The policemen had been combing the green yards and fields of Ballyvadlea, Ireland, for a week when they finally found Bridget Cleary. The 26-year-old’s body had been wedged beneath several inches of clay and a jumble of thorn bushes, but her corpse showed wounds caused by something much worse than branches: Her spine and lower limbs were so badly burned that parts of her skeleton were exposed. She was naked, except for a stocking and one gold earring, and her head was encased in a sack.

The judge would later describe the events leading up to Bridget’s death as demonstrating “a degree of darkness in the mind, not just of one person, but of several—a moral darkness, even religious darkness.” It was the end of the 19th century, not exactly the Middle Ages, but those involved in the end of Bridget’s life had become convinced that she wasn’t really herself—and that a supernatural creature had taken her place.

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