Original subtitles

Josh: On this episode of "expedition x"...

Jessica: I got something. Right there, right there.

...My team and I investigate sightings

of a gigantic winged creature

said to be terrorizing the midwest.

Everybody sort of described a large bat-like creature.

Woman: I just thought...

Hang on.

Josh: According to witnesses...

You're not the only one

who has seen something strange.

...The mothman...

Whoa, whoa. That's huge!

Josh: ...Is back.

-Holy... -What is that?

My name is josh gates.

In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic

and made me question everything.

Oh, my god.

Now, I've put together a team

to investigate the stranger side of the unknown.

Let's go!

Phil torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.

Jessica chobot's paranormal research

has made her a true believer.

There is a monster living in this forest.

Phil, phil, phil, I just saw something run across.

Together we're searching for answers...

Phil: What is that?

...To the world's most extraordinary mysteries.

This is "expedition x."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

alright, phil and jess, the case that we're dealing

with today is something that has actually been

frightening a lot of people.

It's a strange case,

and frankly, it's pretty unsettling stuff.

Well, you had me at "frightening."

what are we dealing with here?

Well, it's not exactly an unidentified flying object.

This case involves

an unidentified flying creature.

Now, before you run out of the room, phil,

I want to show you a video. Check this out.

-Whoa! -Huh.

Maybe a bird.

Almost like a bat?

What is that?

Looks like a dragon.

Right?

I mean, those wings are huge.

Wow. It's a dragon.

So whatever this is has not been identified,

but it's one of a number of reports

that people have come forward with seeing flying,

often humanoid-looking, creatures.

And most of the people who see this stuff

are terrified by it.

Well, that makes sense.

I think there's something very primal in us

about being afraid of giant predators in the sky.

And there's also something just naturally menacing

about a dark, webbed-winged, humanoid object

flying through the sky. It's scary.

Well, that brings us to the case in question.

People in two different parts of the country

are recently reporting encounters

with not just a flying creature,

but the most famous flying cryptid of all time, mothman.

Yes! I was hoping you were gonna say that.

You love mothman? I love mothman.

Phil? I don't know about this one.

This is next level, phil. Let's bring you up to speed.

Josh: It's a story that begins in point pleasant,

west virginia, November 1966.

That's when two young couples driving home

after a double date reported

seeing a menacing, winged, humanoid creature

on the edge of town.

They said it had glowing red eyes,

and it attacked them from the air,

scratching the roof of their car as they tried to escape.

Mothman sightings around point pleasant

continued for the next year, culminating with the creature

being reported on point pleasant's silver bridge

shortly before it collapsed on December 15, 1967.

46 people died and many blamed mothman.

According to reports, he was spotted in ohio in 1975,

twice in 1981, in pennsylvania.

He was reportedly seen in kentucky in 1986,

then three more times in 1994, back in west virginia.

After that, things were relatively quiet until now.

Over the last two years,

there have been 87 sightings of mothman in and around chicago.

And in the point pleasant area,

in the last three months alone,

there have been nearly a dozen sightings.

So jess, what do you make of this?

He's back, baby! Yes!

Mothman is back.

I'm into it, I'm stoked for this.

Jess, why are you so into mothman?

Well, I think it stems from when I was little,

and I'd go to the library,

and I'd sit there and read all these books on the supernatural.

And for some reason, mothman, as a cryptid,

really spoke to me.

I found him super-scary, with the glowing red eyes,

the fact that he was chasing these teenagers down,

and he was still being seen today,

and he was kind of a harbinger of doom, right?

Right. It affected this entire town,

and everybody said they saw something.

Okay, so clearly, you're in the believer column here.

I'm in the believer column.

Now, phil, I could guess

that you're a little bit more skeptical here,

and I think you and I are in the same column.

This is a really wild story, right?

But what we can't deny

is the sheer number of sightings.

It is a lot of sightings, and I can agree

that these people are seeing something, but seeing what?

I mean, there's more drones flying around us now

than there are planes in the sky.

Right.

But planes and drones don't flap their wings

and have glowing red eyes and chase you.

That is true.

She's got you there, phil. She does.

And look, this really is the heart of this mystery.

Could so many people that are so adamant

about what they're seeing be wrong?

Is it a case of an unidentified creature?

Is it misidentification? Is it hysteria?

