The Truth About Elbe

[Matt Pruitt]

BFFers,

I'd like to address the "tracks" reported to Cliff Barackman and the BFRO near Elbe, WA.

I afforded the individual involved a lengthy period of time (five months) to do the right thing, and fully disclose his involvement with the event.

That hasn't happened yet.

Moreover, the individual involved has continued to insist (privately) that he had absolutely no involvement with the event in question. His denial of involvement has driven people to question my initial statements and assertions.

Initially, I granted the person involved a chance to admit his involvement privately to the people who were the most affected by his actions; the people who invested personal time and resources to his claims. The guilty party never did so, and still continues to insinuate that I had no real evidence against him.

Here's the deal, folks: The first report regarding the track line was submitted in email form to Cliff Barackman, which was forwarded to the BFRO six hours later by the same source.

The email address was "davepmorrison@...", but curiously the name signed to the email was "David Morris"; a small (but interesting) discrepancy. I immediately started "sleuthing" this individual in an effort to find out more about them via their online presence. Essentially, the vast majority of the people who submit reports, emails, and phone calls to the organization have an online presence. Some people have left huge amounts of information online, and some very little; but in the vast majority of instances it's very easy to verify who a person is, where they live, their means of employment, etc.

I quickly found that the email address provided wasn't linked to any social media or website whatsoever; no Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, etc., etc. Moreover, there were no "Dave Morrison", "Dave P Morrison", "David Morrison", "Dave Morris", "David Morris" matches which in any way "fit the bill" (geographically and otherwise) for this individual. Hitting that dead end was fairly concerning, because I can almost always find corroborating information about a person in a short amount of time. When I couldn't locate any information about this person, a huge red flag was raised.

A few days later, I logged into FLATS (the internal BFRO reports database) and saw that the individual had also submitted a report via the BFRO Report Form. He included that his name was "Dave Morrison" (as opposed to "Morris" and included the same email address. Luckily for us, FLATS records the IP address of every report submission. That gave me a new clue to go on, and I immediately cross-referenced it with the IP address that the original email to Cliff was sent from. It was a match, which means that the same person submitted the initial email and the report three days later. Cliff also sent me another email that the reporting party had sent him, and it came from the same IP address as well.

Unfortunately, you can't just Google the owner of an IP address. Various places online will display user's IP addresses (like certain forums, online email lists, etc.), but you'd really have to know where to look, and who you're looking for. Luckily, one of the places that I looked into displayed the IP addresses of the posters. It provided me with the poster's real name and username, and gave me a whole new lead to follow. A few minutes on Google revealed that this person was very involved in the online bigfoot community, and was an ardent skeptic. I recognized his username immediately, and knew that if he was the one who submitted the first reports that something was VERY wrong with the track line. I immediately called Cliff and Scott to fill them in. Derek called within minutes, and I brought him up to speed as well.

I enlisted the help of a BFRO member that I work with often with locating information online and asked him to help me find more instances online of this same IP connected to the same individual (username/real name, etc.). Within a few hours, we had collected multiple examples of this person's IP address from various locations on the web. I also contacted veteran researcher Daniel Perez, who had corresponded with this individual before, and asked him if he would forward me the raw source data from the emails that the individual had sent him. He did, and the source data of the two emails matched the IP address. Daniel helped me tremendously by sending me those emails, and I am very thankful that he did.

In other words, we now had irrefutable proof that the original email and FLATS report were sent in by a guy who is a borderline fanatical skeptic, and who is a very active member of the online bigfoot community. That, and the guy only lives 47 miles from Elbe.

An exhaustive reading of his online posts revealed more information. This guy has been working on creating a life-sized Patty replica in his workshop in an effort to demonstrate that the PGF is fake. He describes (in detail) multiple pairs of fake feet that he has fabricated as part of this experiment. Here are a few quotes from him:

June 2012 - "By the way, footprints are easy to fake, require little commitment in time and materials and effort. Which might account for their continued popularity, who knows. Footprints are an easy hoax."

