← Monsters Among Us
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- [00:00]
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- [01:53]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. Now, given that things are warming up, the temperatures are rising, and people are flocking to the water, I thought it would be a good time to slap together another best of episode. And this week I have something pretty spooky to share with you, especially if you're listening from the water. You see tonight, I've put together a best of episode featuring the best calls I have about mermaids and other aquatic humanoids. And let me tell you, it is quite the list. So pour yourself something cold to drink, find a shadowy spot to sit in and prepare yourselves for what's going on beneath the waves. And to kick things off here this evening, we begin in the state of virginia from season 17, episode 5. Please welcome RB to the program.
- [03:00]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
Hey Derek. I wanted to stay anonymous, but you can call me rb Found your podcast probably two to three months after this occurrence. Wasn't really into these podcasts or anything, but when something happens, you start to look around to figure out, you know, what other people are seeing and what things might be. I'm in very, very rural Virginia, but I'm on the borders of the Chesapeake Bay. You take one look at the bay and you'll see that there's all kinds of finger rivers and everything like that. I don't want to say exactly where this took place, but let's just say it was Very rural fishing farming community. So this occurred probably September or October of last year. 22. I'm an avid kayaker, retired military. Spend a lot of time overseas. Never seen anything like this. So I'm in my kayak and I've got my dog with me. He's a very probably 110 pound German Shepherd. And we're out. I've paddled way up a river at a tributary to the point where I am pretty much in the wilderness. No more houses, no more docks. You know, left that probably a mile ago. And I'm just in kind of fingers of the, you know, saltwater. But I'm in the wilderness. I'm surrounded by trees and hills and stuff, you know, marsh grass of course, that kind of thing. We've been out probably half hour, 45 minutes something like that. And I decided to take the kayak as far up as I could go and do a little bit fishing there, you know, before you start hitting the areas where it's more fresh than salt and just kind of see how far you can go and see what kind of fish you might be able to catch, that kind of thing. So I kind of came to the end of as far as I was going to get in my boat. Probably was high tide at the time. But the reason I stopped is clearly the river ended but the water is still probably. I have no idea deep where I'm at in the center. And I'm just sitting there fishing. It's getting close to dusk. You know, you're in that pretty golden hour. It's fall, trees are beautiful, sky's pretty and just kind of dozing off, you know, thinking to yourself about whatever you think about when you're killing fishing. I might have even dozed off and my dog starts barking fanatically. And he's a real calm boy. Doesn't do this kind of stuff. Kind of knocks me out of my wall and I start looking around. He's barking at the water. I just glance back and I look down and there is this thing looking back at me. Humanoid for sure. Looks like a reptile. Almost like after doing some research that I don't really know the name. I mean, I guess you could say it was a mermaid. But I mean if mermaids are full on evil beings at this thing, I'll try to describe it for you. Found some research and saw something in Japan called the cat. But it kind of looked more like that than anything. Only I say that because this thing kind of looked like a turtle in other than. I mean the eyes were Wrong. The face was wrong, skin was right. Didn't really have a nose in a greenish, brownish, dark skin. It looked very, very reptile. But the eyes, they were snake eyes. That yellow diamond slit about as far apart as you see on any person. They look intelligent and evil at the same time. And I could see its mouth, lips are kind of pursed, but you could see just through. And you could see a, like, row of sharp teeth, almost like you would see on, like a fish or something. Man, it must have been like a hair away from the surface, like. So you've been swimming and you're about to underwater and you're about to come up, but stop. This thing was. I could have touched it. It was just below the water line, hit the head, the nose, and I couldn't. The water sprakish dark. I couldn't see beyond the shoulders, but I saw it. It burned into my mind. For some reason, I got a feeling that this thing may have been female, if that's even possible. I don't know. It just maybe the way the neck and shoulders were more feminine, even though it was like, if that makes sense. I don't know. By the time you would get to where I could tell by the shape of the shoulders and the neck. And you lost visibility after that. Now, that said, I'm giving as much detail as I can. This, this was quick because I was scared. I got scared real quick. And then I saw on the surface. It was ridiculous. It was almost like an 80s horror movie, like where they put piranhas in the lake or something. I think there was one like that. And I saw water like little, you know, when something's moving during water, you see the. It coming towards you from seven different places. I could make out things coming my direction now that said they could have just been minnows on the surface. They, you know, that probably what it was. I don't know. The way my dog was freaking out what I saw, I just probably turned white and I began to paddle for my life as fast as I could get out of there. Two coves later, the ripples quit following our direction and just kind of disappeared. Yeah, I guess that's pretty much the end of the story. I wouldn't go anywhere near that body of water for months. I'd been back close to it since once or twice, you know, probably in the beginning of the spring of the summer. I just kind of stay away from the area now. Yeah, that's it. That's my story. Some kind of mirth thing in the waters of the Chesapeake Yeah, I just. To this day I still don't know what I saw, but it scared the heck out of me and it makes you have a little bit more appreciation for what's below because we just. You never know. All right, have a good one.
- [09:39]
Kat (Caller)
Bye.
- [09:43]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Thank you. RB Whether that was a kappa or a mermaid or something else completely, it sure has my attention. And believe it or not, I have another call from that exact same location. It seems to describe the exact same creature. That one coming up later in the program. But first we need to take a quick break.
- [10:08]
Show Commentator / Researcher
But fear not, I'll be right back.
- [10:11]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
But he's always been aware. Has anyone from Miami?
- [10:16]
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- [10:48]
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- [10:58]
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- [11:01]
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- [11:13]
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- [11:17]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
You don't know the property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes.
