Waverly Hills 5-23-08

May 23rd, 2008 - Waverly Hills

Waverly Hills, I probably can't say anything about the place, you guys don't already know, but if you want to know more about it, I do have plenty of links on the Waverly Hills page you can check out with a lot of information. As soon as I saw the Ghost Hunters live episode of Waverly on Halloween of 2007, I knew then I wanted to go. So as soon as it hit January, we started to get people who wanted to go, that is when you can first book your tour during the year. I knew it booked up quick, so I called and got information, probably in the middle of January. We decided we only wanted a 4 hour tour, we figured some of us might get bored during the 8 hour trip and they only cost $50 instead of $100 per person. And you only can get 4 hour visits on Friday, so that narrowed it down. We was originally going for May 9th, but only 8 openings were left, so I asked about May 23rd, there was 12 openings left that day, so I went ahead and reserved for 12 people, that filled up the night and put 600 bucks on my credit card, you got to pay for the 4 and 8 hour trips upfront. I wasn't sure if we could get 12 people to go, but a big thanks to Becky Young, she's a great recruiter of getting people to go. This was reserved in January and this was about 1 to 2 months before SHOK existed or KROS.

We did get 12 people to go and they was myself Chris Dooley, Chris Meadows, Teri Keiter, Becky and Dale Young, Bill Barron, Sabrina McGuire, Paula Isaacs, her son Brandon, Tonya Dooley (no relation by the way) and her 2 kids, Lilly and Doug. So we all met up at Kroger's in Richmond, KY and left out in 2 vans.

I am not sure if you guys are familiar with what happens on the 4 hour tours, but if your not and are thinking of getting a 4 hour tour, then you need to read on. We got there really early, I would say 11:15 and checked in at the gate, we was suppose to be there by 11:45pm. We was told not to take pictures, not to shine lights at the buildings, stay close to your cars with no headlights on, etc. The 2 hour tours were still going on and they didn't want us to mess that up for those people. I will have to admit though, I was in awe of this massive old building and it did look cool seeing the cameras flash all inside the building in the middle of the night. I also had that I can't believe I am here feeling too, you know all giddy inside. Well at 11:45pm we met at the gargoyle at the corner of the building, impressive gargoyle by the way, and then all of us went on to the old laundry room. Which has been totally renovated and now is the main headquarters for Waverly. Which includes seating, a gift shop, snack & drinks and the only restrooms. We watched a 30 minute promo, would have been a good infomercial on why you should pay to go here, that included old footage, highlights of the 1st Ghost Hunters episode and the best of the episode of Scariest Places On Earth, that features the owner's daughter and her 4 friends, which I haven't seen, by the way. So now it is 12:30, we split into 2 groups, which our group is of 19 people, our 12 and 7 other women. We hit the 3rd, 4th and 5th floor, while the other group went to the rest of the building. You go through a tunnel under the road that connects the main building and laundry room together. Supposedly all other doors are completely locked up and this is the only way in and out. Then you basically get a brief tour lasting approximately 15 minutes of the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors (you know the tales of hard to believe stuff that the tour guides have said they seen and witnessed, with just a tid bit of history thrown in) and then get free reign of the 3rd, 4th and 5th floor. We was told to meet at 2:15 on the 5th floor. This was way better than I thought it would be, by the way, I was expecting more people per floor and to be limited per one floor at a time. Well I save what we did until 2:15 am later and get on with what happens during the 4 hour tours.

