October 21, 2025 • 31 mins
Thomas Shay is the founder of the Northern Kentucky Bigfoot Research Group. Tom has been investigating the Sasquatch phenomenon since 1987. That’s when he had his first Sasquatch-related experience. You see, in 1987, Tom was heading to see his girlfriend, in Carlton, Kentucky, on US 36, when he had his first sighting. It was 85 degrees out, that day, so Tom was surprised when he saw what he, at first, thought was a man in a fur coat, on the side of the highway. As he got closer, he slowed down to a very slow speed and slowly went past the subject. After creeping by the subject, he felt like he didn’t get a good enough look at it, so he turned his car around, parked it on the side of the road, and got out so he could follow the subject down into a field. Moments later, Tom realized that was a poor decision. From that day on, Tom tried to learn all he could about Sasquatch. We hope you’ll tune in and listen to him share the details of that experience and several others he’s had over the years.
If you’ve had a Sasquatch experience in Northern Kentucky that you’d like to report to Tom, please visit the Northern Kentucky Bigfoot Research Facebook Group at…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/488381544566776/
If you’d like to help support the show, by buying your own Bigfoot Eyewitness t-shirt or sweatshirt, please visit the Bigfoot Eyewitness Show Store, by going to https://Dogman-Encounters.MyShopify.com
I produce 4 other shows that are available on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't checked them out, here are links to all 4 channels on the Spreaker App...
My Bigfoot Sighting https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-bigfoot-sighting
Dogman Tales https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dogman-tales--6640134
Dogman Encounters https://www.spreaker.com/show/dogman-encounters-radio_2
My Paranormal Experience https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-paranormal-experience
Thanks, as always, for listening!
If you’ve had a Sasquatch experience in Northern Kentucky that you’d like to report to Tom, please visit the Northern Kentucky Bigfoot Research Facebook Group at…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/488381544566776/
If you’d like to help support the show, by buying your own Bigfoot Eyewitness t-shirt or sweatshirt, please visit the Bigfoot Eyewitness Show Store, by going to https://Dogman-Encounters.MyShopify.com
I produce 4 other shows that are available on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't checked them out, here are links to all 4 channels on the Spreaker App...
My Bigfoot Sighting https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-bigfoot-sighting
Dogman Tales https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dogman-tales--6640134
Dogman Encounters https://www.spreaker.com/show/dogman-encounters-radio_2
My Paranormal Experience https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-paranormal-experience
Thanks, as always, for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you'd like to be able to listen to the
show without ads and have full access to bonus content,
that's an option. To find out how, please go to
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, my name is Thomas she I'm the founder of
the Northern Kentucky Big Quick Research Group. Here in Northern Kentucky,
I've been researching since nineteen eighty seven. On my first
experience back in nineteen eighty seven, I had a lot
of lead secured when I was in the service. So
I came home and visit my parents and stuff. We
(00:37):
live along the Ohio River along US thirty six and
forty two, And on this one particularly October evening, he said, like,
it is right now here in Kentucky. You know, we've
had weather like seventy eighty degrees here, you know. And
(01:00):
this after this one afternoon, I had a girlfriend that
I used to see and she called me up if
my parents asked me if I could come up and
we'll go out and do something. So I get all
cleaned up and they're like that and I get in
in the vehicle in my head start heading up to Carleton,
(01:22):
Kentucky on the US thirty six and uh, I got
about three miles up the road. And you gotta understand,
so back in eighty seven, there was no traffic on
the roads here in this county where I'm at. Everything
closed up at five o'clock, you know, And I'm driven
(01:46):
up the road and I was trying to figure out
why was this gentleman in a fur coat? And it's
like eighty five degrees right now, you know. So where
I got up there closed I stopped. I didn't stop.
I just drove slowly, looked through the passenger window, and
(02:07):
I seen this thing. I mean, I didn't understand what
I was seeing. It was the bear. It was more
like a man that was just covered in hair. So
I turned around and I went up the road and
actually turned around, came back, pulled over on the side road,
and got the car and actually followed it down into
(02:29):
the field that was there next to the river. And uh,
not thinking at that time there because I did not
believe in it, But that was something I did never
believe in. I got closer I got to it, it
turned on me and it kind of like crowded me,
(02:50):
you know, screamed at me. I can't really remember what
it was. It was more of a a scream, you know,
and it shook me up pretty bad at that time.
So I went back, I mean I turned around and
went back to the car. Went didn't even go up
to see my girlfriend, turn around, went right back to
my mom and dad's house. Told my parents, well, I
(03:12):
had songs. And my mom looked at me, if you've
been drinking. No I have not, Mom, I just left
the house here, I mean, there's been nowhere. And so
I went into my room and stuff like that, and
I was still pretty shook up. My dad coming in
there and looked at me. You playing still going out
(03:33):
to night? I was, Dad, what I saw at night? No,
I'm not. I'm not. And from that day on, every
time I could digest something about these creatures, I did.
And I reached out to a bunch of these researchers.
At the time, and in nineteen eighty seven, researchers were
(03:57):
kind of hard to get hold of. You had to
write letters or find somebody who's got a number, and
nobody wanted to really talk to me about it. Nobody
I want to help you out anyway, And they was
all protected, you know, or you're just saying that because
(04:20):
you want to get into my business and everything, you know.
