The Kentucky Goblins

Part 1

During the hot Kentucky summer of 1955, an entire family burst into a local police station, shouting in panic that their home had been attacked by aliens.

The officer on duty reacted with amusement, but little did he know that what he was now dealing with would become one of the most prolific and well-documented cases of extraterrestrial visitation on record.

For most,

Kentucky is known for its beautiful, rolling green pastures and world-renowned bourbon.

But for others, the Bluegrass State is home to many myths and legends, and even some downright terrifying paranormal and supernatural events.

Perhaps one of the oldest is the hillbilly beast, a Bigfoot-like entity which is said to stalk various stretches of woodland.

Then there is the Poplick creature, otherwise known as the Fisherville Goatman, which haunts a local railway bridge and is often heard mimicking a child's voice, calling out in distress to passers-by.

Those who venture forth to investigate are later found dead or disappear completely.

One of the lesser-known legends speaks of the little white men of Kentucky, which is perhaps closely related to the case we're about to present, and which we will explore further in part two.

But for now, let us focus on the state's boldest claim to supernatural fame.

A case known not just throughout the United States, but the entire world.

On the night of the 21st of August 1955, a household situated in the rural stretches between the communities of Kelly and Hopkinsville in Christian County was apparently besieged by strange creatures, the likes of which the residents had never seen before, or for that matter, since.

The event itself was witnessed by 11 people, 8 adults and 3 children, and would later involve up to 16 members of various law enforcements, as well as the military.

For those immediately affected, the story is one of bewilderment, incredulity, and ultimately, unbridled terror, and is considered by many to be the definitive account of of extraterrestrial visitation.

More than 60 years later, not one word of these accounts has changed, and it would all play out as follows.

Earlier that evening, Billy Ray Taylor, a young man in his early twenties, exited the farmhouse where he was staying with friends and made his way over to the well some hundred yards distant.

Despite the heat, the dying light had brought with it a cool breeze, which stirred the leaves and branches of the trees surrounding the property.

It was a welcome change from the stifling interior of the household.

He and his wife June were visiting friends for the weekend on a much-needed break from work.

The house itself belonged to Glenny Langford, who lived there with her three younger children.

But it was Glenny's older sons from another marriage, Elmer Lucky Sutton and John Charlie, J.C.

Sutton, with whom he was most acquainted.

They were there too with their wives, Vera and Aileen.

Aileen's brother, O.P.

Baker, had also joined the group for supper.

In total, there had been 11 people, including himself, sitting inside the parlour, and unsurprisingly, the air had become heavy with heat and moisture.

When Glenny declared that they had run out of water, Billy Ray had been first to volunteer in fetching some more.

As he trudged towards the rear of the property, he stopped for a moment to admire his surroundings, regarding the lengthening shadows and encroaching gloom beyond the trees.

The seclusion and privacy afforded by the encompassing woodland was not lost on him.

Maybe one day, he thought, as he reached the well and threw in the pail, he would have the means to purchase his own patch of land just like it.

There was a muffled splash as the bucket hit the water, and as Billy Ray worked to retrieve it, he turned his head skyward to look at the orange light of the setting sun.

To his surprise, his gaze was drawn elsewhere.

He suddenly caught sight of a round metallic object in the skies above the property, glinting in the last vestiges of the sun's rays.

It looked to be descending at speed in an arc across the sky, with a multicoloured tail trailing behind it.

It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

There were no wings or discernible features, and it made no sound whatsoever.

It disappeared behind some trees about half a mile distant, an action which was followed by a dull thud, and Billy Ray knew in that instant that whatever the object was, it had most certainly just crashed.

Collecting the pail, he ran back to the farmhouse and declared to the others present that he had just seen a spaceship.

There was a moment of silence before the room burst into a cacophony of laughter.

The consensus amongst the group was that surely this was nothing more than one of those pranks that Billy Ray and Lucky sometimes played on one another.

But Billy Ray was not laughing.

In fact, he seemed genuinely agitated by what he had just witnessed, and as soon as his companions realised that he was not joking, They tried to reason that maybe he had seen a meteor or shooting star.

Unwilling to let it go or pass it off so casually, Billy Ray insisted that Lucky accompany him to the well so that he could point out exactly where the spaceship had crashed and see if there was any smoke or other indication that something was out there.

By now, darkness was well and truly creeping in.

The two men spent 10 minutes surveying the skyline.

It was hard to see anything in the twilight, but there were certainly no columns of smoke anywhere to be seen.

