YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: January

DATE: 20th

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Edgar County

LOCATION DETAILS: Wooded area surrounded by farm ground

NEAREST TOWN: Paris

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 16

OBSERVED: I was walking through the woods and I sat down on a fallen down tree and to my left I hear a strange grunting noise. I was frightened I called my dad and had him come to meet me in the woods. A few weeks before my dad was out feeding the animals when he heard a strange screaming voice from the other side of the creek.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2, heard dogs barking

OTHER STORIES: At night in the fall when we are around a camp fire we sometimes heard noises in the brush.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: First incident was around daylight, second time was 10:00 PM.

ENVIRONMENT: Creek bottoms

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

I spoke with the witnesses at their home. Because of unusual sounds being heard by the witnesses I left an audio recorder with the hopes of recording howls that the witness had described. The site for the recorder was several hundred yards from the house in a secluded area of the timber. I visited the home three times to exchange audio recorders over a span of six weeks.

In summary:

The son explained an incident in which he had been growled at in the woods near their home.

The father told me how he had repeatedly heard long deep howls that reminded him of some of the sounds from this website. At first he thought they were of wolves but there had not been any sightings of wolves in this area.

The father also had an incident where a very large animal had been in one of his oak trees. As the witness approached the animal screamed loudly, dropped from the large tree and ran back into the trees. As it was dark with poor lighting he was unable to see the animal.

Just before daybreak the mother had recently had a strange happening while walking along the lane to the main road where her car was parked. She stated that she had been followed by something. She was convinced it was walking bipedally just across the road but it was hidden from her view by scrubs and trees. Although her husband tried to console her that it was "just a deer" she was sure it was something much larger.

The father also described how he had heard wood knocks coming from the rear of the property.

Upon reviewing the six weeks of audio I did record what appeared to be wood knocks at 2 a.m. on March 21, 2012.

Possible wood knocks

The witness asked the neighbor if he had been chopping wood, but the neighbor said he had not, having even converted his fireplace to gas.

About BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

Stan Courtney has a special interest in wildlife audio recording. He has attended numerous BFRO Expeditions. See Stan's blog StanCourtney.com for recordings he has collected over the years.

Stan Courtney can be reached at illinois@bfro.net