The so-called Bigfoot community has an unhealthy obsession with Rick Dyer. The self proclaimed "Master Tracker" has been maligned since 2008 after he participated in the infamous Tom Biscardi Georgia Bigfoot hoax, but the attacks have increased substantially after Dyer announced that he shot and killed the creature around San Antonio Texas in late 2012.
Interestingly, the claim was initially ignored for the most part. I found out through Robert Lindsay’s blog in December 2012. Everyone else was ignoring it. Most of the attention was on the Justin Smeja shooting hoax (I will get back to that in a minute), the "Daisy in a Box" hoax, and Melba Ketchum’s disastrous Bigfoot DNA study.
To be completely honest, I really didn’t think there was much to Dyer’s claim myself. However, I started to follow the story and did some research to see what was going on. I was skeptical, but curious. Until it was exposed as a hoax I would keep an eye on the updates. To my surprise the claim garnered supporters such as FB/FB (Facebook Find Bigfoot) and Christopher Noel. Then came the Musky Allen interview. Musky was a die-hard Bigfoot skeptic who validated Dyer’s claim after he had traveled to Las Vegas and supposedly saw the body first hand. That interview sent everyone over the cliff.
The San Antonio shooting claim was no longer ignored and the attacks on Rick Dyer became vicious. Immediately, two disturbing trends arose. The first was the creation of fake internet accounts that were used to attack Dyer. The second was the tendency to use ad hominem attacks and reveal personal information about the people involved with, or supporting the claim.
Steve Kulls, the self proclaimed "Sasquatch Detective", has been at the forefront of the latter attacks. He has published personal information on Rick Dyer, Musky Allen, and the founders of FB/FB. All of which has been completely irrelevant to back up Kull’s claim that the San Antonio shooting is a hoax. In fact, it just makes Kulls look mean spirited and petty. Honesty Steve, I don’t care if Musky got a speeding ticket seven years ago.
Here is what I find fascinating, the "Bigfoot Community" supports the Justin Smeja shooting account and yet rejects the Rick Dyer shooting account. (If you are not familiar with the Justin Smeja hoax, watch this interview.)
A hoax will start to fall apart over time when multiple people are involved and when it is investigated. The alleged Smeja incident is a good example. Although Smeja claims to have shot and killed two Bigfoot creatures he recovered no bodies, has no photographic evidence, and no video evidence. There was supposedly another person with him during the incident, but that person refuses to come forward using his real name. He claims to have gone back to the shooting site and recovered parts of the Bigfoot carcass, but this later tested to be bear meat in a DNA lab. Yet, I do not see Steve Kulls digging up personal dirt on Justin Smeja and publishing it on his website. I don’t see anyone setting up a fake Blogspot account and attacking Smeja, or Ro Sahebi for perpetrating the hoax. I haven’t heard of a maniac breaking into the home of Shawn Evidence and threatening him with physical harm for promoting the hoax on his blog.
Yet, all of this has happened to Rick Dyer. Why? Dyer has been open about the entire claim from day one. Dyer has the support of multiple people in the Bigfoot community, so this isn’t just one man making a claim. He has repeatedly opened phone lines on his Internet radio show for his critics to call and ask questions. He says that he will not only provide photo and HD film footage of the creature, he has promised to reveal the body to the public. The entire shooting incident in San Antonio was supposedly captured on a film that will be release on April 30. We will all know one way or another whether this is true in a couple of weeks. Let’s just all hold tight until the movie premiers at the HotDocs film festival.
What if this turns out to be a hoax after all? So what… My life will go on. I am not so infatuated with Bigfoot that my life will crumble around the revelation that this incident didn’t really take place. We can just add it to the list of other Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti hoaxes that have been perpetrated over the last few decades.
Does Rick Dyer have possession of a Bigfoot body that he shot and killed on September 6, 2012? I don’t know and neither does Steve Kulls, Ro Sahebi, Shawn Evidence, Michael Merchant, Randy Filipovic or any other of Dyer’s most rabid critics. I do know that Dyer makes a very compelling case when he discusses the subject.
I will be honest, I am skeptical of the entire claim. But, there is enough circumstantial evidence that prevents me from dismissing it outright. As Dyer likes to put it I am "on the fence." Until the movie is released, I think that is the most common sense position to be in.
Chad Miles is a former contributing editor for Defense Watch Magazine and former contributor to The Michigan Journal. He appears weekly on The Bruce Collins Show which airs on the Fringe Radio Network discussing current events and conspiracy theories from a Christian perspective.
