YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

STATE: Kansas

COUNTY: Sumner County

LOCATION DETAILS: Not sure if it was in Sedgwick or Sumner County. I'm pretty sure that I could find the location again even though it has been several years.

NEAREST TOWN: Wichita

NEAREST ROAD: I-35 South

OBSERVED: The Wednesday before Thanksgiving (I think it was 2003) we were headed to Arkansas to my mother-in-law’s house. We left home after my husband got off work. We took I-35 South out of Wichita, which was quite backed up. The sun was just beginning to go down and everyone had on their headlights. It was also beginning to drizzle the further out of Wichita we got. We had passed all the little small farm plots and houses south of Wichita. There are several farms to the west of the interstate along with roads cut off by the interstate and drainage ditches. Cars were slowing down due to the drizzle and traffic after we passed a tree line that ran east to west. South of that tree line a ditch runs along the interstate, possibly a creek drains into it. Along this ditch are some small trees and bushes. It seemed to be deeper with higher banks than the other ditches along this road. The trees and bushes stop for a while and then start in again as the ditch comes up to a closed road and curves to the west. I saw what I thought was a large wet dog with very long dark hair, running in the ditch but kind of loping along. As we got closer I realized that it wasn’t a dog and that the ditch was a lot deeper than I thought. The animal was way bigger than a large dog. It was bent over at the waist and had long hair which was hanging down off its back and arms/legs and was soaking wet. The head was large and the face was turned away from the traffic. As we pull along side of it, the animal stood upright on its back two feet, keeping its head turned away from us, and took two steps up the bank (right foot ,left foot) and then straddled a barbwire fence with his next step and then easily cleared the fence with his left foot and disappeared into the tree line going west. I tried to watch him as he walked further into the tree line but due to the car moving, the drizzle and the sun setting, I could not see if he continued west or not. There was also a farm house and a barn further west along the north side of the road. The tree line ended well before you came to the farm so if he continued west to the farm he would have been very exposed. However, there was also another tree line to the south of the barn that ran north and south that was pretty thick. I thought that maybe he was headed to that tree row as it was the best coverage. Judging by his clearing the fence in one stride he had to be at least 7 1/2 to 8 feet tall, very wide at the shoulders and you could make out a butt on him as the hair was all wet and stringy like. I yelled at my husband, “Stop the car, stop the car!!! Did you see that!? Did you see that!?” His responded “I can’t look at anything except the traffic. You want us to have a wreck!?” Needless to say when I told him what I saw he said he didn’t see anything except the cars passing us and the car in front of us. I did wonder if anyone else saw the bigfoot as all the right lane cars were going pretty slow. Maybe they did and that was part of the traffic problem.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me and my non-observant husband

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: dusk with light drizzle and heavy traffic

ENVIRONMENT: several tree lines with a drainage ditch

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

I spoke with the witness at length via phone. She was very clear and exact as to what she saw. In addition to what she stated in her report, this was additional info she shared with me. Creature was closer to 8 feet in height. It was at least 3 feet wide at the chest and shoulder area. It was triangular in build, from the chest to the waist, tapering like an "inverted pyramid". It was built like a "massive, well built football player". She noticed the "large butt haunches" which were very accentuated due to the wet hair stuck to it, showing off the muscles. The creature was initially (when she saw it first) hunched over and running through the ditch along the interstate. Traffic was at a crawl as they were approaching a toll booth, highway was jammed due to Thanksgiving and the rain. The creature kept its "chin tucked down" and face turned away from the highway traffic as though it was either avoiding eye contact and or trying to keep the rain out of its eyes. They were going no more than 15-20 MPH at the time and she got a clear look at it. She could make the out the water "dripping from the long hair" drip by drip. As the ditch got deeper, the creature turned and stepped over a barbed wire fence, "clearing it by 6-7 inches" without jumping. Just simply stepped over a 3-4 ft. tall fence going up an incline at least 6-8 ft. deep. Sighting lasted from 20-30 seconds. The witness lived in Africa for a very long time and had close friends that had chimps and other primates as pets, and there is no doubt whatsoever as to what she saw. She knows better than most witnesses, what she saw and what she did not see. We had a 45 minute conversation. Witness is worldly, knowledgeable, and not at all prone to exaggeration, in my opinion. She sat on this report due to fear of ridicule. Due to the Animal Planet show our recent activity, and town hall meeting in the Wichita area, she decided to come forward. This is one of my better witnesses.

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.