Preparing for Ghost Hunts

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Preparing for Ghost Hunts

Thomas Hotcaveg is a co-founder RGV Paranormal Investigations, which he runs with sister Bonnie Salazar and his daughter Janie. (photo RGV Paranormal Investigations)
Thomas Hotcaveg is a co-founder RGV Paranormal Investigations, which he runs with sister Bonnie Salazar and his daughter Janie. (photo RGV Paranormal Investigations)

Thomas Hotcaveg has been seeking ghosts for about 17 years. Later this month, he hopes to make his first discoveries in Downtown Harlingen along with dozens of regular citizens who also have an interest in locating paranormal activity. 

“We are hoping maybe the founder of Harlingen will still be around,” Hotcaveg says about the upcoming ghost tour in the city. “Maybe some of the spirits from those who had businesses in the area will be there.” 

The co-founder of RGV Paranormal Investigations admits it is the first time in Harlingen seeking ghosts after looking for spirits in Brownsville quite often.

People from all over South Texas and beyond follow the nonprofit organization. Hotcaveg is a founder, along with his sister Bonnie Salazar and his daughter Janie. 

To prepare for the Downtown Harlingen Ghost Tours, the organization will perform a mock hunt to “get a feel” for where the activity might be. They are also looking for what type of spirit is around. 

“Sometimes you come across something that doesn’t want you around, so we go in there and determine that and see what we pick up,” he said. “What spirits are lingering around?” 

A new hunt

Some of the equipment RGV Paranormal Investigations uses to look for ghosts. (photo RGV Paranormal Investigations)
Some of the equipment RGV Paranormal Investigations uses to look for ghosts. (photo RGV Paranormal Investigations)

On Oct. 18 and 19, they will take groups of as many as 50 strong on a walking tour ghost hunt. They will cover Jackson Street, the city’s historical district. The tour will then end in the Downtown Harlingen building at the corner of Jackson Street and Commerce. There has already been a sense of activity in that former bank building.

Hotcaveg is certainly ready for whatever he comes across in the area.

“My most enjoyable is Fort Brown with the Confederate soldiers,” he said about the Brownsville location. “I go out there around the jail and take out a harmonica and start playing ‘Yankee Doodle’ to stir up activity. One year I did it and got kicked in the back. That was my sign to stop playing.”

Inform. Educate. Entertain. Inspire. Those are the four key components Lisa believes must be present in “the perfect story” and accomplishing that is her goal every time she sits down to write. Lisa is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years in the industry as a newspaper reporter, editor, photographer and page designer. In June of 2019, she left the Valley Morning Star after four years as its editor. During her stint at the VMS, she also created and was the editor of Valley Women Inspire, a magazine published by AIM Media Texas, owners of the Valley Morning Star, McAllen Monitor and Brownsville Herald. Originally from Southeastern Wisconsin, Seiser was the editor of a weekly newspaper, the Lake Geneva Regional News. She then moved to Junction City, Kansas, to be the editor of the Daily Union in that city before relocating to the RGV to work at the Valley Morning Star. Seiser has lived in Harlingen since June of 2015 and loves palm trees, the beach, traveling, golfing and her three rescue dogs.

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