What a difference a few days make when it comes to the latest “Bigfoot” headline grabber.

What began as a full-blown roar last week (complete with a much-hyped news conference) about the discovery of a Bigfoot body that once roamed the backwoods of Georgia, has been reduced to a whimper, with a vague website annoucement.

On Tuesday, Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.’s website revealed the follow-up to Friday’s California news conference, essentially saying, it was all a hoax. The official word came from Steve Kulls, Executive Director of another Bigfoot-themed website, who said he had doubts about the story from the very beginning. Kulls simply said he was there for the thawing out of the so-called Bigfoot body on ice, and once it all melted, all that was left was a really big gorilla suit, complete with rubber feet.

The Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. report goes on to say that the two Georgia men who had made the body discovery claim-turned-hoax had admitted it was a costume on Sunday, then disappeared after promising to sign a document stating that fact. “The motives behind this fraud are still unknown at this time,” the website says, and “Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., is seeking justice for themselves and for all the people who were deceived by this deception.”

On the Georgia men’s own website there’s no admission of the hoax posted yet, and it still refers to them as the “best Bigfoot trackers in the world,” while continuing to sell a variety of Bigfoot “tracking items”, along with smaller merchandise like t-shirts and hats.

While not many Americans give the whole Bigfoot subject much attention, last week’s hype even gave pause to big-name media outlets such as Fox News and The New York Times, who both covered the story.

The bigger indication probably should have been the fact that several websites that describe themselves as true research outlets for the Bigfoot phenomenon, like Kulls, smelled a “hoax” from the get-go.

As for real proof of Bigfoot, creatures that have been talked about for many generations in America, the search goes on.