ORLEANS COUNTY: Investigating the unknown
By Miranda Vaggvaggm@gnnewspaper.com
Most people naturally get scared, maybe a little spooked, when things go bump in the night.
There’s one group of local residents who run in the direction of the unknown in search of the source of mysterious sounds. They’re eager to see if there’s an apparition waiting around the corner of any dark hallway.
The members of the Center for Paranormal Investigation Association have had different experiences with the paranormal and have individual reasons for joining the group, said lead investigator David Condoluci of Albion. The member list is made up of spiritualists, scientists, skeptics, psychics and those who are open-minded and curious.
“You’ll find out each of the members are amazing in their own way,” David said.
In 2001, his friend, Tim Davis, CPIA director, established the association, and David joined soon after.
“We have a huge mix of people, which, in my estimation is the best group to have,” Davis said, a self-proclaimed skeptic of the unknown.
Today, the group has about 25 members, including Davis’ brother, Steve, and David Condoluci’s mother, local psychic Donna Condoluci. They have been called to investigate activities throughout Western New York and several other states. Investigations take anywhere from four to eight hours for one location, with CPIA members using high-tech gadgets to catch a glimpse of the other side.
According to Condoluci , the group uses handheld video cameras with night shot, infrared camera, parabolic microphones and digital voice recorders that have caught the ghostly whispers of those from beyond.
In his mid-20s now, Condoluci became interested in the paranormal when he was 15 years old. Growing up in a haunted house, he began seeing a person’s shadow in his bedroom, which drove the family pet, a Jack Russell Terrier, crazy, he said.
“I used to see a gentleman in the middle of the night,” Condoluci said. “It wasn’t until I was going through a photo album (much later) that, come to find out, it was my grandfather.”
With growing interest, Condoluci began studying texts about the paranormal and eventually began performing investigations on his own.
Davis’ first experience with the paranormal happened on a back road somewhere between Shelby and Albion that was rumored to be haunted. That night, he and his friends drove out to the secluded spot, parked and got out of the vehicle. It was shortly after that that Davis witnessed a glass bottle fly through the air in front of him and shatter on the ground.
Without any feasible reason for it to happen, Davis said he went in search of who threw it, but found nothing in the dark, besides himself and those he went with.
“I got really interested in it after (that),” he said.
Now before each investigation, the group researches where they are going, so they understand the history of the building. That information is privileged, to a point. Donna Condoluci and fellow psychic, Debbie Pritt, are not given the information before going into an investigation — what they call “going in cold.”
“They try not to tell us about it,” she said.
Both psychics were born with the gift, they said, and have paid attention to their natural abilities. While Pritt can see spirits, Condoluci cannot, because her specialties lie in another area.
“She sees them. I feel them and hear them,” said Condoluci, relating a story about the spirit of a child who followed her around an investigation one night, clinging to her jacket. Though she could not see the child’s ghost, Condoluci could feel the tugging and Pritt was able to give a full description of the little spirit.
“My grandmother was psychic, and so was my father, though he wouldn’t admit it,” Pritt said. “(Donna and I) feed off each other.”
Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.
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