The 'Siege' at Honobia

The 'Siege' at Honobia

These incidents took place at a rural homestead outside the town of Honobia, Oklahoma
in January of 2000.

Some BFRO contacts went to visit the family. They stayed overnight and were impressed.
Weeks later television stations and newspapers in Oklahoma mentioned the incidents but
never told the whole story.

Mid January, 2000

The first message received by the BFRO, from the uncle of the Honobia family:

"Too many incidents to mention here, please have someone contact us.
This is no hoax and my brother is afraid for his family. This creature is
getting bolder every time it returns. This thing is huge, walks upright,
smells like a musky urine, burned hair type odor. He repeatedly comes
back in the early morning hours after midnight and harasses them until
just before dawn. It has on more than one occasion tried to enter their
home. We don't know where to turn. Everyone thinks we are crazy when
we mention it. Please, we don't know what to do but I do know that
something needs to be done! There are stories we could tell that would
make the hair stand on your neck..."

The message went on to explain that the family was having problems over the past two
years with one or more nuisance animals that were prowling around outside the home at
night. The animals were stealing deer meat from an outside shed.

The situation had escalated when the animals tried to get into the home. At one point the
father went outside to confront the animal. He got a good look at one, and took a shot at
was he claimed was a bigfoot running back into the woods.

We contacted the family after receiving the report. The man we spoke with first was the
brother of the father of the family. He insisted that they were not kidding around. At least
one bigfoot was coming around the homestead almost every night. It was coming onto
the porch, messing with a window, wiggling the door knob as if it wanted to get into the
house, and even stealing deer meat out of a freezer that was kept in an open-sided
outbuilding.

Whatever it was wasn't alone. The family could hear chattering and screaming from the
hills when the prowler(s) were near the home.

The wife was too fearful to remain in the house. She and the kids were relocated
temporarily while the men armed themselves with assault rifles and prepared to defend
the homestead against the nightly prowlers.

On the night before the first message was received, the father fired at one of the animals
and thought he may have hit it. The following morning he found a substantial trail of blood
in the yard and thought it was from the animal he shot.

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The 'Siege' at Honobia

One of the BFRO investigators, an airline pilot from Ohio, offered to visit the scene to
hopefully collect some of the blood that was left in wake of the previous night's shooting.

Another BFRO investigator made contact with the residents by phone and began
updating other BFRO members via email.

"I finally spoke with the shooter last night. When I spoke with him directly I
got the facts straight about the situation at the house and the blood.

The shooter is named Tim. His brother (the one who originally contacted
us) is named Michael. Tim says it was definitely a bigfoot that he shot at,
and thought he might have hit it (it was approx.70 yds. away, at night).

There is a trail of blood in the woods, but it leads to the fresh deer kill, not
away from the area where the bigfoot was standing when he fired at it.

Tim says the bigfoot ran after he shot at it, but then he and his brother
could hear it and others on the hillside for several hours after the shooting.

That suggests to me that he didn't even wound it, and all the blood is from
the deer. Miles and Roger will be there in a few hours and see this all for
themselves and thoroughly look over the area. They will be armed.

Roger's father, a very skilled, 72 year old bear hunter, will remain at the
property, possibly for a few days.

Tim says he doesn't care what we do there, but if the animal comes back to
the house and scratches at the window again, he will go out and try to kill it.
He's had to send his kids to stay with relatives and he and his wife are
clearly terrified.

The volunteer, Roger Roberts, is a well-respected veteran private

investigator in Oklahoma. He was in military intelligence in Vietnam, then a
police officer for many years in Oklahoma before becoming a private
investigator. He's on a first name basis with law enforcement officials
throughout Oklahoma and is very familiar with every jurisdiction. Both Miles
and I were very impressed by him after speaking with him at length on the
phone.

Roger chuckled when I said we were wondering why Tim hasn't called the
police about this. Roger said there are hardly any sheriffs in this area
because there's a lot of weed growing in southern Oklahoma and the
federal government routinely does unannounced sweeps and arrests
crooked deputies.

The backwoods people do not talk to police if they can help it. Roger says
this mentality is the norm for southeastern Oklahoma, firmly rooted over
generations.

