Leanne Smith couldn’t explain her panic.
Smith carpooled to work in Deale, Md., in 1999 when one night her driver stopped at a small grocery store, leaving Smith in the pickup alone.
“We parked at the edge of the parking lot with the store entrance and lot behind us,” Smith said. “We had worked late and it was well after dusk.”
Smith relaxed as she sat in the truck, watching cars going through the intersection, waiting for the driver to come back.
“I make note of my emotions because in this peaceful, relaxed state, I was hit with an unbelievably strong sense of fear or danger,” she said. “There was no rational explanation for this intense fear and I was able to be objective. It was really strange to me, feeling this fear all of a sudden.”
Realizing she was slipping into a panic attack, Smith tried to figure out what might have triggered this immediate overwhelming terror.
“The fear or sense of danger didn’t increase or become more intense,” Smith said. “The (initial) intensity was extraordinary.”
Then she noticed a possible trigger for her fear; a group of about 10 young men who were “roughhousing” in the parking lot behind her. Smith leaned closer to the passenger side mirror to watch them.
“A couple of them sounded drunk and it sounded as though it was possible a fight might be brewing,” she said. “I went to move the rear-view mirror to get a better view and saw something out of the corner of my eye.”
From the passenger seat, Smith slowly looked to her left, and found the cause for her terror.
“I looked over at the driver’s window and there, facing me, was a woman looking in at me,” she said. “Not just glancing in, she had her shoulders square to the driver’s door of the pickup, standing about a foot and a half away from the window, which was closed.”
The appearance of the woman rammed the intense fear deeper into Smith.
“My heart shot to my throat and I couldn’t move,” she said. “I just looked at her and she at me.”
Although the harsh shadows cast by the yellow streetlamps obscured part of the woman’s face, Smith could see her eyes. The eyes looked “empty.” Smith said the streetlamps that reflected off everything in the parking lot didn’t reflect in her eyes.
“They appeared dead,” Smith said. “Black voids. Nothing there. She seemed to have a look on her face as if she knew the fear that gripped me and enjoyed it.”
The woman’s gaze held Smith fast.
“I don’t know how long she stood there,” Smith said. “It didn’t seem to be very long, but at the same time, the intense fear made it seem like minutes.”
The woman suddenly turned and got into the passenger seat of a 1972 Plymouth Duster parked beside the pickup where Smith sat.
“The driver, who I couldn’t see, backed the car out of the lot and left,” Smith said. “Immediately, all fear and sense of danger was gone. Very strange to me how sudden it was with it being so intense a few moments before.”
Although Smith has seen this distinctive car a number of times since, she’s never again encountered the sinister woman with the black, dead eyes.
“I filed it away as a question mark and haven’t really thought much about it until I recently read a thread with a reference to ‘black-eyed kids,’” Smith said. “I looked at different blogs referring to these ‘black-eyed kids,’ and came across an anecdote with a description of a woman with black eyes and the unbelievable sense of danger the author experienced and it reminded me of my experience.”
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A Missouri Bigfoot – Part 2
Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story of Bigfoot encounters in Southeast Missouri.
Ken Mattheis had a flat tire. He and his cousin Jim had ridden their bicycles into Leasburg, a rural Southeast Missouri town, and now couldn’t get home – so they called Grandpa.
“My grandpa was in his 90s and he drove really slow,” Mattheis said.
As his grandfather puttered down Route H, Mattheis and his cousin, sitting in the bed of the pickup, saw a man walking in a field.
“I saw what looked like a large man in a light brown winter coat in coveralls with a hood up walking in a field,” he said. “It was all light brown, the hair, face and hands was like the color of hay.”
The man was large and swung his arms like a cross-country skier.
“We got closer and I realized it was a Bigfoot,” Mattheis said. “The hair on top of the head was long and it went straight up and looked really strange like a Conehead.”
The boys sat in the truck, staring at the Bigfoot as their grandfather motored by. The thing never looked at the truck. It just kept walking until it reached the woods.
The boys didn’t say anything to their grandfather, who didn’t see the brown man walking in the field. Mattheis had a more personal experience a few years later.
