Emily Paine Carter

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Are you creeped out by The Unexplained? Suspecting “ghoulies and ghosties” in your hall? Do I have the guy for you!

Jammie Spradlin and his crew of — yes — “ghostbusters” inspect homes and other properties for “things that go bump in the night.”

He e-mailed that he had been annoyed by TV shows claiming ghost appearances — without concrete proof for scrutiny. So he studied “theories behind what causes what phenomenon.”

Then the Southwest Roanoke County resident, 32, began gathering  equipment for proper scientific investigation: infrared cameras and thermometers, digital cameras and audio recorders, night-vision camcorders, electro-magnetic field  detectors, etc.

He performed his first investigation in January 2005. Now his Virginia Appalachian Mountain Paranormal Investigations (VAMP)  team has done about 30 studies.

In every case, he wrote, the client is pleased. Some want the spooky activity banished; others just want “a check on their sanity.”

VAMP first tries “debunking” by checking  for “normal” causes, trying to reproduce the disturbing effect.  (Old floor hinges could creak, unseen.) 

If there are no logical explanations, then welcome to the world of the paranormal.

Such as Lexington’s “awesome … well-haunted” Poor House Road Tunnel, which merits a page on Spradlin’s Web site (www.vampinvestigations.com). In three visits “I have experienced just about everything there,” he e-mailed. “I have watched a ball of light fly right past me … heard talking, crying. I recorded some Electronic Voice Phenomena  (think “The Sixth Sense”) : listening back to the audio and hearing voices that were not heard at the time of the investigation, one saying what sounds like 'Help me’ and another saying 'Get me out.’” He has “asked questions and received answers from someone” not visible. He successfully requested that a thumb-thick branch move; it was all that moved in the entire area — and there was no wind anywhere. A photo shows light resembling a face there.

Another photo shows mist seeming to enter or exit a bedroom where a home’s residents report most of their unexplained phenomena occur.

Sensitive to privacy concerns, both Spradlin and homeowners sign papers either agreeing to confidentiality or to VAMP’s sharing the results.

A couple of his crew also requested anonymity, lest they be teased at work (all have “real” jobs). Others who sometimes assist these Saturday night investigations include Travis Parcha, Jammie’s brother Josh Spradlin, J.D. (David) Hoffman, Byron Penick — all of Roanoke; Jennie Hurd, Blue Ridge; Robbie Altizer, Rocky Mount; and a few elsewhere in Virginia.

He ha s investigated other places in Lexington, Salem (“quite a bit of activity”), Roanoke and Roanoke County, Vinton and Montgomery County.

All for free.

“Why take advantage? … I couldn’t live with myself.” Plus, Spradlin loves doing this.

We invited his and wife Liza’s son Brandon, 6, to watch dad’s EMF study of our den, where certain toddlers have sensed “something.” Millay the cat suspects “haints”/haunts. Jammie Spradlin and my husband agreed that animals and babies are more “open” to EMFs — and to spirits.

“Believing” in ghosts would suggest a lack of proof, Spradlin wrote . “I know that they exist. I have seen and heard.”

E-mail: vampinvestigations@yahoo.com
Phone: 293-5910