San Angelo Paranormal Studies founder Darin Durden says the image of the woman in this mirror could be that of Edith Grierson, who died in 1878. (Photo courtesy Darin Durden)

Darin Durden, president of the San Angelo Paranormal Studies group, didn’t. At least, not until he moved into a new house three years ago.

“[It] started with me and a camera, and my son talking to someone we couldn’t see in our house we’re in now,” Durden says. “Shortly after I moved in, he started talking to someone we couldn’t see. He was 3. We asked him who he was talking to, and he said, ‘That man right there.’ After that started happening, my microwave started turning on by itself, like someone was pushing numbers; the light came on, plate started turning. I told my wife about it, and she said that’s crazy. And then it happened in front of her.”

That was about three years ago. Now Durden’s one-man-and-a-camera venture has turned into a 25 member-strong nonprofit. They meet the first Saturday of every month at Widdershins on East Concho. Owner Debra Hooten is also a Paranormal society member.

Durden says the group will attend this Saturday’s Texas Paranormal Society’s “Paranormal Evening in San Angelo” event at Miss Hattie’s, which boasts dinner and a ghost tour of Hattie’s. The San Angelo Paranormal Studies group isn’t affiliated with the Texas one—not yet, at least. There’s some talk of an affiliation, but the local chapter doesn’t want to change their name.

However that alliance turns out, the local paranormal society is gearing up their San Angelo hauntings offerings.

Make no mistake, says Hooten. The group is out to debunk ghost myths as much as it thrives on finding evidence of spirits and picking up disembodied voices.

“We want evidence,” Hooten says. “If someone gets touched in our group, that’s not evidence, that’s a personal experience. Pictures with orbs in them, nine times out of 10 it’s a piece of dust. But we have gotten full-body apparitions. We have gotten vortexes. We’ve gotten voices, all of us have. I got an Indian voice on my digital recorder.”

The group has equipment to track their ghosts, whether they’re investigating a supposed house haunting or a historical edifice. “We have field monitors, which monitor energy,” Hooten says. “This could indicate cross-wiring [in a house], or it could indicate a spirit manifesting. If it’s a solid high reading, we find it, we go where it is, and we know it’s wiring. If it moves and it comes and goes, then we know that it’s not. We know that it’s something else.”

The group is trying to secure a $10,000 thermal imaging camera for their research. One fundraising effort has included selling t-shirts at Widdershins.

After school is out, Hooten and Durden promise ghost tours of downtown and possibly beyond. Hooten says the tours will be historically correct.

“We’re in the old Landon Hotel, which has burned down twice,” Hooten says of her shop. “Three women, a man, and four children were killed. And I’ve experienced things in the bathroom area of my shop . . .”

Fort Concho also has a rich haunting history, though Durden says he doesn’t know whether people will want to walk there all the way from downtown during the tour.

“Fort Concho is extremely haunted,” says Hooten, who is for including Fort Concho on the tour. “It has several ghosts, including a little girl. On our last investigation we picked up roll call on our [recording devices].”

Though Durden says he doesn’t know that elder tour patrons will be able to make the trek to Fort Concho from downtown, he doesn’t deny its rich haunting history.

Durden says he and his group caught a picture of what they believe is a female reflection in some officers quarters at Fort Concho. “We believe that lady to be Edith Grierson,” Durden says. “She died of typhoid in 1878, and there’ve been numerous reports of her being seen playing in the stairwell, or that particular bedroom by several people. She was 13 years old when she died.

“[But] I can’t explain it, to us it looks like the face of a woman, and possibly [with] a bonnet on her head . . .”

The group is gearing up for more, including starting a booth in front of Widdershin’s the third Saturdays of every month to sell wares.

A San Angelo Paranormal Studies group Web site will be up soon. Until them, find them at www.myspace.com/hauntedplaces.