Investigator Uncovers History of Dogman Sightings in Southeastern Georgia

Investigator Aubrey Bowen told The Singular Fortean Society that he recently uncovered a trio of dogman sightings in southeastern Georgia dating back several decades.

Bowen said he unintentionally discovered the sightings while doing research on paranormal activity attached to Orange Hall in St. Marys, Georgia.

While interviewing witnesses about their paranormal experiences in the area, he began to hear stories of encounters with upright canines.

Each of the witnesses who recounted their sighting to Bowen agreed to the use of their first name.

The oldest such report was told to Bowen by Stephen, who said that, in 1998, he encountered a bipedal doglike creature when he was 11 or 12 years old while walking home late one evening in Browntown.

Initially, Stephen thought that a wild dog was feeding on the body of a deer in the woods nearby.

"I heard this strange noise and I looked into the woods ... and I see this shady looking thing. I couldn't really make out its form yet, but it was eating something, and I was like, oh boy. My first instinct was that it was one of the wild dogs that lived there," he said.

But as Stephen began to walk quietly past the creature, he discovered that it was something seemingly far stranger.

“I looked over, I saw it and I was just trying to keep walking quietly. And I was gonna cross to the other side of the road and that's when it scared the shit out of me. My entire body froze, so I stopped moving. It felt like my entire body was ice, [like that] feeling when you just get the shit scared out of you and your whole body feels cold. So, then it stood up on two legs and it didn't look like a dog anymore," he said.

Stephen didn't remember much else in the way of details to describe the creature, except that it was furry, and when it turned towards him, its ears looked like they were becoming more pointed and doglike.

"I couldn't tell you what color eyes it had," he said, "but I could tell you that it turned and looked at me and [after that] I don't even remember getting home."

Stephen said he later woke up on his couch with no idea how he had gotten there.

The next most recent sighting report came from Rene, who said that she and a car full of friends encountered an upright canine during the day on their way to Folkston in 2015.

“It was going towards Folkston, it was four of us in a car,” she said. “And right in the middle before you get into the swamp, right in the middle of the road was this ... I thought it was a wolf in the daylight. And I thought, what the heck? And I looked and when I did it caught my eye. It had yellow eyes and it stood up. It stood up. It was seven to eight feet tall. Now I ain't the only one that saw this. And it stood up and it followed us with its eyes. But its legs were backwards.”

While it is a common misconception that the rear legs of canines bend backwards, what creates that illusion is the hock joint, which is similar to a human ankle and is important for activities such as walking, running, and jumping.

Some researchers point to the hock joint as a sort of biological impossibility when discussing dogman sightings, since a trait which evolved as part of quadrupedal movement would seem unlikely to be found in a bipedal species.

However, as seen in Mothman and other strange creature sightings, biological impossibility does not appear to be a limiting factor.

The third, and most recent, sighting recounted to Bowen was told by Marci, who said that she and a friend had seen an upright canine on their way home while driving her golf cart in downtown Saint Marys on the night of October 2nd, 2022.

According to Marci, the creature was approximately 40 feet in front of them, its legs were bent, and it appeared slouched over.

“So, it had extra longer arms, but it was all black," she said.

Marci described the doglike cryptid as "very, very malnourished" and said, "It looked like, in my opinion, from a distance, and out of all the movies you ever see, it would almost remind you of a werewolf.”

"It was quick and definitely not interested in staying around," she added. "It darted across the road and was gone."

Bowen said he was impressed by the witnesses’ reports, noting that, in his opinion, they do a “great job of illustrating how impactful these experiences can be.”

“All three stories from our witnesses share similar descriptions to the creature they encountered. All tall, large dogs that could stand upright with bent legs. They also all described the fur as looking blackish with short hair,” Bowen said. “It’s also interesting to note that all three were witnessed within a 20-mile radius of each other. These stories, along with so many other witness accounts over the years tell us a great deal of what may be lurking in our woods at night!”

The investigator added that in addition to thanking the witnesses who were willing to come forward, he would also like to acknowledge Kirstyn Martin and Bradley Merical for their help in researching the sightings.