NARRATOR: Something is
watching from the shadows-- I was afraid to go outside for
a month after that, especially at night. NARRATOR: --a sinister presence. Something really
happened up here. This thing had a
reptile-type head. NARRATOR: The creature attacks
its prey with toxic gas. When you look at the
skull, you're startled. There's no part of
it, no part of it, that is the same as a human. NARRATOR: "MonsterQuest" scours
Appalachia for the beast known as the "Flatwoods monster." What was that? NARRATOR: People around the
world report seeing monsters. Are they real or imaginary? Science searches for
answers, on "MonsterQuest." [beast roaring] [dramatic music] The remote forests of
central West Virginia, these steep Rocky Mountains
have an extensive cave system, and sit on top of one of
the world's largest deposits of coal and natural gas. The people here live
in relative isolation. But they may not be alone. It was a good nine feet tall. It was this
reptilian-type creature. It gave off gas. It had lights. It's so misshapen, it's so
different from what you expect to see. NARRATOR: Eyewitnesses
reported 10 to 12 foot tall terrifying creature,
reptilian in appearance. It is said to have long,
thin arms, two fingers, and scaly skin. The monster appears to hover
over its victims in some sort of craft or suit, and
emits a piercing noise, and dangerous toxic gases. [dramatic music] Everybody's scared
of the unknown. And this was the unknown. [beast roaring] NARRATOR: 10-year-old
Freddie May and his brother were playing in a schoolyard
with a group of boys when they saw something
strange in the sky. It was getting late, just
about time to quit playing 'cause we couldn't see. And we've seen this-- looked like a ball of fire
coming across the mountain, and over our heads. And you could tell it was
slowing down and coming in. NARRATOR: The boys
ran to the May house. May's mother, his 17-year-old
cousin, and their dog went to investigate. [suspenseful music] Climbing the hill where
the fireball had landed, they were met with
a rolling bank of smoke and a strange odor. [groaning in disgust] I described like the
old televisions that had the tubes in them
and had burned out, and you get that smell? Something like that. [dog barking] NARRATOR: The dog ran
ahead, barking frantically. A moment later, it
retreated, terrified. [dog whining] FREDDIE MAY (VOICEOVER):
There was something up there was moving around, you know? NARRATOR: His cousin noticed
two lights hovering nearby. He turned his
flashlight toward it, and the group saw
something unimaginable. [dramatic music] It was kind of hovering. It had no legs or prongs
sticking down to hold it up, and it moved. The top part, of course, it
went in like an ace of spades. From that down,
it was like tubes. They was all the way around
the thing, in a circle. They figured about
10, 10 to 12 feet. I've always described it too
like portholes on a boat. [hissing] NARRATOR: The eerie thing
emitted a sharp hiss and suddenly began
to glide toward them. FREDDIE MAY (VOICEOVER):
Of course, that scared us. [hissing] [suspenseful music] Whoa! [dramatic music] NARRATOR: May's cousin,
sickened by the fog, vomited. And his mother found a
splash of an oily substance across her clothing. It was a night the
group will never forget. I know I was afraid to go
outside for a month after that, especially at night. [beast roaring] [dramatic music] NARRATOR: Flatwoods,
West Virginia is 70 miles northeast
of Charleston. Since the May encounter
here 50 years ago, there have been dozens of reports
in connection with a mystery creature locals call
the "Flatwoods monster." [dramatic music] "MonsterQuest" has come
here to begin its search. Reports of a monstrous
humanoid creature-- something that is a hybrid
between a beast and human-- have plagued this
area for decades, and the sightings are always
within a few miles of where the creature was
first spotted back in 1952, near a place called
the "Bailey Fisher farm." [footsteps] Some question the
existence of hybrid humans, and instead claim a known animal
could have been misidentified. Joe Nickell is a researcher
for the Center of Skeptical Inquiry. People talked about,
oh, maybe it was a possum. Maybe it was a buck
deer, and so forth. But they're just responding
to the shining eyes. NARRATOR: Nickell believes
