Ghost Nation

Next on "Ghost Nation"...

I woke up abruptly,

feeling a forceful strike across my face,

but then it got worse.

My grandmother used to practice Santería.

There are lots of sightings of a little girl.

Is that you?

Did he have any children?

I understand he did. He had a daughter.

Do you recall her name?

Gertrude, I think?

Gertrude Squire, are you here?

Was this your house? Have you lived here?

- That was a voice. - That was a voice.

There is something else in this house.

Make some sort of a noise. Let us know you're here with us.

I'm right beside you.

We are a community of searchers.

This family is under attack.

We are...

..."Ghost Nation."

Welcome to the coast of Rhode Island

or as I like to call it, my backyard.

Today, my daughter and I

are spending a little quality time together.

Satori and her team are new to the ghost nation,

but when she needs help with a case,

well, that's what dads are for.

How much do you know about Santería?

- You know a lot. - I know quite a bit.

Slaves were brought over to Cuba,

and their religion mixed with Catholicism.

In different rituals, they use animal blood.

They may use human bones. Why?

My team is investigating this case in Franklin, Massachusetts.

It's a family, a fairly large family and...

Are they involved in Santería?

The mother is worried that maybe the grandmother

practicing it has kind of come back to bite the family,

so they're a little shaken up.

While Santería is a widely practiced religion,

the fringe followers engage in dangerous rituals.

They're known to have their heads shaved and cut

so that sacred substances can be placed in the wounds,

which causes them to fall into a trance.

I've been involved in cases where spirits have been summoned

to this world and refuse to leave.

Now, have you witnessed anything in the house?

- Have you seen anything? - Many things in this house.

We caught an EVP that does sound like a female.

To me and the team it does sound like "Where are you?"

So I can play it again, if you want to hear it.

Yeah, turn it up.

And it does sound female to me.

Well, it's definitely a female voice.

You can hear the cadence in it.

Personally, I have seen in the house an apparition.

While I was investigating, I saw it.

It looked like a feminine figure.

I'm hoping you could come into this house

and maybe give the family a better understanding

of what's going on in their home.

Cases involving Santería

can be tricky and difficult to solve,

and Satori is a novice paranormal investigator,

and I don't want my daughter getting in over her head.

I'll let Steve and Dave know.

We'll come up, help you guys

and try to figure out what's happening.

- Let's do it. - Awesome.

Since launching the United Paranormal

Research Organization,

Steve, Dave, and I are responding

to the most urgent cases

from across the ghost nation family,

but this time it's my real family that needs our help.

Satori's got prom this week. This Friday.

- It's this week? - Yeah, it's my last prom.

- What! - Tori, you were in diapers, I think, when I met you.

Holy cow. I can't believe how old I am.

Yeah, you're an old man, Gonsalves, old man.

- Not like Tango and me. - That's right.

- Young bucks? - That's it, man.

You know it.

Here we got Squire Street.

Satori says the practice of Santería

could be at the center of this case.

If that's true,

we need to figure out how and why

and help this family understand who...

- Hi. - Hi, guys.

...or what is haunting their house.

Come on in.

We've heard about a lot of the experiences

you all have had.

Are you guys fearful of what's going on here?

I am fearful.

What's messing with my kid that I can't see?

It's hard to protect them from something

you can't even prove is there. - Yeah.

This is our dream home.

We moved in here in August of 2016.

We noticed fairly quickly that things weren't quite right.

We've heard our door open on its own.

It was unnerving.

It's one of those things that really grabs you,

you know, the hair on the back of your neck spikes up.

But then it got worse.

The paranormal activity seemed to have spiked

when my grandmother was here visiting.

She used to practice Santería.

It's a religion that she learned while she was in Cuba.

It is the praying and the worshiping of saints,

but Santería is sometimes associated

with the practice of sacrificing animals,

placing curses on people,

and it's possible that opening herself up to spirits,

there might've been some negative energy attached to her.

She saw a little girl swinging on the pillars

in front of our house.

She also saw a little girl on the staircase.

Things in the house continued to escalate.

Some strange things started happening in my daughter,

Lily's, room.

She is tormented by something at night.

This is no ordinary bad dream. It's terrifying.

It's as though she's fighting something off.

I had an experience. Janelle and I were sleeping.

I woke up abruptly,

feeling a forceful strike across my face.

My son, Nicolai, who is only 3 years old, from his room,

I heard "Daddy."

Daddy, daddy...

I opened up his door, and toy train sets start to go off.

But I feel like the room in our house

that has the most activity is unquestionably my daughter,

Ayla's, room.

We've heard knocking.

We've heard footsteps.

We started hearing the voice of a little girl calling for mom.

Mommy. Mommy.

I know my own children's voices, and this was not one of theirs.

My biggest concern is whether or not there's something here

that is messing with my family.

It's terrifying for us.

I want my family to be safe,

and I want to know what's going on in my house.

Do you think your grandmother

may have practiced Santería in your house?

Yeah.

The energy in the house felt off after we brought my grandmother.

Now, I understand that you have something from your grandmother?

I do. She gave this to me.

It's about 13 years old, almost.

So if there is something here

that doesn't like her grandmother,

they may be threatened by that gesture of love,

and us having it could be kind of valuable.

Now, your children have seen things through

their time here, correct?

My youngest boy.

Has he been able to express that at all?

There was an instance where Nico was pointing outside to the yard

and I think he thought it was Ayla,

but the girls weren't here.

I actually recorded that with my phone.

- Do you see her? - Yeah.

And your daughters weren't here at that point, okay.

You guys okay?

I don't want anything messing with my kid.

We're gonna do our best.

We're gonna do everything we can to help you out

and try to figure out what's truly going on here.

- Thank you. - We appreciate it.

Yep.

Janelle and Jonathan are entrusting their house to us

for the next week.

By the time they return, we will have answers for them

and hopefully give them some peace of mind.

- Pan to the right. - Okay.

Cody, from Satori's paranormal investigation team,

is joining us tonight.

All right, Cody, I got your power.

He's a tech wiz and will be a big help

setting up equipment and going through evidence.

System initializing.

Now we have the backyard.

And we can see all the way back to the fence.

Run one covering the porch, too.

Perfect.

Because we have the two bedrooms and then we have the basement,

second floor, and then the stairs.

Anything that walks anywhere near that staircase

or by the basement you'll see.

I think this laser grid, the GS2, will be valuable.

It's nice because it's picking up the direction,

where it's coming from

if anything starts walking up the stairs.

- Is that it? - Yeah, six cameras rolling.

Six cameras going.