Bellaire House Investigation

The Iroquois and Shawnee Indian tribes originally lived on the property. The property is said to sit on a leyline which can often intensify any paranormal events. There was a connection to the Underground Railroad according to John Madox, owner of the Underground Railroad Museum. Civil War muskets were also found on the property. The house was built around 1904 by Jacob Heatherington who owned a coal mine that runs directly beneath the house. Forty-two people died in a mine explosion and fire and the bodies were never recovered. Jacob owned almost all the mines in the Ohio Valley. In the mid-1800s, a fire started under the Bellaire House in Coal Mine #1 that was eventually put out at a cost of $8500.

Behind the house is a Native American Indian burial cave where magical rituals were often practiced. The house is approximately 2500 square feet and sits on just under an acre of land.

Jacob Heatherington arrived in Bellaire in 1832 with his parents and settled near the Ohio River and worked in the coal industry for Captain Fink. He rented out a small cabin from Captain Fink and soon met a woman who was to become his wife, Eliza Armstrong. Jacob became a millionaire and was one of the largest tax-payers in Belmont County. He fathered 10 children of which only eight survived to adult-hood.

When Jacob died, he left the coal mine to his granddaughter, Lyde who later died in the Dining Room of the building. Brother Edwin had also lost a twin sister when he was a youngster. He, later, hired mediums in an attempt to contact Lyde and became very interesting in spiritualism. There have been numerous deaths in the house, including at least one suicide and an overdose.

Kristen Lee purchased the current building in 2005 for around $46,000 and opened it up to paranormal groups to investigate.

Address: 1699 Belmont St., Bellaire, Ohio 43906

Phone: 740-579-1841

Owner: Kristen Lee

Website: www.facebook.com/thebellairehouse

Hauntings: Shadow images have been seen including one thought to be none other than Edwin Heatherington. Some have complained about bad headaches while investigating here. Numerous EVPs have been captured via Ghost Boxes.

One evening owner, Lee, was attacked as she lay sleeping and her dog was apparently thrown against the wall! During an EVP session with the owner, the words “Haley” and “Witch” came through a real-time device. Lee later said that she knows a person named Haley who is a Wiccan.

Apparitions of both adults and children have been encountered and equipment malfunctions are quite common including one time while using a REM Epod.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Bellaire House on September 14, 2019 and the team members included: Barbara Meagher and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Dean Thompson from Ghost Head Soup, Bob Davies and Lori Wienke-Leger from Champaign Urbana Paranormal Society

Equipment setup: Several camcorders were set up both upstairs and downstairs. A lot of hand-held equipment was used: Melmeters, K-II Meter, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, Ultrasound Detector, digital recorders, X-Cam SLS device, Phasma Box, Ovilus X, SB-11 Ghost Box.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X, ParaTek sessions were conducted in the Basement, Kitchen, Attic and Living Room. In the Kitchen we performed an ITC experiment using an old analog television which cannot receive television signals and we videotaped the screen along with asking questions with a digital recorder. In the Attic, we used a Van de Graff generator which produces static electricity and later a few minutes of quiet time. In the Living Room, the X-Cam SLS device was used.

Personal encounters:

Barbara Meagher: First a session was held in the parlor with several pieces of equipment. I did a 6 min EVP session with no EVPs heard on recording.

Next was an investigation in one of the bedrooms. We all spent 15 minutes in a bedroom other than the one we were to sleep in. I got no activity with either EVP or ghost ball.

We then all went to the attic where a session was held but no activity was experienced or recorded after 20 minutes.

On Sept 15, I was woken up by a woman’s voice in the hallway outside my room. It seemed she was having a conversation with someone but I could not make out who was responding to her. The voices were at 7:43 am, and my alarm was set for 8:00. I was sure it was the other female investigator, Lori, speaking with her husband. I got up and started packing my car. On my second trip upstairs I saw Dean and he asked if anyone else was awake yet. I told him yes that I had heard Lori up early and that her talking woke me up early. On my last trip into the house, I saw Lori and mentioned that she was quite the early bird. It was now 8:30. Lori told me she had just woken up and that she could not have been the source of the voice I heard that morning.

Dean Thompson: I really had a great time at the Bellaire house and Kristin Lee is a cool host. As we started to acclimate ourselves with the home, the place felt welcoming, we do know that a large event took place the night before, so maybe the energy was removed. The night went on with minimum occurrences until Lori and I went into the Altar Room. At one moment I received an impression of a taller servant woman handling the linen when Lori claimed that she spotted a taller shadow behind me. Lori stated that it looked like an arm was raised in the air possibly folding linen. Nothing was captured on video or audio during this time, but the fact that we both sensed this at the same time was strange in itself. Shortly after this, and moments before Dale walked in, I smelt a strong cigarette smoke enter the room, which is odd as nobody that was there smokes. I checked the window to see if any neighbors were smoking but didn't see anybody. I will have to venture back to Ohio and the Bellaire house to hopefully get evidence of the hauntings.

Dale Kaczmarek: I did not feel anything while investigating the Bellaire House. It was a cool place to investigate with a lot of history. There was a group investigating the night before, so perhaps some of the energy was drained and maybe the spirits were weary. I did pick up a stick figure in the Living Room during our last EVP session.

Evidence collected:

One Bellaire.MP4 – while using the X-cam SLS device in the Living Room, a stick figure appears near the mantle of the fireplace disappears and then reappears near a ball and chair. The figure seems to be reacting with the ball.

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: Basement – circle and freeze; phonetic mode – ice and touch; ParaTek – grape, Haley, field, devil, voices, quick, witch, record, Harper, can, you bet, smoke, guess, get, instead and energy.

Kitchen area – ParaTek – Nick, yield, beaten, go, ease, Harry, round, a lot, flower, into, into, across, beware, fit, wanted, while, hell, faint, adult, nice, orb, more, warm, interest, entire, nurse, level, one, fun, gateway, intension, miserable, ice, indicate, basement, part, opium, reel, John, intermittent, religion, easy, hunter, affair and intent.

Ovilus X – Living Room – happen, captain dollar and sugar.

Conclusions: The house was abnormally quiet, even during EVP sessions. Even the Phasma Box was quiet except for some laughing sounds with in the Attic. There were some interesting words that did come through the ParaTek app device including some names; Nick, Harry, Harper, Haley and John. The word “nurse” came through and Meagher is a nurse in real time. During the first ParaTek session in the Basement, Haley came through following, after a few words, by witch. The owner mentioned this to us that she knows a Haley who is a witch!

Opium came through and there was indeed a drug overdose here in the past. Nothing was found during our ITC experiment in the Kitchen and the Attic was quiet during our Van de Graff and Quiet Time experiment.

Perhaps as some have suggested, the previous night’s visitors had drained the building of energy or the spirits were simply tired of conversing with anyone.

This is still a great building for paranormal investigations and I believe the smaller the number, the better the chance of picking up something in evidence review.