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00:04Tonight, on MonsterQuest, the chilling encounters of witnesses who say they were trash.
00:11I was terrified that whatever was in that quorum was going to get me.
00:16Stalked.
00:17This thing's going to come through the door, and it's going to maul us.
00:21And hunted down by strange creatures.
00:24I was just immersed in its eyes, like the mouse staring down a snake.
00:34For many centuries, people have reported strange and sometimes terrifying encounters with what they describe as monsters.
00:43Its eyes just lit up in the moon, and we're like, that is nothing I've ever seen.
00:49If I try to run, I'd be dead.
00:52Now, for the first time, some are sharing their experiences.
00:57Is there a pattern to their encounters?
01:00It was just terrifying.
01:03And if so, what could it mean?
01:15Suburban Ohio is a patchwork of farmlands, two-lane highways, and quaint small towns.
01:22But within this bucolic region, there have been numerous alleged sightings of a dark, predatory creature known to locals as
01:31the Dogman.
01:33The first reported encounter originated in the small Ohio town of Defiance.
01:40On July 25th, 1972, two workers are out working on the railroad tracks in the early morning.
01:47And one of the workers, a man named Ted Davis, gets hit in the back of the head with a
01:52two-by-four.
01:54The worker was clearly injured, but it's what he said that ambushed him that really caught everyone's attention.
02:00In his police report, he said that this predator looked like a wolf-like beast walking on two legs.
02:06That same year, the Defiance Police Department receives two more reports of sightings.
02:12In one of them, a grocery store worker reports seeing a dog-like creature that's very large run right in
02:19front of his car.
02:21After the third report, the department opens an official investigation.
02:25The chief, Donald Breckler, is quoted saying,
02:32Across the state of Ohio, more than 35 towns and counties have reported sightings.
02:38They report an aggressive creature targeting livestock, animals, even humans.
02:45Judge Shane Luthold believes the dog-man hunted him down on a remote country road in the small town of
02:53Bucyrus, Ohio.
02:56I was a trial lawyer for 17 years in my hometown, and then I eventually became judge.
03:02That's what I've been doing for almost 11 years now.
03:06I deal with evidence, and what is evidence?
03:09I know what I saw.
03:10No one will ever convince me that I didn't see what I saw.
03:17It was 1985.
03:21I'd have been 15.
03:24I was a young high school athlete.
03:27I ran cross-country and track.
03:30I was training for the Bratwurst Festival 10K.
03:35Now, I was born a country boy, played hide-and-go-seek in barns at night.
03:40I wasn't scared of the dark.
03:45I'd always start off the first half mile pretty slow, and as I got more loose, I'd pick up speed.
03:52And I get the first two and a half miles in.
03:55It was 100% uneventful.
04:00And I turn around, and I'm coming back.
04:02And there's something, the best way I can describe it is, I got this kind of goose bumps up the
04:09back of my neck, and I just had this really eerie feeling that something was staring at me.
04:20I physically stopped.
04:24I'm thinking, there's something in there, like something is watching me.
04:29And it was weird.
04:32And as I was looking, I noticed something in the cornfield was like making a circular motion in the corn.
04:42Whatever was making this corn move was big.
04:47And so I'm watching this, thinking, well, that has to be a deer or multiple deer.
04:54And then all of a sudden, it stopped.
04:57And now I feel a little creeped out.
05:02There are no bears in northwest Ohio.
05:06There are no wolves.
05:08So my first instinct is, I need to get out of here.
05:13So I decide, you know what, I'm just going to take off running.
05:16And that's when it all began.
05:21But the moment he decides to run, whatever's in the corn does the same.
05:26It takes off running with me.
05:29Pacing me perfectly as I'm running.
05:33Now that's not deer behavior whatsoever.
05:37Deer run away from you.
05:38They don't follow you.
05:39They don't pace you.
05:42And I can see the rows moving.
05:44But it's not in the first row of corn.
05:48It's two or three rows deep.
05:50So I can't see it.
05:51So I stop.
05:55And when I stop, it stops perfectly.
05:59Like, it stops perfectly.
06:00It doesn't run in front of me.
