Homeowner shoots a Sasquatch

Stark County Man shoots at what he describes was a sasquatch.
Investigated by Paul Hayes (The Genoskwa Project – Ohio Division)

I received a report of a gentleman shooting at what he described was a sasquatch that was in his backyard. I contacted the gentleman and completed an investigation on his property located in SE Stark County Ohio. The investigation was completed June 8th 2015. Date of incident was the night of June 7th 2015. The couple would like to remain anonymous per their request.On the night of June 7th the gentleman’s wife was relaxing on the patio that was located on the south side of the residence in the late evening while the husband was in the house on the second level relaxing in the bedroom watching TV and he had received a text message from his wife that she heard loud noises coming from the side of the garage where the trash can was located and advised him to come see what it was.

The gentleman stated that he got his .44 caliber handgun from his gun safe and loaded it and headed down stairs and out the door to the side of the garage where the noises had come from. He stated when he got there the only thing he found was the trash can had been tampered with and he normally keeps a tire on the lid to keep out small rodents but he noticed the tire had been moved. He then walked to the rear of the garage to the backyard and to his left he heard loud foot steps and grunting and he also stated that he had seen a large silhouette.

The gentleman proceeded back to the driveway and got in his truck and drove north through the backyard to a small access road with a bridge to get to the rear portion of his backyard because the yard is divided by a small creek approximately eight feet wide. Once he crossed the bridge he immediately turned right heading south through his yard and once he got to the edge of the yard he turned left and aimed his headlights into the wooded area he saw what he described as a huge upright walking creature  approximately seven feet in height and covered in hair standing just inside of the tree line. He also stated that once the headlights of his truck shined on the subject he said it took a step to it’s right and that’s when he fired his gun possibly hitting it in the left shoulder. I did also ask him if the creature screamed or made any noise after he discharged his gun and he did say that he didn’t know because after he discharged the weapon close to the cab of the truck his ears was ringing and could not hear anything. The creature ran off into the wooded area at a fast pace.I talked to the witness and asked him several questions concerning the incident.

I do believe that he had a class A encounter on his property that night. I looked at the property and he did show me where the trash can is located and it cannot be seen from the patio area and there is no outside light on that part of the garage. The distance between the patio and the trash can is approximately 25 yards. I did look at the trash can and tire for hair samples or prints and I didn’t find any. I also searched the area around the garage and didn’t find any prints in the immediate area but the ground was hard and that area is covered with a car port.I proceeded to the rear portion of the backyard to the area of where he said the creature was standing when he shot at it and we did find a print in the soil but it did not look fresh but it measured twelve inches long, six inches across the front of the foot and four inches across the heel. I also did check the area for any type of blood samples on the leaves and grass and found nothing but it did rain the next day before I could get there to investigate. We did look through the wooded area and did find vegetation that was bent over where something had went through.

Approximately one hundred yards north of the shooting area a team mate found two prints in the soil and we measured them as well and came up with the same measurements (twelve by six by four).The witness did state that his intentions were not to kill it but scare it away from the property because of the safety of him and his family.The weather that night was fairly warm and partly cloudy with little to no precipitation