Audubon Director States There Are Mountain Lions In Kansas

Ron Klataske exudes confidence when he talks about what he says is proof that mountain lions exist in Kansas.

He's put photos up on the Web and is awaiting a visit from the state's primary investigator when it comes to mountain lion reports -- Matt Peek.

Klataske, executive director of Audubon of Kansas, this week made the announcement via an e-mail to journalists across the state and on the Audubon's Web site.

The announcement was accompanied by photographs of an animal and pictures of plaster casts that Klataske says confirms the presence of mountain lions.

Matt Peek, a furbearer-big game biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, hopes to get a closer look at what Klataske has to offer.

Peek said KDWP doesn't discount the idea that mountain lions might be in Kansas.

"We have not found conclusive evidence that wild mountain lions are in the state," he said.

In surrounding states, for example, mountain lions have been found, generally when they are killed crossing roads.

Peek is hoping that a higher quality photograph can be obtained, noting that the photograph on the Audubon's Web site is "inconclusive."

Mountain lions have been the subject of considerable debate in Kansas.

Rumors and reports concerning sightings abound, but no tangible evidence has been found.

The last confirmed wild Kansas mountain lion was killed in 1904 in Ellis County.

Even the scat that originally confirmed the presence of a mountain lion near the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence is now suspect because of problems with the laboratory where the sample was tested.

But now there is also a recent incident of a 17-year-old Alma cross-country runner who "got knocked down from behind," Peek said. "He thinks the animal that did it was a mountain lion."

Peek said he and others were in the area where the student was running but was unable to find anything, primarily because it had rained overnight and the road had been graded.

While the claw marks were minor, he said, investigators were able to determine that they were wider than perhaps a bobcat might be. But they also couldn't exclude that possibility.

"We don't have any real reason not to believe the kid," Peek said. "We would probably call it inconclusive. There is no obvious reason not to believe what the kid said. And he believes it was a mountain lion."

Peek said he hopes to review the evidence Klataske has and said he is "not discounting anything at this point."

Klataske said he decided to make the announcement via e-mail and online because KDWP has had a history of skepticism concerning mountain lions in Kansas.

"I just thought it was better to share it with them at the same time I share it with everyone," he said.

Although Klataske would not say where the animals were sighted, he did say that they were primarily in the eastern part of the state.

Klataske said he had confirmed two separate cougars since April 2006, and another that was killed in north-central Kansas in 2002.

In June 2006, the Audubon director said he spotted a mountain lion about 3 miles from where the lion had been photographed a couple months earlier. Klataske said he found a dozen or more tracks near a stream and made plaster casts of several.

The Alma attack is what prompted him to step forward with information.

It's important, he said, for people to be aware that mountain lions might be in the area and to take precautions.

He's also concerned that people might take up arms and pursue the animal, killing it if it is found.

That's why he won't give the exact location where the lions have been spotted, although he said he'd show Peek where the casts were taken.

"We just think it's important for people to understand they're here so we can talk about how to develop a conservation program," Klataske said.

Mountain Lions Kansas
Mountain Lions Kansas

Murdered Woman Haunts Montana Residence

Doreen Lemire points to a hole under her bathroom where she and her husband found several bones

Great Falls, Montana - Kristafer Lock has tried to forget seeing a translucent-like woman in a white nightgown walking the hallways of his mom’s house.

But he’s not ruling anything out at this point.

On Monday, his mom Doreen Lemire and her husband Allen discovered what could possibly be the bones of a woman beneath their bathroom at 1305 7th Ave. N. The woman may have been killed by her husband 32 years ago.

Police have not determined if they are animal bones or human bones. But Leslee Reynolds Larson went missing in 1975, her husband Dennis Larson lived on the same lot, he was later convicted in Maine of killing his third wife, and he admitted in 2000 to killing Leslee.

That has 18-year-old Lock thinking seriously about what he saw.

He described the ghost as a woman in a white dress with a rose print. She would appear in the hallway between the living room and kitchen, where the bathroom is located, too. Sometimes he would see her outside.

“I try not to pay too much attention to her,” Lock said. “I don’t believe in spirits; I don’t believe in ghosts.”

But he’s not the only one that has supposedly seen a female ghost hovering in the house.

For years, people have described the house at 1305 7th Ave. N., as well as the duplex at 1301-1303 7th Ave. N., as haunted.

According to city directories, Dennis Larson lived in the 1301 duplex until sometime in 1979 or 1980.

