What goes bump in the night

/Home/Haunted Locations/Haunted Canada

What goes bump in the night
May 8, 2011
Tillsonburg News

WALSINGHAM — A kitchen tap that magically turns on and off. A trail of unexplained smoke rings. An ancestor that visits in the middle of the night.

These may be the perfect ingredients for a horror flick. In the case of Darrell Hazen and Tammy McKillen, this is everyday life at their Walsingham homestead.

The couple has long believed their County Road 60 home is also home to spirits of ancestors. They have a laundry list of strange occurrences — noises, feelings and even sightings — that they haven't been able to logically explain over the years.

"A lot of stuff has happened in this house and it's not only us that experienced it," McKillen said last night.

The sprawling property has been in the Hazen family since the late 18th century. Hazen himself grew up on the family farm before inheriting it from his father Winston.

Even as a child, Hazen recalls being creeped out in the house. Now he has regular visits from his grandfather Samuel LaForge.

"I've woken up in the middle of the night and seen him standing above my bed," Hazen said last night. "I say, 'Hey grandpa,' and roll over and go back to bed."

While Hazen has never felt threatened by the spirits, the couple decided to call the crew of a new paranormal television show to investigate their claims. The expert panel from Paranormal Home Inspection visited Norfolk County earlier this week. The television show's certified Ontario home inspector, intuitive healer and paranormal investigator conducted a three-day investigation of the Hazen property. They also completed research at the Eva Brook Donly Museum.

"All this information is put together and presented to the homeowners and it's up to them on how they wish to proceed," said Matt Hoos, director of Paranormal Home Inspection.

Answers couldn't come soon enough for the family. "I don't want to move out of his house because the family has always lived here, but when it's like this, I do want to move," McKillen said.

Tapping into local archives, the television crew worked on piecing together the history of the Hazen property at the Eva Brook Donly Museum on Tuesday.

"An area like this is really steeped in the Loyalist history and even the families that have been here for years," Hoos said.

In the case of the Hazen homestead, ancestor Daniel Hazen was a United Empire Loyalist that received the parcel of land from the Queen in 1797. Since that time, countless ancestors have passed through the property, possibly justifying their ghostly visits.

"I think it may be the oldest (residence) we've encountered so far (on the show) and the fact it stayed in the same family is amazing," Hoos said.

Understanding the rich stories — from newspaper clippings, from witnesses, from clients — is a crucial part of checking out paranormal claims, said Michelle McKay, the show's paranormal investigator. She runs Cold Spot Paranormal Research and Investigation Unit with teams across the province. "I really love the historical research part of it," she said between a break in filming Tuesday. "It's really, really interesting."

A paranormal investigation also includes utilizing a variety of technology. Portable ultrasound units, photography and surveillance equipment can be brought in to research claims. McKay, who currently lives in Collingwood, started investigating paranormal claims after her own experience with the other side. Growing up in Toronto, McKay lived in a house haunted by ghosts. She started reading about paranormal activities much to the chagrin of her parents. "They were heavily Catholic, so they tried to ward me away into other activities, but there was a lot of poltergeist activities at the home I was living in when I was 10," McKay said.

While her occupation once raised eyebrows, the growing popularity of paranormal television shows has helped create an understanding of her work. She finds more people are believers rather than skeptics.

Although paranormal investigations may not uncover all the answers, the process itself can simply be comforting for those experiencing the unexplainable.

"I bring a lot of relief to the families," she said.

The premiere season of Paranormal Home Inspection will start airing this August on the Discovery Investigation channel.