YEAR: 1979

SEASON: Unknown

STATE: North Carolina

COUNTY: Nash County

LOCATION DETAILS: Near Hwy 43 on Hunter Hill Rd and Old Carriage Rd. in Rocky Mount, N.C. Both incidents were in this area - twenty years apart.

NEAREST TOWN: Rocky Mount, N.C.

NEAREST ROAD: 43 hwy

OBSERVED: I was about ten or eleven years old. I was traveling with my mom and younger brother in a car on a rural road near Rocky Mount, N.C. in 1979. It was at night. We spotted a tall hairy figure crossing the road ahead of us. It was close enough to see in the headlights. (I am remembering all of this through a child's eyes but my mom remembers the same accounts). We slowed down, almost to a complete stop because the figure stopped right in the middle of the road. It turned and looked at us with it's body still facing in the direction it was originally headed. It was extremely tall, had hair all over it's body and it's arms were really long. It suddenly ran with super fast speed and jumped the ditch and was gone. It was like nother I had ever seen before or have seen since. I have been an avid outdoorsman...I hunt and fish and camp all over NC, SC & VA. I have seen bears in their natural invironments. I have seen them stand to look at me and then run away, but they always go back down to all fours to do that. I am convinced that what I saw as a child was in fact, a Bigfoot or sasquatch.
Not only that, but a cousin of mine was driving near the same area in which we saw the Bigfoot about ten years ago. Which would be about twenty years after our sighting. I had never told him of our encounter. He was driving alone and at night and had almost the same sighting that we had had years earlier. He was terrified and when he got home told his mom about it while almost being in tears. She reluctantly told me about it after it happened a few days later, thinking I would laugh at was he had told her. I told her that I completely believed what he had seen!

OTHER WITNESSES: During my sighting - my mom and younger brother. He would have been about 4 at the time and doesn't really remember anything about the incident except that my mom and I were really frantic about what we saw.

OTHER STORIES: YES! Already did above. My cousin's sighting.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Conditions were clear. It was at night.

ENVIRONMENT: Highly wooded area at the time with a nearby creek and river.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Cathy Betz:

I spoke with the witness, DS, and she seemed pleased to be able to share her encounter with me. She stressed to me that the encounter happened while she was young, and couldn’t recall fine details, but that the incident itself it is etched in her memory.

- While riding with her mother and younger brother at night, DS saw an upright, hair-covered creature standing in the middle of the road.

- It took place in a wooded, rural area that has a large population of deer. The area is now more developed and is not as rural as it was in 1979.

- When she and her mother saw the creature standing in the road, they rolled to a complete stop. The creature was approximately 40-50 yards ahead, illuminated by their car’s headlights. The younger brother has no recollection of the event.

- After they came to a stop, the creature, seen at a side angle and standing still, then turned towards them. After a second or so, it turned back towards the woods and took 2-3 fast strides, stepped over a 6-8 ft ditch, and disappeared into the woods. The whole encounter happened in less than 5 seconds.

- It seemed to have a gait like a human, only faster and with a much longer stride. DS stated that no human could match the length of the stride it was taking. She described it as taking "tremendous steps". "No human could have crossed that ditch in one leap without a good, running start. It did it with just a couple of steps."

- The creature stayed upright during the entire encounter. DS stated that it was around 7 ft tall.

- DS stated that the creature had no visible ears, and no visible neck. She stated that it had long legs, arms that reached below the knees, and that its head was "big". DS recalled that the eyes were big and dark.

- DS stated that the creature she saw was covered in dark brown hair. "I don’t remember if the hair moved when it was walking. But it was covered with hair. I remember that."

- "It was really big", DS recalled. "And it wasn’t a bear. I know what a bear looks like. This was no bear."

- When asked if the car windows were down, DS stated that she couldn’t remember, but she didn't recall any unusual sounds or odors during the incident.

- After the incident, when they got home, they told DS’s father about the encounter. He didn’t believe them. 20 years later, DS finally told her aunt about the encounter. Her aunt believed her because her son (DS’s cousin) had a similar encounter in the same area, 20 years later.

I found DS to be forthright and sincere in her description of what happened to her and her mother in 1979. I believe that she was telling the truth and that what she and her mother witnessed was a bigfoot.

About BFRO Investigator Cathy Betz:

Cathy has been a nurse for over 27 years and currently works in a busy ICU. An amateur naturalist, Cathy has been intrigued by the bigfoot phenomenon from an early age.
Attended the following expeditions:
- The 2006 Florida Expedition
- The 2007 North Carolina Expedition
- The 2008 South Florida Expedition
- The 2008 North Florida Expedition
- The 2009 Central Florida Expedition
- The 2009 Utah Expedition
- The 2010 TN Survey Expedition
- The 2011 East Texas Expedition
-The 2012 North FL Expedition
-The 2013 Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition
For more information, please see the Florida BFRO