Sutter Creek Investigation

Let’s go back in time when I was a young paranormal investigator.  Here are some investigative stories from HPI’s past dusty files…….

First off, I want to dedicate this article to Andres (Andrew) Somprise Soyo. Andres is my half-brother and he passed away from heart failure on Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008 at 2am. Significant deaths in my family, have been my mother Rosemarie ‘Rosita Causing’ Roberts and my other half brother Joseph Anthony ‘Joe’ Soyo, that both died in the 80s. I guess that is one of the reasons I am so obsessed with seeking out the afterlife. I want to know in my heart, that we continue on after we shed this mortal body. With the recent passing of my brother, I will never forget his achievements from being the high school and college football quarterback, trying out for the Oakland Raiders, being a race car driver that drove a suped up Mustang at Laguna Seca and running for President of the PG&E Union. He was also a Vietnam US Army vet, that was honored with the soldier of the year. Andres lived in Ewa Beach, Hawaii and worked as a construction supervisor. He took on the lifestyles of the local Hawaiians and embraced this state as his own. I will miss him with all of my heart. I know he has entered the light and smiles down upon me. God bless you Andres.

H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) made sure that this weekend, I would be busy with back-to-back investigations, so I would not dwell on the demise of my brother. This is something I needed. I met up with paranormal investigators: Shannon ‘Ms. Macabre’ McCabe – President/Lead Investigator, Chris Grissom – Technician, Bryan Coleman – Videographer and Holly DeLaughter – Photographer/sensitive at an unidentified location in Del Paso Heights, a suburb of Sacramento, CA. This was a private investigation that was being investigated under the understanding of confidentiality. I interviewed ‘Angel’, the occupant of the home. She tells me that she moved into this apartment 9 months ago. On December 2007, the activity began. She noticed on her pictures, she was getting pictures of ectoplasm and orbs. Her mother, a paranormalist (sensitive) detected entities in her dwelling that she shares with her 3 children. Angel indicates that she previously lived in a trailer, that was haunted. She suggests that either the entities from the trailer followed her to this apartment or that they were already here. At this apartment complex there have been two murders. Her mother feels that a murder occurred at this apartment. Angel captured some EVPs of a man talking. Angel became interested in the paranormal and became an independent ghosthunter. She and her children have heard a man talking and a little girl laughing. Angel has had cobweb type of feelings on her arm. She’s seen shadows moving about the apartment. She tells me that the light in the bathroom every once in a while flickers for no apparent reason. The maintenance man has looked at the light and cannot determine the problem. Angel says that she saw a shadow and when she watched it, it seemed to drop into nothingness. At times Angel’s daughter is scared to go into the bathroom, her daughter at times feels the presences of the entities and will point them out. Her daughter calls one of the entities…’Keeny Gada’. Angel once detected a man in her daughter’s bathroom, this is where she heard the voice of a man. She shows me orb pictures she has captured in the back bedrooms. I ask her about the 2 murders at the apartment complex and she told me that a woman had died due to complications of domestic violence and a man died by a gunshot wound. Her daughter says that the entities at their apartment are a mother and father and their 2 children. Angel’s daughter thinks one child is 1 year old, while the other child entity is 5 years old. Angel says her daughter at times plays with the ghosts in their home, she will even play ball with them.

Shannon at one point , thought she saw a white light burst in the back bedroom, she said it was the size of a softball. Upon entering the apartment, with absolutely no knowledge of this residence, Holly told Paul she felt a strong male presence. Holly was also drawn to the bathroom and back bedrooms but settled in the mother’s room where she felt she could communicate with spirit. We haven’t fully analyzed all of the evidence, but from what I know right now, there was no paranormal activity captured on video or on digital photos. No EVPs were captured up to this point. When we left this apartment, I blessed the home and asked for any entities that inhabit this apartment to enter the light. I did a 4 winds prayer outside of the dwelling to insure that the entity or entities have left.

