Barbara ann thomason tent girl

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In May 1968, a well digger named Wilbur Riddle traveled along U.S. Route 25 in the Kentucky backwoods, collecting glass telephone pole insulators.

In the midst of his search, he came upon a bundled up green tarp. Riddle nudged the mass with his foot, sending it down an embankment.

Barbara ann thomason tent girl

In the rapid movement, the tarp unraveled to reveal the bundle within.

It was shaped like a body.

Riddle panicked and ran to a gas station, where he phoned the sheriff about his discovery. A short time later, the sheriff arrived and cut away the covering.

What he found horrified him. There, frozen in the stiff position of someone trying to escape, was the badly decomposed body of a young girl. She looked to be a white teenager with short brown hair. Apart from the decay, her appearance was unremarkable.

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Once the press took hold of the story, the unidentified female was quickly dubbed the "Tent Girl." Police issued a