August 2012 - "Why spend hours looking for online videos when any one of us can test it simply and easily. It does mean going outside for a while, but it's summer and not too hostile out doors right now. Make a set of fake feet, 14-15 inches long, strap them on so that the toes stick out a ways in the front, and then walk around a bit, walk fast, see how well you adapt and lift your feet. To match the challenge, I'll do the same thing here in a few minutes. Again. Reason I say "again" is because I have already done this experiment. I'm not just sitting here at the keyboard speculating about how people walk barefoot, or with big shoes on or any of that. I like to have fun, play a bit, and enjoy experimentation to test out various ideas. Which is why I say that people lift their feet higher with big shoes on, because that's just what they (we) (I) do."

And the most incriminating quote of all:

March 2012 - "So how would one explain spayed toes in some faked bigfoot prints? Non-wooden stompers. I'm not going to say right now that there are no bigfoots, or that all prints are fake. However, I will say that making pliable, naturally behaving fake feet is not some rocket science... I have a pair of bigfoot feet I made from dock flotation foam, a sort of shiny plastic closed cell foam that is flexible, firm, easily carved with a knife and shaped with a scraper. Paint them with latex or acrylic paint, and they do everything a real foot would do in terms of print making."

Once I had all of that information, it was undeniable that this individual was responsible for the Elbe tracks.

After numerous attempts to get the perpetrator to cooperate, I sent him this email on October 3rd:

"Axxxx,

I've tried to avoid writing you this email, but given your last few posts on the BFF and JREF, I suppose it's time that I contact you about your claims.

Here's the bottom line: I have irrefutable proof that you sent the first email to Cliff Barackman, the secondary email to the BFRO, and also submitted a report to the BFRO database. Myself and others compiled this proof and shared it with several researchers (12 to be exact, including Derek) on September 26th.

I know that you're very worried about people finding out that you were involved (in any capacity), and you'd prefer not to have your name associated with this. Truthfully, it was never my intention to publicly "out" you. If I had wanted to, I could've done that immediately on the BFRO website and the BFF. It would've looked something like this:

'The investigation of the initial report led us to irrefutable proof that Axxxx Sxxxxxxx AKA "Tontar" was responsible for using a pseudonym and submitting the initial reports regarding the trackway. That evidence has cast doubt over the entire event, and as such, we can't endorse its legitimacy."

There would be nothing ethically wrong with releasing that statement either, as it is completely true (unlike the majority of the things you've been posting since the "tracks" were discovered).

Obviously, I don't know if you were responsible for faking the tracks themselves, or if you had help from other individuals, etc. What I do know is that you were behind those emails and the BFRO report. Anyone who researches your public claims would also be convinced that you fabricated those tracks.

Whether you faked those tracks, or merely reported them for someone else, people will see those statements and assume with certainty that you did it, and that you've been experimenting with fake tracks since March of this year.

Many people will also interpret the act as malicious. Maybe you were conducting a legitimate experiment with stompers for your PG recreation. Perhaps you took those things out on a test drive and realized that they looked pretty good. Whatever the reason, things certainly changed when you created an email address and a pseudonym and sent reports and emails to Cliff and the BFRO. That's the part that people will undoubtedly get the most upset with; your desire to deceive others.

You lied, plain and simple. You are continuing to lie. You are trying to insinuate that others are responsible, when you know exactly who is truly responsible.

Derek Randles is a friend of mine, and I refrained from handing over information to others about your involvement because Derek thought that you would cooperate with him based on good faith. He told me that the two of you had communicated, and had intended to meet. Meanwhile, I continue to see the things that you post in public venues about the researchers' "inabilities" to identify who "did the deed".

We've known who "did the deed" for over a week. Every day that we have kept your name confidential should be viewed as a gift. Every day that we haven't done our due diligence and released that information has been an opportunity for you to be honest with the people who deserve to know the truth about this. Derek thought you would. For a moment, I thought you would, too. Instead, you're continuing to lie about the incident, and constantly trying to shift the focus (and the blame) back on to the "researchers"; the very people whom you had hoped to fool.