that what the witnesses saw was distorted by
their emotional state. There's what's called
"expectant attention." That is, if you've
got a mindset, if you're expecting to see
something, that will affect what you see. You bet they were apprehensive. Sure they were. They were psyched up. And so when they see something
and it's frightening-- some shining eyes in the
dark and it that quick comes at them-- I don't think they had time
to think, but simply to react. And they reacted
perfectly naturally. They panicked. NARRATOR: While similar
sightings have been reported across the US, Flatwoods
has remained the epicenter. [suspenseful music] Now, "MonsterQuest" will
search the area of the most recent sightings, using high
tech night vision cameras. They'll conduct the search
using a remote mounting device to avoid getting too close
and alerting the monster. The science team
will test the skull of an alleged hybrid
human, thought to be similar to the
Flatwoods monster. There's still a lot of
sightings up here to this day. NARRATOR: The expedition team
will be led by author Frank Feschino who has spent the last
two decades collecting evidence from the area where the
creature was first seen. Well, back about 15
years ago, I was up here, and I had full access to
the old Bailey Fisher farm. And I found some unknown
black plastic-like material that was strewn around
the area of the farm. Going back to to the 1950s-- NARRATOR: Joining him
is physicist Dr. Stan Friedman and John Bainbridge,
a retired police officer. Well, we'll dig
down in here and-- and see how far down we can go. NARRATOR: They will be
looking for physical evidence and conducting a forensic
examination of the Feschino's research, including the
samples of the mysterious black substance. And the limb was 12
feet off the ground. So they know it had to be
less than that high, I'd say. And right in about
this area here, she saw-- NARRATOR: The team starts
on the original hilltop with the creature
was first seen. When I seen it, it was already
down in this area right here. MAN: So it had moved. NARRATOR: May shows
them the exact location of the encounter. So you saw it coming
through about this area here. That's right. So it moved a few feet. Right in there. NARRATOR: Their search
centers on the tree closest to where the monster
was seen hovering, and where the gas
seemed to originate. This one hundred
foot tall white oak began to die from rot
shortly after the incident, exposing its inner core. FRANK FESCHINO: Because it was
certainly there when I was here before. OK, guys, I'm going
to need just one of those plastic containers
for the time being. NARRATOR: The team hopes that
toxicology tests will now reveal what could
have killed the tree, and whether it was
from natural causes. MAN (VOICEOVER): The object
was to dig, bore, and collect-- [whirring] It's pretty soft down
through the middle. MAN (VOICEOVER): --to
get as low into the soil, or into the base of the tree
where this object was seen, in the hope that some of
the solution that was spewed from this object
may have penetrated the roots of the tree
system, or the soil, and something
might still remain. [clicking] NARRATOR: The team tests for
radiation and other toxins to see if there is another
explanation for the sickness the witnesses reported. Nothing but background, guys. NARRATOR: While no residual
chemicals or radiation are detected by the
team, it is clear that the encounters
with this monster may have affected witnesses,
some even fatally. FRANK FESCHINO: And what's been
happening with the witnesses, as of today, the
majority of them have been diagnosed with
throat cancer or lung cancer. Kathleen May passed away
just a few months ago, and a couple of
the other witnesses are really struggling bad. Freddie Mae has cancer. His brother, Eddie, had
cancer a couple of years ago. So it seems that the
majority of the people that were up there that night-- it may be related it may
not but, it seems awful coincidental because they had
smelled this gas that they're-- they seem to have
throat and lung cancer. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: "MonsterQuest" is
in West Virginia, hunting for evidence of the beast
known as the Flatwoods monster. Strange tales of human-like
monsters that float or descend from an orbital of light have
