Ledger-Dispatch

Built in 1894, Preston Castle was the = site of a=20 staff murder in 1950, a ward's killing in 1922 and at least 17 = deaths to=20 disease. On Saturday, The Ghost Trackers organization investigated = the=20 building for paranormal activity.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

With her camera set to night vision, = Gloria Young=20 captured a picture of a strange, engulfing shadow with no object = or light=20 source behind it.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

The Ghost Trackers' Sharon Leong films = the=20 castle's old hospital with an infrared camcorder.

Photo by: Scott Thomas=20 Anderson

When Anne Leong was filming in infrared = at the=20 spot where Anna Corbin's body was found 57 years ago, she captured = anomalous orb of light flying over the head of Heather = Young.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch

When Anne Leong was filming in infrared = at the=20 spot where Anna Corbin's body was found 57 years ago, she captured = anomalous orb of light flying over the heads of members of the = Preston=20 Castle Foundation and media.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch
On Saturday night, massive = winds raged=20 across the hills as a dim procession of storm-flickered headlights crept = up the=20 driveway to Preston Castle. Under its Romanesque archways and blackened = tower, a=20 group of people hurried through the rain toward its front. With the = palms=20 curling and olive trees thrashing in the gale, they opened its = 114-year-old=20 doors to stare into a hallway of shadows. They were searching for a = lingering=20 presence. They were listening for the faintest whisper of the dead. =

The=20 Ghost Trackers Paranormal Research Group is based out of San Jose. Its = founder,=20 Gloria Young, is no stranger to haunted places. When Young was growing = up, she=20 and her friends would often play in cemeteries. Her ease among the = worldly=20 departed turned into an obsession with their activity over time. She = read=20 everything she could about paranormal phenomena. Twenty years later, the = first=20 glimpse of Preston Castle at night - with its history of death and = tragedy -=20 left her in awe at what might happen once she crossed its threshold.=20

Following members of the Preston Castle Foundation into the = structure's=20 grand entrance, Young's five-person team wasted no time setting up their = equipment. They brandished several types of digital cameras fitted with = night=20 vision, audio recorders, a high-powered condenser, a Geiger counter for=20 measuring radiation waves. "We should start where the murder happened," = Young=20 said to the foundation members. "It's the most likely area to detect a=20 presence."

Young, her team and the foundation members conducted=20 themselves with a quiet reverence as they headed down into the castle's = basement=20 - and with good reason. The 57-year-old unsolved murder of Anna Corbin = was a=20 horrific event for the Ione community that's still remembered today. = Corbin was=20 once the head housekeeper at Preston School of Industry. Though most = boys=20 imprisoned there saw her as a tender figure, on a bleak afternoon in = 1950 she=20 was found viciously bludgeoned to death - her body locked in a small = storeroom=20 off the executive kitchen. Though several trials were held, no one was = ever=20 convicted of the gruesome crime. For decades it's been said that = Corbin's=20 matronly spirit remains in the long hallways of Preston Castle. =

When=20 Young's team arrived at the executive kitchen and confronted the narrow = space=20 where Corbin's body was discovered, they immediately asked the = foundation=20 members for silence. With the tiny lights of their technology flashing, = Young=20 asked Corbin if she was there. Everyone stood motionless, practically = holding=20 their breath. The mute echo of silence played throughout the room, = challenged=20 only by the drone of a faltering electrical system and the wash of the = storm=20 outside.

All at once, in the midst of the soundless vigil, a = giant=20 explosion rang down the hallway. The Ghost Trackers, the foundation = members and=20 the media were all physically shaken. They headed back up to the main = floor to=20 investigate, finding that the powerful windstorm had opened the large = wooden=20 doors on the verandah and violently thrown them shut again - mimicking = the sound=20 of a shotgun. A debate soon broke out about whether the doors had been = secured=20 with a steel crossbar before the group had descended into the basement. = Those=20 who wanted to believe that the swirling forces of nature outside were=20 responsible for the heart-stopping moment seemed to remember that it = had, in=20 fact, not been latched. Those who tended to believe something else was=20 responsible recalled that it had been. In the end, the group moved on, = no one=20 truly being sure.

