Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 9, 2019 6:40:25 GMT -5
Are Extraterrestrials Stalking the Cornfields of Knox County?
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, a man taveling on State Road 13 a couple of miles north of Mount Vernon, a small city in Knox County, Ohio, saw what he believed was an extraterrestrial. The tall, thin, browned-skinned “being” ran from a cornfield, – shades of Signs* – across the road and into a soybean field on the other side. The witness reported the sighting to MUFON, writing:
“As I was driving home on 31 July 2018 at 01:43 on Ohio state route 13 north of Mount Vernon, OH a 7-8ft tall, skinny, humanoid like creature ran across the road out of a corn field across into a soybean field (from a east to west direction). I noticed the creature in my headlights from 50-75ft away as I was traveling at a rate of 55-60mph. As it came out of the cornfield I immediately let off the accelerator. At first thinking it was a deer but then seen the creature walked upright. It was 7-8ft in height, tall slender body, arms and legs small in diameter, hands and feet looked over-sized for its body proportion, small neck with oval elongated head, being dark tan to light brown skin tone and had no body hair. The creature slightly turned its head towards my vehicles headlights and I seen the creatures black eyes and small mouth just open slightly as it continued to run across the road. It barely took 2-3 steps and it was across the road at a tremendous rate of speed. I was in total shock and thought I should check it out at first but then thought for a second and being uncertain of what I may have just seen I had better get out of the area. I lost sight of the entity due to darkness. I am a 24 year USAF retired aircrew veteran with a top secret security clearance. Not to be totally bliss but would someone please advise me on what I seen because it still and truly and frightened me.”
Rob McGlone, MUFON’s chief investigator for the state of Ohio, questioned the witness – who wishes to remain anonymous – and is convinced the man is credible. He had the motorist draw a sketch (above) of the creature, which he said crossed the road at a “tremendous rate of speed.”
A spokesperson for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed there were no reports of a sighting of anything unusual by the subject motorist or anyone else on July 30-31.
News of the sighting spread quickly and a handwritten “Alien Xing” sign appeared near the location where the creature crossed the road. A “Vern Alien” Facebook page was created and the local Kroger’s began selling cakes decorated with the face of a big-eyed extraterrestrial.
Chad Franks, who scoffed at the possibility of visitors from outer space, decided to have some fun. “So I went home and asked my son, ‘Hey do you got that blue suit and he said yeah. I said come on I have a good idea. Let’s have some fun,’” he told a reporter. He and his son Bryce proceeded to pull out an old alien costume and took some pictures. “We can’t be the only ones in the world besides animals in the galaxy,” Bryce observed. They posted the photos on social media and the images generated hundreds of shares.
Glenn Smith, the owner of G.R. Smith Hardware, sells Bigfoot statues because of past sightings of the hairy man-creature in the area. When the alien talk began, he joked, “Maybe they’re here to check out the Bigfoot. Maybe they’re all related.” Some believe what the motorist saw was actually a skinny Sasquatch.
A local woman said a relative had seen a similar creature approximately 10 years earlier and it wasn’t long before MUFON received a second report from a lady who claimed her mother saw an alien walking through her basement:
“Hi, I am reaching out not as a hoax but to let you know that I received a phone call from my mom in Mount Vernon, Ohio, recently telling me that she saw a figure of what appeared to be an alien come in one side of her basement and go out the other end of the basement. She describes this thing as being tall with long arms, and she didn’t see his face as she watched him from a side view but she did say that his head looked just like the one in this picture I’ve attached. I wish to have her identity anonymous please if she is not contacted. I thought you might be interested to know that there has been another sighting in this area. My mom said that she wasn’t scared nor did she feel any danger by this presence and that it just came in and left. Thank you.”
Despite the claims of the motorist, not everyone was a believer and while some made light of the possibility the area was being stalked by otherworldly visitors, there were hard-nosed skeptics who had no time for what they deemed foolishness.
Thomas Merton, director of MUFON’s Ohio branch, conceded the report could be a hoax, but implored locals not to dismiss the incident entirely. “We talked it over several times and the witness himself seemed very honest,” Merton insisted. “We have somebody who’s giving a story which appears to be very credible, but we haven’t found any evidence so far.” According to Merton, MUFON receives an average of 200 reports per year from the state of Ohio. Many of these sightings prove false, such as that of a man who claimed to have seen something very similar, but with legs that “bent backwards.” It turned out the creature was actually an ostrich that had escaped from a nearby farm.
As for the current sighting, Merton said, “From the information that I got, the witness doesn’t really have an explanation of what he saw. Sometimes what happens is the media, they hype it up just to create interesting stories, but in this case, we’re not seeing anything to, say, either prove it happened or did not happen. Our investigation is still in process.”
Then a third sighting of the extraterrestrial, as reported to MUFON, took place on Friday, August 17, at Wolf Run Regional Park east of Mount Vernon. Following is the report:
“I had just gotten back to the parking lot down from mount vernon’s wolf run park and when i turned on my lights to leave i saw it in the woods. i felt like i was being followed my entire hike and i got a little lost on the way since i was feeling super sketched out so when i saw it i was panicking and super scared. it looked startled as my lights came on and made this strange gargling screatching sound and i felt super sick to my stomach. i don’t really know what it was. like i thought it was just someone in the woods but it’s eyes looked weird and it looked smooth and naked. it seemed to vibrate in front of my eyes as i looked at it and i ripped my phone out of my pocket and tried to take pictures but my phone seemed to lag. i have a iphone 6 plus and i know my battery is having issues but i’ve never had anything like that. i slammed my car in reverse and got out of there as fast as i could. the noise it made still freaks me out like it was like a velociraptor from a movie but it made me light headed and made me feel sick in a strange way i’ve never felt.”
Five miles away in Gambier, Ohio, as Kenyon College students trickled into town for the fall semester, the campus was abuzz with talk of visitors from outer space. On September 6, a headline in The Kenyon Collegian read: “Alien encounter excites Kenyon students and residents alike.” Students immediately took to Facebook, posting humorous images, including the sketch of the alien with the caption “Kenyon is designated to be a walking campus,” lifted from the official Kenyon College website.
Then the sightings ceased. This, however, doesn’t necessarily mean no one else saw the ET. Many – probably most – people who see strange beings or experience unexplained phenomena decline to report such encounters for fear of ridicule. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely a creature between 7- and 8-feet tall could hide for an extended period of time in an agricultural community with more vast open spaces than wooded areas. Extraterrestrials of this size would be much more successful at concealing themselves in a national forest or sparsely-populated states with dense woodland, such as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia.
Nevertheless, if anyone in and around Knox County sees a brown-skinned alien (of the otherworldly variety), MUFON asks he/she contact the organization by email at mufonohio@columbus.rr.com
Sources: Gail Hodson Shirk, Spaced Out Radio, September 14, 2018; Diane Kanter, The Kenyon Collegian, September 6, 2018; Rob Sneed, WCMH, August 14, 2018; Phantoms & Monsters, August 30, 2018, and September 13, 2018; Nick Sabo, The Mount Vernon News, August 10, 2018.
*A 2002 film starring Mel Gibson about crop circles and extraterrestrials skulking about in cornfields.