The Haunted Auckland team returned to the New Lynn house for a full overnight investigation, following an intriguing initial investigation which seemed to indicate that the home may quite possibly be actively haunted.

This time we came with extra people and additional equipment, including the newest piece in our research arsenal, a 4 x I.R camera DV-R system. The 12 hour session started at 8pm on Friday night and went through till 8am Saturday morning. To the surprise of those that attended, we all managed to stay wide awake and alert the entire time!

The team for the 12 hour investigation: Mark, Barbara, Matthew, Heather, Tanya. Kel joined in from 10pm till just after midnight.

Weather Conditions on the night – Fine but cloudy. Lunar Cycle: Almost a full moon.

Base temperatures in the house on entry at session start – At 8.45pm most of the upstairs rooms were around 18C. The kitchen was slightly warmer at 19C with the bathroom at 17C and the toilet at 16C. The downstairs rooms were cooler with the office/lounge, storeroom and toilet at 6C, the bedroom and end room at 17.5C and the hallway and bathroom / laundry at 15C.

Mid way temperature readings – By 12.30am the lounge area upstairs and bathroom were 15C, Susan’s bedroom was 16C, kitchen, Michael’s bedroom and toilet were all 17C. The downstairs office/lounge was 16C, the bathroom laundry was 15C and the bedroom and end room were still both 17C.

EMF Readings – There were no big fluctuations over the night. We did discover that there were high readings in Michael’s bedroom, particularly from his digital alarm clock and in the wardrobe! It was via the EMF readings that we were led to find a car battery being charged downstairs as the elevated readings alerted us to the possibility of something happening on the other side of the bedroom wall.

Matt – “EMF readings were flat throughout the house apart from expected spikes near power boxes and appliances. A cyclic EMF fluctuation was detected behind the television; however this was determined to be due to the wireless router on the desk.”

Second visit opinions

Tanya – “There were two parts to the house – the upstairs felt older and the downstairs (basement) was quite cold.”

Barbara – “The downstairs area was very neutral, though upstairs had a feeling of ‘something’ being there and / or a build-up of negative residual energy. The upstairs made me feel anxious. Not emotionally, but physically. I got that ‘butterfly’ feeling in my stomach and felt slightly on edge. Something felt not quite right and I had an uneasy feeling of something watching us everywhere upstairs, except Susan’s room. This is interesting as last time I did not like Susan’s room at all, but this time it actually felt quite calm and peaceful. I could have easily just gone to sleep in there. Downstairs seemed to have a neutral feel to it (nothing good or bad).”

Kel – “When I first entered the building downstairs, I did not like the feeling. I sensed a very strong vibe and felt quite dizzy and nauseous. I actually felt quite sick at times. I noticed my car was sitting right next to a high voltage power box. When I walked across the road I sensed quite strongly beforehand that there were entities in the house.”

Heather – “Peter’s bedroom downstairs was open this time, and you could smell the stale scent of cigarettes, it probably lingered around from the room being locked up and not left open to be aired. The hallway was damp and wet and the downstairs shower looked like you needed a ladder to climb into it!

Bowie the Cat

Heather – “When Kel arrived she let in their cat Bowie, who became Matthew’s best friend for the night. Bowie seemed quite content to be inside, even with strangers, although he had met a couple of us, on the previous visit. Nothing seemed to bother the cat, he was happy to sleep either on Matt or me, or the couch or the floor next to the couch.”

Michael’s Room

Barbara – “That was where we did our very successful EVP session. I also had a sense of something being there (as did the lounge and kitchen). It is interesting to note that upon reviewing the DVR footage, Michael’s room was by far the most visited room (apart from the lounge where we were based) with all team members returning to that room again and again.”

Tanya – “I would not call myself a ‘sensitive’ but I definitely felt a presence in Michael’s room.”

Kitchen Light Anomaly

At one point in our investigation our DVR system pictured up an unexplained change in lighting in the kitchen. In the video below, watch the top left-hand video feel, though the doorway you can see the refrigerator, the left-hand edge goes from being bright to dark, then back to bright again, indicating a change in lighting, however you can see from the video feed on the bottom left that the lighting in the kitchen does not change.

Spirit Communication

The team decided to hold an EVP session to try to communicate with whatever might have been in the house. The session lasted for an hour, from 4.43am to 5.42am. We decided to hold the communication session in Michael’s room. The girls lay on the bed whilst Mark monitored the room with the parabolic audio dish. The room was also documented with one I.R camera recording directly to the DV-R and 2 x Audio recorders. We proceeded to ask the usual EVP intro questions.

