The next morning, Partridge went outside to investigate. He saw
Bandit's footprints leading to where he had seen the eyes the night
before. However, the dogs prints stopped and formed a circle, as if
the dog had been chasing its tail (which Partridge had never seen
him do before); then the prints vanished, as if the dog disappeared
from that spot or was carried away. While Partridge never saw his
dog again, a future eye-witness report published in the paper
suggested his dog was carried off and killed by Mothman.
The next evening, four people, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve
and Mary Mallette, were driving past the abandoned TNT plant
looking for friends who might be at the popular hangout. They saw a
man-shaped figure, only larger, shuffeling toward the door to the
plant. It had bat-like wings, and large red eyes situated in a
headless torso. Terrified, the two couples sped off.
Up the road, they encountered the same creature which then pursued
the car by flying without flapping its wings. They heard a
high-pitched, squeaky sound. The thing followed them all the way to
city limits. The four saw a dead dog lying in the middle of the
road. They returned to the TNT area with Sheriff Millard Halstead,
who took the couples seriously as he knew them their whole lives.
The dog was gone, and everything appeared normal at the plant,
except Halstead's radio made noises like a tape player at high
speed.
The next day, a press conference was held and Mothman was given its
name after a lesser villan in the popular Batman comic.
On 16 November, Mrs. Mercella Bennett saw a strange red light over
the TNT area. Suddenly, a large grey being rose from the ground.
Terrified, Mrs. Bennett grabbed her 2 year old daughter and sped
toward the Thomas family home nearby. Locked inside the house, they
soon heard a shuffling noise just outside the house and Mothman's
glowing red eyes appeared in the livingroom window. Mrs. Bennett
was plagued with nightmares for months afterward, and sought
medical attention for her anxieties.
On 27 November, Connie Carpenter was driving home from church when
she saw Mothman suddenly unfold its wings and fly at her
windsheild. It veered off at the last minute, but gave Carpenter a
close up veiw of its face, which she described as simply
"horrible". She developed klieg conjunctivitus, a swelling,
reddening, and itching of the eyes.
On February 27, 1967, Carpenter was walking to school when a man
driving a 1946 Buick approached her. The man looked like he was in
his mid-twenties, well tanned, and had no coat, despite the cold
temperatures. He grabbed her arm, but she got away. The next day,
she found a note on the porch written in pencil saying, "Be careful
girl. I can get you".
Other strange people were encountered by local residents, and not
only those who had been first-hand witnesses to the strange events.
Reporters who were involved with investigating and researching the
strange phenomena were targeted by odd people. Mrs. Mary Hyre was
working at her office in the county courthouse when she was visited
by a four and a half foot man with thick glasses, wearing only a
short sleeved shirt despite the cold. The man asked her for
directions to Welsh, West Virginia, but apparently already knew
where it was and how to get there. He made Mrs. Hyre very
uncomfortable, prompting her to summon the circulation manager.
After continuing the conversation further, he picked up a ball
point pen and marveled at it. When Mrs. Hyre told him he could have
it he suddenly laughed and ran out the door. She later saw him
watching her on the street, then jump in a car and speed away when
she noticed him.