06:02It doesn't stop behind me.
06:03It stops exactly where I am.
06:05And that's when I started to get really scared.
06:14I take off as fast as I can run.
06:17As fast as I can run.
06:19Like I'm Jesse Owens at the Olympics.
06:24Anybody that's ever ran in a cornfield, the rows are tight.
06:29It is really difficult.
06:32The sheer amount of corn that was moving.
06:38I knew it was big.
06:41I had this massive adrenaline dump.
06:43And then you just kind of burn it out.
06:45And so I had to stop.
06:46And when I stopped, it stopped.
06:52This thing, it was toying with me.
06:57I was being stalked.
06:59I was terrified that whatever was in that corn was going to get me.
07:08I'm starting to hyperventilate.
07:13I'm thinking, okay, let's try this again, but not as fast.
07:20I've got a half mile, and I know the corn's going to end.
07:25My house is to the right.
07:28I was going to intersect with it.
07:30I was going to run right into it.
07:32And I remembered that a good friend of mine lived to the left.
07:36I'm going to go left and go to my friend's house.
07:40But I knew that whatever that was in the corn was going to come out of the corn.
07:47I'm getting closer.
07:48I'm getting closer.
07:50Heart's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
07:54As I got to the end of the corn, I turned, and that's when I saw it.
08:05This thing walked out of the corn, and it was about six foot tall.
08:10It had the head of a dog.
08:12It looked like a German shepherd's head.
08:15High pointed ears.
08:17And I noticed that it had these long arms that hung down past its knees.
08:23Its shoulders were rolled forward like this.
08:27And it turned.
08:29I remember, like, locking in on it.
08:34I knew when I saw it that this was absolutely a predator, and if it wanted to kill me, it
08:41absolutely could kill me.
08:44It was just terrifying.
08:48This primal feeling of, you have to run, you have to run, you have to run.
08:58It could have ran faster than me.
09:03It was a flailing, like, screaming type thing.
09:09I thought for sure it was catching me.
09:11It's behind me, it's going to catch me.
09:13I was running for my life.
09:15I was running for my life, literally running for my life.
09:17It was after 8 o'clock, it was getting dark.
09:21I get to my buddy's house, and they had an in-ground pool, and I just dove head first into
09:26the pool.
09:28I thought I could distance myself from it.
09:31I was sitting on the bottom with my nose plugged, and I'm looking back and forth.
09:37I kept thinking, any second, I'm going to see it sitting on the side of the pool, just waiting for
09:42me to surface.
09:43And it's going to reach out with those long arms and grab me.
09:48What was going through my mind, hold your breath.
09:50My lungs were, like, burning for air.
09:55I finally come up, and when I came up, I'm doing one of these things, you know, looking around, looking
10:02around, looking around.
10:02I don't see it.
10:05When I jumped out of the pool, it was a mad dash.
10:09Not until I ripped that door open, got in, latched it.
10:14That's when I finally felt safe.
10:18I guess I never really thought it was going to be locked.
10:20It was the 80s in the country.
10:22Nobody broke into your house.
10:25I remember crawling on all fours, crawling on all fours, and pulling curtains and putting my eye up, looking to
10:35see if it was out there.
10:38I ended up spending the night at his house because there was no way I was going back outside.
10:44I don't care if my parents pulled in in the car.
10:47I wasn't walking outside those doors at night.
10:49It wasn't happening.
10:50So I ended up staying the night there.
10:52The terror of that night never fades, and neither does Shane's search for answers.
10:59Do I think there's a preponderance of the evidence that it's real?
11:02Absolutely.
11:03In a court of law, I think you could prove that dogman exists.
11:24Shane Luthold's alleged brush with the dogman is one of hundreds of reports in Ohio, dating back to 1972.
11:33That year, another reported encounter surfaces farther downstate, in Greene County, involving a young woman named Diane Bentley.
11:44It was wintertime, 1972.
11:49I was out with my boyfriend at the time and another couple.
11:53We drove out on a little road that we knew the bridge was out on.
12:00Perfect place if you're out on a date and you want to mess around with your boyfriend or girlfriend or
12:06whatever.
