The big Bigfoot story of 2008 was, of course, the ridiculous hoax perpetrated by two dolts in Georgia, who claimed they had a dead creature in a freezer and which turned out to be a costume. Meanwhile, the real Sasquatch stomped all over North America in 2008, triggering sightings: on Mount Cheam in British Columbia; in Northwestern Ontario; at Skiff Lake in Canada; on the Telkwa Highroad, Moricetown, British Columbia; on Highway 101, near Willits, California; and even near Redding in the U.K. And as far as physical evidence goes, researchers found and examined Yeti hair; several footprints, including in Nepal; and a rare fingerprint.
Has a real Bigfoot finally been caught? | |||
| Is Bigfoot for real? Maybe... A Clayton County Police officer says he and a friend have the body of a Bigfoot. The animal -- a legendary, hairy hominid that supposedly lives in remote forests -- is said to be dead, frozen, and "shocking." Matthew Whitton, a 28-year-old, who has been with the department for six years, and Rick Dyer, a 31-year-old former correctional officer, posted a video on youtube.com, last week, claiming to have the male Bigfoot corpse. Whitton and Dyer co-own bigfoottracker.com, offering exploration expeditions in the North Georgia Mountains, On their web site Whitton and Dyer announced an alleged discovery: "We have located a family of Bigfoot, and besides the clear photos and video, we have something even more shocking, a BODY." Stay tuned... The Clayton County Police Department responded to the news with an official statement giving the department some distance. "That's his own personal business," said Police Chief Jeff Turner. "That has nothing to do with the business of the Clayton County Police Department. As long as he's not engaged in any type of illegal activity, his business is his business." Turner said it is against department policy for any officer to represent himself or herself online, as an officer or anything other than an individual, private citizen, and said he does not know that Whitton has violated that policy. Whitton is currently on leave, recovering from a gunshot wound to his left hand during a response to a Stockbridge armed robbery earlier this month. The people who believe in Bigfoot and are searching for evidence responded to the announcement with a mixture of disbelief, ridicule and hope. The Bigfoot Field Research Organization, a California-based group claiming there have been 61 Bigfoot sightings in Georgia, officially described Whitton and Dyer as "idiots" and "clowns," and warned their claims are a scam to advertise their business. Tal H. Branco, an Arkansas man who writes a regular column about Bigfoot research, said a lot of Bigfoot people think the whole thing's a hoax, but a lot of people are hoping, too, that they do have a Bigfoot body. "Maybe Whitton did obtain the hard evidence required to solve one of the world's greatest mysteries," Branco said. "It is apparently being promoted by a police officer that has everything to lose as far as his profession is concerned, if it is a game, a hoax or just a joke. On the other hand, if it is true, and the Bigfoot body is in his custody ... his decision to announce it on an Internet web site before the body was examined by an expert certainly indicates a lack of good judgment." In one video, posted online by "RDYER678," Whitton and Dyer interview a "pathologist" who is shocked at the Bigfoot, but then, in a follow-up video, the pair admits the "doctor of pathology" is actually Whitton's brother. Standing in a kitchen, Whitton's brother says to the camera, "Live and let live. What happened to that? Guys just trying to have a little fun, you know?" Dyer said the claims are not a prank, though, and not just an attempt to have fun. Reached on his cell phone Tuesday, he insisted the body is real and will be unveiled on Sept. 1 on the web site. "Why would we jeopardize Matt's job? Why would we risk the embarrassment of the backlash that we would get? We just have a lot to lose if this is a hoax ... I thought Bigfoot trackers and hunters were ridiculous and I made fun of them, to be honest, and I still do. They know nothing as fact. We do," Dyer said. Dyer said the Internet announcement and the obvious lie were meant to draw detractors and "build hype." Other Bigfoot researchers were dismissed by Dyer, and he said he and Whitton are the best trackers because they "have a body." He said the animal is about eight-feet tall, and about equal to the size of "three silverbacks," adult male gorillas, and nothing like the reported descriptions in the books. "I've never seen anything like this," he said. "It's a lot more than animal." Dyer did not say how they came into possession of the carcass, and declined to let a news reporter look at it, but swore it was being well-preserved and would be revealed. Dyer said he and Whitton plan to sell the Bigfoot body and make a lot of money. "As of right now," he said, "we've been offered a million bucks for it, from a very credible source. But we'll make 10 times that. This will change history forever." A seven-foot Sasquatch has been spotted near Chilliwack, a witness says. And two local Sasquatch hunters are convinced the sighting, reported last month [June 2008] on Mount Cheam, is the real deal. “This was a legitimate sighting, not a bear, not a deer or anything else,” said Bill Miller, a full-time Sasquatch hunter who lives in Harrison Hot Springs. The Sasquatch was sighted on June 19 at 2 a.m. when a husband and wife were travelling down the mountain after watching the city lights from a lookout point. The wife was busy fiddling with CDs when the creature crossed in front of them. “He grabbed his wife’s arm and said ‘did you see that guy cross the road?,’” said Tom Steenburg, a Sasquatch hunter and Big Foot author, who interviewed the couple two days after the sighting. “His wife started asking him questions, like what was he wearing. He said that he wasn’t wearing anything, he was just really hairy. She asked how tall he was. He just said that he was really big. Finally she asked, was it the Sasquatch? No, he replied. It