Introduction:

Lance Brooks of Texas Spirit Seekers approached Ryan Rodriguez, co-owner of The Catfish Plantation, about the possibility of conducting a second scientific investigation of the paranormal activity that has been reported at the house for many years. We also proposed that this investigation be a fundraiser for one of their favorite charities and that proceeds should go to them. After Ryan presented our proposal to the other owners, they agreed to let the TSS investigation team come in and conduct a fundraiser investigation of the house and allow 8 winners of a charity raffle to join the TSS team in the investigation. Texas Spirit Seekers is scientific in its approach to dealing with the paranormal and does not except the information gathered from Psychics, Séances or Ouija boards as this evidence can be tampered with by the individual giving the information, they have preconceived ideas about the paranormal before the start an investigation, they believe the place to be haunted before the go in the home.

 

 

We at Texas Spirit Seekers use the Null Hypothesis for every investigation we conduct. We state that the property in question has no paranormal activity before the investigation starts and try to debunk any of the reports of the paranormal, collect evidence using instrumentation such as audio recorders, video cameras, DVR systems, emf meters, thermometers, etc. and review all data collected. We do report personal experiences but it is not accepted as paranormal activity unless it can be backed up by our instrumentation. The final report will have an introduction, history of the property if available, list of investigation team members, all experiences, data of interest, instrumentation used, comments, and a final record/conclusion. We at TSS do not charge for any of our services and will not accept payment or contributions to the group; we do this as a service to the community.

The History and ghost stories from the restaurant can be found at www.catfishplantation.com

Texas Spirit Seekers Investigators:

Lance Brooks, Teresa Allen, John Penny, Chris Travis, Greg Stephens, Brandon Stephens, James Leslie, Heather Lassetter, Grady Wilson, Kimberly Zwick, Penny Maflyk and Lisa Fowler.

Guest Investigators:

Paul Koffy (99.5 The WOLF), Heather Croy, Chad Teer, Judy McRight, Jim Reason, Kay Wenzel, Robert Marburger, Kim Boyd, Rebecca Gentry and Boyd Konkle.

 

October 31, 2008

Time: 22:00hrs – 04:30hrs

Location: Catfish Plantation – 814 Waters Street, Waxahachie Texas

Weather: Fair 75°, Feels Like: 75°, Barometer: 33.37 and falling rapidly, Humidity: 53%, Visibility: 10 mi, Dew Point: 57°, Wind: SW 10 mph, Sunrise: 7:44 am, Sunset: 6:37 pm.

Current Moon – Waning Crescent, 7% of Full

 

 

Instrumentation:

Cameras: Digital: Panasonic DMC-TZ3, FujiFilm IS-1
Video: Sony HDR-SR1
DVR: 2-Hitachi DVR, 2 Sony 54IR 1-24IR and 3- 104IR cameras.
Thermometer: EL-USB-TC Data Logger with K-Probe /Lascar Electronics, Inc.
Audio: 2, Olympus VN-4100PC
MF Meters: TriField Meter – Alpha Lab, Extech EMF Meter, Mini KII
Thermal Camera: ICI Tough Cam EL, Toshiba Mini DVR

 

 

Personal Experiences:

Team WOLF: Chris Travis, Greg Stephens, Paul Koffy, and Matt Smith
October 31, 2008 23:45 hrs – November 1, 2008 0:15 hrs

Paul Koffy – Room A: felt a cold spot. Felt like someone was standing next to him. Room B: Also felt cold spots and a presence in the room. Room C: still feeling as though there is a presence in the room with us. Room D: No experiences.

Matt Smith – Felt a couple of cold spots but no activity.

Greg Stephens – Room B: felt cold spots. Room C: felt cold spots. Room D: no activity.

Chris Travis – When I first walked into the building it was warm but became cold very quickly. I Heard a chair slide across the room. I saw some one look around the corner at me. There were many cold breezes in the building.

Team 1: Teresa Allen, James Leslie, Jim Reason and Kim Boyd
November 1, 2008 0:30hrs – 01:45hrs

Jim Reason – Room B: this room felt a lot warmer than the other rooms. I went to sit on the left side of the room, and then I felt a wave of cold air drop the temperature. I Heard noises coming from the hall.

James Leslie – Room B: heard a tapping coming from room C. Room D: I sat down to relax and I felt a cold wash of air. Ryan had turned off the AC.

Kim Boyd – Cold spots, heavy feelings and noises in the front room.

