“Most Convincing Evidence of Bigfoot” News Conference Today!
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 23rd, 2011
The press conference is today!
When: June 23, 2011 at 4:00 pm (Pacific)
Where: Piccadilly Inn, Banquet Hall
5115 E. McKinley Ave
Fresno, Calif. 93727
559-251-6000 fax-559-251-6956
Directly across from Fresno Yosemite International Airport
Update: Guy Edwards of Bigfoot Lunch Club advises that the press conference will be broadcast online here.
Are any Cryptomundians in the area planning to attend today?
Be sure to take photos, audio, video, notes and file with Cryptomundo.
The image made into a thumbnail photo actually shows the open-mouthed creature’s head, turned to the left from the viewer’s point of view, a bit better:
Meanwhile, here is updated information regarding the upcoming press conference to be held later today:
Paranormal group seeks help confirming ‘Bigfoot DNA’
A California paranormal group claims to have DNA samples of Bigfoot — concrete evidence of the legendary creature’s existence — but they want help authenticating them.
Members of the Sanger Paranormal Society will call upon the public to donate money and resources to their Bigfoot research effort at a Thursday afternoon news conference in Fresno, Calif.
The society’s founder, Jeffrey Gonzalez, plans to present what he believes is an impression of the creature’s face, pressed into two windows on the left-hand side of his pickup truck.
Each windowpane print depicts a seven-inch long pair of lips and a five-inch wide set of nostrils, Gonzalez told CTV.ca in a phone conversation from Fresno.
“We also found a 12-inch long footprint near the car,” said Gonzalez, who added that he’s preserved the samples in a climate-controlled room.
The prints were discovered 5,500 feet above ground at California’s High Sierra mountain range during a six-person Sasquatch hunting expedition, said Gonzalez.
“A forensic expert has swabbed the prints for DNA and taken photographs on scene,” said Gonzalez. “Now all we need to do is eliminate the possibility of it being another animal.”
Gonzalez said he hopes that an anthropologist or anyone with a database of animal DNA steps forward to help authenticate their samples.
“It’s not a hoax, it’s not a joke; we have a reputation to protect,” said Gonzalez, who works as a technician for AT&T.
Bigfoot enthusiasts became the brunt of many jokes in 2008 when two hikers in Georgia purported to have the creature’s body in a freezer. Their hairy corpse turned out to be a rubber hoax.
For Martin Evison, the only place Bigfoot exists is in folklore.
The University of Toronto anthropology professor said he won’t consider the possibility of Sasquatch’s existence without seeing the creature himself.
“We have so much technology now, if this thing existed we would have found it already,” Evison told CTV.ca.
“I don’t even bother thinking about Bigfoot. I have better things to do.”CTV.ca News
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.
I’m not feeling too optimistic about this one. Could you even extract a DNA sequence from a handprint on glass?
Eh…. I’m not holding my breath. I hope I am wrong, bit this sounds like another Bigfoot scandal.
“Members of the Sanger Paranormal Society will call upon the public to donate money and resources to their Bigfoot research effort at a Thursday afternoon news conference in Fresno, Calif.”
Of course they are.
The DNA evidence will only be inconclusive even if it is a Bigfoot body print, which I do not believe it is. One has to have a verified sample to compare the sample to. I do not understand how or why they think this is such a significant find. I think the tracks found in New Mexico, if documented, would be much more significant than this alleged face print.
Hopefully they will prove me wrong.
I live in Fresno and was contacted by Gonzalez so I’m going to go. But I’ll be honest, the fact that they are asking for funding from the public has me a bit worried. I understand that it is a huge cost to do a DNA sequencing, but why not reach out to the crypto community instead? I remembering hearing an interview of Tom Biscardi on Spooky Southcoast where Matt Moniz had offered Tom the chance to do the DNA sequencing back when the Georgia hoax happened but Biscardi said he didn’t remember being offered that (shocking). I wonder if something similar could be done in this instance? Because if this isn’t as conclusive as the claims are being made, it’s going to be labeled as another hoax. In my opinion anyways.
Looking forward to the conference. It’ll be streaming live at 4 p.m. Pacific time.
Maybe they’ll surprise us.
