DISCOVERED BY JASON LOREFICE
"The first 5 tracks had a stride length of approximately 87" from heel to toe."
DISCOVERED AND CASTED DURING THE WEEKEND OF JULY 25th, 2009 IN BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS
UPDATE!!! TRACK LOCATION DISCOVERED!!
DISCOVERED AND CASTED DURING THE WEEKEND OF JULY 25th, 2009 IN BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS
With his unsolicited inquiry of possible bigfoot locations or 'hot spots' in said 'Triangle', I found Jason's manner to be very forward and somewhat blunt, actually. He said that "we are all in this together". I said "no, we are not all in this together. They eat their young in paranormal research - and I'm nobody's daddy". It was at that point that I wanted to cruelly throw him a stick and say "go fetch boy" in the hopes that he would not violate the proposed area that we were going make a foray into very shortly. I asked him if he was a member of the B.F.R.O., a clandestine, somewhat militant and fanatical bigfoot research group. He said that he was not a member. I had been harassed years before by members of this group who tried to play a hoax on me and I instantly assumed that he was one of them. The BFRO had been vicitimized by the famous 2005 Penn and Teller bigfoot hoax which sent their credibility into a tailspin. Even though they have a fantastic sightings database that is the best on the web, I want nothing to do with these people. Frankly, due to my remarks here I must anticipate another wave of harassment from some of their overzealous minions.
I then offered Jason my "for your eyes only" location. I knew of what I considered to be an 'active' area (where I had heard of odd encounters with an alleged sasquatch-type creature over the last few decades): the roads south of the Douglas State Forest off of Route 16 leading into northeastern Connecticut. I alluded that the area had alleged encounters as recent as 2005. I explained to him about what I call the "T" area, at the junction of the Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut state lines. I told him that the area had never been thoroughly searched by a professional tracker.
I later learned that he HAD been to the area where we took our 36-person Hockomock Swamp expedition (along the power lines), but I saw no traces of a tainted or compromised area and no tracks were found there.
In hindsight, when he said "we are all in this together" I did not know that he was referring to his relationship (and his regular exchange of ghost and haunting information) with three highly respected veteran paranormal researchers who were also good friends of mine, namely Andrew Lake, author Christopher Balzano and Matt Moniz. Jason then told me that he had signed up for my inaugural "Hockomock Swamp Tour" on August 2nd, 2009, which featured paranormal explorer and tracker, Chris Pittman as the guide. My tone changed. "A friendly" I mumbled. Here is an excerpt from the August 2nd expedition:
Lorefice wanted to know where we were going on the tour. Instantly, I thought about the upcoming "Hockomock Swamp Tour" and I had a defensive desire to keep our proposed expedition route confidential. I then threw him a bone instead of a stick. I mentioned some actual locations where a man-beast anthropoid had been reportedly encountered, whether by sight, sound or smell. These areas were away from the expedition area - namely the Elm Street and Scotland portion of the swamp in Bridgewater, and near Lake Nippenicket, just off Routes 495 and 104.
Then, unexpectedly, on July 30th, I learned that Jason had found 'something' on his expedition to the Hockomock Swamp. I telephoned him and got the details, that at the time, sounded a bit ambiguous. Essentially, he told me that he had pulled a plaster cast of a large footprint from a cornfield near Lake Nippenicket, an area that I had told him had a history of bigfoot encounters. I asked him to bring it to the Swamp Tour on August 2nd, and he agreed, with the stipulation that he would only let a few researchers (myself, Matt Moniz, Chris Pittman, Tim Binnall and Andrew Lake) review it after the tour. The youtube video here shows that first examination:
I left the restaurant with Tim Binnall and we openly questioned the veracity of the entire event. We felt that there was no solid backstory behind it, the footprint was too perfect and shallow and pondered whether it was a made-to-order hoax created especially for the tour, perhaps to impress some of the major bigfoot researchers from the area (myself, Matt Moniz and Chris Pittman), who would be accessible on the tour.
I told Binnall that the entire episode reeked of a hoax and I referenced a case that I had uncovered in 1998 that was perpetuated by a former prominent bigfoot researcher named Scott McNabb. McNabb had claimed that he was chased out of a riverbed area in Tennessee by a sasquatch-type creature in 1997. He had sent me (and other prominent bigfoot researchers) a plaster cast of a large footprint that was allegedly culled from the event area a few days later. At the time, I knew that I had seen the footprint before. I thoroughly checked my plaster cast collection of large footprints and I noticed that it was nearly identical to a widely-distributed plaster cast taken from the area where the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was taken in Bluff Creek, California on October 20th, 1967. I outed McNabb and he dropped out of the public eye. I drew parallels between that case and this one. It smacked of a dupe.
Later I spoke with Chris Pittman, who also questioned the cast's authenticity, but chose not to do so on video in the restaurant, as he did not want to hurt Jason's feelings. Pittman felt that we all could be the victims of a deliberate hoax and that we should be careful not to hop onboard with the "it's authentic" school until a further investigation was conducted. We (Binnall, Pittman and myself) decided not to anything publicly about it, thinking that the entire episode would eventually go away.
Veteran 25-year sasquatch tracker and researcher Don Keating, of the Eastern Bigfoot Investigation Center also chimed in and also stated that "this doesn't feel right" as he had magnified the photograph of the footprint and meticulously analyzed the toes. Keating has researched literally hundred of these cases.