Teresa Allen – Room A: the room felt hot and stuffy, I also shaky and uneasy. Room B: Cold spots.

Team2: Chris Travis, Greg Stephens, Chad Teer and Rebecca Gentry.

Rebecca Gentry – Room A: as I sat in the corner chair I felt a cold draft at knee level. A couple of us heard a whisper from Room C. As we entered room D I smelled something burning. There were a couple of times I heard something bump the table or chair in room D.

Chad Teer – Heard a loud whisper in room B, we were unable to determine the source or direction, seemed to be 3 words or syllables, it was not the air freshener we herd. Several cold spots near the door that leads to the porch. Chris said the hair was standing up on the back of his neck in room C, when I stood in the same place the hair stood up on my neck also.

Chris Travis – Cold spots everywhere, I heard someone say something, not sure where it came from. I heard walking in room A and at one point room C. I heard someone Whisper to me by the kitchen door the hair stood up on my neck and I felt dizzy.

Greg Stephens – Cold spots everywhere. I heard a couple of whispers. At one point, I was setting in a chair in room B and felt the chair move as if someone had just sat down.

Team 3: Teresa Allen, Heather Lassetter, Boyd and Heather Croy

Team 4: James Leslie, Chris Travis, Kay Wenzel, Robert Marburger and Judy McRight.

Robert Marburger: Room C: I heard a knocking on the wall below the picture. Felt a couple of cold spots that seemed to travel around the room. My hair was standing up on my arms and had cold chills on my elbows.

Room – Women’s Restroom:

There was a high EMF reading against the back wall of the women’s restroom. EMF meter had a reading of over 100 milligauss when placed against the back wall, as the meter was pulled away from the wall the reading dropped to 0 milligauss. We went to the rear of the building opposite the bathroom wall and found a large number of poorly insulated wires and the power junction.

 

 

Evidence of Interest:

Photographs:
There were no photos of interest on this investigation.

EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena):

Team WOLF – No EVP’s

Team 1 – No EVP’s

Team 2 – No EVP’s, one recorded sound of knocking.

Team 3 – No EVP’s

Team 4 – No EVP’s

 

Video:
No Video evidence was collected.

Data Loggers:
There were no noticeable temperature anomalies on any of the 5 THDP data loggers.

 

Comments:

This was a charity investigation that was given to benefit CASA of Ellis County. Along with the owners of the Catfish Plantation we felt that CASA was a worthy cause and would benefit from the efforts of both the plantation and the members of Texas Spirit Seekers. We had a number of technical difficulties before the investigation but were able to work through them and pull off a successful charity benefit investigation. All of the winners of the raffle were given a pre-investigation briefing on our investigative methods. They were then taken into the building where they could help run cables and place cameras in position for the DVR system. Following the setup the winners went in pairs following two of TSS’s investigators. They were able to run EVP sessions, take photos and video was captured of every aspect

of their part of the investigation. Following the investigation they were debriefed and wrote experience reports. At least one of the owners was present at all times to help with the preparation of food and passing out refreshments to the weary guest investigators. Ryan was there until about 2:00am serving refreshments and talking with guest and Jim closed things down and locked the building up when the investigation was over. We did have a little time before the full investigation started to honor a request by the plantation to take a representative from the WOLF radio station (Paul Koffy) through on a mini investigation. There was also a reporter from the Waxahachie Daily Light (Joann Livingston) at the festivities and an article written about the investigation. The article can be visited on our investigations page. The Catfish Plantation has not released the total amount raised by the raffle but I’m sure it won’t be long until we know the total raised for CASA.

Conclusion:

Even though we did not capture any quantifiable evidence of the paranormal at the location on this visit, many of our members and guest investigators had numerous personal experiences. This was a wonderful opportunity for the general public to get a better feel for the work that goes into a paranormal investigation. There were many more people at this event than we would normally have during an investigation so there was a lot of background noise, and many variables that we could not compensate for such as the sound of someone throwing up outside one of one of the windows where we had microphones placed, people chatting outside and an assortment of other sounds and conversations that were ongoing during the investigation. Is the Catfish Plantation Haunted? We still can’t really say one way or the other. Did we have experiences? Most of the people investigating had some sort of experience. In the past we have collected some very good paranormal evidence but our protocols call for multiple visits or (experiments) and the capture of like evidence, plus the investigation by another group to confirm our results. This has not yet been accomplished so the only response is that the Catfish Plantation has paranormal activity or activity that cannot be explained at this time.

Lance Brooks (TSS Co-Founder and Lead Investigator)