October 6, 2016 - Three locations - Salem Mass.
Salem Witch Memorial Garden, Old Firehouse basement and Hawthorne Hotel

We arrived in Salem and secured our suite at none other than the Historic Hawthorne Hotel. This location is said to be haunted, and most rooms on the third and sixth floors have had reports of some form of activity or another. Many claim to have seen the spectral image of hands reaching out for them while others have seen the spirit of a child crying. On our floor, a nearly transparent women has been seen roaming the halls and visiting people in their rooms. As we checked in, one of the Hawthorne's customer service reps noticed the Ouija board jetting out of my overnight bag, and let us know that we should expect to have an exciting evening! She mentioned that the night before our stay, they received comments from the previous guests of Room #612 on the noises and voices they had heard inside the room, and sounds of water running from the bathroom directly in front of the master suite! We grabbed our electronic keys to the same room and danced our way toward the magnificent old elevator. Which reminded me of something you would have seen in the “Gold Room” from the movie, The Shining! Unfortunately the door to our room did not open with a slow painful squeak as I had imagined it would. Instead it opened with ease.

We entered the calm, two room apartment, noticing how the suite was so inviting and relaxing. I would like to say now that we immediately started unpacking, however the bed looked way too cozy to just ignore it, so we took a short cat nap first! We ended up staying in Salem the night of their kickoff October celebration which begins with a huge parade. We were able to easily make our way through the crowds and watch for a while before heading back to our lovely little suite which had a killer view of the parade as well! Before our investigation fully began inside the Hawthorne we headed out into Salem just around 11pm to visit the Witch Trial Memorial Gardens. At this time, there were about 4 or 5 couples still perusing the grounds. Though I couldn't tell you if they were partygoers, residents, or just kids hanging out, they left us completely alone to do our own thing. I would like to think that anyone still out at the oldest cemetery in Salem and the Witch Memorial Gardens at that time of night has probably already seen a ghost hunter or two anyway.

We made our way around the gardens several times using a variety of equipment and received a few positive readings on both the K2 and Mel-meter. For a while, the activity seemed to be centered directly over the stone carved with Rebecca Nurse’s name in it. We documented the things we felt and witnessed and then moved on through the dimly lit streets of Salem. Passing by an old church with a small attached cemetery on the corner, I was caught completely off guard by a man dressed as a clown who was hanging out of the window of a speeding Suburban. You have to understand, going out and chasing after evidence to prove the existence of spirits sometimes lands you in some very unique situations. I'll be the first to admit, just because I am out there looking for the paranormal does not and will never prepare me for dealing with the weird things that the living do. So I screamed loudly, and he laughed, honking his large red and yellow horn a few times and then the Suburban sped off into the night...

We entered into the Old Salem Firehouse which is now mostly used for business offices. However the basement is where the majority of activity has been reported and has mostly remained in its original form. As we entered into the completely black hallway it felt as if the air shifted. Almost like something or someone was rushing to move away from us. We stopped at the stairwell and introduced ourselves before heading down into the basement where I noticed that the feeling was much lighter, and how that seemed odd for a dark, damp basement. I wondered if our arrival had actually moved the energy upstairs instead of downstairs where we would be investigating. Even though we were told that the crumbling unfinished crawl space underneath the building was thought to be the favorite hiding spot for particular spirits, tonight for us anyway, it seemed that the they were not interested in the routine.

We continued to search throughout the basement and while the area seemed to be pretty calm, there were times when we had feelings of something brushing against us. We noted feeling as if a hand had lightly swiped across our back and shoulders and again on the legs. Maybe something was there after all, and wanted us to know that they just weren’t really interested in participating in an investigation unless it was on their terms. As time went on, the activity that seemed to come in spurts suddenly died down. I felt that they were finished playing with us at this time and we left shortly thereafter. After yet another very strange run-in with the locals we finally made it back safe and sound inside the massive hotel. Beginning with the downstairs party rooms, we photographed as we moved through each of the exquisitely decorated rooms. Nothing was out of place, everything was set to perfection for whomever would be visiting the room the following day. We continued moving through each floor, and each banquet room that was available to us we explored. Unfortunately, the hotel was still open to the public and maintained a full staff that night so certain areas were off limits to us.

Back on the top floor with our suite, we lingered outside a while hoping to catch a glimpse of the weeping lady said to appear aimlessly roaming the hallway. We did not see the spectral lady this time, so we made our way back inside our room. We were startled to find that the floor immediately inside the hearth was wet. Soaking wet, as if someone had spilled a large vase of water there recently. We had not been in the room in hours, though this was so noticeable that we would have remembered making such a mess. By the way, we are both moms. Spills are something that we recognize! We could not explain how or why this happened, only that it was not there when we left, but now it was there. Also in case you’re thinking it might have been a leak, we checked into every possibility and still turned up empty handed. This one was a new one for us. Throughout the night we heard a few strange noises. And at times it seemed as if someone could have been shuffling through our room, or even in the sitting room. But the trouble with investigating in a hotel that is still open to other guests is that it’s very difficult to pinpoint the noises heard and actually deem them as being paranormal. We try very hard to not remove all outside interference, but given that it was October, and we were in Salem Massachusetts, we were very lucky to have had this opportunity to investigate the hotel under these circumstances.