There’s nothing I dislike about writing more than introductions. This disliking extends to talking, too; I’m terrible at initiating a conversation unless I absolutely know what I want to say to someone. But when it comes to writing, I never exactly know what will get someone’s attention since my writing style is very similar to how I talk. In fact, when I write, I do so in a manner where I envision myself outright talking to someone. So I never feel like I’m “comfortable” (for lack of a better word) until I’m actually talking about whatever the main focus of the write-up is about.
As such, there are times when I sometimes just wonder if I should simply do away with these introductions and instead jump right into the main story. Alas, I don’t like change, and to be honest, when I do find some footing with the introduction, I feel like it adds something to the overall write-up. It all comes together to form a nice, delightful story of strange/mysterious/Fortean goodness.
However, with today’s write-up, I must concede that I don’t think any introduction could quite prepare anyone for what’s to come. No, it isn’t gory (though there is some pretty gnarly stuff), nor is it shocking. Rather, it’s the name of the story—which I have a good feeling you chose to read because of that name.
With a name like the Elizaville Monster, I feel one would be likely to assume it’s another Bigfoot-type monster. There are more of those said to be in the United States than there are butthurt football fans any given Sunday.
However, this thing’s second name is what drew me in. You see, this thing is also known as Tall, Dark, & Gruesome. With a name like that, I must admit that there was absolutely no way that I wouldn’t pass up the chance to cover this. I mean, that name is just glorious. Even if this had absolutely nothing on it and was brought up once on 4chan, I would still cover it. As luck would have it, the story itself is pretty interesting and has more than just a few sentences on some niche Wiki.
So come along, dear reader, let’s take a gander at one of Indiana’s strangest murderous paranormal cryptids! Good God, I think that sentence is a crime against literature. I love it.
Bold and Brash
First thing first: as much as I love the name “Tall, Dark, & Gruesome,” I must admit that mainly referring to it by that name sounds… odd. As such, I’ve opted to primarily call it “the monster.” Hate me if you will, but I couldn’t get the first name to not sound really awkward.
Anyway, this story is one that I first found on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki under the name “Tall, Dark, & Gruesome.” If you’re at all familiar with my blog, then you’re no doubt aware that a great number of stories that I’ve found come from that little Wiki. If you weren’t aware of that, then now you are. Anyway, the story of this wonderfully named creature is one that takes place in Elizaville, Indiana, which resides northwest of Indianapolis.
According to the Wiki, this creature has been spotted for the past “100+ years.” Despite that, it also states it was first seen in 1924. If this confuses you: don’t worry, I’ll elaborate on this more later. Anyway, as for the creature itself, it’s described as being at least 7 feet (2.1 meters) in height and is a “man-beast.” I’m not sure what that looks like, but I like to think it’s Michael Waltrip in a Bigfoot costume. Additional details on the Wiki are next to nonexistent, though it’s also said to be “shadowy.” As such, to treat this seriously, one can imagine it’s likely something akin to a Dogman or werewolf. Alternatively, it could be demonic-looking (though that’s incredibly vague).
Getting back on track, it’s said that the monster can be seen at night—just like any good monster. Its favorite dating spots are cemeteries and fields, and one can assume that it also likes long walks on the beach and Starbucks. To be serious, though, this is where I feel like the details get really weird. Sure, the idea of a 7-foot-tall shadowy monster is already pretty weird, but it’s far from the strangest thing we’ve talked about on this blog. However, I feel like what I’m about to bring up really perplexes me.
Supposedly, locals claim that if you scream between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. anywhere in Elizaville, the monster known as Tall, Dark, & Gruesome will hunt you down, kill you, and then eat you. This supposedly includes your bones, so I hope you didn’t have plans to be buried in the cemetery (or cremated).
The reason this perplexes me is I have to wonder exactly how this monster’s appearance is known. I know I’m prone to overthinking things, but things like that bother me. Still, I won’t linger on this for long because I don’t want to talk in circles. This is meant to be a write-up, not a roulette wheel.
The legend of this hellish creature has apparently spawned from how there have been a “large number” of missing person cases in Elizaville. In fact, there are so many of them there’s supposedly no scientific explanation for them. A pretty bold claim, but hey: depending on when said claim was made, I guess that could genuinely have been believed at some point. After all, the world has changed a great year in the past century. We now have the Internet, and that means I can share wild stories with you all! But I digress; we’ll go over this later since I don’t want to go on a tangent here, though I will say that I can’t find any missing persons cases from Elizaville. So do keep that in mind at the very least.
The final thing that I want to make a note of from the ObscUrban Legend Wiki’s page on this ghastly monster is two anonymous witness accounts. I contemplated simply copying and pasting them, but I instead feel like conveying them with my own wording. Why? I don’t know, I just do.
Although the Wiki doesn’t cite where it comes from, another website (which I’ll get to after we’ve gone over these two stories) cites it as being from phantomsandmonsters.com. If you happened to click on that hyperlink, you may have noticed that there is no article. Don’t worry; it was like that when I was writing this back in May. I have no idea why the article is gone; the monster probably ate it for all I know. Lucky for us, the Wayback Machine is here to save the day! So go ahead and have a look at the article in all of its glory. Or you can look at how I describe what’s written in my own words. My teachers always told me to “use my own words.” I wonder if they’d be proud of me?
Anyway, let’s continue. The article is written by a man named Lon Strickler, who operates the blog itself. If you’re into Fortean stuff, I highly recommend you look at the blog. It’s updated dang near daily and has a plethora of fascinating pieces on, well, practically anything. It’s overall a great place to read about anything and everything strange. Lon states he was told the story was true and proceeds to go into some detail about the backstory of Elizaville and the monster. It’s stuff we’ve already discussed, though he brings up a bit more about the town itself, such as how it has four cemeteries, a lot of “abandoned cars” that have been “parked on the side of the road,” and how “if you walk through the fields, you’re likely to stumble upon human bones.” I’ll get to these claims much, much later because if I do so now, we’re going to be here for a very long time.
Moving on, the first of two reports Lon received begins with them stating they went to Elizaville with three friends. They got directions to it “from the Internet,” but they don’t specify where. I find the wording there very odd as it makes it sound like this happened at a point in time when GPS wasn’t readily accessible. It’s possible that’s the case, but if it wasn’t: that’s such a weird way to word it. Then again, “weird” and this story go together like bread and butter.
Anyway, the person goes on to state that, after driving, they found a “simple green road sign” that had “Elizaville” on it. It’s here that the person writing the story states they didn’t see much of what Lon brought up earlier; there wasn’t a “creature stalking among the fields,” nor were there any human bones or abandoned cars. Some of the roads were paved with gravel, which I think is already a sign that this place is quite terrifying.
