Location

Cumberland Mansion in Maywood, NJ

Date

January 23, 1999 betwen 8:00pm and 12:00am

Investigating Team

L'Aura Hladik
Jeff Muller
Mitch Speert
Ellen Williams
Laura Lindeman

 

Equipment Used

Pentax 35 mm & Polaroid One Step cameras
Polaroid 600 Series Color film
Kodak Gold 400 and 800 speed film
Micro & Regular size cassette recorders
Motion Detector

Background Information

This beautiful Victorian home was originally built in 1892 by the Cumberland family (of Cumberland Dairy Farm fame). During the depression, it was split into a boarding house for several residents. In 1980, two young men purchased the home and began restoring it to original single family grandeur.

The following incidents were reported to us:
 

Moving In Day, 1980

A rusty box cutter disappeared while the new owners were unpacking their goods. Several weeks later it turned up all shiny and polished.

Pump Organ Incident

Owner #1 was home while Owner #2 went to work. #1 was in the bathroom shaving when he heard the pump organ in the hall playing. He knew no one was home. As soon as he held his head out the bathroom door, it stopped. When he retreated, it started again. Owner #2 found # 1 on the porch still with shaving cream on his face upon #1's return from work that afternoon.

The Challenge

Owner #2 was on the phone one day and said aloud "There's no such thing as ghosts. Suddenly, a piece of huge signage that was bolted to the house's exterior came crashing down - literally ripped off and hurled to the ground by some unknown force.

Sighting of little girl, Dec 24, 1998

During a holiday party at the house one of the guests went to the bathroom and the ghost of a little girl came right through the door. The ghost expressed shock to see the guest and turned about face and ran back through the door. The guest told owner #1 and they proceeded to investigate. They found footprints in the dust of the servant's staircase which is opposite the bathroom where the incident occurred. It must be noted that no one uses this staircase, hence all the dust.

The Investigation

After the interview and walk through, Laura & Ellen went back up to the 3rd floor to retrieve Ellen's audio recorder. Upon entering the "tower", Ellen turned on a light and Laura noticed initials carved into the molding of the doorway -"RLK". Ellen & Laura informed owner #1 about it. He declared that he nor owner #2 ever noticed any initials carved into the molding - they would have noticed since they had painted it a year ago (Jan. 97). The initials did not seem to "fit" into any of the documents/deeds they had listing previous owners. (NOTE: Laura narrated directly into her microcassette recorder what was going on during the revelation of the initials to owner #1 and yet when the recording was played back later that night at her home, the sound is very distant of her voice and a high pitched "old-time" radio signal and interference can be heard.)
 

Other instances which took place during the investigation:

The motion detector went off in the living room while no one was in the room. (It was set on a chair arm facing toward the couch/window area.)

The presence of a male spirit was sensed first in the front parlor. "He" seemed to be following Jeff around. This was evidenced by the distinct drop in temperature in the area of space "he" appeared to be in. To truly test his attachment to Jeff, Jeff stood in front of the wood burning stove which was emanating great heat. Yet, one side of Jeff was completely cool - the side the gentleman ghost was on. This frigid space was like the sensation one gets when reaching into a freezer.

While on the servant's staircase setting up to photo the ghost girl's footprints, Laura saw a flash of something run across at the top of the stairs. Thinking it must be the cat, Laura asked owner #1. #1 went to look for the cat and discovered it was actually downstairs the whole time.

While the presence of the gentleman ghost was around Jeff, Mitch could not get his flash to work on his camera - even though the indicator showed nothing amiss. Upon exiting the house that night, Mitch turned to snap a shot of the house from the outside and the flash went off perfectly.
 

Subsequent to Investigation

The third roll of film that Laura loaded was just before the gentleman ghost appeared. Laura took several shots aimed at Jeff while the ghost was around him. The film was not used up though - only at about shot 14. The next day Laura & Jeff took some more picture while out driving and got up to shot 22. Later that night, Laura went to rewind the film to ready it for developing. The camera started to rewind then stopped as if jammed. The next day she took it to the developers for them to remove the film safely. The counterperson said it was already rewound. The next day, Laura went back to pick up the developed film and the counterperson said "You can put your money away. The film was blank - you dropped off a new roll of film lady."

Conclusions

The NJGHS concludes the definite presence of two ghosts - one a 6-8 year old female and the other a male, mid 30's-40's. While reviewing the material that the owners provided NJGHS, it was discovered that during a Prohibition period party at the house, one of the owners fell down the staircase, broke his neck and died. The NJGHS feels this accounts for the male ghost at the mansion. However, no information thus far has turned up on the identity of the little girl.

Picture Evidence

This picture, as well as the two following ones, show orbs and activity that was found in the home's basement (root cellar.) This is an area that seems to have a lot of activity, and many photos displaying orbs were taken here at different times after the investigation.
 
     
 
 
There is some type of manifestation located within the mirror, which is near-centered in this photograph, on the dresser. It was not in any other photos taken of the room, and after it was discovered in the photograph, no one could find an "ordinary" reason for it...this is not the first time we have seen apparitions in mirrors.