Clues:
On October 25, 2014, Andrea captured the following photos on her digital camera.
Possible Anomalous Photograph
Anomalous Photograph
Case:
A bit of background
On October 20, 2012, Andrea and I took part in the Ghosts and Goblets haunted walking tour of Main St. in Waynesville, Ohio, under the expert guidance of Bill Stubbs, lifelong Waynesville resident. We were captivated as Mr. Stubbs recounted the many ghostly tales that have been witnessed throughout the years by the population of Waynesville. For anyone who has taken part in the tour, there can be little doubt that the most notorious tale is that of a triple-hatchet murder that took place on the property of what is now 237 South Main Street.
The grisly murder was reported in newspapers across the nation, like this article from The Cincinnati Daily Star dated Sept. 3, 1879
October 25, 2014
Andrea and I went on the Ghosts and Goblets Quaker Hill Tour in Waynesville on Oct. 25, 2014. The tour ended around nine or 9:30, and we went back to the Museum in the Friends Home for a while, conversing with Linda and Mary at length.
Afterward, Andrea and I went to the McDonald’s on Main St. and had some ice cream. Andrea asked if I’d like to walk to the “Axe Murder House,” just down the street. The time was probably close to 10:20 or 10:30. (The last photo at the museum has a timestamp of 10:08:05 from Andrea’s iPhone. Then, the next correct timestamp we have is 10:45:10 from my iPhone. So, we left the museum sometime after 10:08, went to McDonald’s and ate ice cream, then walked to the house, and took photos before 10:45.)
Andrea snapped the following photos.
(It should be noted that the timestamps on the photos from the camera are incorrect because the clock was not correctly set. However, they can be used to show the rapid succession of images. The metadata from the iPhone pictures are correct.)
The very first photo that Andrea took of the house had a hazy mist on the far left side. She showed this to me, and I dismissed it as night-mist or breath from off-camera. There is also a sizable orb, and though I typically reject all photos like this one, in light of the nature of the subsequent images, I should have paid attention to Andrea’s interpretation of what we were seeing.
timestamp 2:30:06
About two minutes later, Andrea took a picture that illuminated what I thought was a “strange shadow” by the door of the building. I asked her to take another photo in the same direction. She did, and that is when she noticed the photo in question. (the shadow ended up being the shadow of the handrail by the door, so it was nothing.) Immediately after viewing the viewfinder on the camera, I pulled out my iPhone. I recorded a dark video, just to try and document that there was no smoke or fog, or mist that could account for the object on the camera. Below is the series of photos, and video in roughly the order they were captured. The entire time elapsed is about 48 sec.
timestamp 2:32:37
timestamp 2:32:47
Original video referenced in the report; file not recovered. Original archived video link
Video taken from my iPhone with timestamp 10:45:10
Original video referenced in the report; file not recovered. Original archived video link
Lightened version of the above video
timestamp 2:33:16
timestamp 2:33:25
After considering what we had captured, we decided to try to make it back to the Museum in the Friends Home before everyone left. We ran back down to where we were parked at McDonald’s and drove up to the museum to find everyone gone for the evening.
The last bit of evidence that might combat claims of Photoshop manipulation comes in the form of some photos Andrea took with her iPhone, of the image on the screen of the camera used to capture the images. She did this to text the image to some people, and since we didn’t have a computer or a way to get the pictures off the camera, she just took these photos with her iPhone. If we look at the timestamps on her iPhone photos, we see that the first one says 10:51:21.
Only about 6 minutes elapsed between the shooting of the image, and this secondary shot, based upon the iPhone video timestamp, of when this image was said to be captured, (10:45:10)
(Also note, you can see the incorrect timestamp on the screen. This is in conflict with the timestamp of the iPhone, which is accurate.)
timestamp 10:51:21
timestamp 10:51:34
timestamp 10:51:35
timestamp 10:51:39
Conclusion:
A technical, forensic analysis report is available here. This report determines that no digital manipulation is present. However, the phenomena photographed remains unidentified.
If you have any thoughts, we would love to hear them.
Original signature record
The dates and checksums below describe the original signed web file, retained with this archival edition.
file signed on: Tuesday Jul 21 2020 17:01 UTClast verified on: Tuesday Jul 21 2020 17:01 UTC
Download Public Key (archived reference)
Public Key sha512
Original File sha512
Signature File sha512