Case 5: Saratoga County Homestead

Before I begin recounting this investigation, I want to make one thing very clear: Do not trespass onto this property. Do not vandalize it. Do not destroy it. This building has been abandoned for many years and is actively deteriorating. Not only could you be breaking the law, but you absolutely will be disturbing the spirits within. If you’re particularly bad, one may attach itself to you, angry that you deeply disturbed its resting place. While this goes for all of the locations we have documented, this goes especially for this one due to its past.

Again, let me reiterate.

DO NOT TRESPASS ONTO OR VANDALIZE THE SARATOGA COUNTY HOMESTEAD IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOUR SANITY, OR YOUR SAFETY. YOU WILL REGRET EVER STEPPING FOOT ON THE PROPERTY. YOU WILL GAIN NOTHING AND YOU COULD LOSE EVERYTHING. THERE ARE TOO MANY RISKS, BOTH SUPERNATURAL AND OTHERWISE, AND THEY ARE RISKS YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

With that out of the way, this building, located a little over 50 minutes from where we live, was opened in 1914 as a sanatorium, or a hospital for those suffering from tuberculosis. At the time, tuberculosis was almost always a fatal illness, and as such, specialized hospitals were built all around the world to take care of those suffering from it until they recovered or, more likely, they died. Due to the amount of death and sorrow within their halls, many sanatoriums have become infamous for being haunted, with perhaps one of the most famous being the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky, one of several Meccas of sorts for ghost hunters around the world due to it being featured in numerous books, videos, websites, and television series throughout the years.

The Saratoga County Homestead operated as one for 46 years before it closed in 1960, with tuberculosis treatments becoming far better and vaccination drastically reducing the amount of people who got the once-dreaded disease in the US. After this, however, its job in the healthcare field was not yet finished. It re-opened in 1961 and operated for another 18 years as a nursing home before it closed for good in 1979. It has seen several property owners over the years, but none have done any work on the building. In its time as both a sanatorium and as a nursing home, it is believed around a thousand people died on the property from a variety of causes.

With all of this in mind, we all headed up to the complex, ready to capture definitive proof of its haunted halls.

…

It was the night of March 25. We had taken two weeks off after what happened in Leesville due to the rather disturbing experience there. None of us were really in the mood for hunting ghosts, but after taking a bit of a breather, we decided to give it another shot. We all hoped that this location would give us results that were not as dangerous to us.

On the front steps, all five of us were getting ready. Jared and Yukiko had video cameras, I had the EMF meter and a photo camera, and Ashley and Marie had DVRs, with Marie having another photo camera. To start things off, I began taking photos of the outside, aiming my camera at the windows and then the entranceway. As I did, Marie remarked, “Oddly enough, I don’t really feel an ominous presence here yet. I thought I would by now given what this place is, but nothing really so far.”

“Good,” Jared replied. “Let’s hope it stays that way. I’m not in the mood to have another experience like I did two weeks ago.”

“Me neither,” she agreed with a nod.

It was then that I noticed something on a photo of the second floor I had taken. “Hey, guys, look at this.” They all came over and huddled around my camera, and I showed them that there was a glowing shape in the window despite there being no electricity running to the building at all. The shape was in the form of a person, but had no distinct features. “Well, that’s certainly a sign this is a hotspot.”

“We haven’t even started yet,” Ashley remarked. “Holy shit.”

“Let’s head in,” I then told everyone else. “Yukiko, come with me. Jared, Marie, Ashley, you guys go to the second floor. Be careful since there’s holes in the floor, and use your flashlights as much as you can so you don’t fall.”

With that, we all went our separate ways, cautiously optimistic about our chances of capturing more evidence given what I had already taken a picture of. Me and Yukiko began walking around a wing of the first floor, looking into several abandoned patient rooms and taking photos, but finding nothing like I had photographed. As we went into one particular room, however, we began to feel a chilly breeze, unusual given that the window to the outside was boarded up completely. Yukiko asked me, “Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “It did.” I then turned the EMF meter on, and immediately saw that I was picking up some readings in the room despite there being no electricity running to the entire complex. “I wonder if something’s here.”

No sooner had I said that that we both heard a voice from the hallway that belonged to none of us. This female voice was indiscernible, but seemed to be calling out to us. Both me and Yukiko fell silent in a state of shock as we turned to each other in disbelief, still in awe that we had begun capturing such strong evidence so early into the investigation. We did not have a lot of time to think, though, because the voice was soon followed by the sound of running from the hallway towards our room. Yukiko said to me in a state of panic, “Let’s go!”

“Agreed,” I replied as we ran out of the room and down the hallway, going deeper into the hospital as we did. Neither of us turned around as we ran, and as we got further away, the footsteps we heard stopped. As we reached the end of the hallway, we found a stairwell to the second floor and looked up it, noticing a giant hole in the stairs that would prevent us from going up. “We can’t go up.”

