GADSDEN, Ala. (WIAT) – CBS 42 is Your Voice Your Station. Denisesa Stewart lives at Carver Village. She reached out to us because she continues to experience unusual activity in her home that she cannot not explain. Stewart said she wants to share her story with the hope of getting some solution.
“I heard three knocks, and it was like this, and it did it three times,” Stewart said demonstrating on her bedroom door. “I was going to go lay on my bed and watch a movie and this door was open. It was wide open like it is right now. It don’t closes and I was laying across the bed and it said. That’s how loud it was. I opened the door and I went out the door.”
She’s talking about her first encounter with whatever is in her bedroom, and she said it happened almost three months after moving in.
“It’s been happening occasionally now almost every day,” Stewart said. “Sometimes I’m here, sometimes I’m not, but my neighbor has called me several times within the last month asking me, 'Hey, are you at home, because I hear somebody in your apartment,' and I’m not here.”
Stewart said the office told her to pray about it and police told her to get mental help.
“I have even told them, 'Hey, come stay the night,'” Stewart said. “If you don’t believe me, come stay the night. I ain’t have no visitors yet.”
It turns out, Gadsen is no stranger to ghost-like activity. The Etowah Historical Society said it may be because the city originally was a stagecoach stop. Mollie Smith is the Vice President and Jerry Ramsey is the President of the society.
“With that and with water, if you’ll notice anytime there is water sources nearby, they say that the water rushing is what feeds spirits,” Smith said.
Ramsey said many of the buildings are well preserved.
“Gadsden is home to a lot of historic buildings, so we’re sitting in one of probably several dozen,” Ramsey said.
Even the Printup Hotel where we did the interview is a historical building. Smith said the original stone from 1887, despite multiple fires, still makes up the façade.
“I guess from a spirit perspective they feel like they’re still at home because everything still looks so similar,” Smith said.
And they may be playing a role at Stewart’s home. Smith said Tuscaloosa Avenue is an original road through the city that was once called Indian Hightown Path. It leads to Carver Village today.
“It depends on what exactly she’s actually seeing,” Smith said. “She could be seeing something that happened in the Native American days.”
At Stewart’s home, we wait until it’s dark. Craig Rackley from the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group helps us run an Electronic Video Phenomenon – or EVP Session.
“It’s validation. Some people come to us, and they say I’m not crazy – I know I’m hearing this I know I’m experiencing this, and I don’t know what to do with it,” Rackley said.
Rackley said he has been running investigations for 18 years. He gave each of us a device to detect and catch possible audio and video evidence.
“Anything that comes within and disturbs its magnetic field, it’s going to light up and give you noises and sounds,” Rackley said.
We start the investigation in Stewart’s bedroom and our gadgets immediately light up, detecting activity. Stewart thinks her closet that’s the portal for the problem. Jen Cardone was able to get some lights on her device.
“Ms. Stewart has called us out because she is having some problems,” Rackley said to the dark bedroom.
We spent several minutes asking questions looking for a response. We did the same thing in her son’s room as well, but the most activity happened when we left the equipment unattended.
The REM Pod didn’t go off all night until we left the room. Listening back to Rackley’s recordings – during the unattended session there is a knock – the REM Pod goes off about 15 minutes after we left then is nonstop until we walk back inside.
“You’d be surprised how much is going on behind closed doors,” Rackley said.
Rackley said the biggest thing that Stewart and her son can do is to stand up for themselves. Let them know this is where we live now and that they want to be able to live in peace if the disturbance wants to stay.
If things don’t calm down after a little bit Rackley has agreed to go back and help them some more.