- [11:26]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Now next up, we stay with season 17, episode 5. This time we hear from Kat in Parts Unknown.
- [11:36]
Kat (Caller)
Hi, this is Kat again. I have a story from when I was three or four years old. Me, my brother, sister, my parents, we were in a church retreat that was set on the beaches in California. We were in Southern California at the time and it was supposed to be a four day retreat. Because of this happening, it was actually cut down to two days. Me and another little kid, we were with a parent and we were doing the classic chase the waves away from the beach and then run back away from the the waves. You know, kids stuff. Just playing tag with the waves. At one point there was something that came up in the waves. I call this my mermaid story. I know sounds crazy, but this thing that came up out of the water. It was fairly large to my four year old eyes. Half human, half whatever it could be called I suppose. It had green scales over its entire body. The head was globe shaped like not human, you know, oval shaped, but it was circular and its arms were kind of squat, like an alligator almost. We sat there staring at this thing as it came out of the water and just sat there on the beach looking at us and it smiled at us like ear to ear grin with these sharp pointing teeth. And we all screamed and ran and hours later everyone just left the beach. I've thought, you know, maybe it was an alligator, maybe you were just seeing things, but I've never heard of alligators being on Southern California beaches. I. I honestly don't know what it was. This was some odd 32 years ago showing my age, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has heard or encountered something similar to what I encountered just on the Southern California beaches, on any beach. Honestly, I. Like I said, it's my youngest encounter story that I've ever had happen to me. Anyways, love the podcast. I keep listening to it going down the road, pitch black outside, freaking myself out. Love it. Thank you so much for listening to my story. If you have any suggestions as to what it was or anyone else, I would love to hear it.
- [14:32]
Jade (Caller from Texas)
Thank you.
- [14:32]
Kat (Caller)
Bye bye.
- [14:36]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Thank you Cat for calling in. Now speaking of mermaids, we actually had a hometown legend a few years back involving these waterborne weirdos. You just might remember this one from Hometown Legends number 18, season 18, episode 51. And in this one I'm going to feature some of the original dialogue from that episode.
- [14:59]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Please welcome Jay from North Carolina.
- [15:04]
Jay (Caller from North Carolina)
Hey Derek, this is Jay from North Carolina calling about the Cape Fear mermaids. So in North Carolina there's a place called Cape Fear Valley and it's pretty large in Cape Fear Valley. Back during the Revolutionary War, some soldiers who were traveling through the area heading towards an end or something along those lines saw a group of mermaids, which people have figured since then were probably trying to escape the cannon fire. Cannon fire or gunshots, something like that. They were just trying to escape the fighting. And when they saw the men or something else spooked them, they jumped back into the river and swam away. The men ran back to the inn that they were staying at and they told everyone there that there are these beautiful mermaids staying in the river. And even till now, sometimes people will report seeing beautiful mermaids in Cape Fear river and Cape Fear Valley. Granted, this happened at a place called Moncure North Carolina. I've never been there myself, but the story is very old, well over 200 years at this point. And Cape Fear has a legend that I'm not sure is a legend, could actually be fact, because that's how it's always been told. To me that the reason why it's called Cape Fear is because when they first discovered the area, they had tried to send in smaller boats to explore the river and try to go deeper inland. So what happened was every time they sent a boat, something would happen, and the people would either walk back or the boat would just not come back at all. The sandbanks in the river change on an almost daily basis, so the water can be extremely choppy in some areas. The river is extremely wide, and it's very difficult to actually traverse if you don't know what you're doing. On top of that, after the boats just weren't coming back from the just smaller boats, they decided to try to send in one of the larger boats. But the problem was whenever they sent in a larger boat, it would almost instantly run aground and it would cause damage to the boats. Sometimes people would just be stranded there and they just had to abandon ship, walk all the way back once again. So they just decided that it would probably be best to just walk from the beach all the way inland, which took way more time, but it was the safest option. Even today, people still drown in Cape Fear River. Some people blame the mermaids for drowning people. Some people just realize that the river is honestly very dangerous. With a lot of twists and turns in the sand banks, you can get stuck very easily. So people get drowned in the river on a almost regular basis. But yeah. Have a good one, Derek. Bye bye.
- [17:59]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Thank you, Jay. Now that's a fun story. The Mermaids of Cape Fear. It almost sounds like a movie title or perhaps a good local band name, but it also sounds like an awesome hometown legend. And it checks all of the boxes. Monster, Check. Water, Check. History, check as well. What more do you need in a legendary. Well, as fun as this story is,
- [18:35]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
let's see if it's too good to be true.
