Shadow person sightings map
Accounts of a dark, person-shaped figure with no features -- seen in a doorway, at the foot of a bed, or crossing a road. Reports where somebody simply described the light or a dark shape are not here; these are accounts that name the figure itself.
Other names in the sources: Shadow people, Shadow man, Shadow figure.
We map claims, not creatures. A case is what some source says someone saw or heard, with the link to that source. It is not proof that anything was there, and a retelling counts once, not as a second sighting.
By the numbers
471 cases on the map, 352 of them first-hand (the witness telling it). A case may stand on several documents; copies and reprints are not confirmations.
Best-documented cases
Ranked by independent sources first, then documents, then first-hand accounts. This says how well a claim is documented, not whether it is true.
Shadow Person · New Hampshire
Witness reports seeing a roughly two or three feet tall, light-absorbing humanoid with an enlarged head that transformed into a shadow dog/cat/bear and shrieked before fleeing.
Shadow Person · Virginia · 2019
The narrator reports seeing a large-headed, thin-limbed creature that reflected no light and moved on all fours like an animal with backward-bending knees.
Shadow Person
Witness reports seeing white spots on parents' faces and moving bright green things when closing eyes during childhood.
Shadow Person · 2026
Witness reports seeing a bald, pale creature with big eyes and a bony face while lying in bed.
Shadow Person · Florida · 2006
Witness reports seeing a thin black nubbed leg or tail disappear behind a tree while camping in Central Florida.
Shadow Person · Santa Clara County, California
The narrator's mother reports seeing a tall man in a black brimmed hat and trench coat standing in her lane on the freeway during a storm.
Further reading
- On the Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans (1959)
The founding work of cryptozoology.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Cryptozoology A to Z, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark (1999)
Encyclopedia of reported creatures.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Abominable Science!, Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero (2013)
Skeptical history of the Yeti, Nessie and others.
Borrow on Internet Archive - In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, Karl Shuker (1995)
Borrow on Internet Archive
Books we have not reproduced: borrow them free at archive.org. Listing a book is not an endorsement of its claims.