YEAR: 1979

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: don't know

STATE: Mississippi

COUNTY: Hinds County

LOCATION DETAILS: area now is all developed,lakewood industrial park ect. on the south side of west county line road

NEAREST TOWN: Jackson Miss.

NEAREST ROAD: west county line road

OBSERVED: Me and three of my friends were on county line road west, between watkins dr and hanging moss road in Jackson ms. We were at a small pond just off the road,doing what you did back in 1979,drinking a few beers ,well we had the radio going pretty mellow for the day,when my friend Tim, whose car we were in said,did you hear that?We turned the radio down and rolled the windows down a little,listened ,nothing, so we turned the radio back up and in a few minutes We did hear something,it was a pretty loud growl,not like anything i'd ever heard before,we were on the north side of the pond and it was on the south side,there were cattails that were at least 7 foot tall on that side of the pond,Tim turned on the headlights and across the pond there was a huge hairy ape it looked like,with huge green eyes,and it was turning its head slightly from side to side,blinking its eyes,which were green only because of the headlights of course,well that got all of our attention real good, I remember asking everyone if they saw what I did,and we all agreed that bigfoot was on the other side of this real small pond,it had to be at least 8 feet tall,and had a very cone shaped head, just like a silverback gorilla,and was black as far as I could tell,it was making some grunting sounds every now and then,we cut the headlights off and cranked ths car,which chose to take a very long time to fire up,when the animal let out the most spine tingleing roar i've ever heard,kind of like a lions grunt but much louder and longer,the car fired up and we got out of there ,when the headlights came back on it was still there,I have to say it scared us so bad we didnt tell many people,but it has remained in my memory all these years,I can still hear that roar,its quite distinctive,I grew up in those woods since I was 7,always felt like something was watching me,from bicycles to dirt bikes we would ride those trails. At the time of the sighting the area was being developed into a industrial park,and hwy 220 bypass was in its first stages,we really were on the edge of Jackson at the time it was good bigwoods,with streams and ponds here and there. thanks for letting me tell this,as i'll never be able to forget.I moved from MS. in 1996,and never saw tracks or any sign of bigfoot,although i did know about it,and did look for tracks pretty much whenever I was in the woods,which was very often.Thanks.

OTHER WITNESSES: 4

OTHER STORIES: yes,a friend of ours year or two earlier claimed to have been jumped from behind by a bigfoot,no more than 1 mile east of there,we of course always said he was full of it,we found out diffrently,never saw body below upper shoulders ,but this animal was very big,huge.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9 at night,cloudy and still kinda warm

ENVIRONMENT: big woods with small streams,not many people back then,we were on an old farm that was being developed

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tim Sermons:

The area that the sighting occurred is now developed, but still has a very good tree line that leads to the Natchez Trace Parkway. In 1979 the area would have been considered rural. This area may still have occasional creatures travelling through as it is not far from the Pearl River, as well as the parkway which is a federally protected National Park.

The witness gave me the names of two of the other witnesses, including the guy who may have been 'jumped'. He stated that prior to their incident none of them believed that friend. After the incident they all had a change of heart on what happened. I have not had an opportunity to talk to this person. I found and talked with one of the other witnesses, who was unaware of this report, and he told the same story. The submitter and this other person have not been in contact for years.

The witnesses had the following to add:
-The night was young, they were not intoxicated at the time of the incident.
-The creature was about 30 yards from them. The headlights reflected a greenish eyeshine as the creature looked back and forth at them.
-The cat tails were approximately 6 foot high and the creature was visible from the chest up. This would make the creature approximately 7.5 to 8 foot tall.
-The submitter has tried to listen to various recordings, but has not found the exact sound this creature made.
-The eyes were sunk in with a large brow ridge and the nose was in between an ape and a human. The upper body was massive and the head looked like the pictures he has seen of purported sasquatch.
Sketch artist, Sybilla Irwin, worked with the witness to create the sketch shown below.

About BFRO Investigator Tim Sermons:

-Navy Veteran - Hospital Corpsman, Field Medicine qualified
-Registered Nurse
-Currently working on MBA degree
-Experienced Hiker
-Attended Expeditions: Missouri '08, Georgia '09, Oklahoma Spring '09, Oklahoma Fall '09 and Missouri '09