Earthfiles Interviews Melba Ketchum

Posted by: Craig Woolheater on March 2nd, 2013

Cryptomundian edsbigfoot submits the following:

Here is a link to Linda Howe’s interview with Dr. Ketchum, along with an overview. Hopefully this link will stay good:) Hey, now I know why Sasquatch are so elusive…they keep forgetting to renew their domain name and they disappear….Just kidding, just a joke, and a bad one at that. 🙂edsbigfoot

Is Sasquatch A Hybrid of Homo sapiens sapiens and Unknown Primate?

© 2013 by Linda Moulton Howe

“The mitochondrial DNA was fully modern Homo sapiens sapiens indicating that the species is a hybrid cross between modern Homo sapiens in the maternal lineage and an unknown hominin male progenitor.”Melba Ketchum
D.V.M. and Owner, DNA Diagnostics

Illustration by the Erickson Sasquatch Project.

March 1, 2013 Nacogdoches, Texas – On February 13, 2013, a new web journal called DeNovo Scientific Journal appeared on the internet as Vol. 1, Winter 2013. In this first issue is only one article entitled, “Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associated Studies.” The study boils down to this description provided by the lead author, 58-year-old veterinarian Melba Ketchum, D.V.M.: “A team of eleven scientists with expertise in genetics, forensics, pathology, biochemistry and biophysics has sequenced three whole nuclear genomes from a novel, contemporary species of hominin in North America.”

The “novel, contemporary species of hominin” is Sasquatch, otherwise known as Bigfoot, Yeti, Yowie and other names around this planet. These big creatures have variously been described by eyewitnesses for many years as at least 8 to 12 feet tall and have been reported throughout the United States and other parts of the world in both hemispheres. But to date, no indisputably real, living Sasquatch – or its skeleton – has ever been publicly displayed to the world.

However, Dr. Ketchum insists this published genetic genome work is “proof” that Sasquatch exists. Further, she says the three sequenced genomes show the source is a hybrid combination of a human female and an unknown male primate that first emerged some 13,000 to 15,000 years ago. Dr. Ketchum says that Sasquatch is a “type of person,” an illusive distant cousin of the human race that has been living almost invisibly “under the noses of humans” for centuries as it has stuck to the most remote parts of the world – perhaps even underground for shelter – trying to avoid human populations.

The problem is that GenBank in the United States, part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, that was created “to provide and encourage access within the scientific community to the most up to date and comprehensive DNA sequence information” – would not accept Dr. Ketchum’s genome sequencing data. Further, no long-standing, credible science journal agreed to publish her work, so Dr. Ketchum was forced to produce the DeNovo Scientific Journal herself in order to reach the public.

Also, I contacted one of the eleven scientists referenced by name as contributing to the genome research. He confirmed that his lab did the DNA extraction for Dr. Ketchum, but he would not agree to an on-the-record interview because the controversy the DeNovo article has provoked about an alleged Sasquatch hybrid threatens the credibility and livelihood of his lab and other scientists. The Catch-22 is: his lab extracted the DNA. Other scientists did blind genome sequencing and their results match Dr. Ketchum’s. But as soon as those labs and scientists learned the DNA under study allegedly came from the unproved Sasquatch creature, then they backed off from vouching for their own work.

When I interviewed Dr. Melba Ketchum on February 14, 2013, the day after the release of her genome research at the DeNovo website, she was very frustrated. From her point of view, she worked hard for five years trying to produce credible scientific data. But then legitimate science journals simply refused to accept her work for publication, as the Gen Bank rejected her genome sequencing data.

I asked her how she came to devote the past five years of her life to the challenge of extracting alleged Sasquatch DNA and reaching her conclusion that Sasquatch exists and is a hybrid of a human female and unknown male primate.

She told me the first thing that happened was the TV show, Destination Truth, took her some samples that the TV producers thought were potentially Yeti (Himalayan version of Sasquatch and Bigfoot). At the same time, samples were delivered to her from North American Bigfoot Search, a California organization. NABS had eyewitnesses attached to their samples and Dr. Metchum became intrigued when she thought there were similarities between the North American Bigfoot and Himalayan Yeti samples.

