St. Louis Paranormal Research Society Report

Following are the results from the investigation of a home in Soulard, MO. by the St. Louis Paranormal Research Society (STLPRS) on 3 September 2021 from 7:00pm to 9:30pm.   STLPRS was contacted by the friend “L” of the owner “O” to investigate the house. 

• The house was built in 1810. It is one of the few French Creole buildings left in Soulard, this cottage is not aligned with the surrounding streets and buildings - it pre-dates them. The stone and brick masonry foundation with stand-alone center chimney was built into the pre-urban hillside. The second story, constructed in the "briquette-entre-poteaux" method (brick between poles) and originally covered in stucco, was topped with 4" lap siding due to harsh St. Louis winters. It has a small, unfinished basement. Its long & storied past includes housing the Allen Social Club, a speakeasy or "lid lifting club". The house has been added on to over the past decades.
• O moved into the house and has been renovating the house while living there. He lives by himself and his cat. 
• The majority of O’s concerns have to do with the negative feelings he has had while living there. His girlfriend [at the time] saw a figure standing at the foot of the bed. He is especially uncomfortable in the basement. He feels that things are improving with the more renovation he does.

The investigation was conducted as follows:

The STLPRS team arrived at the residence at 7:00 pm on 3 September 2021 and were met by the owner O and his friend L. O provided the STLPRS team with an overview and an update of the events he had been experiencing. He then took the team on a walkthrough of the house to point out “high interest” areas in the basement, first floor and second floor. 

• During the walk through, the team noticed a very high level of electromagnetic field (EMF) energy throughout the house, especially on the second floor when using their EMF detectors. EMF detectors are used to measure the presence of electromagnetic frequency (EMF) through the use of one or more receiving antennae that measure differing AC or DC electrical currents. EMF is generated from home wiring and appliances. When EMF is present, the meter provides a strength reading to the user. The strength of the reading is a direct indicator of the strength of the frequency. A high EMF reading is considered to be 30.0mG (milligauss) and above. 
• An EMF “fact Sheet” is included with the DVD. After O does more reading, it may be worth checking into lowering the EMF by an electrician.

The STLPRS members split into two teams: Team Steph and Team Brenda. O and L participated in the actual investigation with the STLPRS teams and provided valuable information and corroboration of the events that took place during the investigation. The teams rotated between the two floors at timed intervals to try and get maximum coverage and provide for overlap of information to help find any commonality in what was observed throughout the investigation. An unmanned stationary IR camera and motion sensors were set up in the basement to capture any activity. The two teams conducted their investigation from 7:15pm to 9:00pm.

STLPRS members discussed how they were going to use two techniques to gather information during the investigation. 

• There would be a physical gathering of information using video cameras, voice recorders and photo cameras.
• In addition, there would be an interpretive gathering of information using the sensitivity skills of some of the team members, augmented by the use of items such as pendulums and dowsing rods.

The equipment used by each team follows:

Team Steph used:

• A pendulum was used to get answers to questions. The following approach was used:  “YES” was indicated when the pendulum circled clockwise. “NO” was indicated when the pendulum circled counter-clockwise. “DON’T KNOW” was indicated when the pendulum moved back and forth. 
• The team also used dowsing rods to get answers to questions. The rods will cross if it is a “yes” answer and spread apart if the answer provided is a “no”. The rods can also be used by a spirit to point towards things. 
• They used the IOvilus app loaded on a cell phone. IOvilus produces speech/words based on changes to sensors in the iPhone or iPod Touch.  Simply, the idea is that an outside force can affect a change that registers a response that the app transmits in the clear so people can see and hear the word. 
• K2 meters/lanterns (used to measure electrical energy) were used. Paranormal theory is that a spirit has some electrical energy and if it comes near the K2 meter it can cause the meter to light up to varying degrees (green to red).
• The team used a SLS camera to capture still shots of the session. SLS stands for ‘Structured Light Sensor’. SLS is a scanning camera that will capture and understand the environment. One single screen shows the following data: Temperature, Imaging, Audio Range, Distance, Light Levels and Visualized Object Scanning. It represents a figure as a stick figure. 
• The audio portion was captured using a portable voice recorder.
• A cell phone camera was also used to take pictures.

