[Josh] On this episode of Expedition X,
Phil and Jess venture deep into the Appalachian Mountains.
- [Phil] Look at this place. - For over a century,
there have been reports of something grotesque
prowling these woods.
I actually saw bloody flesh hanging out of his mouth.
New eyewitnesses indicate the stories could be true.
- You were scared? - [both] Scared?
- Terrified? - Yes.
At the edge of the waterfall.
Do you see any cave?
[Josh] And the danger is real.
[grunts]
- Are you okay? - [bleep]
- Tell somebody where you're at. - And so they'll know where
to come hunt the bodies.
[Josh] Could mysterious creatures be the cause
of countless disappearances?
[reporter] Breaking news out of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Another hiker has gone missing.
[man] Someone will go into the mountains alone,
and you will never hear from them ever again.
[Josh] Some say they're monsters.
Something's around here for sure.
Others say it's something far more horrifying.
It's fast and deep right in the middle. Oh, [bleep].
- [gasps] - [yells]
- Look over there, right over there. - [man] What is that?
[Josh] Terror in Appalachia.
My name is Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things
that defy logic and made me question everything.
Oh, my God.
Now, I've put together a team to investigate
the stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go.
Phil Torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.
[Jessica speaking]
Jessica Chobot's paranormal research
has made her a true believer.
Let's go.
[Josh] Together, we're searching for answers...
What is that?
to the world's most extraordinary mysteries.
This is Expedition X.
All right, what if I were to tell you that there is
a bipedal, hairy creature terrorizing folks
in the mountains of Appalachia?
- Bigfoot. - It's a great guess, but no.
All right, well, if we're talking Appalachia.
Yeah, so Smoky Mountains, border of Tennessee,
- North Carolina area. - And it's not Bigfoot,
- so, oh, okay, I think... - She's got it.
- I know what we're talking about. - She's got it.
- It is scary. - Okay, what are we talking about?
So, it is scary. And that's because
this terrifying mystery might be much more than a legend,
it might be very real.
The Appalachian Mountain Range runs along the eastern United States.
Toward its southern end is the sub range
known as the Great Smoky Mountains.
Beneath the mist is a wild place,
over 500,000 acres, much of it largely unexplored
and all of it uninhabited,
or at least, it's supposed to be.
1838, the native Cherokee tribes who live here
are forcibly displaced.
And over the next century the government kicks out
any remaining landowners.
Empty of residence, it becomes the perfect hideout
for criminals fleeing the law.
Hermits shunning society, moonshiners operating
illegal stills and, maybe, something even more dangerous.
1896, Forest and Stream magazine publishes
a frighteningly descriptive story about four hunters
who had a violent encounter in the mountains
with a disheveled, naked creature.
According to the article, the four men tried to capture him,
but were physically no match for his brute strength.
He overpowered them and escaped.
Since then, hundreds of witnesses have come forward
with reports.
The descriptions are eerily similar,
human like, but with malformed facial features,
long matted hair, no clothes, covered in filth,
a putrid smell.
Some believe the sightings can be attributed to recluses
who reverted to a primitive state.
Others believe the creatures are another breed entirely
with a hunger for raw flesh.
Whatever they are, they've become known
as feral people.
And there are those who believe that they could
be responsible for hikers going missing in these woods.
Now, a recent dramatic uptick in sightings of feral people
makes this the critical time to investigate.
So, all right, Phil, what do you think?
As crazy as it sounds, there is precedent
for some of this. For example, there's a family in Siberia
- that lived off the grid for 40 years, I think. - [Josh] Right. Yeah.
And just a few years ago, they found a father and son
that had been living in the wilds of Vietnam
since the early 1970s.
But what you're talking about here, people have been seeing
this since the 1800s. That means multiple generations of people
living out in the wild in the eastern US.
- I don't know. - Yeah, but what about those uncontacted tribes
that live out in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest?
- I mean, that's generational. - Sure, but what we're talking about here
is something that seems to be living completely wild,
like an animal, and how do we account for these missing hikers?
