Bat Crap Crazy

A woman locks up her salon after a normal workday, then vanishes before Mother’s Day and her own birthday. That’s where we start, with the disappearance of Florida hairstylist Jolene Cummings, a devoted mom in the middle of a divorce who never misses time with her kids. When she fails to show for a custody handoff, the search turns urgent and the questions get dark fast.

We walk through the investigation step by step: the early attention on her ex-husband, the volatile boyfriend with warrants, and the moment detectives realize the last person to close the salon with Jolene may be the key. Surveillance footage, a stolen SUV, and a cab ride back to work all point toward a co-worker who is not who she claims to be. The “Jennifer Siebert” identity unravels into Kimberly Kessler, a woman tied to a web of aliases across the country, a trail of bizarre behavior, and evidence that includes extensive luminol hits inside the salon, blood on personal items, and searches that look like a murder playbook. The most painful reality remains: Jolene’s body is never found, leaving her family with a bench, a plaque, and a grave site without remains.

Then we switch gears into cryptid lore with the Van Meter Visitor, a flying, light-emitting monster story from Van Meter, Iowa in 1903. Multiple townspeople report the same winged creature over several nights, shots are fired, strange footprints are found, and the town ultimately seals an abandoned mine with dynamite. Hoax, mass hysteria, unknown animal, or prehistoric survivor, we weigh what fits and what doesn’t.

If you’re into true crime podcasts, missing persons cases, and paranormal legends with credible witnesses, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Cold Open And Host Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

She also had a really bad feeling about Ted Bundy. No, she met him because her mom worked with him. Oh shit. Yeah. Ted Bundy worked at a suicide hotline in Seattle with Anne Rule.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Okay, because we're on your recording. Hi, welcome to Feral Nightmares. Mike, keep that first part in. Yes. Uh Zach is learning things. I am learning things. And if you are just listening to us, you should probably also watch us as well because our faces say a thousand words. My face has subtitles. My face also does. Mostly what the fuck.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah. That's literally the one of the reasons that I have bangs, even though you know I've got them penned back because uh my hair's curly today, was to cover my what the fuck lines. Because I they're they're in there deep.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

No, when Mike goes into editing, I'm just gonna you've noticed like I've been like staring at the camera for he's gonna have to zoom in on me with the We've got some faces of you already.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

It's fantastic. I love that. Great. All right. So this is our fifth episode. Move your mic. Look, bitch.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Look, you don't know how to fucking talk into the mic. Like you have it down here, and you're just anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Anyway, this is our fifth episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Woo! And she still doesn't know how to talk into a mic properly. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

You can't even argue all that much. I can't. It keeps moving. Mostly because I move it. But I'm fidgety. Damn it. I'm sorry. I'm in a little bit of pain. It's storming. Your entire life is just full of pain. It really has been. So much trauma. So much trauma. I mean But it made me funny. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Anyways. Fuck your childhood. We ain't talking about that right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

We're not talking about that today. Go read my blog on feral nightmares.com. I still need to send you mine. Anyway. Are you ready? Are you ready to be pissed off about this with me? Sure. Alright.

Who Jolene Cummings Was

SPEAKER_00 2:15

So today I am going to tell you about the murder of Jolene Cummings.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

And now this one is. Because unfortunately, there is to this day there is still unanswered questions. But definitely some fucked-up shit went down. So Jolene Cummings was born on May 13th of 1984. She was a hairstylist, you know, loved her job, dreamed of opening her own salon.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

You know. But her biggest pride and joy, the true loves of her life were her children. Aww. She had a daughter with her high school boyfriend, and actually ended up marrying her roommate, Jason, who was somebody she had grown up with. They had, you know, she'd known him basically her whole life, knew he was a good guy. She needed a roommate.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

So this seems like like the classic all-American kind of family.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Right. Well, you know, he ends up moving in with her, and they're they're literally friends. But he moves in with her and her daughter, and he was quoted as saying that one of the reasons he fell in love with her was because of how amazing she was as a mother. And he would sit there and watch her dancing around in the kitchen with her daughter.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

And like okay, like two stories in the in a row will like see someone like that and just like I'm gonna have to put them in.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Right. So, you know, they ended up getting married in 2013 and went on to have two sons together. Oh. But by 2017, 2018, their marriage is kind of on the rocks. And they make the decision that what is going to be best for their children, you know, all three of them, is that they're no longer together. You know, it's hard. Right? So I didn't even get divorced. My dad just died. Oh my god, I know. Your dad made it home from war, just not the bathroom. Fine. Anyway. Don't worry, I'm the only one that can give Zach that much crap.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah, so if you try to do it, she will come after you.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I will come after you. He this is basically my little brother.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

So, you know, they're the divorce as divorces can be. I've had one. And pretty much I signed the papers and that was it. We didn't have kids, we just done with each other.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

I'm sorry, one sec.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

What are you doing? Oh my was I too close to the microphone now? Now I'm too far away. Like, oh my god.

unknown 5:24

Zack.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Like, I'm trying to get to a point where like you can still like do all your stuff, but like still get it into the microphone.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Is that better? Okay, now talk like looking at it.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Anyway. Yeah, it does so she and Jason Cummings they're going through their divorce and they're having a little bit of a custody dispute, but they currently have their plan worked out for the boys, is one week with dad, one week with mom. And you know, with her being the type of mother she is, like that kills her. Yeah. You know, and I know my own situation, you know, we have the oldest on the weekends, and it sucks because there's things you miss, right? So, you know, but they're they're trying to make it work, they're doing what they can for the children. So, you know, somewhere around this time, she starts dating a man, also named Jason. I can I did not write down his last name. But this Jason was bad news. He had outstanding warrants, he, you know, was known for dealing, drinking, using all of these things that are no no bueno. But she's she's living her life, she's thriving in a way that only she knows how to. And everybody's like, she was just such an amazing person. Yeah. And one of her clients said that, you know, and to show you the kind of person she is, because it's something you and I kind of have a little bit of experience with. This woman was the caretaker for her mother who had dementia. And she ended up booking an appointment at the Tangle Salon with Jolene. And this woman says, you know, every day it's you get asked the same questions. And it's just that when you become so used to it.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

