Sasquatch Chronicles

I had an issue with several interviews last week where the audio is terrible and I am not sure why. While I work on it, I am loading one of my favorite episodes 729. A listener writes "My brother in-law and I have hunted all over Oklahoma. Grady County, in Central Oklahoma, Near Clayton in the South East, but in this one piece of property in Nowata, smack in the middle between the Verdigris River and Ooligha Lake, we had a very Terrifying encounter, …….with something. I'm 53 years old and hunted, with my dad, in Nowata, before I was old enough to drive. Not many people know how wooded this area is. My father and I hunted only 8 miles away from this property, I'm going to tell you about, and there are caves in the area. My dad and I use to hunt from the mouth of one on rainy days. I think, I could hide from populated areas, easily myself, so I'm pretty sure an elusive animal could too. It all started on our father in-law's land. It was about 40 acres, but we had permission to hunt another 40 on the back side of it. I always felt uneasy on this property. Like I was being watched, but I just rationalized it away. I would hear someone else walking the property, in the dark, keeping pace with me, as I walked to my hunting spot. I would swallow my fear and tell myself it's just another armadillo or racoon, and keep going. Once I borrow a knife from my dad, just in case I got a deer. The last thing he said to me was, " I don't care if you leave everything ease, just bring my knife back" . This knife was hand made, razor sharp, and entirely metal. I knew he meant it, so I was not going to leave it. That hunt I struck out, but my brother in-law, got a small buck. I was in my early 30s then, but he was in his 20s and had never gutted a deer before, so I was going to gut it for him. I slit open the abdomen and began pulling out the insides, in a bloody mess. He laughed at how bloody I was getting, calling me doctor Dave. I was trying to show him but he just laughed and teased me all the more. Frustrated I cleaned the knife on my camo and stuck it in the dirt. It was later in the day, so we gathered our haul and started back to camp. We walked, maybe 1/8th of a mile when, you guessed it. I forgot that knife. We were already sweating despite the cold, so my brother in-law wasn't happy about turning around. After less than 10 minutes, we got back to the spot, I picked up the knife, and wiped the dirt off on my pants. I looked up and said, let's go, but my friend didn't move. He turned and said slowly, " you don't see anything wrong here." The entire gut pile was gone. Even the blood. There was just one leaf with one drop of blood. No drag marks, no sign anything had been there, except for one large area of disturbed grass where the carcass had been, one small spot of crushed grass and of course my knife. Now I think there was a track there, but I didn't see it as that. This was Oklahoma and Bigfoot was not in my vocabulary. We walked back to camp in silence with guns loaded. What ever took that 30 pounds of slimy deer guts, had to be watching us while we opened the deer, was big enough to carry it off, and was probably still close. We had other things happen over the years, but one night stands frozen in my memory. In a later season, we were late getting to the property. We left too late to get there in the daylight. I was perturbed to have to set up the tent in the dark. It was darker than dark that night. It was nearly 2200, when we got it up. I was ready to start a fire, my brother in-law, and friend, Zack, said OK, let's go set up my tree stand. I replied, are you kidding, it's dark, I'm tired, and we haven't been here for an entire year. It was no use objecting, he was going on his own if I didn't go with him, so away we went. Trampling through the woods. The flash lights we had weren't great either. As we navigated off the ridge down into the bottom, of the hollow, I remember hearing something behind and to the right keeping pace with us in the woods. Fear hit me like it had never before. I tried to push it down, telling myself, it was nothing, but I struggled to stay upright on the dimly lit trail, carrying my pack. Finally, he found the tree he remembered from last year. I pulled screw in foot pegs out, and successfully got the stand in place 12 or 15 foot up. It took a long time and it was unusually warm. I set it up, so Zack wanted to make sure he liked it, so climbed up as I shined my, dim, flashlight on the pegs. While, he was climbing into the tree, that uneasy, fear, hit me again. I was hearing something moving behind me, and was having a hard time keeping that light shining on the tree. I would swing the light around and immediately heard my brother in-law yell, hey, give