YEAR: 1994

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 5th or 6th

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Belmont County

LOCATION DETAILS: From State Route 9 in Warnock turn onto Warnock Whitney Rd for a few miles then to Oak Rd for another couple of miles and then onto Lucas Lash Rd.

NEAREST TOWN: Whitney

NEAREST ROAD: Lucas Lash Rd.

OBSERVED: It was a couple of weeks before the 1994 deer "gun season", which started the week after Thanksgiving. My uncle and I were out checking game trails and picking out places to sit for hunting season so we would know each others location. We had hunted this area for a couple of years for deer, turkey, rabbits and squirrels. We always had a weird feeling about the place. It was always dead quiet in the woods. Birds didn't sing, chipmunks didn't chirp. You would see them, but nothing made a sound. We always carry a gun when in the woods or fishing because of coyotes and wild dogs. For some reason or another we were heavily armed that day. Both of us were carrying a 12 gauge shotgun and a .44 mag pistol. We had been in the woods for most of the day. It was about 4:00 pm when we started back to the truck. My uncle was about 30 feet ahead of me when I saw the movement of something big to our right. I stopped to see what it was, but my uncle didn't see it because he kept walking to truck. I didn't yell for him to stop, because I didn't want to scare whatever it was before I could get a better look. It was about 35 yards away and walked upright like a person, but it wasn't. It was about 7 feet tall, 4 feet across the shoulders and covered with dark brown hair that was about 4 inches long. It didn't have a neck, it's head was kind of down in it's shoulders. I watched it walk about 50 or 60 feet. As I'm watching it walk I had my pistol aimed at it. I was about to pull the trigger, when something in my head told me not to. There could have been more than just the one I was watching. Still watching it I was scared although I had enough firepower to kill anything in the woods. I lost sight of it in a thicker part of the woods. I caught up with my uncle, but I didn't tell him what I had seen. Knowing he would want to go looking for it and I didn't want anything to do with it. I just wanted to get out of there. It was a little over week before I told him about it. He said just what I knew he would say, " You should have said something, we would of gone looking for it". It's been many years since I've been in that area, but I can still see it and feel the fear just as clear as the day it happened.

ALSO NOTICED: Nothing that day other than the dead quiet there.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just myself. My uncle was there, but didn't see it. We were checking game trails

OTHER STORIES: Yes. A friend was in an old house near the location. He was bow hunting from the upstairs window. He said something was breathing on the back of his neck. The next thing he remembered he was outside laying on the ground, not knowing how he got there. I've been in this old house, it's dark inside of it. It's in a bowl shaped area with big oak trees around it. The upstairs is even darker, there's only one window. You have to climb up into the second floor, because the stairs rotted away. It was creepy inside. I'm not sure if the old house is still there or not.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 4:00 pm a sunny, warm day for November

ENVIRONMENT: About 300 or 400 acres or more with a large pine grove in the center. With small hills and valleys, hard woods all around the pines on the left side of the Lucas Lash Rd. On the right side of the road is hard woods and large fields with a wooded valley in the middle. And there's an old house in the woods that nobody has lived in for 40 or 50 years. A small creek "more like run off water from the hills" along the dirt road, but a larger creek is only couple of miles from the area. The area has changed since then. I've been told it has been logged a couple of times.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jason Kovalski:

Jim Thompson and I met with the witness on August 2, 2015 near the location of his sighting from 1994. He seemed to be very sincere about his story. I asked him to once again retell the story and he stated that he and his uncle were scouting for deer season. He recalled the dead silence in the woods that day. It was getting close to dark and they were headed towards the truck, with the witness several yards behind his uncle. He saw movement and stopped but his uncle kept moving. As he watched, the creature was about 30-40 yards away. (We went to the exact location to get a better idea of the distance). He guessed it to be 7 to 7 1/2 feet tall, very broad, covered in cinnamon colored hair. As it started to walk away he drew his pistol but could not shoot. He stated that its face looked "too human". It eventually disappeared into a thick area and he continued to the truck, not telling his uncle what he had seen for a week.

Down this hill, to the left and into the woods is where his sighting occurred:



After we left that location, we crossed the road to the old house he referred to in his report. He stated that a friend was hunting from there and felt someone (or something) breathing on the back of his neck. The next thing he recalled was waking up on the ground outside of the house. Because it had been several years, the house had fallen in and was very overgrown when we arrived at the location. Because we wanted to explore the area a little more, I asked who owned the property. He said it was a different owner than when he hunted there. He didn't know him, but he knew where he lived. We drove to the farmer's house. Upon arrival, I introduced myself as did he. It just so happens that I knew his deceased brother so we had something in common. I told him why we were there and he asked if we had time to sit and talk. I told him about the witness' report and he grinned and said he had some interesting encounters himself that same year. He said it started when he found two one year-old cows dead, back to back, with broken necks. He was completely puzzled as to how that could happen to two large, full grown animals. A short time after, near the same field, he found a large boulder placed about 10-12 feet in the crook of a tree. He claimed that no man could pick up a rock this size and place it anywhere, especially 10-12 feet into a tree. At this point, he still had no clue what he was dealing with. Finally, one night that winter, there was a snow storm coming in and he knew he needed to get hay to the pasture for his cattle because he knew he may not have the opportunity for several days. He and his dog got into the enclosed cab tractor and speared a bale of hay to take over the hill to the cattle. It was dark, windy, starting to snow heavy and was very cold. As he drove across the field, he noticed the cattle were all on top of the hill (typically during bad weather they would be in the bottom). He noticed their breath as if they were breathing heavily. At this point he was headed toward the bottom where he was going to put the hay and he stated that his dog started growling and barking uncontrollably. As he turned the tractor, for a brief instant, the lights of the tractor lit up a large, hair covered creature walking on two legs. He dropped the hay bale, and returned to the house. He never told anyone what he had seen and had never had another incident after that night. I have continued to speak with witnessy and his story has never changed. The landowner asked that his identity remain confidential.

About BFRO Investigator Jason Kovalski:

I am a K-12 public school administrator with a strong background in biology. I am married with two children. My interest in bipedal cryptids has spanned the last 30 years.

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