YEAR: 1977

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: unknown

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Texas County

LOCATION DETAILS: I don't remember how to get there.

NEAREST TOWN: Evening Shade, MO

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 17?

OBSERVED: I was nearly 13 years old at the time. We lived in a trailer park away from town, but I can't remember what road it was on.

One evening I was home alone. My mother had gone to pick up my stepfather. It was around 8-9 pm. I was sitting in the living room watching TV when my dog starting acting strange. He stood up with his hackles raised and started to growl, staring at the back door of the trailer. The back door of the trailer was in the hallway just off the living room. We had an outside light on the telephone pole in the backyard which was shining into the privacy window of the back door. His behavior caught my attention because he was a gentle natured dog who loved people. This was the first and only time I ever heard him growl like that. As I looked up to see what was bothering him, I noticed a shadow filling the entire window of the back door. My dog lifted his nose to sniff in the direction of the door, and suddenly his posture changed in an instant. He started cowering, tucked his tail between his legs, and quickly came over to hide by me. I had never seen him act this way before. Then the shadow went by the living room window, and it nearly filled the entire window. The shadow stayed in place for a few seconds, then moved away from the trailer. I could smell a faint skunk-like odor as well. I didn't have the courage to open the door and look outside for the source of the shadow.
I wasn't even about to walk down the hall to my bedroom until my mother got home. (My dog didn't want to walk down the hall either.) We were both petrified! We stayed on the couch until my mother and stepfather came home about 30-45 minutes later. I'm sure they were puzzled as to why I was huddled on the couch with my dog, instead of in bed. I was afraid to tell them about the incident. Now I wish I would have at least told my mother.
I've always wondered what could have been large enough to fill the whole window like that.

ALSO NOTICED: I did smell a skunk-like odor. Not overpowering because I was inside.

OTHER WITNESSES: None

OTHER STORIES: A few weeks later at school, I heard other classmates talking about MoMo. (Missouri Monster)

TIME AND CONDITIONS: In the evening about 8 or 9 pm.

ENVIRONMENT: The trailer park was on the edge of a heavily wooded area.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator G.E. Stade:

I spoke to the witness, she was 12 years-old when she had the encounter on a clear night with temperatures around 40 to 50 degrees outside. The witness lived in a trailer house near Evening Shade, MO off Highway 17. The surrounding area was very wooded, and was part of the Mark Twain National Forest. Her mother had left the witness at home alone whilst the mother traveled to pick up her stepfather from work. It was approximately 7 or 8 pm in the evening and dark outside when the witness had her encounter.

The witness had been sitting on the couch alone when she noticed her dog’s strange behavior. The dog was alerted and its attention was focused on the back door. Upon sniffing the air the dog’s demeanor quickly turned from aggressive growling with hackles raised (which was quite unusual for the dog) to a terrified cowering retreat to the safety of the couch area. The witness looked toward the back door and saw a massive shadow from an upright being pass across the window of the back door and then across the two windows of the trailer’s living room. The shadow was illuminated from behind by a pole light located approximately twenty-five feet behind the trailer. As the shadow passed the windows in a continuous movement, its mass filled the entire twenty-four inch wide window and reached vertically to the top of each window it passed. The witness could see only the outline as the back door’s window consisted of privacy glass and the living room windows had shear curtains which allowed light transmission but prevented direct viewing. The witness recalled having seen her stepfather through the same windows but his 6'5" stature reached only to the middle of the windows and he certainly didn’t fill the window by comparison. The witness remembers thinking to herself regarding what she saw, “that was huge.” No noises were heard when the subject passed by her trailer but immediately afterward she noticed a faint musty odor that lingered briefly.

The witness was too scared to do anything but stay put on her couch until her parents returned home. Normally she would have gone to bed. But she instead waited for her parents company before she felt brave enough to venture down the hallway, past the back door and to her bedroom. Once in bed the witness could not sleep that night as she was still very affected by the encounter. The witness had no familiarity with the concept of bigfoot at the time of her encounter but approximately two weeks after she remembers children at school talking about the “Momo.” The witness asked them what “Momo” was and they described reported sightings of a big hair covered creature in Missouri which had become know as the Missouri Monster or Momo for short. She recalled her encounter upon hearing the description of this legendary Momo.

About BFRO Investigator G.E. Stade:

An experienced outdoorsman and naturalist. Mr. Stade attended the following BFRO Expeditions: 2008 & 2009 OK; 2008, 2009 & 2010 MO.