Two law firm employees and their behind-the-scenes helper took to Leonardtown last weekend for their spooky side job.
The women who operate 3 Notch Paranormal Investigations were filming a part of their new mini-series, “Historical Hauntings of Leonardtown,” focusing on the town’s rich history and investigating paranormal activity there.
“As a kid, I was always curious about the afterlife,” Jeannie Carrico, who, along with co-lead investigator Tracy Leclerc, runs the paranormal investigation team that conducts private paranormal investigations and documents investigations in historic areas for broadcasting.
Carrico said some of her “earthshaking” experiences when she was young led her to the side-job, and she now holds degrees in Demonology and paranormal investigations.
“I didn’t have any friends who were into this kind of thing,” Leclerc, who had also become fascinated with the field from a young age, said. When she met Carrico, her coworker at the Dorsey Law Firm, she said she had found her “paranormal soulmate.”
Carrico had previously worked with an all-male team, and rejoiced at forming a team of women.
The team is one of only a few women-led paranormal investigation teams in a heavily male-dominated industry. The ladies of 3 Notch Paranormal Investigations said their style differs from the methods seen on TV, where investigators such those on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures tend to provoke spirits.
“We’re not here to provoke them,” Leclerc said. “We’re just here to find evidence that we can communicate.”
The team, along with their “behind-the-scenes helper” Teresa Loweth, said they have seen evidence of spirits in their adventures, pointing out, specifically, a moment at the cemetery off Cemetery Road in Hollywood, where a figure that looked like confederate soldier John Francis Duke appeared in a photo the team took while trying to communicate with him. That night, motion sensing lights near his grave flashed on when nobody was there.
Using ghost-hunting equipment such as an electromagnetic field detector, a structured light sensor camera, which maps out humanoid figures using infrared projector, and a “spirit box,” which scans radio waves for possible ghost sounds, the team has been able to pull together evidence, but warned the process is “nothing like TV.”
“We’ve had a lot of crazy things happen,” Carrico said. But sometimes, the team must search through hours of both audio and video footage to find phenomena. “You never know what’s going to work that night.”
They said supposed spirits may take energy away from both the gear and the team themselves, as many investigations end with drained batteries and exhausted team members.
On Friday, after doing an investigation at the Old Jail Museum in Leonardtown, they had not yet reviewed all of the footage, they said there was “great activity” in every room of the old jail.