On the other hand, however, the person states that there were a few unsettling things. For starters, a portion of a cornfield “had been smashed through, as if by a car.” To add in my two cents, this makes me envision a crop circle, but that could just be me. The person also goes on to state there was a “relatively nice-looking house” that “had its windows busted out.” The last thing brought up here is that there were “tire marks on the road which served in weird directions.” All of this actually doesn’t really surprise me as I feel it’s well within the realm of reason to imagine some teenagers looking for a place to cause mischief, but perhaps my understanding of what young people do is warped by me having grown up in the early 2000s.
However, things all go to Hell in a handbasket with the next sentence. The person goes on to say they caught the smell of “decaying meat.” They also add that it was “uncharacteristically cold for a summer night,” though I feel mentioning that after you smelled decaying meat is a bit on the odd side. I digress, though; the anonymous person’s companions were also put off by the sudden scent. One of them, whom the person refers to as “KJ,” began to complain of “serious stomach cramps,” which he gets “when something bad is about to happen.”
While KJ was suffering from a DEFCON 1 case of 7-foot-tall-monster-in-my-stomach, the anonymous individual looked out of their window. A few feet from the car, near the edge of the road, was a human head. It was “laying sideways on a tree stump.” Whether it was the head of a man or woman isn’t stated, nor are any details of whether or not it appeared the head was ripped off the rest of the body or if a bladed instrument was used. However, the eyes were “wide open and staring straight in my direction,” and the blood on the tree stump was “shiny and wet.”
Understandably horrified, the person went to close the window, only to find out that it was locked. Understandably upset, the person told the driver to lock it and conveyed what they’d seen. I guess no one saw it, though I only now realized that I had no idea if they were still driving or had parked. I’m guessing the former. Anyway, everyone no doubt experienced whatever is hypothetically higher than DEFCON 1, so they left Elizaville and returned to Indianapolis.
This is where I feel this supposed sighting gets a little bit on the hard-to-believe side, but I’ll reserve my full thoughts for when we get to my take. Once the group had returned to what I’m guessing is/was their home, the person told the others that they should report their gruesome discovery. “They” (I have no idea if the other 3 all said this or if one said it and the others agreed, but whatever) told the person that “it would be pointless.” Their reasoning for this claim is that “outside law enforcement never found enough evidence to convict anyone.” They also say, “By the time we called the cops and had them out there, the head would have likely been gone.” They also argue that while there could potentially be traces of blood on the tree stump (or grass near it), it would be “virtually meaningless.” Personally, I think that argument is complete nonsense since you could still potentially identify whoever had their head removed, but I also feel this is a total cop-out, and it makes me really question the veracity of the story. However, I don’t want to throw in my two cents here, so let’s get back on track.
The anonymous individual ends off by saying that Elizaville “does not have its own law enforcement” and, as such, “it would take a while for any patrol cars to arrive there.” The claim that Elizaville doesn’t have its own police department appears to be true, but if I’m wrong: feel free to correct me. The person signs off by saying that the whole incident scared them and that “it was the first time I had seen fresh death.” Guess this person had never seen roadkill before.
Anyway, that’s the first written encounter with the creature known as Tall, Dark, & Gruesome. Well, sort of. We have no idea if the creature actually did anything since all that was found was someone’s head. So it’s entirely possible that, if this did happen, it was the work of a murderer. We’ll discuss this in much more detail later, though, so let’s instead move on to the second encounter that Lon has in store for us.
The second story begins the same as the first: Lon conveys information that we went over much earlier. Unlike last time, there isn’t anything we haven’t already discussed (other than the fact the monster is “evil,” which I feel is a given since it kills and eats people). What is new is the story, which comes to us from a Lebanon High School (which is 13 minutes from Elizaville) who “lived in nearby Elizabeth for almost 15 years.” I wouldn’t exactly say that Elizabeth, Indiana is “nearby” Elizaville, given it’s over 2 hours from it, but I guess to some, it may be. Anyway, allow me to convey this story since it’s actually quite interesting.
According to the teacher, they lived on Elizaville Rd, across the street from a farm. I looked up Elizaville on Google Street View and this is actually in the town, and there are farms/fields nearby, so this at least checks out. As I’ve said quite a bit recently, though, we’ll get into this later. Anyway, the teacher claims that “for several years,” they had noticed how “people would drive out of town at extremely high speeds” like they were panicking. I wish I could tell this fellow how people drive in New York City!
These speed demons typically came around during the night. Nothing too abnormal, I’d say, as hooligans tend to enjoy a bit of late-night shenanigans. However, the teacher also states that, on two occasions, they heard a “high-pitched squeal” which was “followed by loud grunts.” When I first read this, my immediate thought was, “That’s a boar or pig.” While living, breathing bacon is something that I’d love to talk about for a few thousand words, I’ll wait and instead get into this more in the theories section, so let’s continue.
These potentially tasty sounds (assuming they’ve been cooked to perfection) supposedly “came from the direction” of the teacher’s backyard. This “led to a large cornfield,” and as such, I can assume that the children of the corn were up to their usual tomfoolery. Joking aside, the teacher goes on to explain that they “contacted the Boone County Sheriff,” which presumably dispatched deputies. They arrived to look but “never went into the cornfield.” That’s odd, but I have to wonder if they did it because the cornfield wasn’t owned by the teacher. If that’s the case, I imagine the police couldn’t investigate there because they weren’t contacted by whoever owned the cornfield. Though, hey, I don’t know what the law is in Indiana. Maybe the cops could go snoop around someone’s cornfield for a 7-foot-tall man-beast.
Carrying on, the teacher goes on to say that they “had heard the stories about the monster” though they’d never seen “any evidence.” Despite that, the “squeals and grunts were terrifying.” Whether they experienced anything else abnormal or strange, I don’t know, but they state they “got a teaching position in Muncie, Indiana” at some point. For those curious: Muncie is an hour and sixteen minutes away from Elizaville. For reasons that should not shock anyone, the teacher states they moved after taking the job. Though, if I’m to be honest, I would move if Hogzilla’s bipedal cousin was lurking near my home.
Rounding things off, the teacher states that “several years ago,” someone told them that “a former neighbor” of theirs from Elizabeth, Indiana, was visited “by her sister.” The sister, at some point, “went on an errand one evening” only to never be seen again. Her vehicle was later “found in a field on the other side of the town.” The teacher ends their story by saying that they “have heard that others have gone missing, but I cannot verify that.”
Perhaps it’s because I’m denser than a black hole, but I have no idea if the sister vanished in Elizabeth or Elizaville. The two locations aren’t exactly close (as I mentioned above), but whatever. We’ll be discussing missing persons later on. For now, let’s move on from Lon’s website, because that’s sadly all there is for us on there.
Had this been all there was to the story, I must admit that I would’ve probably set it aside for something I’d cover at a random point in time. However, lucky for me, the High Strangeness Wiki had more to offer me. This is where I found the source of the stories we just went over, so props to whoever sourced ‘em!
