YEAR: 1981

SEASON: Spring

STATE: Oklahoma

COUNTY: Latimer County

NEAREST TOWN: Wilburton

OBSERVED: It was dark, about 8pm. My two sons and I were watching television while eating popcorn. The eldest, age 16 was sitting accross the room, on the loveseat. The youngest, age 8 was sitting next to me on the sofa, we were sharing a bowl of popcorn placed between us. I smelled this horrific stench coming from the window directly behind us.(My family has teased me about having the nose of a hound)so the my 16 yr.old says "Oh Mom your always smelling something." Well, I look around and the smell dissipates,we continue watching television; a few minutes pass, and the stench blows in again. I got up while telling my oldest son to help me pull out the sofa that there is something horrible under it.As he appooached he smells the stench and says"It'ts a snake", the youngest moved back, we pulled the couch out and looked all over the entire room and came up with nothing.We notice the breeze blowing the curtain and deside that whatever the source it's outside, and we'll check it out in daylight.

The 16 yr old went outside about an hour later. He came back inside for the shotgun.(His Dad has taken him hunting since he was 6 years old, he knows guns and the woods.)He said someone was standing in back, about 6 yards (north )of the house by a railroad tie post, watching the house, and it was one darn big guy. He took the gun and went toward our chicken pen. I heard him yell from about 50 yards or so from our chicken pen to "call the law." I was scared beyond measure for my son not knowing what was happening. I called the sheriff, after about 10 min. my son came back to the house he said the guy stepped over a bobbed wire fence, and jumped over a brush pile while leaving. He'd not had to use the gun.

Two sheriff deputies arrived.They shined lights up and down the yard and property and found nothing. My son went to his Grandmothers house to inform her that we had a prowler. She lived about 40 yards northeast of us.He'd been gone about 20 min.when I heard the metal latch of an outside storage building.Someone had gone into the building.Now my youngest son and I were in the house, the eldest knowing I was already spooked would not be lurking about. His Dad was out of town working putting up a gas rig. The question being who had opened the latch?The building is my laundry room and contained my washer, dryer, and deepfreeze. I phoned my mother-in-law, and asked to speak to my son. When he answered the phone I asked if he'd been there the whole time. The answer being yes, I told him someone had entered the laundry building, and to my knowledge hadn't left.He said he would be home after telling him to be careful, I waiting and watched. He was home in two minutes. While we were discussing what to do he yelled what in the **** is that? My 8 yr.old ran into the kitchen, they both had seen a face in the picture window behind the sofa.The eldest said it was hairy and dirty. I called the sheriff again, my son got the shotgun, my youngest son and myself waited behind him sitting on the floor with the lights out. I fully expected some deranged vagabond to jump through the window.While waiting we smelled the stench again as we were only 3 or 4 ft. from the window.Then I knew the scent was coming from this person.Knowing this sent chills up my spine. The deputies arrived and again found nothing, and left.I never associated this event with the bigfoot until reading about other icidents.The stench is what ties it in for me, and the discription my son gave of the face in the window, the way this character acted just wasn't in keeping with anything I've ever known. But the deciding factor for me was about 8 months ago I repeated this story to a friend of ours, retired Oklahoma Highway Patrolman, who hunts with my husband.He said this was out of character for any perp he'd ever seen.As close as I can describe it the scent was a mix between dirty,wet,steamy blue jeans,soiled diapers,and wet, filthy dog. Thats why for years I thought we'd had a deranged, or drugged tramp lurking about, as my husband had found the signs of someone being in the woods round about.

ALSO NOTICED: While returning from the chicken pen one evening I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I knew someone or something was there. I made myself appear casually walking back to the house. I shut the door,and locked it. Another time the door knob was turned, and would have opened were it not locked.I and the neighbors heard strange screams,and howls on occasion.

OTHER WITNESSES: My oldest son who is 38 now. He was watching television accross the room and left of my location. My youngest son, who would be 30 died 3 years ago, and myself were eating popcorn while watching television sitting in front of the 8 ft.wide picture window containing the side screened windows which were open.

