Bigfoot Found

In August of 2008, media reports surfaced with the headline "Bigfoot Found". The news quickly spread that Bigfoot was finally discovered. Read on to learn more about one of the biggest Bigfoot hoaxes in recent history.

On August 16th, a story first surfaced on local news stations that two Georgia men, Matthew Gary Whitton and Chuck Dyer, claimed that they had captured a corpse of Bigfoot and had it stored in a freezer in Georgia. When reporters asked where was the Bigfoot found, the story the men told news reporters was that they had discovered the dead body along a creek. At a news conference, the two men, along with Bigfoot hunter Tom Biscardi, provided reporters a few photos that they said proved their claims were true.

At the time, all anyone knew about the two men was that Whitton was a police officer on medical leave, and Dyer was a former corrections officer. The men revealed that they had started a website in July called BigFootTracker.com (now defunct) where they decided to display the picture of the corpse stuffed into a freezer. Tom Biscardi became involved with the two men a month later and was the one who organized the news conference.

With Bigfoot allegedly found, investigators across the world immediately began digging into the background of these two men. It turned out that the website they created in July of 2008 never originally claimed there was a Bigfoot found. Instead, the original purpose of the site was to publish YouTube videos in an attempt to sell Bigfoot expeditions for almost $500.00 an outing.

Whitton and Dyer eventually began releasing new YouTube videos claiming Bigfoot found. At one point, police officer Matthew Whitton had his brother pose as a Texas scientist who allegedly examined the body. After releasing this video, investigators uncovered the scam, and Matt Whitten was forced to admit on video that the "scientist" was not a scientist at all.

Local news reporters initially became aware of Matt Whitton in connection to a gunshot wound he had received. However, they soon discovered his claims of having discovered a Bigfoot body. Before long, the local news attracted Bigfoot researchers Loren Coleman and Steve Kulls who immediately told their friend Thomas Biscardi about the men and their claims. Biscardi immediately contacted the two men and started working on organizing a news conference to announce the "discovery" to the world.

At the news conference in the second week of August, the two Atlanta men stood up and proclaimed to the world that they had an authentic Bigfoot body in a freezer in Georgia. They promised DNA evidence, and ultimately, final proof to the world that Bigfoot is real.

At the time the story was released on the national news, many veteran investigators were already screaming hoax, simply because of the fact that Tom Biscardi was involved.

In the summer of 2005, Tom Biscardi was interviewed by George Noory on his popular radio talk show Coast to Coast A.M.. During the interview, Tom claimed that he had a Bigfoot body, and over the course of a few nights, he promised listeners intriguing updates on the evidence regarding the body. Meanwhile he offered listeners a chance to subscribe for $14.95 per month to connect to a remote web cam he had set up where they could watch for Bigfoot in Northern California.

After a while, George Noory demanded that Tom Biscardi provide solid evidence that he really had a Bigfoot body in his possession. Biscardi eventually admitted that the story wasn't true, but he blamed an anonymous person who he claimed had actually tricked him. George Noory's 14 million listeners, mostly paranormal enthusiasts, heard Tom Biscardi financially scam Noory's listeners. So when he surfaced again in 2008 with additional claims of being in possession of a Bigfoot body, many people across the country immediately started to claim it was another hoax.

By the third week of August, a Bigfoot research group called "Searching for Bigfoot" signed a deal with Whitton and Dyer in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money. In exchange, the two men turned over the block of ice that allegedly contained the Bigfoot body. After the hoaxers disappeared and the ice melted, the group quickly realized that the only thing contained in the ice was a rubber suit.

In an interview with CNN, the men said that it was originally just "a big joke", that they didn't expect would get so out of hand. Unfortunately, when their story started to gain national attention, they decided to go along for the ride and continue with the lie.

As a result of this scam, Whitton and Dyer will likely face a lawsuit with Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. Additionally, Whitten, a 28-year-old police officer with the Clayton County Police Department, was immediately fired by Chief Jeffrey Turner for lack of "credibility and integrity" when the news reports emerged that the entire story was a hoax.

Even worse than the financial and personal damage caused by this hoax was the damage it caused to research conducted by serious investigators, such as the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). These investigators continue in their quest to discover solid scientific evidence of the existence of Bigfoot. Hopefully one day soon, they will have the last laugh.

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