Ohio Woman Shares Years of Sasquatch Encounters Along River

There's something about a witness story that hits different when the person telling it isn't trying to sell you anything. Amy Copelan, a woman from a small Ohio town along the Ohio River, sat down for an interview that recently surfaced, and her account is one of those slow-burn encounters that builds over years rather than days. What makes her story stand out isn't just the strange events she witnessed, but the apparent communication that developed between her and whatever was watching her from the woods. Amy's journey into the unknown started in the late 1990s when she would take her two dogs, a German Shepherd and a Husky mix, walking through Hill View Park on the west side of her town. She started noticing carcasses hanging from trees, which she initially dismissed as odd but moved on from. Things escalated when she began walking along the Ohio River trails on the east side of town. One day, she and her dogs came across a deer in tall grass that had been beaten down. The deer was missing its entire left rear leg and had a broken neck, with its head laying on its back. There were no flies on it, suggesting it had only been there a short time. What really got her attention was her dogs' reaction. Instead of investigating the carcass like normal dogs would, they sniffed briefly, whipped around, and bolted straight back to her car. Amy followed her instincts and left too. A couple days later, she returned and found something even more unsettling. Not far from where the deer had been, she spotted bones arranged in what she described as a three-sided box structure. The rib bones were broken off, and the whole setup gave her such a bad vibe that she turned around and left immediately. This is where things get really interesting. Amy started leaving offerings. She hung a bucket on a branch containing crackers with honey and peanut butter melted on them. The food started disappearing. She then set up a voice-activated recorder near one of her offerings, and what it captured was bizarre. The recording picked up sounds like running water, the crackling of a campfire, and a long, low growl. She played this recording for Tony Merkel, a well-known researcher in the Sasquatch community, and even he couldn't explain what it was. Amy eventually found an old well that had been partially filled in and started dropping buckets down it. The same ritual played out, food disappearing. But then things took a turn that really makes you wonder. She had left an orange bucket down by the river, probably close to a year before, and one day she came back to find that same bucket had somehow made its way all the way across town to the Hill View Park area on the west side. It wasn't dropped down into the well, just placed beside it. Amy was completely blown away. Her interpretation was that they were asking for more. The encounters continued for years. One night, while going through a difficult separation and walking her dogs much later than usual, she was on the phone crying in the park. The moment she hung up, something struck her hard on the left side of her face, hard enough to sting even through her hood. Her dogs took off, and when she turned around, there was nothing there. She found a branch that had been broken in half, but it couldn't have fallen from the tree above her. It had to have come sideways. She said out loud, "If this is you, I need to know it's you. I need to know you're here." On Christmas Eve, she got her answer. Walking her dogs after work, she spotted a single footprint in a pile of mulch that the city had dumped in the park. It was big, very wide, and had an odd shape with definite toes. She measured it and took pictures, though she didn't know about casting at the time. What strikes me about Amy's story is the pattern of reciprocity. She left food, and the food disappeared. She left a recorder, and something responded. She asked for a sign, and a footprint appeared. The bucket traveling across town is the kind of detail that either makes you a believer or makes you question everything, but either way, it's the kind of story that sticks with you. The interview is worth checking out for yourself, especially if you're interested in the more communicative side of Sasquatch encounters, the kind where it feels less like a sighting and more like a relationship.