Rob and Tom in the News: Ghosts the focus of Historical Society talk

Recently in the Carroll County Times, the following article appeared after Margaret, who leads Inspired Ghost Tracking (which we are investigators for) gave a talk in the county. This talk followed an investigation that Tom and I took part in and is reported here in the article! 
Http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/ghosts-the-focus-of-historical-society-talk/article_bce78422-34d3-5d86-93a7-6dbe351fc65e.HTML

Ghosts the focus of Historical Society talk

Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 4:50 pm, Wed Oct 10, 2012.

By Carrie Ann Knauer Times Staff Writer | 0 comments

In the 12 years that Cathy Baty has worked at the Historical Society of Carroll County, she’s never seen unusual sights or felt the presence of a spiritual being.
But paranormal investigators who have searched the Cockey’s Tavern property that now serves as the headquarters for the historical society say they have found evidence of ghosts inhabiting the property.

Margaret Ehrlich, organizer of Inspired Ghost Tracking, gave a preliminary report of her group’s findings after a recent investigation of the property at Tuesday’s box lunch talk called “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” Ehrlich’s group was formed in 2008 and is based in Jessup, though members have done ghost tracking around the state and in the Gettysburg, Pa., area.

About two weeks ago, several members of Inspired Ghost Tracking and medium Rob Gutro went through the historical society’s building on East Main Street on a mission to search for signs of ghosts and spirits. Ehrlich said she is still waiting to receive photographs with suspicious images from other group members, but she was able to give Gutro’s impressions of the walkthrough.

On the right side of the building, which is now the Shop at Cockey’s, Gutro reported sensing a male ghost in his 30s to 40s, wearing a dark suit and a white apron. He believes the man was the bartender when the building was a tavern, and said he kept repeating “Merriman” or “merry man.”

On the left side of the building, which is used as museum exhibit space, Gutro said he could sense the names of the dolls on display, and that he could tell that there was a disabled girl who had lived in the house at some time.

(CORRECTION) Tom W. sensed the presence of a man named Harry, and felt an even stronger presence when he came across the painting of Harry Kimmey, a former owner of the historical society-owned Kimmey house, just a few doors down from Cockey’s. Gutro reported that he believes Harry came to Cockey’s just to see the visitors, but that he still resides in his original home.

Gutro enters an investigation without doing any prior research of the property, Ehrlich said, and they were able to find lots of supportive information for the details that he sensed at the property. She said she’s looking forward to receiving the photographs from other members to see what they were able to capture visually.

Ehrlich showed examples of photographs from previous investigations that got some audible reactions from the audience. At the Dr. Samuel Mudd house in Waldorf, for example, a member took a photograph of another member looking out the window. But a mirror in the photograph shows a stairway in the background with a man standing on the last step looking into the room — a man that was not with their group, Ehrlich said.

Many of the images Ehrlich showed distinctively looked like human forms, though Ehrlich also showed examples of ghostly images that were proved not to be of ghosts. In some cases the people really were in the photo, but the image was distorted by a combination of backlighting and the flash, she said, and in other cases it was a statue and a rain coat that someone had hung up.

Not every investigation yields results, she said. The group conducts a lengthy interview with those seeking to have a property investigated before visiting the house to make sure the call seems legitimate. Ehrlich and the audience chuckled when she mentioned some of those questions include “Do you drink? Do you do drugs? What medications are you on?”

“We dedicate ourselves to investigate, document and provide help and intervention with paranormal supernatural phenomena to clients in need,” Ehrlich said. “Our goal is to provide a free, confidential service that demonstrates professional integrity [through] a combination of science and parapsychology.”

Despite never feeling the presence of ghosts herself, Baty said she’s looking forward to the full report from the Inspired Ghost Tracking group. Other paranormal investigators have been through the building before, she said, and it will be interesting to compare their findings.