12:08We were just standing beside our car, no clue what we were talking about.
12:14You know, we're teenagers, not talking about anything, really.
12:19And that's when, I don't know, it's just really strange.
12:24Like the hair on the back of my neck was standing up for no reason, you know.
12:30Just looking around and trying to figure out what was wrong.
12:44Part of my brain was able to pick up that there's something out there.
12:52I look into the bushes and trees and I see two eyes.
13:00I'd say a good five and a half, six feet into the bushes.
13:06I'm standing there staring at it and, of course, my mind can't think of, you know,
13:12you can't comprehend of things that you've never seen or heard of before.
13:18They were not raccoon eyes.
13:20They were not possum eyes.
13:23These are more almond-shaped.
13:27And then I heard the bushes rustling, just slowly rustling.
13:37I see a silhouette.
13:42It was a large animal.
13:45And it was upright, whatever it was.
13:51And I start hearing the sound of the pebbles that were being shuffled as the animal came closer to me.
14:02Everybody else thought they were smart enough to run and start jumping in the car.
14:09I'm mesmerized.
14:11I see this large something that should not exist.
14:17It should not exist.
14:19Not at all.
14:25I could not break eye contact.
14:28I was just immersed in its eyes.
14:32Part of my brain kicked in and said, don't move, don't move.
14:38I actually felt kind of like the mouse staring down a snake.
14:44I was singled out.
14:48Someone said, get in the car, get in the car.
14:54I realize I'm the fool that's still standing out here.
14:58I'm the teenager that gets killed in the grade B movie.
15:04I finally was able to break its concentration on me, my concentration on it.
15:12So I run around, I look to my left.
15:16It was very, very close, probably within a few feet of me.
15:21I jump in.
15:23I could feel it.
15:25It is right there.
15:29Looking at me like this.
15:31Its paws were literally on the window well.
15:37Its mouth was open.
15:39It wasn't growling.
15:41I saw the teeth.
15:42It had rather close cropped fur.
15:48And I'm thinking, is it going to break the window?
16:08Halfway home, I remember getting cold chills.
16:12I think it's a survival thing.
16:15I think our little teenage brains were just totally fried at that point.
16:20We didn't know what to say or do.
16:23And I was pretty freaked out.
16:27Diane's reality was shattered by the Dogman.
16:31A creature she never believed could exist until it stood before her.
16:36And her experience isn't unique.
16:39Across America, people have reported encounters with other beings they can't explain.
16:45Including one of the most enduring figures in North American lore.
16:50Bigfoot.
16:52Long before Europeans set foot in North America,
16:56the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest
16:58told stories of a towering, elusive being.
17:02Not a monster, but a guardian of the wilderness.
17:07The Quinault tribe of Washington called them forest people.
17:11On the other hand, the Coast Salish people call him by a different name,
17:16Saskets, which means wild man, or it can also mean hairy man.
17:20The tribes don't see the creature as an aggressive predator.
17:23Instead, they see it as a protector of the land.
17:26Dangerous to humans only when provoked or when sacred sites are disturbed.
17:31But those tribal beliefs would be challenged in 1924.
17:36When four unsuspecting men in Washington state claim they are attacked
17:40by what they describe as a group of Bigfoot-like creatures.
17:46It all began with a group of four miners looking for a chance to strike gold.
17:50The men have access to a mine that sits two miles east of Mount St. Helens.
17:56One of the miners, Fred Beck, would later publish a detailed account of the events in a book.
18:03The men mine for weeks and weeks and don't find any gold.
18:09And then they say that one night they're awakened by something very strange.
18:15There are these whistling sounds on the ridges just above them.
18:19It's as if one creature is standing on one ridge whistling to another that is answering back.
18:27Although the noises are strange, it doesn't change their mission.
18:30So night after night, they ignore these unusual sounds and continue mining during the day.
18:37About a week after they first hear the noises,
18:40one of the miners, Hank, asks another guy, Fred, if he will go get water
18:44that's about 100 yards from the cabin.
18:47It is still light outside and Fred is leaned over trying to collect water
18:52and suddenly he hears Hank screaming.
