Indiana Bigfoot Awareness Group Report #00010-2005
DATE: Saturday Oct. 1st, 2005
TIME: aprox. 1 A.M.
SIGHTEE: Name(s) withheld by default and by request. Cottage owner will be identified
as Witness 'F' (for father - age 59) while his son who was visitng for the weekend will be identified as Witness 'S'. (for
son - age 29)
LOCATION: While the sighting is still 'new' and follow-up is still
being conducted with ongoing observation of the area, AND due to the possibility of return visits by the unknown creature,
I'm withholding the specific location details until a later date to keep unnecessary visitors from going to this location
to tamper with any possible new evidence that may accumulate. This will also keep the residents of the immediate area from
undue frustration of having lots of unknown, unwelcomed visitors trampling the area. For the record, the general area is a
portion of the Barbee Chain O'Lakes with some full time residences, some vacation cottages, hundreds of acres of woods and
adjacent woods, swamps and untouched lake front property. Surrounding that further is typical Kosciusko county, Indiana rural
woods, farm and swamp lands. This is strictly a rural environment.
TYPE: Sound first - heard subject
moving thru woods near cottage for quite a little while before the Visual Sighting occured. This
may have lasted as little as 3 minutes, but could have been as long as 5 minutes. The witnesses were so overwhelmed with the
sighting they don't know for certain the total length of time. Overall, did not last more than 10 minutes.
AREA/TERRAIN: Wooded. Immeditate woods this took place in appears to be on the order
of 70 - 80 acres. This woods surrounds a good portion of this segment of this part of the Barbee Chain O'Lakes. Cottage(s)
here sit on a dredged channel for lake access. Most of gravel road is only feet from the woods, some of which is swampy and
the closer to the lake you get, is hilly and rolling in places.
WEATHER: unsure - around 55 degrees out at time of sighting
EVENT/ENCOUNTER: (taken directly from report form) WAS SITTING BY THE FIRE AT THE COTTAGE. WAS HEARING ROUGH NOISES IN THE WOODS FOR SOME TIME. WENT IN THE BOAT
AND GRABBED THE 500,000 HAND HELD SPOT LIGHT AND WALKED TOWARDS THE WOODS. I SHINED IT AND SEEN THESE EYES GLOWING LIKE A
DEERS WOULD, BUT THESE WERE A GREENISH YELLOW AND AT SOME TIMES THEY WHERE GOLDEN LOOKING. I WENT BACK TO THE COTTAGE
AND YELLED FOR MY DAD. I SAID YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS THING. HE WALKED BACK WITH ME AND WE SHINED IT IN THE SAME SPOT. WE COULDNT
BELIEVE WHAT WE WHERE LOOKING AT. WE ONLY SAW THE UPPER BODY OF THIS THING. WE BOTH SAID IT LOOKED LIKE... *temporarily
removed - will appear later / see mike's notes for explanation*. FROM THE ANGLE WE WERE AT IT LOOKED AS IF IT STOOD 7-8
FEET. I STARTED WHISTLING LOUD AND LONG. ITS HEAD WOULD MAKE A WIERD ROTATING PATTERN. THE MORE I WHISTLED IT WOULD STAND
HIGHER. WHEN IT DID THAT MY FATHER GOT SCARED AND RAN AND GOT HIS CO2 HAND PISTOL. I TOLD HIM TO JUST FIRE A ROUND IN THE
WOODS SO IT WOULD MOVE SO WE CAN GET A BETTER LOOK AT IT. AT THAT TIME AFTER WE FIRED A SHOT TOWARD IT IT TOTALLY DISSAPEARED.
WE BOTH AGREED THAT IT WAS SOMTHING ABNORMAL AN ANIMAL THAT WE NEVER SEEN BEFORE . I DESCRIBED IT AS **......** ITS
BUILD WAS NOT LIKE BIGFOOT. IT WAS TO ME A THINNER VERSION. SMALLER HEAD LIKE A HUMANS . LONG ARMS. NEVER SEEN THE LOWER
PART OF THE BODY.
PREVIOUS EVENTS: Had been hearing something moving around
for "some time" all evening in the woods... many locations... very obvious sounds like something large was wandering around.
An hour or more before visual sighting? Other residents back there report that on other nights over maybe a week or more,
they've heard "something" walking around at times, but hadn't seen anything. While it's not confirmed, one cottage owner advised
me a resident from back there has recently had as many as 10 - 12 chickens/chicks come up missing from their cages over "the
last little while."
HAS AFFECTED SIGHTEE: After many emails and a few phone conversations, Witness 'S' is
anxious to come back to the cottage for a weekend and do some investigating/looking around. Plans to bring camera in hopes
something else may happen. He seems very excited and entheusiastic about the subject of Bigfoot/Sasquatch, and to learn
as much as he can about it all.
VISUAL FACE OBSERVATION: Yes. Specific information being held for now. "I WOULD SAY 7
FEET TALL ITS COLOR WAS BROWNISH ORANGE WITH A HINT OF GREENS ALMOST LIKE A CAMOFLAG."
OTHER COMMENTS FROM SUBMITTEE (witness 'S'): I COULD CLEARLLY SEE THE HEAD SHOULDERS
AND ARMS. THE EARS TO ME KINDA STOOD OUT FROM WHERE I WAS STANDING THATS WHY I SAY IT LOOKED LIKE **xxxxxx**. WE HAD EYE CONTACT
FOR A GOOD SOLID 2-3 MINUTES. IT LOOKED AT US. WHEN I WOULD MAKE A HIGH PITCH WISTLE ITS HEAD WOULD MOVE AROUND AND IT SEEMED
TO STAND BOLDER AND TALLER. THE ONLY THING THAT IT DID TO ME WAS GIVE ME THE CHILLS AND MADE MY HEART RACE. I KNOW WHAT
I SAW IS STILL CLEAR IN MY HEAD. I WILL NEVER FORGET IT. I DONT THINK MY FATHER WILL EITHER. NEVER SEEN IT WALK OR RUN.
