Paranormal investigation: Be careful out there

Tragedy struck a group of paranormal investigators when a Norfolk Southern train hit and killed 29-year-old Christopher Kaiser early this morning near Statesville in Iredell County, North Carolina.

Kaiser was part of a group of about 12 amateur ghost hunters who gathered on the Bostian Bridge near Buffalo Shoals Road at 2:45 a.m. on Friday, August 28, 2010, according to the Iredell County Sheriff's Office.

The group was at the site on the anniversary of the August 27, 1891, train wreck that claimed about 30 lives. According to reports from WSOC-TV, local channel 9, when the Norfolk Southern train rounded a bend, there were several people still on the trestle.

To understand why the group was on the bridge last night, here's a story from Creepy North Carolina that covers the original accident. And here is the Landmark newspaper article from 1891.

The first rule of thumb for paranormal investigation, like any type of detective work, is safety. I always make sure I have permission to be at a site, and in cases like this where a site might be considered a public area, working with my group to make sure everyone remains safe during an investigation.

Several weeks ago, and late one evening, several local friends had stopped over and the subject of a nearby rural bridge came up. The locals told stories about the high number of deaths at this site, including an accident that claimed a teenager's life, and then the subsequent suicide of the boy's father at the same bridge site. In fact, according to the stories I heard, there had been a series of rather tragic and unexplained deaths at this site.

We arrived at this site at midnight that evening, parking carefully off the paved road and onto a dirt road that moved beyond the new bridge, and alongside the old bridge that was never torn down. Traffic coming along this rural road literally makes an S-turn to navigate the new bridge, but as we quickly found out - some vehicles making this bend did not slow down.

All this fast traffic made me cautious of the environment as our group stood on the new bridge attempting to collect EVPs - which were all unsuccessful. Every time a vehicle came toward us, I was barking orders to assure everyone was safely close to the edge of the road and out of harm's way.

One vehicle came toward us so fast, I thought it was going to crash into the bridge - but it moved off to our right at the last minute and zipped onto the dirt road, past our parked car, and back into the wooded area.

We left at 1 a.m., still unsuccessful at trapping any EVP activity. The following morning, we were shocked to hear that a young man had been attacked very near where we were standing that night, and left for dead along a railroad track. Although the man was discovered and flown out of the area by a life flight helicopter, news came later that he died in the hospital as a result of the beating injuries.

If you're part of a group going out to unfamiliar places, be careful out there. Go the extra mile to make sure everyone is safe.