As the investigation proceeded, the menacing = storm=20 continued to play havoc on the Ghost Trackers' ability to listen for = strange=20 noises. In the second-floor library the wind invaded the century-old = brickwork,=20 roiling through the frail, tattered pipes to create the sound of a woman = crying.=20 Above the group, on the third floor, the wind swept in through = windowless=20 archways and danced across the missing floor sections, creaking the = broken,=20 naked planks up and down to simulate heavy footsteps. "It was hard at = times to=20 distinguish what noises were natural to the extreme weather and what = noises were=20 unnatural," Young later recalled. "The storm was magnificent, but it = made things=20 a lot more complicated for us."

Ironically, the most uncanny = sound of=20 the night was not heard by the Ghost Trackers themselves, but by their = local=20 escorts. When the group came into the section of the building that was = once the=20 castle's hospital, Young's team split up into various areas - the = operatory, the=20 quarantine room, the hallway still possessing a few lonely, rusty bed = frames.=20 The compartments their have own claim to Preston's darker history, = forever=20 locked to a graveyard beyond the windows where the bodies of 18 young, = wayward=20 boys lie sleeping. Most of them were victims of tuberculosis and typhoid = fever -=20 though Sam Goins, who was shot in the back by a Preston guard in 1922, = also died=20 there.

With the Ghost Trackers split up into different rooms of = the=20 hospital, members of the more-skeptical castle foundation did hear what, = for a=20 few fleeting seconds, seemed to be the distinct sound of someone humming = a tune.=20 In the tense discomfort of the moment, it took some time before all = present=20 reluctantly conceded that they did, or at least might have, heard it; = and that=20 it was something completely unlike the tricky voices of the wind they'd = been=20 experiencing all night - soft, faint, but chillingly audible. The Ghost = Trackers=20 were made aware of this and employed their equipment accordingly. Once = the=20 recorders were on, nothing more was heard.

The Ghost Trackers' = Sharon=20 Leong, and her sister, Anne, felt there was still a good chance they'd = identify=20 paranormal activity once they took their recordings and video back home = and=20 examined them with technology that could amplify and break down the = data. "A lot=20 of times you don't hear anything at all when you're recording audio," = Sharon=20 said. "And then when you turn it up on your computer you hear what are = sometimes=20 clearly voices too faint for the human ear. That happened to us a couple = of=20 months ago when we were at Alcatraz Island. We asked a question and = didn't hear=20 anything; but then once we got home and turned the audio up, we heard a = very=20 frightening response."

Several days after her trip to Preston = Castle,=20 Anne realized she might have been standing near enough to the group of = people=20 who heard the humming to have caught it on her camcorder. "It's there," = she=20 confirmed to the Ledger Dispatch. "The humming was faint and I had to = use the=20 headphones to hear it, but it was definitely a man = humming."

Leong also=20 picked up something strange on her infrared camcorder. When the group = was down=20 in the basement at the crime scene, she had asked out loud, "Anna, who = murdered=20 you?" After reviewing her video, Leong said at that very moment, a = moving light=20 anomaly darted across the heads of several people. "As a paranormal=20 investigator, I'm well aware of how one's mind can be influenced by the = romance=20 or excitement of a place like Preston during stormy weather. Since we = know=20 people can be influenced by suggestion, I'm usually skeptical about any=20 so-called activity until it has been corroborated with physical = evidence. In=20 this case, there was a light anomaly at that moment - not to mention = recordings=20 of a sigh and humming in other parts of the building."

Her sister = agreed.=20 "Preston Castle exceeded our expectations," Anne said. "The place is = certainly=20 active, full of energy - and energy doesn't die."