- [18:39]
Show Commentator / Researcher
We started at the root of the tale, where the haw and deep rivers converge to become the mouth of the Cape Fear river right there in Moncure, North Carolina, an area that's aptly named Mermaid Point, by the way. Now, one piece of information that we learned is that the inn that Jay had mentioned in his story was actually a tavern. Ramsay's Tavern, to be specific. So these witnesses might have been drunk as Skunks when they saw these mermaids. Certainly something we can't rule out. And here is some additional information on these creatures. According to an article from WRAL News, during the war, soldiers began to regularly visit the tavern. It was around this time that soldiers first began spreading tales of seeing mermaids along a long, gleaming sandbar that divided the Cape Fear River. According to oral tradition, soldiers believed these mermaids had traveled up the Cape Fear in order to wash seawater from their beautiful long hair. Now, the tavern in the sandbar in which the mermaids were said to have lounged was eventually washed away in a massive flood. And that was just about the same time that the sightings of the mermaids seem to have stopped. And it's noted that the disappearance of the mermaids seemed to coincide with the building of dams and locks along the course of the Cape Fear, perhaps cutting off the path of the mermaids up from the sea. Now that could be true. The construction of dams and the development of the river could stop a mysterious species from trudging upstream. That could explain how these sightings seemingly fell off, or why suddenly these mermaids seemed to simply disappear. But here is how I see it. There's a known animal that likely would have been affected by those changes in the exact same way. An animal that, although not native to the area, has been known to visit there from time to time. An animal that's already been mistaken for a mermaid. According to legend, and apparently his ship log, Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen mermaids near what is now the Dominican Republic. But apparently he was appalled by their appearance, stating that they were not half as beautiful as they are painted now. It wasn't a mermaid that he and his crew encountered that day back in January of 1493. Instead, he encountered a manatee, a 1,000 pound marine mammal that lounges around eating vegetation in places like Florida, the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America. Could that be the creature that those men saw all those years ago? Maybe they'd never seen a manatee before or even heard of one. And from a distance, they can certainly be human shaped. And maybe back then they still had a straight shot right up through the river. And maybe just like they are today, they sometimes make their way up tributaries like the Cape Fear River. As WWA News 3 out of Cape Fear can attest.
- [22:16]
News Reporter (WRAL News)
An unusual visitor being spotted in southeastern North Carolina waters. Over the past 10 years, manatee sightings in the Cape Fear river have increased, with the most recent sighting happening last month. The mammals are a federally protected species, which means if you do see one, you must stay 500 meters away. Tiffany Keenan, UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program Coordinator, says that if you do see a manatee, it's important to report it to them. Keenan says most of them come from Florida seeking cooler water and seagrass.
- [22:47]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Now, maybe you caught the same thing
- [22:48]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
that I did in that clip that
- [22:50]
Show Commentator / Researcher
you have to stay 500 meters away from any manatees. I certainly hope they meant 500ft. I'm no math whiz, but I think 500 meters is well over a quarter mile. I don't even know if I can see a manatee from that far away. Well, I couldn't resist, so I looked it up. According to savethemanityclub.org, you have to stay 50ft away from a manatee, which sounds much more accurate. Anyway, my point here is that manatee do make their way up the Cape Fear, and maybe back in those days
- [23:28]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
they could make their way further up.
- [23:30]
Show Commentator / Researcher
And maybe some of those tavern patrons were just drunk enough to mistake one for a mermaid. Or maybe they really were there on that sandbank washing their hair, just like the legend says. Either way, I love the tale and I appreciate you sharing it here tonight with us.
- [23:50]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Jay.
- [23:57]
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- [24:19]
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- [24:28]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 1
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- [24:38]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2
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- [24:41]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 3
Oh, no.
- [24:42]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 4
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- [24:45]
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We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
- [24:48]
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- [24:50]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 4
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- [24:53]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 6
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- [24:58]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
No reason to suggest that he would be, you know,
- [25:03]
Show Commentator / Researcher
the good and the
- [25:07]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
now. Folks, as I mentioned a little bit ago, I have another call from the Chesapeake Bay area that seems to describe the exact same thing that RB saw. Now, based on the information that I have, I believe this call has never been played on the air so this is a brand new one for almost everyone. So from the state of Virginia, please welcome Anonymous to the program.
- [25:34]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
Hey, Derek, I'm calling from Virginia. I'm a first responder, and I work sea rescue out in the Chesapeake Bay and Lower Potomac river areas. Anyway, this has happened more than one occasion. First time this happened to me, we got a call and I was on duty. We had to go out into the bay, but it was like the middle of the night. I think the call came in at like 12, one o' clock in the morning. We had gotten a call for a sailboat that was in distress. I guess his lines were fouled and his motor was bad, and he was set adrift for the Chesapeake. It was a windy night, a little
- [26:13]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
bit of storm in the air.
- [26:15]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
We had, you know, rain off and on, but nothing too bad. But the waves were probably 2 to 4ft, depending on, you know, low or the high of them, which is pretty significant for the Chesapeake. I mean, they can get bigger, but regardless. So as a crewman, we're out searching for this sailboat, and I'm on the back. We've got myself on one side of the boat, another crewman on the other, captain and another crew inside, and we're shining lights as we do. And I am seeing things in the waves. Like, how to describe it? Basically, it looked like people are in the waves, like, you know, swimming. Not swimming, but waiting as waves would come up and down and you would. I'd catch eyeshine. I won't say it looked human, but it had human shapes. And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, am I seeing hits with eyes in the water? Anyway, I don't even like calling in,
- [27:19]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
this is not me.
- [27:20]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
I'm not this kind of guy. But what I saw, I know I saw. And then when I was listening to some of your episodes, I think it was 20, 24, best of you had a guy call in about something he saw in the same, I don't know, sort of the same area. At least it was on Chesapeake, about what he thought was like a mermaid slash reptilian or something. And my mind went straight back to this night. You know, I think I blew it off that night because I was like, there's no way I'm seeing what I'm seeing. And I saw him like, this just kept happening for probably 30 minutes. Like, you would see one or two. Wave would crash, go away. You know, next one's up, nothing. Next one up, you'd see the same thing. Wave, you know, passes. I think I even saw as many as five at once. Sets of eyes and outline of like a head, maybe shadow or at least neck. I just, I can't get it out
- [28:18]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
of my head now.
- [28:19]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
This happened a few years ago, maybe four or five.
- [28:23]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
From here on out, if you ever
- [28:24]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
get any late night calls like that, I'm always wondering what I might see. Anyway, you have a good one, Dave.
- [28:30]
Anonymous Wildlife Technician Caller
Bye.
- [28:34]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
A big thanks, Anonymous. And I sure can't tell you if the two entities are the same thing or not, but given that small swatch of water, I think it's certainly possible. Now folks, if you have a story you would like to share, give our hotline a call at 888-608-night. That's 888608 NIG HT. Or you can record your story as a voice memo and email it to me at monsters among us podcast gmail.com now up next, we head to Parts Unknown from season 11 episode 1. Please welcome anonymous to the show.
- [29:16]
Anonymous Wildlife Technician Caller
Hi Derek, first time caller, longtime listener. I'm a wildlife technician in the state of New York and one night for last hour on survey we came across this, what looked to be a small bird come out from the reservoir, do a figure eight and I was spotlighting about the boat. So I got the light on this bird and it wasn't a bird. It had two legs, very humanoid, a torso with long butterfly wings on the back of it and they were flapping vertically. They were not flapping horizontally like a bird, they were positioned vertical on the back of the torso and it was flapping vertically like a hummingbird or butterfly. But it had two legs hanging down and it was bright white image and it came out of the reservoir to figure eight and then went back into the reservoir. I'm not sure what this is, nor should I speculate what this thing could have been because my career and because of that I'm also asking that my voice be hidden using software. So that's my submission and thanks Derek, appreciate the work.
- [30:37]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
Keep it up.
- [30:38]
Anonymous Wildlife Technician Caller
Bye.
- [30:42]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Thank you Anonymous.
- [30:43]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
I'm not sure if we can call this one a mermaid or not, but it's humanoid and it's mysterious and it's exactly what we're looking for. Now, speaking of non mermaid entities, this next entry features a creature that some might say is Alaska's version of the mermaid.
- [31:04]
Show Commentator / Researcher
And again I'll be dipping into the
- [31:06]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
original commentary from that episode from season 17, episode 8. Please welcome Ariel from the state of Oregon.
- [31:18]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
Hey Derek, My name is Ariel and I now reside in Portland, Oregon. I lived all over the US over the last 10 years. But I grew up for 18 years of my life in southeast Alaska in Juneau. And I had something happen to me and a friend when we were about 11 years old. So I'm 30 now that has my head scratching to this day. And I just wanted to get some insight on some possible Tlingit Haida elders who might be listening to this to maybe tell me what I saw. If you are Tlingit and Haida or if you're in southeast Alaska right now, I will say mute this for about the next 10 seconds because I'm going to say a name that's not necessarily supposed to be said if you are in the woods. So in the Tlingit Haida nation, they believe in a shape shifting man called the Kushtaka. This roughly translates to otterman. And I want to say right now I am a white person, but I grew up around Tlingit Haida people my entire life. And if you live in southeast Alaska, you know about this otter person. And you are very much told at a young age, like what to look out for. So that way you aren't taken by it. But from what I was told when I was young, again, please correct me if I'm wrong or if I misunderstood this, but I was always told by the elders in my life was that they will lure you to either a far part in the beach or in the woods and take your soul. They will either mimic someone that you know voice or the sound of crying baby. And if you look into their eyes,
- [32:51]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
they'll take your soul.
- [32:52]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
So that was what we were told. And me and my friends always knew that if we were in the woods alone and we heard some weird stuff, don't go towards it. So this happened to me and a friend when we were about 11 years old. We were in the woods on a rope swing that we built that was on the side of a mountain. I know it sounds extreme, but growing up in Alaska, I've now known living in the lower 48, we do a lot more wild things for entertainment than you do in, we'll say more domesticated parts of the country. And all of a sudden we just hear this earth shattering roar come from about 100 yards to our right and it takes our breath away. And I want to say, like I've seen more bears than I can count. We don't have moose in that area. There are small mountain cats like bobcats and lynx. Very rarely there's wolves. But I know what all these sound like. And I interacted with all of these animals. And this did not sound like any of that. It almost was like multi octave. I'm a musician, so if you ever use like an activator pedal to get multiple octaves for one note you're playing on a guitar, it almost sounds like that. So we hear this and we look at each other and we're like, we don't know what the heck that is. And then all of a sudden something just starts trudging after us in the forest as fast as it can. It looks like someone's taking a lawn mower through this foliage. And if you've ever spent time in southeast Alaska or B.C. canada or the Pacific Northwest, you know how thick that foliage is. You can't just crash through that. It's a jungle and we have a lot of spiky stuff, things that can hurt you if you're going too fast. So this thing is coming at us. But the craziest thing is while it's
- [34:37]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
coming at us, it looks like the
- [34:39]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
foliage is being bent backwards. I don't know how else to describe that, but like instead of it going forward in its wake, it's like as it's coming towards us, everything is in reverse. So the thing is coming at us and we don't hesitate even for a moment and we jump off this rope swing and we just book it down this mountain back to his house.
- [35:02]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
The crazy thing is too.
