Tonight on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files"...
Whoa! Did you see that fin?!
Are you kidding me? That thing is huge.
No way.
It almost looks like it has wings.
Is there somebody else here with me in this courtroom?
When he falls, instead of breaking his neck,
he was strangled for a few minutes.
You ready?
3...2...1!
Release the monster!
Oh, my goodness!
There's a flying saucer.
I'm getting a series of lights right there.
Are you seeing what I am seeing?
What the heck is happening?
Sync by n17t01 www.addic7ed.com
What's up, bud? Hey. What's happening?
Hi. You're already at work, huh?
That's right.
Greetings and salutations, everyone.
Good to see you.
So, why don't we start off with Devin, huh?
I have got a very recent ufo clip for you guys.
It was shot on January 19, 2011, in Hawaii.
This valley is considered to be sacred land,
and the valley is haunted by king Kamehameha's army,
known as "the nightmarchers."
Take a look at this. Tell me what you think.
Whoa! What is that?
First, I was gonna say it kind of looks like birds.
Right? Yeah, the movement looks really organic,
and so does the formation,
so I really thought it could be a flock of birds.
Right. Hawaii's such a popular wedding destination.
Could it just be doves that were released during a wedding?
If it is doves, they are flying in a very perfect circle
that is very tight.
It doesn't look like birds to me.
It seems like it's actually something mechanical in the sky.
- Agreed. - I see what you mean -- Mechanical.
It makes this, like, kind of little stutter,
like the movements don't seem fluid to be an animal.
What about some type of r.C. Toy that we haven't seen yet?
Something that's spinning in a circle rapidly
and then able to be controlled?
I can see why you'd say that.
Well, it's not your typical ufo sighting,
and it's definitely testable,
so why don't we put it in the queue
and see what jael has today?
Well, we've all heard of the loch Ness monster.
It seems that there might be one much closer to home,
right in eastern Florida.
There have been several sightings
of some kind of aquatic creature.
The locals are calling it "the Florida Muck Monster."
Wow.
Whoa!
What is that?
Now, this was shot in August of 2008 by Doug Garcia.
He was hanging out on his dock,
and he has a home right there on the intercoastal waterways.
And he sees this and starts filming it right away.
Oh, wow, yeah. There's something in the water.
It looks like turbulence.
Watch closely.
Whoa! Did you see that fin?!
Wow.
There is large sea life right off the coast
there in Florida -- Sharks and manatees.
But I've never seen anything
with these large fins like this before.
News sources brought in a marine biologist
to examine the video,
and the marine biologist ruled out
that this could be seals or manatees
because of the size and the oddly shaped fin.
How big do they think this creature is?
Doug and his wife say that it was between 15 and 20 feet.
Oh, wow! Are you kidding me?
I spoke with the Garcias,
and they're willing to talk to us about what they saw.
It's not often we get really clear video like this.
I think it should be top of our list.
Let's compare it to what else we have to see today.
Okay. Chi-Lan?
All right, guys, I don't have a video for you guys,
but I do have a series of stills
that comes from the Whaley House,
one of the most haunted houses in America.
It was built in 1857,
and it new resides in what's known as old town, San Diego.
I've already contacted the Whaley House.
It's now a museum.
And I've spoken to the staff manager, Victor santana,
and he tells me
they have reports almost daily of occurrences.
You've got to take a look at these shots.
Oh, whoa.
In this courtroom, you get this organic ghostly image.
It's the strangest shape. It looks like a fetus.
Yeah, I see it.
I've also done a lot of research of the Whaley House.
The dark history actually dates back
to before the house was built.
The land was the location of San Diego's public gallows,
and they had some convicts that were hanged there.
Whoa!
Ooh. Now, this one --
That's a person or a coat on a coatrack. It really looks like one.
But that's definitely some clothing
right there in the middle.
Do you guys see there's, like, a slight figure
or face in the center pane, top row?
- Yeah, yeah. - Oh, I see it.
Right here.
It's supposed to be Thomas Whaley.
You see a mustached man in that top row, center pane.
Whoa. But I'm seeing a lot of splotches right there.
It could just look like a face.
