YEAR: 1975

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 11

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pierce County

LOCATION DETAILS: South end of Lake Tapps

NEAREST TOWN: Sumner

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 410

OBSERVED: Late Friday night, Mr. and Mrs. Tallik called in a report to the Bonney Lake Police Department that someone was sneaking around close to their home. Office Hidenrick answered this call and searched the grounds for their peace of mind. In the process of searching the area, he found a 14-inch human looking track (left foot) close to the front porch. No further investigation was carried on by the officer, but he did state to me "Thinking about it now (Oct 14, 1975), that track could have been made by a Bigfoot, but I thought their tracks were bigger than that." He also told me that this was the second call to this residence in the past few months.

Mrs. Tallik casted the track found by the officer and showed it to me on Oct 16, 1975. I photographed it. I sat down and listened to her story:

1) This all began in the summer of 1975. It was the start of massive destruction of wooded areas so as to build new homes in the area. The general area was a large swamp (called wetlands now) and during this construction residents noticed that there weren’t as many frogs around as in previous summers. There were 30 to 40 people who moved into the area in the last six months. The kids in the neighbor hood have found numerous (60) natural caves and old coal mines in the area... there is one 3/4 of mile from the Tallik's home.

2) 4 to 6 weeks ago Cindie Ostenson (daughter) age 21,: "I was driving home from work about 11:15 when I saw 2 reddish looking eyes in the middle of the road, about 7 or 8 feet off the ground. As I approached the spot where I saw what looked like eyes... seemed to vanish in thin air or into the woods near by. But by the time I got close to what ever I saw, all I did see was like a shadow going in front of my headlights."

She stated that it took off into the woods opposite their house. Mrs. Tallik told me that "She came down the road honking her horn, pulled into the driveway and jumped out of her car and ran to the front door yelling 'Mom!' in a very frightened voice. 'There was something standing along side of the road with red flaming eyes.' I told her it was probably a deer or some sort of animal. She replied, 'No, it was taller than a person.'

Later, the same night, Mrs. Tallik was awakened by what she thought was an earthquake, "But after it ended so quickly I figured it must have been a bear." Footprints were found at the north end of the property the next day. Cindie had been scared so badly that she moved out a few days later.

3) A couple of days later, Mrs. Tallik's young sons were sleeping out in their back yard in a tent, when they heard their dog Heidi, start to whine. She suddenly flew against the side of the tent and the kids saw a shadow of something huge cross the tent and house.

4) A few days passed and one late afternoon, "our dogs began barking. They were barking frantically down across the street towards the woods in front of our house. My youngest daughter, Shanne called her father to go and see why the dogs were having such a fit. The dogs remained on the side of the road and would not go into the woods. My husband approached the dogs and he told the dogs to get'em, but they refused to move. I was on the front porch at the time and I saw something of reddish blonde color, a man or something, hovering over and running through the woods."

During this time and afterwards their dogs would act strange, "Barking frantically and backing up against the front door. This became an almost every night occurrence."

5) 5-6 days ago, Hedi was found beaten to death in their driveway. I was bloodied across the nose and chest.

6) Tobie Summers told us of a few nights ago that down the street there were rabbits in cages and that several of them were found dead in the cages with sticks stuck through them.

7) 10/12/75 Backdoor neighbors to the Tallik's, Jennie Dempi heard a dog barking up against the side of the house she was babysitting in, then heard something heavy run across the roof. Mrs. Sandy Dempi and her sister Brenda King saw something move in their backyard.

8) 10/13/75 Strong and pungent odor seemed to be lingering in the air, heavy footsteps heard in the front yard and on the wooden porch of the Tallik's. Two ducks were found dead in the yard.

9) 10/15/75 Debbie Schmidt (another Tallick daughter): "I was spending the night when at about 3:00 am I heard what sounded like 3 or 4 heavy footsteps with very large strides cross the yard. As heavy as the footsteps were it seemed as if what ever it was it had about the same weight as a small horse, 600lbs. Animal screams were heard also. A Footprint was found by the police officer and the next day casted and photographed. The cast measured L 16 3/4", BW 7", BH 4 1/2", there were five toes ST 2", 2 1/2", 2" 2", LT 2". The footprint was found near the front porch and next to it was a large piece of driftwood that was originally in the backyard garden.

The Tallik's have lived here since 1965.

OTHER STORIES: During a phone conversation with a Mrs. Barton, she stated that Officer Hidenrick estimated a family of 6 Bigfoot like creatures living in the lake area. This probably originated from Officer Pittenger of south Tacoma. She also told me of his rogue creature theory.

A & G References: Pg. 63, C7

Follow-up investigation report:

From the files of Richard Noll:

October 19, 1975

Dave Smith (My partner at the time) received a frantic phone call from Mrs. Tallik stating that the creature was near the house now (11:00PM) and that they had gotten tapes of it (sound).

We arrived at 1:00AM and listened to 4 hours of dog barking. Searched area and found nothing. Found out that they had tried to lure the animal near with hot deer soup.

October 20, 1975

Set another track trap (no results from any of the traps we made throughout the area).