Dover Demon

The Dover Demon is a cryptid that lives in Dover Massachussetts.

Legend
The Dover Demon was first sighted at night by three seventeen-year-old boys who were driving through the Massachusetts area when the car's headlights illuminated it. Bill Bartlett, the driver, reported that he saw what he thought at first was a dog or a cat, but upon closer inspection realized that it was a bizarre, unearthly-looking creature crawling along a stone wall on Farm Street.

Bartlett continued to watch the creature, and he reported it to have a disproportionately large, watermelon-shaped head and illuminated orange eyes, like glass marbles. It had long, thin arms and legs with slender fingers, which it used to grasp onto the pavement. It was hairless and had rough, flesh-toned skin, described as tan and sandpaper-like. The creature's appearance was very plain, with no nose or ears, and no mouth was seen. The witness drawings portray its head as having a skull shape, forming the contour of a circle on top with a more elliptical ending projecting down to include where the nose and mouth would be.

Other witnesses have claimed the creature had green eyes and seemingly smooth, chalky gray toned skin, three feet tall, and made a bloodcurdling noise, similar to a hawk's screech combined with a snake's hiss. But all witnesses say it had no ears, mouth, nose, or known sex.

The creature was sighted again an hour later, by John Baxter, 15, and Pete Mitchell, 13, as they were walking home. He said it was bipedal and ended up running into a gully and standing next to a tree. The next day, Abby Brabham, 15, and Will Traintor, 18, driving down Springdale Avenue, claimed to have seen a similar-looking creature from Traintor's car, on the side of the road. Brabham's description matched Bartlett's and Baxter's descriptions, except this time the cryptid had illuminated green eyes. She approximated its height as "about the size of a goat". Investigators attempted to shake up Ms. Brabham by noting she said it had green eyes reflected by car headlights, while Bartlett mentioned orange eyes were reflected back to him by his automobile's lights. Ms. Brabham was steadfast in her description.

Bartlett, Baxter, Brabham, and Traintor all drew sketches of the monstrous sight shortly after their sightings. On the piece of paper that includes Bartlett's sketch, he wrote "I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature."

Episode
In April 2006, unemployed Construction worker Chad Hurliss recruited his wife Shannah and friends Glenn Diffy and Royce Best to fake evidence of a sighting of the Dover Demon. Chad and his companions do not actually believe that the creature exists, and instead plan to capitalize on a resurgence of the creature's popularity that coincides with the 30th anniversary of the sightings in Dover, Massachusetts. Glenn expresses concern over the hoax, as he is the only member of the group who takes the legends about the Dover Demon seriously, but Chad just berates him, saying that those who believe in the creature are the very people he plans to fool.

While milling around their car, Glenn sees what appear to be a pair of glowing eyes in the brush, but when he tries to tell the others about it, Royce suddenly startles and distracts him. When he looks back at the bushes, the eyes have disappeared. Chad retrieves a shotgun from the car, saying that it is only for "believability."

It becomes dark as they hike deeper into the woods, and Glenn discovers deep scratch marks in the trees and bizarre footprints on the ground, and he becomes very worried. Chad, however, refuses to believe that the creature exists and simply says to continue filming, as the material can be used for their video. Glenn suddenly falls into a hidden pit, which only panics him further as he thinks that it was deliberately camouflaged. They finally reach a suitable spot to film a fake attack.

Royce puts on an unconvincing monster costume, which bears no resemblance to the alleged creature, while Shannah puts on makeup to look as though she had been attacked. As Royce and Shannah walk off into the darkness, Glenn suggests that they use a night vision function on the camera. As the night vision is turned on, it captures the Dover Demon, which vaguely resembles a gray alien on film in full view of the camera as it watches them, unseen, from a tree above them. Chad tells him to turn off the night vision though, and they begin discussing what kinds of shots they want to capture.

Suddenly, they hear a screeches and chattering in the forest and Shannah runs towards them screaming, claiming that the demon is real. In the confusion, Chad fires the shotgun into the darkness and then claims that what Shannah saw was just Royce in the costume, but she insists that it really was the Dover Demon. Chad takes the camera to use as a light, and suggests that they split up to try to find Royce, but Glenn begins yelling at him for being responsible for the danger they are in, and insists that splitting up is a bad idea. Nevertheless, Chad is determined they split up.

Glenn goes off on his own, taking out a pocket knife to defend himself. Chad and Shannah hear more chattering and screeching in the forest, and they suddenly come upon Royce, who was accidentally shot by Chad earlier. He, too, insists that he has seen the demon. They suddenly see the demon not far away, but it is obscured by the darkness. Unable to move Royce because of his injury, they leave to find something to carry him with, but hear screams only moments after leaving him. They return to find Royce missing, apparently taken away by the creature. As they flee in terror, Shannah trips and discovers Glenn's bloody jacket on the ground. They continue running, but Chad suddenly falls into another hole and breaks his leg. Shannah is about to leave to find help, but suddenly sees that the hole is, in fact, yet another trap that was apparently laid by the Dover Demon. With Chad unable to move, the two huddle together as Shannah turns on the camera's night vision, which captures another image of the demon approaching them. Chad picks up the shotgun and fires at it, and seems to hit it, but the creature disappears a moment later. Suddenly, the demon appears in front of them and attacks.

None of the bodies of any of the hoaxers were ever found, but blood discovered on the ground and on the remains of the costume was identified as belonging to them.