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Mark Higgins’ Mystery Machine is a white Chevy Trailblazer with a “Ghost Hunter” license plate holder, but we’re not blazing trails or hunting ghosts yet. Instead, we’re stuck 10 miles from Pantops Mountain on Route 231, a two-lane road that leads to Gordonsville and to one of the most “active” sites Higgins has investigated: the Exchange Hotel, a former Civil War hospital.
The line of stopped cars extends beyond a bend in the road, so we can’t see the cause of the hold-up. While we wait, we make small talk. Higgins says that paranormal is “a big hot topic right now—it’s all over the news, and there are new shows popping up on cable all the time.” I show Higgins my copy of Dennis Hauck’s Haunted Places directory, and tell him that the trailer for Paranormal Activity 2, the sequel to a 2009 horror film that banked more than $100 million domestically, was pulled from some theaters after it terrified a few Twilight fans.
Higgins hasn’t seen Twilight, but says he liked The Sixth Sense—a movie about a boy who constantly sees dead people around him. Except…
“People who have visions and can see dead people? I’m a little skeptical about that, a little bit on the fence about that,” says Higgins. He adds that he’s seen “strange stuff” during investigations, including what he calls “shadow figures,” but never a dead person.
We’re nearing the bend in the road, but still can’t see the source of the delay. After a few more minutes, Higgins calls ahead to our tour guide, Tim Burnett, president of Historic Gordonsville, Inc., to let him know we may arrive later than planned.
“You know, I don’t believe in coincidence anymore,” says Higgins when he hangs up. “I really don’t.” Cars ahead of us start to turn away from Gordonsville and what waits beyond the bend, and the Mystery Machine lurches slowly forward.After 45 minutes, we finally see the accident. A tan car sits in the lane opposite ours, with its nose caved in and its insides empty. And as we pass—call it a coincidence, if you believe in that sort of thing—the song playing on Higgins’ radio is Billy Ocean’s No. 1 single, “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car.”
Higgins turns his head towards me—his large, St. Bernard eyes peer from beneath his black cap—then towards Robin Macklin, my photographer. “Do you guys believe in coincidences?” he asks.
Twenty-four hours after the Washington Post published a feature story about a group called DC Metro Area Ghost Hunters, I received my first e-mail from Higgins—a letter about his own group, Spirit Search Paranormal Investigators. A film crew for A&E Biography’s “My Ghost Story” TV show [see box for show time] had visited Higgins and filmed a segment about SSPI’s work at the Exchange Hotel. Was I interested in visiting the spot? Coincidentally, yes, I was.
As we pass the car accident, the photographer turns and tries to take a photo of the wreck, but can’t snap one in time. The Mystery Machine rolls on towards Gordonsville.“I think these roadblocks and ‘Why is this happening now?’-type moments have some deeper meaning,” says Higgins. “I believe they were meant to happen, I really do.”
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