Another Death From Pope Lick Monster Hunting?

A New Fatality

Louisville, Kentucky media has confirmed that two adolescent females on the Pope Lick Train Trestle were stuck by a train near Pope Lick Road, and Taylorsville Road, in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday night, May 26, 2019.

One teen is dead, per the dispatch supervisor, and the condition of the other teen is unknown. The Norfolk Southern train was operating in general freight service at the time of the incident, according to the corporation, and was en route to St. Louis.

The new incident was reported around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, May 26, 2019, near Taylorsville and Pope Lick Road, according to Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.

One sister of the victims responded to Travis Ragsdale's reporting of the incident for WDRB News.

The following is her tweet:

There is no confirmation of this tweet, to date.

The Pope Lick Monster

The most recent death previous to this event was when a train hit and killed a woman from Ohio in 2016, who was looking for the Pope Lick Monster.

The area is known to be "notoriously dangerous" as it is alleged to be the home of the Pope Lick Monster. The creature is said to be part human and part goat.

The Pope Lick Monster is the subject of an urban legend and popularized in YouTube videos, as well as a 1988 film, The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster (director Ron Schildknecht); and a 2013 episode of Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America (in "Ozarks"). There is also a haunted attraction themed after the tales surrounding the Pope Lick monster called the Legend at Pope Lick located at Pope Lick Park in the Parklands of Floyds Fork.

There are signs telling those in the area to keep away from the train trestle.

Deaths on the Trestle

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, in 2018 in Kentucky 10 people died while trespassing on train tracks and 16 were injured. There have been a number of deaths and accidents at the Pope Lick trestle since it’s construction.

The Pope Lick Trestle has gotten a lot of attention over the years due to a local legend. Suicides, near-misses, and homeless people's death have all been discussed by local authorities.

There were at least two confirmed deaths in 1987 and 1988, and many injuries and close calls, attributed to "Legend Tripping" looking for the Pope Lick Monster. The weekend before the 2019 incident, rumors were circulating that a death body had been found underneath the trestle.

The most recent acknowledged death before 2019 happened in 2016 when a woman was hit by a train while searching for the legendary monster.

Bain of Death

Before 2019, in 2016, Roquel Bain and her boyfriend Dave Knee decided to go to a paranormal event at the nearby Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a well-known haunted location often highlighted on "ghost hunter"-type reality programming. But with some time to fill, the couple decided to explore the Pope Lick Trestle and actively see if they could sight the Pope Lick Monster. Bain met her tragic fate there.

Roquel Bain, 26, the victim of the Pope Lick Trestle accident of 2016.

Ohio tourist David Knee is shown with girlfriend, Roquel Bain, 26. Bain died outside Louisville while searching for the famed Pope Lick Monster atop a train trestle with boyfriend Knee, 41, who survived by hanging on the edge.

For more on the Roquel Bain death, see:

"Woman Killed Searching For Pope Lick Monster," Cryptozoonews, April 24, 2016.

"Photo Exclusive: Trestle of Death Claims A Monster Hunter," Twilight Language, April 25, 2016.

As recently as the weekend of the May 2019 Pope Lick train trestle death, Twitter showed groups of people searching for hauntings at the Waverly Hills site in Louisville, located near Pope Lick. Individuals often going to one location end up at the other.

The Pope Lick Monster and the train trestle are said to be part of the Big Lick Triangle, a "window area" of high strangeness or Fortean activity.

h/t Craig Woolheater for this initial breaking news.

Victim Photo Exclusive: Trestle of Death Claims A Monster Hunter

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, a young woman and young man tempted fate and one died off of Kentucky's Pope Lick Creek Trestle. I posted the news of this tragedy at my other blog, Cryptozoonews, in "Woman Killed Searching For Pope Lick Monster," (Coleman, 2016), yesterday. The woman has been identified as Roquel Bain, 26, and this appears to be her image.

In Roquel Bain's purse, investigators found a work badge at the trestle death site that indicated she had worked as a surgical assistant (Warren, . The photograph above, online, identifies this individual as "Roquel Bain, Surgical Technology," (photobucket, 2016).

The specifics of this incident at Pope Lick Creek is interwoven with twilight language, and deserves a look here, as well.

The Pope Lick Monster is one of the urban legends that are vaguely referenced in sightings and stories of Goatmen and Satyrs seen in various locations (e.g Fairfax County, Virginia; Plain Dealing, Louisiana; Lincoln, Nebraska; Pope Lick Creek, Kentucky), (Hall, 2005; Coleman, 2009).

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23, 2016, the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Eighth Division responded to a report of a pedestrian struck in the 3100 block of South Pope Lick Road, off Taylorsville Road just outside of the Gene Snyder/Interstate 265. Bain had fallen 100 feet after being hit. (WAVE, 2016a, 2016b).

With the discovery of the body, an unfortunate story unfolded.

