YEAR: 2020

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Cuyahoga County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Investigator (MM) Notes:
GPS for property:
41.314937,-81.791415 ]

NEAREST TOWN: Middleburg hts

NEAREST ROAD: Webster road/ I 71

OBSERVED: It was mid September of 2020. I usually would wake up around 4am and sit on my patio with coffee and smoke cigarettes, and listen to coyotes and deer near. I always would put up tarps around my patio with only a doorway open, getting ready for winter and fall.

As I sat that one morning I was startled by the sound of some leaves rustling, which sounded to come from behind my shed about 50 ft away. Then 3 whoops about 3 to 5 seconds apart. I was stunned, unable to move, the sound felt like I could feel it go through me.

It sounded to me like a chimpanzee. That was my only thought. I heard more rustling of leaves and I assumed it left. I gathered myself and decided to go back inside. I have never heard anything like it.

I have not been able to go back outside in the darkness of early morning nor night. I started smoking inside ever since. I'm not the type to be afraid of much of anything. This made me afraid to be out there.

ALSO NOTICED: I regret not looking around that area the following day, I did not want to even go outside for days following the incident

OTHER WITNESSES: 0

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was around 5am and was completely dark outside. It was clear and beautiful

ENVIRONMENT: Very near big creek , which is an extention of Rocky river. I live on part of an animal reservation. It is suburban area with rural undertones. No sidewalks and a small creek near.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Brian DeyErmand:

I drove out and took a look around before speaking with the witness. Although technically this is a suburb of Cleveland, it is one of those very wooded greenbelt area that border protected wildlife sanctuaries.

Witness lives just north of an electrical line cut, each side of the cut lined with trees. A few streets further north (where I suspect the whoops may have come from) is a sizeable wooded area. Further south there are stretches of woods that eventually lead to the Mill Stream Run Reservation which in turn lead you to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Just west of her location is Big Creek Reservation which also can get you to the CVNP.

I spoke to the witness by phone. She came off as very earnest and believable. She described the whoops as starting in a lower tone and getting higher as they went on. They went on for a few seconds and repeated twice with pauses in between. Witness says she looked into those sounds and didn't find anything close until she heard the same noise on a video from Salt Fork but could not remember the title of the program.

The witness recalls the whoops coming from what would have been the area behind her shed and would have been where her neighbor's shed and trash cans were. There was also an apple tree there recently.

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