As paranormal investigators we are often confronted with cases where claimed hauntings seem to be either very cliché or highly embellished. One of the most important things we must do is to untangle the myth/fiction from fact.
During my nearly 20 years of investigating I have personally dealt with two “hauntings” that were almost entire fabrications.
One location, in the UK, did have some well-documented haunt activity, but when finally cornered about the claims the owner admitted that he had made up the more “colorful” stories of ghostly activity and their formerly human causes.
The other location, in Idaho, has only a more recent history of reported hauntings, appearing to have started sometime in the early 2000’s. Now, after personally having participated in an investigation at this location, I can say that I have no doubt that there are two very friendly and lively ghosts who have chosen to remain. However, I do believe that one of them has been misnamed and deliberately had a backstory made up to make her presence seem more exciting. There is absolutely no evidence to support the rather gruesome history attached to this ghost. I suspect that a previous owner wished to take advantage of the “ghost hunting” craze that was sweeping the Nation in the early 2000’s, and embellished the facts in order to make a little extra money by drawing in more clientele.
Always try to go into a location with little to no information. If this is unavoidable, because people keep throwing information at you in order to be helpful, forget everything you’ve been told. Conduct your investigation with no pre-conceived ideas of who could be haunting, and why. Afterwards, do your research! Be diligent and search through every resource available.
People in earlier eras were incredibly nosey. Everything made it into the local news, from someone moving to a new home to who threw a party. You can be sure that anything out of the ordinary, like murder, suicide, etc… would have been covered in the local news, as well as by surrounding communities. In some cases a suicide may have been covered up, with little or no mention, but a murder would not have been. If it didn’t show up in news sources chances are it did not happen.
API Reloaded 