A second witness has come forward to corroborate the June 29th sighting of a "dark black shadow with wings" in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood, originally submitted by a police officer to UFO Clearinghouse.

This witness claims to be an aspiring journalist, and said in an email to Lon Strickler of Phantoms and Monsters that she saw the events of that night as they transpired.

Mr. Strickler, I hesitated to send this in for two reasons: first, I’m still not one hundred percent sure that I believe it myself, and second, I’m trying to be a journalist and I don’t want this kind of a report to discredit me for future career opportunities. That’s why I’m sending this anonymously, and that’s why I’m not interested in following up about any of this. I was talking about this story while drinking with my siblings the other night and my sister pointed out that it reminded her of some stories she’d seen circulating online. When I looked into it myself, I was surprised to see that my story had already been partially reported earlier this month. On June 29th, I was walking home from getting Wendy’s with a small group of friends when one of my friends pointed at a dark shape in a tree on the corner of West 81st and South Throop. The thing was big, but details were hard to make out at night. Then the thing jumped out of the tree and flew onto the roof of an apartment building on the same block. When it flew, I got the chance to see that it was a tall dark thing with wide wings. Nothing like that Mothman statue they've got in Point Pleasant. A group of people had started to form on the corner with my friends and me. Then some of the people on the corner whom I hadn't met previously flagged down a cop car to point the thing out. That's when my friends and I quietly slipped away. I'm a transgender woman and I've had my share of bad interactions with the police. My friends felt similarly. I now believe that the officer I saw was the same officer who reported a story about seeing this thing on the same night. I still think it might have had a logical explanation, but I thought there might be others interested in hearing this story and coming to their own conclusions. Thank you.

So far, attempts to access the police report that the officer in the previous sighting report from this neighborhood claimed to have filed have met with no success, since Freedom of Information Act requests have been met with assurances that such a police report does not exist. This eyewitness report would appear to corroborate the officer's story; making the missing police report all the more mysterious.

This is the 23rd sighting to be reported in Chicago so far in 2017. All of the sightings have taken place in the lakefront area within a few miles of Lake Michigan. The sightings generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park and around water, and witnesses consistently describe a large, bat or bird-like creature with humanoid features; except for one case which depicted the creature as insect-like. So far no pictures or video have been forthcoming.

To report a sighting, reach out to us directly at The Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here, and an interactive map here.