YEAR: 1986

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

DATE: 25

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: King County

LOCATION DETAILS: Hilltop Avenue, dead ending side street going north from E. James St.

NEAREST TOWN: Kent

NEAREST ROAD: Hilltop Avenue

OBSERVED: Christmas Day, 1986. Fifteen years old at the time, I was staying at my uncle's house near Kent, WA. At the rear of the house is a forested area. Around 7 or 8 am on Dec.25, 1986, we were all leaving to visit other relatives and I realized that I had left something inside the house, so went around to the rear entrance and was fumbling at the lock when I heard a tremendous crashing coming towards me through the forest. The oddest thing about the entire incident was my reactions - completely different to what one would expect. Hearing the crashing coming towards me I didn't (as you would expect someone to do) turn around to see what was happening - I felt a tremendous feeling of dread which certainly didn't help my efforts at unlocking the door. Whatever it was that was coming through the forest was making a LOT of noise and sounded BIG. The noise came closer until it was just approximately 30 metres behind me just inside the woodline and to my left, at which point I very slowly turned around (again it is impossible to convey just how frightened I felt) and I saw a creature standing upright and looking at me. It was tall and bulky but definitely not a bear standing upright because it didn't have the sloping shoulders of a bear but rather looked like a tall, bulky person in a cheap ape suit. I was genuinely paralyzed with fear and could neither make movement nor sound. The hair or fur was dark brown/black/reddish tints but mostly dark from what I could see. It was, as I mentioned, standing just inside the treeline, so the lower legs were hidden from view - only from about midthigh upwards was visible and definitely looked humanlike but with a pointier head than a normal human. I had the feeling that the exchange of looks lasted quite long but probably only lasted a few seconds before I was finally able to move, at which point I raced back round the front of the house and jumped into the car with the rest of the family, who remarked that I looked like I had seen a ghost. I never told anyone about what I had seen because growing up in the Pacific Northwest, one learns to laugh at the nutcases who claim to have seen bigfoot, and I certainly participated in the ridicule until that day. I only ever went to my uncle's house one other time after that day and sometimes now wish I had been brave enough to have looked in the forest for footprints later but it was simply impossible to have done at the time.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Between about 7 and 8 am. Light was pale wintery but easy visibility and the weather was warm for winter.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Dr. Wolf H. Fahrenbach:

This area, even in 1986, is lying remarkably close to the dense urban complex of the Greater Seattle area, though at its southern end, where it abuts the forested areas of the Cascade foothill outriggers. It lies about 15 miles north of the Puyallup River and 20 miles north of Orting, the closest sighting I am aware of.

The witness repeated the experience as being connected with the most overwhelming, primal terror he has ever experienced in his life.