For what it’s worth, I enhanced the image the best I could on my blog.
ANY DNA lab would have a database to compare results to; its part of the effing job. You don’t need an anthropologist to do that, (most anthro’s wouldn’t know how to run a DNA sample).
As for gathering DNA from the print – maybe epithelial cells with the oil/sweat/grease that allowed the imprint to be made. But its not a lot to go on.
Now, besides the cynic in me going ‘asking for donations, huh?’ the other thing that raises my alarms is – how can you have a press conference showing evidence of Bigfoot when YOU don’t have any yet. – If no DNA has been recovered and analyzed, then all you have is a smear on a car window. Some yutz covered in sunscreen could do that.
I can just picture it. They left the vehicle stuffed with food and some stoner dude comes along and presses himself against the window to see what else they left sitting out. Sees nothing interesting and walks off.
As for the 12 inch footprint, I am NOT impressed. I just about clear 5’3″ and my foot is 9 inches, my sons are considerably larger than that.
I hope no one forgot to bring the kazoos and balloons.
I live about 30 minutes away from Fresno and I am really considering going to this thing. I’m not impressed so far, but maybe there’s more to it. Could be fun.
R.W.Ridley:-
A stunning enhancement! The 3D photographic qualities of the face are almost impossible to believe, given it‘s from a face pushed against a flat pane of glass.
But I do look forward with an open mind to all of the further analysis and scrutiny that will follow concerning this image and the rest of Jefferey Gonzales ‘evidence’ that will be presented shortly.
I believe he’s got the larger adult face print to show, hair samples have apparently been recovered, and they may have done a DNA swab from the ‘tongue print’
It’s a great feeling getting your hopes up! …We shall see!!!
Watching the live stream, I am NOT impressed. He’s been showing blurry videos and claiming ‘this is not a bear’ yet offers no proof. In fact he’s misspoken at least once regarding the colors of Bigfoot and said brown bears instead of Bigfoot.
Claims they have been ‘tracking’ this particular Bigfoot for over 8 years. They heard nothing odd the night of the incident until 1am when it started to rain and snow; at which point they discussed packing up so they didn’t get snowed in but one fellow nixed that stating they would more than likely get stuck on the road due to poor conditions. Snow picked up during the day and they decided they HAD to leave but one of the jeeps would not turn over (dead battery) and so they left the jeep behind as well as the Ford F-150 as they didn’t think the truck would make it through the dirt roads. They jumped into a 4×4 and it took 1-1.5 hours to get out due to having to push as they got stuck several times.
He claims he left his laptop, food and equipment in truck and on Memorial Day called his friend with 4×4 and asked him to drive him back and accompany him to the campsite due to fear of bears being there.
–
My daughter called with a semi emergency so I missed a bit here – something about a huge log blocking the road but no drag marks or anything showing how the log got there – (not sure why this matters, as any falling snow would obscure drag or rolling marks).
–
When they got to the campsite they noticed disturbances and looked around. Noticed that nothing in the truck bed was disturbed but did notice smears on the windows.
I finished watching the conference until they started to wrap it up. Interesting find and could very well be Bigfoot related. I’m not convinced thought that DNA lifted from the windows would be all conclusive. Your really need very clear mitochondrial DNA for proof positive which can’t be challenged.
But since no known samples from the species are available it’s the proverbial chicken and the egg. You still need a body….
OMG they are showing the entire side of the car now; those are paw prints. And there are ‘hair swipes’ along the side of the vehicle, no mention of actual hair samples but the forensic guy did photograph and swab the area. He took DNA samples (swabs) from three area of the truck.
Dermal ridges being discussed now; this guy is stating the only reason we can pick up glass is due to our ridges (?) but none were found on the truck. Now they are doing photo manipulation to try and determine depth, measurements, etc. And comparing it to a photo of a bear, science and math are lacking here. Apparently the one thing that makes him think it is not a bear is there is no impression of hair on the face smear. By his measurements the face smear most closely matches a gorilla. However he is now stating that he is not a biologist and has no zoology experience annnnnddddd now they go into ‘which is why we need to find experts who are willing to verify our findings’ even as the forensic guy states he can’t say with any authority WHAT the smear is, it could be anything.