“I had a truck and was with several of my cousins and his friends and we had nothing to do so I decided to go drive them into the woods that night and go listen for the panther screams,” he said. “We drove into the woods and parked, and I think four or five kids were in back of this truck.”
After a few minutes of silence, the teens heard something large walking toward them through the woods.
“We could hear something large in the woods coming towards us breaking limbs and breathing really loud in and out as if it had breathing problems,” he said. “The kids freaked and wanted to leave, but I said, ‘no, lets see what’s coming.’ I'd like to know what the hell is making all that noise.”
The breathing thing circled the truck, breaking tree limbs and throwing branches toward the boys.
“A kid laying down in back of this truck started punching my back window screaming at me if I didn't get us out of here right now he was going to drag my ass out of the truck and leave me here with it,” Mattheis said. “I started the truck and turned on the lights and left in a hurry as I was more scared of this kid kicking my ass than whatever was in the woods.”
Mattheis is convinced the thing circling the truck was a Bigfoot. He later bought a camera to take a picture of the beast that’s life kept intersecting his own, but has yet to photograph one.
In the 1990s, Mattheis began using the Internet to communicate with Bigfoot researchers and met a researcher named Coonbo.
“Coonbo was the first person that I know (who) claimed to be able to call them to show up,” Mattheis said. “He would hoot like an owl and then we'd hear owl hoots back and we'd hear it coming through the woods and we'd smell the nastiest smelling musk and then we'd leave.”
A heavy musk scent has long been associated with Bigfoot.
“So I started doing this in Missouri and it didn't take long for me to call them to show up,” he said. “My wife has a degree in anthropology and she thought I was just nuts for even thinking Bigfoot existed, so I took her into the woods.”
They walked to the creek – the same creek Mattheis’ grandmother warned him away from – and did an owl call. A call came back.
“I said, it’s going to circle us and come down this hill behind us and do another call,’” he said. “A few minutes later we heard a really loud ‘who.’ She said, ‘that’s not an owl,’ and started crying and got into the car and said, ‘can we go home now?’”
Mattheis waited, telling his wife the thing that made the sound would go to the top of the hill and knock with a tree branch.
It did.
“She said, ‘OK, I believe they exist. Now take me home,’” Mattheis said. “She started crying and to this day she will not go into the woods at night.”
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Ken Mattheis had a flat tire. He and his cousin Jim had ridden their bicycles into Leasburg, a rural Southeast Missouri town, and now couldn’t get home – so they called Grandpa.
“My grandpa was in his 90s and he drove really slow,” Mattheis said.
As his grandfather puttered down Route H, Mattheis and his cousin, sitting in the bed of the pickup, saw a man walking in a field.
“I saw what looked like a large man in a light brown winter coat in coveralls with a hood up walking in a field,” he said. “It was all light brown, the hair, face and hands was like the color of hay.”
The man was large and swung his arms like a cross-country skier.
“We got closer and I realized it was a Bigfoot,” Mattheis said. “The hair on top of the head was long and it went straight up and looked really strange like a Conehead.”
The boys sat in the truck, staring at the Bigfoot as their grandfather motored by. The thing never looked at the truck. It just kept walking until it reached the woods.
The boys didn’t say anything to their grandfather, who didn’t see the brown man walking in the field. Mattheis had a more personal experience a few years later.
“I had a truck and was with several of my cousins and his friends and we had nothing to do so I decided to go drive them into the woods that night and go listen for the panther screams,” he said. “We drove into the woods and parked, and I think four or five kids were in back of this truck.”
After a few minutes of silence, the teens heard something large walking toward them through the woods.
“We could hear something large in the woods coming towards us breaking limbs and breathing really loud in and out as if it had breathing problems,” he said. “The kids freaked and wanted to leave, but I said, ‘no, lets see what’s coming.’ I'd like to know what the hell is making all that noise.”
The breathing thing circled the truck, breaking tree limbs and throwing branches toward the boys.
“A kid laying down in back of this truck started punching my back window screaming at me if I didn't get us out of here right now he was going to drag my ass out of the truck and leave me here with it,” Mattheis said. “I started the truck and turned on the lights and left in a hurry as I was more scared of this kid kicking my ass than whatever was in the woods.”