Jody McCurdy lived in the Lemire’s house from 1998 to 2002. Her son Malachi Dusek was just 5 years old around that time and often told her of seeing a woman in a white nightgown walking through the house, holding a purse.

When on Wednesday, she read the news of human bones possibly being discovered in her old rental home, McCurdy said she “went numb.”

“We had so many problems in that house,” McCurdy said.

Malachi Dusek, right, sits on the porch of his Black Eagle home with his mother Jody McCurdy and brother Micah Brady and recounts a ghost sighting he had while his family lived at 1305 7th Ave. N.

She had a mice problem and at one point in time believed there was carbon monoxide poisoning in the house as well. She also had two miscarriages while living in the house and one premature baby died.

“I just figured it was like a curse,” she said.

The mice, she said, used to come from a hole underneath the sink in the bathroom – the same place the Lemires found the bones on Monday when remodeling their bathroom.

“The smell just was like decaying wood,” McCurdy said.

Malachi, now 11, said he once followed the woman who appeared in a night gown from one of the bedrooms toward the living room, thinking it was his mom.

When he yelled for his mom, Malachi said she responded that she was in the bathroom.

“I was 100 percent sure I’d seen something,” Malachi said. “I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.”

After Dennis Larson was arrested and charged with murdering his wife in Maine in 1988, police in Great Falls once again opened the investigation into Leslee’s death and searched the duplex where the Larsons had lived.

Pat Goodover owned the duplex for a few years in the 1980s when that investigation was initiated.

He said at that time, some of the tenants reported seeing a ghost and that those tenants who had dogs would never go near the dirt-floor basement.

“This was your classic haunted house,” Goodover said. “Whether you believed in ghosts or not – something was there.”

He described the duplex as two separate townhouses with a main floor, second floor and a basement that was shared between the two. It may have been a single-family residence at one point.

The duplex was razed in 2005 and is now one big corner lot owned by the Lemires, according to city records.

Goodover said the house that is now 1305 7th Ave. N was a garage at the time and was owned by a different person.

In the west-facing unit, there was once a fireplace where Goodover said police searched for clues. On the east-facing unit, he said there was a door that led to nowhere, but had scratch marks like someone was trying to get inside the house.

It was like déjà vu to Goodover when he heard news of bones being found – even though the bones haven’t been identified and Goodover tries not to believe in ghosts.

“I don’t have an opinion on that,” he said. “There are things out there we don’t know.”

Murdered Woman Haunts Montana Residence
Murdered Woman Haunts Montana Residence

New UFO Sightings in New South Wales

EDEN, New South Wales, Australia - Eden residents Margaret McDonald and her grandchildren are wondering about life in space after seeing an strange object in the sky three nights in a row.

From Friday night to Sunday night on the last weekend in August, Mrs McDonald, her husband Greg and two of her five grandchildren, Tim and April Keft, watched the antics of an orange star shaped object in the night sky.

Miss Keft was the first to spot the unidentified flying object [UFO] as it approached from the north at about 9.30pm on Friday night when she took the dog outside for a stretch, and called out Mrs and Mr McDonald outside.

"When I first saw it I thought it was a star," she said.

"It was like it could see us as it did a little dance.

"Timothy [Keft] got binoculars out and saw flashing lights.

"It was very high up when it started to move and it was heading south and then it just sort of turned gradually and left in an easterly direction over the sea."

At about the same time over the next two nights the family piled outside again.

"It looked like it was more above us and it looked like it had a cross on it, it wasn't round but more like a star," Miss Keft said.

"On Sunday night it did a little dance and went south."

Astrologer David Reneke has researched UFOs for more than 10 years and currently contributes to Sky and Space Magazine.

He said there was a list of possibilities to work though before an object could be called a UFO.

"Mrs McDonald's explanation was very vivid and descriptive," he said.

He said without further investigation it was impossible to regard the UFO.

"One of top five things I ever saw came from the Ben Boyd National Park, and it was in daylight," he said.

There was more than one witness and they had evidence."

The story Mr Reneke mentioned was the filmed sighting of five or six flying objects over the sea by three Sydney men who were in Eden to film an eclipse of the sun in 1976.

Mr Reneke examined the film frame by frame and sent it to the United States for analysis where it was confirmed to be unidentified.

So is there pattern of UFO sightings in our skies at the time of an eclipse?

"No," said Mr Reneke.