Tim wants us to take care of his problem. He doesn't want the bigfoot
coming back to his house anymore and he doesn't care what it takes to
make it stop. He will not move and not hold back from shooting at it if it
returns.

I told him that we're sending some people who will help him figure out what
should be done. I said the bear hunter will shoot it if there's no other way to
handle it, but in any case to let us handle it.

There may be no other way to handle it because tranquilizing it would be,

as we learned last year, basically impossible to arrange, especially if it

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needs to be done within a few weeks. This game may be over much sooner
than that.

The presence of more people with rifles at the location will be the best
deterrent to the animal, whatever it is, while this situation is being assessed
and we're recording audio and video there.

We have always known that, in the natural course of things, there would
someday be an overly aggressive bigfoot that would get itself killed by
someone protecting his family/property. This may be the one, inevitably.

Matt "

A day later more was added:

"Miles and Roger and Roger's father are at the location and setting up. I
spoke with Tim's wife briefly. She reiterated how frightened they were of
this thing and described some of the incidents. Far from jumping to
conclusions, she said her and her husband had denied the whole thing to
themselves for a few years. It wasn't until after the deer meat (three
complete quartered deer) had all disappeared from the large, chest-high
freezer in the outdoor shed that the intruder started trying to get in the
house at night. It didn't just scratch at the window, she said. It had pulled off
parts of the window and was getting bolder in its attempts to get in the
house.

The recent deer kill found outside had not been shot. One of its legs was
violently twisted and broken. It had clearly been carried, not dragged, to the
spot where it was found.

The most interesting thing was how the predator pulled out the internal
organs. The belly of the deer had not been opened. The opening was up
between the neck and rib cage. The predator made a hole large enough to
stick its arm in and apparently reached down from above the rib cage and
pulled out the organs.

Yuck.

Miles and Roger are surely photographing all of this right now.

There is no doubt in the lady's mind on the main question. She's adamant
that it is not a bear.

The loud vocalizations, tree thrashing, chattering and whistling outside the
house at night, are the most noticeable, recurring things. There was
considerably more noise during the night the deer was killed. Note that the
vocalization and tree thrashing aspects were not present at either the South
Carolina location or the Kentucky location. I expect our three guys will at
least hear something tonight ...

Matt "

Twelve hours later, more details:

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"I was on the phone with the people at the house last night for a few hours.
I was asking questions and listening to what was happening.

Things got very hectic at one point. These guys were actually shooting from
the porch while I was on the phone.

I figured it would be best to let them go at that point and said I'd talk to them
later. I don't know as yet all the highlights of what happened. All I know is
what I heard last night on the phone, and what I heard from Tim and
Michael this morning. I haven't heard from Miles and Roger yet today but
they will report on what happened and what they brought back with them, if
anything.

As of this morning they did not have a body, according to Tim and Michael.
This morning Miles and Roger went to check out a cave in the area where
one had been seen in during the day, according to another local witness
who came to speak with Miles and Roger yesterday.

Apparently they all saw a few bigfoots last night near the property. I don't
know how much, if anything, was gotten on tape. I do know that it was
pouring rain all night last night, which complicated things greatly, especially
with the recording equipment. I assume they are on their way home. I'll try
to call Roger in a few minutes.

-------------------------

From my conversations yesterday and early this morning with the residents,
we think we figured out what is so different about this situation. The
underlying cause seems to be that lots and lots of deer congregate on
Tim's property. He's got thirty acres in the mountains and he plants
Austrian snow peas all over the property, especially near the house,
because deer go crazy for them this time of year. People plant these plants
specifically to attract deer. It makes it easier to hunt.

Many deer come to feed on his property. There's a deer overpopulation

problem in the area to start with, so his property is apparently an effective
magnet for deer.

There are so many deer that he doesn't even have to get off his porch to go
'hunting'. He bags lots of deer on his own property and has been doing it for
a few years now.

He and Michael said that on some occasions the deer carcasses were
snatched away by something.

We didn't get into details about each of those incidents, but some of those
incidents involved frozen quartered venison being taken from a big freezer
in an outside shed with no door. The freezer has no lock but does have a
very heavy lid that needs to be lifted. The frozen deer parts were all taken
eventually. When there were none left, Tim and his wife started hearing the
attempts of something trying to get in the window, and loud 'hollering'
outside.

A few times Tim ran out after it, but it would always flee into the woods. The
first time he got a good look at it was the night he shot at it -- a few night
ago.

The most baffling thing for all of us was why these things weren't running
away after being shot at. They'd pull back a bit in the trees, then move to a

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different part of the hillside and could be seen through the brush when the
spotlights reflected off their eyes.

Miles told me on the phone last night that both he and Roger were seeing
what Michael and Tim were describing in terms of the red eyes and other
movement in the trees. Supposedly a lot more happened after I got off the
phone.

Tim and Michael were trying to kill the animals. Apparently there was more
than one target at some points. I asked Roger on the phone if it was
possible these guys are just freaked out and shooting at raccoons in trees.
Roger sounded very nervous, and didn't want to talk much. He just replied,
"No, this is serious business. They've definitely got a problem here." I called
back a while later and was only able to talk to Miles and Roger for a few
seconds. Miles last words about what was happening: "Its pretty much
shoot to kill at the moment."

This morning I asked Tim if he ever spotlights deer at night from his porch.
He does. Then we established that indeed, MOST of the time when he's
spotlighting the woods and shooting from his porch is when he's shooting at
deer, not bigfoots. So if the animals who aren't running away from the loud
gunshots are some kind of predator (like bigfoots) that's been in the area a
while, then those predators may have noticed that sometimes after those
spotlighting-gunshot incidents, a wounded deer would be struggling up the
hill trying to get away... and will be much easier to catch.

Deer will always take off running when they hear gunshots, especially
within 50 yards, that's how they know they weren't seeing deer's eyes while
the shooting was going on. Te animals may have thought Tim and Michael
were taking shots at deer, as they usually do, and that's maybe why they
aren't running away.

Tim's sound stunned when I explained the deer connection. He slurred out
a long steady ".. oh my god" as if it finally all made sense to him.

The bigfoots might be hanging around the property waiting to grab a

wounded deer. I explained that these predators might not understand that
they are the intended targets now, because all they would see is a spotlight
shining through the trees toward them, then a very loud BANG from an
assault rifle.

The animals may be expecting to see wounded deer running toward them
up the hill. They may have watched that pattern for years.

It's possible they either don't realize that there are bullets whizzing by them,
or they've gotten used to it. At that range the shot is so loud you wouldn't
hear a bullet hitting the trees next to you. And they wouldn't see when the
guns are pointing right at them because the spotlights would be in their
eyes at that moment. It may appear to be business as usual with all the
shooting going on.

Matt"

Addresses questions from other BFRO advisors :

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"Miles and Roger are probably on their way home. Miles will give his update
as soon as he can, I'm sure.

I wish I knew more but I'd rather not give all the details that Michael and
Tim gave to me. I'd like to hear Miles' version because that's going to be
more accurate.

Q: Could there be a way to deal with them that is non-lethal?

A: I don't think so. These residents are going to shoot these things on sight,
and they don't give a hoot if we have a problem with that. To them it's a
dangerous nuisance predator. They said we could do whatever we wanted
to, but they are going to do whatever they want to.

Assume we could do the impossible and get a tranquilizing team

assembled. The team would NOT want to lay in wait there with these guys
shooting up the place. Nothing is going to stop these guys if they think they
see one from the porch.

Q: What has led them to take the fairly unusual step of frequenting a
human habitation and attempting to break into a living space?

A: They are after the deer and the deer meat.

Q: Could something be done to alter this behavior which would not put
humans or BF at risk?

A: Yes, he's got to deter the deer. If the deer leave permanently then the
bigfoots will leave eventually. I told him to put up scarecrows and remove
as much of the snow peas as he can to keep the deer away. I also told him
to string up more lights around the house.

Q: I can imagine that if it were me in their shoes, I'd be out there with as
much firepower as I needed, but have we examined what brought this
situation to its current crisis? Is it unreasonable to expect that if you keep
fresh game hanging around your property that it is going to attract
unwelcome visitors?

A: All I could do is ask questions to help him figure out the cause, and from
that point we came up with a simple strategy: Make the deer go away and
everything should cool down. That's what they are going to do, but they're
still going to shoot if they see one. These guys are very firm about
reserving the right to shoot on sight. All the king's horses wouldn't change
Tim's mind about that. I asked him if he'd sell the property. He said it isn't
for sale. They don't want to move.