Could that just be some kind of defect in the film?
There are hundreds of photos of paranormal activity, anomalies.
I mean, it's just countless.
I'm sure we could talk to some of these photographers.
I like the fact there's different photographers.
I mean, having multiple different people snap pictures
and all getting similar effects?
That shows validity to me.
It's a solid case, chi-LAN.
Okay, so, the only remaining video today is mine. Yeah, it's interesting.
Now, what I have for you is a video shot by Jessika Aponte.
Now, she's in Puerto Rico, and she went to a spiritual retreat.
She films what she thinks
is some type of angelic fire elemental.
Take a look at this.
Oh, wow. Wow. That thing is huge.
What is that?
There's the bonfire, and this huge thing off to the right.
It's some kind of ghost.
I've never seen one that's so solid.
If you use your imagination, it almost looks like it has wings
or that it's made of fire
and it's floating above this side of the fire.
And then it moves to the other side.
Some people have believed that the island of Puerto Rico
has been a nexus of paranormal activity in the Caribbean.
So, Ben, did Jessika actually see it with her naked eye,
or did she only see it on tape?
She only discovered it after she played back the tape.
Ah. That always screams lens flare to me, but you never know. Yeah. Yeah.
How do you think it stacks up
against everything else that we've seen today?
I'd have to go with the Whaley House.
There's so much history surrounding the property.
I would love to investigate that place
and see if there's an explanation for these photographs.
I think you guys know
that my vote goes to the Muck Monster case.
This is a case that's been plaguing floridians for years.
I like the Whaley House,
but I'm actually leaning towards the fire elemental.
And I can think of some creative tests
that we could do to replicate that thing.
It could just be a lens flare,
but we won't know until we test it.
But I really love the Whaley House.
I mean, when you think about those photographs,
there could be some really great experiments.
Florida Muck Monster has totally piqued my attention.
I think we should do the fire fairy
maybe a little bit down the road.
Let's develop some experiments for it.
But why don't we do the Muck Monster --
It sounds like people want to go to that --
And the Whaley House.
So, jael and Devin,
why don't you come with me to the Muck Monster?
Austin, bill, and chi-LAN,
why don't you go to the Whaley House?
Let's do it. Florida it is.
Yeah.
You know, being in old town, San Diego,
really is like stepping into a time warp.
We're gonna be meeting Victor santana
at the Whaley House to get a tour of the home
and learn about the photographs
that we're gonna be investigating.
The Whaley House has been designated
an official haunted house by the U.S. commerce department,
an honor shared only by the infamous Winchester house.
A lot of people say that that land is cursed.
Once Thomas Whaley moved his family in there,
his infant son died of Scarlet fever,
and then his daughter committed suicide.
And now they say that Mr. and Mrs. Whaley's ghosts roam the property
'cause they're unwilling to abandon their children.
Well, even after the home was converted into a museum in 1960,
the reports kept coming in.
You know, with the hundreds of photographs
that have been taken there,
I mean, all of them depicting ghostly images --
I can't say it really surprises me.
There's been these orbs, strange hovering lights,
even faces peering out of the window, I mean, creepy stuff.
It'll be really interesting to see
if we can find a natural explanation
for all of these ghostly images
or find out if the Whaley House is really haunted.
Speaking of the Whaley House... This is it.
- Hey. You must be Victor. - Hi. Yes.
I'm chi-LAN. Nice to meet you.
This is bill and Austin. Hi, Victor. Nice to meet you.
Welcome to Whaley House.
Can you tell us a little bit about the hiutory of the Whaley House?
Sure. It was built in 1857 by a man named Thomas Whaley.
He built the house and raised six kids here.
Before the house was built on this site,
they had the execution grounds.
They had the gallows,
so they used to hang criminals on this site.
- Wow. - Ah.
Actually, if you follow me this way,
you can actually see San Diego's second courthouse.
It was here in 1869 for 2 years.
We've heard about one person
that was hanged named "yankee Jim."
Was he hanged on this spot?
Yes, yankee Jim was executed here.
When he was executed,
they did not take the correct measurements.