At 2:15, we take a smoke break on the roof and then go all the way down to the 1st floor. Another very brief tour of the morgue, gift shop, refrigerated rooms, storage, etc. of the first floor. This is all used to do their Halloween event and you could tell, the whole 1st floor is anyway. The walls was all painted black, with graphic features on them and some of the Halloween props were still around the rooms. We then go down back to the laundry room and take a break until 2:45am. We then go outside for a small tour of the death tunnel or aka body chute. Then it is back inside to go up to the second floor and go into one of the 2 rooms that are done or remodeled. I believe this were the auditorium rooms, back in the day. They also explain to you that how your money is going to do this and one day it is going to be a 5 star hotel. They have a real, real, super long way to go. I can see me getting my finishing of my basement project getting done way sooner and I am way slow on finishing anything. First thing they need to finish is the elevators, the stairs will kill you. The tour goes on to the kitchen and dining rooms of the second floor and onto to the infamous spot where Jason and Grant caught that weird thermal image of something running across the hall. We also check out the Chapel and told to meet there at 4am. Free reign of the 1st, 2nd and death tunnel until then. Then it's back to the laundry room and to leave after that.

So there it is, the 4 hour tour. In my opinion, well worth the 50 dollars if you have never been on one. I have never done the public 8 hour tour which happens on Saturday, so I don't know which one is the better value. You do and will have places to yourselves as you have like 19 people spread out over 3 floors, but as your being quiet, waiting for something to happen or doing EVP work in a room, you will see someone go by you, sometimes talking and this kind of interrupts your investigation. Also, 4 hours is not enough time. We was constantly rushed just trying to get through the whole building. We didn't go down the death tunnel and didn't see all of the rooms. The other 7 people we didn't know that was also in our group, was well mannered, stuck together and really didn't bother us or hinder our investigation, so that was nice. Well this is what brings up the 8 hour private tour we booked for August 26th. We wanted more time and less people. So we asked about it and anytime during the week, Sunday thru Thursday, certain weeks only, you can book a private 8 hour stay for $100 per person for a 10 person minimum. Needless to say, we jumped all over it and can't wait to get back. With 8 to 12 people I am hoping to have 2-3 people per floor for twice the time before with 4 times the evidence of the supernatural & paranormal at Waverly, cross your fingers we capture something good.

Well back to the investigation part. I have already mentioned the 12 people that went. I am sure I have mentioned somewhere that not all of the people that goes with us are hardcore investigators as Meadows, Becky and I are, they are getting there, though. But anyway we have no problem with those people coming along as long as they follow a code of conduct and don't hinder our investigation, so you want to come along, let me know. But we also could use some more hardcore investigators, also. On to the equipment, we brought an arsenal of digital cameras, not sure on the exact count, but we should have some pics to post here. 3 camcorders, although Becky's wasn't night vision armed and she said most of it didn't come out. I got to use the new IR extender on mine and it looked awesome, it really lit up the place, like a flood light that only the camera could pick up. 2 audio recorders, mine and Meadows'. Becky has purchased one, so we'll have at least 3 on the next one. I was also walking around with a digital infrared thermometer, a K-2 meter, a digital EMF meter, we shared these among the group, I really don't need 2 EMF meters the whole time, and a headlamp flashlight (these help out a lot). Not a lot of equipment for 12 people, but some of us just want a flashlight and we are buying more equipment everyday.

I as always, turned on my audio recorder, right off the bat and record the whole investigation, this helps me write these reports up and you never know when you are going to get an EVP as like the first investigation. Only problem this time was the audio recorder was locked and would not record. I have no idea what locked it or what unlocks it, but luckily Meadows mentioned maybe taking the batteries out and put them back in. Well as we walking up the steps to the 3rd floor, I was doing everything I could to unlock this and Meadow's ingenious idea worked. So by the time we was on the 3rd floor, I was recording. Shew, thought I was going to carry around a useless audio recorder all night. The actual investigation started at around I would say 12:45 on the fifth floor. We was finally let loose and allowed free reign. Some people headed downstairs, we being Meadows, Teri and I stayed around the 5th floor. I have always had a fascination with Waverly's top floor and wanted to check it out fairly close. We checked out the rooftop, room 502, the wards on each side, the gargoyles on the roof, etc, getting some pics in the process. By this time most of the people have ventured downward, we stay around to do some EVP work in room 503. The tour guide said 503 was a prime place for EVPs and Meadows and I are suckers for EVPs. We spend about 15 minutes in there, asking questions, trying to get a response, a noise made or something and we basically get nothing, nothing is showing up on the EMF meters either. Teri comes back in the room after video taping the 5th floor fairly in depth and ask if we are ready to leave. We decide to pack up and head down. to the 4th floor.