Lucky didn't know what to make of his friend's story, but it was clear that something had shaken him.

As they made their way back to the house, the sound of a snapping branch suddenly caught their attention.

Somewhere out in the tree line, they spotted a dull glow, low to the ground but moving towards them.

It wasn't bright enough to be a flashlight, possibly a lantern, but there was no definition to it.

They watched as it moved closer, and only as it got to within 20 feet of them did they realize that something about this situation was terribly wrong.

They could not believe their eyes, but what they appeared to be looking at was a small humanoid figure with short, atrophied legs and long thin arms.

Its most striking feature though was its large saucer-like eyes, which glowed in the darkness.

Either side of its head, They could see what looked like large pointed ears, and most disturbing of all was the fact that it seemed to be floating along the ground rather than walking, moving inexorably towards them.

The two men yelled expletives, then ran into the house, slamming the door behind them.

Glenny, who had been sitting in the parlour with the rest of their companions, rushed out into the hall and demanded to know what the commotion was about.

There is something in the woods near the house, Lucky replied.

Something strange.

We best stay inside.

Unsurprisingly, his mother did not believe a word of it, assuming that it was all part of a wider prank being perpetuated by him and Billy Ray.

In any case, she did not want the children being scared at this hour, and so she sent the youngsters off to bed.

Shortly afterwards, Lucky grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun along with his 2-2 hunting rifle, handing the latter to Billy Ray, and instructing him to watch the back door whilst he watched the front.

Glenny was just thinking to herself that this joke was all going a bit too far, when she suddenly spotted a small figure standing at the rear of the house.

Her blood-curdling scream alerted Billy Ray, who immediately took aim with the 2-2 and fired.

The bullet pierced the netting of the screen door and appeared to strike the strange creature, which tumbled backwards with a metallic rattling sound.

and then moved off at speed into the trees, apparently uninjured.

Emboldened by the creature's retreat, Billy Ray stepped out onto the porch, aiming his rifle towards the woods when all of a sudden, what can only be described as a spindly hand with long talons reached down from the porch roof and made a grab for his hair.

Aileen who had been standing behind him, yanked him backwards into the house.

Lucky then stepped outside, aiming his weapon up towards where the hand had appeared.

A shot rang out, and another of the creatures fell from the roof with that same metallic rattle, and then then proceeded to hop into the woods, also seemingly uninjured.

Once everyone was back inside, JC collected his 20 gauge shotgun and joined the others.

No one knew exactly who or what these creatures were, but it was quite evident that there was more than one of them, and they appeared to be completely impervious to bullets.

Collecting their thoughts, the distraught men and women of the group began to exchange ideas about what they were dealing with.

Glenny, Glenny, who was deeply religious as well as superstitious, questioned whether they might be demons, sent by the devil himself.

Lucky wondered if they were the cave goblins which folk in those parts sometimes talked about, whilst Billy Ray believed they had something to do with the object he had seen earlier that evening.

Suddenly the air was pierced by a shrill scream, coming from the direction of the children's bedroom.

The youngsters had been instructed to remain where they were, but now they came running down the hall, saying that they had seen a strange face with large glowing eyes, peering at them through their bedroom window.

Lucky asked his mother to take the children into a room at the rear of the house and suggested that JC accompany them.

A few minutes later, there was another scream, as one of the strange faces now appeared at the window in the back room.

This was followed by another shot and the sound of breaking glass, as JC unloaded with his 20 gauge.

Once again, the creature simply bounced backwards, unhurt, and scrambled out of sight.

Over the course of the next two hours, the family would be terrorised by these small entities.

Scratching sounds would be heard on the roof, faces would appear at the windows, the family would look outside, only to see a number of them moving about the yard, or perched up in the trees near the house.

Although the beings never tried to enter the residence itself, they seemed especially interested in the the children, and each time they got too close for comfort, they would be shot at by either Lucky, Billy Ray or JC.

Between the three men, they estimated that there were probably three or four of the strange beings in total, at which they would fire more than 100 shots.

At around 11.30pm, there seemed to be a lull in activity.

Thinking that maybe the creatures had left, the family piled into two trucks and drove to the police station in Hopkinsville.

The desk sergeant on duty didn't know what to make of their story and at first reacted with mild amusement.

Someone was pulling his chain, he thought to himself.

Nevertheless, he had no choice but to take the matter seriously.

In the back of his mind, he was at least half concerned that a gun battle might have taken place between local residents.

and arranged for the immediate dispatch of officers to the scene.

