WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man, UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.280 We're going to do something a little different today. We've 14 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:07.280 spent a lot of time together out there in the 15 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.879 deep woods, trudging through old growth timber, following game trails 16 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:15.319 into places most people would never set foot, chasing down 17 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.400 encounters with things that shouldn't exist in the shadows between 18 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:21.560 the trees. And I love that, you know I do. 19 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:25.760 That's my world and it always will be. But tonight 20 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.120 we're stepping away from the tree line. We're leaving the 21 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.719 forest behind, at least for now, because I've been sitting 22 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.359 on a collection of accounts that have genuinely rattled me 23 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.400 in ways I wasn't expecting. And if you followed this 24 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.120 show for any length of time, you know it takes 25 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.120 quite a bit to get under my skin. What we're 26 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:48.560 diving into tonight deals with something called the hitchhiker effect. Now, 27 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:50.879 some of you have probably heard this term thrown around, 28 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:54.200 maybe in connection with Skinwalker Ranch or some of the 29 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:57.280 research that's come out of the Old NIDS program, the 30 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:02.000 National Institute for Discovery Science, Robert Bigelow's outfit that studied 31 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.719 that property in the Uenta Basin back in the nineties. 32 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.800 But here's the thing. Most people don't realize. The hitchhiker 33 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:12.719 effect isn't limited to one ranch in northeastern Utah. It's 34 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:16.280 not even limited to one type of location. What we're 35 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.400 talking about is a phenomenon where someone visits a place 36 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.960 of high strangeness, a place where the veil between what 37 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:27.560 we understand and what we don't seems dangerously thin, and 38 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:31.080 something follows them home. I'm not talking about a feeling. 39 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:34.360 I'm not talking about the hebegbis or an over active 40 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:38.800 imagination fueled by one too many campfire stories. I'm talking 41 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:43.800 about tangible, measurable, terrifying manifestations that begin occurring in people's homes, 42 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.680 in their vehicles, around their families after they visited these locations. 43 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:52.680 Shadow figures standing at the foot of the bed, objects 44 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:56.599 moving on their own, electronics going haywire in ways that 45 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:01.639 defy every rational explanation, Animals behaving as though something invisible 46 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:05.000 has entered the room, and in the worst cases, the 47 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.000 cases that keep me up at night. Whatever follows these 48 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.759 people home doesn't just make its presence known, it escalates. 49 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.599 Doctor Colm Kelleher, who spent years as the lead scientist 50 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.199 on the Skinwalker Ranch project, coined the term, and he's 51 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:22.639 been very clear about what he observed. It wasn't just 52 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.639 the people who worked on the ranch who experienced these things. 53 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:30.080 It was their families, their neighbors, people who had no 54 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.680 idea what their loved one had been investigating, who suddenly 55 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:36.520 found themselves living in what can only be described as 56 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:41.039 a haunted house, except it hadn't been haunted before. Whatever 57 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.000 was happening at these sites of high strangeness had the 58 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:48.360 ability the intelligence and apparently the desire to attach itself 59 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:52.000 to human beings and follow them wherever they went. Now 60 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:54.319 I've spent the better part of two years tracking down 61 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:58.280 accounts from people all across this country who believe, who 62 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:02.319 are absolutely convinced that something latched onto them after visiting 63 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:04.159 a location they never should have gone to. 64 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:06.800 Some of these folks visited well. 65 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:10.800 Known paranormal hotspots. Others stumbled onto places they didn't even 66 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:14.520 realize were significant until everything in their lives started coming 67 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:18.480 apart at the seams. The stories spanned decades, from the 68 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:21.360 nineteen seventies all the wait to just a couple years ago. 69 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.920 They come from Utah and Oregon and West Virginia and 70 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:29.720 Massachusetts and Georgia and Colorado. The witnesses are ranchers and 71 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:34.040 investigators and documentary filmmakers and ordinary people who were just 72 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.560 in the wrong place at the wrong time. What ties 73 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.560 every single one of these accounts together is a pattern 74 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.160 so consistent it'll make the hair stand up on the 75 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:47.199 back of your neck. They visited a place, they experienced 76 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:49.959 something strange while they were there, and then they went 77 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.920 home thinking it was over. It wasn't over. It was 78 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.439 just beginning. So settle in. Turn down the lights if 79 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.920 you're feeling brave, and let's get into it. These are 80 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.439 six true accounts of the hitchhiker effect, stories of what 81 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.240 happens when something from the other side decides you're too 82 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.920 interesting to let go. And I got to be honest 83 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:12.199 with you, some of these kept me up at night. 