YEAR: 2009

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 4

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Osceola County

LOCATION DETAILS: Specific directions omitted.

NEAREST TOWN: Marion

OBSERVED: I never believed in these sort of things until 4 years ago. I live just outside of a small Michigan village of Marion MI, me and my sister were at the bus stop. I'm now 22 and still afraid to be outside alone without a gun. We always heard animals like deer and wolves or even bears but what happened this certain day scared me for life. Me and my sister were down at the bus stop, no one ever travels our road. We were getting bored not knowing school was canceled, sun still not up, we smelled something foul. I figured it to be a bear since they were common. About 10 minutes later we heard cracking branches and I assured my sister. About five minutes later a large figure knocked a small dead tree over and chased me and my sister. I made it in the door of my house and watched it keep running straight in to the trees. Got my sister inside and my mom had to be late for work every day after that. I still remember the grunts and growls and still wake me in nightmares at night. People have always called me crazy for it but I know what I saw. We contacted the police who evaluated the area and took samples off the ground. I have not thought much about it til last night when I heard it again.

OTHER WITNESSES: My sister.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 6:45 am very still morning frogs on the pond beautiful morning with very faint light but it got 2 feet from me.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavily wooded with ponds very quiet area other than the frogs and crickets.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim Sherman:

I was interested in this report because I have personally been involved in numerous investigations in the surrounding counties. I have ongoing recording projects dedicated to documenting forest sounds in the general vicinity of this report so I found it important to investigate.

I asked Mr. Y, the witness, about his experience at his bus stop. He was eighteen years old at the time and he and his sister were waiting for a bus that was not going to arrive as school had been cancelled. Just before sun up he described the lack of wind and general stillness along with the sounds of the crickets and frogs at a nearby pond. The road that they were standing on was rarely used and the land area was covered by fields with plentiful deer, bear and other wild animals.

At this point they began smelling something they described as foul. They were originally not concerned as they had smelled skunks and bear before so a "wild-animal smell" was nothing new. After the smell they began hearing sounds like low grunting. This was dismissed as a bear. However, a Black Bear can be dangerous at times so they were put on alert.

I sent Mr. Y numerous online vocals of various animals so that he could compare them to what he heard. They did not match. He described the grunts in the following manner: "They started real low and quiet like, and random. We would hear it about 3-6 minutes apart and assumed it to be a bear. But then they started to get a bit louder and more aggressive and was more of a growl as it breathed hard. It is hard to describe really. I can't even imitate how low of a growl it was."

According to Mr. Y, then something "...knocked over a small and dead tree on the opposite side of the road and seemed to run toward us."

I asked the witness to describe what he saw and his answer is detailed below:

"I'm 6'1" and this animal stood at least a foot maybe 2 taller than me. Its head kind of seemed to have a slight slouch and was quite long and its nostrils were nearly flat and the skin resembled a dog's nose. It was a dark brown and had a massive build. It had long hair."

Both witnesses turned toward home and ran away. Even though home was very close, the creature easily caught up to the pair. Mr. Y could feel the closeness rather than see it. "I ran track and this thing seemed to gain on me quickly, it seemed to me that I just got too close and it didn't want me near it. Kinda like a bear would if near its cubs." I asked him if he waited for his sister and he replied that she appeared to stumble a bit but was pretty close to him when they got to the door and he waited for her before entering.

Both witnesses finally managed to get into their house and Mr. Y watched the creature continue running off into the woods. He later explained the feelings that he had right before and during the incident. "I think it had young nearby. I had a feeling of stiffness and fear when I noticed it looking at me (from across the road) and when it charged I felt something would go wrong if I didn't put distance between us but never like it would kill me...if it wanted to catch me and do harm I believe it would have. I feel it wanted me to get away and at the same time was curious. It was a weird feeling. Even before I noticed it there I felt chill all up and down my spine and when I saw it looking at us the feeling spread through my body. I wouldn't say I was threatened just warned." He was very clear that it seemed like the "creature" was just trying to scare them off and not really trying to hurt them. Mr. Y's conviction after the scare wore of and time had passed, was that this was a case of animal instinct, in this case possibly protecting young, overriding a natural fear of people.

The report above would never have come to light had a more recent experience not solidified Mr. Y's belief that what he had seen years previously was real. Four years after his initial encounter at the bus stop, while driving to his grandmother's house, he had a possible daylight sighting paraphrased below:

It was broad daylight about two in the afternoon. The creature I saw in front of my vehicle was of a grey color and was much taller than the first one, more like 8 or 9 feet. This, and the behavior of the first creature led me to believe that this one was male and the one four years ago was female. The 'male's' head was much larger and I believe it to be much older than the 'female.' When running he had a similar stride but seemed much slower. The "female" could have cleared the dirt road in two steps if needed. This one would have had to take three. He stopped in the middle of the road and stared as if interested but appeared frightened and was very skittish. He must have stared at me for a good minute. I slightly moved to look in the mirror to see if someone was coming and looked back up and he was gone. This time it was in bright sunlight, I was not running away and had a minute to study him so I took the time to look very closely. He had long grey hair. His head seemed to slightly come to a point like a gorilla. It had rough blackish grey skin on his nose and his hair seemed to be longer near the torso region. The eyes were black or really no color to them and he was standing about 30 yards away from my car. I could see the muscles move in his legs when he swayed from side to side while looking at me. What shocked me most is it was broad daylight and he seemed more curious than frightened."

Mr. Y was called crazy by his peers and was only motivated to post this report because of the second sighting. This brought back the memories of his earlier experience and he remembered it as being "...the most frightening thing I have ever experienced."

Looking back we can begin to question what we have seen because what we saw is not supposed to be there. We make excuses and try to forget about being scared. Then when it happens again all the previous memories come back and you get to re-live the experience. This can either be traumatizing or can bring a sense of closure or even wonder. In this instance the latter seems to be the case. Every time we researchers hear a howl in the dark or bi-pedal steps around our tent it re-confirms in our minds as well, that there is something interesting out there.

About BFRO Investigator Jim Sherman:

Jim is a High School History teacher and Track and Cross Country coach. He attended the Michigan Northern Lower Peninsula Expedition in 2011, the Michigan Upper Peninsula Expedition in 2012, co-organized the Michigan UP 2013 Expedition and attended the 2014 Wisconsin Expedition. He assisted in the production of Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot Michigan episodes (Bigfoot and Wolverines and Super Yooper). He participates in Ironman Triathlons and enjoys fishing and camping with his wife and daughter. Jim can be contacted at germanicus1@hotmail.com and Twitter @shermanbigfoot and his YouTube account is : Lordcryptid