Great Smoky Mountains is one of the most visited
wilderness areas in the US.
There's a lot of trails they can get lost on,
fall off a ledge, people disappear out there.
- It happens. - Okay, but what are these eyewitnesses seeing, then?
Most likely explanation is a case of misidentification,
like a bear. There's a lot of them out there.
Normally, I would agree with you but the eyewitnesses
in this case seem so clear that what they're seeing
is not something like a bear.
So, here's the mission.
First off, get to the Great Smoky Mountains
and start by talking to these eyewitnesses.
I think you've got to find out what these people really saw.
And then you're gonna have to get deep in the wilderness
on this one. Whatever this is,
it's obviously figured out a way to stay hidden,
so if you're going to collect evidence, you're going to have to get really
off the grid here.
Phil, if this is a case of misidentification,
and it might be,
prove it.
What are people really seeing?
There is a real mystery here. Folks have gone missing
and we've got real eyewitnesses.
So, figure out what's going on.
- Will do. - We're on it.
[Josh] Phil and Jess hop a flight from New York City
to Nashville, Tennessee.
From the country music capital, it's another
four hours in the car heading east toward the mountains.
[Phil] These woods just keep on going.
This is my first time in the Great Smoky Mountains,
and look at that.
- You can, like, see that kind of haze. - That makes it look smoky.
Yeah.
[Josh] There are over 187,000 acres
of thick old-growth forest here.
It's home to black bears, wild hogs, even bobcats.
And, even though they supposedly no longer live in the region,
there are also occasional reported sightings of cougars.
Which begs the question, could there be other
rarely seen creatures in this forest?
I feel like I could survive out here. There's enough food
you could forage. I saw a dead raccoon back there looked delicious.
What is wrong with you?
[Jessica] As part of our investigation, we make a stop
in Newport, Tennessee,
where we're meeting an old buddy of mine who knows
the nearby woods like the back of his hand.
- Was that like a secret knock? - Yeah, it's a secret knock.
- Hi. - Hey, guys. Welcome.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I shake men's hands, but I still hug the women. How are you doing?
-Oh, I'll give you a hug. Good, how are you doing? -Good to see you.
Nice to see you too.
[Jessica] Digger Manes and Mark Ramsey are moonshining legends.
Both grew up in the hills and learned their craft
from Appalachia's old-school masters.
Hi.
If anyone knows the secrets of the Smoky Mountains, it's these two.
So, we've read some reports from people in the area
that say they're convinced they have seen,
like, a feral-looking man out there,
walking around naked, raggedy hair.
We've been in the woods a lot in our life,
making moonshine and, you know,
we've heard stories our whole life about creatures
and, you know, just things that were not explained.
- Oh, yeah. - Really?
Yeah, oh, we've heard tales of people wandering
these mountains for years.
They've been some ugly sons-of-bitches grew up
in these mountains up here. They, they fit the bill.
- Really? - I mean, I'm not including us in that,
- but... - [both laughing]
I feel like we always associate moonshine
with, kind of, like, doing it in secret out in the woods.
You know, these old boys, when they found a prime spot,
they protected it to no end no matter what they had to do,
- whether they had to boobytrap it. - Exactly.
- Yeah. - Or, you know, make them up a little back story
that, you know, somebody is going to get hurt
if they went in. There's no doubt there's a lot
of mysterious things out there.
It's just how you want to rationalize them in your own head.
- So, we just got here. - Uh-huh.
We're trying to figure out where we should start.
To look for something that mysterious,
- where do you think we should go? - North Carolina.
That's where I would go. There's a lot of... thousands and thousands
of acres up there.
But tell somebody where you're at in case
you don't show up for the next day or two.
So they'll know where to come hunt the bodies.
I mean I feel like we might need some liquid courage,
- personally. - I think we could use some liquid courage
- before get out into the woods. - Like, just throwing that out.
Did we come to the right place?
I think we might be able to help you.
[Jessica laughs] [whoops]
- Straight out of the barrel? - Thank you.
