August 18, 2008

Update August 19: Fox News reports that this is a hoax.

Two men who claim to have stumbled across a Bigfoot corpse in the woods of north Georgia stood by their story at a news conference in California.

The men offered an e-mail from an entomologist as evidence and acknowledged they wouldn't mind making a profit from the "find" they have kept stuffed in a freezer for over a month.

Matt Whitton, an officer on medical leave from the Clayton County Police Department, and Rick Dyer, a former corrections officer, announced the discovery in early July on YouTube videos and their Web site www.bigfoottracker.com.

Since then, they have started offering weekend search expeditions in Georgia for $499. The men say the specimen they bagged was one of several apelike creatures they spotted cavorting in the woods.

The pair were joined at the news conference Friday by Tom Biscardi, head of a group called Searching for Bigfoot.

Biscardi fielded such questions as why should anyone accept the men's tale when they weren't willing to display their frozen artifact, or pinpoint where they allegedly found it.

The three presented an e-mail from a University of Minnesota entomologist that said of three DNA samples, one was human, one was likely a possum and the third could not be tested because of technical problems.

(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.)