been around for centuries. In 27 BC, the Roman historian
Livy described a glowing altar in the sky from which the
forms of men appeared, dressed in shining white. Historically, what
a lot of people forget is that this is not just
a modern phenomenon. NARRATOR: The first
written evidence of this creature's
presence in America occurred in the early 1500s. Spanish explorers, following
the Mississippi River, came in contact with
Native Americans who claimed to have seen
terrifying monsters that appeared with bright lights
and inflicted electric shocks. There are a lot
of these stories. They haven't been
adequately researched. They're observed
all over the world. NARRATOR: Throughout
history, only a few of the accounts of
humanoid monsters are supported by any kind
of physical evidence. She said that the
entire body was misshapen. [beast roaring] [dramatic music] NARRATOR: A young Texas girl
was exploring an abandoned mine-shaft when she
stumbled across an opening into an ancient cavern. [suspenseful music] [footsteps] LLOYD PYE: And when
she got in, she found that there was a
full human skeleton lying on its back on the dirt. [dramatic music] And beside it, she
noticed a mound that looked kind of like a grave. [clatter] She dug it out
with her own hands, and she found a full skeleton. She said that the entire
body was misshapen. NARRATOR: Lying
beside the skeleton were the partial
remains of another body. LLOYD PYE (VOICEOVER): When she
saw the two skulls together, she realized that one was
very different from the other. [beast roaring] NARRATOR: The strangely
misshapen skull is believed by some to
be the best evidence yet of the existence
of monster humanoids. Lloyd Pye acquired it
and conducted research on its origins. I knew enough to
know immediately that this was indeed
something very highly unusual. NARRATOR: Pye had the
skull carbon dated, and found it to be more
than 900 years old. He called the skull
the "Starchild" because of its small size
and otherworldly shape. The anomalies of
the skull I think start with the eye sockets. Certainly, it was what
impressed me the most. And it's the thing that
jumps out at most people. The eye sockets are completely
different from human eye sockets. NARRATOR: The skull
could possibly be from a hybrid humanoid. The physical differences
include eye sockets that are less than an inch deep,
half that of a normal human. The opening for
the optic nerve-- usually in the back
of the socket-- is located at the inside corner. They were just a
completely different eyeball than what we have, a completely
different eye mechanism than what we have. NARRATOR: DNA testing has
only deepened the mystery. LLOYD PYE (VOICEOVER): They
recovered the mitochondrial DNA very easily of the Starchild,
first test, no problem. It has a human mother. All that was left was
to do the nuclear DNA recovery of the Starchild. And in six full, complete,
rigorous attempts to recover its nuclear DNA,
they were unable to do so. NARRATOR: The skull
weighs half as much as a normal human skull. And the bone itself is less than
half as thick, yet far denser. Additionally, the skull
lacks normal sinus cavities and a brow ridge. If you do chemical analysis
of the bone, which we've done with a scanning
electron microscope, what we discovered was that
the bone of the Starchild is not really like human bone. It's more like tooth enamel. We also found fibers
that were woven through the matrix of the bone. And the reason
this was surprising is because there's no other bone
on Earth that has fibers woven through the matrix of the
bone, like a reinforcing kind of thing. They were very durable because
the Dremel blade had shredded the ends of them, but
it hadn't cut them free. It hadn't cut them
completely off, like you would think it would. Very, very surprising. NARRATOR: Now, the
"MonsterQuest" science team will perform new analysis. Bio-archaeologist
Dr. Susan Myster will attempt to determine
if the skull is human or any other known creature. SUSAN MYSTER: When
you look at the skull, you're startled because
it looks quite abnormal. You have a small upper
part of the face, and then you have this very
expanded lateral portion of the vault. And then you
have a very flat posterior, or back part, of the skull. So it looks quite odd. NARRATOR: Dr.
