Speaker 1: In southwest Ohio. One evening in two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: my buddy and I were fishing at a pond in
Speaker 1: Sycamore State Park. We were downhill from a reservable shelter
Speaker 1: where a wedding reception was being held, and we started
Speaker 1: making our way back up the hill. When we made
Speaker 1: it to the top, we looked over at the shelter
Speaker 1: under the light. Something caught our attention and it made
Speaker 1: a stop in our tracks. It was a nine foot
Speaker 1: tall dark creature standing next to one of the trash cans.
Speaker 1: It stared at us for a couple of seconds, and
Speaker 1: then it turned around and walked into the brush line.
Speaker 1: We ran to the car and sped out of there,
Speaker 1: and we've never been back to that place. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. My name is Cam Buckner and
Speaker 1: this is the Dixie Cryptid Podcast, also known as the
Speaker 1: what If It's True? Podcast on any podcast app that
Speaker 1: you have on your phone. By to it. Most of
Speaker 1: December and the holiday season off. Hope you guys had
Speaker 1: a great Christmas in New Year, by the way, But
Speaker 1: I took that time off and just didn't do much
Speaker 1: of nothing, and I am recharged and ready to get
Speaker 1: back and get back at this podcast and everything else
Speaker 1: I do during the day. Let's say we've got nine
Speaker 1: stories in this podcast, because I owe it to you
Speaker 1: been gone for about three weeks. The last story might
Speaker 1: be the most interesting story in this podcast. It's about
Speaker 1: thirty minutes long, and it is an email I got
Speaker 1: from a federal game warden. Read the story, thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting. He left his phone number, and I called
Speaker 1: him and asked him about this story. Normally I don't
Speaker 1: do that. I mean, it's like one out of a
Speaker 1: thousand that I'll call when people send their phone number.
Speaker 1: He give me a call if you want to talk
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't. I don't have time for that.
Speaker 1: But I call this guy because the story was so
Speaker 1: interesting and it kind of matched up with the missing
Speaker 1: person's phenomenon. So he and I talked. Actually we've talked
Speaker 1: a couple of times. He as a partner that he
Speaker 1: worked with for years. He's retired now, but he as
Speaker 1: a partner he's worked with for years and together they
Speaker 1: have some amazing stories. He's written one more and he's
Speaker 1: promised to send me a couple more, give me a
Speaker 1: series of about four or five. So as I do them.
Speaker 1: I'll make the thumbnail. It'll be a missing person's kind
Speaker 1: of thumbnail, and you'll know that it's another one in
Speaker 1: the series. And I'm including it with a bunch of
Speaker 1: other stories. So you guys can all you people who
Speaker 1: fall asleep can listen to this over and over and
Speaker 1: snooze off while I read a story. Seems to be
Speaker 1: a popular activity when my podcast has gone going on. Anyway,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me on this podcast. I'm ready to
Speaker 1: get into it all right, here we go. My cousin's
Speaker 1: husband was sitting next to me at dinner one night.
Speaker 1: I knew he was an outdoorsman working on wildlife conservation projects,
Speaker 1: so I turned to him and asked him about the
Speaker 1: spotted owl project that he had been working on. His
Speaker 1: entire demeanor changed, his skin paled and his hand trembled
Speaker 1: as he reached for his glass. I saw them. You
Speaker 1: know they're huge, he said, the owls I asked. He
Speaker 1: shook his head and looked away. It was never about owls,
Speaker 1: never about owls, he kept saying. Taking another drink, his
Speaker 1: hands still trembling, and he dropped his voice and leaned
Speaker 1: in and he whispered softly. It was about Sasquatching. It
Speaker 1: was always about that beast. He quit talking now after that.
Speaker 1: I was so taken aback by his response that I
Speaker 1: didn't ask him anything else. Already believed in Sasquatch as
Speaker 1: long as I could remember, and had so many questions
Speaker 1: for him, but I kept them to myself. The way
Speaker 1: he spoke about it to me, it pained him. His
Speaker 1: body language was screaming trauma. I desperately wondered what happened
Speaker 1: to him out there on his soul called a spotted
Speaker 1: owl project, but I didn't dare to ask him. He
Speaker 1: passed away now, and I never once doubted that he
Speaker 1: was telling the truth. His demeanor that night was confirmation
Speaker 1: enough to me that we had been deceived and there's
Speaker 1: something in the woods they don't want us to know about.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that is such a cryptic little email. You know,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of background, which I kind of
Speaker 1: like those. I kind of like those stories where it
Speaker 1: just tells the story. I think it's more impact Sometimes
Speaker 1: the shorter stories are more impactful than the long drawn
Speaker 1: out I'm a I'm a he man, mountain man kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But this was really good. So this guy's
Speaker 1: out on this spotted owl project, which I think is
Speaker 1: a is something that goes on in the Northwest. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think we have spotted owls where I live.
Speaker 1: We do have some big old barn owls and other
Speaker 1: kind of owls. I have them land up in my
Speaker 1: pine trees out in front in my front yard in
Speaker 1: the summertime, and I'll see one of them, a big one,
Speaker 1: swoop up and land on a branch, and I walk
Speaker 1: right up but underneath them, and look up at him
Speaker 1: and take pictures of them, and they just kind of
Speaker 1: look down at me. And when they're looking down at me,
Speaker 1: it's kind of they are an amazing bird. But when
Speaker 1: they look down at me, it's like, if you were
Speaker 1: a little smaller, I think I'd eat you. That's the
Speaker 1: vibe I get from an owl. And I have two
Speaker 1: little dogs. I don't think they would eat my little dogs,
Speaker 1: but they might anyway. I love owls. But he's out
Speaker 1: there on his spottedt oul project and it's disguised as
Speaker 1: a sasquatch project, and she was afraid to ever ask
Speaker 1: him the question. Again. I kind of get that, you know,
Speaker 1: when you get that kind of response from somebody that
Speaker 1: doesn't talk much you just leave it alone and you
Speaker 1: take it for what it's worth. Anyway, this was a
Speaker 1: great story. I really appreciate the writer sending it. It
Speaker 1: was so good. Thank you. I am an active duty
Speaker 1: soldier stationed at Fort Stuart, Georgia. Earlier this year. My
Speaker 1: unit was out on training for forty five days. In
Speaker 1: that time, we trained day and night, and we slept
Speaker 1: under the stars, sometimes in the woods and sometimes out
Speaker 1: in open fields. On one night, we had just finished training,
Speaker 1: five of us were huddled together watching the clouds drift
Speaker 1: overhead as we talked about anything and everything. The planet
Speaker 1: Venus was prominent in the night sky and the Moon
Speaker 1: was sitting fairly low. We were able to make out
Speaker 1: both of them through the clouds. As we admired the view,
Speaker 1: large bright object appeared beneath the glow of Venus. None
Speaker 1: of us could figure out what it was. It had
Speaker 1: appeared out of nowhere and was sitting in front of
Speaker 1: the clouds and was shining brighter than Venus. It wasn't
Speaker 1: an aircraft because it wasn't moving or blinking. We got
Speaker 1: lost in the conversation and again about one thing or another.
Speaker 1: When one of our group pointed out that the light
Speaker 1: had disappeared and then reappeared a full ninety degrees away.
Speaker 1: All eyes were back on this light, and again it
Speaker 1: wasn't moving. As we watched it, it started releasing a
Speaker 1: ring of white smoke. It was circular at first, and
Speaker 1: then it expanded into a sideway's heart shape. It was
Speaker 1: big and loose at first, and then started to get
Speaker 1: smaller somehow, and it became more defined until poof the
Speaker 1: object and the shot out of sight. The strangest part
Speaker 1: was that all of the clouds in the sky disappeared
Speaker 1: in an instant, and all of the stars popped on
Speaker 1: this massive canvas of black, as if a switch had
Speaker 1: been flipped. The five of us looked at each other,
Speaker 1: relieved we had seen the same thing, knowing anyone else
Speaker 1: would have called us crazy and locked us up. The
Speaker 1: next day, I couldn't stop thinking about it. At least
Speaker 1: three other soldiers from different areas of our training site
Speaker 1: saw it too. It was the strangest thing I had
Speaker 1: ever seen, and I've never been able to explain it.
