July 18, 2012

Randles Distances From Smeja

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

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Sasquatch, Skeptical Discussions, Videos