Photo Gallery | NEWS10 SCARATHON: Loomis Paranormal Investigation

LOOMIS, CA - News10 followed along with the team at Roland Paranormal for an investigation of a reportedly haunted property in Loomis as part of the first annual News10 Halloween Scarathon seires.   

Upon first glance, there was nothing remotely frightening about the location.  There were no towering spires or gloomy graveyards to be seen.  Just several sprawling acres of cattle ranch that was generally indiscernible from the surrounding, rolling landscape of Loomis.  But it turned out the working cattle ranch was as rich in history and legend as it was in cow pies.

The husband and wife co-owners of the RPI team, Steven and Jennifer Roland, relayed tales of five distinct locations on the property suspected to be haunted.

1. The Pony Express Stop – Located at the front of the property by the main road, this area was supposedly a rest point along the old Pony Express. 
2. The Small Barn – Recessed from the main road and up the hill, the small barn now serves as a hay barn.  RPI captured and EVP of a voice responding “no” to one of their questions here.  One team member also felt something touch her in the small barn.
3. The Big Barn – A short walk from the small barn, the large barn was the site where a young girl was hanged.  Legend has it that her own mother was suspected of the crime, but previous investigations indicated that a “bad cowboy” may have been the real culprit.
4. The Caretaker’s Home – North of the large barn, separated by two gates and an open pasture, the former caretaker’s home is the only spot on the property in which RPI has not ventured.  The property is not only run down, overgrown by thorny blackberry bushes, and home to roaming bobcats, but according to RPI, still guarded by its unpleasant former resident.
5. The Church – All that remains of the church is its slab foundation after it was set alight, along with the family of four who were intentionally locked inside.

Jennifer Roland also revealed that there were several small cemeteries on the property that nobody had been able to pinpoint.

Tools of the Trade

A collection of ghost hunting tools, unimpressive by appearance, but effective by design, were employed to capture various sensory elements.  Keep in mind, as Steven Roland pointed out, ghost hunting is a “parascience” not a science, and therefore so are the explanations as to how and why these tools function.

• Flashlight – The most important tool of all, as decried by the team.  As must hunts are performed at night in the dark the need for a light was obvious.  Also used to conduct flashlight conversations with spirits in which the entity turns the light on or off to answer questions.  A twist-on flashlight is turned to the point just before it is on.  Steven demonstrated on each occasion the effect was not produced by a barely-connecting contact, by banging the light on his hand, leg and other firm surfaces.
• Digital Camera- Just a plain, old digital camera.  Some even use cameras on their phones.
• Dowsing Rods – Two handheld, L-shaped rods that swivel open and closed.  It was not revealed how they work, but Steven proposed they may pick up on energy.  These are also used to detect water and minerals in the earth.
• Digital Voice Recorder – Used to capture electric voice phenomena – or EVP.
• Electromagnetic Frequency Detector – The most elaborate of the tools used, although it was the least used of all the tools on the investigation.
• Video Camera – With an infrared illuminator that made recording in the dark much easier.
• Laser Grid – A flashlight-type device that shone hundreds of small green dots of light across a surface.  Anything that passed in front would block out some of the green dots, alerting the team of a presence.

All of these tools were employed throughout the hunt, with the digital voice recorder and the flashlight seeming to be RPI’s tools of choice.  The News10 hunters had their own digital recorder (for interviews) and a professional digital camera.

The Investigation

The first stop on the investigation was to the old Pony Express stop, where sightings of a ghostly cowboy had been reported, along with tribal drumming arising from nowhere.  The land hand once belonged to Maidu Indians, according to the Rolands. 

While nothing was captured at the Pony Express stop, the News10 camera stopped working and randomly cycled through pictures.  This was an issue that plagued our team throughout the night.  While the intern operating the camera was not experienced with the camera, no other reports of malfunctioning were mentioned before or after the investigation.

Leaving the Pony Express stop, the crew headed up to the small barn for an EVP session and a flashlight conversation.  RPI team members reported several unexplained instances occurring on previous investigations of the small barn.  Once again, nothing was captured on film, audio or flashlight, but during an EVP session, both News10 team members, standing side-by-side, experienced the same feeling of something pushing on their lower backs, followed by what felt like something tugging on their shirts.  RPI did not pick up anything on their EMF recorder in the location where this occurred.

The hunt then moved to the old caretaker’s house that was by far the eeriest looking stop on the tour and the first location where anything of note was captured.  First, on one of the RPI digital cameras, a bright, white circle of light appeared in front of the dilapidated structure.  To clarify the difference between this light and a dust orb, Jennifer Roland pointed out that contrary to a dust orb; this circle was solid, bright and self illuminating.  The News10 camera also captured an anomaly at the caretaker’s home. A glowing line, like a small lightning bolt streaked across the image about eight feet above the ground.

The next and final point in the investigation was the interior of the large barn.  In relaying the history of the approximately 100-year-old wooden barn, Steve and Jennifer said the location was home to at least three ghosts, including the little girl who was hanged, her mother, and a non-human entity that Jennifer referred to as “most unpleasant”.    Once in the barn, a flashlight conversation was conducted in a small storage room.  This time the flashlight turned on and off repeatedly, following a series of questioning that lasted about ten minutes. 

While in the room, several of the RPI team also reported feeling cold spots, believed to be created by spirits in the area drawing energy in the form of heat from the air.  When the flashlight activity finally ceased, the investigation adjourned upstairs to the loft where the little girl was said to have been hanged. 

Another flashlight conversation was conducted in the loft, along with several EVP recordings.  The laser grid was also used in this location. 

Once again, the News10 camera picked up more light anomalies when it decided to take pictures.  A direct line of bright light was captured rising straight from the flashlight being used to communicate with the non-human entity believed to inhabit the barn.  Other pictures were taken of the same area with different cameras in an attempt to recreate the image, but none returned the same results.

The investigation was brought to a close about three hours after commencing.    

The Findings

All of the News10 pictures have been posted in this gallery, but mysteriously, all of the audio recordings taken at the caretaker's home and inside the big barn were lost.

Proof as to whether the Loomis property was haunted, could not, and as some would say, cannot, be verified.  However, there were several events on the night that could definitely not be explained.  The RPI team will continued to review their findings down to the most minute detail, and could take as long as a month or more to completely process, and have agreed to share any positive findings of paranormal activity. 

Whether you believe in ghosts, poltergeists, demons or the like, each member of the RPI team is unwavering in their conviction that the deceased coexist with the living.  And while some of their approaches may be deemed a charade by nonbelievers, they go about their work with an unwavering commitment to capture solid proof rather than to deceive the public.  And after all, the same level of commitment despite ridicule and reproach to misunderstood theories and beliefs, was displayed by the likes of Christopher Columbus and Louis Pasture, without whom we would not have discovered penicillin or the fact that our world is not flat.