Roquel Bain of Dayton, Ohio, and an as-yet-unidentified boyfriend had purchased tickets to the 10:00 pm "haunted tour" of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium on Saturday night, April 23, 2016.

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a closed sanatorium located in southwestern Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky. It opened in 1910 and closed in 1961.

Waverly Hills has been popularized on the television show Ghost Hunters as being one of the "most haunted" hospitals in the eastern United States. The sanatorium was featured on ABC/FOX Family Channel's Scariest Places On Earth, VH1's Celebrity Paranormal Project, Syfy's Ghost Hunters, Zone Reality's Creepy, the British show Most Haunted, Paranormal Challenge and Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel. Also popularizing Waverly Hills was the film Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, released in 2006, which purports to document paranormal sightings at the site.(Wikipedia, 2016a).

The popularity of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium and the associated tours has increased greatly by the location being featured in so many reality programs.

The boyfriend told officials he and Bain came to town from Dayton for a paranormal tour scheduled from 10 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

Brandon Barnes, a security guard at Waverly Hills Sanatorium, said Bain had purchased two tickets online for $25 each for Saturday night's guided tour, which was attended by 45 ghost hunters.

As Bain and her male companion were early, and waiting for the sanatorium tour, they learned of the local legend of the "Pope Lick Monster." (The 1988 indie documentary The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster is well-known locally.) They decided to go "check it out," and found the railroad trestle. Thinking it was an abandoned railway, they decided to go up on it and look for the "Monster," despite the warning signs on private property.

The couple was soon surprised by an oncoming train. Despite the best efforts of the Norfolk Southern train's engineer to warn them off the track by blowing the horn and trying to stop the train, the train struck Bain. The two, reportedly, decided to hang off the side of the trestle. Bain could not move fast enough, and was hit. After being struck, she was dragged 80 feet and fell off the trestle. When found by first responders, Bain was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:39 p.m. (No drugs or alcohol was involved in this situation.)

The deputy coroner said he personally has investigated a handful of fatal train incidents that ranged from a homeless person falling asleep on the tracks, to a thrill seeker misjudging the time they had to get off the tracks to someone committing suicide. He said this is the first victim confirmed searching for the monster.
During his investigation, Arnold said he has learned that the area is popular with teens and young adults - especially on New Year's.
One Instagram photo from 2014, which got 188 likes, shows an Eastern High School graduate and a friend with their legs dangling off the trestle and proclaiming, "The Pope Lick Monster didn't get us, but a train almost did!" (Warren, 2016)

The nickname of the site is the "Trestle of Death," and this appears to be linked to deaths from 1986 and 1987. The Louisville Courier-Journal of December 30, 1988, published a page one essay, in the lower left-hand corner, "Trestle of Death," which detailed these two incidents (Louisville Courier-Journal, 2012).

Jack “J.C.” Charles Bahm II, 17, a Spalding University student, was attempting to make it across the trestle when he was hit and killed by a train on February 18, 1987. Graffiti on the trestle appears, now and then, recalling that event with messages such as “JC we love and miss you” in spray paint. Nineteen-year-old David Wayne Bryant, 19, was injured severely in 1986 when he jumped from the trestle to dodge an oncoming locomotive. Bryant died in May 1987, from those injuries. (See more on the "Wayne name game," here.)

In the fiction play, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by Naomi Wallace (Broadway Play Pub, 2000), the story of the trestle and death is set the 1930s.

Trestle is set in 1936 in a in a town so dull that the only thing young people can pit themselves against, the only thing greater than them, is the 7:10 train with its 153-ton engine and deafening roar. So we find Dalton and Pace, who becomes his girlfriend despite his repeated insistence that she is not pretty, making plans to test themselves by trying to outrun the train on a trestle a hundred feet above a dry creek bed. Another boy from their town tried it recently and died.... By the end, the play, like that train, has built up a full head of steam and we feel its power. --Anita Gates, The New York Times

Naomi Wallace, from Kentucky, was a 1999 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the grant popularly known as the genius award. A published poet in both England and The United States, she has also received grants from The Kentucky Foundation for Women and The Kentucky Arts Council and a 1997 NEA grant for poetry.

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According to 2016 news accounts (see references below), either the Bain death is the only fatality directly associated with the hunt for the Pope Lick Monster, or it is one of many.

The surname Bain originates in Scotland/northern England, where it was originally a nickname meaning "bones." It is also from the Welsh ap Einws, (son of Einws = "anvil"). SE shared that Baine is derived from the Irish word meaning "pale or white."

But there are other meanings. It is said to be from Middle English bain, bayne, bayn, been (“direct, prompt”), from Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favorable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”), from Proto-Germanic bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European bhei-(“to hit, beat”). Cognate with Scots bein, bien (“in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cozy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen”), Icelandic beinn (“straight, direct, hospitable”), Norwegian bein(“straight, direct, easy to deal with”).