Myster will also try to determine the age, gender,
ancestry, and the cause of its abnormalities. I would first like
to look it over, just looking at the
general morphology, in terms of trying to determine
what might have affected it. So was the skull exposed to
the weather, to the elements? Had it been buried at one time? Is there any indication
that modification occurred? And then also to determine
if there's anything unusual or abnormal about the skull
that may indicate that it's not a human skull. NARRATOR: She will
also test the skull to determine if it is indeed
made of a substance harder than human bone. SUSAN MYSTER: By applying
the Shore hardness test, I hope to be able to get a
good reading on the resistance of the skull to this pressure
and, therefore, to see if it's significantly different
than the hardness of a known human skull. NARRATOR: The fact
that the skull is not complete complicates
her analysis. The skull's missing
most of the face. So all you have are the
top borders of the orbits. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: Bill
Munns, a specialist in forensic reconstruction, will
examine the cast of the skull. He will fill in
the missing anatomy and see if it bears any
resemblance to the Flatwoods monster. BILL MUNNS: My
first perception was to see how different the skull
was than a normal human figure. NARRATOR: He will then build a
model of what this hybrid human would look like. Is this a biologically a
human skull, an alien skull, or something halfway in between? In my particular
approach to it, I decided that the only
responsible approach that I can take is to treat it as
if it is entirely human. So, in my approach, I decided to
use everything as biologically realistic and credible as I can. [dramatic music] All right. NARRATOR: The expedition is
in Frametown, West Virginia, the site of the latest
encounter with a strange, half-human creature locals
call the "Flatwoods monster." [hissing] [dramatic music] The team will set up
camp at a vantage point called James Knob, the highest
peak in the Appalachian foothills. The team inflates
a helium balloon to carry a thermal
night vision camera to conduct a stealth
reconnaissance of the mountainside. [hissing]
MAN: Close it off. MAN: All right. NARRATOR: The witnesses describe
an orb, or fireball-like light. One theory is that a release of
gases from the underground coal systems may be causing
hallucinations. This gaseous release could
create a heat signature that would show up on
the infrared camera. Ignited gas would also explain
the fireball and glowing orbs that the witnesses have seen. MAN: You guys ready? MAN: Ready. There we go. There she goes. OK, let her rip. [dramatic music] MAN: Up, up. [dramatic music] "MonsterQuest" is searching
the Appalachian Mountains for evidence of the
Flatwoods monster, which has been spotted here many
times over the last 60 years. This thing is coming
towards the car. [beast roaring] [dramatic music] [big band music] NARRATOR: George
and Edith Stachowsky were traveling through
Braxton County with their baby when they had a
bizarre encounter. [baby fussing, big band music] Frank Feschino interviewed
George Stachowsky shortly before
his death in 1996. As the couple were proceeding
into the Frametown area, the car suddenly went dead. [clicking] NARRATOR: Stachowsky got
out to check the battery, but found nothing wrong. George had turned around, and
he looked off into the woods, and he saw something glowing. [clatter] NARRATOR: Cautiously, he walked
toward the strange light. FRANK FESCHINO: And as
he started nearer closer towards it, he started
feeling these pricklings going through his body like a low
voltage electrical shock. And it went for his whole body. NARRATOR: Just as Stachowsky
was about to turn back, he was overcome by a sickening
sulfur smell that knocked him to his knees. [screaming] FRANK FESCHINO
(VOICEOVER): Something was coming up behind George. NARRATOR: Stachowsky
staggered to his feet to find a monster
towering over him. [coughing] FRANK FESCHINO: It was
a good nine feet tall. It was this
reptilian-type creature. From the head to the
waist, he could actually see this humanoid creature. But from the waist down, it
looked like a booster rocket or a cone-shaped object,
exactly what was described at Flatwoods. And it was hovering, and
coming across the ground. NARRATOR: Stachowsky
ran for the car. FRANK FESCHINO (VOICEOVER):
And he looked up straight through the
windshield of the car, and this nine foot tall humanoid
was looking down on them. The area is covered with
this low-lying smoke, sulfur-type smell. And they're gagging. They're choking. NARRATOR: The couple huddled
in fear as the bizarre creature slowly circled their car before
gliding back into the woods. FRANK FESCHINO (VOICEOVER):
And this creature actually leaned down with its
long, spindly arm, and instead of
having five digits, there were actually
two long fingers, and it touched the
hood of the car. And when it touched
the hood of the car, it actually burnt
through the paint, right down to the primer. [beast roaring] [dramatic music] NARRATOR: The sighting
occurred just 24 hours after the first witnesses
reported seeing the beast. Feschino worked with Stachowsky
to create this drawing of the creature, which differed
only slightly from what Freddie May saw. The conclusion that I
have drawn from this thing is this seems to have been
the same humanoid seen in both cases. When it was seen on September
12, it wore a full suit. It was basically
like a suit of armor. When it was seen
the following night, the upper portion of
the suit was gone. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: The science team
has located samples gathered after the original sighting,
and is examining them. The vial that I have here
contains those black samples that were pointed out to me
as possibly being suspect. NARRATOR: Chemist Dr.
