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Local man featured on ‘Paranormal Survivor’

WELLSBURG — John Collins said problems at his home started 11 years ago when he unearthed a grave stone in his back yard.

He said he believes his house is haunted, and so does at least one paranormal group. The issues have caught the attention of a cable TV show — for the second time.

“My daughter’s bedroom door opened and this blue, soccer ball-sized light shot from her room into my room and stopped at the foot of my bed, then just disappeared,” said Collins of one of the disturbances.

Collins was featured on Travel Channel’s “Paranormal Survivor” Sunday.

He was on another show, “My Ghost Channel,” several years ago on the Biography Channel. That show is no longer on the air.

Joining him on the show was Karlo Zuzic of the Toledo-based Ohio Researchers of Banded Spirits. Zuzic said he and five investigators — along with a Catholic priest — visited the Collins home in 2015. In the basement, Zuzic said he saw a large, black mass dart from the wall directly at the priest. They then heard a loud bang and had an uneasy feeling before they decided to get out of the basement, he said.

Collins said he first noticed strange occurrences in 2007 when he was working in his garage. The lights began to flicker, and he said there was almost a Morse Code pattern to the flickering until they turned off completely. He said he checked wiring and found nothing to explain it.

The Wellsburg man then said he thought a new fence pole he had just installed may have struck underground wiring running from the house to the garage. Collins began to dig around one of the fence poles when he struck what he thought was a large stone. He eventually had to a use a pry bar to remove it from the ground. Collins said he saw a date etched into the stone and realized he had just dug up part of an old tombstone.

Groups he sought were unable to provide answers. But Collins said a former mayor may have been on to something.

“(The former mayor) told me that prior to this area of town being named Wellsburg, it was called Lazearville,” Collins said. “He then told me that my lot was part of the original Lazearville cemetery.”

Collins said that two nights after unearthing the stone, he was lying in bed at 2 a.m. He said he heard footsteps walk from his kitchen to the laundry room and stop outside of his 9-year-old daughter’s bedroom door.

That’s when the soccer ball-sized light appeared, he said.

Around the same time the following night, Collins said he woke up hearing noises in his daughter’s room. She wasn’t in there, but it sounded like something had been dumped on the floor. When he went to check, he said he found the bag that holds his daughter’s toys lying empty on the floor. Its contents were on the bed.

Collins listed several other events he attributes to paranormal activity.

His mother has been frightened several times, including by turning doorknobs; the sound of heavy boot steps walking toward the kitchen, followed by a cold rush of wind; and the sound of a muffled voice while she was at the sink doing dishes, yet no one else was around.

In 2008, he awoke to find his dogs barking and growling at something in the living room. When he went to check, he said he felt the temperature drop and then saw a black mist form and start moving toward the door. As it passed, he heard a deep voice say something that he couldn’t make out. Collins said a feeling of uneasiness washed over him, so he headed toward his bedroom. He said when he reached the laundry room, he turned to yell for his dogs.

“As I turned around, I saw a picture frame lift off the wall, come out about 2 feet from the wall, and then fly past me to the other side of the room and shatter on the adjacent wall,” he said.

Another night, while he was lying in bed, Collins said he noticed a tall mass appear that was darker than the rest of the room. He said he closed his eyes and prayed for it to go away. Then he felt something sit at the foot of his bed, followed by something “ice cold” wrap around his ankles. Collins said he then felt something trying to pull him off of the bed.

“I had to grab my headboard and hold on,” he said. “It took all my strength to hold on from being pulled off the bed.”

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