YEAR: 2011

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 26

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Osceola County

LOCATION DETAILS: (from I95) 192 heading NW in deserted area just before Crabgrass Rd.

NEAREST TOWN: Holopaw

NEAREST ROAD: Crabgrass Rd.

OBSERVED: Aug. 26 2011

This day was a Friday in August, Central Florida. In the pre-dawn hours of the morning my husband was not even half way on his commute from Space Coast to Disney World to report for his early morning shift, like he does 5 days a week. He takes the 192 which involves a loooong stretch of road with seemingly no sign of life anywhere for about an hour until you reach the St. Cloud area. My husband slammed on the brakes to try to avoid what was in the road without hitting it dead on, all the while trying to avoid flipping his Volkswagon Passat. Unfortunately, he could not avoid contact, and he struck the massive 9 Ft. Gator. He pulled the car over after attempting to resume driving, realizing the car was now undriveble. He made phone calls to the insurance company, his job, and me.

I head out on the same stretch of 192 to retrieve him. His vehicle is being loaded onto a flatbed and he is waiting with the tow truck driver who is nice enough not to leave him standing at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at (now) 6 o'clock in the morning.

I am driving, wide awake, looking the whole time for this piece of road kill. I want a photo of it. No I am not morbid, but he said it was HUGE, and I take pictures of all wild animals I come across. Bunnies, snakes, gators, whatever. I drive a long time, the sun is breaking over the line at the moment I finally come to the Gator. It is daylight enough that I can drive without headlights and I can see outside very well. I see it up ahead in the distance, I see the Turkey Vultures. The BIG BLACK birds that come to eat the road kill. My eyes are darting down to the road, up ahead the highway looking for the tow truck, back to the monstrous mess in the road. I am slowing down so I can photograph the Gator, and I am reaching for my camera. As my eyes follow a 3-pack of the large birds up off the road and cross over the the right, I see a man walk into the woods up ahead. He is up ahead a distance I would call a block. A block away. He is wearing ALL BLACK. His elbows are bent as he is walking, and he disappears into the woods.
So I am pulling over now, snapping photos of the disgusting mound that is so large in the road that if it's not cleaned up, and if someone hits that, there is going to be another accident. And I am fully awake and present in the moment. I am running a checklist in my head. Gator. Birds. Man.

Man ?!?! What Man? Why would a "man" be out here at (now) 7am exactly, walking around in the woods. There are cows here. Lots of land you pass on this road has cattle being raised for beef. Oh, and a DEER sign. A sign, just a moment back I passed , warning of Deer Crossing. (Thanks for the heads up on the 9 Ft. Gators). So he's tending to his cows? A ranch hand? Where's his truck? Where's his Cowboy hat? . So I recall this again. A man - in ALL black- no change of color for face or hands- Wearing a black hoodie? On a beautiful, warm, dry, summer morning- in August- in Central Florida? He's not looking when a car pulls up? He walks into the woods that are headed nowhere? I don't think so. Makes no sense. I think I saw a Bigfoot.

So it took me about 2 minutes to put this all together and I didn't want to leave! I wanted to go in after him. I couldn't. My husband was waiting and was all revved up from his climactic morning. He would be angry if I delayed, goofing off. The tow truck driver had waited long enough. I snapped like 2 pictures of the mess in the road and quickly moved on.

Putting this all together in the months since the event, it makes more and more sense that what I saw was a Florida Skunk Ape. Of course he would be pulled out of the woods at the knowing of the HUGE road kill. It was dark for more than an hour while that Gator sat there in the dark. There was time for a Bigfoot to hoof it on out there and check out the scene, hey, he even had enough time to pack a bag lunch. Nearly escaping unnoticed before the sun came up over the horizon.