So that's when I started. I say, Okay, everything I
learned stuff, I'm on doctor them. And if somebody asked me,
I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna share it, share it
to everybody. So those years, I've had several other sidings
(04:42):
who encounters. The best one was my really best one
was was in twenty fourteen here in Tremble County, and
it was on one of the properties that a gentleman
had told me that he saw a bear. Because you know,
(05:08):
by this time here I was out of the service,
you know, and I said, wow, can I might might
as I go back in there and mess around and
take the sea And by this time here I was
already casting and stuff like that. He's sure, go ahead,
you know, the four wheelers go across the fielder and
ope the gate. Make sure you shut the gate and stuff.
(05:30):
I said, okay, So let me get back. And there's
an access road, the log they called the log and
Access road. And we went back down this ridge and
it's a pretty deep bridge and then nothing but wood stick,
beef thickets, and uh, I get back to this one
spot that was kind of clear, and I stopped real
(05:52):
quick on the full whel because it seems disturbance on
the ground and loll and behold everything, fresh clean footprints.
It was about eighteen inches long, and I mean they
were really a good shape because the clay that was
that we have here, I mean, these were really good
and they were really fresh. So I got four women
(06:18):
and I'm setting there measuring, taking notes everything about the surroundings,
about the weather conditions, about how deep the prince were,
any impropurities or anything. And then I got my casting
(06:38):
material out, start getting my cast and get ready to
cast the prince and stuff. And I always paic a
Handgod with me, because you never know who you're going
to run into or what you're going to run into
out in the woods. And since he said he saw
a bear, I had. I had a bread of ninety
two that took with me. So but well, if you
(06:59):
invite some of them have chasted. You know, I adn't
going to get to the way when you're down there
trying to get steff done and ever like that. So
you know, I took it off, hung it on the
side of my four wheeler, which was maybe thirty feet
away from me, maybe further than that. But I'm sitting
there and I'm still majoring and writing my notebook and stuff,
(07:22):
and I'm getting great to mix up me some claster
and I got the whipp something what is this? And
I looked up and on the other side of my
four wheeler this thing was standing there and it was huge,
(07:45):
wide chest. Uh it's time. I didn't know how tall
it was. That was just huge, you know. And what
I had not my guard down because he's a fresh
prance and I didn't take into a fact, you know,
(08:05):
accounted this thing might still be in the area, and
it still was. So it was watching me. And I
turned around and saw that, and we looked out eyed
each other, and I had, you know, to make a decision.
Was I'm going to jump up and run and get
my handguns from my four wheel liter or just sit there?
(08:29):
And I sit there and I watched it, and what
seemed like an eternity was only seconds. It lifted its
head and kind of like sniffed air, grubbed a little
bit and didn't just walk off down the ridge. And
(08:52):
at this time, here is you know, my wife gave
you a cetle phone. And I keep tearing him up
when I'm out in the woods and she got me
a flip phone with a real cute flipball, you know.
So I grab my phone and open it up, and
I'm getting ready trying to give up the video up
and they're like that, and I'm behind it watching it.
(09:15):
I'm not paying attention to the phone. I just got
it pointed to that thing, and I got it recorded.
I don't move in with it, you know. As it moved,
I moved a little bit. Well, it just peered over
the ridge and I lost sight of it in the vegetation,
and I turned around, grabbed everything and got on the
(09:35):
phone and then went back to my vehicle. I left
everything there set for forward, and I got home and
I was so excited because I had this video. And
my wife looked at it and says, if you do something
on video every day or something, and I said, yeah,
I deah, I got it really nice and grab them
(09:58):
just thing off my phone and my wife looked at
me and said, that was one nice Sure, I bought you.
And in the confusion, I accidentally switched the camera view
to what it was feeling me. I tell people this
because it's heat in the moment. Things happened. Mistakes were
(10:22):
made and that was a mistakes. But I worked that
area for several years until they started logging it. And
after it logged it, the area just became, you know,
there was nothing there. So a gentleman contacted me here
(10:44):
a couple of years later. I said, yeah, I got
something going on here in my carpet, and we will
come out and check it out. And I heard about
the name Okay, and it was out there a couple
of times and we had some experiences. And by this
time here my wife told me, you know what else
you do? Internet thing? You know, get on social media,
(11:09):
start you have a thing, share your information. And I did,
and I called it another contacted b put research crew
and I call it a crew because each person in
this team of mine has a search and skill. We
(11:30):
had audio video you know where they got and it's
a group. And we sat down and we discussed things.
Everybody's got the input, and I give it credit everybody
that things happened. If we give you know something, uh
(11:51):
for example, uh, the new tailler cat. We had a
charge totael out there and something got it opened up,
took up each school out of it. I pros the
jar after I found it and casting it, well, the
jar and everything was uh, Steve Cornell and my idea. Yeah,
(12:13):
I actually gave Steve, you know, total biding with Steve,
and you know Steve Cornell and me, you know, I
share it. You know, it wasn't just me, you know,
so as a group, everybody's gonna say it, even though
I got the last say, but everybody's got a voice,
(12:34):
not like an organization. Yeah, we don't charge no people
or nothing like that. When we go out or we've
had people go out with us, we don't charge. Uh,
We're happy to teach, you know, tracking stuff like that.
