002Anomaly file AD-002
Random Screams in the Woods
Across the Appalachian range, hikers, hunters, and folks who grew up on the backroads report sudden, blood‑chilling screams from the treeline; human‑sounding but just wrong enough that nobody wants to go check.
- Type
- Sounds / Calls
- Status
- Open File
- First documented
- Folk accounts long predating…
- Region
- Virginia
- Location
- Recurring reports from rural hollers and forest edges across Appalachia
- Frequency
- sporadic
The Phenomenon
Reports describe sudden, piercing screams or wails erupting from the woods, sometimes a single cry, sometimes a short series, often late at night when human activity should be low. The sound is frequently characterized as female or childlike, but with an edge of distortion that makes it hard to identify as any familiar animal.
Witnesses may be walking a backroad, sitting on a porch, or spotlighting for game when the sound erupts, freezes everyone in place, and then stops as abruptly as it began. In many stories, those who move closer hear the scream again from a different direction, or not at all, creating the impression of something that can “reposition” in the dark.
Witness Accounts
- Addendum
- Addendum A
- Witness
- Dale Hensley, hunter, Wise County, VA
- Date
- 1987
"We were running dogs up on the woods behind my uncle's place when everything went quiet....dogs, bugs, everything. Then this scream came out of the holler below us, sounded like a woman being murdered. My uncle just said 'We're done' and we walked out. Dogs wouldn't go back up there for a week."
On file
Theories & explanations2
Known animals with alarming vocalizations (foxes, bobcats, coyotes, owls), distorted by terrain and echoed through hollers.
Injured livestock or wild animals, particularly in areas with active hunting, trapping, or predators.
1Human activity
Pranksters, deterrent devices, or improvised noisemakers used to keep curious kids away from hidden operations.
2Paranormal or folkloric entities
Witches, haints, or nameless things in the timber that “don’t want you getting too close.”
Some documented cases have been debunked as deliberate setups—hidden strings and buckets wired like crude instruments to produce shrieking sounds and keep people away from moonshining or other illicit work. Others remain unresolved, with no physical source found and multiple witnesses backing the story.
Where it’s reported2
Backwoods edges near homesteads, farms, and small towns throughout the central and southern Appalachians.
Historical “no‑go” hollers where elders warn children away with rules like “if you hear your name called in the woods, no you didn’t.”