YEAR: 2020

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 11

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: Beaver County

LOCATION DETAILS: DO NOT POST LOCATION PLEASE. I do not want the landowners bothered.
[Note from Matt Moneymaker: The witness provided the road name for the specific hollow but he does not want the road name posted. Suffice it to say, it is a hollow connected to Raccoon Creek in Raccoon Township, PA. It is north of West Aliquippa.]

NEAREST TOWN: Raccoon Township

NEAREST ROAD: I-376

OBSERVED: The Saturday night before Easter 2020, I was sitting outside by a crackling fire, all alone. Was about 11:30 at night, and I had some music playing low on a small Bluetooth speaker. From way deep in the valley below me, and I mean it’s a huge expanse of woods back there, a couple miles to the next road, I heard a bone chilling ethereal howl. Then I heard it again. Turned my music off, and listened intently. I heard it three more times over the next minute or so. Too faint to record but loud enough to hear beside a crackling pine fire. Each instance was three or five seconds long, sounded “WHOOOOHRRRLL”. Started soft, picked up in intensity, then tailed off. Whatever it was it was very loud, very powerful, almost resonated like a train whistle does from a distance. I could also tell the sound was projected in different directions on a couple of the howls.

I have spent a lot of time in the woods in my life. I'm an avid hunter, and an all around outdoorsman. I'm familiar with the animals that live here in PA and I know I didn't hear one of them. I know what barred owls sound like, coyotes, dogs, people... Pretty sure this was none of those. Whatever made that sound was large and powerful. It stood the hairs on my neck.

I sat listening for another half hour or so and didn't hear it again. That's when my mind got to wandering. I spent pretty much the entire next day (Easter Sunday) listening to recordings on YouTube and the like and a few sounded a lot like what I heard. A supposed bigfoot recording from Westmoreland County PA and the 1994 Ohio Howl in particular were eerily similar. What I heard was slightly higher in pitch than the Ohio sounds, but almost identical in tone change, cadence and duration. It's worth noting that I actually I live about 15 miles east of the area where that was recorded.

ALSO NOTICED: One other evening a couple months later (June 2020), a neighbor and I were sitting around the fire out back and we were suddenly overcome by a putrid smell. He at first said "Skunk!" then quickly said "no, what the h*ll is that?" It was almost like rotting flesh mixed with river bottom muck and animal musk. Very rank. Lasted about 30 seconds then was gone. Checked area with a flashlight. Didn't see or hear anything (or any further smell). We decided maybe someone's septic was outgassing and just carried on fireside conversation (which then turned to my earlier sound experience).

OTHER WITNESSES: No one else, just me.

OTHER STORIES: Through a couple Facebook groups, I've heard that there have been supposed sightings and sign found on a large reservoir property less than a mile from where I heard these sounds.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 11:30 pm, 40 degrees, clear, crisp, no wind.

ENVIRONMENT: This is a fairly uninhabited and uninterrupted area of deep timbered hollows, rolling down to the Ohio River. There are a couple dirt roads that cross the area, and Interstate 376 is one border. The hillsides are steep, valleys are deep, roads and trails are scarce, hills are covered in hardwoods and the bottoms are choked with hemlock. Several small creek draws all spill into Raccoon Creek and eventually the Ohio River.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

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