- Yeah. - Come on.
Tighten them up there.
[Jessica] No visit with the Moonshiners would be complete
without a small taste of their finest shine.
[grunts, whoops]
- That's not bad. - I gotta try this.
I like that. That's good.
I will say, I feel a little more courageous right now.
- I'm ready to go out in the woods. - I feel...
Oh, you be able to whoop a damn bobcat
- after about two more drinks. - [Jessica] I feel really warm.
[Jessica] We leave the Moonshiners, with a couple jars of hooch
and some good advice,
setting our GPS for the North Carolina border.
Well, I'll tell you, if you go into these woods...
- Uh-huh. - 100 feet.
Close your eyes, spin around, you can get lost so easily out here. Like,
it looks easy on the road right now, but it is dense out there.
What is a little surprising to me is the fact that
the Park Service doesn't really publicly
announce how many people have disappeared around here.
- Yeah. Why is that? - I don't know.
Is it 'cause they don't want to scare people away?
Maybe.
Whoa, there.
Sorry, I mean, I don't really have a lot of options
- on this road. - This road is insane.
- Hi. - Hey, how are you?
- Hi, guys. - Hey.
[Josh] I've connected Phil and Jess with Eric Taylor,
a local researcher who has been analyzing
eyewitness reports of feral people for 15 years,
and Pam Watson, an eyewitness who says
she'd never even heard of feral humans
until she came face to face with one.
If she's to be believed, it may be one of the closest encounters,
anyone has ever had.
So, what are these feral people. Where do they come from?
Since the 1840s,
there's been reports of feral, wild people
in the woods, and the people here
believe a large number of missing people
in the Great Smoky Mountains is due to feral people.
But what evidence is there that it's feral people?
I mean, look around these woods.
It seems like it'd be easy to just disappear.
You fall off a cliff, you fall onto a stream.
How do we know it's feral people?
Eyewitness testimonies.
[Jessica] So, Pam has actually seen one?
I have, we had gone on a family vacation,
myself, my brother and my parents.
My brother and I had gone up into the woods,
and we had veered off this path a little bit
and, when we did,
we saw something.
It was a man,
squatted down, eating something like a deer.
And I actually saw bloody flesh hanging out of his mouth,
blood all over his chest.
Untamed beard, nasty looking.
I was terrified.
He had a really big forehead that was kind of lumpy and stuff,
one side of his nose was a little bit bigger,
I mean he was just... He was deformed
and he looked at us with a demonic look.
- Was he wearing clothes? - No.
Eyewitness accounts describe a very putrid smell
like garbage, and that's, kind of, a precursor, usually,
to a sighting,
and they will click [clicks tongue] back and forth
and that is their form of communication.
So, did you hear any clicking or anything when you stumbled upon this one?
- We did. - Have you been back to that area since then?
No, I have not.
These stories are that someone will go into the mountains alone,
perhaps, and veer off from the trail.
They may fall into one of their traps
that they've made.
People actually say, "Do not go into certain areas
-in the Great Smoky Mountains," -So...
- Wow. - I think we got to ask,
like, where are those areas that we shouldn't,
- but probably should, go? - Yeah, that we're...
That we shouldn't go, but we're absolutely headed towards.
Yeah.
[Jessica] Pam shows us on a map where she had her encounter
and Eric points out an area nearby where there have been
dozens of other reported sightings.
[Phil] Running right through this cluster is something
that every big animal needs, a major water source.
There's no doubt this remote location
could sustain all sorts of wildlife.
- Well, thank you guys. - Thank you so much.
- You're welcome. - Great information,
- I think we got to really get started. - Yeah.
[Phil] Pam's encounter is unique because of how close
she claims she got to the creature.
So we've asked her to work with a forensic sketch artist
to try to get an accurate picture of what she saw.
[Jessica] We won't have the results until morning.
In the meantime, we follow Eric's map deep into the woods.
If feral people are living out here,
Pam believes we're more likely to find them at dusk
or dark, away from day hikers and tourists.