UFO New South Wales
UFO New South Wales

1st Yeti Footprint Photos to be Sold

The first photographic evidence that the yeti, or abominable snowman, might be more than a flight of Himalayan fancy has surfaced in public and is to be offered at auction later this month.

Four photographs of large paw prints in the snow beneath Mount Everest are to be sold at Christie's in London on September 26.

The images were taken by the legendary British mountaineer Eric Shipton on a reconaissance trip to Everest in 1951, in preparation for the first successful ascent of the 29,028 ft peak two years later.

Tom Bourdillon, who was also in the reconaissance party, later gave Shipton's black and white prints, which measure 6ins by 4ins, to a friend, Michael Davies.

Mr Davies' descendants are now selling the historic souvenirs, which are expected to fetch £2,500.

The first European claim of a sighting of a large bear-like beast in the Himalayas was made in 1925, but there was no photographic back-up until Shipton's pictures.

On the back of one of his images, Bourdillon wrote to Davies about the team's sighting of the prints.

He said: "We came across them on a high path on the Nepal-Tibet watershed during the 1951 Everest expedition.

"They seem to have come over a secondary path at about 19,500ft down to 19,000ft where we first saw them and then went on down the glazier.

"We followed them for the better part of a mile. What it is I don’t know, but I am quite clear that it is no animal known to live in the Himalaya and that it is big."

Edmund Hillary, who first climbed the mountain with Tenzing Norgay, later said in a book that a member of his successful party had found a tuft of long black hairs on a rock. The hairs were said to look like bristles.

Publication of Shipton's pictures prompted several expeditions to search for the yeti but they all proved to be inconclusive.

The photographs are included in a two-day Christie's sale devoted to exploration and travel.

Other star items include the first aerial photographs of the summit of Everest taken by Colonel Stewart Blacker in 1933 (estimate £6000) and a poignant souvenir of Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated race to the South Pole in 1912, the white canvas cover of Captain Lawrence Oates’s sleeping bag.

It was retrieved from Antarctica by a search party after Oates left Scott and the rest of the doomed team, leaving his tent in a blizzard with the now-famous last words: "I am just going outside and may be some time."

The cover is expected to fetch £40,000.

1st Yeti Footprint Photo
1st Yeti Footprint Photo

Mysterious Sightings in New Zealand Skies

A man who photographed a mysterious object over the Tasman Sea near Kaitaia in April wasn't alone in seeing something strange in the sky.

Ninety Mile Beach Surfcasting Club members Ann Hallett and her brother Mike Scott were driving to a club function at Ahipara on April 28 when they noticed a 'mirror bright' light in the sky.

"We were coming into Wainui Junction and there it was in the centre of the windscreen," says Ann of the oval-shaped object they first saw at about 5.40pm.

"I said to my brother, what the hell is that?"

They told other club members about the object when they arrived at the function.

The half a dozen people who saw it said it was just the evening star.

Ann and Mike estimate they watched the object head towards the western horizon for 5-6 minutes before it disappeared.

The Sunday of the following week, Ann and Mike were fishing off Ninety Mile Beach, north of Ahipara, when they saw and photographed a bright smoke trail in the sky at about 5.15pm.

"At first, we thought it was a cloud, but it was moving," says Mike of the object which appeared as the sun was setting.

They did not think the object could be the contrail of a plane because they had never seen one heading in that direction, at that time of day, in the years they had been fishing at the beach.

"Whatever it was, I've never seen anything like it," says Ann.

Two other people have contacted The Northern News to report similar sightings around April 28.

An Opononi couple saw a bright, vertical line above the western horizon one evening as the sun was setting.

An Ahipara man saw a bright object with a tail, which shortened in length as it got closer to the horizon, on at least two nights.

The man, who watched the object through a telescope for about 10 minutes, says he hasn't seen similar objects in the sky since.

UFO Focus New Zealand member and air traffic controller at Hamilton Airport, Graeme Opie, has studied Ms Hallett's photos and concluded the object is likely to be the contrail of an aircraft.

UFOCUS coordinator Suzy Hansen is not commenting on whether the object photographed on April 28 is more likely to be a contrail, given the later sighting of a contrail in the same area at the same time of evening.

The two sightings are separate events, she says appealing to others who saw the bright light in April to contact the group with information.

United States UFO specialist Dr Bruce Maccabee has told the group the object photographed in April could be a contrail viewed end on.

Photos of the object on the UFOCUS website show two vapour trail-like objects which change shape and converge during the three minutes the photos were taken.

UFO Sightings New Zealand
UFO Sightings New Zealand

Triangle Shaped UFO Over Belgium

OVNI-Séquence 1

Triangle shaped UFO filmed over Belgium - August 24th, 2007

Triangle Shaped UFO Over Belgium
Triangle Shaped UFO Over Belgium

Do The Pendle Witches Haunt Cross Gaits Inn?

A pub landlord has launched an investigation to find out whether his new inn is haunted.

Local legends say the Cross Gaits Inn, Blacko was used to imprison some of the famous Pendle witches and that the ghost of a woman with a dog has been seen sitting by the fire.

Andrew Duxbury, 36, took the reins of the Beverley Road pub in June and said he has been told by different regulars that some of the witches had been held in the pub's cellar.

The witches were hanged after being suspected of murdering 17 people in and around the Forest of Pendle.

Mr Duxbury closed the pub on Monday for a refurbishment and he has used this as a chance to investigate the pub.

He was hoping to find a trapdoor down to the cellar when the carpets were lifted, but there was no access to any rooms below ground. It appears the cellars may have been filled in with concrete.

But Mr Duxbury is undeterred and is continuing to scour the pub and history books to learn about its ghostly past.

He said: "A few of the locals have told me that there was some kind of holding cell for witches in the pub's cellars.

"They say witches used to be held there before transported to Lancaster Castle.

"I don't know if any of the Pendle witches were held down there.

"The locals tell me there were shackles and chains down there.

"I am disappointed we can't go into the cellar. It appears to have been filled with concrete."

He added: "I wanted to refurbish the pub because it was dated.

"And I thought it was a good opportunity to see what was down there."

He said the thought of ghosts did not scare him.

Mr Duxbury said: "I have been told there is the ghost of a woman with a dog who sits by the fire.

"I haven't seen her yet, but during winter time when the fire is on, it is said to be cold where she sits.

"I'll have to wait and see."

Pub Haunted Pendle Witches
Pub Haunted Pendle Witches

British MoD Official Recalls UFO Sighting

A top UK government official admitted the existence of UFOs in a secret document about a dramatic sighting.

The Ministry of Defence boss made the astonishing claim after dozens of eyewitnesses reported a "hovering" flying saucer in the skies in Shropshire.

His confidential report features in a new book by Timothy Good, who is regarded as a world expert on alien phenomena.

Good's book, Need To Know, features previously secret government papers about UFO sightings which have taken place around the world.

A whole section is devoted to a mystery craft which "shot beams of light" near RAF Shawbury, Shropshire, in the early hours of March 31, 1993. It had earlier been spotted in the skies above Devon, Cornwall and South Wales.

Up to 70 credible eyewitnesses later came forward to report the sighting, including some military personnel and police officers.

The newly obtained document shows that a Head of Secretariat for the Ministry of Defence wrote to the Assistant Chief of Air Staff following the chilling encounter on the night and was convinced it was a genuine UFO.

The release of the book comes as the MoD prepares to publish other UFO reports dating back to 1967.

The documents to be released also include witness accounts from civilian pilots and military personnel.

British MoD UFO Sighting
British MoD UFO Sighting

Bigfoot Video - Sooke, British Columbia

Video posted on YouTube. States video was shot during winter 2006 near Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.

Bigfoot Video Sooke British Columbia
Bigfoot Video Sooke British Columbia

Fiery UFO Explodes Off New Jersey Coast

September 2, 2007 -- Head for the hills! A mysterious giant "fireball" was spotted exploding over the ocean off the Jersey Shore last night, but officials had no idea last night what it was.

The unidentified falling object was first seen at about 8:40 p.m. by people on Normandy Beach in Ocean County, and was also spotted as far away as Fire Island and South Carolina, officials said.

"It was dispatched as a fireball, out over the ocean, going into the ocean," Deputy Chief Tim Cook of the Toms River, N.J., Fire Department told The Post.

At least 15 witnesses on the beach all described the same thing, he said.

"It was a large fireball that came down and sort of dropped down into the ocean."

Coast Guard cutters and helicopters were dispatched, but found nothing, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Nyx Cangemi.

"It's a real mystery," he added.

The FAA also had no idea what it was.

"We have no planes reported missing," said agency spokesman Jim Peters who said he checked with area airports and nearby McGuire Air Force Base.

Some officials speculated that it may have been a comet or a meteor, but a spokeswoman with the New Jersey Astrological Association said, "It's news to us."

The rare Aurigid meteor shower - which produces blue and green lights - was expected to take place last night, and may have been to blame.

