Is Bigfoot Alive and Well in Rhode Island? Serving on the Charlestown Town Council?

In very serious news, researchers claim to have used genetic testing to verify Bigfoot's existence, and he might be in Rhode Island.

Seen wandering along South County Trail

By Olga Enger in Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

A team of researchers led by Melba Ketchum, a Texas veterinarian, claims to have used DNA samples to prove the existence of Bigfoot, reports the Huffington Post. On the team’s Sasquatch Genome Project’s website,  it claims the genetic testing also confirmed the hairy beast is half-human, the result of a human mating with an unknown primate about 13,000 years ago.

Mainstream science journals rejected the research. Instead, the group self-published the first volume on an online science journal DeNovo Journal of Science last week. 

“Rather than spend another five years just trying to find a journal to publish and hoping that decent, open-minded reviewers would be chosen, we acquired the rights to this journal and renamed it so we would not lose the passing peer reviews that are expected by the public and the scientific community,” Ketchum said.

Another paranormal research team claims to have recorded evidence of sasquatches roaming the forests around Exeter, West Greenwich and Cumberland.

Ketchum is calling for the government to recognize Bigfoot as an indigenous population, which would come with protections under federal law.  “Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to  hunt, trap, or kill them,”  she said in a statement.

Although mainstream scientists did not embrace the team’s research, there is a thriving community of people who believe Bigfoot is more than a mythological beast. According to the  Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, there are more reports of Bigfoot sightings right here in Rhode Island.

In 2010, a motorist claimed he was spooked by an unidentified animal that ran quickly across Route 6 on two legs which then hopped over the guardrail.  In 2006, another witness claimed to have seen a woven stick structure in a South Kingstown forest.

Bigfoot investigators say such structures are thought to be created by the mammal.   A biker reported he spotted Bigfoot in Glendale during the day in 1998.

To see more Bigfoot sightings, click here.