Oh no, this new area you gotta start talking about. Mhm.
(13:00):
I took my team in and we spent a week
in it there and we had some really wild stuff
happened to us. You know, we saw some awards. We
don't know what the words are, so you know, we
really don't dwell on it. I document it and stuff
like that, and you try to figure out, you know,
(13:21):
is there something with gases or is it static electricity.
I don't believe it's any phenomenon that happens with people.
I think, you know, there's a lot of things we
would say, if you spend a lot of time in
the words, you'll see a lot of weird stuff that
you can't explain. So there's no need in speaking about it.
(13:43):
And you know, telling people I don't know what it is. Yeah,
I just keep it quiet, document it and you know,
and try to figure it out. But it was cold
with us. It is that and attempt to drop. Like
in the low thirties, we had a little bit of
(14:04):
a ten mile fifty mind hour breeze and me and
Chief Chief often he's one of my best friends and
one of my members. We stayed up and kept the
fire going real good. You know, we had a big
(14:24):
fire going, so everybody was stay warm, you know, hypothermia
wouldn't set in or nothing like that. But by four
o'clock in the morning, uh we uh, I decided to
so keep you know, we want us We're going to
do a little bit of rest to night. The fire
you know, really going and stuff. I mean, nobody's gonna
(14:47):
nothing's going to happen. So you understand, we sleep in
zero grabby chairs in the sleeping bags. We don't sleep
under a tent. Oh, we have a a canopy. And
then the canopy is opened and that way we're sleeping
the chairs and if something happens, we're able to grab
(15:09):
our equipment and go. Right there. We're trying to unders
up a kid and crawl out and of them. You know,
everything's there and all we got to do is set
up uns, up our bags and go as soon as
being a chief. He got in his chair and I
got in my chair, and we got really nice and war.
(15:29):
This thing from flying down the hill right behind she
not more than fifteen feet running, and the thing was big.
And lord, we're just trying to get out of those
bags quick enough, but this thing was so fast and
(15:51):
we didn't have a chance to even get our equipment
out in that same area too. You know this in
the summer time. H Dusty were part of my team,
and he was sitting on edge of the camp and
I'm checking on everybody. I'm up at the fire. Because
(16:12):
we don't run out in the woods and beat on
trees and scream and nothing like that. Uh, we go
into it. We sit in our base camp and we
observe it, you know, and these things will come into you.
You don't have to worry about it. But as someone
who runs a team, I have to be responsible, but
(16:32):
I have to make sure everybody's comfortable, everybody's safe. So
I'm going around checking on everybody. And the fire I
have people up are talking. It's like you go to
camp fire, people going, you know, laughing, cheer it on.
And I'm up there in cheef. No one's dusty. Hey Tom,
(16:54):
come out here a minute, and I come down because
I got this hotspot and he goes, just came up
right there, and they had to moved for a while.
Can you think about it? You look at it? I said, yeah,
And I get my my thermal out and I'm looking
and I see what he's talking about, and it didn't move,
(17:16):
and all of a sudden it stood up, raised up.
That's there it is, I said, just raised up and
we're watching it, and this thing, actually belly crud, you know,
got back down to belly crag between creed to tree
and toward us, and it got so close to us that,
you know, we're sitting there. There's five of us. We're
(17:39):
all setting there with thermals watching it, and it's watching us.
And it was like two and a half hours we
did this m H. And then all of a sudden
it just disappeared. Well, the reason it disappeared was next
morning we got up. This thing was not more than
(18:01):
maybe three car leagues fromise. Do you have no sense
of the uh distance with a firm, and there was
actually three carlings away from us and the creek that
was down below there, and what we believed was it
(18:22):
actually kind of barely crawled down the creek bed behind
the bank. But I have five people that signed the
appidamus that they thought was the same as I did,
and we video taped it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But this this place there was there's numerous times that
we have had interaction. But now the proper owner here,
he's got kind of into a space where he wants
to bring a whole lot of people out, you know,
and if you're not carefully, you go burn an area out,
(19:12):
uh the stress to the point where the wildlife believe,
and then there's no food source and mh. You just
have to move out for a while and let things
build back in. And that's what we were doing this year.
You know, last few years nothing has happened, and I decided, well,
(19:36):
I'm gonna let this area of rest because I have
another area that's really active right now. And I'm working,
and so there's a couple of other things that's half
happened that. Uh, I'm not really wanting to talk about
it right now. H I haven't a couple of terms
with it yet, but yeah, it will come out, Tom.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
There's a lot of work that goes into investigating sasquatch.
I don't need to tell you that you've lived that.