Eventually when Dr. Ketchum summarized her genome sequencing data for publication in a scientific journal, she ran into refusals. Then on February 13, 2013, a brand new DeNovo Scientific Journal appeared on the web and I asked her if she had to produce that new journal herself in order to get her research into the public and media. She told me, “We have suffered a huge deal of scientific bias. We’ve had a lot of peer review done, which you’re not supposed to come out with. So I have to be careful. The truth will come out eventually and so it’s been a well-read paper. Right up to the last minute, I thought we had a journal’s acceptance, but that was yanked, too.”

Melba Ketchum, D.V.M., Owner, DNA Diagnostics; producer and lead author of 021313 DeNovo Scientific Journal, Nacogdoches, Texas: “We got a younger journal finally that was very interested and they targeted reviewers that were more knowledgeable in the new technology of next generation sequencing and we passed peer review with them.

And right before we were going to announce this, we had them call us and say, ‘Don’t send out your press release. We can’t do this. Our lawyer has told us that our careers will be over if we publish this paper.’ And apparently it shocked them all and we were able to acquire that journal.

IS THE DE NOVO JOURNAL OF SCIENCE PRODUCED BY YOU, DR. MELBA KETCHUM?

Not per se. We have editors coming on board and what have you that will take it. I only, you know, made the deal to acquire it, renaming it and sending out what they didn’t have the gumption to do.

SO DE NOVO IS BRAND NEW AS OF FEBRUARY 13TH ON THE WEB. THE CLASSIC JOURNALS FOR SCIENCE ARE NATURE AND SCIENCE AND JAMA
[ Journal of the American Medical Association] AND PLOS [ Public Library of Science] AND SO FORTH.

Yes.

DID YOU SEND YOUR ARTICLE OUT ABOUT THE GENOME TO ALL OF THEM?

Yes, I did. And the bottom line is that it’s novel and they don’t believe it. They don’t criticize the data. They just say they don’t believe it. There has to be another explanation. It has to be contamination. Not just one journal, but all of them and we have all the proof in the world that it’s (DNA samples) clean.

SO YOU HAD TRIED ALL OF THE TRADITIONAL JOURNALS , HAD BEEN REJECTED FOR WHATEVER THE REASONS POLITICAL OR OTHERWISE, AND THEN YOU WERE CLOSE TO HAVING A PUBLICATION. SO, OUT OF DESPERATION YOU YOURSELF PUT TOGETHER THIS DE NOVO VOLUME I, SO YOU COULD GET THIS THREE GENOME SEQUENCING INFORMATION OUT TO THE PUBLIC AND THE MEDIA.

Yes, and it’s so ridiculous that GenBank would not even take our sequences because when you do this (genetic research) you’re supposed to upload your genetic sequences to GenBank. And we tried and they wouldn’t take them because we did not have a name for it, a taxon. So I have their (GenBank) email and I tried repeatedly to contact them and call them and they would not talk to us and would not respond to our emails after that one turning us down.

YOU’RE SAYING THAT YOU RAN INTO THE CATCH-22 PROBLEM THAT IF YOU HAVE AN ANOMALOUS GENOME SEQUENCING THAT GEN BANK WOULD NOT ACCEPT YOUR DATA BECA– USE IT DID NOT FIT IN AN ALREADY PRE-ACCEPTABLE CATEGORY?

Yes, absolutely! I have their email that says exactly that. I’ve got a big target X on me!

I’M READING AGAIN FROM, ‘THE MITOCHONDRIAL DNA WAS FULLY MODERN HOMO SAPIENS INDICATING THAT THE SPECIES IS A HYBRID CROSS BETWEEN MODERN HOMO SAPIENS IN THE MATERNAL LINEAGE AND AN UNKNOWN HOMININ MALE PROGENITOR.’ CAN YOU TAKE THAT AND GO INTO YOUR RESEARCH AND HOW YOU FOUND THIS?

We had non-human hair and we have the comparison pictures in the paper giving human mitochondrial DNA. We’re forensic scientists. We washed this hair thoroughly before we extracted it. In the tissue samples, we went to the very center of the tissue where there could not have been any contamination. We did it under a (laboratory) hood. We did it completely covered. There could not have been any contamination there. There’s no way there is contamination, especially on that tissue sample. And when we did our sequencing with universal primers – meaning we tried to see if any other animal was there – all we got was human.

But yet the hair on that sample and on all the other hair samples was quite consistent and it is definitely NON-human.