In all, four city police, five state troopers, three deputy sheriffs, and four military police from nearby Fort Campbell arrived on the scene at the Sutton farmhouse.

They found extensive damage to the property in the form of bullet holes, screen doors which had been peppered with gunfire, windows which had been blasted through, and shot which was found embedded in the frames of doors and windows.

Littered around the home were various shell casings.

It was quite evident that something significant had taken place, but a wider inspection of the property yielded little evidence.

One officer noticed something glowing in the distant trees, but a search of that area returned nothing.

At a spot where Lucky had apparently shot one of the beings, officers found a stain that gave off an odd sheen when viewed from a certain angle, but there was nothing really to collect or sample.

It appeared the creatures whatever they were, had left.

The family were interviewed at length and all gave the same consistent account of the night's events, as well as uncannily similar descriptions of the entities that had besieged the farmhouse.

Neighbours also somewhat corroborated their story, saying they had seen strange lights in the woods and assumed it was the Suttons looking for one of their pigs that had escaped.

Later they would also hear the gunfire.

and reasoned at the time that they were perhaps trying to scare off a bobcat, which was worrying their livestock.

Nevertheless, after hours of fruitless investigation, the officers felt they had exhausted their efforts and departed the scene.

The next day, neighbours converged on the Sutton property, intrigued by the rumours which had been circulating around town in the aftermath of the incident, only to find that no one was home.

As it would transpire, Glenny had awoken at 3.30 in the morning and had seen one of the creatures' faces peering at her through the window.

The strange beings had returned during the night, but had left again as soon as the first rays of sunlight had appeared on the horizon.

The family and their guests had not been far behind.

Terrified beyond belief, they had left in their trucks, and it would be some time before they returned home.

Over the following months, a media circus ensued.

Local as well as national publications, radio and TV stations all wanted to interview the Sutton family and their friends.

At first, the Suttons were forthcoming, but as soon as the true agenda behind this interest was realised, one of ridicule and cynicism, they became introverted regarding what happened and refused to comment any further.

Of the lucky few who did manage to speak to members of the family in the months, years and even decades afterwards, All would comment on how each of their stories remained ironclad, unchanged and startlingly similar to each other's, despite the amount of time that had passed.

After constant harassment from reporters and souvenir hunters, Glenny and her family vacated the property within a few months.

But it wasn't just the barrage of unwanted callers that drove them away.

It was the constant fear that those creatures, whatever they were, would one day return.

Much has been written about the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter over the years, and it's safe to say that opinion remains well and truly divided over its legitimacy.

Many of the police officers who attended the scene that night attested to the family's state of utter panic, along with the amount of damage caused to their property.

They would go on to declare on record that they had no doubts whatsoever the family and their guests experienced something, but whether it had anything to do with extraterrestrials was another matter entirely.

Sceptics have argued that it was a case of mistaken identity, perhaps agitated by excessive alcohol consumption.

Joe Nicol, a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, theorised that what the family had actually seen were a mating pair of great horned owls.

After all, these are fairly large nocturnal birds, which have yellow eyes, fly silently, and aggressively defend their territory.

The descriptions of the creatures given by the family do somewhat loosely fit these characteristics, but there are a number of glaring issues.

The Suttons describe the entities as being around 3.5 feet in height, which is significantly taller than the maximum height of the great horned owl.

Secondly, these birds will almost always attack from higher up.

They would not, and could not hover slowly, just mere inches above the ground when zeroing in on a target.

The final issue, and perhaps the most obvious, is that great horned owls are not bulletproof, and they certainly do not rattle like tin cans when shot at.

In light of this, sceptics then fall back on the possibility that the family were intoxicated, or simply fabricated the entire incident for financial gain.

Police found no evidence whatsoever that the Suttons or their guests had been drinking alcohol on the night in question.

and they also doubted that a relatively poor family would destroy their own property as part of a hoax.

They never made any real money from their story, even though they had ample opportunity to, and the repair costs would have created an extra burden, which they simply did not need.

However, there were accounts of people being charged a fee to enter the property in the wake of the incident, which the Suttons readily admitted to, and stated that it was their way of deterring unwanted visitors.

Whilst the story seems highly fantastical, so many of the family's friends, acquaintances and neighbours vouched for their integrity in the years following the encounter, stating that it would have been completely out of character for any of them to perpetuate a hoax of this magnitude.