OTHER STORIES: Not close to this location.However my son and a friend of his have told me about a couple of incidents. My grandson said he and a cousin have seen a bigfoot about 13 miles east of us.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Perfect temperature, about 72 degrees.Slight breeze from the north.Time around 8pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine,oak, blackjack, hickory, cedar trees,lots of brush.Fourche Maline creek flows about a quarter mile from our property. There is a pond about 100 yards from our house.

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked to the mother and the son at great length about the 1981 incident and another incident that involved the son and a friend while they were coonhunting approximately “six or seven years ago.”

Both witnesses recalled the night's events well. It was no doubt an experience of a lifetime for all three of the individuals involved. There were some details that were recalled by the son that the mother had not included in the report.

The son recalled that after he first saw the “prowler,” he remembered thinking that the individual had “no clothes on.” Apparently, his grandparents (who lived just next door) had a security light on their property and it provided just enough illumination for the son to determine that the figure appeared unclothed. At that time, the son, 16 at the time, recalled thinking “it was either some kind of wild man that had been in the woods a long time or some kind of nut.”

The son described what he saw in the window as “hairy and wild,” with “eyes not set so far back as an ape.” He further described the face as “unique; not quite an ape, but not human.” The head was “egg-shaped.” To the best of his recollection, the son remembered that its face was “about three inches from the window.” He saw the creature through the window for probably two seconds at the most. It was at this point that he recalled thinking that the “prowler” was not a prowler after all, but some sort of animal; he had heard all his life of two-legged, upright, hairy animals that lived in the mountains, but never gave them much thought until he saw what he saw in the window, and pursued the “prowler” on foot.

The son stated that when he gave chase to the animal, he remembered that it was carrying a chicken by the legs in one hand. This encounter afforded him the best view yet, as the distance between him and the animal was perhaps only 25 yards. He estimated that the figure was easily 6 ½ - 7 feet tall and covered with coarse hair. With flashlight on the animal and automatic 12-gauge shotgun in hand, the son watched the strange animal in a dead run collide with the barbed wire fence. The creature ran right into the fence, apparently not seeing it. The collision caused the top strand of the fence to snap; the animal fell over the fence. It dropped the chicken and promptly regained its footing, only to sprint and hurdle a “six-foot high brush pile” before scurrying up the hill and out of sight, all the while the chicken escaping.

The son told the deputy who arrived on scene that he didn’t care if anyone thought he was crazy, he saw “whatever it was” clear the brush pile with ease. The son remembered the deputy finding hair on the fence and putting it in his pocket.

The son said that the family didn’t get any sleep that night, nor did they sleep much for the next several nights. When all was said and done, it was apparent that something had pilfered through the deep freeze. The family came to the conclusion that the visitor had managed to figure out how to open the door to the “wash house,” and then knew to open and look inside the deep freeze that was contained in the “wash house.” The son told me that in hindsight, he entertains the possibility that there were two of the creatures at the house that night.

After that night, over the next four to five years, the family believed that the animal stayed in the area; the neighbors reported hearing weird screams and noises at night from time to time. Other occurrences such as missing chickens and missing pets also made the family feel uneasy. After no more than five years after the “prowler” incident, everything seemed to return to normal; there were no more nocturnal vocalizations and no more missing chickens or missing meat from the deep freeze.

Another incident that involved the son happened while he and a friend were coonhunting in the mountains with five coondogs. The son and his friend saw an upright, bipedal animal at a distance of about thirty yards after the five coondogs began to “whimper and whine” and generally behave “in a most cowardly way.” During this encounter there was no smell detected. The animal was light-colored and was only about five feet tall. The son felt confident that “it was a young one.” Its nose was flat. The son stated that the small one looked very similar to the one he saw in 1981 at his parents’ house, but it was smaller and “spindly,” or had a frail appearance. Seemingly, in order to escape the scrutiny of the coonhunters' lights, the creature escaped behind some small pines, never to be seen or detected again.

The son stated that he is 38 years old and has spent his entire life in the woods from the time he was a baby. His point was that he has only had two encounters with these animals, yet he has spent countless days and hours upon hours hunting and basically living in the woods. He explained that “it’s no wonder they are so hard to locate and track; they can reason, and those woods and mountains are their home. That night that it went into our wash house and got into our freezer proved to me that they can reason.”