- [35:03]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
It's like we couldn't see this thing. There's clearly a path being mowed out from whatever it was. But there was no. I was expecting to see a giant grizzly bear and it was just a completely carved out path in the woods with nothing to show for it. It was so wild. You know, we're running back through this like salmon filled stream and over all these logs we make it to his house, which is on the edge of the wood that we're at. Run through the back door, lock it, and we, we're little kids, so we sit on the ground, put our backs against the door and again I'm expecting to hear bear noises which if, if they're challenging you or feel threatened, they'll clack their jaws or they'll do kind of like a. But wasn't hearing any of that. Wasn't hearing anything like wolves again, like, no, like lynx or bobcat. And it just kind of was like the looming presence of like something was behind us. And do not turn around. Like don't, don't look at it. So we sat there for about five minutes and then we realized it was gone and we didn't go back outside that day, just stayed in. And you're hard pressed to get a nice sunny day in southeast Alaska in July and we wasted it. We didn't want to go back outside so we stayed in and played board games instead. I think I told my mom. I don't think I told anybody else something I'm just kind of like had with me for a while. I know I've told my sister over the years, but that one was crazy. I don't know what I encountered. And like I said, I spent years of my life wake up going to the woods for eight to 10 hours, you know, until it gets dark. But in Alaska won't get dark till 2am Like I've spent so much of my life in the woods and I don't know what this was. And again, I'm just looking for if there's a Tlingit hide elder out there who can call back and respond and maybe tell me if this was the shape shifting creature. I don't know if this is within the wheelhouse of what they can do or if this was something else, but love the show. I just found it recently. Just wanted to throw one in the bucket and maybe get some answers for what happened to me when me and my friend were kids.
- [37:10]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
All right, take care.
- [37:11]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
Have a good one.
- [37:14]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Thanks, Ariel. Well, isn't that something? Something that'll keep you out of the woods, no doubt. But before we move forward on this story, one more warning to our Native American friends. I will be saying the name of this entity a few times tonight. It's just too difficult to be informative without naming the subject that we're actually discussing. So let that be your blanket warning. And look, I'm just some white guy too. I'm certainly no authority on this subject, but I am familiar with the legend and we did cover it briefly back on season eight, episode 15. So I feel like I'm somewhat qualified to discuss this. So let's dive in a little deeper, shall we? On the Kushtaka, better known as the Otterman.
- [38:11]
History Channel Narrator
The Otterman is a staple of Tlingit folklore. This blend of otter and human is reported by some to be up to 8ft tall, earning it the nickname Alaska's Other Bigfoot. But it's also believed to be a shapeshifter that can disguise itself as a regular sized river otter or even as a familiar person in order to lure victims away where it can capture them and turn them into other otter men.
- [38:42]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Now that clip courtesy of the History Channel Program missing in Alaska. So we're talking about an eight foot anthropomorphic otter that can seemingly shape shift into whatever it wants to, including humans, including friends, including you. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about that that I just don't like. And you know, simply saying its name seems to give it some sort of power, like some sort of Betelgeuse. That certainly doesn't make the story any less terrifying. But unlike Betelgeuse, legends of the Kushtaka go back hundreds, if not thousands of years. But you know, despite all that, I was not able to find any first hand accounts of this creature. At least nothing describing it as an eight foot Otterman. I found one claim from a high school boy that was running in the forest, and he claimed that a Kushtaka shape shifted into the form of his friend, and when he saw him jogging on the trail ahead of him, then dip into the woods, he called his cell phone to get his attention so they could run together, only to learn that his friend was at home, miles away. I don't know, that sounds like a doppelganger if you ask me, but I also found a report from a woman that strayed off the trail on a summer walk, only to find herself surrounded and eventually attacked by a flock of angry black birds. Birds she claimed were a manifestation of the Kushtaka. Now I've linked to each of these stories if you want context and further details, but the point here being I was not able to locate a first hand encounter in which an actual creature was sighted and reported. And it seems like Ariel's experience here is no different because nothing was actually seen there either. Just an invisible force mowing down all the Devil's Club and Barry Briars. But if I'm being honest here, if Ariel hadn't mentioned the Otterman, I would have suspected this to be some sort of Glimmer man experience. Another brush with that infamously camouflaged humanoid. A humanoid now seen pretty much all over the country. Whatever it was that the boys saw that day, it sure wasn't normal. And like Ariel, I'd love to get some answers on it. So if you have any suggestions or you're knowledgeable in this legend, hit us up and I'll report back on this story.
- [41:35]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
I think it's. It's one of those things where it's
- [41:37]
Ariel (Caller from Oregon/Alaska)
like, hey, you know, when we're.
- [41:42]
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- [42:43]
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- [42:44]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
Remember, there was a office.
- [42:50]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Now, folks, our next entry comes to us from season 16, episode 21, Carrie called in to discuss a river protector that some might argue fits perfectly in this episode. So from the state of California, please
- [43:07]
Show Commentator / Researcher
welcome Carrie to the program.
- [43:11]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
Hi, Derek. This is Carrie from Humboldt County, California, and I'm calling in for your hometown legend special. I live about an hour away from where the Patterson Gimli film was made, and the river that it takes place by is called the Trinity River. And there's a legend about them with the Hupa tribe here locally that there are river protectors that protect the river until it is ready to swim. So every year they say that at least two or three people pass away in the river to appease the river protectors. And after July 1st or after the third person has died, unfortunately, it is safe to swim after that, and it has been that way for a couple of years. There's at least two or three people that do go swimming and get, you know, caught up in the, you know, current and everything, and they end up passing away. So I looked into it a little bit more and there's a couple of different names for it. It is advised not to say its name next to the river, but there's Tamos and as Poo soon Sarah. I'm probably not saying that right at all, but some people believe that if you feed it before you go swimming, like you float a cheeseburger on a wrapper down the waves or you throw some sort of food into the river for it, that it will be appeased and it will not take your life. I did find another story about it and about how somebody was swimming too early and while they were swimming they started hearing beautiful melody coming from below the water and so they tried to swim to find the melody and found a woman under the water and then tried to swim to save the woman and then she ended up disappearing and he wound up about a mile downstream somewhere where he wasn't supposed to because he got swept away in the current. So yeah, that is our local Trinity river and hopefully it stays appeased and people will learn to feed it. But it's unfortunate that two or three people do happen to die every year in the river. So yeah, that is my local hometown legend and I hope you guys enjoy it. Good job keeping the show going and I really enjoy it. Thank you.
