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Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mclin smith here with Unexplained on an

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Speaker 1: end of season break. We'll be dipping back into the

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Speaker 1: archive each week until season nine begins on Friday, October thirty. First,

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Speaker 1: this week's episode takes us to the forests of Arizona

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Speaker 1: in November nineteen seventy five, where a crew of loggers

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Speaker 1: were finishing another hard day's work in the wilderness. It

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Speaker 1: was meant to be routine, just another evening drive back

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Speaker 1: to town through the darkening woods, a journey they'd made

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Speaker 1: countless times before. But when the crew returned home that night,

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Speaker 1: one of them was missing, leaving those left behind to

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Speaker 1: relay a story so bizarre that it would divide not

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Speaker 1: just their community, but the entire country. This is Unexplained,

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Speaker 1: Season four, episode twenty, The Homecoming. Navajo County Deputy Sheriff

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Speaker 1: Chuck Ellison was sitting down to eat dinner with his

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Speaker 1: wife when the telephone rang. The voice on the other

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Speaker 1: end was hard to read, both frantic and oddly hesitant

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Speaker 1: at the same time. Ellison asked the caller to calm

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Speaker 1: down and start again by telling him who he was.

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Speaker 1: It was Kenny Peterson, came the speedy reply, and they

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Speaker 1: needed the police right away. As Peterson went on to explain,

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Speaker 1: he and his forestry Service co workers had been clearing

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Speaker 1: a section of Arizona's Apache Sitgreave's forest earlier that night

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Speaker 1: when something inexplicable had occurred, and now one of their

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Speaker 1: crew was missing. But when Ellison pushed for more details,

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Speaker 1: Peterson paused for a moment before replying that perhaps it

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Speaker 1: would be better if they could explain it to him

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Speaker 1: in person. Ten minutes later, after apologizing to his wife

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Speaker 1: for having to leave so suddenly, Ellison pulled into the

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Speaker 1: parking lot of Wilbur's Market shopping center in Habor, a

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Speaker 1: small junction town about one hundred and fifty miles northeast

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Speaker 1: of Phoenix, Arizona, where he'd agreed to meet Kenny. It

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Speaker 1: didn't take long for the deputy to spot the man

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Speaker 1: and his colleagues Mike Rogers, John Guillette, Alan Dallas, Dwayne Smith,

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Speaker 1: and Steve Pearce all gathered together in an anxious huddle

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Speaker 1: by the entrance, still covered in dust and debris from

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Speaker 1: the day's shift. At least two of the group was

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Speaker 1: struggling to hold back tears. In no mood to mess around,

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Speaker 1: Ellison asked the men to explain exactly what was going on.

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Speaker 1: They all looked sheepishly toward each other, as if they

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Speaker 1: didn't quite know what they were going to say to him,

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Speaker 1: until finally Mike began to speak. The twenty eight year

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Speaker 1: old Mike was an independent contractor and the crew were

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Speaker 1: his responsibility, so too, ultimately was the man who was missing.

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Speaker 1: His name was Travis Walton, who also happened to be

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Speaker 1: Mike's best friend. Ordinarily they would never have left him

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Speaker 1: behind up there in the forest, but as Mike tried

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Speaker 1: to explain to Ellison, these were far from ordinary circumstances.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Like

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Speaker 1: the rest of Mike Roger's crew, twenty two year old

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Speaker 1: Travis Walton lived in Snowflake, a farming town located about

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Speaker 1: thirty miles east of Habour with a population of just

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Speaker 1: over two and a half thousand. It was founded by

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Speaker 1: Mormon settlers in eighteen seventy eight and was comprised largely

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Speaker 1: of life orise houses and small local stores, all overshadowed

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Speaker 1: by the huge red bricked Church of Jesus Christ of

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Speaker 1: Latter Day Saints that dominated the town square. Delinquency was

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Speaker 1: not looked on lightly by the community, nor was anyone

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Speaker 1: who deigned to be a little different. Back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy one, Travis, who with his long hair was dismissed

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Speaker 1: by many as effeckless hippie, and a friend were convicted

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Speaker 1: of forging payroll checks from a local company. The pair

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Speaker 1: were given two years probation and forced to pay the

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Speaker 1: money back. In a town as small and god fearing

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Speaker 1: as Snowflake, such reputations were hard to shake. Those who

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Speaker 1: knew Travis, however, knew a different story. Some of his

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Speaker 1: school teachers even considered him one of the smartest pupils

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Speaker 1: that they'd ever taught. After dropping out of Northern Arizona

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Speaker 1: University a few years b previously, Travis had been picking

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Speaker 1: up work wherever he could find it. When Mike Rogers,

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Speaker 1: a forestry contractor with nine years experience, procured another of

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Speaker 1: his United States Forest Service contracts, Travis jumped at the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to join the team. The job was to clear

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Speaker 1: one thousand, two hundred and seventy seven acres of thick

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Speaker 1: scrub brush from a section of the Apache Sick Creeves

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Speaker 1: National Forest known as Turkey Springs, which was about ten

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Speaker 1: miles into the pine covered mountains just to the west

