From left, Paranormal investigators Chip Gillock, a senior from Franklin, and Patrick Merry, a former Western student from St. Louis, explore an abandoned home off of Louisville Road on Saturday night in search of paranormal activity. BRENDAN SULLIVAN/HERALD

The abandoned, dilapidated house stood alone against the jet black sky. Its crumbling chimney, stained walls and stairwell were torn out a long time ago, but there’s no known record of how or why. Two faint white flashlight beams pitter-pattered across the battered facade around midnight.

For the paranormal investigators of the Kentucky Paranormal Underground, this was just a regular Saturday night.

The KPU was co-founded by its five members about seven months ago. The group was created because members wanted to see if they could prove or disprove paranormal activity, Franklin senior Chip Gillock said.

Gillock and former Western student Patrick Merry, from St. Louis, investigated an old house on Old Louisville Road for any paranormal activity Saturday night.

Group members Lexi Mewhorter, a Vine Grove freshman, and former Western student Erica McGuire, from Aurora, Ill., decided not to go into the house to investigate because they said they were getting bad feelings about being there.

While they were in the car, they said they had visions about what happened to the old inhabitants.

“I closed my eyes and had a vision about what happened at the house,” McGuire said. “I could see a man hanging in a barn. He killed all three of the inhabitants of the house and then killed himself.”

Mewhorter, a junior investigator, said she also sensed the man in the barn and two dark entities in the house. She said she also saw a dark figure hanging out of the upstairs window.

Mewhorter recently joined in on the group’s investigations after she expressed some interest to Gillock at a Pagan Student Union meeting.

She said she’s been interested in spiritual activity since she was about 5 years old.

“When I was really little I used to see glimpses of things,” Mewhorter said. “I was always kind of curious of what it was.”

The majority of the other members have a similar connection. They have experienced paranormal phenomena since they were young and are fascinated with those experiences.

Gillock and Merry carefully picked their way through the rubble of insulation, door frames and shattered glass while attempting to contact spirits.

“If there is anyone here who would like to be on our video, please feel free to walk in front of my camera or say something,” Gillock said. “Feel free to rattle something or slam a door so that we may acknowledge your existence.”

He said he doesn’t know any professional paranormal investigators in the area who could help the group confirm some of their findings, but they would ask professionals for advice if given the chance.

Gillock said he was afraid to walk past the stairs when investigating on the upstairs floor because he felt like something would push him.

Merry said he heard from friends a while ago that this house was haunted, so he wanted to check it out for himself.

McGuire said she’s also been to the house several times, but she hasn’t been able to make herself go inside.

“Something would just not allow me to set foot in it,” she said. “My legs just turn into cement.”

The group has been on about 40 outings since they started. They’ve investigated local places including Horse Cave, Reservoir Hill, Cherry Hall, Helm-Cravens Library, the Kissing Bridge and the Riverwalk bridge on Old Louisville Road.

They said they came in contact with spirits at Cherry Hall, the Kissing Bridge and Reservoir Hill.

McGuire said they try to take a scientific approach when they investigate. Before they take photos outside on an outing, they test the pollen count and check the weather.

McGuire said paranormal investigation findings do scare her sometimes, but that’s what intrigues her. She said she has premonitions and can sense residual and active energy.

Residual energy comes from a spirit that has had something traumatic happen to them or are attached to a certain place or thing, McGuire said. Active energy comes from spirits that roam free, she said.

“They know that I am different from other people, and they say ‘Hey, look at me,’” she said. “But it’s like, ‘Dude, leave me alone.’”

Paranormal investigator Chip Gillock, a senior from Franklin, looks over an abandoned home off of Louisville Road on Saturday night in search of paranormal activity. BRENDAN SULLIVAN/HERALD