Phillip Dougherty is also comparing modern soil and
wood samples recovered from the same area by
the expedition team. Dr. Dougherty is looking
for trace toxins that might have nauseated witnesses
or caused them to hallucinate. The extraction process was
designed to remove any volatile or semi-volatile materials
from the soil and the wood that would have not been normal or
natural within the environment. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: The expedition
team has launched its aerial reconnaissance of
the area surrounding the most recent sighting. FRANK FESCHINO (VOICEOVER):
There is a lot of weird things seen around here. There's a lot of things going
on in this one particular area of the mountains where
it's a mile to a mile and a half squared out area
where all these funny things are going on. NARRATOR: The team has a
thermal camera in the air and the second
one on the ground. They should be able to detect
anything that gives off a heat signature. [dramatic music] MAN: What's that?
MAN: That's here? That red, that's-- that's-- MAN: [inaudible] MAN: That shows
up in the camera? MAN: I think we've got a
hotspot up there, Frank. NARRATOR: "MonsterQuest"
is investigating sightings of monster humanoids in
the isolated wilderness of Appalachia. The beast was most recently
seen by a lone hunter. What startled him is the eyes. [beast roaring] [dramatic music] NARRATOR: Joe Smith was hunting
for deer a half mile southeast of the hilltop
known as James Knob. FRANK FESCHINO (VOICEOVER):
It was overgrown. There was a lot of
weeds and backdrop. There's all of these trees. NARRATOR: Suddenly, the hunter
noticed something strange along the treeline. There read these three
humanoid-type creatures. He told me they were
like a white color. The tops of their heads
were like an ace of spades. He described these creatures
as having the same covering. They weren't flesh. He didn't see any faces. And they were staring at him. He said they were
absolutely still. NARRATOR: The hunter stared
back, frozen with fear, his weapon forgotten. As he was staring at them, he
was telling me about the eyes. These eyes were
not like eyeballs. They were like openings with
eyeballs in behind them. [beast roaring] NARRATOR: The man's
description is similar to those of previous witnesses. FRANK FESCHINO: They're
amazingly similar. So it's hard for me to
imagine that what was seen was a hallucination. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Some take this
recent sighting as evidence that the Flatwoods
monster has returned. Others, however, are skeptical,
and believe that mass hysteria is a more likely explanation. Nausea is a
symptom of hysteria, so can be other
physical reactions. For example, you can lose
your voice, or you can cough. There is a sort of visceral
effect that hysteria can have, a sort of physiological effect. There is what's called "mass
hysteria," contagious reaction among people, that
one person can spark. If one person panics,
other people may panic. NARRATOR: Nickell believes
the original sighting was exaggerated, a
product of its time. You will search, I think,
in vain for a case quite like Flatwoods prior to 1952. If we look at this in
the Cold War context, there was a kind of
general mass hysteria. The general climate
was such that people were looking to the skies. NARRATOR: Nickell says
the publicity surrounding the first sighting colored the
accounts that came afterward. JOE NICKELL (VOICEOVER):
Once you get a report, it sparks other reports. This is what is
well-known as "contagion." The Flatwoods case got
a lot of attention. It got newspaper,
media attention. And it set up almost a new
genre of a type of monster. The power of suggestion
is very strong. You can have something on the
mind, something put out there, and people start looking
for it and focusing on it. And they will--
they will report it. They will see it. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: The expedition
team has suspended a highly sensitive, infrared
thermal camera from a helium balloon 150 feet in the air. [dramatic music] It will show any heat sources
for a mile in any direction. The team is hoping that
this thermal technology will identify what witnesses
have seen here. They saw the Flatwoods
monster craft touch down in the back area here, John. MAN: I think we've got a
