Case: 004 Historical Pocahontas Cemetery

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Black Diamond Paranormal Society

“We are the light that cuts the darkness. Therefore, when you see… truth must be honored.”

Final Report and Analysis

Case 004

Historical Pocahontas Cemetery

September 20, 2008

Pocahontas Virginia

Investigators

Rodney Shortridge, Robyn Belcher, Teresa Dillon, John Belcher, Aaron Shortridge & Allen Gross

 

     On September 20, 2008 the BDPS team investigated the Historical Pocahontas Cemetery located at Pocahontas, Virginia. All of the BDPS team members did an outstanding job with such a huge area to investigate. I would like to personally thank the Mayor of Pocahontas Anita Brown for giving BDPS permission to investigate the cemetery. With the help of Council Woman Amy Flick along with the President of the Historical Society Tom Childress we were able to obtain a lot of history and knowledge of the historical importance of this cemetery.  We started around 2:30 p.m. and did our investigation until 12:30 a.m.  Around 8:00 p.m. we were joined by Council Woman Amy Flick and Rachel, the Exhibition Mine Curator, on our investigation.

     Equipment used at this site included (4) DVR’s, (3) Microcassette Recorders, (2) Camcorders, (1) Laser thermometer, (1) K2 meter and (4) digital cameras. As we do in our investigations we place the DVR’s in areas that were reported to have high paranormal activity. The camcorders were placed to get the best view of the cemetery and the microcassette recorders where held by my son Aaron, Teresa and Allen while we were doing our EVP’s.

     While conducting our investigations a few of the team members and I had personal paranormal experiences. Aaron experienced having strong feelings of being watched and no one was in the area, hearing a knocking sound coming from inside one of the tombs, and seeing a white figure duck down behind a head stone. This event was also witnessed by Robyn. When they went to the head stone to investigate there was no evidence of anyone in that area. Aaron also experienced the feeling of someone breathing on his neck and something tugged on his shirt. He describes it like a child tugging. Aaron and Robyn both describe seeing a bright white orb come up over a headstone and then disappear. Aaron also describes hearing voices. Teamed with Aaron, Robyn experience her hair being pulled, feeling several cold spots and witnessing a long white floating apparition. Later in the night Robyn describes the feeling as though something had walked through her. At this time Allen was close enough to take a picture of the event and the photo clearly shows a mist surrounding Robyn.

    Later that night Aaron and Teresa where teamed together. Teresa experienced seeing a white figure near a tree. As they went to investigate the figure was no longer there. Aaron also experienced a sharp pain in his back just bellow his left shoulder blade. He describes the pain like someone had stuck a knife into his back and the pain lasted for around 10 minutes.

      My experiences began around 8:00 p.m. while I was teamed with Teresa. We were walking back up the hill from the old entrance and to my left in the woods I heard someone call my name Teresa was on my right side and the rest of the teams were on top of the hill. When we got up the hill I asked everyone did they call my name and everyone said no. I feel this was something paranormal because the fact when my name was called it was like someone speaking in a very low voice so low that Teresa didn’t hear it. Later that night, still teamed with Teresa, we were sitting on the tail gate of the truck. I noticed a very bright white mist circle around a tree. I got Teresa’s attention and she noticed right before it disappeared. As we went to investigate the tree there were no signs of anymore activity.   

     We were able to obtain a great deal of evidence of paranormal activity in the form of EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon) with one of the DVR’s (digital voice recorder) and the microcassette recorders, photos containing orbs, unexplained lights and two apparitions.

     The investigation of this historical cemetery was a huge success due to the fact that we got 64 EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon). Out of these there are 31 that are very clear and loud. That is a very high success rate. We also got photos of different sizes and different colored orbs, unexplained light phenomenon’s and what we have come to the conclusion are two apparitions.   