But with that in mind, are there times when you're
out there in the field where you start to second
guess whether it's a good idea for you to continue
doing that?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And like what means I mean, uh, there are times, Yes,
you hear a lot of these people say, well, they're
not dangerous nothing, Okay, they're animals just like everything else,
like us. You know, they're gonna wake up one day
and have a bad attitude, you know, a truthdachs or
(20:39):
a headache, or and become dangerous. You never know.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, they're just like us. They could get up on
the wrong side of the log and it could be
a handful. So that does make sense, it really does.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's like, yes, actually, these people they won't go out
at night and they want to chase sumpthing you know
they've got. I said Okay. Now, if you go out
there and you're going you actually do run into one,
you need to start following it. I said, you get
it cornered. What are you going to do when you
get cornered? Here, you got an eight hundred to one
thousand pounds creature that's way stronger than you are, that
(21:19):
could rip your arms, you know, out of your sockets.
What are you going to do?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, that's true, it's not really anything you can do.
You mentioned that you always try to have a firearm
with you, and I understand why you do that, But
do you think that sometimes having that firearm with you
compromises the results you get?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
No, No, it depends on out. We don't have them
waving around, We don't. We don't have them out or
nothing like that. They're actually usually put in a box,
you know, our little field box. We have stuff like that.
(22:04):
But you know, if we go out, like if I'm
out by myself, I'll carry one. But it's just like
anything else, creatures can sense if you're a danger.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, that's a good idea of keeping them in a box.
But somehow, some way, it seems like they know if
you have any firearms with you. So even if you
have it in a box, it seems like they still
know you've got it. And with some people they think
that just by having one in your possession that really
decreases the odds of actually seeing one. But I was
just wondering what your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
No, No, in my group, I have two other people
at cherry handgun and we've had interactions, you know, when
we're out in the field.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, it's funny how that works. Some people swear up
and down that once it starts curing a firearm, everything stopped.
They never had any more activity, while others they carry
firearms and they still get activity all the time. So yeah,
I've always wondered about that which way it actually does work.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well, that's the point about it is, is you know, Well,
I was saying, when you stress an area out, you
run another wildlife out and stuff like that, you're overworking area.
Things move out, So you know, it might not be
the firearm. It might be you know, you just overwork
the area.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, that's a good point. That's definitely possible. A bit ago,
you mentioned Dusty Ruth and it's funny. That's pretty ironic
because I actually interviewed Dusty last night for a show.
So when you mentioned him, I thought, Wow, a small world.
How'd you meet him?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He started following me on on social media and dam
it down there at expertition Bigfoot in Georgia wanted me
to come down and do a speaking engagement and I
said sure, And I've talked to Dusty, you know online.
(24:16):
You asked some questions and stuff like that, you know,
but he grew from southern Illinois all the way to
Georgia just to meet me and listen to my And
ever since then, me and Dusky have been really good. Crimp.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
He's a great man, he really is. Before twenty nineteen,
when you had that first sighting, you said you didn't
believe in sasquatch. But were you one of those people
who had actually laughed at people who came forward to
talk about their experiences or did you just brush it
off as nonsense?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, I kind of I'm more or less like I
did kind of chuckle a couple of times. But I'll
tell you I had a friend and he's passed now.
We were squirrel hunting in southern Indiana, and no it
(25:16):
was rabbit hunt at that time, and we didn't in
this area. We didn't have nothing happened, you know, we
didn't see we'd jump a rabbit. Nothing. So we kind
of split up a little bit, and about a few
minutes later, he come running back and he's scared. He said,
he goes, Tom, there's a there's a there's a seven
(25:38):
foot naked man over there with a lot of hair
all over him. And I looked at him and I
kind of kind of chuckled because dude, I said, it
was up late last night watching TV? Was he?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know, it never did cross my mind. But after
my siding, you know, in eighty seven, yuh, that happened
in eighty four, and in eighty seven I had mine,
I come to find out that that area was actually
an active area. So yeah, and I went back and
(26:20):
asked that ask him when they asked, tell me what
you saw, and he said the same thing that he
said there.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
How far is that spot from where you live?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Now? Oh, that's about an hour and a half of
me right now.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Okay, so not that far.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Then.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
How often do you and Dusty investigate together?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, lives doing it for there for a while, almost
almost every other week. But with the weather this time
this year, we I haven't really done much. It's a spring.
We had a lot of rain, the flooding here, and
then we had the extreme heat, and then we turned
(27:07):
around we had to make storms and it just was
a mess this year. And I'm sixty two years old
and Dusty is a little older. He's about a little young,
about the same age I am. Yeah, And getting out
in the woods and inclimate weather like that, well, it's
(27:30):
kind of dangerous for us now. So we have to
actually pick a really good time when we go out
and stuff because we're going down places like private property.
We're not going in parks or nothing like that. We're
on private property. And sometimes we have to use cybeer
sides just to get back into the area with no
(27:53):
way to drive our vehicles. We industry just did a
conference here, uh, and I believe no, I'm sorry, September,
first part September, the last part we did the Indiana
Bigfoot Research Organization conference. Uh. Recently.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I'm sure you two are very sought after as
far as guest speakers go, so I believe it. A
bit ago you said that every investigator on your team
has a different skill. What would you say is Dusty's
best skill?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
He's got quite a few casty audio video uh be
a season researcher. He actually does the long rain h
long duration recording devices. H. He set those up.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
He was talking about that on the last night's show. Yeah,
when he was talking about how he does that, I
was thinking, Wow, it sounds like he does set those
up to record for an awfully long time, really long time.
