In November 1966 two young couples driving near an abandoned munitions site outside Point Pleasant reported a large figure with red glowing eyes that chased their car. Over the following year dozens of similar reports came in from around the same area.
Thirteen months later the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River and forty six people died. The sightings stopped. That timing is the entire reason anyone still talks about Mothman rather than filing it with a hundred other regional sightings, and it’s also the weakest part of the case. The bridge failed because of a single cracked eyebar, a documented engineering failure, and connecting the two requires deciding the sightings meant something before the fact.
The prevailing explanation is a barn owl or sandhill crane, both of which are large, have reflective eyes in headlights, and were plausibly in the area. Barn owls in particular reach a four foot wingspan and will fly directly at a moving vehicle.
Point Pleasant now has a statue, a museum, and an annual festival, so the town has made its peace with whatever it was.