18:56Fred immediately looks up and sees that Hank is standing there
18:59with his rifle aimed at something in the tree line.
19:02He follows the rifle's direction and is shot.
19:11Mount St. Helens, Washington State.
19:14Two miners, Fred Beck and his partner Hank, head out to fetch water
19:18when they spot a large, hairy, ape-like creature watching them from the trees.
19:24Fred, who would later write a book about the encounter,
19:27describes the creature as nearly seven feet tall
19:30and standing roughly 100 yards away.
19:34Startled, Hank fires at it, missing the beast.
19:38Fred claims that he and Hank watch this creature run down the canyon.
19:43It is upright, running on two legs, and Fred tries to shoot it three times,
19:51but he misses.
19:53According to Fred's account, the men are rattled by the encounter.
19:57He writes that they grab their jugs of water and rush back to their cabin.
20:01Fred then explains that they had all agreed that they needed to get out of there,
20:05but also that there was no way they could get out of the forest before nightfall.
20:09The men resign themselves to spending one more night in the cabin.
20:15Eventually, they crawl into bed and fall asleep.
20:21Around midnight, Fred describes how the men are startled awake
20:24by a loud thud against the cabin wall.
20:28Whatever struck the cabin knocked away some of the chinking,
20:31revealing a space open to whatever was outside.
20:35Hank runs over to the opening between the logs in the cabin
20:39and is shocked to see three creatures
20:42that look just like the one they shot at earlier.
20:46Suddenly, the creatures scatter,
20:48and the men hear footsteps on the roof.
20:52They now believe they are under attack.
20:56The creatures pound on the roof,
20:58and then they start throwing stones.
21:00They throw them down the fireplace,
21:02they throw them at the walls,
21:03and they throw them on the roof of the cabin.
21:06Fred describes how the creatures are slamming on the cabin walls,
21:11while the men are shooting rounds of bullets
21:14into the ceiling and into the walls.
21:17According to Fred's account,
21:19the situation erupts into an all-out fight for survival.
21:24Then suddenly, dead quiet.
21:27They have no idea where these creatures are
21:30or why they stopped the attack.
21:32According to Fred, the lull is only temporary.
21:38Just then, one of the creatures
21:40throws themselves against the front door to the cabin.
21:43And the force is so great
21:45that the entire cabin vibrates.
21:50Fred recounts the miners grabbing a long pole,
21:54and they wedge one end up against the door,
21:56and the other end they place firmly in the ground.
22:00As these creatures continued their attack,
22:02Fred and Hank started shooting at the door.
22:06Fred wrote, we shot round after round.
22:12According to Fred Beck,
22:14every wall is shaking and threatening to buckle
22:16under the pressure of this attack.
22:21Fred says the assault then takes a shocking turn.
22:25They claim that one of these creatures
22:27was able to find a gap in the walls of the cabin
22:30and has grabbed a nearby axe.
22:33Fred recalls rushing over and grabbing the head of the axe,
22:36and he twists it so if the beast tries to pull it out,
22:39it gets caught up against the logs on the inside.
22:42At the same time, Hank fires off a shot toward the beast,
22:46barely missing Fred's hand.
22:49Although the bullet misses the beast,
22:51it does scare it for a moment,
22:52and that gives Fred enough time
22:54to rip it out of his hands.
22:57According to Fred's account,
22:59the battle continues off and on all night long.
23:05Finally, with the sun shining and no noise outside,
23:09the miners creep out of the cabin for the first time.
23:15According to Fred's account,
23:17he looks up and sees Hank aiming his rifle
23:21at something in the tree line,
23:23and he follows the rifle's direction
23:25and is shocked by what he sees.
23:28There, across a little canyon,
23:30is a creature about seven feet tall, covered in hair.
23:35He shoots at it several times
23:36and apparently hits the creature
23:38and watches as it topples backward into a ravine.
23:42He assumes the creature is dead,
23:44so the men shove items into their packs,
23:46leaving some things behind,
23:48and they leave the forest.
23:50The story finds its way to the local press
23:53and ultimately goes national,
23:55and there, they're given the name Mountain Devils.
