SAN FERNANDO : Ghost Hunters Find No Spooks at Mission

They listened to tales of phantom cats and ghost monks who reportedly haunt the nearly 200-year-old San Fernando Mission.

After three hours, a group of 17 people who toured the mission Saturday with self-described ghost hunter Richard Senate said they never saw spooks materialize.

But the participants weren’t shaken in their belief that ghosts might exist. How else to explain why the dowsing rods they carried moved on their own and why one woman felt a chilly presence in the “most haunted room” at the mission?

“I wanted not to believe in this stuff,” said Debbie Garcia, a nurse and Sylmar resident, after using a dowsing rod. “I definitely felt something.”

Senate, site manager of the Olivas Adobe Historical Park in Ventura County, became a believer in ghosts in 1978 when, he recounts, he saw a monk carrying a candle at Mission San Antonio de Padua near King City, Calif.

Since then, Senate has researched ghost sightings at several California missions, including those of a courier on horseback, a headless horsewoman and women in white, for the “Haunted Southland,” a book he is writing.

“If you’re looking for a ghost, one of the best places to look are the missions. These are things going on right now,” said Senate, who has led tours for about five years for Mission College’s community extension program.

After they entered the library in one of the mission’s main buildings, the convento, Senate asked if group members felt anything in “the most haunted room here.”

Rosie Armenta, an assistant office manager and Arleta resident, said she felt “a chill. It was like cold air coming down.”

“Oddly enough, most people felt things in that corner,” Senate said.