Mattheis is convinced the thing circling the truck was a Bigfoot. He later bought a camera to take a picture of the beast that’s life kept intersecting his own, but has yet to photograph one.
In the 1990s, Mattheis began using the Internet to communicate with Bigfoot researchers and met a researcher named Coonbo.
“Coonbo was the first person that I know (who) claimed to be able to call them to show up,” Mattheis said. “He would hoot like an owl and then we'd hear owl hoots back and we'd hear it coming through the woods and we'd smell the nastiest smelling musk and then we'd leave.”
A heavy musk scent has long been associated with Bigfoot.
“So I started doing this in Missouri and it didn't take long for me to call them to show up,” he said. “My wife has a degree in anthropology and she thought I was just nuts for even thinking Bigfoot existed, so I took her into the woods.”
They walked to the creek – the same creek Mattheis’ grandmother warned him away from – and did an owl call. A call came back.
“I said, it’s going to circle us and come down this hill behind us and do another call,’” he said. “A few minutes later we heard a really loud ‘who.’ She said, ‘that’s not an owl,’ and started crying and got into the car and said, ‘can we go home now?’”
Mattheis waited, telling his wife the thing that made the sound would go to the top of the hill and knock with a tree branch.
It did.
“She said, ‘OK, I believe they exist. Now take me home,’” Mattheis said. “She started crying and to this day she will not go into the woods at night.”
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
A Missouri Bigfoot – Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part story of Bigfoot encounters in Southeast Missouri.
Darkness engulfed the Southeast Missouri farmhouse, the air still in the January night.
Ken Mattheis knelt behind his parent’s house working, meager light illuminating a generator, the only sign of electricity for miles.
“A few years ago the power went at my parents farm house and I went out to help them set up a generator for the first time,” he said.
He’d left a tool in the van, so he walked into the darkness to retrieve it.
“It was a cold, pitch black night,” he said. “I heard footsteps on the ice-covered grass.”
He thought it was his father outside with him, but when a tree branch snap, he knew it wasn’t his father.
“I heard crunch, crunch, then limbs started breaking and falling,” he said. “I turned to see what was causing the limbs to break and saw this large black shadow standing up under a tree behind me.”
The figure knocked down more limbs, then stopped.
“It stood still as if it was waiting for me to do something,” he said. “I thought, ‘crap, you’re not my dad.’ So, calmly I walked away from it.”
Mattheis backed inside the farmhouse.
“My dad was inside the house,” he said. “I told him, ‘we have a visitor,’ and he said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘a Bigfoot.’”
They looked out the window, but what Mattheis had seen was gone. It would be back. A few months later, Mattheis’ mother saw something strange, and telephoned him.
“She said, ‘well the other night the dog was barking out by the fence and I went out to see what it was barking at and this large black shadow stood up and walked off into the woods,’” Mattheis said. “Now my mom says the dogs are afraid to go outside at night.”
Mattheis went to the spot the next day and found large footprints in the grass. The heel of the foot had pressed deeper than the rest, the curve of the arch almost invisible.
“I have photos of the tracks,” he said. “Not great photos, but its big feet. Should have made casts of them but I didn't.”
Bigfoot sightings aren’t uncommon in Southeastern Missouri. According to reports, in the early 1980s, while camping near the Meramec River, a seven-year-old boy saw a large man-like figure covered in long, black hair near his campsite about 17 miles from the Mattheis farmhouse. In late 2000, a group of campers saw a “massive” bipedal, hairy creature walking amongst the cabins of a campsite within 20 miles from the farm. Its arms were long and swung wide as it walked; it’s head crested like a gorilla’s.
The specter of Bigfoot has been with Mattheis all his life.
“My parents owned a home by my grandparent’s farm in Crawford County and I spent summers in this home and spent a lot of time with them,” he said. “My grandmother was Native American and she would yell at me and my cousins to stay out of the creeks or the Boogey man will get ya.”
The young Mattheis thought she was just trying to keep the children away from the creek, so the warning made them want to go even more. They soon found the warning had nothing to do with the creek.