I suppose it's like this ... Imagine you didn't know anything about this
subject and you lived way out in the mountains. Recently you've had a real
live monster, maybe more than one, trying to get in your windows, and now
your wife and kids are petrified. You've gone out to shoot at it and it still
comes back to the edge of your property, and your wife and kids know that.

Then some research group shows up and says, "Hey, don't shoot the poor
monster. It's special." That doesn't fly with these guys. If it was a bear trying
to get in the house, they'd shoot it. They'd hunt it down if they couldn't get it
in the act. If it was a person trying to get in, they'd shoot him. They don't
see why they should cut a bigfoot any slack.

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Q: I believe we need to try to at least ask these questions of ourselves. I

hope as you do that the presence of a lot of armed humans will be enough
to keep these things at bay, but I'd really like to know the full history of the
encounters between the bigfoot(s) and this family. Could there have been
measures taken to head this off?

A: I think we're going to be learning some things as we go along here, but

we can't stop this particular ball from rolling. I've done absolutely everything
I can do. I think I heard the most relevant points of the encounter history
with this family. It all adds up to a correlation between three species being
present there -- humans, deer, and bigfoots.

The deer are the things to focus on, because they can be removed from the
equation. If the deer leave, the bigfoots will probably leave too. Tim and
Michael are taking my word on this. They said don't want to have to kill the
bigfoots if necessary. Unfortunately if they even see one, then it becomes
necessary as far as they are concerned ...

Q: Again, I'm not there, and I can imagine the fear and anger these people
are feeling, but the questions must be asked, if for no other reason than it
will add to our knowledge base and hopefully allow us to defuse a future
situation like this. By the way, the explanations regarding the reluctance to
contact local law enforcement is entirely plausible; it really is something to
have a guy like Roger around who knows the local terrain and mentality of
the locals so well. I got to question what the father is doing there though, it
sounds like this could easily turn into a hunting expedition which you
warned against.

More emails:

"Tim and Michael were only amenable to letting me send people initially if I
was sending a hunter in the mix. Roger's father was the hunter. I didn't tell
the residents ahead of time that the hunter was in his 70's.

I had to explain to Michel on the phone after they arrived that they are more
investigators than hunters but they can defend themselves. Roger's father
turned out to be more interested in sleeping in the car than anything else.
He got out of the car and came in the house when the shooting started
though ...

I think they were all up for most of the night and then all day long again
today. That's probably why I haven't heard from them. I'm as eager as the
rest of you to hear all the details.

Matt "

From Miles, one of the investigators who went to the site :

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"I met Roger Roberts and his father-in-law in Tulsa and we drove down to
the site, arriving shortly before dark, Friday afternoon.

Roger is a private eye and was very helpful picking up on details and
asking good questions.

It was quickly beginning to cloud up with very dark ominous looking

weather, which probably cheated us out of close to an hour of good
daylight.

We looked around the scene. The deer was badly eaten up at this point
(less than 48 hours had gone by since the kill) mostly by his dogs I
imagine. He had about 15 beagles running loose. There are other
predators in the area, but since it was only about 75 yards behind their
house, I doubt if it was anything but the dogs that were responsible for the
damage. I witnessed them eating on it.

Anyway, it was too far gone to tell anything, just a skeleton from the hind
quarters forward to the upper neck. The witnesses were all appeared to
be honest. It is my opinion that they are truthful and that there is bigfoot
activity in the area.

The gate was impressive. It closes against the corner of the house. There
were absolutely no signs of scratches or anything that gave the
impression that the damage was faked by clamping in a vise or
something. The total area of the bending was approximately 14 inches.
There appeared to be 3 or 4 spots along the middle of the crease that
were the points of contact, like a hand wrapping around it and squeezing.
They were each approximately two inches apart, centered in the folded
area.

Several friends and neighbors stopped by throughout the evening that

had heard about what was going on. When they heard about what was
happening, they began to open up and relate stories of their own. For the
story telling session, we just let them talk. I can spot a lir and Roger has a
lot of experience with questioning and interviewing, and we are both
convinced these people were on the level about their experiences.

