Medium Lynne Olson Reviews the Season Two Premiere
Season two started off with a great location and eight newly minted cadets all vying for a coveted spot on one of the TAPS teams. The new GHA team featured four women and four men who got thrown in headfirst at Waverly Hills Sanatorium just outside Louisville, Kentucky.
The female cadets were Natalie Poole, Michelle Tate, Rosalyn Bown and Vera Martinez. The male cadets were Eric Baldino, Adam Berry, Dan Hwang and Brett McGinnis.
TAPS founder Jason Hawes was on hand to greet the cadets and laid out the five qualities all TAPS members needed to have as skepticism, technical knowledge, honesty, composure and patience. Steve explained that the format had been tweaked a bit in order to provide each cadet with more investigative time and one-on-one instruction. Jason announced one cadet would be eliminated each week.
Tango introduced the cadets in their personal equipment kits. Each kit contained an EMF meter, DVR, camera and digital thermometer. The cadets were told to take care of their equipment because if lost it would not be replaced.
I was a bit puzzled when historian Shirlene Edwards stated that Waverly Hills functioned as a tuberculosis sanatorium from 1926 to 1982. According to the official Waverly Hills Historical Society web site, it is true that the current structure was opened in 1926, but an earlier more modest two story tuberculosis hospital opened it’s doors at the same location on July 26, 1910. As TB ran rampant in the area the existing building was started in 1924 and opened up to serve more patients October 17, 1926. Waverly stopped functioning as a TB hospital in 1961. In 1962 the building was reopened as the geriatric WoodHaven Medical Services facility until the state shut the old folks home down in 1980. Not sure why the 18 years of elder care was lumped in with the TB hospital era or why the first 15 years of more modest operation as a TB hospital was completely ignored.
Waverly Hills Co-Owner Tina Mattingly conducted the walkthrough, highlighting hot spots such as room 502, the morgue/autopsy room and the infamous body chute. In each location she briefly described past haunting activity such as sounds, smells, shadow people, EVPS, shapes or unexplained mists. Tina recounted a personal experience of seeing the shadow of a tall man in a doorway late one night when she was in the building alone. Beyond the shadow she saw a small white dog in the middle of the hallway. The dog apparition simply faded away. The existence of a homeless man who walked the halls of Waverly with his dog when it was an abandoned building is confirmed by historical record. What wasn’t shared in the episode is that this poor man and his dog were found murdered in a Waverly elevator. I happened to get clear psychic glimpse of the murdered companions when I was at Waverly Hills last month (May, 2010) and the dog in question was a small white mutt. So I am fairly certain the experience Tina shared with the GHA cadets was an encounter with the same homeless man and his dog.
Tango and Steve split up the cadets, Tango’s group setting up cameras, Steve’s establishing command central.
Lights out started with Steve, Eric, Michelle, Rosalyn and Dan investigating outside room 502 where a pregnant nurse named Mary once hung herself. Steve made a point of showing his team that by just moving his hand more quickly he could artificially increase the numbers on his EMF meter. Steve set a DVR on the floor next to room 502 to record as his group worked. I liked the compassion both Eric and Steve showed in trying to engage Nurse Mary.
Unfortunately Mary was not in a space to appreciate their concern. For some reason she found the presence of the GHA crew disturbing. I saw her hanging back in a corner of the bathroom that backs room 502. She was distraught and kept asking the group, “What do you want?” and asking them to “Just go away!” She wanted to be left alone.
As the GHA cadets tried to engage Mary they heard a wailing cry that shortly repeated itself. Steve asked whatever had caused the cry to repeat it. The same wail was heard for a third time. Steve and his team decided to walk toward the sound.
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