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Smeja was arrested for poaching again in 2017. Perhaps he's just an idiot. Reality TV Bigfoot hunter, Justin Smeja, faces hunting charges in Sierra County | TheUnion.com

The story has gotten twisted up a bit. This is not right. Justin's BOOTS were tested by Sykes. The outcome was no recoverable / testable DNA. The boots with the blood had been worn for a year or so after the shooting and had been immersed in salt water a time or two. The outcome was no surprise. The test showing bear was done by Trent University. It was arranged through Bart Cutino. The chain of evidence on that sample was broken. The shooting happened, Justin and his buddy panicked and left, and they didn't return for a period of weeks. They recovered some frozen flesh and hair from under the snow in the same general location. Justin provided part of that sample to Melba Ketchum. It was one of her 109 or 110 samples that she said tested positive as bigfoot. Some time later she asked him to destroy the rest of the sample with bleach so it could not be tested. (Justin provided a recording of the phone call where she asked this. It was on YouTube at one time. This is not in question except by Ketchum supporters.) At that point, Justin smelled a rat. Through Bart Cutino, the retesting was arranged and the results were 100% black bear. This should not be a surprise. The location of the shooting, the location of the sample recovery, is a place I'm told hunters often gut and sometimes skin game before returning to town. That discarded bear hide with a little meat was found has no bearing on whether or not Justin shot 2 bigfoots as claimed, it only shows that what was recovered, later, under the snow was bear. People on both sides try to read too much into it. In the end the only thing really proven, via the recorded phone call between Justin Smeja and Melba Ketchum, is that Ketchum was trying to get him to destroy evidence of her apparenlty fraudulent claims about her lab results. MIB

I'd never heard this one before. Figured my fellow footers are like me and always up for a good Bigfoot story. Gigantor, this is not video of a sighting or photos, so I didn't think it really belonged in that section, please move it there if you think that's where it should be. Here is the guy himself, in his own words, it cuts off without finishing the story Here is a guy telling the full story, it's the only complete one I could find.

In the early 60's, my parents went on a fishing trip to Canada, and an Indian guide took them to their houseboat, and said "beware of Sasquatch" with complete seriousness before he left. They didn't see anything but did hear strange screams at night. Been interested in the topic ever since I heard that story.

One thing that gives me pause however is how on earth did Smeja not know that he could cash in if he brought in the remains of a Bigfoot? Unless he was living under a rock his entire life he had to have heard of the Bigfoot phenomenon. I just find it hard to believe that anyone could be so careless as to not bring the remains of part of it to civilization. That's the only thing about this that doesn't make sense. Even if he had been out poaching, there wouldn't be a penalty for killing an animal that isn't supposed to exist.

The video norseman posted has one of my favorite encounters and gives some very rare insight on how griz and sas interact.

My brother killed an elk about 8 years ago. We boned it out and left the bones there. Last year, 7 years later, I found the site of butchering and quite a few of the bones still there. I dug up the fir needles, moss and forest duff to uncover more bones. It's been 8 years, so, would it be possible to do some sort of excavation in search of bones?

What are the chances there is a dead bear in the exact spot Smeja leads Meldrum and crew into the woods to his Bigfoot kill? I’ve found one dead bear in the woods in my 50 years.... It’s much more likely Smeja poached a bear and not a Sasquatch or two. Nothing makes any sense in what Smeja did IF he was legitimately trying to prove Sasquatch real. You want to make a name for yourself. You shoot a bear. Tell everyone it’s Bigfoot. And then let the Bear carcass get destroyed by scavengers and mother winter. You then lead a team in the following year to collect a sample. A sample you hope will be too degraded to be conclusive, which sort of vindicates you. You pass a lie detector test. And that vindicates you further. And then the DNA sample comes back as a black bear..... whoops. It all comes crashing down in flames.

I did say it was speculation.

That was an area of over pour, i noticed the channel that was there and used it to aid in cast retrieval. Due to the grass and poor casting conditions, I wanted to make sure I had every advantage I could while trying to remove it. I'll highlight the edge