10 Shocking Mothman Sightings (From 1966 to 2024): Pattern or Coincidence?

The Mothman sightings have been popping up for decades… and across all continents. From the first reported sighting in 1966 in Clendenin, West Virginia, to the latest one in 2024, these bizarre encounters have left many terrified and looking for answers.

Interestingly, these sightings seem to foretell tragic events. Hence, the question: “Is this Mothman thing some kind of warning or just a weird coincidence?”

November 12, 1966: Clendenin, West Virginia

The earliest documented Mothman sighting happened on November 12, 1966. Five guys were digging a grave at a cemetery near Clendenin, WV. Suddently, a huge, man-like figure with wings flew silently overhead.

The way it moved was unnatural. So, the men stopped their work and just stood there, frozen, watching as it glided away over the treetops.

At first, the gravediggers didn’t pay much attention to what they’d seen—it was unusual, for sure, but they tried to brush it off. However, a few days later, strange rumors started spreading from Point Pleasant, speaking of other encounters with a similar creature.

Although less well-known than the following sightings, some consider the Clendenin sighting the first recorded appearance of the mysterious Mothman.

November 15, 1966: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Just three days after Clendenin, two young couples—Roger and Linda Scarberry, along with Steve and Mary Mallette—ran into Mothman near the TNT area, an abandoned WWII munitions site outside Point Pleasant.

It was late at night, and they were cruising through the area when they saw a tall 6-7 feet creature standing on the road, its eyes glowing bright red. The monster spread its wings, which they estimated were 10 feet or more, and took off, chasing their car.

As they sped away, the creature pursued them. And it was fast. Fast enough to easily keep pace even as they accelerated to over 100 mph. The chase went on for several minutes, with the creature swooping toward their car and letting out an eerie, high-pitched screech.

Their story hit the Point Pleasant Register (a local newspaper) soon after, sparking a wave of similar reports. Local sheriff George Johnson suggested they might’ve seen a sandhill crane. However, his theory didn’t do anything to calm down the community. The details just didn’t add up.

November 16, 1966: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

On November 16, 1966, volunteer firemen Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs responded to an emergency call near the TNT area.

While on their way there, they claimed to have seen an “enormous bird with red eyes” and a wingspan of at least 10 feet. When the creature saw the two men, it emitted a high-pitched screech, unlike anything that neither of them had heard before.

November 17, 1966: Salem, West Virginia

On November 17, 1966, Newell Partridge, a local contractor from Salem, WV, experienced a similar bizarre encounter outside his home.

That evening, Partridge noticed his TV acting weird—zigzagging patterns and heavy static. Soon after, he heard a loud, whining noise coming from outside. When he went to check it out, he saw two glowing red eyes in the darkness.

His dog, Bandit, ran towards the eyes, barking like crazy, and then vanished—never to be seen again. Partridge looked everywhere but found no sign of his dog.

In a later interview for the local newspaper, Partridge said he was convinced that the Mothman had taken his beloved pet.

Interestingly, not long after the first Mothman sightings, people in Point Pleasant started reporting encounters with mysterious figures known as the Men in Black (MIB).

These men were driving brand-new, shiny black cars that looked out of place in the small, rural town. Their behavior? Completely bizarre.

Witnesses described them as speaking in a flat, monotonous tone, asking weird questions, and seeming clueless about basic human customs. Yet, they seemed to have one goal: to keep witnesses from talking about what they saw.

One of the most well-known cases involved local journalist Mary Hyre. According to researcher John Keel, Hyre was deeply unsettled by these men, who showed an unusual interest in the Mothman sightings and local UFO activity.

Related: 16 Lesser-Known Mothman Facts: From Curses to UFO Connections

Hyre was visited multiple times. The MIB asked her not only about her Mothman research but also about the people she’d interviewed—especially those who claimed they’d seen the creature. In one unsettling encounter, an MIB came to her office, bombarded her with strange questions about her articles, and then left abruptly.

But it wasn’t just Mary Hyre who dealt with these strange men.

Other witnesses, like Woodrow Derenberger, who had his own UFO encounter around the same time, also reported visits from the MIB. They seemed laser-focused on getting information about what people had seen, often issuing vague threats that made it clear they didn’t want anyone talking about their experiences.

Some witnesses even felt like they were being watched or followed for weeks after the MIB showed up.

1986: Chernobyl, Ukraine

Another alleged Mothman sighting happened in Ukraine, days before the catastrophic nuclear reactor meltdown on April 26, 1986. However, these accounts are largely anecdotal.

So, what happened? Well, according to the story, workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant saw a “Black Bird” with glowing red eyes circling the plant, often at dusk or late at night. Workers who allegedly saw the creature reported experiencing intense dread and unease.

Some accounts even mention that those who witnessed the creature received strange, ominous phone calls or had vivid nightmares following their encounter.