Not one of them sought the spotlight, and in fact, they shied away from fame and fortune altogether.

They have always maintained that they were the reluctant victims of something they were never able to fully understand, and that the less they had to do with it, the better.

As it would turn out, a little-known case which occurred in the spring of 2012 would seemingly corroborate the Sutton's tale and leave the rest of us asking if the Kentucky Goblins had returned.

Part 2

Hello.

My name is Dr.

David Christie.

I received your contact information through a mutual acquaintance who assures me that you are well equipped to investigate peculiar problems.

Furthermore, I believe you may have interest in these events beyond any compensation that I am prepared to deliver in order to have these issues sorted.

For the past six months, I have been living in a rural home located on the border of West Virginia and Kentucky, where my family is nightly assaulted by creatures that I have come to believe are of an extraterrestrial origin.

These beings appear to be the size and stature of a small child, devoid of any facial features save for large, oily eyes and lipless mouths.

They frighten my children by peering through their bedroom windows, chirping at one another.

They actively attempt to enter my home in the middle of the night.

Last month they took my dog.

The police refuse to provide any further assistance, attributing the problem to wild animals and forwarding my complaints to the State Game Commission.

I believe they are coming from an abandoned mine located on the edge of my property.

Though I'm armed, I'm afraid that I'm far too frightened to enter the mine by my lonesome, and cannot convince any sympathetic friends to accompany me, though I cannot blame them.

I am convinced that the only answer is to collapse the mine.

I believe this is where we can be mutually beneficial to one another.

If you are prepared to assist me in this matter, I can offer you permission to record and document these events under the condition of anonymity.

I can guarantee you evidence of these creatures which I assure you are not wild animals.

Please respond ASAP.

Thank you.

What you have just heard is the content of an email sent to paranormal investigator Greg Newkirk of WeekinWeird.com.

on the 22nd of April 2012.

Originally thought to be nothing more than a simple prank or hoax, this initial communication would prove to be the spark that would ignite one of the most intriguing cases of recent times, one that would come back to haunt those involved again and again, over the course of nearly a decade and counting.

In all, Dr.

David Christie would send four emails to Greg over the course of several months, before he seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth, never to be heard from again.

In this episode, we will read the transcripts of those emails.

In his younger days, Greg used to run a rather tongue-in-cheek ghost hunting team known as Ghost Hunters Incorporated.

It was to this group's website that the first of Dr.

Christie's emails was sent.

Ghost Hunters Inc.

had long since disbanded, and the website hadn't been updated in years, but Greg would still monitor the site's server and check for messages from time to time, so it came as something of a surprise to him when he received this particular email, not least because it obviously had nothing to do with ghosts.

Not being one to shy away from a challenge, Greg replied, simply stating that he had no experience with either extraterrestrials or explosives, but that he would be glad to assist if David could elaborate on the details or provide any evidence.

After clicking the send button, he did not expect to receive a response.

However, the next day, he found the following email sitting in his inbox.

Thank you for the prompt response.

I do not blame you for being skeptical of my story.

I appreciate you keeping an open mind about my situation, and I am more than happy to provide you with as much information as I am able.

I was given your contact information through a man by the name of Terry Wrist.

When these disturbances first began occurring, I was only inclined to confide in a personal personal friend who I knew had fringe interests.

He offered to share my concerns with a man that had dealt with somewhat similar experiences in previous years.

I accepted his offer.

Within a week I was informed that this gentleman had long since retired from pursuits of this kind, but was willing to provide me with contacts who may be willing to help.

This is how I came to contact you.

I do not have any answer to why, other than a referral and recommendation from a gentleman I do not know personally.

I was under the impression that you would answer that question.

I am located in Pike County, just outside the town of Hellier, Kentucky.

Hellier is located roughly 30 to 60 minutes from the borders of Virginia and West Virginia, respectively.

Most of Pike County is made up of small towns and rural communities.

It is not uncommon to go days without seeing my closest neighbors.

I moved to this area for the peace and quiet.

I have received neither.

I have lived in this area for just under seven months, and in that time the majority of the harassment has occurred within the past three.

I did not become aware of any strangeness until early December, although that is only when I began to keep a record of these events.

At first, it was merely strange tracks in the snow around my home.

I had initially imagined that they were from some kind of animal, though it closely resembled a human footprint minus the heel.

At that time I was under the impression that it was simply a single creature.

It wasn't until weeks later that I began to suspect that I was dealing with a number of what I thought were individuals hazing me upon my arrival to the area.

