Gibson Heritage Guitar Factory
Kalamazoo Enterprise Center
Kalamazoo, Michigan
March 20, 2009
Moon phase: Last Quarter Moon
Weather: Chilly and windy
Spring Equinox
Actual investigation time: 4.25 hours
Investigators present: Dan Holroyd, Eve Holroyd, Amie Fournier-Flather, Kevin Hanna, Deb Parra-Sacchetti, Adrian Johnson, Deb Bresnahan, Denise Gowen-Krueger, Doug Krueger, Andru Hunter, Randy Nepala
Junior SMP members present: Dillon Thompson, Samie Holroyd and Ashley Pyle
Guest investigator: Courtney from Lake Michigan Paranormal Society (LMPS)
We arrived at 21:00 hours and met with John Thingstad, the building manager for Kalamazoo Enterprise Center. He conducted a walk-through of the buildings for all the team leaders of the group. This was to help familiarize the team leaders to the layout of the buildings for investigative purposes.
We set up cameras in the original Gibson building that now houses heritage Guitar. Camera 31 was set up on the third floor in the finishing department at the rear of the building. Camera #2 was located on the second floor facing the elevator and hallway entrance. Camera #3 was located in the rear cutting room on the basement level – this room also houses the offices for Heritage Guitar. Camera #4 was located in the newer factory area facing the old maintenance office area.
The team leaders were assigned two people per team. The Junior SMP team members were split throughout the SMP team leaders for training as this was their first investigation. The investigation began at 11:11pm (23:11) with two teams in the new factory section and two teams working the old factory on the third floor and the basement. My team monitored the equipment first at home base on the second floor. Each team worked their area for approximately 20 minutes and then switched out with the others so each team was able to work every section during the investigation. My team went last and worked each area for 20-30 minutes. My team experienced voices and knocking in response to questions when we were in the finishing room on the third floor. We experienced movement of shadows and noises in the basement work areas also.
The new factory was very low on activity for us except in the loading area located in the north of the building exhibited a large EMF leak from under the concrete just adjacent to a main power box where the wire harness went directly to the floor. The base EMF reading for the whole factory recorded during an EMF sweep was 0.1-0.3 MilliGauss range.
We took many pictures and used digital recorders. Our videographer, Doug Krueger, was present and reported a possible shadow that passed in front of his camera while filming the investigation as well as some other light incidents.
The review on this investigation should prove to be very interesting! My personal experiences ranged from light to medium but I did hear a voice on the third floor (quite loudly) that startled me. This was the first incident in a long time to affect me this way. I felt very strongly that my team should sit and work that room so my team decided to try to call out the entity that seemed to want to communicate with us. We heard a groan and knocking in response to our asking specific questions that seemed to calm down just minutes after we had radio traffic.
My team also worked the second floor old cafeteria area near command central. Here we experienced something moving and talking in the rear studios located in this section. We did not have access to these studios at this time but we could clearly hear and see shadows moving in this area. We then worked the basement workshop and office areas of Heritage Guitar. We experienced shadows moving quickly as if darting up and down the workshop areas. I had something move away from me in the office area but could not get a reading as to what it might have been or a reaction on my equipment. After thirty minutes, we called it a wrap and began break-down.
During the investigation, the night watchman, Howard Sutton, who also worked for Gibson Guitar shared stories and his paranormal experiences with us. He shared his Gibson history book with us that was filled with some great photos and information. The group and I would like to thank him and John Thingstad for all they did to make this a fun and exciting experience.
Interviews with ex-employees and current tenants will be available soon – some quite interesting stories there!
Dan “Big Dog” Holroyd
Founder/ Lead Investigator
