First mentioned in the late 1980s, the purported sightings and damage attributed to the creature yielded a significant amount of newspaper, radio and television publicity.
On July 14, 1988, the Lee County sheriff's office investigated a report of a car damaged overnight while parked at a home in the area of Browntown outside Bishopville, South Carolina, on the edges of the Scape Ore Swamp.
Sheriff Liston Truesdale noted this was the start of various claims that eventually coalesced into a story about a lizard man in the swamp.
[3] On August 5, Kenneth Orr, an airman stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, filed a police report alleging that he had encountered the Lizard Man on Highway 15, and he had shot and wounded it.
Orr recanted this account two days later when he was arraigned for unlawfully carrying a pistol and the misdemeanor offense of filing a false police report.
[9] In 2008, CNN mentioned the Lizard Man legend in a story about a couple in Bishopville who reported damage to their vehicle, including blood traces.
[11] In 2015, local television station WCIV featured photos and videos claimed to be Lizard Man, allegedly taken by Jim Wilson and other unidentified individuals.
[12][13] In August 2017, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division sent a humorous tweet "regarding possible paranormal activity" during the solar eclipse that passed over the area, hinting that people of Lee and Sumter counties should "remain vigilant" for sightings of the Lizard Man.
Radford questioned how Davis was able to see details of the Lizard Man creature at 2 am when there was no lighting nearby in a heavily wooded area when the moon was not bright.