Fort Ethan Allen Chapel Investigation

Location: Colchester, Vermont
Date: October 23, 2009

History

Fort Ethan Allen Chapel was built in the early 1940's and was used as the military's place of worship. In the 1960's Saint Michael's College bought the chapel, and used it as a cafeteria and later a storage area. In the early 1980's the theater company that performed at neighbor Herrouet Theater used it as a secondary theater for plays, then later as a storage space for the theater. The chapel was later emptied and has been since the mid '80's. Every now and then it was used as a commercial haunted house, but other than that it has been empty.

There was only one reported entity that seemed to appear through the decades, and that was of Sister Sara. Sister Sara is said to be the ghost of the nun by the same name that died in Herrouet Theater in her room one night in her sleep. She was in her early 30's. An actor in the theater was going through personal struggles and came to the chapel (when it still had pews), sat down and started a prayer for his family. He noted that he then felt a hand on his shoulder and a soft voice state his name, then say "It will be ok." The actor turned around and saw a soft silhouette of a woman, and he said she just faded away. He was not scared by any means, and said she had a look of hope about her face. Sister Sara has been seen in both the theater and the chapel by many people who came to visit both through the decades. She loved both the theater and the chapel dearly in her life, even saving a building from a fire by ringing the chapel bell late one night.

Investigation

We had six infrared radiation (IR) DVR cameras placed throughout the chapel. One was placed on the chapel floor pointing toward the choir balcony. Two were positioned on opposite sides of the choir balcony pointing down and criss-crossed toward the chapel floor and where the altar was standing. One was on the choir balcony pointing to the opposite side of the balcony. One was on the choir balcony pointed up to the hatch to the bell tower, and the final one was placed in the bell tower pointing to the bell rope. We also had a Hi-8 in the back in the boiler room.

The reports were that the hatch lid to the bell tower would slam shut on people unexpectedly, and a figure has been seen in the chapel floor and the choir balcony. Voices have been heard in all areas of the chapel, and even in the boiler room.

We had two groups of three go into the boiler room, however, no electronic voice phenomena (EVP's), apparitions or electromagnetic field (EMF) spikes. Absolutely nothing was experienced on the Hi-8 at all either. The boiler room had absolutely no activity.

Both teams had taken turns also doing EVP sessions on the chapel floor. Simple questions by investigator Scott concerning pictures taken would lead to great results in evidence review. During the investigation on the chapel floor, it was very quiet—little did we know that the most interesting part of the investigation was up on the choir balcony.

On the choir balcony Nick, Caitlin and Rich noticed a strange hit on an otherwise dull K-II meter. The meter was hitting a solid orange light, and just sticking in the middle of the air. This K-II reading seemed to leave the spot when Caitlin left the area, and it seemed to follow her. It stayed a solid orange with a few dips to green every now and then, but nothing of note.

Later in the night we sent Ashley and Caitlin to the choir balcony alone, and the results were astounding. Both women had the idea that if the spirit is a nun, maybe it would respond better with just women. A few minutes into their K-II/EVP session, Ashley asked Caitlin to move the K-II slightly and then she asked "Sister Sara are you still with us?" On camera the K-II meter spiked to red seven times! This is the first time all night it did that. We decided to call the investigation after five hours there.

Evidence

After reviewing the digital voice recorders we were surprised with how many EVP's we picked up. Listed below are the EVP's that we found:

• Scott asked if he could take a picture if who ever was there could stand next to Tracy, the result was a male response of "No". This response was clear as day and not heard at the time of the actual question.

• A lot of rustling was heard and captured on the digital voice recorder from the choir balcony heard in the chapel floor. No animals were in the building.

• When Scott and Nick were on the choir balcony wrapping up an EVP session during the closing remarks, a very loud male scream is heard on the digital voice recorder—completely out place from the conversation.

• There were other slight responses that seemed to be either "yes" or were inaudible.

The EVP's were quite remarkable, but the thing to note was that the voice was male—not female! Not one female voice was heard.

A picture of Rich by a window gave awkward results as in one window pane appeared to be the face of a lady with a collar in the neck area. A trick of the mind or the captured face of Sister Sara looking in we can't say, but definitely something to look at.

Our final piece of evidence was a find! Rich was reviewing IR DVR Camera 3 situated on the chapel floor facing the chapel front door and choir balcony. After Tracy and Nick finished a base EMF sweep of the building before the investigation started, they went into the room where the DVR and the team were sitting to go over who was going where. Twenty minutes later, with no one in the chapel, Rich noticed an apparition that appears in front of a window in a room that leads to the choir balcony! It completely blocks out the window, pulls back, and blocks it out again before dissolving. We were quite enthused by seeing this!

Final Thoughts

While we definitely agree that there is some paranormal activity occurring at the chapel, further investigation is needed to determine whether it is haunted or not. Also the thought of not just one spirit (Sister Sara), but possibly another (male) spirit merits further investigation.