[Phil] I don't think anyone's driven this road in quite a while.
[Jessica] Yeah, no, I would agree.
- [Jessica] Oh, jeez. Hang on. - [Phil] Oh.
- [exclaims] - You good?
I'm good.
[Phil] The roads here are barely passable.
The recent heavy rains have made them
downright treacherous.
- Oh. - Okay.
You've got the right spot.
[Jessica] Let's take a look.
[Phil] I see road on the other side.
- Yeah. - You think the jeep can make it?
I don't know, man, I mean, look,
you can see it gets pretty deep there in the middle
and if we get the engine wet,
- we're stuck. We're done. - Yeah.
It's pretty deep there in the middle
and if we get the engine wet, we're stuck, we're done.
Okay, well,
cameras, everybody.
Looks like we're going swimming.
- Let's grab our waders. - Grab your waders, guys.
We gotta cross.
[Phil] Getting ourselves across the river is one thing,
but our crew will have to make this crossing
while carrying heavy gear.
All right, let's go.
All right, cameras, I think Jess and I are going to cross first.
See how deep it is.
Make sure you're good with your gear.
A little rocky, so be careful where you're stepping.
Oh, [bleep]. Oh.
It also gets a little fast right here.
[Phil] The temperature of this water is hovering
just above freezing.
If anyone falls in...
Yeah, we really don't want anyone to fall in.
It's fast and deep right in the middle.
Easy, Jess.
[water splashing]
Oh, [bleep]. [grunts]
I'm good. Good, good.
I don't think the jeep would have made it.
[Jessica] Okay, be very careful with the current right here
in the middle.
All right, guys,
looking like it's going uphill from here.
So I think we can take the waders off.
[Jessica] Yeah.
[Jessica] We trek about a half a mile, following the stream,
until we reach our destination,
an area where there have been several recent
eyewitness sightings and near where Pam
reported seeing a feral man.
We'll focus our investigation close to the water.
[Phil] Heavy rains have turned this small stream into a river.
We need to stay on alert because, based on our map,
it's the closest water source for any big animal out here,
including bears.
Look at this.
[whispering indistinctly]
Does not seem like it's been used recently.
[Phil] Why is there a bathtub in the middle of the woods?
[Jessica] That's disgusting.
[Phil] That is really gross.
[Jessica] This does not look like it's been used for bathing.
Oh, no. And look at the age of this.
Yeah, this is like a moonshine spot.
- And that's why this is all, like, supported... - You might be right.
-In the middle of the woods, -Mm-hmm.
- The most random place. - That's why they call it bathtub gin.
[Phil] You might be on to something.
So, I'm thinking we could use this as, kind of, our base,
because we got stream on this side,
we got really steep ridge up there,
just gives us a really good corridor,
a really good opportunity to set up camera traps.
So, if anything crosses this way through it,
- we should get it on camera. - Yeah.
Okay, let's do that.
Let me get the traps out.
[Phil] We split up and strategically placed
a series of 10 motion- activated trail cameras.
Jess sets up five cameras along the edge of the river
running through this valley,
while I place five along the ridge line above.
If anything stops by for a sip of water,
these high-tech cameras will snap a photo
and immediately uplink the images to my phone.
Okay, Phil, I'm all set up.
All right, Jess.
Meet you back at the moonshine tub in maybe an hour.
[Jessica] That's good.
[Phil] I'm looking for any signs that animals
pass through here, like paw prints or scat.
Check this out.
See those scratch marks.
Come on.
That is an animal.
And this is, for sure. Got some damage there.
This seems old.
Like, definitely that looks like man-made damage.
Oh, just notch out of a tree.
Doesn't really look like hatchet, it looks like
a rudimentary tool like a stone or something
that made that mark.
Something that didn't have a very sharp edge.
[camera shutter clicks]
This to me says human, says human.
This, that's something more. That could be a bear.
Scratches all along this, it's like they're competing
for this spot, marking the territory.
Bears rub against or scratch trees
to mark their territory.
