Facing Death at the Skinwalker Ranch Part 1
by Paul Dale Roberts
(Skinwalker Ranch, Utah)
Country Inns and Suites Room 319 Chantal & Lisa after the Investigation
Facing Death at the Skinwalker Ranch
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager/Ghosthunter
Chantal Apodaca looks at me and asks…”are you scared?” I look at her and calmly said…”yes.” What is there to be scared about at the Skinwalker Ranch? Lots of things, but before I talk about the ‘scary incident’, let’s start from the beginning. The day is October 4, 2008, Saturday. The time is 0900 hours. At my door are HPI paranormal investigators Chantal Apodaca and Lisa Hanley. My local scouting missions can have up to 30 investigators attending, but when the distance is far, the scouting mission party can be very small. Well, this scouting mission is far, it’s in Utah, past Salt Lake City, close to the towns of Vernal and Roosevelt. This scouting mission is the smallest one yet. Only two investigators show up at my door. I am thankful they are coming with me, because now I will have someone to talk to. I won’t lose my mind on the long, long road to nowhere. Skinwalker Ranch is the paranormal Mecca for investigators like me. Chantal and Lisa have done their research and are very excited to go.
Alejandro Guzman of Enterprise Rent-a-car has my car waiting. It’s a 2008 Pontiac G-5 with satellite radio. This car saved our lives and to mark this car into history, the license plate number is 6FBB672. Chantal and I, worked on a nickname for this car. Chantal came up with The Portal, then Portal Potty and finally Portal Wheels. I took her play on names and simply called it The Rift. The Rift, a temporary HPI vehicle for this mission will get us to the Skinwalker Ranch and back. Alejandro was fascinated with my ghost hunting stories and couldn’t wait until I return to give him a report on my findings.
Chantal, Lisa and I, all piled up in The Rift and looked forward to making paranormal history…well, we hope. When you are driving over 500 miles, how do you entertain yourself. By singing along to songs like Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake, All Summer Long- Kid Rock, Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd, Love Train/Backstabber – Ojays. Chantal enjoyed the Backstabber song, because she was pretending to stick a knife into my back and turning it each time the Ojays said the word ‘backstabbers’.
During the trip to Skinwalker, Lisa Hanley tells us how she lived in a home in Galt, it was an old remodeled farm house. She remembers being in bed sleeping and awoke abruptly. The air in the room turned cold. She then saw a man in the mirror, he was wearing a big black hat, black trenchcoat and had no facial features. She could distinctly see the full body apparition in the mirror from 15 feet away. That was the most scariest moment in this house, other times she has seen shadows dart about here and there. She has heard distinct whispering, when she laid her head on the pillow. On this trip, Lisa and Chantal were like my guardian angels, always on the look out for danger, like when they saw a drunk driver on the road. Or when we were driving through the endless desert road in Nevada, we saw a strange old station wagon. There were animal teeth on strings. The animal teeth on strings were strewn all around the windows of the car. Yes, he had animal teeth as decorations for the interior of his car. The first thing that came out of all our mouths was ‘serial killer’? During our long trip on that road, we made several stops at places like I-80 Smokeshop and Campground (that would remind you of the gas station stop in the movie ‘Rest Stop’). Other places were Salt Flats Café and Jazzy’s Texaco Foodmart. Jazzy’s was a fun stop, two gorgeous women worked there and were fascinated by our ghosthunting stories. We took pictures with these high strung fun girls. With all of the stops we were making, when we would get back on the road again, there was the serial killer station wagon car in front of us. When we passed the serial killer station wagon, the driver methodically turned his head and looked at us. Yeah, we were creeped out, so we tried to liven things a bit and put in Sheryl Crowe’s All I Wanna Do song. We were back to normal for a while, until we made another stop, we got back on the road again and guess who we were passing by again? Yep, the serial killer stationwagon and Chantal and Lisa were screaming at the top of their lungs. That was the last time we saw the serial killer stationwagon. When the serial killer station wagon finally faded from our minds, I learned that Lisa Hanley’s son named Thomas Hanley is a rap singer and Lisa played one of his CDs. To my amazement, Thomas was a very good singer and I usually don’t listen to rap music. From what I can tell, Thomas has potential of going far in the entertainment business.
As we reached Utah, the thunderstorm began. The drive at times became unbearable, but we still had the music playing and doing sing-a-longs. We made more stops on the way, just to stretch and talk with the locals. One local we talked to was Connie. Connie never heard of the Skinwalker Ranch, but she did have a ghost story. Connie said that she lived in a home in Utah. In this home, a man committed suicide by hanging himself in the basement. On certain nights, she felt an entity lay on top of her, she would walk into a room and feel his presence. She would hear screeching and screams from the basement. The home was 30 years old and she lived in the home for 16 years. It didn’t help when her daughter-in-law moved in. Her daughter-in-law was a Wiccan, she would perform rituals of the black arts in her home. Entities were seen going inside pictures and mirrors. The family of this home, including Connie always felt drained. It was like their life-force or energy was taken from them. Connie also feels she may be a sensitive, because she can predict the deaths of people that she is close to. Connie finally had enough of her daughter-in-law and expelled her from the house. Connie smudged the home with white sage, the haunting activity finally ceased. Connie told us two more unusual paranormal stories, she claims she was actually visited by the late Margaux Hemingway. Margaux’s apparition appeared to her and discussed depression. Connie also on another night had a vision of a woman with slit wrists appearing to her and just staring at her.
