A former Centre County, Pennsylvania teen recalls his unexplained experience while hiking through the woods near his family's home. To this day, the incident remains a mystery.
I received the following account:
"In 1999 I was 16 years old and my family had just moved to a farmhouse in Centre County, Pennsylvania near the Black Moshannon State Park. We had lots of land to roam around on. One summer day I decided to go hiking along some trails in the woods behind the house. Several trails went through the woods and it was easy to get turned around if you didn't pay attention.
I walked for about 45 minutes before coming up to a small clearing with a stone fire pit. The area looked like someone had been camping there recently because empty cans and other trash were lying around but no signs of any actual people. I continued on my way thinking I would just tell my mom and dad later. After a half hour of hiking, I came up to a large clearing with a stream running through it. It looked like no one had walked there in quite some time.
As I got closer to the stream I noticed something odd about the water. It seemed to be moving faster than normal for this time of year and things were floating in it that shouldn't have been there. There were a lot of twigs and leaves but what really caught my eye were two dead deer carcasses lying on the opposite side of the stream. They both looked fresh and I couldn't figure out why they would have died there. So I decided to cross the stream where the water was moving the slowest to see if I could inspect them closer.
As I came upon the first deer I noticed that it had been torn open from the bottom up to its chest cavity. All of the guts were still inside. The second deer was in almost the same condition as the first one except that its head had been removed and was nowhere to be found. I thought this was really strange and confusing. No conscious hunter would do anything like this so I knew something was wrong about this scenario.
I turned around and started retracing my steps back along the stream. My anxiety and awareness were building as I walked back. I started to feel like I was being watched and every so often I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was there. All I could see were trees and the water.
As I approached the large clearing I noticed something that made me stop in my tracks. The deer head that was missing from the second deer was stuck on a tree with a stick protruding from the top of its head. Then I thought that there was no way I could have missed this earlier. I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. But as I looked around it now seemed that someone had just walked through the area. The leaf cover was disturbed.
I began to run back down the trail, just hoping that I would get lost. I did make it back home safely. I ran into the house and told my parents everything that had happened. They looked at each other with expressions I'd never seen from them previously. Then my dad went into the closet and grabbed his rifle. He walked out the back door after saying that he knew the area I was talking about.
He was gone for what seemed like forever as my mom and I sat on the porch anxiously waiting for him to return home. My mom was trying to keep me calm but I could tell that she was nervous as well. I was so relieved when he did come back safely. He said that the head on the tree was gone or at least he couldn't find it. Based on his description and the leaves being all rustled around at the base of it I believe that he did find the correct tree. he said that someone must have come by while I was back home and taken it off. He did believe me.
My dad would periodically go out and check that area from then on. He never found any solid evidence of what had happened. I overheard him telling my mom that the trash I mentioned that was all around the fire pit was cleaned up. He couldn't figure out how people were getting out there. He even sounded really concerned when he said it.
It's been almost 25 years since this happened but every time I think about it it makes my skin crawl. The area around the state park has a history of Bigfoot reports. I also remember hearing strange howling coming from that direction, mostly at night. I had mentioned Bigfoot to my dad once, but he said that he doubted that a Bigfoot had left the deer, let alone placed the head in a tree. We never did figure out what had happened.
My parents still live on the property. Every time that I bring up the subject of the dead deer neither of my parents wants to discuss it. I wonder if anything else has been going on that they have not told me." D
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