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  • From left are Tony Brozovich, of Numa, Iowa Paranormal founder Steven Tracy and Patrick Law, both of Centerville, standing on the steps to the Oakland Cemetery Chapel and receiving vault Saturday night. Photo by Michael Schaffer

    Paranormal

  • From left are Tommy Barton, Ruth Gonzalez, Wendy Hunt and Scott Jump, all of Centerville, and Cody Smothers, of Bloomfield. Everyone who had made the trip to observe the paranormal group test the cemetery said they have had experienced unexplainable events, strange sensations of being watched or being touched, shadows and white lights. "This stuff is pretty fascinating," Smothers said. Photo by Michael Schaffer

    Paranormal 2

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December 1, 2008

Paranormal group tests Oakland Cemetery

The group of three spent several hours Saturday night in the cemetery with equipment looking for anything out of the ordinary.

By Michael Schaffer - Managing Editor

The forces of nature did not keep three members with Iowa Paranormal away from Oakland cemetery Saturday night, and also not five and 50.

The five thrill seekers, none of whom were associated with the paranormal group, waited in the lightly falling snow near the west entrance to the cemetery. The 50 assembled in People's Baptist Church, just a stone's throw west of the cemetery, to pray.

The three paranormal investigators — led by group founder Steven Tracy, of Centerville, Patrick Law, of Centerville, and Tony Brozovich, of Numa — arrived at 7 p.m. and started their testing near the west end of the cemetery at the Oakland Cemetery Chapel and receiving vault. They brought a video camera wrapped in plastic to protect it from the falling snow, three voice recorders and an electronic magnetic field detector. The camera can see in pure darkness and the EMF detector can rule our unexplainable events, Tracy said.

"We go in looking for the natural causes. We take the scientific approach to it, is what we're doing. We try to rule out all the possibilities," Tracy said. "That's why we've got all of this equipment. We want to capture evidence."

Tracy said he and Law thought they might have seen an unexplainable light near the grave of Hon. Harvey Tannehill and were getting ready to walk to that area of the cemetery to investigate. The light was similar to the one he and others think they might have seen while on the Haunted History Tour held at Oakland Cemetery in October.

"We witnessed a few strange things that night that we want to capture, try to see if we can get that again," Tracy said, while pointing to a large evergreen where they were standing less than 30 minutes ago and the same type light was seen in the same area near Tannehill's grave. "And down on the far side where we first witnessed the activity from the Haunted History Tour we've seen the ball of light again, like we've seen the first time. But we do not have it on video tape."

Tracy said they need to capture audio or video evidence, which would be closely and carefully scrutinized, before they would make a judgement or announcement.

"We're going to go down there, turn the video camera on, just kind of sit around, see if anything comes up and hopefully we'll have it on video tape," Tracy said. "That kind of what we're going for. We just can't go on personal experiences. That don't validate anything."

He denied anybody in is group uses anything but scientific means during paranormal investigations.

"We do not deal with psychics. We don't allow any psychics in our group," Tracy said. "Where's the proof? That's what we want."

Tracy said he wasn't aware of the activities at the church. But he was concerned they may have misconstrued their purpose Saturday night in Oakland Cemetery.

"I just don't want people to think that we're satanic worshipers, or something," Tracy said. "That's not what we're about at all. I want people to know that we take this seriously."

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So, the question this week is, “Will it stay or will it go?” The United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. wants to close three Farm Service Agency offices in southern Iowa, which includes the FSA office in Centerville, and consolidate the operations in order to save money. Tuesday afternoon a meeting was held at Faith United Methodist Church to allow farmers and other producers who use the Centerville FSA office to make comments about the closing to John R. Whitaker, state executive director Iowa FSA. Many questioned if the meeting Tuesday was necessary because the decision had already been made.

A. Yes, because Washington will listen.
B. No, because the decision to close the Appanoose County FSA office has already been made.
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