Is it some sort of folklore

just working on their imaginations?

And that's what I want the two of you to find out.

Okay.

I think you've got to go to chicago,

but you've got to start in point pleasant.

You've got to go to where the mothman story began

and see if you can find

some correlation between those sightings

and the ones happening in chicago.

Sound good?

Sounds good. Sounds like a plan.

Josh: The team is traveling 540 miles southwest

to point pleasant, west virginia.

Jessica: This place, I love it.

It's fantastic, it is super-crazy,

definitely a weird vibe.

It is steeped in mothman lore.

Point pleasant is the epicenter of mothman mythology.

While thousands come from all over the world

for the annual mothman festival,

many locals see the creature as a genuine threat,

and that's why they're obsessed with mothman,

and I do mean obsessed.

Jeff wamsley is a researcher who has spent decades

gathering evidence about the mothman phenomenon.

Wamsley: These are probably some of the rarest

archives we have in the museum.

These are the handwritten police reports

of those original four witnesses.

After they saw this thing,

they went immediately to the sheriff's department.

We're trying to wrap our heads around that first incident

and how it connects to all the other ones...

Exactly. ...In chicago.

So can you break down the events of that evening for us?

Sure. In November 15, 1966,

you had the two young couples,

and they were just riding around.

Josh: They were driving along a road

that bordered the southern edge

of the west virginia ordnance works,

a former tnt plant on the outskirts of town.

That's where they encountered what they thought was a man.

But as they drove closer,

they saw its 10-foot wingspan and glowing red eyes.

Suddenly it took off, flying over the top of the car.

Terrified, the driver tried to outrun the creature,

but even at 75 miles an hour, he couldn't shake the talons

that were clawing at the top of the car.

Once they got to the city limits,

it veered off into a field.

That was the first official local sighting here.

Minutes after they came into town,

they were scared enough to go to the police department.

They didn't want to, but they did.

Did they sequester them all in different rooms

to get these...?

Yes, they did. Got it.

I have three of those four people's original reports

right here.

And how long did the activity, as far as the sightings,

go on for before the silver bridge collapsed?

13 months to the day that that original sighting.

It's the worst bridge disaster in u.S. History...

Phil: Wow. ...And 46 people perished.

I've talked to people who said they saw a creature,

or a bird, on top of the bridge.

Josh: It has long been rumored that mothman was sighted

atop the silver bridge before it collapsed and killed 46 people.

This event cemented mothman's sinister reputation.

Where he appears, tragedy follows.

People claim that mothman popped up

before the chernobyl disaster in 1986,

and in mexico during the swine flu epidemic of 2009.

And many say he's often trailed by other mysterious figures.

So I've often heard that when the mothman would show up,

that you would get some men in black activity, too.

Yeah.

People coming in and knocking on doors and asking questions.

Did you see something like that?

Yeah. The men in black were notorious

for just showing up unexpectedly.

My own mother, she saw the men in black.

Point pleasant residents

who claimed to have seen mothman

reportedly received a visit from federal agents.

It's unknown what the agents said, but after those visits,

the witnesses never spoke of mothman again.

If the reports are true, what drew

these so-called men in black to this small west virginia town?

Were they trying to cover up a top-secret military project,

or were they attempting to silence

any talk about a real-life cryptid?

So is it possible for us to go there to where it all began?

Sure, the area is still accessible.

Jessica: Hearing about where the sightings happened is one thing,

but we want to see it for ourselves.

Ground zero for mothman phenomena --

the former west virginia ordnance works.

Phil: This is the area

where there was a huge cluster of sightings,

and it's like sighting, sighting, sighting,

sighting all the way around the perimeter.

So I figured this is the perfect place for us

to poke around a little bit.

Josh: Over the years,

there have been dozens of credible witnesses

who describe seeing a winged human-like figure

either coming out of, or disappearing, into this area,

and those sightings continue to this day.

Retired air force veteran and military police officer

dave spinks

has investigated the mothman phenomenon

for more than two decades.

He has a unique theory about what these people are seeing.

Jessica: So it looks like an abandoned city.

That's pretty much what it was.

You are standing in the heart of the west virginia

ordnance works here in point pleasant, west virginia.

So when you saw ordnance, you mean explosives?

Yes, exactly.