We started to get solid single taps (knocking) immediately after each question. When a tap followed in response to a question we would confirm it, and then double confirm again, just to be sure. The replies were constant, direct and seemingly intelligent and confirmable every time without fail.

The selection of EVPs below are just a small handful of some of the possible ‘interaction’ we experienced during this session. The ‘conversation’ gets a little more detailed and accurate, while the knocks become more distinct and louder, the further on it goes.

Heather – “It must have been around 2.30ish when I had the feeling/need to go into Michael’s bedroom, so I did, and went in and settled down on the bed. I heard something in the room and called out to see if the others had. The noise happened again and sounded like it was coming from the wardrobe. Mark, Barbara and Tanya came into Michael’s room and we all could hear what sounded like a tapping noise. So we ask the spirit if they would knock / tap once for yes in answer to questions, and it agreed too. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening and thought my imagination was playing tricks on me, but after being there a few hours I had zoned out the aquarium bubbling, the TV humming and the radio clock buzzing and was hearing all sorts of weird things. We took a break and asked the spirit if we came back in would they talk to us again. We were all getting tired including our ghostly friend, hence the break.”

Mark – “We noticed that the tapping wasn’t coming from any particular direction and was coming from ‘everywhere’. Behind me, in front of me, high, low, everywhere. It definitely had me stumped! We tried, continually throughout the session, but could not source the sound or its direction. It was an incredible feeling to be honest! We checked out the whole room looking for possible sound sources to explain it, but couldn’t.”

Every now and then we would ask again to confirm that we were actually communicating with someone. Every piece of information we received we would confirm, sometimes twice. Everyone in the room was genuinely impressed at what was going on. We could find no explanations for anything we were experiencing. We could hear the usual gurgle of stomachs, clicking of body movements and could all tell the difference.

Within the hour-long session we were ‘told’ that the entity was a young, 13-year-old boy named Jonathan Lockley, this was determined by each letter being individually spelt out.

The following information was also communicated:

He had white skin and light brown hair.

He had lived and died in the house in the 60s after being very ill.

That he could see us sitting in the room and was standing over by the window.

He had lived there with his parents.

He had a sister.

His sister was older.

He went to school at New Lynn Primary.

Where he was, there were other people there with him.

He was not with friends or family, all the people around him were strangers.

The room we were in used to be his bedroom.

He was not aware of his surroundings or where he was.

We got the impression he was watching us over by the window, yet was in another place. (Perhaps a parallel place or time?)

Wherever he was, he wasn’t happy and didn’t like being there. He was desperate to leave.

He was sad, scared, missing his sister and didn’t know where she was.

He has no friends where he is.

He liked to watch T.V at night when It was on.

He goes into the kitchen and lounge, but said he didn’t go downstairs because he has been told not to.

His parents had told him not to go downstairs.

He wanted help getting away from wherever he was.

He was happy with us being there, liked us and thought we were funny.

On us asking if he could see the home owners when they are there, he said ‘Yes‘.

He liked spending time with Peter and wanted to be friends.

He liked the Michael and could see him when he sleeps in the room.

He was wanting to be friends with everyone in the house and enjoyed being around them.

We asked if it was he who rings the doorbell. We received no answer to this question, so couldn’t confirm.

We asked ’Jonathan’ to go out into the lounge and touch Matthew who was monitoring the DVR system.

He said ‘Yes’ and disappeared for a short while. After a moment, ’he’ returned to ’chat’ with us.

We asked if he liked Matthew and received ‘No’.

On asking whether Matthew would be welcome to join us, we received a negative.

We found we constantly had to question ourselves. There were no random knocks outside of these questions, only in ‘reply’ to the questions. At times Mark claimed to be picking up loud buzzing sounds at the moments we were getting replies. A couple of times we heard ceiling, bed creaks and floor board noises, but discounted these as being normal house movement.

Also during the EVP session:

Tanya thought she had seen a face beside her at the window.

Barbara reacted to having felt ‘something’ touch her leg.

Soon after, Barbara felt her sock being pulled off.

We asked if that was Jonathan, he said ‘yes’. (Seems this kid has a good sense of humour!)

Mark reacted to seeing a dark fast-moving shadow move behind him to his left.

‘Jonathan’ then disappeared and we heard no more.

After the session, as we were commenting on how incredible it was that we might have captured possible communications for a whole 30 minutes (This is how long it felt), it became clear to us that it had actually been a whole hour!

Barbara – “We seemed to receive intelligent responses to our questions with a knocking. Was the highlight of my night! We went to the house in New Lynn looking for evidence of a suspected haunting and I think we may have got it. The team held a very good EVP session which seems to indicate that a spirit (or spirits) there was able to communicate intelligently by answering questions by tapping for responses. These were in no way just random noises as at times when the group is talking among themselves there is no tapping to be heard.”

