44-year-old Randy Lee Tenley of Kalispell, Montana was killed while attempting to impersonate the fabled Bigfoot in a hoax gone horribly wrong.
On Sunday night at around 10:30 PM Tenley was in the south bound lane of U.S. Highway 93 dressed up in a military-style ghillie suit when two cars rounded a bend and were unable to keep from striking him. He suffered severe trauma at the accident and was pronounced dead at the scene according to Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Schneider.
According to Schneider the suit in question would have made it extremely difficult to see Tenley:
“The camouflage suit was dark and subdued. It’s designed to break up a silhouette and blend in with your surroundings. It definitely hindered the ability of people to see him on the highway.”
Here is an example of a ghillie suit via ghilliesuitclothing.com:
Tenley acted alone and there were no witnesses of the accident. Someone associated with Tenley arrived not long after the collision and informed the officer of the intended hoax. Schneider said:
“We can only speculate as to his exact intentions, but according to another member of his party his intention was to get people to believe they saw a Sasquatch. It is a bizarre set of circumstances and it is certainly tragic.”
He further told the Daily Inter Lake:
“He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting. You can’t make it up. I haven’t seen or heard of anything like this before. Obviously, his suit made it difficult for people to see him.”
Tenley was initially struck by a 15-year-old girl. After that initial impact he was ran over by a 17-year-old female as he laid on the highway. A passenger of one of the two vehicles was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for minor injuries.
