Daytime sighting on Route 17 near Church View witnessed in Middlesex County, Virginia

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This incident has been bothering me for 25 years. And I'm glad I found your sight a few years ago. In 1978, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I were driving back from Virginia Beach back to Baltimore on Route 17. As I was driving over one hill, I noticed a dead animal in the road, on the slower lane about a half a mile ahead. It appeared to be a large dead dog. As I approached it, I had to change lanes and started to notice a smell that reminded me of muck we use to pull out of the creek near where I grew up. The odor got stronger and I thought it was an unusual smell for a dead animal, which now appeared to be the size and color of a german shephard. As I drove around the animal, I watched it so I would not accidentally hit it as I went by (it straddled the lane markers a bit). I also noticed out of the corner of my eye, what I thought was a little old black man, crouching in the woods behind a leafy branch, waiting for me to pass by. The edge of the woods was about 10 yard...