In late 2009, GRI took on one of our largest challenges to date with double investigation of what has become our standard training location for investigators; The Truckee Hotel.

Tim Tonachella, the Manager of the Truckee Hotel, invited GRI to come out and do a full-scale investigation of the Truckee Hotel over the course of two investigations in October and November of 2009.

So, we loaded up the GRI Mustang and our investigators, Jon Almada and Renee Martine for the first set of investigative work and then with Jon once again along with Spencer Hughes and Kevin Gilligan for the second investigation.

Our first arrival brought us to a very beautiful structure with quaint rooms that have atmosphere that is undeniable. And we found the hotel staff to be friendly and willing to talk now and again about their haunt.

Over the course of the two investigations, we found that the hotel had an amazing amount of residual EVP activity as well as what we believe to be intelligent haunts (responses to questions in a fashion only attributable to an intelligent entity). Reported Phenomena

The Truckee Hotel reports the following as paranormal phenomena seen by patrons and staff:
  1. A small girl (reportedly kidnapped and murdered in the Hotel) is felt/seen/heard on the 4'th floor of the Hotel. We experienced EVPs and audible (taped) responses by her in our evidence.
  2. Voices are heard and odd feelings in room 401.
  3. Doorknobs turning themselves.
  4. Cold spots.
  5. Floating orbs in and around the bar.
  6. Shootings in and around the hotel in a number of spots including the death of one woman by shotgun blast.
  7. Shooting of a shirttail relative of Jon's  (yes!) who survived the shooting in the late 20'th century!
  8. Odd sensations and negative feelings around the hotel and lower boiler-room.
  9. Ghosts are sometimes seen and noises of walking can be heard now and again by patrons/staff.
Findings

We caught a large number of EVPs. These are uploaded along with photo and video evidence in the case gallery. A number of references to "Heaven Help Me" seem to originate near or at room 215 where a reputed murder is reported to have taken place. Search the site for this term and you will see these files and can listen to the EVPs for yourself.

Spencer took a unique photograph of the back of the hotel which is shown near the top of this article. We cannot explain it. We tried to debunk the photo using our breath to fog the air and duplicate the image, but could not make it work. Our feeling is that the photo is strong evidence of paranormal activity as we have photos seconds prior to and just after which show no such mists.

We caught EVPs in the boiler room that were pretty compelling. The "Heaven, Help Me" EVPs we were capturing inside found us capturing one of these utterances outside in the back of the hotel. Inside the boiler room, we caught all manner of odd EVPs and are still mystified at why a spirit would spend time in such an inhospitable place. One EVP says "Kept me in here" that may explain some of the reason for this.

In rooms, 401, 402 and 403, we experienced odd happenings as follows:
  1. Room 401 - Jon hears an audible "Get out" twice in rapid succession and catches the voice on tape. (loaded on this site for you to hear).
  2. Room 402 - Spencer, Jon and assorted family of Spencer's hear a little girl calling out and when we go to check, no one is near (caught this on tape - Spencer's recorder).
  3. Room 401 - Spencer caught odd banging noises occurring in 401 after 2:45am when no one was in the room on an EVP recorder. This EVP is remarkable. No one was in the room when the RCA recorder auto-started!
  4. Room 401 - Video of K-II responses to our queries was taken using a Sony Webbie with Jon and Spencer conducting vocal exchanges in the room while questioning the male entity reputed to stay there (soon to be uploaded).
Room 218 had us catching a voice that said "He was a brutal brute" in a very clear class-A EVP.  Another capture indicated a woman saying "Mommy he's guilty of shooting me". Several other EVPs were captured issuing commands to leave and a couple of more "colorful" EVPs were captured in this same room.
  We also caught what we feel to be residual EVPs in profusion and with some racial epitaphs and anguished emotions on tape such as the aforementioned "Heaven help me" EVPs.

We also investigated the small cemetery just up the road as well as other surrounding structures and will provide additional commentary as these EVPs and photos are added to the gallery. The Cemetery EVPs we have to date are quite interesting as we have some that indicate that entities there are asking to be crossed over.

Conclusion

The hotel is, indeed quite haunted both in the intelligent and residual sense. We intend to make the hotel our standard training ground due to it's accessibility and quality and quantity of EVPs that can be recorded here.

This article will be adjusted as more evidence comes in from our investigations. Our formal reveal will occur soon along with a video of the evidence and audio to provide a better feel for the evidence and feelings experienced by our investigators.

We want to thank Tim Tonachella and the entire staff of the Truckee Hotel for their hospitality and help in allowing us to visit and investigate their beautiful structure. We most certainly will be returning again and again to this amazing location in the near and distant future!

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