“…I heard my friend gasp so I looked over at him and he was looking forward into the trail so I pointed the flashlight where he was looking and something was crouched down on the edge of the trail.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word cryptid as “An animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti.”  For the following witnesses to living cryptids, there is no dispute.  In this series of National Cryptid Society’s case files, you will read what the witnesses have experienced in their own words.

Keep an open mind when reading these accounts, and also remember one’s perception and memory of an event can be influenced by the emotions felt at the time of the occurrence. The contributors to this series of articles are doing the best they can to recount what are in some cases very shocking and traumatic experiences.

If you have a personal cryptid sighting story you would like to tell us, please visit our “Make A Report” page on this site.

---

NCS Case File #60: Grey Humanoid Being in the Woods around Lake Camelot

Submitted by Josh; first reported on Reddit, additional information gathered in communication with the NCS.

Date: October 25th, 2017. Around 10 P.M.

Location: Wooded trail near Lake Camelot, a small residential area Southwest of Peoria, Illinois

Witness statement reported to the NCS:

“Me and two friends were walking through a trail in the woods at 10 pm on October 25th. We usually walk on the trail all of the time so it isn’t something new or different to us. It isn’t like a paved out trail more like a trail we made ourselves because we walk the same path every time. I had a flashlight on and my two other friends did not.

I was pointing my flashlight to the left of me into the woods not really paying attention to what was in front of me because we usually don’t see anything odd. But I heard my friend gasp so I looked over at him and he was looking forward into the trail so I pointed the flashlight where he was looking and something was crouched down on the edge of the trail.

It was on the left side of the trail facing our direction. It looked very alert and frozen that we saw it and it saw us. I didn’t see it move and me friends didn’t either but we decided to run back the way we came from after we ran around 20 feet back we looked back and didn’t see anything.

My description of what we saw is I gray small to medium sized creature. I’d say around 4-5 feet tall but it was crouched down . The arms were not very skinny like some online pictures of aliens the arms were very defined and a little bit muscular. The arms looked human like with 5 fingers. The legs on the other hand looked less human like. I couldn’t see the feet but shape and direction the legs were going reminded me of frog legs. I couldn’t see the torso very well either.

The head was around the same proportion as a humans head but the shape of the head was square with one point on each side of the head. I couldn’t identify if those were ears or something else. The creature was gray and either had no hair or very short hair. My two friends said if didn’t have hair but I thought it had short hair.

From what I saw the eyes were fully black. I didn’t see many features in the face though I didn’t even see a mouth but I didn’t look at it very long so that could be incorrect.

It didn’t move and it didn’t make any sounds when we saw it although we heard squeaking noises earlier while walking but we thought it was a baby great horned owl but looking back at it they don’t sound like what we heard.

It just stared straight at us and we left and then turned around and didn’t see it again. I plan on going out there again with my two friends to see if we can find any more information.”

---

Additional Witness Statements:

After the initial contact with the witness additional details were gathered on this particular sighting.

Nothing was blocking my view of the creature. Just pointing the flashlight at it caused a lot of shadows so I couldn’t see certain parts of the body.

The top of the head was square shaped and it tapered little bit at the bottom. Like an upside down trapezoid. I couldn’t recognize what the face looked like but from what I remember it had slanted fully black eyes.

The creature was crouched down. 4-5 feet was an estimate if it was standing up. It was probably 2 and half feet tall crouched down.

“I would like to add the fact that we also heard the screeching noises from several different areas in a small interval of time. We don’t fully believe that the creature made the noise, but it could be entirely impossible(if it did happen to make the noise) that it is extremely agile or there are multiple.”

---

NCS Notes:

• There are currently 25 reports on the Mutual UFO Network in Peoria County, Illinois spanning from 2007 to the present. [i] One of those reports describes multiple abduction experiences by some kind of creature, though the description of the beings do not match the above witness account save for the eyes.  On its face, there seems to be no direct connection between the above report and the MUFON reports but they are notable as it shows a pattern of unusual activity in that area and author Denver Michaels will discuss this in his supplemental commentary below.

• According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, there have been three reports in Peoria County. August 2011 (Class B) – Possible footprint found near Peoria, May 2010 (Class B) – Mushroom hunter hears vocalizations and finds footprints near Jubilee College State Park and October 2007 (Class A) – Deer hunter has sighting at dusk near Jubilee College State Park.[ii] Again, the sighting of the creature in the above report may not have any direct correlation to the BFRO reports, but it also shows a pattern of unusual activity.

• There is one other instance of a 5′ tall pale being in the Midwest, and I could never get the exact location from the witness.  It was one of the first National Cryptid Society Case Files.
  • NCS Case File # 3: Unknown Pale White Beings in the Midwest

---

Discussion:

The following is an area where NCS members and guest contributors will add their thoughts and opinions on the above NCS Case File.  This portion of the report will be updated as additional commentary is available.

