Seeing a woman use dowsing rods to look for spirits in a basement and then watching a man punching out demons in the air with a knife was a first for me as a reporter.
It was raining and hailing on a Sunday afternoon in downtown Reno. I had arrived a few minutes before the entire ghost hunting team I had an appointment with. The group known as Researching the Paranormal has been contacting Our Town Reno for a while now, for us to document what they do.
When everyone was at the Jesse Hotel and Bar, I was introduced to Andre Lewis the “CEO” of the operation. He along with Leroy Abolinas, the “demon hunter” of the group, I was told, were the two who initially started these ghost hunting activities, taking them to spooky places across the region.
They later added other members including Chevonne Sumler, the medium, and also Andre’s fiance, Teri McCormick, the “overseer of research” and also the only member who is able to use dowsing rods to communicate with spirits.
There’s also Dave, who films and does voice-overs. Angela Nannegathe is the empath of the group who seems to help Chevonne the most in the group when she is overcome by visions from the spirit world.
“The visions make me cry, there’s so many mixed emotions at once. I don’t know how to control that yet,” Chevonne said.
Left to Right: Members of the ghost hunting team: Dave, Terri McCormick, Andre Lewis, Chevonne Sumler, Leroy Abolinas, and Angela Nannegathe. Taken in the lobby of the Jesse Hotel and Bar.
All of the members say they are sensitive to paranormal activity in one way or another. Andre and Leroy always saw spirits as young boys. “Since they’re messing with me anyway, it’s time for me to come at them,” Andre says.
Leroy on the other hand specifically told of a time as a child when he would be frequently visited by a Native American Spirit that spoke to him. Terry on the other hand has never seen a spirit but has started to believe in them since joining the team.
Dave also cannot see spirits but has feelings about certain places and says he’s now friendly with a spirit the group picked up on one of their investigations named Lily. He says she currently lives in his pickup truck and enjoys metal music. “I don't think I have a well developed gift like Chevonne or anything … it's more like a gab,” Dave explains.
Andre above filming the visit for the group’s channels.
Angela also is unable to see spirits except for in her dreams but can most certainly feel them. She says this ability came about after she was pronounced medically dead a few times in the past. During these times when she was momentarily gone, she described out-of-body experiences.
What prompted an investigation of the Jesse Hotel were previous experiences the team had encountered there. One of the members recalls going to use the restroom and then seeing something in one of the mirrors.
Another member says that a hanger was thrown at them out of nowhere while they were in the hotel.
Meanwhile, Leroy had a much more personal experience with a physical housekeeper of the hotel. He described the housemaid as strange and with a fly flying around her. He said the entire conversation was uncomfortable and that she kept asking questions such as, “if demons have a chance to change their ways,” Leroy says.
Chevonne breaks down after having a vision of the spirits trapped in the basement.
During this investigation, the team decided look into the basement of the hotel, which according to the managers is the most active place for spirit activity.
The basement of the hotel used to have tunnels that are now sealed. These tunnels were believed to have been used to transfer money safely from one location to another beneath Reno and were also popular for prostitution activities.
Typically however the team finds places to investigate by researching the history and legends of Nevada or from word of mouth. “There’s just places you drive by and you feel something,” Dave says.
After everyone had geared up, it was time to head downstairs. During the initial interview, the members had something that I was now recalling on the wooden steps … that was to be careful going down or up the stairs so you don’t get pushed by anything that could be lurking.
Once downstairs the team started to get a feel for the place. At some point during this process, Andre wandered off by himself into the deeper basement area. No one had noticed until we all heard a metal clang and Andre exclaiming, “Oh shit!” To which Dave announced, “Ok viewers it is starting already, we are not two minutes in, we haven't gotten set up yet and we have things being thrown.”
Andre claims to have had something thrown at him that their viewers can see in their YouTube video linked above.
The next step was the dowsing rods. Terri wielded the rods and even let me hold one. She explained to me how the precision bearing on the instrument made it so no one could manipulate them. The way that they worked was a question would be asked and typically they would cross for yes or stay open for no.
One of the many questions that Terri asked the spirits was where the demons were located in the basement room. This was caught in their video as well, but once she had asked that question I couldn't help but feel that the dowsing rods slowly pointed in my direction since I was standing behind Terri. Of course, I got a bit nervous.
Somewhere in between the questions Chevonne suddenly started having a vision. She began to cry and break down. While she was in this trance-like state she was telling us she could see a young female prostitute, somewhere, likely in her twenties. “She was beat,” Chevonne said. She also described that the spirit was running through the tunnels and that her name was Natalie.
Terri asked the rods if there was a Natalie present in the basement to which she got a yes answer. The next step for the team was to exercise the spirit which is where Leroy comes in.
Leroy had previously shown me a knife that he carries around his waist, that he says has been blessed by the universe. At this point, Leroy was wielding the knife and was drawing his ritual pentagon in the air in front of where the demon supposedly was. He would then proceed to stab this entity and move their energy to be no more.
“You’re very lucky,” Teri said to me. “Sometimes we’re here for hours and nothing happens.” In just a few minutes, I had gotten to see a bit of everything that typically happens in their investigations.
Afterward, the team proceeded to a room on the top floor of the hotel to have a discussion. This time served as a reflection of what they had just experienced as well as to recall other similar encounters, and to plan for their next investigation, as well their outreach efforts to have their work noticed.