And she sat, you know, her mother sits down in Jolene's chair. Jolene starts, you know, brushing out her hair, asking the daughter questions, whatever. And the mom's like, How long have you been doing this? Jolene's like, Oh, you know, a few years. Five minutes later, how long have you been doing this? No, I've been doing it for a little while. And never let on that it bothered her. Never let on that it was irritating. In fact, she looked at this woman's daughter and said, I've got her. If you need a little bit of a break, there's a thrift store next door, go shopping. I've got her. She is going to be safe here with me. So you can have 20 minutes to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

You definitely hit on a story that hits Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So, because yeah, you and I, we've both been through it with grandparents. So, you know, on days that she could not find childcare, especially when her daughter was a toddler, she would bring her daughter to the salon with her.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

And give that baby a mannequin head and set her up. And then that child sit over there and practice her braids. And when she would get done, she'd come over and show her mom and show the clients. And everybody's like, you could tell she was a good parent because of her child. Her child was very sweet, very respectful, you know, very compassionate, just like great kids. You're gonna break my heart, aren't you? I'm definitely gonna break your heart because it broke my heart. Okay. Because here's the thing about Jolene: she was born on Mother's Day. All right. Okay. In fact, her mother Anne had previously given birth to a stillborn son. And Jolene, when she was born, became her mother's world.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

She was a medical baby.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

She was she was that that rainbow baby. Oh, rainbow baby. Oh, yeah. Because she had gone like full term with her son and lost him. So her and Jolene were tight. And Jolene did have younger siblings, you know, but her and her mom.

Last Known Moments And Missing Report

SPEAKER_00 9:32

May 12th, 2018 was a Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

The day before Mother's Day. The day before Jolene's 34th birthday. And she had spent the whole day her day at work with her clients, and she's, you know, planning, all right, this is what I'm doing for my birthday. I'm gonna hang out with my babies, I'm gonna hang out with my mom. That is all I want for my birthday. You know, her her family was very, very important. And her last client left the salon at five o'clock. Jolene locks the door, and that is the last time anybody sees her alive. The next morning, Jolene was supposed to meet her soon-to-be ex-husband, Jason, to pick up her boys. And you know, they're supposed to meet at like 9 a.m. You know. She doesn't call saying, hey, I'm running late. Hey, you know, car problems, whatever, crap, I overslept, nothing. And he he's looking at his watch and it's 9:30. And like he knows that this isn't like her 9:31, 9:32. Like, this is not her. They may be fighting, but when it comes to those kids, they're on the same page. Yeah. And so finally he calls her mom. And her mom answers the phone and is like, Jason, is Jolene with you? And he's like, No, I was calling to see if she was with you. And her mom's like, No, I haven't heard from her. And I texted her last night, she never got back to me. So her mother Ann hangs out with Jason and calls the Nassau County Police in Florida and files a missing person report.

Ex Husband And Boyfriend Ruled Out

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Now, luckily, the Sheriff's Department took it seriously. Because this is a 34-year-old woman, grown-ass woman. Most of the time it'd be like, well, she'll come back.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Like, you have to wait some amount of weekend.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

What worked in their favor is that Jolene's mom and stepdad had both worked for the Sheriff's Department. So even the deputies knew what kind of person she was and knew like she's not just gonna bail. Yeah. So of course the police have to look at everything, right? They drive by your house, car's not there. Or you drive by your work, car's not there. They actually, you know, go to the trailer she was living in and you know, get inside, and there's holes punched in the wall, and one of the cabinets is like door is hanging off. You know, it there it looks like there's been a fight.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

You know, and of course they're looking into her husband, because she is in the middle of a divorce. And there's, you know, looking at text messages and you know, disagreements that are happening in text messages. You know, they pull him in for interviewing on May 15th. So essentially three days after she's been last been seen. He's got an airtight alibi. And he goes back and he goes, Okay, these messages I would like to move out of state. She's not happy with it because of the kids.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

So, you know, she she's trying to stick to what is best for the children. Yeah. He's like trying to do what's going to be best for me, for the kids, but she's like, No, the kids have already been through enough shit. He's like, that's she and I may hate each other right now, but we love our kids. Yeah. You know. And he's got an airtight alibi for the night of the 12th to the 13th. Well, then they, you know, find out about this boyfriend. Yeah. Bad news, Jason. And of course they've seen the condition of her home.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

And excuse me, you know, they end up finding out that sh the police had been called to her trailer like the previous week, week two weeks ago, whatever. And they were actually called by a neighbor. And the what the police report said is that this boyfriend showed up to her trailer expecting to get to stay there. And she looked at him, she's like, No, you have warrants. They are looking for you. You are not going to jeopardize my custody situation. You need to go. And he lost a shit. Rips the cabinet door off, everything. The neighbor heard her yell to her daughter, stay in your room. Because she heard the yelling.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

You know, she heard the loud noises, everything. Hears her yell at her child to stay in her room. She's like, 911, I got an emergency. Yeah. It's a good neighbor. Yeah. Dude fucking dips. Because he's got outstanding warrants. They're looking for his ass. So she's like, I'm not pressing charges. Whatever. But it's, you know, they're able to at that point kind of report what he had done to the part the house.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

They end up having to track him down and find him at his aunt's house hiding in a junk room under a bunch of cardboard boxes. He didn't even know Jolene was missing. And behaved in such a way that they're like, he it wasn't him. He actually had an alibi for that weekend too. And he they're like, Well, what about the trailer?