On the 4th floor, we decide to head right or it would be West I do believe, I want to go to the end of the building and do some EVP for some reason. We slowly make our way down, checking out each room fairly quickly. I am not sure, if you know how Waverly is laid out, but basically the 3rd, 4th and most of the 2nd are exactly the same. A big hallway in the middle, rooms on the North side, rooms on the South side with a big screened (well was back in the day) in roofed porch for the South side rooms. The floors are shaped like a crescent moon and the corners, where the bends are had nurses stations in them. So we finally make it to the end of the building and go to the room on the North side, more EVP work follows. As soon as we asked, "Can you make a noise for us?" We get a noise. It sounds like a poor little puppy locked up somewhere. We ask again and get the same puppy begging sound. We traced the noise coming from what probably was a closet or shower stall and it's coming from the ceiling. We get in this closet and look up at the ceiling and there is this big hole in it. We shine the light up there and can't see anything. We keep asking for noises and keep getting noises. We are pretty good at getting animals to make noises for us. I try to get closer to the hole in the ceiling to find out what this was, maybe it needed help. Then we thought maybe it's a bat or a ferocious wild beast of some kind that is waiting for some dumb person to stick his head in there, so it can bite it off. Well, needless to say, we don't stick our head in the hole. We do some EMF readings and get nothing. But every time we asked a question, we got the hmm hmm hmm hmm sound. We finally just give up and leave, thinking we could talk to animals somewhere else a little cheaper.

We head back down the hall and run into Brandon, Paula, Tonya, Lilly and Doug. We ask if they was getting anything and they said they thought they seen something, no proof, just thoughts. But we ask them do you guys want to hear a strange sound come from the ceiling of one of the rooms. They are intrigued and jump all over the invitation. We go back down to the same room, no sounds yet, but as soon as I asked, "Can you make a noise for us?" We get the same exact noise, almost like a tape recorder set to play that sad puppy sound every time we asked that question. They all investigate and can't figure it out, but no one agreed to climb up inside the hole, either. We leave them to whatever may be there and head back down the hall. We go down, checking out every room, some more than others. We are getting no EMF readings, no personal experiences and no shadow people. After checking out this floor fairly well for what time we had, we head down to the 3rd floor.

On the 3rd floor, I want to do same thing. Go all the way West to the end of the building and start there and work up. We run into a lot of people here and lot of balls of the floor, first though. Supposedly the balls are for Timmy the little boy ghost to play with. We sit and watch to maybe catch a glimpse of a ball moving, no luck. These are all spread out and are about say 20 to 30 foot apart from each other, with a group at each one. We spend about 15 minutes here, asking for somebody to play with us and get nothing. We decide to head on down. Teri is using the camcorder and I at this time want to see what it looks like, it looks awesome, I can't believe how well the night vision is doing, must be the IR extender I thought. Well I see something that looks like a porch light, getting closer to it, I realize it is a camera with IR lights hung up high in the hallways. No wonder it is picking up so well. There is infrared light everywhere and cameras watching our every move. But anyway we make it to the end, again nothing on the way down. At the end, Meadows does get the going through a cobweb feeling, but no cobwebs anywhere. No EMF readings, but it is an experience. This time instead of doing EVP work, we decide to look for shadow people.

