DATE:            Late November, 1992

TIME:            Evening/after dark

LOCATION:   Panola County, Texas

TERRAIN:      Pine forests, river bottom, swampy areas

OBSERVED:   I am a 42 year old computer systems administrator who lives in East
Texas on my 133 acre farm with my wife and two teenage children.
Although I was born in the big city, I have spent the majority of my
life in the country and I am an avid outdoorsman as are the rest of my
immediate family and relatives.  I will try to relate only the facts and
necessary details but please bear in mind that the story I am about to
relate to you is the most incredible encounter I have ever had in the
Northeast Texas piney woods.  As such, I feel the detail is important.

It was late November 1992 and my wife and I were deer hunting in a
nearby 9000 acre hunting lease with my aunt, uncle, and niece.  This
area, which is bordered on one side by 5 miles of the Sabine River, is
some of the most remote forest land that I know of.  The area in which
we hunt is really "out of the way" as the nearest inhabited farm house
is approximately 7 to 8 miles as the crow flies.  As serious
outdoorsmen, we pride ourselves in finding such inaccessible hunting
spots, and this one was no exception as it required a 6 mile drive down
old logging roads followed by a 15 minute ride on a four-wheeler deep
into the Sabine River bottomland.  It was an evening hunt, and, after
disembarking the four-wheeler,  I walked my wife to her tree stand and
settled her in.  I then took a 10 minute walk down the old fire lane to
my tree stand.  I made a mental note of how quiet the woods were that
evening, as if there was a serious predator in the immediate area.
Three hours later, right before dusk, I heard the familiar crack of my
wife's rifle, so I began the walk back to investigate.  Upon arriving at
my wife's location, I met my aunt, uncle, and niece who also heard the
shot as they were headed our way on their four-wheeler to rendezvous
with us and begin the journey back.

My wife described how a group of four deer had emerged within close
range of her tree stand.  Upon shooting the biggest one, the other three
ran into the woods.  To my wife's dismay, the deer she shot struggled to
its feet and attempted to follow.  Rather than taking another shot, my
wife had reasonably assumed that the deer was not going to go far and
simply waited for me to arrive.  The deer's wound was fatal as it was
leaving a heavy blood trail.  Even though the sun had already set by the
time I got there, the trail was easy to follow by flashlight.  My uncle
and I left the rest of our party and proceeded to trail the deer armed
with two fresh flashlights and a high-powered rifle.  We could tell by
its tracks in a low, wet spot that it was a large deer weighing 160 to
180 lbs.

Approximately 100 yards into the woods, we came to the spot where the
deer had laid down for the last time.  There was a large quantity of
blood, but no deer and no immediate trail!  We instinctively began
circling the spot, trying to pick up the trail again.  When we did, it
was very faint.  Even though the trail had reduced itself to a trickle
of blood every now and then, it was still reasonably easy to follow as
it was straight, and traversed open woods.

After approximately 15 minutes of following the new trail, we came to a
downed tree at which the trail seemed to end again.  This was a large
sweet gum tree that was much to big for us to step over.  But, after
climbing over to the other side, we picked up the faint trail again.
Upon leaving the downed tree, the trail became more sparse.  Eventually,
we crossed a shallow creek with steep banks and picked up the trail on
the other side.  Approximately 50 yards across the creek, we came to a
spot on the backside of a large white oak tree on which the ground was
very bloody  -  but no deer.  At that point, the trail which had been
very straight and deliberate, decided to take a 90 degree turn.    We
didn't say anything at the time, but, by now, my uncle and I had reached
the same conclusion:  This deer was being carried.  It was being carried
by something large enough to traverse obstacles that we had to climb
over and wade across.  Something that had stopped momentarily behind a
large tree to see if we were still following.

It was well past sundown now, and we had been on the trail a good 45
minutes.  The moon was high and bright, but my flashlight was beginning
to fade.  Since my uncle's light was larger and brighter,  We decided to
turn mine off and save what was left.  Shortly after, it decided to
confront us.

It's not what we saw, because we never saw it, even though we were
within 50 yards of it, just on the other side of a small clearing.  It's
what we heard.  I can tell you that I have heard everything from
panthers screaming to a charging 400 pound wild boar hog but I have
never heard anything like the sound that it made.  To this day I have
initially used one word to describe it:  Big.

I didn't find its incredibly loud, roaring howl hard to interpret.  It
was letting us know under no uncertain terms that the chase was over and
it was time for us to go home.  It was so loud, that the rest of our
party back on the fire lane heard it, and thought we were on our way
back and playing a joke on them.  At that point, our party began yelling
for us, which caused this thing to growl back at them in challenge.  The
whole exchange so rattled me, that it took me at least 30 seconds to
realize that I was the one with the semi-automatic high-powered rifle
and flashlight.  Nonetheless, I still remained at the ready and
concentrated on exactly where the sound was coming from across the
opening.

My uncle and I have spent many hours together in the woods, and it
didn't require the spoken word for us to know what the plan was.  I
immediately flanked to the downwind side of the opening hoping to either
force this thing to drop the deer and run, push it into the opening
where we could see it in the bright moonlight, or confront me in the
tall, open timber where I would have a good clear shot.

I suppose that in executing this maneuver it was my dogged desire not to
make this deer the first one that we have ever lost.  Whatever the
reason, the plan didn't work.  Whether or not it was for the better
remains to be seen.  I eventually slipped all the way around the edge of
the opening back to where my uncle was positioned.  Neither one of us
saw a thing.  At that point, we decided it was time to head back.

Ten minutes into the walk back, our party started whooping for us
again.  Before we were able to respond, something else decided to take
up the reply.  We kept moving through open woods, and in the direction
of the fire lane.  Every time our party let out a whoop, "it" would
answer in a challenging tone.  And "it" was getting closer.  As we
approached the fire lane, the underbrush became dense except for one
opening about 100 feet wide.  My uncle and I instinctively positioned
ourselves on both sides of the opening.  Whatever was following us would
have to come directly between us before it entered the fire lane.

As we crouched in wait behind two large trees, we heard one of the
four-wheelers start and head away from us down the fire lane.  We
immediately broke for the opening and trotted down the fire lane to
where our party was waiting.  Upon arriving, my wife told us that they
heard me walk out of the woods and head the opposite direction down the
lane, walking as if I was carrying something heavy.  Upon hearing this,
my niece decided to crank up the four-wheeler and go pick me up.  This
does bear some importance as I am a pretty big fella myself at 6'1" and
240 pounds.  However, obviously, it wasn't me they heard breaking out of
the woods and walking down the dry leaf covered fire lane.  I
immediately mounted the other four-wheeler and caught up with my niece
before she came face-to-face with who knows what.  We all headed home,
neither one of us saying very much.  We had enough hunting for one day.

However, we returned for several days after that, hoping to find
vultures, a carcass, or any other sign of the deer or its captor.  We
never found anything.

Description of Creature:

Activities of Witness: Hunting

Other Notes:     This area has yielded sightings of Bigfoot in the past.

Other Other Notes:  :