YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 20th (friday)

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pacific County

LOCATION DETAILS: There are several ways to get up to Fall river. there is a fish ladder on the river below where our incident was. but going through Brooklyn towards Oakville, taking the M500, to the M600 onto the H-line to the 7800 (left) then it tuns into 7000. then right on 7080 and stay left onto 7083. runs along Fall river and ends. walk out to edge of trees and you can see Boss on right and Fall on left. Your not up to high, but you can look down into the rivers. It's in Pacific Co but pretty close to Lewis Co border.

NEAREST TOWN: Raymond, WA

NEAREST ROAD: Port Blakely Road

OBSERVED: It was a friday, April 20th 2001. I was doing salmon Habitat surveys for the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. My partner and I had gone up to do our Steelhead index in Fall river. He had dropped me off on the 7000 bridge to walk my 1/2 mile section while he drove to mid point and walked lower section where Boss creek comes in. I finished my section of the stream and drove down the 7083 to where the road ends to pick him up. It was probably around 11 or 11:30. I got out of the truck to pour myself some coffee when i heard this loud scream. i heard it twice and it sounded almost like my partner was calling my name. Con...nie!!!
I listened and then I heard this strange animal cry. it sort of made a Mraaa...Mraaa...Mraaaa.. sound. I could tell it was coming from down in the stream area. I thought possibly a bear cub or bobcat? It was definitely in distress. then I could hear the sound of rocks smashing onto the gravel bar as if someone was picking up big boulders and smashing the rocks. i thought my partner might have found some large agates and that is why he was calling me. (we love to rock hunt this area) but again I heard the animal cry..Mraa Mraaa.. and more rocks being smashed. I started to walk to our trail (about 30 feet away) to see if I could see my partner or what was making the noise when i could hear the brush crashing and some mumbling noise. i thought "who the heck is Tom talking to?? Is someone down there killing animals? did he have an encounter with something? someone? and is he fending it off? with rocks?" But the mumbling just sounded like they were having a conversation. I walked to the edge of the brush where the trail leads down to stream, I couldn't see anything (pretty brushy) and It was raining. I had a horrible cold/sore throat and didn't feel like walking down the trail and upstream to meet him (which is what I usually do to look for rocks) not to mention I was feeling a bit uneasy. Something kept telling me to NOT go. I was even afraid to holler his name. I had no idea what was going on in the stream and who or what was there.

I started back to the truck and heard the brush behind me crashing. I turned thinking it was Tom..and.. no one. each time i started back to the truck (only about 30 feet away) the brush would crash again. still not Tom. i just jumped inside the truck and waited. He was now running a bit later then normal and i had no idea what i would do. no radio and cell phone service to call for help if he didn't show or was hurt.

It seemed like about 15 to 20 minutes went by when i saw him coming up a different trail (off to my right, not the left where he should be) (from he mouth of boss) I got out to ask him what the heck he had been doing down there and he informed me that when he got to our trail to get out of the stream, there on the gravel bar was a freshly killed deer, steam rising from it and blood coming off it, and the brush was splattered with blood maybe as high as 8 to 10 feet. But the worst part was, the upper torso (stomach to head) was gone...it was ripped in half and there was a bloody trail going straight up our trail, practically in front of our truck and across ridge to boss creek.

I sort of wanted to go down and look at the animal (with him) but my partner wanted nothing to do with it. We got out of the area in a hurry in case whatever came back to get the rest. He said he had never heard any sounds. Just came upon the dead animal. AND did NOT even look for foot prints of any kind. He just wanted to get past it quick.
I cannot believe whatever was there nearly walked in front of me with that upper carcass and I did not see it.
my husband and i planned to go back the next day to see if there was anything left but it rained and rained so hard for the next few days that we never got back.
It was over 2 weeks before we could go back to survey that area again. I refused to walk that section. in fact, I didn't want to walk any of it. My partner did. there was nothing on that gravel bar (no bones, no hair, nothing). when I finally did walk that area, i came across a large pile of scat on that same gravel bar. HUGE.. not sure what it was. I left ASAP.

I sent in a report to Fish and Wildlife. we did get radios for our vehicles after that.

ALSO NOTICED: Several Seasons before (we walk it during chinook and coho season also / Oct thru Dec) this same area had always bothered any of us that walked it. several of us would talk about this moaning noise we would hear. we finally just told ourselves it had to be 2 trees rubbing against each other. Not so sure anymore!!
I have seen cougar tracks in area. 2 years before i had also witnessed a deer running for it's life down stream in the same section while doing survey. it scared me so bad cause it ran right past me.

OTHER WITNESSES: one other person. He walked the stream and came upon the dead deer, i was waiting and heard all the noise.

OTHER STORIES: just heard people talk about noises etc. in the North river area. Mostly around the Artic area on 101.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: around 11 to 11:30 am. It was raining (steady but not hard)a little windy. It's a pretty forested area running along 2 rivers. Fall River and Boss Creek

ENVIRONMENT: It was really forested when we were there in 2001. there has been a lot of logging in the area since. not sure how much is left. haven't been there in a while since i left the fisheries in 2004. we still go rock hunting in the general area, but not there. (15 years of surveys..that was enough) But the area around the streams where incident was are still pretty forested.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kirk Brandenburg:

I communicated with the witness, Connie, by phone and email numerous times and found her to be entirely credible.

The sequence of events indicate that at the confluence of Fall River and Boss Creek, where she parked, Connie heard what was probably the killing of a deer below her down along the Fall River. Then as Tom walked the river toward Connie's location, he came upon the steaming, freshly mangled remains and splattered blood located on and around the trail he planned to use to exit the river and meet Connie. Concerned, Tom then continued up the river to exit at another location. The blood trail from the kill showed that something carried half of the deer across the road not far from the vehicle, but Connie did not see it. She may have been looking the other way and did not hear it due to the river noise or because she was inside the vehicle.

Tom and Connie filed reports of the incident with details of what they observed and heard with the Director of the Fish Program for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Connie confirmed that what Tom wrote in his report was the same as what he explained seeing to her immediately after the incident. Connie shared that this section of the river was known among her fellow fish surveyors for giving them the creeps as moaning sounds and movement through the brush were often heard.

It would be very unusual behavior for a black bear or cougar to rip a freshly killed adult deer in half immediately after killing it, and it's questionable if they even could. Even if a bear or cougar did succeed in dividing the deer, it would drag the half carcass to a safe location away from the vehicle and Connie, not toward her. Descriptions from the event as heard by Connie and seen by Tom indicate that at least one sasquatch was likely involved.

About BFRO Investigator Kirk Brandenburg:

- Juris Doctor degree, University of Minnesota Law School
- BFRO Expedition Organizer in New Mexico and Washington
- YouTube Channel: StudySasquatch

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