| My Story My daughter, Adriane, her ex-fiance, Shawn, my older sister, Coke and I decided to drive to Paso Robles to visit Adelaida Cemetery to check out this story about Charlotte for ourselves. After checking into the Paso Robles Inn, Adriane decided to lay down for awhile, since she was not feeling too well. Meanwhile, Coke, Shawn and I left to go to the cemetery at around 2:00pm that day to check it out and to see if we could find Charlotte's grave and take some photos. A long and winding road finally lead us up into the hills to this quiet, neglected, lonely and rarely-visited cemetery with a few homes scattered in the area. After parking, Coke decided to wait in the car which was parked a few feet away from the main gate because the temperature that day was about 104 degrees and she would have had trouble walking with a cane since the ground was pretty rough. She would act as our "watchdog" while Shawn and I entered the cemetery to take pictures and look for Charlotte's grave. This cemetery was rundown, surrounded by tall weeds, trees and a high-wire fence and to my knowledge, you could only enter through the main gate or a small entrance near the main gate. I was completely in awe of this small cemetery with all of its old headstones because each headstone had a story to tell. Shawn and I continued on, climbing up a little hill where there were more grave sites. About 20 minutes had passed and while I was shooting photos, Shawn suddenly yelled out to me that he had found Charlotte's grave, which was several yards away, to my right. Her grave site was surrounded by three graves of young children, one of which I believe to have been hers. You could barely read the writing on the headstones, long-faded with age. Shawn was beginning to feel very sad, uneasy and emotional while standing around Charlotte's grave, so after about an hour, we agreed that it would be safe to come again that night around 10:00, hoping to see Charlotte or whatever else that decided to show up. Evening came and at 9:40pm, with Adriane in tow, we gathered up everything we needed in a black bag, which included two headlights (the ones with straps that you put over your head), a night vision scope, two Olympus cameras, three extra rolls of 800 ASA speed film, an infrared thermal scanner, an EMF detector, a compass, extra batteries, paper and pen and headed out to Adelaida Cemetery. Little did we know that when we got to the cemetery at 10:20pm, most of the equipment was useless because it was pitch-black and all you could see were millions of stars in the sky, but no moon and no street lights, just an occasional car driving by in the near distance. We ended up just using the headlights (not much help since they were just as bright as those little night lights). Coke again decided to stay in the car which was parked almost directly in front of the main gate. She would again act as a "watchdog" and if she saw anything suspicious in or outside the cemetery or if someone approached or left the cemetery, whether it be a mortal or immortal being, that she would hit the horn to warn us. Mind you, we did not break into the cemetery since there was another smaller, opened entrance near the main gate which was kept chained and padlocked at night. There were no "Do Not Trespass" signs posted anywhere. Adriane, Shawn and I proceeded into the cemetery and after about 15 minutes, we managed to find our way up the little hill to Charlotte's grave. As soon as we got there, Adriane became very agitated and overwhelmed with sadness, telling us that she did not like the energy surrounding the grave site. Just so you know, Adriane is not one who fears ghosts or the paranormal and while she has always been sensitive to certain places and energies, her reaction at the cemetery was greatly out of character! While Shawn was trying to comfort her, I managed to take a few photos. By then, it was about 11:05pm and Adriane was in tears, begging us to take her back to the car, which we did. She kept saying that we did not belong there. Shawn and I wanted to go back into the cemetery, but Adriane continued to beg us not to go back. I was one disappointed ghost researcher and at the same time, I was very concerned for my daughter's well-being. We got into the car, locked all the doors and decided to sit for awhile, hoping that maybe we might see Charlotte walking along the side of the road in front of the cemetery where she has been reputedly seen by witnesses. I sat in the driver's seat with Coke next to me while Shawn and Adriane sat in the back seat. I still had some film left in the camera but Adriane did not want me to get out of the car, so I took more pictures while sticking the camera outside the car window and aiming it towards the cemetery, the sky and the road, as did Shawn with my other camera. Approximately 10 minutes had passed when Adriane and Shawn suddenly heard what sounded like a woman talking right beside them, outside their car window, although they could not decipher what she was saying. There was nothing there. Then, they heard someone laugh and I can tell you that it certainly was not any of us! Both Coke and I are hearing-impaired and unfortunately, we did not hear the voices or the laughter. Adriane and Shawn pretty much told us what was going on by screaming hysterically. It was actually comical just watching them. Then, all of the sudden, Shawn and Adriane became very quiet....they were hearing footsteps coming toward the car from somewhere beside them. We all peered through the windows, but did not see anything. Out of nowhere, a white dog suddenly appeared beside the back seat window of the passenger's side and looked up at Shawn and Adriane, scaring the living bejesus out of them! As the white dog turned to walk away, Shawn managed to take a picture of it through the car window. The white dog then walked to the middle of the road while keeping its eyes fixated on Adriane and Shawn. This dog had a human-like stare and a very bizarre behavior! It then proceeded across the road and disappeared. It was bad enough to hear strange voices and laughter but the eerie incident with this white dog was like a scene straight out of "The Twilight Zone" and that was all Adriane and Shawn could take! They screamed for me to gun the gas pedal, so I sped off and headed back to Paso Robles. When we got back to the hotel, Adriane made a comment, "I just know that something is going to show up on film". The next morning, I took the four rolls of film to be developed at a one-hour photo shop and came back at around 6:00 that evening to pick up the photos. Well, guess what? Adriane was right! To our amazement, the white dog was not our only visitor at the cemetery....check out the photos! |