Police Detective hunts ghosts in Port Jervis, New York

Late one night in 2002, Port Jervis police detective Mike Worden was scouting around the well-tended tombs of Laurel Grove Cemetery when, he says, “I felt like I was walking through cobwebs. I felt them on my neck, my face, everywhere. But it was different from actually walking through cobwebs, where you see what you’re walking into.”

One of his companions had the same experience at the same time. They were not looking for criminals, but rather for ghosts, Worden’s avocation on his off hours, sometimes at odd hours. His book, "Ghost Detective," describes his adventures, including the ones in Laurel Grove. His findings, with his ghost investigation partner, Linda Zimmerman, and her husband, Bob, helped get the cemetery listed on the New York State Haunted History Trail.

They brought infrared cameras and audio recorders to places where others “saw things” suggestive of ghosts. But they encountered several problems, Worden said.

“With the lights from Interstate 84 and background noise, sorting out the normal from the paranormal is difficult,” he said. Also, the way light bounces off gravestones creates illusions, and infrared light gives moths an “unearthly glow.”

Nevertheless, he did find some “unusual activity” by the Farnum mausoleum, about 100 feet from the caretaker’s cottage. A “red glowing streak” appeared in a photograph. Whether it revealed a ghost or was merely an “anomaly from the film development process,” Worden has no certainty.

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