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Too many thing here to address at once as I'm trying to catch up with limited time I've got right now, I apologize. Looks like a mixed bag of posters here as some are genuinely trying to digest and discuss the report and potential ramifications (appreciate that), others are terribly out of date with the story but still insist on making definitive suggestions further muddying the details and making things appear more complicated then they really are, then you have a few who are behaving like class clowns, trying to take little subtle jabs to get noticed and offer absolutely nothing into the conversation. I'm happy to answer or clarify information for the first group. Regarding the photo, "yes" Justin confirmed and called Ketchum out publicly regarding the photo that same day and explained that the piece was one and the same and even gave a tutorial on the striation marks where he cut her piece before processing the rest of it into smaller packaged pieces. When she questioned that piece it had already been posted for several months by Lindsay and I have to wonder today if suggesting it was a different was part of pre-planning an exit strategy as I can tell you right now, the strategy out of her camp now is that Justin sent her a real piece right off the body and sent us a bear piece because he fears prosecution due to the "human" element in her findings. This is what she claimed with Tyler, and her people are already passing along the point of "we can't comment on a piece we didn't test." The allegation is ridiculous as Justin is no dummy and understands fully he will never be retroactively charged for killing an "unrecognized" species (more worried about his hunting license for christ's sake) and he's clearly said he wishes there was some way she was right and the pieces were mixed up... he's convinced they weren't. However, he's also still shaking his head a bit at Trent's results as well. There's still a few people that still hint that Tyler and I are part of some agenda to take her down. First off, I have an admitted dislike bias towards her I'm not at all ashamed of (hence I felt it prudent to have Tyler be the one to have physical discussions with her recently) and you will know very soon why, if you haven't already figured it out. Putting that completely aside, I would give anything for her to be right and have her trump both these lab reports we got. If someone thinks tomorrow that Tyler and I would have egg on our face for trying to do the right thing and she drops this unreal paper with a full genome on the Sierras tissue down (with all necessary validation) we're going to be disappointed or feel stupid, you're living in Lalaland. You don't think I don't have a vested interest in these results being from an unknown primate? I got thermal footage (not damning, but very compelling with all circumstances and 100% legit)) 300 yds from where he shot them 23 months later for christ's sake. In addition, the guy has become a good friend through the process and since the day I eavesdropped on them, I don't believe they are lying. Could I be wrong, absolutely I could be wrong. Could our labs be wrong and Ketchum's work be correct, you tell me as some of you guys are more educated when it comes to diagnostics then I am. The difference for me is, due to the "circumstantial" nature of finding the tissue, I didn't have high expectations on this sample. Any hopes were further diminished by the incident I reference in my statement that I believe will be touched on directly by Justin within days. I should also mention that Tyler and I always expected two additional contributors if the flesh was from the adult bigfoot shot. We suspected Justin's dna should be on some of the piece from handling (undoubtedly) in addition to a larger predator (ursus americanus top candidate for geographic & immediate biosphere) as the story couldn't be true without post-mortem predation with respect to state of recognition of tissue when collected....would anyone disagree with that? There had to be multi-contributor's dna present. Unfortunately, there was no presence of a third contributor confirmed by both labs. All I know, is the easy thing was to look the other way and we didn't. We took the initiative based off both checks and balances noticeably absent, and especially out of mistrust created (to Justin especially) and did what needed to be done. We hoped for different results as you won't have to take our word for that, just read the emails when they are provided with both the communications with the labs and each other and read into our motivations, then come back and say zigoapex for example, that we had some hidden agenda you dreamed up after performing zero due diligence yourself.

Is it just YOU and ME, or is this all more than patently stupid, that a scientist conducting a DNA study can't and won't talk about it, but allows releases to be made, appears on radio, TV and online interviews, but she can't talk about it, then when asked about something we're all lead to believe was a part of the study, can't talk about it... but everyone associated with this is under a NDA.... and then she still goes out and does interviews, but she can't talk about anything, 'coz the peer review isn't out and she doesn't want to jepardize the study, then goes out and does more interviews about the study that she can't talk about. <?> HUH?

That's not Clint Eastwood with Bigfoot. This is Clint Eastwood with bigfoot:

Have a body? Pics, timestamp, or GTFO. (posted similar comments on the article).

Shh Cervelo, they're speculating and splitting hairs to BELIEVE in the intangible. Stories matter more than physical evidence here. Dagnabbit, they're entitled to the whole shebang from Bart, lickety split, as he has paid for testing himself and the critics demand that he do it THEIR way. If they don't get what they want, then they cry "HOAX!" and assassinate the characters of all those who disagree with their perspectives. Bear DNA doesn't support their dreams, and so they explore other conclusions to jump to. Bart, no quarrel with you as always, and I appreciate your candidness and transparency on the issue. I realize that this is not the end of the investigation, and that you have had other experiences in the area that make you believe Smeja's story. Fair enough. What we know now is that the DNA submitted was from a bear. The rest is conjecture right now. I want this to turn out to be something amazing, but the race hasn't been run fully. Thanks for what you have contributed, and I look forward to more when you are ready to share.

