Randles Distances From Smeja
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 18th, 2012
Derek Randles and The Olympic Project distance themselves from Justin Smeja over Sierra Kills interview.
Derek Randles posted the following on July 17, 2012 on Bigfoot Forums in response to the below video interview of Justin Smeja:
Wow, where to start? I’m extremely pissed off at the moment. I should probably give it a few more days before I post, but I guess I need to vent.
Even though I decided to take this on with full commitment, I’m sick to my stomach watching this interview. I am also an avid hunter and wilderness guide. I would rather hunt deer than just about anything else. Justin’s told me this story probably 100 times at least, and each time it sickens me. If I shot something that I couldn’t identify my father would come back from the grave and beat my head in. Honestly, if I would have been there on site when it happened I would have inflicted bottley harm on Justin and done everything in my power to stop him. That being said, what’s done is done. Hopefully some good can come from this tragic event, and hopefully a law can be put in place with stiff penalty’s for shooting at a Sasquatch. As I’ve stated here on this forum before, I know Justin feels bad about what he’s done and would hit the rewind button if he could.
A couple months ago I asked Justin to please not do anymore interviews until the study was complete. Apparently he didn’t want to take my advise. He speaks very un-filtered and in a graphic nature and it can be very alarming. It’s not that I wanted him to hold the truth back, I was just concerned for his safety. Every time he opens his mouth people attack. People are mad at him for doing it, and they get mad at me for working with him. This has been difficult to say the least. I’ve always conducted my research with honesty and integrity, but this event has stretched my reputation and my nerves to their very limit.
There are a few things I’d like to clarify about this interview that are not consistent with his statements to me. Most of it was dead on, but he never told me that he wanted to shoot a small one, and was trying to resist the temptation. He told me that it was when he started feeling threatened and it started moving it’s shoulders up and down that he decided to shoot. That might have been a deal breaker for me. That makes me ill. He never told me that he thought the large one was a man in a suit, he only said that’s what his partner said. He told me that he thought it was either a very strange large bear, or a monster. That too might have been a deal breaker. Also, I NEVER told him we’d fill his pockets full of money. I did tell him that there could be significant money involved if he were to recover a body. That goes without saying. I also told him that the authorities would be contacted if a body was recovered. I never dangled a bag of money in front of his face and said fetch!
Yes, the flesh sample has been outsourced to another prominent lab, and the results are looking good so far. This was not my doing. I told Melba we’d wait and that’s what I meant. It was done anyways. I knew Justin wanted to do this, and he is his own man, but I did convince him to wait until May. He took it upon himself to outsource it. If the results continue to look positive it will only help and back up Melbas study. I had nothing to do with it, and if it were up to me I’d have waited.
Justin, I know you’ll be reading this. A lot of people are happy you did this interview. I for one am not. You present yourself like a gun toting redneck idiot. I’m sorry if this offends you, but I can’t stand it any longer. It simply goes against everything I’m about. Please send the cameras back, you are officially out of the Olympic ProjectDerek Randles
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.
Is this possible backtracking and covering one`s a*s in case of legal ramifications ?
P.S. I personally have thought for a while the old argument of kill or not kill both to prove it and to finally hopefully once proven to enact some laws to protect it (a strange dichotomy I know) and for 50% of the time i say leave it alone and if necessary never prove it, and for the other 50% of the time the exact opposite, not easy to work out in your own head I think.
LOL, acting like this is some political drama. Oh brother.
marcodufur: “Is this possible backtracking and covering one`s a*s in case of legal ramifications ?”
Sounds more like genuine revulsion to me (though my own personal observation of boasters’s they’re often try’n’o get a pay off in attention and general notoriety in anticipation of their story eventually unravelling [the guy who knows he really HAS won the ‘lottery”s usually hiding somewhere shaking like a leaf almost unable to credit the extraordinary thing that’s happened knowing some sort of tornado’s about to rip through his life]).
Surely though the one thing everyone’s agreed on’s Bigfoot/Sasquatch ain’t ten a penny on ebay and therefore killing one’s only go’n’o make them even more reclusive and maybe even extinct if it’s the last viable male or female in which case we’re talking genocide so the defense of “It rushed me!” flies out the window when you’ve deliberately intruded on and imperiled the ecosystem of a clearly delicately poised species.
The “driver’s” version of events, their on-going exchange as things unfolded and his articulation of his emotional conflict associated with the described actions set the moral benchmark. The driver’s perspective pretty much allows us to walk in Junstin’s shoes and decide for ourselves the right course of action. Justin has not disputed the driver’s perspective. Anyone who failed to distance himself once these joint interviews came out, just didn’t want to look beyond the opportunity at hand. Justin’s description of his actions, true or not, are simply repugnant.