What's about time for us to get out of here, Tom,
But before we do, what's the best way of for
an eyewitness who had a sighting in Kentucky to report
their sighting to you?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Just a long line to the Northern Kentucky? Did put
research group on Facebook? You can join there or actually
just look me up on the internet because I'm out
there with my email address and phone number out there.
(29:41):
Give me a call or give me send me an email,
and I won't wait till three days. If you have
a sighting within an hour, I don't care if it's
one o'clock in the morning or four o'clock in the morning.
You know I'm going to be in the car on
my way because it's a fresh sighting. You know, I
(30:02):
want to be there because there should be some there
should still be in the area.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well, you're really responsive. That's impressive. And would you be
okay if I posted that information in the description for
tonight's show as far as your contact info. Sure, okay, great,
I'll do that.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Then.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, Tom, I can't tell you how much I appreciate
you coming on and share those experiences with this and
that info. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Well, you know you're welcome. Thanks against so mature time,
and have a great night. That's it for another episode
of Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio with Vic Kundiff. If you've had
a sasquatch encounter and would like to be a guest
on the show, please go to Bigfoot eyewitness dot com
(30:53):
and submit a report.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Thanks for listening, a great knight.
If you'd like to be able to listen to the
show without ads and have full access to bonus content,
that's an option. To find out how, please go to
Bigfoot Eyewitness dot com Forward Slash Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, my name is Thomas she I'm the founder of
the Northern Kentucky Big Quick Research Group. Here in Northern Kentucky,
I've been researching since nineteen eighty seven. On my first
experience back in nineteen eighty seven, I had a lot
of lead secured when I was in the service. So
I came home and visit my parents and stuff. We
(00:37):
live along the Ohio River along US thirty six and
forty two, And on this one particularly October evening, he said, like,
it is right now here in Kentucky. You know, we've
had weather like seventy eighty degrees here, you know. And
(01:00):
this after this one afternoon, I had a girlfriend that
I used to see and she called me up if
my parents asked me if I could come up and
we'll go out and do something. So I get all
cleaned up and they're like that and I get in
in the vehicle in my head start heading up to Carleton,
(01:22):
Kentucky on the US thirty six and uh, I got
about three miles up the road. And you gotta understand,
so back in eighty seven, there was no traffic on
the roads here in this county where I'm at. Everything
closed up at five o'clock, you know, And I'm driven
(01:46):
up the road and I was trying to figure out
why was this gentleman in a fur coat? And it's
like eighty five degrees right now, you know. So where
I got up there closed I stopped. I didn't stop.
I just drove slowly, looked through the passenger window, and
(02:07):
I seen this thing. I mean, I didn't understand what
I was seeing. It was the bear. It was more
like a man that was just covered in hair. So
I turned around and I went up the road and
actually turned around, came back, pulled over on the side road,
and got the car and actually followed it down into
(02:29):
the field that was there next to the river. And uh,
not thinking at that time there because I did not
believe in it, But that was something I did never
believe in. I got closer I got to it, it
turned on me and it kind of like crowded me,
(02:50):
you know, screamed at me. I can't really remember what
it was. It was more of a a scream, you know,
and it shook me up pretty bad at that time.
So I went back, I mean I turned around and
went back to the car. Went didn't even go up
to see my girlfriend, turn around, went right back to
my mom and dad's house. Told my parents, well, I
(03:12):
had songs. And my mom looked at me, if you've
been drinking. No I have not, Mom, I just left
the house here, I mean, there's been nowhere. And so
I went into my room and stuff like that, and
I was still pretty shook up. My dad coming in
there and looked at me. You playing still going out
(03:33):
to night? I was, Dad, what I saw at night? No,
I'm not. I'm not. And from that day on, every
time I could digest something about these creatures, I did.
And I reached out to a bunch of these researchers.
At the time, and in nineteen eighty seven, researchers were
(03:57):
kind of hard to get hold of. You had to
write letters or find somebody who's got a number, and
nobody wanted to really talk to me about it. Nobody
I want to help you out anyway, And they was
all protected, you know, or you're just saying that because
(04:20):
you want to get into my business and everything, you know.
So that's when I started. I say, Okay, everything I
learned stuff, I'm on doctor them. And if somebody asked me,
I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna share it, share it
to everybody. So those years, I've had several other sidings
(04:42):
who encounters. The best one was my really best one
was was in twenty fourteen here in Tremble County, and
it was on one of the properties that a gentleman
had told me that he saw a bear. Because you know,
(05:08):
by this time here I was out of the service,
you know, and I said, wow, can I might might
as I go back in there and mess around and
take the sea And by this time here I was
already casting and stuff like that. He's sure, go ahead,
you know, the four wheelers go across the fielder and
ope the gate. Make sure you shut the gate and stuff.
(05:30):
I said, okay, So let me get back. And there's
an access road, the log they called the log and
Access road. And we went back down this ridge and
it's a pretty deep bridge and then nothing but wood stick,
beef thickets, and uh, I get back to this one
spot that was kind of clear, and I stopped real
(05:52):
quick on the full whel because it seems disturbance on
the ground and loll and behold everything, fresh clean footprints.
It was about eighteen inches long, and I mean they
were really a good shape because the clay that was
that we have here, I mean, these were really good
and they were really fresh. So I got four women
(06:18):
and I'm setting there measuring, taking notes everything about the surroundings,
about the weather conditions, about how deep the prince were,
any impropurities or anything. And then I got my casting
(06:38):
material out, start getting my cast and get ready to
cast the prince and stuff. And I always paic a
Handgod with me, because you never know who you're going
to run into or what you're going to run into
out in the woods. And since he said he saw
a bear, I had. I had a bread of ninety
two that took with me. So but well, if you
(06:59):
invite some of them have chasted. You know, I adn't
going to get to the way when you're down there
trying to get steff done and ever like that. So
you know, I took it off, hung it on the
side of my four wheeler, which was maybe thirty feet
away from me, maybe further than that. But I'm sitting
there and I'm still majoring and writing my notebook and stuff,
(07:22):
and I'm getting great to mix up me some claster
and I got the whipp something what is this? And
I looked up and on the other side of my
four wheeler this thing was standing there and it was huge,
(07:45):
wide chest. Uh it's time. I didn't know how tall
it was. That was just huge, you know. And what
I had not my guard down because he's a fresh
prance and I didn't take into a fact, you know,
(08:05):
accounted this thing might still be in the area, and
it still was. So it was watching me. And I
turned around and saw that, and we looked out eyed
each other, and I had, you know, to make a decision.
Was I'm going to jump up and run and get
my handguns from my four wheel liter or just sit there?
(08:29):
And I sit there and I watched it, and what
seemed like an eternity was only seconds. It lifted its
head and kind of like sniffed air, grubbed a little
bit and didn't just walk off down the ridge. And
(08:52):
at this time, here is you know, my wife gave
you a cetle phone. And I keep tearing him up
when I'm out in the woods and she got me
a flip phone with a real cute flipball, you know.
So I grab my phone and open it up, and
I'm getting ready trying to give up the video up
and they're like that, and I'm behind it watching it.
(09:15):
I'm not paying attention to the phone. I just got
it pointed to that thing, and I got it recorded.
I don't move in with it, you know. As it moved,
I moved a little bit. Well, it just peered over
the ridge and I lost sight of it in the vegetation,
and I turned around, grabbed everything and got on the
(09:35):
phone and then went back to my vehicle. I left
everything there set for forward, and I got home and
I was so excited because I had this video. And
my wife looked at it and says, if you do something
on video every day or something, and I said, yeah,
I deah, I got it really nice and grab them
(09:58):
just thing off my phone and my wife looked at
me and said, that was one nice Sure, I bought you.
And in the confusion, I accidentally switched the camera view
to what it was feeling me. I tell people this
because it's heat in the moment. Things happened. Mistakes were
(10:22):
made and that was a mistakes. But I worked that
area for several years until they started logging it. And
after it logged it, the area just became, you know,
there was nothing there. So a gentleman contacted me here
(10:44):
a couple of years later. I said, yeah, I got
something going on here in my carpet, and we will
come out and check it out. And I heard about
the name Okay, and it was out there a couple
of times and we had some experiences. And by this
time here my wife told me, you know what else
you do? Internet thing? You know, get on social media,
(11:09):
start you have a thing, share your information. And I did,
and I called it another contacted b put research crew
and I call it a crew because each person in
this team of mine has a search and skill. We
(11:30):
had audio video you know where they got and it's
a group. And we sat down and we discussed things.
Everybody's got the input, and I give it credit everybody
that things happened. If we give you know something, uh
(11:51):
for example, uh, the new tailler cat. We had a
charge totael out there and something got it opened up,
took up each school out of it. I pros the
jar after I found it and casting it, well, the
jar and everything was uh, Steve Cornell and my idea. Yeah,
(12:13):
I actually gave Steve, you know, total biding with Steve,
and you know Steve Cornell and me, you know, I
share it. You know, it wasn't just me, you know,
so as a group, everybody's gonna say it, even though
I got the last say, but everybody's got a voice,
(12:34):
not like an organization. Yeah, we don't charge no people
or nothing like that. When we go out or we've
had people go out with us, we don't charge. Uh,
We're happy to teach, you know, tracking stuff like that.
Oh no, this new area you gotta start talking about. Mhm.
(13:00):
I took my team in and we spent a week
in it there and we had some really wild stuff
happened to us. You know, we saw some awards. We
don't know what the words are, so you know, we
really don't dwell on it. I document it and stuff
like that, and you try to figure out, you know,
(13:21):
is there something with gases or is it static electricity.
I don't believe it's any phenomenon that happens with people.
I think, you know, there's a lot of things we
would say, if you spend a lot of time in
the words, you'll see a lot of weird stuff that
you can't explain. So there's no need in speaking about it.
