YEAR: 2016

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 8

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Reynolds County

LOCATION DETAILS: Please do not let this info out because of folks who want to harm these creatures.

NEAREST TOWN: Ellington

OBSERVED: I have to apologize about not posting my sighting sooner simply because most folks just laugh and look at you as a fruit cake or something. However, this makes my second sighting of a Big Foot. My son and I was bow hunting in Reynolds county Mo, and I decided to hunt a pond where deer was using it consistently. To make a long story short, I got settled in a tree behind the pond where I could watch a hollower leading up to the pond and a log road running past the pond as well. So around 5 pm I noticed how quiet the woods became. The squirrels I had been watching disappeared, the birds became silent, so I started to become concerned of human activity. So I began to search the woods to see if someone was in the area when this large black figure appeared walking down the other side of this hollower I had set up to watch. At first I thought this was a man. But as it kept walking I noticed how massive it was, and all of a sudden it stopped and took two steps backwards and turned and looked straight at me. It was then I realized that this is not a man but a Big Foot. As this creature looked at me, I could clearly see its eyes and nose. I could see flesh around its eyes and cheeks and also see hair covering its face as well. It stood there looking at me for I guess a good fifteen or twenty seconds, then turned and walked on down the ridge and disappeared into the woods. Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind and refused to climb down the tree, but it was getting dark and I knew I had to meet my son back out on the main road. Finally I got up the nerve and came down. So I walked over to where I saw it and looked back to the tree I was in, and then it became clear that what I had seen could not have been a man, because he would not have been tall enough to have been seen over the underbrush. This creature was at least seven and a half or eight foot tall. When I met up with my son I asked him if he met or passed anybody or vehicles on his way to pick me up, and he said no then I told him what I saw.

OTHER WITNESSES: No

OTHER STORIES: Yes. My uncle, son and I saw a Big Foot in 2015. Around 2007 or 2008 a hunter told me and my uncle he saw a creature eating a deer gut pile there.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was late October. Around 5 pm clear skies, calm winds and still plenty of sunlight to be able to see a good 2 to 3 hundred yards through the woods.

ENVIRONMENT: A lot of pine, a pond and probably 2 to 3 hundred yards on pass the pond there is a clear cut a good bedding area for deer. Off of county road 12 there are a bunch of food plots for the deer

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Carter Buschardt:

I spoke with Tommy at length. I was the investigator on his original Report #46826 a few years back. The encounter was as he described, and I did get some further information from him. It is as follows: He was in his portable tree stand, about 30 ft. up a rather large sturdy tree. The tree overlooked a trail (hollow) that meandered through another large stand of trees, and the trail (hollow) dumps out into a clearing. As mentioned, he was focused on 2 squirrels playing when he heard a "rustling, shuffling" coming down the trail. Distance from the tree he was in, to the spot of seeing the creature was about 75 yards. The creature was blending in to the shadows from the trees, and that is where he came up with the coloring of a very dark brown or "blackish".

He saw the massive creature walking down the trail, and as soon as it hit the clearing, it stopped dead in its tracks and looked straight up at him. It did not stop and look around in any other direction, or at any other animals or objects. Straight at him, as though he knew he was there the entire time. This totally unnerved him, and he froze. He is quite certain he was frozen already, and the creature was "drilling a hole right through him" with his stare. He described the creature as:

"A flat nose, but not totally flat. Flesh was a dark tan, like a white person with a very deep tan. Huge fat lips. Eyes were squinted and huge. There was hair on and around the face but it was sparse in that area. It was slightly bent over when it was looking up at me". When it was finished with the stare down, it " stood up straight as can be, seemed to take a deep breath, and squared up its shoulders, and walked on down the trail it was on in the first place". The creature went on its way like the situation never happened. Didn't look back, make any sound, nothing. Not concerned about the witness at all. As he mentioned, when he DID finally climb down out of the tree, he went over to where the creature was standing. He determined from the height of the underbrush and low hanging branches, that it was indeed NOT a human. It was what he thought in the first place, a Sasquatch. It was not, and could not have been a man.

I have camped and investigated this area, and it is quite active.
The witness is as honest and as down to earth as just about anyone I have met, inside AND outside the scope of this subject matter.

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.