Subscription Center
Aug 19, 2008 07:55 PM | 17
The jig is up for the two hikers from Georgia who said they happened upon a body of a Sasquatch.
It didn’t exactly take a crack team of forensics investigators to identify the "cadaver."
When confronted about their deception over the weekend, Rick Dyer and Mathew Whitton apparently admitted that their prize finding is really a costume. The deceptive duo has since run off with an undisclosed sum of advance money they got from Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., the group that held Friday’s ridiculed press conference in Palo Alto, Calif.
The details of the hoax have emerged in statement posted on Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.’s Web site, written by fellow Bigfoot aficionado Steve Kulls, the executive director of Squatchdetective.com. Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., had asked him to help examine the Bigfoot corpse on Saturday the 16th, which is still at an undisclosed location.
Here’s a play-by-play of CSI: Sasquatch:
When the group of several investigators got to the freezer holding the alleged body, they estimated its hairy contents “weighed over 1,500 pounds and it would take several days or longer to thaw completely,” so they called it a night.
The next day, Kulls and others plucked off a bit of hair exposed as the ice melted. Thinking it looked suspicious, Kulls and his colleagues then burned the hair, noting that “the sample melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair.” Tom Biscardi, the CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., then gave the investigators permission to rapidly thaw the body with heat lamps. Within an hour, part of the head was free of ice. “I was able to feel that it seemed mostly firm, but unusually hollow in one small section,” says Kull in the release. “This was yet another ominous sign.”
But the real clincher came just an hour later, Kulls writes: “A break appeared up near the feet area. As the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot.”
Kull called Biscardi, who then contacted Dyer and Whitton, who in turn “admitted [the body] was a costume," the posting goes on to say. Biscardi arranged a meeting for the next morning in the California hotel room where the two men from Georgia were staying. The hoaxers apparently agreed to admit to the fraud in writing, according to Kull’s posting. But when Biscardi stopped by their hotel sometime on Sunday, they were nowhere to be found.
Now instead of hunting Bigfoot, it sounds like Biscardi and his crew will be hunting down Dyer and Whitton: “Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., is seeking justice for themselves and for all the people who were deceived by this deception.”
Photo: Tom Biscardi at last Friday's press conference in Palo Alto, Calif.
Image credit: Erik Vance/copyright 2008 Scientific American
Tags:
bogus sasquatch,
bigfoot hoax
More News Blog:
Next: Could stem cells make blood donation unnecessary?
Previous: Water for gas? Not unless you've got a hydrogen car
See what we're tweeting about
notscientific Synesthesia may be evidence of an over-connected brain, lacking in pruning. By @SmithDanaG http://t.co/kcPeVh7v3T #scitable
DNLee5 I just signed this http://t.co/HvXMlvfYpd Petition: #OccupyRx - help Americans afford our medicines: http://t.co/TAvphMyeGh
JenniferFrazer Attention history buffs: Fantastic 7 min BBC film on the history of historic preservation in the UK. http://t.co/3M6mqZBkPX
Deadline: Aug 31 2013
Reward: $100,000 USD
The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative (GBFAI) is launching the 2013 Geoffrey Beene Global NeuroDiscovery Challenge whose
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
17 Comments
Add CommentI'm not sure why this is being covered on Scientific American.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my view, the shock is not the hoax but the news coverage.
Before concluding that the Bigfoot find was indeed a hoax, I would urge the members of the public and the press to make 100% absolutely certain that the two young men who said they had discovered a bigfoot body ARE ALIVE AND WELL.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are facts in Biscardi's site that do not add up ( http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/).
In the pictures that were published on the 15th of August 2008, the object that was in a freezer was not in ice.
Not only that, those who watched video replays of the news conference will clearly remember hearing Biscardi saying that the young men tried to freeze the object into a block of ice without realizing that it was frost proof.
(search for the word 'frost' at this site:http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=96579)
As a result we all got to see close-ups even of the tounge presumably pushed out of the body by the decay process.
However, Biscardi's web site reports that they discovered that the object was rubber AFTER THE ICE MELTED! WHICH ICE?
Not only that, if the object was in ice, how was Biscardi able to get DNA samples from the intestines that were hanging out of the body and produced opossum 96% DNA matches?
Could that have been possible if the body was in a block of ice?
