Ghosts at the former Homestead police station are ready for their close-up.
They, along with borough officials, will be featured on the Syfy original series "Ghost Hunters" Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Homestead police Chief Jeff DeSimone is featured in one of the promos for the episode titled "Ghost of Carnegie."
"Can't wait to see it," he said Monday morning. "I actually found out by accident (when it was airing). I was watching the show last week, and I saw a commercial for this week's show. Lo and behold, there I am on TV."
Crews filmed part of the episode outside the facility near the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Amity Street in May.
Officers were interviewed, and police secretary Vicci Kenna. Kenna was filmed in a place she thought she would never have to return -- the old station's basement.
Paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson were not at the station during that part of production.
DeSimone said he is not sure what findings will be presented Wednesday.
"It goes to editing and they do whatever. We're just curious to see how the show turned out," he said.
Kenna promised Monday morning that the TV spotlight will not "turn" her "Hollywood."
"I am so ready (for the show)," she said. "They want my autograph now because they figure that afterwards, when I make it big, then I might charge for autographs. I said, OK. I'll never forget where I came from."
Kenna and the chief said the department will not have a viewing party.
"We're gathering at our own abodes," she said.
Another trailer on the show's website, video.syfy.com/shows/ghosthunters, shows investigators using devices and a dog to search for paranormal activity at the music hall in the Carnegie Library of Homestead in Munhall.
Library president Dan Lloyd said the hunters explored the entire facility, including the athletic club, the pool, the boiler room, the main hall, the adult reading room and the music hall.
"They had all kind of equipment set up, listening devices and stuff," Lloyd said.
Staffers reported hearing and seeing unexplainable phenomena. A mysterious death in the pool was reported by the old Homestead News Messenger in November 1899.
According to that report, Robert E. Peebles, 25, died Nov. 28 around 10 p.m. "under mysterious circumstances" and "was found dead in 8 feet of water."
The episode promo online did not show the pool.
Lloyd said he is not sure what they are going to show, but he and library staff are anxious to find out.
"I think it's good," Lloyd said of having the library be part of the show. "It's fun. Some people take it seriously. If that's what they're into, that's fine.
"It gives us an opportunity to tell our story about a pretty historic place. I have friends that watch it religiously. We're all going to be watching it.
"We were going to try to put something together to watch it in the music hall, but we just were so busy with so many other things that we didn't get to do it. I'm sure most of the library people will be watching."
Ghost Hunters is not the first paranormal group to investigate the former police station, which originally was built as a post office. Hauntings Research conducted a study in May 2010 and released its findings in September of that year.
Hauntings Research founder Ed Ozosky said at the time that the jail cells contain a vortex for souls and spirits crossing into and out of the living world.
"I totally lost track of how many people were in there," Ozosky said. "One of the reasons there were so many people is that it literally had an open doorway for spirits to come and go ... (finding) a vortex is very rare."
The Greater Pittsburgh Paranormal Society gathered nearly 30 hours of video and 100 hours of audio at the former police station in 2008.
The recordings reportedly revealed screams coming from the basement and human figures moving about in a locked office.
DeSimone said the Syfy show could be a positive thing for Homestead.
"If nothing else, I look at it as something on the lighter side of life," he said. "It definitely isn't a bad thing. Sure as hell beats somebody getting shot, or a fire, or a murder.
"It's all been a pleasant experience. I made some new friends. I keep in contact with them. They're down-to-earth people. When I talk to them, we don't even talk about ghost investigations."
Even with all of the explorations and findings, the chief remains skeptical about the supernatural activity in his jurisdiction.
"I'm no further ahead in how I felt now than I felt before," he said. "With all the investigations and stuff they've done, I don't believe, I don't disbelieve, I don't know and I still don't know."
Syfy is available for Comcast customers in the Steel Valley, West Mifflin and vicinity on Channel 41; in Monroeville on Channel 60; and in McKeesport, Elizabeth and Irwin areas on Channel 127. On FiOS systems, Syfy is Channel 180; on DirecTV, it is Channel 244, and on Dish Network, it is Channel 122.
By Michael DiVittorio, MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWSTuesday, September 20, 2011
