Obituaries

Yeti Scholar On Downed Helicopter

A helicopter full of the intelligentsia of Nepal’s Himalayan conservation and forest management has been apparently found. Radio contact with the craft was lost on Saturday, September 23, 2006, while it was in a remote mountain area of Nepal, 190 miles (305km) east of the capital, according to Reuters. I note that several of the people on the copter may have had dealings with the search for the Yeti or Abominable Snowmen in the region. One individual, specifically, had been an outspoken advocate of the Yeti in recent years. Nepali environmentalist Mingma Norbu Sherpa (above and below), who did the [...]

Mothman Producer Dies

Executive producer Barry Conrad (above, right) and his producer partner Lisa McIntosh (above, left) have been working on their documentary project about the Flatwoods Monster, Kelly Creatures, and Mothman for over five years. Their production company has completed several documentaries that have been broadcast on the Biography, A&E, Discovery, Sci-Fi and TLC channels. When the crew visited me in Portland, Maine, on April 19, 2002, they were here to interview and tape me about Mothman, my book on the topic, and the then just-released Richard Gere The Mothman Prophecies movie. They did this, intriguingly, in a live production event in [...]

Steve Irwin Killed

“I have no fear of losing my life. If I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.” – Steve Irwin Steve Irwin who once devoted time in the hunt for the Thylacine has been killed. Crikey! Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday, September 4, 2006, by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44. Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series [...]

The Silver Bridge: How Many Died?

Mothman mysteriously appeared and for 13 months was seen in a Banshee-like wave of sightings. Then the Silver Bridge fell. Maybe there’s a connection, maybe there isn’t. With all due respect, do you know how many died in that tragedy? Why have my buddies at the Fortean Times forgotten to fact-check this significant detail before publishing a Letter to the Editor about it? Bill Rebsamen’s image of the Mothman created for the cover of my book on the subject. In the new issue of the Fortean Times, # 214, for October 2006, on page 71, in a letter entitled “Silver [...]

Bigfoot Researcher Dies In Tragic Accident

Jason Valenti and Star Sams are well-known Bigfoot researchers in Washington State. Many of us got to meet them for the first time after Jason decided to organize the Sasquatch Research Conference held at Bellingham, Washington, on May 27-29, 2005. The event was successfully hosted by Jason Valenti and Star Sams, along with assistance from Paul Smith and others. I was happy to be one of their guests and speak at the gathering. Sadly, the terrible news has reached Cryptomundo that Jason’s wife, Star, has died in a car crash on August 15, 2006. Our deepest empathy and sympathy to [...]

Przewalski Horses and Almas

Cilka (above) was a beauty. The world’s oldest known Przewalski horse died on August 12, 2006. The mare named Cilka was 34, and she died peacefully at the Prague zoo. Her ancestors lived in the grasslands of central Asia. Indeed, this animal’s legacy was as a member of a group that survived from the Ice Ages, and her hairy appearance showed her links to the Pleistocene. As wire service news of her death mentioned: Only about two dozen of the world’s estimated 2,000 Przewalski horses are over age 30….The Przewalski horse, or Takh, a national symbol in Mongolia, is the [...]

Prehistoric Women’s Abarbanel Dies

Cryptofiction about surviving Neandertals has been around for a long time. One of the writers and producers that made them come alive in 1950 has died in a freak accident caused by the modern world, sadly. Sam X. Abarbanel, who wrote the screenplay and produced the 1950s’ classic Prehistoric Women, has died in a strange incident. Please click the above movie poster for fuller version. Word of the mishap first came from Variety: "Veteran film exec Sam Abarbanel is at Cedars-Sinai following a freak accident in a parking lot where he was pinned against a car. He suffered multiple fractures [...]