ANOTHER ARTICLE RELATED TO THIS EVENT:

UFO crashes in Atlantic near new Jersey or a controlled experiment by the advanced extraterrestrial civilization? UFO Crashes Off N.J. Coast

It happened over the ocean off the Jersey Shore. The unidentified falling object was first seen at about 8:40 p.m. by people on Normandy Beach in Ocean County, and was also spotted as far away as Fire Island and South Carolina.

the object has a glowing light around it. The next thing observers saw on a fireball falling on the ocean. Coast Guard cutters and helicopters were dispatched, but found nothing.

Some UFO analysts believe it was not a crash but an controlled underwater experiment by the extraterrestrials. The glow of light around the object is significant because it carries the signature of electromagnetic flux used by type III extraterrestrial UFOs for stealth, armor, navigation and propagation.

According to some, it was a glitch in their experimentation where a controlled entry into the oceanic crust lost its stealth effects. Interestingly, some officials speculated that it may have been a comet or a meteor, but a spokeswoman with the New Jersey Astrological Association said, "It's news to us."

The trail of the explosive entry into the oceanic crust was felt though mild harmonic tremor in the area.

UFO Explodes New Jersey
UFO Explodes New Jersey

UFO Sightings in Grampians National Park

Victorian UFO Research Society investigators have received their eighth major sighting in the Grampians National Park in six months.
Investigator James Molesworth said a Stawell man reported the latest sighting at 5.

55am last Wednesday after seeing a `big, bright yellow light' heading from the east in a north-westerly direction.

Mr Molesworth said the man, keen to remain anonymous, was putting things in his car ready for work when he made the sighting.

"He normally keeps a camera in the car, but he'd taken it inside the night before," Mr Molesworth said.

"He watched it for about 45 seconds, then it did a looping turn and disappeared to the north-west within four seconds.

"This fits with other reports from the area."

Mr Molesworth said investigators had studied the Wartook Valley area from 2001.

His colleague Paul Norman has researched UFOs for 50 years and was joined in the Grampians study by Jacqueline Purtell. Mr Molesworth joined the team eight months ago.

"Since 2001 many sightings have been reported and investigated by VUFORS in the Grampians region," he said.

"These have included not just aerial lights at night, but numerous instances of craft being observed in daylight, sometimes at relatively close quarters, and a number of close and spectacular night time sightings.

"On top of this there have been countless observations made by VUFORS investigators and various locals connected to the investigation, usually of a rather less spectacular nature, but highly significant nonetheless.

"Video and photographic evidence has been collected in many instances."

Mr Molesworth provided the Mail-Times with detailed recounts of sightings since April.

"One group of people were driving past the national park in a car. I don't know where they were, but on the edge, when they saw a large yellow light appear from the trees and do an erratic manoeuvre," he said.

"Earlier this year, about five months ago, there was a sighting on Mount Victory Road.

"I saw some myself, a red and green flashing light moving around Mount Thackeray in the Victoria Range.

"In another sighting a few months ago now, a couple in the Victoria Valley saw five lights flying circles around each other and they got to Mt Thackeray and disappeared."

Mr Molesworth said people reported only 10 per cent of sightings.

"We don't get a lot of reports but a lot of people have seen things particularly in the Wartook Valley," he said.

Police at Stawell said they had received no reports about Wednesday's incident.

Grampians National Park UFO
Grampians National Park UFO

Medium Derek Acorah Discusses His New Project

Great Britain's best-known medium on who he’s friendly (and not so friendly) with in the spirit world, meeting the ancient ghosts of Egypt, and why he’s not a bad fella really...

You’re back with your new show, Paranormal Egypt. Tell us about it.
Derek Acorah: The energy and adrenalin in Egypt was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I’m still tingling. Even Sam (Derek’s spirit guide) was taken aback. He said he felt at home. He’s Ethiopian and lived 2,000 years ago, but he knew there were a lot of Ethiopians in Ancient Egypt, and he was telling me the spirits were thrilled I was there.

What sort of investigations did you do there?
DA: Well, I communicated with the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, the greatest ever female Pharaoh. And I conversed with Tutankhamun and was told how he really died.

Do you have a favourite era you’ve visited?
DA: Ancient Egypt would be right up there, but I’d have to have been wealthy and not someone who built the pyramids. They may be incredible monuments, but the people who worked on them had a terrible life, as they told me when I made contact with them. The work was awful, backbreaking. You started at 14 and didn’t finish until you were about 35 – if you lived that long. There was a high level of child death.