How can anyone be pissed about something that never happened. Nobody shot a Bigfoot or Bigfoot baby, its all BS. This story has changed so many times its not even worth bringing up the inconsistencies anymore. First there were 2 bodies, then the story changed to they couldn’t find the bodies, and then the steak story. I am sure I missed a few. Anyway I ain’t buying any of it. Including the DNA testing that is taking years to complete. I am NOT saying Bigfoot does not exist but I am saying this, Mr. Smeja spins a good yarn but he never shot a freaking Bigfoot.
@whiteriverfisherman – I totally concur with you. He is not the first nor will he be the last to “spin a good yarn” but never actually shooting a freaking Bigfoot. There was some guy a year or two ago who a similar yarn, even describing the colors of the fur of the two he claimed to have shot and where he buried them (supposedly out of fear of being charged for murder). Much like George Costanza of Seinfeld he took his yarn as far as he could even declaring he would take the radio host to the spot with a backhoe to dig up the bones. At the last minute though, he claimed he was threatened by the government (CIA) that he better tell them where the bones were (which he did) and that was how the story ended. Later though, he admitted to being a compulsive liar. Smeja is the same type of character IMO, beyond dispute.
Everyone knows it’s just more BF/BS
What would Burt Gummer do?
Randles shouldn’t be surprised. A falling out was always likely. Smeja is a selfish individual, a lone wolf who does his own things in his own way. The shooting itself was a red flag that Justin was not a controlled character, and it was arrogant on Randles part to think he could be a puppeteer to Smeja’s puppet.
[snort]
HUHNHOOWHA?
[looks around; rolls over; goes back to sleep]
Like I said, “true or not”…it’s a troubling story due to the pathological thinking involved. If there is a DNA study and a study sample was procured as a described, it could very well disualify from publication any data related to that sample. This story creates an extreme ethical dilemma for the study and its publisher. In this day and age, you pretty much can’t exterminate an animal for scientific study without proper permits and independent oversight.
Bigfoot doesn’t exist in the eyes of the Law and in the eyes of scientists. Therefore killing one wouldn’t require a permit etc because to everyone else besides this small group of us who believe, it doesn’t exist.
@whiteriverfisherman and @William- You’re trying to shut the door after the horse got out. IF there is a tall tale, and there is no Bigfoot, there’s no evidence, and Randles was complicit in a hoax, then there is no reason for the two of you to post on a BIGFOOT forum. Now, let’s discuss the facts…
No matter how reprehensible the shooting was, a bigfoot was dead, according to several in the bigfoot community. If so, could one of ya’ll get a chunk of that steak from Smegma, and get it to someone willing to verify that it IS bigfoot? This is a separate issue than Dr. Ketchum’s DNA scientific paper, this is someone saying BIGFOOT IS REAL, in a way that can be understood by journalists and the general public everywhere.
Let’s get this party started! Enuf beatin’ around in the bush!
ashkenaz:
Actually, many states’ hunting regulations would make shooting a sasquatch, or a Nessie, or a Creature From the Black Lagoon, illegal.
Because, and rightly, many states’ hunting regs forbid the taking of anything not explicity mentioned in the regulations.
In other words, if you shoot something, it’s illegal if that thing isn’t named in the regs.
This idiot is lying
I have heard him on a few interviews now, and he is simply a LIAR!
If anything, he some how came across a dead primate like a baboon or monkey at a zoo, wildlife rescue, or some place that takes in dead or abandon pets/animals. He may just have a buddy with a pet monkey that died. If his DNA samples come back as primate, that will explain it
Justin and some other idiot friend decide to take a piece of this dead monkey and tell everyone it is from a Bigfoot he shot in the woods. Big joke, hoax, or attempt to make money
He sounds exactly like the Georgia boys when they told their story. Swear they are telling the truth, but lying every second. One of them was an ex cop, so connections with law enforcement has no bearing on truth, as with Justin saying his brother is a cop
There are a million holes in his story, but two things he said in this interview prove he is lying.
1. He in this interview admit to having a cell phone with a camera. There is NO REASON ON EARTH why he did not take a picture of the small animal before he shot it…none. He is lying if he makes ANY EXC– USE why he did not take a picture. He claims no one would believe him? well, pictures would add to his credibility if he actually had that thought
2. In an earlier interview that was posted here months ago, Justin claimed that before he shot the small one, he said it looked like a “small black child’. In this interview he claims they looked “nasty”? He is lying and he cannot remember his own lies
“If” the DNA labs are confused with the results they may or may not be getting, it is because the samples that Justin is supplying are from some real primate flesh, in my opinion. A “quarter size” piece of dead monkey
The interviewer here Ro Sahebi is just as big an idiot. Simple question…why didnt you take the little one with you after shooting it for that very reason?
A good interviewer can crack this liar in his own lies, but so far, EVERY STUPID QUESTION makes it so easy for this idiot Justin Smeja to keep up his lie…in my opinion
In time, when it comes time to put up or shut up, this moron will admit he was just fooling around with all the Bigfoot believers, and that his story was just a big joke.
I hope he will suffer the same fate as the Georgia Boys…going through the rest of their lives looking like the IDIOTS they all are
All of the comments above are in my opinion only.