YEAR: 2010-2014

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 23

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Belmont County

LOCATION DETAILS: The northern edge of Bethesda off of State Route 147.

NEAREST TOWN: Bethesda

NEAREST ROAD: State Route 147

OBSERVED: We live in a cabin just outside of town with a swampy bottom that contains lots of trees and deer. In 2010 was when I had my first experience with something very large. Unfortunately, I couldn't make out what it was, but it had chased me several feet before I got into the cabin.

In 2011, I had my first sighting of a creature that was about 8 or 9 feet tall, with brownish black hair that contained some grey and red streaks. It had been raining earlier that day and it appeared to have long stringy hair, deep set eyes, and very broad shoulders.

Then in 2012, when my daughter was painting the benches at the fire pit in the far corner of our property she came running onto the porch white as a ghost. My husband asked her if she saw a snake and she replied she thinks she seen what I had seen a year earlier. She explained it as a reddish color beast of some sort.

On May 23, 2014, our four year old grandson was spending the night. We were outside earlier letting the grand kids light their sparklers when the four year old said he seen something. We went back into the cabin and started watching television. A little later he said to his pap and then myself while we were watching television, "did you hear that growl?" ...we replied no and he ran to the back of the couch to look outside our large picture window. A few moments later he replied there's a gorilla outside and then started describing the same thing I had seen. His mother and I have never mentioned anything about our experience in front of the children before because we didn't want to scare them. His older brother was so afraid of his description that he made us close all the blinds and lock all the doors. The next day, we asked him if he remembered anything from the night before and he replied, "you mean the gorilla." We asked him to show us where he had seen it. Once he showed us the spot, fear instantly came over me to know it was just a few feet from the window. I called my parents because they are the property owners and they went out and bought two game cameras to put on the trees. Since then, a three to four feet section of our firewood that is stacked around the fire pit was pushed inward. Considering it was pushed from the woods inward and there's about a four foot drop behind the woodpile it was quite concerning to us.

Finally, on May 25th, our granddaughter went out with us to sit on the porch and cried out dog... dog and looked overcome with fear. My husband grabbed the flashlight and saw something take off running. He then ran around the cabin to see what it was and it had already crossed over the bank at the property line. All he could see was two red glowing eyes.

ALSO NOTICED: Usually after cookouts or the kids playing in the back yard we would start noticing lots of noise in the woods at night.

OTHER WITNESSES: Four of us.

OTHER STORIES: The nearest would be Salt Fork State Lodge but I have never been there. After my experience I was afraid to tell anyone for fear that people would think your crazy. But after four different happenings at the same location we felt compelled.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: My incident was during rain and snow in December 2011. My daughter & grand kids were both in the Spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Creek bottom, swampy in the bottom, lots of foliage, trees, wildlife most of the time, surrounded by woods on two sides. Very private area that the bottom leads down an old train trestle.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Marc DeWerth:

The first sighting took place when the property owner was taking a bag of garbage out. She initially forgot it in the kitchen after she had already dumped the leftover food scraps for the critters on the side of the gravel driveway. On her way back with the bag of garbage is when she noticed a massive creature standing behind her full size pick-up truck's front cab watching her as she headed towards the garbage can. Once seeing this creature, she dropped the bag and ran into her house to tell her husband. Her husband then came outside with a flashlight to look around, but it was gone. They have an outside light on the house that shines where the cars are parked which enabled her to see the details she described. Judging by the height of the cab on the truck, it was estimated that the creature in question was at least 7 1/2 to 8 foot tall or more.

The next day they found tracks going up the hillside to and from the food scrap pile. The larger tracks measured 14.5 inches long and 7 inches wide at the ball.

The daughter's sighting in 2012 consisted of her hearing some noises behind the large woodpile on the back right corner of the property while she was painting some benches. When she went to investigate and looked over into the wood pile, she saw a large hair covered creature looking at her from the hillside. Once it saw her, it went behind the trees and she quickly fled to the house in a very frightened condition. Once finally calm, she told her mother what she saw which fit the description of what the mother saw the previous year.

When the grandson was interviewed away from the grandparents, he explained that a gorilla was looking into the window of the house as he was looking out the window. When asked how close it was to the window, he said from me to you which was roughly three feet. The grand kids had not been told of any of the prior incidents and are now quite nervous when playing in the backyard. Judging by how high the window sill was on the house it was easy to say that the gorilla was easily over 7 1/2 feet tall or more. And for the record, the grandson was interviewed by a middle school Principal who has a long history dealing with students from all different age groups.

After an even more thorough phone interview, I decided to send out fellow BFRO investigator Jason Kovalski for an on-the-spot follow-up investigation. His report goes as follows....

After the initial report, I went out to the residence in Bethesda on June 12th, 2014. I spoke with all three witnesses to confirm the original report. I located and cast two possible tracks, both different sizes. The residence sits on a point, with an approximate drop in elevation of 10 feet about 90 feet from the house. The house is at the tip of a wooded hollow. The hollow leads to a swamp and eventually to a reservoir and railroad tracks.

Since there had been sightings within the previous three weeks of the report, I decided it was best to do a night investigation as soon as possible. On June 15, another investigator and I went out to the residence at about 8:30 pm. We sat below the fire pit where one of the sightings had occurred. At approximately 10:15 PM we heard cracking off in the distance, somewhere near the swamp area. Within five minutes the cracking noise had moved closer and dogs in the distance began barking. It was at this point that we decided that the cracking was footsteps. As the noise came closer, we moved back approximately 60 feet closer to the house. The area was very quiet with no sign of animals other than raccoons. At this point the raccoons began to move closer to us, actually at our feet. It became apparent that the footsteps were heavy and moving closer to us. Because it was a moonlit night, we could see a short distance into the woods. When the footsteps stopped I noticed a large figure approximately 50-60 yards away, standing behind a tree. The figure appeared to be swaying back and forth behind the tree. I could not see any definition to the figure. While watching the figure, we could hear cracking again near the figure. Footsteps began to move to the right of the figure. It was at this point that we realized that there was more than one. The footsteps continued to move away from the first figure, moving closer to the area where the homeowners had been throwing food scraps, the same area where I cast the tracks. I had parked my full size SUV near that spot. I could not see it from my location, but Jim, the other investigator saw a figure pop its head up over the roof of my SUV. The SUV stands approximately 76 inches high. Jim said he could see approximately 6 inches of the top of the figure. He was watching the figure by the SUV while I was watching the figure in the woods. One of the creatures let out a grunt/growl that neither of us had ever heard before. Within 2 – 3 minutes we heard the cracking foot steps move off into the distance. After it was apparent that they were gone, the raccoons moved back towards the woods. We discussed what we had seen and heard and we are confident that the homeowners report was a legitimate report.

This area will be continually monitored by the Ohio BFRO investigation team.

Here are photos of one of the casts taken and the track:

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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