Heather – “When we went back in, we decided to ask if we could get a name from this spirit and ended up spelling out Jonathan Lockley who went to New Lynn Primary School, and died at 13 years of age. He had an older sister and they had lived in the house with their parents during the 1960’s. I have called the Primary School a couple of times asking for details about Jonathan and if he did go to the school. As we don’t have an actual year he was there, it will probably take a while for them to search their enrolment records. I did offer to go to the school and look for myself, but they said there was no need to. Maybe if we get a chance to go back to the house we might be able to make contact and see if we can get a year Jonathan was at school, or at least his birthday. Although this ‘ghost’ could have been playing tricks with us. We might end up contacting someone else? What seemed to be a short period of time talking to Jonathan in the second session, it was over an hour we spent with him. We all were starting to tire again and the tapping was getting lighter, so we decided to stop.

All of this was recorded on two audio recorders. A copy of the full 59 minute recording is available on request for any groups or individuals who wish to perform additional analysis.

Personal Experiences and Sensations

Mark – “I spent some time, by myself, lying on the Susan’s bed. I had the audio recorder going in an attempt to have a few staple questions answered. I was lying on my back with both my arms up behind my head, my camera ready at my side. About 10 minutes into the session, I jumped up in fright, as I felt the exact sensation of long hair slowly being dragged along my arm. I leapt up and started clicking off photos. Nothing was caught on camera or audio. The I.R DV-R camera aimed into the room captured me leaping up, but wasn’t angled enough to see my arms or upper half. It was like a woman had leaned over me, moved from left to right, slowly draping her long hair across my arms. It was an amazing experience. I could feel all the long hairs running through my arm hairs!”

Barbara – “I had a sense of something being upstairs, particularly in Michael’s room, but can’t say what it was. Personally I suspect that someone/thing was watching us and was playing games.”

Kel – “In the kitchen, I felt a presence and asked “What is your name?” I receive a name, Surley. I then asked “Is this your first name?” I received “No” I asked “Is this your surname?” the entity replied “Yes” I psychically asked “Can you show me what you look like?” I received a picture of a young guy with blonde hair. Unfortunately I cannot use any of this as conclusive evidence as it was not able to be documented, still, interesting all the same. I then lost connection. I tried singing to see if I could reconnect. Unfortunately nothing happened. Later, while sitting on the floor in Michael’s room I felt a presence of a small dog, quite close to me. I closed my eyes and saw a little bit clearly that this dog had wings. In the downstairs lounge I felt a presence. I tried to communicate with the entity. Unfortunately there was no response. I was feeling quite dizzy and nauseous. In Peter’s room I felt a presence of a young male and he was lying on the bed. I did try to communicate with the entity. Barbara went to get her Camera, while I stayed down stairs in the bedroom. I thought I saw a dark figure go past the door in the Hall way. I decided to try to see if singing would help to communicate with the entity.”

Matt – “During the “quiet time” from 2:30am to 3:30am while sitting on the couch directly opposite the television, I felt the couch “pop” as if a weight had been lifted or placed onto the couch next to me and the springs had adjusted. I had not moved for some time and no one had been sitting next to me for at least the previous 15-30 minutes so I cannot directly explain what caused the couch springs to shift. I likened the feel to a cat jumping up on the couch; however the only cat present was at my feet and had not moved at all. I was not present in Michael’s bedroom during the extended E.V.P. session when the knocking communication occurred, however I was moving around the lounge for the latter part of that session. I did not notice any creaking or knocking noises at the time.”

Trigger Tests

Whilst downstairs in the Peter’s room, noticing all the Rock / Metal memorabilia, an electric guitar and other Rock music related items, Barbara and Kel tried gaining a reaction via a ‘trigger’ action of singing a rousing Rock rendition of the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Miss Polly had a Dolly‘. Though it was highly amusing to Mark, who was also in the room, nothing happened.

Barbara traced around the remote for the DV-R system and left it at the top of the stairs. It did not move. Also, a notebook was left folded back on the lid of the container for the DV-R system. At one stage during the night we asked if anything was there and if it could move something. In front of everyone, the notebook opened and fell to the floor. It was agreed that this was possibly due to the way it was folded back, but it did seem at the time to be dead on cue in response to us asking if whatever was there could let us know.

