Marysville and kept thinking..."I better not publish my address with my articles anymore, before I know it I will have some girl that I jilted back in my disco heydey stalking me." Thoughts of "Play Misty for Me" and "Basic Instinct" came to mind. Yep, my life has become surreal.
I arrive in Marysville and the house is like a mansion, it's very impressive. I meet No Name #1, #2 and #3. #1 prepares dinner for everyone, barbecue steak, tossed salad, baked potatoes, toasted French bread, watermelon, cantaloupe and we all eat on the balcony on this beautiful sunny day with the wind slightly blowing. #2, the manager of this home on in Marysville, tells me a story about the area that #1 lives in this mansion. At one time a tenant named D.H. lived there. She was in her 40s and was taking a lot of prescription drugs for her diabetes. Mixing alcohol with prescription drugs, lead to her death. One day she collapsed and she was found dead by her care provider. According to #2, she was a very sweet lady. D.H. enjoyed taking lots of baths, that is one of the ways she would pass time in this sleepy little town.
Before night would fall, #1 had to make a stop at the Western Union for her daughter and I drove her to the Western Union at K-Mart in Marysville. When leaving K-Mart, Marysville finest pulled me over. The officer looks at me and says..."Did you know you were doing 43 in a 25 mph residential area?" I looked at the officer and told him..."Sir, I really didn't realize I was speeding and haven't been pulled over by the police since 1979." He checks me out and lets me go, that was a close one. All of Marysville is residential and I am not used to driving that slow, so I let #1 drive my car...the Ghost Tracker.
As #1 was driving my car, I have a flashback to the day in 1979, when I was pulled over. I had just got dancing 8 1/2 days disco dancing with a 5 minute break on every hour. Yes, I danced 205 hours and made it in Ripley's Believe it or Not and leaving the marathon, I was fatigued. The officers thought I had been drinking. One of the officers said I looked familiar, I told the officer..."well, you probably have seen me on TV, I am the Disco King of Sacramento and I just got done dancing 205 hours. The officer said..."do some dance moves". So, here I am pulled over on a busy freeway and I turn up the music in my car and give the officers a dance show. The officer who asked me to dance, drops his flashlight and with his jaws agape says..."you can go". Yes, I know, I have lived a strange life. Now back to my scouting mission in Marysville.
The sun finally sets and it's dark. I bring out my digital camera and start snapping away. I take a lot of pictures and there are no orbs, no mist or anything. Then I take a picture of #3 and there is a clear orb over her head, I snap another one and the orb moves to another location, still close to #3.
More pictures and in one photo, on the left hand side is a red orb approaching #3 on top of the steps. I take the 2nd picture and this huge red orb has now engulfed #3. I snap another picture and the orb is gone. Taking pictures down the steps, there is a red orb moving up the steps.
Now, here is where things got weird. As #1, #2 and #3 analyze my photographs with amazement, I am looking up the stairs and I actually see a human figure shadow with distinct head and torso moving from #1's loft to #3's loft. There is no one in those lofts, they are standing with me! I ask #1, #2 and #3 if they saw the shadow and they didn't. That is so frustrating, because I have no witnesses and I saw this human shadow with my own eyes! The chills go up and down my spine and I am totally SHOCKED! I will place my hand on a stack of bibles and swear to what I saw. I would swear what I saw in a court of law. Just before I saw this human shaped shadow move across the entry way between the two lofts, I was telling #1, #2, #3 that I have never witnessed anything with my own eyes or ears. Of course, there was Friday night where I thought I heard an old man's voice in the Folsom cemetery, but I am unsure of what I heard. I have only seen orbs through photographs or video, never with my own eyes. This is the first time I have seen with my own eyes, a human shadow and there was no human to make that shadow. I was astounded!
#3 says that she feels like she is being watched constantly. She just has that feeling of being watched. While we were doing our investigation, we heard strange sounds coming out of the attic and #2 suggested 'bats', but was unsure. Later on this evening, we all piled up in #2's car and she showed me the haunted historical Forbes House, I snapped a few pictures through the windows and didn't get anything. While she drove us around, I checked out the photographs on my camera, and I had taken a lot of pictures of the big red orb, a medium sized crystal orb and a tiny orb, I call the 'baby orb'. In fact one picture the red orb engulfs the baby orb. We stopped over at #2's home. #2's home is quite old too and she had me snap some pictures in her home and I captured 3 orbs on her ceiling where the family sits and watches TV. All of her other rooms were orb free. Robin tells me that Marysville is an old town and her former H Street House was very haunted, that the light in the closet would go off and on. The door of this home would swing back and forth. One time #2 was looking for something and she said out loud..."where is it?" She heard a whisper, that replied "it wasn't me." #2 said that one day she saw what appeared to be a small bodied person kneeling down in her home and then it was gone.
#2 also told me another ghost story, that her mother's home in Live Oak was haunted. When all of her family were in bed, the TV came on and the whole house lit up for a few minutes. The lights in this home would flicker off and on and #2 thinks to this day, it was probably her deceased father. #2 said, that the next time I come up, she will show me some of the old....very old Marysville cemeteries that are reputed to be haunted. She feels Marysville is a paranormal hot zone. Lindsey was so excited after this investigation, she is purchasing her own digital audio recorder, digital camera to get M.P.I. started with her mother #1 and friend #1.
I spent the night in this old home and nothing occurred, or I was so out of it, I didn't realize anything occurred. I left on Sunday and zipped over to Vacaville to meet another one of my readers, her name is Eubecita J. Bell aka Bebe. She sat and told me that when her husband passed away, that she saw his image zip past her and one night, she felt his presence on her bed and he was touching and rubbing her leg. After interviewing Eubecita, she didn't have anything that I could investigate in the present. She had a long story about the ghost of her deceased husband, but it was only a story and nothing I could hold onto and investigate. I knew at this time, it was time to go back home and hopefully I will not have any more out of town visitors patrolling my neighborhood looking for a real ghost hunter to show their kids.
There was one more thing, I would like to mention about this Marysville home investigation. Whenever the red orb was around, I had a hard time snapping the photo, my new batteries drained completely in the presence of the red orb and I had to make a store run to get fresh batteries.