Duncan Heights Cemetery - Allison Park, Pa
Our investigation at Duncan Heights Cemetery was one of our most active locations yet. Before we dive into the investigation and how it felt to be there let’s talk about the history of this amazing location.
What is known of the location is limited as it been abandoned since the early 1960s. It is believed that Duncan Heights Cemetery was established in the early 1930s as a cemetery for African Americans. Somewhere within the 1930s-1960s time frame it was opened to people of all walks of life. The cemetery has struggled throughout its history to be remembered as many attempts to restore it have unfortunately never been met with government support (local,state, or federal.) There are potentially 2,000 or so people buried in this cemetery.
If you wish to help in someway you can visit the “Friends of Duncan Heights Cemetery” Facebook page (link below) or the website created by volunteers here.
We decided to investigate this location in hopes of filling in some of the missing history and to direct attention at the restoration efforts. Our investigation started off rather slow as we didn’t have much activity via the spirit box or evps. As the night went on we quickly realized as the sun goes down the spirits tied to this location are much more willing to talk and interact with us.
We had occasional pings on our rem pod that signified a potential spirit or energy attempting to interact with us. While that was interesting evidence nothing was definitive until we attempted the Estes method. When I first began setting up for the Estes method things suddenly became more active. the rem pod began pinging more frequently and the cat balls finally indicated some bit of motion. It was spine tingling to see the cat balls light up while so far away from us and clearly being able to see nothing interfering with them.
I decided to continue on with the Estes method incase this was a spirit attempting to encourage us to communicate. For about 15 minutes I hardly heard much more than a grumbly unintelligible voice. I had a slight bit of anxiety at one point, felt a slight chill across my chest, and potentially felt something touch the spirit box. However, none of this stood out much as evidence. The burst of activity as I started the Estes session felt as though it would be the peak of our night.
That quickly changed though whenever Natalie began her Estes session. Through a mere 6 minute Estes session Natalie and I were able to have a back and forth intelligent conversation. A conversation in which we learned the spirit communicating with us was named Thomas, he prefered speaking with Natalie, and I potentially had seen him move with my own eyes.
During Natalie’s Estes session time felt as though it was speeding by and that she had been under for far longer than she actually had been. In reviewing the footage we both agreed we wished I had let her communicate for a longer period of time. Though the conversation could have lasted longer it is still some of the most incredible and intelligent communication that we have captured yet.
In the video you’ll also notice that we do find a tombstone with the name Thomas Sproul in the general direction that the spirit referenced. After researching the burial records of those buried within Duncan Heights only one gentleman named Thomas is mentioned. Thomas J. Sproul. I believe Thomas spoke with us during that investigation to let us know that there are still spirits lingering there and that they do wish for their resting place to be restored.
There’s much more history to be discovered here and we absolutely will be going back. In fact the next time we go we might just bring a living relative of one of the buried…
~ Morgan
Watch our investigation here.
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