“Not with that hole in the middle. I’m not taking a chance with it.” Yukiko aimed her camera down the hallway, trying her best to see if anyone was following us from her camera’s viewfinder due to the darkness. “I can’t really see much, even with night vision.”

I then turned to an abandoned office next to the stairs and pointed at it, feeling as though something was inside watching us. “Hang on… Look over there real quick.”

“What is it?”

“Shhh…” We both went silent as Yukiko aimed her camera into the office. I had begun to hear very faint whispering from within, and so had Yukiko. The camera picked up a little bit, but not much of what we heard. I looked down at my EMF meter and noticed it once again spiking, confirming my suspicions of there being some kind of entity in the office. I whispered to my sister, “Do you hear that?”

Yukiko whispered back to me, “Yeah. It sounds like a conversation. I don’t see anyone inside, though.” It was at this point that the camera picked up an EVP that neither of us heard at the time, consisting of a male voice that seemed to reply to us: ‘Private conversation…’

Not knowing we had captured this EVP, we remained still as it continued on for a few more seconds before it stopped. As soon as it did, I walked over to the office and peeked my head inside, barely able to see in front of me even with a flashlight on my phone. I called out, “Is anyone here? We heard you talking.”

It was at this moment we both heard a voice from deeper in the office that scared both of us half to death. A female voice was heard from another room saying to us ‘We know!’ Yukiko immediately told me, “I heard that!”

“Holy shit,” I said as I bolted out of the office and back to her. “It knows about us! It knows we listened in!”

“This is getting crazy.”

As I turned to look down at my EMF meter, I realized it had died on me despite having a full battery when we walked in. “Wait, what the fuck?! My EMF meter died on me!”

“Already?! It was full when we got here!”

“A spirit must have drained it of energy,” I theorized as I looked around. “It’s only a matter of time before whoever drained it manifests in some way.”

As Yukiko moved her camera around to face towards the stairs, it spotted a shape that we did not notice until after we had reviewed everything we had recorded inside the Homestead. For a brief two seconds, it captured a black shadow along the wall that belonged to neither of us, and was in the shape of a tall man. Based on our measurements, the shadow was about six and a half feet tall, which was taller than both of us. Perhaps this was the spirit who had drained my EMF meter.

I looked up at the stairs, neither of us realizing what we had captured, and told Yukiko, “We gotta go back down the hallway eventually. We can’t just stand here.”

“I wonder how the others are doing upstairs. I haven’t heard anything from them up there.”

…

Upstairs, Jared, Ashley, and Marie were all conducting an EVP session on the other end of the building. While me and my sister were busy dealing with spirits downstairs, they had captured nothing so far in their session. As they ended it, Marie wondered to the other two, “Maybe they’re not in the mood to do anything. I don’t really feel like there’s anyone around us.”

“That’s odd,” Jared replied. “I thought for sure this place would be teeming with ghosts given what we photographed earlier when we walked in.”

“Me too,” Ashley added. “Maybe we somehow chased them o-“

“Wait,” Marie then interrupted her with. “Hang on…” As the other two watched, Marie’s eyes widened as she looked up at a doorway out of the room they were in. She remained still for several seconds before she suddenly let out a loud scream and fell to the ground, curling up in a state of fear.

Jared turned the camera and saw what he thought was nothing as Ashley went to comfort Marie. However, upon enhancing the footage later during our review, we were able to make out a very chilling shape within the doorway that was not immediately visible to the others: A faint skeletal figure standing in the doorway looking at all three of them. As all this happened, between Ashley and Marie talking to each other, an EVP was captured on both of their DVRs, consisting of a deep male voice saying, ‘Found you.’

Ashley asked Marie as she tried to stop crying, “Marie, what the Hell happened?!”

“I saw something,” she stammered out to her. “And… And it looked right at me…”

“What the Hell was it?”

“I don’t know what it was, but it was evil! It was pure fucking evil!” It was clear that whatever the camera saw, Marie saw a much more intense version of it that also seemingly overwhelmed her mentally. “It’s like… Maybe I saw it before… But I don’t know where.”

Ashley asked her, “Did you see it here at the Homestead?”

“No. I’ve seen it elsewhere…”

When I reviewed this part of the video and when I was talking to Marie about this later, my blood ran cold. Somehow, and somewhere, a spirit had attached itself to Marie, and now it seemed to follow her to other haunted locations we were investigating. We had no idea who this entity was or why it attached itself to her, but we knew this would be a headache for us for the time being.