23:59The Miner's Tale,
24:00which comes to be known as
24:02The Attack at Ape Canyon,
24:04pushes the existence of a Sasquatch
24:06into the national consciousness.
24:09For a lot of people,
24:11Fred Beck's story was their introduction
24:13to this idea of an aggressive,
24:16upright, ape-like creature.
24:18Reporters, adventurers, and law enforcement officers
24:21returned to the spot countless times,
24:23hoping to catch a glimpse of the creatures.
24:26Although some have claimed sightings,
24:28no one has brought back any real evidence
24:31that backs up Fred's account.
24:38The swamplands of Florida,
24:41home to a thriving ecosystem of hundreds of species,
24:46including powerful predators like Burmese pythons,
24:50Florida panthers,
24:52and alligators.
24:53But these wetlands are so vast and unexplored
24:57that some believe they may also hide
25:00a different kind of cryptid,
25:02a creature locals call the skunk ape.
25:06Many experts describe the skunk ape
25:08as a smaller, swamp-dwelling cousin of Bigfoot,
25:11perfectly adapted to Florida's wetlands.
25:15There have been over 350 sightings
25:18of an ape-like creature
25:19in the southern marshlands
25:20since the early 1800s.
25:24But the most compelling piece of evidence
25:26was captured in Mayaka State Park.
25:30In October of 2000,
25:31a Florida resident mails a photo
25:33and a letter to the Sarasota Police Department.
25:36According to the letter,
25:37the terrified woman is being stalked
25:39by an unknown creature
25:40right in her backyard.
25:42Something keeps eating the apples
25:44on her back porch.
25:45She has her grandchildren at her house
25:47and is afraid this wild animal
25:50will harm them,
25:51so she sets up a camera
25:53to capture the thief,
25:54and when she sees the photo,
25:57she is shocked.
26:00The beast in the photo
26:01is immediately identified by believers
26:04as the elusive skunk ape.
26:07One year later,
26:09in the same park the photo was taken,
26:11James Hopkins claims
26:13that he was hunted
26:14by a terrifying beast
26:15that matches the description
26:17in the photo.
26:21Venice, Florida.
26:22I grew up there,
26:25mostly a retirement community then.
26:27When I was young,
26:28I was very strong in martial arts.
26:31I met most of my friends
26:33in martial arts school.
26:36One of the guys
26:37from the martial arts school,
26:38he lived out in Mayaka Estates.
26:41Mayaka,
26:42it was complete freedom.
26:44You would go camping,
26:47you know,
26:47have four-wheelers,
26:48three-wheelers,
26:49dirt bikes,
26:52you know,
26:53do whatever.
26:56But the sense of peace
26:58James found in that wilderness
26:59was about to vanish.
27:05This one night,
27:07me,
27:08my two buddies,
27:09we're all enjoying,
27:10we're laughing,
27:11we're joking,
27:12we're drinking beers,
27:13we have lines in the water,
27:15and then out of nowhere,
27:19we heard a roar.
27:25The sound sounded like a mix
27:27between a bear
27:28and a tiger
27:30with somewhat of a howl.
27:35And then it did it again.
27:39It was loud.
27:42And I know there's no more
27:43Florida Panthers out there,
27:44and it didn't sound like that,
27:46and the cat don't sound like that.
27:47It sounded like it was on top of us.
27:50It was like,
27:50it sounded like it was close.
27:56Like,
27:57what
27:57is
27:59that?
28:02I said,
28:04we're getting out of here.
28:07So we all
28:08jump on this four-wheelers.
28:19then all of a sudden,
28:20I just hear
28:21in the trees
28:22cracking
28:24and branches breaking.
28:33I slowed the four-wheeler down.
28:36I'm like,
28:37hey,
28:37do you guys hear that?
28:38Our arms crack,
28:39our arms crack.
28:40And they're like,
28:42hit it,
28:42hit the gas.
28:48this thing's obviously on us.
28:52I don't know what it is.
28:54We haven't seen it.
28:55We've only heard it.
28:56We don't know anything.
28:58But we are being
29:00stopped
29:01by this creature.
29:03James and his friends
29:04know they need a place
29:05off-trail to hide
29:08and fast.