Josh: This eerie tract of land just outside of point pleasant

was an 8,000-acre facility

that manufactured tnt during world war ii

and stored it in 100 concrete bunkers.

But rumors have swirled for decades

that there was more going on here

than the military was admitting.

And they actually manufactured the explosives

for the atomic bomb here.

Wow.

What's your personal take

on the mothman sightings in this area?

I believe it could be some type

of military clandestine project.

Josh: Though a military mothman

might sound like science fiction,

it's a fact that during the cold war,

the united states funded a number of highly unusual

top-secret programs, many with animals.

Project pigeon deployed bombs with pigeons

acting as guidance mechanisms, and project acoustic kitty

intended to use cats to spy on the kremlin.

The bat bomb was a plan to use bats

to deliver explosive devices into enemy cities.

Some have suggested mothman is actually the biological product

of similar top-secret experiments,

a genetically modified bird, or perhaps even a human.

It's a wild theory, but what can't be ignored

is that people have been

seeing something lurking in these woods.

Check this out.

Phil: Dave has uncovered a once-classified 1940 site map

for the ordnance works.

So right out here, what we have...

Jessica: Uh-huh?

...Is 300 acres of war-department land

other than the tnt area.

My contacts told me that there was definitely

clandestine activity going on out here.

So out of those 8,000 acres,

300 of them are this war department,

"don't go in. There are no trespassing"?

Absolutely.

Phil: It does seem possible that during the time

of the original mothman sightings,

there could have been top-secret military activity at this plant.

We're following dave's map to see

if we can find any evidence to support this theory.

To get there, we'll have to navigate a river of toxic sludge

that surrounds the entire abandoned facility.

Some say it's a man-made barrier meant to keep people out.

Have you ever brought a boat down this way before?

No, we haven't.

What do you think about this water, special stuff?

Yes. On a scale of 1 to 10,

10 being the worst,

how crazy are we for doing this?

Probably a 10.

Oh, good.

I always wanted to be an overachiever.

Jessica: After securing a boat to navigate the swamp,

we travel down to the water's edge.

Ready? Yeah.

Okay. Going in.

♪

I mean, this area out here, this is next-level habitat.

This is where a lot of the sightings happened.

This is where the government was active.

This was his default go-to spot.

This is where it all went down.

There we go.

Jessica: After paddling through the muck,

we eventually come ashore and set out on foot.

Finally, we make it to the area on the map where some believe

the government conducted a secret military project

that can explain the mothman sightings.

I think I see something.

Jessica: Here we go.

This thing is completely covered by earth.

Look at this. It is part of the landscape here.

Totally grown over.

This thing hasn't been opened in decades.

[ creaking ]

wow.

Okay, ready?

Mm-hmm.

♪

alright, one more.

Ready, set...

Yep. [ grunts ]

holy... Oh, what is that?

Josh: Our mothman investigation has led to the innermost area

of the west virginia ordnance plant.

Wow.

Phil and jess are tracking a controversial theory

that top-secret military experiments with animals

or even people conducted out of these bunkers

could be responsible for the mothman sightings.

Either way, people have been seeing something

hiding amidst these ruins.

The question is what?

Ready, set...

Yeah. [ grunts ]

holy...

What is that?

♪

what is this?

A barrel of diesel oil?

What is this?

[ grunts ] and a sprocket.

This place... Oh, look at this. Look.

Why would you just leave all this stuff behind?

I don't know.

Why does it look like something was chained up here?

That does look like --

kind of like a wrist or something.

That's kind of creepy.

Oh, what's this?

Look, an old fire extinguisher.

Wow.

Dayton fire extinguisher.

Dayton, ohio.

Is there a date on here?

I don't think so, but, yeah, that's interesting

this is coming from dayton.

Yeah.

Phil: Having fully explored the bunker,

we returned to the boat and begin paddling back

only to find another mysterious structure.

Look at that.

What is this?

Let's see if we can get in.

♪

♪

♪

phil: Oh!

Jessica: Oh, my god.

♪

♪

oh, wow.

This is huge.

Whoa.

♪

I'm almost afraid to put my paddle in the water.

It is... Look.

What's down there? What's down there?

I don't know.

♪

♪

so did you see anything under the water? What's there?

I don't know.

I mean, if you're gonna be a mothman,

why wouldn't you live here?

[ creature squeaks ]

oh, did you hear that?

It was somewhere over there.

