Bellingham Observers of the Odd and Obscure lead locals through information, tools, and techniques – and finish with a hands-on investigation.
Elena Stecca and Chuck Crooks have each had their fair share of hair-raising paranormal encounters.
“I’ve had experiences my whole life,” says Stecca. “For the longest time, I was terrified by what I’d seen – full-body apparitions, hearing voices.”
Crooks has long experienced the same – with the added horror of once having a spirit actually follow him home from an investigation and stick around awhile.
“When I was a kid, I frequently saw a ghost cat in our old house in the Midwest,” says Crooks. “No one in my family believed me; they all thought I was crazy.”
When he moved to Bellingham from Chicago, he searched for a group interested in all things paranormal. He found Bellingham Observers of the Odd and Obscure, or BOOO.
“When I finally decided to face my fears, in 2006, I joined BOOO too,” says Stecca, who became the group’s director after founder Sherry Mulholland stepped down.
BOOO members sometimes seek out businesses to investigate if they’ve heard rumors of paranormal activity. “But a lot of the places we go, people actually call us and ask us to check it out,” says Crooks.
One of the group’s more notable requests came from local author Taimi Dunn Gorman, who asked BOOO to help her investigate Fairhaven for her book “Haunted Fairhaven.”
“That took us to a lot of places we were never able to get into before,” says Crooks.
They’ve investigated an array of area buildings, some of which they won’t name for fear it could negatively affect business.
Stecca and Crooks began hosting ghost hunting classes earlier this year.
Students are first given a general overview of ghost hunting, as well as Crooks and Stecca’s beliefs surrounding it.
“We’re not there to change anyone’s opinions,” says Crooks. “We try not to hit on the religious aspect of things.”
Instead, they focus on the scientific approach, just as the experts on popular television shows like Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State, and Ghost Hunters do.
BOOO’s ghost hunting classes start with a presentation and move into hands-on training with ghost hunting equipment, which includes digital voice recorders, sound-amplifiers, EMF detectors, thermal-imaging cameras and regular video cameras with night vision.
Students are then talked through possible scenarios they might encounter during an investigation.
“We like to laugh, so there’s a lot of joking around,” Stecca says of the classroom experience. “We present evidence that we’ve captured on ghost hunts and also show people how to debunk stuff they’ve found online.”
After the classroom portion concludes, it’s out into the field for a paranormal investigation.
The time each class stays out in the field varies, depending on how active a place proves to be. “If we’re getting lots of stuff, we’re willing to stay there as long as we can,” Stecca says.
Though they’ve yet to have anyone “lose it” in a class – become too frightened or freaked out, and not be able to continue – there have been plenty of startling moments.
Stecca and Crooks have led several groups through the Eldridge Mansion, the somewhat infamous castle-like structure in the 2900 block of Eldridge, looming above Bellingham Bay.
“We were split up into two groups,” says Stecca, “and one group was in one of the bedrooms. I was leading the other group.”
As she came downstairs and began to push open the door, it was as if someone had kicked it really hard.
“I thought it was one of our members on the other side just messing with me,” she continues, “but they were just as surprised; they thought I ran into the door.”
The duo says doors opening and closing on an investigation are pretty common. Or being touched.
For Crooks, his most startling paranormal experience happened outside ghost hunting class: the aforementioned spirit that seemingly hitched a ride home with him.
“We were investigating a private residence down in Sedro-Woolley and something actually followed me home,” Crooks says. “Things just didn’t feel right on the drive home – even Elena acknowledged that, without my having said anything.”
Crooks was then living in a house split into two apartments; one of which was empty.
“Once I got into bed, there was banging on the walls downstairs, and I knew there were no tenants down there. It wasn’t that easy to go to sleep that night,” he says, with a laugh.
The spirit followed Crooks for some time until, while visiting his parents, it finally dissipated. “At least it didn’t stick around in my parents’ house,” he says. “That was good.”
“You know, that does happen from time to time after investigations, where we’ll be followed home,” Stecca says.
“I don’t know, maybe eventually it just gets bored with us?” she continues, and both she and Crooks laugh. “Maybe we’re just not as spooked, so they’re not excited to hang around us for long.”
Find the next Ghost Hunt Class online.
