The next morning, Partridge went outside to investigate. He saw Bandit's footprints leading to where he had seen the eyes the night before. However, the dogs prints stopped and formed a circle, as if the dog had been chasing its tail (which Partridge had never seen him do before); then the prints vanished, as if the dog disappeared from that spot or was carried away. While Partridge never saw his dog again, a future eye-witness report published in the paper suggested his dog was carried off and killed by Mothman.
The next evening, four people, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette, were driving past the abandoned TNT plant looking for friends who might be at the popular hangout. They saw a man-shaped figure, only larger, shuffeling toward the door to the plant. It had bat-like wings, and large red eyes situated in a headless torso. Terrified, the two couples sped off.
Up the road, they encountered the same creature which then pursued the car by flying without flapping its wings. They heard a high-pitched, squeaky sound. The thing followed them all the way to city limits. The four saw a dead dog lying in the middle of the road. They returned to the TNT area with Sheriff Millard Halstead, who took the couples seriously as he knew them their whole lives. The dog was gone, and everything appeared normal at the plant, except Halstead's radio made noises like a tape player at high speed.
The next day, a press conference was held and Mothman was given its name after a lesser villan in the popular Batman comic.
On 16 November, Mrs. Mercella Bennett saw a strange red light over the TNT area. Suddenly, a large grey being rose from the ground. Terrified, Mrs. Bennett grabbed her 2 year old daughter and sped toward the Thomas family home nearby. Locked inside the house, they soon heard a shuffling noise just outside the house and Mothman's glowing red eyes appeared in the livingroom window. Mrs. Bennett was plagued with nightmares for months afterward, and sought medical attention for her anxieties.
On 27 November, Connie Carpenter was driving home from church when she saw Mothman suddenly unfold its wings and fly at her windsheild. It veered off at the last minute, but gave Carpenter a close up veiw of its face, which she described as simply "horrible". She developed klieg conjunctivitus, a swelling, reddening, and itching of the eyes.
On February 27, 1967, Carpenter was walking to school when a man driving a 1946 Buick approached her. The man looked like he was in his mid-twenties, well tanned, and had no coat, despite the cold temperatures. He grabbed her arm, but she got away. The next day, she found a note on the porch written in pencil saying, "Be careful girl. I can get you".
Other strange people were encountered by local residents, and not only those who had been first-hand witnesses to the strange events. Reporters who were involved with investigating and researching the strange phenomena were targeted by odd people. Mrs. Mary Hyre was working at her office in the county courthouse when she was visited by a four and a half foot man with thick glasses, wearing only a short sleeved shirt despite the cold. The man asked her for directions to Welsh, West Virginia, but apparently already knew where it was and how to get there. He made Mrs. Hyre very uncomfortable, prompting her to summon the circulation manager. After continuing the conversation further, he picked up a ball point pen and marveled at it. When Mrs. Hyre told him he could have it he suddenly laughed and ran out the door. She later saw him watching her on the street, then jump in a car and speed away when she noticed him.