LOL, they made CDs to send home with the press. They want to map DNA to see if it is a primate or bear and they need to go to a facility that specalizes in this sort of test which could cost thousands of dollars. He’s stating that he’s already paid to have his windows removed from the truck and stored until they can do a DNA test (Stresses windows removed and new ones place as his personal expense).
States that EVERY TIME they go to this particular spot they ALWAYS find some sort of evidence. They need DNA testing and better equipment.
PRESS asks “what is you interest in Bigfoot”
Fellow states he’s always been interested in bigfoot, ghosts, UFOs….In Search of was a major influence on him. Stresses that they’ve spend hundred of hours of ‘their own time’ researching this and now they need assistance. (he does sound sincere)
PRESS – asks forensic man “is it your professional opinion that is a mouth and a nose or is this speculation. Do you KNOW there is DNA on the window.”
Forensic guy responds: It appears to be a facial print doing classic facial profile to narrow down what it might be. I would not testify in court as to what it is. As far as DNA goes, DNA is either here or its not, even in collecting DNA samples from crime scene we don’t know if we collected DNA or not, that is where we are now. We need it to be tested and I don’t have the ability or knowledge to do this.
PRESS when you did testing around car for foot prints did you find any hair samples.
“There was no visible footprints, hairs or damage to the truck.”
“No idea as to the height of the creature as it ‘appears’ the creature was stooped down to look inside the truck.”
One of the fellows is now stating that the roads were impassable (so how did they get back up?) so he knows it could not have been a human. And he is completely ruling out a bear as none of the food in the back was touched. He is ruling out a hoax as no one knew they were there, and no one knew that they were looking for Bigfoot.
I’ve been watching the stream for an hour now and I think that they are very sincere, and seem to be honestly excited and curious to find out what they have. I don’t think it’s a scam or hoax. It might come back that they don’t have anything substantial. Time will tell. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, hopefully they can get the DNA tested.
Press: What if nothing comes back, if no DNA was recovered.
Main fellow won’t even accept that possibility. Something MUST have been recovered.
Press: Do you have a dollar amount you’re looking for.
SRS: I don’t know how much a particular test costs, I’m guessing a ballpark figure of 5k. But we are not in this for the money, we just want this tested to know what it is. I just want to find out the truth.
Press: I share your enthuisam, I am I life long bigfooter but you mentioned rain and snow, yet you didn’t find any footprints or dermal ridges on the car. And the area of the Sierra could it support a Bigfoot.
SRS -forensic guy jumps in with “I did not examine the truck on scene, I examined it later in the valley”
SRS the pictures were taken 2 days later.
Press: so evidence could have been lost when you brought the truck back.
SRS is talking about trail cams and the amount of wildlife they’ve photographed. Many different shades of bears and a few unidentifiable animals. Stresses the fact that where they were is very remote. Logging roads, not some place a person would bring their family to camp. Stresses that when they abandoned the vehicles due to the weather they left expensive things behind. If someone had been there they would have made off with thousands of dollars of camera’s, laptops, etc. also stressing the bad weather, how one of the men had frost bite on two of his fingers.
looks like less than a dozen (maybe closer to 1/2 dozen) press showed up.
Press asking about primates and the likelihood of a KNOWN primate surviving there.
Now another press member is sharing his experience near Fort Bragg and how something was screaming at him in ’69 and chasing him out of the woods. Mentions how in ’71 a news show did a report on the area and they recorded the same sound as he heard that chased him out.
Press: Do you have a company or facility who is capable of doing this testing?
SPS: we are looking for one at this time.
Press: if you were looking for bigfoot why didn’t you cast the footprints you found later, why did you drive the truck down and wait to collect the evidence?
SPS: we needed to get the truck out of there, I had all my equipment in it. We had no opportunity to collect at that time and when we contacted the forensic fellow who needed to research how to collect this sort of evidence. Hingsight being 20/20 I would have done things differently. (I wondered this myself, and why no tape measure along with his equipment? Why only a cellphone to take pics?)
Press: Asking about the weather and why in rainy, snowy weather would there not be any footprints.
SPS this is not normal soil, soft dirt. This is hard. But the cold may have helped preserve DNA.