The Salon Closer Becomes A Lead

SPEAKER_00 15:18

He's like, Well, like you know, the last time I was there, yeah, I did this, this, and this. He's like, but the holes in the walls were from another fight we'd gotten into. I'm hoping that if this had not happened to her, she would have been fine. She would have got the fuck away from him. Because you don't need that around your kids, no matter what. So they're like, all right, so they go and they're talking to her boss, you know, at the salon. And find out that one of the other stylists, a woman named Jennifer Siebert, closed with her. So, like, all right, well, we need to talk to Jennifer. And they're trying to get a hold of her, they're calling her, you know, and and they're looking into everything at once, right? Yeah. So they they clear the boyfriend, they clear the ex-husband. You know, this woman's the last person to have seen her alive, in theory, right? So they end up, you know, they're trying to get a hold of her, but she's like dodging, not returning calls, stuff like that. Well, they end up finding Jolene's SUV parked behind a Home Depot. So they pull the security footage from the Home Depot, and they say, you know, a woman that's not Jolene get out of the car dressed in all black, and they're able to track her on security cameras to a convenience store. And she's they see her on the cameras for the store, chatting it up with the employee, uses his phone to call for a taxi. Now, this is 2018. She's calling for a taxi. She goes inside, buys a bottle of water, uses her own credit card to buy her water, talks with this guy while she's waiting for the cab to show up, gets in the cab and takes off. Oh, they're like, oh, well, we had to do some digging to find out which cab company, this and that, you know, but we finally tracked it down, and you know, it took her back to Tangle's salon. And they interviewed the store employee, and he was like, Yeah, like she was memorable. And they're like, Okay, like, did you know her? Have you ever seen her before? He's like, No, I've never seen her before, never seen her since. He's like, but she walked up, asked to use my phone to call a cab, and kept talking about crystal meth and like what it does to your body. And he was like, it was just really weird. And I was trying to get back to work, but she wouldn't stop talking to me about meth. So I mean, if you wanted to like not be suspicious, that's one hell of a way to be suspicious. Exactly. Especially in Florida. There's a ton of Crystal Methodists down there. Don't be suspicious. So they finally tracked down the taxi service and the cab, and they're like, Yeah, I dropped her off here. So they're they're able to pull surveillance from different buildings because the salon had no cameras, inside or outside, which is a failure.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

On the establishment part.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

On the owner's part, because you have an establishment that is run prime primarily by women. They're going to be closing by themselves, they're going to be, you know, taking out the trash by themselves. You need to have some type of security for your employees. That's my opinion. I'm going to leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

I mean valid.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

But they see you know this woman from the gas station, yeah get into a black Kia Sole. All right, cool. Well, they find out Jennifer Siebert drives a black Kia Sole. And this was the other This was the other stylist that closed with her that night. So they're trying to get a hold of her. They're like, why were you in her car? Like, they got questions for her now. Yeah. So this is where I'm gonna tell you, in my personal opinion, the Nassau Sheriff's Department dropped the ball. Okay. Okay. Because it they they took too long finding that security footage. When you know that this was the last place anybody saw her.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Why and you know they don't have cameras, why are you not checking all the cameras around? Yeah. Immediately. Okay. Just to see if maybe something happened while she was walking out. Yeah. You know, she could have been kidnapped, she could have, you know, held a gunpoint. Anything. Anything could have like anything could have happened. Yeah. Right? They didn't do it. They didn't do it until days later. They find they the video Jennifer Siebert getting into her car. Okay, well, now you've seen her get out of Jolene Cummings' vehicle, take a cab back to her place of employment, get in her own car. You should look at those cameras, right? Like that's a logical next step. And I'm not a detective. You don't know the process. I don't know the process. I have Sata to Holiday In. So my God, you're too young for my jokes. Anyway, the millennials get it.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

So I trust you on that.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah.

Jennifer Siebert Is Kimberly Kessler

SPEAKER_00 20:40

So they're at the salon, they're talking to the owner, you know, like interviewing her, like trying to find out like, does she have any enemies? Was there anything going on? Yeah. You know, that you know of. And, you know, talking to her other co-workers. And a woman they call Miss Ann is like, she and Jennifer did not get along. Jennifer had only been there about a month at the time. And would go around like eavesdropping on Jolene's conversations. Oh, she's that kind of she's kind of that kind of person. And you know, Jolene had worked there for several years.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

You know, she is friends with Miss Ann, and she was having a rough day. And she goes to Miss Ann in the back and she's like just kind of pouring it out everything that's going on with her divorce and the custody. And it's a very emotional conversation. She needed like a shoulder to right. She needed her friend. Yeah. And they both notice that Jennifer's just kind of standing over there listening. And Jolene's like, Miss Ann, let's go outside. So they go outside to continue the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Away from playing gears.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And Jennifer follows them outside. Not even being slick. Not even being slick about it. Literally follows them outside.

unknown 21:59

And at

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That point, Jolene and Jennifer have some words. Yeah. You know, because Jolene is, you know, as sweet of a person as she is, she's not gonna let you walk all over all over her. She has her boundaries.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

And she's one of those people that will fight for the underdog. And she has a very good instinct, very good intuition. Even her mother said if she said something was wrong, it was wrong.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

You know, she was never wrong about it. And she looks at Miss Sang and goes, There is something wrong with that woman. There is something off about her, and I want to find out what the hell it is. So they're finding all of this out. And they're talking to the owner. Well, as they're talking to the owner, she gets a phone call from Jennifer. And the owner, once again, my opinion, is a dumbass. Because she's like, oh, you know, Jennifer's like, yeah, I'm heading into the salon, I'll be there in just a few minutes, blah, blah, blah. And then she's like, all right, cool. The police are here. They want to talk to you. Jennifer hangs up the phone and they look out the front window of the salon and they see her peeling out of the fucking parking lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Is it pretty much of an opinion if you're like white? I mean. Anyway. Anyways, who are we to judge? Who are we?

SPEAKER_00 23:28

I mean, I mean, we'll kind of we're the whole reason we have a podcast is to judge. Yeah. So they have to spend time hunting this stupid bitch down. Because now she's on the run. Because the boss is like, oh yeah, the cops want to talk to you. She's already been dodging their phone calls and avoiding them.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

And what why why would you give her a heads up? Especially if you've noticed that she's doing this shit. Yeah. Or they're like, hey, like, we really need to talk to this person and we can't get in touch with her on the phone. Like, she's never here when we come, you know. And this is within a couple of days of Jolene being missing. Because at this point she's missing. Yeah. And I'm gonna go back because something I forgot about with the gas station. And one of the things that the the clerk had said was on, I want to say it was the left side of her face, she had a long red mark. Like a scratch mark. He said it was like somebody had just like grabbed her face. He said it was almost like a fingerprint, you know, like you know, a finger or whatever. He's like, I don't know if it was a bruise, I don't know if it was old, but like I remember that was something distinct about her. So it takes them a couple of days. They finally find her at a truck stop by pinging her cell phone. She's at this truck stop, parked between two semis.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

And it's nighttime, and she's like in the backseat trying to sleep. Well, the cops come up, shine the flashlight in the front seat. She's not in the front seat. Well, they see her in the back seat. She moves, then she slithers her way up to the front seat, and they arrest her for Grand Theft Auto because they can get her on that. Like they have they have that, and they take her in. Well, this is the point we get to find out that Jennifer Siebert is not who she says she is. It is one of 17 aliases used in over 14 states, 30, over 30 cities, by a woman named Kimberly Kessler.