Do you get recognised a lot in the street? What do people say?
DA: I do get recognised and it’s lovely. People say, ‘We miss you on Most Haunted, it’s not the same without you.’ Then out of the blue they’ll say, ‘I lost my mum last week,’ or ‘I lost my son in a terrible tragedy,’ or ‘My husband had a heart attack at work and didn’t come home.’ If their loved one is there with me, I will help, but if not, then I’ll tell them.

What was your first ever job?
DA: At 15 I signed for Liverpool football club as an apprentice professional. I also played for Wrexham, then Ireland and eventually Australia. I was a player coach for an Australian first division team for four years, but I had a knee injury so retired. When I came home I worked as a security guard, before practising as a spiritualist medium.

Who would play you in a film of your life?
DA: It’s weird you ask that, because someone only said recently that my life would make a good film. I don’t know, it’s not something I’ve thought about. Dustin Hoffman or Jon Voight, either of those would make good Derek Acorahs.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
DA: Smoking. I did cut down to between five and seven a day for a while, now I’m back up to 15 or 20 – but nowhere near the 40 a day I used to smoke. I will give up soon, though.

What are your best and worst features?
DA: On the downside I talk too much – typical Liverpudlian! Plus, I eat too much, I’m a bit podgy right now. I also snore and I drive too fast. I’m irritable when I’m not working and don’t relax enough. On the upside, I’m generous of heart. I adore people and love listening to their stories, and I’m a sucker for animals. Put me with animals and I’m a happy man.

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with?
DA: Freddie Mercury. Now, there’s a man who would have some great stories to tell. I haven’t contacted him yet, but I hope to some day. It certainly wouldn’t be boring being trapped for hours with Fred. Also, depending on the space, John Lennon, my good old friend Emlyn Hughes and Myleene Klass, she’s lovely, a superb human being.

What’s your favourite food and drink?
DA: Spaghetti bolognese, as made by my lovely wife Gwen. She does the best spag bol in the world. I like the odd steak as well, and a bit of duck. As for drink, I don’t drink beer any more, but I like a nice glass of wine.

What’s your pet hate?
DA: I hate it when people gas off about others. I prefer to take people as I find them, and I won’t stay long in someone’s company if they are slagging someone off.

Do you have any phobias?
DA: I have a fear of heights, which has grown in the last year or two. I don’t know why, because I was such a monkey as a kid – I’d climb anything.

If you were invisible for the day, what would you do?
DA: I would go to visit every person I’ve ever fallen out with. I’d be a fly on the wall and just listen to see if they still held any grudges or were speaking negatively about me. If they were, I’d plan my revenge. Ha-ha!

Derren Brown spoke out against you and other mediums. What do you have to say to your critics?
DA: He’s actually denied the things he said about me. But I’d love to have a proper chat with Derren – if I chatted to him as a spirit, then there would be no way he could deny an afterlife then. Ha!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
DA: To always treat people equally, regardless of wealth or status.

Do you prefer baths or showers?
DA: I like a nice shower, and only occasionally take baths. I’m lucky to have one of those spa bath things with all the bubbles and little jets that massage your back, so I take more baths now than I used to.

Have you ever stolen anything?
DA: Yes, I did. It was when I was about eight. My sister Barbra and I liked to go swimming, but we didn’t have the money this time. In those days my grandfather lived with us. It’s despicable, but I went into his wallet and took some money and we went off to the swimming baths. I did replace the money a few weeks later, but the guilt has stayed with me all my life.

What’s been your biggest splurge?
DA: My house in Spain. When I’m there with my wife and the family it’s the best thing. It wasn’t easy financially, but it was well worthwhile.

Do you speak Spanish?
DA: I know a little bit. Enough to order a nice glass of wine…

Which celebrity would you not invite to a dream dinner party?
DA: The only person who would not make a good dinner guest is Frank Sinatra. I won’t say why, suffice to say I have contacted him and he wouldn’t be invited.

What do you think about before falling asleep?
DA: The next day, mostly. I visualise myself waking up refreshed. I always tell myself that no matter what the next day brings, I will make the most of it and try to enjoy every day as if it’s my last.

Derek Acorah Paranormal Egypt
Derek Acorah Paranormal Egypt

St. Petersburg's Girl Ghostbusters

St. Petersburg, FL - On a steamy August night, four women dressed in purple shirts with the words "paranormal investigator" on their sleeves stood in a circle in a hotel hallway and debated whether the faint smell of perfume in the air indicated the presence of a ghost. It was hard to tell. Ghost hunting isn't exactly a science. The rumors about ghosts at the Heritage Inn, an old-fashioned boutique hotel at 234 Third Ave. N downtown, have been around for years.

