Strange Ohio Humanoids: What Should We Accept As Evidence?

   Regarding mysterious Ohio creatures there was this report in 2014:

Alien Encounter in Cincinnati, Ohio, 12^th December, 2014

“We recently bought a place in the fort hill area. we first noticed after about 30 days of living here that we suddenly have a perfect circle that stays fresh green, no matter what weather, in our front yard. friday night (the 12th) we were driving home and after turning on carmel rd which leads to our road (washburn) we went around the curve by the carmel church and then up a small incline and approx. 10 feet over the incline and in front of our truck, the alien ran across the rd and into the woods. my husband saw it. he is a skeptic, almost 60 years old and a proud marine. he wouldn't have admitted to seeing it if he hadn't been in shock. i had him draw it for me when we got to the house. he says it was asphalt gray (our asphalt is gray) and about 7 foot tall, no arms that he could see, but muscular in the legs area. no jawline and it's legs were bent backward and it leaned forward as it ran.”

   The legs looked very odd –almost as though they belonged to a quadruped. However, as I do not live in Ohio I have no idea of the full variety of wildlife there but then I accidentally found the Doubtful News website and it featured this very brief incident.

https://doubtfulnews.com/2015/01/ohio-alien-creature-sighting-may-have-logical-explanation/

   In her piece, Idoubtit, expressed the opinion that what was seen was nothing more than a white Tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on its hind legs or, as others suggested, great blue heron (Ardea herodias): there are other suggestions and based on the fact that there is so little information on this sighting I tend to go for a natural explanation.

   Now there are three other incidents and they are reported on at Phantoms and Monsters, not the most evidence based website as I have found several times. Lon Strickler wrote:

  

“I recently received a 3rd report of a humanoid sighting in the Mount Vernon, Ohio area. The eyewitness' daughter contacted me:

“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 (from my last report and above). 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....

“NOTE: I am attempting to gather more information from this sighting. Lon”

   Unfortunately, for researchers this report is immediately thrown out.  We have an anonymous report which is okay if the writer clearly identifies herself to the investigator but this is not even her sighting.  It is her mother’s.  The problem is that unless an independent investigator can view and confirm the existence of the witness and that an email was sent reporting the incident and that the actual witness has confirmed details –the report is of no use.

   Does the witness use any medication or have any existing physical health problems –mental/physical?   What was her frame of mind at the time of the sighting –what kind of day had she had; any stress?

   Really, unless an investigator can talk to the witness of an event it cannot be taken as even hearsay: far too much hoaxing and fabrication takes place on the internet.

   The following is the first Ohio report:

Mount Vernon, Ohio:

“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”. - MUFON

   The news item can be found here: https://mountvernonnews.com/article/2018/08/10/alien-sighting-north-of-mount-vernon/

   I am sorry to say that just because it carries a “MUFON” (Mutual UFO Network) tag most people will accept this outright.  What we have, though, is the old problem: a single witness driving along a dark road in the early hours. Again, you could go for a deer crossing the road but there are other options such as a waking dream and this could be a viable explanation but unless MUFON provide online access to the investigator’s report we have no idea how the interview was carried out.

   There are reasons why I tend to be more sceptical about quick sightings under these conditions but in the end it is down to what you want to believe.

   Strickler then goes on to refer to a second sighting in the Mount Vernon, Ohio area:

“Mount Vernon, Ohio - 2018-08-17: 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 scratching 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”. - MUFON

   There are a lot of warning signs here: the witness felt he had been followed throughout his hike and even describes himself as “feeling super sketched out” and also: “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”.   The psychological frame of mind of the witness would need to be ascertained as there really are a lot of red lights here.

   How often did the person go hiking?  Had they been under home or work pressure at the time and had they had any other experiences before?

   The problem is that ufologists will accept these reports based on the website version or news item.  This is really –really- bad practice. We need as much information as possible about the witnesses and their lives at the time of their sightings –so long as it can be confirmed that the witnesses do exist they need not be named: it is important that genuine witnesses need their anonymity protected but research hers need to know that they are not being fed a story because that could result in months or even many years wasted –and of course bad data is used.

   Also, there are a few fake videos out there of very similar entities which makes me suspicious.  See...

   For these reports we quite honestly have nothing.

   You may think we do but that is down to personal opinion and beliefs.