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But on a night in July, someone in the kitchen apparently wanted Bridget Gallagher dead.
Gallagher, co-founder of The East Coast Anomaly Investigators, was posing questions in the kitchen that night, hoping to evoke reactions from the ghosts reputed to haunt the historic mansion. Although nothing unusual occurred at the time, a playback of a digital recording reveals a voice hissing "kill her" in the background.
"That doesn't stop me. It doesn't stop me at all," Gallagher said Sunday. "But I don't think they like me down there."
The cranky ghost in the kitchen was certainly one of the more unsettling experiences recorded during the TECAI team's two visits to the mansion.
But it's by no means the only strange encounter. Many of the team's experiences were shared with more than 100 curious patrons in the Rock Ford barn Sunday during TECAI's Paranormal Reveal.
Rock Ford, the home of Revolutionary War General Edward Hand, is "probably the most complete Georgian-style home in America," Rock Ford board member Ray Bradley said Sunday.
"But the house has a reputation," he said. "It has been considered haunted for 200 years."
Its reputation dates to 1807, when Hand's son John committed suicide in the house, Bradley said. John is, however, only one of the people who have died there.
Gallagher and TECAI co-founder Wendy Brown began Sunday with a slide show including photographs of the site, examples of spirit photography from other places the team has studied and a primer of terms used in paranormal investigations.
They also showed their equipment, which includes electromagnetic field sensors, digital audio and infrared video recorders.
Then there were pictures. One, taken through a window from outside, appears to show a woman in 18th-century clothing. No one, Gallagher said, was in the house when the picture was taken.
A series of three photos shows a white mist forming, then dissipating in one of the upstairs rooms.
But the strongest evidence came when the team rolled out its collection of electronic voice phenomena — recordings made at half speed and played back later to indicate all kinds of activity in the house.
Some are indistinct, such as the "kill her" clip and a segment that investigators believe was Frank, a runaway slave, singing in the kitchen.
Others are clear as a bell.
"I think I see … get out now," an unidentified woman is heard saying. A child sings "la la la" in the distance. At one point, Gallagher remarks that music from a nearby wedding is "not what you're used to hearing." A woman distinctly replies, "That's what I thought earlier."
On another clip, a child plaintively cries, "I want my mama."
"That gives me goosebumps every time I hear it," Brown said.
Very little was caught on video, she said, although a camera in an otherwise empty child's bedroom was abruptly spun around.
Gallagher said the team does not accept anything at face value.
"We try to get down to the nitty-gritty and expose what might be causing it," she said. "We always come into a place with the assumption that it's not haunted."
For instance, a camera showed a flame-like flicker in a fireplace that hasn't been used in many years, Gallagher said. Further investigation uncovered a small piece of reflective tin foil that was stuck in the chimney.
Brown said strange lights can be explained by passing car headlights or even dust and bugs in the air. Unusual sounds are often revealed to be creaks and bangs from the heating system, water pipes in the walls, even squeaky floors.
"You check it out, and nine times out of 10 you can debunk it," Brown said.
Brown said TECAI plans to return for further investigations in 2010.
"We're not finished yet," she said. "Unfortunately, you can't make a ghost perform when you want it to."
