
Between Worlds: The Story of Wyoming Valley Ghost Tours
3/19/2025 | 10m 33sVideo has Closed Captions
What happens when tragedy leads to a lifelong search for the afterlife?
After losing his siblings in a tragic Christmas morning fire, John has spent his life searching for proof of the spirit world. Now, alongside his wife Keriann, who also lost a family member, they run Wyoming Valley Ghost Tours, guiding people through haunted historic locations where guests claim to experience unexplained paranormal activity.
Short Takes is a local public television program presented by WVIA

Between Worlds: The Story of Wyoming Valley Ghost Tours
3/19/2025 | 10m 33sVideo has Closed Captions
After losing his siblings in a tragic Christmas morning fire, John has spent his life searching for proof of the spirit world. Now, alongside his wife Keriann, who also lost a family member, they run Wyoming Valley Ghost Tours, guiding people through haunted historic locations where guests claim to experience unexplained paranormal activity.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipYou're my girl, baby.
I think there's a little sense of calmness when you find out that something, you go somewhere else when we pass on.
I'm hoping to experience any signs of life after death.
Is there any particular reason why?
Because my husband died.
I'm proud of the Wyoming Valley.
I'm very proud of where I came from.
So, we wanted to blend paranormal investigating at historic locations to bring communities together, bring people together with like mind, like interests, but also support these buildings.
I decided to attend the ghost tour tonight because I'm interested in this place, the Scranton Cultural Center, and everybody tells me it's haunted, and I wanted to see it for myself.
I saw a manifestation when I was about five.
The only thing is that they weren't, they didn't have any features, but they were definitely translucent figures, but I just could not make them out.
At the time, I didn't know what they were, and I was just, it just piqued my interest.
I was never scared.
I always felt like it was something that I should have seen.
They tried to interact with me, no actual voices, but I would hear stuff with the intent to get my attention, but I never actually saw them myself.
Until I asked my mom what was going on, and I went to her and I told her, I said, there's some weird stuff that happened in the house, and she said, what are you talking about?
I told her that I see pillows off the couch.
I see these figures coming down the stairs.
They make noises to try to get my attention, and that's when she sat me down and told me about the passing of my brothers and sisters.
Oh, what's this, Daddy?
Show Daddy, show Daddy.
No, he's coming over.
He's coming over.
Show Daddy this one.
See, see, Daddy?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
See?
Is that it?
No, they're black.
I remember my mom telling me the story where she was always trying to get my brothers and sisters to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, or Santa Claus would skip the house.
My mom told me that my sister would always want her feet to be petted.
So, my mom was petting her feet, and the next thing she knows, when she woke up at 2.10 in the morning, is there was fire and flames all around them.
My mom told me she remembers screaming, looking for them, panic, my dad running around.
My dad was severely injured trying to get to them.
Wallpaper in the house was falling off and landing on them.
They were burned, but it was too late.
The firemen pulled my parents out because they had found the children huddled in my oldest brother's bedroom together, trying to protect each other.
Not ever getting to meet my brothers or sister and having those experiences as a kid, I wanted to be able to share that with other people, ones who are unsure of what happens when you die.
So, when John first kind of introduced me to ghost hunting back in 2005, I would say that I was a little bit more reserved about it.
And then I set it up nicer after I get it all out.
My brother passed on July 18, 2015, and I would say that John and my brother actually had a little bit more in common with the paranormal than I did at first.
Her brother was her best man, and that's Carrie Ann.
So that was October 14, 2006, when we got married.
My brother and I, growing up, always kind of had a healthy skepticism and liking of the paranormal and horror, but I never really got into it.
Nobody talked about it when I was growing up.
So I would say that I'm definitely more interested and invested in it now than I was back when we first started.
My mom and dad, from the day after the fire, when they were even in the hospital, my dad would get, hit the bottom of his foot tickled.
My dad felt that a lot, really frequently, up until the day he died.
Sign your name on Tuesday, which is 12 - 16.
Thank you very much.
One of the things I would hope to experience is probably a shadow, a shadow figure, a full appearance, walking by, be pretty cool.
All right, we're going to get started tonight.