Shannon McCabe, president of HPI, gave me a gift of holy water bottles and Catholic praying beads the day my brother died. Shannon and I, went to the St. Elizabeth Portuguese Catholic Church in Sacramento for the holy water and to bless the rosary. It was a really moving experience and I was glad that I was able to pray for my brother and get my relics blessed for the investigations this weekend. Shannon has been studying demonology and we have been comparing notes on our research in demonology. It is such a touchy subject with so much gray area, so it’s nice to know I have Shannon on my side.

We left this apartment and headed to another undisclosed location, a home in Elk Grove that has been investigated before. The occupants allowed some of the HPI Paranormal Investigators to spend a night in their home. We met up with more HPI paranormal investigators: Jennifer Baca and Debbie Talani. The equipment that we were using this night – February 1, 2008, Friday are: digital cameras, video cameras, dowsing rods (I recently got a pair of dowsing rods from Nancy Bradley that are said to be dipped in ectoplasm – Shannon also has a similar pair that she got from Nancy) www.nancybradley.org, digital audio recorders, walkie talkies (we are using the walkie talkies for a communication device for the undead, we never can be certain if we aren’t picking up a trucker though!). On this night, the investigators that were spending the night were: Bryan Coleman, Paul Dale Roberts, Chris Grissom, Holly DeLaughter and Jennifer Baca. We did an investigation throughout the house. The evidence has not been fully analyzed. I will let Shannon tell us about any findings at Angel’s apartment and the Elk Grove residence in her FINDINGS and CONCLUSION.

We conducted a seance, I was the lead communicator for the undead. We used a bowl of water and a lit candle for the entities. We asked for the entities to give us some kind of sign, to either knock on the wall, talk through the walkie talkies, swirl the water, or extinguish the candle flame. Nothing occurred. This was an unsuccessful seance, compared to the seance that was successful in a previous article I wrote about a home in Sacramento. While some of the investigators packed it up and headed home, the other investigators located areas in the home to get comfortable, while the occupants watched a sci-fi movie called Sunshine. No activity occurred in this home throughout the whole evening. I woke up in the morning and Holly had a vente Starbucks hot mocha waiting for me! This hit the spot.

On Saturday we hit the road at 9am and headed for Sutter Creek, CA, a town in the Gold Country. Sutter Creek is well known for it’s gold mining. Paranormal Investigators Angel Kesti and Debbie Talani joined us for this scouting mission. Jennifer Baca drove while Chris, Debbie and I were her passengers. Holly drove with Angel as her passenger and Bryan drove his car by himself. We trekked up through the foothills of Sutter Creek and our first stop was the Sutter Creek Palace. I introduced myself and the group to Dan Walker, the owner of this establishment. His wife Lana Walker took the HPI crew upstairs to look at the rooms and into their basement. We captured many orb shots throughout this establishment. I conducted interviews. My first interview was with Victoria Finney – waitress/buser. Victoria has been working at this establishment for 5 months. She has detected cold spots, especially on the first floor. She has heard stories about Angelo the Ghost, which I will discuss more in this article. She has placed objects in certain areas of the bar and they will disappear, only to reappear somewhere else. She has heard stories about the ‘The Lady in the Black Dress’ that makes her appearance known to some of the patrons. She was told by the dishwasher that he once felt a tug on his shoulder by an unseen force. She has heard doors being pushed shut on their own. When she goes into the basement, she feels a weird vibe and it makes her feel paranoid at times. She does not like going into the basement by herself.

The 2nd interview was with Chelsea Mancuso. She has worked at this establishment for 1 ½ years and is a waitress. She tells me about the trap door at what was once an area called the ‘Lady’s Parlor’ she also tells me there is activity in the bar area. She was once locked up in the wine cellar. The latch to the wine cellar moved into the lock position by itself. She had to unlock it, to get out and there was no way that she did it herself. She tells me that upstairs, TVs have been known to change channels by themselves. She has heard about doors flying open. She has heard about Lana Walker telling Angelo to leave her alone, after being pestered by the ghost.

