Trash by day, ghosts by night: Augusta man investigates paranormal events

AUGUSTA — Although one might most often see Augusta’s Chad Derry driving a truck for Waste Management of Macomb, his weekend avocation might be much more interesting. He dubs himself as a paranormal investigator — and he has the experience to back that up.

He leads up a local group of ghost hunters who are invited to visit scenes where paranormal incidents have been indicated. So what exactly constitutes a paranormal event?

Those can include doors or windows that either open or close without visible explanation. Sometimes, it can be a rocking chair that begins to rock on its own without anyone visibly in it. In other cases, it can take the form of a vapor apparition that becomes visible to the naked eye, sometimes accompanied by moaning or speech with no visible origin.

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Although Derry and his team most often look to disprove the existence of a paranormal event and seek a logical and verifiable explanation for what has transpired, that sometimes isn’t possible. That makes these sites a certified location for a paranormal event. One such location most locally is at Cambre Farms near Nauvoo, with that investigation being an ongoing process as they invite people to experience these events for themselves.

All of those events have been safe and posed no danger to the public, Derry said.

Derry’s interest in the paranormal is one of long standing.

“I’ve always been interested in ghost hunting,” he said. “What got me into it was the ghost tours in Macomb that my wife gave me for a birthday present. From then, I was hooked.”

Although Derry and his wife have since parted ways, the same didn’t happen to his interest in ghost hunting.

“My first official investigation was in 2016 at the Peoria State Hospital in Bartonville, Illinois.”

“My style of ghost hunting is pretty much like what you see on 'Ghost Hunters,' and I try to debunk everything that we possibly can come across that might be paranormal. But I use a different array of tools, something as simple as my cell phone to a camera all the way to using a K2 meter and a thermal imaging camera.”

“Most people think that ghost hunting is non-stop action, but nothing could be further from the truth," Derry said. "Most of the time, you sit in the dark and asking questions, trying to communicate and the majority of the time you don’t catch anything.”

“I would say that the most memorable was when ... I was almost sure that an apparition formed in front of us, but we constantly get Phantom footsteps, disembodied voices. There’s one time when a different team was at Cambre Farms and it was using the Estes method of trying to communicate. That’s where you use a Spirit Box, which is basically a radio through channel so fast that you’re not supposed to pick up words.”

“You have one guy who is sitting over noise canceling headphones with his eyes shut or covered so that they cannot see or hear what the questions are being asked. They were doing a Facebook Live and I came on to watch what they were doing. The woman asking the questions said 'Derry' and a few more seconds go by and she goes 'Chad.' So I was actually called out by a Spirit Box session.”

“It’s probably the highlight of my life. I was supposed to be with that team, but I had to work the next day so I could not make it.”

For Derry, the end is nowhere in sight just yet. He has a stop at the Kingsley Inn in Fort Madison, Iowa, on his future schedule — and he responds to requests as they come in. As his skills and fame grew, he said he has had the chance to work with some of the top teams in the United States, something clearly exciting to him for his future.

This article originally appeared on The McDonough County Voice: Ghost hunter: Augusta IL man investigates paranormal activity