Speaker 1: Oh what a cool story. Now that's a UFS That
Speaker 1: is a UFO story. I've never heard smoke coming out
Speaker 1: of the UFO making some kind of shape in the
Speaker 1: sky and then boom, it's gone and all the clouds
Speaker 1: are gone. Now that is weird. I love all this
Speaker 1: UFO stuff, and it's actually become so the word popular.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of information out on these things now
Speaker 1: nobody still nobody knows what they are, but the so
Speaker 1: that the just the light sightings become less interesting. Do
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about? But these light sightings
Speaker 1: are exciting to me because I think I've seen something like,
Speaker 1: not this, but something lights in the sky. I've described
Speaker 1: it before. I have no idea what it was. It
Speaker 1: was probably all explainable, and you know, it was probably
Speaker 1: just a natural thing, an aircraft or something like that.
Speaker 1: But I've seen lights in the sky and the way
Speaker 1: it makes you feel is like, oh man, that is
Speaker 1: so cool to see something different like that. It seems
Speaker 1: to be nothing like in movies, you know, do you
Speaker 1: guys like the UFO type movies. Like one of my
Speaker 1: favorite movies of all time is Close Encounters of the
Speaker 1: Third Kind. That movie. I could watch it today and
Speaker 1: it still takes me back to that time when I
Speaker 1: was just in wonder an amazement at all the things
Speaker 1: that could be it's the the UFO type, alien type
Speaker 1: films that come out now. They're so I don't know,
Speaker 1: they're just I don't know if it's the writers or
Speaker 1: what it is. I just watched. We bought a subscription
Speaker 1: to Apple TV, and I got to tell you, I
Speaker 1: don't like anything by Apple. I don't like their phones,
Speaker 1: I don't like their computers. Just logging in to your account,
Speaker 1: your Apple account is a major pain. It's not like
Speaker 1: anything else anyway. We subscribe to Apple TV to watch
Speaker 1: a specific series. It was probably a year ago, maybe more,
Speaker 1: and then I was going to cancel the subscription, but
Speaker 1: I've kept it all this time, hoping they put something
Speaker 1: good back up. Well, along comes this series called Pluribus
Speaker 1: now Pluribus on Apple TV, A series created by a
Speaker 1: man named Vince Gilligan who was the I guess he
Speaker 1: was the creator of the was it the AMC or
Speaker 1: FX series Breaking Bad? Which I thought was awesome. It
Speaker 1: was a great series. It went on for years, so
Speaker 1: I thought, oh man, this is going to be good.
Speaker 1: And they really hyped it up to begin with. They
Speaker 1: really hyped up ploribis well. I watched the first episode
Speaker 1: one night. It was kind of late. My wife and
Speaker 1: I watched it and we thought, oh, this is interesting.
Speaker 1: Then we watched the next episode and it was pretty
Speaker 1: much the same thing. And I got to the ninth
Speaker 1: final episode and the story never changed. It was like,
Speaker 1: there were things happening, obviously, but it was the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing over and over and over again. It
Speaker 1: was the I was so disappointed in that series. It
Speaker 1: was like, is this thing? Is anything ever gonna happen?
Speaker 1: So I don't recommend Ploribus. That's just me. I liked
Speaker 1: stories that move. That was. Man, what a letdown for
Speaker 1: this for that series Pluribus. We did, however, watch a
Speaker 1: movie I think it was called The Astronaut. It was
Speaker 1: an alien spaceship kind of movie and it moves really
Speaker 1: fast and the ending was awesome. When it was over,
Speaker 1: I turned to my wife and I said, now that
Speaker 1: is a good movie. That was a good story. It
Speaker 1: was a cool surprise ending. It was kind of a heartwarming.
Speaker 1: You think it's a horror type story, but at the
Speaker 1: end you're kind of relieved. Not that I like any
Speaker 1: kind of particular ending, but it was just a perfect
Speaker 1: appropriate ending that just made you go, oh wow, now
Speaker 1: that was cool. So I recommend that. I can't. We
Speaker 1: must have rented it on Prime or I can't remember
Speaker 1: where it's showing. But if you can find a film
Speaker 1: called The Astronaut, I think the thought Nail or the
Speaker 1: Marquee for it as a woman inside, she's got a
Speaker 1: like a space helmet on. Anyway, The Astronaut, it's really good. Okay,
Speaker 1: enough you acting about UFO stuff. I just thought that
Speaker 1: was interesting and it made me think about the horrible
Speaker 1: series called Pluribus. If you liked plur of Us, make
Speaker 1: a comment in the comment section below what you thought
Speaker 1: about it. I thought it was horrible, horrible. Anyway, let
Speaker 1: me know what you like. What do you like in
Speaker 1: UFO type sci fi movies? Let me know this little story.
Speaker 1: I don't remember when I got this. When you first
Speaker 1: hear it, when the first when the story first starts,
Speaker 1: you're not going to get it, but you'll get it
Speaker 1: at the end. It seems to be just a piece
Speaker 1: of fun writing, is what I would call it. It's
Speaker 1: a sidesquat story, but I got a kick out of it,
Speaker 1: so I thought you guys might like it. We'll do
Speaker 1: this one before we get into our missing person's serious
Speaker 1: Bigfoot story. I think it's a bigfoot story. You'll have
Speaker 1: to decide anyway. Listen to this fun story. I had
Speaker 1: been sort of depressed for several days after talking crow
Speaker 1: adventure and almost getting eaten by a bear. I thought
Speaker 1: things couldn't get much worse, but they did. We learned
Speaker 1: that Aunt Myrtle and her snooty little daughters were returning
Speaker 1: for another visit. We figured that after the dragon's scared,
Speaker 1: they would never return, but we were wrong. The thought
Speaker 1: of having to return to sleeping in the barn and
Speaker 1: listening to their silly giggling made my Dame even more depressing.
Speaker 1: The boys decided it was time for us to do
Speaker 1: something so they would never want to come back. After
Speaker 1: reading about a half animal and half human creature that
Speaker 1: roam the woods in Oregon, we devised a plan that
Speaker 1: was surely scared the snooty girl so bad that they
Speaker 1: would never want to visit us again. The creature was
Speaker 1: called sasquatch, stood about eight feet tall and was covered
Speaker 1: in thick black hair. What seemed amazing was it walked
Speaker 1: upright like a human. If we could create a creature
Speaker 1: that resembled a sasquatch and scare the girls they would
Speaker 1: never come visit again. Using a picture from a magazine
Speaker 1: as a model, we made our sasquatch costume. We used
Speaker 1: burlap sacks covered with some black moss for the body,
Speaker 1: and an old cowskull made the perfect head. This costume
Speaker 1: was really scary looking. Now we had to figure out
Speaker 1: how to use it for the best results. When that
Speaker 1: Myrtle and the girls arrived, we were all nice and polite,
Speaker 1: and we carried their bags to their room and brought
Speaker 1: some lemonade for refreshments. Grandma was so surprised at our
Speaker 1: good manners she gave us a big smile, and Grandpa
Speaker 1: was not fooled by our actions and cast a cynical look.
Speaker 1: Our way suggested the girls should get out and enjoy
Speaker 1: the fresh air and sunshine, and we would be happy
Speaker 1: to show them the farm. Everyone thought this was a
Speaker 1: swell idea, so we invited the girls to go doberry picking.
Speaker 1: It was decided the following morning would be the ideal
Speaker 1: time to pick berries. We found the perfect spot for
Speaker 1: our sisquatch trick. It was sounded by thick bushes where
Speaker 1: we could hide waiting the berry picking girls. Jake escoreded
Speaker 1: the girls to the berry picking spot, while Reuben hid
Speaker 1: in the nearby bushes wearing the sasquatch costume. I was
Speaker 1: Reuben's assistant in case he needed any help. On their
Speaker 1: way to the berry patch, Jake told the girls a
Speaker 1: story about a wild man that roam the river bottoms nearby,
Speaker 1: and he would occasionally be seen by folks. The girls
Speaker 1: got scared and wanted to return to the house, but
Speaker 1: Jake assured them that he would protect them if the
Speaker 1: wild man was to appear. When the girls started picking dewberries,
Speaker 1: they soon forgot about the wild man and started giggling
Speaker 1: and talking their girl talk. Reuben waited a while before
Speaker 1: walking out of the bushes wearing the wild man costume.
