Following what proved to be an unsuccessful large-scale hunt for the mythical Loch Ness Monster, a woman has released a pair of photos taken in 2018 that she claims show the long-sought-after creature.
As reported by The Telegraph, Chie Kelly said she took a pair of photos of the Scottish folklore legend traveling at a "steady speed" years ago during an August 2018 family vacation to the Scottish Highlands. She was having lunch with her husband Scott at the Dores Inn, which rests on the banks of the freshwater loch when she took a photo of what appeared to be a large, unidentified creature moving in the water.
“I was just taking pictures with my Canon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 meters from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature,” she said. "It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. After a couple of minutes, it just disappeared and we never saw it again."
At first, she thought the sighting might have been a large otter or even a seal, but whatever it was never came back up for air.
"It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. There were these strange shapes below the surface," she continued. "I could not accurately assess its length, but the two parts that were visible were less than two meters long together. I don’t know what it was but it was definitely a creature—an animal. At the time I did not want to face public ridicule by making the photographs public."
It wasn't until the large-scale search at Loch Ness earlier this week, as reported by NBC News, that she felt compelled to share the photos thanks to one expert who suggested she had a convincing find on her hands.
Steve Feltham, who has spent over 30 years hoping to find the mythical Nessie, helped persuade her to share the photos. "These are the most exciting surface pictures [of Nessie] I have seen. They are exactly the type of pictures I have been wanting to take for three decades. It is rare to see something so clear on the surface," Feltham said. "They are vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness. They are remarkable. I have studied them and still do not know what it is."
The Loch Ness Monster, otherwise known as Nessie, has fascinated people for hundreds of years. The first reported sighting of such a creature was recorded in 565, and plenty of people have attested to having spotted Nessie ever since. Perhaps the most famous photograph of the apparent creature, however, was published in 1934. The so-called "surgeon's photograph" showed a dark creature emerging from the loch, but it was later identified as a hoax.
