Teens Call 911 to Report Sighting of Five-Foot-Tall, Glowing-Eyed Creature in Kisatchie National Forest

The Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office recently shared the following report of a possible bigfoot sighting that took place in Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest on June 28th.

According to the report:

NPSO: IT COULD HAVE BEEN "BIGFOOT" OR A BEAR; DEPUTIES RESCUE HOUMA GRADUATION GROUP
6/28/2024
(Kisatchie National Forest)-This evening at approximately 9:20 p.m., Deputies assigned to the NPSO Patrol Operations Bureau responded to NATCOM 911 Center reports of a group in Kisatchie National Forest needing assistance according to the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office.
The group consisting of recent Houma graduates traveled from Houma to camp out in Kisatchie National Forest approximately one and a half miles down off of Back Bone Trail in southern Natchitoches Parish.
After setting up camp, one member of the group ranging in ages of 17-18 called 911 frightened requesting assistance because they reportedly heard a growl and saw what appeared to be an animal that had glowing eyes and stood about five feet tall.
Deputy B. Remo and Cpl. D. Halliburton responded to the area.
Deputies arrived on scene and began to walk towards the camp site looking for any suspicious activity or glowing eyes.
Deputies then heard the group's whistle and located them unharmed.
Deputies arrived at the camp site and successfully escorted the group out of the forest.
Deputies reported the disposition as unable to locate any suspicious activity involving a growl with glowing eyes and standing five feet tall.
We congratulate the Houma graduates, thank you for visiting Natchitoches Parish, Kisatchie National Forest and good luck in your future.

The most popular explanation among skeptics for the teens’ encounter is that they saw a black bear.

Although rare due to their “threatened” status, Louisiana black bears have been sighted in Kisatchie National Forest. Black bears generally stand between five and seven feet tall on their hind legs and their eyes possess a layer of tissue—known as the tapetum lucidum—that reflects light, producing a yellow-to-orange eyeshine.

However, Natchitoches Parish, home to Kisatchie National Forest, has had bigfoot reports before—one as recently as 2023.

According to The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), about an hour before dark on June 23rd, 2023, a witness was driving less than five miles north of Kisatchie National Forest when they saw a tall, hairy humanoid walk across the road in front of them.

“I was coming home. As I turned off the highway onto the dirt road I live on, a seven-to-eight-foot-tall creature crossed the dirt road ahead of me about 50 feet. It was a russet brown in color, covered in hair six to eight inches long. It was across the road in two or three steps and gone in the pine trees,” the witness said in their report.

BFRO investigator Matthew Moneymaker reportedly spoke to the witness directly and wrote in his report that he ultimately thought the case to be important due to what it could potentially demonstrate about sasquatch behavior in the area.