BIGFOOT OF ROACHDALE, INDIANA

drawing by Sybilla Christine Irwin.

In August, 1972 bigfoot came to the home of Randy and Lou Rogers of Roachdale, Indiana.

They first became aware of something coming around their farmhouse early in the month. Whatever it was made it's presence known by banging on the walls and windows of the farmhouse, gradually increasing each night. When Roger would run outside to try to catch who or what it was; he would catch only a glimpse of something heavily built, around 6 ft. tall disappearing through a cornfield. For two to three weeks this creature would arrive between 10 and 11:30 each night, bringing with it an odor like a dead animal or rotting garbage.

Although Mrs. Rogers was frightened, she was also curious. She decided that if this creature meant to harm them in any way, it could have done so at any time. She began to leave "waste food" out for the creature. The food was readily taken. Sometimes she would see it outside, watching her through her kitchen window. She noted that although the creature stood on two legs, it also ran on all fours. When it was on all fours, it stood as tall as her husband at 5'9".

The creature never left any tracks, even when it ran through mud. It seemed to hardly touch the ground as it ran and it made no noise as it ran through the undergrowth. She also stated that she thought she could see through it when she looked at it.

By the third week of August, almost three dozen people had reported seeing a creature wandering around at night. Some people claimed that they had seen a luminous object hovering over a cornfield. It was said to have exploded but no debris was ever found. This was said to have happened around an hour before Mrs. Rogers first set eyes on the creature.

On August 22, 1972, Carter Burdine and his uncle Bill "Junior" Burdine found 60 chickens dead on Carter's ranch. They were dismembered but not eaten. The bodies were strewn from 200 yeards from the chicken coop to the front yard of the farmhouse. Later that evening, while searching the area with the marshal, they heard something large and heavy rush across the raod six feet from Bill. It was moving too fast for him to see exactly what it was. It smashed a fence down in it's flight, also leaving trampled weeds and grass in it's path.

In the early hours of the next day, two men returning to the farm, saw a massive bigfoot standing in the next to the chicken coop. The figure totally filled the 6 x 8 ft doorway, blocking out the lights from the inside. It's head was higher than the top edge of the door. They, along with Carter's father Herman, chased and cornered the creature in the hay barn. It managed to break out of the structure and disappeared into the darkness. The men found another 110 chickens dead. Conservation officer William Woodall was called in to investigate. He never found any concrete evidence of what the creature was. All that was left were the stories of what people said they saw and experienced. There were no tracks, as the ground was hard and the vegetation high. 

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."