Steven was surfing the web one night, bored out of his mind and
found a website that said "Ghosts are Real". Not having anything
better to do Steven stayed and read the article further. It went
on to say that "No matter where in the world, there are patterns
that remain the same. Look for the patterns and you'll find your
ghost."
Still not convinced and not one to believe everything you read
online, ultimately the website said to "find a local group and
attend a ghost hunt." So Steven looked and found that the
nearest ghost hunting group was 300 miles away in Houston,
Texas. So Steven contacted David S. of Residual Energy
Investigations (REI) and requested permission to attend. David
agreed and invited Steven to his first ever ghost hunt at a
house where a man had slaughtered his wife and children in cold
blood. It had only been several months passed that Steven dealt
with a man who killed his child so this remained in the back of
his mind as he investigated.
Not
long into the investigation a door with a clear glass window had
unlocked itself and opened in front of Steven. This was his
first real taste of paranormal activity. Steven saw the bolt
turn and the door open. Plus, he saw no one on the other side of
the glass outside the door. There was no justifiable explanation
as to how a door latch can turn itself from locked to open by
itself. Steven was frozen in wonder.
David S. came down and Steven told him what happened. David said
he personally locked that door and knows it was locked because
you have to push on the door to get it to line up right.
Needless to say, this had wet the appetite of Steven and started
him on the path to countless more investigations. Since there
were no groups in San Antonio, Texas, Steven decided he would
start his own and called it
The South Texas Ghost Hunters Alliance (STGHA)
By design, Steven knew that everyone could benefit by working together in an "alliance" and through this alliance people can share their thoughts, ideas, experiences and work together to help people who are experiencing paranormal "ghostly" activity in their homes or offices. Little did he know that his group was going to grow past several hundred members.
Steven was impressed with how many people wanted to work together to investigate paranormal activity. There's advantages to having a lot of people in your network but there's also a disadvantage... You can't have 20 or more people attend every investigation or prance around a small private residence. There would have to be people left out and picking who stays and who goes on different investigations was frustrating.
Steven decided to create a sister group... The Ghost Education & Research Center - San Antonio.
GERCSA (which is the domain name of this website) was going to be a smaller group and incorporated the best of the best. These people each had something that contributed to the team in some way or form. Steven was then able to use STGHA to be a teaching tool about ghost hunting and use the members in select cities to handle investigations when one popped up in their neighborhood.
In August 2001, Steven's grandfather died but Steven knew this before it happened.
On August 5th, 2001 at around 11:40pm Steven was chatting with Tracey R. (She's the one standing next to the woman who's squatting - kinda in the doorway in the above picture.) and noticed that something felt wrong. Steven was feeling like a presence was in the room and this startled him because there never has been any ghosts in his house, ever! But there was a presence and Steven was in total disbelief. He noticed a drop in temperature and noticed the tingly feeling that he had encountered on several past investigations.
Then his phone rang.
His
brother was on the phone and said "Papa died. Come to the
hospital and say goodbye."
Steven and his wife rushed to the hospital to the bedside of his
grandfather. Because his grandfather only spoke French, and
taught Steven how to speak it, Steven told his grandfather that
he loved him and that he can feel his presence. Steven also felt
a second presence in the room and he checked on the other side
of the curtain since it was a shared room. There was an old man
in that bed. Steven checked his vitals and there was nothing. He
had passed away too.
Steven went home and for the next 7 days, and only 7 days,
Steven had paranormal activity in his house. He had one light
bulb in the hallway that would flicker. He changed it out with a
new one but it still happened. He had motion lights that would
turn on when you walk by so people can see at night. They would
go on in sequence as if someone was walking from one end of the
house to another. Steven had two cats and both of them would
stare up in the air as if watching something move through the
house. There was a feeling that someone was there, but it was a
peaceful feeling... nothing evil or harmful.
Exactly one week to the day, the paranormal activity stopped and
never happened again. That feeling was gone, the motion lights
never came on by themselves again, the cats never stared
together, and the one light bulb that flickered for 7 days never
did again.
His grandpa was gone.
