In their version of events, Matt Whitton and his friend Rick Dyer, a former Georgia corrections officer, chanced on the hulking remains of Bigfoot as they hiked a remote mountainside in the north of the state.
"We are now the best Bigfoot trackers in the world," Mr Whitton confidently declared at a packed press conference last week, describing the find he said would prove beyond doubt the existence of the legendary ape-like beast.
"It's not a human, it's not an ape," Mr Whitton, a Georgia police officer, told the assembled media. "It's definitely something we have never seen before...Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words."
They produced a YouTube video last month announcing their find. They launched a website, Bigfoottracker.com. In a press release, they described the creature as a 7-foot-7 male, weighing 550 pounds (nearly 40 stone) with 16-inch human-like feet and reddish hair. A photograph of the carcase showed a hairy ape-like being stuffed into a freezer - they said they found the remains encased in ice.
Veteran Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi, who runs Searching For Bigfoot, was curious enough to travel to Georgia to meet the men. On his return he told Fox News he had seen and smelt the carcase and was convinced "it was not a mask".
Samples had been sent for DNA analysis, he said, and he was confident what they would show.
Others, however, had reservations. Steve Kulls, executive director of squatchdetective.com and host of Squatchdetective Radio, had interviewed Mr Dyer and failed to "get an accurate read on him".
He put him in touch with Mr Biscardi and was an "independent observer" as Mr Biscardi and his team took possession of the so-called evidence, "a freezer with something appearing large, hairy, and frozen in ice", in return for an undisclosed sum.
Writing in a posting on Mr Biscardi's website, searchingforbigfoot.com, Mr Kulls said that as the "evidence" thawed, the men's claims swiftly began to unravel.
As the hair became exposed, a sample was extracted and burned. The results caused "concerns", Mr Kulls notes, as the "sample melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair".
The thawing process was accelerated and within an hour the partly exposed head could be seen.
"As I was now able to touch it, I was able to feel that it seemed mostly firm, but unusually hollow in one small section," Mr Kulls writes. "This was yet another ominous sign.
"Within the next hour of thaw, a break appeared up near the feet area. As the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot."
When Mr Whitton and Mr Dyer were contacted, they confessed the remains were a costume and agreed to sign a statement admitting what they had done, Mr Kulls writes. But the pair failed to show up as arranged for a meeting.
The men's website was on Wednesday still offering Bigfoot expeditions for $499 and their tipline had the message: "If you hear of any leprechauns, unicorns, large cats or dinosaurs, leave us a message with your tip."
"It's heart-wrenching," Bob Schmalzbach, vice president of Searching for Bigfoot, told Fox News. "This we thought was an answer to a mystery that's been going on for far too long. The best term I can use is it was heart-breaking."
Mr Kulls said in his posting that "the motives behind this fraud are still unknown at this time. It is still unclear why Whitton who, being a police officer for the Clayton County Police Department in Georgia, got up before the world and lied and was complicit in a scheme to defraud."
Jeff Turner, chief of Clayton County police which employs Mr Whitton, who is on leave after being shot in the arm, said he had not spoken to the officer but processed paperwork to fire him.
"Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity," Mr Turner told the Associated Press. "He has violated the duty of a police officer."
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