YEAR: 2013

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: February

DATE: 12

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Jackson County

NEAREST TOWN: Grain Valley

NEAREST ROAD: Buckner Tarnsey

OBSERVED: Hello BFRO I have something I would like to share with you I believe I have see what people and myself call bigfoot . The first time was on a night time coon hunt. I hunt coons with traps and dogs yet I don't kill them. I let my dogs tree them and I go on to another track with my dog . I had hunted this bottom a night before and my dog was hot on a track deep in the woods bawlen the whole track when he shut up and not a sound from him for twenty minutes. Then all the sudden he came up the creek with his tail between his legs looking back and came straight to me. Ok first this is a hound who has never ran anything but coons and has never stopped tracking with out treeing, anyway, so I thought maybe he got spooked by a bobcat or something so I loaded him up and went home not thinking anything about it. The next evening on the 12th I pulled into the same open field in a bottom where two creeks join. I shined my lights of my truck along the trees of the creeks to see if I could spot some coon and low and behold I saw what I believe was a bigfoot in my head lights at about 75 yards was a enormous blackish brown figure was walking toward the trees through the field to the creek it stopped for a brief moment and just stared at me like it was looking right at me and took large lengthy steps into the woods. I was startled and not only was I startled but my hound in my back seat was startled as well whining and whimpering. I know what me and my hound saw and my dog hasn't ever backed down from an animal as long as I've had it and I've spent countless of hours in the timber with him.

[The following was taken from this witness' second BFRO report, after returning to the site :]

After talking to the BFRO rep I decided I would go back to the location I had my sighting on the12th, and sat in the exact place I was. Tonight when I got there, there was tracks crossing the road from the north to the south and they were wet and large foot prints. Its 18 degrees here, clearly not a humans tracks. There were 5 prints, one in front of the other, which was rather weird and I do have the pictures of them but their really hard to make out . It was awesome, I got some wood knock responses that were really close across the highway from me, the directions the prints were. I shined the area and yet I never seen anything. I know what I heard. I'm going to keep squatching the area and a few others to hopefully get a picture of the squatch I saw on the 12th. I consider myself a very very good hunter and I am going to put some of my game cams in the area as well as camo up and sit in the area. I was rather timid tonight on the phone with the BFRO, due to the way people feel about it around here, but I know what I saw and heard.

ALSO NOTICED: It was in a damp crop field and creek area. I didn't return there on foot. I have drove and shined that field every night since.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me and i was going hunting with my dog

OTHER STORIES: If there was, no one has said anything, but I know what i saw.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was around 11pm and was clear out and above average temp for February in Missouri probably 45 degrees

ENVIRONMENT: There were some abnormally sized rock walls with a huge hill with timber on the side of it and two creeks and crop fields.

A & G References: 13-4

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

I spoke with the witness via phone. I also went to the site to meet him the next day. He was very matter of fact and was adamant that this was no bear, period. The chances of there even being a bear in that area are remote at best anyway. Coincidentally, I was in that exact location two days before checking out another report, and I am quite familiar with the land. This area is also within five miles of an ongoing habituation (visitation) that I have been working on for the past year.

As stated, he had been there the night before running his dogs and they were treeing coons. This is a preserve area and no hunting is allowed, so he was just putting them through their paces. They had acted very strangely, howling like mad, then becoming silent and eventually running back to him in a submissive state. He did mention he thought they may have been spooked by a bobcat (other big cats have been reported in the area as well). He did hear some "loud splashing" and could not think of what animal could be making that loud of a noise. He did not think too much about it and he left.

The next night he went back, and as he pulled up, he kept his lights on and slowly turned his truck to scan the woods to check for "critters". He saw a huge figure, at least 7ft tall, walking from the open field towards the treeline. It took a "step or two" stopped, looked back at him, then turned and walked into the woods with larger, more hurried steps than it had been taking before. It was gone in 2-3 more steps. He estimated it's size as at least 300lbs (he weighs 250 and that was his guideline). It was very muscular. It walked "kinda funny" but could not offer anything else as far as gait or arm/body ratios.

At the very moment he was watching it disappear into the woods, the sheriffs showed up, shined their lights, and told him he needed to leave the area immediately. He was apparently on a private farm field. His entire sighting lasted no more than 10 seconds. The witness is an avid outdoorsman, running coon dogs for his entire life, and the bloodline of his dogs is considered one of the best in the country. They are bred to tree certain animals, especially bears and cats, so for them to come back cowering was unusual. He would swear on his dogs what he saw was no bear. We walked to an area across the creek from where he saw the creature. See photos:





He had taken photos of the prints he found when he returned, but they were taken in the dark, with a cell phone camera, and they were unusable. When I arrived, we went to the road where he found them. They were gone. He described them as "very large" and the placement would have the creature walking diagonally across the road, in the opposite direction from the previous night's sighting.They were no more than large wet splotches, and there was no trace of them whatsoever. It is a well traveled asphalt road, and the traffic, along with the windy conditions, would have destroyed whatever traces there were.

The sighting was at the edge of a large plowed wheat field, and it was bordered on three sides by woods. The woods are broken by a big creek, with steep, almost vertical banks, at least 10 feet high. The terrain has large rocky bluffs, deep creeks, heavy woods, plenty of game,and would be an ideal habitat for an alpha predator.

About BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

Carter is originally from Texas & moved to Missouri in 1988. Professional drummer for 20 years. Improv & sketch comic and writer for 5 years. Lighting technician for major touring groups for several years. Experienced outdoorsman and was a trained investigator for MUFON. Studied Herpetology in college. Longtime special interest in Sasquatch long term habituation, burial research, infra sound, language & stick structures. He led three Missouri BFRO Public Expeditions:, 2012 & 2013 & 2014. Led public expedition for BFRO in Illinois in 2019.Participated in Iowa, 2012 Illinois. Michigan 2016. Private Expeditions: Illinois 2011, 2012, 2013. Missouri 2011, 2012 (3) 2013(2) 2014. Iowa 2012, 2014 & 2015. Consulted on two Animal Planet Finding Bigfoot TV shows. Expedition leader in Missouri 2013 (1) & 2014 (2) & Illinois Expedition 2019 (1). Led night ops on numerous BFRO expeditions. Hosted a public Town Hall meeting in Missouri in 2017.