29:09And I asked my friend
29:11in the back,
29:11I said,
29:12where can we go?
29:14He goes,
29:16two girls I know
29:16live right down
29:17on this main road.
29:20They're the closest house
29:21we can get to.
29:24We pull up to this house.
29:28We knock on the door.
29:29And she's like,
29:30what are you guys doing here?
29:31And we start telling her.
29:33We heard this out in the woods
29:34and you were the first place
29:36and the closest person
29:37we can get to.
29:38And the next thing
29:39that happened,
29:46we look out the window.
29:50This thing was running
29:52in a circle
29:53and it did it three times.
29:55And then on its
29:56third lap out,
29:58it jotted up to the shed.
30:00Now the shed
30:01was a seven foot shed.
30:03It was as tall as a shed.
30:06It set its arm up
30:08on the shed
30:09and it just kind of
30:11peered up at us
30:12and its eyes
30:13just lit up
30:14kind of in the moon
30:14and we're like,
30:16oh my God,
30:16what is that?
30:19It looks like a prehistoric
30:22orangutan.
30:24Massive and black
30:25and a white streak
30:27going down.
30:28It looked like he had
30:29an underbite.
30:30Canines from underneath.
30:32That is nothing
30:34I've ever seen.
30:36And then, you know,
30:37he just kind of
30:38let his arm slip down
30:39and then he just
30:40disappeared.
30:43This is bad.
30:44Now we just lost
30:45vision of this thing.
30:48That's when
30:48we started hearing
30:54this thing slowly
30:55coming up the steps.
31:00In 2001,
31:02James Hopkins
31:03and his friends
31:04claimed they had
31:05been hunted
31:05and cornered
31:06by a giant
31:07ape-like creature
31:08known as
31:09the Skunk.
31:12Dude,
31:12we are literally
31:13like stuck
31:13in this room.
31:14I'm like,
31:15lock the door.
31:17What do we got
31:18in here?
31:18We have like a dresser
31:19pointing in front
31:20of the door.
31:26Then I started
31:27smelling a stench.
31:29It was a mixture
31:31of skunk
31:32and rotten roadkill.
31:36I'm thinking
31:36the worst thing ever.
31:37This thing is going
31:38to come in,
31:38teeth blazing,
31:40and a gorilla
31:40could rip a man
31:41apart with his bare hands.
31:43What is this thing
31:44capable of doing?
31:45Facing what he believes
31:47is an imminent attack,
31:49James braces
31:50for the worst.
31:51And I'm like,
31:52warrior mindset
31:53has set in.
31:54This is kill
31:55or be killed.
31:57I had a diving knife.
32:01I'm thinking,
32:02just start stabbing.
32:04Don't chop at it.
32:06Try to get it
32:07through a vital organ.
32:10Your fear changes
32:11to survival fear.
32:13It's not fight
32:14or flight.
32:15It's live or die.
32:21Then it got quiet.
32:25We wait.
32:29I still smell this thing.
32:37We stayed there
32:38till the sun came up.
32:41Those are some
32:42of the longest hours
32:43of my life.
32:44James returns
32:45to his campsite
32:46and finds it
32:47in ruins.
32:49It destroyed the tent.
32:51It knocked everything
32:52over in the fire pit.
32:53It destroyed everything.
32:55Grabbed the tent
32:56and I smelled it.
32:57It smelled like
32:57skunk and death.
32:58You'll never forget
32:59that smell.
33:01To date,
33:02there have been
33:03so many sightings
33:04of a skunk ape
33:05in the state of Florida
33:06that the United States
33:07Fish and Wildlife Service,
33:08well,
33:09they actually include
33:10a reference to it
33:11in their hunting rules
33:12and regulations pamphlet.
33:13It says in the Florida
33:15hunting brochure,
33:16you are not allowed
33:18to partake
33:19in the killing
33:20or bagging
33:22of skunk ape.
33:23That night,
33:24it hunted us down.
33:27It would have killed us.
33:29Now,
33:30that roar was
33:32dominance.
33:36Claims of people
33:37being hunted
33:37by violent monsters
33:39is not a modern phenomenon.