In that time, staffers have complained about odd noises. Guests have reported seeing an apparition of a little girl. Once, a couple were so spooked they checked out at 3 a.m.

Popular science would suggest there are no ghosts at the Heritage Inn, or in fact, anywhere. Ghosts do not exist.

Still, for whatever reason, the hotel staff said yes when they got a call from S.P.I.R.I.T.S. - a group of local ghostbusters - asking whether they could investigate reports of a haunting.

They had no way of knowing the investigation would challenge their beliefs on life and death.

* * *

The ghost hunt began in a hotel restaurant that was closed for renovations. Quiet and empty, it was the perfect locale.

Debra Shapiro set out her laptop on a table and turned on its audio recording device. She crossed her fingers for signs of EVPs, or electronic voice phenomena. EVPs are inaudible to the human ear but can allegedly be captured with the aid of technology.

Standing nearby, Brandy Stark used an infrared thermometer to gauge any changes in the atmosphere. Haunted places allegedly produce thermal anomalies such as cold spots, and Stark soon gleefully announced that the temperature had dropped about 7 degrees.

She set out an electromagnetic field meter on a table.

"If there is anyone here, can you please make the meter spike?" she asked.

The meter spiked. Stark smiled.

Ghost hunters believe paranormal entities emit an electromagnetic field. To Stark, this first spike was practically a greeting, a sort of "How do you do?" in paranormal lingo.

"Can you tell us if you are a male? If you are a male, can you make this meter spike?" she said.

The meter spiked. A hallway light flickered.

"Can you make the lights flash again, please," Stark asked.

The lights flashed.

"You have had the lighting checked out, right?" Stark asked.

Lynda Rucker, manager of the Heritage Inn, initially along for a few good chuckles, nodded incredulously.

"Can you make the lights flash one more time, please?" Stark asked.

The meter did not move.

"Oh, please, it was so much fun," Shapiro pleaded.

Nothing.

Later, a maintenance man walked by and asked about the investigation.

"You would never believe us," Rucker said.

* * *

Ghost hunting is tedious business. It involves a lot of waiting, a lot of reviewing of audio recordings and photographs, a lot of defending your hobby to wisecracking friends and coworkers.

The 15 members of the S.P.I.R.I.T.S. all have different stories of how they got into investigating hauntings.

Mostly, they are a studious group. They have respectable, white-collar jobs. They are strict about not allowing outsiders to attend their investigations, and they encourage members to assume that all potential paranormal activity has some nonparanormal explanation.

An apparent apparition caught in a photo could just be a fleck of light. A light flickering could be faulty wiring.

Except, sometimes, there are no logical explanations. Then, even squeaky floors are potential clues.

* * *

In the hallway, the perfume debate continued. The women took turns smelling each other's wrists and hair. No one was wearing lavender perfume, but the scent lingered softly in the air.

Stark attempted to settle it once and for all.

"If you are here," she began, "can you make that lavender smell come back again?"

A faint whiff of perfume floated by, but the group still could not collectively agree on the evidence.

In the end, they decided the origin of the scent was too ambiguous.

They couldn't reach a consensus on whether it was real or not.

St.Petersburg Girl Ghostbusters
St.Petersburg Girl Ghostbusters

Malayan House Comes 'Alive' at Night

Many flock to Jalan Bellamy for the Ikan Bakar while others may recognise the road as home to one of the country’s oldest international school, Alice Smith.

The road has not changed much since the country’s pre-independence days and remains a quiet path that most city dwellers do not use.

With old government quarters hidden by the large trees on the road, the aroma of fish being grilled waft out from Gerai Seri Menanti and Seri Melaka while the chatter and laughter of children from the Alice Smith school livens up the atmosphere.

Rosemary Alder Duckworth who lived at 5, Jalan Bellamy from 1947 to 1949 remembers the days when housing was scarce in post-war Malaya and when most houses on the street housed two or more families.

“A few families would share a home and we were very surprised to find house No 5 empty.

“We moved in but for the next two-and-half years, we had a lot of problems, especially with servants who would just disappear in the night without even collecting their pay,” said Duckworth.

She had come to Malaya with her family when her father, Frederick Victor Duckworth, was appointed the last British adviser of Selangor.