Luminol Blood Evidence And Landfill Search

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Kimberly Kessler is running from the FBI. She's a missing person. Her mother had her declared a missing person in I want to say 2012. So it's been about six years. It's been a minute because she's had no contact with her family. She would go to cemeteries in her hometown, find graves of young women that were her age, and take their names. She had two passports. She had a passport and a social security card for Jennifer Siebert. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Very mentally unstable. And I'm going to give you an example. Is that her family's very wealthy in Pennsylvania? Super rich.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Oh, you're talking about like old school money or like yeah, old school money. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

You know, old money. Rich. She absolutely hated her brother.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

To the point that one of he was quoted as saying there was one night he woke up to excruciating pain in his face. And felt like sat up and he could feel blood and just pain. And he opened his mouth and his two front teeth fell out. And he looks over. And his sister Kim is standing over him with a baseball bat because he had pissed her off. And that was her getting him back, busting out his front teeth with a baseball bat. Very unhinged from an early age. Yeah. So, and that literally everything said she was like the cheerleader, popular, great kid, up until like right before her senior year and ace. A switch went off. Yeah. And then she just became a psychotic hot mess. Now at this point, Kimberly Kessler's 50 years old.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Had multiple identities, you know. And she tells the cops, she's like, look, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you because you know, if they printed me, it's gonna come up. You know, this isn't my real name. And he's like, Okay, well, do you want to be called Jennifer or do you want to be called Kimberly? She's like, Oh, you can call me Kim. And she's going on about this whole thing, claiming, you know, like all of the, like, she's telling all of these bizarre stories. And they're trying to get information about Jolene. And, you know, she's like, Well, she, you know, I think she was on drugs and like this, and like she she's just making up some shit.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Given the fact that she's lying to people who know her, right? And like whose family's worked with them, and like, so they didn't know her.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Well, that she uses that, tries to use that against them in the end. They start asking her more questions about Jolene, and she's like, Well, you're you're not gonna like my response. And I actually got to listen to this part of the recording from her interrogation. She's like, I want a lawyer. And they're like, Okay, you have that right. You know, they were not being aggressive with her, she was just being kind of very flippant about you know what was going on. So they arrest her. Okay. Well, she ends up calling her mother for the first time in forever. And it's like, hey, if you could, or if you wanted to, could you bail me out? And, you know, I need you to come down here and I really need you to get into my storage unit and get all that stuff out before the cop sees it. Recorded phone calls.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Okay, so what is this uh third case where they record everything, people note to self. Do not just don't do don't incriminate yourself like in any way. Like so Okay, like what is what is with these people in like incriminating themselves?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Here's the thing. All right, they get her cell phone. Okay, all right. Between the date of her arrest, or basically between May 12th, or May 13th, and the date of her arrest, 457 Google searches of Jolene Cummings' name. And it had been maybe a week max. Google searches over co-worker murdered, body never found. How to get away with murder, how to dispose of a body, shit like that. They also find a receipt in her vehicle from Walmart for a box of 30-gallon trash bags, an electric knife, and a bottle of ammonia.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Flashing neon sign.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

They go to the salon because they're like, okay, this is where this had to have happened, right? They go to the salon, spray it down with aluminol. And that's like how that's the stuff that you turn the lights off and it glows if there's blood. That place lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. The sheriff said, based on the amount of blood that showed up with the luminol, there's no way Jolene was still alive. They find a bloodstained tote bag with had Jolene's blood on it, also had one of her fingernails in it. When Kim Custler was arrested, she had bandages on her face and her hands. One of her injuries was a very long nail scratch deep down the side of her face, just exactly where the store clerk had said it was.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

One of her fingers had been bitten almost to the bone. They found Kimberly shoes, a pair of scissors, clothing, all of it with Jolene's blood on it, and some of Kessler's, Jolene's fingernail, a bloodstained tote bag, and the luminal showed blood all over the salon. Now it's at this point, right? It's been about a week that they go and they look for more security footage from around the salon. And that is where they find the videos, hours after the salon closed at 5 p.m. of Kimberly Kessler struggling to carry out trash bags to the dumpster. Multiple trips. And about 1 a.m. is when she moves Jolene's vehicle. So by the time that they're like, shit, let's go check the dumpster, it's been picked up by waste management or whoever handles it, and taken to a landfill in Georgia. They spend a week, two months later, in July of 2018, they spend a week digging through, I want to say it was 30,000 tons of garbage looking for those bags. And they found some evidence, but they did not find Jolene. They have never found Jolene. The only thing they've ever found of her is a fingernail or tube. So everything is very circumstantial at this point. But

Trial Delays Hunger Strikes And Life Sentence

SPEAKER_00 33:46

but okay, she has blood on her shoes she was wearing, she's got blood on the clothes, there's bloody scissors, there's her and Jolene's blood on it, you know, refusing to speak to the cops, all of this stuff. So she is arrested and being charged with first-degree murder and grand theft auto.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

This batshit crazy woman loses almost half of her body weight because she keeps going on hunger strikes. The trial continues to be delayed because of her hunger strikes, and because she has to have a mental evaluation, she is proven to be sane enough to stand trial. And then, as you know, another way to try and delay it, anytime they bring her in for like pretrial hearings and stuff, she starts screaming about how her court her court-appointed lawyer is Jolene Cummings' cousin. He wasn't. She's saying that the Nassau County Sheriff's Department is pinning this on her because Jolene's parents worked for them. And it's tragic and they just needed somebody. Needless to say, she is serving life in prison without parole. As she fucking as of 2020, when they brought her in for the murder trial to begin, she was in a wheelchair strapped down. As soon as she got in there, she started on her bullshit about her attorney being Jolene's cousin. She was removed for the entirety of the trial and only brought back in for sentencing, where she started her bullshit again. She would shit in cups and then smeared all over the cell and all over her. But not enough to declare her insane but not enough to be declared mentally criminally insane.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