(By the way, I stumbled across a web comment that it is medically possible for intestines to hang out of a dead body after a few days depending on the diet. Can any doctors out there confirm this? I also found this other site as well:http://www.deathreference.com/Py-Se/Rigor-Mortis-and-Other-Postmortem-Changes.html [read the section on puterification-note the comments on the tounge sticking out and the intestines being forced out of the body, somewhat similar to what the two men described, suggesting that the creature may have been dead for over 36 hours.])
Given Biscardi's questionable past, what is there not to say that he may be either trying to squeeze money out
of the young men or received an offer from a collector that he could not resist.
There are still plenty of psycos out there in the art collection world. Take this recent example:
(Example: http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSN1138343520080811). The FBI are trying to trace the owners of stolen art found in the home of a dead collector who has no heirs.
Is Biscardi's past more questionable than anyone could have imagined? Would Biscardi go to great lengths to silence any evidence that the creature was real in exchange for a large sum of money?
Let's of course not forget that these men worked in law enforcement. With all their years in law enforcement, do you think they would attempt to pull off a lame scam in front of cameras when they have had knowledege of the most advanced equipment in the world used to track missing persons, especially those who have been filmed on live televison by America's biggest news houses?
True, this setup may have been all a hoax. There is a side of people that one's neigbor will never know. But before we are definitive about that conclusion, I would urge the public and the press to send out a missing persons alert, and verify for
themselves in person that the young men are alive and well. The fact that they are both missing, their phones are disconnected, and that Biscardi has now disowned them does not bode very well for them.
THERE IS AN EQUIPROBABLE CHANCE THAT WE ARE DEALING WITH A DOUBLE MURDER CASE.
bigfootlover?? Are you on Drugs??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe pictures and so-called evidence was taken at the time of discovery before the BigFoot/Costume was frozen into a large block of ice. I realize you spent a day to write all the BS but this isn't hard to understand. Maybe you part of the hoax????
There are very simple, logical answers for every single one of your points. Number 1: yes, they are that stupid to perform a hoax in public even though they are in law enforcement. Why? for the money. They are both hard up for money, as can clearly be seen by reading thier recent histories, so they probably have thousands, maybe millions of dollars now, do you really think they care that everyone knows it is a hoax? ofcourse not. Plus, they knew there would be people out there so desperate at a sign of bigfoot that they would back up thier stories, even after the truth had been revealed. It was in a block of ice now and not in photos because the freezer broke a few days before photos were taken, then they odviously refroze it at an undisclosed location. This was also integral in their hoax because it would give them more time to run. It is probable that the "body" was never frozen in the first place until later. The DNA sample odviously came from one of the men and then another from an opossum, probably a live one or recently killed. Noone took sample from the creature, they sent the samples in to a scientist, so this woulb be very easy to fake seeing as noone other than the hoax artists had to touch the body to get the sample. this was just a sad pathetic attempt on their part to get money and prove to the world that they were smart and could pulloff a bigfoot hoax. What they didn't think about was the fact that those parties who did pay them can legally get their money back.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with jon crush. Seriously though, I don't think drugs are the problem: just sad, desperate stupidity. Sorry for being cruel, but you should have thought about what you were writing, seriously. Isn't it enough that these idiots got away with money, now people like you are validating their story too?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisahh hahahahahahaha. hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaahahahahaha. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaahahahahahahaha.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthats funny
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy is Scientific American reporting this farce?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOver the years I have noted not only the dumbing down of education in the US but the dumbing down of the Scientific American. For shame!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually there are a lot of gullible people out there who would benefit from this sort of story. But I agree that it is intellectually below the expectations of many readers. You must have noted that SCIAM has long been on the bandwagon promoting science fiction as science. There is no chance given the current editorial goals that this will change any time soon; there is big money to be made in the entertainment industry. I wonder if you noted also that Michael Shermer in his July column attempted to merge religion with science? Shermer became well known after publishing "Why People Believe Weird Things" and SKEPTIC magazine. He has made a name for himself by debating stupid fundamentalists. But the latter exercise has not so far improved the quality of claims presented by Shermer. Steve Mirsky also is included once a month for no other reason than to fill space that could be better used for science reporting. Mirsky also wants to make a name for himself by debating stupid fundamentalists. Unfortunately none of it is science, either.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell then, present me with the two men, alive and well, on a LIVE tv show, answering questions from the press, and I will agree with you that it was a hoax. Just the same way that you will not believe in bigfoot until you see a live one captured, given Biscardi's questionable past, I will not drop my assertion that the two young men may be in danger, if they have not already come to harm, until I see them alive and well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn addition to enjoying reading stories on the search for Bigfoot, I also love listening to Jazz. How many of you Jazz lovers have watched videos of Nat King Cole backing up her late father using the marvels of voice engineering. Someone's voice can be transformed into another personality's voice with modern studio equipment. Any new songs that Nat King Cole writes can be 'sung' by both she and her late father. Just the fact that a radio show reported that the boys owned up to the hoax does not mean that it was really the young men talking. Anyone(you and me included) can have his/her voice transformed by studio equipment to sound like any personality that you wish. (Someone tells me that you do not even have to go that far to understand the marvels of voice engineering. Apparently even with Windows XP and some of the upper end text-to-speech software that can be trained to produce certain voices, it can sound as if a personality is reading a scripted speech.)
