Who was Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum? Health issues and cause of death explored as influential bigfoot researcher passes away at 67

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, 67, recently died on September 11, 2025. The news was first revealed through the anthropologist’s Facebook page on behalf of the family by his wife, Lauren Stewart, stating that he passed away after battling brain cancer for some time.

Meldrum was a full-time professor at Idaho State University for many years, teaching human anatomy in the graduate health professions programs.

He was specifically involved in the research of Bigfoot after witnessing footprints of around 15 inches in Washington, as per East Idaho News.

Notably, the tribute statement on social media also addressed the same things and added:

“He was a husband and father first. I am so grateful to have shared the last 17 years of my life with him. He was a force of nature. Please respect our privacy in our time of grief.”

Around a week ago, PhenomeCon announced on Facebook that Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum would not be attending their event due to a medical emergency.

However, the exact health problem was not revealed at the time.

“Throughout the conference, we’ll have Get Well cards and a poster available for attendees to sign, so we can send him a note of encouragement and positive energy from the PhenomeCon community”, the social media post stated.

Meldrum was also evacuated by medical helicopter around two years ago after he reportedly had a medical emergency while speaking about Bigfoot at an Alaskan cruise.

Popular author and television personality Loren Coleman later shared a post on X on September 11, 2023, saying that Jeffrey was stabilized and transported to Seattle.

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum was associated with Idaho State University

The New York City native’s research on Bigfoot made him a popular face over the years.

His biography on LinkedIn says that he went to places such as China and India to continue finding more details about footprints.

Back in 2019, Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum participated in the Sasquatch Prints in the Park event, where he presented his analysis of Bigfoot.

He even referred to the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film, saying that although the film is an indication of the creature’s existence, footprints can be the best proof for the same.

As per East Idaho News, Meldrum said at the time:

“It requires a certain degree of expertise to really fully appreciate. While some people see just a collection of feet, I see the underlying anatomy that is consistently represented in all these seemingly disparate examples of Sasquatch footprints.”

Jeffrey’s LinkedIn page stated that he was an editor for the journal, The Relict Hominoid Inquiry, and wrote an expanded companion volume for the documentary, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.

He even edited a book titled From Biped to Strider: The Emergence of Modern Human Walking Running and Resource Transport.

Meldrum additionally explained the steps to identify, document, collect, and report any evidence related to sasquatch in the Sasquatch Field Guide.

As mentioned, he was a professor of anatomy and anthropology for a long time at Idaho State University.

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum was a public speaker at The Relict Hominoid Inquiry LLC and even served as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, as stated in his LinkedIn profile.

Furthermore, he was an assistant professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and Duke University Medical Center.