Moundsville Penitentiary Shadow Man
"THIS IS A INTERVIEW I FOUND ONLINE ALONG WITH THE PICTURES"
"My name is Polly Gear. I am from Clarksburg, WV, and co-founded Mountaineer Ghosts Paranormal
Investigators with Misty Davis, and on May 7, 2004, I captured a photograph of a shadow person in the
West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, WV.
The experience happened that night around 1:30 am - just a few hours after a severe thunder and
lightening storm. I was walking south toward the lobby in the north hallway when I heard a noise from the
doorway to the cafeteria behind me. I walked back to the doorway and turned on the flash light to see
what the noise could have been. When I reached the doorway that enters the small hallway between the
big hall and the cafeteria, I flipped on my light and saw a black form of a human shadow walking toward
me; but it was looking out the windows to its right as it was walking. The light from my flashlight shone right
through this shadow person. At this time, the shadow person saw that there was some light on itself. It
looked at its arm (where my light was on it), then it looked at me and dashed behind the door frame of the
smaller hallway it was in. I said to myself, 'This is paranormal! I have to get a picture of this!' So as the
shadow dashed behind the door frame, I started slowly walking backward down the big hallway. I threw my
flashlight to the floor as I kept slowly backing off - walking backward. As I was doing this, I got my camera
ready...turned it on and waited for it to be ready to flash. I some how knew that I had to keep walking
backward or the shadow would leave. As soon as my camera was ready, I held it out and took one photo
shot. It was so dark in the hallway, so I was seriously afraid that I had missed the entire doorway where
the shadow man was. As you can see from the angle of the photo, I nearly missed my opportunity, but my
prayers were answered that I could capture a photo of it.
A little detail on what this shadow person looked like at a distance of 10 feet between it and myself when I
first saw it in the small hallway...this shadow was a perfect outline form/shape of a man - a big man. Inside
the shape, as my flashlight was on it, was really black vibrating static - such as you would see on a TV set
that is off channel...only black! There were no facial features, no hair...no sounds from it. Its movements
while walking were somewhat animated - hard to describe it for you to understand. It was definitely a
sentient being; it knew I was there...it looked at me. I was NOT afraid of this shadow...no evil or dark
feelings happened with this. I felt it was just as curious about me as I was of it. I feel that is why it chose to
partially step out into the hallway where I was - to check me out. With the hallway being so dark, I did not
know that it had stepped out until I looked at the photo on the camera right after I took the shot. When I
saw I had a photo of it, I ran back down the hallway to the area and checked every inch of the cafeteria,
the other hallway, another room off the big hallway and even outside around the cafeteria. There was NO
ONE in the area. I want to mention that on this night we had rented the penitentiary on a private basis and
there were only 15 people there...and 13 pf us were women. Neither of the two men there that evening
were large men. They were men that I knew personally, so I know positively that I did not mistake this for a
real person. I would also like to say that if I had any doubt at all about this photo being a real shadow
person - one that I SAW with my own eyes at a distance of 10 feet, I would not have put this photo out in
the public to be seen. I am showing this photo and telling my story of this experience and swear it to be
truthful in my own words."