A bear might have claimed this riverbank
and it's possible a human did the same.
There's something around here, for sure.
[Jessica] The sound of the stream makes it hard to hear anything else.
- Oh, [gasps] - [cameraman exclaims]
[bleep]
Look over there, right over there, right over there.
- What is it? - Right over there.
[bleep]
Phil, I got something moving in the woods.
Say again?
I just saw something moving in the woods.
How big we talking?
I honestly can't tell because it's just so thick down here.
I mean, it looked big. I don't know.
What were you seeing down there?
[speaking]
This direction?
- [device beeps] - [Phil] Oh, we just got a hit.
- Just got a hit. - What?
- New one. - No, we did not.
Oh, look at that.
- Something's blocking the camera. - That's something big.
What is that?
- Something's blocking the camera. - That's something big.
What is that?
Just looks like something's hand.
[Phil] This alert is from camera eight,
one of the ones I set up on the ridge line above.
That's the top here, we got to go.
We got to go.
Up here, up here.
- Oh. [bleep] - Are you... Are you okay?
- Are you okay? - See that branch.
- [exhales] - I swear to God
we just walked this trail...
- That was not... - and that was not there.
- This is the tree. - The camera's up there.
-Are you all right? Is everything okay? -Yeah.
- I'm good. - [exhales]
But what the hell
was that?
Oh, okay.
It's been moved here. It's been moved.
And there's no branches that just fell.
There's something definitely moved that camera.
Look at this axis right here.
Wow, look how fresh this is. Look at this game trail.
Yeah.
- You got the FLIR, right? - Yeah.
[Phil] Okay.
[Jessica] You seeing anything?
[Phil] Nothing right now.
[Jessica] We spend the next half hour scanning
the tree line for anything warm blooded,
but whatever triggered our camera seems to be gone now.
I'm not getting anything out there.
[Phil] We search the area for any trace evidence,
like fur or tracks in the mud, from whatever disturbed the camera,
but come up empty.
I mean, we know that they're active out here,
whatever it is, right?
We're picking up stuff on the camera traps, so
why don't we leave them running?
[Jessica] Our multitrack camera system was successful tonight
and captured an intriguing clue from something
that was out here with us,
feral human or wild animal.
We'll have the image analyzed to see if we can figure out
its identity.
- Oh, no, I just thought of something. - What?
- Yeah? - We have to cross that stream again.
[both sigh]
[Phil] Great.
[Jessica] The next morning, we get some incredible
new information that we need to show Josh.
Hey, guys, how's it going out there?
[both] Good.
So, we had a pretty amazing night.
I definitely heard something moving around in the woods,
and then we got a really interesting hit.
One of the trail cams actually picked up
what looks like a hand reaching for it.
Wait, what do you mean a hand?
Do you mean like a human hand?
Yeah, it looks like this part of the hand.
You can actually see what looks like a little bit
of a thumbnail and it's reaching for the camera.
And then, when we went and checked out the cam,
it was all knocked off the tree.
So, what are you saying? You think there was somebody
- out there in the woods? - I mean, somebody or something.
[Phil] I'm not so sure, Josh. Maybe the camera slipped
and triggered this blurry shot. Jess sees a hand.
I see, well, not much of anything.
Okay. All right.
And what about... And what about witnesses?
Well, we talked to one yesterday,
Pam, and honestly her story was terrifying.
Whatever she saw, she's traumatized by it
-to this day, -Mm-hmm.
And we actually connected her with a forensic sketch artist,
so that we can have a better idea of what
we should be looking for out here,
and actually we just got the results over.
We're gonna email them to you now.
Okay, hold on a second, let me open this up.
- Whoa. - [both] Oh.
[Josh] Look at this guy.
This is kind of incredible because this is clearly
humanoid, right? I mean this is not a sketch of a bear, right?
- Oh, no. - And what is supposed to be in his mouth.
So, her story was that she stumbled upon him
while he was eating. So that is deer guts
and deer blood all over his mouth.