So when he falls, instead of breaking his neck,
his feet could still touch the ground.
He was strangled for a few minutes, and then he died.
Oh. No. That's brutal.
Now, is it believed that yankee Jim
may still walk these grounds?
He's probably the first known ghost that was reported
in the Whaley House, reported by Thomas Whaley himself.
Do you believe some of these photographs
are proof of paranormal activity at the Whaley House?
I believe some of them are, yes.
So, the second floor's pretty active.
A lot of people get a lot of interesting pictures up here.
You know, they'll take their shots,
and they'll see silhouettes, strange images,
even actual people in their shots
that weren't there to begin with.
Over the years, how many pictures
do you think have been taken
that possibly depicts paranormal activity?
Thousands of pictures.
Thousands? Yeah.
Now, Victor, if these photographs are of spirits,
who do you think these spirits are?
I think a lot of the shots are the family.
It has a lot to do with the tragic events
that happened to them while they were living here --
The suicide, losing the child at a very young age.
Maybe that's why they're still here.
Right now, we're gonna set up our mobile processing lab.
And in it, we're gonna have everything we need
to tackle digital photography,
black-and-white and color photography.
So any photograph that we choose to replicate, we'll be able to process
and develop the prints right here on-site.
'Cause there's so many photographs that are documenting
these legendary Whaley House hauntings,
we're gonna attempt to replicate a few of them
and see if we can crack this case.
All right, let's take a look at some of our options here.
We have to pick the photographs
that we're gonna replicate in this house.
Let's see what we have here.
That's really clear.
I mean, it's almost like a graphic overlay.
Or even a reflection in the plexiglas.
I don't think it's anything paranormal. What else do we got?
People think that this is Thomas Whaley himself
looking out of his kitchen window.
There's a face right there, and you can actually see through it.
I like this one. Yeah.
Let's take a look at this one.
This is actually the nursery here.
You can see that from the lamp.
It looks like it's just light refraction.
Yeah, you can almost see the reflection
on the plexiglas just standing here.
Rule it out. What's next?
Now, this one's interesting.
Yeah. I like the courthouse.
You can definitely see something
that appears to be drifting along the far wall.
It definitely has a distinct, really precise shape.
I think this one's good. I think we should do it.
Yeah, let's get to it.
You know, this photo is particularly interesting.
I mean, it looks like there's a shape
that's drifting along the far wall.
Look how bright it is.
I'm thinking with the windows being right here
next to the judge stand,
the sun could be shining in through it,
possibly reflecting off one of those surfaces
and projecting that image onto the wall.
I mean, this lantern right here
looks like it has a crystal base.
What if the light is coming through,
passing through the base,
and it has, like, a prism effect bouncing it on the wall.
Yeah, I could definitely see that.
I'm gonna replicate the sun with this
and see if we can use different angles
and actually get the same shape in the picture.
Great.
I'm gonna use the same type of camera
to emulate that photograph.
Okay.
I think we're set.
Yeah.
On my mark.
3...2...1.
Light it up!
Ooh! Wow! Nice!
The Whaley House is one of the most haunted places in America.
Now we're gonna replicate some photographs in the same rooms
that they were shot in the Whaley House.
I'm gonna be using one of our standard work lights
to replicate the sun.
I'm basically gonna shine it onto this lantern
and see if I can project the exact same image
of the original photo up onto the wall.
On my mark.
3...2...1.
Light it up!
- Ooh! Wow! - Nice!
You know what? Not bad.
Austin, tilt it just to your right a little bit.
There. That's a lot better. Yeah, that's catching it.
It's bright. The light is magnified.
I think we got it.
Let's head to the mobile photo lab and print this stuff out.
Wow, guys. I have the first one. Oh.
That looks good.
With this picture, we proved that late-afternoon light
coming through the window, hitting the oil lamp
gives us this really magnified-light effect.
This photo seems to have a natural explanation.
There's plenty of reflective surfaces in the courtroom
that could have created this light pattern on the wall.
I say we move on to another photograph.
Let's move on to the photo of the ghostly face
peering through the window.
This photograph definitely has a creep factor.
