Riverdale Home

Aug. 08, 2008 - present

INVESTIGATORS:

EntitySeeker team: Morgan Knudsen, Stephanie Wertz, Jason Selkirk, Cathy Knudsen, Laura Craig, Matt Spearin

Additional: house occupants, guests/visitors

NOTES: In the area of Riverdale in Edmonton, century old homes are everywhere. Built in 1912, the spirits in this one literally came with the house..

EVENTS REPORTED:

This is an investigation that continues to this day as we frequently go back to visit the spirit of "Jack" in Matt's old home in Riverdale. Located in the river valley of Edmonton, Alberta, this 1913 two-storey home is in close to it's original condition with only a few minor additions to the home and yard.

It was first brough to our attention by it's renter (then not working for EntitySeeker) Matt Spearin, guitarist and founder of the band "Light Travels". The home serves as a sanctuary for him, his roommates, a cat and a dog, and a practice space for his popular band. Matt, who has quite the history of paranormal occurences in his own life, has witnessed numerous unexplainable events in the home which seem, at times, to defy physics all together. Incidents have included extremely loud bangs which have been followed by objects changing bizarre directions. Upon first moving in, a large box of cleaning supplies sitting on top of another box on their closed porch flipped onto its side while still sitting atop the lower box. This happened again when a glass that had been sitting on the kitchen counter, upright, was found unbroken standing perfectly upside down underneath the edge of the counter. After numerous attempts to recreate this effect (and a few broken glasses), Matt was unable to cause this to happen again. Every time, the glass ended up broken or some inches from the counter and definitely not upside down on end. In fear, a past roommate even painted what he felt were protective symbols on his doorway in the hopes it would keep away 'bad spirits'.

The locations of these incidents are intriguing as an apparition of a solid black male 'shadow' have been noted on many seperate occasions in the kitchen and the porch. Visitors to the house were convinced that someone was in the home when they saw a male figure watching them from the porch and then proceed to walk back into the home towards the kitchen. Upon investigation, it became clear no one was present and no one had broken in. In fact, when EntitySeeker first came to investigate, our medium Jason found the house because he noted the same man standing on the porch (he had no history on its occurrences).

A Electromagnetic field meters have a tendancy to go belly-up in this house also. Both ours, and another investigator's instrument, both died during investigations there and were unable to be fixed. The readings, however, were always normal.

Jason's description of the spirit there was extremely accurate and confirmed by Matt soon after. He gave us further details, however, in regards to the man's age, physical description, time period in the home, and the date of 1945, which he felt was meaningful to the entity. He also got the sensation of a second spirit: A young woman with long, dark, scraggly hair who, in his opinion, was probably unwell in life. This revelation suprised Matt who had previously had a lucid dream of the same figure screaming and ranting at another girl within the home. To him, the dream had been disturbingly real. We could not deny the co-incidence seemed uncanny. Furthermore, the activity seemed to increase around the house during the band's practice/jam sessions.

Upon visiting the archives to try and find a history on who could possibly be there, we were shocked to find a photograph that depicted a man who fit Jason's description so accurately that we knew who it was before we even looked at the name. "Jack" (last name kept private) had built and lived in the home until 1945 when he took a week from work, refinished it, and gave it generously to his son. He was married to a woman who was ill through pregnancy and then died in childbirth. Jack owned a local grocery store on Jasper Avenue and played in a local band, something which his son caught onto as well. We wonder if this has a tie into why the activity increases during practice hours.

To this day, strange photos continue to be taken (including one to the right where a coat or cloth appears to be in front of the camera lens, though at the time is was clear and it could not be re-created), people are touch, objects move and strange presences are felt in and around this home. EntitySeeker continues to return to visit "Jack" and discover new truths about this amazing environment. Matt now works for EntitySeeker and still performs regularly with Light Travels around Edmonton.