Team Brenda used:

• A pendulum and an Ouija cloth (it has letters and numbers on it that are used to spell out answers) to see what answers they could get to questions. Two approaches are used to get information. The first approach is to use the pendulum for “yes” (circles clockwise), “no” (circles counter-clockwise) and “don’t know” (moves back and forth) answers. The second approach is to hold the pendulum over the Ouija cloth and let it swing to the letters and numbers on the cloth to spell out words or numerical answers. 
• A variety of K2 meters (used to measure electrical energy) were used. Paranormal theory is that a spirit has some electrical energy and if it comes near the K2 meter it can cause the meter to light up to varying degrees (green to red).
• The team also used the IOvilus app on an STLPRS member’s phone. IOvilus produces speech/words based on changes to sensors in the iPhone or iPod Touch.  Simply, the idea is that an outside force can affect a change that registers a response that the app transmits in the clear so people can see and hear the word. 
• The team used a SLS camera to capture still shots of the session. SLS stands for ‘Structured Light Sensor’. SLS is a scanning camera that will capture and understand the environment. One single screen shows the following data: Temperature, Imaging, Audio Range, Distance, Light Levels and Visualized Object Scanning. It represents a figure as a stick figure. 
• The team videoed and recorded the session using two Infra-Red cameras and a voice recorder. 

At the conclusion of the investigation, STLPRS provided a recap of what had been found by each team. L and O then provided additional valuable historical insight. The team departed the home at 9:30pm

The final results of the investigation are provided on the accompanying DVD. The DVD contains a copy of this write up and the edited video and photos from each of the teams. 

• This write up is broken into two main sections – one for Team Steph and one for Team Brenda.  
• Each section discusses how the team setup and the highlights of the investigation found by each team. In most cases, specific times (minutes:seconds) are listed in the team write-up. These match up with the time on the named video for quick reference and access. Each video has been named, edited and contains only the pertinent audio/video portions of the investigation. 
• Pertinent photos are also discussed and provided on the DVD. 
• Areas that are bolded with footnote numbers in the write up will be given further context during the discussion with L and O at the end of the investigation. 

The team (Steph and Scott), O and L set up in the second floor living room from 7:30-8:15pm. 

The following results are captured in the Team Steph/2nd Floor folder on the video labeled “1 S on 2nd Flr Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• During 3:30 through 11:00 in the video, Scott discusses the high level on EMF he is finding in the house and especially in the room where they are seated. NOTE: An electromagnetic field (EMF) “fact Sheet” is included on the DVD for the owner’s use.
• At 10:00 in the video, Steph asks O and L if this 1 place could have been used for feeding people in the area. She says she is getting references to cattle.
• At 11:00 in the video, Steph makes contact with an entity named “Alexander” using her pendulum. She also feels there is another entity in the second floor back bedroom. Scott sets up an unmanned IR camera in the bedroom. The camera may have picked up an orb (See the video labeled “Orb in the Bedroom”). NOTE: In paranormal theory, an orb is thought to be an entity trying to manifest itself by taking the shape of a sphere which requires the least amount of energy. 
• At 13:25 in the video, Alexander indicates he knows the current owner and occasionally makes himself known to the owner. He wants to stay in the house. He did not live there but worked in the area. 2 He indicates that something bad happened at the intersection. He indicates there is a female child entity in the back bedroom that used to live in the house (could the orb have been the little girl?). He is not related to her. She is somehow connected to the house. She wants to stay in the house and has made herself known to the owner. Alexander indicates he stays in the second floor living room.
• During 18:40 through 19:55 in the video, Scott gets a picture of a figure on the wall behind Steph using the SLS camera (See the photo labeled “Figure on the wall”). Steph asks if the picture is of Alexander and he indicates “yes”. Steph and L both start to have uncomfortable feelings in their stomachs. When asked if he is the one who is causing the issue he indicates “yes” and he is doing it on purpose. 
• At 19:55 in the video, Steph moves to another spot in the living room and starts to use her dowsing rods for further communication with Alexander.
• At 21:10 in the video, Alexander uses the dowsing rods and points to the living room window when asked if he wants to leave the house.
• At 22:00 in the video, Alexander indicates he wants to leave the house and find peace. He does not know of something in the basement.
• During 23:10 through 23:45 in the video, Alexander indicates he was in the basement earlier and he was the one who pushed Scott to get his attention. 
• During 23:45 through 24:25 in the video, O mentions the 3 name “Elma Zumwalt (?)”. When asked if she is in the room, there is a slight indication that she may be. She is not the little girl in the bedroom.
• At 24:26 in the video, when asked, Alexander points to O using the dowsing rods.
• At 25:35 in the video, Steph asks if there is an entity in the room that is angry. The dowsing rods indicate “yes”. Steph and L again begin to feel an uneasiness in their stomachs. Alexander indicates there is another entity in the room but it won’t talk. 
• § At 26:40 in the video, Scott demands to speak to the entity that is mad. Steph determines the entity is female (she may have been a Mother), but is not the one from the back bedroom. She doesn’t like having other (live) females in the house. 
• At 27:42 in the video, when asked by Steph she indicates she is the one who made the smell earlier. It is not her house and did not live there. She did not come to the house via a portal. She used to live around the area but did not work there. 4 She and her family came to the house to eat. She was hurt on the land. Her daughter hurt her and caused her death as a result of child birth. She did not have a chance to see the baby. Scott says he can help her see her baby aging and she indicates “yes”. 

