The big hairy monster we call Bigfoot has both eluded and fascinated many, with blurry photos and even blurrier video being some of the best evidence the creature exists. [Better evidence comes from Native Americans with centuries of sightings, forensic evidence (such as hair, recorded calls, scat, skin, limbs in the case of Yeti, and the ubiquitous footprints on land and snow).]
Bigfoot stories of sightings vary on some details and the type of "evidence." In 2008, two Georgia men claimed they had a body, photos of the body, and DNA evidence of a Bigfoot. A few days later, evidence surfaced that the DNA was that of an opossum and the body was really a frozen gorilla suit.
More recently in 2011, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based man named Thomas Byers claimed that, while driving, he and a companion videotaped a Bigfoot crossing the road in front of their truck and at one point it "made a snarling growling sound and looked back at me," Byers said. Various hints, including the fact that no truck is seen, nor headlights (it was pretty dark in the video), and that the slow-moving creature (or human) seems to be waving in the footage, weighed heavily against the video's validity. More
Witches are easy to blame. But don't tee them off; they may be the last resort to finding missing children by psychic means. (Three Sisters from Shakespeare's "Macbeth," indieogdenutah.com).
A former lawman turned investigative journalist, David Paulides (author of Missing 411) , drops a bombshell in his new book. There are many weird and odd disappearances in US national parks and forests that no one can explain. And there is a massive cover up by park officials leading to repeated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to get the facts.
"Only the top 15 people in the Parks Service know what we are talking about," Paulides says about the hundreds of mysterious vanishings that have occurred in national parks. Acknowledging that animal attacks and accidents do sometimes occur in the forest, they do not explain these disappearances: They leave no clues to suggest such natural explanations.
There are instances of people vanishing within minutes of arrival, never to be seen again. When bone fragments of victims are found, suggesting that they had been eaten, another clue refutes that conclusion. Their clothes have been carefully removed first.
One bizarre trend among such cases is that victims appear to travel a vast distance or into a location that should be physically impossible to reach. For example, according to Paulides, a 2-year-old boy named Keith Parkins vanished near Umatilla National Forest. The child would eventually be found an astonishing 12 miles away, barefoot, after being gone only 19 hours.
The journey, Paulides said, would require the toddler to venture over two mountain ranges, as well as through fences, creeks, and rivers. But the case is just one of many where children disappear and are later found far outside of the grid search map carefully designed by search and rescue teams about to attempt a dragnet.
Paulides notes that there are even cases in which dogs are used. But after tracking for a while or to a particular spot, the dogs simply sit down and refuse to search any further. Dogs have led rescuers to a large river; search teams will explore the other side and "miles away, they find the kid." [This suggests the child was suddenly transported elsewhere with no connecting line for the dog to continue following.]
While Paulides is reticent to offer a specific theory as to what is behind this rash of disappearances, he did observe that child DNA is purer than adults, suggesting some kind of alien abduction scenario. He also cites an as yet unexplained but common theme in many such cases: In spite of snow or rain following the disappearance, victim will later be found wearing dry, clean clothes, proving that "there's no way they had been outdoors." Others are missing shoes, but their feet are none the worse for wear even though they have somehow traveled great distances.
Moreover, children who have gone missing, if they should return alive, recall encounters with wolf-like creatures or a bear that "cuddled with them all night." Compounding the mystery, Paulides explains that in several instances, people have disappeared at locations with "devil" in the name, which may indicate that these places have a long history of perplexing or sinister events attached to them.
