YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 15

STATE: Georgia

COUNTY: Berrien County

LOCATION DETAILS: A 100+ acre family farm outside Ray City, GA.

NEAREST TOWN: Ray City

NEAREST ROAD: US-129

OBSERVED: I was fishing on a wetland area that is owned by my family. My mother, grandmother, 3 yr old daughter and son were with me. This is an isolated farm that I don't want to I.D. any further online to keep lurkers off the property. It is loaded with wildlife.

We were sitting spread out along a small channel. My mother, grandmother and daughter were at the end of the channel and my son who was around 7 at the time, was sitting next to me. My daughter was crying because she was getting in trouble for getting too close to the water's edge. It should be noted there are a ton of alligators in the wetland and the channel. I had looked in their direction several times and on the last time I caught movement from the corner of my eye. I sat quietly trying to get a better look at what was moving. It was across the channel from us in a densely wooded area. I was worried it was a bear. Then it stepped out of the trees and was looking in the direction of my daughter crying. It stood there for about 30 seconds before slipping back behind another tree. I didn't alert my family at the moment hoping to catch another view of it.

It was very large, around 7-8 feet. Broad shoulders with shaggy matted fur. It stood on its back legs and appeared to be brownish to dark brown with some lighter brown to grey around the facial area. It's arms hung down at it's side as a human would. It made no sounds except the crunching of leaves and a breaking of a small stick here and there as it left the area. I didn't notice any abnormal sounds prior to me seeing it move. It walked away when my daughter stopped crying. I do believe it was only curious as to her crying. It didn't seem aggressive in its stance or movement. It seemed to just be sneaking a peek.

I have no clue how long it had been watching us. I never felt in danger either. I did notice a skunk/trash type odor after the sighting but not during. I decided it was time to leave after about 30 min of no further sightings and only told my family once we were in the vehicle to leave.

ALSO NOTICED: Only the sounds of leaves crunching and an occasional twig or branch being stepped on. I've always had a feeling that it was a female. Due to her shape and the reason she was there (my daughter crying). It was not aggressive at all. Just curious I think. There was a smell of skunk/trash after it left the area. The day was muggy and the smell wouldn't have hit us very fast. No winds that day to carry a smell.

OTHER WITNESSES: No

OTHER STORIES: As I have read on the site there were two other sightings.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Mid afternoon. Clear skies, no rain. Temp was hot and muggy.

ENVIRONMENT: Family farm with a large wetland and lake surrounded by forest. The sighting occurred on a small channel shooting off the lake. The channel is used to water the fields. Flat land. Very densely wooded in areas and farm fields and pecan orchard in other areas. Plenty of wildlife including turkey, deer, alligators, wild hog, fish etc. The lake is covered in lily pads and boggy in other parts.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Benjamin C.:

I spoke at length with the witness about the circumstances of her encounter and what she observed. After listening to her communicate the details of her observation, I was left with the impression that she was very credible.

The witness and her family were fishing along the channel. Her daughter was crying because she had been scolded for getting too close to the water and putting herself at risk of an alligator attack. At the time of the observation, the witness and her son were approximately 60 feet away from her crying daughter, mother, and grandmother. The witness noticed movement in the wood line across the channel between 75’ and 100’ away. When she looked she observed what she first thought was a bear. After further observation, she then realized it was something else entirely. She had approximately 30 seconds to view the creature before it stepped out of her view.

The witness described the bigfoot she observed as being "easily taller than a six-foot man" and likely approaching seven feet in height. She described the creature as having very wide and broad shoulders, a big and bulky torso, and wide hips. The witness did not notice the feet. Its arms were long with the elbows located proportionally lower along the arms than in a human of comparable stature. The hands were positioned close to the body and were difficult for the witness to see. The witness could not readily determine the sex of the creature as she could not identify any breasts, but she feels that it was a female based upon the width of the hips and the interest it showed in her crying daughter.

The witness described the hair of the bigfoot as appearing mottled brown running to dark brown in color and spoke of the texture appearing matted or "knotted." The witness estimates that the hair length was approximately 4” long, being of uniform length on the creature’s head, body, and arms. The witness said the coloration of the creature’s hair blended into the forest extremely well. The hair around the face was a lighter brown with a tinge of gray. She described the skin tone of the creature as a “dingy” grayish brown. The creature had hair covering its entire body and most of its face, leaving only the eyes, nose, and mouth area exposed. The cheeks were observed to be covered in hair. The witness described the creature’s nose as being large and wide, prominent from the face as opposed to flat. The witness did not notice any ears. The eyes of the creature were very large and completely dark, with no whites or sclera observed, and possessing a humanlike mouth. The creature had a square jawline and square facial shape. A brow ridge was prominent on the forehead while the top of the creature’s head was described as being rounded but not peaked. The witness did not observe a chin.



During the entire observation, the creature remained motionless. As conjecture, it is possible that the creature did not notice the witness as her crying daughter was at one end of the channel while the witness and her son were at the other. The creature left once her daughter ceased crying.

The witness emphasized to me several times that at no point did she ever feel scared or threatened by the creature. Her personal belief is that the creature was drawn to them because of the crying of her three-year-old daughter, as once her daughter stopped crying the creature moved away. The witness described the movement as quick but not rushed, as it was out of sight in only a few steps. The witness also reported smelling a pungent odor similar to a skunk or trash after the creature left.

The witness has not had any other bigfoot sightings since this, although her son-in-law reported that he heard four distinct wood knocks coming from inside the woods on the other side of the same channel when he went to the same location to go fishing several years after the witness’ sighting. The area of the sighting is full of wildlife, with deer, hog, and smaller animals being seen on a consistent basis.

The witness lives in rural southern Georgia, an agricultural area of low population density characterized by farmland, mixed deciduous forest, conifer plantations, and swamp in roughly equal measure. Additionally, the location of the sighting is only several miles from the Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a 4,049 acre National Wildlife refuge of lake, swamp, and deciduous forest. The location is also less than eight miles each from the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers, respectively 202-mile-long and a 140-mile-long north to south tributaries of the Suwannee River, each possessing floodplain greenbelts that range from 1/8 to 1 mile wide that are essentially devoid of human habitation.

About BFRO Investigator Benjamin C.:

B. has attended multiple BFRO expeditions: North Georgia 2018 Fall, North Georgia 2019 Spring, Tennessee 2020 Fall, South Carolina 2021 Spring, and Pennsylvania 2021 Fall, Pennsylvania 2022 Fall, New Jersey 2022 Spring and Fall.

He has also conducted private expeditions in New Jersey, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, and southern Georgia. His area of responsibility as a BFRO investigator is central Pennsylvania.

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