Bigfoot body to be revealed next Friday?

If you are interested in Cryptozoology as much as I am, then you are probably aware of the high controversy surrounding the claims of two Georgia fellows—Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer—that they have found the body of a Bigfoot (by accident, apparently). These claims made over their Bigfoottracker.com website aswell as several Youtube videos, have sparked a heated debate on the crypto cyber-communities. Could this be really what some of them have waited all their life? The indisputable scientific proof that would finally make Mainstream Science accept the existence of large bipedal hominoids in North America?

Since the beginning several aspects of this story seemed rather fishy —at least to me— like the fact that these gentlemen were claiming to have possession of what could very easily be the most astonishing biological finding of the Century, if not the Millenium; and yet they were at first very focused on promoting their US$500 trips to search for a live specimen, aswell as selling T-Shirts with the logo of their organization; if you had Bigfoot stuck on your fridge which could arguably be sold for millions of dollars to some institution or news channel, would you be so worried about selling T-shirts?

Their preference for using the 'Knight Rider' soundtrack on their videos didn't exactly help to give them an appearance of seriousness and respectability either... Nor was the clip in which Rick's brother appeared claiming to be a "Dr. Paul Van Buren" coming to examine the body. Many people were convinced that this was nothing but a big hoax or a prank, although a highly risky one given the fact that Whitton is a police officer, and could easily lose his job on account of fraud or improper conduct.

And then there were some rather childish responses on their behalf, to attack what they considered were unfair criticism from the Cryptomundo bloggers that were skeptical about their claims. In one of their videos they even went so far as to burn Loren Coleman's book as a sign of protest (!).

But now things are starting to change. A few images of what appears to be the head of the mysterious body have leaked to the Internet forums; and the level of evidence they have been given to some researchers seems so compelling that even Loren is willing to give the Bigfoot trackers the benefit of the doubt—some of Loren's comments hint to the fact that he too is one of the researchers who have been privy to more interesting evidence. And I must also point out Loren's position has never changed regarding this matter; meaning he has always been open to whatever evidence they might have, and not doubt it beforehand just because these men are clearly not the most sophisticated individuals in the World.

The Georgia trackers are also organizing a Press conference on August 15 at the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto in Palo Alto California, where they will show "DNA and photo evidence" to credentialized journalists.

From the Press Release we read that:

*The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
*It weighs over five hundred pounds.
*The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
*It is male.
*It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
*It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand and
five toes on each foot.
*The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
*Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.
*From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are
eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.
*The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
*The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.

Also present at the press conference will be Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. Biscardi hasn't the cleanest of records among the Cryptozoology community though, as many people have pointed out on Cryptomundo (If you want to learn more about Biscardi's past history, click here)

IMHO the photo of the "head" is nothing conclusive, then again Cryptozoology is full of blurry images and shaky videos, some more compelling than others (like the famous Patterson-Gimly footage of 1967). So I really hope the photo evidence (if photos can be considered "evidence" in this day and age) these gentlemen present next Friday is much more interesting and detailed. Why not bringing some tissue samples or anything with "more meat" (no pun intended)to this event? But if Loren Coleman is excited about all this (and forgiving of these people's juvenile conduct!) then who knows...

Stranger things have happened and many ground-breaking discoveries been made by accident. History owes more debt to the Maverick outsiders than to the Academics sitting on their Ivory Tower. Are the Bigfoottrackers part of those Mavericks?

We'll wait and keep you informed in case more info is leaked before this Press conference. In the meantime, I hope you'll agree that, with Mitchell's radio claims of Alien visitation and now this, the Summer of 2008 has certainly earned its place in the Fortean annals ;-)

[UPDATE]: For those of you who have still been unsuccesful in logging in to Cryptomundo, I've found this site with the old blurry B&W picture, plus the clearer color version that Loren received earlier.