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Ghost hunters eye Triangle home housing tombstones

TRIANGLE, Va.—More answers have surfaced in the case of two mysterious tombstones found inside a Triangle home Wednesday.

Sarah Bolton said Thursday she found two headstones in a tool shed outside the home shortly after moving in last April. She and her then boyfriend moved them to the basement “out of respect.”

They told no one about the stones and moved out in December.

Just before noon Wednesday, the stone slabs were found by a man and woman who were helping to ready the home for the rental market.

The tombstones bear the names Mary J. Fitton, alive between 1880 and 1935, and David M. Ingram, alive between 1957 and 1980. Both were processed as evidence and are now stored at a Woodbridge police station.

Edward Grogg, who found the slabs, notified police on the advice of his landlord, Elliot Diamond.

A check of local records uncovered information that Fitton and Ingram could be buried somewhere in Alexandria. A Prince William historian said most times when headstones are found in the county they were either moved or stolen from a grave site, or replaced after they showed signs of age.

As police search for the rightful owners of the headstones, some of the eerie stories about the house still go unexplained. The house is now getting the attention of local paranormal investigators.

Bolton said she moved into the house about a year ago, and while she never saw a ghost, she said her boyfriend saw an apparition of a large woman in a dress. She also said her children regularly heard noises that kept them up at night.

“The kids would say that they heard things like footsteps walking around, but I just chalked it up to being an old house and creaking floors,” said Bolton.

Grogg said he, too, had a strange account inside the house, on Sunday. After shutting off the power to the house so he could do electrical work, Grogg, who lives next door, said he and his roommate saw a single light bulb unexplainably burning in the kitchen. Tenants who lived in the house prior to Bolton both left because they heard sounds of slamming doors and footsteps where no one was walking, added Grogg.

The stories perked the ears of two local ghost hunters.

Kenneth McLein and Jessica Lovegrove are a newly formed team of paranormal investigators. Their group, Virginia Paranormal Organization of Research, or VAPOR, uses night vision goggles, meters to measure electromagnetic waves and recording devices to measure what has widely become known as Electronic Voice Phenomena.

Lovegrove used the tools last year during a ghost hunt at Dumfries’ Weems-Botts Museum. The search yielded an EVP of voices that said “Hello,” “Is anybody out there?” and “Get out.”

They are now waiting to hear back from Diamond for permission to investigate his home.

During the day, Lovegrove works for a major Northern Virginia healthcare provider and McLean works construction.

Searching for ghosts is a hobby for the two, but McLein said it’s important to be a skeptic.

“When you have someone on an investigation who is just really excited about the possibility of seeing a ghost then that person is most likely going to think everything they see is a ghost,” said McLein.

In addition to the Triangle house, Lovegrove and McLein hope to investigate sites at Gettysburg and at a Leesburg home later this month.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.