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Manitoba 01 - Interlakes Region - Moose hunter shoots "bigfoot" to death - BFRO report #9552

Investigator - Curt Nelson is an independent investigator and a former member of BFRO (Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization)

My Introduction to Peter:

In the summer of 2004, I traveled to the Interlakes Region of Manitoba to meet "Peter", a man who had just turned 80 years old.

Despite his age, he was alert, intelligent, and his recall of events from 1941 was crystal clear. In fact, his memory of events over his entire life was excellent and I found him a fascinating man living in a rather unpopulated part of Canada who had had a very interesting life while raising a large family. I spent six hours with him that afternoon, sketching and listening to him relate his experience from so long ago. Later, he took my husband and me to several locations in the area where recent sightings of large hair-covered creatures had taken place.

A synopsis of the incident:

In 1941, Peter was the 17 year old son of Ukrainian immigrants in wartime Canada. He went moose hunting in November of that year, without a license, to the Basket Lake area of Manitoba. Earlier in the day, he split up with his two hunting companions and was hunting alone at that moment.

At about midday, he spotted a cow moose and shot it, but the shot was deflected by the dense woods. It hit her broadside, but at an angle only injuring her. The moose took off through the woods.

Peter followed the blood trail, hoping to finish the kill, not wanting to leave an injured animal to wander and suffer. The forest in that part of the country is so dense that moving through it is quite difficult, but he tracked her slowly following the blood droplets in the snow.

Finally, he spotted the beast about 45 yards ahead in a small clearing. He could see "all this hair" and it seemed to be standing there with its head down,. He took aim and fired, hitting it in the back, along its spine. It dropped to the ground.

Peter warily approached the animal, in case it was still alive. As he came near, walking up to the back of it, he was shocked to see that he hadn't shot the moose he was after, but had killed something else entirely - something completely unknown to him. It shocked him because this thing he had killed looked a lot like a person, but was huge and completely covered in hair. After establishing that it was dead and not an imminent threat, Peter slowly walked around the thing, taking a good look at it's features, trying to figure out if it was human or not and just what it might be. He lifted its hand with the toe of his right boot and flipped it over, taking a good look at its palm and fingers. He spent about eight to ten minutes just trying to determine what this creature was, until fear overcame him. At that point, the thought dawned on him that if there was one, there could be more of them. That was when he hurried out of there.

For decades, Peter kept this incident a secret, fearing that the authorities could charge him with murder (if this thing he killed was a very hairy human - a vagrant or hermit). He also feared that they would charge him with moose hunting without a license. And he reasoned that if he started talking about a strange and unknown species of beast living in the local forests, he would be ridiculed and he and his family might be singled out for discrimination for being Ukrainian during wartime. He kept the information to himself for all these reasons until many many years later, when he heard of other people who had come forward reporting that they had seen large hairy bipedal creatures in those same forests of Manitoba.

My interview with Peter:

After he shot the animal, Peter walked up to it from behind, as hunters will do to determine if their target is a clean kill or is just wounded and might still be dangerous. He saw the wound, which had hit it squarely in the middle of its back, dropping it instantly. He touched his boot to its foot and realized that the beast was dead. After determining that, he walked around the creature, trying to figure out just what it was. He got a fairly good look at its facial features (although they were half hidden by the longish hair hanging down across its cheek). He also saw its hand well enough to provide a very accurate description of it (he lifted it with his foot and turned it over). He described the fingernails, the colour of the hair and skin, the size of the palm and shape of the fingers. He also described the foot in some detail, the toenails, the sole, and the hair on the upper part of the foot.

Size of animal:

It was about 8 feet tall or maybe just under. Peter said that he was 6 ft. and that the animal was about two feet taller than him.

Hair colour:

Mostly uniform colour of dark brown with some reddish overtones, reddish tips and glints or highlights in the hair with the sunlight.

Hair length:

Head hair - 8" to 10" long on top of head and down back of head to below the shoulders.

Chin hair - 2, 3 and 4" long and straggly.

Body hair - 4, 5 and 6" long on body and legs.

Hair on back of arms and shoulders - 8" to 10" long.

Peter's comments:  "It was pretty haired up." He stressed how very hairy the animal was. He judged it was because of the cold climate in Manitoba, which can get down to -30 and -40 Celcius in a normal winter. The hair seemed uniformly long over its entire body, except for the longer areas on the head and the backs of the shoulders and arms and the shorter areas on the hands and feet. The hair growing on the back of the hand was shorter than the hair on the arm, and there were shorter hairs growing right down the fingers to where the nails began. The same was true of the foot. The hair that grew on the foot was shorter than on the leg, and stopped just above the sole all the way around the foot. The hair on the foot hung over the toenails to the point where it was difficult to see a lot of the toenail, although he could see enough of the ends of the toenails to describe the portion he could see. The hair on the fingers came to just the edge of the fingernails, maybe a bit over but did not obscure the fingernail at all. He also stressed how very dirty the creature was. It did not have the clean coat you would expect to see on a bear. It was not matted hair, just very dirty. The hair on the body was dark brown with reddish highlights. He pointed to the colour of his stereo case which had a vinyl wood grain finish, indicating the darkest area of this wood grain was very like the creature's hair colour. The skin that was visible, on the face and palms, was a slightly lighter brown than the hair.

Face:

Skin - medium brown, leather looking - a lighter brown than hair on body.

Mouth - wider than ours - mouth and chin stuck out the farthest, as far as the nose or more than the nose.

Chin - did not stick out quite as far - was rounded - there was hair on the chin - 2, 3 and 4" long and straggly like a messy goatee.

Nose - about 3" wide - straight with a small bridge - flattened like a negro's nose.

Eyes - glazed over in death, which made the colour indeterminate.

Peter's comments:  There was a brow ridge which overhung the eyes, but it was not really huge. The eyes were half open and glazed in death, making the eye colour difficult to determine. On the lower part of the nose, there was a slight curve to suggest nostril openings, but he couldn't see into the nostrils like you can see into a gorilla's nostrils. The face was flat, but the mouth and chin protruded as much as the nose, however the chin rounded and didn't protrude as far as the mouth. There was hair growing on the chin and brow ridge. The chin hair was straggly like a messy goatee. The way the animal was laying, with its head tipped over sideways, caused the longer hair on its head to flow down over the cheek, obscuring most of the cheek from view. He did not notice any lines on the face, or a leathery or wrinkled appearance to the skin, but he reminded me that his experience was 63 years ago and he just couldn't recall any creases or wrinkles. He was definite that it was not scary, angry, or severe looking, just very ugly. He repeated how ugly it was. He also thought the absence of lines or wrinkles might indicate that the animal was younger, but that was just his opinion after the fact.