Porter County Jail Investigation

The sheriff’s residence was built in 1860. Originally, a log stockade was directly behind the house and served as the holding cell for prisoners. The structure is Italianate in design. It is located on East Indiana Ave, which was Mechanic Street when the house was built. The building is accessible through the Historical Society of Porter County’s Museum located in the Historic County Jail on Franklin Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The jail was added to the residence around 1871 for a combined cost of $26,500. Prior to its construction, prisoners were taken to LaPorte County. Designed by R. Rose using Gothic Revival styling with a showing of strength and a commanding presence in the community, Shad and Lembke were the builders. A new jail was opened in 1974 and this facility closed.

The historic Porter County Jail is the home of the Historical Society of Porter County.

Located at: 153 S. Franklin St., Valparaiso, IN. 46383

Hauntings: The suspected hauntings are various noises; people being touched, shadow people, doors opening and closing.

Equipment setup: An IR camera and supplemental IR illuminator was set up in the cells on the right where the glass cases are. On top of the cases were placed four negative ion detectors.

Experiments performed: EVP sessions were conducted in the downstairs jail cells, living room with the fireplace and Abe Lincoln room.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Porter County Jail on September 24, 2011. Team members included: Stan Suho, Mike Lewis and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Rebecca Sommers and Ashley Ottenstein from Kindred Spirits and others.

Personal experiences:

Stan Suho: This was not much of an investigation, more like an inspection. There were way too many people there to do a complete setup. We did set up one or two of Dale's cameras and made a make shift Command Post in one room. One camera was connected to a 7 inch monitor and that was about it. G.E.I.S.T. was not used all though some devices were used as hand helds.

The group though large was pretty quiet so we concentrated on EVPs. We did a couple upstairs and two in the Cell Block area. I made my usual walk arounds taking pictures and using my Night Vision Viewer. The EVP sessions were quite large and make me wonder if we shouldn't limit the number in future sessions.

Conclusions: Since my roll was supporting Dale and taking pictures there is little to report. Since this was a large building with lots of rooms and cell areas I think a follow up would be in order here with just our group and all equipment. I noted several places G.E.I.S.T. could have been setup.

Evidence collected:

Hungry.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells on the right, a question is asked, ‘How was the food?” The response is a Class A EVP that responds with, “Hungry.” (However I cannot be absolutely sure someone in the group didn’t say this.)

Leave leave.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells on the right, a question is asked, “Do you want us to leave?” The Ghost Box responds with what I believe sounds like a faint, “Leave.” A follow up question is asked, “Do you want us to stay?” The Ghost Box responds with a definite, “Leave.”

Choked me choke.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the left, the Ghost Box suddenly says, “Choked me…choke.”

David.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the left, a question is asked, “Tell us who you are?” The Ghost Box responds with, “David.”

Don’t any of you believe in spirits.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the left, the Ghost Box suddenly says an entire sentence in the same voice, ‘Don’t any of you believe in spirits?”

Hissing.MPG a strange loud hissing sound was picked up on the infrared camcorder that was monitoring the downstairs prison cells to the right.

Low noise.MPG a strange low noise was picked up on the infrared camcorder that was monitoring the downstairs prison cells to the right.

Two.MPG an EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the left, a question is asked, “How many were in this cell?” The Ghost Box responds with, “Two.”

During the first EVP session in the Living Room the Ovilus said: James and woman. It said “woman” after a cabinet was mysteriously opened. Later we discovered that someone had leaned against it. However a cold breeze was felt by many when the cabinet opened up.

During the EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the left, the Ovilus said: frame and lube. The Ghost Radar application said: raise, construction, difficulty, gas, shirt and growth.

During the EVP session in the downstairs prison cells to the right, the Ovilus said: police, stared, or here, terrible, help you and hate. The Ghost Radar said: somehow, coast, attempt, composed, identity, maps and ground. The interesting words obviously were the connection to police since this was a jail and maps and ground. Another researcher in a adjacent jail cell found on the ground books on Geography (maps) on the ground!

During the EVP session in the Abe Lincoln room the Ovilus said: broke and dig. I thought was interesting that “dig” was said seeing that there were a lot of artifacts that were indeed dug up from the ground. The Ghost Radar said: pie, attempt, probably, crowd, nodded, might, universe, constantly, bar, card, double, wherever, track, promised and growth. The interesting connections were bar as there is a tavern around the corner and that you might have to be carded to get inside.

During the last EVP session also in the Living Room which was a larger group session, the Ovilus said: James, spell and help. This was the second time it said the name James in that same room! The Ghost Radar was quiet.

Soon after setting up the infrared camcorder which was monitoring the downstairs prison cells to the right, a music box was heard playing in the background, “Raindrops keep falling on my head.” It is unknown why that box just suddenly decided to play by itself.

Conclusions:

There were too many people and they were too loud to conduct a proper ghost investigation of this location. However I did pick up some interesting responses on the Ghost Box especially around the downstairs prison cells. The entire sentence spoken, “don’t any of you believe in ghosts?” was quite profound and wasn’t heard at the time because of background noise and talking within the group. It was of the same voice at the highest scan rate of almost two channels per second. This voice is either talking over several frequencies or on the white noise in between the stations.

The responses of the Ovilus like: police, maps, ground dig and using the proper name James twice was quite interesting as these words had some real meaning to the place that I was investigating.

I would be interested in perhaps investigating this location again with a smaller group, with more equipment and cameras set up, a full G.E.I.S.T. setup and less contamination. I never had a chance to go into the basement for any EVP sessions and understand that was one area that has a lot of activity as well. I would like to try some trigger objects there, role playing and perhaps some mild provoking to see what kind of response that would illicit from the ghosts. Perhaps placing oneself in the role of prison guards, warden, prisoners, etc. could be beneficial for interaction with the spirits that may be there. I truly believe that this location could very well have some paranormal activity.