Report by Renae Leiker (continued):
Later that evening, Tony, Jennifer and Debra went upstairs to change a tape in the camera setup in the front bedroom. Jenifer said she felt something hit her in the leg and when she picked it up and it was a nail. Not just any nail either - a very old nail. From what we found on the Internet, it would date somewhere 1850-1865 or so. We also found different examples, and I saw one where it looked like a "Dutch" nail or a nail that looked like what they showed being used in Dutch barns. We really need to take the nail in and have someone date it for us. We did see a nail at the museum in Fort Riley that looked similar. We were so amazed at how old it was, but really now - where does something like that come from in a house that was built about 15 years after this nail was used?
During a later conversation with Debra, she said her computer bit the dust and that she had all sorts of stuff on it. I looked up when she said her son's computer stopped working too. She kind of dismissed this as old machines and coincidence. Within three days after leaving the Sallie house my computer started acting up. On the third day it died. My husband hooked it up to a CRT and the computer part was ok it was the screen on the laptop. Thinking he could fix it, he pulled out another laptop (probably less than half the machine the other one was) but I was able to do what I needed with it: Listen to EVP.
Back to the investigation… It was the time of the year when the City of Atchison ran its Haunted Trolley Tours and one was going by every hour. It would stop in front of the house while the story teller on the trolley told the tale and then it would drive off.
Jennifer had brought with her that night a pretty large doll, and we set it up looking out the window of the front bedroom (it was realized, however, that because of the house eave, it couldn't be seen from the street). When we went up to change a tape in the cameras, she would go up and move the doll to a slightly different spot. We even joked about the trolley goers seeing the doll and thinking it was little Sallie. The EVP's recorded from that night and that timeframe suggest that Joanna did not like us putting the doll in the window. One EVP says "That's mean, why?" and "Are you having fun?". Both were captured around the time Jennifer moved the doll. One of the times Jenn came upstairs alone, she asked them to be nice - she is alone. When she walked out of the room, a man said "Boo".
On this night I also wanted to get as much confirmation about who (spirits) was there as I could. I waited until Tony, Debra, Sherry, Jerry and Jenn started talking about the history of the house and thought maybe I could go upstairs. I didn't think Joanna would follow me if there was an interesting conversation going on, and I thought she might be more interested at this time in staying where everyone else was. I went up the stairs like a mother would. "Where's my little boy? Frank are you up here?", I asked. "I'm here in the circle" replied a little boy. I wasn't quite up the stairs when I started talking. Did he think I was Joanna? I have heard so many whispers of them saying "quiet" to the kids or each other. Whispers also about where the cameras were and even when they were on.
The reason I asked for a Frank was because she caused the death of her son, Frank, when she had him sleep downstairs with her and she "left the gas jets on" (this information can be found in the timeline area of the website). Frank and Joanna were found in the morning by her daughter. According to newspaper clippings Joanna was not expected to make it. This happened a few days after moving into a new house in Kansas City. She had remarried Frank Sr. and had already sold her house (the house next door to the Sallie House) back to Agnes Finney several months earlier.
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