Case #40 (40b)
Helmsburg, Indiana- Old Helmsburg School
November 8th, 2008
History
 HPR
was recently given access to the old Helmsburg High School building in
Helmsburg, Indiana . The building was built in 1922 and housed the
town’s high school until the 1970’s. It was
purchased in the 1980’s by ‘For Bare Feet’, a
sock manufacturing company. The building was used for production and
silk screening until a new facility was built next door. The old school
building is now used for storage and an employee smoking break room.The town has been plagued from its beginning by fiery disaster. Wilson Helms brought his family from Ohio to Brown County in 1854. He built a very productive farm and became a leading citizen of the county. Then, sometime later, the Helm’s original farm house burned to the ground killing two of his daughters. In 1905, the railroad came through, they built the railway station in the center of the old Helms farm and that is when the hamlet got its name, Helmsburg. The first town fire was sometime in the late teens. Arson has always been suspected but never proven. It started at Joshua Bonds' grist mill and spread to The Bauman Brothers' Feed Store. One month later, another fire started, again in Joshua Bonds' Restaurant and also his Undertaker Supply Store. This became known as ‘The Great Fire’ because it took out most of the center of the town. Then, AGAIN, in the late 40's a gasoline truck that was filling the tanks of the local filling station sprang a leak and exploded. This fire destroyed the filling station and also burned down the lumberyard next door. The school house survived but what role it may have played during these crises is unknown to this writer. |
Reports
| There have been numerous reports of paranormal activity from residents and employees of ‘For Bare Feet’ including footsteps, voices, dark shapes and even a piece of wood being thrown from a shelf. HPR member, Joe, works for Bare Feet. We were joined that evening by a co- worker of Joe’s and 3 other guests. The guests had previously investigated the location and had captured interesting evidence. |
The Investigation and Findings
| HPR arrived at about 9:00 p.m. on
November 8, 2008. In attendance was; Robert, Greg, Kenny, Elisa, Joe
and Kelly. After a tour of the building’s hot spots we set up
a base in the employee break room and began to place our equipment. Equipment used included; four static mounted Digital Video Recorders set on night vision, 7 digital voice recorders, 1 EMF detector, 1 K2 meter, 1 digital surface thermometer and digital still cameras. Two of the DVRs were set up in the basement facing the double staircases where the apparition of a young girl has been seen. The other two DVRs were set up at opposite ends of the first floor hallway where numerous sightings of a shadowy figure have been reported. A digital voice recorder was placed within the field of each of the DVRs. One voice recorder was hand held by each team leader throughout the night’s investigation. The remaining voice recorders were placed in rooms where previous auditory phenomenon had been reported. Robert performed an initial EMF sweep of the building to establish a base reading. The K2 meter was used in several unsuccessful attempts during the night to “converse” with any willing entity. Digital still photographs were taken randomly by several investigators. Three teams were chosen. Each team was given 25 minute intervals to do sole investigations of both floors while the other teams waited silently in the base room. The first two teams reported minor incidents and feelings but no strong personal experiences. All 4 members of Team #3 had an actual sighting of a large dark shadow figure which moved fluidly across a room and into a corner of the ceiling where it disappeared. The room which we later referred to as “The Shadow Room” is also the space where EVP #1 was captured. Team #1 was present in “The Shadow Room” when EVP #1 was picked up -“Get Out Of Here”. This EVP is accompanied by loud unexplained bangs which were not noticed by the investigators at the time. *This EVP is still under discussion* In an adjacent room which we referred to as “The Box Room”, EVP #2 was captured just a few minutes later. In response to a statement made by one of the guest investigators, “We’re not scared of you”- a male voice- “Not..Yet”. The location at the foot of the staircases in the basement where the apparition of a young girl has been seen is the space where EVP #3 was captured - A child’s voice saying- “I’m Gonna Kill Her”, then 15 seconds later an intake of breath followed by an exhalation. These occurred just seconds after Kenny and Greg had exited the basement after an equipment check. EVP #4 was captured 1 minute and 45 seconds after EVP #3- a male’s voice says- “Mike”. Video of the area proves that no one was in the area when these basement recordings were captured. Aside from the sighting by Team #3, only minor experiences were reported during the night of the investigation. Kelly reported seeing a shadow when Robert was taking photos but there was no collaborating witness. Kelly and Elisa reported seeing a small green light dart across the floor of “The Bathroom” during an EVP session but no collaborating evidence was found. Kenny experienced what felt like something or someone touching his back in “The Shadow Room” during a walk through. And several knocks and other sounds seemed to be heard in response to EVP questioning by various members of the 3 teams. Kelly also captured an interesting still photograph taken outside of the building of “The Shadow Room” windows. There is an unexplained greenish glowing light in the room. This photo has not been fully analyzed yet by the group and is not, at this time, included in our evidence. All members and guests grouped in the upstairs hallway for one last EVP session from 3:00 a.m. to 3:15 a.m., at which time we wrapped. CLOSING STATEMENT This site has proved to be very interesting and a follow-up investigation will be planned for the future. Despite our efforts to minimize contamination of evidence, the condition of the building and the number of investigators present contributed to an overwhelming amount of ambient noise present on our recordings. We were quite fortunate to capture as much good evidence as we did. Future investigations of this site will be carried out differently and hopefully with even greater success. Investigation 2 (Case 40b)
Helmsburg, Indiana- Old Helmsburg School July 24th, 2010
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