“A few times we went, we would hear something follow us and it would break tree limbs and this would scare the crap out of us kids,” he said. “We'd run home and get swatted with whatever Grandma had in her hands at the time, and she'd say, ‘keep out of the creeks.’”
Another time, the thing sent Mattheis running until he was lost and a neighbor drove him home. He didn’t see what had scared him at the creek until he was about 10 years old.
“I was sleeping in a bed with my older brother and we had the windows open,” he said. “I heard sticks breaking and I lifted the shade to look out and I saw a large, light tan, shaggy-haired animal walk by the window and I said, ‘what is that?’”
His brother jumped up, shut the shade and told him to go back to sleep, it was only a deer.
“I don't think he saw it,” Mattheis said. “It scared the crap out of me.”
A few years later, he saw it in daylight.
Next week: Daylight sightings.
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Darkness engulfed the Southeast Missouri farmhouse, the air still in the January night.
Ken Mattheis knelt behind his parent’s house working, meager light illuminating a generator, the only sign of electricity for miles.
“A few years ago the power went at my parents farm house and I went out to help them set up a generator for the first time,” he said.
He’d left a tool in the van, so he walked into the darkness to retrieve it.
“It was a cold, pitch black night,” he said. “I heard footsteps on the ice-covered grass.”
He thought it was his father outside with him, but when a tree branch snap, he knew it wasn’t his father.
“I heard crunch, crunch, then limbs started breaking and falling,” he said. “I turned to see what was causing the limbs to break and saw this large black shadow standing up under a tree behind me.”
The figure knocked down more limbs, then stopped.
“It stood still as if it was waiting for me to do something,” he said. “I thought, ‘crap, you’re not my dad.’ So, calmly I walked away from it.”
Mattheis backed inside the farmhouse.
“My dad was inside the house,” he said. “I told him, ‘we have a visitor,’ and he said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘a Bigfoot.’”
They looked out the window, but what Mattheis had seen was gone. It would be back. A few months later, Mattheis’ mother saw something strange, and telephoned him.
“She said, ‘well the other night the dog was barking out by the fence and I went out to see what it was barking at and this large black shadow stood up and walked off into the woods,’” Mattheis said. “Now my mom says the dogs are afraid to go outside at night.”
Mattheis went to the spot the next day and found large footprints in the grass. The heel of the foot had pressed deeper than the rest, the curve of the arch almost invisible.
“I have photos of the tracks,” he said. “Not great photos, but its big feet. Should have made casts of them but I didn't.”
Bigfoot sightings aren’t uncommon in Southeastern Missouri. According to reports, in the early 1980s, while camping near the Meramec River, a seven-year-old boy saw a large man-like figure covered in long, black hair near his campsite about 17 miles from the Mattheis farmhouse. In late 2000, a group of campers saw a “massive” bipedal, hairy creature walking amongst the cabins of a campsite within 20 miles from the farm. Its arms were long and swung wide as it walked; it’s head crested like a gorilla’s.
The specter of Bigfoot has been with Mattheis all his life.
“My parents owned a home by my grandparent’s farm in Crawford County and I spent summers in this home and spent a lot of time with them,” he said. “My grandmother was Native American and she would yell at me and my cousins to stay out of the creeks or the Boogey man will get ya.”
The young Mattheis thought she was just trying to keep the children away from the creek, so the warning made them want to go even more. They soon found the warning had nothing to do with the creek.
“A few times we went, we would hear something follow us and it would break tree limbs and this would scare the crap out of us kids,” he said. “We'd run home and get swatted with whatever Grandma had in her hands at the time, and she'd say, ‘keep out of the creeks.’”
Another time, the thing sent Mattheis running until he was lost and a neighbor drove him home. He didn’t see what had scared him at the creek until he was about 10 years old.
“I was sleeping in a bed with my older brother and we had the windows open,” he said. “I heard sticks breaking and I lifted the shade to look out and I saw a large, light tan, shaggy-haired animal walk by the window and I said, ‘what is that?’”
His brother jumped up, shut the shade and told him to go back to sleep, it was only a deer.
“I don't think he saw it,” Mattheis said. “It scared the crap out of me.”
A few years later, he saw it in daylight.
Next week: Daylight sightings.
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
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