Theresa Bier kidnapped by Bigfoot? Updated 10/12/2019

Theresa Ann Bier

Theresa was born on April 16, 1971 to Shirley and David Bier. Shirley had a mental illness and David had been in the Vietnam War. When Theresa was about three years old, she was severely injured, ending up in the hospital. Shirley wrapped Theresa’s leg around the crib slats and twisted until it broke. She also beat Theresa, breaking several ribs. At this point, Social Services intervened and took Theresa and her sisters away. This was also when Theresa's parents split up. Theresa were placed foster care and Sylvia Pierce, a friend from church, took in Theresa and her sister Vicki. Theresa lived happily with Sylvia for a few years, until her father wanted her back.

David had married Margie Richmond, who had daughters of her own and had once been married to Shirley’s half-brother, John Richmond. David petitioned the court to get his little girls back and was awarded custody. Theresa and Vicki became reunited with their father, moving to Southern California where both he and Margie worked as janitors. Allegedly, Margie would lock her refrigerator and just sit there and eat her lunch and not feed her kids anything.

Theresa eventually returned to Fresno and stayed with her great-grandmother for a little while. 

Theresa’s uncle, John Richmond, who also lived in Fresno. He was well known to Fresno law enforcement. Cops knew him as “Blind Johnny.” He fenced stolen property. And he actively began to pursued custody of his niece. John had two young sons when he took in Theresa. His new wife and presumably the mother of these young sons was reportedly a prostitute. He also had a 17-year-old girlfriend, Tammy, who often stayed over at his place.

Theresa became very, very withdrawn. She would stay in her room and keep to herself. Johnny would make Theresa babysit his little boys, often causing her to miss school. They lived in a filthy apartment. At one point Johny’s wife took Theresa to Southern California with the boys where she turned tricks while Theresa watched the kids. Johnny began molesting and raping Theresa and would let his friends do the same.

In June 1987, Theresa had nearly completed her freshman year at Central High in northwest Fresno. At  age 16 she was a year or more older than most of her classmates. Teachers saw Theresa as slow and immature and was placed in special education classes. 

A man named Russell “Skip” Welch pretended to take Theresa to school, but both Skip and Theresa had other plans. They decided to go on a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains and look for Bigfoot around the Bass Lake area.

Skip was 43 years old meth addict. He was obsessed with Bigfoot and would often take girls into the mountains. Before Theresa went on the camping trip with Skip, Skip had taken a young girl named Michelle on a previous trip. She was warned by friends not to go with him, but she did anyway. Michelle was smart enough to bring two big male friends with her. It's a good thing too, because Michelle thinks she was drugged. She was screaming that someone was going to kill her and almost fell off a cliff, but one of her friends saved her.

By mid-morning, the school called Johnny to inform him that Theresa was not at school. he told them she was home sick. He would later explain that lied because he preferred to handle the matter on his own.

Before they headed to the mountains, Skip and Theresa made a stop at his daughter, Chandra Welch's, place. Skip was having trouble with his beat-up, 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. 

At 9:30 p.m., when Theresa still wasn't home, John finally called the Fresno police to report her missing.

On Friday, June 5th, Skip’s car was spotted parked by a trailer park near the town of North Fork, a small foothills community that serves as a kind of gateway to the Shuteye Peak region of Sierra National Forest. Skip had driven down from the mountains to the residence of his friend, Dorothy Davis, who lived right behind that trailer park.

Days later, Dorothy told authorities that Skip was extremely upset and possibly high on something when he showed up. He told her about a girl that he had left up in the mountains. A satanic group had gotten control of the girl and had physically changed into something all “white looking.”  

A week after Theresa was reported missing, John received a threatening phone call from a young female. She told him that Skip was packing a pistol and wanted her to tell him “if you continue to make trouble for him, you will have more trouble from him, even your kids can get hurt. And “tell the police that Skip had taken Theresa to school, dropped her off, and some unknown blond girl had picked Theresa up.”

Two days later, Skip was picked up by police at his mother's house in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Fresno. He claimed that he had dropped Theresa off at school, but the police weren't buying it and he was arrested. 

Back at the police station, Skip claimed that Theresa ran away from him on June 1st, but eventually stated that Theresa had been forcibly taken by Bigfoot. He said that she would be happier there, because they were super intelligent beings... 

Right.......

Skip agreed to show authorities where the campsite that he and Theresa allegedly stayed at. He led them to a small grove of trees at the meadow’s edge along Brown's Creek. At the inner area of this grove there was a smoldering fire among the heavy layer of pine needles that appeared to be somewhat damp. This smoldering burnt area was approximately 3½ feet wide by 8 feet long. There were these blankets that were put up, and they were in a certain formation.  There was a camera, a purse, a off-white bra and a T-shirt with animal caricatures with the words “Party Animals” underneath. There were Polaroid photos in the purse of the countryside, along with a picture of Welch playing guitar as he was sitting by what appeared to be the blanket that was in the grove area. There were also pictures of Theresa.

The campsite where all this was found, turned out to be staged by Skip. From the topography in the photos, the local deputies were able to guess that the actual camp was 20 miles away, possibly in Ghost Canyon. Even though he allegedly lied about the campsite, both the meadow and the Canyon were searched.

A helicopter that was searching for any clue or sign of Theresa's whereabouts spotted something on the hillside above the Brown’s Creek camp. It turned out to be a blue shirt that belonged to Skip and it had meth in the pocket.

One of Skip's relatives told authorities that Skip had told them about a rock at Ghost Canyon where a girl needed to be tied up as a sacrifice to the devil....

Skip was charged with Theresa's abduction, but the case against him was dismissed due to a lack of evidence in October 1987. He was also offered a deal for an extremely light sentence, if he were to confess and show them wear her body was. He refused, sticking to his Bigfoot story.

Searches of the Shuteye Peak area produced no clues as to her whereabouts.


Theresa has never been found. Foul play is suspected in her case.

At the time of her disappearance Theresa was 5'5 ft tall and 110 lbs at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and laced sandals. She had brown hair, hazel eyes. Theresa's upper front teeth protrude. She has a surgical scar on her lower right leg due to a childhood fracture. Her nickname is Sam.

If you have any information, no matter how small, please contact the Fresno Police Department 
PHONE NUMBER:(559) 621-2541
CASE NUMBER: 8736264

In March 1998, Skip died at age 54, from severe coronary artery disease.