Let’s look at some of the history of the Sutter Creek Palace Restaurant and Saloon. In 1860, this establishment was a small livery and store. In 1864, a fire swept through the town. I.N. Randolph built a saloon at the spot of the small livery & store. In 1884, it became the Charles Boros Saloon. There was a bordello upstairs and the men of the town would use a tunnel to enter into the Lady’s Parlor of the Sutter Creek Palace, so they could utilize the pleasures of the bordello without being seen by other townsfolk. A lot of these men had reputations to keep, they were considered upstanding men of the town.
When Angelo Mevi became the owner of this establishment in the 40s and 50s, he called it ‘Our Corner’. A patron was once taking a picture of his friends and Angelo the Ghost appeared in the photo. If you ever have a chance to visit this historical restaurant and saloon, make sure to sample their baked brie, stuffed portobello mushroom, chicken wings, calamari, quesadillas or sea scallops. Also, try out their variety of martinis, with names like the Cosmopolitan, Blue Moon, Chocolate Martini, 007, Lemon Merinque Martini, Appletini and more!

My 3rd interview was finally with Lana Walker. Her husband Dan Walker is the owner and has been the owner of this establishment for 9 years. Lana has been working here for 5 years. This is what she has experienced in a nutshell: a) hearing someone walking upstairs, b) walking in the hallway and the footsteps stop at office door, she goes to check and there is no one there, she thinks it is Angelo, c) unknown wind blown towards her face, d) she feels someone is standing next to her, d) hears taps on picture frames, e) saw full body apparition on TV screen reflection, f) when there was talk of remodeling, Angelo became angry and caused ice machine to make an unusual noise that sounded like a voice, g) felt a spirit walk through her, thinks it was Angelo, h) wedding picture was tipped over many times, when she got into an argument with Dan, her husband, she feels Angelo sides with Dan, i) saw lady shadow in back dining room, j) door slams on an employee for no apparent reason, k) when a bad employee who was stealing from this establishment, was confronted by an entity, the entity punched him in the chest, this employee was also known to drink on the job and after his confrontation with the entity Angelo, he was released from his duties, l) another bad employee who was stealing meat, had bread thrown at him, that came flying off a shelf. Lana at times asks Angelo to stop scaring her and Angelo will stop playing his pranks.

Outside of this establishment, I conducted my 4th and 5th interview with Cal Toomey and Melissa Winkler. They discussed the Sutter Creek Saloon and suggested that one day HPI needs to do a scouting mission to the town of Columbia.

Some feedback about Columbia – in Melissa Winkler’s own words:
“I kept thinking something was off when we were talking- the hotel in Columbia is not called the Columbia hotel it is the City Hotel. Also, the women that died in one of the rooms was the women who died while giving birth. The women you mention below is a women who was hung after killing a man who had raped either herself or one of her girls (she ran a brothel). There was also one of the owners that hung himself in one of the areas downstairs. They say the women that died while giving birth, haunts the room she died in and the owner hung himself.” Yikes! Sounds like a heck of a place to do an investigation! Melissa continues on…

“The experiences were felt in the shower- I clearly felt a presence that made me jerk to look while I was in the shower, and Cal was awakened by the strong feeling someone was toying with him. As he mentioned ?like something was in him?. He and I had been arguing before he fell asleep and he swore in the morning he felt it was as if whatever he felt was ?taking my side?.”

It’s amazing how many people will confront HPI members and give us various tips of different places to scout out. It’s always exciting when we visit a new town..people hunt us down as we’re hunting the ghosts! The HPI crew ate lunch at the Sutter Creek Palace and the food was tremendously good! If you are not a ghost hunter, don’t worry about it, if anything, check this establishment out for the food and the rich history!

