YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: January

DATE: jan 24-25

STATE: South Carolina

COUNTY: Sumter County

NEAREST TOWN: sumter

NEAREST ROAD: horne rd

OBSERVED: Last night i went to let my dogs back into the house and i heard down the hill what sounded like someone walking in the woods and making alot of noise. it sounded like they were dragging their feet. i did not know what it was so i went and got my dad and we came to the door and it caught his attention. me and him went and got dressed and got our guns. we walked down the hill and our dog edison (jackrussel) followed. there was a path cleared years ago for my guess the power line people because we live right beside the power lines but was stopped being used after hurricane Hugo because of some big oak trees that fell across it but this path is still well cleared we walk down it alot. but we go to the front of this path and it sounded like it was down in the woods (not to far away) and off to the left of the path i told my dad i wasn't going down the path and he agreed with me my dog edison however decided that he would. (we were thinking originally that it could have been a dear or a bobcat or a bear. as close as we were to the thing (about 25yards) dear would have run away and bobcats and bears arn't to common around here) the dog went into the woods just a little and stopped we called but he had his eyes fixed on something and would not move he is scared of gun shots and i fired a shot in to the air he hesitated but slowly started coming up and it sounded as if the thing started walking toward us or after him was ever the case it scared me so i fired into the woods and it stopped for a few seconds and then it came closer and my dad fired a shot into the woods and once again it stopped at that time we grabbed out dog and went back up to the house. we put my dog edison away. what ever it was had my dad worried and me scared my dad said the only reason that it had him worried is because it wasn't scared of us or of the sound of the gun. my dad said what ever it is might be whats been messing with our dog smokey that is out in the back yard. we got a van that sits in our yard overlooking the hill so we got all of our ammo for our guns and staked out on the van we heard very weird noised coming out of the woods and continued to hear the noised every now and then for at least 30 mins and after that we waited on the van for and hour and heard nothing. my dad wanted to go down there one my time just to look around and when we got back down to the path we smelled this really foul smell. we went back to the house to wait for morning. we woke up this morning and it is raining mixed with a little sleet. we go our guns and we went into the woods around the area that we thought we heard it the previous night. the woods around our house has a floor covered with a thick layer of leaves so if anything had been down in the woods and walking and dragging their feet the leaves would have been very roughed up and they were and i looked down at the ground (this is about 10yards back into the path and i see what looks like a couple of foot prints(similar to a humans ) but with all the leaves is hard to tell.i put my foot beside it and i am about 6'1and i wear a size 13 shoe and it was as big as my foot. i talked with my dad and we figured this thing was bout 6 foot or taller and had to be dark because we could not see it and my dad has a very strong flash light. when i was younger about 12 i was very interested in bigfoot and i was alot of photos where trees were bent over and we went a little deeper into the woods and say a group of trees just like that and alot of them broken. we had been in this same part of the woods less than 2 weeks ago and the only winds that would be strong enough to do this would be from a hurricane and we haven't had a good one in years. we went into the thicket where these trees were bent and found red berries and this is strange because there was no bush in that area that has red berries plus this is in the middle of a bunch of trees. we have a pond in our woods that has a drainage pipe to keep it from over flowing it has a constant supply of water and this drainage pipe has made a stream and this stream went right by this area of bent trees then there was another spot to the left of the path were we found other bent trees and there is a huge ditch were water runs off into and it to had water in it from the rain. knowing the little bit that i know about bigfoot the things that i saw were very similar to things that i had seen years back on your and other websited and i got on your web site today to just see if my memory was right and it was (there was one other sighting in this area that you have on your sightings and it said something about being near shaw AFB and i live right behind Shaw AFB)i showed my dad the photos and he is not a guy that is very easily convinced of things but it has surely got him thinking. please i would like to know as much info as you can offer about this thanks.

ALSO NOTICED: none that i haven't already mentioned.

OTHER WITNESSES: my mom stayed near the house but she heard the noises but it was mostly me and my dad

OTHER STORIES: there was one other sighting in this area that you have on your sightings and it said something about being near shaw AFB and i live right behind Shaw AFB

TIME AND CONDITIONS: the time was about 11:00pm-12:30Am
it was dark out and had a slight wind.

ENVIRONMENT: it occured at the edge of the forest down a hill and it is close to a creek. land marks would be the powerlines

Follow-up investigation report:

We spoke to both the primary witness and his stepfather about the incident. The stepfather was unaware that the report had been filed, but remembered the experience exactly as it was written in the report. The witness has family that live on the other side of the woods from them and they too have heard usual noises and knocking sounds coming from the woods between their houses.