She's having trouble with the scientific community because she HASN'T released ANYTHING but continues to make statements that bigfoot is human, etc. Anyone, Sykes included, would have the same problem if they made the same assertion without any data to back it up. And yes, Robyn Lynn was on the Russian expedition two years ago with both Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Bindernagel. She knows who Meldrum is, just like Jeff knows who she is (blueberry bagels anyone?).

Anytime Thepatty I'll tell you, you guys don't know how torturous this was for Tyler and I at certain points in his communications with Trent. I say that I had very little confidence in the circumstantial tissue but in some of the periodic feedback or results from Trent, we really thought we were alive, enough so to do a few fist pumps. Then we'd be brought back to reality and it was becoming hard for Justin because every time we got something positive that appeared definitive, an update would come back and bring us all back to earth. The stress was palpable for Justin, and that's when he finally requested via email no more updates as it was severely affecting his life. If he knew it was bear I would imagine he'd accept the inevitable and actually enjoy the ups and downs...why the hell not..right? In the interim over the course of testing, I'd periodically read people here and there make ignorant statements about how long it takes to test something (as if they were suggesting we were hiding results) and I'm just biting my tongue because I know that eventually you guys are going to get full access to our email communications that have time/date stamps and will justify exactly how long this process took. Which reminds me, our Midwest lab report is not complete (I though I know most of the findings) and we're waiting for it as it was supposed to be finished prior to Xmas. That's why there's a delay on that one.

"once sasquatch are proven to exist we will have to close ranks" We won't have to close ranks. If science proves that sasquatch are real, everyone will except it. That's how science works.

Not sure this matters now, but I'm wondering why there is no name for the haplotype in the report? Surely they would have identified it for you in the report. Also, I've not heard of using a blender as any part of an extraction method on hair and tissue. It makes me imagine an attempt to diminish any chance at getting a "clean" sequence from an "uncontaminated" portion of the sample. I would be livid if the sample represented all I had. Of coarse we all know not to send all, but it would raise a red flag for me. I think I would have dropped that lab in further efforts.

It's good that some people actually read the lab report. With 10% of the mtDNA in the original sample being bear and 15% being human, it will make you wonder what the other 75% was, right? An explanation: These mtDNA tests are amplification tests based on certain primers (think of them as keys) which are used as stub ends for DNA polymerase to start copying DNA. If a section of the sample DNA matches the sequence of the primer, then the primer will latch on and the DNA polymerase will duplicate the gene. Put simply, if some portion of the sample DNA matches the primer, then you get more DNA. If none of the sample matches the primer, you get no more DNA. The mtDNA test used three (3) primers: universal mammal, bear specific control region, and human specific control region. The universal and bear primers produced DNA sequences consistent with known bear. The human primer produced DNA sequences consistent with known human. By the amount of DNA copied, it was determined that 10% of the original DNA was bear, and 15% was human. Which leaves two questions: Why did the universal primer fail to amplify the human DNA? Most likely, the universal primer was not as universal as the manufacturer claims or the lab thought. It may have still had some affinity for the human DNA, but at a ratio of 100:1, the human DNA would have been unnoticed compared to the bear DNA. Of course, it still leaves room that if the sample had any bigfoot DNA, the "universal" primer might not have been any good for that either. What was the other 75%. Simply put, something that neither the universal, bear or human primers could amplify. It may have been degraded fragments, different portions of the mtDNA, bits of nuclear DNA, or something unknown that the universal primer failed to work on. The mtDNA test of the lone hair pretty much eliminates everything else. The only mtDNA that turned up was bear. It is a bear hair from a bear pelt. Morphological analysis of the hairs also suggested bear. Could it have been a bear skin being worn by a bigfoot (i.e. bear pelt contaminated with human and bigfoot DNA)? Anything is possible, I guess. There certainly have been reports of bigfoots possibly wearing animal skins. There are definitely reports of them wearing scraps of manufactured "textiles" (e.g. torn burlap or canvas tarps, nylon fragments [possibly tarps or tents]). Ketchum has stated that bigfoot DNA requires its own unique set of primers. This is somewhat interesting. It means that universal and human specific primers may not be capable of amplifying bigfoot DNA. Certainly, the "universal" primers used did not amplify the human mtDNA. There could have been another contributor. BTW, it also means that anyone looking for bigfoot DNA probably needs Ketchum's secret sauce, or a very large and well preserved sample. Bigfoots did not originate in eastern Europe. They came from western Europe. I am not aware of Ketchum actually identifying the geographic origins of bigfoots, but I know that Stubstad did. At least, Stubstad identified the geographic origin of the human haplotype that matched most closely to the bigfoot mtDNA. It came from the Pyrenees, which is between France and Spain. As for the sample that Justin sent to Tyler: it was bear. Why was it bear? Maybe Justin will someday tell us. Ketchum seems certain that the sample Justin sent to her is bigfoot. They are different samples, so who knows. Maybe Ketchum should send a piece of her sample to Trent. BTW, passing a polygraph only means that the person being tested honestly believes that what they have said is true. If Justin shot a bear that jumped funny, and then got charged by and shot a juvenile bigfoot, and concluded that he must have shot its mother bigfoot, and then went back and collected a piece of the bear, he would probably pass a polygraph, all the while being mistaken. If he was affected by hypothermia, shot a bear and its cub, but it moved and looked funny, and then through a delusion thought they were bigfoots, he would probably pass a polygraph.