Ghost Watchers exploreparanormal
Many members of the fledgling group say they have experienced afterlife interactions and want to learn more about the supernatural.
By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published June 23, 2006
TAMPA - They canvassed the old A. Santaella & Co. Cigar Factory on Armenia Avenue seeking signs of the supernatural.
Claire Castillo snapped photos of a windblown window curtain to capture orbs, spirits in the form of light. Matt Wiley called to mind the emotional history contained within the walls. Janet Henderson suddenly smelled dirt and rust. Possibly the presence of a long-gone cigar roller?
The factory was the perfect place to start their search.
Locals who felt a pull toward the paranormal recently joined on MeetUp.com to form
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Tampa Ghost Watchers to investigate and document hauntings in homes and landmarks around the Tampa Bay area.
They met for the first time three weeks ago at Al Lopez Park to share their ghost experiences and trade ideas of places to investigate.
Next they plan to investigate Fort De Soto Park and the Sunshine Skyway bridge, two sites with histories of reported deaths and reputations as haunted hot spots in the ghost-hunting community.
They'll use cameras and audio equipment to capture orbs and electronic voice phenomena (EVP).
At their second meeting last Saturday, about 17 Ghost Watchers set rules to make sure people would take them seriously.
Rule No. 1: Don't take off running and screaming if something freaks you out.
Rule No. 2: Be quiet and log everything. On tape, a cough could be confused with an EVP.
Rule No. 3: Don't goof off.
"We're not the Ghostbusters," Wiley said. "We're not going to show up with a toaster oven and say it's a ghost trap."
Some of the new Watchers are just curious.
Henderson hopes to encounter her great great-grandfather W.B. Henderson (as in the boulevard) during investigations of his old Tampa building on Tyler Street downtown and Oaklawn Cemetery on Morgan Street, where he was buried.
Others, such as Wiley, have travelled Florida documenting their spooky sightings. All have stories that led them to seek connections with the beyond. Here are a few of them.
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"The main message I get is that love and life and the connection you have with your loved ones goes on forever."
- Claire Castillo
Claire Castillo, who grew up in a conservative Catholic home in Chicago, became pregnant as an unmarried teenager and had to give away her daughter, Jeanne.
Years later, in 2000, they found each other online and reconnected. Castillo met her two grandchildren and learned about Jeanne's life playing in a heavy metal rock band.
But Castillo, who lives in Wesley Chapel, lost her daughter again.
Jeanne died of a brain tumor on Dec. 21, 2004. She was 34.
The following year, Castillo visited a medium who told her Jeanne would make Castillo aware of her presence through the Guns N' Roses song Sweet Child of Mine.
Driving in her car on Christmas day, listening to a Midwestern radio show, a man started playing a song on the ukulele. It began with that unforgettable hook.
She's got a smile that it seems to me/ Reminds me of childhood memories/ Where everything/ Was as fresh as the bright blue sky.
It was the song.
Since then, Castillo has heard a voice call her name. She has felt a hand on her shoulder at night. She found a candle in her bathtub last April that she didn't put there.
It was Jeanne's birthday.
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"Life is just too complex and extraordinary to believe it stops at death. I want to find some proof ...something to put back into the faces of skeptics." - Matt Wiley
Matt Wiley has been interested in life after death for as long as he can remember.
One night, he sat up with his best friend, Ricky, discussing the afterlife. They promised each other they would try to make contact if one of them were to die.
Then, one day in 1991, Ricky and two relatives got caught in a current at Fort De Soto beach and died.
After that, Wiley's mother saw Ricky in the kitchen, and another relative saw Ricky climbing up the stairs.
After a long time, Wiley finally went to Fort De Soto with his 4-year-old son, Robbie. The preschooler never knew about Ricky, his father said.
"This is where Ricky died," Robbie told his dad while they were swimming. "He had a lot of water in his throat. He couldn't breathe."
Several years after Ricky died, Wiley, who lives in North Tampa, became a private investigator of the supernatural.
Wiley works full-time as a firefighter, but after hours, he uses EVP and photography to detect ghosts in people's homes and historic sites.
While he believes Ricky and others have made contact, he wants to prove to it to the world.