*SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains spoilers for Episode 13 & 14. Before reading, be sure to listen to A Haunting on Main St. Part I & II Afterward, feel free to check out this "Behind-the-Episode" blog for additional info and photos! And visit our Patreon page for more extras!
Photos for this story provided by Thao Photography & Alexis Arredondo.
The team and I returned to Old Town Buda Antique Mall, located at 212 Main Street in Buda, Texas, just one day following our initial visit, on September 8th. With my interviews on September 7th, and through several phone calls throughout the month, I gathered quite a number of personal testimonies from those who've had unexplained experiences in and around this historic 3-story building in this quiet little town in central Texas.
Firstly, I'd wanted to track down some of the investigators who'd come before me and my team. Jeff pointed me to Karyn with Got Haunts? Paranormal based in Austin, Texas as well as Rory with PhantasmaTX.
Hearing them recount the experiences they had and the evidence they'd gathered helped me lay more of the foundation of what Jeff and his team had been reporting to me. I was curious about how they'd obtained the names Judith and Nathan, how Jeff seemed to have more information about where some of his spirits resided mostly in the building, and what kind of activity he attributed to each. It was still hazy, but it gave me a starting point at which to begin making my paranormal detective hunches.
Rory and Karyn both shared EVPs from their investigations, which I included in the episode. However, Karyn was kind enough to send me a couple of orb photos she got.
Courtesy of Karyn from Got Haunts? Paranormal
Instead of recapping all the episode, which I don't like to do in these blogs, I'd rather just share some behind-the-scenes photos with you and touch on some of the key findings and theories I ended the case on.
Owner Jeff and I in the 2nd floor storage closet
The first validation we got was the "rose perfume" smell Jeff and his colleagues had described experiencing. In the photo above I'm standing with Jeff in the 2nd floor back left-wing closet, where he felt the entity he called "Judith" the strongest. It was in here that Alexis, Jeff and I got hit with waves of a sweet floral scent. It would show up in one spot, dissipate immediately, then reappear somewhere else nearby. Alexis and I both thought it smelt more like a general floral scent however, not a rose in particular.
Just outside this door in the 2nd floor left wing. Here we had several others experience the floral scent, as well as numerous cold spots. I even felt one myself that I could not explain. It was a warm night and the building only has window units and they had all been turned off prior to our arrival. So we couldn't explain the pockets of cold we kept discovering.
Above: Jeff and I at the step down entrance to the left 2nd floor wing. Behind me is the area where both Sara and Jeff feel the female spirit mostly resides.
In this photo above, I'm standing just in front of the cashier counter, where Jeff once caught a misty figure on his surveillance system and where customer Ron had his hat knocked off. Many also report cold spots in this spot as well. Coincidentally, this is also exactly where Jeanie saw a full bodied apparition of a female spirit after our investigation concluded.
In the photo above, Jeff explains to me that this section of the 1st floor (left wing) is what was once and apartment that he recently took over and expanded in to. This is where many have reported hearing an audible male voice. Where we are standing is exactly the spot where Sara stood and exclaimed she saw a male presence and that he was the only vocal one in the shop. So if there were reports in this area, it would be reports of people hearing his voice.
Sara and I right at the top of the stairs. This is where everyone reports feeling uneasy.
Sara explains seeing a male presence who seemed to be a "Craig" or "Greg" to her. He was tall, had disheveled hair and a beard, and was "hippy-like" in Sara's words. Or, if you heard the episode, she once described him as looking homeless, and then immediately said he looked like me. Not cool Sara. Not cool.
What was most interesting about her readings on this male spirit was how there was a lot of connecting pieces to the puzzle with what she described. She kept repeating that it felt really uncomfortable up in this area. Which was the most common report from this case. Customers and employees felt someone or something was up on the 2nd floor and many couldn't stay up there for long. Secondly, Sara was saying he acted like a guide and seemed to know what you'd buy. He'd take you to things you had a child or evoked memories from your childhood or past. Following our investigations, I followed up with someone I knew that had encountered the uneasy feeling upstairs. He confirmed that he had in fact noticed something from his childhood and immediately purchased it. Here's a picture Jorel actually snapped of the monkey in the wagon right at the top of the stairs in the antique shop. He sent the pic to his brother to confirm it was a match. In the photo above, this wagon would have been right behind where Sara and I are standing. Right in "Craig" or "Greg's" domain.
