Visit to Ventura ~ Olivas Adobe and Bella Maggiore Inn

Next week!!! A visit to Olivas Adobe with Richard Senate and others for a tour. Joe and I will be staying the night at Bella Maggiore Inn in room 17 again. We have some plans for unique props and will be toting some new equipment we just bought to enhance and clarify evidence in order to duplicate from previous visits and hopefully, capture more paranormal evidence. A bit about these sites from websites ~ http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-hauntedhotels6.html: ~ http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghoststories/ghostlady.php Bella Maggiore – Refer also to previous posting on my blog to review our previous visit to this site visit. Located in downtown Ventura, the Bella Maggiore is a lovely 1825 Italianate building. It is also haunted by a number of ghosts that are known to roam the hallways. In Room 17, the ghost of Sylvia, a prostitute who committed suicide in the room around the time of World War II, has been known to knock on the door. However, she only knocks only appears at the door if the room is occupied by a male. Olivas Adobe ~ Refer also to previous posting on my blog to review our previous visit to this site visit. Authored by Richard Senate: She was scared. One could see that in her eyes that night. I had seen that look many times in the past. It was the look of a person who had seen a ghost, a frightening ghost. The young woman in question was a volunteer helping during one of the ghost tours offered at the historic Olivas Adobe in Ventura, California, and her job was to greet the public as they came in. Those who took the tour that night did see things and managed to take pictures of mysterious “orbs” in the old 1847 hacienda that night, but the poor volunteer got the worst of it. I doubt she will volunteer again. She was alone at the gate to the parking lot with her clip board. Her job was to greet people and check them in from the sign-up list. She later said she felt odd as if someone or something was watching her. Then, something caught her eye. She turned and, by the flagpole, not ten feet away, she saw a woman standing there. The figure was wearing a long white dress and had long black hair that hung below her shoulders. The most startling thing about the woman were her eyes--she had none! The place were eyes should be were nothing but bloody pits, as if her eyes were cruelly ripped away by some fiend. The figure of the eyeless phantom then slowly vanished. Over the years there have been many sightings of ghosts at the historic Olivas Adobe, but no one has ever told of such a horrific apparition. Not long after that encounter, one of the women on the tour inside the house asked who was on the site, because she saw a woman with long hair and a long white dress from the balcony. The woman was walking in the rose garden! Who is the mysterious Lady in White and what happened to her eyes? An answer came from another group that visited the site months after the sightings of the mysterious lady. They found the upstairs children’s room most active with cold spots and thing even moving. A sort of code was set up using dowsing rods. From this crude attempt at spirit communication a bizarre story came forth. The ghost, spirit or essence called herself Maria and she confessed to be a Native American servant girl who once worked at the house. The house needed many servants to operate and many were former Native Americans from the California Missions. She said that she was murdered in the house and buried not far away. A Yankee visited the ranch and was a guest of the Olivas Family. He saw Maria and wanted her. He presented the young girl with simple gifts and fancy words. At last, he lured her into the storage room off the kitchen. When she complained, he took a knife and cut out her eyes! After he had his way with her, the Yankee strangled her, hiding the body under some bags of goods. He then left the hacienda, riding south toward Los Angeles. The cook found the body not an hour after the killer had left and alerted the family. They were livid that their hospitality was repaid with such barbarism. The Olivas son’s mounted their fine thoroughbred horses and went in pursuit. Their fine animals caught up to the fleeing Yankee near Saticoy Springs. One of the sons, a skilled vaquero, lassoed the murderer by the neck and pulled him from the saddle. They dragged him back to the adobe where the victim’s father waited in tears. He ran to what was left of the Yankee and stabbed him in the heart. The killer was, most likely, dead at this time, but vengeance was called for. The murderer’s body was tossed into the quick sand of the near-by Santa Clara River and never found. Not one bit of evidence exists that this story is true, but, justice was swift in old California and such a reaction seems in keeping with the times. The ghostly presence said that she was glad that justice was swift and her abuser and murderer was slain. Is this the answer to the story of the eyeless ghost woman? Who can say? Many times, when a ghost can tell their tale they just vanish away. Let’s hope the ghost woman has moved on to a better place, that place we all must go when our time comes.

VENTURA Visit 10 23-25 2010

Photo is in the children's bedroom ~ Olivas Adobe

On this week end we were able to stay at the Bella Maggiore Inn in order to verify, validate and test some of our findings from our previous visit and investigation. Also, we were able to share an event with Richard Senate at Olivas Adobe. When we arrived and checked into the inn, Joe and I did a walking tour of our own down Main St. and checked out Ortego Adobe, where I had a personal experience of hearing someone walk up behind me, stop and stare. When I turned to see who it might be, no one was there. It was a very eerie feeling, which I'd not ever experienced before. Also, experienced a male voice bleed-over on my cell phone right after an EVP session which I, in haste, did not close properly. This happened in the parking lot of Ortega Adobe. I would recommend anyone who visits Ventura not to miss this historical site.

Video on this post - Joe and I arrived at the hotel around 3:00 in the afternoon. Took baseline reading with both our EMF device and a K2 meter. Readings were extreme, so high we both got light headed and that antsy feeling along with nausea. We decided we'd talk a walk outside to clear our heads. We turned on our camcorder to record while we were out of the room for about an hour and a half. This is explained in the attached video. It seems we've captured a light anomaly. Unfortunately, this posted version is a recording from my mini digital camcorder (hand held) of the original recording we viewed during analysis on wide screen from our camcorder. This was taken during daylight hours without an IR light. The camcorder does not record dust. This light appears to come from the closet and enter right back in. Also, if you look closely, you can see the same light appear in the closet when Joe directs me to reopen the right side closet door.

Video: We have reviewed all 15 hours of the video taken, during our two night stay, with our IR camera night system and did not find any evidence solid enough for publishing. We are still in the process of reviewing our night video taken with our camcorder and will update when that is complete.

EMF Reading: Saturday 10/23 Consistently high during daytime hours. Evening and night very low, at times no registered reading at all. Sunday 10/24 Low to no register at all EXCEPT during the evening between 8:00 - 8:30 when we had a "visitor" which will be posted soon. Monday morning readings were consistent as Sunday. Low to no registered EMFs.

EVPs: Many voices heard on audio recordings. Both male and female is heard. Will post results on completion of analysis.

Tour Experience ~ Olivas Adobe: Our event with Mr. Senate was so interesting, educational, enlightening and fun. To make sure we had our adventure on video, Joe had the camcorder fully charged (battery was at 100%) and ready to capture this experience. We did a haunt walk thru tour of the adobe and the grounds then commenced to a room where Mr. Senate's wife Debbie headed the group for a seance. This was interesting, for neither Joe or myself had ever done this. Debbie is a psychic medium. Joe had been video taping the entire haunt tour and then set up the camcorder to record the seance portion. He returned to the table and we all joined hands. We were told we could not break the circle. Just as Debbie began her session, the camcorder turned off by itself. Afterward, Joe discovered the battery had been completely drained. Reports of batteries being drained is not new to us, or those who have used equipment (ie. cameras, minicams, DVRs et al) while visiting haunted sites.

Summary: An update will be published once we finish reviewing all of the evidence we recorded on both audio and video devices. It's a long and time consuming job for just us two to complete. We are very particular what we post and want to post only evidence we've verified and gone through thoroughly, although we do realize nothing can be perfect! Please always keep in mind... Honor and Respect those whom you may not see, hear, feel or "otherwise"! Thank you for visiting my blog!

Video of mysterious light anomaly: