This sighting occurred in Pickens County, South Carolina in approximately 1981. I have since spoken with the witness and he has agreed to allow us to use his name. His name is Robby Raines and he’s spent his career in Law Enforcement. Also, I checked the BFRO database and there were other sightings in that same area at the same time, so that really corroborates his story. I spoke with him via video chat, and he was very sincere and forthright about his sighting. I could also see that, even after all these years, it still affected him profoundly. The following is his account, in his own words. The only edits I made were punctuation and grammar.
D.A. Roberts
The Nightmare Hunter Project
Ok this will probably be long, and I know that I am not the writer that you are, but I will try to describe my first encounter to you as best I can. As I told you earlier, I am also in law enforcement and have been since 1996 so I’m now one of the grizzled old veterans. I say that to let you know that like yourself, I prescribe to the evidence and what the evidence shows or tells me. I became an officer to follow in my stepfather’s footsteps and I approach things in much the same way as him.
He retired from Our local county Sheriff’s Office. After 25 years as a Lieutenant in the juvenile division of the Criminal Investigation Division and then he went and worked another 15 years as a School Resource Officer at one of the small municipalities within the county. This encounter happened in early 1981. Dad was a Sergeant on the road at the time and he was on second shift on the day in question, so he was not at home. We live in a small community in Pickens County, South Carolina, which was very rural back in those days.
We lived in the Dacusville community and there was a lot of woods and farmland and not much else. Back in those days we still sat on the front porch in the summer evenings and talked instead of what most people do nowadays. This one summer night, my mom and I, along with my grandparents and my great grandparents were sitting on my great grandparent’s front porch. Well, my mom and the others were sitting on the porch, and I was inside my great grandparents’ house watching TV. It was probably after 2100 hours (9 PM) because it was dark outside when I finished watching whatever show I was watching.
My great-grandparent’s house was just an old-style farmhouse with an open floor plan and where I was in the house was the den and it directly lined up with the kitchen and the back porch. So, from where I stood up to turn off the TV, I could look straight into the kitchen, the back porch, and right out the storm door into the back yard. As I turned the TV off, and to this day I do not know why I looked to my right instead of walking straight out onto the front porch where my family was, but I looked to my right after turning off the TV and the back storm door was 15 to 20 feet away from me.
The light was on in the room I was in, but no other lights were on inside the house, so as I looked out the storm door, I saw a big shape standing in the door. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first or if I was seeing anything at all other than a trick with the shadows and lights, but then I saw it move. And it moved exactly how you described it in Odin’s Call. That side-to-side sway. I will never, as long as I live, forget that movement.
The top of its head was at the top of the storm door and the significance of that is that the top of that door was probably a good 12 feet off the ground. I sat there staring at this thing for what seemed like forever, but was most likely only a moment, staring into the deep sunken black eyes. It had black leathery looking skin on its face, and it had dark fur/hair everywhere else I could see. It constantly did the side-to-side sway, but it followed my movement with its eyes. I was terrified but I found the courage to finally run outside to my mom and grandparents on the front porch.
Long story short, nobody believed what I saw. At least at that time. My stepdad was on a call and being before the cellphone age we could not get a message to him, but my mom did call my uncle to come down and try and talk me down. My Uncle, who I also looked up too, is no small man. At this time, he was probably close to 6’6 and weighed over 350. He played college football and was a center, so you get the picture.
Anyway, he went to the back porch and stood in the doorway to see if maybe I saw a person looking in on me, but he did not even come close to taking up the doorway like the creature had, and he was standing on the steps and his head was not at the same height as the creature’s. The next day, my dad looked for any footprints, but it had not rained in a few weeks, so the ground was really hard packed and there was no sign of anything.
Like I said nobody believed me then, but my stepdad has since become a believer and believes that I did in fact see a bigfoot that night. I have always believed that is what I saw, and I have been laughed at many times when I told this story, but it is what it is, and I saw what I saw. I would love to sit down and talk to you sometime, either on the phone, or face to face and discuss this and my other encounters further. Anyways, thank you for your interest in my encounter.
Robby
That’s his story in his own words. I, for one, totally believe him. You can check for yourself on the BFRO website. Just check Pickens County, South Carolina. I look forward to more conversations with Robby and plan to have a beer with him the next time I’m in South Carolina. I even want to visit the spot where the sightings occurred.
Folks, this is what the Nightmare Hunter Project is all about. You can help and become a member of the project. Strange things are happening every day, all around us. You just have to look beyond the shadows. Welcome to The Nightmare Hunter Project.
D.A.
The Nightmare Hunter Project 