(13:43):
And you know, telling people I don't know what it is. Yeah,
I just keep it quiet, document it and you know,
and try to figure it out. But it was cold
with us. It is that and attempt to drop. Like
in the low thirties, we had a little bit of
(14:04):
a ten mile fifty mind hour breeze and me and
Chief Chief often he's one of my best friends and
one of my members. We stayed up and kept the
fire going real good. You know, we had a big
(14:24):
fire going, so everybody was stay warm, you know, hypothermia
wouldn't set in or nothing like that. But by four
o'clock in the morning, uh we uh, I decided to
so keep you know, we want us We're going to
do a little bit of rest to night. The fire
you know, really going and stuff. I mean, nobody's gonna
(14:47):
nothing's going to happen. So you understand, we sleep in
zero grabby chairs in the sleeping bags. We don't sleep
under a tent. Oh, we have a a canopy. And
then the canopy is opened and that way we're sleeping
the chairs and if something happens, we're able to grab
(15:09):
our equipment and go. Right there. We're trying to unders
up a kid and crawl out and of them. You know,
everything's there and all we got to do is set
up uns, up our bags and go as soon as
being a chief. He got in his chair and I
got in my chair, and we got really nice and war.
(15:29):
This thing from flying down the hill right behind she
not more than fifteen feet running, and the thing was big.
And lord, we're just trying to get out of those
bags quick enough, but this thing was so fast and
(15:51):
we didn't have a chance to even get our equipment
out in that same area too. You know this in
the summer time. H Dusty were part of my team,
and he was sitting on edge of the camp and
I'm checking on everybody. I'm up at the fire. Because
(16:12):
we don't run out in the woods and beat on
trees and scream and nothing like that. Uh, we go
into it. We sit in our base camp and we
observe it, you know, and these things will come into you.
You don't have to worry about it. But as someone
who runs a team, I have to be responsible, but
(16:32):
I have to make sure everybody's comfortable, everybody's safe. So
I'm going around checking on everybody. And the fire I
have people up are talking. It's like you go to
camp fire, people going, you know, laughing, cheer it on.
And I'm up there in cheef. No one's dusty. Hey Tom,
(16:54):
come out here a minute, and I come down because
I got this hotspot and he goes, just came up
right there, and they had to moved for a while.
Can you think about it? You look at it? I said, yeah,
And I get my my thermal out and I'm looking
and I see what he's talking about, and it didn't move,
(17:16):
and all of a sudden it stood up, raised up.
That's there it is, I said, just raised up and
we're watching it, and this thing, actually belly crud, you know,
got back down to belly crag between creed to tree
and toward us, and it got so close to us that,
you know, we're sitting there. There's five of us. We're
(17:39):
all setting there with thermals watching it, and it's watching us.
And it was like two and a half hours we
did this m H. And then all of a sudden
it just disappeared. Well, the reason it disappeared was next
morning we got up. This thing was not more than
(18:01):
maybe three car leagues fromise. Do you have no sense
of the uh distance with a firm, and there was
actually three carlings away from us and the creek that
was down below there, and what we believed was it
(18:22):
actually kind of barely crawled down the creek bed behind
the bank. But I have five people that signed the
appidamus that they thought was the same as I did,
and we video taped it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But this this place there was there's numerous times that
we have had interaction. But now the proper owner here,
he's got kind of into a space where he wants
to bring a whole lot of people out, you know,
and if you're not carefully, you go burn an area out,
(19:12):
uh the stress to the point where the wildlife believe,
and then there's no food source and mh. You just
have to move out for a while and let things
build back in. And that's what we were doing this year.
You know, last few years nothing has happened, and I decided, well,
(19:36):
I'm gonna let this area of rest because I have
another area that's really active right now. And I'm working,
and so there's a couple of other things that's half
happened that. Uh, I'm not really wanting to talk about
it right now. H I haven't a couple of terms
with it yet, but yeah, it will come out, Tom.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
There's a lot of work that goes into investigating sasquatch.
I don't need to tell you that you've lived that.
But with that in mind, are there times when you're
out there in the field where you start to second
guess whether it's a good idea for you to continue
doing that?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And like what means I mean, uh, there are times, Yes,
you hear a lot of these people say, well, they're
not dangerous nothing, Okay, they're animals just like everything else,
like us. You know, they're gonna wake up one day
and have a bad attitude, you know, a truthdachs or
(20:39):
a headache, or and become dangerous. You never know.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, they're just like us. They could get up on
the wrong side of the log and it could be
a handful. So that does make sense, it really does.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's like, yes, actually, these people they won't go out
at night and they want to chase sumpthing you know
they've got. I said Okay. Now, if you go out
there and you're going you actually do run into one,
you need to start following it. I said, you get
it cornered. What are you going to do when you
get cornered? Here, you got an eight hundred to one
thousand pounds creature that's way stronger than you are, that
(21:19):
could rip your arms, you know, out of your sockets.
What are you going to do?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, that's true, it's not really anything you can do.
You mentioned that you always try to have a firearm
with you, and I understand why you do that, But
do you think that sometimes having that firearm with you
compromises the results you get?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
No, No, it depends on out. We don't have them
waving around, We don't. We don't have them out or
nothing like that. They're actually usually put in a box,
you know, our little field box. We have stuff like that.
(22:04):
But you know, if we go out, like if I'm
out by myself, I'll carry one. But it's just like
anything else, creatures can sense if you're a danger.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, that's a good idea of keeping them in a box.
