The El Campo Ape man sighting 2004

In 2004 the residents of El Campo Texas, reported seeing a large ape like creature which became known as the El Campo Ape Man. Representatives from the Texas Bigfoot Research Centre were contacted by a local family who said they had seen a newspaper report, in the Leader-News, that lead them to contact the centre and tell their story.

“We received a good sighting report from an El Campo resident after they read the article,” said Craig Woolheater, from Texas Bigfoot Research Centre .The encounter occurred at 10 p.m. on August 31st 2004 and this is the story from the anonymous ( did not wish to be identified) eyewitness:

“I was sitting out on the porch around 10 p.m. on Tuesday night. My dogs, a lab mix and a pit bull, started acting strange and growling.” The eyewitness said that they then heard a noise coming from a darkened area near the house. “It sounded like something heavy stepped on a piece of tin that is over there on the ground,” The eyewitness then summoned her husband, who grabbed his pistol and went to investigate. “As my husband was coming out the door, our pit bull ran inside the house very scared. We stood there on the porch for a little bit when suddenly this greyish animal that looked like an overgrown monkey jumped up on the corner of a refrigerator that was lying on the tail end of my husband’s trailer. It was stooped over and very fast, my husband fired his pistol towards the ground just as the creature started to run off very fast.”

Jason Gibbs with the El Campo Leader-News reported that the sheriff’s department confirmed a deputy was summoned to an El Campo home along U.S. Business 59, near the Garden of Memories cemetery. The deputy was unable to locate anything suspicious and departed the scene about 20 minutes later. The male eyewitness stated that the creature was greyish and had a man like face, but its nose was flatter than a human nose and about 5 feet tall. It was also noted that the deputy reported that the male witness was, “disturbed and shaken, but very sober and clear minded,” at the time of the sighting.

So what did they see? Could it have been an old gorilla turning grey or a silver back escaped from somewhere? The grey colour may have been because of the light , being night time and it may have been brown or lighter coloured. Certainly a curious one , the behaviour reported sounds like a primate but what sort?