♪

that sounded like it was coming from outside.

Come on, let's get out there.

♪

[ flapping, thud ]

did you hear that? Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Something out there. Something out there.

Do you see it? No.

I heard it over here somewhere.

Shine the flashlight up in that tree.

Wait, I think I see it.

What is that? It just moved.

To the left, to the left.

It's trying to avoid the light.

There's something over there.

I'm gonna paddle us a little closer.

Okay.

♪

I've got the thermal camera.

If there's anything biological giving off heat,

we'll see it on this.

It sounded like it was up in the treetops here.

Where? Point your light where you think you saw it.

Right up here.

Alright. I'm looking.

Hey, I think I see something on the thermal.

Oh, my god.

Whoa. What do you think that is?

Oh, I think I lost it.

Well, let's keep heading towards the shore

and see what we can find once we're on land.

Alright.

♪

♪

jessica: Is that the tree we saw something in?

Phil: I'm not sure.

It might be that one over there.

I don't see anything.

♪

phil: After another hour of searching,

we still haven't made contact with the source of the noise

and whatever we saw on the thermal camera.

With the sun on the horizon, we decide to head back.

The items we found at the ordnance plant support

dave's theory that a secret military operation

could have been conducted here,

but what sort of experiments could account for the mothman?

We check in with josh to update him on our investigation.

Hello. How's west virginia treating you?

We're definitely getting into some weird stuff out here.

Alright, so bring me up to speed.

So that area where all of the original mothman sightings

took place, the west virginia ordnance works...

The tnt plant.

Yeah, exactly. We got the plans for the area

and right there in the center has been just sectioned off

as "war department" with no explanation given.

War department. Okay. So what are you thinking?

Maybe something top secret was going on out there?

Possibly.

We actually went out to that area last night.

Is there anything in that area?

There were these sealed-off bunkers there,

and we went into one of them

and it was basically half hidden,

kind of buried in the ground right there.

What was inside?

For a place that was supposed to be storing tnt,

there was a lot of weird stuff in there.

We found chains, shackles, a diesel drum.

There was a really old fire extinguisher

from dayton, ohio.

There were tools. Hold on. Hold on.

The fire extinguisher was from dayton?

It was labeled dayton?

Yeah. Yeah.

Dayton, ohio, is home

to wright-patterson air force base,

one of the most famous military bases in the country.

Also, a place where a lot of top-secret military activity

took place. That's on record.

If, in fact, there was some sort of

top-secret facility in point pleasant,

wright-patterson and dayton, that's 150 miles away.

That's not far at all.

Maybe there is a relationship there.

But that place is extremely restricted.

You're talking about what a lot of people

consider to be the real area 51.

And I just don't know

how we would ever be able to investigate that.

Well, I might have a way.

Josh: The team and I are reviewing the discoveries

they made at the west virginia ordnance plant

and whether the mothman sightings might be explained

by a top-secret military program.

The challenge now is getting access

to one of the most secretive military bases in existence --

wright-patterson air force base.

I have a contact from wright-patterson

from a military investigation we did several years ago.

I'll see if I can connect all of you.

In the meantime, we've still got

these eyewitness sightings in chicago.

And I think you've got to head there next.

Absolutely.

Also, I've learned back here

that one of the eyewitnesses there

claims that he actually has images of his encounter

with mothman though he's been hesitant to show it.

I want to see that.

Alright, let's go to chicago.

To chicago. Good luck.

Josh: While I work on access to wright-patterson air force base,

the team travels 438 miles northwest to chicago.

I'll admit it's a strange place to find mothman,

but don't tell that to the people

who say they've seen him here.

So I've actually hooked us up with somebody

that's gonna walk us through all those recent sightings.

We're gonna have to go up really high.

Phil: What do mean high?

Like mothman high. Whoa.

No chicago structure is more iconic than willis tower.

Once known as the sears tower,

it is the second tallest building in the americas

and the place where eyewitnesses

have reported seeing mothman.

Jessica and phil are here to meet

author and paranormal investigator...

Going up.

...Tobias wayland.

Tobias has been gathering data on the chicago mothman sightings

since he first got wind of a trio of recent reports.

Hey, tobias. Hi.

Sorry I'm a little late. That's a lot of stairs.

Sure is.

So why did you bring us here?

Well, it wasn't me. The mothman did.