I gave you the chance to admit it on the BFF when I insinuated that you knew exactly where those tracks were before anyone else found them. Instead, you tried to divert attention away from you by concocting a sarcastic response, and then followed it up with a response implying that it was probably a bigfoot proponent who did it!

I am tired of giving you opportunities to do the right thing. I am pretty sure the other researchers and investigators are, too.

Matt Pruitt"

After sending that email, I had a lengthy phone conversation with Tontar about "doing the right thing" and working directly with the people that were affected. It was a nice conversation, and one that left me feeling that Tontar would do the responsible thing and be honest.

That still hasn't happened, and since then, many people have questioned my investigative integrity for pointing a finger at Tontar.

I have many, many screenshots of all of this information. I can release all of that information if need be. I am hoping (once again) that Tontar will fully disclose the extent of his involvement with this event.

His posts about Bill Munns' recent violation of trust related to a different event were what prompted me to finally post this. Tontar's words were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

It's pretty clear that he never intended to disclose the truth to anyone. Disclosing the truth was always my intention. I only delayed it because I truly felt that I was doing the right thing by allowing him to divulge his side of the story in a way that allowed him some sort of control over the way his story was presented.

He sent the emails and the initial report. Do the math, folks. Tontar is responsible for the fabricated tracks at Elbe.

[HOLDMYBEER]

Good piece of work, Matt.

[Guest]

Is tontar a verb in Spanish.....it should be.

[Guest]

You mean some folks didn't know that?

Even though it should stand, I doubt this thread will be allowed to continue. Like Bill's outing of the Erickson wookie, I think outing a hoaxer should be the duty of every BFF member.

Seems the jig is up Tontar. You might as well fill in the details. And have a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Gigantofootecus

[Guest Cervelo]

Duh.... just want to know how it was done!

[Hairy Man]

I too hope this stays open. Tontar needs to be allowed to address this issue publicly.

[Guest]

If you did fake them, you would hold out that information for what purpose? To fake more in the future? Hampering serious research by people interested in the subject? You are more interested in humiliating and degrading people I think. What kind of a person is that? You can sit around with your friends and laugh it off as a practical joke. Not many are laughing though. Some are very angry.

I think this is proof enough and a permanent ban should be placed on him. He may not have directly did the faking but he is involved.

Edited February 26, 2013 by damndirtyape

[xspider1]

Wow, talk about a jig being "up". I'm surprised to see our old 'kemosabe' still posting here. Those who get caught trying to pass off hoaxed evidence, pro or con (very bad kool-aid), almost always head for the hills. I guess sometimes arrogance interferes even with that basic human characteristic.

Edited February 26, 2013 by xspider1

[Guest]

^Seems more like they get cheerleaders and 400 pages of thread pinned to the top of the board!

[norseman]

This thread makes my heart leap for joy with all of the skullduggery coming from the bigfoot community as of late.

It proves that SOME OF US are still committed to getting to the bottom of TRUTH..........no matter what that truth may hold.

If I could give Matt Pruitt a medal? I would. Kudos.

[Guest Primate]

^^^Yup!!

[xspider1]

^Seems more like they get cheerleaders and 400 pages of thread pinned to the top of the board!

Nope, tontar will not get that here. Perhaps it would fly on one of the the anti-research boards (where they know everything already).

Edited February 26, 2013 by xspider1

[Guest SquatchinNY]

Matt,

Thank you for giving us the truth. Many people would have not exposed the person, just kept the name secret. You gave it to us flat out. A plus for you my friend,

[Guest]

Very very good job Matt and thanks. Most of us knew it already, but it's great to put it out there for everyone to know. I love the fact that he basically told you in the Matilda thread that this was the right thing to do. When I read what he posted earlier I just shook my head and when I saw this I couldn't help but laugh. Thanks again.

[Guest]

See? It's truth and reconciliation time just like I said.

Way to go Matt!