84 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.360 I think they'll do the same for you. Let's start 85 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.480 this thing where it arguably all began, or at least 86 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:21.920 where we first started paying serious attention. The U went 87 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:26.639 to Basin in northeastern Utah. Now long before Robert Bigelow 88 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.680 purchased what we'd all come to know as Skinwalker Ranch 89 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.319 in nineteen ninety six, That entire basin had a reputation 90 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.600 among the locals. The Ute people had spoken about it 91 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:39.920 for generations. They'd called the area a place where the 92 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:44.040 spirits walk, and they didn't go there after dark. Period, 93 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:47.639 no debate about it. Their elders had made it very 94 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:52.199 clear that land belonged to something else. In the fall 95 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:55.519 of nineteen seventy eight, a cattle rancher named Dale Meyerhoff 96 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.839 and I'm using a pseudonym here because his family specifically 97 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:02.560 requested it, owned about four hundred acres of grazing land 98 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:05.920 roughly fourteen miles southeast of what would later become the 99 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:10.360 Skinwalker Ranch property. Dale was a no nonsense kind of guy, 100 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:14.000 third generation rancher, the kind of man who got up 101 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:16.839 before dawn, worked until his body told him to stop, 102 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.680 and didn't have much patience for what he called campfire nonsense. 103 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:26.000 His wife, Carol, was cut from the same cloth, practical, grounded, 104 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:28.439 not the type of people who went looking for things 105 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:31.160 that go bump in the night. But something had been 106 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.439 happening to Dale's cattle over the course of about six 107 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.879 weeks that September. In October, he'd lost forehead under circumstances 108 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:42.360 he couldn't explain. Two of them he'd found with incisions 109 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.560 so clean and precise they looked surgical. There was no 110 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:49.040 blood at the scene none, And if you know anything 111 00:06:49.079 --> 00:06:52.759 about cattle ranching, you know that doesn't happen. A predator 112 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.279 kill is messy, it's violent. What Dale was finding looked 113 00:06:57.319 --> 00:06:59.439 like something out of a science fiction movie. 114 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:00.279 Now. 115 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:03.519 A neighbor of his, a man named Hank, who ran 116 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.600 sheep about three miles north, told Dale he'd been seeing 117 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:11.839 lights at night, not headlights, not aircraft. Hank described them 118 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:15.879 as orange orbs about the size of a basketball, drifting 119 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.680 silently over the Mesa to the east of their properties. 120 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:23.199 He'd watch them on three separate occasions, always between midnight 121 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:25.759 and two in the morning, and each time they'd hover 122 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:29.199 for a while before shooting straight up and vanishing. Hank 123 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:31.680 was spooked, but Dale figured there had to be a 124 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:38.439 rational explanation, military testing, ball lightning something, so Dale decided 125 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.399 he'd go have a look for himself. One night in 126 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:43.759 late October, he drove his truck out to the Mesa 127 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:46.720 and parked near an old access road that ran along 128 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:50.079 the base of a sandstone ridge. He brought a thermos 129 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:53.360 of coffee, a rifle, and a spotlight. He was going 130 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:56.199 to sit there all night if he had to. Here's 131 00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:59.319 what Dale told a muphonn investigator in a recorded interview 132 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:02.680 in nineteen eighty and I tracked down the transcript of 133 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:05.360 this through a researcher in Salt Lake City who'd been 134 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.560 archiving basin cases for decades. According to Dale, he sat 135 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:11.959 in that truck for about three hours, seeing nothing but 136 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:15.920 stars and darkness. He was starting to feel foolish, and 137 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.519 then right around one fifteen in the morning, something changed. 138 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:22.680 He said the air got heavy. That was the word 139 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:27.040 he kept using, heavy, like the atmospheric pressure had shifted. 