Rockape Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) As promised from another thread.Submitted for your approval... The case of former NFL Quarterback Cullen Finnerty is a strange one. He was with his Father-in-Law and Brother-in-Law enjoying a day fishing. After an evening meal he returned to the lake in a pontoon boat for more fishing. Apparently he had been fine up to that point. Nothing out of order reported by the two with him. About an hour into his trip he phoned his wife, saying he was being hit by brush, he was getting off the river and thought someone was following him. He also phoned his brother-in-law and said he didn't know where he was. The family searched for him that night, the next morning they reported him missing. After a massive search by authorities his body was found three days later. This seems easy enough to explain. Finnerty had issues with abusing pain killers and they were found in his system in the autopsy. He had alcohol in his system as well, though only about the amount of "one drink". The autopsy also showed he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that has been associated with past concussions. Finnerty was known as a tough guy (even for a QB) who loved contact. There had also been an episode a couple of years before this where he thought he was being followed while in his car resulting in him driving 150 miles out of his way to his parents house with his father noting he "wasn't himself". His family discounted this episode as a one time occurrence as he was at that time abusing pain killers and had entered rehab afterwards. There had been no undue stress in his life, he was happily married with children and had just received a promotion at his place of work. No reports of strange behavior after his rehab stint and none that day by his family. Whatever came over him came out of the blue it seems. After phoning his wife saying he was being hit by brush he beached his boat and entered the woods. He apparently wandered the woods for at least a day, in an area criss-crossed with roads where one local said is "almost impossible to get lost in". It seems he purposely avoided those searching for him, who were calling out his name. He was found, deceased, about one mile from where he entered the woods. So it would seem on the surface he had a psychotic episode induced by pain killers exacerbated by brain injury. But that is where it get's weird. That's not what caused his death. He had suffered no trauma, was a young man in excellent physical condition with no physical illness and no signs of death by exposure to the elements. It's like he merely laid down and died. The coroner admits he cannot fully explain how this young man died. Cause of death is ruled pneumonia, but the coroner says that is merely an "informed hypothesis". It's a jump to make a connection to Bigfoot with this story. The "getting hit with brush", "disoriented" and saying he was being followed can be discounted by other factors, but the sudden onset of his condition while outdoors combined with an unknown cause of death keeps the door open on this one. To me, this is a strange situation. This has never really been discussed here on the General Forum other than an occasional mention. I thought we'd see if anyone has anything to add. The trail is a bit cold as this happened over two years ago. The coroner speaks... http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/08/cullen_finnertys_cause_of_deat.html Edited September 9, 2015 by Rockape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Hello Rockape, Thanks for putting this up. We have two or three sources available that can maybe tell us if the area had seen any Bigfoot activity: The BFF's SSR, the BFRO and maybe someone who may be keen on the area at the time, our own NathanFooter. It's a start but as you say little of this case says BF. His mention of having brush thrown at him and being followed? well, we need to look at reports first if there are any to look at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerhunter Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 The hit by brush can possibly be the result of driving his pontoon too close to shore under low hanging trees. I believe certain types of painkillers cause short term memory loss (a person might have a hard time remembering a conversation you just had with them) and if you compound that with traumatic brain injury, that explains getting lost - my brother in law got hit hard in the head at work, had a seizure, had a retina detach and he lost many brain functions very slowly at first then it accelerated in the following months before his brain shut down and he died. Brain trauma can lead to signs similar to advanced Alzheimer's disease. Tragic story to say the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I don't see any logical jump to any sort of bigfoot involvement. This line I found explains his death much more clearly "The autopsy released in August 2013, showed Cullen died of pneumonia brought on by inhalation of vomit after he became disoriented." If you are drinking, on strong prescription meds and having some sort of psychotic episode, things can go down hill fast. It's a really sad story, but seems pretty straight forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maxtag Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Just another really sad brain/concussion injury story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Hello All, From the Huffington Post 8/8/2013: (my bolds) "Finnerty's brain was studied at Boston University, which cautioned that it was highly unlikely the disease (CTE) – which was moderate – alone led to his death. "CTE possibly affected his judgment, insight and behavior, but there are other factors, including the use of medications prescribed by his doctor, that most likely contributed to the circumstances surrounding his death," the school's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy said in a statement. "Unfortunately because of the complexity of his medications and medical status, it is impossible to determine the specific combination of factors that led to his tragic death." http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9550462/cullen-finnerty-died-pneumonia-had-brain-disease "Kent County Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Cohle said Finnerty, 30, became incapacitated before inhaling his vomit in Lake County 65 miles north of Grand Rapids. Though relatives reported the former Grand Valley State quarterback had a number of alcoholic drinks the day he died, Cohle said his blood-alcohol level was negligible and didn't contribute to Finnerty's incapacitation. Hmmm. Sounds like someone wanted closure fast on this one (as in BEFORE the coming 2013 football season?). Looks like the jury might be out on this one though? Edited September 9, 2015 by hiflier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockape Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) I