After more than 40 years, FBI drops lab report on supposed Bigfoot hairs

Photo shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman. He said pictures of the creature, estimated at 7 1/2 feet tall, were taken northeast of Eureka, California. less Photo shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman. He said pictures of the creature, estimated at 7 1/2 feet tall, were taken northeast of Eureka, ... more Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close After more than 40 years, FBI drops lab report on supposed Bigfoot hairs 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

There's something out there.

But unfortunately, as Peter Byrne, the director of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition found out in 1977, it wasn't a Sasquatch.

Newly released FBI documents reveal that in late summer 1976, Byrne contacted the FBI to investigate circulating rumors of unidentifiable hair collected from a Bigfoot-like creature. By the following month, the FBI debunked that gossip, telling Byrne that they had no record of such hair examinations.

But that wasn't the end of Byrne's investigation. In November 1976, Byrne and the Academy of Applied Science — which helped to fund not just Byrne's investigation into Bigfoot but also another into the Loch Ness Monster — asked the FBI to examine 15 hairs and tissue for which they could not identify the origin. The FBI actually agreed, and in December had Byrne send what he found to the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.

"The FBI Laboratory conducts examinations primarily of physical evidence for law enforcement agencies in connection with criminal investigations," wrote Jay Cochran, Jr., the assistant director of the FBI's Scientific and Technical Services Division in a letter to Byrne. "Occasionally, on a case-by-case basis, in the interest of research and scientific inquiry, we make exceptions to this general policy. With this understanding, we will examine the hairs and tissue mentioned in your letter."

Several months later, however, the evaluation produced disappointing results:

"The examination included a study of morphological characteristics such as root structure, medullary structure and cuticle thickness in addition to scale casts," Cochran's report read. "Also, the hairs were compared directly with hairs of known origin under a comparison microscope. It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin."

Byrne, as it happened, did not personally receive the results of the FBI's analysis. As a representative from the Academy of Applied Science wrote in a thank you letter to Cochran, Byrne was off in Nepal, a place he occasionally visited to investigate the existence of the Yeti.

View the FBI's document here.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate producer. Email: apereira@sfchronicle.com | Twitter: @alyspereira

