A strange urban legend that continues to captivate some religious communities has connected the Bible’s first murderer to the mythical creature Bigfoot.
Over the years, some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons, have shared an unsubstantiated story linking Bigfoot to Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve.
The decades-old theory has claimed Bigfoot is actually Cain, who was doomed to roam the earth forever as a hairy, mysterious creature after receiving a biblical curse.
In the Bible, Cain murdered his brother Abel after attacking him in a field, driven by jealousy because God favored Abel’s offering of animal sacrifices over Cain’s offering of crops.
The legend traces back to 1835, when Mormon leader David W. Patten described meeting a dark, hairy figure who called himself a wandering outcast, later identified as Cain.
Bigfoot, also called Sasquatch, is said to be a large, ape-like creature inhabiting North American forests, though no definitive proof of its existence has ever been found.
Skeptics have claimed that other religious texts have suggested Cain did not survive the biblical flood involving Noah, and that the mark from God did not grant eternal life.
Although the legend is not part of any official Mormon teachings, the story has gained momentum since alleged Bigfoot sightings became common in the 1980s, and now, social media users have continued the conversation online.
The most famous piece of Bigfoot ‘evidence’ came in 1967, when Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson filmed a now-iconic clip of a large, furry figure at California’s Bluff Creek (pictured)
Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy, causing God to curse Cain to wander the earth as a fugitive
The connection has been said to symbolize evil or a cursed existence in some Mormon folklore, with Cain’s wandering seen as a warning against sin, though it’s not a universal belief.
Matthew Bowman, a historian and scholar of American religious history, wrote one of the only peer-reviewed, academic pieces on this legend in the Journal of Mormon History.
He traced the folklore’s origins, noting that the blending of Cain and Bigfoot’s stories gained popularity around 1980 in South Weber, Utah, following local Bigfoot sightings.
Bowman suggested that the myth showed how some members of the Mormon community used folklore to make sense of mysterious or unexplainable events.
He also noted that Cain’s portrayal as a hairy beast was seen as a symbol of evil in opposition to the faithful.
The connection between Cain and Bigfoot was first popularized by Spencer W Kimball in his 1969 book ‘The Miracle of Forgiveness,’ which retold Patten’s 1830s account.
Abraham Smoot, an early leader of the Mormon Church, is said to have written down Patten’s encounter years later, which was then used in Kimball’s book.
Smoot described how Patten claimed he was riding a mule when he noticed a giant stranger walking beside him.
The being came up to Patten’s shoulders despite the Mormon leader being high off the ground in his saddle.
A whitewater rafting crew with the Colorado River Expedition was traveling down the Upper Colorado River on May 24 when they spotted a large creature in the woods (circled)
In the Book of Genesis, Cain attacked his younger brother in a field because God favored Abel’s offering of animal sacrifices over Cain’s offering of crops
‘His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt, and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro,’ Patten said, according to Smoot.
‘He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men,’ the Mormon leader added.
While some in the Mormon Church have revealed on social media that they’ve heard this story, one person on Reddit claiming to be an ‘ex-Mormon’ noted that the urban legend was ‘only discussed in hushed tones and never in front of non-members.’
Blogs and other investigative reports into the Cain-Bigfoot theory have noted that Cain’s immortality or transformation into Bigfoot hasn’t been backed by any official religious texts or teachings.
Still, new videos and blogs in 2025, many tied to paranormal activity, have kept the strange myth alive on the internet.
The most famous piece of Bigfoot ‘evidence’ came in 1967, when Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson filmed a large, furry figure striding through the woods at Bluff Creek, California.
However, there is still doubt that Bigfoot actually exists. Even the FBI has been investigating claims coming from witnesses throughout the US since 1976.
In 2019, the agency released its decades-long report, finding no conclusive evidence of such a creature, adding that a hair sample submitted by Bigfoot researcher Peter Byrne came from an ordinary deer.
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