Stand down, amateur apparition hunters: Cleveland just got its very own Ghostbusters. The non-profit Munroe Falls Paranormal Society, at your service.
The seven-member crew includes a historian, an electrical engineer, a psychic and a fear counselor, boasting 40-plus years of investigative know-how. And it just announced in a professional-enough release that it’s expanding its turf to include all of Northeast, Northwest and Central Ohio. And just in time: Chief among our area’s most pressing woes is this glut of do-nothing ghosts watching all of us fuck.
“While MFPS offers its services free of charge, we are still able to provide a professional quality investigative service utilizing the latest technologies and practices in the paranormal research and investigation field,” the statement reads. “The MFPS team provides community support for home owners, property owners, business owners, historical sites or anywhere this phenomena may be reported to exist.”
Though he’s been looking into paranormal activity for two decades — the result, he says, of experiencing a “dark mass, or shadow person,” in a house in Bratenahl — Eric Haney (programmer and engineer by day, MFPS founder and lead investigator by night) didn’t start the group until about two years ago in his sleepy little town of Munroe Falls. Population: about 5,000. Total stoplights: two. Most famous resident: murderer Richard Cooey, chief contributor to the psychic malaise.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.