YEAR: 2023

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

DATE: 18

STATE: Maine

COUNTY: Aroostook County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Investigator (MM) notes:

The residents do not want us to post their address or use their last names. The property is 2.5 miles south of Mars Hill, ME and 3.5 miles west of the Canadian border.

See graphics below for general location]

NEAREST TOWN: blaine

NEAREST ROAD: robinson road

OBSERVED: December 18, 2023:

A big storm blew in around 7 a.m. and didn’t move off until about 12:30 a.m. It knocked out power to our home sometime around 7 p.m. We have a chicken coop about 40 feet from our house. It is 2 feet off the ground and 12’x20’ with an entrance door that used to be the front door to our home.

It was about 8:30 p.m. (sunset is around 3:30 this time of year) when I was shining my flashlight out an upstairs window when I saw a dark silhouette standing in front of my coop. The top of its head was in line with the top of the coop door. It was very muscular, broad shoulders, long upper legs with proportionately shorter lower legs. It was too narrow at the hips to be a bear. We had a black bear and her cubs den near our house a few years ago, this was nothing like her shape.

I moved the flashlight to try to get a better look and it disappeared from view. The chicken coop is covered in white siding. There is no mistake that this was bipedal. It was facing me when I first shined the light on it. It turned to run off just before I moved the flashlight.

Given that an average door is about 7 feet high, and the coop is 2 feet off the ground, that would put it around 9 feet tall.

What had me looking outside was a sound that I heard on the wind that alarmed me to my core. I had spent the day listening to the wind howl and moan, but this was different. It was guttural and within the sounds of the wind, but not in sync. It caused a physical reaction: my heart started racing and my stomach went into knots. I was tending to two of my grand kids that were playing with flashlights, mostly shadow puppets. I jumped to my feet and told them to hand me a flashlight and turn the other one off. To shine the flashlight outside through the window I must put it against the window or it just reflects back. To see out the window all other light must be off. One of our dogs was barking furiously.

Before I could tell my daughters what I saw, they tell me what they were experiencing downstairs with the two younger children and the dogs. Because the power was out, my youngest daughter was charging her phone in her car. She said she went out to get her phone off the charger and felt that somebody was watching her. The feeling was so intense that she stayed in her car a few minutes to look around and see if she could see anyone. When she got out to head back into the house, she only got a few steps away from her car when she heard the same sound I had heard. She said she was instantly terrified and ran into the house. The dog was in the window barking as she was coming through the door.

My oldest daughter said that when she heard the howl she saw her dog lift her head and look out the window, then stood up and started barking frantically. The dog was looking in the opposite direction than my youngest daughter, who had just started to run to the front door. Nobody wanted to charge their phones in the vehicles after that.

This was not a mistaken identity about the sounds. We were in 30mph winds with 55 mph gusts and a downpour of rain in December. I don’t know of any animal, domestic or wild, that would be out in that weather.

In the morning after sunrise, my oldest daughter went out to the trash bin that is next to the chicken coop. She found the heavy lid was lifted off the bin and set on the back of the bin OPPOSITE the direction the wind had been blowing. Two large bags of trash were missing and there was a trail of trash into the woods.

The critters tear up the trash in the bin and pick out what they want. They DO NOT carry 55-gallon trash bags home with them. There are no tracks of any kind because we don’t have any soft mud spots. It’s either gravel or grass around that entire area of our property.

ALSO NOTICED: throughout the summer heard odd chirping like sounds after dark. Identified as mountain lion.

OTHER WITNESSES: 3 adults, 3 children, one of 3 dogs (a doberman). Power outage, children playing shadow puppets with flashlights before bedtime.

OTHER STORIES: No, but we don't know many people

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 8:30pm Massive storm high winds and down pour vary dark

ENVIRONMENT: wooded and farmland combined; rural maine. triple creek, ski resort, hills, ponds, potato farms

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Ontario Richardson:

On December 18th, 2023, a severe windstorm moved through the East Coast knocking out power and causing at least four deaths. Around 7:00p.m. EST power was lost at Michelle’s home. Michelle and her two daughters, grandchildren and a family friend were riding out the storm at home and entertaining the kids with shadow puppets.

Shortly after power was lost, an object struck the window. Michelle grabbed a flashlight and held it flush against the glass, so could see if a branch had hit the house in the strong wind. Once she laid back down, she heard a long whooping sound followed by a growl in conjunction with the strong winds. She got up, pointed the flashlight flush with the glass again, so it would illuminate outside and not reflect at her. Looking towards her chicken coop, Michelle observed a giant black figure on two legs, silhouetted against the coop. She was not able to observe facial features, but the figure was looking towards the house, then turned and quickly walked into the wood line.

While this was occurring, Stephen was upstairs in his bedroom listening to the wind. He described hearing a drawn-out whoop above the wind. It frightened him enough that he did not get out of bed and rolled over instead. This happened simultaneously with what Michelle had described.

Michelle’s two daughters were downstairs with her and their children. Earlier that night, unable to charge her phone, Colby walked out to her car, turned it on and plugged in her phone. As she sat briefly, she had an uncomfortable feeling and headed back inside. After some time, she walked back outside to retrieve her phone from the car. As she was walking back inside, she heard a howl and looked up and saw a tall, black, hulking figure standing in the doorway to their chicken coop. Its head reached as high as the gutters, making it approximately 8 to 8-1/2' tall. It was 10 – 15 yards away from her.

