A DNA report that once seemed to answer one of cryptozoology’s biggest questions is now at the center of a very different mystery. Charles Stuart, known online as Snake the Bigfoot Hunter, claims he recovered a body in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in October 2024. He nicknamed the remains Dack and began displaying them publicly, along with a startling claim: DNA testing supposedly showed the body was 58.5 percent Neanderthal and 41.5 percent human.
The catch is that the university credited with running that test says it never happened. A Cornell University spokesperson told the New York Post that the school did not conduct any testing for Stuart and never presented a report. According to Cornell, the documents circulating as proof of the test are not from the university at all.
Witness Accounts
Stuart has not backed down from his original claims. Reached by the New York Post, he insisted Cornell is being dishonest, telling the outlet plainly that the university is “flat out lying” and that he will not be silenced.
He framed the denial as an act of institutional self-preservation rather than a correction of the record. Stuart argued that the dispute was never really about the accuracy of the report, but about control, and said he deliberately bypassed official channels to release the findings directly to the public because he believes people deserve transparency. He also claimed he had been warned not to share the report in the first place, which he says only strengthened his resolve to publish it.
Stuart has said this isn’t over. He told the Post he plans to release a documentary featuring a whistleblower, described as a Cornell lab technician who allegedly performed the disputed test and can corroborate his account.
Expert Perspective
Cornell’s position, as stated to the press, is unambiguous. The university says no testing was performed for Stuart and no report was issued under its name. That statement directly undercuts the scientific credibility Stuart has attached to the Neanderthal-human hybrid claim, since the entire basis for that percentage breakdown rests on lab work Cornell says it never did.
It’s worth noting that Stuart is not new to controversy within cryptid research circles. Other members of the Bigfoot research community have reportedly described him as a hoaxer, adding another layer of skepticism to a claim that already lacked institutional backing before Cornell’s denial became public.
Skeptical View
Taken together, the pieces here line up in a familiar pattern. A sensational scientific claim surfaces, attributed to a respected institution, and that institution later says the work was never done. Add in a public display charging admission, a track record of hoax accusations, and a promised documentary that conveniently arrives after the denial, and the more mundane explanation starts to look at least as plausible as any conspiracy. None of that proves Dack is a hoax outright, but it does mean the Neanderthal-hybrid claim currently has no verified scientific backing at all.
Cultural Context
Stuart’s remains have already built something of a following. Dack was displayed at the Great New York State Fair last year and is scheduled to return again this August, giving the public a chance to view the remains in person and draw their own conclusions. Cases like this tend to thrive on that kind of accessibility. Unlike a blurry trail camera photo or a decades-old eyewitness account, Dack is a physical object people can walk up to and study for themselves, which keeps the debate alive well past the usual news cycle.
Conclusion
Whether Dack is a genuine anomaly, a deliberate hoax, or something else entirely, the current DNA claim doesn’t hold up without the institutional confirmation it was built on. Cornell’s denial doesn’t settle whether the remains are real or fabricated, but it does remove the one piece of scientific legitimacy the story leaned on. Until an independent, verifiable lab result surfaces, the Neanderthal-human hybrid claim remains exactly that: a claim.
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