The session went on until about 11 pm and since they indicated nothing
ever happens until around 1 or 2 a.m., Roger and I went driving around
with a spotlight to see if we could spot anything from the roads. It rained
all night by the way.

NOTE: That area is extremely remote and heavily forested and

mountainous. I have been all around the country hiking (Pacific
Northwest, British Columbia, Alaska, Great Smokey Mountains, etc.) and I
was really caught by surprise. No, it is not as rugged and isolated as the
Northwest but it is just like the Smokies. It is a perfect spot with all the
protected government land.

Anyway, when we got back, they were all out on the front porch and they
said they had just shot at one across the road. That started the hunt.
Basically, we hung around outside until about 4 a.m., in the rain, low 30's,
shining lights. The brothers shot at 2 more "somethings" that I never saw.
They described the eyes as "reflecting pinkish red". The term "like a red
reflector or taillights on a car" was used. I did see something a few
minutes after the initial sighting that they shot at. That reflected like a red
reflector. It was there for just a second in the trees across the road (thick
small saplings and brushy area) around 7 or 8 feet high. It was definitely

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there, not the reflection of wet leaves or anything like a tower light in the
distance.

Anyway, they would see something and shoot, but there would be no
scream or sound of anything running away. There were no screams all
night or any definite moving in the brush. Of course, listening was
hampered by the sound of the rain on the wet leaves."

Miles and Roger shot some videotape of the situation with their camcorder. They tried to
document the eyes on the hillside but it was too fleeting to capture on tape. The heavy
rain complicated matters by forcing them to stay on the porch most of the night.

The following morning they looked for tracks on the hillside. Due to the thick leaf litter and
the heavy rains there were no tracks that could be clearly distinguished from the boot
impressions of the residents.

By the end of the day it was decided by Miles and Roger that the residents could
adequately protect themselves. They didn't need another hunter waiting on the porch.
The residents weren't interested in allowing a surveillance project, or anything else that
would require attracting the animals back near the home. They wanted the bigfoots to get
the message and keep out.

There were other reasons the investigators were not inclined to stay longer: The nervous
shooting by the residents made it a hazardous, unpredictable situation. The investigators
had to cautiously position themselves much of the time to keep out of any potential line of
fire. They never knew when the crackle in the brush might lead an unfortunate accident.
There was also an inherent conflict between different objectives: deterence and research.
Even doing research on adjacent land wasn't a safe alternative.

The investigators packed up, thanked the residents for their hospitality, told them to be
safe, and asked to be contacted if any evidence of any sort became available. It never did.

As with any small town situation, word got out about what was happening at the property.
Not only did everyone seem to know what was going on, but the location soon came
under surveillance by the state fish and game office. The residents could no longer do
'hunting' off the back porch, or shoot fairly indiscriminately into the night.

The family was eventually persuaded to stop trying to shoot the creatures, and instead
deal with the underlying cause of the problem. They needed to get rid of all the deer meat
and stop hunting deer on the property. The increased presence of fish and game vehicles
in the area made the argument an easier sell.

It wasn't long before they indicated that everything died down. They said the bigfoots
seemed to keep a greater distance. They were heard off and on howling from the nearby
hill tops, but they didn't try to enter the home again.

The family heard less and less vocalizations as the weeks went on. Eventually the
vocalizations ceased all together. It was assumed the animals moved into a different
area. There was plenty of places for them to go. The property is in the Kiamichi
Mountains, on the edge of the vast Ouachita National Forest.

A few weeks later the BFRO sent another investigator from Oklahoma, Sue Lindley, to
explore and solo camp in the general vicinity of the home. She came well prepared and
camped for several days alone with her dog. She returned a few weeks later to set up an
automated camera at a promising spot. She found and heard a few interesting things on
that trip, but nothing definite. The camera trap yielded nothing.

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The best thing the BFRO could do at that point was to wait to hear from more witnesses
in the general area who might provide tips on another visited property. When a tip finally
came in months later, an expedition was organized -- the Ouachita Expedition. That
expedition yielded no video or photographic evidence, but the participants say they heard
probable vocalizations and believe another expedition is warranted.

Copyright © 2011 BFRO.net

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