The following results are captured in the Team Steph/2nd Floor folder on the video labeled “2 S on 2nd Flr Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• During 00:00 through 00:40 in the video, the female entity indicates she does not want to go to the same place Alexander will be going to when looking for peace. She indicates she does not get along with Alexander and indicates that when she moves on it will be separate from Alexander. She does not know the little girl in the back bedroom. 
• At 2:20 in the video, when asked, she uses the dowsing rods to point to where she is in the living room.
• At 2:28 in the video, when asked by Scott if he can take her picture, she indicates “yes”. (See the photo labeled “Lady behind the curtain”)
• At 3:00 in the video, a “yes” is indicated when Steph asks if the entities in the house are happy with the work O is doing in the house. They indicate that things are being done correctly.
• During 3:28 through 3:40 in the video, a “yes” in indicated when Scott asks if there is something wrong with the wiring (EMF?) and if it needs to be checked out. 
• During 4:46 through 5:30 in the video, a “yes” is indicated when Steph asks if an entity is behind her. 5 Steph’s IOvilus app on her cell phone shows the word “alcohol”. The team tries to figure out why that word came up.
• During 5:38 through 7:00 in the video, indications are that the entities seem to be happy in the house and want to be kind to each other. 6 However, they did not like the previous owner. 
• At 7:00 in the video, the name 7 “Daniel” comes up on Steph’s IOvilus. It is determined he was Elma’s husband but he is not in the house.
• During 7:42 through 9:52 in the video, the 8 name “Robert” is introduced by L. It is determined he stays in the back bedroom with the little girl entity but they don’t talk to each other.
• The team ends the session and moves to the first floor where Team Brenda has just completed their investigation.

The team (Steph, Valerie and Scott), O and L set up in the front room on the first floor from 8:15-8:50pm. 

