It was late fall. About 2 weeks after the cornfields were picked. We lived 2
miles south of Strawsburg Missouri, by Big Creek. I was out fishing on the creek
about ½ mile from my house. I had been fishing for about 6 hours and it was
starting to get dark. I kept hearing something up above me on the top of the bank
I was in the creek about 12 ft down. I at first thought it was a dog or something.
My dog use to come down where I was fishing. The fish were biting great so I wasn't
paying too much attention to any thing else.
Then I smelled something that smelled like across between a hog and a skunk.
It would come and go. I thought that there was a skunk was up there. Like I said the fish was
biting good. When it started to get dark I started loading up my fishing
gear to go and thought I would make 2 trips up the bank. One with the poles
and bait etc and one with the fish. To be able to go up the bank I had to
walk up the bank about 100 ft to where their was a small creek running in
and climb the bank there. Well I walked around and up the bank to lay my
poles down and thought I saw something up the bank where I was fishing. But
really didn't get a good glimpse of it.
I started back down the bank, back to where the fish were. As I rounded the
curve in the creek I saw something that looked like a giant gorilla picking
up the stringers of fish. I froze! I thought I might be seeing things or
something because it was starting to get dark. Then the creature turned and
looked at me and took off with one of my stringers of fish. It jumped over
the creek almost to the other side about 12 ft or so. Then ran up the
embankment and disappeared. I was scared s*** less and froze it took me a
minute or so to realize what happened. (During the interview with the
witness, he confide he had never seen anything like it. It was a dark color,
tall and covered with hair except for the bottom of its buttocks, which were
bare of hair. Its arm's were long and it held the stringer in a human
fashion. It left footprints.)
I went back up the bank grabbed my pole and ran for home checking over my
shoulder all the way through the open cornfield. I tried to tell my mom and
dad but they said I was just seeing things and it was probably just someone's
monkey that got away or something and I just thought it looked big.
But I tell you if it was a monkey, it was about an 8 foot monkey. I wanted
to take my dad back to see the footprints in the mud and he said we would go
down the next morning. But that night it rained hard and the creeks were up.
I never went back down there fishing again. Before that happened, it was my
favorite spot to fish. I had just about forgotten about it till I read your
webpage reports and the description. It made me remember the details.
One other time about 10 years ago I was deer hunting down by the Lake of the
Ozarks by Climax Springs on a friend's land. I have hunted there many times.
The land has a ¾-mile right of way just to drive in. Anyway I had been
taking my son hunting with me for several years and it was his 3-year for me
to let him hunt by himself on a separate stand. He was about 200 yards from
me. Anyway I kept having a strange feeling and it felt like the hair
standing on the back of my neck for about 10 minutes or so. I couldn't see
anything unusual, then suddenly I heard my son shoot. So I climbed down to
go help him dress the deer. When I got there he was still in his stand and
pale as a ghost. I asked him what happened he said he seen a huge buck right
below him by the stand and shot it. He said it walked about 10 ft and fell
down. Then he heard something funny and was looking around. He said he seen
something by his deer and he looked the other way because he was scared. He
said he was hoping if he didn't look at it, the thing wouldn't see him. He
never really saw what it was for sure because of the small cedar trees. He
said that the head came just above the trees. The trees were approximately 8
feet high, give or take a foot. My son said when he looked back the deer was
gone. Well I figured he just had buck fever because it was the first big
buck he ever shot while by himself. So we walked over to where the deer
should have been and it was gone. It looked like about 1 gallon of blood on
the ground. There was a big puddle and all over. There was also a trail of
blood so I followed it thinking the deer was just wounded real bad and would
find it before long. By the time the blood trail stopped I know I must have
seen about a gal or two of blood. There was no ways a deer could go that far with that much
blood loss.
Finally after about an hour of tracking and trying to find the deer we found
one of the legs that looked like it had been literally torn off the deer.
Then about half-hour later found part of another leg. But never did find the
deer. I have probably killed 35 to 40 deer in my life time with rifle, bow,
and black powder and had never seen anything like that before. It had to be
something big enough to pick up and carry a deer off like that leaving no
drag trail. Strange... I hope this helps. I don't tell anyone about these
things because I don't want them to think I am crazy. But I know what I saw
and heard and what happened and nothing will ever convince me
otherwise... Sincerely Don Thomas, Arkansas
© Primary investigator, Bobbie Short 2000
