The big reveal for “Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.” is giving Bigfoot believers and disbelievers a great deal to talk about this weekend. The conclusion many of them are making is that the events of the past few days are one big joke.

On Friday, DNA test results were released in a much-hyped news conference in Palo Alto, California. At the microphone were Tom Biscardi, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer. Biscardi is the host of a weekly Bigfoot radio show, and owner of the website Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. Whitton and Dyer are two Georgia men who claim to have found a Bigfoot corpse. Also of note is the fact that Whitton and Dyer are also co-owners of a company that sells Bigfoot merchandise from hats to coffee mugs.

The DNA test results seemed to seal the fate of the well-publicized discovery when the scientist performing the analysis said the two samples he tested were from a human and an opossum.

Adding insult to injury were the other items presented at the news conference. They included a photograph of an alleged Bigfoot corpse in a freezer, an image many said resembled a common gorilla suit.

Before the news conference, Biscardi’s website issued a press release with the following specifics on the creature in Whitton and Dyer’s freezer:

*The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
*It weighs over five hundred pounds.
*The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
*It is male.
*It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
*It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.
*The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
*Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.
*From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.
*The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
*The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.

On Friday, Biscardi commented that the DNA samples could have been contaminated. He said also that the group would next conduct an autopsy of the corpse being kept at a secret location.

Stocking Hominid Research, Inc., a Florida-based group dedicated to the scientific pursuit of knowledge and classification of Hominids typically known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, and Skunkape calls last week’s events in Palo Alto, a hoax. More specifically, it published the following on its website: “True to form, the Biscardi Circus continues. As yet, nothing new has been gleaned from the news reports on August, 15, 2008. But, for anyone who wishes to join the GA Boys and Biscardi on their next expedition, it will only cost you $1000.00. Just waiting for the MIB to join the fray.”

The Bigfoot Researchers Field Organization, an organization that seeks to resolve the mystery surrounding the bigfoot phenomenon, also weighed in on the claims, saying on its website: “On Friday, August 15, 2008, Biscardi’s gang held a hyped press conference in Palo Alto, after assuring the press they would “shock the world” with their evidence. They told a lame, implausible story about how they found the body, but then did NOT show the body at all, but instead showed MORE fake photos (and not even large blow-ups of the fake photos), and some DNA results which proved that they do not have a bigfoot corpse. That’s what happened on Friday, August 15, in Palo Alto, California. It was a high profile hoax/scam by a desperate, nearly broke, career con-man, and his new corrupt cop business partner.”

Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. has not yet said when an autopsy on the alleged corpse would take place.