Witness Reports Encounter with Dark, Red-Eyed Being That Appeared to Take Flight in Southeast Michigan

Lon Strickler of Phantoms & Monsters recently received an email from a witness who said that he and his sister were driving in southeast Michigan when they saw a dark, red-eyed being that appeared to take flight.

Strickler said the email was a follow up to one sent by the witness about a month ago that was too vague to be published.

This more recent email represents an elaborated version of the witness’s experience.

I don’t really believe in any cryptids though the idea of them is fun, except for Mothman. Around the time of these sightings in mid-fall 2017, I lived in a small town in southeast Michigan (Oakland County) and was attending high school.

My older sister, who is nine years my senior and had a similarly timed work schedule, drove me to school extra early every morning so I could attend an extra hour and fit another class into my schedule. It was awful and started at 6 a.m., but we only lived about 15 minutes from my school, so it wasn’t all that bad of a drive.

One morning we were making our way to the school as per usual through some super curvy wooded back roads by our house (a route we took every day). Suddenly, in a break between the section of road we were on, just between the third curve and the last curve before the road straightened out, I noticed two glowing red spots about maybe 600 to 800 feet in the distance. At first, I brushed it off, as the area was known for deer and the spacing for eyes wasn’t too far off, but I couldn’t shake the wrong feeling I had. The eyes just weren’t the right color to be reflecting deer eyes and, as we neared closer, it became apparent to me that if these indeed were eyes, [then] the figure was far too tall to be any type of animal I could think of. It was still really dark out, so I was only able to make out the eyes and a dark black silhouette before.

As our headlights were finally near enough to begin illuminating the figure it took off into the sky like a literal ‘bat out of hell.’ It moved incredibly fast and before it took off the dark silhouette expanded significantly in a manner that was incredibly similar to how birds use their wings to take off. Before I could hardly register what had just happened it disappeared over the tree line and out of sight. At first, I was worried I was seeing things. However, as I looked over at my sister, I was met with a mirror of my same shocked expression. She asked incredulously if I had just seen that too and we began conferring about what we just saw. I was relieved to hear that I wasn’t going crazy as she described the same things I had also just seen.

I still think about that morning to this day and was surprised when a couple of years after it, I came across your articles and reports. A lot of the sightings and encounters you compiled dated around the same time. I saw what, I believe more and more every year, had to be Mothman.

Winged humanoids have not been reported as often in Michigan as they have in the other states bordering Lake Michigan, with only one other sighting represented on The Singular Fortean Society’s timeline.

This report constitutes the latest news in a string of ‘Mothman’ sightings from within a few hundred mile radius surrounding Lake Michigan, including every state bordering the great lake. These sightings ostensibly began in the spring of 2017, but more historical accounts are being reported as more people become aware of the phenomenon. They generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park or natural area, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large gray, brown, or black, bat or bird-like creature—although in a small number of cases the creature was described as insect-like—sometimes with glowing or reflective red, yellow, green, or orange eyes, and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Some witnesses have reported feeling intense fear and an aura of evil emanating from the creature they encountered. Many of the sightings are also of something seen only briefly or are described only as a flying creature with few details, which leaves open the possibility that a misidentified large bird—such as a heron or crane—or some type of anomalous avian species could explain some, although certainly not all, of the encounters. A number of associated high strangeness incidents have also occurred alongside the creature sightings. These include reports of UFOs, other anomalous flying creatures and mysterious humanoids, parapsychological phenomena, and bizarre events experienced by those investigating the sightings.

To report a sighting reach out to us directly at The Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here.

A map of the sightings, compiled by Strickler, is available here.