They actually say that this is the photograph of Thomas Whaley
peering out of his kitchen window right there.
I can see the resemblance.
And the great thing about this photo
is that the photographer, Terry west, is a local.
I'll give him a call and see if he can come down and meet us.
Perfect.
So, Terry, tell us about the night you took this photo.
Well, I took the photo from right here.
My wife and I had come to old town.
I've always had an interest in the paranormal,
so the Whaley House was right up my alley.
So, I had taken a bunch of pictures
inside and outside the house.
And I was reviewing my camera,
and I noticed a lot of orbs in this area.
Terry, what do you think it is you photographed here?
Well, I know that there could be a million explanations.
But honestly, when I look at it,
I see a transparent male face with a mustache.
I do believe it's an apparition.
Were there a lot of people at the Whaley House that night?
There weren't that many people milling around.
And so what we're seeing here is the flash from your camera.
Yeah, that's the flash from my camera.
It looks like there's a mustache on the figure.
Did you have any facial hair or a mustache at the time?
Yes, I did. I had a mustache. Okay.
I was wondering if you have the equipment that you used
to shoot this picture on you.
Oh, yeah. I absolutely do.
It was this little camera right here.
Oh, so it was this digital camera? Yes.
All right, so you were just pointing it right here
right about eye level. Mm-hmm.
Your flash was on. Mm-hmm.
So it was all on automatic? It was all on automatic.
Fabulous.
Do you mind if we borrow this?
We do want to run some experiments.
We always want to use the same equipment.
Absolutely. Go right ahead.
Now that we've heard Terry's story,
we're gonna try to re-create his photo
using the exact same camera and the exact same location.
We're gonna see if we can actually replicate
the ghostly phantom face that we see in the window.
When I first saw the picture,
I'm thinking he was using a flash.
It's window.
It's probably just a reflection that he had caught of himself
when he was taking the picture.
Well, I've circled the window pane
so you can see where you need to line up your face, Austin.
But you need to add something, don't you?
That's right.
Got it? Key element.
Mustache. Key ingredient to our success here.
Well, have the original camera.
I'm gonna set it on auto.
All right, let's get started.
Austin, I have you in the reflection,
and my camera is set.
On 3...2...1.
Photo!
Austin's reflection is there before I take the picture.
But once I take it, I don't see it,
because the flash is so bright against that glass
that it really just blows out your reflection.
You don't even have a reflection at this point.
I mean, there's another possible explanation.
What if there was somebody inside the house
when Terry took the photo,
and the flash diffused their image,
making them look less formed.
Yeah. That's a really good point.
He said that he came when it was closing.
There was no one in the museum supposedly,
but what if it was, like, a worker closing up?
I like it. You guys, I'm gonna head inside.
All right. You guys walkie me, let me know when you're ready.
Cool. Got it.
Our experiment with Austin's reflection
wearing the mustache didn't really work out.
The flash actually ended up blowing out the window so much
that the reflection didn't appear at all.
So we've gone ahead and sent Austin inside.
The picture could actually just be of an employee
walking around.
Yeah, I see Austin through the window.
Can you have him move to his right?
Austin, take a half step to your right.
Copy that. In position. How's that?
Great. Okay, ready? Yep.
3...2...1...
Photo.
Okay. All right. I think we got it.
Be honest with me -- How did my mustache look?
It looks great.
I mean, look at this picture.
We got the flash right in position.
We got your image.
And you're a disembodied head, just like this one is.
But, I mean, clearly, there are huge differences, too.
I'm in color.
It's pretty clear that this is a person -- You --
Standing inside the house.
This is a semitransparent figure.
We don't have that here.
I think we might have to take into consideration
this might be paranormal.
Honestly.
Yeah. Yeah, we do.
Okay, guys, so, our tests were inconclusive.
But reports of the Whaley House being haunted
go back a very long time
I think we should do a nighttime investigation
and see if we can capture any evidence of the paranormal
using our own equipment.
Let's go get our equipment out. Let's prep our gear.
There's so many reports of the Whaley House being haunted
that the U.S. commerce department dubbed this house
as only one of two locations in the United States
as being officially haunted.
