The Momo Monster: Missouri's 1972 Bigfoot Sightings Revisited
Posted Wednesday, July 22, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
So I just stumbled across this fascinating documentary on YouTube about a case that doesn't get nearly enough attention in the Bigfoot community, and I had to share it with you all. It's about MOMO, the Missouri Monster, and honestly, the more I learned, the more I realized this might be one of the most compelling regional Sasquatch cases out there.
Back in the summer of 1972, the small town of Louisiana, Missouri found itself at the center of something truly bizarre. Residents were reporting encounters with a massive, ape-like creature roaming the woods near Star Hill and along the Mississippi River. Witnesses described it as roughly seven feet tall, covered in long hair, with a pumpkin-shaped head, almost no visible neck, enormous hands, and—here's the detail that really gets me—a truly awful odor. If you've ever read about Bigfoot encounters, you know that smell is one of the most consistently reported characteristics across hundreds of cases. It's one of those details that separates genuine wildlife encounters from misidentifications of known animals.
The most famous incident happened on July 11th, 1972, when brothers Terry and Wally Harrison were playing behind their home and heard a growl. Standing just fifteen feet away was this massive creature, its long hair completely covering its face. And if that wasn't unsettling enough, witnesses claimed it appeared to be carrying the body of a dead dog. Their sister Doris caught a glimpse of it from the bathroom window before it silently vanished back into the woods.
What really elevates this case for me is the credibility of some of the witnesses. Local fire chief Richard Allen Murray came forward with his own sighting, describing how he pulled his truck over to get a better look at movement on a hill and was genuinely shocked by what he saw. When a respected community member like a fire chief is willing to put his reputation on the line, that carries weight.
The documentary also touches on something that always makes these cases even more intriguing—reports of strange lights and UFO sightings in the weeks before Momo appeared. Some researchers have drawn connections between these phenomena and Bigfoot activity over the years, and Missouri seems to have been a hotspot for both around that time.
Here's what makes MOMO such a frustrating and fascinating case: no body was ever recovered, no definitive physical evidence was ever obtained, and the tracks that were found were inconclusive. All we have are eyewitness accounts from multiple credible witnesses, and a legend that has haunted Missouri for over fifty years now.
The documentary poses the question that always lingers with cases like this—was Momo an undiscovered primate, a misidentified known animal, or something we simply don't have a category for yet? Honestly, given the consistency of the physical descriptions with Sasquatch reports from across North America, the primate theory isn't as far-fetched as mainstream science would have you believe.
If you're into cryptid history, regional Bigfoot lore, or just love a good mystery, this documentary is absolutely worth your time. The production quality is solid, and it does a great job letting the witnesses tell their own stories. Check it out and let me know what you think—because cases like MOMO deserve to stay in the conversation.