On November 15, 1966, rumors surfaced of a huge, red-eyed creature with wings appearing in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It was the beginning of several months of sighting and strange events for the people of Point Pleasant. And even rumored to be connected with the 1967 collapse of Silver Bridge, which left 46 dead...2 of which are missing.
The blockbuster movie The Mothman Prophecies,is based on John Keel’s book of the same name published in 1975.
Many people now think the events reported during the time period were the results of mass hysteria abound in the tiny town of 200 resident.
Many of the theories are discussed in Loren Coleman's new book "Mothman and other Curious Encounters."
The events that occurred so many years ago may always be a mystery. But the fact remains that out of the 46 people who died in the bridge collapse...only 44 bodies were recovered. Two bodies are still missing, Point Pleasant residents Kathy Byus and Maxine Turner.
Are the bodies of these two ladies still lost somewhere beneath the waters of the Ohio River? Or were they recovered downstream in another town...and lie somewhere among the unidentified deceased?
The Tent Girl died in about the same time...and she remained unidentified for 30 years!
Currently (as of June 30, 2007) there are more than 6,408 doe cases and over 108,492 missing persons listed on the NCIC. But experts have said that this is only 10% - 50% of the actual numbers. Not all cases are/were submitted to the NCIC. - (For latest update, please check with The Lost And The Found.)
Several other cases go unsolved after many decades. For example the Tent Girl related case...Candace Clothier.
Clothier was found murdered in Pennsylvania. There were similar circumstances to the Tent Girl case, and at one point, the two cases were considered very related.
Though confirmation of a link to the Tent Girl case has yet to be positively determined, several clues are yet to be explored.
Is it even possible the bodies of Kathy Byus and Maxine Turner could have been carried UPSTREAM after the bridge collapse?
In August of 2000, Letitia's vehicle had been found at the Hernando De Soto Bridge in Memphis, TN. A search of the area of the area and the river "downstream" produced no clues to her disappearance.
A Jane Doe was found days after Letitia's disappearance several hundred miles "upstream" in the state of Kentucky.
A year year later in August of 2001 Kentucky state medical examiner, Dr. Emily Craig, was researching the Jane Doe case online. She found descriptive information on Letitia that matched the Jane Doe found in Kentucky.
Letitia's body had been located in a so called "duck pond" connector between two river barges that had apparently carried it to Kentucky.
The Ohio River begins in western Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh.
Might the bodies have washed ashore somewhere along that way... even as far as the Pittsburgh area?
On a related note...Sherry Yearsley...a survivor of the Silver Bridge collapse was recently found murdered.
Along eastbound I-80 at Sparks, Nevada, near the railroad tracks, the partially clad body of Sherry Marie Yearsley, 47, was found on June 21, 2002.
Passengers on a passing train spotted the body and contacted authorities. Police said Yearsley was a murder victim and her body had been dumped the previous day.
At the time of her death, Yearsley was living with her mother in Reno. County records indicated Yearsley was issued a license in 1996 to marry Alfred Alsvary, who was incarcerated at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in May 2002, on drug charges. It was unclear if the two ever had married.
Many of the other survivors of the tragedy later became victim to mysterious circumstance...coincidence?
"You noticed them. And they noticed you noticing."
