Location: South-central Missouri

Date of occurrence: 2007

Date report filed:  10/25/08

Weather conditions:  various

Lighting conditions: various

Narrative of report:

The following incidents occurred in 2007. My family and I had just recently moved to the small community of <location deleted>. We were on our way back down to <deleted> from Clinton, Missouri in two separate vehicles fully loaded with our belongings. My husband was driving a one ton, 1970 model truck, with a flatbed, and box on the back, and I was traveling behind him in our Ford Explorer. I had been playing music for most of the trip, but as we neared <deleted> at about 1AM, I turned the music off, (not wanting to disturb our new neighbors), and rolled my window down about an inch or so.

We began driving down a hill in a very heavily forested area. This hill was also a sharp curve, and to the right of me was a very deep ravine, going down for probably a mile or so. The woods on the left of the highway were up hill. When we got to the lowest point of the highway, and at the sharpest point of the curve, I started hearing this howling sound. It scared the heck out of me, because I'd already read one account at the GCBRO site of a witness in Moniteau County, Missouri that had a similar experience, and this was now happening to me, just as she reported it had happened to her. Her incident occurred at 5 AM, whereas ours occurred at 1 AM. We got down into the lowest point, in the dip between the two hills, and I could still hear the sound. I didn't hear it on the way back up, though, as she said she did, nor did I ever smell anything. I don't know if it was a BF or not, since there was no smell, but the howling I heard didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard before.

When we reached the junction of 160, and 125, my husband pulled over to rest his eyes. It was pitch black . . . he had me turn off the head lights so he could go over near the woods and relieve himself. Once I turned the headlights off, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.  That's how dark the night was. When he came back to the vehicle I asked him if he'd heard the howling as we went down the hill on the sharp curve, and he said, "Yes." I knew then that I wasn't imagining it, since he'd heard it, too.

I have several other things to report, that happened shortly after we moved onto our new property. To describe the property we purchased - It's five acres with a house, that was originally built to serve as a hunting cabin, which is situated on top of a ridge line. There has been quite a bit of land clearance close to our land, as the owner of the land to the west of us has cattle. To the northwest of our land, and down in a valley about a mile and a half from us, lies public land whereon is located <deleted> Lake. 

My husband and I walked down to this river in September, shortly after moving here, and because I had been reading about Bigfoot, I was naturally looking for signs. We found many deer tracks, and some tracks belonging to a large wild cat of some kind. We also saw a lot of things that COULD be BF related, but whether they actually were, or not, I was not sure.  At the time I saw trees that had been broken off very high up, what could have possibly been shelters, and, "markers," which at the time, I had not read online about how to distinguish from deadfall, etc.

I have not been able to take any photo's, which I regret, and is also the reason I waited so long to post this report. I wanted to submit photo's with it, but just have not been able to take any due to the fact that my software for my digital camera was misplaced in the move. So, although I have a digital camera, I don't have anyway to access pictures on it.

In addition to possible signs, this area also has everything that would support BF, from several nearby water sources, to thick stands of cedar, very, very deep ravines and gorges, and a deer population. As a testament of the remoteness of the land - a couple of weeks after we moved in we were afforded a visit by another neighbor, who owns land that lies to the east of ours, and he informed us that in our local woods we have, in addition to deer, one bear, possibly two bob cats, a panther, and some coyotes.

One other thing concerning the woods behind our property, (these are the woods that lead down to <deleted> lake), besides all the trees that appear to have been broken off between four and eight feet from the ground, and all the trees that have the appearance of having been pushed over to create what looks like shelters - there was an eerie silence. They were silent the first time we walked through them, in September, and they were quiet about a week later, October 8, 2007, when my husband and I went out squirrel hunting. Not only did we not see any squirrels, we didn't even HEAR any. They have been similarly quiet on subsequent walks and hikes we've taken. The only time we actually SEE any wildlife is when we are in our vehicle, on our way out to the main road, which is well away from, and to the south of our property and the river. We've noticed that we don't have any squirrels on our land, either. Except for the occasional deer track, there doesn't seem to be any wild life on our little five acres. And in the walks we have taken in the woods between the river and our place, we have only located tracks of larger wildlife - a few deer, a possible bear, and big cat track.

