What’s
Really Up With Dr. Ketchum’s DNA Project?
Hoax,
Conspiracy, Or Nothing Unusual?
By TCC Team Member
Dorraine Fisher
Empty Lab - Moving on up or Moving on out? |
Well,
there’s been a considerable amount of excitement in the Bigfoot world in the
last couple months, but none of it has been good or constructive. Mostly conjecture, hoaxing, and a lot of the
general ridiculousness we’re so used to seeing. So we’re still hoping for
something concrete from the DNA project. But that’s another mystery.
Dr.
Ketchum’s office was recently discovered to be vacant. While she posted this
vague message on her Facebook page over the weekend: “We are moving the lab to
a larger town and are in the process of selling the service part of it. We will
be doing forensics and research oriented projects only.”
But
that only leaves the field wide open for speculation. How does this affect the
awaited results of the DNA project? Or, if we dare ask, is there a DNA project at all? Have we all
been duped? Why is this taking so long, and why is there so much secrecy
surrounding it? I had to sit down and ask myself, “Why is this whole project
playing out in such a suspicious way?”
And
why do we think it’s suspicious?
Well
it could be that the doctor has pulled up stakes, closed the company website
and fired her right hand person right in the middle of a major DNA discovery.
Perhaps one of the greatest discoveries of all time. So we have to ask the
question why. What’s going on?
First,
to address the idea that the DNA project is a hoax; a sham; doesn’t even exist,
was finally squelched for me (slightly) when a very reliable source ensured me
the project is very real and is still in pier review.
Two
other possibles came to mind: Some kind of conspiracy or some kind of financial
gain. Or both.
Since
we’re all painfully aware that the government may have real information about
the existence extraterrestrial life and is keeping it a secret, why couldn’t it
be the same with bigfoot?
The
second thought is that the government may be attempting to block any
information of bigfoot’s existence for some reason. Maybe the DNA project’s
results are being suppressed. And why? The only reason this might happen is if
the results were shocking or controversial to the point that the government
might believe it’s some kind of security risk. That would cause them to try to
put a gag order on the results of such a project, wouldn’t it? Say, if the
rumors are actually true and Bigfoot is more human than we think?
I
talked to an official recently with 32 years experience working for the
government to kind of clear my head on the conspiracy idea. I, like a lot of
people, can get really engrossed in a good conspiracy theory, something like
being glued to a weekly soap opera. So I knew I needed to ground myself on this
one. But he insisted that conspiracy is a difficult thing to implement.
“It
never moves fast or quietly,” he said when he talked of the government and
their dealings with any issues of importance. “Not everything is tied to a
government cover-up. They would need probable cause to silence the study,” he
added. “Since this is not a national security risk.”
“But
couldn’t some very controversial results of the study constitute a possible
security risk? Say if certain religious or environmental sects took the news
badly?” I asked.
“No,
again, they’d need probable cause; national security risk, or environmental
threat,” he insisted.
“So
no chance of a gag order happening, especially this quick?” I asked.
“No,
I don’t think so. Something that big would’ve made the news for sure.”
So I called all pertinent government offices
at the local, state, and federal level, and found no evidence of any gag order
on the project. Here is the list of places I called:
*Shelby County Clerk's Office
*Shelby County Attorney's Office
*Texas State's Attorney's Office
*US Dept. Of Justice
*US Dept. of Interior-Fish And Wildlife Division
So apparently he’s right. It’s not that easy to implement a
conspiracy such as this as he said. It would take way too much time and way too
much red tape. “It’s not as easy as some big wig calling the Department of
Justice,” he elaborated. So there are certain channels everything must go
through. That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, but it is to say that it would
likely take longer than the amount of time we’ve all been waiting for the
results.
And
the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Bureau did share with me
that this subject doesn’t even apply to their office if the creature is not yet
proven to “quantifiably exist.” They only deal with known species and steps
would have to be taken to prove its existence before any other action could be
taken.
Another
possibility was whether the proven existence of the creature would affect the
logging industry. Would that cause the government to attempt concealment of the
creature’s existence?
