Ghosthunter - Transcript
[Narrator]
On June ninth of 1912 a crime was committed in this small white house. A crime that is arguably Iowa’s greatest unsolved mystery. Here eight people, two adults and six children, were brutally murdered with an ax as they slept.
Dead were J.B. Moore and his wife, their four children, Herman, Catherine, Boyd and five-year-old Paul. And two young girls, Lena and Ina Stillinger, who were spending the night. It was a monstrous act that shocked the tiny southwestern Iowa town of Valisca and struck terror in the heartland.
[Dave Christiansen]
We know that the murderer was left-handed because the way that he left marks on the ceiling with the ax. So the murderer was left-handed, like this...
[Narrator]
Dave Christiansen is a paranormal investigator who is also known as a ghosthunter. He and his wife Leslie head a team that investigates those things that go bump in the night. It’s their belief that even though nearly a century has past, the victims... or rather the spirits of the victims still occupy this small white house where the murders took place.
[Dave Christiansen]
This isn’t really a haunted house. They’re existing here. They are trapped here for one reason or another. They’re going on their everyday life as usual whether or not they know that they’re deceased or not, I don’t know.
[Narrator]
Dave uses a variety of electronic devices to help him not just locate but also record the presence of spirits. An audio recorder, an infrared videocamera that can see in the dark, and emf meters that measure electro-magnetic radiation (or the stuff he claims ghosts are made of) are all part of the ghosthunter’s arsenal.
[Dave Christiansen]
You know they’re there. The hair on the back of your neck is standing up. That... you have goose bumps on your arms. You know it’s there, its watching. Its breathing down your neck and you turn around... there’s nothing there. But you know. The camera flashes and you get an image. A smoke or fog or an aura... a streak of light, something that’s... wasn’t there to begin with but its there now.
[Narrator]
According to Dave and Leslie, ninety percent of the paranormal activity that is caught on film cannot be seen with the eyes. That’s why Dave walks through the house with a digital camera, which takes pictures that can be viewed immediately. A television is hooked up to the infrared camera so information it records can also be seen immediately.
Invited guests and curious members of the community are soon glued to the monitor as they wait for something to happen.
[Leslie Christiansen]
The other thing we make sure of is that our witnesses are always there when we get there so they can watch us set up. So they can see we’re not setting up any unusual things that are hidden throughout the building that might... show on a film later. They see us coming in, going out, and they watch us the entire night.
[... again, with no new details of the investigation...]
[Narrator]
Dave and Leslie aren’t afraid to invite skeptical members of the media to serve as witnesses.
[I’m live now with the Channel...]
[Narrator]
On one occasion after videotaping in the house a news crew returned to their truck, only to discover the smell of rotten meat.
[...down there, no problems. But on the way back it suddenly developed a very strange odor. And I mean it is a... a terrible odor. Many of the reporters...]
[Narrator]
The truck had been locked and a guard had been posted nearby. Even after several cleanings the origin of the odor couldn’t be determined.
[Dave Christiansen]
Every little thing that goes bump in the night, we try to think of a reason why it made that bump. If we can’t come up with a logical reason why something occurred you know, then its gotta be something that we don’t understand.
[Narrator]
On the night we were in Valisca a bubble of light appeared on the television monitor for less than a second. It’s in the lower part of the screen beneath the chair in the corner. Dave has photographed seven such bubbles all in the same room at the same time. It’s what leads him to believe that there are at least seven entities in the house. What’s in the attic is something all together different.
[Dave Christiansen]
In here is where we have a black entity. He’s in here now but I don’t know where.
[Narrator]
Rod Morrissey, a member of Dave’s team of paranormal investigators, believes he can feel the presence of the supernatural. He told us that on one occasion he felt a powerful presence in the attic and asked his wife, Pam, to take a picture. A series of pictures shows something long and green above Rod’s head. Which seems to exit the attic through a window after Rod makes a hasty retreat from the room.
[Dave Christiansen]
Quite a few times when people have joined us to go through the house, this entity has physically pushed them out of the attic.
[Narrator]
Dave and Leslie has spent a fair amount of their own money investigating the murders that took place in Valisca in 1912 and believe they now know who committed them. Its information that they got from researching newspapers and historical documents, not from the spirits that they believe occupy the house.
[Leslie Christiansen]
And we have found that the more we investigate the past history, the more knowledge we have of whatever is there, the easier it is to make them leave or go on or whatever you want to call it.
[Narrator]
Whether or not you believe the evidence that Dave has gathered isn’t important to him. He became the ghosthunter when he began looking for answers after his first wife died. Answers that he believes he’s found.
[Dave Christiansen]
When I’m gone from here I’ll see her again. There’s no doubt in my mind and we’ll be together again. It’s going to be a next step into the… a higher evolution. So I’m not afraid of dying. And… I’ll see her again.
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