On August 14th, I learned that that Jason's encounter had hit the popular website Cryptomundo, and that it was now a national story. I saw the photographs of the footprint/incident for the first time and I must admit that I laughed out loud. It seemed too perfect and I told my associates (Binnall, Lake, Moniz and Pittman) so. Moniz, a scientist, insisted that a scientific method of investigation should be applied before denunciation. I quickly came to the understanding that he was correct, and decided to withold further real-or-fake commentary until Moniz (who like Lake, gives Lorifice a "100% credibility rating"), an experienced tracker and accomplished investigator, had an opportunity (along with Lake) to go down to the area. I recognized the location from one of Jason's photographs and I suggested to Lake, Moniz and Lorefice that "someone should get down there and reconnoiter the area and present a case summary before the area is contaminated by every Joe on the Internet who is into Bigfoot.
I also asked Jason Lorefice to make a public statement regarding the cast, as it was relayed to Loren Coleman and Cryptomundo through author Joseph Citro, secondhand.
Later on the 14th, I emailed and telephoned Jason insisting that he work with Moniz and Lake for a follow-up investigation to the event area and to provide a subsequent case summary to dispel his detractors. When we spoke, I asked him outright if it was a hoax, told him that I felt that I was somehow responsible for this and that I can make it go away. I told him that right now would be an ideal jumping-off point and that it would hurt him and his organization's (Paranormal Investigators of New England) credibility if the hoax were allowed to continue. I expressed my skepticism. He then told me outright that it was not a hoax. I then insisted that he release a statement - and he has.
After several conversations with Jason, I must now admit that I think that he may not be perpetuating a hoax. There is a remote possibility that he was the victim of a hoax, whereby someone left a line of footprints for him to find, but that does not make sense, given his random, improvised journey for that day.
In conversation, he did not exhibit any of the conventional signs that are indictive of a hoaxer.
This is Jason Lorefice's statement. I corrected the punctuation, spelling and tense shifts from his original statement, but he agrees that this is the definitive account of the event:
After about an 1 1/2 hours, I decided to move to another location. Finally, I ended up in Bridgewater near Lake Nippenicket, and biked the area there as well. That is when I discovered what looked to be human- shaped footprints in the corn field (but much larger). As I examined the prints closer, I noticed that a trail of them looked as if someone or something had crossed the road and into the cornfield, where it made its way toward the swamp. I did, in fact, see some of the crops pushed aside as if something large has passed through it.
Due to the fact that it was late in the afternoon, I was faced with two options: either pursue the tracks into the thick dense brush and try to track it - or race back into town and buy some Plaster of Paris (at Home Depot) and make a mold of one of the tracks. When I returned to the site with plaster, I also measured the tracks and found some inconsistencies in the stride pattern. The first 5 tracks had a stride length of approximately 87" from heel to toe. The next four after that measured approximately 78"-79". The length of the feet were at about 18"x7". My guess was, if it had been a person's foot, they would have to be at least 8 1/2 ft. tall.
I had to prep the footprint by blowing out the loose dirt in the toes and I had to pick out some plants before pouring the mold.
Upon waiting for the mold to dry (about 45 minutes), I saw more than 50 birds shoot out of the trees like a bat out of hell. With the concern that whatever made those tracks may have returned, I sat there quietly for about 10 minutes and didn't make a sound. Unfortunately, I didn't see or hear anything.
After pulling the cast out of the ground, I was walking back to the car when I noticed a car pull up and the driver ask me if I was having car problems. I told him that I was fine and I showed him the cast. His eyes lit up like a pair of headlights. He told me that he and his wife had lived in the area for over 20 years and had never heard of any bigfoot stories around there. He then turned to his wife in the car and said "shotguns loaded tonight". As I look back, I realized that I was very excited to find such a discovery, that I failed to photograph the area more thoroughly and survey it better than what I did.
I would just like to clear something up. I'm a paranormal investigator, so I don't prove or disprove unexplained events. I simply present my findings. I wasn't there when the tracks were made, so I can't say if it was a bigfoot - or a prankster. I am still open to the possibility that it could be a hoax, but deep down inside, I want to believe that it was a creature in the Swamp. Since that time, I have got alot of mud thrown my way because of all this, and I sometimes wish that I never found those tracks. So for now, my conclusion is that it is of unknown origin. That's my summary of how I came into possession of this enormous footprint cast.
Here are three photographs taken by Jason Lorefice (and an unknown person) immediately following his plaster cast extraction from a corn field in Bridgewater, Massachusetts:
UPDATE!!! TRACK LOCATION DISCOVERED!!
On Saturday, August 15th, 2009, Jason offered to make his own "hoaxed" big footprints at his home in Burlington, Vermont and sent me his photographs. Here are his deliberate hoax attempts:
Jason also appeared recently on the cable televsion program 30 Odd Minutes and told his story.
As of August 18th, 2009 tracker Matt Moniz (from radio program Spooky Southcoast) has opened up an official investigation into this incident along with researcher/producer Andrew Lake (from Greenville Paranormal Investigations). We will present a case summary here when they conclude their survey. It may take several weeks.
I have invited Jason Lorefice (and offered to cover his expenses) to attend my annual paranormal conference, the 2009 Mass Monster Mash and present (not defend) his findings. I told them that he would be able to present his findings to the foremost cryptozoologist in the world today (author Loren Coleman) and some other prominent investigators who have researched bigfoot in the area, namely author/webmaster/TV personality Jeff Belanger, author/webmaster Christopher Balzano, researcher Chris Pittman and investigator
