Jeff Meldrum

Just in case you missed it, Lee Speigel wrote an article this week, detailing more remarks from Jeff Meldrum about the Siberian Snowman conference and excursion. We had spotlighted Meldrum’s concern first in October (here and here).

In “Yeti Evidence Falls Flat: Scientist Says Local Officials Staged Siberian Snowman Hunt For Publicity,” Meldrum did not hold back in his critique of what occurred.

Meldrum felt that…

…local Siberian officials staged the entire Snowman scenario — all for publicity.

“It was a very awkward feeling because here I was a guest and this was clearly orchestrated,” said Idaho State University anthropologist and anatomist Jeffrey Meldrum.

Meldrum told the reporter that his…

…suspicions began when trip organizer Igor Burtsev, head of the Yeti Institute at Kemerovo State University, told the group that it might find some remains of Yeti footprints in the cave.

“Somebody found a right footprint,” Meldrum said. “But I thought it was a little vague and not real distinct. It was a pretty expansive cave and there could’ve been footprints all over the place, if there was something tromping around in there in the sand.”

When Meldrum decided to go farther into the cave on his own, followed by a cameraman, “one of the regional government people saw us and rather harshly called us back, stopping us from going any farther back.”

“I thought that was kind of odd, and then someone picked up a little tuft of hair that was apparently pressed into the footprint. At that point, I wasn’t comfortable with the situation and had an inkling of what might be happening,” Meldrum said.

Once again, read the article, here.

It is obvious Meldrum understands where his statements leave him in the eyes of the Russians:

….now that he’s voiced his dubious opinion on the events of the Siberian Yeti hunt, Meldrum said he doubts he’ll be included in any future Russian field trips.

“They were talking about having this conference become an annual event,” he said, “and I’m quite confident I will not be invited back.”

This Siberian Snowman (illustrated above), which was individually named Mecheny by the eyewitnesses, is the Harry Trumbore drawing from Loren Coleman’s and Patrick Huyghe’s The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates.