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Geographical Index > United States > Arkansas > Hot Spring County > Report # 37010
 
Report # 37010  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Monday, November 5, 2012.
Man and wife experience intimidation behavior near Malvern

YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: First part of April

STATE: Arkansas

COUNTY: Hot Spring County

LOCATION DETAILS: The exact location of the property is not disclosed at the request of the witnesses. The general location is south of the City of Malvern, between U.S. Highway #67 and State Highway #9.

NEAREST TOWN: Malvern

NEAREST ROAD: Not disclosed.

OBSERVED: Late one night my wife and I decided to go on a moonlit walk on our property to find good spots to look up at the stars because we were considering on getting a telescope. we got into the car and drove the very end of our driveway and parked, our driveway is approximately a quarter of a mile of the main road with thick Woods on both sides. we started walking up the driveway about halfway up we felt like we were being watched so we stopped and we started hearing very loud noises in the woods to the left. it sounded like something was running towards us, shocked and panicking my wife turn and started running back towards the vehicle. (Reba) - I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I told my husband to come on, and he told me to go ahead. so I ran back to the car as fast as I could. I got into the car lock the doors. (Jason)- after my wife ran back to the vehicle, I immediately got a flashlight out of my pocket to scan the woods. I did not feel comfortable turning my back on whatever this was. I smelled a foul in the air. it is hard to describe this odor. the best way to describe it is an overwhelming nauseating odor it smelled like a mixture of roadkill and a wet dog with a faint sent of sulfur ( the best description of the sulfur smell is the smell after striking a match and blowing it out but more potent). my heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. my senses were hightened and my body went into a state of alert from fear, which is not normal for me. I grew up my whole life hunting entering the woods well before daylight and exiting the woods well after sundown. I know what deer sound like running through the woods, and I'm familiar with local wildlife like Bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, Panthers, wild hogs, etc. I'm not easily scared, there has been times that I have had to leave the woods with nothing but the backlight of a cell phone. so I don't scare easily. but this animal kept charging at me a little at a time then it would stop and charge again, it was so loud that it sounded like a bull elephant coming through the woods at me this was when I knew it was something that I had never heard before. I never did get a glimpse of the creature. I did not see any eye shine i search high and low scanning the woods. the animal had to be far enough into the woods to where I could not see it but it sounded like it was right next to me in the edge of the woods. at this point I slowly back up the hill never turn my back and always keeping the flashlight on scanning the woods. not knowing what to expect i built up enough courage to shout out " that's enough, just stay back" in a stern, loud voice... I doubt the creature understood anything I just said but I was hoping the tone I used would be enough to make it stop coming towards me. then shortly after I shouted everything began to calm and I think it understood that we were leaving the area. after feeling that I was being watched and pushed out of the area, I finally reached the top of the hill and felt it was safe to turn around so I ran the rest of the way to the car. my wife had the doors locked so I flash my light and tapped on the window, she immediately unlocked the doors and I got in, then she immediately locked the doors back and we drove back up to the house. this was the first of many occurrences that happened on the property. is seemed that after this encounter the activity picked up in the following months. I have heard many stories at deer camp about people seeing this creature but I always dismissed it as a folklore, but this experience made me realize that there is really something out there. this made me have the desire to look into it further and do some of my own research because I felt as if I were losing it. as I replay the events in my head, I tried to make sense of all this but the research I have done seems to bring me more questions than answers.

ALSO NOTICED: since this incident we have had other incidents occur closer to the house. the activity seems to have increased.

OTHER WITNESSES: there were 2 witnesses me and my wife. we were taking a walk scouting because we were considering getting a telescope at the time. finding good places to look up at the stars.

OTHER STORIES: yes, friends of mine have told me stories about them seeing a strange creature squatting near the road or crossing the road in the past. I have heard stories like this many times from friends.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: it was approximately midnight. it was a full moon so there was light on the gravel driveway. it was chilly outside enough to wear a jacket.

ENVIRONMENT: there is a variety of trees pine oak Cedar,etc. heavely thicketed woods. there is a tall Ridge which is where our trailer is located. it goes down into a valley. there are swampy areas and a Creek nearby. the ground is a mixture of soft soil sand and red clay. it varies depending on where you are at on the property.


Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tal H. Branco:

The writer contacted the witnesses by telephone the night their report was received by the BFRO. Arrangements were made to meet with them the next day. Upon my arrival, both accompanied me as we walked to the point of their close encounter in early April. There is a small creek branch that crosses their quarter-mile long driveway at about the mid-length of it. Noting several types of animal track in the branch bed down slope from the road, I walked about 100 yards down the branch bed. Mingled in with the typical animal tracks, there were partial tracks of a large, bare and flat-footed animal that appeared to have deliberately stepped on the exposed rocks and on small piles of forest duff that had been piled by water flow around or on the larger rocks.

At the point of their encounter, the woods are very thick on both sides of the driveway. As they both recalled that event, it was clear that both of them were very anxious and puzzled by what had occurred.

One night about a month after that first event, they heard something they thought was "banging around" inside a three-sided metal storage building behind their house. The building has corner posts that are railroad crossties embedded in the ground. The roof and sides are sheathed with corrugated. galvanized metal barn roofing. The metal panels on the sides were securely fastened to the crossties with long roofing nails. At the time, they kept their garbage can, with a lid attached, in the right-side rear corner of the shed. The next morning they found that a large section of the siding on the back wall of the shed had been ripped loose from the crosstie at the garbage can's location. The garbage can had been overturned, although the lid was still firmly attached. At the time I was there, the edge of the corrugated siding had been refastended. There was no evidence that any type of pry bar had been used to pull the metal siding loose from the crosstie.

The female witness works a late night shift, and arrives home about 7:30am. One day in July she returned from work and parked in front of the house. As she exited her car, something in the nearby woods began growling loudly at first, and without a break changed its vocalization into a high pitched yell. Without a pause the sound returned to a loud growling/grunting sound. By the end of the vocalization, she had ran to the porch, unlocked the front door and was inside locking the door. She at first thought her husband may have been outside "pranking" with her, but he was still in bed.

About a month ago, the witnesses stated that during the night something hit the side of the home. They could not tell if something (or someone) had physically struck the house, or had thrown something against it.

One night about three weeks ago they had stepped outside the back door to smoke. After a few minutes he made two loud whistling sounds "just to see what would happen", A few minutes later a "grapefruit sized" rock was thrown from inside the nearby woods, striking the limbs of a small oak tree a few yards in front of them. The rock then hit the ground beside them, and continued rolling across the yard. They stated the impact on the lower limbs of the tree cause the entire tree to shake. They immediately went back inside. They tried to find the rock the next day but could not find it among the rocks left on the yard's surface when the site on the hillside was leveled for the placement of their home.

I spent about two hours walking the wooded hills around the homesite with the male witness. No tracks or sign of anything except the area's typical wildlife were seen.

It should be noted this area is bounded on three sides by right-of-ways for utility service. One of them, a high voltage. electrical power transmission line, runs west to cross the Ouachita River basin and east to cross the Saline River basin. Both basins have generated numerous eyewitness reports of large, enigmatic primates over the years.

Both witnesses were found to be very credible and adamant about the validity of the events as they described them.

The writer will continue to monitor the situation at the location.


About BFRO Investigator Tal H. Branco:

Tal Branco is a lifelong resident of AR. He began hunting, fishing and tracking many years ago in south AR. Since he was a teenager, his outdoor activities have been primarily conducted in the Ouachita Mountains, although during the past forty years he has also conducted field investigations of reports of enigmatic and unclassified animals in the southeastern U.S. and in the Amazon Basin of Brazil.