It’s here on this Wiki that we can get a clearer idea of exactly what this monster is. According to it, the Elizaville Monster isn’t so much a monster as it is an entity—one which is supposedly described as being “bogeyman-like” that’s “used by parents to keep their children from going out at night.” So if this Wiki is to be believed, this creature is less of a man-beast and more akin to a shadow person who took steroids. It also states that, rather than simply being 7 feet in height, it stands between 7 and 8 feet (or 2.1 to 2.4 meters). Unfortunately, there isn’t anything more to how this entity looks than that; there appear to be no distinguishable features beyond it being a “hulking, shadowy figure” that’s really tall.
Moving on, the Wiki also states the creature was first seen in the 1800s and not 1924. This helps to explain how it’s been seen for “100+ years.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t point out when the first sighting was. Still, this at least makes a bit more sense than 1924, given I don’t believe it’s already been over a century since then. However, I think it’s worth pointing out that Indiana was admitted into the United States in 1816, and Elizaville itself wasn’t founded until at least 1855 (when a post office was built there). I digress, though, I don’t want to go on a tangent about specifics as to when this thing was most likely to have first been spotted.
The article also expands upon the creature’s area of havoc, stating that it has not only caused disappearances in Elizaville but also in the surrounding areas. Despite that, it still only specifies it wanders “open fields and cemeteries” and that it appears between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. However, it does what I consider to be a rather odd bit of detail to summoning (or perhaps calling) the entity. Initially, it was said that if you simply screamed between those hours, the hulking monstrosity formerly known as Tall, Dark, & Gruesome would hunt you down. Here, it states that if “one parks their car in one of these rural areas” and then screams, it’ll pursue you and then eat you. Presumably, “rural areas” equals a cemetery and open field. So, I guess if you scream inside of your home, under a tree in your yard, or in a ditch where three well-dressed gentlemen are burying you for ratting them out to the feds, it won’t try to kill you.
These inconsistencies can be explained away, however, if we’re to believe this Wiki. According to it, this story lacks pretty much any documentation online. This is thanks to it being more of an urban legend in the community of Elizaville than something like, say, the Beast of Bray Road. That story, which also originates from a rural location (though one in Wisconsin), is also about a hulking figure that’s said to be less-than-approachable. However, unlike the Elizaville Monster, it’s been spotted by people from outside of the area where it supposedly resides, which has allowed its story to spread—and it’s now one of the most famous Dogman cryptids out there (if not the most famous).
That’s my way of seeing things though—not that the Wiki disagrees. As it points out, almost every source that covers this story simply copies another source, so if you’re looking for new information: you’re out of luck. Alas, that’s usually the case when it comes to any sort of story like this, any story that has its roots almost exclusively in oral history. Person A tells it to Person B, who then tells it to Person C, who then forgets some details, and as time goes on, you get a muddied story that might have had something to it but is now a garbled mess. Kind of like my writing, only a tad more sensible.
Self-deprecation aside, the High Strangeness Wiki also makes note of the supposed “strange disappearances.” Namely the lack of information on them, both in any articles about this story and elsewhere online. This is something that I’ll get to later (as I’ve said before), but I do think it’s worth mentioning now that I wasn’t able to find anything from Elizaville in the way of missing-person cases. Nor could I find anything about unsolved deaths. In fact, I could barely find anything out about Elizaville itself. It is a real place, but if you’re hoping for some big old revelation that there are tons of mysterious deaths: just toss that aside now because there aren’t any as far as I can tell. Should someone from Elizaville read this and happen to know of a plethora of them that, for some reason, haven’t gotten any media attention, feel free to comment about them. More on this later, though.
The last thing that the Wiki makes note of is a possible suspect for the strange entity: an American black bear. This was honestly something that I thought of when I first read about the creature and its appearance. I’ve seen black bears before when I was growing up; heck, one even pawed at my porch screen because I guess it wanted to come in (maybe sniff the cigarette ashtray that we had). Or maybe it was curious and wanted to see what was inside. I don’t know, but I’ve seen a fair few black bears, and there are a few things I can say about them. They’re big, they’re hairy, and they really liked to crap on our lawn during the middle of the night. Seriously, I think they had a vendetta against my family.
According to the High Strangeness Wiki though, black bears are “rarely seen” in Indiana. This is, from what I can tell, true: black bears were effectively wiped out there. According to Indiana’s Department of National Resources website, the last black bear was killed in 1871. I find this rather interesting since this would, in theory, coincide with when the Elizaville Monster may have first popped up, but we’ll get into that more in the theories section.
Despite being officially extirpated in Indiana, there are still reports of black bears in the state. The Department of National Resources states there have been 4 reports of black bears in recent years: 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2021. ABC57 and WTHR both have articles on the sighting from 2021 if you’re interested in reading about them. It’s speculated that, due to preservation attempts with bears and forests as a whole, they’ve wandered into Indiana. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d put my money on them probably coming down from neighboring Michigan, where they’re significantly more common They could also wander over from Ohio and Kentucky, both of which border Indiana, but those states have fewer black bears.
So with all of that out of the way, where do we go from there? Well, I’ll tell you where: we go to Google and look for more information! I mean, where else would you go if you wanted to find out more about something you read on the Internet? I guess you can go to Bing like I sometimes do, but nah: we’re going to Google. I’m absolutely certain there’s more about this story out there; there has to be!
Lucky for me, there are a fair few things I found—and the first, I didn’t even need to Google! The High Strangeness Wiki actually cited it, which is pretty dang awesome if you ask me. It saves me the effort of typing—which is great because my carpal tunnel is killing me at this point. In fact, I’m pretty sure that by the time I hit 30, my fingers are going to want to actually kill me. It’ll be like a scene straight out of Evil Dead.
Anyway, the source the Wiki cites is a Tumblr blog called Oddities of Life. It’s from December 6, 2012, and has absolutely no new information, aside from how it claims that current residents “swear” the monster is real. Beyond that, it’s an 88-word-long summary that expands upon nothing. That said, the Tumblr account itself is worth taking a look at if you want to see some unusual stuff. Though it was last updated in June of 2020, I’m going to hazard a guess and say it’s no longer active. Just a hunch, y’know?
Okay, so that was a bust. Lucky for us, that isn’t the only other source I found for this story. Over on Instagram, there’s an account called notebookofghosts, which posted about the Elizaville Monster on November 15, 2017. Unlike the Tumblr blog, this one actually has a bit of new information. For starters, it states that the monster not only roams Elizaville’s cemeteries and fields, but also its roads. All two or three of them; I guess it’s a big fan of the old Hulk TV show. Y’know, the one with Bill Bixby. Additionally, the poster states that the creature is “in search of something” and that it’s active between 1:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., rather than 3:00. Where the poster got the additional thirty minutes, I’m not sure, but it’s an interesting discrepancy in my eyes.
One of the more fascinating bits that was mentioned, and one which I feel may just be a bit of embellishment on the poster’s part, is that the creature will “drag you to his lair.” While I feel it’s a bit goofy of me to latch onto that, I found it to be a rather amusing addition since it sounds like something out of a campfire story—or a children’s horror story. I honestly really liked it, and I couldn’t resist bringing it up. Things like that are incredibly endearing to me.