James Shelby Downard's research in King Kill 33 notes that Bain relates to Bane ("fatal cause of mischief"), and in Scottish legend, the Bain Fairy is a death fairy who is the keeper of the Bain Bridge. King Kill 33 noted the American battleship Bainbridge, which was dedicated by Lyndon Baines Johnson, is a harbinger of death, according to Downward, (Coleman, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c).

Author Jim Brandon (personal communication, 2012) shared his insights about Bane/Bain:

Question is, did James Shelby Downard anticipate the whole thing? In my “Sirius Rising,” right up-front is Downard's enthusiastic digression on the Baines / MacBeth angle behind the JFK hit. Now, checking back, I see that he may have picked up on this from the then-obscure satirical play MacBird, dating from 1967, which reportedly plays around with the onomatology.

Shelby seems to have had prescient dark suspicions about Lyndon Baines Johnson himself, whose curiously nicknamed wife (née Claudia Taylor) started the whole bizarre Bird business. Recently, new testimony against LBJ has emerged, from Jackie Kennedy and E. Howard Hunt.

I highlighted the location of the Pope Lick Monster, which is in the Big Lick Triangle, at this Twilight Language blog, as #6, here.

Our sincere condolences to Roquel Bain's family and friends for this tragedy.

References:

Brandon, Jim. 2012. Personal communication to Loren Coleman.

Coleman, Loren. 2009. "Goatmen and Satyrs," Cryptomundo, October 11. http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/goatmen-satyrs/

Coleman, Loren. 2012a. "Bane/Bain: Batman's Villain & Romney's Curse (Part 1)” July 15.
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2012/07/banebain.html

Coleman, Loren. 2012b. "Bane/Bain Continues (Part 2)” Twilight Language. July 17.
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2012/07/banebain-continues.html

Coleman, Loren. 2012c. "Bane/Bain Bursts Bare (Part 3)” Twilight Language. July 19.
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2012/07/banebain-bursts-bare.html

Coleman, Loren. 2013. "Wayne Name Game." Twilight Language. May 13. http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2013/05/Waynesville.html

Coleman, Loren. 2015. "#6. The Big Lick Triangle, Indiana and Kentucky" in "
Top Ten American 'Bridgewater Triangles'" Twilight Language. August 30. http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/08/10Triangles.html

Coleman, Loren. 2016. "Woman Killed Searching For Pope Lick Monster," Cryptozoonews, April 24. http://www.cryptozoonews.com/popelick-death/

Hall, Mark A. 2005. "Satyrs in Our Midst," Wonders, September. (dead link online, published as journal)

Louisville Courier-Journal. 1988. "Trestle of Death." December 30.

Photobucket. 2016. "Roquel Bain, Surgical Technology" http://s156.photobucket.com/user/anjay711/media/RoquelBainST.jpg.html

Wallace, Naomi. 2000. The Trestle At Pope Creek. Broadway Play Pub.  http://smile.amazon.com/Trestle-At-Pope-Lick-Creek/dp/0881451800/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461592430&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=pope+creek+trestle+of+death

Warren, Beth. 2016. "Tourist Dies On Search for Pope Lick Monster," April 24. http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/04/24/tourist-dies-search-pope-lick-monster/83470646/

WAVE News. 2016a. "Ohio Woman Fatally Struck by Train in Kentucky"  April 24. http://www.wave3.com/story/31802617/ohio-woman-fatally-struck-by-train-in-kentucky

WAVE News. 2016b. "Coroner: Ohio Woman Killed by Train While Investigating 'Goatman' Myth," April 25. http://www.wave3.com/clip/12386140/coroner-ohio-woman-killed-by-train-while-investigating-goatman-myth

Wikipedia. 2016a retrieved. "Waverly Hills Sanatorium."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium

Wikipedia. 2016b retrieved. "Waverly Hills in entertainment." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium#Waverly_Hills_in_entertainment

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BAIN, Roquel Age 26, died suddenly and unexpectedly in a tragic accident on April 23, 2016 while visiting Louisville, KY. Roquel had graduated from Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center in 2006 and Miami Jacobs Career College with a degree in Surgical Technology in 2009. She was employed at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, OH as a surgical assistant. Along with her many talents, Roquel was a brilliant artist and painter and an amazing multifaceted musician. Her warm, glowing personality and contagious laughter will be missed immensely by all those whose life she touched. Roquel is survived by her beloved son, River; her mother, Connie Brown; her father, Brian Bain; her brother, Devin Pontsler; her grandparents, Phil and Cindy Brown, Kenneth and Linda Rowlett, and Ann Bain; her aunts, Katie Brown and Betsy Bain; her uncle, Doug Brown and Carolyn; and her cousins, Clarissa Vanover, Ayden Teegarden, Zayne and Zoe Brown, and Eric Ratliff. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, May 1, 2016 at the JONES-KENNEY-ZECHMAN FUNERAL HOME. Friends may visit with the family from 1:00 until 2:00 p.m. Private burial will be held at a later date.
Published in Springfield News-Sun from Apr. 27 to Apr. 28, 2016