Bigfoot Hunt Turns Tragic on Brush Mountain, Pennsylvania
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 7th, 2006
Searching for Bigfoot is not a recreational activity that should be taken lightly.
Our thoughts and condolences to the families involved. We congratulate the local press for not using the often-employed “ridicule factor” in the reporting of this story. It should be a cautionary tale for anyone exploring areas that may experience adverse weather conditions.
Near Greenwood, Pennsylvania, two individuals, Paul Diehl, 53, and Joe Quirin, 47, decided to go looking for Bigfoot on Brush Mountain. On Thursday, January 5, 2005, Mr. Diehl was found dead on an old fire trail, about a half-mile from Utah Road and LaSalle Lane.
The cause of death, at this time, has been related to alcohol-related hypothermia. Both had decided to go camping on the trail but were ill-prepared for the elements.
The Logan Township area, still snow covered, reached freezing temperatures at night, and police reported the men did not take warm clothing, sleeping bags or a tent.
Hunters who had seen the men on Wednesday, Janurary 4th, were told by Diehl and Quirin that they were in the area looking for Bigfoot. They appeared to be starting a fire to keep themselves warm.
Local hunters were responsible for finding them again, on the 5th of January and brought out them out. Law enforcement officials said the cold evening temperatures, coupled with the use of alcohol, led to Paul Diehl’s death that Wednesday night.
Both are said to have been mentally-challenged individuals living at Blair House in Altoona.
When Quirin was found, he was incoherent, as well as suffering from hypothermia. On the 6th, he was listed in fair condition, upgraded from critical, at the Altoona Regional Health System hospital in Altoona.
Information comes from a combination of reports from the Altoona Mirror, WJAC-TV news, and the Associated Press.
“Blair House” is an organization with two locations in the same complex. One provides permanent apartments for mental health consumers. The other is a crisis residence that provides twenty-four availability of crisis residence for individuals with mental health difficulties. Respite services are offered as well as transitional living until permanent housing is found.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
If these guys were mentally handicapped, living in a group home, how the hell did they get out there in the first place? It think there’s more to this story than we see reported here.
If those guys HAD seen a Bigfoot would anyone have believed them (being drunk & mentally handicapped?)
Actually, some people feel that anyone who searches for Bigfoot is mentally ill. I suppose there is a bit of relativity involved here.
i guess the previous posters said it all.
That is certainly a tragedy, and its unfortunate that cryptozoology was in any way connected.
Unfortunately there are people that are that ignorant. I guess we better get mental health evaluations for the experts that perform the DNA analysis, the experts that analyzed the vocalizations, the experts that analyzed the dermal ridges, etc, etc, etc….. Funny that a lot of these peoples’ opinions can be considered evidence in courts, but when they give an opinion that conflicts with certain skeptics’ uninformed worldviews they suddenly become suspect.
Oops, the blog software cut out a quote I pasted above because I had it set apart in html arrows.
The following quote was supposed to appear between the 1st and 2nd paragraphs:
“Actually, some people feel that anyone who searches for Bigfoot is mentally ill.”
I was referring to the skeptics that believe anyone that would entertain the existence of cryptids are mentally ill as “ignorant”, not anyone else.
I personally think its a shame that these indivduals would be unsupervised long enough to get themselves into such a life threatening situation,but that’s not what legitimit researchers are about. We at EPRN investigate real sightings and know how to handle evidence and ourselves in the wild. KPH
Apologies for posting this comment on the wrong article, but I mistaking discovered ur website by the bigfoot article on brush mountain in greenwood and the 2 handicapped persons involved. Anyways, I grew up on brush mountain (outside Altoona) before the new highway (I99) was extended to Duncansville/State College, and as a kid, bigfoot(s) were spotted in brush mountain and were reported in the local newspaper (Altoona Mirror) with a picture of a footprint. If u want to do some digging, this info should be verifiable. Also, I had an Uncle spot a bigfoot from a tree stand on Lilly Mountain (near Cresson, Pa) and he swears up & down that he saw this “bigfoot” and his brother and a couple other guys had to take him out of the woods b/c he was paralyzed with fear. He quit hunting b/c of this incidence. His brother told me (briefly) that it was like the stories, but oddly he smelled it before he actuallly saw it. He said it smelled like rotten eggs. The twister to his story is that his gun jammed, so he couldn’t shoot it.