Now we're gonna launch our own nighttime investigation,
where we hope to capture evidence
of the paranormal ourselves.
All right, guys, all the cameras are set up.
Yeah. Perfect.
We have one in the children's room...
One in the study...
One in the staircase...
And, of course, the courtroom.
So we got the whole area pretty much covered.
Sounds great.
I'm gonna take stills around the house,
and I'll also have the thermal cam as I do my sweeps.
So if there are any anomalies in terms of temperature,
I'll let you know.
Nice.
And I'll be conducting an EVP session.
I'm going to attempt to contact yankee Jim in the courtroom,
where the gallows once stood and where he was hanged.
I'm also gonna be using an oil lamp
to see if I can get interaction with the flame itself.
I'm hopeful that if I make a request for the flame to either,
you know, get low or rise, it'll happen.
You guys ready to go green? Yeah, we're ready.
In 3, 2, 1.
Go green.
Be safe out there, guys.
There's so many reports of the Whaley House being haunted,
we're now gonna move on to a night investigation.
If anybody is here with me in this courtroom,
please communicate with me either through this device here,
which can record your voice,
and I can play it back and I can hear you.
If it's easier for you to manipulate a flame,
can you make this fire raise?
Prove to us that you're here.
Austin, do you see a perfect circle below the ceiling?
Chi-Lan, I have nothing in my visual.
Chi-Lan for Austin.
Austin for chi-LAN. Copy.
All of a sudden, it just disappeared.
Oh, there's a sconce there.
It must have been a residual heat signature.
Copy that.
Have you learned any lessons
that you can share with us, yankee Jim?
Yankee Jim, we know how you died.
Are you doing that?
How's it going? Good.
So, guys, tell me about the Whaley House.
Well, if you recall, we went down to San Diego
to investigate the photographs
from the historic Whaley House.
We selected two photos to try to replicate.
For the first photo, we chose that picture of the courtroom
that had that mysterious light
that was drifting along the far wall.
The courtroom actually has a lot of significance
in that it sat over exactly where the gallows were
in old town, San Diego.
We noticed that there's big windows
on the left side of the judge's desk
that let in a lot of sunlight.
We were operating under the theory
that light coming in from the window
was hitting the base of the oil lamp,
creating a prism effect up on the wall.
The result was this photo.
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
Why don't you compare this one to the original photo?
- Wow. - Oh, wow.
That's not bad at all.
Really good.
Very clever.
It's a natural explanation.
In this next photograph, you can actually see a face
peeking out of the upper panes.
A lot of people believe this to be Thomas Whaley himself.
Wow.
Now, we wanted to see
if it was just a reflection of the photographer,
who, coincidentally, has a mustache,
so he looks similar to the face
you're seeing in the photo there.
If there was a mustache in the original photo,
I needed a mustache.
First one, I stood outside.
Nothing. Didn't work. The flash blew me out.
So then we thought,
"maybe it's somebody actually inside the house looking out."
So I went in, and here's what happened.
The big difference immediately
is that you can see the skin color of Austin.
The face on the left looks almost semitransparent.
Austin is obviously completely solid
and just a person inside the house looking out.
With all the reported paranormal activity
that's been going on at the Whaley House,
we decided we had to do a nighttime investigation.
I decided I was gonna go into the courtroom
to have an EVP session.
Listen to the answer that you hear when I asked yankee Jim,
a convict who was hanged on the grounds.
Have you learned any lessons
that you can share with us, yankee Jim?
What was that?
That wasn't you, was it?
No, it was not me. I did not notice it at all.
I would have stopped the session
and tried to investigate what the sound was.
Have you learned any lessons
that you can share with us, yankee Jim?
Sounded like a chair got set down or pushed.
It was like, "chka." Something fell. Yeah.
The only thing that I can think of
was what yankee Jim would have heard
when he was pronounced to death in the judge's chamber,
and the gavel coming down on the bench.
Wow. That's a good theory.
So, team, the Whaley House -- Fact or faked?
None of these pictures were faked,
but I just think that they were just a case
of mistaken identity.
Even though you didn't get the same exact image,
you did explain what could be the cause of the anomaly.
