Strange Sasquatch encounter

1983, 10:30 P.M.

Witness Observed:

This encounter did not happen to me personally, but was told to me by my sister-in-laws Father in 1983. Mr. XXXXX R. is a person that I consider to be of good character and a solid member of the community. He and I were working together on an Industrial Project in Lower South Carolina at the time of the occurrence. On weekends we would drive to our homes in Upstate South Carolina. One particular weekend the following encounter took place.

On a Friday night in late August of 1983, Mr. R was traveling home to Upstate South Carolina from his job in Georgetown, SC. This particular night it had been raining lightly most of the way and very few cars were on the road. He said he came up behind a slow moving car while driving along Hwy. 97 near Lake Wateree State Park. Although the road is mostly straight in this area, due to ground fog he didn’t pass and decided to take his time and give the car ahead some distance. Suddenly the car ahead without reason that he knew, swerved and went off the edge of the road. He, not sure what was going on and knowing someone could be hurt, immediately stopped his pick-up, grabbed a flashlight and ran to the car. He found two elderly aged women very shaken up, but unhurt. They were excited and asked him if he had seen what had almost hit them. He did not know at first what they were talking about. They explained to him, that as they were driving a deer ran out in front of their car and immediately behind it ran this large black creature that almost ran into their car. That’s when they swerved to miss it.

Mr. R. told them that due to the fog he didn’t see what it was they described. Due to the wet grass they were unable to back their car onto the road, so Mr. R offered to use a rope in his truck to pull them out. As he walked around to the back of his truck, he walked straight into this creature that the women had described. He told me that it was standing no more than 10 to 20 feet from his truck. With his flashlight he could tell it was large built and over six feet tall with dark blackish colored hair. He said it had reddish colored eyes and smelled like rotting meat.

He described, when he told the story, that the smell reminded him of a deer carcass that had been hanging up for a couple days. He froze when he saw this thing, not sure what it was or what it’s intentions were. Immediately, it turned and walked to the edge of the woods, made a grunting sound, then disappeared into the thick pines.

Later he told us that he was quite shaken from this experience. He really isn’t or wasn’t until his encounter, a believer of Bigfoot. When he returned to work on Monday morning he recalled this story to me and asked if I had seen anything strange while passing through that area.(I traveled the same route to go home also) Due to his stature in the community he has never shared this story with more than immediate family, for fear of sounding foolish. I have had no reason to doubt his story over the years and felt it was time to pass this on to the experts who research such events.