Oak Knoll Cemetery, Livermore California

May 10, 2009

When we pass away, and our last rights and wishes are carried out, we believe our physical bodies will be laid to rest.  Perhaps in a grave yard on the top of a hill, with our families close by.  To respectfully let the body decay down into the earth as most do.  After you are buried, and time passes - your monument gets forgotten or vandalized - what does that do to a person’s spirit?  When we see burial sites in disarray, we frown and are upset that it could happen.  When it does, do those inhabitants protest?  Bayside decided to find out. 

Anthony and I decided to take a climb up a small hillside in Livermore.  We had heard legend that the grounds were haunted.  No specific stories, but we learned that over a hundred years ago, the hillside was known as Oak Knoll Pioneer Cemetery.  To our astonishment, our research confirmed this.  On the hillside, surrounded by beautiful trees, once was a graveyard.  The occupants were interred and over time and with lack of support and funding, fell to ruin.  Forgotten, the place was now a rundown park, where locals litter and some jog the trails, not even realizing they are treading on the dead.  Not a headstone, marker or fence in sight.  The families of the graves contacted, and given an option to disinter, but many remained and to this day still rest on the hill, locals call “boot hill.”

One evening we ventured up.  Separated to each side of the graveyard and began an impromptu EVP session.  Upon review of our audio evidence, we encountered a very clear request of a female saying “Get Out” followed by a distinct growling - not demonic - but more as in frustration.  This was it.  This gave us what we needed.  Let’s pull a team and investigate.

We were not keen on the idea of investigating outdoors, for obvious reasons.  Most obvious is the random noise.  Surrounded by homes and major streets - it would prove to be a challenge.   On Mother’s day May 2009 we began our quest at sundown.  A team of seven investigators hiked the hillside and did EVP sessions and used digital photography to investigate the hill. 

What came out of it was a total of four clear EVP’s.  A response to the question, “Can you tell us your name?”  To which a voice answers “Myrtle” Or “Victor” A clear voice of a male saying “Hey” when only females were present.  One EVP called the name of a member of the team.  The last was a mysterious male voice speaking when only females were present.  The last hours of the investigation proved to be interesting when I and another investigator were able to get significant temperature drops one going as low as 28 degrees in 56 degree average nighttime temps.  We were really experiencing some activity and it was apparent we were being observed by someone coming close and then pulling back.  These seemed to coincide with the increases and decreases in temperature.  The night weather was pretty calm, overall.  So these events really were amazing.

It certainly seems that various entities are still present at oak knoll.  Are they the inhabitants whom are forgotten?  Why do they remain?  The lack of respect for a final resting place comes to mind.  Finding their grave early in some cases, many children in that graveyard.  Are they the ones making contact with the living?  No one knows.  We can tell you, there is someone up there.  They are tired of being forgotten.

This investigation took place on October 17, 2008.  The occupants of this historical 127 year old home, converted to office of the Livermore Downtown Association, had offered their office to investigation.  BPS had contacted the association in regards to information on another location in town.  When we interviewed the staff, we were given details of a mischievous spirit, one who liked to turn lights off and on, set off the alarms and play with the credit card transaction machine.  We made arrangements to investigate.

Some history on Riboli Cottage, this house belongs to the Riboli Family, long time winemakers.  The house is part of the “compound” surrounded by another house and what used to be the cellars.  The staff showed us an article captured from a local paper in 1896, with a story of an occupant renting a room in the cottage.  The article was a detail of his suicide.  The man, Matthaus Wolfmaier had tried twice before to end his life, with his third attempt via strychnine poisoning - had finally succeeded.   That was August 30^th 1896.  Matthaus had owned a business in the downtown area, when he didn’t show up to open the store, his neighbor on the town’s main street went to check on him and found him. 

The original team consisted of two men, three women.  We also were joined by a merchant who owned a business in town, a cameraman running video of our investigation for the local access channel and the CEO of the Livermore Downtown Association.  Total of four men and four women.

Equipment: Four IR cameras one in each room of the house and one in the cellar.  One camcorder placed in the front office as you enter the house.  This was placed on a tripod to capture a long hallway that ran the length of the house.   Three digital voice recorders, one with Franks box.  EMF, and thermometer.  Two digital picture cameras as well.

The investigation began promptly at 10:00pm.  We had a lot of external noise from a bar located directly behind the house that was having karaoke night.  The teams went in groups of four to five.  The rooms were swept with EMF, which posed no usual readings.  Temperature was normal, no fluctuation.  3 EVP sessions were conducted questions were varied.  One team member did use a Franks Box (white noise maker) this is used to reach higher and low ranges on the audio to pick up clear voices.

An interesting event that was noted was that in the center room of the house, a closet door that was closed was now open.  The investigators tightly shut and locked the slide pin lock on this door.  On the third EVP session, we started in the same center room.  We were surprised to find the door unlocked and open again.  Frustrated, we once again shoved the door shut tightly and slid the lock into place.  As we began the EVP session, upon asking the spirit to make something happen, the closet door swung open with a huge rush of air we all felt.  The some of us jumped, it was forceful.  Immediately looked at the door once more, shutting and locking it testing the surrounding floor stomping and jumping to make sure it wasn’t an old house and floor doing the opening.   We couldn’t debunk.

In one room we were asking questions and when asked to make a noise, the credit card transaction machine turned on and was performing a transaction.  This startled us, but we kept going.  Later we found this was an automatic transaction the machine performs nightly.    Other rooms proved no activity, we even went into the cellar, and this had no activity whatsoever. 

Review of the audio and video proved interesting.  We were able to catch video of the center room closet door opening by itself with no persons in the room.  The camera did not have audio; however we had placed an audio recorder in the room.  With this were able to capture the audio to go with the video of the door opening on its own.  Amazing!  You can hear a few footsteps, the pin lock sliding across on the door and the door opening.  It’s really fascinating. 

Additionally we caught many EVP’s of a male voice, complete with what sounds to be a German accent, which was able to answer questions on who works at the office, naming one of the staff members by name.  When one investigator remarks “Thank you...” a voice responds “Welkommen” meaning welcome in German.  Clear as day.  The last remarkable piece of evidence which really sealed the deal, so to speak was the audio caught by the stand alone camcorder in the room next to us during the closet opening in front of the crew.   When that door flew open and we jumped up, a cackling laughter is caught on the audio from that camcorder.  The laughter sends chills up your spine.  It’s seriously creepy.  Someone was having a great time at our expense!  We also had a great audio captured of a man’s raspy voice saying “help” and a video piece of an electrical disturbance which affects the camera for about half a minute and then stops.   Unexplainable.

We presented the evidence to the staff of the Downtown Association.  They were shocked.  Even though they knew something was there, it was different having it presented to them via our evidence.  They had been there four years and this solidified their claims.  It’s haunted.