After this incident, the three of them left the room and ventured elsewhere on the second floor, ending up in a former break room for workers at the Homestead. Marie, who had calmed down by now, prepared herself to begin an EVP session as Ashley began to take photos. “Okay,” Marie said to the spirits around them. “I know one of you attached yourselves to me. I won’t let you bring me down. You’re not the reason we’re here. We’re here to talk to the spirits that actually belong here. If you do belong here, this message isn’t for you. You’re welcome to stay here.” In response to her defiant statement, a female voice was captured on her DVR: ‘You okay?’ It sounded like this was a spirit who was showing concern for Marie given what had happened. A few seconds later, the same female voice said, ‘He’s not here.’

Around the same time, Ashley took two photos of Marie and noticed something odd floating around her in both photos. She spoke up to Jared first, saying, “Woah, hey, look at this.”

“What’s up?” Jared then looked at the photos Ashley took. “Uh… Marie, look at this.” Marie walked over and was shocked to see both photos, which showed a white smoke-like mist surrounding her. This could not be chalked up to water vapor nor our breaths being visible on camera, as it was not cold enough on that particular night for our breaths to be visible in most cases, and even when it was, it was not to the extent seen in the photos.

“This… I felt this,” Marie then said to us. “I felt a calming presence after I told off that other spirit who followed me. It was like I wasn’t scared anymore.” She then looked around and asked the spirits, “Are you trying to protect me?” Immediately, all three of them heard an indiscernible male voice from down the hall, causing them all to turn towards the direction of the voice. “Holy shit…”

“I got that,” Jared said to the other two. “It’s getting colder, too.” By this point, all of their breaths were now becoming more visible, and Jared would later tell me the temperature dropped to near-freezing rather suddenly after the voice was heard. “Guys, this is getting intense.”

“Yeah,” Ashley remarked as she began to take more photos. “I don’t think the spirits here like whatever is following Marie.”

“Well, that’s comforting,” Marie chuckled. “Ghost on ghost violence… Never thought that was possible.” She then took a deep breath and continued the EVP session. “Were you a patient here? If you were, did you have tuberculosis or were you here when it was a nursing home?” Pause. “Were you a doctor or nurse here?” Pause. “Did you pass away here?” Marie got no responses except for her last question, which got a deep male voice saying, ‘I died.’

With all sorts of evidence captured so far, we all anticipated meeting up and going to perhaps the most haunted location within the entire Homestead: The morgue.

…

About an hour later, we all met up in the morgue. After going over what we had experienced and talking over how to deal with the apparent spirit attachment Marie had, we began to investigate. As I took EMF readings and Marie took photos, Ashley started up her DVR. I asked Marie, “Hey, are you sure you’re okay? Attachments are no laughing matter, you know.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted to me. “As long as I’m not alone, I should be okay.”

“Just let me know if you need to step out and stop. I don’t want you getting hurt.” At this moment, Ashley’s DVR captured a female voice: ‘Down here…’

Ashley then began asking questions to officially begin the EVP session. “Did you end up here?” Pause. “How did you die? Did you die of tuberculosis or old age?” Pause. “What brought you here?” Pause. After these three initial questions, Ashley began to replay the recording, and noticed that she got responses to all four questions, a rare occurrence.

The first voice was a male voice that said, ‘I am here.’ The second was the same male voice, which answered, ‘Breathing,’ which was almost immediately followed by an indiscernible female voice. The fourth reply was a whispery voice that said, ‘Help me.’ Finally, in response to her last question, the fifth reply was a male voice: ‘I came here.’

Amazed by the success of this short session, Ashley asked me, “Takeo, did you get any spikes on the EMF meter?”

“Yeah, I’ve been getting a bunch ever since we came down here.” I turned the meter around and showed everyone. “These are the highest readings I’ve ever gotten with this thing so far.”

Marie was shaking a bit, which got all of us worried. “Guys… I think it’s back…”

“Oh no,” I muttered. “Is that spirit you talked about back, Marie?”

“Yeah… There’s a lot of them here, but I can pick him out from the rest. Everyone’s getting agitated.” She took several deep breaths to calm herself down. “Look, I’m not going to stop doing this. If you think you can stop me, you’re wrong.” In response to this, all of us heard a loud growl from nearby in the morgue, causing Marie to say in frustration, “Shit…”

“Holy crap,” I commented. “It sounds angry.”

Marie then began to ask more questions. “How do you feel about people coming in here? What do you think about this place falling apart?” Pause. “Can you tell us your name?” Pause. “When were you in here?” Pause. “Can you tell us why you came here?” After finishing this round, she took a deep breath and began the replay. “Here we go.”

In response to her first two questions, a new male voice called out to her, ‘Decay…’ Then, it seemed like this same spirit gave us his name: ‘Matthew.’ After this, there were no more responses. I asked Marie, “Why don’t you ask Matthew some more questions?”

