On November 2, 1971, 16 year-old Ronald Johnson was tending sheep at his family's property when a sudden rumbling drew his eyes to a copse of trees about 75 feet from where he stood. Within the stand, he could make out a strange, mushroom shaped object that was about 8 feet in diameter with blue, red, and orange lights. The object hovered about 5 feet off the ground for several moments, before emitting a brilliant, blinding glow from its underside, and rocketing away with a high pitched whine.
The teen's parents managed to catch a glimpse of the object high in the sky before it vanished in the distance. After it was gone, the family walked over to the woods where they discovered a glowing white circle of crystallized soil. Mrs. Johnson picked some of it up and was disturbed to feel her fingers going numb. When she tried to brush it off on her leg, that portion of her leg also became numb.
Soil samples obtained by Ted Phillips, a UFO investigator, were tested by various labs. It was reported that these tests indicated the presence of a peculiar fungus as well as an unknown crystalline structure. An English chemist, Dr. Erol A. Faruk, analyzed the soil and concluded it had been sprayed with a luminescent chemical.
Ronald also suffered from exposure to the circle. He complained of headaches and nightmares. He also said that his eyes hurt from the intense light burst given off by the departing craft. As time progressed, he also claimed to develop psychic powers. Shortly after the sighting, the boy claimed, he encountered a blonde haired 'wolf girl' in a torn coat. He tried to approach her, but she ran away on all fours.
One wonders if Ronald wasn't inspired in the addition to his tale by events that happened earlier that year in Mobile, Alabama when residents of one neighborhood began reporting a 'wolf woman' stalking about at night. Witnesses described her as having the torso of a woman and the legs of a wolf.
While the furor might have died down thereafter, two and a half years later, one strange aspect of Ronald Johnson's tale would return to affect the entire town of Delphos.
In July 1974, locals spotted a young blonde girl in tattered clothes fleeing through the dense brush of the woods north of town. Others had spotted her eating from dishes left out for pets. Whenever anyone managed to approach her, she would growl and run away. Eventually the press would come to dub her the 'wolf girl.'
Early on the morning of July 22, one Mrs. Stout spotted the child, whom she described as being about the size of a 6 year-old boy, sitting on a picnic table within a storage shed. Within, Stout could see dolls and clothes that had been previously stored away strewn about. Stout managed to approach the girl to within 5 or 6 feet before she fled through a small hole in the wall of the structure. Stout could see nothing physically wrong with the girl, but she did have a crescent shaped scar running from her right eye to the edge of her mouth. Stout also noted that the girl fled on all fours.
Mrs. Stout spotted the girl twice more that same day as townsfolk gathered to hunt for the wild child. In the evening, Stout was scratched on the shoulder, but barely saw her assailant before the girl dissolved into the night. Another local on the hunt that night, a young man named Kevin Marsh, was also attacked, receiving a scratch on the throat from behind. He, too, scarcely saw the girl before she vanished.
Locals were on edge after the attacks. They began keeping their children indoors.
Sheriff Simpson and his department followed up calls from Delphos residents, but never managed to apprehend the strange child. She was chased through a grain field, but there was no sign of her. She was reported by locals to be holed up in a shed that locals had surrounded. By the time the officers arrived, she had somehow vanished again. The sheriff was beginning to have his doubts that there was any child at all, that it was perhaps some mass hallucination of the misidentification of a wild animal. Many of the witnesses would later recant their tales when pressed to make official statements. Whether this speaks to the veracity of their statements or their comfort with any publicity, isn't easy to discern. Eventually, Sheriff Simpson closed the case.
In time, the sightings dwindled and then vanished. The wolf girl hasn't been seen since.
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