The family managed to trace a few of their former workers and they recounted tales of paranormal activities that took place in the servants quarters and kitchen.

“We then realised that the house was not snapped up because it was considered haunted. Many of the servants told us that they would be jolted awake from sleep and see blinding lights circling on top of them. Some said they even saw vegetables flying around the kitchen,'' said Duckworth.

She had the chance to speak to the Richardson family who had lived in the house before the war and they confirmed the unusual sightings in the house.

“Corinne Richardson was one of those who lived in the house and she related an incident that took place one night.

“She told me she was awakened by loud banging noises and saw an old Chinese man standing next to her bed. Corinne’s sister, who was in the room, also saw the man,” said Duckworth.

“Corinne asked the man what he wanted but there was no reply and the man just walked away. The banging noises, however, continued. Corinne told her parents and although they looked everywhere, the man was not found.''

The Richardsons later found out that at the exact time that Corinne saw the old man, the chief of a nearby village on Jalan Bellamy had passed away.

“When she was shown a picture of the village chief, Corinne recognised him as the old man who had appeared in her room.''

During the Duckworth family’s stay at the house, the haunting worsened and they had to conduct an exorcism ceremony.

Other than this, the family enjoyed their stay on the quaint Bellamy road.

“It was a very quiet and nice residential area with big trees. said Duckworth.

Malayan House Haunted
Malayan House Haunted

Has a Chupacabra Been Found in Texas?

Cuero, Texas - Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.

But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

"It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered the 40-pound bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 80 miles southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity.

She suspects, as have many rural denizens over the years, that a chupacabra may have killed as many as 26 of her chickens in the past couple of years.

"I've seen a lot of nasty stuff. I've never seen anything like this," she said.

What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, is that the chickens weren't eaten or carried off — all the blood was drained from them, she said.

Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Canion thinks recent heavy rains ran them right out of their dens.

"I think it could have wolf in it," Canion said. "It has to be a cross between two or three different things."

She said the finding has captured the imagination of locals, just like purported sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster have elsewhere.

But what folks are calling a chupacabra is probably just a strange breed of dog, said veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital in nearby Victoria.

"I'm not going to tell you that's not a chupacabra. I just think in my opinion a chupacabra is a dog," said Schaar, who has seen Canion's find.

The "chupacabras" could have all been part of a mutated litter of dogs, or they may be a new kind of mutt, he said.

As for the bloodsucking, Schaar said that this particular canine may simply have a preference for blood, letting its prey bleed out and licking it up.

Chupacabra or not, the discovery has spawned a local and international craze. Canion has started selling T-shirts that read: "2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas," accompanied by a caricature of the creature. The $5 shirts have gone all over the world, including Japan, Australia and Brunei. Schaar also said he has one.

"If everyone has a fun time with it, we'll keep doing it," she said. "It's good for Cuero."

Chupacabra Found Texas
Chupacabra Found Texas

South Wales' Rhymney House Hotel Haunted

Rhymney House Hotel licensee Rob Dunster says he definitely feels a presence every time he steps into the 19th Century building.

The small hotel, situated on the A465 near Rhymney Bridge, appears in the Haunted Cardiff and the Valleys book, compiled by the South Wales Paranormal Research team, and is thought to be haunted by a pregnant maid who threw herself from the top window.

The hotel has been owned for six years by the Dunster family, who all differ in opinion on the presence.

Licensee Rob, 42, says he is spooked by the building and believes there is a definite presence.

He said: “I am quite sure there is something here.

“We have had two paranormal groups come to visit us and they have both felt it.

“I think it’s in the cellar.”

Rob’s sister Jackie, 52, also works part-time at the hotel. She said: “I am a bit of a sceptic. I think the nature of the building makes it a bit eerie because parts of it are dark and cold.

“But whenever I stay the night on my own, I’m more worried about humans breaking in than ghosts.

“But one of the previous owners said their daughter used to speak to a kind old lady who would sit on the edge of her bed.”

The Grade II-listed building, which sits on a two-acre site, is surrounded by a farmyard and a row of ageing listed trees. The owners say it is prone to a lot of nocturnal noises.

Rob said: “We do hear quite a few strange noises at night and that can be a bit spooky, but I don’t think it’s too bad.

“If our guests ask about the paranormal activity, we tell them if they want it to be haunted it is, but if they don’t want it to be, it’s not.”

Rhymney House Hotel Haunted
Rhymney House Hotel Haunted