me some light, and WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I can't see. He finally get up there and bounces on the platform. Shining a flip phone around saying, "yeah, this'll work." I didn't care, I had my back to the tree, trying to see what was spooking me so bad. I was normally like that. I use to walk by moonlight to my hunting spot, but I could hear something moving around us in the dark. We were loud and it didn't seem to care. Finally, FINALLY, he got down and we made our way to camp. I started a fire and was feeling pretty comfortable on my sleeping bag. The fire comforted me as I cooled off, when Zack said, we gotta go back. I left my phone in the tree. I said , " it'll be there in the morning!!!!" He said, I'm going back. But I had enough. I was not leaving the fire. I told him your going on your own if you do. He took his rifle, and a flashlight and disappeared into the dark. I was just dosing off, when BOOM, and another BOOM. HE WAS SHOOTING. I bounced up pulling on my pants. As I fumbled with my boots Zack came running full sprint and stopped standing over me. I was mad at him. I didn't give him a chance to explain saying, you can't shoot at night! It's not legal to shoot a deer after dark, and everything is scared away now for half a mile. I feel bad now, he was pale, and just kept saying, " I saw something. I heard something." IT WAS NEARLY 10 YEARS LATER HE TOLD ME WHAT Happened. He said, something on 2 legs followed me in the woods. I paced me just out of sight. I yelled, thinking it was you messing with me. DAVID, cut it out. When he got to the tree. He yelled again, DAVID CUT IT OUT. then something mocked him out of the darkness. DAAVVIDD. He said something inside him told him to get up that tree. He shimmied up the tree like a squirrel. He cocked his gun and said DAVID, if that's you, you better cut it out. I'm going to shoot. Then he sees a huge black shape, and it mocked his frightened words, saying, DAAVIDD, HEA HEA HEA. Almost laughing. He thought it was a demon. So he shot, it ran, and he shot again. Seei g his chance, he scurried down and ran back to camp. There was no way we were going to sleep so I roasted hotdogs on the fire. And we had visitors. I heard coyotes yelp earlier, so I rationalized that's what it was. We where being harassed and circled by something on all fours. There was no eye shine, and they took care to not be caught in a flashlight. For nearly 2 hours they ran back and forth around us. The truck was close, but the gate was locked, and neither of us where going to fiddle with a lock, in the dark. We had guns but they were bolt action with a scope. These things were fast. We yelled but unless they came into the light, forget it. We threw out a weiner with antifreeze, in desporation. I heard something get up, run on 2 legs now and race to the weiner. In shock, we listened as this thing, started coughing and hacking. I thought to myself, that sound like a person. Then Zack said, what I thought. That sounds like a man. That sounds like a man. I said it can't be. Running in the woods with no light. He said, we just killed someone. I said, as the coughing continued, anyone who runs around hunter, at night, and picks up a hot dog, off the forest floor deserves to die. He laughed. Then I laughed. We bother laughed nervously, as this thing walked away coughing. We could hear it 100 yards away coughing. It was morning before we fell asleep. We didn't hunt that day. The treestand was ripped off the tree, broken at the welds. Chain still attached"

Ryan writes "I'm sending this email because I spoke with my daughter many times about her experience in WV on our 30acre property next to my sisters 30acre property, so between us 60acres. Emmy decided she wanted to tell you what she experienced outside of telling me her dad. Emmy is 13 yrs old now and when she had her experience she was 7 maybe 8 years old with my memory. When she was little, maybe 5, I taught her how to build a fire in the fire pit(stones stacked in a circle) next to our house close to the wood line next to the hay fields. The night she had her experience she started a fire with me and we were hanging out. She had built a fort with blankets and with some camp chairs and we were watching the fire. I told her I had to run inside and use the bathroom and get a snack/drink keep an eye on the fire, I'll be right back. After going inside and using the bathroom, grabbing a bag of potato chips and drink, I was at the back porch door and Emmy was there trying to open the door and crying upset. I opened the door and she was crying very scared and I asked what happened. She told me there was something very large and tall and dark in the wood line watching her next to big pine tree while she