Government Employee Punished for Hiring Ghost Hunters

Given the sheer number of ghost hunting groups out there today, I’m honestly surprised that we don’t see stories like this a lot more often. Apparently, a government employee got into some trouble for hiring ghost hunters to investigate a health department building. While it’s always important to get permission for investigating a location, it’s even more important to get permission form the right people. Just because an employee lets a group in to conduct a paranormal investigation doesn’t necessarily mean it has been cleared through the proper channels…

A city employee in Butte, Montana was reprimanded by her bosses after she let ghostbusters set up an infrared camera in her office building. John DeMuary, co-founder of the Butte Paranormal Investigative Team, told The News he’s convinced the building is haunted.

A government employee in Montana, convinced that otherworldly spirits had invaded her office, reportedly enlisted ghost hunters to catch the specters in action.

The ghosts got away scot-free, but the human had plenty of explaining to do.

The spooked city employee reportedly invited the Butte Paranormal Investigative Team to the county’s health department office after-hours. The ghost-busting nonprofit set up an infrared camera in one of the office rooms to monitor the energy flow allegedly created by ghosts.

John DeMuary, the group’s co-founder, has been hunting ghosts for more than two years. He took up the case after the employee told him her building was haunted.

“She said that a lot of strange things were happening and that she heard strange noises coming out of a certain part of the building,” the 34-year-old told The News.

The woman allegedly told the team that people from that part of the building were angry all the time and acted aggressively toward other co-workers.

“I felt that she was pretty serious about this and really wanted to know what was going on,” DeMuary said.

After doing a bit of research, DeMaury said he discovered that the office building was constructed in the 1970s. Before that, a lady had spent 80 years of her life in a house that stood at that same spot.

One night in August, the team slipped into the building with the help of the city employee. They saw lights flickering on and off, which DeMuary thought was “weird.” He said they got one good picture of an orb, like the one below, which he said is a spirit’s way of trying to “manifest” itself.

DeMuary also heard spirits trying to communicate through his Ovilus X, a digital ghost detecting device.

“I understood words, but I didn’t know what they were saying,” DeMuary said. “There had been a couple of ladies who used to work there that died of breast cancer who I think were trying to communicate with us.”

But DeMuary said he’ll never know for sure.

The plan backfired a few days later when another employee turned the infrared camera over to the police, fearing that someone was spying on the government workers.

Butte police found typical office scenes on the camera’s SD card, but no evidence of ghosts.

The health department’s leaders weren’t amused.

“The public gives trust in us and we need to take that seriously, and setting up cameras in public buildings to catch paranormal activity I don’t think is gaining the public’s trust,” chief executive Matt Vincent told the MT Standard.

The employee who contacted the Butte Paranormal Team was given a written reprimand. Another employee who was aware of the ghost hunting was given an oral reprimand.

The police took DeMuary’s SD card. But he still thinks he “felt a presence” in the building.

He said Butte, an old mining town, is filled with paranormal activity.

“A lot of the time, spirits are stuck because they haven’t had a chance to finish what they were supposed to do while they were alive,” DeMuary said. “In order for them to move on, they need to finish what they started.”

I understand that this wasn’t completely the fault of the paranormal group, as they probably just assumed that this employee did things by the book here. But I don’t think this investigator should have spoken to the media after finding out that this woman got into trouble for this. The classy thing to do would have been to decline the interview.