'Feral cannibals' are feared to live in a US national park where five people have gone missing.
There have been claims of cannibals living in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near North Carolina, despite any hard proof.
The contemporary legend suggests they are descendants of men who deserted from the American Civil War, and allegedly live completely separate from civilization.
Five people are known to have vanished without explanation from the national park, and the US Army’s elite special forces unit were even called in to help with investigations.
Advert
The most well-known of these cases was the mysterious disappearance of a six-year-old boy named Dennis Martin who vanished during on a family camping trip in 1969.
According to Brian Jeffrey from the Black Mass Paranormal podcast, the special forces troops found zero trace of the little boy, but apparently encountered some of the ‘feral’ individuals in question.
On the podcast, he claimed: “This group of feral people have been known to have cannibalistic tendencies.”
Donnie Laws, another podcaster curious by the legend, said: “The first reports of any wild man in the US was around 1877, in Western North Carolina.
“Some gold miners ran into one as they were going to work in the mines.
“They followed it to a cave and found a whole bunch of bones of all different types of animals.
“They don't say if there's any human bones but that's what they found.”
Nearly 20 years on from this, another man was reportedly found in the same area.
It's said that he was taken to an asylum and revealed who he was and where he had come from.
Brian claimed: “Recently there has been an increase in reports of these people.
“They are supposedly known to set traps to capture lone hikers in the mountains.
“They have targeted the elderly and children specifically.”
In September 1981, Thelma Pauline ‘Polly’ Melton arrived at the National Park to go hiking with her two friends.
After walking a few yards ahead, she disappeared over the brow of a hill, and was also never seen again.
16-year-old Trenny Gibson also vanished from the Great Smoky Mountains while on a field trip with her school in 1976.
Christopher Cessna, 45, disappeared in the area just 15 years ago in 2011.
A year following this, Derek Lueking, 24, set off on a hike of the trail, before authorities later found a chilling note on his car which read: "Don’t look for me."
Donnie Laws claimed locals would never let their kids out of sight in the park.
He said: “You do not let your children run off into the dark woods by themselves. “That is a complete no-no.
“You don't have to meet a wild man or a big foot.
“He could just meet a bear or a bobcat or any animal.”
Mia Williams