“It
would have to start with the logging industry being told to stop, and then
filing suit,” he explained. Any action
such as this could take months to put in place. Besides, if this were the case,
environmental and wildlife groups would surely get wind of a new species of
primate roaming the forests of the North American continent and bring it
swiftly to public attention for their personal causes. It would be very hard to
keep this quiet. The media would have a heyday.
So
even though I wasn’t completely convinced from this conversation that the
government couldn’t do what they wanted when they wanted if they could convince
themselves they had a good reason, the conspiracy idea was at least taken down
a notch on my list of possible scenarios.
So
if we eliminate conspiracy, we’re left with one thing: money...and fame.
Depending on the results of the study, this could potentially be a big money
project for Dr. Ketchum. Book deals, public speaking engagements, and even
possibly a consulting position to a larger DNA project could be in the works.
There are many ways to make money from such a groundbreaking project. And when
money and fame are involved, a person might be forced to decide with whom they
would like to share all that. And that might explain Dr. Ketchum’s surprise
break with Sally Ramey when the project was believed to be so close to
fruition. And why has the doctor not had regular contact with the DNA
submitters as was suggested by a couple of researchers I spoke to recently?
But
after all this speculating, should Dr. Ketchum be surprised that anyone would
wonder so much and imagine so many different, sometimes crazy scenarios? If she dislikes the rumors that are swirling
right now, she may have only herself to blame. She’s had plenty of time to
explain herself, but has chosen instead to keep her answers vague and keep us
all wondering.
I
asked her this week if she’d like to make a statement and if the project was
still on track, and she had only this to say. “Thanks, but I am not making any
comments at this time other than to say that things are progressing.”
Give
us a better explanation, Doctor, and the rumors can go away.
********DF
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Informative article Dorraine Fisher. Im leaning towards fame and fortune myself, and yes if Melba Kethum would give us clear answers than we would at least know where she and the DNA study stands. Frustrated as heck is sn understatement!
ReplyDeleteI don't blame her for getting rid of her right hand person. She's the reason I distanced myself from the whole issue
ReplyDeleteEveryone I know that has had close contact with her points to fame and fortune as the motivator and the resulting difficulties a product of her difficult personality. However, she just might not be quite brilliant enough to have pulled it off in the three years and must rely on the various labs and co-authors to meet the Journal requirements and maybe she has lost some cooperation among those unseen "colleagues?" Or, not. I would not care so much if one Justin Smeja wasn't making such audacious claims and other groups, also bent on fame and fortune, determined to kill one before a study comes out. Or stupid shows like "win $10M with proof." What a freakin bunch of greedy creeps BFers tend to be.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how or why anyone would have faith in dr. Ketchum at this point.
ReplyDeleteSpot on article and that's why I'm anticipating seeing ndep labs results from sierra kills through Tyler H and Bart Cutino's sierras team and Co, which includes smeja. They promised transparency when complete and Im hoping we at least get answers to the steak collected and boots.
Cutino has emphasized some things as recently as his felton presentation on therm footage, that make sense and get overlooked, like smeja not hiding behind ketchum and pushing for independent dna analysis with no reliance on her because he doesnt trust her. Think about that, she says sierra steak is bigfoot and smeja wants someone else legit to test it and he essentially thinks she's a fraud though he seems to still believe piece they found is from big one shot. You can't make this stuff up! That also don't sound like a hoaxer imo.
Then smeja called her to carpet when she claimed the sierra steak pic posted by RL wasnt the sierras piece. Smeja even described where he cut it and called her a liar! Bart has also been very vocal behind the scenes about ketchum for a long time, supposedly kept boots away from her she was demading and now publicly criticzing her deservedly imo on her bias , ethics and horse braiding craziness.
I think these guys are going to come through with some results though i dont know what or when because i don't think they know when.. Bart is straight up guy and he emphasized providing results only when confirmed but he was overheard in santa cruz talking about frutration in time its taking as labs are "having issues" with sample apparently whatever that means. I know he really has tissue in 2-4 labs and one is canada for sure.
Rather than conspiracy theories, let us utilize parsimony. Incompetence, that is the likely answer. It is much more probable that the paper was rejected, and what they call "peer review" is simply them scrambling to patch up the grievous holes in their methodology and assumptions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking all of the questions in this article!!