Working on
the Railroad
A paranormal investigator doesn’t have to enter the neighborhood haunted house at midnight on Halloween to encounter spirits of those who have passed on. Nighttime “ghost hunting” at “the witching hour” makes for good stories, but paranormal encounters can happen anytime and at any place. For example, most of the encounters related in this book occurred in broad daylight and many of them outdoors in open spaces. It makes sense. People pass away at all hours of the day and night. They all have memories of events that happened at all hours of the day and some of them have chosen to return to those happy times. Whenever we went on an investigation, we tried to remember that a good paranormal investigator is an alert investigator. We were always trying, and sometimes succeeding, in recognizing opportunities for contact whenever and wherever we were.
Sometimes an investigator can have an encounter seemingly by coincidence, an event so seemingly normal that the realization that a paranormal encounter has just occurred hits after the fact. Such is the case when Dwight and Rhonda were walking down the abandoned railroad bed towards the ghost town of Charleston, Arizona. The bed is built up above the flat lowland that is the ancient San Pedro River bed and provides an excellent view of the brush-and-weed covered surrounding landscape below. The bed is covered in a deep layer of metallic slag, rocks that crunch when stepped on. As they walked along they suddenly noticed a young black man approaching. He was dressed in a polo shirt, clean and pressed tan slacks, and walking shoes—not at all the appropriate dress for hiking that country. He walked confidently, as if with a purpose, and as he passed by he said, “Be sure to stay hydrated.”
A few steps later Dwight and Rhonda had one of those “wait a minute!” moments. The young man had made no sound walking on the slag as he passed by—an impossibility. They turned, but he was gone. They had an unobstructed view of the railroad bed and the open country on each side, including the parking lot nearby. The young man had just disappeared.
Sometime later we were conducting research for the Charleston chapter in this book. We decided to explore this encounter. On the way back we did a short intuitive/pendulum session at the place where the young man had suddenly appeared. We recorded the session and picked up an EVP that said “Vamos,” which means “let’s go” in Spanish. We were worn out from our excursion and our sessions in Charleston, so the session was brief. We vowed to return.
Before returning Rhonda conducted an extensive search of possible identities of the young man. She even made contact with the family of the most likely person on our list. Not surprisingly, the family had mixed feelings about contact. The man’s mother held deep convictions about the afterlife and was not open to contact or even hearing of contact. His sister was much more open and seemed interested in the information we were gathering.
Several candidates for the spirit fit the profile fairly well. One was named Raphael,* the most likely candidate, so we used that name as an identifier in our investigations. I conducted a map dowsing session to locate a possible site for locating human remains. Map dowsing involves a series of yes/no questions used in conjunction with a map to locate a specific area or place. In this case I used a topological map of southern Arizona and created a “shrinking box” by defining east/west and north/south points and gradually shrinking the four “edges” of that box to an area about the size of a football field. (When we returned this area had been washed out by the river.)
Just in case the individual we hoped to contact was someone other than who we believed, during my session I used the identifier “the person we are calling Raphael” rather than just “Raphael.” That slight modification covered all our bases.
We came back to the railroad tracks February 5, 2017. We walked a short distance down the railroad bed to a point about the length of a football field from Charleston Road just north of the San Pedro River bridge. We started at a bluff that is 40–50 feet above the river. We conducted a pendulum session just to get our bearings on the case and the location. Dwight recorded the session, which produced a definite EVP. We asked a number of questions and discovered the fact that the male spirit we were addressing had chosen to return to the site so that he would be in a position to help people in distress or danger. One danger, dehydration, is a severe problem for people walking under the harsh Arizona sun.
DB: This is EVP session one for me. We’re still at the bridge. February 5th. It is now 9:30 (a.m.). We just conducted a pendulum session and this is just a follow-up EVP session.
R: If anybody’s here you can speak into these little boxes that the guys are holding. Speak into them really loud so we can hear you. Shout out your name or anything you want us to hear.
D: If the male who was with us during the pendulum session, if you’re still here with us, you can shout out your name if you want to. That would be great so at least we can …
R: So we know.
D: … come back and talk to you specifically. If anybody else is here with us or the gentleman we talked to before, can you tell us if you can what you died from? How you died?
R: Did you drive up to this location?
DB: Were you dumped or dropped off at this location?
D: Let me ask this since it just kinda’ came to me. Did you drown near here? Because that’s what I’m picking up.
R: It could have been in the summer months, you know and …
D: If you drowned could you either say yes or no if you drowned.
R: Really loud because we’ve got background noises … cars.
D: So let me ask you one more time so we’re clear, did you drown here or near here?
Okay, thank you if you answered us.
R: I have to ask. What do you think of President Trump?
D: We’re getting a lot of traffic noise now. That should be pretty good.
DB: Let’s see what we come up with.
R: Thank you.
DB: We do appreciate it.
I’m ending my session now.
We had an incredible experience walking east from the bluff toward the railroad bed for our next session. We were walking in line—Dwight, Rhonda, and me as “tail-end Charlie” when a clearly audible male voice speaking in conversational tones said “hello.” We were in an open field and no one was within half a mile of us. The nearest people were three hunters down river at Charleston and two young men on the south side of the bridge. Remember, the riverbed was several stories down from our location. Again, the voice was clear and from someone right with us. His voice stopped us in our tracks.
DB: Let’s do that again.
DB: I’m going to repeat myself. All three of us heard a voice. This is about five minutes to ten. We were walking back to the parking lot and the three of us heard a voice. It sounded like “Oh” or a lot like “hello.” We all agree that it was a male voice and very near. So if that person is still with us we would like you to say something into this little box here, please.