- [45:51]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
Bye.
- [45:54]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Thanks again, Carrie.
- [45:57]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Now let's work our way back up to the state of Oregon from season 20, episode 3. Please welcome anonymous to the program.
- [46:09]
Anonymous Caller from Oregon
Hi Derek. I live in Portland, Oregon. It is October 4th. It is 3:30 in the morning and outside my window it faces the back of the house and there's a really small wooded area and a creek. I went to bed probably around 1am and I could hear a faint whimpering outside my window. I remember thinking it was like a sad puppy or something. So I was falling asleep thinking, oh, poor puppy. But fast forward to now. My cat sleeps on my belly and she had jumped up and ran to my window and that whimpering sound now sounded like it was right outside my window. However, along with the whimpering, it was like snarling and snorting all in one breath like, like all these crazy noises. And I could also hear slosh, slosh, slosh, like something bi turtle was wading its way through the creek. I just spent the last four minutes listening to different kind of like injured coyote noises. Doesn't sound like anything I've heard. I have never heard anything like that. It scared me enough to run and lock my window. I have never heard any sound like that before and legitimately made me scared. All right, thanks for your time.
- [48:09]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Thank you again caller for taking the time to share. Now folks, let's keep things rolling. And up next we head out to the state of Pennsylvania from the Hometown Legends Episode Season 17, Episode 22.
- [48:24]
Show Commentator / Researcher
This call will include the original commentary from that episode.
- [48:29]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Please welcome Dina to the show.
- [48:34]
Jade (Caller from Texas)
Hey Derek.
- [48:35]
Dina (Caller from Pennsylvania)
This is Dina from southwestern Pennsylvania and I have a hometown legend that I haven't heard. So my hometown legend refers to the mighty Monongahela River. So this river stretches from West Virginia up through the bottom of Pennsylvania and actually makes one of Pittsburgh's three rivers at the point and then flows on into the Ohio and then into Ohio State. So this river has really seen its share of history. I mean we have seen the Native Americans, the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary river, the, the Civil War, and then God knows what else, the steel mill creation and all the dumping of probably hazardous stuff in it. But anyway, so let's start off with the Native American legend of Manangi, or Mononga I believe it is. And it is a half fish, half human creature that specifically supposedly lives in the Monongahela River. And according to legend, it would, you know, creep up on the riverbanks and eat livestock inhumans and attack people. And there's some images I believe online that are pretty ugly to say the least. Unfortunately, I have not seen Menangi. But Kennywood Parks is an old amusement park situated on the Monongahela river. And it used to have, in the 90s, I believe it used to have the Monongahela Monster ride that was like this big steel thing that you would sit on the like ends of it and these arms would like swing you out over like a big lagoon. I mean it was just like a fun legend, right? So I hope you like the story. Have a good night.
- [50:43]
Show Commentator / Researcher
Thank you, Dina.
- [50:45]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Now, the Monongahela river, or the Mon
- [50:48]
Show Commentator / Researcher
as locals call it, is home to all sorts of wildlife. But I was not aware that it was home to a half man, half fish monster, which is exactly how Mongi is said to appear, but more like the Gill man or the creature from the black Lagoon and lands like a mermaid, which is where my mind first went. A literal half man, half fish,
- [51:17]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
but
- [51:17]
Show Commentator / Researcher
I'd never heard of monkey before all of this. And having grown up pretty close to that area, I'm sort of surprised by that. So we did a little digging and that's when I realized why we hadn't heard of it. You see, the idea of a monster in the waters of the Mon is centuries old. Natives in that area told of the Agua, a giant snapping turtle like creature that is said to be brown in color, 20ft long and is believed to weigh upwards of 500 pounds. And it is even sometimes reported to have two heads. It lives in the waters of the Mon in nearby rivers, but is able to come onto land. And legend says witnesses have seen it crush white tailed deer whole. The Aquas origins are said to be from prehistoric times when giant turtles roamed parts of North America. We did some research and there was a prehistoric giant turtle that might have lived in that area, a ten foot bad boy by the name of Atlanto Chalice. But it seems they went extinct millions of years ago, long before human involvement in that area. And as if a 20 foot giant turtle wasn't enough, locals also tell of another monster that's said to lurk the waters of the Mon. As of late, there have been a number of credible sightings, alligator sightings reported along its shores. Yeah, that's right, an alligator.
- [52:50]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
And if you don't believe me, this
- [52:52]
Show Commentator / Researcher
is Chief John Hartman of the Southwest Regional Police describing one of those encounters. And it seems he's taken it pretty seriously.
- [53:02]
Chief John Hartman (Police)
Local resident was down here at the wharf with a friend, saw what he believed was a log going against the current going upstream, had a spotlight, shined a spotlight on what he believed was a log and lit up what he identified as an alligator. Said he's been a fisherman in these waters all of his life. He knows what he saw was not a fish, wasn't a gar, was an alligator. The head of the gator was out of the water about 7 inches and he saw the eye shine, the two eyes looking at him.