33:41In Wisconsin,
33:43the Algonquin tribe
33:44speaks of a predatory spirit
33:46called the Wendigo,
33:48a creature said to stalk
33:50the weak and isolated.
33:54This creature
33:55is the very picture of death.
33:57It's gray and gaunt,
33:59has emaciated skin,
34:01yellow, hollowed-out eyes,
34:02bloody, blistered lips.
34:04More modern interpretations
34:05describe it with antlers
34:06or the skull of a deer.
34:08It looks like a mix
34:09between a decaying corpse
34:10and a wild animal.
34:13One recent published
34:14encounter comes
34:15from a Manitowoc
34:16county hunter
34:17who reports seeing
34:18a walking corpse
34:20moving through
34:20the Nipissing swamp.
34:22And while no sheriff's office
34:24has ever documented
34:25a Wendigo encounter,
34:27stories like this
34:28continue to surface.
34:31The Wendigo might be ancient,
34:33but reports of it
34:34haven't stopped.
34:35There's been 70
34:36to a hundred sightings
34:38over the last century.
34:41One night in 2022,
34:44two brothers believe
34:45they were stalked
34:46by one of these creatures
34:47while filming a movie
34:49in the dense forest
34:50of eastern Wisconsin.
34:52We were coming back
34:54to my parents' house
34:55to film a movie
34:57because I had just started
34:59getting into filmmaking.
35:01We knew they had
35:02this section of forest.
35:04I needed some forest
35:05for some shots.
35:06Action.
35:08I had a couple friends
35:09come out.
35:10My brother, AJ,
35:11came with me.
35:14We'd been filming
35:14some content for it
35:16for maybe three-ish,
35:17four days.
35:19At this point,
35:20we had already filmed
35:21everything.
35:22We had all the camera gear
35:23put away.
35:24We were just chilling
35:25in the middle of the night.
35:26Obviously, these are just
35:27snails, right?
35:27You know, discussing the film
35:28and seeing if there was
35:29going to be any other shots
35:31that we needed to take
35:32tomorrow.
35:34It's absolutely pitch black
35:35out there now.
35:37And the fire is still going.
35:40Then, just beyond
35:41their campsite,
35:43something in the forest
35:44stirs.
35:48We started hearing
35:52sounds kind of off
35:53in the distance
35:54toward the river.
36:01We kept on hearing leaves
36:03and sticks break.
36:06So, we just continued
36:07to listen.
36:10Jonah had a hammer
36:11and a shovel
36:12and he kind of started
36:13to, like, scare it off.
36:14Just tink, tink, tink.
36:18And it kept
36:20coming closer to us.
36:23It sounds like
36:24it's walking
36:25on two feet.
36:28And that's when
36:29we kind of started
36:30to ask ourselves,
36:31like, what do you think
36:32this is?
36:32Like, what is that?
36:35Why is it coming closer?
36:38We start yelling.
36:40We're like,
36:40hey, get out of here.
36:42You know, like,
36:43we're like,
36:43who's out in there?
36:46And the walking
36:47doesn't stop.
36:50That's when it starts
36:51to get really creepy
36:52because if it was
36:52a deer,
36:53if it was a raccoon,
36:54especially a fox
36:55or a coyote,
36:56you would expect
36:57this animal
36:58to get out of here.
37:01But it didn't.
37:07While in the deep woods
37:08of eastern Wisconsin,
37:10four young filmmakers
37:12hear menacing footsteps
37:13that advance toward them.
37:15But they can't
37:17get them to stop.
37:18Now we're full-blown yelling.
37:21We didn't know,
37:23is it going to circle around?
37:26He's getting closer
37:28and closer.
37:30AJ gets out
37:31his flashlight
37:33on his phone.
37:35And I kind of make
37:36a little pan across
37:37where we're at.
37:41We catch
37:43some eye shine
37:46and
37:50she's pretty scared.
37:52I mean, like,
37:53we all kind of froze
37:55at that point.
37:57The eyes were
37:59pure white,
38:01maybe a foot
38:02off the ground.
38:02And it was looking up
38:04directly at us.
