Team: Bren, Steve, John. We arrived at the house (a small bungalow in North Sheffield) at about 9pm and were greeted by couple in their late 50's. The woman was very nervous and jumpy. She told us she had been seeing the figure of a man in the bedroom. Her husband said he had also seen a figure. The woman added that she was frightened to go to sleep because she was worried she would wake in the middle of the night to find the figure sat by the bed, so she kept the light on all night. They have lived in the bungalow for three years and have never experienced anything before. It had only been over the past two weeks that they had been seeing things. The woman mentioned to me that her husband was in ill health and that someone had told her that spirits only appear when someone is about to die. I assured her that spirits could appear for all sorts of reasons and that she shouldn't worry herself unnecessarily.
The couple showed us to the bedroom. The first thing we noticed was a fusty smell. Both John and I felt tightness in the chest. Steve set up trigger objects, small alarms and a camcorder. We took some baseline readings; we used the EMF to check for wiring and pipes. There seemed to be quite a high reading over the bed which we agreed could be due to static electricity being as the bed cover was synthetic.
The couple left us to do a vigil to see what we could pick up. We noted that the windows were single glazed and that there was a slight draught from the right hand casement. We sat quietly and waited. John asked if there were any spirits present and asked them to give us a sign if they were there. A couple of minutes later the room started to grow hazy and a swirling mist formed over, and to the right of, the bed.
I started to go into trance and apparently started talking in a man's voice, mumbling a name and asking for help. It turned out that this was the man that had lived in the house previously and had died in the bedroom. The spirit was asked to leave the couple alone.
A couple of minutes after it was obvious that someone else was present. We all noticed a sweet, perfume smell. John asked if there was anyone there and we all felt the bed shake slightly. I picked up that the woman had Alzheimer's and couldn't communicate by speech. We asked her if she wanted to communicate by another method and the bed shook again. We told her we would ask her some questions and if the answer was 'yes' to shake the bed. We confirmed by this method that she was female and had lived here, that she was looking to be reunited with her husband. We told her that she was frightening the people that now lived in her house and asked her to move on.
The atmosphere lightened and the fusty smell was gone. We asked the people to come in and see if the room felt better. They agreed that it did.
I checked with couple the following day to make sure everything was calm and to tell them if they needed further help to call us.