couldn’t have been, there’s no such thing as the Sasquatch.” Thomas Steenburg is shown with his former investigative vehicle, a Land Rover, which assisted him in his Alberta research. Now Tom lives in British Columbia, where he feels he has a better chance of catching up with a Sasquatch and finding good evidence. The man who saw the figure described it as having “long arms, down to his knees,” a “very heavy, big upper body,” a “thin waist,” a “flat stomach,” and no neck, “just kind of a head.” He compared it to being “big like a wrestler, flexing its back and chest.” He also said it was about seven feet tall, covered in black hair, and walked on two legs. “He said they came around the bend, then something took a step up from the trees and out onto the road,” said Miller. “It took only two quick steps across the road, looked towards them, and then it was gone.” Miller, who has been a Sasquatch hunter for 10 years, and Steenburg, who has been one for 29 years, investigated the site in the following days. “We looked for signs of where it might have gone into the bush and I found it immediately,” said Steenburg, who has investigated over 500 Sasquatch sightings in his career. “I saw exactly where it stepped.” They found elongated trackings of crushed sprouts and pine needles, measuring a few feet in length, and over four feet apart. Although there was no Sasquatch hair found at the scene, and the road was too hard to leave behind any detailed footprints, the two hunters still believe there is enough evidence to prove that the Sasquatch had passed through. “It’s too problematic to explain it as a hoax rather then accept it,” said Miller. “Who would be running around out here in this ankle-breaking country, in a gorilla suite, on a warm night, sweating their tail off, jumping in front of cars?” The tracks led all the way down a steep 60-metre hill, covered in branches, trees and shrubs. Miller believes that if someone was playing a prank they would have only waited at the side of the road instead up struggling uphill in the dark. As well, the tracks were in a straight line. According to Miller this is even more supporting evidence, as the Sasquatch has a mid-tarsal break in their foot that allows them to walk one foot directly in front of the other with ease. “If I, or any other human, were to climb this hill I would need to turn my feet sideways to stay balanced,” he said. “But these footprints are in a straight line, like he was walking a tight rope. They even go straight over a two foot high shrub in one step. This is circumstantial evidence.” The footprints also proved that the sighting couldn’t have just been a bear. “A bear walks on four feet, and throws its weight from side to side when walking,” he said. “And their footprints are only the size of baseballs, they aren’t elongated like these impressions.” Along with the footprints, Miller pointed out that the description the man provided was too accurate to be a joke. He also ruled out the possibility of the man playing a prank on himself and Steenburg, saying that he had no motive. The man who reported the sighting, an avid hunter, wishes to remain anonymous. “He was really apologetic, and really agitated,” said Miller. “He seemed to be wrestling with the idea that he just saw a Sasquatch. He didn’t believe in them.” According to Miller and Steenburg most people who report sighting don’t want to be named for fear of a tarnished reputation. “Ninety per cent of the population don’t believe that the Sasquatch even exists,” said Steenburg. Both men receive their fair share of slack when they tell people what they do for a living. “It’s human nature to laugh at what your ignorant about,” said Steenburg. “But that’s what it’s all about, trying to get people who tell you it doesn’t exist to believe in it.” Miller feels the same way. “It’s easy to be skeptical and laugh at it,” he said. “But no one has ever stepped up to give a counter explanation for the evidence we have collected, even when they’ve been offered money.” Miller and Steenburg both use their own money to keep the dream alive. Miller is living and working off of his pension right now, but is hoping that the video he will one day get of the Sasquatch will support him for the rest of his life. “I don’t want to see it close enough where I can feel it’s breath in my face,” he said. “But I want a video of it. That’s all I need. Just a video of it, and I’m set.” REDBRIDGE: 'Bigfoot' spotted againMORE people have come forward claiming to have seen a Bigfoot-like creature in the Wanstead and Woodford area. Last week we revealed how fitness instructor Michael Kent saw a peculiar-looking Bigfoot-like animal emerge from trees near the Hollow Ponds area of Epping Forest, on the border between Wanstead and Leytonstone. And now pensioner Irene Dainty, of Love Lane in Woodford Bridge, claims she was left shaking after she came face to face with a hairy creature which surprised her in her street. Mrs Dainty told the Guardian she was “absolutely convinced” that what she saw was not human, or a normal species of animal life. She said: “I had just come out of my flat and just as I had turned the corner I saw this hairy thing come out of nowhere. I really don’t want to see it again. “It was about 4ft tall and with really big feet and looked straight at me with animal eyes. Then it leaped straight over the wall with no trouble at all and went off into the garden of the Three Jolly Wheelers pub. “I was so terrified that I went around to my neighbour’s house and told her what happened. She couldn’t believe it and asked me if I had been drinking, but I said of course I hadn’t – it was only about 3pm.” Park officials have poured scorn on the so-called witness claims and are adamant there are no strange creatures roaming in Epping Forest. Orelia Vaivadaite works at the Three Jolly Wheelers Pub in Chigwell Road, but said she had not seen anything odd in her back garden. She added: “The manager who lives upstairs may have seen it, but he has recently resigned. He didn’t mention anything to me though.”
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