YEAR: 2021

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 27

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Cass County

LOCATION DETAILS: Heading north on Route 78 just across the Sangamon River leaving Chandlerville, IL.

[Investigator (MM) Notes:

Rough location coordinates: 40.068315, -90.152173
]

NEAREST TOWN: Chandlerville

NEAREST ROAD: Rout 78

OBSERVED: Saturday night I was driving at 10:30 PM in Central Illinois heading from Cass County to Tazewell County. A car was probably 3/4 mile ahead of me and I could see their tail lights.

I saw a large animal jump into the road about 40 yards ahead. When it hit the road I could see very large legs spread wide in a dead run with large swinging hairy arms. The arms switched back and forth close to the ground as its body was leaning forward. It leaped across the road in two jumps. When it hit the shoulder it looked back at me. I said to myself out loud "f***ng Bigfoot!"

It was a about 2 seconds before it vanished in the darkness altogether but I could see it clearly. It was very large and even though it was hunched over nearly horizontal it still was close to being wider than my car and nearly to the top of my windshield. It blocked out the lights of the car ahead. It had shinny black hair. I could not see eyes or mouth but saw its head turn towards me before it jumped into the dark field.

ALSO NOTICED: It was running and leaping very fast. Nearly as fast as a White Tail Deer. Its gate and/or stride was huge.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me

OTHER STORIES: [After discussing the incident at work] my co-worker says hunters, fisherman and barge operators have had multiple sightings in that area. Supposedly the locals say a clan of Bigfoot live there and they are not threating to humans.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 10:30 PM with clear weather and stars shinning.

ENVIRONMENT: Farm land with scattered timber. Just East of a wildlife reserve.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

This is a very reliable sighting. I spoke extensively with the witness by phone. Patrick Garver is 59 years old. Has been a design engineer for the past 38 years designing parts for custom welding machines. He is married and has two kids in college.

He was not particularly interested in the Bigfoot subject but he recognized what he was seeing. He was driving 70 miles per hour and didn’t slow down much until he reached the next town. He kept going then stopped in Havana, the next town, to text his wife and kids to say he had seen a Bigfoot cross the highway.

He was driving north and the figure was running frighteningly fast across the highway from left to right into an open field.

He commented that the pin position shown below may be off somewhat. He thinks it happened a bit further north on 78, further into the open field. There was no cover on either side of the road at that point so it is impossible for him to pinpoint the exact crossing point.

He agreed to make a sketch of the figure so it can be added to this report later.

He was surprised that this is the first posted visual sighting report for this county — Cass County Illinois — but he noticed the next county to east has 13 (!!) posted reports total and a county nearby to the north has 12 posted reports. He noted that Cass County is very sparsely populated — only 12,000 people.

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