Speaker 1: The girls didn't notice him at first, but after he
Speaker 1: made a loud grunting sound, they saw him and they
Speaker 1: screamed in terror. Now one might not think girls wearing
Speaker 1: skirts and petticoats could run fast, but these girls raced
Speaker 1: off through the woods like gus elves. One girl fell
Speaker 1: down in a mud hole and was covered from head
Speaker 1: to toe and gooey slime. The other tore her dress
Speaker 1: on a thorn bush, lost a shoe, and even managed
Speaker 1: to step in some bull nettles after a good long life.
Speaker 1: We realized we might have gone too far with our
Speaker 1: wildman trick and probably had some tall explaining to do
Speaker 1: when we returned home. The story we finally decided on
Speaker 1: was that our old black Shad and Gorara goat had
Speaker 1: probably followed us to the berry patch, and this is
Speaker 1: what the girls had seen. I don't think anyone believed
Speaker 1: our story, but we were not punished. That same afternoon,
Speaker 1: Aunt Myrtle and the girls left for home. Good riddance. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's probably just a fun story, but it's a good story.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys like that, and I appreciate the
Speaker 1: writer taking time to do this. I don't know this
Speaker 1: story could be true, but it's not necessarily a Bigfoot story.
Speaker 1: It's a bigfoot hoak story, and it's a good one
Speaker 1: at that. But anyway, thanks to the writer for sending it.
Speaker 1: It was really really entertaining. Thanks. Okay, I think Rebecca
Speaker 1: labeled this a Bigfoot story. I'm reading it cold. It's
Speaker 1: a short, little story, but it looks kind of good.
Speaker 1: One night in nineteen sixty nine, I got up to
Speaker 1: get a glass of water in the kitchen. I saw
Speaker 1: a huge auburn colored furry face looking at me through
Speaker 1: the glass, and I screamed. My family laughed at me,
Speaker 1: but I remember it clearly to this day. The round,
Speaker 1: soulful eyes and the large head and the beautiful colors
Speaker 1: stand out in my mind. Since that night, I have
Speaker 1: experienced one strange thing after another. Animals of all kinds
Speaker 1: come right up to me, and strange lights follow me home,
Speaker 1: and objects in my house seem to move on their own.
Speaker 1: My relatives think I'm crazy, and if it weren't for
Speaker 1: my children, who have witnessed every event, I might think
Speaker 1: I was losing my mind too. I still live in
Speaker 1: the same area that I grew up in. At night,
Speaker 1: when the motion lights flicker on and off, I hear
Speaker 1: slaps at my bedroom window and strange howls from the woods. Personally,
Speaker 1: I believe there are many things we humans don't understand.
Speaker 1: I trust that my Lord is King, and I fear
Speaker 1: nothing because he promised to protect me and mine. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I was chosen to witness these strange things,
Speaker 1: but I feel very blessed. Love your podcast. And she
Speaker 1: signs off, and I know it's a she because of
Speaker 1: her Uh, well, that could be a guy name. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's a great story. And that's exactly how I would
Speaker 1: feel if I saw Bigfoot or I saw, you know,
Speaker 1: one of these cryptids that didn't kill me or eat me.
Speaker 1: But I would feel so lucky. And I can see
Speaker 1: why people say it would change my life, change their lives,
Speaker 1: because you know, to see something you've never seen, something
Speaker 1: that you think could there's no way it could exist,
Speaker 1: would be life changing. And it would. And what I
Speaker 1: like about this story is, all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: the blue wild animals come up to her. I'm assuming
Speaker 1: she means deer, and probably some of the other smaller
Speaker 1: wildlife where she lives. But this was a great story.
Speaker 1: It's a short one, but it was really good. Man.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of gunpowder in these short stories, and
Speaker 1: I love them. So you guys keep sending them. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Thank you to the writer. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is a show enough Bigfoot story. I was raised in
Speaker 1: the small town of Eldriche, Alabama. One night in the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen ninety, my family and I were watching
Speaker 1: TV with the windows open. Out of nowhere, my father
Speaker 1: jumped up and grabbed the remote and he shouted did
Speaker 1: y'all hear that? My mother and I shrugged, and he
Speaker 1: told us to wait and listen. We got up off
Speaker 1: the couch and walked out the front door, and we
Speaker 1: looked outside, right across from us as my grandfather's and
Speaker 1: cousins trailer. As we looked toward their home, we saw
Speaker 1: an eight foot tall bigfoot standing at my cousin's window,
Speaker 1: staring at him as he slept. My dad got on
Speaker 1: the phone and called my grandfather and told him what
Speaker 1: was happening. And my grandfather grabbed U thirty thirty Winchester
Speaker 1: rifle and walked quick but quietly to my cousin's bedroom.
Speaker 1: When he opened the door, he caught the bigfoot reaching
Speaker 1: in the window toward my little cousin. And when he
Speaker 1: realized what he was looking at and what this big
Speaker 1: brute was trying to do, we heard him yell out,
Speaker 1: I don't think so, you stinking s hope. He opened
Speaker 1: fire on it and shot it straight in the chest.
Speaker 1: The bigfoot roared and hit the side of my grandfather's
Speaker 1: trailer so hard that the force knocked it off its
Speaker 1: brick foundation. And there we were in our home right
Speaker 1: across from it, watching it all happen. My dad and
Speaker 1: I were in protective mode at that point. We grabbed
Speaker 1: our rifles and joined our grandfather outside and unloaded into
Speaker 1: the beast. That thing roared and tore through the trees
Speaker 1: like a D nine bulldozer. My mother called the police
Speaker 1: while we checked on my cousin. He was unaware of
Speaker 1: anything happening. The gunshots in the same room barely woke
Speaker 1: him up. I swear that kid could sleep through a
Speaker 1: raging hurricane. Betty was drunk. Thirty minutes later, two deputies
Speaker 1: showed up and we told them what had happened. After
Speaker 1: hearing everything, one of the deputies took us flashlight out
Speaker 1: and shined it in our eyes and asked us where
Speaker 1: the drugs were. I thought my grandfather and dad were
Speaker 1: about to whoop his ass till the other deputy stepped in.
Speaker 1: He told his partner to open his eyes and look
Speaker 1: at the condition of the trailer. There was no man
Speaker 1: who could cause that kind of damage to a mobile
Speaker 1: home and knock it off its foundation. Then he pointed
Speaker 1: his flashlight a few feet away and lit up a
Speaker 1: massive track this beast had made. There were complete right
Speaker 1: and left prints in the dirt, and then another right print.
Speaker 1: Three steps. That's all it took for Bigfoot to reach
Speaker 1: the woods. We measured the tracks and they were seventeen
Speaker 1: inches long and six inches white. The deputy with common
Speaker 1: sense said it looked like foot. He took the report
Speaker 1: and took pictures, and right before he left, he looked
Speaker 1: at us and said, I don't let nobody tell you
Speaker 1: that was a bear, and then he left. We love
Speaker 1: your show, and we've been listening for six years now.
Speaker 1: It's okay to use my name. I know what I saw.
Speaker 1: The writer's name is Elvis Man. What an action packed story.
Speaker 1: I can't believe your cousin didn't wake up. That was crazy. Hey,
Speaker 1: at least you had a deputy on your side and
Speaker 1: nobody thought you were crazy. I love this story. It
Speaker 1: seems really familiar to me. It's almost like I've done
Speaker 1: it before. But I don't think. I'm thinking. Maybe sometimes
Speaker 1: I read these and I've just read them before, I
Speaker 1: hadn't really narrated them. I have so many to do that,
Speaker 1: and I do so many of these stories that it's hard.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's hard to keep up with and when there
Speaker 1: are duplicates, so if they are, I'm sorry, But it
Speaker 1: does seem kind of familiar, but it's heck, it's worth
Speaker 1: doing again. It's so good it's worth doing again. All Right,
Speaker 1: thanks for the story, Elvis. All right, here's a story
Speaker 1: about a ghost that I thought was fantastic. My experience
Speaker 1: starts out like any other great adventure, a summer trip
Speaker 1: to Silverwood Themed Park in North Idaho. I've been to
Speaker 1: Silverwood many times, and I reserved a beautiful cabin there
Speaker 1: for my birthday weekend, with a view of the lake
Speaker 1: and the woods. My sister and I left the west
Speaker 1: side of Washington State in the wee hours and we
Speaker 1: made the five and a half hour road trip. We
Speaker 1: had a great day checking out the park, and we
Speaker 1: walked some easy trails and hung out near the lake,
Speaker 1: and we toured the on site historic military museum. At
Speaker 1: the museum, we were in the brig which displayed the
Speaker 1: history and daily life of this World War II naval
Speaker 1: training station, when I was overcome with a cold chill
Speaker 1: and a sudden urge to leave later that night in
Speaker 1: the cab, I went outside and walked a short distance
Speaker 1: to the sheared bedroom. I was in a hurry and
Speaker 1: eager to get back to the warm bunk in the cabin.
