YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 20

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Vinton County

LOCATION DETAILS: North of State Route 50 very close to Zaleski State Forest.

NEAREST TOWN: Mcarthur

NEAREST ROAD: State Route 50

OBSERVED: On June 20, 2004, at 2 AM, I was lounging in my recliner watching TV. I noticed something like a large dark shadow looking in my window. We have four full length windows with no curtains because our family room faces the woods. I had no lights on other than the TV and my fish aquarium. The moon was slightly giving some light but not enough do make out any features. At first, I thought I was just imagining this. Slowly, I turned off the TV. When I did, the shadow moved over. I thought it was my imagination so I covered my head a went to sleep in my recliner. The next morning at 6 AM, I was still unnerved. When I looked toward the window, there was two large hand prints on the glass about 12 inches long. My brother wears a size 14 ring and these fingers were about four inches longer than his hand. It looked like a very large mans hand with fingers spread apart. I am retired from a Police Department and worked in fingerprinting and latent examination. I called my two brothers to come to my house and went into the bedroom to wake up my husband. I trembled in fear for about an hour afterwards. This thing had to be at least eight to nine feet tall to be standing where it was. I showed the handprints to my entire family. I did not want to report this because I am a foster parent and I was afraid people would think I'm crazy. On July 20, 2004, my dogs were screaming wildly. That night, my brother had stayed over since he was sick and was sleeping in the spare bedroom. At 4 AM, something was beating on the walls of my house so hard it knocked items off a shelf over the bed and dislodged my vinyl siding. This was new siding just installed in the spring! Needless to say, we were up all night. I was talking to my brother a few nights later at around 1 AM when I noticed another set of handprints on the window. Being a trained fingerprint technician they appeared to be not human and showed very little or no detail at all. The next day, we decided to clean these prints off our windows. We figured whatever left them would be back and leave some more. We used pure vinegar to clean the prints. Whatever was on its hands did not want to come off! It took some serious scrubbing to finally remove them. Other than the handprints, my windows were actually very clean. I have lived here for four years. My foster daughters told us twice that they were seeing a big man around our 1.5 acre pond. I didn't believe it was anything like this! We live in the country. Ever since we bought a large dog kennel to keep the dogs from running around this thing is getting brave enough to look into our windows and hit the house. I am convinced that something is outside my house. We live very close to Zaleski State Forest. We will be setting up my brother in laws wildlife camera hoping to catch this thing on film. I will let you know if and when we get a picture.

ALSO NOTICED: There was two possible footprints in the mud that appear to be not from any known animal.

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, my two brothers, my husband, and sister and brother in law all saw the handprints.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Slight moon outside, nice summer night. It was close to 2 AM.

ENVIRONMENT: Large pond, open fields and woods. The back of the property heads down into a very large, wooded hollow.

Follow-up investigation report:

A telephone interview and on-site visit was conducted during this investigation. During our time with the witnesses, no issues of credibility or misidentification were noted.

Some items of note from our time at the property included:

-There was a remnant of the handprint that had been cleaned but not totally erased. This print was at a height of 8' 6" from ground level. A Deputy had visited the property earlier in the day and taken print samples, his analysis was they were not human. A BFRO forensic expert determined that the cleaning had smudged the print to a degree that did not give him sufficient detail to make a conclusive evaluation.

-The top of the window in which the dark outline of the creature was observed measures 9 feet from the ground. The witness reported the shadow seemed to be leaning over and it did move when she turned off the TV.

-There was an evident line of travel that came from a hollow and ran between a fence and a tree line. The weeds were smashed down at intervals ranging from two to four feet with the trail ending right behind the house, although the fence and tree line continue along the back property line for another 100 yards or more.

-We discovered that something had attempted to pull apart the dog run on the property, leaving a three inch gap where the most pressure was applied. A two inch diameter galvanized steel post was buckled in this attempt, with the crush point being one inch high and a figure eight steel bracket being displaced two inches as a result of something pulling at the corner of the dog run. In our attempt to recreate this at another corner of the pen, and in a conversation with a local vendor of a similar product, it is evident that extraordinary force was needed to create such damage. The witness was adamant that he inspected the dog enclosure at the time of purchase, and during installation, and the damage did not exist at that time.

-Photographic monitoring devices were installed but results to date are inconclusive.


Above- The windows where the alleged shadow was looking into the family room. The tops of the windows are nine feet off the ground.


Above- A view from the inside. Notice the coffee table aquarium. It appears the shadow was quite interested in the aquarium probably due to the light being on and the rest of the room being dark.