Hiker’s Glimpse Of Mysterious Figure Prompts Bigfoot Speculation In New York

NEW YORK — A woman hiking in a remote part of Onondaga County on Aug. 10 spotted an unusual figure wading in a marshy pond. Now, the photos she took of it are prompting widespread debate about whether she saw a Bigfoot, a skinny-dipping human, or something else entirely.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, or BFRO, and its founder and president Matt Moneymaker launched an investigation into the sighting of what it is calling the “Syracuse Figure.”

Moneymaker was one of the stars of the long-running former Animal Planet series “Finding Bigfoot.”

The organization posted an in-depth description of the witness’ account and its investigation on BFRO’s website.

The witness, identified only as “K.D.” in the BFRO report to protect her privacy, said she didn’t have to work Aug. 10, and she decided it was a beautiful day for a hike.

When she arrived at the Onondaga County site around 1 p.m., the parking lot was empty. She walked on a path to get to a view of a pond.

“When I reached the pond I looked straight out and took a picture of the whole pond with the surrounding area,” the woman reported. “As I looked to the left I realized there was someone wading in the pond. I was instantly unnerved and wondering what the heck was going on. I snapped a couple photos, and it seemed to snap its head around and look right at me in such a strange way that I got creeped out even more.”

She estimated the figure was about 240 feet away, and she initially thought it was a naked man wading along the edge of the pond.

The witness said she started walking in the opposite direction, back toward the parking lot. At one point, she passed a family of three, but none matched the figure she had seen. Seeing other people relieved her anxiety somewhat, and when she got back to the lot, it had two vehicles, hers and the family’s, the BFRO site says.

She then decided to walk toward the pond’s edge to see if anyone was there, but there wasn’t. A small sign is posted prohibiting swimming or wading, according to the witness.

She reported getting a “really creepy feeling” and decided to walk back to the parking lot. She ultimately decided to go back to her car and go home.

“When I got home and started looking at my photos from the day I discovered that the photo of the person I had seen wading in the pond looked very odd and strange to me,” the witness reported. “It really looked inhuman.”

She showed the pictures to a friend, who thought it was Bigfoot and got in contact with the BFRO.

A BFRO investigator, identified as “Benjamin C.,” met with the witness, a woman in her 50s who has lived in central upstate New York for 25 years, shortly afterward. The investigator then compiled a report. The location of the sighting is a “glacial carved valley with a shallow pond and boggy land surrounded by steep mountains,” BRFO’s website says.

“She stated adamantly that she had ‘never seen anything like this before,’” the report states.

The investigator went with the witness back to the site, where they tried to recreate the photos to help determine the height and build of the figure. The witness stood where she had been, and they used walkie-talkies so she could guide the investigator to where the figure had been, according to the report.

Using the investigator’s known height and the diameter of a tree, the investigator concluded the unknown figure was about four feet nine inches tall, the report states.

The location of the figure was difficult, but not impossible, for the investigator to reach, due to dense reeds, brush, deep mud and thorny plants, according to the BFRO.

The investigator noted the figure in the photographs has a “visible brow ridge,” unlike modern humans, but its height seems small for an adult sasquatch. The investigator wrote, “it is just as likely, if not more so, that the figure seen was a juvenile sasquatch.”

“It is in this investigator’s opinion that the witness did see and photograph a sasquatch,” the report states. “However, due to the distance the photo was taken, we cannot rule out the extreme improbability that this was an elderly human wading in this marshy pond. At minimum, this investigator strongly feels that the preponderance of evidence argues against the figure in the photos being human.”

Moneymaker said what appears to be loose skin hanging from the figure may be wet fur lying flat.

“This relatively remote marshy pond is not a place where people would want to skinny dip,” Moneymaker said.

According to Moneymaker, BFRO is not releasing the exact location yet, because if it was a person in the photos, they could provide proof they were there by telling the location.

So far, no one has come forward claiming to be the Syracuse Figure, according to Moneymaker.

Check out all the images and the complete report at BFRO.net.