was watching the fire. She told me she looked multiple times thinking it was her imagination but she thought it would go away but it didn't and then she realized it was real and she got really scared, when she got the back steps maybe 100ft from the fire the tears and uncontrollable crying hit her. That's when I met her at the back door almost immediately as I was headed back outside. I asked her to show me where she saw the figure and the leaves on the ground next to the big pine where flat. Not like the other leaves like something had laid down on them or stood on them if it was really big. Not the same as the other leaves in the woods around that particular point. No footprints, just flat leaves. I looked up and there was a broken pine branch about 8ft. I'm 6'3" and my arm outstretched above my head couldn't touch the broken limb. Anyway, we went to bed that night and Emmy calmed down and told me what she saw and I told her it's ok I believe you. She told me it was big and dark and red eyes, watching her but the eyes were red or orange like the fire burning, but she said she saw what she said was hair off the arm holding the big pine tree. She told me it was just standing there watching her. The next day, daytime I asked her to show me where she saw the figure and it was the same spot as the night before when we went to look. The same the leaves were flat in the woods like something heavy was there and the same branch I saw the night before was bent or broken. Afterwards we did some gifting in the woods with marbles and had them replaced with rocks on the mosssy log. We had some feathers replaced with different feathers. Recently we had a 6 point deer skull blanched white with time and no meat or hair on it about 8ft up in an oak tree next to my woodpile for firewood. We recently had a deer leg same blanched white no meat or hair on it on the edge of the hay field up from the creek in a tree about 7ft off the ground. My daughter Emmy told me she wanted me to email you and tell you what she experienced." Tayler writes "My husband and I are originally from Arkansas. He was recently stationed back here for my his final duty assignment before retirement. We are big outdoors people hunting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, kayaking you name it. Over the years, we've had a few strange encounters, and even my grandmother, who lives in a rural part of Arkansas, has had her own experiences. Last weekend, we went to float the Buffalo River and do some primitive camping. Not long after getting on the river, I was taking in the scenery and admiring the massive bluffs when I noticed a cave. As I focused on it, I caught movement off to the right along the bluff. At first, I assumed it was hikers, which isn't unusual in that area. I pointed it out to my husband and said it looked like an adult and a younger teen. Then I realized something was off they appeared entirely brown in color. As I tried to get my husband to look, they suddenly disappeared into the cave. That's when it hit me there aren't any trails in that specific area that I'm aware of, and we know those trails pretty well. They were gone before he could see them. I was disappointed he missed it, both to confirm what I saw and to share the experience. As the day went on, I tried to rationalize it and mostly brushed it off. We continued floating for several hours, had a great time, and eventually made it to our campsite. We built a fire, cooked dinner, had a couple of drinks—just enjoying a rare kid-free adventure. That night, I woke up suddenly with my body shaking uncontrollably. My husband noticed and thought I was just cold and held me closer it was in the 40s, after all. But I told him I felt sick. He eventually went back to sleep, and that's when I noticed a bluish-white ball of light hovering outside our tent. At first, I thought it might be the moon, but it didn't make sense the light was coming from the wrong direction, and it was moving slightly. As I focused on it, I became violently ill. I was getting sick about every 30 minutes for hours. It was intense to the point where I genuinely felt like I was dying. At some point, I realized the light was gone. Not long after that, the sickness stopped. I remember just begging for it to be over so I could get some sleep. I hadn't planned on reaching out, but today, while cleaning my house, I put on your newest episode the one where Rick talked about a woman who became sick after seeing a similar ball of light, possibly related to radiation exposure. The timing and similarities felt hard to ignore. What's also strange is that my husband and I had the same food and drinks that day, and neither of us drank much. He never got sick, and I was the only one who saw the light."