[Josh] So, this is also remarkable because it puts a literal face
on this investigation, you know, what is this,
that this woman saw? I mean, who is this?
[Jessica] That's what we need to find out.
So, okay, next stage of the investigation,
I've actually found another more recent eyewitness.
It's actually a couple. Hopefully they can corroborate
each other's stories.
So, I've arranged for you to go out and meet them today,
at the spot where it happened.
[Phil] Josh sends us off to Mingo Falls,
which is just a few miles from where Pam said
she had her encounter.
All right, so these folks are gonna meet us up at the top, yeah?
- Yep, we got some stairs ahead of us, yes. - Yeah.
[Jessica] The witnesses Josh found are James Manning
and Maleeka Spruill.
They had a terrifying encounter they can't explain.
We were here for his birthday.
- Okay. - And we d... everybody kept telling me how beautiful
Mingo Falls is, so we thought, "Okay,
we'll go to Mingo Falls."
So, I gotta ask, what the heck did you see up here?
You tell me.
I know it was a man.
But
what kind, don't know.
He stood about 6'3 ", 6'4".
He looked like a mangled, deformed man,
he had knots in the forehead, his hair was thin, bit of string,
He had a full beard and he was naked.
His body was covered in hair and he was wet.
Odd, strange smell, smell like garbage.
- It was horrible, horrible. - Just horrible.
His eyes were really... Really were scary
because they was like a cloudy white,
you couldn't even see his pupil, it was a cloudy white.
[Jessica] Almost like how cataracts look on people?
Exactly, like cataracts, exactly.
- You were scared? - [both] Scared?
- [all laugh] - Terrified.
- Yes. - We couldn't move.
So, was this the area that you saw him at?
- It was up there. - Near the waterfall.
- At the falls. - At the falls.
Do you mind showing us where you saw it?
- Yes, we can show you, no problems. - Awesome. All right, well,
- we'll follow you. - Okay.
- Lead the way. - Do we have to?
Yes, we do, come on. [chuckles]
[Phil] We'll stick together.
- Wow, look at those waterfalls. - Whoa.
Okay, so you guys were actually standing here?
- Yes. - Right.
Okay, and so, then, where did you see him specifically?
Right there.
You see where there's like a little round area right there?
- Yeah. - Right there, he was right there in the corner.
He didn't move, he keep staring at us.
And, then, when I looked down to get myself together,
- it was gone. - Yeah.
Where did he disappear to? I mean this is...
It's, it's dense but it's also very steep,
which makes me wonder, is there a cave up there,
- or an outcropping that he could have hidden behind... - Yeah.
that we're just not seeing from down here?
- You want me to go up there. - I want you go up there
and I'll stay here. As in, you can check out
if there's any hiding spots.
[James] Write us.
- Okay. - [laughing]
- We'll let you guys know. - Let us know.
- Let us know, write us. - Okay.
After today, I won't be coming back.
She had to make me come this time.
I have one more favor to ask.
So, one thing we've been doing with our witnesses
is connecting them with a forensic sketch artist.
- Okay. - So that we can, basically,
try to get a better picture of what you actually saw out here.
- Would you be comfortable doing that? - Yes.
We have no problem.
[Jessica] The spot where they say they saw the feral man
is roughly halfway up the falls.
Could there be a cave or crevice up there
where someone could quickly hide from view?
At 120 feet, Mingo Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls
in the southern Appalachians,
so Phil has a steep hike ahead of him.
Whatever was up here,
it's got to be in good shape.
Ooh, this is high.
Oh, my gosh.
Uh, Jess, I'm at the edge of the waterfall.
- Got me? - Oh, I see your hand, I see your hand,
wave your hand one more time.
It's difficult to see much detail from this far away,
though not impossible.
Do you see any caves or anything
that a person could hide in, or hide behind?
[Phil] It was kinda hard to tell.
Definitely a lot of rocky formations up here.
So I would not be surprised if there were a cave,
a little bit further up.
Honestly, I think we got to follow this trail up here tonight.