- [53:35]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Now that clip on behalf of KDKA,
- [53:38]
Show Commentator / Researcher
CBS News 2 out of Pittsburgh. So it's clear that legends and even sightings persist in the Mon. But chances are really good that they
- [53:48]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
won't be sightings of Monongi because it
- [53:51]
Show Commentator / Researcher
seems like for the most part it's a story that's made up. According to author Denver Michaels, a fictionalized account of Monogi was added to the annual search for Managing Swim Races Wikipedia page and I guess the tale just stuck. I've linked to a more detailed video in the Show Notes that describes the homeless communication along with about a million other links related to tonight's stories. So get the full MAU experience, visit monsters among us podcast.com and click the Show Notes tab to follow along
- [54:29]
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Jay (Caller from North Carolina)
It seemed like that Experience Experience meant
- [54:35]
Anonymous First Responder Caller
the world to her.
- [54:39]
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- [55:10]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 1
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- [55:19]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2
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Liberty Mutual Advertiser 4
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- [55:34]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 6
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- [55:37]
Kat (Caller)
Liberty Powell's term ends in May.
- [55:43]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
And, folks, that brings us down the home stretch. And these last two entries take place in the exact same location, the Gulf of Mexico. Now, to kick things off, we begin with Jade's entry Out of Texas, which was first featured all the way back in season 18, episode 35.
- [56:05]
Jade (Caller from Texas)
Hey, Derek, this is Jade, like, from Mortal Kombat, and I'm calling from Houston, Texas. This story is about a seren, or a mermaid, whatever you want to call it. And this happened about a couple of years ago. So this happened over at Surfside beach, which is a popular beach over here on the Gulf coast outside of Houston. Me and my boyfriend at the time, we were camping out under the full moon, which was something that we like to do every so often every other full moon. So this was more his experience. He told me this happened, happened the next morning because I had gone to bed early. And basically what happened was it was maybe, I don't know, 10, 11, midnight somewhere around that time period. I had worked early that day. I had planned on staying up late with him because he's a night owl, but I was super tired. I was like, I'm sorry. I'm gonna go to bed. And so he stayed out by the campfire. He was sitting in his little chair. So he said he had music playing. Specifically, the song that was playing during his encounter was the Scientist by Coldplay. So he said he was singing along to that song, kind of staring at the fire. Full moon. And I'm guessing it wasn't too cloudy because the moonlight was shining. And basically, he told me that something caught his eye off in the distance where the moonlight was shining on the water, that he looked over and he saw a silhouette of a figure standing in the water. Now, keep in mind, this is super late at night out on the beach, which, to be honest, usually it's not ever crowded. I've been going out to this beach ever since I was, like, in my early 20s. This beach does not get crowded at night, let alone have people walking along
- [58:07]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
the beach at night.
- [58:09]
Jade (Caller from Texas)
So he said he looked over, he saw a silhouette in the moonlight in the water. And he said this encounter happened Maybe just like less than a minute. He said he saw it and he went to stand up out of his chair. And the second he stood up, the figure turned around and splashed into the water. And he said he saw a fin, like a tail, like a mermaid tail. And I asked him that. I was like, it was a mermaid tail. And he was like, yeah, it had a human shape, like it was standing in the water or something. But when he stood up to get a better look at it, it turned away and he saw a flipper in the water. I definitely believe him. I don't know about any other mermaid sightings along the Gulf coast, but yeah, that's my story. So love the show.
- [59:05]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
Thanks.
- [59:05]
Jade (Caller from Texas)
Bye.
- [59:09]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
Another big thanks, Jade, for taking the time to call. I remember this call. It gave me the willies. But let's be honest, almost every unidentified creature under the the water gives me the willies. And speaking of unidentified creatures under the water, allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite mermaid stories we've received over the years. And tonight's closer from season 10, episode 3. Please welcome anonymous out of the Lone Star State of Texas.
- [59:47]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
Hi Derek. I'd like to stay anonymous on this call because honestly, I just, I'm not sure if I even believe myself. But I figured it was worth giving you guys a call and seeing if any of your listeners have had experiences such as this. But it's in Texas and back in 2013, actually during the summer, nice clear day, I was out fishing with a couple guys and in the Texas Gulf, if anybody's an avid fisherman there, they know to go to the deep pool water oil rigs and fish kind of right around those oil rigs because usually red snapper and other fish are stacked right there. And if you avoid the pipes with all the barnacles and stuff on it, it's usually a pretty good place to go fishing and catch great fish. Anyhow, we were out fishing that day and it was probably towards the afternoon. We had quite a good catch, good haul coming through. We did have several of our lines getting cut. And I don't know if you're familiar with fishing too much or not, but you know, if you get snag and you try to pull that snag and get it loose, you know, you'll see that tension on the line where it snapped. It'll either be curled up or it'll be thinned out or whatever. But if you, you know, get like a cut, like an actual cut, it's usually a really clean just cut through the fishing line. Well, we're getting those. And we weren't. And we know we weren't anywhere near the pilings or any kind of pipe because we can see it on our depth finder. So we were just kind of curious as to what was cutting our line. And we thought maybe it was like a barracuda or a little shark or something like that down there, grabbing our fish as we would hang them and try to pull them up. But it happened several times. I mean, each of us had several instances where our line would just seem to be cut. Anyhow, like I said, it was towards the end of the day and we were fishing and I decided to take a break. Give me some water and just some snacks and stuff like that. You definitely don't want to be drinking too heavily that far out because we were probably 13 miles from the shore. If you drink too much, good luck getting back. Especially with the seas this day. The sea was very, very clear, very calm. Those of who haven't been out that far fishing, typically you can see like 50, 60ft down. You know, you can see activity down there. You know, I mean, you may not be able to spot exact outline of a fish or whatever, but you're able to see them. And that's how this was. It was kind of a normal day, nice and clear. We were fishing and like I said, I took a break and started just kind of looking at the water and just kind of gazing off a little bit. And a sea turtle caught my eye and I thought it was really awesome. You know, I don't see many sea turtles out when I've been fishing, but the sea turtle caught my eye and it was a big one. The shell was probably 4 foot by 5 foot, something like that. It was just kind of cruising slow, you know, about 10ft underneath the surface, kind of coming towards our boat. It came within probably 10ft from the boat or so. And I was kind of the only one on that side of the boat. I was on the port side and I was watching it because I was like, man, this is kind of cool. It's coming up to about that five, six foot depth range. And I was watching and all of a sudden it just seemed to turn over where the top of the shell was now facing down, and the bottom of the shell was facing up. And you know, sea turtle, I mean, it had that kind of cream color to the shell. Anyway, I was watching it, I was like, I wonder why it's. It's turning over. And I kid you not, man, all of a sudden it just started to. The only way I can say it is it started to transform, I guess, and it seemed like it elongated out. And this is why I wanted to stay anonymous, because it sounds crazy. It just seemed. It turned into.