We heard the following EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon):

1)      (Young males voice with foreign accent) “Footo”

2)       (Human voice) “Growl”

3)      (Young child’s voice) “I push it” (sounded excited)

4)      (Whisper) “Oh Rodney”

5)       Heavy Breaths

6)      (Female Voice) “Why don’t you just come over”

7)      (Young female voice) “Trying to communicate”

8)      (Old female voice) “Here, what’s happen? Uh…”

9)      (Male voice) “Damn it”

10)  (Male voice) “Wrong way”

11)  (Female voice) “It’s them”

12)  (Male voice) “Oh shit”

13)  (Black female voice) “I better go now”

14)  (Little girl) “Mamma I want to go”

15)  (A child’s voice) “Come here”

16)   (Little girl) “I want it”

17)  (Little girl) “Mamma”

18)  Whistling

19)   (Little girl) “Mom”

20)  Whistling (Same as in  # 18)

21)  Whistling (Same as in # 18 & 20)

22)  Whistling (Same as in # 18  & 20 & 21)

23)  (Childs voice) “I’m here”

24)   (Female voice) “Please help”

25)  Infant Baby crying

26)   (Female voice) “Walk this way”

27)   (Male voice) “Hey over here” this sounds like a foreign accent possibly Irish

28)   (Female voice) “Why”

29)  (Female voice) “Hello”

30)  Child laughing

31)  (Female voice) “Yeah”

     We have come to the conclusion that this cemetery has a very high rate of paranormal activity in the form of EVP’s, orb activity, apparitions and unexplained lights and mists. Our hope is to one day to get permission to investigate this cemetery again with more advanced equipment and more personnel to be able to cover the vastness of this great historical cemetery.

     I would like to add what an honor it is to have been invited to a tremendous historical site in southwest Virginia. The people who came from all over the world to help build this town are buried here and they deserve to be remembered with dignity. My heart sank when I saw how desecrated so many of the memorials are. I realize this town does not have the funds needed for the vast repairs. Tazewell County, the state of Virginia, and the United States Historical Societies should combine forces to allocate funding to the Pocahontas Cemetery. The local community and local government could donate time and supplies to restore the place where so many lay at rest because they gave their lives to build this community. The men, women, and children buried here deserve to have a memorial worthy of their sacrifice. I also believe there should be monument to the miners who were killed during the early days of this town who are buried in unmarked graves. Their names should be placed for all to read. My suggestion is to start a fund drive asking the public statewide and worldwide to donate in the building process of a memorial to the miners.

     This was our fourth investigation and it was a phenomenal success. I feel very strongly that the Historical Pocahontas Cemetery warrants further investigation to get more evidence of the paranormal that seems to exist there. We have been very fortunate to have captured such great evidence. I feel much honored to have had the success we had.

     I look forward to our next investigation. If anyone would like for us to do a paranormal investigation of their home, a family cemetery, or if you would just like to speak with us about any paranormal activity you may be having we would love to hear from you. No problem is to small. We would be honored to help and we do not charge for our services. Contact BDPS to set up a time and place for us to discuss your paranormal questions and or problems.

     I feel honored to be working with such a great team. Without the team’s hard work and professionalism BDPS would not be what it has become today. BDPS is introducing 3 new members they are John Belcher, Robyn’s husband, Shawn Hamlin and Allen Gross. One has experience in the technical fields and is also clairvoyant one is an investigator and consultant the other is an investigator in training.  We look forward to working with these individuals and the experiences and knowledge they have will be an asset to BDPS. Their commitment to helping BDPS in finding evidence to support the existence of the paranormal may allow us to come one step closer to explaining the paranormal phanamenon.

     I hope you will enjoy the photos and the analysis sheet we are providing. In the future we will have a web-site that will be listing all the information that I have been providing. Also we will have our EVP’s and any video evidence on the site for everyone to view and listen to; you can judge it for yourself. If anyone has any questions or comments we would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think.

 

Rodney Shortridge, Founder

BDPS