It has been almost a year, and I am planning to go back to said location and search for prints and evidence one day. I have driven by the exact location approximately 6 times since then. Each time going over and over it in my head. I am so angry with myself that I had camera in hand, and came up empty. But even driving in the passenger side with the camera hanging out of the window I can miss a pic of a deer! Nothing could have prepared me to photograph a "hey--maybe that's a "somethin' " at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, since my incident I have heard of two other sightings in locations that are within 2 hours driving distance (east or south) of my incident. I continue to search for new reports of local sightings and hope to make future trips to search for tracks. Camera in hand.

ALSO NOTICED: After passing the area several times since, I've noticed that the area of this sighting is fenced. Any person, or otherwise, would have to climb over a fence about 4 ft. tall (wire type fence) to get into the "woods". The figure I saw did not hesitate at all.... just walked into the woods. Did not notice any motions similar to "hopping" over a fence.

OTHER WITNESSES: No. I was alone.

OTHER STORIES: At the Eastern end of Beachline (RD #528) there was a sighting by some business men on a private boat that was chartered for fishing. About 45 min.s to the east, at the shoreline. I still have intentions on checking with the closest cattle ranch on that rd. to see what they know/believe/have seen.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 7 am
Just Dawn, well lit daylight
dry, no rain... sunny

ENVIRONMENT: Dry bushy areas on rd to your left or right. Swampy wet areas. Soil Sandy. Many Cow pastures, cows roaming freely. State Wildlife Management areas on this road.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator R. Monteith:

I spoke to the witness on the phone, and later met with her and her husband at the location of the sighting.

Map of the location:



While driving west on US-192, the husband had run over an alligator on his way to work and damaged his car. He had managed to drive it about a mile beyond the accident before he was forced to pull over and call for a tow. He called his wife to pick him up. On her way to pick him up, she stopped to take a picture of the dead alligator. The officer said it was an eleven ft. alligator. This is one of the pics she took of what was left:



She noticed vultures circling, already on the road kill as she pulled up. She never got out of her car, but began taking pictures. As she took pictures, she looked around to make sure no other cars were coming as she stopped. At that time, she noticed a man about 100 + yards away (she is from NY and originally reported the distance as “a block”) walking rapidly from the road kill into the woods. She thought at first it was a ranch hand from the nearby cattle ranch, but realized that the figure was uniform in color, didn’t appear to have clothing on, was standing quite high as the grass was 3 - 4 feet high and he was towering over the top of it. She saw the creature walk into the woods with 3 to 4 large arm-swinging strides. She saw it only in profile, and it never looked her way.

The witness saw the figure from this location, heading toward the woods:



This happened at sunrise and its possible the bigfoot had been attracted to the road kill and her arrival scared it off. Vultures can smell a dead animal from 20 miles, it could be assumed that a bigfoot would know that the vultures indicate a road kill.

I visited the location in June when the grass is not as high as it would be in August. It is evident the figure had to have been more than 9 feet tall for her to see it so well. An average sized man would have been difficult to notice in the tall grass. Looking for bigfoot evidence in the area was difficult as Hurricane Debby rained out the area for four days prior. I will return at a later date, and update this report if anything is found.

A creek is situated in the woods, surrounded by a cattle pasture:



The area where this happened is very desolate and swampy, on the edge of the Holopaw Forest and the Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area. This section of US-192 does not have a lot of traffic.

About BFRO Investigator R. Monteith:

Re Monteith has had a life-long interest in Bigfoot and has an extensive background in outdoor land and ocean survival as well as mountaineering. She has tran-sailed the Atlantic, backpacked in remote places throughout the world and has climbed three of the seven summits. She studied International Relations at Florida International University, and is a Financial and Real Estate Consultant. She has participated in many private expeditions as well as the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 BFRO North Florida Expeditions and the 2013 BFRO UP Michigan & Alabama Expedition. She also organized Florida's 2017 Town Hall Meeting. She was an Executive Producer of the documentary film, "Skunk Ape Lives" and featured as a Crypto Expert on The Science Channel's television show, Strange Evidence for seasons 2 - 5.

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