Girl captures chilling image of ‘ghost child’ in back of her car in ‘warning to wear a seat belt’ at spot where ‘boy died in horror crash’
Mother Melissa Kurtz claims that there was no one else in the car when her daughter Harper took the picture
A GIRL’s chilling selfie in a car appears to show a 'child ghost' sitting in the back seat which paranormal experts believe was a warning from beyond the grave.
Melissa Kurtz, 48, was driving her daughter Harper to a beauty pageant when the 13-year-old became bored and started taking snaps of herself.
However the mum-of-two claims she later spotted the ghostly face of a young boy lurking behind Harper – despite insisting there was one else in the car with them.
Researching the stretch of road they were travelling on, Melissa discovered that the spooky selfie coincided with the anniversary of a deadly road accident which she thinks could have involved the same little lad.
Multiple paranormal investigators analysed the image with one claiming the ghost's hand appeared to be reaching for Harper.
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But Melissa says she was not scared by the suspected haunting as she claims Harper is a magnet for paranormal activity.
Melissa, from Florida, US, said: "Where the picture was taken there was an automobile accident one year ago exactly. When I looked into it, someone had been medevacked away in a helicopter.
"However they would not tell me any specific details when I enquired, which leads me to believe that it was a child, as that might be why they couldn't provide the information.
"I didn't notice it until about a month later when I was going through my camera when taking pictures for something else.
"It was a real 'Oh my god' moment. I was really shocked by it, incredibly shocked. I ran into the other room and said to friends who were staying with me 'you have to see this'. Everyone was awestruck.
"I think it's very important to the world to see that picture because I know it's genuine and real and we were the only two in the car.
"So many people have hope for the afterlife and this proves it – to me anyway. People [who have seen it] have taken comfort in that.
"Harper didn't have her seatbelt on and one of the investigators who analysed the photo called Greg Pocha thought [the ghost] could be trying to warn her.
"[Her seatbelt] is something I yell at her about all the time. I've had 13 traffic tickets in two years due to her not wearing one. She is very stubborn – though I'm always trying to catch her when she hasn't got it on.
"I'm not sure about that as it really looks to me like he has two fingers up, like he is putting rabbit ears up behind her. I think it is just a little boy playing, trying to be funny. I think it's a positive thing though.
"[However] I very much appreciate that if the child has died because of not having a seatbelt on then that's what he could be doing."
The image was taken in July this year on a highway in the Maitland area of Florida, near Orlando, when Melissa, a photographer and writer, was driving Harper to a junior beauty pageant, where she eventually placed fourth.
Melissa was so shocked by the image she submitted it to Greg Pocha, who is director of parapsychology, afterlife and paranormal studies at Eidolon Project Canada.
He claims that using an image analysis program, also used by the FBI and CIA, shows the boy has no colour or 'temperature' in the picture, which he says adds 'to the possibility that the photo may be authentic as a ghost photo'.
Greg said: "Ghosts such as the boy are prone to remain earthbound when the soul is literally ripped or thrown from the body in an accident.
"Chances are that he does not know that he has died. And chances are good that he will haunt this part of the highway forever."
Greg added: "[It] occurred to me that the ghost may not be flashing a piece sign, as earlier thought, but rather pointing to your daughter's seat belt harness.
"The warning may be that she should be wearing one when in a car. That is the Spectral Profiling part of my expertise speaking, to attempt to come up with the reasoning and psychology of the ghost in question.
"To warn may be the purpose, the unfinished business, of this ghost. To warn others how not to meet the same fate as others who have died because seat belt issues. It probably saddens him when he see that."
Melissa said: "I wasn't scared by it as ever since Harper was little she has had paranormal things revolve around her. She often has orbs appear in pictures next to her.
"Once when she was younger I found her drawing on the window and when I researched them it turned out they were glyphs about the archangel Raphael and how he banished the demon Asmodeus to hell.
"Harper seems to pick up the energy. She has amazing positive energy so maybe spirits are attracted to her.
"She has a lot of contact with the deceased world through work we do at a cemetery and she is very open to stuff like that. She is not scared of the supernatural or the occult.
"Harper doesn't see the picture as a big deal at all. She just says 'oh, the one with the ghost, what's the big deal?'. I tell her how no one can debunk it but it doesn't really phase her.
"I have shown it to lots of groups of paranormal investigators and none of them can debunk it. Some that I have shown it to now tour with it as one of the best examples.
"When I saw the date of the accident I cried as we picked up that boy that died one year ago on this road, on his way to hospital. When I saw there was an accident in that place I choked up.
"There are accidents there frequently. It's a dangerous stretch of road."
Melissa says her brother Timothy and his fiancé died in a car crash in February 2003, while she was pregnant with Harper.
The 13-year-old is named after her brother's fiancé.
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