Hello everyone! This is a new, hopefully continuous, weekly weird news area where we find some cool stories to share with everyone!
Our first story comes from Lon Strickler over at Phantoms and Monsters. This account is from a person in rural Lancashire, Uk when he saw eyeshine further up the road as he was driving home.
“In 2015, I was driving back from an ex-partner’s house at about 11 pm, in rural Lancashire in the north of England. It was late November from what I remember so it was a clear night, with a big bright moon and very cold out (for England at least). To get to my home, you have to cut off the motorway and take a slightly rural route up a wooded road! It’s not a large or dense wood, you can probably walk from one end to the other in 15-20 minutes, it’s roughly a 5-minute drive through the trees!
As I was driving along, the road twisted and turned as it always had the hundreds of other times I had used it, so I had to drive very slowly ( about 20 KPH) in case a car came around a bend too fast (there’s always accidents there) and so I was raising and dipping my headlights and full beam as you do. As I turned a corner, about 30 feet in front of my car was a large, scrawny, grey figure. At first, I thought it was a large branch that had fallen from the tree, so I crept toward it and put on my full beam. When I got within about 10 feet of it, the creature (or whatever it was) moved as though it was doing a press-up, pushing itself up with its arms, and my headlights caught its eyes which glowed like a cat does when you shine a light at them at night!
I stopped the car, half expecting it to just be a deer, and ran out of the way, but the creature didn’t move, it just stayed stationary, staring at me, giving me a good 10-15 seconds to look at it. It then slowly stood up on two legs, still looking at me in the car. It was BIG, the top of my car probably only reached the lower rib cage region, so I’d estimate it was probably 9-10 feet tall. It was pale grey, hairless and gaunt. I could see its rib cage and spine. It had LONG bony arms, probably each about 4 feet long, and large claw-like hands. (The closest comparative description I could give is the grey, bony werewolf in the third Harry Potter movie).
Once I had taken all this in and realised the situation, I began to panic, putting my car in reverse, but the creature then just turned and walked calmly, and silently, off into the woods next to the road. It did not run, it didn’t seem scared or intimidated, it almost seemed disinterested. I didn’t hang about to investigate the area, I went straight home and locked the door! I spoke to all my friends, and all but one of them thought I was joking, but she seemed to take it very, very seriously, having had a similar experience in a similar area a few years ago! She said it was a bad omen, and after doing some research I can understand why!
As I said, I don’t really believe in anything, and I’ve never seen anything before, I travel that road at least once or twice a week and have never seen anything since! Does anyone have any idea what it could have been? We don’t have large animals over here in the UK, the biggest we get in my area are Badgers and small and medium-sized deer! Certainly, not that size, and surely deer would startle in the headlights and run?” – O
There have been reports throughout the years of these “pale crawler” types of entities. The Dover Demon being one of the ones I can recall off the top of my head, as well as the Creepy Pasta creation, the Rake. They’ve also been likened to Ghouls from folklore. Things that hang around graveyards and dig into graves to eat cadavers. There’s also been a connection drawn between these fellas and the Hollow Earth theory/conspiracy. That these pale crawlers are denizens of that world and come up to the surface from time to time, to do gods know what. There was a story I remember where a person was looking into a graveyard and thought he saw a stump, but when it stood up fully erect on 2 legs, he was thoroughly spooked. It was theorized that when the person first saw it that it might have been coming out of the ground, hence why they thought it was a stump. All of these reports are creepy, but from what I’ve gathered they dont seem to be hostile. Could be wrong though, so keep your eyes peeled as youre driving at night. Apparently there’s more to be scared of on the road than just deer and drunk drivers. -Ranger
Our second story comes from True Crime Daily. This story is from Trotwood Ohio. This story has some warnings as it includes corpse mutilation, murder, and such.
“A 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty to killing a missing 62-year-old man and leaving his body in a toolbox near his home.
In December, the Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced a grand jury returned an indictment against Nicholas Swisher for one count each of murder, felonious assault, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of John Mullins. Court records show Swisher entered the not guilty plea on Dec. 29.
Mullins was reported missing to Trotwood Police on Sept. 25, 2022, after he had not been seen for several days. Detectives located his body “stuffed inside a truck toolbox” behind the home on Midway Avenue four days later. The autopsy showed Mullins died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
According to the affidavit cited by the Dayton Daily News, Swisher allegedly “lured” Mullins to his home, then “hit, kicked, and stomped” on him.
The affidavit says, “He then bound him with rope and duct tape before causing his death by beating. Nicholas then wrapped Mullins’ body, put him in a toolbox and disposed of him in the woods.”
Mullins was likely killed between Sept. 22 and Sept. 29, 2022.
Investigators later identified Swisher as the suspect and said he was arrested in Georgia on drug charges. He was later extradited back to Ohio.
The same day he got charged, Swisher was arrested for allegedly stealing a U-Haul truck and crashing with another driver during a police pursuit.
Swisher is in custody at the Montgomery County Jail with bond set at $1 million.”
That story was…wild. It feels like a Florida man story. First, murdering someone brutally, stuffing their body into a truck storage compartment, then fleeing, then getting picked up in Georgia after stealing a Uhaul and crashing into someone else’s car. I really hope that other person is ok. As far as I can tell there hasn’t been a statement of what Swisher’s motives were but dang. Also a 1 MILLION dollar bond? Geebus, they must really want him to stay put. I’ll keep poking around in the weeks to come and keep updating things as it develops. -Ranger
The Squonk & The Hag Podcast: True Crime & Scary Stories 