R: And there’s the hunters.
DB: Where are the hunters from here?
R: The sounds were coming from up that way.
DB: That wasn’t the sound we heard at all.
R: No. That was the hunters we saw walking along the river.
DB: They’re to the north of us. The voice we heard was to the west.
R: Southwest.
DB: Yeah. Towards the river.
R: Behind us. Behind us literally five or ten feet.
DB: It was not a shout.
R: No!
DB: It was a “hello.”
R: Yeah.
DB: And we all agree that it was a male voice.
R: Yes.
DB: Well, give us a shout out, please.
Car door slam.
R: Car driving across the bridge.
DB: We’ve got to go now, so if you have something to say this is the time to say it.
R: Or come with us.
DB: Yeah, come with us.
R: You’re more than welcome.
DB: But we appreciate the greeting anyway.
D: Yeah.
DB: End EVP session two for me.
We moved on and within a few minutes were standing on the railroad bed at the exact place where the original encounter had occurred.
DB: This is my EVP session number three. We’re on the abandoned railroad tracks just north of the parking lot. February 5th about five after ten. We’re just trying to contact the young man that Dwight and Rhonda saw, so if you’re here, if you have anything you’d like to say, and if you have a sister, if you’d like to say anything to your sister.
(Gunshots from the hunters.)
But we understand that your sister would like to hear from you so if you’ve got anything to say we could certainly convey the message.
D: Just to make sure we’re talking to who we want to talk to …
R: You should get out your pendulum after we do this so you can confirm.
D: We’re looking for Raphael. And just to confirm, Raphael, for validation so we know it’s you, can you tell us what your sister’s name is?
KNOCK
R: That’s me knocking on the recorder.
D: One more time, if you can tell us what your sister’s name is. Come up real close to us and just …
R: Shout it in one of these boxes.
D: As loud as you can, that’d be great.
R: Well, these are little mini recorders.
D: Of course, the wind’s starting to pick up now.
DB: I’m blocking the wind from my pendulum with my body.
R: Let me …
DB: Yes … I asked the person “that we are calling Raphael” here and I’m getting a yes. Somebody heard.
R: Let me find out something here.
DB: Another yes.
D: A lot of traffic noise out here today.
R: Okay, there we go. So, Raphael, are you here?
DB: I’m getting a firm yes. Somebody’s here.
R: Is your sister’s name Sofia**?
DB: I’m getting a yes.
R: And are you fifteen?
DB: I’m getting a null, so … Were you fifteen when …
R: Were you fifteen when you died in the car accident?
DB: That’s a yes.
R: If you have any message for Sofia or your mother we can help you do that.
DB: That would be a yes.
R: I have a feeling that you stay with your mom quite a bit.
DB: Again, that’s a yes.
R: Unfortunately, because she’s so devout in her religion …
DB: Swinging yes.
R: … she doesn’t feel you, feel your presence, or hear you. We’re hoping that your sister can help her, her grieving process, help her understand that you’re still around.
Are you the young man that Dwight and I saw on the railroad tracks?
DB: That’s a pretty good yes.
R: Do you stay out here and help people. Or do you come out here and help people.
DB: That’s a good swing yes.
R: Let me ask this, do you help other spirits?
A little bit?
DB: A weak yes.
R: Do you mostly try to help the living, to make sure they’re always doing the right thing?
DB: That’s a strong yes. He was just taking care of you guys.
R: We appreciate it.
Sofia told me that you liked to come out here and hang out with your friends, hang out with your buddies.
DB: That’s a yes.
R: I can certainly understand why. This is one of our favorite places, as well.
You guys want to ask any specific questions?
D: No. I’m just letting the recorder run.
DB: This is your chance to say something.
D: At this point he knows what we’re doing out here so if he wants to talk …
R: The good thing is we’ve got a bunch of your friends that know now that you’re out here trying to help people. I posted a message on Facebook and so many of your friends were in awe that you’re still hanging around and they miss you dearly. So what was your favorite sport? Apparently he was an athlete.
DB: That would explain the walking.
(Dwight and Rhonda said that the young man walked with a purpose. He wasn’t ambling.)
R: This could be where he trained or whatever.
Do you have any messages for any of your friends who were in the car with you that day? If you do, just speak into the recorder.
DB: Before you ring off, this is what it sounds like when you walk on this gravel.
(DB footsteps on a slag railroad bed.)
DBL: Dwight and Rhonda say when he came by this is what they heard:
(DB stops walking.)
R: There were our two sets of steps, but once he passed us we didn’t hear the crunching of the rocks, which is when we turned around and there was nobody there.
DB: It’s impossible to walk on this track without making noise, because we’ve tried.
R: Yeah, you can’t recreate somebody walking up and then not hearing them. And even if they did you’d see them out in this scrub brush out here. Because it’s not very thick or very high.
DB: Ending my session now.
*Not his real name. Out of respect for the beliefs of a family member, we are using a different name.
** Not her real name.
The EVPs
R: Yes.
DB: Would it be fair to describe you as something of a guardian-type angel?
EVP: Yes
R: We appreciate you talking to us.
DB: It’s impossible to walk on this track without making noise, because we’ve tried.
R: Yeah, you can’t recreate somebody walking up and then not hearing them. And even if they did you’d see them out in this scrub brush out here. Because it’s not very thick or very high.
EVP: What gives?
DB: That would be a yes.
R: I have a feeling that you stay with your mom quite a bit.
DB: Again, that’s a yes.
EVP: Hey, you three.
R: Unfortunately …
To listen to the EVPs go to:
www.beelieveparanormal.com/our-book.html