2016 Papua New Guinea – Akinum Village
In January of 2014, Michael Hoffman (pictured above) had a video uploaded to YouTube showing an unusually large carcass that had washed ashore the south shore of the Island of New Britain. Brian Irwin and I became intrigued with this video and and decided to visit the location so we could document and verify the stories with the people there. We actually met Michael Hoffman on a different island and he took us to the possible location where the original video had been filmed.
This is the original YouTube video that was posted in January of 2014.
We were led to believe the rotten carcass was buried by a backhoe at some point after washing ashore. However, it appears the remains may have just washed back into the sea. Michael, who filmed the video accompanied us there.
A mechanic from Karadian who viewed the decaying creature himself said it was “built like a Wallaby (kangaroo) with a saw on its back.” It had smaller front arms with four fingers on little hands and very large back legs. The legs were so large that two men had a difficult time lifting and moving them. This was reported to me by missionary Bryan Girard, the poster of the YouTube video.
There were conflicting reports as to what happened to the remains. Brian Irwin and I went to the village under the impression that the remains were buried on the spot due to the stench. It is my opinion, based on conversations that we had with the locals, that this is not what happened. The remains may have been picked over by curiosity seekers but they likely just washed back out to sea. The natives that we spoke with told us they had never seen the animal before and were adamant it did not live anywhere around there.