What is that? Mysterious carcass washes ashore on Lake Michigan

Shelia Schmidt has lived in Grand Haven, Michigan, for a while now, but what she saw Wednesday marked a first for her.

Legend has it that there are lots of large and mysterious creatures lurking underneath Lake Michigan, but it’s what washed up on the lakeshore this week that has everyone talking.

“[Wednesday] morning, watching the storm, watching the waves – and, even though the windows were covered with rain – I could see something down the beach that looked unfamiliar,” Shelia Schmidt told Scripps News Grand Rapids. “I couldn’t tell what it was, so I walked down and took a couple of pictures.”

Schmidt has lived in Grand Haven and says she has seen it all. But Wednesday marked a first for her when she found a carcass washed ashore.

Scripps News Grand Rapids

“Initially, I thought it was a cow from this distance. And then I’m like, ‘no, it’s not a cow.’ Walk down, took the pictures, and I thought it was a goat. The internet thinks otherwise – that it’s a deer, and I don’t really know what it is,” she explained. “When you get down there and you’re up close enough to it, you can tell that there is still some hair on it, which is the darker, but for the most part, it’s probably been in the water for quite some time. And a lot of the hair is no longer there.”