What The Cryptid? — Witness File WITNESS INTERVIEW — FILE #0511 INTERNAL — NOT FOR RELEASE Location: Culvert access road, off Route 9, Harlan’s Creek Witness: Beverly Marsh, 54 — Officer, Harlan’s Creek Animal Control Interviewer: Harold “Hal” Ridgeway DCA Case Reference: DCA-HC-2026-0511 INTERVIEWER: The date is July 17th, 2026. This is Hal Ridgeway, conducting a recorded witness interview on behalf of the Department of Cryptid Affairs, Harlan’s Creek field office. Present is Officer Beverly Marsh, Animal Control, eleven years of service. Officer Marsh, thank you for coming in. WITNESS: I put in the report at six this morning. I’ve been up since four. I want that on the record. INTERVIEWER: It is on the record. Can you describe what brought you to the culvert access road at that hour? WITNESS: Routine check. We’ve had beaver activity near the Route 9 drainage culvert for about three weeks. Nothing unusual. I go out early because it’s cooler and the beavers are easier to assess before they get active. INTERVIEWER: And this morning’s visit was not routine. WITNESS: The beavers were gone. All of them. The lodge was intact, the dam was intact, but there were no beavers. What was there instead was something sitting in the middle of the dam. Just — sitting. On the dam. INTERVIEWER: Can you describe it. WITNESS: Large. Broader than a person, but it was sitting hunched so I can’t give you a standing height. Covered in something — fur, maybe, or matted vegetation. It was wet. The smell was significant. It was sitting on the...