The story only surfaced years later after the event. Nevertheless, the so-called “Black Bird of Chernobyl” made waves throughout cryptid communities, with many speculating that this was the same entity as the Mothman seen in Point Pleasant two decades earlier.

1999: Moscow, Russia

In September 1999, there were several reports of a winged humanoid creature seen in Moscow, just before the Russian apartment bombings that occurred later that month.

The bombings targeted residential buildings, killing nearly 300 people and injuring many more. These tragic events spread panic and led to significant political actions, including the start of the Second Chechen War.

As for the Mothman sightings, witnesses described a similar creature to the one reported in Point Pleasant. The same large, bat-like wings, glowing red eyes, and high-pitched noises. There were even reports of mysterious phone calls with cryptic warnings.

However, these reports were never officially documented by Russian authorities.

2011: Fukushima, Japan

During the 2011 Fukushima disaster, rumors of a Mothman-like creature surfaced, supposedly seen just before the catastrophic events on March 11, 2011.

The disaster began with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. It triggered a massive tsunami with waves reaching heights of up to 133 feet, devastating entire coastal towns and claiming nearly 20,000 lives.

Besides the damage it caused to coastal towns, the tsunami also damaged the cooling systems of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The cooling systems failure was soon followed by a series of reactor meltdowns—one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.

The release of radioactive material forced the evacuation of over 150,000 residents and left a long-lasting environmental impact.

Days before the earthquake, some witnesses allegedly saw a dark, winged creature near the power plant, with glowing red eyes and a wingspan of 10 to 15 feet.

SpookySight note:
Most of these reports surfaced AFTER the events in question and were not officially documented at the time. The lack of solid evidence makes these claims highly speculative.

2017: Chicago, Illinois

Mothman sightings made a major comeback in 2017, with over 55 reports from the Chicago area, primarily near O’Hare Airport, Lake Michigan, and even iconic spots like the Willis Tower.

John Amitrano, a security guard at a bar called The Owl, reported seeing a pterodactyl-like creature flying awkwardly beneath a plane. According to Amitrano, the weird “bird” had no feathers or fur and moved unlike anything natural.

Cryptid researcher Lon Strickler documented Amitrano’s sighting (and many others like this) through his website, Phantoms and Monsters. He also published them in his book “Mothman Dynasty: Chicago’s Winged Humanoids.”

Strickler’s work compiled witness accounts that revealed consistencies with the original Mothman sightings from Point Pleasant, such as glowing red eyes and an enormous wingspan. However, he noted that the Chicago creature appeared less aggressive.

Strickler noted that most of the reports came from people who were otherwise skeptical about the paranormal, which he argued added credibility to the accounts.

He even made a map of these alleged Mothman sightings, revealing how the reports came from all over the Chicago metropolitan area—from the suburbs to the airport.

The sightings peaked during the summer of 2017, and even larger media outlets like VICE picked up the story.

Despite the widespread reports, no direct evidence links the Chicago Mothman to specific tragic events (unlike the Silver Bridge collapse in Point Pleasant).

SpookySight note:
During the 2017 Chicago sightings, at least two witnesses said they were approached by men in dark suits near Lake Michigan. These guys questioned them about what they saw and warned them to stay quiet. Just like in the ’60s, their demeanor was cold and unsettling.

2022: Southeast Georgia, U.S.

In 2022, a driver in Southeast Georgia reported seeing the Mothman flying over their car late at night. This event went down on a rural highway surrounded by dense forest.

While there is little information about this particular Mothman sighting, there’s something peculiar about it: the car’s electrical system briefly malfunctioned, with the headlights flickering as the creature passed overhead.

The fact that the car malfunctioned is intriguing. Why? Because it suggests that the creature might have an electromagnetic effect on its surroundings.

This type of phenomenon is usually linked to paranormal experiences, where eyewitnesses report technology acting strangely when something unexplained may be around. The headlights flickering might also indicate that Mothman was giving off some form of energy. Could that be what interfered with the vehicle’s electrical system? It’s something that isn’t typically seen in other sightings.

This report is remarkably different from the one in Point Pleasant in 1966, too. In the Point Pleasant case, the creature displayed aggressive behavior. It followed the car at high speeds but did not seem to physically affect the vehicle in any other way.

On the other hand, the Georgia encounter involves not only visual contact but also a physical interaction—something that could indicate a different kind of presence or perhaps even a different version of the Mothman altogether.

April 2024: Kane County, Illinois

The most recent Mothman sighting happened in Kane County, Illinois, in April 2024.

Matt Sexton, 33, was driving to work on a secluded stretch of road late at night when he suddenly noticed a large “bird” following his vehicle.

Interestingly, this wasn’t his first time seeing the creature. He had two similar experiences in 2023. “I’ve had three different encounters that started around the same time last year in April or May,” he recalled in an interview with the Singular Fortean Society.