Rick writes "I was on your show about two years ago regarding my investigations into the potential paranormal aspects of the Bigfoot phenomenon. I would like to update you on my efforts (Quantum Bridge Project) and the progress we've made to date. As you know, I used to be the State Director for the Virginia Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network and investigated numerous UFO sighting reports to include purported "abduction" cases. I transitioned to the paranormal realm because of the apparent similarities in certain cases. I've been with the Center for Paranormal Research and Investigations (CPRI) for the past twenty-four years and, within the past eight years, started conducting "cryptid" research for the same aforementioned reasons. I chose CPRI because of their philosophy and the way they approached the paranormal using the scientific method. The organization has MDs, PhDs in sociology, educators, nurses, chemists, current and former law enforcement officers, etc. CPRI is a Virginia 501(c) nonprofit, educational organization with a Board of Directors. I approached their Board with a written research proposal requesting that we investigate the "cryptid" phenomena in the same fashion they approach the paranormal; using certain specialized instrumentation and equipment like thermal imaging/ recording devises, remote data loggers designed to measure various EM/ radiological fields, and certain environmental conditions. My proposal involved locating a potentially credible cryptid investigator and working with them in their respected field research areas in order to capture supporting data during a sighting. This would not only validate that something is actually occurring, but to potentially explain certain aspects of the phenomenon. I've attached this particular proposal for your reference. One of my investigators located Harley Owens; a fairly new cryptid investigator in the East Tennessee area. Some of his sightings have been validated by other independent investigators, so I decided to work with him. His research area is near Cosby, TN, which is one of the areas the late Scott Carpenter used to investigate. Over the past two years, Ive independently investigated this area with Harley to further gauge his credibility before devoting CPRI resources to this geographical area. During that time, I've seen strange tree structures, heard screams, roars, and strange "barn owl" sounds, I have also seen those infamous" lights" that are seemingly associated with the Bigfoot phenomenon. On one occasion, I saw one of these "lights" at night on my thermal imager. It was moving intelligently through the forest. Interestingly enough, when I tried to see the light without the thermal, it wasn't visible. When I looked through the thermal, it would reappear, indicating it had some type of invisible heat source. Harley was next to me and wanted to see the light through the thermal. When he looked through it, he saw the light and, as it approached a dirt road, he said the light "transformed" into an upright being exhibiting a heat signature. It walked across the road and up an incline towards an adjacent knoll. I didn't see this; however, about one minute later, I heard a loud scream and an "owl' like vocal come from this same knoll. This scream was extremely loud and lasted about two to three seconds. It also sounded like some type of primate. It was immediately followed by an "owl" vocal, which didn't seem right. On another investigation in July of 2024, Harley and I were in his research area one night when we heard a loud, very intimidating roar (not scream) coming from another Ridgeline adjacent to a cemetery, which is the apparent focal point of the activity. This roar was so intimidating and loud, we were concerned for our safety. You could actually feel "rage" coming from whatever made it. I've never heard anything quite like it before, so we decided to pack everything up in order to make a quick exit if the situation called for it. We didn't stay too much longer before we left the area. As you probably know, these so called "orb" sightings are very common in both Bigfoot and paranormal cases, which leads me to some information you and your listeners may find very interesting. Back in 2003, CPRI investigated a case near Bedford, VA. This case involved a lady who lived on a farm in a double wide home. The lady reported seeing shadows, hearing voices and reported poltergeist type activity throughout the house. During the course of our investigation, she related an incident that occurred in the early 80s. She was getting ready for bed, had just turned off the bedroom lights when she saw three "orbs" hovering in a level, straight line at the foot of her bed. They appeared to be the size of a softball and each exhibited a different color; one was orange, one was light blue and the last was reddish They emitted light and then moved in unison (line formation) down her