The following results are captured in the Team Steph/1st Floor folder on the video labeled “1 S on 1st Flr Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• At the start of the video, Steph and Scott make contact with a belligerent male entity they name the “General”. He does not like Scott going to his safe space in the first floor storage room. Steph says her stomach is starting to hurt again and she feels like knives are being stuck in her back. The General indicates he is pleased with the renovations in the house. He won’t give his name and says the fireplace does not have significance to him. 
• At 4:40 in the video, (it is not real clear but we believe we are still talking with the General) the General indicates he is the one making the woody/smoking smell that Steph is detecting.
• At 5:45 in the video, it is indicated the General wears a hat.
• At 6:10 in the video, the General indicates he rode a horse and carried a sword that he used to kill people with. 
• During 7:02 through 7:01 in the video, L’s cell phone starts ringing. The General indicates he is the one who made it ring.
• At 7:02 in the video, Scott believes he got a picture of the General reflected in the downstairs bathroom glass shower door (see the phot labeled “General in the mirror). During 7:25 through 8:28 in the video, the 9 General indicates he slaughtered Confederate/Southern soldiers during the Civil War and that he hurt people before and after the Civil War. He indicates he is not a nice person. He was not held accountable for his actions after the war because he was too high up on the chain of command. He belonged to a special unit. 
• At 8:28 in the video, he indicates he wants Steph to stop asking questions but she says “no”. 
• At 9:18 in the video, 10 he indicates “yes” when asked if color means something to him. He wore a uniform with no rank or identification. He then stops answering the team’s questions.
• At 10:35 in the video, when asked if he will answer Scott’s questions, there is a “no” indication.
• At 10:45 in the video, we believe it is still the General who indicates “no” when asked if he knows this is not his house (NOTE: Team Brenda received a similar response from the entity they were communicating with earlier on the first floor). 
• At 11:17 in the video, the General uses the dowsing rods to point to O.
• At 11:40 in the video, the General indicates he knows Elma. It is not his wife, he just knows her.
• At 12:20 in the video, L starts coughing. Scott asks the General if he chocked his wife and he indicates “yes”. L leaves the room. The General indicates he killed his wife but not on these grounds.
• During 13:00 through 13:52 in the video, the General indicates he was a homosexual and that is why he killed his wife. He had difficulty accepting that about himself and it made him angry. He still feels angry about it. 
• At 14:14 in the video, he indicates he is not looking for forgiveness. 
• During 15:20 through 16:56 in the video, Steph gets the indication there is a female entity in the house that is trying to get someone’s attention. The General is friends with her and treats her like the daughter he could not have.
• During 17:03 through 18:04 in the video, Steph askes O if he found any nails in the house while renovating. O says “yes, in the fireplace”. The General indicates the nails mean something to him.
• At 17:40 in the video, when asked, the General indicates the nails are in the storage room. O confirms that is where he placed them.
• At 18:07 in the video, the General indicates he doesn’t want forgiveness and doesn’t want to find peace. He wants to stay in the house however, he does not want to follow the rule that O says he must follow.
• At 19:55 in the video, O says the only way the General can stay is if he follows the rules or Scott will move him out of the house. The general indicates he will follow the rules.
• During 20:24 through 21:16 in the video, Steph explains to the General he can still be mad but he can’t hurt anyone in the house or who enters the house; it’s not their fault.
• At 21:16 in the video, the General indicates he does not like the rules but he will follow them. He seems to accept this situation as his punishment for his sins.
• During 22:40 through 26:16 in the video, Steph encounters another male entity. The General ignores him but they coexist. 5 He was badly burned in a fire. The fire was accidental and caused while cooking in the fireplace. He was silent when the fire started and his family died in the house as a result. No family members remain in the house. He is happy living in the house. He doesn’t cause trouble and likes the renovations and O. 8 He didn’t like the last owner because he did bad things in the house (but not evil things). The previous owner did not know about the entities in the house.
• Steph feels like there are a total of eight entities who reside in the house. The team closes out the investigation. 

The team (Brenda, Caleb, Valerie and George) set up in the front room on the first floor from 7:30-8:15pm.

The following results are captured in the Team Brenda/1st Flr folder on the video labeled “1 B on 1sr Floor Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• Brenda initially explains how she uses her pendulum and Ouija cloth to make connections and get answers to questions. The team notices a high level of K2 activity right from the start.
• At 1:00 through 1:23 in the video, the team hears a random knocking sound.
• During 1:23 though 3:09 in the video, 8 Brenda encounters a male entity that is in its 50s. It indicates it is the former owner of the house and its name is “Ezra”.
• During 3:12 through 3:40 in the video, Ezra indicates he stays in the basement and tires to communicate with the owner. 
• During 3:40 through 4:01 in the video, Brenda keeps asking why Ezra is in the house. 8 The pendulum keeps swinging to the Pentacle on her Ouija cloth. 
• The Pentacle is an encircled Pentagram. A Pentagram is an ancient spiritual symbol shaped as a five-pointed star with one point aligned upwards. It is considered to be representative of the five elements from which man is made, namely fire, air, water, earth and spirit. Often the terms Pentacle and Pentagram are used interchangeably, but there is a slight difference between the two. Some people believe that a Pentagram is not circled, while a Pentacle has the star enclosed by a circle. Still, others say that a Pentagram is a diagram or drawing of the star and is referred to as a Pentacle only when it takes the form of a physical object.
• The Pentacle/Pentagram has been one of the most persistent and powerful symbols in our history and was revered by nearly all ancient cultures, be it Egyptian, Greek, Babylonian, Chinese, Indian or Mayan. The mystic icon is considered to hold several layers of symbolism. It is viewed as a symbol of life, love, light, unity, wholeness, and quest for divine knowledge. The Pentacle has always been associated with divine protective powers and was used for protection from the evil forces, demons, etc. 8 In the present times, the Pentacle and the Pentagram are much-respected symbols used by the neo-Pagans and Wiccans.
• At 4:24 in the video, Brenda says she has not experienced this reaction before with an entity and the K2 lights up in response.
• At 4:40 in the video, 8 Ezra indicates he is not a positive energy. Instead he is a negative energy. 

