POWELL RIVER, British Columbia, Canada – During the last 24 hours, the trail cam capture of individuals touching a dead deer has exploded across the internet in numerous languages. In too many ways, the bizarreness of this story cannot be underestimated but it immediately intrudes upon the Pagan community.
Photos of “witches” were reportedly captured by Corinea Stanhope, a 36-year-old nurse from Powell River, British Columbia, who shared them on social media. However, the photos are held in copyright by Kennedy News and Media in the UK. They invite the public to submit material: “Have an incredible set of photos or an amazing video? Find out how we can turn them into money for you.”
The Mirror originally reported the story five days ago, and after fermenting on the web, it became a viral phenomenon of witches eating a deer carcass.
Stanhope reportedly found a dead deer in her garden while riding on one of her horses. She decided to set up a trail camera to see if the dead deer would attract any animals during the night. Reports said she had recently captured a bobcat on camera.
When she and her grandfather, Bob, reviewed the footage they observed “two half naked women appearing to ‘dine’ on the corpse.” The figures near the carcass are seen stooped over with their hair covering their faces. They appeared, according to report, 10 minutes after the trail camera has been set up by Stanhope. “I came in the next day, and Grandpa said there were naked people on the camera, and I said, ‘No, you didn’t. Bullshit. ‘So he showed me,” she said.
Stunned nurse: I caught ‘witches holding a carcass-eating ritual’ on my security camerahttps://t.co/SVhMYEsLTW
— Kennedy News and Media (@Kennedy__News) June 6, 2023
Reports say that the “images show what appears to be two figures with long, matted, black hair wearing just a piece of cloth covering their buttocks standing over the dead deer.”
In another image, one of the figures is seen lifting the hoof of the carcass to her mouth.
Stanhope told The Mirror, “I’m hoping they went for a walk in the day, saw the trail cam was set up and wanted to have a bit of fun with us or they’re on some good drugs.” She added “I wanted to go to the police but my grandpa said no, they weren’t doing anything illegal technically. He was pretty mortified.”
Stanhope is quoted as saying, “You can’t really tell from the photos but the hoof was brought right up to her mouth. I don’t know if she was kissing it, smelling or eating it but to touch a decaying carcass like that makes me feel sick. The amount of bacteria that must have been on there. Maybe they were paying their respects but they were naked.”
The original story, exclusive to The Mirror, was titled “Woman’s horror as wildlife cam catches ‘naked witches hosting carcass-eating ritual.'” The Mirror‘s reporting suggests that the term “witches” originated in social media posts but its use seized headlines.
To be clear, none of the images provide any detail affirming that the individuals are Witches. There is no Pagan imagery or any evidence that images involve Paganism, Wicca, or Witchcraft.
In one image the person is partially disrobed and appears female while the other figure is less clear. In one image the second figure appears to be wearing boots and pants.
Some commentators have called into question the veracity of the images others have noted that it is likely a prank. Indeed, the convenience of the angles to always exclude identifiable elements of the characters raises serious questions. Moreover, if this is a trail cam, and no video has been released.
Other commentators on social media speculated the male figure is an abuser and called for an investigation by local authorities.
To many individuals’ credit, our community was defended by commentators, calling out assumptions about Witches and/or Witchcraft.
In another, perhaps unsurprising twist, Fox News and their affiliates, as well as Infowars, and Breitbart all picked up the story as “Scantily clad ‘witches’ caught munching on deer carcass in bizarre security cam footage” while Fox further doubled-down with the S-word: “Social media users speculated ‘carcass-eating ritual’ was either prank or satanic.” Infowars linked a scene from the 2015 film, “The Witch,” and added images of Samara Morgan from “The Ring” series.
The “creepy” photographs brought comments from locals that the images were of witches, evil spirits, demons, or a local cult performing a ritual. Others suggested the images are of Skinwalkers, a harmful being known to Diné culture that shapeshifts between human and animal. Another suggested the similar Wendigo known to the Indigenous people of the Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations. None of which is verifiable in the photos circulated by Stanhope and the media.
We can appreciate the folk horror of it all.
Image via The Blair Witch Project (Artisan Entertainment).
But, perhaps even more surprising is that the story and images have been shared by conservative Christian leaders.
Mentioning the story, Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee who famously held a book burning to destroy Witchcraft items seized on the story. Locke reportedly said that “the world is facing an unprecedented threat from witchcraft and the occult, too many covered their ears because they did not want to hear what he had to say.”
He added that “Now, witchcraft, the occult and paganism are exploding across the globe, and especially in the United States and Canada. There is a spiritual war going on that is manifesting itself in physical ways that are too numerous to count.”
Whether a prank or a random video of weird people in a forest, the title of “witches” has catalyzed public attention. On the one hand, the media is using it as clickbait to raise their presence and advertising revenue.
On the other, regardless of any lack of evidence, there will be corners hearing the call to purge the world of witches and their demonic forces. Our community will be dealing with that effect one way or another.
As for Corinea Stanhope, using public record searches, TWH was not even able to verify she is a real person. Nevertheless, Stanhope, whose profile now also appears to have vanished from social media, is quoted as saying, “I don’t know what the heck was up with that.”
It really does sum it all up.
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