Texas veterinarian Melba Ketchum said she had the DNA of Bigfoot but a Houston-based reporter said the DNA actually belonged to an opossum.
Ketchum started studying samples of so-called “Bigfoot” DNA and published her findings in the “DeNovo Journal of Science,” which garnered criticism from reporters and critics.
Eric Berger, who writes for the Houston Chronicle, wrote that he found her research paper and talked to several geneticists. They said her findings were inconclusive.
“If Ketchum really had the goods she would have co-authored the paper with reputable scientists and gotten the work published in a reputable scientific journal. Instead she’s playing to an audience that doesn’t understand how science works, that wants to believe Bigfoot exists and is willing to send her some cash to further their delusions,” he wrote.
Geneticists told him that the 100 DNA samples gathered by Ketchum were from an opossum.
Ketchum told The Huffington Post later that his claims are “unbelievable.”
“There’s no credibility in his study whatsoever ... There’s jealousy out there,” she said.
Ketchum said that she wants a new and independent study.
However, in his blog posting, Berger said that he spoke with Ketchum for around an hour and said she had no grudge towards him. “I am first and foremost a journalist, and I figured if there was even a 1 percent chance that the Bigfoot evidence was real, it was worth my time to check the story out,” he wrote.