At this point, I was incapable of keeping my dog outdoors overnight.

Any attempt to leave her leashed would result in her barking herself hoarse until she was allowed back indoors.

In the weeks leading up to this particular evening, I had awoken to find my shed doors open on several occasions, many of my children's toys missing or moved, and my yard in general disarray.

I had already given a report to the police who were making it increasingly clear that they were not interested in my case, barring physical harm or large-scale theft.

The second week of January, I'm having breakfast with my family when my five-year-old daughter begins talking about the kids without hair.

And my wife inquired about these kids.

She informed us that she had spent the previous night watching them play in the yard.

As you can imagine, that was of some concern.

I asked my daughter what these kids looked like.

She told me that they were bald like grandpa and weren't wearing any clothes.

The very same day I found the wreath that hangs inside our rear porch stuffed into our mailbox.

I purchased and installed motion-activated floodlights the following day, and for a time, the problem ceased.

It wasn't until the end of February that our daughter informed us that the bald kids had returned.

I was awoken to the sound of my daughter screaming and rushed into her bedroom only to meet her halfway down the hall.

When my wife and I were finally able to calm her down enough to speak, she told us that the kids were trying to peer into her window, but they couldn't reach, and instead had taken to tapping on it.

She hasn't slept in her own bedroom since.

It was that morning that I phoned the police for the second time, and they responded by finally sending a trooper to our residence.

I informed him of the regular mischief, how I was unable to let my dog outdoors after dusk, and of the bald kids.

When we found the ground disturbed just under my daughter's bedroom window, the officer informed me, very matter-of-factly, that we were dealing with an animal and I would be better off contacting the Game Commission than waste their resources any further.

Almost every day for the following week, I would find some evidence that something or someone had been on my property the previous night.

Smudges on the windows were not uncommon, stones from the walkway dragged to the other side of the lawn, and I had found tears in the screen door.

On Wednesday, the 7th of March, I finally witnessed the Kids Without Hair for myself.

The dog woke me up around 1.30 a.m., scratching at the back door and whimpering to be let out.

I noticed that the motion floodlights was on and went to the kitchen window to check that the shed doors were still closed when I realized that I could see the shadow of an individual cast across my lawn.

From the angle I was positioned, I could could not actually see the source of the shadow or the floodlights.

The dog was pacing circles around the back door and I could hear someone rifling through a box on the porch.

Filled with more anger than common sense, the only reaction I could muster was to bang loudly on the window and yell, at which point I heard the screen door on the porch swing open and slam against the house.

I heard what I can only describe as chirping at this point.

It sounded much like a skunk, if more guttural.

I then realized that there were more than two people on my property, and the shadow, which had been reacting as if it didn't know which way to run, was quickly joined by another.

For a moment, I watched as the shadows chirped at one another when I noticed a figure out of the corner of my eye.

Standing in the flower bed just to the bottom left of my window was a small humanoid figure with sickly pale skin.

Completely hairless, standing roughly four foot.

It was was looking in the direction of the shadows, and had clearly come from around the left side of the house, opposite the porch, and had not noticed me as far as I could tell.

Its face was devoid of features, save for large round eyes, very reminiscent in shape and color of a bird's eye.

It had no nose to speak of, and only a small slit for a mouth.

It didn't appear to move its mouth as it chirped.

sounding more as if the noises originated from its throat.

It was most certainly not a wild animal, and even more certainly not a child.

I was too terrified to move, and watched as the creature hopped to the others, and together they scrambled into the woods on the right side of my property.

It was clear that there were at least five in the group.

I have not mentioned this particular incident to my wife, and the only other person who I've spoken to about these creatures are yourself and the close friend who introduced me to our mutual friend, Mr.

Wrist.

I would prefer to keep things that way, and to approach this problem as discreetly as possible.

Since that evening, my dog has gone missing from the porch, yet to return, and I can only imagine that this disappearance has to do with these creatures.

I've gone looking for him during daylight hours, only to find many of my missing belongings scattered at the entrance to an abandoned mineshaft at the far edge of my property.

I don't dare go inside.

My friend has convinced me that my experience is similar to that of other visitation experiences, providing me with material and references that back up his claims.

I am aware of the outlandish nature of what I have told you, but I am afraid that I have no other explanation for what I have seen, at least at this time.

I can see no other option than to seal the entrance to the mine.

I cannot achieve this on my own, and I am too frightened to try.

I I don't dare share this information with others for fear of ruining my career and the reputation of my family.

