DATE: Feb. 15, 2005 TIME: 12:30 A.M. SIGHTEE: Female, 33 years old TYPE: Visual Sighting from 30 to 40 feet under security light DESCRIPTION: 8-9 ft, 500-700 pounds, black but greying like it was older WEATHER: had rained earlier, strong winds at the time, we had been under severe thunder storm watch all night LOCATION: Private property, rural Orange County, Indiana – outside of Paoli Indiana. Specific address and location confidential. AREA/TERRAIN: Open front yard / Southern Indiana is heavily wooded with rough, rugged terrain; property is in and surrounded by parts of the Hoosier National Forest. Patoka Lake is within a few miles. Many caves in southern Indiana, even the “Lost River” near, which is a river that comes up out of the ground and eventually disappears back underground. WITNESS STATEMENT: “I had been up late watching the local news at 10:00, went to bed just before 11. I have a large red bone, golden retriever mix dog that sleeps in my room at night. Just after midnight he woke me raising hell, barking, growling, wanting out the door. At this time I could hear 2 of my other dogs, (schnauzer mix ) were out across the road barking. At this time I was figuring that my neighbor dogs were down at my place raiding chickens again. I was down to just 2 roosters that slept on a rock next to the front door. I grabbed an air rifle and opened the front door stepping out on the front step. Roscoe my red dog raced passed me barking, he ran to the edge of my flower bed, where my yard starts to slope towards the road. and stopped. He continued barking into the woods across the street, where my 2 little dogs were barking. I was watching him the whole time since opening the door, expecting he would run after the neighbor dogs. When he just stopped I turned back towards the house, that’s when I saw it. It was crouched down, not like it was hiding but like it was just sitting on it’s heels. It’s back was to me and it was facing the road. My dog had ran within 15 ft of it and not paid any attention at all. It appeared to be watching the dog bark. It was black with grey/silver tipped hair on its head and shoulders, and down a part of it’s back. It’s hair was about 2-3 inches in length. At this time a small whining sound to my right caught my attention and I looked towards my driveway to see my 4th dog, a terrier a bit bigger than a Jack Russell, come slinking towards me into the house. My big dog was still barking into the woods. Well by now I had had enough and thought OUTLOUD!!! “you worthless mutt!” When I spoke the hair on it’s neck and shoulders stood on end. Up to this point I had not felt any major feelings, I probably would have went back to bed and thought I had dreamed the whole thing in the morning, but when it’s hair stood up a fear went through me and my hair stood up too. At this point upon hearing me speak my red dog stopped barking and turned back towards the house, when he saw what was in the front yard he wagged his tail!!!! I noticed a motion in the one in my front yard as it started to swing it’s shoulders around in my direction, its hair raised up again as it was moving. I got the feeling that it felt trapped, and I stepped back in the house and shut and dead-bolted the door, and waited. I was expecting to hear footstep’s approach the house, I waited 5-20 seconds I couldn’t say for sure. I was shaking. I then went in my bedroom and loaded a deer slug in my 12 gauge. This woke 2 of my children up who had been sleeping with me. Then I called 911 and told them I had a prowler at my window and that if they didn’t get out here I was going to shoot through the wall. (I wouldn’t have but I knew it would get a deputy out here) I live 14 miles from town and let me tell you there actually was a car here in 15 min. During this waiting time I just kept praying out loud that I didn’t want any confrontations and that God would just let it go back in the woods quietly.When the sheriff got here I stuck with my prowler story (I wanted him to come back if it did again) He walked around the front and back of my house, to find one of my cattle out, beside my house standing belly deep in a hole I had dug for a landscape pond, she was terrified!!!! I couldn’t coax her out for the world. He tried to help me by pushing and hollering at her but she wouldn’t budge. He said he had to go, could I call someone else to come help, I had already called a friend of my late husbands as soon as the sheriff had arrived and I had hung up with the 911 operator. I told Doug to get his butt out here, he wouldn’t believe what I had seen but had already agreed to stay at the house till daylight with me. When Doug got here we finally got the cow to move by letting all the cows out then running them in as a herd. Did not see or hear anything else that night.” Additional Statements: “put in motion detected lights the next day, but had to shut them off after several days due to the growling and having things thrown at the side of the house every time they came on. After that we spent 3 days in town with more friends till another friend offered to stay at the house with us for a while till things quieted down.” “It was holding a stick about 5 ft. long, remember seeing it being shifted from its left shoulder to its right hand as it started to turn. It had been leaning against the front of its shoulder and I didn’t notice it till it started to turn.” “[I think] That it had just been sitting in the front yard surveying its surroundings, listening to the dogs barking (possibly at another one in my pond across the road) It seemed amused that Roscoe didn’t see him at first till I spoke I don’t think it knew I was there.” “My kids sleep with me every night, don’t go out of the bedroom at night, still go for short walks in the woods, always careful to stay together and wary of my surrounding and that gut instinct that you don’t belong in certain areas.” “[I] Could clearly see the back of his head, shoulders, arm resting across its leg.” “[It was] 8-9 ft, 500-700 pounds, black but greying like it was older.” “[It had] A stick, 2-3 inches thick probably close to 5 ft. tall, when it was crouched down the stick was 10-12 in. above its shoulders, smooth with no bark.” “I was upwind of it, which is very strange that it didn’t pick up my scent or was used to it (It was in my own front yard after all) because it didn’t act like it knew I was there till I spoke.” “[I] think they are what keep getting ALL my peaches every year. 3 trees stripped just as you can smell them softening – every peach, but not a leaf missing.” “[I] Believe they are what kept taking chickens and rabbits from our old place 1/4 mile down the road. Latches would be removed from door and placed on top of the cages, always thought that it might be a vagrant living in the woods though we never saw one. Never dreamed they lived in Indiana or I probably wouldn’t have bought a place in the country. Have since had several encounters including with a game camera I put up near our old cabin.” MIKE’S NOTES: I spent a bit of time with the Sigh tee on the phone, and communicated via email quite a bit. Her now 11 year old son first started talking about “the hairy man” he would see outside at the age of 4. While these sightings weren’t happening “all the time”, over the years, they have continued to present. In late 2004 when there was still snow on the ground, the kids had told of seeing large ‘bare footprints’ in the snow and had asked if that could be “one of those bigfoot things” because their mother was from Washington state and had heard of them being talked about before. It was only a few months later in Feb. 2005 that this sighting/encounter occurred. This began to “turn the wheels” in rethinking many odd occurrences that have occurred on their property since moving to Orange County in the mid 90’s. The mother has had one other sighting at the age of 14 in Pierce County Washington. That sighting report will be submitted to SRI (Sasquatch Research Initiative) for inclusion in SRI’s database. Hopefully down the road, a couple of us will be able to go for a day or two and hang out on the property and see if we can ‘intrude’ enough to raise some growls or attention. The family property is about 65 acres, in some very remote, rugged country. Hopefully there will be more to update to this report and Orange County in the future. Michael R. Bardsley Indiana Bigfoot Awareness Group Posted : March 25, 2006 ;