OAK FOREST, IL – The moon was full and the air was crisp on the night of September 18, when Don and Elayne Archer of Oak Forest visited Forest Home-German Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park. It was on this late summer night that the duo said they gathered “extreme paranormal evidence”.
The duo, which includes Spectrewaves Paranormal, have been investigating together since 2006. Both are passionate about finding out where our energy goes once we die. Elayne said she is a “sensitive”, meaning she can choose where she thinks they will capture the most paranormal evidence of their hunts. The couple said they learned the skills to use scientific tools in their paranormal investigations and interpret their data.
Afterlife tours have a contract with the cemetery to allow paranormal tours and investigations for the public, which is how the group set aside time in the cemetery, legally. Although the group has been investigating paranormal experiences for years, they said the Forest Home-German Waldheim Cemetery was also alive that September night.
Find out what’s going on in oak forest with free real-time Patch updates.
“This particular cemetery was so busy compared to all the other cemeteries we’ve been to,” Don said. “We really couldn’t keep this to ourselves.”
History of the cemetery
Before the cemetery became what it is today, it was a burial ground for the Potawatomi tribe, according to the group. German Waldheim was incorporated in 1873 and Forest Home Cemetery was incorporated in 1876. In 1969 the two cemeteries officially merged. Forest Home is the English translation of the German word Waldheim.
Find out what’s going on in oak forest with free real-time Patch updates.
Thousands of immigrants living in Chicago, whose deceased were not welcome in Chicago cemeteries, were buried there. The non-sectarian policies, location, non-denominational nature, and large number of fraternal and union plots of the cemeteries have made it the burial site of choice for a wide range of individuals.
Newspaper deliverer”
When the couple went out to the cemetery that night, they captured a man in a photo – but said no man was present. This photo was taken near a 3.5 million dollar mausoleum, surrounded by huge columns.
Paranormal hunters always take at least three or more photos in a frame to “debunk” strange photos. After reviewing other photos from the same session, the group said no other photos featured what they believed to be a man.
“It looks like he’s wearing a newspaper boy’s hat, with suspenders, and a bag, like they’re his work tools,” Don said. “The man appears to be in his mid-40s. His features are very defined and there is no doubt that there is someone in the photo. His body is somewhat transparent.”
The spirit box
Investigators use a “spirit box” that scans AM/FM radio frequencies to allow spirits to communicate, according to the group.
That night, the group said the box uttered a name in the chapel – “Rich Malloff” – and they heard a spirit tell them to “take a picture” so they could see it. The couple also heard a boy say “hi mum”.
They uploaded a video to YouTube of their experiences in the chapel.
In another video, the name Rich came up once again, along with the names Cynthia and Tom, the band said. When Spectrewaves asked how long the spirits had been there, one spirit replied “too long”.
crawl on the ground
Another strange encounter, according to the group, occurred that night: they saw a figure crawling and rolling on the ground between the headstones. They captured this entity on their “SLS Kinect,” investigators said.
SLS stands for Structured Light Sensor. The 3D mapping camera is made from a modified Xbox Kinect.
Skepticism
Both Ghostbusters said they are big fans of paranormal TV shows. This is what first brought them together to begin these investigations. They wanted to know: is it real?
“We decided that after watching the shows that were popular at the time, we wanted to try it out for ourselves, especially after online blogs kept saying these guys were faking evidence,” said Don. “Just for our own benefit, we wanted to know if they were really tampering with evidence. So we bought some equipment that they use and said, ‘Let’s see if this really works.'”
The pair started going to supposedly haunted places, testing their gear for the first time. Not expecting anything specific, Don and Elayne began collecting what they say is evidence of paranormal activity.
“I can’t guarantee that 100% of the things you see on TV are correct. But I can tell you everything we put out, we take pride in what we do and we make sure nothing is faked “, said Don mentioned. “Some things can be faked, which we’ve learned over time, but we don’t fake anything.”
Elayne, a cancer survivor, said she could sense when spirits were close.
“I was never skeptical. When I was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. And so basically I had to be resuscitated,” Elayne said. “Ever since I was born, death always followed me and I always reached this death row.
“I’m trying to get answers, to figure out what it is. Is it a parallel universe, are there different dimensions, is it just when we die, there’s something else? It has to there’s a reason why I’m still here after all this misfortune that makes me really curious. I’ve been like that all my life.
Watch more of the pair’s experiments on YouTube