- [63:19]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
To a mermaid.
- [63:21]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
And, you know, I was just. I was like, wait, what? The face was looking up at me. And it was, like I said, about 6 to 8ft below the surface of the water. And you can see the back half of the tail or the fish part,
- [63:37]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
as you can say.
- [63:39]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
It started up higher than what, you know, you typically see in movies. Like, it was like above the belly button area, you know, where it started, like right below the breasts, I guess you could say it started there. It was kind of just that greenish grayish silver, you know, color that you see, of course, a little bit lighter on the bottom, like normal fishes, but going up, you couldn't tell if it was male or female. You know, you definitely see, you know, like I said, you see a chest, but you don't know if it's male or female. And then it definitely had arms. Now, the arms were kind of odd. They didn't really have shoulders. It kind of was at an angle, I guess, on both sides kind of. It went almost like. It didn't have one, though. It had a neck, but almost. I don't know, it just. That transition is weird. But it had arms, long arms. And the face, man, the face was just, you know, like I said, it was about 10 foot down.
- [64:28]
Narrator / Additional Commentary
It was clear.
- [64:29]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
So I could see a lot. You know, I could see it pretty vividly. The face was just kind of a, I want to say, like a bluish green color. I mean, it was kind of that coloration and it was just odd. Actually, later on, whenever I was at home, you know, just a couple months later, whenever it was, my wife was watching Harry Potter, and I think it's one of the latter films of Harry Potter and they had the Bad wizard, the Voldemort. The face of that wizard looked almost identical to this face. I mean, it was. It stopped me in my tracks. Whenever I was kind of walking by and glancing over the tv, I was just like, that's it.
- [65:07]
RB (Caller from Virginia)
That's what it is.
- [65:08]
Anonymous Caller from Texas
You had little slits in the nose. You had just this weird reptilian face. And it was very odd. Very, very odd. And then the hair was kind of a dark matted type of hair and had something in his hand, but I couldn't really see it. Anyway, this all took from the transformation period. To me, seeing it took about maybe, I don't know, 45 seconds. And then all of a sudden, as soon as I saw, you know, just as soon as I really got to see the face and head, it kind of just bent backwards and just went straight down. Just went straight down into the depths. I was sitting there. Like I said, I didn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't know what to think. Just odd, Just very odd. I didn't say anything, anybody, because I didn't want to be looked at, you know, because, like, I didn't know if I believed myself. You know, it could just be the water playing tricks on me, whatever, whatever. But a couple, you know, a couple days later or whenever it was, I got thinking, I was like, you know, that's probably why our lines were getting cut is what if this mermaid creature was down there and it had something sharp and it was cutting our line, you know, and. And maybe it just was trying to see what dumb people were, you know, providing them a free meal or something. I don't. I don't know. But I don't know. Like I said, I've wondered many times if I was just. My eyes are playing tricks on me, but I figured I'd share just to see if anybody else has had an experience like that. Anyway, man, that's kind of the story. I hope everything's good and look forward to continuing to listen to your podcast. All right, but
- [66:46]
Derek Hayes (Host, Monsters Among Us)
a huge thanks caller for creeping us all out and folks that's gonna do it for this collection. Hopefully this didn't ruin your summer. Now, folks, Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Grow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, the Lady Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to like and follow us on social media. Join us on YouTube, join our Discord server and leave us a rates and review wherever you can do such a thing. Now don't forget you can catch the show every Saturday evening on digital radio at the ONX network. Just visit onxnetwork.com to tune in. Now, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse Co AG Music and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. Now folks, I'll be back here on Thursday with a brand new regular episode. But until then, you keep it spooky. Stay out of the water and have yourselves a good night.
- [68:29]
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- [69:00]
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- [69:10]
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Oh no.
- [69:14]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 4
We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together.
- [69:17]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 3
We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
- [69:20]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 5
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
- [69:22]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 4
Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent.
- [69:25]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser 6
Liberty Liberty. Liberty Liberty.
- [69:30]
Lowe's Advertiser
Pros save more on the materials you need here. Get the job done inside and out at Lowe's right now. Get 10% off in stock Trex Naturals decking now available in more styles. Plus get 15% off select custom entry, interior and storm doors. Then we'll deliver it all straight to your job site. To help keep your jobs moving, get the brand's pros trust priced right and ready when you need them. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's, valid through 527 while supplies last selection varies by location.