YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

DATE: 28

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Ashtabula County

LOCATION DETAILS: Directions:
Off of Interstate 90 head south on Rt. 534 to Cork Cold Springs Rd. Once on Cork Cold Springs head east to Windsor Mechanicsville. On Windsor Mechanicsville head north to Country View ln. On Country View head east to Timberwoods. Once on Timberwoods go to the end of the road, it dead ends. Past the dead end is large patch of woods. That is where the sighting occured.

NEAREST TOWN: Geneva

NEAREST ROAD: Timberwoods Rd.

OBSERVED: Me and a friend were shoveling snow in our driveway when we noticed two sets of strange barefooted footprints with about a three foot separation between each step. We both thought it was a little strange that someone would walk in the snow barefooted. We started to follow the tracks into the woods. We walked about thirty yards from the drive on the tracks and started to hear a faint banging. As we got closer we could see two greyish figures. We couldn't tell what they were until we got closer. They were about eight feet in height and muscular. One was banging on a tree and the other was digging in the snow. We could smell them - it was very foul. When they noticed us the one banging on the tree let out a high pitch squeal like a train or a chainsaw. They both ran off into the woods.We thought it was a prank so we tried to follow them further but after a while we gave up. We don't know if it was real or not, but we reported anyway.

ALSO NOTICED: nope

OTHER WITNESSES: two, me and my friend who helped me write the report

OTHER STORIES: none

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was right before and during dawn, it was not snowing and the lighting conditions were resonable.

ENVIRONMENT: variaty of trees in the woods

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kevin Withers:

For the sake of clarity, while preserving anonymity, I’ll refer to the two witnesses in this report as “P” and “D.” This sighting report was written and submitted by P, although the contact information he supplied on the report was for his friend, D, for reasons I discovered later in my investigation.

I was able to reach D, and spoke at length with him about their sighting. He is a student at Kent State University, and was seventeen years old at the time of this encounter.

The footprints they saw that morning were about fifteen inches in length, with no visible toes; snow that had fallen after the prints had been made rendered them indistinct. The prints all appeared to have been made by one person or animal.

The two friends followed the footprints over a half mile into the woods when they began hearing a knocking noise, which they thought was a woodpecker. As they crested a small hill they saw, about 100 yards away, two white/gray colored creatures. Both creatures were facing away from the witnesses. One was pounding on the trunk of a thin tree - it would swing its arms in a sidearm fashion, hitting the tree with its fists, and then grab the tree trunk and shake it. The other was about ten feet away, standing but bent over at the waist, digging in the snow. The ground around them appeared to be disturbed - dirt had been dug up through the snow, and logs were turned over.

The witnesses watched the two creatures for about half a minute, then P tried to draw their attention by yelling and throwing sticks and rocks in their direction. The creature that was digging raised up, turned around, and spotted the two witnesses, and with a look of shock on its face, let out a scream. The one pounding on the tree turned around and saw the two witnesses, and then both of them ran off while making grunting sounds.

The creature that was pounding on the tree was estimated to be seven feet tall; the other one was about a foot shorter. They both had thick, “whitish gray” fur and brownish faces, palms and soles. They had big “Negroid” noses, black eyes, round heads with no necks, and no visible ears. The hair on their heads was a little longer than that on their bodies, hanging down to the tops of their shoulders. The creature that had been bending over digging in the snow had a backside that was darker colored than the rest of its body.

The witnesses watched the creatures for about ten seconds as they ran away. P wanted to follow them, and indeed started to go, but D was frightened and began heading back to the house. P quickly decided that discretion was the better part of valor and broke off the chase, turning and running after his friend.

P and D reported this incident to P’s mother, who “flipped out.” She took her son to a doctor and forced him to take a drug test, which he passed. She later took him to a psychiatrist who told him that the encounter “didn’t happen,” but P did not give up his belief in what he had seen.

P’s mother began discouraging further visits by D, and the two friends eventually drifted apart. They finally lost all contact when P moved to San Diego.

I considered making an attempt to track down and interview P about the sighting, but decided against it. After hearing about P’s mother’s reaction to being told about this encounter, it was apparent to me why P put his friend’s phone number and e-mail address on the report instead of his own. Any attempt to contact P about this report would run the risk of reopening old wounds and causing more trouble between P and his mother.

Many people who encounter bigfoot find it to be a frightening, life changing experience. One psychologist has said that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is not an uncommon result of these encounters. D revealed to me that he suffers from nightmares because of what he saw. It’s tragic that these people, rather than being treated in a way that would help minimize the impact of what they’ve been through, are instead laughed at, called liars or lunatics, and sometimes find their jobs are in jeopardy.

The profound effect that bigfoot sightings have on witnesses, and the fear of ridicule by friends and family, make it likely that only a small percentage of bigfoot sightings are ever reported.

There are a few discrepancies between P’s report and D’s description of what happened. However, this is not uncommon when more than one person witness the same event. D came across as sincere and believable, and the way he explained these discrepancies when I brought them to his attention, along with certain details he gave me about the sighting, added credibility to his testimony.

During the interview D also mentioned that there had been large rocks moved from one side of P's dirt driveway to the other, and that a neighbor had lost hunting dogs, later finding them dead in the woods with twisted necks.

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