Dustin Pari, a member of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) and one of the personalities featured on Sy-Fy’s GhostHunters International (GHI) will lead these exclusive late night forays both evenings. “St. Augustine is a special place for us,” says Pari, who was joined last October by fellow TV stars Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango for a similar investigation at the castle.  Pari added, “Robert Ripley collected a lot of unusual artifacts in his lifetime, and we believe that paranormal activity can often be associated with specific items, so spending two nights in a row in these museums could make things very interesting.”

The St. Augustine landmark built in the 1880’s has been the home for the original Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum since 1950 and has also long been regarded as one of the most haunted properties in the Southeastern United States.  Numerous guests and employees have reported hearing voices and seeing apparitions inside the building over the years. Some even claim to have smelled smoke from a 1940’s fire that killed two women when the building served as the Hotel Castle Warden.

The investigation will not be televised, but limited tickets are available for the public to be part of the investigation for approximately five hours inside the castle.  Ripley’s is not involved in any event ticketing.  All information can be found at www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com or at www.idealeventmanage.com

TAPS has investigated the haunted Castle Warden, which now houses the original Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum.  Dave Tango, Steve Gonsalves, Dustin Pari and many guests were part of October 17th’s exclusive evening inside the 1880’s castle.

The Atlantic Paranormal Society, called TAPS, is internationally famous these days due to the popular TV series “GhostHunters” on the SyFy Network.  Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson and their fun-loving team of paranormal investigators have traveled the globe attempting to gather evidence of hauntings.  Most of the hardcore viewers realize the TAPS crew will often debunk stories of apparitions and strange sightings and rarely term a location “haunted”.

Since the TAPS members were NOT taping for TV that night, they did not set up multiple cameras and conduct a full-scale investigation.  However, that didn’t mean the spirits were at ease.  Several guests felt nausea and tingling sensations at the top steps of the third floor landing…one guest reported seeing a shadowy presence run off into a corner of a first floor exhibit room…and several other guests reported EMF meters flickering in response to questions concerning the deaths of two woman during a suspiscious 1944 fire when the Castle warden served as a hotel (although Betty Richeson and Ruth Pickering were said to have perished due to smoke inhalation, many people now believe a double homicide occurred and the fire set to cover up the deed).

As soon as we dissect all the evidence, we’ll post what we can here ASAP.  Dave, Steve, and Dustin exuded professionalism throughout the evening, and a big THANK YOU goes out from us here at Ripley’s to TAPS, Ideal Event Management, and all of the evening’s guests!

Ralf Ingwersen - Ghost Tours Director – Ripley’s St. Augustine, FL

Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango of TAPS

Links

• www.theatlanticparanormalsociety.com
• www.idealeventmanage.com