More often than not, investigators with the Haunted North Carolina team can explain away reports of the suspected paranormal with scientific reasons for the strange sights and sounds. On occasion, they can't.
That was the case after visiting the Webb Memorial Library and Civic Center in Morehead City, where an image recorded during their latest investigation caught their attention and generated the type of excitement that motivates them.
"I've had experiences where I've seen stuff, where I've seen shadows, seen images ... but there's no proof," said Waverly Hawthorne, an investigator with the Haunted North Carolina team for seven years. "Here's something to go with the story."
Members of Haunted North Carolina were invited to conduct an investigation at the Webb library as part of the weekend's Crystal Coast Book Festival.
As a scientifically based paranormal research and investigative team, the group goes into investigations armed with equipment ranging from electromagnetic field detectors and digital and audio equipment to capture sounds and images.
With baseline recordings taken to establish what is normal for a building, the investigators then watch for variances that they work to explain.
They were gathered in one room when static appeared on a monitor displaying images from a camera mounted at the south end of the library's first floor hallway.
In comparing pictures from the camera, there is at least one of the shots they can't explain. For a moment, they say, something blocked the source of the light.
Yet, the building was locked down, all investigators were in the same room at the time, the equipment was running properly, the overhead chandelier never went out and they could not re-create any other situation that could cause it.
"The lights never went out, the halo from the light is still there but all of a sudden the light source was not there," Hawthorne said.
Noel McCreath called the image an unusual find and the most significant one she has seen in her five years with Haunted North Carolina.
But as they presented their findings Saturday afternoon at the close of the book festival, McCreath said it's not their job to force their opinions on the public.
"Take it for what it is, but we can't tell you exactly what it is," she told the group that gathered at the train depot to hear the results.
Scientific evidence is what Haunted North Carolina is after as it investigates possible hauntings and related phenomena.
McCreath said that by ruling out what is normal or what can be explained, they can look at the paranormal.
Lead investigator Jim Hall, who has been involved in paranormal research for more than 20 years, said strong electromagnetic fields, for instance, can affect the brain, resulting in people's seeing, hearing and smelling things that can be interpreted as the paranormal.
While he says most of their investigations reveal the normal rather than paranormal, there are times when experiences can't be explained.
Webb library general manager Sandy Bell has seen a few things at the library for which she has no explanation - from books that have fallen from their shelves for no reason to a glass-covered plaque that fell off the wall and landed unbroken at least 4 feet from where it was hanging.
And once, a globe on an overhead light broke and the light bulb had remained in the fixture. But staff members returned the next morning to fix the globe and found the light bulb sitting on the floor standing straight up on its end.
Through the years there have been reports of images of fishermen walking through as if on their way to the waterfront.
Bell said she has always "felt" a warm and receptive energy when walking into the library and said that the Haunted North Carolina visit may have confirmed some of the strange things that have happened.
She was impressed by the scientific approach and said she is open to the idea that "there are things out there that we just don't know."
Whether or not they left believers in the paranormal, there was an excitement over the unexpected findings of the investigation.
"I'm still a skeptic, but I can't help thinking that this is very exciting," said Crystal Coast Book Festival Chairman Connie Asero.
Paranormal Morehead City Library
Paranormal Morehead City Library