Speaker 1: When I realized I was being watched, I stopped and
Speaker 1: looked toward the restroom, and I got the same cold
Speaker 1: chill as I had in the brig. Right in front
Speaker 1: of me, it was a full body apparition of a
Speaker 1: soldier wearing a dark button up uniform and a flat
Speaker 1: style hat, holding a rifle over his left shoulder. He
Speaker 1: was a bit out of focus and not totally solid.
Speaker 1: I could not make out his facial features, and I
Speaker 1: saw through him as if through a thick cloud of smoke.
Speaker 1: I ran it full sprength the rest of the way
Speaker 1: back to the bathroom, where I realized I was totally alone.
Speaker 1: My cell had no signal. By this time, my sister
Speaker 1: was fast asleep, and I knew that this thing was
Speaker 1: still out there. After I got the nerve to exit
Speaker 1: the outer house, it was even darker outside. I looked
Speaker 1: around and I didn't see anything. Thinking I was just
Speaker 1: being paranoid or that I was imagining this thing, I
Speaker 1: headed back to the cabin, feeling a little bit dumb.
Speaker 1: When I got to about the halfway mark, I heard
Speaker 1: a large crack and a thud, the same sound of
Speaker 1: branch makes as it snaps off a tree and hits
Speaker 1: the ground. Straight ahead of me, I saw a figure again.
Speaker 1: This time it was more defined, standing at the trailer head,
Speaker 1: just inside the darker shadow of the night. This time
Speaker 1: I wasn't afraid of him. I couldn't explain it. I
Speaker 1: got the feeling that he was trying to protect me.
Speaker 1: He was telling me that I was safe and that
Speaker 1: he was there to watch over us. I wasn't as
Speaker 1: afraid as before, but I was still shaking. After all,
Speaker 1: I had just seen a ghost. I went back into
Speaker 1: the cabin and I stayed awake the entire night. When
Speaker 1: I woke my sister up the next morning, I had
Speaker 1: already packed the car and I was ready to leave.
Speaker 1: The front desk ladies reaction when I checked out that
Speaker 1: morning still makes me wonder how often people leave this
Speaker 1: place early. I walked in looking more than a little frazzled,
Speaker 1: and I told her we wanted to check out early.
Speaker 1: The woman took one look at me and asked very
Speaker 1: hesitantly how our stay was, and I guess my facial
Speaker 1: expression was all the answers she needed. Days later, I
Speaker 1: noticed that a full refund for the stay had been
Speaker 1: issued to me. Thank you for giving me an out
Speaker 1: that to share this encounter. I've been enjoying your podcast
Speaker 1: for a couple of years now, and I appreciate your
Speaker 1: content and your comforting voice. Well you're welcome. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. If it wasn't for you guys listening, I
Speaker 1: might be doing a little bit of this. But I
Speaker 1: it's all because you listen, that's the reason, and people
Speaker 1: enjoy it. But this was a great story. She you know,
Speaker 1: these stories are so believable to me. Some of them
Speaker 1: are packed with a little bit of corny stuff, but man,
Speaker 1: every story I've read in this podcast tonight has been
Speaker 1: I don't know, everything rings true to me. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate these things. So thank you for sending the story
Speaker 1: as a great story. And I wonder how your life
Speaker 1: changed and your outlook on life change after seeing this
Speaker 1: apparition at that World War II naval facility. It's unbelievable, unbelievable,
Speaker 1: a real ghost. Oh. I love these stories. Thank you
Speaker 1: again to the writer. Last fall, six of my girlfriends
Speaker 1: and I were on a self guided mule deer and
Speaker 1: elk hunt. We are all ice hockey players from Minnesota
Speaker 1: who have been friends since we were ten. Every year
Speaker 1: since we graduated high school, we get together for a
Speaker 1: hunting trip. Whether it's for Hoggs in Texas, Antelope on
Speaker 1: the Plains, black bear in Canada. We used long bows,
Speaker 1: compound bows, or rifles. This year, we decided to do
Speaker 1: a second season rifle hunt in Colorado, so we packed
Speaker 1: our ATVs in side by sides on our trailers and
Speaker 1: took off into the mountains. We had reserved a site
Speaker 1: through an outfitter named Scott, who we had gotten to
Speaker 1: know over the past few years. We got to the
Speaker 1: camp site three hours from the nearest road, and we
Speaker 1: found that Scott had already set up a large outfitter's
Speaker 1: tent and installed a wood burning stove for us and
Speaker 1: stacked a cord of firewood in there with us. That
Speaker 1: gave us extra time to do some scouting and find
Speaker 1: what was lurking around nearby that we could harvest. That night,
Speaker 1: we built a campfire and we sat around eating fried
Speaker 1: maloney sandwiches. Wait a minute, where are you from? Who
Speaker 1: else in this audience loves fried blowney sandwiches. I like
Speaker 1: it about three eighths of an inch stick, a big
Speaker 1: water slong on top of it, and some mustard on
Speaker 1: a Hamburger. Vun just had to throw that in back
Speaker 1: to the story. They were drinking red wine and catching
Speaker 1: up on each other's lives. Now, I don't drink red
Speaker 1: wine with my blowney sandwiches, but that doesn't matter. Late
Speaker 1: at night, Brent grabbed her flashlight and her nine millimeter
Speaker 1: and slipped outside to water the plants behind the tent.
Speaker 1: The next morning, as we were getting ready to head
Speaker 1: out in the early dark hours, she told us that
Speaker 1: she heard something walking around just out of sight of
Speaker 1: her light behind the tent. We decided to buddy up
Speaker 1: in pairs and set out on our hunt. Lacy and
Speaker 1: I hiked back along the ridge about two miles away,
Speaker 1: where we could look down into a long meadow. The
Speaker 1: entire time we were there, we felt that we were
Speaker 1: being watched. The hair on the back of our necks
Speaker 1: was standing on in. Occasionally hear twigs and sticks breaking nearby,
Speaker 1: strange coyote howls, and exaggerated unnatural owl hoots. We stayed
Speaker 1: within ten yards of each other all morning, taking turns
Speaker 1: watching our six while the other watched the meadow. We
Speaker 1: didn't see anything that day that we wanted to waste
Speaker 1: a tag on, and When we started walking back to camp,
Speaker 1: we heard something pacing us off to the right, just
Speaker 1: out of sight. We both had our fingers on our safeties,
Speaker 1: ready to turn our weapons loose if needed. We were
Speaker 1: the last ones back at camp that night, and nobody
Speaker 1: had filled a tag except Carly and Britt, who also
Speaker 1: mentioned that they had felt like they were watched that night.
Speaker 1: Britt insisted on standing guard, certain that something was out
Speaker 1: there watching us. The next day, Lacey shot a ten
Speaker 1: point mule deer. When we got back to the camp
Speaker 1: to get our quad to drag it out, we saw
Speaker 1: Britt and Carly getting their ATV ready to drag back
Speaker 1: an olk that was unfortunate enough to cross of Brit
Speaker 1: that morning. Once we had gutted Lacey's butt and corded
Speaker 1: it out and loaded up our quad, we headed back
Speaker 1: before the others got back. We had time to hang
Speaker 1: the meat in nearby trees fifteen feet off the ground
Speaker 1: to keep it out of each of the bears. It
Speaker 1: was almost dark when Carly and Brit rolled in, but
Speaker 1: they did not have an elk, which explained Britt's foul mood.
