YEAR: 1981

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: February

DATE: 2

STATE: Kentucky

COUNTY: Harlan County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take 119 north to southeast Cummnity college turn right onto 179 very steep and dangerous.

NEAREST TOWN: Louellen

NEAREST ROAD: 179

OBSERVED: In 1981 me and my brother-in-law were going to work. I saw something ahead of us kneeled down alongside the road. As we approach it it stood up and walked backwards into center of road squated and looked at us then leaped over the inbankment. It was about 7 feet tall, big legs, small upper body with thin longer hair on chest and arms, short neck and short thick hair on legs, dark brown in color. We got within 20 to 30 feet of it. Our headlights on bright. The road stays in bad condition. Travel is very slow.

ALSO NOTICED: A bag of garbage torn apart was found where animal was seen kneeling.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2 Talking

OTHER STORIES: About 2 weeks later another person seen same thing running across the road .

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 3:am It was clear with a moon over head, very cold.

ENVIRONMENT: Mountains and forest and a creek close by.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

I spoke with the witness by phone.

He stated that he and his brother-in-law, both miners, were on their way to work at about 3 a.m driving the narrow roads of the Appalachians. The weather was cool and clear. As they came around a curve the animal was squatting along the road going through some garbage that someone had dumped. He quickly stopped the jeep. They were able to observe the animal for about thirty seconds in the high beam of the headlights. The animal took two or three steps backwards into the center of the road, turned and looked at them. Then it squatted down and leaped twenty to thirty feet off the road and was gone down into the ravine.

He described the animal as being about eight feet tall, upper torso being slender and weighing about 300 pounds. Because the hair was so tight he could see the definition of the muscles as it squatted. The calf muscles were especially huge. The black hair was very short on the lower body with somewhat longer and thinner hair on the chest and shoulders. The head was round with a short neck. He was unable to see any facial features.

I also spoke with his brother-in-law. He stated that the next year he had seen what he thought was probably the same animal briefly about a mile further up the road.

About BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

Stan Courtney has a special interest in wildlife audio recording. He has attended numerous BFRO Expeditions. See Stan's blog StanCourtney.com for recordings he has collected over the years.

Stan Courtney can be reached at illinois@bfro.net