'Montauk Monster' riddle turning more mysterious

Washington, Aug 3 : The mystery behind the 'Montauk Monster' found on an upscale East Hampton, New York, beach has puzzled further as experts are still clueless about the creature's details

Animal Planet" wildlife expert Jeff Corwin has appeared on FOX News Channel to give his version of the beaked beast that created a furore worldwide.

"What you think is a beak is actually the canine teeth. What we have is an incredibly rare - raccoon," Foxnews.com quoted Corwin, as saying.

Surprisingly, East Hampton Department of Environmental Analysis denied that the town's animal-control unit had disposed of the beast.

Later, the three women, Rachel Goldberg, Courtney Fruin and Jenna Hewitt, who were amongst the first to encounter the weird animal, showed off a second snapshot of it on a digital camera, saying: "It exists."

This was to put an end to local cable channel Plum TV's claims that the women had actually showed a morphed picture of a dead dog.

But when enquired about the animal's whereabouts the trio gave shady details.

"It decomposed in our friend's back yard. It's been since removed ... by friends of ours. We're hoping to have scientists contact us to find out what it is. It's in a box," said Goldberg.

The matter complicated further when Alanna Nevitski, who e-mailed the original photo, appeared on a channel and said that the three women had no conection with the picture.

A video was also shown on the channel that belonged to a young surfer-dude type who said the carnivorous corpse was in his back yard.

"We're gonna try to have some experts analyze it. It's a really cool beast," said the Bloke, as his buddies used a stick to hold up what looked like bones with skin still attached.

And finally, a third, better picture of the bloated body showed up on New York Newsday, whose site appeared to have crashed from all the excitement.

ANI