One of course cannot leave out the fact that the boys themselves played 'doctor analyses the bigfoot' to 'protect themselves from the delusionals', and who knows if Biscardi is not playing the same trick on us, hopefully in cahoots with the young men safe and sound.
My challenge to you-present the two young men alive and well, on TV, LIVE, and we will agree that it was a hoax. Until then, I maintain that the statements made on Biscardi's site on the 19th of August simply don't add up to what was presented on the 15th of August.
The plot thickens here..... there could be an interesting legal battle now that these guys have been found after they took the money and ran last Sunday when the hoax melted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNews release: They claim their hoax was not for profit, but Atlanta residents Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer received $50,000 from a California Bigfoot tracker who now plans to sue to get the money back.
That Bigfoot tracker is of course, Tom Biscardi who claimed at the bogus press conference that he had actually seen the creature up close. At the conference, Biscardi said he had flown to Georgia and had actually seen, touched, and prodded the body and was satisfied it "was not a mask sewn on a bear hide." It has also been reported that Dyer claims he has proof that Biscardi knew it was a fake all along.
The plot thickens here..... there could be an interesting legal battle now that these guys have been found after they took the money and ran last Sunday when the hoax melted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNews release: They claim their hoax was not for profit, but Atlanta residents Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer received $50,000 from a California Bigfoot tracker who now plans to sue to get the money back.
That Bigfoot tracker is of course, Tom Biscardi who claimed at the bogus press conference that he had actually seen the creature up close. At the conference, Biscardi said he had flown to Georgia and had actually seen, touched, and prodded the body and was satisfied it "was not a mask sewn on a bear hide." It has also been reported that Dyer claims he has proof that Biscardi knew it was a fake all along.
Did anyone have a chance to visit the site www.searchingforbigfoot.com on the 24th of August 2008?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDid anyone have a chance to watch the video clip on the photobucket and compare it with the video clip of FoxNews exposing the hoax and the still picture of the creature in the freezer? Did anyone notice how different
the two creatures were?
On the video clip on Fox News, the creature has a gorilla-like face, with the top like the top-half of an egg, with eyes wide open, and a redish face with large portions without hair. The tounge is sticking out like a child would stick out his/her tounge to another child he/she does not like.
On the video clip on the photobucket, the face is all covered in hair (no red portions) and the mouth is "rigidly" open (about 25 seconds into the video.) On the still photo of the creature in the freezer, the eyes are closed, and the top of the head appears to be flat-closer to that of a human than that of a gorilla(or the top half of an egg for that matter.)Because of the closed eyes, the creature appears to have a "peaceful" look of death.
Did anyone notice that the narrator of the video clip in the photobucket said that the mouth,the tounge, the teeth,everything about the creature was real except for the genitals? Does this strike anyone that this contrasts the statement that when the researcher first put his hand into the melting ice, the leg felt rubbery, and this was later confirmed by burning some hair sample when the ice melted which melted into a ball or rubber?
Did anyone also notice that when the researcher was demonstrating that the teeth, mouth, etc were real, the
mouth bore the striking resemblance to that of a chimpazee? Or a bondo ape? (http://karlammann.com/bondo.html)
By the way, I don't know much about costumes. But many ladies tell me they use wigs made of real human hair. Perhaps the costume industry has developed a way of producing artificial rubberry hair more economically rather than use real hair.
This is all very strange. Very, very strange indeed.
Hey look.. Moron is written on the ceiling.. Are you kidding me? I thought this was SCIENTIFIC AMERiCAN.... Ouch.. Slow news day eh??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnimal Planet has a show on big foot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. What happened to animal shows like Wild Kingdom, I would rather watch the farm cams.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/encinochickencam
HAHAHAHALOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh God I think I just saw a snark.