Speaker 1: She was almost certifiably insane. She was ranting about killing
Speaker 1: the thing that stole her bull elk, and insisting that
Speaker 1: she would find some way to track him down. She
Speaker 1: was so upset that the rest of us were afraid
Speaker 1: of her and for her. After we had eaten the
Speaker 1: backstraps from Lacey's deer and Brent had finished two bottles
Speaker 1: of wine, we got her tucked into her sleeping bag
Speaker 1: and took turns watching her over night. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Lacy and I went along with Carly and Brett to
Speaker 1: help find the missing bowl elk. We got to where
Speaker 1: the elk had fallen, but there was nothing to indicate
Speaker 1: that anyone or anything had been there and carried it off.
Speaker 1: We scoured the area in all directions for three hundred yards,
Speaker 1: finding not so much as a single drop of blood.
Speaker 1: Brett accepted that the elk must have been alive, just unconscious,
Speaker 1: and the wound must have clotted up. It must have
Speaker 1: run off and died while she and Carly went to
Speaker 1: fetch the ATV, which she felt horrible about. That evening,
Speaker 1: the two Jessicas and Chelsea came back in with another
Speaker 1: mule deer, and after getting it hung up, we broke
Speaker 1: out a bottle of bourbon to go with the fresh
Speaker 1: inner tenderloins and sang and carried on into the night.
Speaker 1: The next morning, we discovered there was an entire rear
Speaker 1: quarter missing that we had hung the night before. We
Speaker 1: decided one of us should stay at the camp to
Speaker 1: guard the rest of our meat while the others went hunting.
Speaker 1: Jessica Ti drew the short straw and the rest of
Speaker 1: us headed out. Luck was shining down on us because
Speaker 1: Britt shot a beautiful bull elk that came in on
Speaker 1: a string when she blew her bugle. Lacy and Chelsea
Speaker 1: and I headed back to get the quads when we
Speaker 1: heard a shot coming from the direction of the camp.
Speaker 1: We picked up our pace, shouting as we got nearer
Speaker 1: to jess so that she wouldn't shoot us. And when
Speaker 1: we got there, one of the other rear quarters was
Speaker 1: swinging from a rope. Jess was standing with her weapon pointed.
Speaker 1: She began rattling about a massive bear like thing that
Speaker 1: reached up for the meat, about to grab it, when
Speaker 1: she shot and scared it off. Later, we started five
Speaker 1: large campfires around the meat to ward off any predators
Speaker 1: that may want to take advantage of an easy meal.
Speaker 1: Brett offered to take over watch again, that night and
Speaker 1: the rest of us went to bed. At four am,
Speaker 1: she started waking us up, saying she had seen something
Speaker 1: moving in the shadows around the lit area of the meat.
Speaker 1: We slid out of our sleeping bags, grabbed our rifles,
Speaker 1: and looked through the tent opening. The campfire still provided
Speaker 1: enough light that we could see the shadows from the
Speaker 1: other side of the tent. A few minutes later, an
Speaker 1: awful smell overwhelmed the camp. I wish I could have
Speaker 1: bottled that smell and sprayed it on some other hockey
Speaker 1: teams equipment years ago. We were motionless, gazing out the
Speaker 1: slit of the tent flap, waiting for that bear to
Speaker 1: pop out. We did not have a bear tag, but
Speaker 1: this troublemaker was going down. All of a sudden, something
Speaker 1: moved along the side of our tent. We could see
Speaker 1: the top of the tent being pressed down, as if
Speaker 1: something were testing the consistency of the material. It slowly
Speaker 1: moved toward the open in front. When we could see
Speaker 1: the shadow of this creature standing on two legs and
Speaker 1: heading toward the fires in the meat. This was no bear.
Speaker 1: It was human like, standing taller than the top of
Speaker 1: the tent. Which must have been over seven feet tall,
Speaker 1: leaving its shoulders at least that high. The thickness of
Speaker 1: this monster was wider than a hockey goal. Two shots
Speaker 1: rang out. Britton Lacey both fired through the tent towards
Speaker 1: the creature. The swiftness of this thing's escape was unimaginable.
Speaker 1: It took off across the open area directly in front
Speaker 1: of the tent, where three more shots rang out. Seconds later,
Speaker 1: we were all out of the tent looking for blood,
Speaker 1: and we found some, but not in the quantities that
Speaker 1: one might expect. Just a few minutes later, roarers sounded
Speaker 1: all around our camp. We grabbed our gear, cut down
Speaker 1: our meat, and loaded up the eight ten, strapping the
Speaker 1: heads and meat down so they wouldn't fall off, and
Speaker 1: leaving one of the rear quarters from the elk hanging
Speaker 1: in the tree, hoping that the creature would be happy
Speaker 1: with the offering and leave us alone. More roars and
Speaker 1: screams broke the darkness, and trees and limbs and rocks
Speaker 1: started to rain down on the tent, smashing into the ground.
Speaker 1: We decided to make tracks and get our butts back
Speaker 1: to Minnesota. That was less than twenty minutes before the
Speaker 1: sun started to come up, and we were hauling ass
Speaker 1: down the trail, with Chelsea and Jess watching our six
Speaker 1: and occasionally firing off a couple of rounds to discourage
Speaker 1: any pursuit if they saw something suspicious. During all this time,
Speaker 1: we could hear something crashing through the woods on both
Speaker 1: sides of us. As the sun rose and the visibility improved,
Speaker 1: we were able to open the throttle and increase our speed,
Speaker 1: and we began to outpace whatever was pursuing us to
Speaker 1: ours later and back in our trucks. We loaded and
Speaker 1: made our way home in one piece, with the story
Speaker 1: that would brand us crazier than loons. I would like
Speaker 1: you to envision the people's faces when we stopped to
Speaker 1: fill up or grab something to eat, and those three
Speaker 1: heads were strapped to our side by sides. The remark
Speaker 1: of the day was, you girls must be proud of
Speaker 1: your men for taking such a nice animals. We let
Speaker 1: Britt set them straight. We did call Scott and ask
Speaker 1: him why he would put us in a location where
Speaker 1: a family of Bigfoot was living. When he went back
Speaker 1: with several of his guides, they found the camp was
Speaker 1: destroyed with the cast iron campso smashed into the ground,
Speaker 1: leaving nothing more than scrap metal. Parts of the tent
Speaker 1: were hanging in the trees thirty feet off the ground,
Speaker 1: and coolers were smashed, and the rear quarter was still
Speaker 1: hanging in the tree. We've got decided to close that
Speaker 1: area for the near future and move his clients to
Speaker 1: other locations for a third rifle season. On our next time,
Speaker 1: we would do something a bit less dangerous, like gator
Speaker 1: hunting or hog hunting with spears. With all our love,
Speaker 1: and she signs off the seven she devils. I tell
Speaker 1: you what that is, seven she devils. Those girls are
Speaker 1: tougher nails. I mean they're going out by themselves and
Speaker 1: hunting elk and hogs and gaiters, and I guess they
Speaker 1: just love the outdoors and love to have fun. I
Speaker 1: thought this was a great story. It's a terrifying story.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they were scared, but they had enough sense
Speaker 1: to protect themselves. A couple of them got pissed off
Speaker 1: at these things, and I don't know. I think if
Speaker 1: they had their choice, they may have stayed and fought
Speaker 1: them out. Who knows, but this was a great story.
Speaker 1: You girls are You're more man than me and my book.
Speaker 1: How about that? Thanks for the story, she devils? Okay.
Speaker 1: Here is the letter from the Federal Game Warden the story.
Speaker 1: The events in this story apparently happened back in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties. He doesn't give a timeline here, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't give a specific location. I think he's trying
Speaker 1: to be cryptic with us with this information because I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe it's a big secret. But let's see.
Speaker 1: Here's the story. It's really good. The day after Christmas,
Speaker 1: two college students launched their john boat into an ox
Speaker 1: bow of the Mississippi River. Ice crack when the trailer
Speaker 1: entered the water, but it was only a thin sheet
Speaker 1: and it would be clear when the sun warmed the
Speaker 1: water's surface. They had hunted since the season opened and
Speaker 1: had mostly good days, many days killing their limit of millards.
