Reports from the Void: 'Mothman Sighting'

The Singular Fortean Society received the following email with “Mothman Sighting” in the title on August 17th, 2022.

We never told anyone but a couple of close family members, but my husband and I saw what we now believe to be the Mothman in fall of 2015. It was after dark, and we were taking a drive in the country after a hockey game.
This huge creature flew off from a telephone pole. It was as big as a man. Huge and black. Like an enormous bat. I was terrified. My husband looked at me and said, “you saw that too?”
I watched a documentary about the Mothman, and my husband and I both said…that is what we saw. We live near Lake Michigan in Muskegon.

Investigator Tobias Wayland replied to the witness in an attempt to schedule an interview about their experience but received no response.

Muskegon is a moderately-sized city of around 40,000 people which sits directly on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore.

Michigan has delivered the fewest winged humanoid sighting reports of any state bordering Lake Michigan, with only one other report featured so far on the timeline published by the Singular Fortean Society.

Illinois has by far the most sighting reports with at least 125 received to date, while Indiana and Wisconsin both trail with approximately 15 reports each. Given that many of the reports from Illinois come from the Chicagoland area, this may represent an issue in the reporting of sightings due to population density rather than the overall frequency of the phenomenon in a given area.

The experience expressed above is consistent with much of what has been reported in other states. Many witnesses describe unexpectedly encountering an enormous, winged humanoid—dark in color with bird or batlike wings—while traveling at night on unrelated business, and often experience a profound sense of fear during the encounter.

While it is impossible to say definitively without further investigation—an unlikely prospect given the witness’s seeming reluctance to respond to investigators—the above report could represent a sighting related to the Lake Michigan Mothman phenomenon.

Reports from the Void is a repository to share those stories for which we do not have enough information to make a full report. This is usually because of little or no communication from the witness following their initial submission. The Singular Fortean Society will always provide as much information as possible regarding any correspondence during our attempts to speak with those involved.

This series is meant only to present you with the full breadth of the information sent to us, and makes no judgments towards the veracity of any stories shared within it.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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