Originally published in Paranormal Pennsylvania Issue No. 2 October 2002
It was February 14th of 2002 about 6:00 AM in the morning hour. While driving west on Route 23 between Silver Spring and Marietta, Pennsylvania I noticed a figure that appeared to be walking on the road directly in front of me.
On this stretch of road in the early morning hours there is not much traffic. While slowing down as to not to hit what I thought to be a person on the road I approached and was starting to get a bit nervous. Even though it was still dark out with my headlights shining I could see this figure walking in the road straight ahead of me.
As I slowly approached, the figure appeared to be dressed in all black and continued to walk not aware of the automobile that was behind it.
As my car was now just coasting slowly I could see this black figure and noticed short black hair covering its body from behind. This figure appeared to me to be about 5 and a half feet tall and really skinny I am guessing about 80 lbs. It was like it wasn’t concerned about me being behind it or maybe it didn’t even know.
I was a little shaken but curios as to what this was. All sorts of things were going through my mind. Was it a kid dressed up but why at that time of day. Was I daydreaming?
I can’t really say how long this event at lasted, it happened quickly but seem to be just a flash before it was over.
I got that close to this figure that I could almost touch it with the car but still it kept walking. It wasn’t until I put the high beam of the headlights that it finally took notice. At that moment I got scared as a chill went up my spine as the figure turned around and looked me straight in the eyes.
I became more frightened now as there were two yellow looking eyes staring at me.
It wasn’t an evil look but just a look of recognition I suppose but still I was frightened at what I was looking at when it simply vanished. I sat on the road for a moment looking to see where it could have taken off to but there was no explanation.
I could see nothing on the left side of the road which was a field and the right side which was also a field.
Now I was scared but curious as to what I had seen and I broke the speed limit getting to the nearest phone that day. I called my girlfriend to tell her what I had seen and she knew something was wrong, she could tell in my voice.
Returning home I drove past the place where I had seen this person or creature or whatever it was and even when driving past I got the chills.
When my girlfriend came home that night from work she knew something was bothering me and that I wasn’t the same. I am not a man that is easily frightened, I have done over 600 investigations of haunted places and I can tell you that this was the first time that I can say I was a little scared.
I didn’t sleep for a couple of days after that because the visions of the yellow eyes were haunting me. I really can’t explain what happened that morning because that is the first time something like that has ever happened to me.
Depiction of creature - illustration by John D. Weaver ©
It wasn’t until a few days later that I received a call from Eric Altman of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society of which I am a member. He told me of a reported sighting of some strange tracks that were found at a reservoir in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. I told him I would investigate it.
It didn’t dawn on me until a couple of weeks later that the day I had this encounter was also the day the tracks were found in Waynesboro.
Was this a vision, dream, premonition of what was to come by Eric calling me days after I had seen this, or did this really happen. I will never know but one thing is for sure even to this day when I go by this place I still get the chills and frightened feeling.
I thought about going back there to look for tracks the day after this happened but I dismissed this as daydreaming I actually believed I didn’t see this happen. About two weeks later I was reading a Bigfoot book where one of the stories says that a woman actually shot at one of these creatures that came to her door, when she fired the shotgun blast at the creature it simply disappeared in front of her. No blood no tracks.
This had me thinking that maybe I did see something after all but by then the tracks or any sign of this creature would have been gone. Did I see something that morning I don’t know but it certainly did put a scare into me?