Speaker 1: The Halliday break meant they only had another week to
Speaker 1: get after the migrating birds, and then it was back
Speaker 1: to school, two hundred miles from the flyway. The next season,
Speaker 1: being a year away, seemed like an eternity. They were
Speaker 1: planning to hunt every day until they had to return
Speaker 1: to campus. It was probably an exciting morning. The migration
Speaker 1: was in full swing. Birds were in the area and
Speaker 1: holding due to the food available. All indications were that
Speaker 1: their twenty five horsepower mercury started without problems. It was
Speaker 1: only in its second year of use. It was new
Speaker 1: and well maintained, and an outboard they had bought new
Speaker 1: together for a john boat they had picked up and
Speaker 1: fixed up from the want eds of the commercial appeal.
Speaker 1: The hunters were experienced with sometimes wild waters and weather
Speaker 1: of the Lower Mississippi base and during winter. From interviews
Speaker 1: later with family and friends, the two hunters practiced good safety.
Speaker 1: They didn't take chances. Life jackets were worn in the
Speaker 1: boat until they had stopped tip waiters would put on
Speaker 1: only before they entered the water that didn't travel over
Speaker 1: the water. In those everyone knew the stories of hunters
Speaker 1: who had drowned after being dragged under with full waiters.
Speaker 1: The boat was always apparently left secured whenever they left
Speaker 1: the boat, and it was within walking distance in case
Speaker 1: they needed to get out fast. They did everything they
Speaker 1: knew to stay alive in an environment that, with any mishap,
Speaker 1: would kill you in minutes. Yet the young enthusiastic duck
Speaker 1: hunters left the ramp in the dark of that morning
Speaker 1: and they have never been heard from since. From nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five until nineteen ninety five, I worked for the
Speaker 1: US Department of the Interior the US Fish and Wildlife
Speaker 1: Services as a federal game warden. My assignment through the
Speaker 1: winter was to patrol a specific wildlife refuge in the Delta.
Speaker 1: At this time, I reported to the refuge manager. He
Speaker 1: was my superior. I later became a refuge manager and
Speaker 1: then as zone manager, but that is another story. I
Speaker 1: was from the area. I had grown up hunting and
Speaker 1: fishing on this refuge, and I knew many of the residents,
Speaker 1: so the role I played during the years that I
Speaker 1: was assigned there came natural to me. I was in
Speaker 1: my second year there, and I like to think that
Speaker 1: I escorted the trash out the door and made an
Speaker 1: impact for conservation. It was never a dull day. There
Speaker 1: were stints where we were assigned to varying task forces
Speaker 1: with the DEA, the ATF, and even the FBI to
Speaker 1: deal with organized crime operations running drugs and weapons through
Speaker 1: the lowland areas that might include the refuge where I
Speaker 1: was assigned. It was dangerous work and we were not
Speaker 1: paid enough for the level of risk. We took while
Speaker 1: dealing with those crimes, but it was one of the
Speaker 1: exciting eras of the time that I served. When I
Speaker 1: heard the radio chatter of the two college boys who
Speaker 1: had not returned that night. I was heading out of
Speaker 1: the refuge on a rutted logging road that I frequently
Speaker 1: used because it gave me access to launch my boat
Speaker 1: into several areas. I stopped the truck when my four
Speaker 1: wheel drive crawled up on some solid ground, and I
Speaker 1: killed the engine and listened to the radio from the
Speaker 1: county Sheriff's department. It had been dark for an hour.
Speaker 1: A deputy had been dispatched to a boat ramp several
Speaker 1: miles north and was to meet the father of one
Speaker 1: of the boys and investigate the situation. I got the
Speaker 1: whole story of the boys being due home by two
Speaker 1: or three that afternoon, and it was now dark and
Speaker 1: they hadn't shown up. Their car was still at the
Speaker 1: ramp with the trailer attached. They had left that morning,
Speaker 1: and they should have been back. Damn right, they should
Speaker 1: have been back. I knew this story like I had
Speaker 1: written it a thousand times. I had not had the
Speaker 1: experience of finding drowned duck hunters, with this being my
Speaker 1: only second year on the job, but I knew the
Speaker 1: stories from growing up in the area. But over my career, however,
Speaker 1: I would be involved in several SAARs search and rescue missions.
Speaker 1: It's not a exciting or fulfilling part of my job.
Speaker 1: It is an urgent and stressful part of my job.
Speaker 1: When we get these calls, a mood of hopelessness overtakes
Speaker 1: the searchers because it is rare that we find anyone
Speaker 1: alive after a night in the freezing flooded timber. The
Speaker 1: ramp where they had launched was north of my refuge.
Speaker 1: The hunters had not told anyone where they planned to
Speaker 1: hunt that day. According to relatives, they never shared that information.
Speaker 1: Often the boys would move once or twice each day,
Speaker 1: so no one could verify where the boys would plan
Speaker 1: to hunt, if there even was a plan. But my
Speaker 1: guess was that they had traveled south in this direction,
Speaker 1: if not directly into the refuge. It would have been
Speaker 1: easy to get in with the high water. The refuge
Speaker 1: was covered up with ducks and the area was busy
Speaker 1: with boat traffic. I had checked eight hunting parties before
Speaker 1: shooting time was over that day. I had a hunch,
Speaker 1: so I drove one hundred yards to the gravel parking
Speaker 1: area and turned my rig around and went back into
Speaker 1: the flooded area that I had patrolled that day. On
Speaker 1: the way, I radioed the sheriff's dispatcher that I was
Speaker 1: in the area and would begin a search of the refuge.
Speaker 1: The years of experience, I guess I knew they were
Speaker 1: out there somewhere, dead or alive, and if they were alive,
Speaker 1: the sooner someone got to them, the better their chances
Speaker 1: penning they had not drowned. I radioed the refuge manager
Speaker 1: and told him what I was up to, and gave
Speaker 1: him the general area that I would search, which was
Speaker 1: vague because I would be constantly moving. If for some
Speaker 1: reason I didn't show up or radio in that I
Speaker 1: had stopped searching, they would know where to start looking
Speaker 1: for me. After reaching the furthest point south where I
Speaker 1: could not go further with my truck, I backed the
Speaker 1: boat into the shallow ditch and began slowly working my
Speaker 1: way south into bigger water through the flooded timber, hoping
Speaker 1: to find the boys shivering in the cold, their motor
Speaker 1: not functioning properly. Maybe it was nine fifteen pm, the
Speaker 1: temperature had dropped a freezing and a light, misty rain
Speaker 1: began to fall. I idled slowly for hours until I
Speaker 1: had just enough gas to get back to my truck.
Speaker 1: I heard over the radio that a search had started
Speaker 1: with a dozen boats, State Game and Fish law enforcement,
Speaker 1: and a couple of civilians friends of the family. The
Speaker 1: Coastguard would join the next morning with a helicopter that
Speaker 1: was being flown in from Memphis for the search the
Speaker 1: next morning. If the boys had not been found, The
Speaker 1: saar was random. The first night, boats were going where
Speaker 1: they thought the boys might have hunted that day. The
Speaker 1: next day would be different. More boats would be involved
Speaker 1: in the search areas would be a sign, and if
Speaker 1: those boys were in a reasonable travel distance for a
Speaker 1: john boat from the boat ramp, someone would find them.
Speaker 1: More than likely the helicopter crew would spot the boat
Speaker 1: with two cold men waving at them. I hoped that
Speaker 1: would be the case. I worked my way back to
Speaker 1: the truck through a different part of the refuge, an
Speaker 1: area much thicker would brush than where most hunters went.
Speaker 1: I didn't move as slow as I was going south,
Speaker 1: but I kept my light shining all around me. I
Speaker 1: wished I had seen them when the bow ran up
Speaker 1: on the bank next to my trailer, but again I
Speaker 1: knew they could have been anywhere. After letting my supervisor
Speaker 1: know that I was calling it a night and reporting
Speaker 1: to him the area that I had covered, I loaded
Speaker 1: my boat and I left. It was two thirty a m.
Speaker 1: At six am, later than normal, and I showered and dressed,
Speaker 1: and then called in to get an update. Several groups
Speaker 1: had searched all night and came up empty. The searcher
Speaker 1: was growing and spreading out, and the more people were
Speaker 1: showing up to volunteer in search where they were needed.