And she still will not tell anybody what happened in that salon that night. And that is the murder of Jolene Cummings. And it's sucks. It fucking sucks. Because she she didn't deserve this. You know, none of it. This batshit crazy woman. And they they really think that there's been other murders committed by her. They just can't prove it. They're actually investigating a couple of different ones that they think could have been her under one of her 17 aliases. She actually has a child she lost custody of because the neighbor's seen her outside digging a hole in her 14-month-old baby next to her, looking all like sad. And she's like, Hey, what you doing? And her name at that point was Christine. She's like, Oh, I'm digging a grave. Neighbor called the child services. Child was removed from her custody.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

As it should be.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

The next day she went down to the child services office to see her son, started raising a fuss. They were trying to escort her out, and her purse falls open, and she's got a loaded pistol, duct tape, and zip ties. And they're like, Okay, so now you're gonna try and kidnap your kid. You know, there there's been a lot of red flags. This is somebody who should have been baker acted very early. Yeah. You know, and that is the tragedy of it, is that things could have been done to prevent this. You know, and she just kind of wiggled her way out of everything. She get in trouble, she would leave and change her name and start up something new. So yeah, that's bad shit crazy out of Florida.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Jesus. Yeah, like there's there's no like I said, like this should never have happened. I feel bad for her fucking kids knowing.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Right, because they were I want to say her daughter was maybe ten, and her sons were like three and four. And this was eight years ago. So these babies have grown up without their mom. And even, you know, her ex-husband said like the hardest part is like the only place he can take his sons to visit their mom is a bench at a park that has a little plaque with her name on it because they didn't get to bury anything.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

Like they have no remains, they have no remains.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Like they the family did end up buying a plot and a headstone for Jolene so they have somewhere to go. And her mom and stepdad have bought the plots next to her so that they can be reunited. But yeah, like this is this is so much bullshit. Jesus. And if you're interested in a lot more and actually being able to hear those conversations, I highly suggest Murder in America. They covered this and they're how I found out about it. They did an amazing job, and I was able to go and find, you know, more articles and everything on it. So check them out.

Grief Frustration And A Listener Recommendation

SPEAKER_00 39:08

But yeah, what do you got for me today? You got something that's not gonna make me sad. Yeah. You don't sound that confident.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

No, no, no, no, no. It's not gonna make you sad.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I'm just fucking reeling, like, real quick. You didn't realize that by agreeing to do a podcast with me that I was gonna wreck you every episode.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Okay, not every episode. The last episode, like, it did like I'm always gonna feel bad for like the victims. I'm always gonna feel bad for the victims. But like there's just something about it's that mom relationship. It's that mom relationship that gets to me because of how close you and your mom are. How close it's me and my mom are, and like, yeah, me and her trauma bonded, like I mean, same.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah, you know, and that's it's definitely one of those things where, you know, as a mom, I'm looking at it going, fuck. I would burn the world down, and you know, but I'm also I'm looking at the police department, and I don't care that if I, you know, had worked with them before or whatever. You dropped the fucking ball. Yeah. You should have been checking all of the surveillance footage from her in that area. Because if they would have done that, then they would have had her remains. I fully believe that her remains are in that landfill in Georgia.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Like nothing left of that.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

I mean it's she's gone. She's gone. They're never gonna find her. If they had checked that footage from the start, then is the minute that Kimberly Kessler, Jennifer Siebert bitch, was started acting shady. They could have they could have brought her to her mother, given her mother something to bury. Yeah. Like because nothing makes it better losing your child, but at least knowing where they are.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Like with a quista with a quisopike um case and that like that piece of skull. That piece of skull.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

Alright, what do you got for me? I'm gonna go back to coloring because I need to now because I'm in my my mom's sad knees. My mom's sad.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

I can't even fucking color because now I gotta present shit.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

You should have colored while I was talking.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Okay, one, I was you were squishing Axel. Poor Axel.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

He gets loved on a lot.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I need that fucking comfort.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

I know. Okay, so it is storming its ass off outside right now.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Thank you, Mother Nature. This is what we're trying to avoid like last week. Last week.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

And it didn't even storm.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Anyways, so you want to talk about a flying monster that stalked a small Iowa town in the early 1900s?

Van Meter Visitor Begins The First Night

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yes. Yes. Okay. This is gonna be a tale of escalating incidents with multiple like credible witnesses who like beloved in the town, willing to go on record for this.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

That's always good.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

That's always good.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

But then again, they could all be drinking the same shit. I'm just I'll get let's get into the story.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

So like literally, every single like almost every single person in this Jesus. Every single person in this story was carrying and a confrontation at an abandoned mine. Oh wait, I might know this one. Today, we are gonna be discussing the Van Meter monster visitor. I I keep on wanting to say monster, like because that's just you have that look on your face. You're like you're remembering something. Hi. Hi. Okay, so I was wrong. You do know this one. I do know this one.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

It's been a long time. I don't remember all the details, but when you said everybody was carrying in an old mine, I was like, Super agent. Okay, so sorry, my undiagnosed ADHD kicked in.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

You know what? That's fine. I'm going to try and get diagnosed.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

One of us better.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

One of us better.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

I already sat through my kids' diagnosis going, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Okay, so these events took place over a five-day period from September 29th to October 3rd, 1903. Hey, what day is it? It's October 3rd. Yes. In the town of Van Meter, Iowa. Now, let's start off with the first night. The first sighting is where everything begins. I'm going to introduce you to Ulysses Griffith. I love Ulysses. I said Ulysses. Ulysses, but it's Ulysses. Ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Mr. Griffith.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Mr. Griffith. That's what we're going to be calling. He's a local businessman who was, you know, one of those prominent members of the community that was.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

We see a pillar of community.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Sounds like it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

And not a murderer.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Not a murderer.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

