YEAR: 2005

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: sunday

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Polk County

NEAREST TOWN: livingston

NEAREST ROAD: US highway 190

OBSERVED: This is what happened as told to me by my sister-in-law who lives with my wife and family. On this night she had my baby daughter in the room with her on the bed and she was getting up to close the blinds to the window that she said," she could see the stars up in the sky that she had noticed earlier that night", as she got up off the bed, she turned to make sure her niece wasn't going to fall from being close to the edge, when she turned back towards the window she noticed something looking in from the outside, it scared her so much that she grabbed her niece and ran out of the room to tell her mother who was in one of the other rooms of the house. Her mother then called my place of work to have me come back to house to take a look around, as I first arrived, I noticed that there was some kind of bad odor in the area but as i keep looking around along with my coworker, who gave me ride back to my house, and my mother-in-law, on the east side of the house where there is no lights, we all heard something stepping on twigs or branches laying on the ground for the snapping and breaking noise that it makes, as I attempted to walk towards the noise, whatever was there seemed to move farther back into the woods out of reach of my flashlight, after looking around we went to ask my sister-in-law if she could say who or what she had seen in the window, all she could say was that it was "big, black, hairy" and something about its eyes, she is really talkative all of the time but after that happened she looked liked she was in shock her face was pale and her eyes seemed to liked she was lost.

ALSO NOTICED: Right after this happened she told her mother who was in the hallway from her room, who then called for me to be enroute back to the house, for I had just started my shift at work and in about four to six minutes, my coworker and myself arrived at the house to find my mother-in-law on the front porch waiting for us, as we got out of the vehicle to take a look around towards the back of the house, all three of us heard some noise in the woods on the east side of the house just out of reach of our flashlights, the noise we heard sounded as if whatever was there was moving away farther into the woods, it was like someone stepping on branches and you could hear the popping or snapping noise it makes.

OTHER WITNESSES: One, cleaning her room, while watching her baby niece, who was on the bed, as she was about to close the blinds to the window, she stated that she had turned to see where her niece was, then turned back towards the window, which she said she had been looking out of earlier in the night looking at the stars, when she noticed that someone or something was standing by the window looking inside at her, after asking her if she could describe who or what it may have looked liked all she could say was "big, black, hairy" and that the eyes really scared her.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was just after midnight, the weather was cool, skies were clear.

ENVIRONMENT: The area that I live would be considered a pine forest, considering that all around the area i live is or has been clear cut in all directions except for southside for it is part of The Big Thicket National Preserve.

Follow-up investigation report:

Robert Fletcher (biologist and investigation volunteer) and I visited the site of the encounter and spoke at length with the witness and others who were involved in the incident. The site is at the edge of the Big Thicket National Preserve. The vegetation is dense, and in many areas nearly impenetrable.

During the face-to-face interview, the primary witness gave a compelling report of how she viewed a large, hairy ape-like creature as it was peering through the bedroom window.

The witness showed us where the animal was positioned and described exactly how it was apparently standing when she saw it. The witness described the animal as standing to the side of the window in what must have been a bent stance; its left shoulder was visible and it had the appearance of being somewhat stooped. The witness saw hair on the shoulder and all over the head. One small human-like ear was visible on the animal's left side; the ear was partly covered with hair. The witness stated that the nose was wide and flat. Hair covered the face except around the mouth and eyes. The skin was black. The eyes were said to be very large and dark - and the witness remarked that the eyes scared her; she saw no white around the eyes. The closest thing that the witness could compare the animal to was a gorilla.

Upon comparing my own height of five feet eleven inches in a stooped position while viewing from the side of the window in the same manner as the animal as described by the witness, it became apparent that the animal must have been one foot taller than me; Fletcher and I surmised that the creature was no less than roughly seven feet in height.

The witness stated that the animal appeared to quickly recede into the darkness toward the thicket surrounding the house.

When the submitter of the report arrived, he and his partner attempted to venture into the thicket to determine the source of the sounds of footfalls they were hearing. As they approached, the footfalls retreated deeper into the thicket. He and his partner would stop, the footfalls would stop; they attempted again to proceed after the unseen trespasser and once again it proceeded to flee deeper into the dense undergrowth.

The men did find a single track in the sand and found a section of the fence behind the house bent over.

The witnesses have since burned a significant amount of the thicket surrounding the house in an attempt to make the immediately adjacent areas more conducive to visibility. The redounding ashes seemed to make the area quite good for footprints, should the witnesses be revisited.

The Alabama-Coushatta word for the animal is "eeyachuba."