Speaker 1: I called the sheriff in the county north of US
Speaker 1: and asked if I was needed. He didn't think so,
Speaker 1: but since I was going to be patrolling the refuge anyway,
Speaker 1: he wanted me to keep my eye out. Well, no kidding,
Speaker 1: I thought. I stopped at the gas station and filled
Speaker 1: my gas tanks I put in at the busiest ramp
Speaker 1: on the refuge. There I checked a party of hunters
Speaker 1: who were getting a late start. After that, I headed
Speaker 1: south to my refuge, following the main channel. On each
Speaker 1: side of me as I travel were the lazy hunters
Speaker 1: who set up close to the channel. I could see
Speaker 1: their decoy spreads and the blinds they had thrown up
Speaker 1: and claimed with each stop. I pulled close and asked
Speaker 1: the hunters to look out for the missing boys. The
Speaker 1: water was high and a man could just about go
Speaker 1: anywhere in the refuge with a boat. I broke from
Speaker 1: the channel and followed a ditch until it opened up
Speaker 1: into a natural lake, and I trimmed the motor and
Speaker 1: I laid the boat flat on the water and headed
Speaker 1: at full throttle to the other end, where there were
Speaker 1: openings in the timber that hunters liked to use. It
Speaker 1: took some work to get to these places, and that
Speaker 1: is why I thought the two men may have gone
Speaker 1: into the area to get away from the crowd. I
Speaker 1: knew where the shooting holes were, and I headed to
Speaker 1: the closest one. A boat with a pullover blind sat
Speaker 1: back in a patch of buck brush. I approached the boat,
Speaker 1: and three heads poked above the blind. Hey, mister game warden,
Speaker 1: I heard a voice say, as you luck, Ben, I asked,
Speaker 1: we have a few in the boat here. You want
Speaker 1: to look at them now? Not today. There's some fellows
Speaker 1: that put in north of here, yesterday. That didn't show
Speaker 1: up last night at the rain. There's a big search
Speaker 1: going on. Have you seen anything or anyone back in here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we heard about that. They said, you think they could
Speaker 1: be this far away from where they put in maybe?
Speaker 1: I said, have you seen or heard anything? Uh? There
Speaker 1: was some shooting back in the woods yesterday. Two of
Speaker 1: the men pointed to a place deeper in the timber.
Speaker 1: They were tearing the ducks up. It sounded like we
Speaker 1: left right at dark. We never saw them come out.
Speaker 1: They could have come in another way, but who knows.
Speaker 1: But I don't know any other way to get in here. Well,
Speaker 1: I doubt that helps you. Oh it helps, I said,
Speaker 1: keep your eyes open and give them a hand if
Speaker 1: you see them. There're two college kids. Sure will, they said,
Speaker 1: and I waved and motored off in my boat. I
Speaker 1: headed further into the trees. Unless they were hunting from
Speaker 1: the bank, this was the only way into the area.
Speaker 1: It was worth taking a look. Thirty minutes later I
Speaker 1: came to an opening surrounded by cypress trees. I had
Speaker 1: actually fished this lake when I was a kid during
Speaker 1: the spring and summer. This was the most beautiful area
Speaker 1: on the refuge and any chance I got to go
Speaker 1: into the area I went. It was a peaceful place
Speaker 1: to me, and it brought memories to the surface of
Speaker 1: my father and I filling a cooler with fish. Soon
Speaker 1: decoys came into view on the far side, half the
Speaker 1: decoys in the open water and the other half up
Speaker 1: in the trees. I motored up to them and I
Speaker 1: killed my motor it went in there, I yelled out.
Speaker 1: I didn't see a boat or any sort of blind
Speaker 1: just decoys and no hunters. The front that I had
Speaker 1: experienced last night had moved through. Now it was cold
Speaker 1: and clear. The wind was whipping and singing through the
Speaker 1: cypress and oak limbs. I moved through the decoys into
Speaker 1: the trees, looking for whoever it had set this spread up.
Speaker 1: The farther I went, the more I again to think.
Speaker 1: These hunters had left their spread out so they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to spend time setting up when they came back
Speaker 1: in the next day. And this was against the rules.
Speaker 1: Hunters were to leave the area they hunted just as
Speaker 1: they had found it at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: During that time, hunters were allowed a fixed number of decoys,
Speaker 1: and they were to be removed each day. I was
Speaker 1: about to circle around and head back out into open
Speaker 1: water when I saw the boat. I was one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards past the decoys and fifty yards from
Speaker 1: dry land, and the boat appeared to be on the bank.
Speaker 1: Something was off about the scene. Though the boat was
Speaker 1: bent in half, it was almost doubled over. I pulled
Speaker 1: up to the bank and walked to what was left
Speaker 1: of the boat, which still sat in a foot of water.
Speaker 1: I backed away and raised my radio to call my boss,
Speaker 1: but he didn't respond. I walked closer to make sure
Speaker 1: I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, and
Speaker 1: I raised the radio again and couldn't reached my refuge manager.
Speaker 1: I switched to the channel of the Sheriff's office and
Speaker 1: I got their dispatcher. I read the boat registration numbers
Speaker 1: to the sheriff and he verified that this was the boat.
Speaker 1: He knew where I was, but it would take two
Speaker 1: maybe three hours to get someone out there, and could
Speaker 1: I stay with the boat. Well, of course I could
Speaker 1: stay with the boat, I told him. I walked back
Speaker 1: to my boat and sat on the bow. I wasn't tired,
Speaker 1: but in another way I was exhausted. Maybe I just
Speaker 1: needed to prepare my mind for what I would see
Speaker 1: when I walked back to the boat. It just didn't
Speaker 1: seem real to me at that point. To be honest,
Speaker 1: I was expecting to find these boys drowned in the
Speaker 1: water somewhere. Federal game wardens are trained as well, if
Speaker 1: not more so, on law enforcement tactics, rules, and crime
Speaker 1: scene procedures. We get the same training that the ATF
Speaker 1: DEAFBI agents get. We know how to handle and conduct
Speaker 1: ourselves on a crime scene. In my boat, I carried
Speaker 1: a rucksack with several items that I need to do
Speaker 1: my job, crime scene tools, a change of clothes, amos, etc.
Speaker 1: This was an age before digital cameras, and I kept
Speaker 1: a disposable Kodak camera in my bag. The camera had
Speaker 1: twenty four exposures and I burned up every one of
Speaker 1: them on the scene. I never got close enough to
Speaker 1: disturb anything around the boat, but I took pictures from
Speaker 1: every angle and I got images of giant tracks that
Speaker 1: seemed to be everywhere. I placed the disposable camera back
Speaker 1: into my rucksack and I waited, somewhat aware of my
Speaker 1: surroundings in case there was an aggressive animal still in
Speaker 1: the area, maybe even protecting its kill, and somewhat still
Speaker 1: in a bit of shock at what I had found.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I assumed it was an animal,
Speaker 1: but those tracks led me to believe that something had
Speaker 1: attacked these boys. I sat on the front of the
Speaker 1: boat for a few more minutes, getting my bearings and
Speaker 1: clearing my head. There wasn't much for me to do
Speaker 1: at this point, and I should have stayed put and
Speaker 1: waited for whoever was coming. But I can never sit
Speaker 1: still now. I'm glad that no one was around. It
Speaker 1: allowed me to take in the scene and try to
Speaker 1: imagine what had happened here. It was almost peaceful had
Speaker 1: I not been conscious that something had killed these men
Speaker 1: in the last few hours, and it could have still
Speaker 1: been close. Still, I'm assuming it's an animal. I knew
Speaker 1: that from the tracks around the boat and the tracks
Speaker 1: that I can make out heading up the bank into
Speaker 1: the trees. I looked for drag marks, like something had
Speaker 1: dragged the two bodies through the mud, but there was
Speaker 1: nothing but a single set of deep, barefoot tracks. They
Speaker 1: were huge tracks. I knew what it was, but I
Speaker 1: would not allow my mind to accept it. There had
Speaker 1: to be an explanation other than what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: But to prove all this, I had to find the bodies,
Speaker 1: and I hoped, like hell I would find the boys alive.
Speaker 1: I carried a Rugrimny fourteen ranch rifle in the boat.
