© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe
Bigfoot Body Found in Georgia?
© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe
“The creature is intimidating to look at – even dead.
Also, there were three other live Bigfoots flanking us on each side
all the way to the trail.” - Rick Dyer, Georgia “Bigfoot” Co-Discoverer
Alleged Bigfoot creature laying in dark water (green garden hose in lower right corner)
after second frost-free beef freezer failed to ice over the animal by the end of June 2008.
Pink entrails are intestines poking through abdominal opening, cause unknown.
Campers Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer say they found the dead animal
next to a creek in northern Georgia on June 10, 2008, at 4 PM. Whitton and Dyer did not
contact Tom Biscardi of Searchingforbigfoot.com until Thursday, July 31, 2008.
Image © 2008 by Searchingforbigfoot.com, Bigfoot Global LLC.
Matthew Whitton (left) and Rick Dyer (right), who say they found a dead,
male Bigfoot in northern Georgia on June 10, 2008, two months before this group image
was taken. The Bigfoot carcass is iced in freezer at left. Tom Biscardi (middle), met with
Whitton and Dyer for the first time on July 31, and has since been publicizing the
creature and organized the Palo Alto, California, press conference
on August 15, 2008. Image courtesy Bigfoot Global LLC.
August 16, 2008 Palo Alto, California - On Friday, August 15, 2008, Tom Biscardi, owner and producer of Searchingforbigfoot.com held a mid-day press conference at the Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto, California, where Biscardi resides. His press release dated August 12, 2008, stated, “DNA evidence and photo evidence to be presented that a Bigfoot body found.”
The press release also listed “vital statistics on the Bigfoot body:
- The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
- It weighs over 500 pounds.
- The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
- It is male.
- It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
- It has two arms and two legs and five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.
- The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
- Its footprint is 16 3/4s inches long and 5 3/4s inches wide at the heel.
- From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are 11 3/4s inches long and 6 1/4 inches wide.
- The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
- The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.”
Tom Biscardi, center, surrounded by media as he gave out photos of what he says
are both a deceased and a living Bigfoot or Sasquatch during his press conference
Friday, Aug. 15, 2008, in Palo Alto, Calif. Image © 2008 by Ben Margot/AP.
Participating in the press conference with Tom Biscardi were two men who say they discovered the dead Bigfoot body: Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, Georgia residents. Matthew Whitton's employment has included “police officer” and Rick Dyer is described as a “prison guard” and Bigfoot guide.
After the Friday press conference, I talked with Tom Biscardi by phone about the timeline of events and was surprised to learn that he was not contacted by Whitton and Dyer until Thursday, July 31, 2008 - which was 52 days after the body had been rolled into a tarp, winched up into a flatbed truck, hauled back to one of the men's homes and put in a beef freezer. Later on Friday, Rick Dyer told me their goal was to fill the freezer with water so the creature would be encased in ice for preservation. But the first freezer failed, the second was frost free and wouldn't make ice. Finally, the two men purchased a third beef freezer so that the Bigfoot creature found on June 10, 2008, is now encased in a block of ice somewhere in northern Georgia.
Thus, the photograph at the top of this page was the Bigfoot in the second freezer at the end of June 2008. The pink tissues are intestines spilling out of a hole in the abdomen, cause unknown. Some of the intestinal tissue was gathered and sent to a man named Curt Nelson for DNA analysis, but professional credentials are not given. Below is an email released on August 15, 2008, for the press conference. [ Editor's Note: Prof. Curt Nelson is listed as Senior Scientist on the Universityof Minnesota Department of Entomology Department Directory.]
DNA report presented at August 15, 2008, press conference in Palo Alto, California,
by Tom Biscardi. Tissue sample was from pink intestines erupting from the creature's abdomen.
Curt Nelson: ”One of the DNA segments from the tissue sample was 100% human
(about 500 base pairs). The other DNA segment was an apparent mix of DNA sequence.
However, the DNA sequence interpreted by the sequencing computer algorithm
indicates at least a 96% match do Didelphis virginians - a possum.“
Tom Biscardi said in the press conference that perhaps the DNA possum confirmation was from the last meal the Bigfoot ate before its death of unknown cause. Biscardi agreed that more DNA analysis with a highly credible laboratory needs to be done.
