Local ghost hunter stars in TLC reality series
Freehold resident investigates paranormal activity in ‘Dead Tenants’
BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Ken Roginski talks about the encounters documented in The Learning Channel show, “Dead Tenants,” at his home in Freehold.
Ghost hunting is not for the casual sportsman.Ken Roginski, a Freehold resident and Preternatural Research Society (PRS) member, knows about the late nights that come with ghost chasing.
“We would be filming until 4 or 5 in the morning,” said Roginski, “because the activity in the houses increases at night, when the energy levels are stronger.”
Roginski and the rest of PRS, led by occult specialist Deryl Mitzen, help homeowners with unwanted ghost problems and other unexplainable activity. The work, alongside psychics, spiritual intuitives and other ghost chasers, is the subject of the new cable television series “Dead Tenants.”
“It’s not that we are trying to get rid of the ghosts,” said Roginski, a native of South River, Middlesex County. “We are more like social workers. We see why [the spirits] are there.”
For the homeowners who are disturbed by the ghosts, the paranormal investigators have a cleansing ritual to put the spirits at peace.
The investigation is done by psychics who sleep on cots in the home for the weekend. The psychics do not confer with one another. They rely solely on their own senses and are not even told what the family has experienced in the home.
“Information is compiled,” Roginski said, “and we have an illustrator to do drawings [of what the spirits] look like. I do research on it. We compare what they have to say, what the family has to say and what research comes about, and we validate it.”
Roginski remembers hearing a response to an inquiry one of the investigators asked inside a haunted house. “All is well,” was what Roginski heard on the tape, although the response was not audible for the investigator in the house. Once the sound was filtered to remove static, the spirit’s voice could be heard, according to Roginski.
In another case in Lambertville, the spirit of a falsely accused and executed 14-year-old black boy was put at peace by the group after they acknowledged the boy’s innocence.
Roginski also maintains the Internet Web site
www.oldhouseguy.com to inform homeowners on how to care for their old houses.
The Web site offers what Roginski calls “a quick what-to-do to make their houses look the best with the least amount of money, while at the same time preserving the character [of the home].”
Discovery Channel selected Roginski and his crew out of several other prospective groups.
“When they got together with us [last] December,” Roginski said, “they really liked how our group is very diversified. [We have a] wide variety of people, and they liked how we put it together, so they decided to do the show on us.”
Many locations in New York and New Jersey have been the sites for PRS investigations on the show, including towns like Clark, Lambertville and Brownville.
“There are houses all over the place where people have paranormal activity,” Roginski said.
A Sayreville family planned to have their house inspected for the show, but then backed out.
“You have to understand that your house is on TV, people know what is going on, your closets are being filmed, your attic, your basement. It’s not like when you clean up for company you can just hide everything in one room. So the whole house is seen by the whole production team, and a lot of people don’t want to be on TV.”
“Dead Tenants” is one season long for now, but may see a second season if ratings satisfy the network. The show has been airing Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on TLC, but a schedule change was expected.
For more information or find out more about PRS, visit the home page at
www.prsnj.org.
