YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 11th

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Gasconade County

LOCATION DETAILS: Withheld by request.

NEAREST TOWN: Bland

NEAREST ROAD: Hyw B

OBSERVED: On 4-11-03 my son came running to the house screaming let me in..let me in. He was shaking and very upset. He said the woods monster was going to get him. I asumed his older brother had scared him. I confronted his brother and told him to quit scaring his brother. He said he was not even near him and wanted to know why he was crying in such hystericks. When I asked my son again he said it was not his brother...it was the woods monster. I went outside to the back yard, our house sets at the edge of a big woods just up from a river. I smelled something musky, I then had a good idea what he might have seen. My son is 5yrs old, He knows nothing of bigfoot other than the monster truck. When asked again he said it was just looking at him, I asked was he small or...before I could say anymore he said no, he was big like this...pointing to the ceiling in our livingroom. My wife asked, why do you say he...my son replied..he's just like us only bigger. Then I asked him if he smelled anything. He said yes it stunk like a skunk. We laughed at what he said and decided to drop it so he could calm down and sleep that night. The next morning he came to our bed, I asked him if he was going outside today...he said no..then said if he did he would not go near the woods. My wife asked if he could draw what he saw. He said yes. He took a piece of printer paper and got his crayons. He dumped out the crayons and after a second or so said Do you seen the brown crayon. I told him it was still in the crayon tin. He first drew a big rectangle and colored it brown. Then he took the red and drew arms and legs and head. He also drew some squigly line around it, those were the branches he was looking through. Then I got on the computer, I found the picture of the Patterson film. As soon as the picture materialized on the screen my son backed up and said THATS IT. I beleve my son 100% because abot 20-21yrs ago I seen something similar not 200yrds in the same woods. And in 1975 my now brother-in-law saw the same thing not 10 miles or so from here. I just found out today that some people not more than 3 miles from here had some kind of an incident the night after my son seen what he saw. If interested in the other stories you may contact me. I wished that my sons encounter not list any names due to ridicule from people in the area. Myson had to many right answers to what he saw for someone who didn't even know this thing exists. I dont talk about my encounter, and never have around my sons. And we monitor what they watch on tv. He had all the right answers. A 5yr old doesn't just pull things like that out of his imagination.

OTHER WITNESSES: There was no other witnesses other than my son.

OTHER STORIES: Yes, there are two other stories for sure, and posibly one more the night after this one.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: around 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. There was still quite alot of light.

ENVIRONMENT: The woods it somewhat dense. There is a river about 1000yrds from the sighting. There are alot of big farms owned by city people that no one lives on. They are all growd up with vegitation.

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke for an hour with the 35 year old father ("M"). He grew up in the country, is familiar with wildlife, and has hunted since childhood. Hundreds of acres of woods stand adjacent to the family farm. In addition, several large farms “just down the road” are essentially abandoned and have grown up; they are used for deer hunting and little else. The Bourbeuse River flows about a half mile away.

Based on his investigation of the child's experience, M estimates that the "monster" that frightened his son was seen at a distance of 50 to 60 yards. He sent me the pictures drawn by the five year old. The first was created purely from memory. The second picture was drawn after the boy saw a frame from the Patterson/Gimlin film featured on the BFRO’s web site. This was the picture that prompted the child, who had never seen a bigfoot image, to back away from the computer and shout, “That’s it!”

First picture: drawn purely from memory.

Second picture: drawn after the boy saw a frame from the Patterson/Gimlin film featured on the BFRO’s web site.

M shared the details of his 1982 sighting. It took place about 200 yards from his own son's April 11th sighting. In M's case, he smelled something first. His initial impression was that the odor came from a dead animal, stating "it smelled kind of like rotten trash.” Then he heard a rustling sound. He looked, thinking it was probably his sister and her boyfriend on their horses (he had been chasing them earlier) hiding in the 10-12' scrub brush bordering the road on which he was walking. Instead, he saw a huge creature, estimated at seven feet or more in height, standing 15 to 20 yards away from him. It was brown and hairy, and M could see it from head to toe.

Terrified, M started running for home. He soon encountered his sister and her boyfriend. They picked him up and went back to the place of the sighting, but the horses got spooky and started side stepping as they drew near. The young people went home and then M and adult male relatives returned in a truck. Nothing else was seen.

It was evident that just talking about his sighting brought back the feelings he experienced over twenty years earlier. He acknowledged this point himself late in our conversation, stating, "Telling you the story makes me tremble."

M also related details concerning an event that occurred about three miles from his farm on the 12th, the night after his son’s sighting. The family in question owns a very aggressive Chow dog. On this night, for reasons unknown, the dog appeared terrified of something behind the house. Thinking their chickens were in danger, the husband shouted into the darkness. Something large took off. The unseen visitor crashed through the woods and heavy pounding footsteps could clearly be heard as it ran away.

The combination of events supports the possibility that a sasquatch was observed by the child. The report was categorized as Class A on the basis of the father's sighting.