I am prepared to compensate your travel expenses and offer you unrestricted access with whatever recording equipment that you desire, but only on the condition of complete anonymity.

Beyond that, I have no desire than to be rid of this problem.

Please inform me of what you would like photographs of and where to send them.

Thank you again.

Your sausage mcmuffin with egg didn't change.

Your receipt did.

The sausage mcmuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just five dollars.

Only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Prices and participation may vary.

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now.

Charlie's sober.

He's going to tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

Although Greg was intrigued by the doctor's story, He was not prepared to commit to an investigation without any supporting evidence.

He responded by reiterating this request.

But the thing that most stood out to the intrepid investigator was the name of the so-called mutual acquaintance, Terry Wrist.

Greg had never heard of this person, and wondered whether it was someone he might have met only briefly during his past exploits.

An online search garnered no tangible leads in this direction, but it did reference something that seemed just a little too coincidental to ignore.

Terry Wrist was not a real name, but it does does appear in two books by Alan H.

Greenfield, titled The Secret Cipher of the Euphnauts and The Secret Rituals of the Men in Black.

In each of these books, the author conducts an interview with the next military individual who uses Terry Wrist as a pseudonym, but it is what this individual talks about that is most interesting.

In The Secret Cipher of the Uthnauts, Terry Wrist claims that he was part of a covert group of Vietnam War veterans, which was tasked with infiltrating and destroying underground alien bases situated in the southern United States, the entrances of which were to be found in various caves or

abandoned mines.

As far-fetched as this appeared, Greg could not simply dismiss the obvious connection, though he understandably approached it with some scepticism, a scepticism which only grew when David failed to respond to his request for proof.

However, as we shall see, the name of Terry Wrist would crop up again in due course.

In the meantime, the lack of any further emails from Dr.

Christie was seen as suspicious, and just as Greg was beginning to write the whole thing off as a brief but intriguing hoax, another message appeared in his inbox.

My apologies for the time it has taken me to reply to your previous email.

The situation at my home had become unbearable, and we chose to stay with my wife's family out out of state until an appropriate solution can be reached.

I am at my wit's end.

This afternoon my brother-in-law and I traveled back to the house for the first time in over a month, as I needed to check on the security of my property and gather some belongings.

The house seems relatively untouched, leading me to believe that the creature's motives were driven by the presence of my family.

As you requested, I brought a camera back to the property for the purpose of photographic evidence.

While my home was free of tampering, I was able to find a trail of prints that matched the size and shape of those previously left by the creatures on my property.

The prints lead into the woods behind my home, following a stream that runs near the mine.

My brother-in-law, an avid sportsman, cannot identify the tracks despite his skepticism.

Perhaps you know of someone better suited to identify these prints.

I will be spending the next two nights in my home and will send you more images should the opportunity present itself.

I am looking forward to your thoughts.

Attached to this email was a series of photographs depicting a strange set of footprints left in the mud, which Greg did not recognize.

He was not an outdoorsman, but still carried out his due diligence and sent the images to a number of people who were better qualified to identify them.

No No one had an answer as to what kind of animal could have made them.

And what was interesting about these prints was that they exhibited dermal ridges.

These are long thin indentations created by the creases of skin on the bottom of a bare foot.

They are considered amongst experts to be as unique as fingerprints and are extremely difficult to fake.

The fact that they were present in these examples lent a degree of credence to the doctor's story and finally attracted Greg's full and undivided attention.

He replied instantly, asking whether David could place something next to the footprints which would give them a sense of scale.

Sure enough, the next morning, another message was waiting in his inbox, with even more attachments.

The creatures came out the woods late last evening.

I have enclosed photographs taken to the best of my ability given the situation.

I have also enclosed photographs of the creature's footprints alongside a measuring stick.

My brother-in-law is not as skeptical as he was when we arrived, and we will be leaving before dark this evening.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

The first set of images showed more footprints, this time with a ruler placed beside them, and it was clear from the measurements that they were about half the length of a human footprint.

Each one had the same three-toed configuration, and they were all missing a a heel, suggesting that whatever had made them either walked on its tiptoes or had very small feet.

They were also clearly made by a biped, as there was a distinct lack of any foreprints.

As interesting as these images were, nothing could have prepared Greg for what he saw in the next few attachments.

In total, there were three photographs of the so-called creatures.

the first of which was thrown out as it didn't seem to show much.