140 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:31.079 In an instant, his ears popped. The truck's radio, which 141 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.080 had been playing a country station out of Vernal, dissolved 142 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.840 into static and then went dead entirely. Then he saw it. 143 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:41.120 A light appeared on the ridge above him, maybe two 144 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:45.559 hundred yards out. It was orange, just like Hank had described. 145 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.080 But what Hank hadn't mentioned, or maybe hadn't seen up 146 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:53.279 close enough to notice, was that it pulsated. Dale said, 147 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:56.320 it looked almost like it was breathing. It hovered there 148 00:08:56.360 --> 00:08:59.639 for a solid minute, and he sat frozen, the rifle 149 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:03.759 across his lap, the spotlight forgotten on the seat beside him, 150 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.799 and then it moved toward him. Not fast, not aggressive, 151 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:11.240 just a slow, deliberate drift down the face of the ridge. 152 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:14.240 And as it got closer, Dale said he could see 153 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.320 that it wasn't just light, there was something inside it. 154 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:20.720 He described it as a shape, a dark mass at 155 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:23.879 the center of the glow, roughly humanoid, but wrong in 156 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:27.480 its proportions. The arms were too long, the head was 157 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:28.919 too narrow, and. 158 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:30.240 It was watching him. 159 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:32.799 He couldn't explain how he knew that, but he was 160 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:36.360 certain of it. Dale started the truck and left. He 161 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:39.159 drove home doing seventy on dirt roads and didn't look 162 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.480 in the rear view mirror once. He told Carol what happened, 163 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:44.639 and she told him to stay away from that mesa, 164 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:48.159 and he intended to. He fully intended to put the 165 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:52.279 whole experience behind him, But three nights later it started. 166 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:54.679 Carol woke up at two in the morning to a 167 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:57.639 sound she described as something heavy dragging across the roof 168 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:02.480 of the house, not footsteps, a dragging, scraping sound, like 169 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:05.960 someone pulling a log across the shingles. She woke Dale, 170 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:08.159 and by the time he got outside with the rifle, 171 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:12.360 the sound had stopped. But their dogs, two blue heelers, 172 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.720 who were afraid of absolutely nothing, were cowering under the 173 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:20.600 porch whimpering. They wouldn't come out. Dale had to physically 174 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.240 pull them from under there the next morning, and even 175 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:25.840 then they wouldn't go near the east side of the house. 176 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:30.039 Over the following weeks, the Meyerhoff household descended into what 177 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.840 I can only describe as a siege. Objects moved on 178 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:36.600 their own. Carol would set her coffee cup on the 179 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:39.080 kitchen counter and find it on the living room floor. 180 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:42.600 Doors that Dale had locked would be standing wide open 181 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:43.200 in the morning. 182 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:45.200 One night, they. 183 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:48.039 Both watched as a kitchen chair slid approximately three feet 184 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:51.960 across the linoleum floor with no one near it, just slid, 185 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:55.759 smooth and deliberate, as if someone invisible had pulled it 186 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.919 out from the table. But the shadow was the worst part. 187 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.480 Well first saw it standing in the hallway outside their 188 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:05.559 bedroom about two weeks after his night on the MESA. 189 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:08.159 He'd gotten up to use the bathroom and there it was, 190 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:12.399 a figure, solid black, standing perfectly still at the end 191 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:12.919 of the hall. 192 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.399 It was tall, too tall. 193 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.960 It nearly touched the ceiling, and their hallway ceiling was 194 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.200 a good eight feet. Dale said he couldn't see features, 195 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.360 couldn't see eyes, but he could feel it looking at 196 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.600 him with something he described as curiosity mixed with malice. 197 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.440 He stood there, staring at it for probably thirty seconds, 198 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:36.320 and then it simply wasn't there anymore. It didn't walk away, 199 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:40.600 it didn't dissolve. One moment it existed and the next 200 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:45.600 it didn't. Carol saw it too, multiple times in the hallway, 201 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:50.000 in the kitchen, once standing beside their bed at three 202 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.279 in the morning, leaning over her She woke up feeling 203 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:55.759 what she called a pressure on her chest and opened 204 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:58.600 her eyes to find this towering black shape inches from 205 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:01.679 her face. It screamed so loud the neighbors a half 206 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:05.720 mile away heard it. Dale contacted a pastor from their church. 