Interestingly, this GHI episode was a bit backwards. Often it is the 2nd investigation (this one) that gets short shrift, and it seemed at first that was indeed to be the case but just when it was promising to be painfully boring, it got at least moderately interesting.

During the car ride to the castle Brandy excitedly told Robb the following: A man who has worked there for 20 years has experienced such exciting things as unexplained sounds he thought might be footsteps and the movement of objects. Whether he actually saw the objects in motion or whether he just misplaced his pack of cigarrettes and blamed it on the ghosts was not clear. In addition to this impressive fare she informed us that one night the alarm system went off and the police responded but didn't find an intruder. By that standard most police departments investigate hundreds of haunted houses every year. Finally we learn the town Mayor "had his own experience". Of course Robb sums all this up by marvelling how a guy who worked there for 20 years, the police department and even the MAYOR think the castle is haunted. From Robb and Brandy's excitement over this information I began to doubt my sanity, or at least whether I'd heard Brandy correctly.

I turns out Brandy is just a horrible salesperson. The mayor's experience was actually somewhat major — or at least interesting. He was in the master bedroom (formerly home to a reputedly wicked former owner of the castle, possibly thought to still haunt the location) with a group of other people when they all heard a loud noise as if something immense and heavy was being dragged across the floor. Certainly there is room for rational explanation, but at least it wasn't "the mayor heard footsteps". As for the police, according to their host when the police arrived on scene they heard someone upstairs and when they went upstairs they saw a lavatory door slam. Upon opening the door (with guns drawn, apparently) the lavatory, and indeed the entire building, was discovered to be empty. Now that's certainly a story worthy of investigation, and worthy of so much better a description than: the alarm went off, the police showed up, no one was there.

The castle dates back to the 16th century and legend has it that one former owner, for fear of her jewels being stolen, had one of her servants hide them somewhere within the walls of the castle and then beat him to death with a wooden shoe so he could never tell anyone where he'd hidden them. A painting of her adorns the bedroom wall and one photograph of the window in that room shows something possibly resembling her face, however it seems more likely that what the photograph shows is simply "matrixing", the human mind seeing human faces in abstract blurs. There is another photo that was taken in a different room that is supposed to show two children sitting in otherwise empty chairs. Again, I dispute that interpretation of the photograph but I'm at least excited to have such photo evidence put forth for evaluation by the owners of the property. I wish more people would have some evidence to show GHI or TAPS when they show up — if for no other reason that it's interesting and GHI and TAPS (understandably) infrequently come up with their own, more interesting, evidence.

One sticking point I had with overall investigatory method / mindset is that in discussing the case Robb actually said "the alleged ghost" Catarina "murdered" the man who hid her jewels. Kudos for referring to the ghost as "alleged", but it should also have occurred to you that the murder should also be described in this manner. Perhaps I am wrong and this is a well documented event, but if not — well that story seems a bit farfetched, the sort of thing people make up over the years.

During the investigation Barry & Ashley were upstairs and heard footsteps walking on a wooden floor. Barry suspected it might have been Robb & Dustin downstairs so he asked them to walk by the elevator (installed post 16th century, I assume). It turns out Robb & Dustin were right by the elevator and they walked by it within seconds and then radioed back to Barry who seemed surprised at their proximity. The thing that got me frowning a little bit was that when Robb & Dustin walked, the floor they walked on was possibly the loudest, creakiest wooden floor I've ever heard — it was positively offensive to the point where you'd likely be hardpressed to walk and carry on a conversation at the same time lest you be unable to hear the person you're conversing with — but Barry claimed he heard nothing and that the wooden-floor-footsteps sound he'd been investigating couldn't have come from Robb & Dustin.

To be fair, my edit does not show that Barry & Ashley apparently didn't hear Robb & Dustin, as loud as they were — but then again I don't think the production cameras picked up the original footstep sounds either so we can't really be sure what was or wasn't audible to Barry & Ashley. Whether or not Barry heard something that time, the fact that he considered it might be coming from downstairs combined with the fact that Robb & Dustin were virtually right below where he suspected the noise was coming from, plus the excess of noise created by trekking through that room all lead me to the conclusion that Barry was probably right the first time.

Later on, Robb & Joe went up to the room where Barry & Ashley had been earlier and we were treated to possibly the most interesting moment GHI has yet aired. Robb and Joe were sitting on opposite sides of a table, the camera was framed close to perfectly, and Joe is holding a camcorder (which we see video from in the split-screen). Joe rests his hand with the camcorder on the table and a few moments later we heard a thump and the camcorder video bounces. Looking at the full frame from the production video we can see the camcorder bounce in what seems a completely involuntary (as far as Joe is concerned) way, as if the table jolted it. Robb says to Joe, "I'm going to assume that was you?" but Joe quickly assures him it was not. We can clearly see Joe's entire body in the production footage and as far as I can tell he didn't move a hair. Robb's figure is less clear but we can see him relatively well and again there is no indication he moved, arms, legs or otherwise. Yet, clearly something moved the table.

Robb asked any spirits in the room to knock twice, and he didn't get any knocks but claims to have gotten two scratching sounds. Such a sound was caught on audio, although I'm not sure if it was this "response" or a similar sound from before or afterwards. After the scratches Robb asks the spirit to make another sound and this is followed by quite a startle as it sounded like something fell, perhaps off a table or a wall hanging or something. It wasn't made clear where the sound came from, what caused it, or if Robb & Joe were even able to determine either of these things, but ultimately it would seem we have a series of interesting events that could certainly be construed by some as paranormal. At the very least, it's perhaps the strongest evidenciary case I recall GHI ever making.

The evidence analysis of audio and video didn't turn up much of interest (beyond the aforementioned scratching sounds) and Dustin actually attempted to debunk the photographs they'd been shown, and even one GHI themselves had taken that showed something similar to the photo allegedly of two children sitting in chairs. It was a bit of a letdown after the strong finish to the investigation itself, but overall I would give it very high marks. Perhaps the most interesting GHI investigation to-date. Guy who's been there 20 years heard some footsteps indeed!