SEDALIA, Mo. — A group of Missourians is checking homes and other buildings for hauntings by spirits and ghosts.
The group of investigators reports that they have had plenty of firsthand encounters but indicate that about 60 percent of their cases can be attributed to normal explanations such as odd lighting, old pipes and the wind. The remainder, they say, stem from the paranormal.
The Sedalia Democrat reports that the Sedalia Ghost Hunters were formed in 2005 by Britt Faaborg and now includes about a dozen members. Faaborg said the group has encountered intelligent spirits with which they can interact and poltergeists, in which objects move without explanation.
Faaborg said most common are residual hauntings such as a case last year where people claimed to see a woman walking across the dining room from one bedroom to another in what seemed to be the every-night occurrence of a former resident.
The Sedalia investigators can spend five or six hours investigating a case and must be wary of people with a tendency to report false occurrences. Faaborg said his team believes that ghosts exist but do not approach new cases with assumptions.
The group includes a psychiatrist and someone who works with a sleep-study team.
“I’m very proud of our team,” Faaborg said. “It’s very well-rounded and that helps in our investigations. Sometimes people will say, ‘I woke up and saw this.’ Well, maybe you weren’t totally awake when you saw it. So we have a lot of different avenues we can pursue in our investigations.”
For Faaborg, who is a middle school music teacher, one of his earliest experiences also was the most personal.
When he was in high school and several weeks after his grandfather died, Faaborg said he said hello to him while driving past a cemetery.
“When I got home, I walked into the kitchen and smelled cigar smoke. My grandfather always smoked cigars. I went into the living room and my parents said, ‘Who have you been around that’s been smoking?”’ Faaborg said.