Miranda Dykes

I grew up in a small house in Independence, Missouri. From a very young age I can recall having experiences in and around the house, which often left me feeling as though I was being watched, or just simply "not alone." I remember footsteps, voices (my name being called out, as well as my mother's), cold chills, and some other very strange occurrences. Household pets would often behave strangely, get ill, run away, and die suddenly of mysterious causes. My mother once witnessed an apparition of a tall man in uniform in the living room and objects would often be moved from their usual places and need readjusting on a regular basis.

One particular instance happened when I was about 13 years old. I noticed a small framed photograph in the living room which just wouldn't seem to stay in its place. I thought that it was odd to find the photograph facing the wall sometimes several times a day. With each discovery of this, I would always be sure to turn the photo back to its correct position. Sometimes this would happen more than once in a day. Finally, to rule out any other logical or natural cause, I decided to conduct a small "experiment," perhaps even my first experience with paranormal investigation, as this photograph would act as the "control object." I informed every person in the house (which consisted of my mother, father, and younger sister) of my intentions to rule out any possibility of this photograph being manipulated by A) human hands or B) vibrations on the hardwood floor from human footfalls causing the item to rotate gradually. I first demonstrated to my family how brisk walking or even jumping on the floor before the table where the photograph sat was not enough to cause any movement of the item. Then I stated that I would like everyone to move to the opposite end of the house for one hour, with the door closed, which would not allow any pets to move about the house either. So, there we sat, watching television, for one hour, no one getting up to leave the room for anything, until we could all check the position of that photograph together. And, when we did, there was silence, as we stood in awe of the photograph facing the wall as it had done so many times before. I felt a sense of relief and accomplishment at that point, and I realized that I could do something to get involved in the experience of a haunting, rather than just "live with it" as a helpless victim.

My family moved away from that house when I was eighteen years old. But that didn't stop me, and I never forgot the way I felt living with that haunting. I began to do my research at that point. I made some chilling discoveries such as I learned that the house my family lived in for nineteen years was standing on property where part of a Civil War skirmish had taken place in 1864. This was the Battle of Westport, and many of the historic properties that still stand to this day were used during the battle as hospitals for the wounded soldiers. About a mile from the house sits a very small cemetery which went neglected for so many years, it had gotten overgrown so badly that one could never find the gravestones unless they knew to look for them. Eventually the Pitcher Cemetery was cleaned up and preserved, and the graves even marked with plaques to identify the dead since the tombstones are so weathered and worn they can hardly be read anymore. In the Pitcher Cemetery lie numerous soldiers from the 1864 Battle of Westport, including some higher-ranking men. There are two mass graves; one of them is for some of the unfortunate unidentified soldiers of the battle (the other for cholera victims.) When I realized the tie of the battle to that property where our house stood, I had a pretty good idea where our ghost came from, though I am still unable to pinpoint his exact identity of course. My mother describes the uniformed apparition as "soldier-like" to this day, and with that, I am quite satisfied with what my research has uncovered.

My fascination with the paranormal never died. I researched ghosts and hauntings for a great majority of my life as a hobby, a pastime, and a passion. In 2003 I took a course in paranormal investigation studying under Troy Taylor, and became a member of the American Ghost Society. I joined the Paranormal Activity Investigators shortly thereafter, and I have remained a very proud member since. In 2007 I was named as an area representative of the American Ghost Society for Missouri and Kansas.

My quest as a paranormal investigator is not to prove, nor disprove the existence of ghosts. My goal on each and every investigation is to properly gather evidence that may help our group determine whether there may be unexplained activity occurring in the location.

While I do personally believe in ghosts, it is only because of my experiences in childhood, living with an active haunting, that remind me of this other realm that we co-exist with daily. Otherwise, I go into our investigations skeptical, with a very open mind.