In the cornfields of Russiaville Indiana there lingers a building far beyond disrepair; a building breaking the horizon in protest, fighting the threat of being lost and forgotten. This silent statement, this quiet silhouette in the distance is all that remains of this former church and graveyard.

The Background:

An old boarded up church outside of Russiaville has been dubbed "Satan Church." Aside this infamous church, there lies a graveyard where much paranormal activity has been reported over the years. Everything from red glowing eyes to heavy shapeless mist, orbs, growling, disembodied voices and laughter is rumored to happen in this very spot.

Various accounts of people interviewed report the church being used for satanic rituals or cult-like rites. They also tell of a church which has been destroyed by fire, or rebuilt, or renovated. Almost every person had a varying tale, completely different from the next, except for one prevailing fact: this place was haunted.

Our Investigation:

As usual, there were a lot of contradicting facts in regard to this place. It's listed as existing in two different towns and 3 different counties. Every account, however, mentioned this place being in the middle of nowhere… a cornfield completely absent of human contact. They were right. Even with precise longitude/latitude coordinates and a state of the art GPS system, we still had trouble finding this place. It quite literally is in the middle of nowhere. This may be one of the reasons it's reputed to not exist anymore. Had we not been looking in the right direction at precisely the right time, we would have never seen it at all.

A small sign and glimpse of the church are the only designators.

Actually driving up to this building and giving it an initial once-over, it certainly doesn't seem impressive or especially scary. Appearances, however, can be truly deceiving. This place is no exception. We arrived and began collecting data and rolling tape, completely oblivious to what lie in store.

We took a stroll through the elusive graveyard while waiting for night to set in so we could begin. This was the extent of our activity in the graveyard, as we tend to stay away from them. Aside from it being terribly cliché to investigate a graveyard, we also feel it's disrespectful to the families of the departed. We did note that there were many toppled graves and markers, some crumbling with age, dating back to the late 1700's.

The Results:

First of all, wow. This was one of the most active places we've been to by far. We safely report that we were blown away by the evidence we gathered. Never have we been confronted by so much in such a short amount of time. Not only that, but this evidence is so pristine, I would be more inclined to call it proof. Proof of what, we're not sure, but here's what we have:

1.) Instrument readings – No major hits on our EMF or gaussmeter. A little play in the mid ranges in the basement on initial sweep, but out real activity was on the Geiger counter. That thing was registering spikes and dips unlike anything I've ever seen. Granted, it's always been a little sensitive to movement, but these hits were baffling. At one point, our meter threatened to max out its range or measure. This was truly odd.

2.) Unexplained shadow movement – Usually we decline to mention any tricks of the light as they are so commonly explained and debunked. This however, is different. The shadow apparently moved from the graveyard at a high rate of speed and turned on a 90 degree angle, and into a window of the church. Coincidently, the time noted at the sighting was precisely the same time big activity which will be discussed below started taking place.

3.) EVPs (non responsive and responsive) – While there was a great deal recorded, it was mainly incoherent babble that we were unable to make out. There were very obviously two voices present; that of a soft spoken female and one very irate man.

The female voice was largely evasive and only projected a distinguishable answer once, in response to a question. In retrospect, the voice almost seemed intimidated.

The man however, was quite the opposite. I won't mince words with this… he wanted us out. The EVP we captured from him was so blatant and clear, the recordings could be understood perfectly even over speakers during a phone conference. These two EVPs (he repeated himself, louder) were stunning. Never in all our experience have we come across something so vivid and definite. We don't even feel it necessary to follow protocol by not mentioning what we think he said. There is no way his message could be misunderstood. My hands start to sweat even now, as I type about the memory of what we gathered.

4.) Phantom sounds – During our EVP session in the upstairs room, we recorded a quick, sharp clap on the opposite side of the chamber. Two strikes of the hand, in mild succession, can be heard between questions asked by Craig and will be made available on the website soon. Footsteps and echoes were also detected, but ruled out due to obvious reasons; we were walking around and could easily duplicate the sound heard with our own feet. As such, we couldn't consider them as evidence.

5.) Poltergeist-like interaction – Possibly the most exciting of all data collected were our poltergeist action. Very rarely do you ever hear of a genuine action committed by something unseen and have it stand the scrutiny of science. This is a prefect example of such. In the basement, Craig and Jim were collecting more EVP when from the corner of the dark room, a single note resonated from the strings of a dismantled piano, whose parts lie up against the cement wall.

Upon hearing this, they immediately walked over to the guts of the instrument and inspected it for a possible explanation, but came back empty handed. There were no animals present, nor droppings that would indicate the presence of an animal any time in recent history. The ceiling was solid and showed no signs of falling objects. The noise was truly unexplainable. What's more, as the EVP session by the piano continued with a new line of questioning and pictures started being taken, the whole pile of wood and metal moved again… this time vibrating and slightly shaking. With a loud crash in the background, the session promptly ended and the basement was vacated.

The Conclusion:

While we're normally reserved in our opinion, we as a collective whole have no problems whatsoever with outright saying that this place is legitimately haunted. Never in all our experience have we come across such blatant evidence or activity. We will proudly associate our name, reputation and group's credibility next to these statements. This building that is located in the middle of the cornfield, threatening to sink into the sands of time is without a doubt, haunted.

You can view all of the photos and EVP's for this investigation in our Satan Church Gallery

If you just wish to hear the EVP's feel free to utilize the media clips below:

     

A Spirit Is Telling Our Team Member To "Get Out".
This one sent chills down all of our spines due to the sheer clarity and quality of the recording.

     

The Spirit Tells Him Once Again To "Get Out".
You'll hear a more noticeable aggravation to his voice this time as well.

     

You'll hear Craig ask a question and then a reverberating noise echoes out...
Upon further inspection there was a old-time piano/harp musical instrument laying
against the wall next to him. Did the spirit pluck it? We think so.

Also, for the record, we discounted the fact that it could be a broken string by the way
it held the tone for as long as it did, unlike the sound of a snapping string.

     

WARNING!!! - Strong Language Included

We all know it's never good to use bad language... especially not when you're looking for
credibility. However, we decided as a team to leave Craig's response to the vibrating
piano/harp unfiltered on this audio clip because it gives you a true sense of
the tension in the air when it all happened. Paranormal activity like this doesn't just show up
every day.So please use caution when playing the clip as it's not safe for work nor children.