hallway and made a 90 degree left turn into her dinning room. She immediately went to the dinning room to see where they went and couldn't locate them. It was as if they just disappeared. The following morning, she went back into the dinning room and noticed three circular discolored/ burnt marks on her window screen. She believed these orbs went through the screen because they weren't there before, the window was left open and each mark was about the same size of these orbs. We asked her about the screen and, fortunately, she had rolled it up and kept it in her barn and forgot about it. We went to the barn and she pulled it out. The screen still had these three strange marks on it, so we asked if we could have it analyzed. She agreed, so we gave it to one of our members who happened to be a Radiochemist and worked for a federal lab in eastern Virginia. He's no longer with CPRI, so I'm not at liberty to divulge his name or where he worked without permission. He took the screen to his lab for analysis. A few weeks later, he sent us a report with his findings, which were intriguing. I've attached a document containing excerpts of his report to keep him and his employer's information confidential. According to the report, the discolored sections of the screen were highly irradiated. The areas were so irradiated we decided to ask the lady some health questions. Around the same time as the orb incident, she did experience bad flu symptoms, nausea, fever and general weakness, which lasted about a week or two. She thought it was just the flu, but did reveal additional information that brings doubt to that conclusion. A few years later, the had to have hip replacement surgery. After the surgery, the doctor asked if she had ever had radiation therapy. When she said no, the doctor said the bone structure of her hip was porous. It appeared to have been subjected to a type of radiation. Apparently she may have been exposed to a great deal of radiation that night. This is not to say that all orb phenomena contains radioactive properties, but it appears these lights did. In March of 2025, I assembled a team from CPRI and we (along with Harley) conducted a preliminary investigation of the Cosby site. The team consisted of Harley, myself, an archeologist, University Professor and another retired law enforcement officer. We did take some instrumentation with us. During the course of three days, we found several unusual tree structures, interviewed a resident in the area and conducted night surveillance. The primary location was the site of an old cemetery, which seems to be the focal point of the activity. We were able to witness unusual light activity in the cemetery. This took the form of small red points of moving light. Another larger red light was also seen depending in a straight line towards the same Ridgeline that the "roar" was heard a year earlier. Our archeologist witnessed a large, indistinct dark mass cross in front of him through the cemetery. He was wearing an Apple Smart Watch with embedded bio sensor at the time. He was able to pull the heart rate data from the watch and, at the exact time he witnessed this event. His heart rate jumped from 66 BPM to 124 BPM. On one occasion, our professor also witnessed a small green light hovering about thirty feet above the cemetery. These lights couldn't readily be explained. They didn't match the will-o-the-wisp (swamp methane gas ignition) phenomena because the weather was cool, it hadn't rained, low humidity and most of the colors seen were red instead of the signature faint blue-violet glow."

Laura Krantz is a journalist, editor and producer, in both radio and print, and co-founder of Foxtopus Ink. Her podcast, Wild Thing has received critical acclaim from Scientific American, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, which named it one of the best 50 podcasts in 2018 and 2020. Wild Thing is also the inspiration for a series of non-fiction, middle-grade books from ABRAMS Kids, including The Search for Sasquatch, Is There Anybody Out There?, and Do You Believe In Magic? In addition to Wild Thing, her recent work includes reporting, editing and production work on Master Plan (The Lever), The Syndicate (Imperative Entertainment/Foxtopus), Side Door (Smithsonian), Air/Space (Smithsonian), and others. Laura's prior experience includes a decade of editing and producing at NPR in Washington, DC, and at KPCC in Los Angeles.

Tonight we'll be talking with Jake from Minnesota. Back in the early 1980s, he witnessed something he described as a chimpanzee playing on his tree stand. Then, 30 years later, in the same area, he encountered another creature this time displaying behavior unlike anything he had ever heard or seen before.

Please welcome my special guest tonight. Twelve-year-old Bentley St John says he's 'pretty mad' about getting hit while crossing at a crosswalk. His family wants the driver to turn themselves in to police.

