Chapter Six..... Things go thump in the night.

Over my years as a police officer I have been dispatched, as you can imagine, to a multitude of different type calls for service. Many of which, end up being entirely different once you arrive and ask a few questions of the caller, and observe a few of the details. There are many causes for the discrepancies involving reported calls. Many times, and the most often reason for inaccurate dispatching is that the RP (reporting party) is under the influence of alcohol, or drugs. Other times it can be the subject’s age, or mental capacity. Also adrenaline caused by emergency situations is very powerful, and can cause one RP to report something totally different than another RP.

On this particular night in the mid 1990’s, I was working the “graveyard” shift (11:30 pm until 08:00 am) as the “float car” for the northern district of our suburban county. The county is compromised of about 450 square miles. The northern district is compromised of two zones. Zone 1 (west) and Zone 2 (east), with a floating “cover” car for back up, and an occasional reserve deputy working. Not to mention the Highway Patrol, and the officers in the smaller municipal agencies on the outer periphery.

At about 0100 hours I heard dispatch assign a call to the Zone 1 car reference to a “check a person” call. The address given was in the extreme northwest corner of the county, near the county line. The zone 1 car acknowledged the call and advised he was en route. I advised dispatch that I was also en route, and I was about 20 minutes out.

I had some trouble finding the address, as it was a several hundred acre farm, in a desolate area of the county off of an unmarked gravel road. As I finally pulled up to the residence, I realized that I had been to this home the year before but in daylight. On that occasion it was in reference to a “natural” death call. The 80 something male had expired in his sleep, and had been found by his wife of over 50 years. A sad call for the widow, but fairly routine in my world.

In walking up to the residence I realized that this lady making the call was indeed the same lady I had seen from the year before. Thinking to myself that she must have seen some teenagers running amuck (as they often did in this part of the county) I asked the Deputy that was already on scene what was going on. He stated that Widow Johnson had been to a church bazaar in Springfield, and had stayed late helping the other ladies clean up the church, and prepare it for worship services the following morning. Afterward she had gone to Denny’s for coffee with her friend's. She arrived at her home just a little bit past midnight. Her drive-way is a long and winding gravel road of about ¼ of a mile long. She said that she had observed a large dark shadow about 200 feet in front of car at one point, but assumed it was one of the half dozen or so cows that she kept as “pets” crossing the roadway. As she pulled up near her home and turned the car off, she had to reach in to the back seat to get her purse that had spilled in the floor. As she was gathering up the items from the floorboard she felt her car shake violently, and had the sensation that the rear of her car was “up in the air on a tire jack”…..she opened her door and stepped out. She said she was startled to see a “large male Sasquatch” holding the rear of her car about 18 inches off of the ground. She said that she screamed, and the “Sasquatch" screamed as well dropping the car. She said she ran for the door to her house, and that she could hear the screaming beast run into her “old barn”. While awaiting our arrival she said that she heard several loud thumps from the barn and thought he may still be within.

The other Deputy and I looked at each other and both had a small grin on out faces. But the grins quickly disappeared when we checked the rear or her late 80’s Ford Taurus, and found several black hairs, that were coarse and about 2 inches long. We collected a few and placed them in an evidence bag. Also there was obvious smudging and indentions on the rear bumper area of the car. We felt somewhat relieved when we saw that she did have a few Holstein cows around, and thought that maybe it was possible that one of these 1000 lb cows had simply rubbed against her car, and that she had simply been startled by that, especially in the dark and at this late hour.

We spoke with her and had her fairly reassured when we heard some scuffling noises from the barn. Much the kind of sound you would expect to hear from maybe a horse or cow in a stall would make. Old lady Johnson stated that she just wouldn’t be able to sleep unless someone checked the barn before we left. The other Deputy quickly said with a smile, that he would stay here and protect the RP while I searched the barn. How brave of him..........jerk.

I went to my patrol car feeling slightly apprehensive, well that’s a lie. I was feeling a little fearful, as I had grown up in a generation that had been “taught” by television that Bigfoot was real, and I was now convinced that I had one trapped in a barn……and it was “spooked” no less. As I loaded my 12 gauge shotgun with “slug” rounds (slugs are a 1 ¼ ounce chunk of lead shaped in a conical fashion that are extremely powerful projectiles) a highway patrolman pulled up. I felt a little relieved knowing that I wouldn’t have to search the barn alone, but I did feel a little foolish telling the trooper why we searching it.

After relating the story to this stoic, unblinking trooper he replied with a simple one word answer in a drawn out southern drawl. “Shit!” He then proceeded to the trunk of his patrol car where he pulled out an H&K 93 7.62nato (.308) assault rifle, and inserted a 30 round magazine, working the action and placing a live round in the chamber. His next words were a simple “let’s go” and off we went.

After a very tense 20 minute search of the barn and the surrounding out-buildings, we returned to Widow Johnson and gave her the all clear. She thanked us and told us she would be keeping her shotgun near the bed on this night.

The trooper and I met up for breakfast at a Waffle House in our district about 0430 hours that morning, and both quietly admitted that if a cow, dog, or donkey had suddenly appeared during our search that we probably would have blasted it! We both admitted that we believed it possible that something like “Sasquatch” may exist, and were both pretty pleased with not discovering one!

On a subsequent note, over the course of several months, the Sheriff’s office received a couple dozen “sighting” reports, and numerous calls about high pitch screaming. The unusual hair we recovered was sent to a local universities Anthropology lab for testing. The results stated that the hair was not from any know indigenous mammal in North America. The Missouri Conservation Department found a deceased 200 lbblackbear about ten miles from this location, but made a statement that basically said that their agency believed this bear was the source of the sightings, but they had no real comment on the noises other than the local zoo had had a couple peacocks escape several months ago...............


Who knows what shook old lady Johnson’s car that night! All I know is that this lady had lived in the forest of Missouri for 60 plus years and wasn't easily spooked.