The mothman, over a thousand feet up,

chose this location.

Higher actually.

The sighting that supposedly took place right here

had the creature at the very top.

Wow. There's a guy, guillermo,

and he's outside smoking

just after 5:00 p.M. In July of 2017.

And he sees something on top of the tower.

As he's standing there,

this winged human jumps off of the tower.

After that, the sightings just kept coming

and everybody described the same thing,

which was a large, bat-like creature.

We've got probably well over a hundred different reports

and associated phenomenon.

All within this area or just across the board?

Within 200 miles of lake michigan.

Well, it's really interesting because mothman always --

at least the reports and stories that I've heard and read,

is that it's usually in kind of rural areas.

I've never heard of him in the middle of chicago.

Let me show you a map.

They're almost always... Wow.

Yeah, centered around green spaces.

Oh, okay. That's a lot of sightings.

I'm actually really surprised

at how many are in the city, too.

A lot of people probably don't realize

that they are surrounded by nature,

that there are owls here, there are herons here,

there are a lot of big birds.

And so when it's dark, and they see something flying

and they know that mothman has been sighted here,

maybe that's why they're thinking it's mothman.

There isn't going to be as much physical evidence.

And so, the criteria I have to use to judge those sightings

is the credibility of the witnesses themselves.

There have been a good number of very frightened,

very otherwise normal people who have come forward

and recounted these stories.

When you're dealing with a normal,

credible person who's telling you

that they were standing only several feet away

from something that looked like a winged humanoid,

I feel like under those circumstances,

it would be very difficult, if not impossible,

to misidentify some sort of large bird.

I'm eager to speak with a chicago eyewitness

to see if the mothman sightings here

might also be explained by some kind of secret military program.

We head southwest from willis tower to the lower west side.

That's where we're meeting kelley hanada,

the eyewitness that has been reluctant

to release his evidence, at least so far.

♪

what's your experience been? Walk us through it.

Hanada: When I was on my way to work riding my bike,

this is the route that I take pretty much daily.

So as I'm pulling up to this intersection,

I'm just gazing out,

looking at the flags above the library.

I see another gentleman start pointing to the sky,

and that's when I see a large flying object.

And so, I immediately think in my head,

"hey, I think that's the mothman."

so you immediately went to mothman.

Yeah. Well, certainly at the time

of when I'm experiencing this and viewing it,

I'm almost positive

that what I'm capturing on film is the mothman.

I had the gopro on me, and I was able to get that captured.

Is there any way we could see that footage that you have?

Yes, please.

I'm kind of hesitant of even showing people now

just because it almost seems like a point of ridicule

just for...

People will either see one thing or the other.

And then I look like a crazy person

for coming forward with a mothman sighting.

I'll tell you what, what's important here,

is you're not the only one

who has seen something strange.

And what you saw still is a mystery,

and we're here to help

and see if we can get to the bottom of that mystery.

Yeah. Well, I mean, so I do have it with me,

and I have a few of the stills.

A little bit of an idea.

Oh, whoa. That's huge.

♪

josh: My team is in chicago

investigating recent reports of a giant winged creature.

Kelley hanada was cycling to work

wearing a camera on his helmet when he captured images

of something large flying in the sky.

Oh, yeah, there he is. Oh, wow.

So here's where it is right here.

It basically starts from this area

heading kind of in a southwest direction

and almost into the wind the entire time.

So kelley, I got to say,

especially in this frame right here,

as much as it would be amazing

if this is a photo of mothman,

to me, this just looks like

a really big, impressive bird.

Well, it would have to be at least

a 10-foot wingspan given the size.

Yeah. But a bird is not gonna attract

that kind of attention from people on the ground

to actually stop on their way to work and point up in the sky.

I do that for, like, a great horned owl or gyrfalcon.

I mean, I think there's some really cool --

yeah, but you're a unique, amazing person.

Were you gonna call me a nerd?

No.

Kelley's footage shows something human sized

flying above chicago.

Given its size and shape,

many have suggested it might've been a person in a wingsuit.

Experts have also theorized that sightings at willis tower

could have been a base jumper illegally jumping from the roof.

To put these theories to the test,

we're heading to an indoor skydiving facility

to meet with expert wingsuit pilot

and world record holder joe ridler.

We've actually been running around chicago

investigating the mothman sightings.

