Kentucky Nurse Recalls Seven-Foot Bigfoot Sighting on Dark Highway

There's something about a late-night drive down a dark, desolate highway that just sets the stage for the unexpected. And for one Kentucky man back in November 2020, that unexpected turned into an encounter he won't ever forget. I recently came across a fascinating episode of The Cryptid Podcast where host Dano sat down with John Riners, a registered nurse from Owensboro, Kentucky, who shared a truly remarkable story from his drive to quarantine at his cabin on Rough River Lake. John had just tested positive for COVID and was making the roughly 58-mile trip north on Highway 261, a stretch of road that winds through some seriously remote, heavily wooded terrain near Fordsville. If you've ever pulled up Google Earth to scout that area, you know exactly what I'm talking about — miles of dense forest, two-lane blacktop, and not much else. It was around 9 p.m., barely a sliver of moonlight, and John was keeping his wits about him like any seasoned driver on that stretch would. He's had close calls before — loose horses, deer darting across the road — so he knew to stay alert. About a mile and a half from his turn onto Highway 105, something caught his eye on the right side of the road. A massive buck burst out of the brush and onto the highway, and John immediately knew something was off. The deer wasn't looking at him or his truck barreling down at 55 mph. It was staring off to the left, fixated on something in the shadows. That's when John's headlights caught a pair of gold eyes about three feet off the ground, positioned at the edge of a second tree line roughly 30 yards back from the road. Now, John grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, so he's no stranger to mountain lions — they've crossed his property plenty of times. But these eyes were bigger, set wider apart, and locked directly on him. Not the side-mounted eyes of a prey animal. These were forward-facing, predator-style eyes. As he crept closer, slowing nearly to a stop, the eyes resolved into a head. And not just any head. John described it as being at least the size of a basketball, with a distinctly square shape rather than the classic conical Bigfoot silhouette most people talk about. He even compared it to the head shape of wrestler Brock Lesnar — and if you know Lesnar's build, that's a pretty vivid comparison. Then things got really interesting. The buck finally bolted, and the creature attached to those gold eyes began to move in a way John described as "spider-like" — limbs splayed out, moving in a herky-jerky, helter-skelter fashion across the open farmer's field. After a few seconds, it shifted gears, dropped onto all fours, and started running after the deer. And just before it disappeared from John's view, it rose up onto two legs. Now, here's where the discussion cuts off, but John had estimated the creature stood around seven feet tall or more. Given his background in orthopedic nursing, his eye for body mechanics and anatomy is something he brings into his Bigfoot research, which he's actually published books about. His theories on why these beings behave the way they do — from their movement patterns to their interactions with wildlife — are apparently pretty compelling, and Dano was planning to dig into those after the encounter story. What strikes me most about this account is the detail. John wasn't out looking for anything. He was a tired nurse with COVID, hauling groceries to a cabin to quarantine for seven days. The encounter found him. And the way he breaks down the eye placement, the head shape, the transition from quadrupedal to bipedal movement — it all lines up with a lot of the patterns reported by witnesses across the country. The deer acting as an early warning system, almost like a barometer for something else being present in the area, is something researchers have noted time and again. Deer and elk seem to have an acute awareness of these beings, often reacting with obvious fear or fixation long before humans notice anything. If you're into witness accounts with a lot of anatomical and behavioral detail — especially from someone with a medical background who can articulate what he saw with precision — this one is absolutely worth your time. John Riners' story is a standout, and the conversation around his published theories makes the rest of the episode something you'll want to stick around for. Go give it a watch and let me know what you think.