Tom Biscardi also held up a photograph encased in plastic showing a close-up of the creature's head and teeth, which are very even and light in color with no apparent incisors. Another photograph he showed was of a woods in which there is a large, dark-colored biped figure in the background.
This video frame shows dark figure at center, which Dyer and Whitton claims
to be one of three living Bigfoot or Sasquatch creatures they saw in an undisclosed area
of a northern Georgia forest on June 10, 2008. Image © 2008 by Bigfoot Global LLC.
Rick Dyer said he took photographs and videotape of three living Bigfoot creatures that approached them as Rick, Matthew Whitton and three more friends were placing the dead Bigfoot in a tarp and hauling it to the truck. Those other photographs and videotape have not been released.
Friday night, August 15, 2008, I was able to speak by phone briefly with Rick Dyer about his eyewitness description of what originally happened.
Interview:
Rick Dyer, Georgia Prison Guard and Co-Discoverer of Alleged Bigfoot, Northern Georgia: “It was June 10, 2008, around 4 PM. We were hiking through the woods in northern Georgia and we stumbled upon the body. The first thing that we saw was the feet. And we went over and looked at the body in shock.
We said to each other, ‘We have to get this out of the woods.’ So, Matt stayed behind and I went and got a tow truck and three more friends to help us. I brought them back to the woods, pulled the tow truck on the side the road and we all walked in the woods and wrapped the creature’s body in a tarp and pulled it back to the tow truck. We let the bed down and winched it on and we took off.
We went back to the house and put the body in a beef freezer. A couple of days later, the beef freezer failed. We bought another beef freezer and put it in there. It wouldn’t freeze. It was a frost-free beef freezer. So, we had to go buy another deep freezer and this one froze the body solid in ice.
THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOWS THE CREATURE LAYING IN WHAT APPEARS TO BE DARK WATER, WHEN DID THE ICE THAW? WHAT HAPPENED?
That was when the second one failed to freeze.
OK, SO THAT PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN BACK IN JUNE 2008?
Late June.
SO THAT WAS ABOUT TWO WEEKS AFTER YOU FOUND THE BODY – AND WAS IT NEAR A CREEK?
Correct. It was near a creek between two trees.
WAS THERE ANY SIGN OF STRUGGLE ALONG THE CREEK TO INDICATE WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO THE CREATURE? WAS IT ATTACKED? DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECULATION?
I have no idea. We really didn’t look. To be honest, our main goal was just to get the body out of the woods.
WHEN YOU WERE TRYING TO GATHER THE BODY UP IN THE TARP, CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU FELT WITH YOUR OWN HANDS AND SAW WITH YOUR OWN EYES AND SMELLED WITH YOUR NOSE?
It smelled like a dead animal. The creature is intimidating to look at – even dead. Also, there were three other live Bigfoots flanking us on each side all the way to the trail. Once we hit the trail, they stopped following us.
WHEN YOU WERE GATHERING THE BODY UP IN THE TARP, YOU REALIZED THAT THERE WERE OTHER BIGFOOT AROUND?
Yes. There were three of them ranging from 20 to 50 feet away. They were looking at us. They were not scared of us. At first, we were terrified of them. And then, we knew they were not going to harm us.
I could not tell the sex of the live ones. I took a couple of pictures and live shots. There were three creatures and I could not tell if one was male and one was female. And at that point, I didn’t care! (laughs)
ARE YOU IN THE PROCESS OF PUTTING THE LARGE, DEAD BODY IN THE TARP WHEN YOU SEE THE OTHER THREE BIGFOOT?
Yes.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICED? WERE THEY WALKING TOWARDS YOU?
They were staring at us. They weren’t trying to attack us. We just felt like they were mourning the dead one.
IN SADNESS.
Exactly.
WERE THEY STANDING MOTIONLESS?
In some of my pictures, they are motionless. In other pictures, they were walking as we were dragging the body wrapped in the tarp.
