The stars of World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum spoke to PopCulture.com ahead of the premiere, revealing which encounters stuck with them after their investigation. The paranormal experts were in the haunted asylum for two weeks straight, and in that time they documented more than 100 inexplicable encounters. Some were stranger than others, however, and only a few still haunt them — pun intended.
Ghost hunters Zak Heino and Max Baumle spoke to PopCulture.com before Wednesday’s premiere of their special on A&E. The duo takes a more scientific approach to paranormal investigation, utilizing the latest technology and triple-checked methods. Still, even they are susceptible to the creeps, especially on the grounds of the infamous Pennhurst Asylum.
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“One thing that still bugs me today is the static field sensor,” Baumle said. “Especially when we had it out in the playground. There was no reason that should have reacted the way it did, sitting in wet grass, dewy grass, and a humid environment.”
Baumle was referring to one of the last nights he and the other investigators went out ghost hunting. His sensors picked up on static activity around the abandoned playground at Pennhurst, leading him to a secluded nook up against a brick wall. It was exactly the kind of place a child might have hidden while the asylum was in use, and Baumle noted that there was nothing else to infere with the sensors.
“The fact that we got a hit on that, at the same time we’ve got hits everywhere else still puzzles me,” he said.
“I think it’s interesting too, like if you have a Faraday cage around it, I mean you’re essentially getting rid of all possibility and having static interference,” Heino added.
Heino himself identified his biggest moment from the investigation as the night his SLS camera picked up a clear humanoid figure in the bathroom inside of the asylum. His equipment showed motion in a human-like pattern inside the shower stall of one locker room, and the microphone even picked up the sounds of running water, despite the shower being out of commission.
“For me it was definitely seeing a figure on the SLS in the bathroom,” he said, “and not only capturing that but also listening to the noises or sound of, like, a shower. Like that’s the kind of stuff that really intrigues me because it’s not just one piece, it’s like, a corroboration of evidence that comes together.”
Later on, Heino and Baumle also discussed the instance where Baumle recorded a strange shadowy figure moving across the hallway in an empty part of the asylum. They admitted that there is still no explanation for that apparition, but they have conclusively confirmed that there were no people nearby to cast the shadow.
“As of now, I don’t have an explanation for that figure, and that makes me happy,” Baumle said. “I feel like if we were to have known exactly what was there while we were there — that would have frightened us even more. Seeing that, that still stumps me.”
“That’s probably one of the best pieces of actual evidence we had,” Heino agreed.
World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum premiered on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. ET on A&E.