38:06We can't see any
38:08of the body
38:08because it's too dark.
38:10We just start
38:11chucking sticks
38:12in that general direction.
38:16Nothing happened.
38:18It didn't flinch.
38:19It didn't blink.
38:20As the creature
38:21holds its ground,
38:23John takes a risk.
38:24I tell AJ,
38:26I'm just going to get
38:26a little bit closer
38:27because I'm pretty confident
38:28that I can hit it
38:29if I just get
38:29a little bit closer.
38:31So I grab a stick,
38:32pretty hefty one,
38:33and I go
38:34a little bit lower.
38:37I can't see
38:38anything in front of me.
38:40I throw
38:41my stick
38:42as hard as I can
38:43where I think
38:44it should be.
38:46And
38:46that's when
38:47I hear
38:49like a,
38:50almost a gargling hiss.
38:54AJ says,
38:56it's right
38:57in front of you.
38:59So I start
39:00kind of screaming
39:01at John.
39:02I'm like,
39:02get up here.
39:02Get up here.
39:03Get away.
39:08I got back up
39:10to him,
39:10and then he shines
39:12the light back over.
39:13He's looking for it.
39:19The eyes,
39:20they go dark.
39:21I'm kind of
39:22freaking out
39:22because I don't know
39:23where this thing went.
39:25At this point,
39:26I was still
39:27maintaining
39:28the small part
39:29of my brain
39:29that could be
39:31convinced
39:31that this was
39:32some kind of
39:33large animal
39:34from the animal kingdom.
39:35I wanted to believe
39:36that.
39:38The eyes reappeared
39:41like we saw
39:42the eyes open,
39:43but now
39:44it was like
39:45seven feet
39:45off the ground.
39:47Just staring
39:48at me.
39:51It felt
39:52like we were
39:53in danger.
39:55the fear.
39:56was really
39:56setting
39:57into all
39:58of us.
39:59Suddenly,
40:00just
40:01poof,
40:02disappears.
40:03That's when we
40:04start running.
40:05It's time to go.
40:06It's time to go.
40:09I just remember
40:10getting to the top
40:11of the hill
40:12and it's just
40:13dead quiet.
40:15Once safe,
40:17John begins
40:17to process
40:18their experience.
40:19I had an encounter
40:21with something.
40:21I don't know
40:22what it was.
40:24The next day
40:25is when it started
40:26getting really strange.
40:27In the daytime,
40:28I go back down there
40:29and I'm going to see
40:30if there's any evidence.
40:34And I got some
40:35pictures of this.
40:36We could see
40:36where we had been
40:37throwing sticks
40:37on the ground.
40:38We could see
40:39all the clutter
40:40on the forest floor.
40:43And right there
40:44were these
40:46X-shaped
40:47stick structures
40:49in the trees.
40:50And there were
40:51multiple of them
40:52exactly where
40:53we reasoned
40:54we had seen
40:55the eyes.
40:57I know for a fact
40:58they weren't there
40:58before because
40:59I had just spent
41:00several days
41:01filming in these woods.
41:03When it comes
41:05to unknown creatures
41:06and monsters,
41:08Xs are territorial markers,
41:10evidence of intelligence
41:11or warnings.
41:13In Algonquin folklore,
41:15this behavior
41:16is associated
41:17with a variety
41:17of cryptid animals,
41:19most notably
41:20the Wendigo.
41:22What I felt
41:23like I saw
41:24and what I felt
41:25in the moment
41:26was an evil presence.
41:30the way it
41:31stalked up to us
41:33and paused,
41:34the way it tried
41:36to hide itself
41:36and remain
41:38undetected,
41:40no footprints,
41:42strange structures
41:42in the trees,
41:44some sort of
41:44spiritual aspect
41:45to it.
41:46The history
41:47of where we're at
41:48tells me
41:48when to go
41:49is a reasonable guess.
41:52across America,
41:55ancient woods
41:56and endless swamps
41:58may hide
41:58more than wildlife.
42:01In the darkness,
42:03unknown predators
42:05may be on the hunt
42:07and we
42:09may be their prey.
42:10of the
42:13You
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