Beyond that, there’s nothing new. The poster cites the teacher’s experiences from Phantoms And Monsters and also brings up the human bones you can supposedly find in the cornfields. So there were two new details, but nothing worthwhile. The account itself is worth taking a gander at if you use Instagram and are into this kind of stuff, by the way. Personally, I don’t use it because I really dislike social media (though I do use Twitter to keep up with NASCAR information).
Moving onward from that though, let’s head back to Tumblr. The birthplace of everything wrong with the Internet and then some. Why didn’t we stay there to begin with? I don’t know, I’m not capable of keeping a consistent schedule, do you really expect me to keep a consistent order on which websites we visit when looking for information? Didn’t think so. Anyway, a Tumblr account simply named theparanormalblog (which is no longer active but does have quite a bit on it that I’m going to take a look at to see if there’s any worthwhile material) had a little post on the monster. Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no new information that’s worth bringing up. There are a few typos, though, so that was fun to see.
As for the blog owner himself, he’s now a published author. So good on him! Always nice to see people evolve as writers.
Okay, so that escapade on Tumblr was a bust, too (I think I’m beginning to detect a pattern here). Lucky for yours truly, there were more websites that caught my attention here, the next of which was hauntedcollector.net, which appears to primarily sell jewelry. It was here that there was what I’m guessing is a book for sale, all for the low-low price of $105.00! Sweet baby Jesus, I didn’t realize that inflation had hit the book market so hard. Here I thought my purchase of the Humanoid Encounters series was costly, but a Benjamin + Lincoln for one book? This would need to be the best-written and most thorough book for me to shell out that much!
Anyway, this book is entitled “Missing” Humans, and it lacks a lot of details. If the website is to be believed, it was published on January 3rd, 2022. However, it doesn’t give any information as to who wrote it or who published it, and given the hefty price tag, I’d be hesitant to buy it even if I had the money to burn. Perhaps it’s a completely legit book, but the lack of details makes me inherently skeptical.
Thankfully, I don’t need to buy it to get the rundown of what the book (at least, I’m assuming it’s the book) is about. It starts off with a summary of the Elizaville Monster; the height, the scream, the time of night, the killing, the eating of you and your bones, the whole nine yards, baby! However, after that, the little summary gets into some new territory. I’ll let the website itself do the talking here.
Here is what is really occurring. The people of this area are brought up with knowledge of the occult and paranormal and many have decided to progress their lives to transform and become a vampire. This is the prime location in which Anthony and Tomer had been working prior to connecting with Deedee. Now we work to keep transformation services near the water, preferably near the beach... as the ocean waves project comfort to the human being changed.
Those who have "disappeared" have gone on to live in the realm of their kind -- so they have not been eaten bones and all, they have progressed and changed to what they wanted to become!
You too can now gain this power.
I have no idea who Anthony, Tomer, and Deedee are for the record. I don’t know if they’re a part of some television show, the website, or something else entirely (like a paranormal hunting group). Though what the site’s saying there sounds like something in line with some new age belief stuff. That said, I couldn’t find anything about Elizaville having a history of paranormal activity in my time researching this story. The Instagram account did state they were looking for the most haunted places in Indiana but did not give any additional details about Elizaville being some sort of hotbed for ghosts and other paranormal happenings. So, what exactly this book is talking about is beyond me. It sounds like Missing 411 but with a new-age twist.
The last place that I opted to visit (given how redundant looking for information on this story was getting) was a WordPress site called redcrowgreencrow.com. On here, you’ll find what I’m guessing is a blog called Horrific Knits, which specializes in what I’m also going to guess is scary stories and knitting. I specialize in one of those, and I can assure you it is not knitting!
The site’s post on this story has the same old song and dance but makes note that the creature sounds like Slender Man (something which I agree with). However, in terms information, there’s nothing new here. Still, the site itself isn’t too shabby if you like knitting, so give it a look if that’s your thing.
With all of that said, this story comes to an end. I basically gave up after this; there was absolutely nothing new to look at. No matter how hard I tried, everything was the same. The same details, the same story, the same everything. In fact, in most cases, I was reading the same sentences. So with that said, let’s move on to the theories so I can at least say something different. Well, until I begin to repeat myself.
Theories
1. Slender Man
This theory is one that I immediately thought of when I first read about this story. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone as redcrowgreencrow also thought this, so I didn’t have to completely attribute this to myself.
Although the tall, faceless, well-dressed humanoid abomination of the forest is a work of fiction, there are some who insist he is very much real. Whether it’s due to a tulpa, interdimensional shenanigans, or something else is entirely up to you. Personally, I’ve already made my opinion on the Internet legend apparent in the past. However, I do think it wouldn’t hurt to rewrite that piece because wow, it has aged really badly (in my opinion, anyway).
That said, I wanted to simply make a note of this because it has been on my mind since the moment I read this story. So yeah, that’s it. My sincerest apologies to all of the remaining Slender Man fanatics out there. Let’s move on now.
2. It’s a feral hog
This theory is one which I thought of myself and if I’m to be perfectly honest, it really doesn’t need to be on here. However, ever since I read the bit about how the teacher heard a high-pitched squeal and some grunting, my mind has stuck to this, so this theory is mainly focused on that. I will expand upon it a bit towards the end, though.
If we take a trip over Indiana’s Department of National Resources page on feral/wild hogs, we can learn a bit about them. Their weight, diet, appearance, and all of that. The one thing I want to focus on, though is their distribution. According to the website, it’s stated that there is no established population of these creatures in Indiana, which is something we’ll touch upon in a bit. What is known is that the home territory of these animals is “around 10 square miles,” which is 25.8 kilometers. They also “nest in dense vegetation and thickets.” Given that Elizaville is super rural, I feel this would make the area prime real estate for a feral hog.
So with that in mind, I’d like to take this moment to say that I personally believe that what the teacher heard was nothing more than a feral hog. While this isn’t the “My Take” section, I want to just say this now. Odds are, one wandered into the cornfield looking for food—especially if it was during the summer when they’re more likely to come out at night. At least, that’s what a website called wildlife-damage-management states. If the teacher’s story took place in spring, autumn, or winter, however, it’s possible it maybe wasn’t a feral hog as during those months, they’re more likely to be active during the day and not the night. Guess the heat really bothers ‘em.
But yeah, that’s my hot take on that. However, I want to quickly touch upon one other thing. The idea that the Elizaville Monster itself could be completely explained as a feral hog. Well, as you might have guessed, Indiana does have them—and they have even caused a bit of political turmoil. Feral hogs have been a bit of a nuisance over there (and apparently in the Midwest as a whole) and how to deal with them has been a tad bit contentious. The hyperlink leads to an article from 2020, and while I don’t know if Governor Holcomb has signed anything to give the go-ahead on some way to deal with them, it at least seems like the state has had it up to here with hogs. You can’t see it, but I raised my arms up towards my ceiling fan.