The first week we moved in we were still living in our camper trailer, as the house needed major work. One evening, as we all sat in the camper talking, shortly before going to bed, we began to hear the neighbors dogs to the east of us, baying. He has about 12 coon dogs, and they were barking and carrying on something fierce, as was our own dog, a Rottweiler, our son named "Baby". We could also hear the neighbors cattle lowing like crazy off in a field to the west. The way they were bawling, it was apparent that something was really spooking them. Our dog, Baby, was looking in the very direction we were hearing the cattle bawling from. My husband and I took his Moissen Rifle, and his high-powered light with us, and went down to see if we could find out what was going on, as the neighbor who has the cattle doesn't live on the land, and if something was bothering them, we felt it our neighborly duty to check on them. We never saw or heard anything other than the cattle bawling, and the dogs barking. Once we went down in that area, though, the cattle settled down, and the hounds stopped barking. Finally, we decided that it must be have been the panther prowling about, though we never heard one way or another.

I would like to elaborate a little more on some of the possible signs I've seen. The trees that have been broken off high up off the ground are the only ones broken off, with no apparent damage to any other trees around. I figured that if these trees had been broken off as a result of high winds there would have been other trees around that were damaged, and that was not the case. There were also a lot of trees that appeared to have been "pushed" over, leaving their roots exposed, with no damage to other trees around.

On our first trek through these woods, my husband was following some deer tracks along the river, those of a large buck, and while we were looking at these tracks, we found lots of very large holes, or what might have been sunken places, in the soft ground near the water. The area from the waters edge, up to the soft earth is covered in rock, so I was disappointed not to be able to search for any tracks along the waters edge. The area in which we found these holes or sunken places is where the soft earth is located, but it is covered in thick tall grasses, so even though we tried to pull the grass back in order to better examine these holes, we couldn't tell if something had been foraging, or if what we were looking at might be possible BF tracks. The only reason we thought they might be tracks at all is because they were all pretty much uniform in size and shape, and all appeared to be about two inches, to two and a half inches deep. One track we did find in some rather rough soil, did appear to have toes, but as I've explained, I had no way of taking a picture of the print.  We were able to count three impressions that appeared to be toe prints.

Around October 17th, my son heard a sound outside and had me come out and listen. I went out the front door and stood on the steps. Upon first hearing the sound, I was almost tempted to believe it was a strange birdcall of some kind I'd never heard before. But after I listened to it a second time, it actually sounded like a cross between maybe a bird calling, and something screaming. The very high-pitched screaming turned into kind of a wavering sound near the middle of the "scream", like singers do when they let their voice do the falsetto thing.  I've read many times that people hearing BF sounds describe them as sounding like a woman screaming. This didn't sound so much like a woman, but more like a child screaming. It was too high pitched to sound like a woman. Then, as I said, the sound continued into what sounded like someone's voice wavering when they sing. The sound then ended with with kind of a double "caw" or "squawk"sound. The thing that sticks in my memory most about the sound was that when it first started, I couldn't tell if it was a bird or a person. It honestly sounded as if it could have been either.  The sound was one long continuous sound. It didn't break up . . . it went from the high pitched scream into the wavering sound, and then into a kind of "cawk, cawk" and it was very loud.  My 13 year old son heard this call twice, and then came and got me. I heard it twice, in the same spot, which was on the south side of the house, not more than ten yards from the steps where we were standing. It was evening . . . about an hour after dark, so we were not able to see anything.  I called my husband to come and listen, but I could tell he kind of thought my son was being overly imaginative, and he didn't want to bother with coming outside, as he was watching television. I then turned my attention back outside and heard the call again not more than a minute after the first two calls. The third call came from around the corner of our house on the east side, in the woods there . . . which put that sound about fifty yards away from us. I felt that there was no way something could have traveled that far in the few seconds I had turned to ask my husband to come outside, and that caused me to believe strongly that there was something over in the other woods answering the first several calls.  I've lived in the woods most of my life and have never heard anything like this sound before. Realizing that whatever it was, there was more than one of them, and that they they were very close to the house, I got a little nervous, and came back inside.  I knew that since my husband didn't believe we had heard anything special, he wouldn't be going outside to check it out.

