YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

STATE: Texas

COUNTY: Coryell County

NEAREST TOWN: Mound, TX

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 84/FM 107

OBSERVED: I was hunting on our private land near Gatesville, Texas. It was very cold and very early in the morning at around 4 a.m.

When we arrived at the gates to our property me and my stepfather exited our vehicle and applied a last coat of scent blocker from our heads to our toes then applied raccoon urine to the soles of our boots. We entered our property and began walking through the first 40-acre field. At the far side of the field my stepfather settled into his hunting blind, leaving me to continue on to my hunting spot alone. It was about another 3/4 or 1 mile past my step dads hunting blind to my hunting spot. I walked mostly by memory of the trails of our land using my flashlight only when I absolutely had to, which was a maximum of 5 times and for a only a few seconds each time.

I reached my hunting spot by about 430 or 445 a.m. I settled into my usual hunting spot at the base of what we call the East Hill. I remember that I picked that spot because the wind that day was blowing to the east/south-east and the deer generally walked out north of that spot. It had a excellent sight line down the left side of the creek on our property (which I believe was north) under a large tree with lots of brush grown in front of it.

There was no moon that night. It was around 5 to 5:15 in the morning, but still so dark that I could not see my hand in front of my face. After being there for 15-20 minutes I began noticing the sound of footsteps coming from my right down the hill. Even though they sounded very far off, the distinct heavy and slow footsteps made me to wonder what it was. It definitely sounded like it was walking on 2 legs. It could not have been a horse or cow and no goat was heavy enough to produce the foot sounds that I heard.

Bear have never been spotted anywhere in this region so it didn't take long for the frightening realization to set into to me that this might be a bigfoot.

I fully cocked my 30-30 rifle and pointed it in the direction of the footsteps. It still sounded like it may have been as much as 15 yards away but was steadily moving in my direction with pauses every so often for up to a minute. One pause was so long that I had thought it had snuck off, but suddenly its distance to me had jumped from 10 or 12 yards away to about 5 yards away. I later discovered that there was a very large flat rock breaking the surface of the ground about 10 yards from me in that direction.

I was becoming extremely nervous at this point but the sounds still moved closer. I began to hear heavy breath sounds from the animal as it was getting closer. It sounded labored or very deep with a heavy exhale. I estimate that it was 10 feet from me or so when it took one last step. It then seemed as if it finally realized I was there, because it turned so quickly to leave that it tripped or slipped. It sounded like it fell down and hit the ground hard with a thud, then scrambled to get up. It ran away with what sounded like a long heavy stride which faded away quickly in the distance in the same direction it came from.

I waited till daylight to go looking for evidence. The only evidence I found was what appeared to be the spot were it fell on the ground. The distance from my hunting spot to the spot where I believed it fell and came out to be 11 feet.

I hunted for about 1 hour after that but couldn’t stand to be in the area any longer. Also, there was not 1 single animal in the area, not even the squirrels that usually run free along the trees near the creek during that time of year.

ALSO NOTICED: I have realized that another possible cause for the creature to fall down was a barbwire fence right next to the spot where it fell. The fence only had the 2 lowest strands of barbed wire intact. And since I began hunting on that property the owners have always complained of an occasional goat missing but never being able to find a dead carcass or even remains of bones.

OTHER WITNESSES: No ohters except myself, and I never visually saw anything. I could only hear what was going on since it was so dark.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 5 or 5:15 am
Extremely dark
It was about 30 degrees F. Slightly cloudy, no moon, no precipitation that morning or the previous night and a 5-10 mph wind blowing to the s/se

ENVIRONMENT: I was in the tree line at the base of a heavily wooded hill with rocky forest floor on the sides of the hill. And a wide open valley like section to my left that a creek that winds side to side along and then up to and alongside the hill and tree-line that I was looking down.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Doug Ratliff:

I spoke with the witness on the phone for 15 minutes. He had a good memory of the incident.

The witness was hunting for whitetail deer on family property. His stepfather was also on the property but was about a mile away. The witness was set up in a makeshift blind made from a downed tree.

He said the sky was overcast and there was no moonlight, so it was very dark. He said the temperature was around 25 degrees.

The witness mentioned that they have 200-300 goats on the property and that the goat herd often ruined their hunting trips by herding themselves into the area where they would be set up to hunt from. He said that the morning of this incident he could hear the goat herd coming towards him but that shortly before the footsteps started the goat herd moved off in another direction.

He said the footsteps approached from the East as he faced north. He could hear deep, heavy, labored breathing but no other sounds besides the footsteps. Even when the animal fell he didn't hear any sort of vocalizations or anything. He reported that he didn't smell anything but that it was very cold and it would've been hard notice any odors.

After daylight approximately where he heard the animal fall he found the ground scuffed up.

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