Cornwall, in the South West of England, is famous for its ship-killing, rock-lined coastlines, mist-shrouded moorlands and backward-thinking, inbred natives who have changed little for countless generations. Its ancient towns, villages and haunted locations certainly hide an abundance of secrets - yet one of our most intriguing investigations in the region took us far away from historic monuments and stately homes and centred around a mobile home on a trailer park.

The family (a married couple and five children ranging from 6 to 24 years old) who resided there experienced a range of disturbing and annoying phenomena - including strange smells, rapping, tapping and scratching sounds and sightings of ‘black shapes’ that were often human in appearance. These ‘Shadow People’ were seen both inside and outside the mobile home. Every member of the family, plus near-neighbours who lived opposite, saw them. The most frequently perceived figure appeared to be male and dressed in the clothing of a bygone era - including some kind of cloak which hung from its shoulders. On several occasions, the cloak alone was seen flapping, bat-like, on stormy nights near the parents’ bedroom window (close to the spot where the phantom generally took up its lonely station).

Orbs Visible To The Naked Eye

When the shadowy forms began to continually manifest themselves inside the dwelling - sometimes being fleetingly seen during daytime, but more often observed around the bedrooms at night - the family grew steadily more apprehensive. The neighbours mentioned above were also troubled by a persistent entity which developed annoying habits like tugging off bedclothes whilst they slept, stealing small items (which were generally left in unlikely places) and pinching female bottoms in the kitchen.

We were asked to investigate the disturbances and perhaps find some helpful measures to render the situation less uncomfortable for the flesh and blood residents. Although we saw many of the things that the family and their neighbours had reported, most of our attempts to capture them on film were unsuccessful.

During our first interview with the family, we were amazed to twice see visible orbs or balls of light flashing across the living room where we were all sitting. The first time it happened, I held my tongue and tried not to react to it - I felt it was important to make sure that everybody else saw it and to avoid putting my impressions into the others’ mouths. But a little later, another orb - even bigger and brighter than the first - zipped through the room. It then became apparent that we hadn’t imagined or exaggerated the first instance of that phenomena - most of us just blinked and asked “Did everybody see THAT?”.

The place which seemed to be the ‘aiming point’ for both orbs was considerably colder than the rest of the room - the mobile home is double-glazed and the ‘cool spot’ wasn’t caused by draughts. One by one we each stood in the area and made notes of our perceptions. Examining the notes afterwards showed that over 90% of the team felt physically ill after just a few moments there. Some days later, I had to dash to the bathroom and vomit after unwittingly standing in what the family called “The Sick Spot” throughout a lengthy conversation.

A Camera-Shy Ghost

From the start, we had problems with our powered equipment. The batteries in our cameras, meters, flash lights, walkie talkies and mobile phones had to be constantly changed or recharged. Fresh batteries died with exasperating regularity; on one occasion I only managed to take 3 pictures before the low power warning beep kicked in. Yet, to begin with, not a single picture out of the hundreds we took in the first few days showed any kind of anomaly or point of interest. The family were disappointed; they expected that the kind of strong phenomena they'd experienced would soon make some sort of impression on film, tape or energy meters. However, before long, things changed in dramatic fashion.

In the early hours of one morning, as I kept watch in the neighbours’ sitting room via a video camera with a live feed, I clearly saw the ‘cloaked male’ shadow shape standing (exactly as described by the witnesses) a few feet away from the parents’ bedroom window. I flicked on the video recorder and used my walkie-talkie to ask a colleague inside the bedroom itself to take some still pictures. However, though he also saw the entity and snapped off several exposures before it disappeared, his developed images failed to show anything but empty space. The video tape proved to be even more perplexing - it provided nothing but static and white noise throughout the period when the entity was present...and abruptly returned to normal sound and vision when it was no longer there.

This episode prompted us to call in somebody with a recognised ability to capture ‘difficult ghosts’ on film. Todd Harrison, a former fraud inspector with a lot of experience in this kind of investigation, joined us for a couple of nights. He freed us to investigate other areas by concentrating on just the place where we had failed to record any image of the cloaked man.

Todd took his task very seriously; for 48 hours he was rarely more than a few feet away from his assigned zone. Fortunately, the weather was fine and he was able to remain outdoors without discomfort. He chose to use a digital camera because film and tape had not registered any positive results previously. Todd made a point of speaking to the entity and ‘invading its space’ in order to provoke a reaction. Every few minutes, he took an image of the general area. He did not observe the phantom at all during the two days he spent on watch (ironically, he witnessed other unusual things which will be described presently) - but his camera did see something.

Throughout the period that Todd was present, the days and nights were clear and free of fog, frost or heat haze. The image offered here is the best example of the ‘smoky’ phenomena that appeared on a succession of exposures taken during the second night. Later on, as presented in the third part of this story “Trailer Park Terror”, you will see that the same entity was accidentally photographed - on a Polaroid camera - independently by the father of the family. It had the same kind of smoke-like appearance; though its form was much more disturbing.

Click thumbnail above to see complete full size image.