207 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:10.519 The pastor came out, prayed over the house, blessed every room. 208 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:13.799 The activity stopped for exactly forty eight hours, and then 209 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:17.440 came back worse. Now there were sounds, not just the 210 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:22.159 dragging on the roof, but knocking, three deliberate knocks on walls, 211 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.879 on windows, on the bedroom door at night, always in 212 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:29.399 sets of three. The final straw came in December of 213 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:33.159 nineteen seventy eight. Dale walked into his barn one morning 214 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:35.519 and found one of his horses dead in its stall. 215 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:39.600 There was no visible cause of death, no wounds, no 216 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:43.120 signs of colic, no indication the animal had been distressed. 217 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.600 But the horse's eyes were wide open, and Dale said 218 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:49.960 its face was frozen in an expression of absolute terror. 219 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:54.279 The veterinarian who examined it could find no cause of death. 220 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:58.639 The heart had simply stopped. The Meyerhoff sold that property 221 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:02.039 in the spring of nineteen seventy nine and moved to Provo. 222 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:05.039 According to the Moufon file, the activity followed them for 223 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.919 approximately three more months in the new location before gradually 224 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.960 tapering off. Dale never went back to the basin. He 225 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.320 passed away in two thousand and four, and to the 226 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.039 end of his life he maintained that something had followed 227 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:21.320 him home from that mesa, something that had been waiting 228 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:23.559 out there in the dark long before he showed up, 229 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:27.879 and something that, for reasons he'd never understand, had decided 230 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:30.559 to come home with him. And here's what gets me 231 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.840 about Dale's story. Here's the detail that really ties it 232 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.639 to the hitchhiker effect as we'd come to understand it 233 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:41.360 decades later. The activity didn't stay confined to Dale. His 234 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:44.360 nearest neighbor on the new property in Provo, a woman 235 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:47.480 named Linda, reported seeing a tall shadow figure in her 236 00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:50.840 backyard twice in the weeks after the Meyerhoffs moved in. 237 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:55.600 She'd never experienced anything like it before. Whatever had attached 238 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:59.039 itself to Dale, it wasn't just following him. It was 239 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:04.240 radiating out word affecting everyone in proximity. That's the signature. 240 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.440 That's what makes this thing different from your standard haunting, 241 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.519 and that's what makes it so terrifying. Now, let's head 242 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:15.240 southeast to a place I know well, being from Georgia myself, 243 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:17.799 and I've got to tell you this one hits a 244 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:21.720 little closer to home in more ways than one. Chickamauga 245 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:25.039 Battlefield sits in the northwest corner of Georgia, right there 246 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:27.960 along the Tennessee border, and it's one of the bloodiest 247 00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:32.919 pieces of ground in American history. September of eighteen sixty three, 248 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:36.200 over thirty four thousand men were killed, wounded, or went 249 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:38.759 missing in a two day battle that remains the second 250 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:43.000 bloodiest engagement of the entire Civil War, right behind Gettysburg. 251 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.480 The land there carries a weight. You can feel it 252 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:49.960 when you walk those fields. I've been there myself, and 253 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.240 I don't mind telling you that, even in broad daylight, 254 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:57.480 there are spots on that battlefield where the air feels different, thicker, older, 255 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:00.240 like the ground itself is holding on to some something 256 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:03.320 it can't let go of. Stay tuned for more Backwoods 257 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:08.679 Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. The park 258 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.759 rangers and locals have reported strange occurrences there for over 259 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:17.080 a century. Apparitions of soldiers, unexplained sounds of gunfire and screaming, 260 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:20.360 a phantom figure known as Old Green Eyes that's been 261 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.919 spotted near the monument area for decades. But what most 262 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.759 people don't know is that Chickamauga has its own version 263 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:29.559 of the hitchhiker effect, and the case I'm about to 264 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.200 tell you is one of the most well documented examples 265 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:36.159 outside the Uenta Basin. In the spring of nineteen eighty six, 266 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:41.200 a paranormal investigator named Gerald Whitfield organized an overnight investigation 267 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:45.799 of the battlefield. Gerald was a serious researcher, former high 268 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.600 school history teacher, amateur historian, and founding member of a 269 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:53.720 small paranormal investigation group based out of Chattanooga called the 270 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:58.879 Tennessee Valley Paranormal Society. He'd been investigating alleged hauntings for 271 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:02.279 about twelve years at the point, and he'd never experienced 