There's Bigfoot, the giant ape-like animal that roams the wild forests on the West Coast. Across the pond, there's Nessie, the Loch Mess Monster that hides in the deep, dark waters of the Scottish Highlands. In Mexico and Texas, they have the Chupacabra, the blood-sucking goat that some say has killed animals. And in South Carolina we have the Lizard Man, the creature supposedly terrorizing Bishopville since 1988.
That year, a 17-year-old reported a run-in with a scaly lizard that stood on two legs. Now, there's speculation that the creature may be back.
On Ida Lane in rural Lee County, they're struggling to explain what took place Monday morning.
"I ran into the house and told my wife to call the police because something happened to the car," explained Leon Marshall.
"The tooth marks went completely through the fender," added his wife Ada. Early that morning the Marshall's woke up to find their car mauled by something. "That's metal! And it just bent it up. Like it was a piece of tissue paper," said Ada.
The question is by what?
To former Lee County Sheriff Liston Truesdale, this sounds all too familiar.
"This part here is how it all started in 1988," explained Truesdale. "We got a call to come and look at something that had mauled a car. I went out there and looked at that damaged car, and I haven't seen anything like that before."
About that same time there were bizarre calls coming in.
"They had been seeing a large creature about 7 feet tall, with big red eyes, with three pointed fingers."
So he started asking residents, "have you seen anything like a big tall creature round there? And the guys said, 'what you mean that lizard man?' That's how it started and you got it from the horse's mouth."
Back then, there was a media frenzy.
"Everyone thought they were going to get a glimpse of the Lizard Man but he didn't appear."
The damage on the Marshall's car is almost identical to the damage on the two cars from back then.
Was it the Lizard man?
"I'm skeptical about that. I'm not gonna go that far. I'll believe it when I see it," said the Marshalls.
"Everything it laid off on the poor lizard man," jokes Truesdale. "But at this point, he must have grandchildren!"
Whether you believe in the Lizard Man or not, he certainly did generate a lot of buzz. In 1988 it's estimated that about 50,000 visitors came to Lee County in hopes of spotting the creature.
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