--from an email --> ""I was not drinking that night. my father might of had
a few beers in him. As far as the face of this thing you could see the outline real good and make out the ears. The color
of the hair was like all different colors. And all matted looking. There were greens browns and trying to picture it
in my head a hint of orange believe it or not. Remember this was a good 75 feet or more away. The main thing we couldn't
believe was the way the eyes were glowing. I've deer hunted my whole life and been in the woods. Many mornings when it is
still dark out to set up my tree stand and never in my life seen a creature that had the eyes glow like these did when shining
a light at them...""
MIKES NOTES: I received an initial email from Witness 'S'
on Monday, Oct. 17, 2005. It had been sent Sunday evening, but I was on a camp-out that weekend. I called "S" to find out
more. Witness "S" is the son of the cottage owner, "F" and had come over to the lakes area to assist his father with installing
some security for the cottage. They had experienced some vandalism as well as some other neighbors who had had random vandalism
occur. Witness "F" does not live in the cottage year 'round and has approximately a 3 hour drive from the Indiana/Illinois
state line to get to the Barbee Lakes area. While father and son were relaxing around a small pit fire between the cottage
and pier, they had observed for "some time" the sound of something wandering around the woods to the east, across the channel,
which starts nearly 150 or more feet away. Eventually, this wandering noise moved north and then closer in, and appeared
to be directly to the north of the end of the lake channel, so "F" told "S" to grab the spotlight and shine what ever was
'over there'. "S" got it from the pontoon, and walked a few feet north around the end of the channel, left the roadway by
10 or so feet into the corner of where part of the woods meets a cottage yard. At that point, "S" hit the area where the sound
was coming from and that's when the visual sighting occured. The area "IT" was spotted, was by my 'stepping it off estimate',
just under 100 feet from where I was shown that "S" was standing. "IT" was behind a bush that measures "about" 4 feet wide
as far as the most dense part of it is concerned. I measured at the center of the bush, and again as far as the
most dense portions of the bush are concerned, it stands between 5 and 6 feet tall. A few wild, thin strands of the bush
actually continue up to nearly 7 feet tall. The area is slightly uphill from the observed position, and flattens
out behind the bush, then continues uphill as you continue up into the woods again. This bush is on the edge of a cleared
area just before the woods begins on this property. (a photo will be included after report)
At that point, "S" went back nearer his father and called for him to come see what he was seeing. "S" contined to
shine the light on this "creature" but occasionally shut it off for fear continuous use would drain the battery down. (He
wasn't sure if the charge was full enough to keep lit, or might drain down on them.) After a period of time, "F" ran back
to the cottage, maybe 50 feet away and came back with a CO2 pistol. In the meantime, "S" had been whistling at "IT" and "IT"
seemed to respond in a manner as you might experience with a dog, in that it 'cocked' it's head sideways and around in random
manner while the whistling continued. All the while, the head, shoulders, upper arms and chest were clearly in view of both
father and son while the spot light was engaged. "S" recalls that a couple times, it seemed like "IT" blinked, as the eyes
'disappeared' once or twice but then seemed to open back up. Then, "F" shot twice in the general direction of "IT" hoping
it would move and they could see it move, or see it better. Instead, it's "F's" belief that it must have turned around and
moved uphill and into the wooded portion immediately to the north, because it just seemed to 'disappear' out of their sight.
They also could not hear where it moved to, or how it did such.
I've been out to the scene multiple times. I've corresponded with "S" many times with questions and clarifications, and
talked with "S" via phone twice. On Sunday, Oct. 30th, I met "F" and spent around an hour and a half talking about the incident
and getting specific locations for where "S" was standing with the spotlight, and where "IT" was standing behind the bush.
In every conversation, both "S" and "F" have remained steadfast in their recollection of the events that occured. While at
the time they had no idea what they may had seen, "F" recalled finally going in to the cottage and jokingly having said to
his wife, "I think we just saw Bigfoot! Haha." Both father and son are avid hunters and were astounded by the lack of stealth
this "IT" moved around the woods with, thinking it was a very 'dumb deer' or something to be making so much noise for so long
wandering around in the woods. The eye shine made a very big impression on "S", as he remarked to me about it on many
occasions both written and verbal. The father seemed almost flabber-gasted and speechless as we talked about it on Sunday;
still trying to find a sense of resolution to the events, but clear on exactly what he had seen with his son.
I'm not releasing the specific location on Barbee due to the fact there are full time lake residences there, and due
to it's location and single lane access, unwelcomed traffic and/or questions from curiousity seekers might hinder my freedom
in being currently welcome back there. I have spoken with several of the other property owners and generally was well received,
though some clearly thought it was "impossible" for something like that to have been back there, while admitting they believe
they exist.
Because there WAS such clearly observed upper body and facial features to this sighting, parts of what was stated,
if reported locally 'might' inspire someone else to either fabricate another sighting or falsely report a similar encounter
by copy-catting the description. I'm withholding THAT on purpose so that IF there should be another sighting in the area this
fall that matches in any way what was reported in this sighting, it could/would tend to lend credibility to both sightings,
seeing that noone other then "F" and "S" and family, along with a few investigators know of this very specific facial description.
Two different families out in that area of Barbee have my home and cell phone numbers so that at any time, 24/7, should
anything else be heard or seen, they can call me. I was assured by both, that they in fact would. Should any other information
come to light, or new activity occur, I will post the appropriate data here as soon as possible.