272 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:06.679 anything he couldn't explain away with a rational cause. Gerald was, 273 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:10.279 by his own admission, a skeptic who desperately wanted to believe, 274 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.559 but hadn't found his proof yet. He brought three other 275 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:17.440 investigators with him that April night, his wife Donna, a 276 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:21.519 man named Ray Castillo, who handled their electronic equipment, and 277 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:24.600 a woman named Patricia Bowman, who served as the group's 278 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:28.360 historian and researcher. They set up near the Brotherton cabin 279 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:32.159 area around nine in the evening, equipped with audio recorders, 280 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:36.080 a couple of early model video cameras, and electromagnetic field 281 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:38.799 detectors that Ray had built himself from a kit he'd 282 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:42.039 ordered out of a magazine. For the first few hours, 283 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:46.919 nothing happened. They recorded audio and various locations, took baseline 284 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000 EMF readings, and walked the fields in the dark with flashlights. 285 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:54.759 Gerald was starting to think it'd be another uneventful night. 286 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:58.519 Then around midnight, Patricia called the group over to an 287 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:00.720 area near the tree line at the other edge of. 288 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:01.600 The Brotherton field. 289 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:06.559 She said she'd heard something, not gunfire, not screaming, but 290 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.920 what she described as breathing, heavy, labored breathing, as though 291 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.880 someone very close to her was struggling to draw air. 292 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:17.119 She said it sounded wet, like there was fluid in 293 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:20.079 the lungs now. For those of you who know your 294 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:23.039 Civil War history, you know that many of the soldiers 295 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:26.720 who died at Chickamauga succumbed to chest wounds. The mini 296 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.720 balls used in that era caused catastrophic internal damage, and 297 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:33.000 a man shot through the chest would have spent his 298 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:37.440 final minutes doing exactly what Patricia described, struggling to breathe 299 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.519 through lungs filling with blood. Gerald moved to Patricia's location 300 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:44.119 and confirmed he could hear it too. He said it 301 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:45.920 seemed to be coming from a point in the air, 302 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:48.720 about three feet off the ground and maybe six feet 303 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.440 in front of them. Ray started getting emf readings that were, 304 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:56.400 in his words, off the charts. The needle on his 305 00:17:56.440 --> 00:18:00.440 homemade meter was buried in the red Donna began rolling video, 306 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.759 though it was too dark to capture much visually, and 307 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:07.680 then something happened that changed everything for Gerald Whitfield. He 308 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.079 turned on his flashlight and swept the beam across the 309 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:13.759 tree line, and for just a moment, he estimated less 310 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:17.279 than two seconds, the beam illuminated a figure standing among 311 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:21.119 the trees. It wasn't a Civil War soldier, it wasn't 312 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:24.599 a ghost in period clothing. Gerald described it as a 313 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:28.480 mass of darkness in a vaguely human shape, standing motionless, 314 00:18:28.519 --> 00:18:30.799 approximately twenty feet from where they stood. 315 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:33.200 But what disturbed him, what. 316 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:35.599 He'd emphasized every time he retold this story for the 317 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.559 rest of his life. Was that the flashlight beam didn't 318 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:41.559 illuminate it the way it should have. The light hit 319 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:44.559 this thing and seemed to be absorbed. It didn't reflect, 320 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:48.200 It didn't cast a shadow behind the figure. The darkness 321 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.319 that composed this shape was somehow deeper and more absolute 322 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:56.400 than the darkness surrounding it. Gerald's flashlight died. Brand new 323 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:02.400 batteries installed that evening dead raise EMF meter stopped functioning. 324 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:07.359 Donna's video camera powered itself off and wouldn't restart. Every 325 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.880 piece of electronic equipment they'd brought went dark simultaneously. 326 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:12.000 They left. 327 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:15.079 Gerald made the call, and they packed up and drove 328 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:18.400 back to Chattanooga, arriving at Gerald and Donna's home around 329 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:21.359 two thirty in the morning. They debriefed in the living 330 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.880 room for about an hour and everyone went to bed, 331 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:28.559 and for about forty eight hours, everything seemed fine. Then 332 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:32.039 Donna noticed the smell. It started in the guest bedroom 333 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.200 but spread through the house over the course of a day, 334 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.839 A thick, sweet, rotten smell that Jerald said was unmistakable 335 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:43.359 if you'd ever encountered it decomposition. It smelled like something 336 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:47.440 had died inside their walls. Jerald tore open drywall in 337 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:50.359 two rooms looking for a dead animal. He checked the 338 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:53.039 crawl space, the attic, the duct work. 339 00:19:53.799 --> 00:19:54.160 Nothing. 