Thursday, June 21, 2007
When Donna L. MacLean speaks of the past coming to life, she isn't simply quoting a middle school history teacher. For Mrs. MacLean, the past is an everyday presence. It is an uninvited and unwelcome guest.
"It started right after we first bought the house seven years ago," she said, referring to the house on Orchard Hill Drive in Rutland that she shares with her husband, Gerald A. MacLean, and her son, Nicholas VanKleef. "I would feel a presence or I would hear sounds in the basement, but there was never anybody there."
Resting on a calm, suburban side street, the MacLeans' home does not fit the traditional image of a haunted house. Built in 1996, its modern design and trim lawn seem better hosts to a group of playing children than to supernatural phenomena, yet the MacLeans describe occurrences that are, to them, without explanation.
"In the beginning, I didn't really know what to make of it, until there was a time I got slapped on the leg," Mrs. MacLean said. She described sitting in the kitchen with her daughter and husband when she heard and felt the sudden slap.
"And I turned to my husband, who's never hit me, and said `Why did you hit me?'" Neither her husband nor her daughter believed that she had been hit until the next morning, when she awoke with a large bruise.
The MacLeans described a range of odd phenomena in the house, from rooms shaking at the walls and windows to Mrs. MacLean's purse being inexplicably flung across a room, landing at Mr. MacLean's feet. The events became more frequent and more noticeable as time went on, and the fear began to wear on Mrs. MacLean.
"Sometimes there'd be weeks where nothing would happen," Mrs. MacLean explained, "But sometimes it would happen days in a row."
As they became less and less skeptical of what they described as paranormal activity, the MacLeans began to research the supernatural. While searching the Internet for a way to remove ghosts, Mrs. MacLean stumbled upon the Web site of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, commonly known as TAPS, which is known for its paranormal investigations done on the television program "Ghost Hunters."
"I had never seen the show, but I sent them an e-mail describing the situation," she said. The society took an interest in their case and, last October, came to perform a full investigation that was taped for television.
The MacLeans were impressed by the attitude and professionalism of the investigative team.
"It's not like you can open the Yellow Pages and look for something like this," Mr. MacLean said.
Mrs. MacLean described them as understanding regarding the situation, but added, "They try to do everything they can to disprove what you're saying and come up with a good explanation for what happened."
A group of investigators, described by Mr. MacLean as "electricians and plumbers," thoroughly examined the house, searching for possible causes in its structure or construction. Investigators also spent an evening in the house, during which they captured footage of strange phenomena as it was occurring. Although there were some things the team observed that they could explain, other occurrences, such as a faucet turning itself on, eluded their expertise.
To the MacLeans, the conclusions of the investigation, aired during last night's episode of "Ghost Hunters" on the Sci-Fi channel, verified their experience.
"The information we got has made me feel better about it," Mrs. MacLean said last night, but added, "We'll move out eventually."