hot spot up there, Frank. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Closer
examination reveals that the hotspot that the
team saw on the hillside was a buildup of residual heat
beneath the opening in a canopy of shade trees. [suspenseful music] The next morning, the team moves
down the hilltop to the spot where the hunter
reported an encounter with three humanoid creatures. The trail leading into the
site is nearly impassible. One theory holds that the
encounters were hallucinations caused by the
release of gases that form around the massive
coal deposits that run close to the surface. [dramatic music] Now, for the first
time, the sighting area will be thoroughly checked
for toxic gas releases. MAN (VOICEOVER): We were
looking for carbon monoxide and hydrogen
sulfide, all of which could have been present in
the area because of mining operations, of coal being
released into the atmosphere. NARRATOR: Nothing registers. The area is clear. [dramatic music] The "MonsterQuest"
science team is testing what may be a hybrid
monster-humanoid skull, measuring its unusual density. Forensic anthropologist
Dr. Susan Myster will subject the skull to
the Shore hardness test. This will gauge its resistance,
and show if it is greater than that of a human skull. The Shore hardness
test was designed to look at the
strength of a material, like a polymer or
ceramics, in order to assess its strength against
forces being applied to it. So we thought that by
applying the Shore hardness test to bone, we may be
able to get some insight into the strength of the bone. NARRATOR: The test will
be applied to three skull samples-- the supposed hybrid skull,
a normal adult skull, and the skull of a child. A durometer will measure the
resistance the skull makes on a spring-loaded needle. [suspenseful music] Forensic artist Bill Munns
is using a cast of the skull to rebuild the face
of the creature. He hopes this reconstruction
will determine whether it resembles the elongated head
and oversized, glowing eyes described by witnesses
to the Flatwoods monster. The eye socket itself
is unusually shallow. NARRATOR: Munns has already
rebuilt the missing jaw and unusually small teeth. He moves on to the
unconventional eyes. The first reaction would be
to simply put a round eye in it. But it would tend to bulge
out, almost like a frog eye. And I felt it biologically
that's not likely. So what I did for the eye,
in this particular case, is actually first
design in the computer the shape of an eyeball that
would allow a very, very large, flat-back area, where all
of its in focus at once, and then simply round
it out so it was a form of a kind of a compressed oval. And that sat into the
eye socket perfectly. The eye would not be able
to rotate terribly well left, right, up, and down. But because the entire retina
is in focus at the same time, it allows for in focused
peripheral vision. So you don't actually
need to rotate the eye. NARRATOR: Munns begins
reconstructing the neck muscles and discovers something unusual. BILL MUNNS (VOICEOVER):
Within a normal human being, they're usually sufficiently
inside the neck area that the neck can still
have kind of a basic round, cylindrical form. In this particular
instance, those processes where the muscle
actually attaches to, at the base of the skull,
were extended way out to the side of the face. And it produced a very,
very unusual neck shape. NARRATOR: Finally, the face of
the monster-humanoid emerges. BILL MUNNS (VOICEOVER): Once
the face itself was fleshed out, I could forget about all the
musculature underneath it, forget about all of
the skull structure, and bone structure
underneath it, step back, and really just
take a look at this face for the first time. NARRATOR: "MonsterQuest"
is searching for evidence of strange, humanoid creatures
seen in West Virginia more than half a century ago. This man says he
came face-to-face with the monster in 1952. This investigator
believes he may have found physical evidence of the beast. This author believes
that this skull is a 900-year-old hybrid humanoid. And this forensic
anthropologist may finally be able to determine its origin. [dramatic music] Dr. Susan Myster has completed
her analysis of the skull. My findings indicate that
it is the skull of a child. I came to that conclusion
based on the fact that the morphology is
