YEAR: 2015-16

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Missouri

COUNTY: Mississippi County

LOCATION DETAILS: The location is a the very end of county highway J. The highway ends at the levee. The pump station is to the left of the highway.

NEAREST TOWN: Charleston, Missouri

NEAREST ROAD: I-57

OBSERVED: In the years of 2015-16 I had encounters with a creature in the Mississippi River bottoms at a place called Drinkwater, a flood control pump station on the Mississippi levee system east of Charleston, Missouri.

The first encounter consisted of hearing high pitched, long drawn out echoing of the concrete walls of the pump station. The sounds were from far off so I paid them no mind at the time but I did find them to be quite odd.

The second encounter happen a few months later as a few friends and I were bowfishing one night. We were down by the lock gate shooting fish when I happened to look up on the levee to our right and noticed something standing on the levee watching us about 200 or so yards off. Even though it was dark, you could see the outline of the figure standing upright in the faint light caused by a semi truck weigh station on the highway that crossed over to Cairo, Illinois. It didn’t stay long but it left an eerie feeling over us at the time, we left shortly afterwards.

The third encounter was the most interesting one of all. One of my friends and I were bowfishing again one night at the pump station when we began hearing the high pitched sounds again. My friend, who was holding a spotlight so that I could see to shoot began to go into a panic and started shining the light in the woods to our right which irritated me at the time because I couldn’t see the fish without the light. While trying to calm him down to get the light back to the water something grunted off to our left. At 25 yards or so stood a creature of a height between 8’ and 9’ foot tall covered in dark brown to black hair at the very edge of the tree line in full view of the spotlight. The creature watched us for a little under a minute time with one arm gripping a tree limb the size of my forearm as if he were using it to keep his balance. When the creature departed he let out several loud grunts and at a steady walking pace left the scene while breaking any tree limb in it path, whether it was dead or green. We left after the encounter terrified and what we had just witnessed.

ALSO NOTICED: Just very strange high pitched long drawn out noises echoing off the water and concrete walls of the pump station

OTHER WITNESSES: Four in the total of the three encounters. All were there bowfishing with me at the time

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The encounters always happened at night with very little natural lighting. The spotlight incident was the only good sighting we had

ENVIRONMENT: A very marsh like river bottom about an eighth mile from the Mississippi River.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Witness contact info available to BFRO investigators

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email ContactUS@BFRO.net