A BPS member uses an infrared flashlight to label equipment before the investigation of Kindra Hill's house on April 12.
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BPS member Jodi McDullogh sits in the closet to sense a possible spirit.
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Before the BPS starts an investigation, they place digital recorders in all of the site's "hot spots."
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Denise Wilson, Jennifer Williams and Greer Keeve begin their group's investigation.
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Kindra Hill awoke one day to a young girl at the foot of the bed who she thought was her daughter.
The girl asked to play with the family dog outside, and in the typical haze that befalls everyone when they first pop into consciousness, Hill gave her the OK, forgetting that she didn't want the dog outside.
When she woke up, she realized what she had let the girl do, but when she reprimanded her daughter for taking advantage of her morning delirium, her daughter had no idea what she was talking about.
This was just the first of many strange occurrences in the Hill's household. According to her, the basement has been opening by itself and a can of coffee grounds was thrown across the kitchen.
"At first, you chalk it up to being alone," said Hill, but when several roommates began corroborating similar experiences, she made a call to the Bakersfield Paranormal Society, an organization that searches for evidence of paranormal activity in Kern County.
"Most calls we get from people are to make sure they're not nuts," said Bakersfield radio personality "The Real" Bruce Wayne, one of the founding members of the group and participant of paranormal investigations for the last 11 years. The BPS, which formed from a Web page on meetup.com, has been in existence since October of 2006.
When the BPS gets a call to investigate an area, they first research the history of the neighborhood and house before carrying out the investigation.
Hill theorizes that the young girl she saw at the foot of her bed may have been the ghost of Jeni Marie Klawitter, the 7-year-old girl who, along with Andrew Cole Le, died in an explosion on Aug. 29, 2006. Hill said that Klawitter, who lived in her neighborhood, liked to come over and play with her dog.
When the time comes to investigate, the BPS sets up digital recorders and infrared video cameras in what they deem paranormal "hot spots." Then all of the members are split up into separate groups, each group armed with its own digital recorder, a digital still camera, a temperature gauge and an electromagnetic force (EMF) meter. The temperature gauge is used to measure energy potentially absorbed by the spirit's presence, while the EMF meter measures spikes in electromagnetic frequency that may be caused by an apparition.
In a previous investigation on April 12, all of the power in the house was shut off to prevent bias in the EMF data caused by insulation and electrical wiring.
According to BPS head organizer Greer Keeve, while advanced equipment, like digital imaging cameras that cost about $20,000, can be used, "we use basic stuff because we've found it gets the best results."
The group looks for visual evidence of ghosts on their cameras, but most of the BPS' recorded activity comes via Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) caught on digital recorders. EVP is static noise that forms linguistic expressions on electronic recordings, expressions thought to come from spirits.
In order to elicit EVP, each group, when they enter the investigation site, will ask the potential spirits at the site questions, and then wait several seconds for a response. According to Keeve, knowing the history of the site will help to garner answers, and, as BPS member Louie put it, "At first, you feel like a tool [when asking questions], but if something pops in your head, say it." Louie requested his last name be omitted from publication in order to preserve his privacy.
According to BPS member Jody McDullogh, "The real thing is when you review the evidence." The week after every investigation, BPS members review all of the audio and video footage that has been collected to check for visual and EVP evidence. McDullogh said that the BPS has three classifications for EVP evidence: Class A EVP is clear and audible; Class B EVP is clear but not as easily understood as Class A; and Class C EVP is a potential response, but other conditions prevent it from being conclusive evidence.
In their April 19 review of the video evidence for the April 12 investigation of Hill's house, said Keeve, the BPS found an orb-shaped object floating in the air. When McDullogh was in the closet of the guest room during her investigation, she said that she felt something touching her arm, and in a photograph of McDullogh, Keeve said an orb-shaped object similar to the one seen in the video footage is visible. However, the orb is "questionable" to many of the other members, according to Keeve, because there is the potential that it could have just been a dust particle.
Keeve also mentioned that on the digital recorders from April 12, there is evidence of "big-band type" music at a time when no outside music was playing, and the voice of an old lady is distinctly heard saying "hello."
While the report the BPS will submit to Hill has not been formalized as of press time, the group has concluded that there was evidence of paranormal activity in the house and wants to conduct another investigation there in the future.
A selective organization
Denise Wilson and Jennifer Williams are the only two members to be added to the original BPS roster. Membership was only recently opened, and to even be considered for the BPS, one has to go through an exhaustive application and review process. New members have a six-month training period before they can participate in investigations. The April 12 investigation was the first one Wilson and Williams participated in with the BPS, although they had both been performed investigations privately. Wilson said that in her previous investigations, she had "a lot of personal experience, but not a lot of evidential experience" with paranormal activities, and that the investigation process is "so hit and miss."
Wayne, who was not in attendance for the April 12 investigation, always tells people going on their hunt that it is "a whole new experience," and added, "If we go on a hunt, [new members are] usually eager but trepidatious."
Many BPS members said that their interest in the paranormal developed out of the need to explain the unexplainable. "I saw something that didn't make sense, and when I couldn't figure it out, I had to look for alternatives," said Wilson. Keeve always felt touched by spirits growing up, so she "wanted to see what was out there and see if I was crazy."
Some members of the organization are actually skeptical as to the existence of ghosts and want to see if their assumptions are correct. Their input is necessary, said Keeve, because "you need balance. If everyone was a believer, you wouldn't find the evidence."
According to Wayne, the BPS has "a good track record" of finding activity at investigation sites, which have included homes, businesses, and even Clovis' famed Wolfe Manor, the subject of its own webcam show on the Internet. Seventy-five to 80 percent of the sites the BPS investigate yields evidence, said Keeve, although the group cannot explain exactly why.
People have the misconception that paranormal groups have the ability to "cleanse" a spirit from a house, said Keeve, adding that paranormal groups are only able to detect whether something's there.
"It's not our purpose to go in and bust ghosts," said Wayne.
According to Keeve, the BPS has leads on investigations for the next six months. Aside from another investigation of Hill's home, the BPS plans to investigate the Springville Inn and wants to go back to Wolfe Manor.
With regard to finding evidence of the dead, Wayne feels the BPS has its work cut out for it, as "there's a lot of dead people out there."