“That’s the idea,” she replied. She then asked this specific spirit apparently named Matthew, “Matthew, how did you end up here? Do you like us being here?” We got a response not in the form of an EVP, but instead in the form of a door opening to a closet in the morgue by itself, startling all of us. “Ah! Holy shit!”

“Woah,” Yukiko said in amazement. “I got that all on camera, too!”

I peered into the closet with the flashlight on my phone and found nothing inside. It was simply an empty dusty room. Anything of value had been taken away long, long ago, as with most things of value in the entire building after years of neglect and vandalism. “I wonder if Matthew opened this.”

“Matthew,” Marie then asked. “Is there something about this closet that you want us to know about?” An EVP was captured right after this question, with the same Matthew spirit telling us, ‘You noticed.’ It appeared as though there was nothing special about the closet itself, and Matthew only opened it to get our attention.

“Holy shit, dude,” Jared sighed. “This is crazy. This place is teeming with ghosts.” All of this, however, would pale in comparison to what would happen next.

We all heard the sound of laughter from the next room over, causing all of us to turn to the doorway and look to see what had happened. As soon as we did, both Jared and Yukiko’s cameras captured a chilling sight in the form of a white figure of indiscernible shape walking past the morgue, after which the door to the morgue slammed shut from the inside despite none of us being near it. As soon as the door slammed, we all screamed and cussed in fear. I yelled out in panic, “Holy shit! Oh my God!”

Marie screamed at the top of her lungs, “It’s back! It came back!” We all then heard the sound of nails scratching along the door from the outside, only adding to our panic.

Determined to get out of the morgue, me and Ashley raced to the door, trying to get it open. However, the door seemed to be stuck, and barely budged as the two of us tried to pull it open towards us. “Come on,” Ashley yelled in frustration. “Open the Hell up already! God damn it, open up!” We pulled with all of our might together on the door knob, but it barely moved.

Finally, after seven tries, the door suddenly flung open, nearly causing me and my girlfriend to fall over. As soon as it opened, we all bolted from the morgue and ran as fast as we could to the front entrance. However, as we ran, Marie got lost, as did Jared, and both were in separate parts of the building.

When me, Ashley, and Yukiko emerged from the front entrance, we quickly realized both were missing, and we made the decision to head back in to find them. “Wait,” I said as we ran out and stopped. “Hold up. Where… Where the fuck are Marie and Jared?”

“Oh my God,” Ashley said with a look of terror. “Don’t tell me they got separated from us…”

Yukiko yelled at the top of her lungs, “Marie! Jared! Can you guys hear us?! Marie! Jared!”

“We gotta go back in,” I informed the others, reluctant to do so but knowing we could not leave them inside. “It sucks… But we can’t leave them on their own in there.”

“Reception sucks up here,” Ashley pointed out. “There’s no point in trying to call them. We’d have to split up and find them.”

“This is gonna suck,” Yukiko sighed. “But we have to do it.”

…

Marie had wound up on the second floor by herself, and had just barely heard Yukiko calling out her name from outside. Hyperventilating in fear, she muttered to herself as she started up a video on her cellphone camera, “Oh, Jesus, please help me.” The only light she had to guide herself was the flashlight on her cellphone, which was not of much help due to how dark it was and it’s limited range.

Now no longer caring about capturing evidence, she began to look for a way out that was not blocked by debris or holes in the floor, but was having a hard time. As she tried to walk down a flight of stairs, she noticed a hole in them just in time to stop herself from falling through. Frustrated, she let out a sigh and walked back up. As she did, her cellphone and DVR, the latter of which had been running ever since she had fled the morgue, both captured an EVP in the form of a mostly indiscernible whisper: ‘(indiscernible)… Leave here.’

Desperate to leave, Marie began calling out Jared’s name. “Jared! Jared!”

From below her, she heard Jared call out her name. “Marie, where are you?!”

“I’m up here!” Then, however, Marie heard what sounded like a young child say something we could not make out behind her, after which she turned around and a door in front of her slammed shut, causing her to scream and drop her cellphone as she ran away.

According to Marie, she eventually found an intact staircase and met with Jared on the first floor, after which they both made it to the front entrance, but found themselves alone as we had begun to look for them. While we of course did not find them, Ashley did find Marie’s cellphone and stopped the video after it had recorded about twenty-five minutes of nothing. After forty total minutes, we all met up and decided to call it a night, heading off early due to what we had experienced inside.

After we reviewed the evidence and met up again, we decided that our next investigation would be our last until we went to Japan in August. We did not want to take the risk of aggravating whatever had attached itself to Marie, but we did want to continue with our sixth planned case: A return to our roots.