Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy

Investigator's Comments

Daryl Colyer

This investigation was conducted as a result of an incident that allegedly occurred in Polk County, Texas, in 1996.

I talked at length on separate occasions to the primary witness and her ex-husband, both of whom were willing to share their experience, but were still, even after almost ten years, shocked at what they saw.

Neither witness was sure of the exact location of the road encounter; they were positive that they saw the creature well north of Cleveland, and probably north of Livingston on highway 59, while traveling southward. The ex-husband remembered that other cars were also traveling southward, and he was certain that those motorists also saw the peculiar figure.

Sometime in the morning, between 09:00 and 10:00, both adults recalled seeing the upright, hair-covered subject dart out of the woods to their right, quickly run down an embankment, and disappear into some sort of large drainage pipe that ran under the highway. The twelve-year old also reportedly saw the subject, but was unavailable for interview.

The witnesses further described the subject as being "dark brown" in color, and resembling an upright ape. They both noted that the subject ran mostly like a human, not an ape, but its strides seemed much longer than a human's strides of comparable size (between four and five feet in height).

Both witnesses remarked that although the subject was small, its build was "stocky" or "thick." The hair on its arms and from its head seemed to be longer than on the rest of its body; as it ran, the forearm and head hair visibly blew in the wind. The witnesses estimated arm hair on the bottom of the forearm to be over four inches in length. Details about the face of the subject could not be determined, as it was at an angle that precluded the witnesses from visually acquiring its face. The closest distance to the subject was approximately thirty yards as it sprinted into the large drainage pipe.

Immediately after the visual encounter, the witnesses all wondered what they had just seen. The ex-husband recalled mentioning that perhaps it was a bigfoot, but he remembered being "thrown off" by its small stature. At some point later, the witnesses realized that what they saw was probably a juvenile or adolescent.

The witnesses share the experience with few other people; the ex-husband remarked that he is greeted with ridicule if he ever mentions it to anyone, so he simply does not talk about it.