Tourist killed by train while hunting for mythical monster

A woman has been killed after being hit by a train while searching for a mythical beast called the Pope Lick Monster in Louisville, USA.

Roquel Bain, 26, from Ohio, was hunting for the creature with her boyfriend on what the pair believed was an abandoned railway when she was struck.

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She was thrown 80ft to the ground after being hit by the train hurtling towards them on the bridge, while her boyfriend managed to cling on to the edge of the tracks and was unhurt.

The urban legend, which is half man and half goat, got its name because it's said to live beneath a railway trestle by Pope Lick Creek.

Roquel and her boyfriend were in Louisville for a "haunted" tour of the shuttered Waverly Hills Sanatorium, but decided to take a detour to search for the Pope Lick Creek while they were in the area.

According to the Mirror, deputy coroner Jack Arnold said: "It's just so sad — a very pretty young girl who had her life in front of her.

"It's just so preventable."

Local residents say the myth has caused a number of deaths over the years.

According to the Metro, Denise Harris said: "If they're halfway through [the tracks] and the train comes, you either have to jump, run or basically get it.

"When you're young, you think you live forever; it's a euphoria. Or they think they can outrun the train. That's a long way to run and you can't run that fast."

Raw Story says of the legend: "Some say the monster is the offspring of a local farmer who had unnatural relations with his livestock, while others say the Goatman was a satanic farmer whose animal sacrifices gave him the power to live forever but doomed him to walk the trestle as a hideous beast.

"Another legend claims the Goatman was part of a travelling circus in the 1800s — until lightning struck a train and killed everyone aboard, except for the freakish creature."