So, I think you should go all the way down those stairs
and grab our gear from the jeep.
Fine.
So, looking around up here, not seeing any caves,
but I am seeing a lot of rock formations
and obviously running water with the waterfall
and when you combine those two,
that's when you get erosion,
and with erosion you get underground caverns,
the perfect place for whatever the heck they saw up here to hide.
[Jessica] Starting behind the Mingo Falls,
we set out on foot.
[Phil] Wow, look at this place.
[Jessica] The temperature during the winter here
falls well below freezing.
For a feral human to survive in these woods,
they're going to need shelter, likely in the form of a cave.
So that's what I'm hoping to find.
It's getting dark, but we've hiked too far
to give up now.
So we're going to keep looking.
Hopefully, whatever's out here doesn't find us first.
All right, try and stay in contact as best you can.
Will do, good luck.
Thank you. You too.
[Phil] Jess and I split up to cover more ground.
IR cameras use infrared light to illuminate images
in the dark.
This way?
[distant click]
[whispers] Did you hear that?
Did you hear that snap?
[distant click]
Did you hear that?
Did you hear that snap?
- [clicking] - [bleep]
Was that you?
I keep hearing sounds over there to my left.
Let's get the gear out.
I think I kind of see something.
There's something over there.
- There, right there. - Yes.
God, you smell that?
Oh, it just moved.
[Phil] Getting through the woods is slow going in the dark,
but finally I find what appears to be
a cave entrance.
The problem is, it's down there.
Oh, [bleep].
God, that's a drop off.
That's a broken ankle
or a broken leg.
Or worse.
That looks like it leads to something big.
I think we got to get down here so we should get out the ropes,
because this is... This looks good.
A large cave like this would give any big mammal
good protection from both the elements
and other predators.
It's possible that the cave system extends
under this ridge, perhaps connecting it to the cliffs
around Mingo Falls.
All right, let's find a flat area to set up.
Sound good? Let's go.
[whispering] I mean, if it was an animal, I feel like we would see
some light shine.
[bleep] There is something over there.
Uh, Jess, I just found this insane drop off
cave system that
I'm going to climb down into to get a better look at what's in here.
Okay, well, just be very, very, very, very, very careful.
All right, into the abyss we go.
Let's run it down about 40 feet from the top
and check out how deep this thing is.
I can't even see the bottom.
So, not the most fun descent I've ever done, I've gotta say,
but I gotta figure out what's down there.
[rocks clattering]
[exhales]
Whoa! [clears throat]
Hey.
I see the ground. I see the ground down here.
[exhales]
Oh, I think I'm about, uh,
30 feet from the bottom here.
Whoa.
[exhales] Touchdown.
Oh, wow, this place is insane.
[whispers] I really don't want a bear to be in here.
Okay, that's gotta be 120 feet.
The cavern splits into two smaller chambers,
plus something I didn't expect.
Another opening that leads to a forest on the other side.
Wow.
Look at that.
Completely open over here.
That's insane, there's gotta be an easier way to get in here.
There's definitely an easier way to get out of here.
Let me check up with Jess.
Jess, you copy?
Yeah, I copy,
how's it looking down there?
It's looking pretty crazy, I mean, I gotta say,
big parts of this cave are pretty uneven,
but it opens up to a huge area of forest.
I'm wondering if you might be able to find
this back entrance.
Okay, start shining your light around.
We'll try and go near one of the edges of the rocks
to see what we can see 'cause right now where we are,
there's nothing, we can't see anything.
Yeah, let's just do this.
Oh, oh, yeah, I see you.
- Yeah, I'm waving. - Okay.
Oh, my God, that's crazy thick.
Whoa.
Phil, come here.
So, this looks suspicious.
- This is crazy. - That looks like a campfire.
Oh, you rappelled down this whole thing?
- Oh, yeah. - Oh, my gosh.
That's insane.
Look at this cave, though.
Oh, see, right here, it smells, man.
- What? - You don't smell that?
[sighs]
You don't smell that stink?
Hold up.
