REDFORD TOWNSHIP -- A sliver of a moon illuminates gravestones and a motley group treading slowly over fresh-cut grass.

It has been several hours since the search began. Suddenly, the thermal gauge, held in the palm of one member's hand, registers a steady temperature drop: from 67, to 54, then 42 -- and finally to 34 degrees.

"It's colder here," the member reports.

Just then, the lights on the electromagnetic field detector begin flashing, drawing the group deeper into the grounds.

The group members call themselves "ghost hunters," and on this recent warm night, six of them were in the Redford Cemetery hoping to witness or record evidence of ghosts. This eclectic group is one of some 400 similar groups that have cropped up in southeast Michigan in recent years with the help of the Internet. It has grown to some 50 members since the first posting on www.Meetup.com, the latest friend-finding craze in the digital age.

Armed with cameras, voice recorders and other devices, the group makes weekly treks to haunted buildings and burial sites. And they know which locations are "active" -- places where other hunters reported encounters with the paranormal: disembodied voices, inexplicable visions and odd images that show up on photos. The old Redford Cemetery on Telegraph tops that list.

They're drawn by their shared belief in the restless dead and a fascination with the occult.

Neva Magusin, founder of the group and head of the Southeastern Michigan Paranormal Support and Investigation (www.SEMPSI.com), has visited the Redford Cemetery before. Several years ago, the 52-year-old mother from Trenton claimed she saw a dark image of a man walk out from behind a tree and cross the dirt pathway.

"It walked right in front of us," she recalled.

On the hunt was relative newcomer Chris Gabel from Dearborn Heights. The truck driver, 37, recalled his first ghostly encounter. He was a child when he stayed overnight at his grandmother's Garden City home, where his great-aunt had killed her husband and then herself years earlier. Late at night, he would hear footsteps and voices on the stairs. He's been intrigued by ghosts ever since.

Some cemetery officials cringe at what they view as an intrusion on sacred ground. But many cemeteries that remain ungated after hours stop short of barring people.

"I don't believe in the supernatural," said Ralph Odell, owner of the Ferndale Cemetery, one of the group's favorite hunting grounds. "But if that's what they want to do, and they're not planning on breaking in and stealing my lawnmowers, that's fine with me."

In his 41 years working at the cemetery, Odell says he has not encountered an apparition.

Ghost hunters, on the other hand, say they have recordings of eerie voices and photos depicting unexplainable "orbs" and "ecto" clouds -- swirls of smoke.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, has made a career out of debunking pseudo-scientific notions like UFOs, alien abductions and the living dead. He offered explanations for what ghost hunters view as evidence: reflective problems from cameras shot in the dark, and most importantly, the human power of suggestion.

"If you believe in ghosts, it's easy to interpret lights and sound evidence as ghosts," said Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society.

That night in Redford, the thermal gadgets eventually led them to the rear of the grounds, a few feet from the gate, where no grave would likely be.

But down at their feet lay a flat stone, almost completely covered in dirt and hidden behind a tree. Etched in the surface read: "Helen, beloved wife, mother." She died in 1979.

The discovery didn't faze them.

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