It Reached Out and Touched His Face
What if it's True Podcast
Cameron Buckner
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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In the fall of 1993 near Columbiana, Ohio, 19-year-old engineer Ray and a friend were creep-hunting raccoons on a clear, full-moon night without dogs. After splitting up to cover more ground, Ray sat down to rest on a steep hill, quickly falling into a deep sleep for three hours. He awoke disoriented, then continued through the beautiful moonlit woods until he climbed another hill and froze at the sight of a massive bipedal creature silhouetted against the sky on the ridge above, swaying back and forth in apparent agitation. For ten tense minutes the two stared at each other at about 40 yards; Ray considered shining his light or firing his .22 rifle but ultimately held still, sensing the creature’s overwhelming size made any attack futile. The being paralleled him for roughly a mile along the ridge as he followed a winding creek, until it vanished from view. Moments later, something very close rumbled and a rough, leathery hand wiped across his face and neck, triggering raw panic. Ray ran until he collapsed exhausted in a ditch beside a gravel road. His worried friend soon found him in a truck around 3:45 a.m. Ray never told him the full story, claiming only that he had fallen asleep and gotten lost. He never hunted in the woods again for the next 33 years.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the fall of 1993, near Columbia, Ohio. |
| 0:15.7 | Ray, an engineer from Northeast Ohio, was raccoon hunting on a cool fall night with a friend. |
| 0:21.6 | At that time, in 1993, the men were 19 years old. |
| 0:26.6 | Each man carried a flashlight and a 22 rifle. |
| 0:31.6 | They had no dogs. They were creep hunting. |
| 0:34.6 | It was a beautiful night and the moon was full. |
| 0:38.7 | They could see everything around them so they turned their lights off while they walked to the place they knew the raccoons had been active and to save their batteries. |
| 0:48.5 | As they approached the woods, they wanted to hunt. |
| 0:51.2 | The men split up to cover more ground and soon were out of sight of each other. |
| 0:56.4 | Ray sat down after climbing a steep hill to catch his breath. |
| 1:00.4 | Steam from his jacket rose off his shoulders in a weird wave as he regained his strength. |
| 1:07.3 | The longer he sat on that log, the more comfortable he got, and soon he laid his head |
| 1:12.0 | over against a tree and fell off into a deep sleep. |
| 1:16.9 | Ray woke up thinking he had only been asleep for a few minutes, but he looked at his watch |
| 1:21.6 | and saw that he had been out for three long hours. |
| 1:26.1 | All sorts of thoughts went through his spine. One, how the hell and why had he |
| 1:31.7 | slept so long out in the cold like that? He knew better. Last, he figured his hunting partner would |
| 1:38.2 | be worried about him by now. He was pretty hard in himself for sleeping that long. |
| 1:44.8 | He never took naps that long, even at the house. |
| 1:47.8 | And this made no sense. |
| 1:49.9 | But whatever, it was done, and now he had to find his buddy. |
| 1:54.5 | Ray got up and started walking. |
... |
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