But somehow, some way, it seems like they know if
you have any firearms with you. So even if you
have it in a box, it seems like they still
know you've got it. And with some people they think
that just by having one in your possession that really
decreases the odds of actually seeing one. But I was
just wondering what your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
No, No, in my group, I have two other people
at cherry handgun and we've had interactions, you know, when
we're out in the field.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, it's funny how that works. Some people swear up
and down that once it starts curing a firearm, everything stopped.
They never had any more activity, while others they carry
firearms and they still get activity all the time. So yeah,
I've always wondered about that which way it actually does work.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well, that's the point about it is, is you know, Well,
I was saying, when you stress an area out, you
run another wildlife out and stuff like that, you're overworking area.
Things move out, So you know, it might not be
the firearm. It might be you know, you just overwork
the area.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, that's a good point. That's definitely possible. A bit ago,
you mentioned Dusty Ruth and it's funny. That's pretty ironic
because I actually interviewed Dusty last night for a show.
So when you mentioned him, I thought, Wow, a small world.
How'd you meet him?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He started following me on on social media and dam
it down there at expertition Bigfoot in Georgia wanted me
to come down and do a speaking engagement and I
said sure, And I've talked to Dusty, you know online.
(24:16):
You asked some questions and stuff like that, you know,
but he grew from southern Illinois all the way to
Georgia just to meet me and listen to my And
ever since then, me and Dusky have been really good. Crimp.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
He's a great man, he really is. Before twenty nineteen,
when you had that first sighting, you said you didn't
believe in sasquatch. But were you one of those people
who had actually laughed at people who came forward to
talk about their experiences or did you just brush it
off as nonsense?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, I kind of I'm more or less like I
did kind of chuckle a couple of times. But I'll
tell you I had a friend and he's passed now.
We were squirrel hunting in southern Indiana, and no it
(25:16):
was rabbit hunt at that time, and we didn't in
this area. We didn't have nothing happened, you know, we
didn't see we'd jump a rabbit. Nothing. So we kind
of split up a little bit, and about a few
minutes later, he come running back and he's scared. He said,
he goes, Tom, there's a there's a there's a seven
(25:38):
foot naked man over there with a lot of hair
all over him. And I looked at him and I
kind of kind of chuckled because dude, I said, it
was up late last night watching TV? Was he?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know, it never did cross my mind. But after
my siding, you know, in eighty seven, yuh, that happened
in eighty four, and in eighty seven I had mine,
I come to find out that that area was actually
an active area. So yeah, and I went back and
(26:20):
asked that ask him when they asked, tell me what
you saw, and he said the same thing that he
said there.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
How far is that spot from where you live?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Now? Oh, that's about an hour and a half of
me right now.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Okay, so not that far.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Then.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
How often do you and Dusty investigate together?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Well, lives doing it for there for a while, almost
almost every other week. But with the weather this time
this year, we I haven't really done much. It's a spring.
We had a lot of rain, the flooding here, and
then we had the extreme heat, and then we turned
(27:07):
around we had to make storms and it just was
a mess this year. And I'm sixty two years old
and Dusty is a little older. He's about a little young,
about the same age I am. Yeah, And getting out
in the woods and inclimate weather like that, well, it's
(27:30):
kind of dangerous for us now. So we have to
actually pick a really good time when we go out
and stuff because we're going down places like private property.
We're not going in parks or nothing like that. We're
on private property. And sometimes we have to use cybeer
sides just to get back into the area with no
(27:53):
way to drive our vehicles. We industry just did a
conference here, uh, and I believe no, I'm sorry, September,
first part September, the last part we did the Indiana
Bigfoot Research Organization conference. Uh. Recently.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I'm sure you two are very sought after as
far as guest speakers go, so I believe it. A
bit ago you said that every investigator on your team
has a different skill. What would you say is Dusty's
best skill?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
He's got quite a few casty audio video uh be
a season researcher. He actually does the long rain h
long duration recording devices. H. He set those up.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
He was talking about that on the last night's show. Yeah,
when he was talking about how he does that, I
was thinking, Wow, it sounds like he does set those
up to record for an awfully long time, really long time.
What's about time for us to get out of here, Tom,
But before we do, what's the best way of for
an eyewitness who had a sighting in Kentucky to report
their sighting to you?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Just a long line to the Northern Kentucky? Did put
research group on Facebook? You can join there or actually
just look me up on the internet because I'm out
there with my email address and phone number out there.
(29:41):
Give me a call or give me send me an email,
and I won't wait till three days. If you have
a sighting within an hour, I don't care if it's
one o'clock in the morning or four o'clock in the morning.
You know I'm going to be in the car on
my way because it's a fresh sighting. You know, I
(30:02):
want to be there because there should be some there
should still be in the area.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well, you're really responsive. That's impressive. And would you be
okay if I posted that information in the description for
tonight's show as far as your contact info. Sure, okay, great,
I'll do that.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Then.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Well, Tom, I can't tell you how much I appreciate
you coming on and share those experiences with this and
that info. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Well, you know you're welcome. Thanks against so mature time,
and have a great night. That's it for another episode
of Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio with Vic Kundiff. If you've had
a sasquatch encounter and would like to be a guest
on the show, please go to Bigfoot eyewitness dot com
(30:53):
and submit a report.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Thanks for listening, a great knight.
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