A Bigfoot Hunter Says His Body Is ‘58% Neandertal’

“Man claims to have found Bigfoot’s remains”, uploaded by Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV on 30 June 2026, 9 min 3 s. Embedded from the platform.

The Le Moustier Neanderthal skull, Neues Museum, Berlin (photo: Gary Todd, CC0). Generic image, not the specimen in the claim.

What happened

Charles Stuart bills himself as “Snake the Bigfoot Hunter”. On 30 June 2026 he appeared on WDIV’s Local 4 Live in Detroit with a big claim. He said a DNA test showed that the “Bigfoot” body he says he found in New York’s Adirondack Mountains was 58.5% Neanderthal and 41.5% human. ClickOnDetroit reported that he said the testing was done “at the Cornell’s Veterinary DNA Lab”.

The New York Post covered the claim on 5 July. It quoted Stuart saying the DNA test showed “this is 58.5% Neanderthal — and this 41.5% remaining, that is human.” Stuart calls the body “Dack”. He describes it as 8 feet tall and 300 pounds.

On 2 August Cornell told the Post that the claim was false. A spokesperson said: “Cornell did not conduct any testing for [Stuart,] or present a report.” The university also said the documents on Stuart’s website marked as Cornell’s are not its own. Stuart has since threatened Cornell with a $10 million lawsuit.

Timeline

• 1967: The Patterson–Gimlin film helps make Bigfoot a mainstream legend.
• 1995: The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) is founded.
• 2014: A peer-reviewed genetic study of hair samples attributed to Bigfoot, yeti and other “anomalous primates” is published.
• 1 October 2024: The date Stuart gives for finding the body in the Adirondacks.
• August 2025: Stuart displays Dack at the Great New York State Fair. His website says 60,000 people came to see it.
• 30 June 2026: WDIV publishes its 9-minute interview. ClickOnDetroit posts its article at 10:09 AM.
• 5 July 2026: The New York Post covers the claim. Cornell does not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
• 10 July 2026: Stuart appears on NewsNation’s Jesse Weber Live.
• 2 August 2026: Cornell tells the Post it did no testing and issued no report.
• 3 and 7 August 2026: The Telegraph publishes two follow-up articles. Stuart’s $10 million lawsuit threat is reported by Popular Mechanics.
• 26 August – 7 September 2026: The 2026 State Fair runs. Stuart had advertised that Dack would be on display again.
• 13 October 2026: Popular Mechanics recaps the dispute.
• 1 November 2026: The deadline in Stuart’s “Formal Notice of Intent to Sue” for Cornell to retract its denial or pay. None of the cited sources reports what happened after that date.

What believers claim

Stuart says the sample went to Cornell through a contact. He told NewsNation: “We had blood, hair, and fecal matter, and we just submitted all and got that done through a friend of mine who worked at the Cornell Veterinarian Bio DNA Lab.” He describes the result as a hybrid: “What we have is a Neanderthal-human hybrid — and that neanderthal side that has been evolving over the millennia has remained very aggressive.”

According to the Post, the report he posted claims the archaic DNA came from “a highly distinct familial line”. Stuart told the Post that Cornell’s denial is a cover-up: “CORNELL IS FLAT OUT LYING — I WILL NOT BE SILENCED.” He has promised a documentary featuring a lab technician he calls a whistleblower. No release date has been given.

What the research found

The lab named in the report denies it. This is the strongest finding. Cornell’s spokesperson told the Post that the university did no testing for Stuart and presented no report. The spokesperson also said the documents on his website marked as Cornell’s are not a Cornell product. The Telegraph also covered the denial on 3 August in a subscriber article, which is listed for further reading only.