Caught on film

Stunning image

Those who have followed this space over the years know I've never shied from discussing pretty much anything I believe readers will find interesting or relevant, hopefully both.

That would include today's topic, which has been shown over the years on television and the Internet. Yet I doubt many in Arkansas are familiar with the story--well, until today. If the image I'm about to tell you about is valid; I have zero reason to suspect it isn't, considering the source and circumstances. Nowhere can I find it's ever been proven contrived or a hoax.

Over the course of a journalistic career I've seen many compelling photographs taken in both black and white and color.

Among all the remarkable work, a picture taken by a Minnesota police officer for me stands as the most significant and stunning of all.

There's probably no suitable word to best describe the photo Officer Brian Coyle of the St. Paul Police Department says he took in December 1984. And it was a photograph he didn't even realize he'd taken until days later when a stunned darkroom technician summoned Coyle to the station to review what he'd just developed.

It was two days after Christmas when four teenagers were driving on a foggy night to a rock concert. Rounding a wide curve in front of the city's Highland Park Golf Course, the driver lost control and slammed headlong into a large tree. The three youths wearing seat belts were uninjured.

But the fourth boy, still in the process of moving from the rear to the front passenger's seat, hadn't yet belted. He'd been slammed forward from the impact and lay slumped and lifeless beneath the front passenger seat.

Coyle and his partner were summoned within minutes and began processing the scene as they had so many other accidents. Coyle grabbed the 35mm camera and started taking photographs of the car from various angles. For him, this was another tragedy in a list of fatality wrecks he'd investigated over the years. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him that evening.

Days later, Coyle left his roll of film with the department's photo lab for processing. A short time later, the lab technician called to say Coyle needed to come to the station and see what his photographs revealed. That was an era before digital photography or PhotoShop.

Coyle said he was shocked to see he'd captured the very large glowing face of a young brown-haired man with his mouth agape as if screaming in anguish. The startling image was hovering above where the body lay in the vehicle. All the youth's features from his eyes to ears and nose are there, along with equally inexplicable glowing golden and red streaks of light twisting and turning through and around the vehicle. They appear to be streaks of energy. Coyle said he had seen none of these things at the accident scene.

Yet the mysterious images are distinct. There's also the unmistakable impression of a large dog, perhaps a Lab, on the door. The pooch appears to be turning its head toward the camera's flash and was said to be identical to one the deceased young man had lost earlier in life.

On the Destination America cable program CaseFiles Unknown, created by Barry Conrad, the officer explains details of his photograph but emphasizes that he (and no one else who's seen it over the years) has no explanation. "There's never been an explanation," he said. "For years I kept this photograph out of the public eye mainly as protection toward the boy's family."

He said people he'd spoken with after seeing the picture all said it had changed their perspective on death. "Asked what I believe ... until I can get an explanation I believe, I'm seeing the soul of this young man as it leaves his body," Coyle said.

Others have agreed, saying it's the only possible explanation that's logical and makes sense.

I tried reaching Coyle, who retired in 2014, but hadn't made contact by deadline. Janis Peterson, an employee with the police department's Forensic Services Unit, said he'd previously shared the photo with her and she had no doubt the images he caught are real.

You can find the story and photograph by googling "the ghost that screamed." Like me, I doubt you can ever forget what you see or keep from contemplating the spiritual significance behind it. Yes, valued readers, this is one incredible photo I doubt can or will ever be debunked.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 01/24/2016

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