Interesting.

Yeah. We suspect it could be any number of things,

but one of the things we were thinking of

is maybe a base jumper or a guy wearing a wingsuit.

Basically somebody like you

because you've done a lot of jumps. Yeah?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm just under 1,500 jumps right now.

Wow. Yeah.

Phil: To be clear, base jumping is an extreme sport

where people leap and then parachute from cliffs

and, yes, tall buildings.

On the other hand, a wingsuit has sections of fabric

that inflate to allow gliding through the air

before deploying a chute for landing.

Jessica: What would be a giveaway sign

that that person is a base jumper

or wearing a wingsuit versus, "oh, hey, that's mothman"?

When it comes to base jumping,

they're all kind of ninjas of the night.

It's not exactly a legal sport to participate in.

So jumping in the day would be one red flag.

Another would be the height of the object

that you're jumping off of.

Another is landing area.

Phil: We show joe the schematic of where eyewitness guillermo

spotted the winged figure.

He said he was looking up at that ledge

and the guy jumped.

He claims he saw it just kind of fly away

towards the lake.

Is that doable?

Oh, no. Absolutely not.

So the height of this ledge

is high enough to do a wingsuit base jump,

but given all of the complexities

of the landing areas around here,

probably not a plausible solution here.

Jessica: We also show joe the images

that kelley hanada took with his gopro,

which joe also dismisses.

They weren't in a wingsuit or base jumper either.

Phil: If we're going to document

our own encounter with the mothman,

we need to look for it in its natural habitat.

A biological creature of this size

might pass through the big city on occasion,

but it certainly won't make its home here.

One of the densest areas of recent sightings nearby

is only 15 miles northwest of the city

in a 20-mile stretch of forest preserve.

No humans, lots of animals, plenty of water.

If the mothman is real, this could be his home.

Phil: By the way, wait till you see what I've got inside.

What'd you get?

Our goal is to try to photograph whatever it is

that people are seeing out here.

And to do that, we'll use several

motion-sensitive wildlife cameras.

So what do you think about this?

Overkill? What's the crossbow for?

We're gonna shoot it up into the tree and at the end

of the fishing line, we'll put a trail cam.

So if anything flies by, we'll get a photo of it.

We're dividing the forest into quadrants

and placing cameras in each corner.

We attach cameras to trees along trails

and use the crossbow to hoist cameras to higher positions

with a better view of the skies.

We finished setting up the cameras

just as day turns to night.

Any motion, it'll trigger it. It'll take a photo.

When I think of an area like this,

this is habitat at its prime.

There's tons of sightings around this park.

I'm sure there are all sorts of things living around here.

What is the weirdest thing you've ever seen

with those cameras?

In central america, I've seen jaguars.

Sometimes we actually see the poachers in the area

and they come by with their guns

and don't realize --

[ unexplained noise ]

phil: Wait, what was that?

Jessica: I don't know.

It sounded like it was coming from over there.

I got the thermal camera.

Yeah, we definitely got movement. I saw it.

Definitely there.

Yeah, right up in that tree.

[ rustling ]

oh, my god! Come here.

Right there. Right there. Right there. It just moved.

Jess and phil are pursuing the idea

that someone from wright-patterson air force base

may be able to provide information about a mysterious

flying something in the skies of west virginia.

Now, it may sound like the stuff of science fiction,

but consider this -- by the time

of the original mothman sightings in 1966,

the base had served as headquarters

for three top-secret programs tasked with studying ufos --

the most comprehensive among them project blue book.

This was the program that investigated

more than 12,000 ufo sightings

to determine whether they posed threats to national security.

It was also during this time that joint army, navy,

air force regulation number 146 was passed,

making it a crime to discuss classified ufo reports

with unauthorized persons.

But decades later,

project blue book's existence has been officially acknowledged

and tens of thousands of documents

have since been declassified.

Those who spent their careers

at wright-patterson air force base

may now speak about some of the military's activities

around the time of the original mothman sightings.

♪

josh: Phil and jessica are north of chicago

investigating a cluster of recent mothman sightings.

While setting up

motion-activated wildlife cameras,

they hear something in the treeline.

Jessica: It's moving.

Phil: Yeah, we definitely got movement.

[ rustling ]

oh, my gosh, something. You got something?

Yeah, yeah. Right there. Right there. Right there.