Both previous encounters happened early in the morning, between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m. The first sighting occurred along US Highway 30, near Hinckley, Illinois.

“I was driving my truck since I’m a semi-driver and tend to do late-night runs,” Sexton explained. “I saw this huge branch fall from a tree and hit the road ahead of me, so I looked up and saw what must have been a 12-foot creature. It was covered in short brown fur—not leathery like you’d expect.”

He described the creature as “humanoid,” noting that it had distinct legs and arms separate from its wings. “It flew right in front of my truck, kind of like when an eagle dives and then opens its wings at the last second to fly off,” he said.

Initially, Sexton brushed off the sighting, thinking it might have been a large bird. “It freaked me out, but I figured there had to be some logical explanation,” he said. “So, I just dismissed it.”

But about three weeks later, on I-39, just 10 miles from his first sighting, he saw the same creature again.

“Once again, it swooped low in front of my truck,” he recalled. “This time, I got a better look at it.” The creature had webbing between its legs, similar to a flying squirrel or wingsuit. Its feet had three large claws in the front and a talon in the back, while its face had an elongated snout.

Again, the creature swooped down and flew off into the night.

Then, a year later, he saw it again.

This third encounter took place around 2:15 a.m. on McGirr Road, a few miles west of Kaneville. As Sexton drove over a small bridge, the creature appeared out of nowhere.

“I don’t know if it came from under the bridge, but it swooped down so close it almost touched my windshield. It was huge—took up almost the whole windshield.”

Sexton decided to speed up, hitting 110 mph in a desperate attempt to get away. But the creature kept pace with his truck, swooping down at his vehicle.

At that point, Sexton grabbed his Taurus 9mm pistol. “I’d seen enough of it to know it wasn’t anything familiar, and I feared for my life,” he said. “It kept coming at me, so I started firing.”

He admitted that his reaction might have been extreme. “If it was a bird and I overreacted, I could live with that. But if it was something I needed to defend myself against, I wasn’t taking any chances.”

Sexton fired seven or eight shots but couldn’t tell if any hit the creature. “It wrapped itself up in its wings and started descending, and I followed it down with my shots, but then it was just gone,” he said. He hasn’t seen it since.

Mothman Sightings: Geographic Patterns and Trends

When you look at all these Mothman sightings, a pattern jumps out. Many of these reports happened right before a major event (usually some kind of disaster) or in small, rural towns.

In Point Pleasant, the creature showed up just before the Silver Bridge collapsed. At Chernobyl, it was supposedly spotted before the nuclear meltdown. At Fukushima, witnesses claimed they saw it right before the nuclear disaster hit. Even in Chicago, some people linked sightings to a spike in crime and violence that year.

So, what does this all mean? It raises some pretty wild questions:

1. Is the Mothman really an omen—a warning sign for disaster?
2. Are there specific factors (geographic, environmental, or even psychological) that make certain spots “hot zones” for these sightings?
3. Could there be more sightings out there that no one’s talking about yet, that might back up this whole pattern?
4. Are we talking about one Mothman, traveling the globe, or could there be a bunch of these creatures, all tied to local disasters?

And then we had this lightbulb moment: If the first big Mothman sightings happened in the ’60s, could it be possible that creatures like Mothman existed in older folklore or historical records?

Well, turns out, the answer is a big yes. We dug into it and found stories from all over the world about giant, winged creatures. And guess what? They all come with the same vibe of doom and disaster.

Take ancient Sumerian mythology, for example. There’s this beast called Anzu, a monstrous bird with massive wings and a terrifying look. A lot of the stories describe it as bringing chaos—or even destruction. Sound familiar?

Or look at the Owlman of Cornwall, England. People first reported seeing it in the 1920s, and just like Mothman, it’s described as a big, owl-like creature with glowing red eyes. Most of the sightings happened in the 1970s, but the legend goes way back into English rural folklore.

There’s also the Garuda from Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This bird-like deity is usually seen as a protector but, at the same time, it can also symbolize massive upheaval or significant changes.

Even Native American legends have tales of massive birds with crazy powers. The Thunderbird—common in many indigenous cultures across North America—is often seen as a supernatural force linked to storms and natural disasters.

Here is a more comprehensive comparison table between Mothman and other cryptids or mythological creatures that share similar traits:

So when you look at all these different sightings, it’s easy to start thinking there might be just one Mothman, roaming across time and space, showing up to warn humanity before disaster strikes.

But could there be more Mothman-like creatures worldwide, each connected to a local disaster? After all, the sightings often describe similar but slightly different features.

For example, the Black Bird of Chernobyl had a more shadowy, ominous form. On the other hand, Owlman sightings in England made it out to be more bird-like, with feathers and all.