That changed on October 21st. My husband and I were sitting in the living room of our home reading. It was 2:16 AM, when I heard another strange sound. The sound I heard on this night was completely different from the sound my son and I heard. My husband also heard it. It sounded as if whatever was making the sound was standing in our front yard right in front of the window of the living room.  Upon first hearing the sound start, it sounded like an animal screaming in pain.  I thought immediately that it was our female Rottweiler, "Baby", screaming because something was hurting her. Then, I was surprised because the sound changed immediately, and continued on into a low growl. I still thought it was our dog, "Baby," fighting something. But when the last of the sound turned into two short "whoop" sounds, all I can say I felt was shock.  Because when I heard the two "whoop" sounds at the end of the call, or whatever it was, I knew it wasn't our dog. The thing about this sound that I remember is that I couldn't tell if it was a dog, a bird, or a person.  As I said, the sound started off like an animal in pain . . . kind of a high pitched scream, that my husband said sounded like a screech owl, then it turned into a quick, low growl, like a dog would make, and ended with two "whoop" sounds, which my husband said sounded like a hoot owl.  The "whoop" definitely had human-sounding qualities.  Anyway, the reason the sound startled us so much is because it was so loud. It sounded like it was right in front of our living room window, which is right next to the front door.  None of the doors or windows were open, because it was a chilly night, and my husband had lit a small fire for us.  Right after we heard this very LOUD, ungodly sound, we just looked at each other wide-eyed, and almost simultaneously, we silently mouthed, "What the hell?" We didn't talk, and he walked very quietly when he got up. He was so disturbed and anxious, that he immediately went and got his .20 gauge, and a spot light, and did a search around the house. Finding nothing, he came back in, but he was bothered enough, he kept the .20 gauge loaded and by the front door, and he had never done this prior to that night. He now keeps some kind of firearm standing in the corner by the door at all times. My husband grew up in the woods, and loves to hunt, and fish. He and all his brothers are first class hunters, and he has personally encountered everything from bears, to panthers, to wild boar, in many different states. He can identify the sound of almost any creature one could name.  My husband has also done a lot of living, and has been in all kinds of situations in his 34 years, and nothing scares him.  He wasn't really scared this night, but he said the sound wasn't like anything he's ever heard before, stating that it sounded like two different owls calling all in one call, with the growl in between, and this bothered him.  He said that what was also strange about the call is that owls generally call more than once.  This sound we only heard the one time. Right after we heard the sound, my husband went in and got his boots from the bedroom on the other end of the house, then came back in and sat down to put his boots on. Then he got his hat and high-powered flash light from the end table next to his chair, and then went back in to the dining room where he had some shotgun shells.  He came back into the living room then, and got his .20 gauge off the wall, and loaded it. Then he went outside.  In all this time, there was never another sound made. At least not that we heard. As I said, there was plenty of time for whatever it was to have called a second time, but it didn't. Perhaps whatever it was saw him through the window when he got up and walked passed the window to get his gun, and it took off, I don't know. But it never made another sound, and he didn't find anything after doing a search of the surrounding woods.

Shortly after we heard this sound, I began doing some reading on the internet concerning bigfeet, and the kinds of sounds they make.  While researching these sounds, I came across a report in the BFRO database about an encounter in Perry County, KY, only to read that the witness there had heard something he described as a scream and growl combined . . . this really scared me.  Finding a description on a BF database of the same sounds I'd heard meant that we could possibly have a BF in our woods. For the rest of the time we were awake, I kept looking at all the windows, as we had not lived in the house very long, and still had no curtains or even blinds up. I continued to wonder if maybe whatever it was that had made the sound, had maybe seen my husband walk passed the window on his way to the bedroom and back, and took off. I told my husband about what I'd read concerning the sounds in the report from Perry County, and that they were described exactly as the sounds we heard, and he didn't say anything. I have the distinct feeling that he doesn't want to admit it may have been a BF. Part of me doesn't want to believe it either, but there are sure some strange things that have happened here.  At about 5:45 AM, about three and a half hours after we heard the first strange call, my husband looked up at me with a serious look . . . He was listening, so I quietly asked him what he heard, and he said he'd just heard what he thought might have been a panther scream. I was yawning when he heard the sound, so I didn't hear it. He said the second call was almost in the same place we had just heard the other sound. I'm not sure if that means anything or not, but I have since read that some BF certainly know how to imitate other animals and even humans. I read the Yale, Michigan report in St. Clair county, also in the BFRO database, where the witness stated that he heard something scream that sounded "hurt."

Even after seeing everything I've seen down in the woods in back of the house, I really didn't want to read too much into it, or to think without a doubt that it was BF signs I was seeing. I thought that maybe it might be a little preconceived thinking on my part since I've never seen a BF, but had nightmares about them throughout my entire childhood after seeing the movie, "The Boggy Creek Monster." After hearing the sounds we've heard around the place recently, though, I sure wouldn't turn anyone down who wanted to come here and look around to see if what we have found are actual BF signs. We went outside the next morning to look for any possible tracks, or other evidence, to see if we could figure out what had been making the strange calls in the yard during the night, and found nothing. My husband and I, both, grew up in the woods, and neither of us have ever heard anything like the sounds we heard here.