I think there were natural explanations for the photos that we chose.
However, that EVP suggests to me
that there could be some paranormal activity
that's occurring at the Whaley House.
It certainly supports some of the claims.
I like that. That's a really great job, guys.
How did your case turn out?
We went to Jupiter, Florida,
to investigate this mysterious Muck Monster,
and we got some really interesting results.
- Coming up on "fact - Paranormal files"...
Be careful, okay?
We're good to go! Ready?!
3, 2, 1!
The Muck Monster has really created a stir
here in the local community.
I mean, I heard they started selling t-shirts.
They've really started to capitalize
on this paranormal intrigue,
and it's boosted the local tourism.
The tourist board actually started posting stories
about the Muck Monster, and since then,
they've had over 4 million hits on their website.
This creature was seen in the Loxahatchee river,
which feeds through the intercoastal waterways
all the way out to the Atlantic ocean.
So, because you have the freshwater
leading to the salt water, you get brackish water.
Anything could be coming up in these channels.
Despite the fact that there have been so many sightings
and so much input from experts,
no one has been able to figure out what this creature is.
Eyewitness testimony by Doug Garcia and his wife
should give us a good place to start.
I wonder what he thinks it is.
This is it, guys, right here on the left.
Doug? Yes.
Hi, I'm jael. Nice to meet you.
This is where you shot the video, huh?
It is -- Right around back. You want to come around back?
Yes, please.
This is my wife, Deb. Hi.
This is about where we shot the video of the creature from.
It's probably about 80 or 90 yards straight out.
Do you see the little pvc pipes coming out of the water?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Between the little short one and the tall one,
just out past that.
So, what are the tides like here in this area?
They do change pretty quick.
When they start going out, the water runs pretty fast,
and same thing coming in.
Really? Yeah.
What would you say the depth was then when the tide was --
It was almost high tide.
It was probably a little over 4 feet, maybe 5 feet.
How big do you think it was,
just by looking at it from your dock?
20 feet long.
20 feet?
Wow.
Nothing like I've ever seen before.
What do you think it was?
I don't know what to tell you.
I mean, I've seen, as I said,
whales and sharks and big fish and manatee,
and I've never seen anything like it.
So I honestly don't know what it was.
I think that something bred with something
it shouldn't have and created an offspring,
some sort of mutant that's just not normal.
Doug, do you still have the camera
that you shot the creature on?
We do. It's a little hard-drive camcorder.
Would it be all right if we used it for our experiments? Absolutely.
I'll grab the camera for you guys.
Great. Sounds good.
Thanks so much.
Now that we have the Garcias' eyewitness accounts,
we're gonna start with an exploratory dive
and then a series of tests
to see if we can replicate the Muck Monster video.
I say we get in there, check out the depth, the current,
even the temperature, and see where the Muck Monster lives.
I agree, guys.
I'm already seeing some current out there.
It's very possible that there's some debris,
maybe logs or sticks that have maybe trapped some plastic.
So, just in case we actually do run into the Muck Monster,
I've got these awesome goggles with an h.D. Camera on it.
That way, I can be seeing what I'm seeing underwater.
And I've also got this dive watch
that will tell us the depth and the temperature of the water.
If you guys get in any trouble, I'll be there to help you out.
Sounds good. Let's do this.
Be on the lookout. Of course, we've got boats here.
Not likely you're gonna see any sharks,
but you might find the Muck Monster.
Be careful, okay?
In 3...
2...1.
What's the current like, guys?
Are you sensing anything pushing you upstream or downstream?
There's definitely a current.
Maybe like 1 or 2 knots.
You're being pushed upstream.
Yep. Okay, high tide's coming in then.
Just like a fin.
Hey, check this one out.
I mean, there's definitely a lot of debris out here.
Could get mistaken for something else.
Well, guys, why don't we pack this up
and start an experiment, okay?
We've established that there's a lot of debris around here
and stuff that it could get caught on,
so I think that should be our first test.
I'm thinking maybe something more man-made, too,
you know, plastic or rubbery.
Well, it could even be some kind of a raft.
Obviously, you know, this is a residential area.
