ELLENTON -- It was well after midnight when the three figures walked into the mansion's musty-smelling master bedroom.

Standing in almost complete darkness, they pointed digital recorders, cameras and a thermal imager at an antique four-poster bed where sugar plantation owners and an on-the-run Confederate leader once slept.

"Can you tell us, did you die here? Can you let us know you're here?"

The only response was the chirp of crickets and the distant hum of traffic.

Lured by tales of a ghostly woman in a brown dress, a group of local paranormal investigators recently spent the night in the 160-year-old Gamble Mansion in Ellenton trying to capture proof of a world beyond this one.

Formed in December, Palmetto-based Gulf Coast Paranormal, or GCP, has already conducted investigations at the Powel Crosley Estate and the Gator Club on Sarasota's Main Street. Later this month, members plan to spend the night at the Golden Apple Theater in Sarasota looking into reports of sightings of three apparitions and a ghostly dog.

"It's what I've been thinking about all my life," said Rob Fennessy, a 34-year-old firefighter who heads the group. "I want to find the answer. Do we extend forever? Does our energy go on?"

Reaching out to the other side

Who you gonna call?

Dressed in blue T-shirts with the group's name, 11 members of GCP gathered at Gamble Mansion on a recent hot and humid Friday evening.

The group includes a pest control officer, a payroll/benefits coordinator, a retired EMS chief and a grocery store worker.

Tina Jordan, a medical company manager, has been interested in the paranormal since she was 13. She reads Tarot cards and is a believer in Wicca, a religion that celebrates nature.

Jordan said she has seen several ghosts. She describes herself as a "high sensitive," meaning she can sense the presence of the paranormal.

"I think I inherited that from my mother's side of the family," she said.

GCP does not charge for investigations. For some of the sites it has looked into, including the the Gamble Mansion, it asked for permission to hold an investigation.

When GCP does get calls from people, Fennessy said, they are not seeking to rid their home or business of a ghost, but are seeking answers: Is what they are experiencing real and is it natural?

Eerie Indiana

The house where Fennessy lived in Indiana was full of unexplained noises. The attic door would open and close by itself. Ceiling tiles would lift as if someone were looking at him.

Ghostly or not, it was enough to hook Fennessy. As a teenager he would snoop around supposedly haunted houses and cemeteries with Super-8 cameras.

Since then, he has completed online courses run by Flamel College in paranormal investigation. He has spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours reading, researching and stalking spooks.

His belief is that paranormal phenomena is the leftover energy from people's lives. If someone has walked down the same corridor at the same time every day for years, why would there not be some vestige of their energy repeating that routine, he said.

"It's residual energy, like a movie being played over and over," he said.

Proof required

A well-told ghost story may be convincing, but in the world of paranormal investigation, evidence is everything.

That means technology.

Setting up for the investigation takes GCP the best part of two hours. Display monitors and computers are set up in the back of an SUV that doubles as the group's control center.

From there, cables are run into the mansion and connected to infrared cameras mounted on tripods.

GCP members detailed to go inside are laden down with digital sound recorders, camcorders, walkie-talkies, cameras and a hand-held device that measures changes in the Earth's magnetic field.

Some of the group also carried thermometers, barometers and a thermal imager, a device that detects heat.

Ghost hunting is an expensive pastime. Infrared cameras can cost several hundred dollars. Electromagnetic meters range from $40 to $200.

The thermal imager the group is using is borrowed. Buying it new would cost about $20,000. Much of the other equipment has been purchased by Fennessy.

The group posts results of its investigations on its Web site. It may share data with other groups but stays clear of Web sites like theshadowlands.net that claim to list haunted places in Florida.

"Nobody is going to believe us unless we have proof, and then we need multiple versions of it," Fennessy said.

No answer

Outside the Gamble Mansion, Fennessy gave members final instructions: Stay in your teams, do not be alone. If one person gets scared beyond what he or she is comfortable with, the whole team should leave. Nobody gets left behind.

The three teams split up covering the first floor, the second and the grounds of the mansion.

Sitting in an SUV outside, Roxanne Morse and Bobbie Hankie, Fennessy's mother, monitor the images coming from the infrared cameras and the thermal imagers.

"Base temperature is 82 degrees. We're on the second floor in the northwest bedroom," one member relayed to the pair through his walkie-talkie.

As they go from room to room, team members voice questions into the darkness trying to provoke a response. Do you want to speak to us? Can you make it colder? Can you move this rocking chair?

All the while, they take camcorder footage and photographs. Hands hold up electromagnetic meters checking for changes.

Brian Schlotterback said he saw a figure on the property. An unexplained orb of light has been captured on one infrared camera.

But the consensus is that it has been a disappointing night. At about 2:30 in the morning, the team calls it a night and packs up.

GCP's report will state that the Gamble Mansion is not haunted. Fennessy is already thinking about the group's next investigation.

"Something is written inside me that I need to find answers to things we can't explain," he said. "This stuff is so fascinating; even if you don't believe, you have to look."