Film crews were recording outside the facility Friday evening. Officers were interviewed as well as police secretary Vicci Kenna. Kenna was filmed in a place she thought she would never have to return, the old station`s basement.
"It`s very exciting, but it was still creepy in the basement," Kenna said. "Very creepy. Even worse because it`s all empty and really weird, but I think this is exciting. It will prove to everybody now, hopefully, that we were not crazy. We have worked with the other world. We have worked with the other side of whatever."
Paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson were not at the station Friday. The hunters conducted their investigation at the former station last Saturday.
"We`ve had a good experience here," producer Mike Peebles said.
Hunters also investigated another location about an hour away from the Steel Valley area. That area was not revealed Friday.
Police Chief Jeff DeSimone gave the hunters a tour of the facility.
"I`m tickled pink that they chose to come to Homestead, and I`m just excited that they`re here," he said. "I`m looking forward to whatever evidence they might have uncovered."
Ghost Hunters is not the first paranormal group to investigate the former police station, which originally was built as a post office. Hauntings Research revealed its findings in September 2010 of a study they conducted in May of that year.
Founder Ed Ozosky said at the time 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 of the souls inside the former station. "One of the reasons there were so many people is that it literally had an open doorway for spirits to come and go... a vortex (detection) is very rare."
The Greater Pittsburgh Paranormal Society gathered nearly 30 hours of video footage and 100 hours of audio recordings in 2008, and they reported screams in the basement as well as human figures moving about in a locked office.
DeSimone said the Syfy group may have more or different findings than the investigators.
"These guys are by all means the premier organization," the chief said. "They`re the ones on TV. They each employ different methods even though they are similar. Each has its own way of doing things."
Peebles said he could not talk about what was found, only that it will be shown in an episode within the next two to three months for the show`s seventh season.
"They really won`t tell us anything about the investigation," Kenna said. "Just that it`s over and they need to interview the people that have experienced things and worked in the building."
Hunters also burned the midnight oil at the Carnegie Library of Homestead in Munhall last Sunday.
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 sought us out and heard from a number of people (that the library was haunted)," Lloyd said. "They dug into the history of the area and library. (The show`s) going to have to do with the history of the Mon Valley."
Lloyd said athletic club director Edward Child reported he saw something unexplainable. He also noted someone died in the pool in November 1899.
According to a report in the former Homestead News Messenger that month, Robert E. Peebles, 25, died Nov. 28 around 10 p.m. "under mysterious circumstances" and "was found dead in eight feet of water."
"A lot of people don`t know this, but it`s something that I knew because I do a lot of reading," Lloyd said. "There are some odd circumstances surrounding this guy`s death."
Lloyd also noted people reported books falling off shelves for no apparent reason, among other unexplained phenomena.
The season premier of Ghost Hunters is scheduled for June 1, and is set in Hawaii.
Ghost Hunters airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9 and 11 p.m. EST. Check local listings for station information.
This is the second time Ghost Hunters came to the Steel Valley area. Hunters went into a few homes for the show`s first season.
Peebles said he could not remember what was found at that time.
By Michael DiVittorio, MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS
Saturday, May 7, 2011
