YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Cuyahoga County

LOCATION DETAILS: I’m not sure what road it was on. But If I would go back down there and drive around I could find it again. There is actually a bridge that goes over the river by where we were fishing.

NEAREST TOWN: North Olmsted or Fairview

NEAREST ROAD: I-480 & Valley Pkwy.

OBSERVED: My friend and I were fishing along the Rocky River in the Rocky River Reservation. We were up on a rock wall that was about eight feet above the river. We had been fishing there about two hours when we saw a herd of deer cross the river away from us. About five minutes later we could see something moving around in the woods directly across from where we were sitting (The River in this part of this reservation is about 20 feet across). We just figured it was the deer and continued to fish. Then I realized that if that was a deer it would have to be really tall or standing on its hind legs. It looked as though it was trying to eat leaves off the trees. The sunlight caught its eyes and I realized it was looking forward at us with these glowing reddish orange eyes (glowing from the sunlight, and I'm not implying it possessed scary demon-eyes or something). As I was trying to figure out what this "deer" was doing, I realized it was starting to make its way out of the woods. This is when my friend and I realized it was not a deer at all. A large black image that was standing on two legs started to appear through the trees. My friend took off with her fishing gear at this point and went to her car. I continued to stand there in disbelief of what I was seeing. It stood there at the base of the woods looking at me. I could see this creature standing plain as day 20 feet across the river from me. I could see it was well over six feet tall and had black fur from head to toe. Once I realized what I was looking at I grabbed my fishing gear and took off across the field to my friend’s car. I even tripped and fell over at one point and peed my pants in fear that it may have been chasing me because I started running. Once I got in the car I asked my friend what she saw and she said she wasn't sure but that she was never going to Rocky River Reservation again.

ALSO NOTICED: I have not gone back to the location. It scares me.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just myself and an old friend whom I don't talk to anymore but I could try contacting her if needed.

OTHER STORIES: Actually, my husband was telling a friend what I saw in the Rocky River Reservation. He was actually doing so because he was making fun of me. When he told this person about the incident he looked at my husband almost confused and started to laugh. He said his girlfriend and him were walking a path near that area. He says his girlfriend pointed into the woods and said "did you see that monkey." He says he never saw anything but his girlfriend swears to this day that she saw an ape like creature running on all fours through the woods.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It had to be around dinner time. I would say between 5 PM and 6 PM.

ENVIRONMENT: We were sitting on a rock wall that was about eight feet above the river. We were sitting with our backs to a field and a road. Twenty feet across the river there were trees. I’m not sure what kind, just leafy ones I guess. About 500 feet to the right of us was a bridge I believe is a highway.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Marc DeWerth:

Having thoroughly interviewed these witnesses, there's very little doubt of what they both saw only 20 feet away. When the second witness was interviewed, I was quite sure she would tell a different story (considering the two were not friends anymore). To my surprise, she told the same story even mentioning her friend wetting her pants when running back to the car. The interviews took place almost four months apart and the main witness was interviewed a second time a year later and did not waiver in telling her incident. Both witnesses were terrified of what they saw.

Additional facial features included dark skin, a thick brow, with the hair somewhat longer on the shoulders. It was much larger than a grown man and most definitely wider at the shoulders.

This area is well known from the mid 1970's for a two week long flap of sightings that occurred. One of the witnesses was a Park Ranger.

This part of the Cleveland Metroparks is part on the "Emerald Necklace" with the main branch of the Rocky River flowing through the entire area with steep forested ravines on both sides. The forest consists of some of the oldest deciduous trees in Ohio and is loaded with white tail deer, wild turkey, raccoons, skunks, possums, etc..

This would be an area that from time to time could have Sasquatch passing through following the water way and the abundant deer herds.

About BFRO Investigator Marc DeWerth:

Marc has been a longtime investigator with over 25 years of experience investigating alleged Ohio Bigfoot reports. He is currently the organizer of the Ohio Bigfoot Conference that takes place at Salt Fork State Park every year and has featured multiple BFRO Investigators as speakers. He will be leading the BFRO's upcoming expedition in Ohio.

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