YEAR: 2016

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 27

STATE: New Hampshire

COUNTY: Hillsborough County

LOCATION DETAILS: Witness does not want his name or location shared.

NEAREST TOWN: Hancock

OBSERVED:  The incident that happened to my wife and I was on 5/27/16. I was woken up at three in the morning by a screaming distress sound that was coming from outside our open bedroom windows at the rear of our house, after the sound happened again I woke my wife up wondering if our dog was left out,  then she heard the noise a couple times. I got up and went to our rear sliding door in our kitchen where we keep our dog kennel. As I left the room my wife was startled and heard a repetitive hollow knocking sound from outside our bedroom windows which I did not hear because I was between rooms. As I got to our dogs kennel I startled our dog awake, I then turned on our rear outdoor lights and porch light. When I opened the slider I heard a lot of commotion at our tree line which is around 150' from the house. My first thought was a pack of coyotes. After listening for a few seconds, the noises escalated and the trees began to shake in 3 to 5 spread out areas of my tree line. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I shut the slider and went to get my shotgun. I loaded it and went out to my back deck, which is about 6 to 8 feet off the ground.. At this time my wife came out to the kitchen to listen out the window. As I was on the back deck the noises continued. It was as if whatever was out there had no fear of me. I felt like there were multiple sets of eyes on me. As I stood there I could hear breaking limbs, tree shaking and what sounded like a creature with serious power. My 12 gauge felt like nothing and I knew I better get back in the house. The noises carried on for a half hour. I decided to shut off the rear deck light because our house was dark inside and it felt like they could see us. When I walked over to shut it off my wife, who was standing at the slider with the door partly opened about a foot, heard a heavy sound of something running towards us. She slammed the slider shut and jumped back. I've never seen a fear like this come over my wife.  I then quickly opened the slider with my shotgun in hand and heard an aggressive, deep grunting sound that went off 3 times quickly. It was right beside the deck and felt like it was in my face. I slammed the slider. My wife ran to our baby's room and I could hear what sounded like a group of 3 to 5 creatures slowly heading back into the woods.
I've been in the woods my whole life and know this area and wildlife well. I've never encountered anything like this. We didn't see anything. The following day we noticed some bushes pushed over at the edge of our deck and several freshly broken branches around the tree line.

ALSO NOTICED: In our notes

OTHER WITNESSES: 2 of us

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 0300

ENVIRONMENT: Woods and lawn

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Crystal Panek:

Called and spoke with the witness. He and his wife were sleeping when they were awoken by a strange noise coming from the side of the house at about 3 am. It was an odd sounding noise fairly close to the window and he wondered if his dog had been left out. He went downstairs and noticed that the dog was asleep in its kennel. He went to the sliding door turned on the light and opened the door. As soon as he did there was a huge commotion - several trees were being shaken violently and there had been tree knocks that his wife heard when he headed downstairs.

The tree shaking really scared him since it was coming from multiple locations in the backyard. The witness went back inside the house and grabbed his shotgun. He was not sure what was out there and had gone into a "survival mode". He stepped back out the slider and onto the deck (which is about 6-8 feet above the ground). The noises continued. While on the deck he began to hear breaking limbs and violent tree shaking. He got nervous and went back inside the house and continued to watch from the window and slider door.

The noise continued on for about 30 minutes. He decided to turn off the porch light. His wife was standing with the slider door partly ajar so she could listen. As soon as he turned off the light they heard what sounded like running thumping of feet running towards the deck. She slammed the door shut. The witness then opened the door a crack and could hear right next to the deck only what he could describe as deep guttural grunting and growling that went of 3 times. He stated that is was extremely aggressive in sound. They were terrified and too afraid to turn on the porch light to see what was making the noise. They felt is was right there. He didn't want to know what was making the growling noises. He was too scared to even attempt to turn on he light. He slammed the door shut. They ran to a window and could hear what sounded like several large creatures heading back into the tree line.

He stated that nobody slept for the rest of the night. He was worried about whatever was out there would break into the house. They were terrified. I asked if he had thought about calling the police. He said no. He had his shotgun and was concerned about what the police would say.

This family has a compost pile in the backyard and he was wondering if that is what drew "whatever" it was into the yard. It was definitely more than one.

I asked him about tracks and he said that there were none and that he could see that the plants had been trampled next to the porch but, didn't see anything else.

He did tell me that he never paid attention to it before - but, his son who had a room in the basement had told him a couple times that he had seen red eyes in the wood line at night. He just said - "ok" thinking it was his son's imagination.

This witness was very passionate, he truly seemed scared. He stated that he didn't want this to happen and wish that it hadn't. I have remained in touch with him and asked him to contact me immediately if something happens again.

Their home is close to the Carpenter's Marsh and Eva's Marsh Wildlife Management Area

About BFRO Investigator Crystal Panek:

Crystal lives in southern NH with her family. She has been fascinated with all aspects of cryptozoology since her first encounter as a child while living in upstate New York. She loves the outdoors, hunting, camping, hiking, fishing, snowmobiling, to name a few. BFRO Expedition - MA, 2015, BFRO Expedition - MA 2016

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