In 2010, PRS was contacted by the owners of a haunted abandoned church located in Topeka, KS. Ron, Jason, and Cameron were three caretakers living there while completing renovations, but an increase in activity caused them to halt everything. Patterns and theories exist in the paranormal world where it’s said that remodeling a location can stir up activity with spirits that died suddenly and tragically in that space. This seems to hold true with a lot of locations. In this case, once the boiler in the basement was removed an increase in activity occurred. Did something tragic happen in the basement of the church? Why was this area such a hot spot?
I conducted all of the preliminary interviews with former owners, witnesses, current owners and I presented the case to the team and production. PRS had an office in State College where we all worked and responded to inquiries about cases. Long hours, several stages of phone interviews, typing up case reports, meetings, and going through lots of emails. What’s ironic is that when I presented the case to the team Ryan was against doing it. I fought with him because I thought that the activity and clients were genuine. From a TV standpoint, I viewed the history, location visuals, and story to be very interesting for viewers.
Harrison Church also known as the Trinity Methodist Church/The Lane Chapel Church was built around 1886. It stopped being a church in 1990 and went into disarray for years. Stripped by vandals and the homeless, the church became a shell of its former elegance. We interviewed a witness that was part of a ritual that took place in the basement, the pentagram was still etched into the floor of the church. The church was not in good shape. The auditorium in the basement was very, very eerie. For every episode, I often ventured to areas of buildings alone so that I could set up surveillance cameras. I remember walking down there alone to set up a camera and seeing tiny rays of light shine through the boarded-up windows, reflecting off of the faded pentagram on the floor. We filmed there during a snowstorm and almost all of the once beautiful stained glass windows were broken and boarded up. The only source of heat in the building came from a space heater in the room of the church where the caretakers resided. I recall wearing layers of jackets and mismatched scarves and going through so many packets of Hot Hands.
The church was unusual in its design in that it has no steeple and there were many inverted crosses incorporated in its architecture. The upside-down cross is a visual for the total rejection of Christianity. Yet at the same time, the inverted cross is an ancient symbol for Saint Peter. Through extensive research on the meaning of the upside-down crosses, we discovered that it is known as St. Peter’s cross. The disciple of Jesus was believed to have been crucified on an upside-down cross. Some stories say that Peter felt unworthy of dying in the same manner as Christ.
One of the biggest claims we heard about this church was that in 1952 a horrible incident happened in the basement. Supposedly a former priest named Emis or Amos had killed a girl named Sheila in the basement in, then proceeded to hang himself on the 3rd floor loft of the church. Before acquiring a list of preachers who worked at the church, one of the caretakers Ronnie went into a trance-like state one night while working at the church. He was frightened, crying, and pointing at the 3rd floor saying that he was scared of a priest named Emis of Amos, who said he had molested and killed a girl named Sheila in the basement. He went to the historical society and found the name of Rev Emery A Davis-a preacher from 1951-1959. Ronnie didn’t remember the night of his trance and nothing like that has happened to him before.
Topeka, KS was the birthplace of the Pentecostal movement. There was a controversy at this Methodist church; reports of kids screaming, fainting, speaking in tongues in secret Pentecostal ceremonies done in the basement of many churches in the area without the permission of the pastors. Could this be what happened to Ronnie during his trance?
ACTIVITY
- footsteps, sounds of a marching band
- rumors that a pastor hanged himself on the 3rd floor after molesting a young girl in the boiler room. During the removal of the boiler from the basement, activity noticeably increased.
- feelings of never being alone
- sounds of talking so loud that they turn the radio up to drown it out
- intense feelings in the basement. Jason won’t even go down there
- sounds of children running on the 3rd floor loft
DEADTIME
During Deadtime I walked down into the basement with Ryan, ending up in the old bathroom area of the auditorium. We paused to read some writing that we spotted on the cabinets. Ryan was standing in the doorway of one of the old showers, I’m right next to him. There’s a camera guy on each side of us in a narrow hallway, Ryan and myself are both holding handi cams. All of a sudden something with force pulled Ryan back into the doorway he was standing in. I saw it happen and it was so intense, quick, and unexplainable. It literally looked like something invisible grabbed him by the hood of his jacket causing him to fly back and collapse to the floor. There was no way he could have done that himself. In the chaotic moment, he had a pure look of shock and fear on his face. He went silent for several minutes and didn’t respond to any of our questions. At this point, I definitely had already believed in the paranormal, but after seeing this occur right in front of my eyes it took my belief to a new level. Was there really evil in that basement?
Watch the episode to find out what else happened during our visit.
Update: After recently mentioning the church on a podcast, someone from the area informed me that the church was torn down and is now a parking lot.