Actual photo customer Jorel snapped of the monkey he bought from Old Buda Antique Mall - this photo was taken just before he purchased it on his smartphone right at the top of the stairs of the shop.
Pictured above, Sara is getting more from the female spirit on the 2nd floor. To our left, the open door leads to the back storage closet where Jeff feels her presence the strongest.
Sara continued to gather more information from the two predominant spirits who seemed to mostly reside on the 2nd floor. She eventually got a the name "Eve" or "Eva" for the female presence on the 2nd floor left wing. She also got some remarkable hits when she pointed to the large windows facing Main St and exclaiming that people have seen her in these windows.
Looking at the bottom left window here, this is the window Sara walked over and pointed to. This is the exact window that Brian, employee at the Cigar Vault next door, saw the figure in the window the night he took out the trash. My wife went across the street and stood by the train tracks to take this picture from Brian's vantage point. Keep in mind, it was at night when Brian had his sighting, but can you imagine seeing a figure backlit in this window looking down at you from across the street? And what are the odds that Sara would walk over and point to this exact window? This was one of the highlights of the night for me.
*SIDENOTE: I actually hadn't interviewed Brian at this point either. So no one knew about Biran seeing a figure in this window until after Sara left and I ventured to the Cigar Vault to capture his story after everyone else had left. So she validated this before I even knew it was a validation!
This is the alley between Old Town Buda Antique Mall and The Cigar Vault. These windows here are the side facing windows that you can see if you're sitting out on The Cigar Vault's patio. Sara also mentioned people would see things in these windows and it was Eve. Brian did confirm that patrons of the cigar vault as well as himself had seen a few strange things, most commonly lights turning on and off.
Sara had gotten a good handle on Eve and felt she was the strongest presence in the building. She also picked up that Eve liked Jeff and there was a connection there, which Jeff admitted was true. Sara also relayed that she felt that Eve and Craig worked together to keep this store in check. Eve had a protective vibe coming off her as well as a motherly or techerly feel. Sara described her as being watchful of those who came into the store, both living and dead. If soemone was shopping she's keep an eye to make sure they weren't stealing. If an object brought a new energey or displaced soul, Eve would be the one to make sure they weren't bad for the store and it's employees or patrons. Craig would help sell items, taking people to things they might not even know they were looking for. Maybe like a creepy toy monkey that used to scare you in your mom's spare bedroom, right Jorel?
But just as we were wrapping up that night, Sara started feeling a darker energy. We were rounding the left wing to enter the right wing of the 2nd floor when she stopped us and told us to look up near the ceiling of the booth we were in. She was seeing a black orb floating and wanted to know if any of us saw it. We all answered, nope! But we pulled out cameras and equipment to take readings and document. There were no EMF or temperature fluctuations and nothing came out in our photographs so we couldn't figure it out. But Sara said Eve seemed to be on top of it. It was something new that had come into one of the seller's booths and Eve was going to handle it.
Fellow investigator Franklyn taking EMF and temperature readings in the spot Sara was seeing the black orb.
The last validation I had gotten from this case was the fact that Eve expressed two things to Sara that had a lot of meaning to Jeff. I had picked up on it as well when I heard Sara communicating two requests Eve made of Jeff that night. Sara said she did not like the music and would prefer something softer, more like from her time. And that she would like to be told "Good morning."
Sara had no way of knowing that Jeff left the radio on for his spirits at night and always, and I repeat, always, says "goodnight" to them. He confirmed that he kept the radios on a soft alternative station that played soft rock and that he only ever sade "goodnight" to them. Not once had he ever acknowledged their presence in the morning, but that he was going to start doing that.
In talking with Jeff's co-worker, Jeanie, she also relayed that she began saying "good morning" after hearing of our visit. We can't say for certain, but perhaps this pleased Eve so much that she appeared to Jeanie shortly thereafter. Upon concluding our investigation, Jeanie relayed to me over a phone call that, in all her time there, she'd never seen anything. But most recently, upon leaving the shop one day, she had to re-enter to grab her purse, and she saw in a flashing moment, the image of a woman with a high-neck dress and tight fitted sleeves. Could this have been Eve saying "hello" herself?
Employee Jeanie standing in the exact spot she saw the full-bodied apparition of the female spirit.
Owner Jeff Brown - Old Town Buda Antique Mall
Thanks for reading and listening my fellow Night Owls!
Stay restless out there,
Stephen Belyeu