Western Pennsylvania Paranormal Hunter founder talks ghost hunting and Greene County haunts
By Danielle Nyland, Managing Editor
T.J. Porfeli was always a big fan of the TV show Ghost Hunters. He started watching in 2005, but it wasn’t until a 2007 episode that the show really had an influence on him.
“I always thought the show was interesting but they never caught anything. Then in 2007, I was flipping through the channels and they were in St. Augustine [investigating the St. Augustine lighthouse] when they caught a full body apparition leaning over a railing and then they saw another one in a different location,” T.J. says. “After watching that, I knew I had to find out if it was true.”
T.J. began looking for people with the same interests and founded Western Pennsylvania Paranormal Hunters (WPPH) in January 2008. Since its creation, WPPH has performed hundreds of investigations, spanning across the United States (including the St. Augustine lighthouse), but the majority of them happen in the Western Pennsylvania area.
Their very first investigation took them to the home of a family member built next to a graveyard in Washington County. The clients felt they were experiencing paranormal activity but WPPH was able to conclude that claims were from natural occurrences, some of it due to the age of the house.
“Our first investigation was pretty comical,” T.J. says with a laugh. “We were new and very enthusiastic, so every little thing we heard would get us excited, asking each other, ‘Did you hear that?!’ After that, we knew we needed to take a step back and go in as skeptics.”
And that’s how WPPH has approached every investigation since. They go into each location as skeptics, looking to disprove paranormal activity and find logical answer. Only after exhausting all logical possibilities do they declare a place haunted. A previous clients’ major claim to paranormal activity was footsteps walking up the stair. WPPH was able to discover through investigation that heating ductwork ran under the stairs. When the furnace would kick on, the steps would creak one at a time, sounding like footsteps.
WPPH uses a wide range of equipment during an investigation: digital voice recorders, video and photographic cameras including those with thermal imaging and night vision, spirit boxes, EMF meters, motion detectors, and more. During an investigation, the equipment is spread throughout the building to capture activity that may happen when investigators are occupied elsewhere. After the investigation, the process of going through the collected data begins.
“We have to go through all the data, which can be very extensive,” T.J. states. “Depending on the location, we can have 12-15 voice recorders that have to be listened to thoroughly – you have to listen to every second because you never know what could happen. You could have hours of total silence, then the sound of footsteps when no one is around.”
Once evidence has been compiled, it’s presented to their client in a very straightforward way – here’s what happened and here’s what we think is going on. Sometimes, they may give them suggestions of how to handle the activity. If there are any items of concern, WPPH connects them with local clergy for a house blessing.
“Most people welcome them if they aren’t malicious,” T.J. says. “There’s even one family whose home we investigated that wraps presents for them at Christmas. We’ve only had one home where clergy became involved.”
After reading a newspaper article about haunted Greene County locations, they contacted Greene Academy of Art in Carmichaels and completed an investigation that resulted in some audio evidence and personal experiences. They’ve visited the Greene Academy, Rices Landing VFD, W.A. Young Foundry multiple times and found evidence of paranormal activity at all these locations. But the most haunted location in Greene the team has investigated is the Greene County Historical Society Museum (GCHS) located in Waynesburg. In fact, T.J. declares that the GCHS Museum is the most haunted place that he’s ever been.
“Activity doesn’t happen on command, even with the tools and knowledge we have available. It just doesn’t happen every night,” T.J. reveals. “But every single time we’ve been there something happens. They activity is consistent, it always happens.”
Prior to WPPH’s investigation, the GCHS Museum had never been investigated for its unusual activity. Throughout the first investigation in 2013, the team had personal experiences, including hearing voices. They also captured evidence that backed up their experiences. The team visited the museum three times over 2013, each time experiencing and usually capturing evidence of strange activity.
The museum is home to disembodied voices, footsteps and sounds, as well as shadow figures. During a visit in 2014 to film a promo video, a member of the team brought Girl Scout cookies as refreshments. Knowing T.J.’s love of Thin Mints, he had his own special box delivered, which he took to his truck. One of the investigators left a voice recorder by the cookies. Upon reviewing the audio from that night, two female team members were heard talking in the room – the only people in the room at the time. Over their voices a male voice that didn’t belong to any of the team could be heard saying, “T.J. has the Thin Mints.”
In 2015, T.J. became a board member for GCHS. It was then that he had one of his most standout personal experiences with the hauntings at the museum.
“We were having our meeting in one of the rooms off the main hall, when we heard the screen door open, a person walk in and then walk upstairs,” T.J. shares. “I and another board member got up to investigate and one of us took the front stairs and the other took the back stairs. There was nobody in the building.”
Because of its highly active state, the GCHS Museum is often the site of public ghost hunts each year, held by Ghosts N’at. T.J. was one of the original founding members of that as well, but sold his share to focus on his work and investigations.
For more information about Western Pennsylvania Paranormal Hunters LLC, visit huntparanormal.com. You can find evidence of their investigations at the GCHS Museum and elsewhere, such as audio clips, video, and photos. They also perform public speaking events and participate in other public functions across the Pittsburgh area. If you have questions, want to book them for an engagement, or would like them to investigate unexplained happenings at your own home, contact them at huntparanormal@gmail.com.