340 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:57.400 The smell would intensify at night and seemed to fade 341 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:01.079 during the day, but it never fully went away. Then 342 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:05.319 came the footsteps, heavy deliberate footsteps, crossing the second floor 343 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.200 of their home in the middle of the night. Gerald 344 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:10.759 and Donna's bedroom was on the first floor, and the 345 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:14.559 second floor was used only for storage. Night after night, 346 00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:17.039 they'd lie in bed listening to something paced back and 347 00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:20.680 forth above them, the old hardwood floor creaking under what 348 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:25.480 sounded like considerable weight. Jerald set up audio recording equipment 349 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:28.279 on the second floor. When he played the tapes back, 350 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.039 the footsteps were clearly audible, But there was something else 351 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:36.759 on the recordings too. Underneath the footsteps, barely perceptible, was 352 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:42.240 a sound that Gerald described as moaning, low, continuous, agonized moaning, 353 00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:44.920 like a man in tremendous pain, trying not. 354 00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:45.640 To cry out. 355 00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:50.400 Ray Castillo started experiencing things at his own home, lights 356 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:54.240 turning on and off, his television changing channels on its own. 357 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.440 One morning, he walked into his kitchen to find every 358 00:20:57.480 --> 00:20:59.599 cabinet door standing wide open. 359 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:01.359 Lived alone. 360 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:06.680 Patricia Bowman reported persistent nightmares, always the same dream, always 361 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:10.119 the same scenario. She was lying on the ground, unable 362 00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:12.440 to move while a figure made of shadow leaned over 363 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.720 her and she could feel it pulling something out of 364 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:19.160 her chest. She'd wake up gasping, unable to breathe, with 365 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:22.279 what felt like bruises on her sternum. She went to 366 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:25.400 a doctor who found nothing wrong, but Gerald and Donna 367 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:28.319 bore the brunt of it. Over the next three months, 368 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:32.160 their home became what Jerald documented in painstaking detail in 369 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:34.680 a journal that was later shared with researchers at the 370 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:39.680 Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina. The footsteps continued nightly, 371 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:44.880 the smell persisted. New phenomena appeared, cold spots that would 372 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:48.240 materialize in the middle of rooms, dropping the temperature by 373 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:51.160 what Gerald measured as fifteen to twenty degrees in a 374 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:55.559 localized area no more than three feet in diameter, scratching 375 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:58.039 sounds inside the walls that would follow them from room 376 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:02.039 to room, and the shadow feels. Gerald saw it first 377 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:05.920 in the hallway, the same configuration Dale Meyerhoff had described 378 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:09.519 eight years earlier and one thousand miles away. Though neither 379 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:14.160 man would ever know about the other. A tall, dark form, featureless, 380 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.559 standing motionless, and radiating what Gerald could only describe as attention. 381 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.319 It appeared three more times in the hallway, once in 382 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:26.160 the living room, and once the incident that nearly broke 383 00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:29.640 Jerald's resolve, standing over Donna's side of the bed. At 384 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:33.279 four in the morning, Donna woke up screaming. She said 385 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.079 she'd felt a hand on her throat, not squeezing, not choking, 386 00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:43.680 but resting there, cold, heavy, possessive. When she opened her eyes, 387 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:46.240 the figure was leaning over her, and she could feel 388 00:22:46.279 --> 00:22:50.759 its breath, not warm like a living thing's breath, but cold, 389 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:53.599 a stream of frigid air on her face that smelled 390 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:58.039 like turned earth and copper. Gerald contacted every resource he 391 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:01.119 could think of. He brought in a Baptist minister who 392 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:04.319 performed a blessing. He brought in a Catholic deacon who 393 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:08.920 conducted what amounted to an informal exorcism. He even consulted 394 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:12.279 a Cherokee medicine woman from the reservation in North Carolina, 395 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:17.160 based on a recommendation from a colleague. Each intervention provided 396 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:21.079 temporary relief, a few days, maybe a week, of reduced 397 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:25.880 activity before it came roaring back. The activity finally began 398 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:28.400 to diminish in the late summer of nineteen eighty six, 399 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:32.960 roughly five months after the investigation at Chickamauga. It didn't 400 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:33.880 stop all at once. 401 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:35.119