Dark-haired onryo. Kuchisake-onna. Hanako-san of the toilet. Japanese folklore has long dominated the Western horror world, but Thailand’s haunts may just be able to compete.

In 2008, the owner of a lemon juice factory in Khlong Sip Song, Thailand, heard strange noises coming from the side wall of the factory at night. Thinking it was a thief, she installed additional CCTV cameras. About ten days later, an object accompanied by a glowing light appeared on the camera. It was distant at first, difficult to make out, but as it drew closer to the camera, it distinctly resembled the legendary krasue.

A krasue is a spirit from Thai folklore. Similar to a Japanese onryo, the krasue tends to be pale, with long, dark hair, though it can also appear in the image of an elderly woman. What separates her from the onryo, however, is the fact that the krasue does not have a body. At least, not at night. The krasue masquerades as human during the day, but at night, she removes her head from her body with her internal organs still attached to the neck. This is a recurring trope in Southeast Asian spirits: the Philippines have a similar spirit called a manananggal, a winged man disembodied from the torso up.

Once her head and organs are free, the krasue will float around the countryside to hunt. The Thai version of the legend specifically holds that the krasue is cursed with insatiable hunger and is attracted to places were filth and vermin are common. She prefers blood or meat, but will resort to eating carrion or excrement if that’s all she can find. In some villages, people would avoid leaving clothes outside to dry at night, as they would sometimes be found soiled with blood or excrement in the morning after the krasue supposedly wiped her mouth.

Similar to popular conceptions of vampires, the krasue must return to her body before dawn, but there’s an interesting twist: the krasue must also take care to hide her body on separating from it. Crushing the body while the head is disembodied is usually fatal to the spirit, as is hiding the body or cutting off the intestines. Some versions hold that the krasue is also vulnerable to fire. Homeowners were advised to build spiky fences or grow spiky bamboo around their property to ward off the krasue. She supposedly feared spikes, thinking that she might snag her organs on them and injure herself or be unable to escape.

The krasue sighting in 2008 specifically resembled the elderly-woman version of the myth. The footage, timestamped at 11:27 p.m. on July 22^nd, was taken for observation at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. While under investigation, two startling facts were revealed. The first was that when zoomed in, the krasue almost appears to snatch birds out of mid-air with its intestine. The second fact? When examined by Dr. Chawan Koopipat, associate professor and visual image expert at Chulalongkorn University, the footage was confirmed to be authentic and unaltered. Koopipat hypothesized that it was a reflection of light from water in nearby rice fields, but locals disagreed, saying that a similar krasue had haunted the area for quite some time.