*looks like a press member has grown tired, walked up and took two mikes off the table and smirked on his way back to the gallery*
Press: once again pressing them on why evidence wasn’t collected on site.
SPS there is no cell service up there and I doubt he could have gotten up to us in the weather conditions. Not to mention there was another storm coming and we wanted to get out of there.
PRESS MENTIONED FINDING BIGFOOT and why didn’t they contact them.
SPS: yes, we do know of them they are called the BFRO
suddenly they are ending the conference and asking them to remember that they are not the only ppl searching for bigfoot.
Lots of chatter and some giggling from the audience…..oh lord, someone talking about not being able to find jeans that fit (man, btw, not lady). Someone is up talking to the fellows for quite a while now, they need to turn off the camera and sound.
ok so i just finished watching the stream and have a couple questions, now i kind of skipped ahead a couple minutes here and there, but the photo they were using to compare to a bear and get dna from is not the one featured above right? in fact i didnt see that photo at all, the one they were using looked like nothing to me…….Also why do you hold a “major” press conference asking for donations or someone to fund the DNA testing and not CALL A LAB TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST!!! That never occured to them?? Just gonna throw the collection plate out and hope for the best? Very strange.
$5000??? Doesn’t sound right, but whatever… How about going to a university? Give the samples to student groups. Kills two birds with one stone…they get DNA results and students get to practice.
Either way, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting to hear them say it is bigfoot. It was likely a hoax or something like a bear.
I love the fact that the minute something is posted on this site, everyone just jumps in the back of the skeptical flat bed (a few exceptions of course), like everyone here is some sort of professional and knows so much. If that is the case, then why don’t you volunteer your services. Not everyone who goes cryptid hunting is a biologist, anthropologist or some PHD in some science or another. I can’t stand when I hear the voice of the cynic rising above those that just want answers. I had to read through posts and post of cynics trying to keep my food down. All in all, I thought is was one of the better pieces put together. They could be hoaxing and they could be doing it for the money, but we won’t know that if they’re shot down before they even fly.
This is the internet Lumbarjack03. Cynicism is our default position, particularly where requests for money are concerned.
Do I think the SPS is sincere in their belief and their stated facts: yes I do. Do I think they are correct in their belief and stated facts: I don’t know. There are far to many ‘huh’ moments for me to just jump in and wholeheartedly endorse them (or send them some funds). As I have stated on previous threads, I always play the devil against the deep blue sea. If a story/evidence passes my initial (granted skeptical) BS detector, then I go in for further proof and cautious optimism.
However simply making a statement like, “This is not a bear” when showing a fuzzy video of something large and dark moving in the trees or on the mountainside without having evidence to back up WHY it could not possibly be a bear is silly, and to believe it simply because someone says so is idiotic. The common catchphrase on the internet is “Pics or it didn’t happen” aka, show me proof if you want me to believe you. This attitude is a good one to have, it stops people from being suckered in by every phishing scheme and deposed prince in Nigeria.
I am sorry if our cynicism is so disturbing to you that you lose your ability to keep down nourishment, but it is what it is. And several of the commentors here DO go out into the field. Many of us do have degrees and work experience that clues us in as to how easy things are to fake/test. Many of the comments here are simply common sense questions that anyone should be asking.
Did a quick Google, Family Tree DNA specializes in primate (including human) DNA testing. They have database of several chimp and bonobos I see no info regarding gorillas. They are particularly focusing on yDNA to pick apart the differences between Chimpanzee, Bonobo and Humans. They have been involved in this for 2+ years and accept donations to ‘close cousins’ to specifically test primate DNA. (aka, they have a database to compare to)
The most expensive test on this site is comprehensive human and that is $837 USD. I imagine many universities and maybe even a natural history museum or two would be willing to waive a fee if they are included in the press if the testing is positive for an unknown primate species. It if turns out to be a bear then the grad students get a lesson in typing and sorting unknown DNA with a random sample.
Truthfully, SPS may even be able to get underwriting for these tests from several different sources including networks or production companies who are willing to turn it into a 1-2 hour special regardless of the outcome. The men who spoke at the press conference did seem personable and well spoken, I think they could pull off a one-time special on one of the cable channels.