The second one was similar, but once the contrast levels were adjusted, it appeared to show what looked like a grey alien standing in profile, looking off to the left.

The shape of a large head, as well as a dark eye, and orifice where the ear would be situated could also be seen.

The third and final image was a lot clearer, and seemed to depict a humanoid creature of some kind peeping out from behind a tree.

Its head, neck and shoulder, as well as a portion of its left arm were visible even in the low light, but the results were far from conclusive.

You can see these images by watching our YouTube version of this episode.

Whatever was captured in these photographs would unfortunately remain a mystery, as Greg never heard from Dr.

David Christie again, despite repeated attempts to re-establish contact.

Nevertheless, he was not about to give up on the case.

and considered other ways of investigating the doctor's account.

As David had mentioned that he'd called the police during these incidents, Greg surmised that there must have been a record of some sort, be it an incident report or call log, and set about contacting the authorities in that area.

Pelia itself was too small for a local police station, so he instead contacted the closest State Police Department.

They could indeed confirm that they had received and investigated a call very similar to that described in the email, but would not divulge any further details.

Next, Greg checked census records to see if anyone by the name of David Christie had ever lived in the town, but Hellia's small size made this impossible, as no census data had ever been recorded.

Finally, he wanted to know if there were any abandoned mines in the region, and after checking government records, found that there were in fact dozens within a relatively small area.

Furthermore, quite a few properties had streams running through them, another factor which had been mentioned in the doctor's emails.

All of these details seemed to correlate, but there just wasn't enough evidence to pinpoint an exact address, and David had never given any specifics in this regard.

As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months without any further contact from this man, Greg reluctantly shelved the case and decided to focus his attention elsewhere.

During the latter half of the year, he and his wife Dana were heavily involved in the filming and production of Planet Weird's Engaging the Strange documentary web series.

During their research and preparation for a particular experiment which was to be carried out during that series, Greg and Dana had the chance to visit Brown Mountain in North Carolina.

Brown Mountain of course plays host to the world-famous Brown Mountain Lights, which are frequently reported in the region.

Completely unrelated to the case of Dr.

Christie, One of the couple's friends and colleagues just happened to mention during filming that he knew of a nearby cave that was supposedly the entrance to an underground alien base and asked them if they would like to see it.

They of course agreed, and whilst Greg and Dana never found any entrances to alien bases, they did find a huge, out-of-place boulder, which did not seem analogous to its surroundings and appeared to be blocking off a passageway which led into the further recesses of the cave.

Although this was interesting, it wasn't exactly definitive, and would have been written off off entirely as a light-hearted distraction from filming had it not been for another email five months later, from none other than Terry Wrist.

On the 4th of February 2013, the following message appeared in Greg's inbox.

I have something for you.

One week.

Greg immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone was messing around.

After all, he had made a public post about David Christie's emails and the connection to Terry Wrist on weekendweird.com, but with most of the personal details redacted.

But then, exactly a week later, another email from Mr.

Wrist would put this suspicion to bed.

Hellier was just a symptom.

The ink and black are isolated still.

in the third order MIA.

Bear in mind, for every door closed, the window must be open.

The door is closed.

The window is open.

Use the numbers.

Attached to this email was an image, which appeared to show an old piece of paper with a string of 16 numbers on it.

The fact that the person who had sent this email had mentioned Helius specifically immediately set alarm bells ringing.

In all of his posts, Greg had never mentioned the name of the town.

Only a handful of people knew this information, people who Greg trusted implicitly.

But even this wasn't the most haunting thing about the message.

At first, nobody understood the significance of the 16 numbers in the image.

That was until one of Greg's friends suggested that they could be GPS coordinates.

Entering them into Google Maps, Greg watched the globe spin as it zoomed into its target, and he immediately felt sick.

It pointed directly to the location of the supposed entrance to the underground base, which he and his wife had visited five months earlier.

Again, very few people had known about this.

Only a handful of camera crew, along with Greg and Dana's colleague had been with them at the time, and even these people did not know the specifics about the case in Helia.

How could this person have known so much?

Whilst it's possible that all of the emails Greg received were sent by the same person,

how would that person have known about his trip to Brown Mountain, and more specifically, the exact location he visited on a whim?

Something about this communication just didn't add up.

For good reason, Greg and his wife felt extremely unsettled by its potential connotations.

There was indeed a lot more to this mystery than he first thought.

and this would lead him to formulate his own theories regarding the events.

The similarities between David's case and the Kentucky Goblins of 1955 are hard to ignore.

