Me and my wife at the time were living in Chester and started experiencing unusual occurrences within the house that I could not explain. David Mackie
After a nearly five-year hiatus due to the death of his teammate and girlfriend, paranormal investigator David Mackie is “back in the saddle” as he put it.
The warm sunshine seemed deceiving as Mackie sat outside the notoriously haunted Punderson Manor Lodge and Conference Center, in Newbury Township, May 7 and talked about his renewed passion for ghost hunting.
The Chester Township native, who graduated from West Geauga Schools in 1984, does his work under the name “The Spirit Stalkers of Ohio,” which he and his late girlfriend, Juliet Keller, came up with several years ago.
“I got into the paranormal in 1988. Me and my wife at the time were living in Chester and started experiencing unusual occurrences within the house that I could not explain as far as things being moved, odd noises, my son playing with an ‘imaginary friend’ thumping, lights turning on and off by themselves, footsteps. That was the most common thing, when nobody was home,” he said.
At that time, Mackie was not into the paranormal and was completely baffled by what was going on.
Since the activity happened mainly upstairs in their home, Mackie moved his kids downstairs. And after a medium came and told them more about the spirit, who was male and not friendly, Mackie and his family decided to move out.
“What (my family and I) went through is why I’m out there to help families. There are probably tons of families out there who don’t know what to do, where to turn,” he said. “Because a lot of people don’t want to talk about it because their friends think they’re crazy as far as the paranormal goes. But they have to reach out to get help. I am 110 percent positive that there are two worlds that interact as one that they do exist.”
Mackie — who now resides in Painesville Township and works as a CNC?programmer (a machinist) for Focus Manufacturing, Inc., in Willoughby — gave a rough idea of what his investigations entail.
“For one thing, I cannot get rid of them. I cannot make them go away,” he emphasized. “I’m there to identify what and why they are there because that will give people a piece of mind of who is inside their house.”
Mackie’s number one question throughout the whole investigation is “What is your first name?” He then asks why they are there and how long they’ve been there.
“I can also find out if it’s a negative or positive spirit. If it’s a negative spirit, I would suggest getting additional help to make it go away,” Mackie said, explaining additional help would be a credible psychic/medium or a Catholic priest.
“The negative spirits are stronger than the positive ones. They produce the most energy,” he said. “If they don’t want to be bothered with, which most of them don’t, they will let you know by making an object move.”
Mackie also doesn’t recommend blessing a house when there is a spirit already there, especially a negative one. He believes it will magnify the energy that’s already there.
“My opinion on that is do not have your house blessed when there is activity in it unless it’s by a Catholic priest,” he said.
Mackie said he keeps things simple. He does EVP work (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) with a digital recorder, uses an EMF detector (electromagnetic field detector), an infrared camera and a regular video camera.
While his interest in the paranormal was sparked after his personal experience with it, it wasn’t until he met Keller in 2001, after his divorce, that his passion for investigating unfurled.
“She taught me the basics all the way up to the advanced part of it,” he said. “She was into it three years before we met.”
Keller taught him the ropes. After they began dating, they decided to form their own paranormal team to help families and named themselves “The Spirit Stalkers of Ohio.”
The couple and their work were featured on an episode of the Biography Channel’s “My Ghost Story” in October of 2010 for their investigative work at Gettysburg, Pa.
Keller, unfortunately, passed away suddenly in September of 2010.
“She never got to see the episode,” Mackie said.
He did a few investigations after her passing, but said his heart just wasn’t into it anymore, so he took a break.
“I just got back into it within the last year,” said Mackie. “That’s something that she would want. I know that.”
As he glanced around Punderson’s ornate foyer and winding staircase — known as a main hotspot for spirits — he recalled a 2006 investigation there.
“I did get some EVPs, but nothing on still camera or video,” he said, adding he hopes to do another investigation at Punderson again soon.
When asked why the urge to ghost hunt is back, Mackie said it has always been in his blood.
“I want to continue on with it. I want to continue what we were doing. The interest is back in me,” he said. “I’m back in the groove I was before. I know Julie is still with me. We’re still a team. I missed it.”
For more information or to schedule an investigation, visit www.thespiritstalkersofohio.webs.com.
