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P.E.E.R    Investigations    

La Fonte Restaurant Lincoln Way West, New Oxford, PA November 2008 Once an Inn, Always an Inn UPDATE - OCTOBER 28, 2010 WHP21 TV broadcasted live our investigation for their Halloween special news coverage. Here is a short clip that we captured with our IR camera during the investigation and a small segment of their broadcast. Watch the staircase near the cameraman's legs as he records just before the flashlight comes on. Was this Sam playing games just before turning on the light? LaFonte-LiveCBS21-10-28-2010 Now for the details of our initial investigation in 2008.        For over 150 years, New Oxford has been accommodating travelers on the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Pike. Many of these travelers had the opportunity to sleep and dine at the Oxford Hotel, also known as the Oxford Inn Towne and today re-opened and known as LaFonte Restaurant. In the autumn of 2006, there was a fire on the second floor of the Oxford Inn Towne that displaced the tenants and forced the restaurant and bar to close business. Finally, two years later a new family has taken over the building, refurbished it and opened it for business once again.        During their renovations, many people; workers and owners alike, started hearing, seeing and feeling things that just weren’t quite right. At first, these instances were dismissed, but eventually they began to realize that what was going on was of a paranormal nature. That is when they called us in; PEER, their local ghost hunters and paranormal investigators.

Investigation Details        PEER approached this investigation with a full compliment of investigators which included our resident clairvoyant. Our resident clairvoyant is new to the group bringing to us, her insight and intuitiveness as a psychic medium. We began our investigation with our resident clairvoyant and myself (Steve McNaughton) being given a walk through of the entire building before any other crew members were permitted throughout the building. We toured the first and second floors, the attic and ended up in the basement. Our tour guide Eleanor and I kept tight lipped about what we experienced, suspected and knew about the activities, stories and history of the building. Once our tour and walk-through with our resident clairvoyant was complete, we met with the rest of the PEER crew and other family members of LaFonte Restaurant. Our resident clairvoyant described to the family an encounter she had with an elderly woman in one of the upstairs rooms. As she described the woman’s appearance and conditions, it became evident to the family that the older woman was a deceased family member. Further details of our resident clairvoyant's readings will be detailed in her report. The crew was then given their assigned equipment and placed into groups to perform various vigils and tasks based on our resident clairvoyant's recommendations and the family’s previous experiences and encounters.        This set of six photos take place on the second floor staircase landing area. Bob and Stan are attempting to resolve an EMF anomaly when Brandy took the first photo capturing an orb in front of Bob. The other five photos captured an orb moving around on the landing area just below where Bob and Stan were standing.               Click the images for a larger view.

Video Recordings and EVPs        Throughout the evening, we had three video cameras recording for two sessions. Two cameras were focused on a door between the main dining room and the kitchen staging area. We had one camera on each side of the door in an attempt to capture any anomalies going on in that area. We also had a motion detector setup on the kitchen side of the same door. Unfortunately, nothing out of the ordinary was captured in this area during our investigation. Our third camera was setup on the second floor landing looking down the stairs. Again in this area, no video anomalies were captured.        For the second recording session, we changed up the teams and moved the crew and equipment to the bottom of the stairs. Even though two different crew members checked the video camera during the vigil and actually watched orb activity during the vigil, nothing got recorded. It was as if each time the camera was turned on, it was immediately turned back off. Fortunately, we did have an audio recorder running during the vigil and we have several EVPs to share with you. Several weeks after the investigation, we returned and did capture some orb activity at the bottom of the stairs. That clip is also shared below. For this series of EVPs in the staircase and foyer area, our resident clairvoyant has determined that there is the spirit of at least one boy in this area that apparently had a fatal accident on the stairs. You will hear Bob and our resident clairvoyant speaking to the boy about playing in this area. Bob is on the stairs attempting to make room for the boy to play and maybe even slide down the banister. At the end of the clip, you can hear the boy reply "OK." Click this link for a quick listen. In this second EVP, it seems that the young voice wants to get into "the game". Interestingly enough, while you listen o this clip, you can hear Joe comment that someone wants to play and then Elaine thinks she heard her name called. Now even though another crew member did say her name, I believe both she and Joe may have heard the disembodied voice asking "what's the game." Click this link for a quick listen. Clip number three is a short one. our resident clairvoyant has received information about the boy and is questioning whether he fell or was pushed and then makes a comment about communicating with him. It seems that someone wanted to make it clear with the statement "I didn't push." Click this link for a quick listen. Our forth EVP is one that I am not 100% certain of in respects to being a real EVP. A couple of our crew feel that this one might be a crew member making a comment given the current conversation about clothing during the turn of the 20th century. Personally, I don't feel that the voices match up with our crew and that is sounds as if someone's dad is telling them to either pull their suspender up or in effect, get their butt up there. You decide. Click this link for a quick listen. Our fifth and final EVP is a great one. Unfortunately the quality here online is not the greatest because it was initially captured on an older recorder that cannot be plugged into the computer. Hence; we had to re-record it but here it is anyway. During a break between sessions, the restaurant's owners were gathered in the dining room discussing the evenings events and updating a member who had just arrived. I believe their conversation (which we just happened to have a crew member present to record) was mostly if not completely in Italian. There is one soft voice however that is in English. Listen for it as she describes how "I'm fine" and mentions about "taking the train to get here." I guess this is one of the Inn's tourists. Click this link for a quick listen.        This video clip was taken at the bottom of the stairs a few weeks later in an attempt to capture what I know I saw during the initial investigation. When I entered the foyer at the end of the recording session, I stated that I was going to shut down the camera and asked for him to gather all his energy and show me how he could slide down the banister. Wait for it, it is at the very end of the clip. You may need to adjust the contrast for a better view. Click this link for a quick look. Personal Experiences        There were several personal experiences from crew members during this investigation. Both our resident clairvoyant and Elaine experienced moderate to severe lower back pains upon their first 30 minutes in the bar and kitchen area of the building. Interestingly, Louisa indicated that a family member that passed (I believe her mother) died with kidney problems.        Elaine also had somewhat of a scary situation when she felt like she was loosing her balance and felt as if she were ready to fall down the stairs from the second floor landing. She said that it was not as if she was being pushed by someone, just that she was going to fall. The exact information relating to the young boy had not yet been revealed to the crew and Elaine's experience supports our resident clairvoyant's clairvoyant impressions.        Bob and Stan experienced an area of high EMF detection in the same second floor landing. Their readings seemed almost responsive to their conversation and requests for detection. Steve Bolze also got similar responses with his compass. General Thoughts and Readings        It has become obvious to me that this old hotel and tavern is haunted. As I said in the very beginning, this building started out as an inn and is still one today. Its visitors are comprised of locals, tourists and travelers alike. And we discovered that not all of them are from our world of existence, we have seen that they are family, locals and travelers that have passed on as well. Click this last link to ready our resident clairvoyant's summary of her psychic impressions and findings. Lafonte Psychic Summary