Both of them took place in rural Kentucky, and both of them featured a family being terrorised by small humanoid creatures, although the more recent case occurred over a prolonged period, as opposed to the fleeting appearance made by the Kentucky goblins.

Greg questions whether these creatures could have been one and the same.

Whilst there are a few notable differences between the two given descriptions, he suggests that these could be mechanical in nature rather than biological.

For instance, what the Suttons thought were large ears on the so-called goblins might actually have been part of a helmet or headset, which could be removed.

Kentucky itself is saturated with old coal mines and cave systems, as are many of the states in close proximity to the hills and mountains which run off the Appalachian Trail.

Oddly enough, sightings of strange creatures resembling those seen in both these cases are not uncommon, and have given rise to a local legend alluding to the little white men of Kentucky.

One such sighting occurred in 1990.

A 14-year-old boy named Donald Patton was playing on his family's property, situated in eastern Kentucky.

He had spent the afternoon throwing rocks in the midst of a boulder field.

located on a slight hill at the rear of the acreage.

There were also a couple of outbuildings nearby, and the land was surrounded by a wooden fence.

Usually, his cousin Eric would have joined him, but on that day, he was there alone.

At around 7pm, just as the sun was setting, Donald had sat down on a rock to take a rest when his father exited the house at the bottom of the slope and shouted, You boys get back in here, it's getting late.

Donald immediately started to walk down the hill towards the house, but his father continued to shout, Eric, get down here.

Confused by this, Donald queried why his dad was calling out to his cousin, explaining that he had been playing up on the hill alone.

Then who were the two people standing behind you?

His father had asked.

Later on, he would tell his son that as he'd left the house, he had seen two small strange-looking children standing right behind him.

They were around three and a half to four feet tall, and they were dressed completely in white.

After he had called out, the two figures had immediately run off behind one of the outbuildings.

They were standing there, looking right down your shirt collar, he had told his son.

With many other accounts involving similar creatures, Greg wonders if the Kentucky Goblins incident of 1955 might have been the beginning of this alleged phenomenon.

He postulates that an extraterrestrial craft may have crashed here on Earth, and that its occupants then took refuge in the caves and abandoned mines that dot the Kentucky landscape, and that they still reside there to this day.

What's interesting about this, is that there was an abandoned mine not far from the Sutton residence.

Could this have been where the so-called goblins disappeared to?

There is also the theory that these creatures may have been here for much longer, and may actually be terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial.

Elsewhere, in the southern states of the US, the Hopi Native American tribe spoke of the Ant People, a race of humanoid creatures who lived in huge caves underground.

Their drawings of these entities very much resemble the typical grey alien of UFO lore.

So what are we to make of the email sent by Dr.

David Christie?

Was he genuinely a man besieged by these creatures, or was it all part of a clever hoax?

Unfortunately, much like the Kentucky Goblins case, as there is very little in the way of proof, opinion will remain divided.

Greg never heard from him, or for that matter the person claiming to be Terry Wrist, ever again, and it has been four years since the last communication referencing the case.

In 2019, Planet Weird produced a five-part documentary titled Helia, which chronicled Greg and Dana's efforts to track down either the property where this apparently took place or Dr.

David Christie himself.

This documentary is available to watch on YouTube.

The possibility of the whole thing being a hoax was very nearly confirmed during this series.

At one point, the investigative team realised that they might be able to find the doctor's physical address by tracking the IP linked to his messages.

Using this procedure, they discover that the emails originated not from Hellia, Kentucky, as one might expect, but from Ajax in Ontario, Canada.

However, it is quite possible, and even rather likely, that Dr.

Christie was using a VPN, which would have masked his personal details.

We must also point out a discrepancy in the messages themselves, and that is that Dr.

Christie's dogs seem to change gender.

In the second email, it was referred to early on as female, and then later, it had suddenly changed to male.

However, David never quantifies exactly how many dogs he owns.

It could be that he had more than one.

When all is said and done, it is difficult to deny that the emails are intriguing, as well as the photographs that were sent along with them.

They may or may not show inhuman creatures lurking in the woods after dark in a backwater of Kentucky, but either way, they certainly work to fire the imagination, and leave us asking, What if?

If there was such a person as David Christie, and if he truly was terrorised by these beings, we can only hope that he was elsewhere able to find the peace and quiet for which he had originally moved to Hellia.

And if you ever go walking in the backwoods of Kentucky, make sure you stay away from any abandoned mines.

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