The following results are captured in the Team Brenda folder on the video labeled “2 B on 1sr Floor Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• 8 At 1:04 in the video, Ezra indicates he is a witch. Note the K2s lighting up during the discussion about the local coven. He indicates there is more than one entity in the house. He indicates there may be nine other witches in the house, but may not be telling the truth. He stops answering questions and the pendulum continues to swing to the Pentacle on her Ouija cloth.
• Brenda gets the feeling they were a group in life and now in death.

The following results are captured in the Team Brenda folder on the video labeled “3 B on 1sr Floor Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

There are indications that:

• Some of the coven were hung as witches and were buried near the house. 
• There may have been sacrifices.
• They like scaring people in the house.
• 8 They feel ownership of the house and not sure they can live peacefully with the current owner. 
• The keep adding witches to the coven and 8 the last one was added around 2015 or earlier. 
• At 9:00 in the video, 8 Ezra indicates there is a live coven in the area and he communicates with them.
• At 9:27 in the video, the team hears a door open on the first floor. When checked, no one is there. There is also a short discussion about the fireplace.

The following results are captured in the Team Brenda folder on the video labeled “4 B on 1sr Floor Soulard MO Sep 2021”:

• There is more general discussion about the fireplace and how O uncovered it when he moved in. 
• Brenda feels like Ezra is around her.
• At 1:23 in the video, the team hears a hissing sound
• At 1:39 in the video, Brenda decides to end the session. She invokes a protective barrier for the team. 
• The team relocates to the second floor.

The following results are captured in the Team Brenda/2nd Flr folder on the video labeled “B on 2nd Flr Soulard, MO Sep 2021”:

• Brenda starts the session and it is soon clear that whatever negative energy was downstairs has followed the team upstairs.
• During 2:10 through 3:50 in the video, Brenda makes contact with a female entity that says it stays in the back bedroom. It did not live in the house (conflicts with the story of the little girl in the bedroom that Steph learned about, unless it is another entity living in the bedroom). When asked “why are you here?”, the word coven starts to be spelled out on the Ouija cloth.
• At 3:50 in the video, the female entity indicates that the two spirits in the back bedroom are part of the coven. 
• At 4:01 in the video, the female entity indicates “no” when asked if it only stays upstairs and indicates it also goes to the basement. The coven is not contained by the property. 
• At 4:50 in the video Brenda asks why they are staying here and she feels the response of “You can’t stop me.”
• At 6:00 in the video, the team agrees it is time to stop the investigation and Brenda closes out the session with a protective barrier completing the overall investigation. 
• During the team’s time on the second floor, numerous orbs were observed. One is provided video labeled “1 Orb 2nd Flr Soulard MO Sep 2021.

An unmanned IR camera, K2 devices and motion sensors were placed in the basement for the duration of the investigation. 

The results are captured in the Team Brenda/Basement folder on the video labeled “Basement Soulard, MO Sep 2021”. Throughout the over two hours of video, only three events took place involving a K2 lighting up for no apparent reason. STLPRS cannot draw a conclusive finding on what caused the K2 to light up.

L has lived in the Soulard area for many years and is considered by many to be a historian of the area. She is also a sensitive. At the conclusion of the STLPRS investigation, the two teams discussed what they had found with O and L. At first, it seemed like there was no commonality between what the two teams had found in their investigations of the first and second floor. However, L’s insight helped tie many of the events together. I have annotated the footnotes from the bolded parts of the write up to the following information she provided to help show how things fit together.

• There are layers in the house.
• The house when built would have been part of community feeding effort as they shared crops and food/cattle.1, 4
• When the house was a speakeasy/bar there had been a big fire. 5
• Robert was the previous owner and he died in July 2021. He was gay and involved himself in witchcraft. He was involved with a group who were into demonic practices done in the house. L felt that Brenda’s Ouija cloth triggered the discussion with the members of the coven. 6, 8
• The area was heavily involved in the Civil War. Both the Union and the Confederate forces used the area as encampments. There were several battles fought in the Soulard streets. Color was significant as the distinction between the Blue (Union) and the Gray (Confederate). 9, 10

O provided further the following insight at the closeout:

• Elma’s funeral was held in the house in 1931. 3, 7
• A tragic vehicle crash took place in a nearby intersection. 2

L told O that she would do a cleansing to try and move Robert and the coven members out of the house.