Speaker 1: I took it out of its cover. With the rifle
Speaker 1: in my side arm, I walked into the trees and
Speaker 1: felt confident that if whatever this was came at me,
Speaker 1: I would have enough firepower to stop it. There was
Speaker 1: an open lane through the trees twenty five feet up
Speaker 1: the bank that ran parallel with the tracks that led
Speaker 1: into the tall stand of trees and brush. My tracks
Speaker 1: would not disturb the path of the alleged killer. I
Speaker 1: entered the tree slowly, looking for anything that moved or jumped.
Speaker 1: A few steps later, I made a three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty degree survey of everything. I could no longer see
Speaker 1: the water. The trees opened into a clear stand and
Speaker 1: I could see one hundred yards in every direction. I
Speaker 1: made a course, changed and walked toward where I thought
Speaker 1: the tracks from the wrecked boat would intersect my path.
Speaker 1: I heard a helicopter approaching, and I stopped and looked up,
Speaker 1: waiting for it to peer somewhere over me. I remember
Speaker 1: looking into the sun, and it's the last thing I
Speaker 1: remember about that day. A woman in a uniform handed
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee to me. She was talking to me,
Speaker 1: I think, telling me that I could find sugar and
Speaker 1: all that stuff from my coffee just around the corner.
Speaker 1: Things were not hazy or foggy. In my mind, I
Speaker 1: knew where I was, but I had no recollection of
Speaker 1: how I got there. I kept my composure while wanting
Speaker 1: to ask how the hell did I get here? Where's
Speaker 1: the team that was on its way to the scene.
Speaker 1: Had I passed out? I looked down at my boots
Speaker 1: and they were clean or not as muddy as I
Speaker 1: had gotten them in the woods, and I had on
Speaker 1: my second pair of boots was clean. Apparently I had changed.
Speaker 1: None of this seemed right. I kept my mouth shut
Speaker 1: and acted normal, like I knew exactly where I was
Speaker 1: and why I was there. The Sheriff's office was just
Speaker 1: down the hall, and I could see him sitting at
Speaker 1: his desk talking on the phone. I walked to the
Speaker 1: door and got there when he was ending his call.
Speaker 1: You have everything you need from me, I asked, I
Speaker 1: thought you left. He said, yeah, I don't need anything
Speaker 1: else from you. Dan sent over your report. It's the
Speaker 1: hell the thing, isn't it. I left the building and
Speaker 1: found my truck. My keys were in the pocket where
Speaker 1: I always dropped them at home. My report lay in
Speaker 1: the middle of my desk. I checked the fax machine
Speaker 1: log and I had sent a fax that morning to
Speaker 1: my supervisor. I had been on the water that morning
Speaker 1: looking for missing duck hunters. I looked at my watch
Speaker 1: and it was the next day, December twenty eighth. I
Speaker 1: walked outside and my boat was where I kept it.
Speaker 1: And then I turned back to my truck in the
Speaker 1: driveway and opened the door, and my rucksack and my
Speaker 1: rifle were neatly laid on the passenger floorboard, exactly where
Speaker 1: I kept them. It's like I had come home after
Speaker 1: finding the damaged boat and gone through my regular routine.
Speaker 1: My wet, muddy boots were under the car port, and
Speaker 1: dirty clothes were in the hamper. I even pulled the
Speaker 1: towel from the hamper and found that it was still
Speaker 1: damp for me drying off from a shower that morning.
Speaker 1: Everything in the house was like it was supposed to be,
Speaker 1: just as normal as ever. There was plenty of daylight left,
Speaker 1: and the weather was good. I headed to the refuge,
Speaker 1: and soon I was on the water and at the
Speaker 1: place where I found the boat. The boat was not there,
Speaker 1: neither were the decoys I had seen that the boys
Speaker 1: had been hunting over on the bank. There were no
Speaker 1: tracks other than human boot tracks. Looked like I heard
Speaker 1: people had been walking up and down that pathway. Well.
Speaker 1: I followed those tracks and they ended where I think
Speaker 1: my memory of the day before ended. From there, I
Speaker 1: followed my own tracks that ran parallel with the water,
Speaker 1: and then I turned back toward the water until I
Speaker 1: arrived at the bank again, water slapping the transom of
Speaker 1: my boat. I stared at it, tilting with each riple,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what was going on. On my
Speaker 1: way back across the lake, I ran into a search
Speaker 1: team with the Coastguard. They talked about the search and
Speaker 1: that had been focused now on my refuge, which made sense.
Speaker 1: We had found their boat here, there was no reason
Speaker 1: to search other areas, but no college boys or bodies
Speaker 1: of college boys had been found. Later that evening, at
Speaker 1: my desk, I read the report that I had signed.
Speaker 1: It was not what I had seen when I discovered
Speaker 1: that boat. There were no mention of animal tracks around
Speaker 1: the boat. My description of the boat was that the
Speaker 1: boys have hit something while moving fast to do that
Speaker 1: much damage. A week later, of visit to the yard
Speaker 1: where the County Sheriff's Department kept impounded vehicles, and I
Speaker 1: looked at the boat the day I found it. It
Speaker 1: looked like a huge weight had been dropped into the
Speaker 1: middle of it, and it had folded in two, almost
Speaker 1: like a folded piece of cardboard. But the boat I saw,
Speaker 1: and I checked the numbers, it was the boat had
Speaker 1: been folded back. For lack of a better way to
Speaker 1: describe it, there was a lot of damage, but it
Speaker 1: was flat and it still looked like a boat. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: I had no doubt that this report was mine. I
Speaker 1: knew that from the way I write, and there was
Speaker 1: no doubt it was my signature. After a week, there
Speaker 1: was no reason to dedicate state and federal resources on
Speaker 1: a search that everyone knew would not turn up anything.
Speaker 1: Two shotguns had been dragged from the bottom of the
Speaker 1: lake close to where the boat was found, but they
Speaker 1: were in such bad shape that it was determined the
Speaker 1: guns had not belonged to the missing boys and had
Speaker 1: been in the water for probably years. Maybe lost overboard
Speaker 1: by careless hunters. It was into July when I finally
Speaker 1: stopped looking around the area for those boys while still
Speaker 1: doing my regular job, And when the days got longer,
Speaker 1: I would go back into that area and search the
Speaker 1: water some days and walked the dry island on other days.
Speaker 1: But I never found anything. By the time it had
Speaker 1: been full on summer heat for three months, anything remaining
Speaker 1: would be progressively harder to find. It was a month
Speaker 1: after the incident that I remembered I had a disposable Kodak.
Speaker 1: While digging in my bag for something else, I had
Speaker 1: the images developed at a one hour photo shop. While waiting,
Speaker 1: the images were blurred or completely black. Of twenty four exposures,
Speaker 1: not a single one turned out. We are decades away
Speaker 1: from that strange holiday season. Those kids are still missing.
Speaker 1: If they died in my refuge, and what I mean
Speaker 1: is if they drowned or died of hypothermia, either I
Speaker 1: or someone would have found them. I think I lost
Speaker 1: almost twenty four hours of my memory. I still don't
Speaker 1: know anything of my activities during that time. I must
Speaker 1: have driven myself home. It's obvious that I wrote the
Speaker 1: report that I showered that I changed clothes and even
Speaker 1: slept in my bed. I never changed my report or
Speaker 1: even told anyone about the twenty four hours that I
Speaker 1: cannot remember, other than one wildlife officer that was years
Speaker 1: later after a few beers. He is an officer I've
Speaker 1: known for thirty years and we work federal refuges in
Speaker 1: the same region. Now, these are lowland delta areas that
Speaker 1: are forgotten by the quote missing persons experts. They like
Speaker 1: to report on the popular stories and popular areas of wilderness.
Speaker 1: The lost time event has never happened to me since
Speaker 1: those early days of my career. But between the two
Speaker 1: of us, we have stories to tell you that have
Speaker 1: flown under the radar of the people who investigate missing
Speaker 1: persons cases. Thank you for listening this far. I know
Speaker 1: this was a long podcast, but I thought every story
Speaker 1: in this set was really good. I really hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed it and you can look forward to more
Speaker 1: frequent stories, more frequent podcasts being uploaded weekly. Back on track,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you hanging with me. Let's see you guys
Speaker 1: on the next one. Thank you