Before we left Sutter Creek, the HPI team and I merely walked across the street to the Sutter Creek Inn www.suttercreekinn.com – 75 Main Street. This is another old establishment, that has old west interior decor.  
John Keyes built the Sutter Creek Inn, and lived there with his wife Clara. When John died, Clara remarried to E.C. Voorheis (State Senator). The Sutter Creek Inn was built near an Indian burial ground. Is this place also haunted? The answer is ‘yes’. Jane Way (the new owner) once saw a strange man at the doorway while she was on her way to a party. The apparition in, 1800’s style clothing, said to Jane Way?”I will protect you.” The apparition smiled and then faded into nothingness. Jane Way believes that this was Senator Voorheis. Lindsay Way, the daughter of Jane Way allowed the HPI investigators to look around at the various floors of this gorgeous establishment. We even were allowed to investigate the basement area. The evidence we collected from both Sutter Creek investigations will have to be analyzed and the results will be placed into a future article.

Bryan Coleman and I, headed back to my home. I started working on this article, while Bryan took a catnap. There was one more investigation to do this evening, Saturday.

At 7:30pm, Bryan Coleman/ Videographer, and I met up with Shannon ‘Ms.Macabre’ McCabe at her residence. We piled up in the ‘Ghost Tracker’ and headed to an unidentified location in Sacramento. We met up with Donna Reynolds. The team now consisted of paranormal investigators: Shannon McCabe – President/ Lead Investigator/ Demonoligist in training; Donna Reynolds – Sensitive; Bryan Coleman – Videographer and Paul Dale Roberts – Ghostwriter/Demonologist. Shannon and I, have been doing extensive research in Demonology to hone our skills in this craft. I interviewed the occupant of this home, named Barbara. Barbara relates the following, that she lived in a duplex that was haunted by a demon. She lived in this duplex two years ago. The activity at this duplex started with strange noises in the attic. When she was holding a glass, an invisible entity hit the glass she was holding and knocked it out of her hand. She saw cords that were connected to a lamp and radio floating and writhing like a snake in the air. She had the same cords pulled out from the wall. She had a vision, in which she was laying in bed and her bed levitated and started to move counter clockwise. At this point, she no longer thought she just had a ghost in the house, but she felt she had a demon. Then it happened… She saw the demon, it had blood red eyes, a head like a beast, the bottom part of the demon was transparent, it had sharp teeth and it drooled an oozy substance. Barbara said the demon followed her to three different homes. The last time she saw the demon was in 2007. Barbara claims the demon is an incubus. This incubus had violent sex with her on several occasions. The Incubus also has been known to slam doors and break objects in her home.

Barbara had traveled out of California to an undisclosed state to be exorcised of this demon. While being exorcised by the clergy members she let out a demonic roar! When this happened the church members held her down and she seemed to be having convulsions. The Christians tried to exorcise the demon out of her to no avail. She goes on to explain that when the demon rapes her, her whole body vibrates during the rape, and that she is lifted about three feet then violently dropped over and over. She now says that in her new home, the demon followed her and she feels she has one demon and one ghost in her home. A medium (unrelated to HPI) came to her home and felt the presence of an old man ghost. Barbara says that she has seen the demon once, while her husband has seen the demon 3 times. Her husband describes the demon as a large 7 to 8 foot dark black shadow. One other thing of note is that Barbara has a son who is mentally disabled. She feels that the demon may have also attacked her son. She tells us that demons prey on the weak and that her son has seen things and talked to people in his room that are not there.