The tour guide told us that you can see these shadow personnel by turning off all lights and just looking down a hallway for awhile. We try this and after awhile, it does look like something moving in one doorway, back and forth, from the ambient light getting blocked and unblocked. I am thinking, "Train Tunnel - Trees, duh", but I go check it out and there is no trees that could block the moonlight out like that. It wasn't say the shape of a person or anything grand, but I couldn't figure out what it was causing this other than a trick of the eyes. We move on up and look for more of the shadow dudes. We see a shadow on the bottom right corner and it is moving. We watch for awhile, trying to figure it out, but can't. It could only be like 2 and half foot tall and like the same wide. And it is still moving. I gotta get closer and we all move in. Among moving in, we realize what it was. Bill and Sabrina are sitting in the floor laughing at us. We realize our mistake and move on. We need to get our own floor I thought, to rule out the people from shadows. Well it is getting late and time to meet up. So we start heading up. The set of stairs we find only go to the 4th floor, only one set of steps go to the 5th, the very middle and these wasn't it. But anyway we go to the 4th floor and this has to be funniest moment of the night. I don't know if we was suppose to use these steps, but the door going to the 4th floor is shut. I see if I can open it and opens easy and we go on in. Teri and I go in and guess Meadows doesn't realize the door is spring loaded and after he goes in it slams loudly, very loudly shut. The group of the other 7 women that was in our tour group but not with us was all standing around in a circle and when they hear this loud boom echo all over the building, they all about had heart attacks. I wanted to yell out, "Clean up on floor 4 needed!", but I managed not to. We finally get to the 5th floor and this part of the tour is over.

Now it is like 2:45 and we have been let loose on the 2nd floor from the Chapel room. We decide there is no since in Meadows staying with us, me and him have the only camcorders and audio recorders on this trip, so we should split up. He goes with Bill and Sabrina and Teri and I head down to the first floor, I was wanted to some EVP work in the electro-shock therapy room. We go down and have a hard time finding the room. The 1st floor is like a maze. We finally find it and get to asking some questions. We thought we felt some cold spots, but according to the infrared digital thermometer we wasn't getting any. We hang around for like 15 more minutes, asking questions and don't really get any responses, no EMF readings, etc. So we decide to move on.

We do a fair in depth visit on the first floor, like I was saying, it is like a maze and the 1st floor is used for the Halloween haunted house that Waverly does. Also all the walls are painted black with some great murals of skeletons and other scary looking pictures. The windows are covered to further darken the place up. So it is real hard to see. We make it to the main lobby and look around, you can tell some remodeling work has gone on here. I want to go to the very end of the building as usual, but the 1st floor from the lobby to the west end is completely sealed up, no entry whatsoever. The map I was using, also had this part of the building off limits. I am not sure why, but I will ask next time I go. Well we find a set of steps and decide to go up.

Now on the second floor, guess what I want to do? You got it, go to the west side end of the building. We slowly make our way in that direction, kind of checking out each room along the way. We make it to the end, do more EVP work. Again no EMF readings, no responses, no noises. We then decide to look for the so-called shadow people. Again you can see, shadows move in front of the doorways and also a far light at the end of the hall, seems to be moving closer. Seems to be, I believe is the correct term. I really don't think any of this is paranormal, you know with the shadows and ambient light from the outside moving around, all just a trick of the eyes. We kind of had the same experience with the train tunnel. If you concentrate hard enough in darkness on little ambient lightning, you will see some shadows or the light changing, etc. Who knows, though. Also we did have what seemed to be, the whole 2nd floor to ourselves at this time. That made everything easier, so I can't wait to have the place to ourselves.

We head to the Chapel Room and run into some of our group who are looking madly for the morgue, not really have checked it ourselves, we agree to show them where it is. Basically down the steps, which are beside the Chapel and to the right. We check out this room a little, no time hardly left. So we go through it and do some quick and I mean quick EVP work, then it's back up to the Chapel to meet up with everyone else.

That concludes our late evening of investigating at Waverly. Hopefully, I'll get the Evidence up soon, because I know there is some good stuff to put up. Can't wait to go back and have the place to ourselves.

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