With Halloween just days away, Travel Channel is preparing to take viewers into the gates of Joe Exotic‘s Greater Wynnewood Animal Park for a two-hour paranormal investigation titled Ghost Adventures: Horror at Joe Exotic Zoo. Made famous by Netflix’s March-released Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, the park is reportedly home to “mysterious and unexplained activity” that has been experienced by staff, and Ghost Adventures star Zak Bagans admitted he felt the “presence of dark energy” throughout the investigation.
Speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the show’s Oct. 29 airdate, Bagans, who conducted the investigation alongside his crew of Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley, said that he “didn’t know what to expect” when he went into the investigation. The zoo, located in Oklahoma, was home to a number of big cats and other animals that a recent investigation found were being kept in poor conditions. It is also the property on which Exotic’s husband, Travis Maldonado, shot and killed himself. Bagans was aware of the zoo’s history prior to the investigation, as he had watched the series and had “heard all about it,” though even he wasn’t prepared for the night. According to Bagans, “as soon as we stepped foot on the property, it was the same kind of chaos and pandemonium.”
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“You definitely feel a presence of dark energy and I think it’s from what has occurred there. It was just like holy s–, this is crazy,” Bagans told the outlet of the investigation, which was briefly halted after cadaver dogs detected human remains on the property. “Some really incredible things started happening. Honestly, the whole chain of events was absolutely amazing and completely unexpected. We were all tripping out.”
Described by Travel Channel as “a beast of a case” that marks the first-ever paranormal investigation inside the Oklahoma park, Ghost Adventures: Horror at Joe Exotic Zoo includes discussions with park staff, including Erik Cowie and Allen Glover. From these interviews, Bagans said that he and his crew discovered new details about the dark history of the park, including apparitions, disembodied voices, and light anomalies. Some employees have even reported seeing the late Maldonado.
“Jeff was like, ‘You won’t believe the things that go on here,’” Bagans recalled. “Erik told me that Travis sat on his couch for two minutes days after his death. He’s like, ‘I don’t believe in ghosts. I’m a total skeptic. But I’m going to tell you right now, Travis’s spirit sat on my couch for two minutes and I was completely sober.’”
Ghost Adventures: Horror at Joe Exotic Zoo premieres on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m. ET on Travel Channel. The broadcast is part of the network’s “Ghostober” Halloween schedule, which can be viewed by clicking here.