Wow. Those are rare.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

I know. And like he's and like he's returning home at night. Like at this point, it's already after midnight, and way past the time he's told his wife that he's going to be home. So, you know, he's making his way like downtown. Making my way downtown. Walking fast, hauling ass. Hold on. Do you need it? So he's making a way to Please don't sue us. Please don't sue us. So like, as I said, it's late at night. The streets are empty. And as he's walking along, he sees a light from atop of shut the fuck up. A nearby roof that is shining down onto the street. And like, whatchamacallit? It seems like there was a lantern. Okay. You're gonna need something because what the fuck is going on with you right now? What year was it again? 1903. Okay, I'm gonna I'm sorry, I had the bat signal.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Okay, uh three.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

Okay. Three, two, one. And at first it seemed like there was a lantern placed on top of the roof. And he was a little more than put off when saying that because like it's the middle night, he sees like usual. And this is where me and him are gonna differ on something. Like did he go investigate? Yeah, he thought it was his civic duty to uh investigate.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Is to like keep hauling ass home and like maybe bang on the sheriff's door.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

To make things worse, he called out to the light source. Yeah, I know, right? Hey! You up there, hey! Hey you! Like, no! No!

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

And when he did that, the light suddenly took off into the sky, traveling down the street and landed on a different building.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

That is one big ass lightning bug.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

That is one big ass lightning bug. And like the white person he is. Are we sure? This is white person behavior.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Okay, but are we sure?

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

100%.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

You want me to look it up right now?

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Look it up right now. We need to make sure. Because I know that's some white people shit. He was a white man. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

And he was a business business owner in Iowa during 1903, so. He's a white man. He's a white man. Okay, so three, two, one. And like the white person he is. Fucking white people. He fucking goes down and he's chasing it again. He's chasing it again.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Oh my.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Like, honestly, like he's convincing himself this is isn't something that is concerning as it should be.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

Look, sis, can I call him sis? We're gonna call him sis. Sis. Honey. Go home to your wife. You already know she is pissed. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

And after calling out again, the light moved over him to the opposite side of the street before taking off into the sky and vanishing into the night.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

See, no.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

No.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

You thought you saw a light?

SPEAKER_01 47:36

No, you didn't. No, you didn't. I just want to know what he told his wife when he got home. Just like, I'm sorry I got home late. But hear this shit. I'm pretty sure the wife um was. I'm pretty sure his wife may have locked him out of the house. Yeah. The following morning, Griffith discussed his claims with multiple people.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Hey, y'all see that shit last night?

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Yeah. And because he was, as I said, a pillar of the community, people listened and investigated the rooftop where the light was perched, but they didn't find anything. Now, night two.

Guns Lights And Footprints

SPEAKER_01 48:17

You know.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Stop clapping.

SPEAKER_01 48:19

I'm sorry. The next night, Dr. AC Alcott was in his office building trying to get some sleep when around midnight, he was jolted awake by a sudden bright light shining through his window.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Ain't that some bullshit?

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Ain't that some bullshit? If I don't wake up that way, I'll Do you know how hard it is to sleep at work? Honestly, actually, I found a good place for me to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

I know you have found a good place for you to sleep. I'm not laying on the platforms.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Yeah, and he was convinced that this was the same prowler that Griffith saw the previous night. I love how they're like, it's a prowler. It's a prowler. Not, hey, there was a bright light that's a monster. Yeah. It's advanced civilization from the sky. So he thought he was about to give up. So he pulled out his pistol from his desk and went outside and tried to confront the intruder. Hey, at least he was armed, unlike Griffith, who's just like Griffith might have been armed. It was just like Actually, no. No, he wasn't? Okay. No, no, no. I'm not saying actually no to you. I'm saying I actually saw something, at least one thing saying that he did try to open fire on the thing, but that you can't be shooting shit up in the town really. But given the fact I only saw that one place compared to everything else, I'm just I just kind of just You know who would have handled this shit? White herp. He would have had that shit figured out. Anyways, when he got outside, he encountered the creature and described it as someone from the depths of hell. My ex-husband? Probably. He was described as being the creature being around nine foot tall, huge bat-like wings, a bird-like body, a long beak, and a horn that admitted bright light. Like have you seen the second like live-action Scooby-Doo movie?

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Okay, there was like a pterodactyl creature in that, and that was the only thing that went through my head when I saw. Like, I'm pretty sure my Gen Z wouldn't know what I'm talking about. Even some uh millennials, like I mean, I do have children. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

And did that one have Matthew Lillard in it? Yes. Then maybe. Okay. Look, that that those films were cast with all of the the people, okay? Ryan Felipe, Sir Michelle Geller, Matthew Lillard.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

I was look, I had a crush on Freddy in that from those movies.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

And everybody loved Shaggy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

And we still do. So Michelle Um Geller?

SPEAKER_00 50:58

That was her peak, dude. Dude.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Anyway. No, like everyone from that movie was fucking hot.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

Like. We had some of the hottest actors in the late 90s, early 2000s.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

After, but after seeing the creature, he did something that I would have done. He started blasting. Like so anyway. Started blasting. Yeah, exactly. Like, unfortunately for the good doctor. He's a bad aim. Terrible shot. He is not a marksman, is he? He is not a marksman. The shots only drew the creature's attention. So it turned around blinding him with the light. Okay, we got two songs. Mine is like by the weekend.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

No.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

What's yours? Shit. You know what? I'm gonna let you think about this because we're gonna be inserting this joke again at some point. At some point, I'm gonna have to write it down.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

Hang on.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Okay. You keep talking, I'll Google. In a panic, the doctor fires more shots at the creatures, and with a shriek that will make any sane person start shaking in their boots, the creature flew off into the night. Again. The next morning, the authorities arrived, and aside from like casings and minus minor damage to the building, there was no sign that the creature has ever been there. No blood, no anything.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

It's Manfred Mann's Earth Band, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

From 1976.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Okay. And combined with the tale that Mr. Griffith told, like the following not the following, the previous morning, this caused a stir within the community, and people started taking precautions with themselves and their business businesses from this strange visitor, which leaves us.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

So everybody's packing.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

Everyone's packing, yeah. Auntie, I can respect that at this point. Like which brings us to night three. Well a bank cashier named Clarence Dune, Clarence Doom. Kind of messed out. Thinking that the visitor was a suspected burglar, he decided to station himself within the bank with a shotgun in case they will be the next target. And given the fact that we're discussing this right now, obviously something happened. Dune was right. Don't you love it when you're right in like the worst case scenario? No. Those are the times I want to be wrong. At some point he dozed off and around like one a 1 a.m. in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

See, you gotta take a nap. Yeah. Right? Because you already know this bitch is coming in late at night. You've got to take you a nap earlier in the day.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Every single one of these accounts happens like right after midnight.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Right. That's what I'm saying. He did not, he needed to take a nap that day. He didn't. So that's on him.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

Yeah. Just saying. And he was woken by a strange noise that consisted of like gargling and rasping sounds.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

My toddler throwing up.

