A Tennessee couple showcased “documented, overwhelming evidence to support the existence of Bigfoot” in a Murfreesboro press conference in January.

After a year of spending multiple hours in the woods each week, snapping photos on their Samsung Galaxies and investing around $7,000 out of their own pockets, R.D. Rhodes Jr. and his wife, Brenda, are ready to present their findings through the release of their book The Bigfoot Finders.

“The world simply deserves to know the truth about Bigfoot,” Rhodes said.

In the book, Rhodes gives a brief history of sasquatches, counters doubts, and shares the couple’s photos and experiences across the South.

Though the majority of their photos were shot in Tennessee, the couple said they have collected photos from Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi as well.

“In the last year alone, we have taken over 60 pictures of Bigfoot in over 20 different locations in five different states,” Rhodes said.

R.D. Rhodes Jr. says that what makes The Bigfoot Finders unique is that the couple repeatedly captures photos, rather than photographing one-time (and therefore more debatable) occurrences.

During the conference, Rhodes explained that the “real Bigfoot finding” takes place after the fact, when they get home and zoom in on the photos they collected in the woods.

“Only about one out of 10 Bigfoot that we photograph do we see until after we’ve taken the photograph,” Rhodes said. “Most of them we smell them, we hear them, we know it’s a good area and we start taking pictures.”

Once they zoom in and feel they have collected something supernatural, they feel both frightened and exhilarated.

However, for Rhodes, he was once more frightened than exhilarated by these alleged encounters.

His infatuation with Bigfoot began in the summer of 1982, when he was a teenage boy on his grandparents’ property in Lascassas, Tennessee.

One windy day when he was standing alone on a freshly dug pond bank, he believes that he saw a sasquatch—measuring over seven feet tall—emerge from the woods. He said he “was frozen in fear, wonder and amazement.”

After an understood nonverbal agreement to leave each other be, Rhodes sprinted to the safe indoors to share the encounter with his grandparents, who showed no surprise and believed him.

Not sure what to do with the information, he suppressed the experience until three years later.

In April 1985, Rhodes said he had another sasquatch interaction. One quiet night he and a good friend decided to go night fishing on the east fork of the Stones River in Lascassas. His friend made a campfire and the pair decided to try their hand at catching some catfish.

Then, out of nowhere, Rhodes said they heard an enormous, booming splash in the water. Once his friend turned on his flashlight and faced it toward the water, Rhodes said that they witnessed a pair of glowing crimson eyes leering back at them. Trying to reason with the situation and calm his friend, Rhodes said that it must have been a cow because they often came to the river to drink. It became evident to Rhodes that the creature was not a cow, but a sasquatch. The calm fishing night had turned into an event that left them both stricken.

Not sure what to do afterward, Rhodes said he bottled up his feelings until his forties.

Thirty years later, Rhodes began to unpack his experiences and start researching Bigfoot. He made his peace and decided to pursue the mysterious creature.

Luckily for him he met Brenda, who cherishes all things paranormal and supernatural. This is why they decided to embark on the Bigfoot-finding journey in 2023.

Following their time in the field, the couple will be releasing a step-by-step guide on how to photograph bigfoot in the future. They encourage others to proceed with caution if they go searching in the woods, especially if they have children with them.

“I do not recommend anyone going out looking for them like we do,” R.D. said. “I believe they [sasquatches] are like people; some are nice and wouldn’t hurt a fly, others are mean.”

The couple does not condone trying to capture or harm a sasquatch in any way.

“There is a human element to these beings and to do so would be completely unethical, immoral and inhumane,” he said.

He goes into further depth about the “human element” to these cryptids and writes more about their characteristics and habits in The Bigfoot Finders.

“The book was an interesting read, I had so much fun finding out more about Bigfoot,” reader Brenda Greene said. “Definitely worth the time spent on it.”

The Bigfoot Finders can be purchased on Amazon, Lulu, Goodreads, Google Play and Kobo in paperback, hardcover and ebook.

The couple can be reached through thebigfootfinders.com or at thebigfootfinder2@gmail.com. The Rhodeses are also active on YouTube and TikTok, where they discuss all things sasquatch.