Lots of people live here. They're out here in this water.
It could be something man-made.
We're gonna test now to see if this could just be
a case of mistaken identity,
like a deflated raft snagged on something underneath the water
and was responsible for what we're seeing
in Garcia's footage.
So, guys, here's the idea, okay?
This raft represents the debris, of course.
It could be half inflated.
It could have been something
that was caught on some rocks, some sticks.
Why don't we kind of anchor this out?
And I think the current will move it around
and maybe give us some of that same movement.
You'll head to the vantage point that's pretty similar
to the one from the original footage.
The only reason I think we need to move it to the sandbar
is because the tide is still low.
Otherwise, we could use the dock.
Let's take the boat out there and let's go sink it.
Let's go.
10 more feet back!
Stop!
Not bad! You ready?!
3...2...
1!
Release the Muck Monster!
Right now, we're exploring the theory
that what we're seeing in the original footage
could just be debris.
We're gonna test now to see
if this could just be a case of mistaken identity,
like a deflated raft snagged on something underneath the water
and was responsible for what we're seeing
in Garcia's footage.
Not bad! You ready?!
3...2...1.
Release the Muck Monster!
Okay, guys, I think we got it!
Why don't you guys come on back? Let's see what it looks like.
All right. How did it look?
Take a look at this.
Let's see.
I think you're probably in about the same depth of water.
The raft has that same dark, glossy look
that the creature in the original footage had.
It's moving a lot faster.
In ours, it's just still stiff.
It doesn't look alive.
It's almost making me think, what if this is a hoax
and someone put this thing out there?
People are selling t-shirts. It's become a thing to come see.
I mean, maybe someone wants to capitalize on that.
Maybe we should start looking at a hoax theory.
Yeah.
All right, guys, well, let's clean up for the night
and come back tomorrow.
Our raft looked more like a piece of debris
snagged on something instead of a creature
that's moving and breathing in the water.
There are all kinds of ways
to hoax this video and make it appear
as though something's coming out of the water.
So we are building a sea monster in three parts --
The center shell and two long extensions
that will represent the tail and the head.
That spiny fin that everyone was surprised by
is gonna be this latex palm or this latex fin.
Devin and I are gonna be underneath the middle section
of this Muck Monster.
You can see we have these pipes here, which e handles.
And we're gonna be manipulating
the action of the creature underneath the water
while jael is at the vantage point filming it.
So, Devin, we've built an air pocket underneath there, right,
so that we don't even need scuba, correct?
That's right.
That is correct. Okay, in theory, we have air under there.
The tides are different this time of year,
so to maintain the same distance
from the camera to the Muck Monster,
we'll have to film from the sandbar instead of the dock.
All right, guys, I'll be over here. Good luck.
Which way, jael? That way.
You got it. Perfect.
We're good to go! Ready?! 3, 2, 1!
So, the guys are underneath the creature right now,
manipulating the movement.
Ben's got the head, and Devin's moving the tail around.
It actually looks pretty good.
Right now, the movement looks a little more mechanical
than a live animal.
All right.
Okay, guys. I think we got it.
Why don't you come on back?
Oh, my God, it's the Muck Monster!
Did it look good? Aah!
It's two Muck Monsters.
You guys, that was an awesome job.
I got to show you this. Oh, yeah?
Check this out.
Look, the fin is actually pretty exact.
You know, one of the hardest things
we had to deal with was the back.
We really had to get it above water
in order to breathe underneath it
to have that air pocket under there.
If somebody were underneath breathing,
they had to have enough space,
but the back of this thing would make it too bulky
I think is what we're dealing with.
Right.
This is still more animalistic in the original video.
Much more natural and fluid.
I mean, it makes me think
that we need to get a look at a real animal.
I know the marine biologist
ruled out sea lions and manatees,
but what if that's exactly what this is?
I'm really thinking we need to reconsider it.
Yeah. Maybe we need to go to an aquarium for ourselves
and find out.
That's a good idea. Let's see some aquatic life.
Okay. Do you want to help us drag this beast back in?
All right, let's go.
We're here, guys.
Okay.
Whoa-ho-ho! Wow!