I wrote the above accounts and have had them stored on my computer for some time, hoping to be able to document the signs I'd seen with some photo's, and since I wrote it, I read an account of a man who heard what he thought was a BF in Douglas County, MO near the town of Dora . . . he describes in his account the SAME EXACT sounds that my husband, <deleted>, and I heard in the early morning hours of October 21, 2007 At 2:16 AM We heard what sounded like an animal screaming in pain, then a low guttural growl, followed by two whooping sounds . . . this is exactly what he heard.  <deleted location references>.  The thing that struck me about this account is the fact that the witness describes his initial thought when the sound started, was that it was CANINE in nature.  The call then turned into what he describes as a "whoop."  This describes exactly the sounds we heard.  My first thought was that it was our dog, "Baby," screaming in pain. The sound however, then turned into a growl, followed by two sounds that I can only describe as "whoop" sounds. The witness in the Douglas county report referred to them as "whoops" or "barks." The way he described the sounds is exactly what we heard, minus the growls we heard. But then he stated that he was 35 yards away from the call when it happened, so perhaps he wasn't close enough to hear the low growls in between the screams and whoops as we did.  The call was right in front of us, though, by the window, and the window was CLOSED!!!! And yet we STILL HEARD DISTINCTLY, the low growl sound.  This same witness states that he went to bigfootsounds.com and heard the same exact sound there that he'd heard at his camp site. I visited bigfootsounds, and listened to every sound they had, and there was nothing even remotely close to what he describes, and what we heard.  Perhaps he shelled out the money for their CD of bigfoot calls. I am still currently searching for this sound on the internet. Another thing that I found totally bizarre is the fact that HIS account happened October 17th, through October 19th, the SAME EXACT dates we heard sounds here.

A long while after reading about the account I mentioned above, I read another account which was from a report by a woman who states that in 2003, she heard calls similar to the ones my son and I heard. This event occurred in Franklin CO., MO, <delete location reference>. She stated that she had never heard anything like it, and that it was very hard to describe, but that the closest she could come was that it sounded like a "chicken/dog." She stated that it began with what sounded like barking, and ended with a "cawing sound like a chicken."

I have not heard any more sounds since the ones I recorded above except

for two different nights when I heard high pitched screaming as I lay in bed, which I attributed to a panther. I've heard no sounds like the ones I described above, though.  A little earlier, I read about a man on the GCBRO website, in Jefferson County, Alabama who heard the same sounds my son and I heard.  He described it as a cross between a bob cat, and a blue heron.  I looked the call of the blue heron up on the internet and listened to it, and the sound it makes, that cross between a cawing and a squawking sound, is exactly what I heard on the end of the screaming call I've described in my report. I have listened to other screaming calls, as well as dozens of animal calls, on the internet, and have not heard anything like what my son and I heard that night, or the sound my husband and I heard.  Also, I am sad to report that our dog, "Baby," mentioned in my report came up missing shortly after we heard these sounds. We asked our closest neighbor, and he said he hadn't seen her.  We have been all over the woods in back of our place and haven't seen any sign of her. However, we were walking one day about three weeks ago, and I came up on an animal skeleton. I asked my husband what it appeared to be, and he said it looked like a dog's bones to him. Because it was about the same size Baby was, thinking it could be her, I shivered, and we left the area.

In the year since we've been living here, I have noticed the re-appearance of small game, and birds. In my contemplation of the absence of any wildlife prior to our moving here, compared to the presence of birds, and small game, as well as crickets and katydids now, and how it seemed to be our arrival here that brought this about, I wondered whether or not there might have been something here before we came that kept the wildlife away.  It is pure speculation on my part, but in light of all that I've seen and heard, coupled with the fact that I have since learned that there have been BF sightings in this county, and in all the counties around this one, it brings me to the conclusion that there might have been a BF in the area that has since moved deeper into the wild.  As I stated, I haven't heard any more strange calls, and I haven't seen any more signs, either. We now see an occasional squirrel, or rabbit, on our property, and the woods in back of us are almost pleasant to walk through now, with bird calls sounding, and the evidence of squirrel families building nests in the trees. I still scan the trees and ravines when we go out walking, or hiking, but haven't seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.

Follow up:  We have interviewed this witness, and found her to be intelligent and credible.

Confidential database information:  Available

Missouri Report #1