What we're going to do is we're going to go over the equipment that we have here tonight, explain the theories behind it, and then we're going to go out and use them in practice.
So during investigations, we have different roles in the investigation.
So prior to the investigations, we have different roles, and during the investigations, we have different roles.
John is the lead investigator, and I kind of am the, well, I'm not a lead, I'm not a lead.
I'm sure you are.
Sure.
But we do definitely have different roles.
So every pack has a K2 meter.
Turn this on, acclimates, zeros out.
It's at the green light on the bottom, which is a zero, okay?
That's your base.
I always like to start by just putting it down.
I never want to hold it myself.
The most interesting part, I like understanding what the equipment is, and they go into detail about that, and what each piece does, and what you can expect from it.
The reason why we offer so much equipment is just so you have the opportunity or the best opportunity to pick up on something.
So my mom, she would have these interactions, especially when she'd be washing dishes or, you know, cooking dinner, preparing for that, where she would feel the tug on her apron.
And that's what my sister would always do.
And my oldest brother, Frankie, he's the one that always interacted with my dad.
And of course, Jimmy, he was only 2 years old, so it really hadn't happened yet just because he was so young.
Whenever people come to our tours, we want everyone to walk away happy.
Obviously, if you had some form of personal experience, you had some sort of paranormal experience, that's even better.
If somebody wants to come get the pack.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Yep.
We're going to go to the dressing rooms down here.
We're going to do some EVP work there.
We'll set up some equipment.
I think it'd be a really good spot for EVPs tonight just because it's away from any other noises, and we should be isolated.
So let's sit over here on this side because it's a little bit wider.
We have some chairs that we can all sit in.
So we peek people through the lens of paranormal, right?
And then we get to go to these amazing historic locations.
And the reason why we do it at the historic locations is because they have continuous restoration programs, stuff that they need, equipment, or whatever it may be.
And it's really important for Carrie-Anne and I to give back to the community because these places are absolutely beautiful.
They're gems.
All right.
So the first thing we're going to do, when I mention the Circle of Trust, we're going to go around, we'll introduce ourselves.
Hi, my name is John.
What is your name?
Wyoming Valley Ghost Tours is very important because we are preserving the history by bringing people into these locations that they may not know anything about.
We work with a lot of historical societies, historical locations that have different activities that a lot of people don't know anything about.
And also we do a lot of other events that support local.
So I think that that's why it's very important.
No one's going to get rich off what we do, but these programs definitely help them out.
So it's really, really important, not only for them to keep their places alive, but to keep history alive.
It's important to get people out and about.
I've been to a couple of different places with these guys before, but I've never been here, and I've heard a lot about it.
I've been in the building, but I've never had an opportunity to see the different rooms.
And these are some really cool rooms that we're getting to go into that, generally speaking, the public doesn't get to see.
Why don't you light that up again for us, please?
Ah, I see how that lit up again, huh?
I wasn't skeptical when I was younger, but I've grown more skeptical as I got older just because I understand environmental impacts.
I know what could happen in a home.
I understand creaking and all that.
So not everything is paranormal, but I know for sure that they do exist.
The history of this building is incredible, and just being in here, even if there's nothing going on, is an experience.
We were sitting here, and the voice out of the thing said, look at this, and then we're like, what?
And if you look down there, you can see a reflection.
Clearly there's a reflection down there, a little bit, except for it was red.
And it looked like a little thing that went up in the air, and then it kind of blinked and turned orange, and then it faded away.
It was interesting.
Yeah.
I'm curious to hear what you had.
I know my group may have been a little bit quieter, but what I'm hearing is you had some pretty decent results.
So I'm going to start off with team one.
Could you explain what your best experience was tonight?
When Lisa did the Estes method, and it started directly answering questions, and it actually...
Even if we don't get activity, right, I always tell everybody, you're doing something way cooler than probably 99% of the people that you work with.
So when you go back to work Monday morning, you are walking an amazing historical location, searching for answers, doing your investigation.
I mean, it's just incredible.
Right, and spending time with ghost spiders.
We were told that they're... Well, if there's ghost spirits, then there's definitely ghost spiders.
So, yeah.
Take that.
All right.
Short Takes is a local public television program presented by WVIA