• Rich Daniels, frequent NCS contributor and editor. Rich Daniels is a researcher that has recently presented his findings at the Marinette/Menominee Bigfoot Convention in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is the founder of the Crypto Encounter Group, a support group for individuals who have had traumatic experiences[iii] with animals undocumented by current science. Daniels has also been featured on the Bigfoot the Truth Told[iv].

“The first thing that came to my mind was the Dover Demon. There are some similar features but not exactly matching. The head shape described stands out as unique, unlike any other to my knowledge. Robust arm development differs from alien sightings. But the grey skin and slim legs match alien encounters. The overall size of the creature does not lend itself to Bigfoot or Dogman. This is, at least in my experience, an encounter with a heretofore unknown creature.

What I find most striking is the quite detailed description provided from only a few seconds of the creature being in only partial view. The details provided indicate a powerful experience by the witness while the inclusion of only what could be seen without speculation about what features could not be seen lends itself to a genuine response. The witness is definitely sure of what he saw while being certain he didn’t know what it was in any way. Truly an enigmatic encounter.”

• Denver Michaels, an author with a passion for cryptozoology, the paranormal, lost civilizations, and all things unexplained. Michaels is the author of “People are Seeing Something: A Survey of Lake Monsters in the United States and Canada,” “Water Monsters South of the Border” and his latest book “Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia.”

“On its face, this is certainly a strange case. However, as unbelievable as it sounds, similar encounters have occurred before. It seems to me, that the being observed in the woods was an “alien.” And by alien, I simply mean to infer that a “typical” gray alien was spotted. Alien, to me at least, does not necessarily mean extraterrestrial—we do not know where these beings come from. As crazy as it sounds, perhaps they are interdimensional; they could also be from a parallel universe. It also should not be ruled out that these creatures are some type of apparition or even a thought form. But for the purposes of analyzing this report, I will stick with the term alien as I think it fits the best—whatever alien means.

The alien hypothesis fits in many ways: the size of the creature; the grayish color of the being; the skin was smooth; and, maybe the most telling, the creature had almost a featureless face and black eyes.

Of course, cryptid sightings are never as cut and dried as you would like them to be. There are problems when trying to place the alien label on the cryptid observed in the woods. For one thing, the head was normal-sized; typical gray aliens usually have large, elongated heads. The trapezoidal shape of the creature’s head is also perplexing. Another aspect that falls outside of the “normal” gray alien sighting is the arms. Typically speaking, the arms of gray aliens are normally spindly and scrawny—rarely are they described as muscular.

Problems aside, in my mind, gray alien best fits the cryptid in the woods. Furthermore, coincidentally—or maybe not—a UFO was reported in Peoria two days earlier. In fact, the witnesses who reported the UFO believes he was abducted. The following report can be found on the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) website.

“I remember sitting at home watching TV late one night and a light outside my picture window caught my attention i peeped threw the blinds to see what was up but i notice a round disk like craft just hovering just below the neighbors garage across the back yard i found it odd because it was to big to be a drown that the kids play with and what really had my tripping was it had a light at the bottom of it and it will come off and on seconds apart from each other so i raised the blinds completely up so i could have a full view of what i was looking at and this us were i couldn’t believe what i saw their were six maybe a foot tall little black things each one walked under the object the object lite up and the thing went into to the object then the next one would walk the light would come on etc after all six were inside it zapped into the sky now after the second black figure went into the light i ran to get my cell phone to record what i was seeing but when i played the video back just pitch black darkness a couple days after that i remember waking up from a very deep sleep witch normally i sleep light i was very very very constipated light my “A” was sore i couldn’t understand why the same morning i noticed a patch of my hair was gone like it was smooth bald like no hair every grew there and its still bald currently i couldn’t believe my eyes i began to have dreams or vision of aliens and being taken away so one day i took a selfie and noticed that behind me in the photo is my bedroom door and in the door was the alien watching me that’s when i had evidence there stood the being its head eyes and mouth extended neck and you can see some torso i believe i have been abducted by aliens please help me with answer or just a generalized understanding on why this is happening to me because i don’t believe in this stuff.”

Are the two events related? It is hard to say; the possibility should not be ruled out or dismissed out of hand. As strange as it sounds for an alien to be in the middle of the woods, this sort of thing is not without precedent. Aliens have been spotted in woods and fields before, sometimes collecting soil samples. These bizarre encounters are difficult to explain and even harder to understand. The phenomenon may not even be knowable for us—yet.”

• Linda Godfrey is a renown author, researcher and cryptozoologist.  Her newest book is titled Monsters Among Us – An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals & Other Odd Phenomena.

“Great sketches, and weird! They remind me of an illustration I made several years ago (see attached) for a story on an old sighting of a creature viewed inside a landed UFO, 1974, near Frederic, WI by a farmer named Bill Bosak. The story, but not this [illustration], is in Monsters of Wisconsin p. 82.  I just went by the witness description when I drew this, and the resemblance to yours is uncanny.”

You can find more about Linda Godfrey by visiting her blog, Facebook page and Twitter.  You can also find her books on Amazon.com.

