In the presence of spirits: Paranormal society goes ghost hunting in a downtown pub

Star Local News: In the presence of spirits: Paranormal society goes ghost hunting in a downtown pub
MCKINNEY - The matching dozen descended on Churchill's British Restaurant & Pub downtown in search of ghosts of McKinney's past.

Decked with black shirts, video cameras and anxious smiles, the Haunted Texas Paranormal (HTP) society was ready for a mysterious Thursday night. Some convicted, some curious --- the members awaited their newest investigation.

The ghost-hunting group formed in January, with its membership spread across Texas. One investigator, McKinney resident Misty Clayton, lured the team to the town she's lived in for 11 years to chase down stories of spirits in McKinney's historic buildings.

"I've heard so much about downtown McKinney all these years," she said. "I told them, 'I've got a playground in my own backyard.' We needed to be here finding things out."

The group took a break from their weekly ghost tours in Mineral Wells to look for signs of the afterlife in McKinney. A few of its 2,000 Facebook fans also tagged along, eager to meet those who travel far and wide to conduct these paranormal expeditions.

Clayton joined HTP to explain what's been with her for years. Now married with two kids, she started seeing apparitions when she was three years old.

Her brother pulled a pot of boiling water onto her, scolding her with third-degree burns from neck to knee. She soon became friends with a girl only she could see --- one she described as "plain as day, like you or me."

Clayton said that she invited her friend to dinner once, and when the friend's chair moved from the table on its own, Clayton's father freaked out and told her to end her strange friendship. The girl went away, but Clayton's apparitions didn't.

"It's something that I've always had; I just kind of pushed it down because you don't want to be made fun of," she said. "I've probably seen about eight apparitions just as plain as you and me. Just recently, I decided I was tired of running from it and pretending like I didn't have it and that I was going to have some fun with it."

That's when she joined HTP. Founder Amanda Eagleton lives south of Fort Worth and for the last year was a part of Stockyards Paranormal. Because her husband, Jesse, couldn't join the already full group, she started her own.

And like Clayton, she's sure of the paranormal.

"I'm a believer," Amanda said. "I believe in ghosts. I'm one of the more open people, and I'm not scared of any of it."

Jesse and Amanda's mom, Bridgette Perry, are also members. Jesse is one of the skeptics.

His father fixed cameras for 30 years and taught him all about them, giving him a base for explanations for what his wife and others view as ghosts.

"I believe there's something out there, but I've never seen anything to actually prove it to me," he said. "I've done a pretty good job so far proving different things they see are linked to something wrong with the picture. In my opinion, it's just their minds and eyes playing tricks on them."

Jesse said that some electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) recordings, reviewed after an investigation, have no reasonable explanations. He wishes he could see things like the others.

"One member saw a little girl at [abandoned] Yorktown Memorial Hospital," he said. "I would kill to see something like that, even though I'd probably scream like a little girl if I did."

Perry, a former skeptic, said that she first believed during an investigation at Miss Molly's Bed & Breakfast in Fort Worth. She said that late one night while the group sat talking in the commons room, she felt a hand run down her hair and back.

The owners told her that a cowboy ghost --- Jake, who stays in Room 7 --- often touches girls' hair and makes noises at night with his boots.

Before setting up for their midnight review of Churchill's Pub on North Tennessee Street, the HTP members shared their experiences with fans and showed them ghost-hunting equipment: parabolic microphones, infrared cameras, EVP recorders and electromagnetic field (EMF) devices.

Spectrum cameras record activity in different light, from which investigators look for anomalies that normal sight can't pick up. Different gauges measure temperatures and EMF levels, which the group examines during the night for sudden aberrations.

Members review the evidence following every investigation through a process that often takes weeks. Thus, there is not yet a verdict of paranormal presence at Churchill's.

Whatever the group finds, Amanda said she remains confident that ghosts are out there.

"Our mind is constantly going," she said. "I don't think when you die it ever shuts up. I think everything else goes away, but your spirit and soul sticks around."

For more information about Haunted Texas Paranormal, visit www.facebook.com/hauntedtx.