Read the entire interview and listen to Linda Moulton Howe’s audio interview with Melba Ketchum here on Earthfiles.

About Craig Woolheater
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005. I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films: OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.


11 Responses to “Earthfiles Interviews Melba Ketchum”

  1. Bigtruth via Facebook responds:

    Thank you Cryptomundo

  2. springheeledjack responds:

    Whether Ketchum’s research is legit or not is now of no consequence. There’s so much skull duggery going on with this that there’s no way I’ll believe it’s legit. Between the leaks and the DeNovo website and all of the other shenanigans, I’m not buying in. She should have been patient and kept pounding the pavement to get someone credible to back her because there are too many questions and too many red flags surrounding this.

    I’m waiting for the Oxford study to come back and see what they come up with…

  3. edsbigfoot responds:

    Ohhhh boy. :)…from Dr. Ketchum’s twitter page:

    “As some of you may already know . Mr. Rick Dyer asked Dr. Ketchum to come and view the body of his bigfoot.”

    And from this FB page:

    This is Robin writing for Dr. Ketchum :
    As some of you may already know . Mr. Rick Dyer asked Dr. Ketchum to come and view the body of his bigfoot. This was made public tonight on blog talk radio. At this time Dr. Ketchum will not be commenting other than to say that she is responding and will be talking with Rick Dyer

  4. edsbigfoot responds:

    oookay…a more recent update about the body viewing stuff from here:

    Dr. Melba Ketchum

    (Troy Hudson for Dr. Ketchum) Due to the recent Blog Talk Radio invite that Dr. Ketchum has received about “going to see a body” Dr. Ketchum has received no further communication by anyone about this invite. Dr. Ketchum is aware of the invite but has no comment at this time until further information is presented.

  5. bigfootbuster responds:

    “And when we did our sequencing with universal primers – meaning we tried to see if any other animal was there – all we got was human.”

    “But yet the hair on that sample and on all the other hair samples was quite consistent and it is definitely NON-human.”

    So bigfoot is people genetically, but morphologically non-human, with breaking news of a male, giant lemur progenitor. OK. I’m with you so far, barring any further revelations in the lineage.

    So, how does the non-human, people-lemur end up with a phenotype of Chewbacca? I am certain a perfectly plausible explanation, that doesn’t involve computer animation and George Lucas will be forthcoming.

  6. slappy responds:

    Doesn’t matter how often she repeats it: bad science is bad science

  7. edsbigfoot responds:

    If you google “prehistoric giant lemur” some interesting articles come up, as well as some interesting images of skeletons etc. I don’t know if the skeletons are actual fossils or recreations, I just poked around for a minute. 🙂

  8. dconstrukt responds:

    I find this all extremely interesting… however I keep thinking… how the eff does a non human have a baby with a human…. I thought that was like impossible?

    I say just come forward, lay ALL your cards on the table… because you have nothing to hide and you believe in your evidence… and let people decide for themselves.

    There’s so much “cloak and dagger” nonsense with this, its mind-boggling.

  9. Goodfoot responds:

    bigfootbuster, THIS is where I took severe issue:

    “The “novel, contemporary species of hominin” is Sasquatch, otherwise known as Bigfoot, Yeti, Yowie and other names around this planet. These big creatures have variously been described by eyewitnesses for many years as at least 8 to 12 feet tall and have been reported throughout the United States and other parts of the world in both hemispheres.”

    It’s either naive, deliberate misunderstanding to ASSUME – and it’s the right term – that all those named creatures are one and the same, when they’re clearly not. Even a modest example of witness accounts STRONGLY suggest a half-dozen or more different creatures – and that’s not even counting the little people of the forest.

    And “8 to 12 feet DRIVES ME UP A WALL. 8 feet is theoretically workable, but anything larger (TWELVE FEET?) would have too much difficulty navigating dense woodland. Not to MENTION the physical problems pursuit to gigantism.

    Someone will bring up Gigantopithecus, and it may have merit. But my mind just has difficulty imagining it to be so.

  10. PoeticsOfBigfoot responds:

    I noticed that the drawing at the top of this post gives credit to the Erickson Project. Doesn’t look much like the Wookie pics going around to me. I wonder why.

  11. DWA responds:

    Usually when something smells this bad it’s way dead.

    If ground-breaking science comes out of this, submit a crow to me with My Hat topping. I will at least, you know, consider it.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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