Shannon and I, blessed this home. We conducted a ‘hedge of protection’ prayer for Barbara as we surrounded her, holding hands. I asked for an army of angels to protect Barbara and her family and all the animals that reside in this home. As we blessed this home, Shannon burned sage and placed sea salt in all corners of every room and entrances. I placed holy water on all corners and entrances and asked for any entity or demon that may inhabit this dwelling to depart in the name of Jesus Christ and all that is holy. I did a 4 winds prayer in the garage and the entrance of her home, which will scatter the holy water to the 4 winds of these locations, banishing the demon off her property, hopefully. I placed holy water from my hand to Barbara’s forehead and said a silent prayer of protection. Unfortunately, Barbara was so determined to get this ‘demon incubus’ out of her home

As we conducted our investigation of this home, I did not take any unusual photographs and Bryan did not record anything unusual on his video camera. Donna used her dowsing rods and felt no unusual energy. Shannon, Bryan and I had a debriefing after the investigation. Bryan recorded our debriefing. Shannon and I, discussed the following:
1. Barbara had 3 dogs, the dogs were playful. They did not show any signs of trauma.
2. The energy from Barbara’s home is wholesome and normal. I would describe it as going to your grandmother’s house. The ambiance was of warmth and harmony.
3. When Barbara described the rape by the demon, she described it nonchantly. She showed no strained signs of being traumatized, no tears flowed, no agitated excitement in her voice. As a military policeman, I have witnessed rape victims being interviewed and even if the rape occurred two years ago, there is still trauma detected in their voices as they describe this past event.
4. In all cases that Shannon and I researched, it indicates a real demonic haunting, that a demon will fight by causing a disturbance in the dwelling. As we commenced with our blessing of the home, there was no disturbance of any kind.
5. Shannon concludes that Barbara believes her story of demonic torment and feels that Barbara is not trying to be deceptive.

Even if we find no evidence in Barbara’s home of any sort of haunting activity, I am pleased that we answered her desperate call for assistance and did our investigation. We cannot ever ignore a call, when someone is asking for help dealing with something that is considered paranormal, HPI is on it. We did everything we could for Barbara and now it is time to analyze all of the evidence from our investigations. As I write this article and listen to my digital audio recorder, I find no EVPs recorded from Barbara’s home. Another bright note about this investigation, it was a good training exercise for Shannon and I. Practice makes perfect and the more practice that Shannon and I have in the field of demonology, the better demonologists we will be.

This was a very strange night indeed, a storm was brewing when we drove to Barbara’s house and my Arkansas demon case resurfaced, as I got a call from Rebecka from Arkansas. Rebecka thinks her demon has returned and recently saw a strange black shadow in her bedroom. She has also been having strange nightmares again. I will be working with Rebecka to see if this will continue and if it does, I will assist Rebecka through these trying times to resolve her case once and for all.

SHANNON’S FINDINGS-
Friday night- Angel’s home-“I feel that this home may be inhabited by a male entity (according to Holly DeLaughter/ HPI sensitive) we did a dowsing rod session that confirmed Holly’s predictions. I do not think that there is anything in this home that would harm the family. I also did see a white burst of light like a small flashlight was turned on and off very quickly, on the wall in a back bedroom. It was a very bright light the size of a softball. I will be much more satisfied if I get an EVP, but as of yet.. nothing.
Friday late night- Home in Elk Grove- “Not a darn thing happened, but we had a great time.. Oh wait, something did happen to my car, The Ectoplasmobile, the trunk latch broke… but I hear that is pretty common in 06′ Jetta’s. Damn car!”

Saturday Night- Barbara’s home-“I did not have any experiences at this home. No bad feelings, nothing of note. We did bless the house, but the homeowner claimed that “It” was still there after our blessing. I guess the proof will be in the pudding. Video or EVP.

SHANNON’S CONCLUSION- “I still have hours of audio and video to go over, but from what I have gone over so far- nothing. I conclude that it was a fun- filled weekend of demons… bring it on evil ones, bring it on!”

With HPI, my articles are a continuing saga. At times I will place findings from other investigations in my most recent articles. Below you will find links to some new information gathered from past investigations.

By Paul Dale Roberts aka The Demon Warrior
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
Sacramento Paranormal Help
www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/