Investigation Report
Date: May 16th, 2009
The Elms Hotel and Spa – Excelsior Springs, Missouri
Investigators Present: Rob G., Wes, James and Susan Presnell from Kansas City Paranormal Studies and
Josh Roudebush from Kansas City Paranormal Research.
The Layout
The Elms Hotel and Spa sits in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. The hotel is over 100 years old and contains multiple rooms and banquet halls. Our investigation concentrated primarily on the Al Capone room – Number 214 and on the lap pool area in the basement.
History
The history of The Elms Hotel and Spa is extensive and goes back well over 100 years. The main phenomena described to the team was detailed and scattered throughout the hotel. Room 214 and the Lap Pool area were the main areas that we decided to concentrate our investigation on since they seemed to have events with the most frequency.
Apparitions have been seen in different locations in the hallways and stairwells. The Hotel staff also showed us a photograph that a guest had taken with a face reflected from a television with the power turned off.
The lap pool area was once a speakeasy and gambling den. It is said that sounds from a party and apparitions have been seen in this location.
The Investigation
We decided to conduct this investigation by setting up our DVR system in Room 214 and also by monitoring the two rooms in the suite with audio. An UV floodlight was used in the bedroom section of 214 in order to enhance the visual clarity of the DVR.
James and Susan Presnell set up they’re environmental monitoring equipment in the lap pool area. Two Hi-8 cameras were also set up in this room pointing to the two different sides.
Wes stayed in Room 214 to help monitor that location and they rest of the team decided to work in the lap pool area.
The lap pool area registered at 100% humidity which played havoc with the team and with the equipment. We had to work in short stints while in this area due to the high humidity levels.
Once we had worked in the two locations for some time, we decided to move throughout the hotel and document as many areas as possible. There was a large wedding reception the night of the investigation so there were guests spread throughout the hotel well into the morning hours.
The Evidence
Unfortunately, we were unable to find any evidence that we would consider paranormal.
While there was some audio taken from Room 214, we cannot conclusively rule out the other guests and or the televisions from the other guest rooms.
No video or photographs were found to contain anything out of the ordinary.
We have posted a photo gallery on the website from our investigation.
The Team Consensus
With the amount of stories and first hand experiences that we were told and from the experiences of other groups that we are associated with, we believe that there is some level of activity at The Elms Hotel and Spa.
We as a group were unable to capture any of it on the night we were there. Our hope is to return sometime in the future and try another investigation.
Photos