Whoa! That thing is gigantic.
The Muck Monster has really created a stir
here in the local community.
I know the marine biologist
ruled out sea lions and manatees,
but what if that's exactly what this is?
I think what we're gonna have to do next
is go visit the seaquarium in Miami
to see if we can find the culprit
for what this Muck Monster could be mistaken for.
Whoa-ho-ho! Wow!
Oh, my God! That thing is gigantic!
Maya? Yes.
Hi, I'm jael. Hi, jael.
Nice to meet you.
Hi. Welcome, welcome.
So, we're here looking into the story of the Muck Monster,
and we wanted to come to the aquarium
to see if there were other animals
that could cause the mistaken identity.
There's a lot of animals out here in Florida.
We have alligators nowadays. We have giant boas and pythons.
And in the salt water, you have crocodilians
and even some shark species that are coming pretty close to land.
We have video footage,
and we'd love to show you to see what you think it is.
I'm almost thinking it's two creatures.
Well, and actually, it might be more.
Really? Yes.
I'm seeing what appears to be a paddle in one area,
a body in another, probably at least two paddles.
I've seen two paddles in different directions.
This looks more what we see in manatees
when they have mating behavior.
In this entire group, there's probably only one female,
but she can have as many as 10 males. Wow.
The males and their huge flippers have what we call --
We call it velcro.
It's a rough area, and because they're rough,
just like elephants, that's what they hold on to.
And here, we've even seen it in the pools
when we have only males in the pool.
We call it the velcro ball,
where they all hold on to each other
and they literally just take turns breathing.
They move very slowly, but you don't know
where one manatee begins and where the other one ends.
So you just see a lot of paddles, a lot of flippers,
a lot of occasional breathing.
So they could all be just kind of holding on to each other
and all rolling at the same time, flippers coming up.
And the male's probably, you know,
trying to be the dominant male there,
so you see a little bit of splashing with the paddles.
The analysis of this video has been inconclusive
because of the unusual shape of this tail.
So, in your expert opinion, what do you think this could be?
I still would say it's a mating herd, and that paddle --
Unfortunately, there's so many manatees
that have the traumatic disfigurement
from being hit by boats, especially the propellers.
Wow. Traumatic-disfigured manatee.
We actually have one in the pool here
that's actually worse than that.
Maya, we would love to go upstairs
and film them breaching from the surface.
Would that be possible? Sure. Yes. Come on.
Okay. Thank you.
Oh, my God. These guys are huge.
Oh, my goodness.
Well, you guys, we learned something
really interesting at the aquarium.
This particular manatee has a deformed fin.
Check this out.
That's the fin.
But wait a second.
I'm not seeing the prongs on this fin
that we're seeing in the original video.
It may not be the prongs that we're looking for,
but that doesn't mean that what we saw in the original video
wasn't a deformed manatee fin.
It turns out that manatees cannot hear the low frequency
of a propeller from a boat.
So when they pass over them, a lot of times,
it injures them, and it can cut up their fins.
So, we contacted the U.S. geological survey.
Now, they have a program where they actually photograph
and catalog different injured manatees
so they can identify them by their tails
and what kind of cuts and things they have.
Now, we sent them Garcia's video.
Not only did they confirm that what we are seeing are manatees,
but they also sent us some photos of some injures animals.
Take a look.
Look at that. Oh, that's terrible!
But it looks closer to what we saw in the original video.
So this would explain the pronged fin
- that we saw in the original video. - Yeah.
In Maya's expert opinion,
what you're seeing are mating manatees.
It's likely that at least one of these manatees
had a deformed tail, caught in some type of propeller injury.
Was the original video shot during manatee mating season?
They mate in the summer, and this video was shot in August.
I think you guys did a really good job investigating this case,
and you may have a conclusive answer.
I think you guys did the right thing
by consulting a marine biologist.
Although other people claim to have seen
what they say is the Muck Monster,
in this specific case,
we showed that it was a natural explanation.
I'm not saying the Muck Monster doesn't exist,
but that video is definitely just mistaken identity.
Case closed.
Sync by n17t01 www.addic7ed.com