The website searchingforbigfoot.com, owned by Bigfoot hunter Tom Biscardi, today carried the words of Steve Kulls, who is apparently the Executive Director of something called Squatchdetective.com. Mr. Kulls was invited to be a witness to the thawing of the captured cadaver.

Kulls wrote that once he thawed the head he "was able to feel that it seemed mostly firm, but unusually hollow in one small section."

"This was yet another ominous sign."

A foot once exposed from the ice was found to be made of rubber.

Mr Kulls said his Searching for Bigfoot Team, which is headed by Tom Biscardi who was initially enthusiastic about the "find" and appeared with Mr Whitton and Mr Dyer at press conference in California last week to trumpet it, had bought the body for an undisclosed sum.

"Later that day, Tom Biscardi informed us that both Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer admitted it was a costume," Mr Kulls wrote.

The pair, who run Bigfoot expeditions, had claimed to have made the discovery at a secluded "secret" location where they had seen several Bigfoots walking around.

Mr Whitton, a police officer on leave to recover from a shooting, may lose his job over the incident.

Clayton County Police Chief Jeff Turner said he has not spoken to Whitton but is preparing to fire him, news agency AP reported.

"Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity,'' Chief Turner said.

"He has violated the duty of a police officer.''

Mr Whitton and Mr Dyer, a former prison officer in Georgia, appear to have gone to ground since the hoax was declared.

AP reports that a voicemail recording for their Bigfoot Tip Line - which proclaims they search for leprechauns and the Loch Ness monster - has been updated and announces they're also in search of "big cats and dinosaurs. If you see any of those, give us a call.''

Mr Kulls wrote that Mr Whitton's and Mr Dyer's motives in perpetrating the fraud "are still unknown at this time."

However Mr Kulls vowed that his Searching for Bigfoot Team as "the victim of this series of deceptions ... is seeking justice for themselves and for all the people who were deceived".

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