SPEAKER_01 53:55

I was gonna say someone else, but you know, let's move on from that. Coming from outside the nearby. No, that's what happened this morning. But anyways, hearing those noises, he grabbed the shotgun and cautiously made his way towards the sound. Once he got to the window, he was immediately blinded by the light. You wanna sing again, don't you? No. I kinda do. But he backed up. He backed up to get his bearings, and once he did, he noticed that the mysterious beam of light was like sweeping back and forth across the room. He was able to look at the and like once the thing was able to like turn away a little bit, he was able to get a good look at the intruder, and it was the same thing that Dr. Alcott saw the previous night.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

That was a cartoon. I think so. It was. I know that's not the name of it, but you know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 55:03

Yeah, Dune and the Doctor might have been um cut from the same cloth because without hesitation, started blasting. He started blasting. And after being fixed with the light one more time, the creature vanished again. I mean, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 55:21

They're doing better than Ulsa's did. Ulsis were just yelling and chasing it.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Yeah. So the next morning, the authorities came and found large sets of three toed footprints. Damons. They attempted to make plaster, like plaster casts of the prints, but they were unsuccess unsuccessful.

SPEAKER_00 55:47

They didn't mix the proper plaster to water ratio, did they?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

They it just sounds like they somebody stepped.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

You know what happened?

SPEAKER_01 55:55

What?

SPEAKER_00 55:56

Somebody stepped on it. Someone's Somebody stepped in the footprint. Fucked it up. Happens all the time.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

It does.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Now they didn't know how to you know court off a crime scene back then.

SPEAKER_01 56:11

Now, moving

Mine Stakeout And Dynamite Decision

SPEAKER_01 56:13

on to night four. Where we made a hardware merchant named O V White. OV Annie Shut up. What? I like the name. O.V. White. O.V. White. Yeah, actually, not. I thought you were referring to someone else and you just had a face on you, then okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

It's just my face, though. Michael cut that little part out. See, y'all, he's trying to start shit with me. I'm doing nothing. I'm coloring, I'm listening.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Okay, so OV White took up.

unknown 56:46

Huh?

SPEAKER_01 56:47

Huh? Huh? Huh? We are not staying on track.

SPEAKER_00 56:51

So we did so good the first time.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

We did. Mr. White took it upon himself to protect his store. So like Dune, he stayed the night at the store. And like Dune.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

He started blasting.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

No. Not yet. He was awakened by a strange rasping sound coming from outside. He grabbed his wife. He grabbed his rifle, made um his way outside through the through a side door, where he saw a large thing push on top of a nearby telegraph pole, watching him. And like in my mind, I reeled I literally had to do like a double take while reading it. I was like, wait, don't you mean telephone? Oh wait, no, this is nice.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

I mean telephones might have been a thing, but not like in Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

Yeah. I encountered two accounts where one where Mr. White did open up fire on the creature, and another one where he didn't get a chance to fire.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

Did he shoot the telegraph wire?

SPEAKER_01 57:50

No, he actually shot in the thing, he actually shot the creature. Whether or not he was able to actually, you know, take the shot or not.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

I feel like the telegraph company had to put out a warning like Michael's company does during dove season to not shoot the birds when they're on the lines. Anyway. Legitimate, I have seen the email. I believe you. In fact, we'll get one this year.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

The creature opened up its wings and released the overpowering odor that made Mr. White drop to his knees and started choking on the stench.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

I I think I know what that smell is.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

The creature took took flight down the street where another shop owner, Mr. Sidney Gregg, heard the commotion, decided to take a look for himself. What's people taking a look at shit that they do not need to do?

SPEAKER_00 58:39

You take a look from your window inside your house.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

Yeah. Like that. Sorry. And that's when both men witnessed the creature flying off toward the old coal coal mine, which the town was built around. And note that this is the only instance where the creature didn't like have its horn beam shining.

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Didn't have his high beam on.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

Yeah, he didn't have his headlights on. The next morning, the town folks were officially like fucking done with whatever's going on. So feeling the pressure, I mean, exact that exactly is what happened. The mayor called the mines director, Mr. Platt, to get answers, and Platt revealed that his miners had been reporting strange noises coming from the abandoned shafts located near the main sites. Come on, I know you want to say something. Say it. She is currently dying laughing.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

No one shoots like alcohol. This is why we're friends. Yes. And this is why my husband hates editing episodes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:02

Okay, so that night, the group of armed men was posted outside the mine's entrance, and they had orders to report any type of suspicious activity to the authorities. And guess what didn't take long? Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious. The men came running back into town. Bitch, it's a monster! Noting that they saw two entities emerge from the mines.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Oh, he's got a girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:29

Or a boyfriend. We don't judge. Hey. It was described as being smaller than the other one, so it might have been like at this point, like the fucking Avengers assembled with miners and local residents making haste. No, I've literally put that in my nose. Making haste. I'm just proud that I put like Avengers Assemble and Making Haste.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Wow, that is very nerdy of you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

Oh yeah, 100%. Around dawn, the two entities would turn back to the mines. And the residents start open firing on the creature. Let them leave the mines. But that only like affected in like producing a gut-curling scream and more of those noxious fumes.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:22

It is a pubescent child with their onion pits. That reminds me of someone that we worked with, but you know, cut that part up, cut that part out. No, that's like the creature flew past the townfolk and made their way back into the mines. And without any hesitation, they collapsed like the mine entrance with dynamite, and like, or they sealed it off with dynamite.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

