2022 Memorial Day Issue

Investigators Nicole Kries, Joe Cahill and Jacki Hangley
in the original kitchen at the Lotta Crabtree house.
Margaret
Miller sets
up a device
to record
static noise or
background
noise at the
Lotta Crabtree
house.
Eleanor Wagner on the porch of an old house at
Waterloo Village.
More Than
a Feeling
When Bob and Sherry O’Donnell purchased
the Lotta Crabtree House in the Breslin
section of Mount Arlington in 1987, the couple
had no idea the summer cottage of the famous
19th century actress would come complete with
invisible roommates eager for company.
“I would see people walking down the hall—
women in long white dresses,” said Sherry. “There
was a rocking chair on the top floor, and I kept
seeing this much older woman rocking up there.”
Meanwhile, her husband, who owns a
contracting business with her, noticed things
happening right away. “He would be working
and put his hammer down, turn around and then
the hammer would be gone,” said Sherry. During
their three-year renovation of the home, “he had
tools taken all the time,” she said.
This is where Eleanor Wagner, a paranormal
investigator from Wantage, comes in. The
paranormal investigator, author, podcaster and
self-identified empath has been answering calls
from the other side for more than a decade.
14
Story by ELLEN WILKOWE
Photos by KAREN FUCITO
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Memorial Day 2022
On Friday the 13th in May, Wagner
and a group of fellow paranormal
investigators went to the home to connect
with the spirits that have co-existed with
Sherry and Bob O’Donnell for the past
32 years as they raised their three children
in the historic home.
Before they began exploring the house,
the investigating team put some ground
rules in place. Specifically, the team
did not want to hear about any of the
paranormal moments the O’Donnell
family had experienced until after the
investigation was complete.
Wagner and her team toured the expansive
three-level house, starting with the first two floors,
before descending to the basement. Maze-like in
design, the basement, with its thick stone and
brick walls, had been partitioned into several
rooms. What was the original kitchen was now a
workshop, and a room used as a workout space
featured a bar and paintings directly painted onto
the walls.
“This is my gym, as you can see,” Bob said,
gesturing to fitness equipment.
The investigating team meandered throughout
the house unimpeded, taking notes and using
devices to record sounds or detect changes in light
and temperature. Two spaces proved “very active”
to the group: a small unremarkable room in the
basement and a room on the third floor.
After almost two hours, Wagner and her team
assembled in the living room of the main floor.
There, Margaret Miller, a Rockaway resident with
clairvoyant visions, invited family members to ask
the spirits questions. Along with Sherry and Bob,
their two adult daughters—Brianna Boehm and
Amanda Braico—were in attendance, as well as
Braico’s husband, Dan.
Miller set up a recorder to pick up on any
electronic voice phenomena. EVPs are described
as sounds such as static or background noises that
are found on recordings. Such sounds are said to
be the voices of spirits.
“EVPs are the best form of evidence,” Wagner
added.
Initiating the question-andanswer
session, Miller spoke directly
to Lotta, asking everyone present to stay silent.
“Lotta, what was your favorite dance?” Miller
asked.
Silence. Others asked questions.
“Are you here, Jimmy?” asked Sherry, about her
deceased brother who had lived in the house for
about six months. Silence again.
Before long, the conversation switched to the
activities the group had detected during their
investigations.
Spiritual healer and medium Mike Hangley of
Hopatcong said he experienced “bad mojo” in a
specific area of the basement. Hangley’s wife and
psychic medium, Jacki, “sensed that someone was
hurt” in that area.
Bob O’Donnell explained that during
renovation of the house, when that spot was being
prepped for a concrete floor, a stone arch was
discovered, indicating the start of a tunnel. His
crew at the time wanted to keep digging to see
where it led, but O’Donnell had a “bad feeling”
about what was there and stopped them from
continuing.
Jacki Hangley also sensed a dog—she thought
it was a golden retriever with a name that began
with an ‘M’—throughout the house. Daughter
Boehm confirmed the last dog that lived in the
home was a golden retriever named Madison.
Medium Nicole Kries of Washington Borough
shared her experience as she entered a third-floor
room with a rocking chair next to the window.
“The room makes me want to cry,” she said.
Sherry confirmed this is the room—and rocking
chair—where there have been many sightings of
an elderly woman sitting, looking out the window.
A previous owner of the house let the family
nanny live out her days in that room, said Sherry.
Growing up with a spirit in the house was
something Wagner could relate to. A Bronx
native, she had a spirit visit her every night in the
home she grew up in. “I was frightened because I
was a kid,” she said. “I actually want to go back
now and apologize [to the spirit].”
In addition to the visiting spirit, Wagner
experienced childhood premonitions, what she
describes as “little things I knew that were going