SO, THE FIVE OF YOU ARE PULLING THE TARP WITH THE LARGE, DEAD ANIMAL THROUGH THE FOREST TO GO OUT TO THE WENCH. ARE THE OTHER THREE BIGFOOT DIRECTLY BEHIND YOU? WHERE ARE THEY?
They are all around.
WALKING IN AN ARC AROUND YOU, A HALF CIRCLE?
Basically, yes.
WHICH ONE WAS CLOSEST TO YOU?
They all looked alike to me. Two of them looked to be the same size and the third one looked a little smaller. But the largest two got the closest.
AND THE CLOSEST WAS ABOUT 20 FEET FROM YOU?
Yes.
AT THAT 20 FEET, COULD YOU SEE THE EYES CLEARLY?
Yes.
WHAT WERE YOU SEEING?
Black eyes.
THERE WAS A REPORT THAT THE EYES OF THE DEAD ONE LOOK GREY AND BLACK?
The only reason the eyes of the dead one look grey is because it’s dead.
IT ISN’T AS IF IT HAS A GREY IRIS?
No. Now, when we first found it back on June 10, it didn’t look that way, but now it does. I’m sure decomposition has been a factor in this because of the way we had to freeze it and it unfroze and we refroze and it unfroze and things like that.
WHAT WERE THE EYES LIKE WHEN YOU FIRST FOUND IT ON JUNE 10?
Yes, they were open.
AS IF WHATEVER HAPPENED, THE CREATURE DIED WITH ITS EYES OPEN?
I’m only telling you what I saw. I don’t have any speculation about what happened. The eyes of the live ones were open and I remember them blinking like humans blink.
DID YOU FIND THE DEAD ONE ON ITS BACK OR STOMACH?
On the back.
YOU COULD SEE THE FEET FIRST?
Yes.
WERE THE BOTTOMS AND TOPS OF THE FEET HAIRLESS?
The bottom has no hair. The top has hair.
WAS THAT THE SAME WITH THE HANDS?
The hands don’t have hair at all.
DID IT HAVE FINGERNAILS AS WE WOULD RECOGNIZE ON A HUMAN?
I didn’t inspect it.
THE TEETH IN THE CLOSE-UP OF THE HEAD. THEY WERE SO EVEN AND WHITE.
We released pictures of the head and teeth today at the press conference (August 15, 2008) and the head, I guess, would be a cone-shaped head.
PROTRUDING UPWARD?
Yes.
THE MOUTH AND TEETH, DID YOU LOOK AT THEM CLOSELY BEFORE YOU WRAPPED THE CREATURE IN THE TARP?
No, because we were trying to do it quickly before it got dark. I didn’t inspect the body that good. I still haven’t inspected the body that good.
BUT IN THE PHOTOGRAPH, YOU CAN’T SEE ANY INCISOR TEETH. THEY ARE VERY EVEN LIKE ANIMALS THAT EAT PLANTS AND NOT MEAT.
Correct.
AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE, THERE WAS A REFERENCE THAT THE BIGFOOT IS DEFINITELY MALE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN EXACTLY?
He has huge genitals.
LIKE A MALE HOMO SAPIENS, ONLY LARGER?
Yes, but super larger. I’m not going to measure the creature’s balls! I didn’t see any penis. And everybody saw this and can confirm what I’m saying (Rick Dyer, Matthew Whitton and the three friends who helped haul the heavy creature in the tarp).
COULD YOU SEE SEX ORGANS ON ANY OF THE OTHER THREE?
No, I could not. I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was trying to get the hell out of there!
WHAT DID THE HAIR FEEL LIKE?
The hair felt silky smooth. It basically felt like a woman’s hair.”
Rick Dyer's account is one of a couple that the Georgia men have presented since June. In what Whitton and Dyer say was a video spoof to get back at their critics, a July 2008 You Tube video had a family relative pretending to be a law officer talking about the Bigfoot creature having been shot by a former felon that Whitton and Dyer then tracked into the woods to find. Later variations were similar to Dyer's above account in which they found a dead male along with a “family of Bigfoot” in north Georgia mountains and are trying to protect the living creatures while promoting their discovery of a dead one.
