A West Virginia woman reports an eleven-foot encounter near a Steubenville gas station and characterizes it as, quote, ‘not worth rushing over.’

At approximately 11:20 p.m. on Thursday, a woman identified by WTC as Donna Curtiss, 47, of Weirton, West Virginia, observed what she describes as a large, glowing, figure standing at the edge of the tree line behind the BP station on Route 7 outside Steubenville, Ohio. She was, at the time, leaning against the passenger door of a 2018 Kia Sorento, approximately thirty feet from the reported figure. She had a cigarette in her hand. She finished it.

Curtiss, who had stopped for fuel and a bottle of water shortly before the encounter, told WTC she watched the figure for what she estimates was four to five minutes before re-entering the vehicle. She describes it as tall — ‘taller than the tree line should’ve allowed for’ — with a dark, spade-like silhouette and two points of orange-red light at roughly head height. The figure did not approach. It did not retreat. She finished her cigarette. She got back in the car. She and her passenger, a woman she asked WTC not to name, then drove to a Sheetz eleven miles north, where Curtiss purchased a second bottle of water and reported the sighting to the cashier, who suggested she contact us. The cashier was right.

Community Notice

A Description Consistent With the Record

The Flatwoods Monster — first documented near Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia, in September 1952 — has historically been described as a tall, hovering entity with a spade or ace-of-spades-shaped head, a dark body, and glowing eyes or face. Curtiss’s account tracks against that record in three of five primary characteristics, which is more consistency than we usually get in a call that comes in from a Sheetz. I want to be clear that I am not dismissing the Sheetz. The Sheetz is part of the story. The Sheetz stayed open.

I wasn’t going to throw away a cigarette over it. I had maybe three drags left and it wasn’t moving toward me. If it had moved toward me I would have considered it.

— Donna Curtiss, Primary Witness

The secondary witness, who asked not to be named, confirmed the sighting from inside the Sorento. She told WTC by phone that she saw the figure from the passenger window and describes it as ‘wrong-shaped, the way something is wrong-shaped when it doesn’t have to care.’ She asked that we not use her name because her mother reads our website. We respect that. The mother has, incidentally, a right to know. But we respect it.

Wrong-shaped, the way something is wrong-shaped when it doesn’t have to care.

— Secondary Witness, Name Withheld at Request

As of this filing, there is no indication the figure returned or that the BP station has experienced anything beyond a normal Thursday night. The station’s exterior lighting was functioning. The pumps were operational. The receipt Curtiss kept from her fuel purchase timestamps at 11:14 p.m., which she provided without being asked. She had pumped $34.17 in regular. The figure appeared approximately six minutes after she replaced the nozzle. I have the receipt on my desk. The percolator is running. The radio is up slightly from where it was this morning, which I am noting without yet drawing a conclusion. Donna Curtiss is home. She reports she slept fine.