Any parent grieving the death of their child would go to any lengths to hear the child’s voice one last time. But how many of them would actually invent a device for it? Electrical Engineer Gary Galka from Connecticut did just that.

After his 17-year-old daughter Melissa died in 2004 in a car accident, Gary says she began to communicate with the family within days. The doorbell would ring, TV channels would change and lights would turn on and off on their own. That’s when Gary realized that his dead daughter had something to tell them. He created a device to help her, and is now the owner of a thriving business in paranormal detection devices. Over the years, he has sold thousands of such devices, ranging between $79 and $350 in price. Gary has invented over 30 different products that are meant exclusively for paranormal research.

The Galka family was recently featured on a Travel Channel TV Program called “Ghost Adventures”. On the show, the Galkas claim to have made contact with their dead daughter, and to have seen her as well. They insist Melissa is indeed present around them and the instruments he invented are proof of it. One of the devices plays out a voice saying, “Hi Daddy, I love you.” Also, according to Gary, “when she was sitting on the bed I felt her lay her head on my chest.” He says he has never seen Melissa, but his younger daughter Heather has, three times. It has been reported that other members of the family and even people who aren’t related have seen the girl at the house.

57-year-old Gary was raised a Catholic and believes in God and afterlife. A third of the profits from the sale of paranormal detection devices is donated to bereavement groups such as The Cove Center for Grieving Children in Wallingford. “I feel compelled to help other bereaved parents. To show these parents that they can live beyond the grief and be comforted knowing their child is in a good place,” says Gary. Paranormal researchers, however, have a different story to tell. According to one of them, Joe Nickell, “They’re surprised that they’re getting results in an old house, when in fact there are all sorts of non-ghost sources such as faulty wiring, nearby microwave towers, sunspot activity, and so on.” Meanwhile, Gary hopes that his family’s experiences and his devices will help people who don’t believe in afterlife to “take a better position.”

via Courant