A Haunting in New Braunfels, TX
*SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains spoilers for Episode 9 & 10. Before reading, be sure to listen to The Restless - Part I and Part II here . Afterward, feel free to check out this "Behind-the-Episode" blog for additional info and photos! And visit our Patreon page for more extras!
Photo Credit: @bentorresphoto
I love road trips. Especially with friends. So traveling back to New Braunfels wasn't a chore. Alexis and I rode up together in my truck. Franklyn was meeting us there later. Sara and Rene were following us there. They live a little further north of Austin, so it was going to be best for them to have their own vehicle for the long drive back tonight.
We kept everything from Sara this time. The only thing she new was that we were heading to New Braunfels, Texas. It was about an hour drive from my place, an hour and a half or so from her and Rene's.
Sara and I are outside the house. I didn't know it at the time but she was seeing Zach in the window that my head is covering. She was showing me the drawing she had done of the two entities that came to her before she came here.
The drawings above are what Sara sketched out before knowing about this case. She had two spirits visit her at her house the time Alexis, Franklyn, and I first came to visit Amanda and Paul. When I reached out to Sara, she informed me of the visitations she had and the drawings she made. The bald profile is of the male we'd later learn to be Zachary. Initially, she felt his spirit was not human. You can see her note beside it. The sketch of the female is the image of the Native American woman she had gotten before even coming to this location and seeing her in the house.
This is the exact spot I sat at when I interviewed Amanda on our first visit. This is where readings of EMF (Electro Magnetic Fields) were off the charts. The couch is pressed against the wall where, on the exterior, an electrical junction box is located. When I got sick, Franklyn and Alexis quickly took readings in this area and traced the source of the high EMF to the junction box out back.
This is a photo of Alexis' EMF Detector reading 130.6 at the junction box. Franklyn had an analog TriField Meter 100XE like the one pictured below.
Only on his, when we got near the couch or the junction box, the needle was maxed out all the way to the right, so we knew the readings were way over 100.
The hanging pendant light in the breezeway bathroom was also reading high levels of EMF, however, not nearly as much as the junction box.
These two areas of the house correlated with reports of the activity however. So we began to wonder, with my sudden illness, and the location of many of the reports, if EMF could be the explanation.
But upon analyzing the noises and experiences had by the clients and their friends, I realized that the people having experiences wouldn't have been sitting there or in that spot long enough to feel the effects of the EMF exposure. The noises and activity was happening near the high EMF areas, but people were witnessing this activity or hearing it from another area. They themselves weren't by the hight EMF areas.
After inspecting the shower door in this same breezeway bathroom, Franklyn and I couldn't explain how the door could have opened or closed on it's own - a common report made by the clients.
Upon entering the house for the first time, Sara made her way directly to the spot where Paul first saw the little girl. In the photo above, Sara is making her way down the short hallway. She was getting a reading of the Native American woman spirit, whom she'd later report appears to Paul and Amanda as a child if they see her.
As she made her way back toward the living room, she noticed noises and creaks and said that the other spirit in this house liked to have fun and scare the residents. She was picking up on the male spirit now, in the living room.
The investigation grew darker when Sara discovered the male presence she could not decipher was human or not. Watching her communicate with the Native American spirit was completely different than the male spirit. Sara was demanding and unfriendly when she spoke to the male entity. So I could tell she didn't like him. When she spoke to the woman, she was sweet, kind, and friendly.
Sara continued to sketch through the night. Above were some of the early images she was getting. You can kind of make out the woman, the male and what she's drawing in the photo is the image of the pipe she kept getting from the Native American spirit.
As the night progressed, Sara was learning more about the male spirit. He liked this window behind me in the living. Which just so happens to be right by the couch I sat on when I got sick from high EMF exposure.
This is the same window from the outside. It faces the street and entry way to their house. As time progressed, Sara was able to learn more about the male spirit. He was human, just projecting himself to be something bigger or scarier. His name was Zachary or Zach. And he was obsessed with the homeowner, Amanda. He also, did not like Amanda's husband, Paul. She said Zach did a lot of waiting in this window. I made a connection that Amanda works out of town and doesn't get home until late most days. Maybe Zach waits for her by this window and gets frustrated with Paul, her husband while he's home, working from home.