However, there are a handful of issues with this theory. For starters, there’s no way that a feral hog—even if they’re as big as Hogzilla was—is/was capable of killing countless people and subsequently consuming their corpses, bones, and all. While yes, they can apparently eat bones, they need to be small human-sized ones they’d presumably choke on. If I am wrong, you are once again free to correct me and lambaste my twelfth-rate detective skills. Cole Phelps, I am not.
Next, even if we’re to ignore that, the average feral hog isn’t 7 feet tall. Hogzilla was certainly massive, but even he was still a quadruped. Now if there are walking boars out there akin to the Quilboars of the Warcraft universe, I would love to know. That’s something I’d immediately look into writing about. I am very much aware of the stories of the “Pigman” and the similarly named “Pig Lady,” but I’m not counting them since I have plans for them. Probably at some point next year. Well, assuming I don’t end up ceasing any and all writing once again. Knock on wood.
3. It’s a legend
Every rose has its thorns.
Every spider has its web.
Every action has a reaction.
Every write-up on Limitless Possibilities has an egregious number of “thoughs,” “howevers,” and tangents.
And finally: every town has its legends.
I feel there isn’t much to say here since we went over this during the main story. Practically all of the information on this story is just repeated from another source. To quote the High Strangeness Wiki, it appears most (if not all) of the information comes from a “friend of a friend.” Aside from the two stories from Lon Strickler’s website, there are no first-hand accounts of this creature. However, that does leave me to wonder exactly how this story came to be (something we’ll speculate on later). Beyond that, there isn’t much else to say. It’s just a small-town legend that made its way onto the Internet.
Now it’s time for a brief tangent, but one which I really want to share with you all remember when I was younger, I borrowed a book from my local library. In it, there were a plethora of stories that I found super fascinating. I recall one rather clearly, which I’m pretty sure I found online and intend to write about this month (you’ll know because I’ll mention it in the introduction). The other two I can’t find for the life of me and to make matters worse, I can’t find the book. I actually contemplated writing about it this month, but I opted against it because there isn’t enough material whatsoever. Though for the heck of it, I will tell you about the two stories.
The first is about supposed minotaur sightings in New York. The thing that piqued my interest about these stories was that they were unbelievably close to where I lived at the time. They supposedly took place in the 19th century, and in one instance, a woman claims they broke down her door and ran up to her room. If memory serves, one of them breathed fire out of its nose, then it ran out of the house or jumped out of the window. It was wild, and I remember being enraptured by the story.
The second was about some airship that was seen above… I really want to say New Orleans. I can’t remember for certain, but it was, I think, seen by a ton of people. I can’t remember much more than that, but I recall a sketch of what looked like some sort of steampunk zeppelin over New Orleans. The architecture in the sketch reminded me so much of that city.
To this day, I cannot remember what the name of this book was, but I recall the cover had a drawing of a minotaur on it looking at something. If I could ever find this book, I would be unbelievably happy, and I would almost certainly write about everything in it. Sadly, not only can I not find the book (I tried checking the library before I moved), but I can’t even find the story of the minotaurs. That leads me to think that it’s either a ridiculously obscure urban legend, or the book had a lot of made-up stuff. However, the story that I did find leads me to think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t entirely made-up nonsense.
God, I hope I can find the book now that I’ve moved. Oh well, let’s move on; we’ve been here for long enough.
4. It’s a demon
Don’t get too close; it’s dark inside! It’s where my demons hide! It’s where my demons hide!
I’ve heard of certain locations being home to demons or even the devil himself. Just look at Bear Creek, North Carolina, which is home to the infamous Devil's Tramping Ground. That place is one that I would love to cover at some point in the future, but it’s also one I would really like to devote a great amount of time to. It’s one of the most fascinating locations in the United States (in my humble opinion).
My point is: that while this theory may sound rather outlandish, it really isn’t that wild. At least, not in the way of something that’s been put forward. However, is there any proof to back it up? Well, no, not really. I would go on a tangent here, but I’m saying that for my own personal take, but you aren’t going to find much out there. As far as I know, Elizaville itself doesn’t have any other noteworthy haunted locations. This entity appears to be the one and only (supposedly) malevolent entity that resides there.
However, a scene from the 1986 sports movie Hoosiers was filmed in the town’s church. So that’s pretty cool. I also hear that the movie is super good. Maybe I should watch it.
5. It’s a bear
As I stated during the main story: when I first read about Tall, Dark, & Gruesome, my immediate thought was a bear. Specifically, a black bear, given the whole “shadowy” appearance it supposedly has.
A quick Google search states that black bears stand at 3 feet (0.9 meters) when on all fours. When they stand upright though, they’re between 5 and 7 feet (1.5 to 2.1 meters) in height. So while they can be below what the Elizaville Monster is said to be, black bears can be quite big. Given how memory is imperfect and an intense situation can make you mistake how large something is, it’s entirely plausible that one of the few remaining black bears in Indiana is the origin of this story.
However, there are a few issues with it too. The first is that bears don’t eat bones. In fact, as far as I know, no bears are known to eat bones. Given it’s stated that Tall, Dark, & Gruesome eats everything, I feel this puts a bit of a damper on things. Still, it’s entirely possible that this was added to make the story more fantastical in nature.
The second is that bears aren’t exactly aggressive. While there’s a claim that mother bears are more dangerous, male bears are, in fact, the more aggressive of the two. Regardless, bears themselves aren’t likely to see you and attack you the moment they lay eyes on you. Bears aren’t an enemy in a video game, and their brains don’t make them want your face for a snack.
The third, final, and arguably the issue that matters the least is there’s no detail as to what this thing looks like. While the teacher’s account earlier stated that there were “squeals” (a noise that bears aren’t known to make as far as I know), grunts are something that bears can make. It’s possible that, if this was the supposed “Elizaville Monster,” it was a bear that was in pain. However, without any information as to what this thing looks like (beyond very vague descriptions), it makes it hard to make any concrete conclusion.
However, I do want to point one thing out. While I did say earlier that bears aren’t aggressive, there is one very interesting thing that I believe is worth noting. That thing is: bears may take a loud scream as a sign of prey. Per the National Park Service, in case of an encounter with a bear:
Pick up small children immediately. Do not make any loud noises or screams—the bear may think it’s the sound of a prey animal. Slowly wave your arms above your head and tell the bear to back off. Do NOT run or make any sudden movements. Do not make any loud noises or screams—the bear may think it’s the sound of a prey animal.
This, I think, is quite possibly one of the biggest points in favor of a bear being, at the very least, the point of origin for this story. Given it’s stated that if you scream at night (which bears can and do hunt at night if necessary), Tall, Dark, & Gruesome will attack, it’s possible that this action helped to create the legend. And if I’m honest, it’s easily the most compelling thing I found to at least give an answer to how the legend at least started.