Conclusions

Barbara – “I thought it went well. We went to the house looking for evidence of a suspected haunting and I think we may have got it. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get more evidence but then I suppose that a one hour EVP session is not to be sneezed at! I thought we worked well as a team and that we did manage to cover most areas and do most of what needed to be done. I was really pleased with the first run of the DV-R system. I think that this house is haunted by at least one intelligent spirit. From the stories the family has told I suspect that there may be more than one and that perhaps Michael attracts spirits to him (and his home and family). I tend to believe it when Michael says that his deceased friend sometimes is in the house but that there is also something else there which tries to make them believe that it is the ghost of Michael’s friend. Michael seems to be a gifted psychic and would have a good idea of what different do and how they feel. I suspect that the “boy” we got during our EVP session may not have been who he says he is and may have been a spirit who was telling us this in order to gain our trust. I also think that spirits may be attracted to this house not only by Michael but also as the house seems to have some residual energy in the upstairs areas. I feel as though something bad has happened there or possibly a series of bad happenings which have built up or layered the residual negative energy in the areas of the house most effected. The layout of the house would not help this as I suspect that energy gets trapped in that upstairs area.”

Tanya – “I feel it was a very successful investigation. Would love to go back and investigate more in-depth and try find out more about this ‘Jonathan” person. I think we covered the house pretty well. I think there might be residual, but definitely intelligent. Especially in Michael’s bedroom, as we were able to interact with some form of energy. “

Matthew – “I couldn’t find any records of the “Jonathan Lockley” who communicated during the E.V.P. session, or any Lockleys associated with the address or neighbouring properties based on Electoral Roll records up to 1981. Generally it went well, definitely some good evidence from the E.V.P. session. While I did not personally witness any activity that I would class as definitively paranormal, the results of the E.V.P. session in Michael’s bedroom are compelling and the location closely matches the “hot spot” where the clients claim most of the activity is taking place. The interaction via knocks would indicate an intelligent haunting, although there is some difficulty backing up the details given by the entity with historical records. While I am not spiritual or religious personally, some of the entity’s responses and the fact that the entity claims to be a child makes me concerned it may be pandering to our expectations a little, similar to the actions of a so-called “demonic entity”, however it’s difficult to say either way without further replicating the results.”

Kel – “I did receive a last name Surley, a date of 1949 and the word ‘Depression’, though not knowing if whether this meant a depression in 1949, or if the entity was itself depressed, I felt that there were a lot of entities including an animal in the house I listened to Barbara’s EVP of the little boy communicating by knocking out his name. My findings are inconclusive if the place is haunted or not but there seemed to be many entities, including an animal there.”

Heather – I think there is a lot more to the house than even the Michael knows. The house seems to be disjointed with the way the toilet is away from the bathroom and the bedroom in the middle of the two. Not much fun to go to the loo if you have to pass Michael during the night. I get the feeling that Michael’s room should be at the end where the toilet is with a door to the bedroom from the kitchen, with the toilet being next to the bathroom, like most houses? I get the impression that the house was moved there and then uplifted and put on a basement of concrete. Maori affairs and state housing did move homes around during the 50’s and 60’s and there are no other state housing/Maori affairs houses in the street. All in all it was my first all-nighter and was extremely interesting and exciting, which opened my mind to wanting to know more. “

Mark – “Well it was a very interesting session to say the least. I consider myself an open-minded skeptic who has had experiences but still ‘sits on the fence’. After this night I feel I have experienced something valuable that has now altered my perceptions on the paranormal world. I am more confident now than before, that the path I am treading is a true and valid one and the ‘seeing is believing’ phrase really meant something this time around! Whether or not we actually did ‘speak’ to an entity called Jonathan is still unknown. Even now, I have doubts, as the all too familiar and annoying ‘too good to be true’ debate goes on in my mind. All I do know is that if all the knocking in response to our questions was just coincidence, natural occurrence or misidentification and the ‘hair’ incident in the Susan’s room was just nerves or skin sensitivity, then it sure fooled this open-minded skeptic! One thing I felt very sure of in my mind is that whatever it is that is residing alongside this family isn’t harmful or negative. If it is, I certainly didn’t feel it. In fact, I saw it more as being youthful and friendly, but lonely and in need of friendship. Another thing that can’t be disregarded is the quality and quantity of all the stories of activity through the years, some of it regularly occurring and ongoing. It seemed blindingly obvious that there is something going on in the house that the usual ‘Electromagnetic field’ or ‘rusty plumbing’ culprits couldn’t be accused of this time, and it wasn’t just in the mind of one person, but physically shared by and affecting, the entire family.”

A big thank you to the family for trusting us and allowing us into their home to investigate the activity overnight. We really do appreciate it and hope we have answered a few of your questions and maybe shed a little light onto some of the things you have all been experiencing through the years.