Date: 9/12/2006
Weather: clear and warm
Time: Around 7:30PM
Nearest City: Midlothian
State: Texas
Highway: Hwy 287 & County Road 875 Area
Nearby water source: Stock ponds are in the area, as well as a creek which cuts through the sub-dvision and into the woods.
What happened: I was working late on September 12, 2006 when I got a cell phone call from my ten year old daughter. She sounded very upset, wanting me to come home immediately. I was busy working and brushed off her phone call, thinking that she had gotten into trouble with her mother.
I arrived at home from work to the following story from she and my wife: My daughter was riding her scooter up and down the driveway of our home. As she turned around the scooter and was about to head back down the driveway from the street, something moving quickly through our backyard caught her eye. She only saw it for a brief moment, maybe 2-3 seconds, but described it in fairly detailed terms. She stated to me that it was at least six feet tall, possibly taller, and very heavily built. It was completely covered in thick, black hair that was not of a uniform length and appeared very messy. She described the head of the creature to me as slightly pointed on top. The creature was running very rapidly across our backyard, approximately 50 yards from where she was standing. It was running from her right to her left and was carrying something under its right arm. She was unable to tell what it was carrying. The creature disappeared behind the back of the house after being seen for a few steps. For several minutes my daughter was afraid to go toward the house, for fear that the creature was still behind the house. She waited in the street until gaining the courage to run inside.
Once she was inside, she immediately asked her mother, who was cooking dinner in the kitchen, "Did you see it?" She was visibly shaken by what she saw. My daughter is a very good girl and has never made up stories and she believes firmly in what she saw.
Terrain: Semi-wooded with many trees cleared for building
Activities: My daughter was riding her scooter in the driveway of our home.
Any Prior Sightings: None of which I am aware.
Any sound: No sounds heard.
Odors: None.
Any farms nearby: The area was once covered with farms and ranches that have been sold to make way for 1-2 acre homesites.
Witness provided evidence, photos or drawings: None provided from this incident.
This is a semi-wooded area with many trees cleared for building. There are stock ponds in the area as well as a stream that runs thru this development and into the adjacent woods. The wooded area adjacent to the witness' property is interconnected to other patches of woods via following creek beds. There are many cattle pastures that border the area. The residence is part of a housing sub-division, so they have neighbors within a short distance to the North, South and West.
The witness was the 10-year-old daughter of the submitter of the sighting. She struck us as a quiet and unassuming young lady, not the type that would in any way be involved in creating a false report. Her father reports that she is afraid to go outside the house without someone being with her since the sighting.
There is not too much to add about the creature that is not already noted in the report. The witness was too far away (60 yards) and saw the creature for too short a time (2-3 seconds) to notice the fine details regarding the face, ears, neck, etc. She did report that the creature was running on 2 legs and thus could not have been a misidentified known animal such as a deer, cat or hog. The witness is adamant that the creature was not a bear running on 2 legs. She noticed that the head was conical in shape thus indicating a possible saggital crest. Creature was hair covered, several inches in length, slightly shorter in some areas, messy looking. Exact length was not noted due to the hair appearing so matted and unkempt. 6 Ft or more was the estimated height of the creature. Witness claims the creature was stooped forward to some degree but was closer to what a man might look like in posture, more erect. Animal was running, in a Northern direction paralleling the woods. Witness reports that as the creature ran into the back yard it flushed some birds that were in the yard foraging. Witness did not hear anything unusual during the sighting. Witness didn't smell anything during the sighting and the weather report indicates her position would have been upwind of the creature in any case. The witness indicated that she thought that the creature was carrying something in its hands, something of a dark color, perhaps a bird that it had caught.
In addition to the sighting, the entire family heard a high pitched moaning sound emanating from the woods, that continued for several minutes a couple of weeks prior. The father has listened to the vocalizations on several Bigfoot Web sites but reports that none of these sound like what he heard.
The general area of this sighting has had historical sightings with some within 5 miles as the crow files, however, all of the sightings on record from Ellis County are from the Sixties or further back. It has been long thought that development and the encroachment of civilization had driven the creatures from this area. Our onsite inspection was to determine if the area in question would be sufficient to provide cover and sustenance for the target species even if only for a short period of time. After walking a good portion of the area it became clear that it was very dense and of sufficient size that anything wanting to stay hidden in this area could achieve this if desired.
On close inspection, several interesting things were found, these included a hair sample found on a barbed wire, many trees that were bent or twisted up to 2 inches in diameter. The tree damage was not the work of four legged animals and we don't think, given the damage, that it could in any way be ascribed to a weather event. The branches were manipulated in a way that would have required an opposable thumb to grasp and twist so, in theory, they could have been the work of humans but one has to ask for what purpose humans would be doing this. We will post some of the pictures below our investigator report.
The local Home Owners Association sent out a letter informing the community that there were several missing pets in the area that they are attributing to a small Panther. On our inspection of the area we did find some bones (appeared to be leg bones possibly from a calf or hog).
Possible food sources in the area are all of the following: Domestic Livestock, Domestic Pets (as mentioned above, some have gone missing), Ducks, Hogs both domestic and wild (family reports seeing wild Hogs in their back yard) and Vegetation.
Our conclusion:
The family is living next to an area that we feel provides sufficient habitat for these creatures to live in the area for at least short periods, we do believe that the witness saw something. The young lady has nothing to gain from posting a false report. Her story and description has remained consistent and if you question her on aspects of the sighting that she could not make out she will say so, thus she made no attempt to provide information she didn't have.