6. It’s Bigfoot
This theory is yet another one that I made up, but mostly because I feel it’d be really stupid to leave out. Given some Bigfoot-type creatures have been blamed for some disappearances in the past, and the midwestern states are nothing if not good at providing strange stories of mysterious beings, can you really blame me? Perhaps you can, but I won’t blame myself. Not this time, anyway!
Everyone and their ancestors from centuries ago is almost certainly familiar with Bigfoot, or at least the concept of Bigfoot. The big, hairy ape-man that some say is the missing link for evolution. Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunk Ape, Yowie, Yeren, and Bob Chandler's famous monster truck are all iconic in some way, shape, or form. Whether you believe in them or not (though I feel the existence of that monster truck is hard to dispute), we all know what Bigfoot is.
Though could it really be the explanation for the Elizaville Monster? Well, the height matches up, with most Bigfoot-type creatures being between 6 to 11 feet (1.8 to 3.3 meters) in height. The “hulking” appearance also matches up to some extent with them. However, when it comes to eating humans, that’s a bit more… controversial.
I have heard stories of Bigfoot-type creatures that are aggressive. In fact, I wrote about one of these aggressive Bigfoots years ago: the Tennessee Wildman. There’s also a story out of China that a woman was raped by a Yeren and gave birth to a hybrid child. In a much more bizarre case, a man by the name of Albert Ostman claims he was kidnapped by a family of Bigfoot while out prospecting. I had intended to write about this story for Decemystery 2022, but I opted against it because I’d rather write about it when I have a clearer mind—and have a bit more time. On one final note, there are also some who say that Missing 411 cases could be explained by people being killed by Bigfoot.
If you’re a staunch believer in this story, you could try to argue that Bigfoot is responsible for this story. However, I’m personally not familiar with any carnivorous Bigfoot-type creatures. At least, not any that eat humans and their bones. If you do know of any, though, I would seriously like to know. That’s something I’d be more than happy to try and tackle!
7. It’s a Dogman
Just like with Slender Man, when I initially found this story, my mind quickly went to “Dogman.” If you’re curious: I thought of this one before I thought of ol’ Slendy. That’s because dogmen are significantly cooler and more believable than Slender Man. Fight me.
Stories of these strange beasts are surprisingly really common, something which surprises me since when I was younger (by which I mean around the age of 8 or 9), I’d only ever heard of the Michigan Dogman and the Beast of Bray Road. However, if my time on YouTube listening to those videos where people send in stories of their “true encounters” with these highly strange bipedal horrors is to be believed, they are quite common.
I’ve had plans to write about dogmen for quite some time. In fact, I had plans to write about something known as “The Beast of the Land Between the Lakes” this month. Alas, I decided against it because I wasn’t really feeling up to it. Still, I’ll take this time to explain what I know about these creatures and why this theory is probably one of the more believable theories, should you think the story as a whole is true.
Dogmen are described as being humanoid in appearance, but covered in shaggy hair and considerably taller than your average human, standing somewhere between 7 and 12 feet (2.1 and 3.6 meters) in height. They’re also said to be incredibly muscular, sport sharp claws, sharp teeth, and have a dog-like face. They’re like a werewolf, only they don’t turn back into a human once the day comes.
Given the general “hulking, shadowy” appearance of the Elizaville Monster, the most likely explanation—from a believer’s perspective—is that this is a Dogman. The Midwest (which includes Indiana) is a hotspot for these types of cryptids, and given their immense strength, it would make sense that one could eat literally everything. In fact, I’ve seen videos on Rumble from someone who claims that some missing persons reports (which presumably include Missing 411 cases) can be blamed on Dogman sightings. So if the Elizaville Monster is a cryptid, it’s almost certainly a Dogman.
8. It’s real, and it’s exactly what it says it is
I was going to have this be one of the first theories, but I figured I’d put it after the Bigfoot and Dogman theories because, well, it’s basically the exact same thing, only it isn’t either of those things. It’s just… exactly as we talked about. It’s a 7-foot-tall hulking, shadowy entity that eats people. Nothing more, nothing less.
9. It’s an alien
Okay, so this isn’t exactly a serious theory. In fact, it only exists so I would have a nice, comfy round number of theories.
How this would work is simple. Some aliens decided to unleash a really terrifying monster into Indiana because they felt like doing a microscopic level of silliness. That resulted in lots of people missing/dead. Now a tiny town in Indiana has to deal with it. That’s one big bouquet of oopsie daisies!
10. Or perhaps it’s Michael Waltrip
I challenge you to change my mind. Bet you can’t!
My Take
Oh my goodness, this is going to be a nightmare to write. Where do I even begin?
Well, first of all, I want to state that if you aren’t interested in reading my inane rambling for thousands upon thousands of words, just skip to the very end for my ultimate thoughts. Otherwise, I feel the need to sit here and talk about the absolute nightmare it was to write about this story.
When I began this write-up, I expected it to be a simple write-up; nothing special, just a few thousand words. 1-2-3 and done; I expected that and only that. Why? Well, there wasn’t much available on it. Usually, when that happens, it takes me, like, a day or two to write about it. There isn’t much research to do, and usually, most of the excess stuff comes from me being silly.
However, with this, I found myself wandering around the Internet looking for some sources. Why exactly I did that, I will never know. I guess I wanted to flex my research skills to some of my newer friends who hadn’t seen my writing yet in any sort of manner outside of some silly stuff I wrote during my writing hiatus (though, funnily enough, they won’t even see this until it goes up in, and I wrote this in the middle of May).
In doing that though, this write-up quickly became long—significantly longer than I expected. And I found myself stopping several times, pondering exactly what on Earth I was doing, dedicating so much time and effort to a story like this; a story about an entity called “Tall, Dark, & Gruesome” from a town that I couldn’t even get census data for. A story that I doubt many who are into Fortean/”high strangeness” topics care about or even know about.
Not only that, though, but I questioned exactly how many people would even want to read through this many words. While I lack any data on how far people read into my write-ups (though that would be quite interesting to know), I have to imagine most people would take one look at their scroll bar if they clicked on this and would go, “Holy smokes, I am not reading all of that!” I had to admit, if that is the case, I’d be quite hurt. Though it wouldn’t be the first time I’d have seen that, given some people I know have said that when I reply to something they say. Guess that’s what happens when you write in the same manner you talk.
But hey, that brings me to this. Something I wrote very early on in this write-up but couldn’t fit in anywhere outside of this section. Something which I’ve alluded to throughout this write-up. All those times I stated we’d get to all the way back during the main story and all those times I said we’d get to something “later” we can finally get to now.
Yes, at long last, it’s finally time we get to it! It’s about those supposed “disappearances” that Tall, Dark, & Gruesome was responsible for. This is something that, no matter how hard I tried, I could not make it fit anywhere. The main reason is that it broke the flow of the main write-up because the more I talked about it, the longer it became, and the more I began to ramble about things because I was getting progressively more and more pissed off at myself for the amount of work I put into this story. As such, rather than delete everything I’d worked on, I present to you my 2,000 or so word babblings that I refuse to get rid of. To showcase when it begins and ends, there will be three asterisks in the center of the page. I dunno how else to mark it, and quite frankly, I don’t care.
