YEAR: 2009

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 10th

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Carroll County

LOCATION DETAILS: We are located on Apollo Road NE near Bane Road.

NEAREST TOWN: Mechanicstown

NEAREST ROAD: Apollo Road NE

OBSERVED: On the morning of May 10th 2009 me and my friends were camping at my girlfriends house in Mechanicstown, Ohio. Mechanicstown is in Carrol County, just bordering Columbiana County. We were out @ about 3:00 in the morning trying to get the fire going in the back yard. As we were lighting the fire, I heard a loud howling coming over the hills. I stopped and asked my cousin if he heard the noise too. At first he acknowledged hearing the dogs barking off in the distance. However, he did notice the howling I was talking about. We both stood at the fire and listened to the howling continue for a couple of minutes. We are not from around this area, so he asked me what I thought it was that might be howling like that. I told him it was probably a bear...but it was still some distance away...my estimate being 4-5 miles. We brushed the noise off, and went back inside. The next morning i tried as best as i could to describe the sound to my girlfriends parents, who are residents of the area. They told me they dont know what i heard...but it did not seem to resemble a bear because bears in this area do not howl like that. The next day, I happened to be watching MonsterQuest on the History Channel. It was about Bigfoot legends from around the US and they happened to play a clip from a unknown howling recorded in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1994. As soon as I heard the howling...i recognized it. It was the EXACT same sound we had heard the night before. I decided to google Columbiana County, Bigfoot, 1994 and actually found the clip of the sound on this website. I listened to it...and am 100% positive that was the exact noise i heard. I sent the clip to my cousin, and he too confirmed that was the noise that he heard as well.


I did not come out the following night or morning to check for the noise. I did notice, however, that the morning we heard the howling in the distance was a full moon. The following full moon i do intend to at least peak out and see if i can again hear the noise.

ALSO NOTICED: We came out to sleep in the tents at around 5 in the morning. As we were all in the tent talking, i did hear quite the loud "thump thump" coming from outside the tent. Everyone else heard it too because it was so loud it interrupted our conversation. The best way I could describe the noise is that it resembled the sound of a falling log. While we did have logs in the fire some distance away, they were all burned out. Everyone else heard the noise as well, and told me to stick my head out and look. I was scared, but did so anyway. The landscape was quite lit up from the full moon, but i didnt particularly notice anything strange. I actually looked at the fire because thats where i thought the noise came from. Seeing there were no logs made me really start to wonder. I did have to go back to the house because my tent had a problem, and upon leaving to go into the house, ended up running because i felt scared, like something was there. The people who slept outside didnt notice anything else strange that night though.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just one, my cousin. We were stoking the fire prior to hearing the noise.

OTHER STORIES: I had heard my girlfriends father tell me about weird things that happen in the area Bigfoot related, but never one personally happening to him around here.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The incident above occurred at around 3:00 AM on the morning of May 10th 2009. Skies were clear with a full moon lighting up alot of the surrounding area. There was no wind, and it was in the mid 50's.

ENVIRONMENT: We were a open clearing in the backyard of my girlfreinds house. The woodline starts about 90 feet from us. It is mostly a long valley with houses every so often, but heavily wooded in certain areas. There is also a tiny creek bordering the wood line in the back

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Joanna Cuva:

I spoke to the witness at length and found him to be credible. Here are some details that I would like to emphasize:

- When I spoke with the witness he was with his girlfriend, whose family lives at the residence. She did not discredit his story.

- He heard the howling in intervals over a 45 minute period.

- The witness feels that the Columbiana County howl recording from 1994 documented the same sounds that he heard that night.

- He has heard the howling since the initial incident, but the howls haven't been as loud as the howls that he heard initially.

- He has not gone out to seek evidence in daylight hours. He said it scares him to even drive down the country roads at night, fearing that a bigfoot could appear on the road.

- Satellite images show that the area is densely forested, and sparsely populated.

About BFRO Investigator Joanna Cuva:

Joanna AKA Joee, has worked as a veterinarian technician for over 11 years. She lives in the Green Swamp of central Florida area with her husband and her three children. She is very knowledgeable of the local wildlife, spending a lot of her time in the outdoors. Joanna has a special interest in wildlife and conservation. She attended South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2009, Central Florida Expedition 2009, Pennsylvania Expedition 2009, Georgia Expedition 2010 and assisted with the organization of several Florida expeditions.