I don't see it anymore. I don't see it either.

[ unexplained noise ]

did you hear something?

Anything, anything?

I don't see anything.

Jessica: We spend hours

searching for the source of the noise

in the trees to no avail.

With the sun about to come up, we make sure our trail cameras

are still running to gather evidence long after we leave.

And that's when we get word from josh.

Time for a road trip.

He's gotten us access to a wright-patterson insider,

someone who can speak to whether there's any military program

that might help explain

the point pleasant mothman sightings.

So wright-patterson air force base

and the west virginia ordnance plant.

The link here, we don't quite have it down

and I don't know if we sound crazy right now.

I mean, we probably do sound crazy,

which is fine with me.

Here's the thing -- military bases,

they still talk to each other,

so it wouldn't surprise me at all

if some out-of-the-way area

had some sort of connection to nearby bases.

That's true.

Phil: To meet josh's contact, we're driving 300 miles

southeast from chicago to dayton, ohio.

Ray szymanski is a retired engineer

who worked on classified projects

at wright-patterson air force base.

He's asked to meet us at an underground bunker

just a few miles away --

a location that once housed top-secret research programs.

So, ray, how long did you work here?

I spent nearly four decades

at wright-patterson air force base.

And what were you doing there?

I was an electrical engineer for the department

of defense's weapons systems.

So as part of that,

I worked on a number of secret programs.

And in a place like this,

you can imagine how easy it was to keep a secret.

Josh: This abandoned facility once played host

to the most secretive military research program in history --

the manhattan project.

From the late 1930s to the mid 1940s,

more than 130,000 people worked in absolute secrecy

building the world's first atomic bomb.

♪

so the theory that we're kind of coming up with

for these mothman sightings

is that perhaps it is an experiment by the government,

some sort of testing they were doing or anything like that.

You know, that is possible

because it's the early '60s.

In fact, the timeframe is perfect for it.

New laboratories were being built,

new technologies were being developed.

A lot of that technology would have been perfected

at wright-patterson air force base.

Integrated circuits and fiber optics

and new materials, tough, durable materials

for flight suits

or anything that they would spin off

for a military application.

So what you're telling us

is that wright-patterson air force base

might have engineered flight suits

and then that might explain the potential

for some mothman sightings.

I'm saying exactly that.

Phil: This was the height of the cold war.

What was the big motivation at the time

for developing new technologies,

something like a flight suit or a parachute?

The military would be interested in some type

of a singular soldier air transportation

because they could do some sabotage

or they could do some surveillance

with either a parafoil or a cruciform-type chute

that was being developed at the time

or even those jet packs.

And it turns out that the wind tunnel

at wright-patterson air force base

was used to perfect the design.

Wow. Oh.

So the military was very much aware of this new technology.

And it's possible that flight testing was being done,

could have been done anywhere.

And perhaps when somebody saw a person

flying for the very first time,

could easily have been misidentified

as somebody that we now call mothman.

Josh: It's possible that mothman may be related

to an extraordinary but very real

top-secret government program.

This now declassified footage from 1961

pulled from the national archives

shows early testing of flying soldier technology.

Work on this continued through the late 1960s.

And by 1978 the delta force,

the u.S. Military's most elite special forces troops,

was testing combat flight suits in,

you guessed it, west virginia.

Such a program could explain the visits

from men in black, government agents

putting a lid on our latest secret technology.

And the recent point pleasant eyewitness accounts,

like many others, phil and jess did detect animals

living in the ruins of the abandoned military plant.

Jessica: Point your light where you think you saw it.

Phil: Right up here.

I think I see something on thermal.

Oh, my god.

But those who claim it's a monster

are probably getting caught up in 50 years of mothman mania.

As for the chicago sightings,

we believe we were able to rule out

the possibility of a rogue base jumper or wingsuit in flight.

Phil: Is that doable?

Oh, no, absolutely not.

But photos continue to come in from our remote wildlife cameras

and the evidence is in.

Sandhill crane, check.

Golden eagle, check.

But no mothman.

Even jess now supports phil's original suspicion

that the recent chicago sightings of the mothman

are nothing more than the misidentification

of large winged birds.

The sandhill crane and the golden eagle

have enormous wingspans at nearly 8 feet.

Imagine seeing that soaring in the windy city.

You, too, might think it's a monster.