After igniting heavy debates, the discovery of the Bigfoot
has proved to be just a hoax, as many have thought all along. The alleged corpse of
Bigfoot has been ruled as a hoax, a rubber costume trapped in ice.
Although the motives behind this fraud are still unknown at
this time, apparently Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer, the men who claimed they
discovered the body, are no where to be found.
According to a story posted on SearchingForBigfoot.com by Steve
Kulls, Executive Director of Squatchdetective.com and Host of Squatchdetective
Radio, requested an undisclosed sum from Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for
Bigfoot, as an advance, expected from the marketing and promotion.
On August 16th Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer delivered the
freezer containing the alleged corpse to the Searching For Bigfoot Team. However,
as the ice started to melt down, Kulls was quick to discover that the alleged
corpse is just a rubber costume.
After discovering the fraud, Tom Biscardi contacted the
alleged Bigfoot trackers at their California
hotel and set up a meeting. Obviously enough, when the time came for them to
face the consequences of their actions, the two were nowhere to be found. They
had vanished and so had Tom Biscardi’s money.
Apparently, little to nothing is known about their
wehereabouts, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the calls to Matthew
Whitton and Ricky Dyer weren't returned.
Matthew Whitton, 28, is a police office who had been on medical leave
after being shot in the wrist by a robbery suspect this year, but was fired
after his boss heard about the charade.
"He's disgraced himself, he's an embarrassment to the Clayton County
Police Department, his credibility and integrity as an officer is gone, and I
have no use for him," Chief Jeffrey Turner said. "His behavior is
unbecoming of that of a police officer.”
The whole story started last week when Matthew Whitton and
Ricky Dyer claimed that they had discovered a specimen of Bigfoot in a remote
forest in northern Georgia.
Bigfoot also known as Sasquatch, Chiye, Yeti, Yeren and
Yowie is considered the Holy Grail for cryptozoologists. The creature is
sometimes described as a large, hairy bipedal hominoid without knowing for sure
whether it existed or not. Some experts consider its existence as a combination
of folklore and hoaxes. But alleged witnesses have come out with a description
of this creature. Its head seems to sit directly on the shoulders. It has large
eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a low-set forehead.
Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer , along with Tom Biscari, have
put together a press conference to announce their findings. At the news
conference, attended by over 200 people, Matthew Whitton, Rick Dyer and Tom
Biscardi, who assured everyone that the story of the discovery couldn’t be more
real, handed out two new photos, but the doubts have started to emerge since
the first seconds.
“It looks like a costume, a waterlogged costume that's been
stuffed into a freezer. It just doesn't have the hallmark of a real corpse,”
Jeff Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State
University, and one of the few PhDs conducting Bigfoot field work, said.
Anatomy professor Jeffrey Meldrum told the Discovery Channel
that the creatures in the photos presented by Whitton and Dyer did not look
"natural" but instead appeared to be a gorilla costume widely
available for purchase.
Alleged sightings of Bigfoot have made headlines for years,
including in 1958 when a forest worker claimed to have come across its
footprints in Northern California and in 1967 when another American took fuzzy
film footage of a large, hairy creature walking in a Northern
California forest.
In 2002, a Bigfoot hoax was uncovered after the death of Ray Wallace in the United States.
His son confessed that Wallace had donned self-made wooden feet to tromp
through mud in a Bigfoot "discovery" that made the local newspaper.
Wallace also faked photos and audiotapes of what were supposed to be the
creature with the help of friends, his son said.
Update: AP reported also that telephone calls to Whitton and Dyer were not returned
on Tuesday, but the news agency also noted that the voicemail recording for
their Bigfoot Tip Line, which proclaims they also search for leprechauns and
the Loch Ness monster, has been updated. It announced the two former police
officers were also looking for "big cats and dinosaurs".