***
Well, if you’re to go ahead and try to search for those strange disappearances, you’re not going to exactly find anything. You can try Google, you can try Bing, you can even try to Ask Jeeves! The same goes for strange deaths, strange mutilations, and strange strangeness. In fact, if you try to look it up, you’re going to just find…
This story.
Seriously, when I tried to Google “Elizaville Indiana missing persons,” all I got were search results for Tall, Dark, & Gruesome. This leads to an even bigger problem, however. It’s a problem that I seriously considered holding off on talking about until later, but I think this is a much better time to discuss it since it caused a serious problem with research.
That problem is Elizaville itself. Namely, I’m unable to find a source that cites the population of the location online. I was able to find out that it’s an unincorporated community, according to Wikipedia. So basically, it has no local government—I think. I’m terrible when it comes to the government in the United States (despite living in the country), but you can click the hyperlink above and lambaste me for not understanding things in the comments below. However, as far as I can tell, there’s no census data online. Whether that’s because unincorporated communities don’t get their own census data or if it was merged with another location, I don’t know. I will gladly accept any explanation in the comments, though.
What I was able to determine, however, is that Elizaville is in Boone County, which has a population of 73,052 (as of 2021, anyway). Additionally, whtr.com has an article from 2021 that states there are “roughly” 200 missing persons cases in Indiana, which has a population of 6.806 million. I suck at math, so I don’t know what the per capita would be in that regard, but yeah. Make of this what you will.
That said, judging by Google Street View, perhaps all of this rambling is unnecessary since it does appear that Elizaville is little more than a handful of houses, a church, and a lot of farmland. I could go ahead and count the number of homes, but I don’t know how many people live in those homes and, if I’m to be honest, I also don’t feel like looking up people since that’d be really scummy. Though with that hyperlink, I can at least say that it does appear the teacher’s story about a cornfield is probably true. So that’s one point in their favor!
I digress, though. I want to round this off with one final thing. Even though I was unable to find any information on what the population of Elizaville is (or was at any other point in time), I did decide to go ahead and look to see if there were any mysterious disappearances—or any John/Jane Doe cases—in the area. Indiana, as I’ve already said, is a relatively sizable state, so I decided to keep this to cases that took place within an hour of Elizaville. Granted, that’s with a car, but we’ll pretend that Tall, Dark, & Gruesome has a driver’s license.
I began my search on two Wikis which I like to look at from time to time: the Unidentified Wiki (which I’ve used to find stories in the past) and the International Missing Persons Wiki. I want to say that both of these Wikis are moderated by the same people. They’re also both really good, and if you’re into true crime, you should definitely check them out. I digress, though, I went to the Unidentified one first to try and see if there were any cases from Boone County.
This immediately posed a bit of a hassle, given there’s more than one Boone County in the United States. Granted, the US is a pretty big country, and there are only so many names you can give streets, villages, towns, counties, cities, and whatever other locations people reside in. However, for something like this, it’s certainly frustrating. There are some unidentified persons in Boone County in Missouri and Kentucky, but none in Indiana. Or at least, there isn’t one anymore.
Up until September of last year, there was an unidentified woman who was found in Lebanon, Indiana (the only city in Boone County, Indiana). Maggie Sniegowski went missing from Toledo, Ohio, around April 28, 1992. The Washington Post stated her family believed she had left to “jumpstart her adult life.” Whether that was the case or not isn’t known. If it is, then feel free to correct me, and I will amend this.
What I can unfortunately say for certain is that Maggie's body was found near an entrance ramp on May 3, 1992. This is over 200 miles (321 kilometers) from her hometown. Maggie had died a few days prior; 3–5 to be exact. She would remain unidentified until April of 2022, when she was finally identified thanks to genealogy, which not only gave her back her name but also gave closure to her family. It also appears that some believe her death to be tied to a serial killer by the name of Harry Edward Greenwell, also known as the “I-65 Killer.” How the two may have met is unclear, and it’ll likely never be known as Greenwell died in 2013.
As a brief side addendum, despite Maggie having been identified, the FBI’s website still has her Jane Doe page up. I have no idea why.
As you can very plainly see, there isn’t anything paranormal or Fortean going on here. This was a senseless murder committed by a truly evil person. I-65 is also 37 minutes from Elizaville, but I digress. If I were a smart person, I would stop now and not continue to look into this matter and instead truck on. However, I am not a smart person, and I have far too much time on my hands. That is why I don’t get paid to write; man, I’m a good negotiator!
Maggie’s story is the one unidentified person story (or rather, former unidentified person story) from the Unidentified Persons Wiki. As such, I went on over to the International Missing Persons Wiki. As its name implies, it contains pages of people who have gone missing from all around the world. It’s here that I went searching for any missing persons cases from Indiana. Like I did for the unidentified persons’ cases, I made sure that they took place within an hour of Elizaville. Unlike the unidentified persons’ cases, I managed to find more than one. Because of this, I won’t be going into any detail about the cases beyond very surface-level stuff.
The first story I wish to present is that of Frank Tucker. This story took place in Kosciusko County, Indiana, which is 2 hours and 4 minutes from Elizaville. As you may be aware, that isn’t within an hour of the entity’s home turf. So why did I bring it up? Well, the Wiki states that if Frank were alive today, he’d be 154 years old. This is because he disappeared on January 28, 1927, at the age of 58. I found this unreasonably funny because the idea that someone could live to be that old tickled my funny bone in a strange way. So if you’re a reader in the general area where this man went missing, be on the lookout for a skeleton at your local tailor shop. It could be Frank Tucker.
The first serious story is that of Debra Cole, a 12-year-old girl from Lebanon, Indiana on August 29, 1981. The only city in Boone County, and the location of Boone’s county seat (which is where a county’s seat of government is located), Lebanon is a mere 15-minute drive from Elizaville. This is the closest missing persons case to Elizaville, and the primary suspect in Debra’s case is her mother’s live-in boyfriend, who murdered Debra’s sister at a later point.
The second case took place on September 5, 1979, when 13-year-old Mindy Creech vanished from her home in Anderson, Indiana, which is located 57 minutes from Elizaville. Mindy’s case is a rather interesting read as the reason for her disappearance is not known, though she apparently had a history of running away. Whether she’s deceased or not is unknown, though her mom told her siblings at one point that Mindy had died. Why she did this isn’t known. I may write about this story at some point next year; this is honestly a very interesting case and one which I think deserves to be looked at more.
Moving on, the third case also took place in Anderson, Indiana. On June 8, 1991, 22-year-old Kelly McCray, a mother of two, disappeared from her home. Her husband was the primary suspect (as is the case with any disappearance/murder of someone in a relationship, the lover is always the first suspect) and was even put on trial. However, he was acquitted, though the jury still thought he killed her. Alas, there wasn’t enough evidence. Her husband maintains his innocence and the whereabouts of Kelly remain a mystery.
