The Dover Demon

Imagine being a teenager first learning to drive. You’re taking a dark road in a suburban area with no other cars around. While you are driving, your headlights hit two bright orange eyes.

Three teenage boys in Dover, Massachusetts saw exactly that in April of 1977. Bill Bartlett, a seventeen year old, claimed he saw something creeping low and close against a stone wall. It suddenly reared its ugly head, and the two large eyes hit the headlights. Bartlett claimed that they were comparable to orange marbles. This was the first sighting of the Dover Demon.

The thing that Bartlett saw was described as just under four feet tall, with large hands and feet. It was said to have no hair and a sand-paper like skin. This inhuman creature was said to have a large head on top of a spindly neck with lanky limbs. Because the creature was only visible for a few seconds, Bartlett was the only one in the car who saw it. However, the other boys agreed that Bartlett was clearly distraught after the sighting. He definitely saw something terrible.

Later that same night, John Baxter, age 15, was visiting his girlfriend. It was late when he decided to leave and walk home. Along the way, Baxter thought he saw one of his friends. He called out the buddy’s name and received no answer. However, the person kept walking toward Baxter. As they approached one another, the figure was suddenly spooked and ran into a dark gully opposite of Baxter. He decided to go after the figure.

The teen was rewarded with a glimpse of something unusual. Baxter claimed it was unlike anything he ever saw. He said that the creature was perched on rocks with his hands and feet moulded around the rocks on which it was standing.

Oddly, Baxter’s description of the creature matched the picture that Bartlett drew after his sighting.

Investigations were made by locals in the area after its third sighting by another local teenage boy. With three sightings in such a short period of time, no one could deny that there was a problem. And the Dover townspeople didn’t, in the beginning.

Paranormal experts were also involved. They conducted thorough interviews with all who claimed to have seen the creature that everyone had come to know as the demon. All efforts at finding the creature were fruitless. Soon, all interest in the demon was lost.

Those three reported sightings were never dispelled, nor were they ever proven. It seems that the residents of Dover simply decided to live with whatever it was slinking about town in the night.

Today, many people say that the kids mistook a natural animal, like a moose, for something horrific and evil. To this day The Dover Demon remains a mystery. The professionals and those who actually saw the creature still don’t understand how a moose could resemble any of the drawings and descriptions that have been gathered to date.

All anyone knows for sure is that this is an unexplained mystery.