While the men succeeded in captivating the national media with their Bigfoot story, here, they notably proved reluctant to show reporters the body in their freezer.
Being a simple liar is not a crime.
However, it now appears that the men may have taken their hoax one step too far: they accepted money for their Bigfoot cadaver — which turned out to be a rubber suit.
A website called SeachingForBigfoot.com has confirmed that it paid the men for the body.
The Executive Director of the site, Steve Kulls issued the following statement:
“On August 15th, 2008, Tom Biscardi, Ricky Dyer and Matthew Whitton held a press conference at the Cabana Hotel in Paolo Alto, California, announcing that the corpse of a creature fitting the description known as ‘Bigfoot’ had been discovered. A police officer of seven years, on medical leave, labeled as a hero for being wounded in the line of duty, got up in front of the world and told the world of how he and Ricky Dyer uncovered this creature. This has since been proven a lie. It is notable that Rick Dyer insisted on this press conference and told Tom Biscardi he would not release the ‘body’ unless the conference was held on this specific date.”
When the site managers began to thaw out the frozen body, they discovered the rubber suit and sought out the men. Whitton and Dyer, however, had hotfooted it by the time the Bigfoot hoax was uncovered.
Taking the money potentially moves the matter from realm of a childish prank into the realm of criminal fraud.