Photo by Dave Judson

Photo taken at the Lovesick Lake Trailer Park following a storm.

There really are things that go bump in the night:

An interview with Richard Palmisano, a paranormal investigator

 

October 27, 2017

 

BY TERRY GILLIS

 

When he’s not traipsing through empty buildings and groping around in dark basements all over Central Ontario, Richard Palmisano splits his time between Burleigh Falls and Hastings.

Richard is not a plumber or contractor, he is a paranormal investigator and founder of The Searcher Group and The Canadian Institute of Parapsychology, and the author of five books based on his investigations.

Richard says he got started in the field of paranormal investigation because he grew up in a haunted house.

Richard and his family moved into a house at Dufferin St. and Bloor St., in Toronto, that had been built in 1899.

When he was a child he would constantly hear things, hear whispering, walking in the halls and there was never anyone there. The scariest thing, Richards says, was the closet in his bedroom. After his parents would tuck him in and head back down stairs, he would hear a metal coat hanger in the closet move back and forth.

As Richard grew older he “wanted answers to these experiences and that began my trek to find out what was going on.”

The strange occurrences followed him throughout his life. “Every house I’ve been in has been haunted,” Richard said.

And they’re still happening in Burleigh Falls.

Richard and his family have always had ties with the Kawarthas. The family had a cottage on Chemong Lake since the 40s, and he and his wife settled in Hastings and Burleigh Falls where many strange phenomena take place.

Richard has a trailer in Lovesick Lake Park. He says that a group of people will be sitting around a campfire at night and they’ll hear someone running on the gravel road. They see no one or nothing.

On other occasions a man in a wide-brimmed hat and a long, black leather coat is seen wondering the roads of the park. “Whenever you get close to him, he just vanishes,” Richard said.

One of the most fascinating events that happened, Richard says, revolves around the legend of  the native princess.

One night there was a massive wind and hail storm in Burleigh Falls.  A huge tree came down on his neighbour’s deck, just missing the trailer and its occupants. Richard says, the following morning, Dave Judson, his neighbour, took some pictures of the trailer for insurance purposes, and “he believed, in his heart, that the native princess saved his life by diverting the tree.”

Captured in the photo, amongst the fallen tree and branches is the silhouette of “an Indian maiden, standing right in the debris, with the sun behind her,” Richard said.

As luck would have it, Richard was doing some work at Six Nations. He took the photograph to a Doctor of Native History that works out of the library, and asked her to look at it. The historian confirmed that the details in the picture were consistent with the 1840s time period. In the picture you can see the young woman is wearing blue calico, and she is carrying a deer skin bag.

Richard began and registered The Searcher Group in 1979. He is assisted in the business and the investigations by his brother Paul Palmisano who is an investigator and surveillance analyst. The team consists of Richard and Paul as well as Peter Roe the assistant director and investigator, investigator James McCulloch, John Mullan, the technical consultant, and a number of different mediums, as required.

Richard and his team’s work has been featured in television shows such as Northern Mysteries and Discovery Channel’s A Haunting.

Richard has worked in law enforcement, security and surveillance for over thirty years and is a trained investigator.  He’s now retired and devotes much of his time helping people find answers and resolve conflicts with the spirit world.

If you would like to learn more about The Searcher Group, or if you need their help with a situation in your home, or even if you might like to join the team on an investigation or two, you can visit the website at www.thesearchergroup.ca or email Richard at Richard@thesearchergroup.ca