don't see any logical jump to any sort of bigfoot involvement. This line I found explains his death much more clearly "The autopsy released in August 2013, showed Cullen died of pneumonia brought on by inhalation of vomit after he became disoriented." If you are drinking, on strong prescription meds and having some sort of psychotic episode, things can go down hill fast. It's a really sad story, but seems pretty straight forward. I give this maybe at best a 1% chance of any bigfoot involvement, but I was familiar with this story and offered to start a thread about it, so with a sophist bent aligning with Plato's view that they could "argue either side with equal effectiveness" I hearby proceed with this endeavor. The thing about pneumonia being the cause of death, pneumonia, especially aspiration pneumonia which would be the case here, is define as a bacterial or viral infection. Finnerty was last heard from at 9:36 pm Sunday and his body found at 7:40 pm the following Tuesday, that an otherwise reasonable healthy young man contracted a viral infection that barely showed any signs in his autopsy (autopsy only showed "slightly cloudy lungs) and as a result died in less than 48 hours is specious at best. The coroner admits he's having a hard time determining a cause of death and aspiration pneumonia is his best guess. Then there is the cellphone pings, which showed him covering many miles in a very short length of time. Finnerty had an Iphone which had a very reliable GPS tracking system. Pings showed him several miles south of where he first disappeared to several miles north in just a matter of minutes. More strangeness. He was telling the folks he talked to on the phone last that there were "two guys" following him, he was trying to talk to them but they wouldn't answer and were getting very close to him, he said things were "getting tough". His wife said as she was on the phone with him he was "talking to that guy" who was following him but they wouldn't answer. Remember, this was at dusk so he probably couldn't see very well with fading light. He had asked his brother and father in law to drop him off at the river so he could make one more fishing trip before the weekend was over, they were to pick him up 30 minutes later. So within 30 minutes a guy who was showing no signs of a mental issues had an episode that caused him to abandon his boat and flee into the woods. True his brain showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy but medical experts agree that didn't kill him and they were indeed early signs. The autopsy also showed slight enlargement of his heart, but that didn't kill him. When found he still was wearing his hip waders and jacket. What we are left with is man who was physically in relatively fine health contracted pneumonia and died within two days. We also have one of the men who found him say "it looked like he was dragged there". As I said, this is a strange case. Edited September 9, 2015 by Rockape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dog Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 This is an interesting account of the incident. http://archive.freep.com/article/20130731/SPORTS08/307310128/cullen-finnerty-cause-of-death-autopsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Three Bigfoot reports reported in Lake County, Michigan. All three were nearly 10 years apart from each other. 2006 1997 1987 Edited September 9, 2015 by Gumshoeye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Hello All, For anyone wanting to Google Earth/Map the area Cullen Finnerty was found in, he was dropped off at the Bray Creek State Forest campground, and put his boat in on the Baldwin River. http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/details.aspx?id=602&type=SFCG#map-tab Edited September 9, 2015 by hiflier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted September 9, 2015 Admin Share Posted September 9, 2015 Undressing yourself in the woods is a sign of hypothermia. Not sure what was behind him but it would seem the FBI wasn't really following him months earlier. So obviously he had a touch of paranoia? Not a head shrinker...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockape Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 <Undressing yourself in the woods is a sign of hypothermia.> Hypothermia within about 30 minutes? Besides, he had his clothes on, which included hip waders and a jacket, when found. <Not sure what was behind him but it would seem the FBI wasn't really following him months earlier.> I doubt anything was following him that day either, but with all the weirdness, who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiflier Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) Hello All, Lets toss this around: poachers. He may have been followed by poachers trying to scare him out of the area. There may have been a confrontation but it doesn't seem likely. He may have simply died in from of the "two guys' and they dragged him where he'd be found. But even still, he was found face down, can someone choke on their own vomit face down? Would dragging a 230 pound man show trauma to the body from dragging eother peri- or postmortem? Arms out of their sockets? mud on their back, up their shirt? Scratches or gouges on the waders? Edited September 10, 2015 by hiflier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norseman Posted September 10, 2015 Admin Share Posted September 10, 2015 <Undressing yourself in the woods is a sign of hypothermia.> Hypothermia within about 30 minutes? Besides, he had his clothes on, which included hip waders and a jacket, when found. <Not sure what was behind him but it would seem the FBI wasn't really following him months earlier.> I doubt anything was following him that day either, but with all the weirdness, who knows? So he just told his wife he was undressing? It was late May, the nights could still be cold at that time up north. Dunno. I don't find it as weird as the Bart Schleyer case, but it's weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockape Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 But even still, he was found face down, can someone choke on their own vomit face down? If he had choked on his own vomit the cause of death would have been asphyxiation. Would dragging a 230 pound man show trauma to the body from dragging eother peri- or postmortem? Arms out of their sockets? mud on their back, up their shirt? Scratches or gouges on the waders? The one guy said it looked like he was dragged there, doesn't mean he was. So he just told his wife he was undressing? It was late May, the nights could still be cold at that time up north. Sounds like he listened to his wife when she told him not to take his clothes off. Too bad he didn't listen to her when she told him to stay where he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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