A controversial video taken by one amateur ghost hunter has now been released after almost two years of secrecy. The footage reportedly shows a group of individuals on a simple survey of a well lit public park documenting the area and keeping an eye out for anything paranormal. In addition to the normal wildlife the sun is shining and there are even families strolling through the park in plain sight. Even some of the most blase ghost investigators who have seen hundreds of films on the paranormal will still have to do a double take with this one.
The footage comes from Jesse Greathouse, who kept it secret for two years while he worked on getting a copyright for the video. As Jesse was out visiting his relatives in Savannah Georgia in 2008 around Christmas. As he was out taking footage of the local cemetery, he suddenly catches sight of a small child running quickly down a path. As the child darts past gravestones, it suddenly disappears. Moments later you can see what appears to be the same figure suddenly jumping into the tree and moments later falling back down to the ground. The figure is by no means normal looking, though when the child can be seen running it appears to be a perfectly normal child dressed in normal clothes. Though many who have viewed the tape suggest the clothing is “period dress” there is nothing that looks to me to be unusual about at least this aspect of the film.
And although it is one of the most compelling cases of ghost footage being witnessed in the past year, the number of interruptions where we see the child moving out of view because he runs behind a tombstone make this footage at least a bit odd. The key few frames of contention in the future will no doubt be the point between when he runs behind a tombstone and then is seen jumping up presumably almost a dozen feet into the tree before falling back down again.
To the skeptical eye, once the child runs behind the tombstone it appears he could be simply stopping right there while an unrelated creature suddenly leaps up the tree or a large object is thrown parallel to the side of the tree into its branches. Then, the object that falls down could be any of a number of things. Some have theorized that the object that falls is actually a bag or a towel or blanket of some sort. The fact that so many people are clearly in the park that day casually strolling by without noticing the strange incident unfolding right by them is an indicator that the object was either for whatever reason invisible to them or it didn’t seem worth noticing for some other reason. Of course it’s always possible there is a more mundane explanation for the events that unfolded that day.
If we can determine that the child is actually jumping into the tree, it does suggest something incredibly strange is going on. A surveyed average of people suggests that most adults cannot jump more than one foot vertically. Of course this is the average, not the median. Many people are capable of jumping three feet vertically in the air without difficulty. Still, an Olympic high jumper who has been training for years can leap up to six and a half feet. How then, is this entity leaping at a height of almost twelve feet? Optical illusion or superhuman feat? You be the judge.