consistent with a human child. The dentition is consistent
with a human child. The shape, and contour,
and size of the skull are consistent
with a human child. NARRATOR: It proved impossible
to determine gender or ancestry of the individual. But Dr. Myster was able
to uncover some details about the skull. There was no evidence
of disease observable on the skull. And the modification was also
not due to warping or due to a burial environment. And the more I
looked at the skull, the more I became convinced that
the modification to the skull was intentionally inflicted as
part of a cultural practice. NARRATOR: Some Native
American tribes have historically bounded their
infants' still-soft skulls, to cause them to grow into an
elongated shape, a practice known as "cradle boarding." SUSAN MYSTER: We have seen
cranial modification-- intentional cranial
modification-- in almost all
parts of the world. It's not cradle
boarding, but it is modification to the
occipital region or the back of the skull. NARRATOR: If it is an
intentional modification, it is unlike any Dr. Myster
has encountered before. SUSAN MYSTER: I've
never seen modification like this to this extent or
even close to this extent. The degree of modification
seen in this particular skull is more significant and to
a greater degree than I've seen in any other
skull I've analyzed. NARRATOR: The results of
the Shore hardness tests suggest the skull is made
of a substance harder than normal human bone. SUSAN MYSTER: The
Shore hardness test was conducted on three
separate individuals. The first individual
was the skull that we've been analyzing, the Starchild. The second individual was
an adult, human female. And the third individual
was a human child. And what we saw was that the
two definitively human skulls were within the
acceptable range-- 65 to 85-- using the
Shore hardness scale, and that the Starchild was a
little bit higher, but still within that upper 80s. And we had one
reading in the 90s. [dramatic music] When I went into this, I
didn't have any head or face visualized in my mind that I
was aspiring to accomplish. And I was actually surprised. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: The reconstruction
reveals a face that does not look entirely human. [suspenseful music] The team has gathered
samples from the site where the creature was
first seen in 1952-- soil, parts of a
decayed tree, and a black plastic-like
material that was scattered over the ground. There was a good variety of
wood samples and soil samples that were tested. The two analyses, the one with
the mass spectrometer, that would absolutely identify
any compounds present, matched that with the gas
chromatograph and the more sensitive detector. There were no semi-volatile
or volatile materials that were unusual that
was associated with this. NARRATOR: Analysis of
the black particles reveal they were natural,
organic materials, charred as if subjected
to extreme heat. The estimate that
I gave with this was that it was either a
very decayed wood or charcoal of some type. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: More than
half a century ago, witnesses saw something
that could not be explained. It's the old scientific thing
about extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, an
extraordinary level of proof. NARRATOR: This
expedition has revealed some interesting facts. No sign of radiation
or toxic contamination was found in Flatwoods,
West Virginia. But there was charred
organic matter there, giving credibility to
what the witnesses saw. No gas leaks were found that
could explain their stories as hallucinations. And a comparison of
witness descriptions shows they were likely
seeing the same thing. I've met little kids who
have told me stories, five years old, and
people in their 90s, and what's very interesting is
the amount of Braxton County residents who walk up to me and
say, do you know this is still going on today? We need to open up our
thinking about these things, instead of an isolation. And, of course, our
egos get in the way. We need to look forward
and not backward, that maybe some of the beliefs
we have aren't justified. But that's what
life is all about-- learning to face the new. If somebody had asked me if
I believe in UFOs and things from outer space, I would
have probably said no. But now, I know.
