Hotel La Rose
investigation: Alright, so Hotel La Rose is one of the most famous buildings in down town Santa Rosa. Not that Santa Rosa is as big as a real city, but I digress. Hotel La Rose is well known. It's well known for being a beautiful place to stay near the old Historic Rail Road Square... and it's also known for yes, being haunted.
I've heard a lot of different versions of who haunts there and why. One version is that there was a fire and a family and their children died there. Another version says a man commited suicide by jumping out of the top floor. And the print out version we recieved from the hotel says that a family was murdered there in the 1920's by a group of bandits.
So us memebers of SPIRIT had some idea of what to go on. We were told there was a child or children, 2 boys, one boy or a boy and a girl. At any rate, I decided to bring toys. Toys are always an interesting focal point of an investigation, especially when the potential spirit or spirits are children.
On February 12 2009, we were granted access to 6 rooms on the fourth floor of Hotel La Rose. It was me, S. Soul, Paul, Jackie, Rose and Chris.
3 rooms are said to be particularly haunted, so we started with those 3. The first room I investigated with S. Soul was a small room, charmingly decorated, with the usual furniture, but no TV. Jackie and Paul took the middle room and Rose and Chris took the big suite.
S. Soul and I set up the toys and equiptment. I brought a teddy bear and a cart full of rubber Care Bears and some little cars. I started by turning of the digital recorder and asking questions such as what is your name, is this your house and would you like to play with the toys I brought? I told the potential spirit(s) that we were there to play with them and to talk to and see them. We were not just regular guests. I told them they could do anything they wanted to show their presence, even touch us. I realize now that I am getting good at talking to potential spirits... I am not sure if that's a good or bad thing!
S. Soul even sang a children's song, but nothing happened. After an hour Jackie said the groups would change rooms, so S. Soul and I set up in the middle room.
The middle room was bigger and even more charming. I set up the toys as S. Soul set up his camera. Jackie left her K-2 meter in the room on the nightstand. I was secretly happy because I had an extra piece of equiptment to work with. (I am planning on buying a K-2 myself despite the fact that some investigators say they are inaccurate)
Once everything was set up, I began asking questions. I took several photos, some with myself in them. S. Soul and I began to talk to eachother, rather than the spirits, but that is not necessarily a bad thing either. I figure, if the spirits want to be heard, they will speak or do something and we can catch it in our evidence. When I investigate, I personally like to do a mix of asking questions directly to the spirits and then just having a normal conversation with my investigating partner.
At one point, when S. Soul and I were talking to eachother, Jackie's K-2 meter suddenly spiked up to red. I was excited because my digital recorder was right next to it. (I quickly recalled the time the meter went off at the Calistoga Hospital and it was then that I caught my first 2 EVPs!!!) So I asked if that was them and if they wanted to come close again, but the meter did not go off again. I was hoping for an EVP.
Finally, S. Soul and I went to the biggest room, which I called "The Executive Suite" it had a front room, a desk, a great big bed and was more modern than the floral rooms. I really liked it.
We set up a third time. Nothing happened except it started to rain outside. I learned that S. Soul is probably the only person in the world with better hearing than mine!
After an hour I called my friend to pick me up, but while I was waiting I went across the hall with Paul and Jackie to investigate another room. After about 5 minutes, Jackie's K-2 was on the bed and began to light up.
But it was only because my cell phone started to ring when my friend arrived outside of La Rose.
evidence: I did not collect any evidence from this investigation. I think if there is anything there, we would need to spend a lot more time in the rooms and set up more cameras in the hall and at other angles. I got this picture in the middle room, which was odd because the cart with the Care Bears is in color, but the rest of the photo is gray. We all realized, however, that it's only a lighting issue. The photo was taken with the light bouncing off of the slanted ceiling. I took two more pictures in the same position and the same thing happened.
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