GMM 10.29.07

Investigation: Garibaldi-Meucci Museum - Staten Island, NY

Date of Investigation: 10/29/07

Investigators: Arthur Matos, Jason Stroming, Laura Pennace, James Bricks

The Scene

On Monday, October 29th, the EPIC team returned to the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Staten Island, NY. We originally investigated this location in June of 2007. You can check out the results of that investigation here. This time around, we were joined by Tara Lynn Wagner, a reporter from NY1 News, as well as Michael Rundle, from the daily newspaper NYC Metro. They each brought along a cameraperson to document our investigation.

On our first investigation of the museum, we caught a few pieces of evidence that we could not explain, including some EVPs and some mysterious light phenomena.

Once again, the EPIC team set up its base of operations (or "safe room") in the main room of the first floor. The first floor also contains the gallery and a room containing many historical artifacts, including Meucci's hand-made piano. The second floor contains Garibaldi's bedroom, which also contains many artifacts, as well as the library and staff offices (these were also bedrooms in the past). A total of six infrared cameras, connected to the multi-channel DVR system, were used for this investigation, with 1 positioned facing the gallery, 1 in the basement, and 3 more in the second floor bedroom & offices. Two camcorders were also set up, with one in the library, and one on the second-floor stairway landing. Two digital audio recorders were running for the duration of the investigation, one set up in Garibaldi's bedroom, and one in the basement. A digital audio recorder, digital camera, and 35mm camera were also used by the team, as well as a Mini DV recorder to document the investigation. During setup, the crews from NY1 and NYC Metro interviewed various EPIC team members.

The Investigation

For this investigation, we had all four members as one team. We were accompanied by Emily Gear, director of the museum, as well as the crews from NY1 and Metro. The investigation began at approximately 9:00pm, beginning in the gallery on the first floor. Both 35mm and digital photographs were taken, EMF sweeps were conducted, and temperature readings were taken.

After investigating the first floor, including a lengthy EVP session, we moved up to the second floor, investigating the hallway, Garibaldi's bedroom, the library, and one of the museum offices (which also used to be a bedroom). At certain points during the investigation, Emily Gear was asked to participate, asking questions during the EVP sessions as well.

Since this was a condensed investigation, we finished up at approximately 11:30, at which point we began to break down the equipment and pack up.

The Findings

During the investigation, the EPIC team had a number of personal experiences. IN the early stages of the investigation, while we were on the first floor, we had a notable battery drain on our Mini DV camera. Our brand-new 6 hour batter lost just under 90 minutes of batter power, for no apparent reason. Later in the night, in the library, the camera began acting weird again, with another (though smaller) batter drain, and the camera switching modes from "Camera" to "Playback," something normally requires a button to be pushed down and "clicked" into another position. The camera changed modes without this button being touched. Also, Laura and Artie both experienced drastic temperature changes in Garibaldi's bedroom.

As far as photographic and video evidence, nothing of note was captured. There were some dust orbs on the digital stills, but these were obviously nothing more than dust particles. We also had another Hi8 camera trained on the bathroom, where we caught the unusual lights last time, to see if we could replicate it. We did not catch anything on the camera this time.

As far as the audio evidence is concerned, there were a few anomalies caught by the team. Interestingly, like the first time, most of the EVPs that we caught sounded like grunts or coughs. There was one voice recorded, but it is extremely faint, and it is hard to determine what is being said. The grunts are interesting since we caught the same phenomena last time, and yet again, nobody heard anything unusual at the time.

Examine the audio & video evidence

Conclusions

The EPIC team found some intriguing audio evidence, which backs up what we caught on our first investigation of the museum. They are not "Class A" EVPs, but they are still unexplainable and unusual. We have tried to find rational explanations for these sounds, but could not do so. We did not catch anything on video this time, which reinforces our beliefs that these lights in the bathroom did not come from an outside source, such as headlights. We hope to return to the garibaldi again, to continue our research into the apparent phenomena there.

Click below to see our video summary of the investigation.