- Huge. - Yeah.
It smells like a zoo.
- Oh, God, we got bones. - [Jess yelps]
We're all familiar with famous feral people in literature,
characters like Tarzan and Mowgli from The Jungle Book,
but are either of them based on true stories?
While Mowgli may be partly based on a young boy
from the 1800s, who was allegedly discovered in India,
living among wolves,
he walked on all fours, he growled, he ate
only raw meat, before being rescued
to an orphanage for care.
And, as for Tarzan, some claim that character was inspired
by an English nobleman named Lord William Charles Mildin.
In 1868, at the age of 11,
he purportedly survived a shipwreck
off the coast of Africa, where he lived among apes
for years.
The trouble is, there's almost no documentation
to back up the legend,
and most believe the tale is simply bananas.
We have bones?
Oh.
Look at that.
I'll get my evidence kit.
Why don't you take some photos while I keep moving?
[Jessica] Okay. Ready?
Definitely chewed up.
- [Jessica] Like, this part looks ripped off. - Mm-hmm.
- But this part looks like it... - That was snapped.
These look like they're from a big animal,
like a deer or a hog.
Yeah.
[Phil] The bones we found in the cave are clearly animal,
but who or what butchered that animal
is yet to be determined.
- You know what else I got? - What?
I thought that was in order to tell how dirty your hotel room is.
That too, or how much blood is around
in a cave.
Oh.
[Phil] Luminol reacts with the iron in hemoglobin,
making any smear or spatter of blood glow
for about 30 seconds.
If I can find blood with the luminol,
I'll collect a sample for DNA testing
to see what might have been in here eating the carcasses.
-All right, let's go. Lights off, ready? -Yeah, three, two, one.
[Jessica] Oh. I can see it.
Oh, just did.
What is that? It's glowing, right there.
[Phil] Whole area is glowing.
So we got blood.
That is a lot of blood.
- Yeah. - I just don't want that to be human blood.
Ugh. Ah! It's in my eyes.
What just happened?
- What? - What?
Yeah, something, something.
There's something moving around up there?
- Let's go, let's go. - All right.
[Jessica] We rushed outside to see if we could spot whatever
might have been on top of the cave.
While Phil checks for clues on the ground,
I break out the FLIR and scan the tree line.
[whispers] I don't see anything on the FLIR.
We leave a trail camera running, just in case
whatever was on top of the cave above us returns.
[Josh] The findings my team gathered during this investigation
shed new light on the mystery
of the so-called feral people of Appalachia.
Though our trail cams took mostly photos
of recognizable species,
we can't identify what made this image.
Something definitely moved that camera.
Jess and the crew also heard mysterious clicking noises,
[distant click]
[whispers] Did you hear that?
[Josh] Which we isolated from our footage
and thoroughly analyzed.
[tongue click]
Phil compared notes with several colleagues,
but they were unable to conclusively identify
the sounds as coming from any known animal
or insect.
[Phil] Oh, God, we got bones.
[Josh] Tests indicated the bones and some of the blood samples
they collected in the cave were from hogs,
which roam wild in these mountains,
but there were also some blood spatters
that were 100% human. Who that human was,
and what they were doing in that cave,
that remains a mystery.
But the most interesting evidence are the two drawings
made by a professional forensic sketch artist.
Put the images side by side and the resemblance is undeniable.
So, where does that leave us?
Phil began the investigation thinking sightings
of feral humans were cases of wildlife misidentification,
but when it comes to why so many hikers go missing,
Jess was open to a more imaginative explanation.
After weighing the evidence, though, we are, in a rare occasion, united.
There very well may be some foul smelling,
raggedy looking creatures living deep
in the Great Smoky Mountains,
but none that are genetically different than you and me,
simply those who made the choice to leave society behind,
and from time to time an eyewitness gets a glimpse,
and a whiff.
Ever look in the mirror after a weekend camping trip?
Try being out there for several years,
you might just look and smell like a monster, too.
For more information on Expedition X,
head to discovery.com/expeditionx.