With dynamite. They they blew some shit up.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

I'm assuming they went with dynamite because that's how what I would have gone with. To seal off, and so nothing can get in or out. And for the next week or so, sentries were posted around there to search for any signs of the creatures, but they saw and heard nothing. Some say that the creatures died in the mines, others say that they made their way out through a different exit, but no one really knows for certain. But

Modern Sightings And What It Could Be

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

there are some theories. Actually, some other accounts that still persist till there's still other accounts that persist even up to like the early 2020s. Like there have been sporadic sightings, like in 19 in 1980s, there was a sport there was a report of a giant bat-like creature near the same mine. In 2006, a local pastor said that he saw a dragon-like creature, and after going online, he saw that it resembled the Van Meter visitor. So he was convinced that he saw the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:04

Anything's possible. Hey, look, we have been quarantined for 117 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Let me out. Let me out. And the Van Made of um visitors draw drew parallel from the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, with the whole like having large large winged beings with glowing features, multiple cred credible witnesses willing to put their names attached to it, and a cluster of sightings over a short period of time before like just the vanishing. And another one being the Jersey Devil of the New Jersey Pine Barons, with the similar descriptions of badlike wings and a bipedal form. So yeah, like I I just find it interesting. Oh yeah, definitely. Do they have a festival like Mothman? They actually do. They do? Yeah, it's that it's holding September as well. Okay. Maybe next year. Maybe next year. Now, are you ready to get into the theories? Sure. Or do you have anything else you want to add before we get to it?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:19

No, I'm gonna have a random song at some point, probably, but that's to be expected by now.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:26

So the first one, which is highly unlikely to me, at least for me to believe, is that the residents of Van Meter only encountered a large bird or bat, and due to the poor lighting, they perceived the bat or bird as something more monstrous than it actually was. And the horn, you know, the one that produced light, was just a beak or some prominent feathers on the chest, which I highly doubt. Another theory is that this was all a deliberate hoax or prank. And skeptics cite this due to a lack of physical evidence, but honestly, that's kind of unsatisfying giving the number of reputable people, reputable people willing to attach themselves to the story, like thoughts? No, keep going. No, no, no, say your thoughts. I focused. It's okay. Oh, you focused? Yeah. For once? Yeah. Oh, nice! Be proud. I am proud. I would say clap for me, but don't. Not going to. Good job. And like they also said that because like this was a small town in 1903, like they just assumed that people were just playing pranks.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:38

And also you're going, oh, these are highly reputable people, but they're only reputable in the town. In the town, yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:45

Yeah. I mean, you also always have to take that into consideration. Another one is mass hysteria, which always seems to be popular with these stories. It tracks it tracks. In a tiny community like this one, where new Spreads like fast, and initial reports could have been exacerbated by the situation, like shit could have gone out of hand. Interacts, man. Yeah. They say that the odor that was produced could have just came from natural gases from the mines. But doesn't really consist with the physical descriptions that was given by the witnesses. Like, here's my favorite one. Is that the Van Meter visitor was a descendant of a pterosaur, pterodactyl, other kind of prehistoric flying creature. This is not supported by biological evidence, but given the Well, there was no biological evidence. I mean, yeah, but at the same time, like, given the fact that it's like a fucking dinosaur, I think that's that's what I'm also meant. So is a chicken. So is a chicken. Like this one certainly does have appeal because for me, I kinda like like I kind of like to think that it's like some sort of like just evolved pterodactyl that didn't really like evolve into like a modern day creature, just like its own little offshoot. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think it is?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Can you stop coloring? I'm thinking. And no, I will not stop coloring.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

Um I'm going mass hysteria. You're going mass hysteria on this one? Is it because I'm wow, the one the one time where like I'm not going for like the oh it could have been this. I'm actually going for the oh, I'm believing it's a fucking dinosaur. You have to go for the hysteria angle.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:45

No, like that is my my feeling on it, and you know we trust my feelings when I have them.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:53

Look, I'm gonna be like you with the DS Love Pass, and I'm gonna go with the whimsy dinosaur. Okay, be whimsical, bitch. I wanna be whimsical.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

I don't have the chance to be whimsical at all. I know, you really should be more whimsical in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

I'm trying to be more whimsical in my life.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:08

Everyone should. I highly recommend it. Which is why I'm sitting here coloring disco balls, listening to people have amassed hallucinations. Or a giant dinosaur. Or a giant dinosaur after talking about a you know gruesome murders. So yeah, I forgot that you talked about okay. I got but hang on, I want

Final Thoughts And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_00 1:08:29

to say something, right? Okay, yeah, go ahead. Because they alright, they said that Kessler's like finger had been bitten almost through the bone. So we know like Jolene was fucking fighting for her life, right? Listen to the first part. Nah, no. And the fact that I made it through that entire story without busting out into Dolly Parton, being impressed. I am impressed.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

I was about to say Mike put this, like edit this into her parts. No, we're gonna keep this at the end because it's how my frameworks. Well, okay, Mike, edit out the part why I say edit this part. Or not. Or not fuck it. Fuck it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:01

Look, we managed to make this, we haven't even hit an hour and 15 minutes on this. Really? Second time in a row. I am very proud of us. Anyway, so we know that Jolene was fighting for her life. Oh yeah. She probably also got like stabbed in the neck with some fucking scissors right in the jugular. Oh, yeah. And I know that like hair shears are fucking sharp. So to take this back to the previous episode when Isisagawa couldn't bite through a butt cheek, but Jolene could bite through a damn finger. Never doubt a woman.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

Never doubt a woman. Sweet dreams. And feral nightmares.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

Check us out on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X. And X. And look at a look us up on our website, feralNightmares.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:50

And also if you want to send us any anything like stories, smart ass comments, or you want to tell us how good we are, you can send us an email at Feral Nightmares Podcast at gmail.com. Is it podcasts or just feral nightmares? I think it's just feral nightmares. I think it's just feral nightmares. We will check that we will check that. We will let y'all know. We will let y'all know. Anyways, thank you for listening. Thanks. Bye. God, that sounded so gay. It's because you are.