YEAR: 1985-86?

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 16

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Portage County

LOCATION DETAILS: The area is located on Rt.59 just east of the Kent State University campus.

NEAREST TOWN: Kent

NEAREST ROAD: State Route 59

OBSERVED: I lived at the Kent Village Apartments as described in Reports #4967 & #7832 around 1985-86. At that time there was a small wooded patch between a residential road that led back to a small housing development and the road that led to the apartments. I would often walk from the Music and Speech building at KSU late at night after play rehearsals and cut through a little path in the trees as a short cut home.

It was a warm night and very foggy, I walked home with another student who had been in rehearsal with me. We joked about the creepy weather "nice night for a murder" and chatted about this and that as we walked along. We walked throught the patch in the woods and halfway through we heard the most unearthly shriek. We looked at each other and bolted out of the woods to the parking lot of the Giant Eagle grocery that was there at the time.

I was so scared a remembered the incident for years. Although I put it down to some animal, like a wildcat. I discovered the website and read report #4967, but never put two and two together until listening to a vocalization recording that sounded exactly like the scream we heard that night. Then report #7832 showed up and their encounter took place around the same time I lived there. I just felt I needed to tell someone that I heard something too.

I also believe something followed my father and I in the Mohican State Forest as we walked along the river one hot summer day. The land sloped upward from where we were and I thought something was up there above us because the bushes kept moving as if something was making it's way through the brush parallel to us. I got scared and wanted if we could go back to our cabin. I told my Dad I was tired and hot and couldn't walk anymore. This was late 1970's, I was probably 11 or 12 at the time.

OTHER WITNESSES: Two people, just walking and talking on our way home.

OTHER STORIES: The reports already mentioned.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Approx 11:30pm-midnight, it was full dark and foggy, but there where lights from two shopping plazas on either side.

ENVIRONMENT: Small patch of woods off a residential road. Located between two shopping plazas on the north side of 259. At the time there was an Acme grocery store on the western side of the woods up the hill and to the east on the lower side a Giant Eagle grocery store.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Mark Maisel:

I contacted the witness by phone and can add the following information to this report:

The witness described the sound as a high-pitched shriek. It lasted only seconds and she heard no other vocalizations. It came from approximately 100 yards north of their position, in a wooded area bordering the railroad tracks.

There have been several sightings and occurrences in this area over the years. As the witness notes, this particular experience coincides with several other incidents that occurred in the same time frame.

There are several lakes and the Cuyahoga River in this area. Farms, orchards, and other food sources are plentiful. The area has undergone major development in the past ten years.

About BFRO Investigator Mark Maisel:

Mark Maisel is employed in the medical field in Ohio. He has attended the following expeditions: West Virginia, New York Adirondacks, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. Expedition organizer of the 2009 Ohio expedition and assisting with both of Eastern Ohio's in 2012 and Michigan UP 2012. Attended WV 2013