YEAR: 2017

SEASON: Winter

DATE: 15

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Madison County

LOCATION DETAILS: West of Pinetta, Florida.

NEAREST TOWN: Pinetta

NEAREST ROAD: CR150

OBSERVED: I would like to speak with a researcher or investigator preferably in the north Florida or south Georgia area about incidents that have been occurring on the property I live on for the last few years. I haven't seen anything but I've heard yells and growls that have made my neck hair stand up in the past. For 4 years I've worked nights but now I work days so I'm home every night so I'm noticing alot more now. Just about every night I've heard growls or stomping and have heard what sounds like imitated bird calls and also unusual smells. Just recently I found a tow strap with knots in it with a bundled up red ribbon material laying with the strap on a tree stump in my yard. The property is 68 acres of woods and pasture. There are neighbors but they are elderly and have no motive for playing tricks. Activity seems to only occur in the fall and winter.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The yells heard have always been at dusk or just after dark. The growling and bird chirp noises always seem to be after midnight early morning

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest and pasture

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

I spoke to the witness over the phone about his report. He was caught off guard as the call was unexpected, but quickly recalled both his submission of the report and went into great detail about the experiences he had while living at the property where the encounters occurred. I found him to be very credible.

The witness, unfortunately, no longer lives at the property where the encounters occurred, having moved away from the area in the past year. However, when he was living at the property, he experienced frequent vocalizations from the surrounding woodland that he could not explain. During this time, the witness lived by himself, with his mother living with him for part of the time so he could better provide for her care. The witness’ only neighbors within walking distance were elderly, and as such, unlikely candidates for any human related explanation for the observed activity.

The witness related to me that the first vocalization he experienced was shortly after he moved onto the property in question in 2017 He was outside by his fire pit around sundown when he heard, in his own words, “one hell of a scream.” The witness stated that he could feel the vocalizations vibrate inside of his chest, and related that the only other animal he knows that can make type of sound are the calls from an alligator, except that this call sounded like it came from a primate. The witness is confident that he can rule out an alligator as being the source of the call because while there are two ponds on the property, neither have alligators in them and that the range and crescendo of the call do not fall within the range of known noises alligators make.

The witness stated that the screams sounded like “a mix between an Indian war whoop and an animal” with the cry starting off high pitched and then dropping lower as it faded off. The witness also recalled that every now and then he would hear a loud growl coming from the woods, although while he cannot confidently say that the growls came from a bigfoot, he does not know of any animal in the area that would make the same type of noise. The vocalizations would occur sporadically but not infrequently, being heard as closely as almost week apart to a span of several months passing before being heard again. Overwhelmingly, the calls were only heard in the cooler months of late fall, winter, and early spring.

The witness also reported smelling a fecal odor every so often while working his property that he could not explain. During the almost four years that he lived at the property, he never saw anything directly. However, outside the vocalizations he heard he did experience a few strange phenomena on his property during this time.

In addition to the knotted tow strap and old ribbon he inexplicably found atop of a stump in his yard mentioned in the report above, the witness also recalls hearing what he described as stomping occasionally occurring in the woods as he worked his property. The witness does not know if these were cause by a bigfoot, but to him it sounded like something heavy impacting the ground.

The witness also informed me that while hunting on the 68 acres of his property, that he came across raised mounds of loose bundles of grass in the forest that he had not seen before. He supposes that they might be bigfoot related but equally assumed that they could perhaps be from deer or some other animal. While hunting, the witness also observed random stacks of branches and tree limbs that he could not explain, as he felt confident that he could rule out human activity in the making of these piles. The property lies outside of the local floodplain, and natural events can be ruled out in the creation of these structures. The witness also reported in the negative that he never heard anything like wood knocks occurring on his property.

The witness stated that the idea of the source of the vocalizations and activity on his property being bigfoot related never occurred to him until he was discussing the activity with his brother who observed that perhaps what the witness was encountering was a bigfoot or skunk ape. The witness informed me that his mother also heard the screams as well, and referred me to another individual in the area who has had continuing activity on their property as well.

At the time, the witness lived outside Pinetta, FL, on a 68 acre property lying just south of the Florida – Georgia line. The area is very rural and heavily agricultural, interspersed with stands of mixed hard and soft wood forest, pine plantations, swamps, and lakes. The Withlacoochee river lies just five miles away to the northeast, a 140-mile-long north to south tributary of the Suwannee River, possessing a densely forested floodplain that ranges from 1/8 to 1 mile wide and is 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.