The fourth took place between the “winter of 1969 or [sic] 1970.” During this period, 2-year-old Anna Marie Arguello disappeared from her home in Frankfort, Indiana, which is only 19 minutes from Elizaville. At least, I’m guessing it was her home; there isn’t a specific location where she was last seen mentioned on her page. Given she was a toddler, though, I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say it was her home.
Unlike the other stories we’ve mentioned so far, this one was actually resolved—to a degree, anyway. Anna Marie was only reported missing in 1992, 22 years after she was last seen. Her sister went to the police and said that Anna Marie had been “beaten, starved, and eventually drowned” by their mom, Anita Vega. The following year, Anita—who was 53 years old at the time—was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. According to an article by the Associated Press, the jury took a mere 45 minutes to find her guilty. She faced up to 10 years in prison, so she was released in 2003.
Anna Marie’s has never been found.
The next case began on August 6, 1985, in West Lafayette, Indiana, which is 46 minutes from Elizaville. 19-year-old Jennifer Schmidt, who was from Dayton, Ohio, was attending Purdue University with the intention of majoring in electrical engineering. She left her apartment to go talk to a professor and briefly stopped to talk to “an acquaintance” of hers. After this, was never seen or heard from again.
It’s been speculated that she was a victim of a serial killer named Larry DeWayne Hall, who has been suspected of murdering upwards of 45 women in the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, he’s only ever been convicted of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Jessica Roach back in 1993.
As for Jennifer Schmidt, her parents had her declared legally dead in 1993.
The next case is that of Julie Johnson, a 29-year-old woman from Kokomo, Indiana, which is 49 minutes from Elizaville. On March 1, 1991, she took her four children to see a movie. Once it had ended, she brought them home, put them to bed, and has never been seen or heard from again. For reasons I don’t know, her page on the Wiki states she disappeared on March 5th, and I have no idea why. Especially since her husband reported her missing the following day.
Although Julie has never been found, her car—a blue Chevrolet Citation—was found on Route 22, roughly 3 miles from her home. It had been locked and was fully functional. Why it was there is unknown.
Just like the previous case, Julie is believed by some to have been a victim of Larry DeWayne Hall. However, he has never been charged with her disappearance.
The next story is that of Brandon Sims, a 4-year-old child from Indianapolis, Indiana, which is 40 minutes from Elizaville. Brandon vanished on July 1, 1992, and has never been found. His mother was charged with his murder, though, so this case has some level of closure to it.
Our next case is that of Allen Livingston, a 27-year-old man from Indianapolis who disappeared on August 6, 1993. He’s a suspected victim of Herb Baumeister, a serial killer who killed 11 men in the 1980s and 1990s. Allen’s page doesn’t exactly have much to offer in the way of information, but he is suspected of being another victim of his. He disappeared the same day as another of Baumeister’s victims. He was last seen in downtown Indianapolis.
Our final story is that of Jerry Williams-Comer, a man who vanished on August 8, 1995, in Indianapolis. Like Allen, Jerry is believed to be a victim of Herb Baumeister, but this has never been proven. However, his car was found at the Castleton Square Mall.
While all of these cases certainly don’t have anything to do with Tall, Dark, & Gruesome (though I guess you can argue they’re all quite gruesome in some way, shape, or form), I wanted to bring them up for a very specific reason—one which I think makes sense in my simple mind.
There aren’t any disappearances I can find in Elizaville.
The closest I found was the case of Debra Cole, which (as I said earlier) took place in Lebanon, Indiana. If you were to drive from Elizaville to Lebanon, it’d take you 15 minutes. If you were to walk, however, it’d take you 2 hours and 45 minutes. Call me crazy, but I doubt this supposed entity has its own car that it uses to drive around looking for people to slaughter (should no one be outside screaming). I also doubt it was called an Uber or took a taxi somewhere to commit a crime. Above all else, though, I doubt it walked like it was Lawton Chiles to go kill someone and then eat every bit of them.
The same thing happened when I tried to Google Boone County, Indiana, missing persons. I got nothing in the way of missing persons anywhere close to Elizaville. For all intents and purposes: the claim that this entity is responsible for a “scientifically impossible” number of disappearances is complete and total hogwash. I’d sooner believe that I could climb Mount Everest and live on its peak for a year without any food.
***
If you enjoyed that in any way, shape, or form, then I’m incredibly thankful, and I’m genuinely thrilled that you had fun reading it. Personally, I did not, and if I’m honest, getting rid of it would’ve destroyed my morale since I felt like I had something going at first, but I quickly realized that I was spiraling into manic ramblings that made little to no sense. Such is life when you’re me, I guess!
So without any unsolved crimes to link it to, is there anything left for me to say? Well, yes, there is one thing I do want to say: my actual take on what the Elizaville Monster/Tall, Dark, & Gruesome actually is.
Assuming that this story did originate from something real and it does date back to the 19th century, I am almost certain that it originated from black bears. While I wouldn’t wager anything on it, I do think that the “hulking, shadowy” appearance, combined with the large height, was probably a product of a black bear standing upright. Someone saw it and didn’t know what it was. Perhaps they screamed, the bear heard them and rushed after them. Perhaps they outran it or died, and someone witnessed it, and the legend of “Tall, Dark, & Gruesome” spawned from there. Time went on, the legend got muddied, and what we have now is one of the stranger-sounding stories you can find in your time on the Internet.
Of course, that’s just my take. While I went on a massive tangent about one specific aspect, I felt it was necessary given I feel it’s really dumb to tie disappearances to a supposed supernatural/cryptozoological entity. But that’s just me. I am one person on the Internet with a small blog. I am quite content with that, though.
Conclusion
Between this, the Enfield Horror, and The Campfire Creature/Louisiana Swamp Monster/Arizona Camp Monster, I feel that any sort of story involving some sort of weird cryptid is destined to exceed 10,000 words. If that’s the case, then I would absolutely love to know how many of you not only read these from start to finish but also genuinely enjoy them. I personally liked writing the two stories I linked above (though I can’t for the life of me remember if I did at the time since my memory is abysmal), and while I complain now that I hated writing this one, I’m sure I’ll come around on it. Heck, I have a feeling by the time this goes up, I’ll look back on this with a lot of fondness.
But I digress. While this story is one that I feel can easily be explained as nothing more than a simple bear sighting, I would love to know what you all think. What do you think is the truth behind Tall, Dark, & Gruesome? Was it a bear? Was it an alien? A demon? Bigfoot? A Dogman? Michael Waltrip? Let me know, and all of that other stuff people who are significantly more popular than myself say.
Also, as always: stay happy and healthy. I will see you all in an hour for Decemystery 2023’s entry, and oh baby, it’s gonna be a good one. I hope you’ll all enjoy it as much as I’ll have (possibly) enjoyed writing it!
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