ATLANTA -- The bigfoot that two Georgia men claimed they found has turned out to be a big hoax.

VIDEO: 'Bigfoot' Gets Thawed Out

Researchers who thawed out the supposed body said it is really a rubber costume.

Steve Kulls executive director of Squatchdetective.com said that he and several others began thawing out the alleged bigfoot on Saturday.

Georgians Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer claimed they found the body in the north Georgia mountains and froze it to protect it. Whitton was a Clayton County police officer and Dyer a car salesman.

SURVEY: Do You Believe In Bigfoot?

By Sunday the ice was melting and the bigfoot story was starting to fall apart.

"I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot," said Steve Kulls executive director of Squatchdetective.com in a press release. "Later that day, both Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer admitted it was a costume."

Kulls claims that Whitton and Dyer were paid an undisclosed amount of money for their find by Searching For Bigfoot, Inc. He said that the two men have disappeared since the hoax was discovered.

On Tuesday, Clayton County Police Chief Jeff Turner said he has not spoken to Whitton but processed paperwork to fire him.

"Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity," Turner said. "He has violated the duty of a police officer."