Sara also could see a silver tether of energy running from this living room area near the window, down the hall, and into the bedroom door on the right. Which just so happens to be the master bedroom, and the side of the bed that Amanda sleeps on.
This is me investigating the area where Sara sees the tether.
This is the master bedroom door and how it opens right by Amanda's side of the bed. Between the open door and the wall, Sara found Zach hiding later on this same night.
Here I am standing in the exact spot Sara said Zach likes to hide. If I were to reach my hand out in front of me, I could touch Amanda's side of the bed from here.
The closet is also on this side of the room. Inside this closet is the cubby hole Franklyn and Alexis investigated on our first visit here. There were a couple reported EMF fluctuations that coincided with Alexis going near this area. But no one could really explain it.
Above is an image of Sara's finished sketches from her first night at Amanda and Paul's. You can see the Native American spirit in the upper left. Zach in the upper right, circled. The cryptic symbols he kept throwing at Sara for his name are also visible around his sketch. And toward the bottom middle of the page, you can see the pipe with smoke coming out of it. This is the image the Native American spirit kept giving Sara over and over again, and in the end, we all deduced that perhaps this spirit wanted a traditional Native American cleansing done to get rid of this male spirit. The pipe along with the specific herbs she was showing Sara led us to this assumption.
I'm standing with my back to the master bedroom door here. In front of me is the spare bedroom. This seemed to be where a lot of activity was centering. Sara saw the Native American spirit pacing and hanging around this area a lot. Protecting it. The tether ran straight here from the living room. Zach liked to hide behind this door behind me. Amanda slept right there also. And the noises Sara kept hearing in her head were around this area too. When she would imitate the noises, she'd knock on these walls in this hallway.
This is also the exact spot Amanda, Sara and I were standing when we heard the loud noise we couldn't explain in this area. Later, we'd hear the same noise echo from the bedroom behind me when Paul came in and joined us.
The night was a very eventful and informative one for sure. We'd debunked my sickeness due to the high EMF radiation coming from the junction box. But we couldn't readily explain away the other activty and experience everyone else had in the house. Hearing the sounds for ourself also validated the experiences Amanda and Paul were having. Lastly, the information Sara was getting without any prior knowledge of this case was connecting a lot of dots for me.
We were going to have to return another night. It was getting very late. But I didn't want to leave this family without offering someway to end the night on a positive note. So Alexis used a small emergency cleansing kit he kept with him to perform and Copal Cleansing of the entire house.
Above is an old image of Alexis performing a Copal Cleansing. We sadly didn't get any photographs of him this night.
But after the cleansing, the house felt better. Amanda and Paul felt good as well. We packed up and made the long drive back to Austin thinking we had done something to at least subdue the activity and this male spirit a while until we could get back here and do some more investigating.
Sadly, the update I received the next morning was not positive. Amanda and Paul had a horrible night. It was filled with noises, knocks, and now even Amanda seeing a dark figure by her side of the bed throughout the night.
I was left asking myself, what can we possibly do now? Did we just anger the darker energy in the house and give it more power to torment Amanda and Paul? Why didn't the Copal and Palo Santo cleansing work? Was Zach more than Sara was believing he was?
All this is addressed when we return to New Braunfels to face this restless spirit in Amana and Paul's home once more in Episode 11: The Restless - Part III, coming August 27th, 2018.
SHOW NOTES:
Presented by Story Bar & The Night Owl Podcast
October 11th, 2018
7:00pm-10:00pm
The Night Owl Podcast has partnered with Story Bar, a local arts initiative featuring live storytelling events in and around the Austin area. Mark your calendars for October 11th, 2018, because we’re teaming up to present Free Range Spirits, a night of live ghost stories on a haunted farm! This is going to be a fun night. We’re celebrating teh end of our first year of the show and gearing up for the start of our second year. Familar folks featured in this first years episodes will be in attendance. And last but not least we’ll be at Pioneer Farms, a vast historical site with haunts of their very own! So come get in the “spirit” of Hallween with some live ghost stoires, a big campfire, music, and a beautiful country setting like none other.
Tickets are on sale now
$15 in advance
$20 at the door
If you are in the Austin area and have a story that you’d like to present at this event, you can contact me at thenightowlpodcast@gmail.com. But hurry, there’s not much time left!