Tonight we will be speaking to Seth and Seth writes "I grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and went to college there too. That's where this story took place. It's not a Bigfoot encounter at least I don't think it is. Honestly, I'm not sure what kind of encounter it was. All I know is that it happened to me. I've often wished someone could explain it, tell me what it was or what it meant. It happened on October 31, 2001, under a full blue moon, along one of the quietest stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway. At the time, I was driving a 1970 Chevy Bel Air an old steel boat of a car and I had pulled into the James River overlook near Goff Mountain Road. It was close to midnight. The moon was so bright it almost felt like daytime. I shut the engine off and decided to stretch my legs. There's a small trail there that leads down toward a bench maybe a hundred yards from the parking area. I'd spent a lot of time in the woods so being out in the forest at night didn't bother me. I knew what normal nighttime woods felt like. And I also knew when something felt off. As I walked down the trail, the stillness felt unnatural. No breeze. No insects. No rustling. Nothing. I sat on the bench and looked through the bare branches while the moonlight spilled across the slope below. It was beautiful, but something about it felt wrong. Like I was being watched. Then I heard a Snap. A single limb breaking somewhere downslope, maybe fifty to a hundred yards away toward the Bellamy Creek drainage. At first I didn't think much of it deer snap branches all the time. Then it happened again. And again. What caught my attention wasn't just the sound it was the pattern. The breaks started coming from different directions. Not like one animal moving through the woods. I counted five, maybe ten distinct snaps, each spaced about four or five seconds apart. Then the timing changed. The snaps started coming faster… one every second or two… and they seemed to be moving in a circle around me. That was enough. Instinct kicked in, and I stood up and headed back to the car. When I got inside the car, I didn't start the engine right away. I just sat there with the keys in the ignition, ready to leave if I needed to. At first, nothing happened. Then something hit the hood. It sounded exactly like a Douglas fir cone hitting steel hard, solid, unmistakable. The problem was that there were no pine or fir trees there. Only deciduous trees, and by that time of year all their leaves had already fallen. There was nothing up there that could drop. Then another hit. Then they started falling faster like something was throwing them. They weren't rocks or dirt. Every impact sounded the same weight, the same size, the same hollow thunk of a heavy cone hitting metal. The hood, the roof, the trunk maybe even the sides of the car. But I couldn't see anything falling. Nothing bouncing off. Nothing rolling away. Just the sound. I looked up toward the treeline in front of me, expecting to see bare trunks and branches in the moonlight. Instead, I saw figures. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The shapes looked like people standing among the trees. They weren't trees. They were tall figures six to seven feet high wearing what looked like long hoods or cloaks. Completely black. No faces. No hands. Just darkness beneath the hoods. Some stood still. Others seemed angled toward me. It was like they absorbed the moonlight instead of reflecting it. I turned to my left, toward the grassy median beside the car, and saw more shapes there. Maybe three to eight of them, lying flat on the ground like bodies. Each time I looked away and then looked back, they were closer. But they never moved while I was watching. No sound. No crawling. Just different positions every time my eyes shifted. Then I noticed something near the driver's side of the car. Three smaller figures, only five to ten feet away. These weren't tall like the ones near the trees. They were crouched or hunched close to the ground, almost like children playing. Under each hood there was a faint flicker like someone trying to light a cigarette lighter that never quite caught. Meanwhile the impacts on the car were coming faster and faster. At that point, instinct completely took over. I turned the key, threw the car into Drive, and sped out of the overlook as fast as I could. As I pulled away, those smaller figures were right beside my door. If the window had been open, I'm certain I could have reached out and touched them. They just watched. I drove for about five miles before finally pulling over. Nothing had followed me. When I got out and inspected the car, there wasn't a single dent. No scratches. No debris. Nothing at all that explained what I had heard hitting the car. I've looked at that location on maps many times since then. But I've never gone back in person. Not once. I haven't even driven that stretch of the Parkway again. There's one detail that still bothers me, though. When I later looked at the spot on Google Maps, the overlook where I had parked appeared to be on the wrong side of the road. I clearly remember pulling into it on the right side from the direction I was traveling. But according to the map, it should have been on the left. I've tried to make sense of that for years, and I still can't. For a long time, I never told anyone about this." Now, I'm telling you."

Tonight I will be speaking with Tex. He had an encounter when he was a teenager with something he could not explain. Tex said "I didn't know what to call it except a werewolf. Many years later he started looking into Sasquatch along with the paranormal. Check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TEXAFTERDARK Join me for Part one.