[i] www.mufon.com

[ii] https://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_county_reports.asp?state=il&county=Peoria

[iii] https://nationalcryptidsociety.org/2017/07/07/cryptid_encounter_syndrome/

[iv] https://nationalcryptidsociety.org/2017/10/09/emotional-responses-to-cryptid-sightings-bigfoot-the-truth-told-with-rich-daniels/

---

Visit our YouTube Channel and Subscribe!

---

---

Monsters In Print: A Collection Of Curious Creatures Known Mostly From Newspapers

by Adam Benedict

This collection of over 170+ articles, direct from newspapers of the 1800s and 1900s, brings some of the most bizarre, amazing, and incredible stories of true monster encounters out of the past and into your hands! Presented with zero spin or bias, this book delivers just the facts and allows you, the reader, to decide for yourself if the stories within actually happened or not.
From the funny to the frightening, the sincere to the weird, there is something for everyone within these pages!

---

NOTICE: Fair Use Copyright Law

“Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.”

Any use of copyrighted material on http://www.nationalcryptidsociety.org is done for criticism, comment, news reporting or educational purposes. The National Cryptid Society including all web pages and social media platforms owned or registered by The National Cryptid Society does not endorse nor is any endorsement of the National Cryptid Society inferred by creators of copyrighted material presented herein for criticism, comment, news reporting or educational purposes under Fair Use allowance quoted above. Various SEO Keywords: Dinosaur, exhibit, for sale, auction, Action, Aggressive, Agile, Allegorical, Apparition, Appeal, Appendage, Archeology, Archosaurs, Astonishing, Attack, Attraction, Awe, Awesome, Beast, Beauty, Behavior, Behemoth, Believe in, Berserk, Bipedal, Bony Armor, Breathtaking, Captivate, Careful, Carnivorous, Cave, Changes, Charisma, Conjure, Conquer, Conquest, Creature, Crests, Cretaceous, Critter, Cruel, Cunning, Curious, Cursed, Dazzle, Deadly, Demon, Dinosauria, Disappear, Discoveries, Diverse, Domination, Dragon-like, Dramatic, Drawn, Dread, Earth, Eek, Encounter, Enormous, Evolution, Existence, Extraordinary, Extinct, Extinction, Eyes, Fantastic, Fascination, Fear, Fearsome, Fiery, Floating, Flying, Forceful, Fossil, Fright, Frightful, Giant, Gigantic, Global, Grand, Grotesque, Groups, Hatch, Herbivore, Hidden, Hills, Historical, Horns, Howls, Imagination, Incredible, Indescribable, Injuries, Invade, Invasion, Jurassic. Extinct, Juvenile, Kill, Kingdom, Land, Large, Leathery, Legendary, Literature, Lore, Majesty, Mammoth, Marvel, Mesozoic, Misshapen, Monster, Mysterious, Mythical, Names, Nasty, Natural, Nemesis, New, Noise, Obliterate, Over-sized, Petrify, Phenomenon, Potent, Powerful, Prehistoric, Prey, Proportion, Prowl, Pugnacious, Pursuit, Quadruped, Quail, Quake, Quest, Quiver, Raptor, Real, Realm, Remains, Repellent, Reptile, Repulsive, Revolting, Roam, Roar, Savage, Scales, Scare, Serpent, Size, Skeleton, Slither, Snout, Soaring, Special, Species, Spectacular, Spikes, Spiny, Stealthy, Story, Surprising, Symbolize, Tail, Tales, Taxonomy, Terrestrial, Terrible lizard, Terror, Tremor, Triassic, Ultimate, Unbelievable, Unique, Unreal, Unusual, Vanish, Vanquish, Variation, Variety, Vertebrates, Vicious, Weight, Weird, Wicked, Wild, Wilderness, Willies, Wince, Wings, World, Wrinkled, Paleontology, Science, Reptile, Ancient, Model, Photo, Video, Caught on, Captured, New, News, Cryptozoology, games, gaming, gamer, Paranormal, Supernatural, Unknown, Unidentified, Mystery, replica, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Mothman, Dogman, Sea Monster, Champ, Champy, Loch Ness Monster, Alien, UFO, extraterrestrial, Funny, Warning, Caution, Sign, camp, camping, camper, hunt, hunter, hunting, fish, fishing, fisherman, outdoor, recreation, forest, woods, wilderness, spirit, ghost, Paranormal, Supernatural, Werewolf, Wolfman. Monster, creature, crypto, cryptid, cryptozoology, animal, wildlife, wild, scandal, controversy, conspiracy, murder, disappear, missing, Trump, Halloween, holiday, pet, dog, cat, write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, campaign, forum, true, truth, folklore, myth, Earth, hollow, flat, round, Mars, Moon, scared, terror, horror, science fiction, documentary, sightings, movie, show, weather, maps, YouTube, translate, calculator, news, donald, suggestion, “how to”, “who is”, “who was”, actor, Virginia, senate, erotic, erotica, nonsense, “when was”  whatever!