She ran back inside, turned to her sister Amber and said, “there is a giant outside”, grabbed her baby and went upstairs.
Similarly, to Stephen, Amber had only heard the sound. She recollects a whooping sound followed up by the dogs barking considerably.

Michelle is confident this was not a black bear. They had a sow and cubs on her property 2 years prior, which they saw and heard frequently. This was unlike that.

On their farm, they had started out with 30 chickens and 7 turkeys. Over several months, they’re down to 10 chickens and 1 turkey. They have not seen bodies or blood, only feathers. On their property they also have apple trees and raspberry bushes by the pond near their home. They often throw dinner scraps out the door and onto the grass for the cats and crows.

Between an abundance of natural treat foods (fruit), the small birds and frequent food scraps were likely and easy food source for a Sasquatch to capitalize on. With the lack of activity on the property due to the storm, the Sasquatch probably thought this would have been a safe time to get a meal. It was likely surprised when it encountered Amber outside the house and retreated to the timber to hide.
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Note from BFRO Investigator Matt Moneymaker:

There are a few elements about this report that suggest an attempt to make contact and seek assistance from humans during a weather event.

These situations most often happen on properties where any prowling animal in the nearby woods would frequently hear and observe human females interacting with domesticated animals in an affectionate way (as opposed to unaffectionate treatment of commercial livestock).

We talked about this a few times on the TV show.

The geology around there has big granite protrusions but is not karst (i.e limestone caves). The soil is too rocky to dig a man-sized burrow by hand. Nor are there deep rocky gorges that would provide natural protection from the harshest winter winds. The only shelter from any wind in this particular area is thick brush among thick stands of trees.

Thick brush provides sufficient protection from winter for a cold-adapted mammal if the wind is not too strong. Certian types of trees (especially types of cedar in dense thickets) create umbrellas from snow. At the base there are dry duff piles to get inside, like small hay piles, if you are right next to the base of the tree, especially big thick cedar trees.

Unless there is a very large and very dense, mature cedar thicket nearby, then very strong freezing winds will penetrate the thickest trees and brush at hand. It would be uncomfortable enough to make a large animal want to move around to keep warm.

This sasquatch was probably taking chickens and turkeys from the family's chicken coop over time. That poultry would have been a fall back energy source if high calorie food was needed desperately, like in this particular freezing wind scenario.

The sasquatch may also have been trying to get the attention of the people inside the house -- mostly females and children. That is the typical pattern. The sasquatch would have known that these women are helping other animals through the storm and thus might be sympathetic to another creature caught in the storm ... help with shelter or perhaps with food.

That happens with various types of mammals in similar circumstances.

If there had been a barn or shed where the sasquatch could have taken refuge it probably would have done so that during the storm. A repeated observation in the Midwestern US is sasquatch tracks in snow leaving a barn after a bad winter storm.

Even if this family had perceived that the sasquatch was seeking help to get through the storm, the family may not have had the option to open a shelter space, like a garage (instant cave), that would provide temporary refuge from the howling winds.

Many types of mammals and birds will seek a shelter space in these circumstances, even if it is close to a human dwelling. They will take the chance.

With dogs in the house it would not have worked to let the sasquatch inside, by letting it see they are opening the door to let it come in. In this situation the accomodating humans would open the door and retire to the upstairs to allow the animal to step inside, out of the freezing wind, so it would not have to confront a human while inside.

That is the sort of interaction with a sasquatch that may occur in the future once people realize that these are very intelligent creatures that do not prey on humans.

They are civilized in a weird way, which is what you would expect from a very intelligent primate. The might actually seek assistance from humans on rare occasion, as other intelligent mammals will do in various situations. They will accept assistance if it can happen without direct confrontation. They always want to keep a distance and not be observed by humans. They might feel OK standing right outside your tent, but they will leave if you unzip the window. That's a confrontation. They don't want that. A confrontation with humans scares them just as much as their mere appearance scares humans.

If you live in a remote rural area that gets freezing storms, consider how you could open a shelter space for a freezing sasquatch if one starts throwing small objects against your window and moaning outside during a deadly cold storm.

Any type of out-building that can be left open during a bad storm could obtain fantastic video with inexpensive home security cameras connected to WIFI. A sasquatch seeking shelter might not like the red glow of small infrared illuminators on a security camera up in the rafters, but if the wind is bad enough, they will come, as well as various other animals and birds that are outside freezing to death in the wind.











NOTE: The image below does not show the actual property but rather a similar one nearby. This image merely shows what the surrounding environment looks like.

About BFRO Investigator Ontario Richardson:

- Native of Eastern Iowa

- BFA from Iowa State University (2015)

- National Account Manager for one of the largest contract security companies in the world

- Prior employment law as 911 Emergency Dispatcher

- Early years included family fishing trips in remote parts of Canada

- Several solo bigfoot investigations in Eastern and Southern Iowa

- Equipped for audio recording and casting tracks

- Attended 2023 Iowa BFRO expediton ; 2023 Minnesota BFRO expedition ; several private expeditions

- Recommended as BFRO investigator by expedition organzier Bob Barhite