Ghost hunters claim lighthouse is home to troubled spirits

By MEGHAN BARR
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Hour Staff Writer

NORWALK A child’s voice, a chilly room, a ghostly orb these are the signs of the supernatural at Sheffield Island Lighthouse that greeted a team of paranormal investigators one quiet summer night two weeks ago.

A hazy full moon on July 8 guided a boat carrying 18 paranormal researchers and members of the Norwalk Seaport Association to the lighthouse, which has watched over the waters off the coast of Norwalk since 1826. The Connecticut Paranormal Research and Investigations Team, led by Christine Kaczynski, canvassed the lighthouse with electromagnetic and audio equipment until 2 a.m., searching for any signs of ghostly activity.

What they found was a six- or seven-year-old girl named “Abby” whose spirit is trapped on the island, Kaczynski said.

“She can actually leave the lighthouse but her spirit can’t leave the island,” Kaczynski said. “The two adults are locked into some type of turmoil in the lighthouse and they refuse to leave. Abby is frightened by them so she leaves the lighthouse and travels down to the water’s edge.”
The researchers repeatedly made contact with “Abby,” and each time the energy levels on the TRI field meter spiked, Kaczynski said. The TRI detects naturally occurring phenomena in the environment, so the investigators first eliminated any underground wires, which could trigger the meter.

The researchers, also called “intuitives,” broke up into three teams to scour the lighthouse so as to avoid any data overlapping, according to Kaczynski. The TRI reading shot up to 9, a strong indicator of “energy change” on the island, at 10:15 p.m.

“When I first unlocked the lighthouse, one of the intuitives put her hands out in front of her,” said Tom Kies, president of the Seaport Association, who accompanied the investigators. “She smiled and said, yeah, I feel movement in here.”

Kies said the association is attempting to substantiate some of the researchers’ findings with historical data, including whether or not a 7-year-old named Abby once roamed the island.

At one point, the researchers recorded a 25-degree temperature drop inside the lighthouse.

“That’s when you have a spirit that’s very close to you,” Kaczynski explained. “Spirits utilize natural energy. It’ll cause a cold pocket and you’ll get a drop.”

Digital tape recorders with external microphones were used to pick up any “paranormal voice phenomenon,” while a computer-based sound program called Amadeus II tells investigators whether a sound is that of a human or electronic voice phenomenon, also called a “spirit voice.” Such voices can only be heard by playing back a tape afterward, Kaczynski said.

A tape of Kaczynski discussing the spirit named “Abby” with another researcher contains a disturbing noise closely resembling a child’s voice, which interjects the word “yes” into the conversation.

“It’s almost like she’s confirming it,” Kaczynski said.

Rumors of supernatural stirrings last circled the lighthouse 15 years ago. According to “The Lighthouses of Connecticut,” a book by Jeremy D’Entremont, in 1991 an archeologist named Karen Orawsky heard “hypnotic and mystical” musical drifting from the island as she approached it from a boat.

Pauline Schlegel, co-chair of the Seaport Association’s lighthouse committee, said she had never personally experienced any paranormal activity there.

“To my knowledge, I’ve never had any previous keepers who say they’ve experienced any sightings or any presence of someone out there,” Schlegel said. “At least in the past 10 years.”

Norwalk Museum Curator Susan Gunn Bromley could not name a single instance of ghost sightings at the lighthouse.

Kaczynski, who has been training 42 paranormal researchers over the past year, calls herself a big skeptic in every investigation she conducts. But she is convinced that the late night at Sheffield Island Lighthouse was the real thing. She plans to return to the island to “free the spirit” of little Abby, but has not decided upon the date.

“When you have a wire in your hand, you take wire strippers and strip the wire away, and you’re left with electricity,” Kaczynski said. “As humans, we don’t get picked up on a meter. Once we shed our bodies, we become that pure electricity that can be detected. That’s our soul; that’s our spirit.”

Meghan Barr is a general assignment reporter at The Hour. She can be contacted at (203) 354-1004 or via e-mail at mbarr@thehour.com.