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Speaker 1: of Haber. That Wednesday, November fifth, started out just like

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Speaker 1: any other day, as one by one Rogers collected each

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Speaker 1: of his crew members in his battered crew Cab International

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Speaker 1: from their homes in Snowflake, then headed off on their

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Speaker 1: forty mile journey into the mountains. With it being November,

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Speaker 1: there was always a slight chill in the air first

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Speaker 1: thing in the morning, but it soon heated up when

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Speaker 1: the sun came out. Though the work was arduous, cutting

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Speaker 1: back all new growth less than six inches in diameter

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Speaker 1: and gathering it up into great slash piles, Travis never

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Speaker 1: tired of being up there on that mountain ridge, with

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Speaker 1: the fresh air in his lungs, wild horses galloping through

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Speaker 1: the trees all around them, and that ancient forest stretching

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Speaker 1: out below, older than the people whose name it took,

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Speaker 1: older even than God themself. Hours later, with darkness returning,

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Speaker 1: and so too that light chill in the air, the

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Speaker 1: men called it a day. Gathering their tools, they slung

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Speaker 1: them into the back of Night's truck before piling in themselves.

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Speaker 1: Travis and Kenny up front with Mike, while the others,

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Speaker 1: all smokers, sat in the back gleefully lighting up. Mike

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Speaker 1: switched on the engine, bathing the narrow forest road ahead

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Speaker 1: in the light of the headlamps, and eased out of

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Speaker 1: the clearing. They'd barely made it two hundred yards along

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Speaker 1: the rugged forest track when Alan broke in from the back. Hey,

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Speaker 1: what is that, he said, pointing toward a soft glowing

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Speaker 1: light coming from out of the trees to the right.

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Speaker 1: Have you guys never seen the moon? Mocked Kenny, only

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Speaker 1: as the others were quick to point out the moon

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Speaker 1: was already sitting high in the sky above on the

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Speaker 1: other side of the truck. The soft white glow grew

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Speaker 1: brighter as they continued on, slowly edging ever closer toward it,

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Speaker 1: Now no more than one hundred yards from its source.

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Speaker 1: The light bled out across the road before them, but frustratingly,

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Speaker 1: whatever it was, remained obscured by the trees until eventually

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Speaker 1: they reached a clearing and they were finally able to

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Speaker 1: see it. A large disc like structure roughly twenty feet

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Speaker 1: wide and eight feet high, hovering a good fifteen feet

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Speaker 1: above the ground. It was so close they could even

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Speaker 1: see the detail on its surface, how it was divided

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Speaker 1: into a series of thin panels with a thin, darker

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Speaker 1: band that seemed to circle all the way around it,

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Speaker 1: and how its glow appeared to be coming from inside.

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Speaker 1: Before Mike had even brought the truck to a stop,

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Speaker 1: the side door was opened and Travis was gone, hurrying

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Speaker 1: off toward it. The others yelled for him to come back,

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Speaker 1: but Travis just kept on going, edging closer and closer

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Speaker 1: toward it. Then came a strange noise that seemed to

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Speaker 1: emanate from the craft, high pitched at first, before steadily

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Speaker 1: shifting into something much lower, like a vast turbine engine.

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Speaker 1: When suddenly a blinding blue light shot out from the disk,

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Speaker 1: holding Travis in some kind of grip. With his body

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Speaker 1: now completely rigid, he was slowly lifted a good foot

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Speaker 1: into the air and suspended there for a moment before

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Speaker 1: being flung hard onto the ground, skidding shoulder first into

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Speaker 1: the stone and dirt, and there he lay completely still.

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Speaker 1: That was enough for Rogers, who, with four kids of

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Speaker 1: his own and the rest of his crew to worry about,

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Speaker 1: turned the key and tore out of the clearing as

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Speaker 1: fast as the truck could go, and then they were

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Speaker 1: racing through the trees, bouncing over the dirt track at

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Speaker 1: speed as Rogers did his best to keep the thing

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Speaker 1: on the road, with the rest of the crew's deeming

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Speaker 1: for him to keep going faster and faster, until it

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Speaker 1: was just one bend too many, with a huge pine

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Speaker 1: tree looming up before him, Rogers pulled hard on the

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Speaker 1: wheel and brought the truck slamming into a pile of

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Speaker 1: bulldoze dirt by the side of the road. The men

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Speaker 1: looked frantically about for any sign of the strange craft,

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Speaker 1: but saw nothing but the frigid dark and the bright

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Speaker 1: half moon above. And for a moment there was silence,

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Speaker 1: and then all hell broke loose. We've got to go back,

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Speaker 1: yelled Kenny. No way, said Steve, as tears streamed down

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Speaker 1: his face. We've got to get out of here. Kenny's right,

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Speaker 1: said Mike, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

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Speaker 1: Only then had it dawned on him that, without even thinking,

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Speaker 1: he'd abandoned his best friend alone out there with that thing,

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Speaker 1: whatever it was. We're going back, he said. Finally, you

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Speaker 1: can either come with me or you can wait for

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Speaker 1: me here. With no one willing to take their chances

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Speaker 1: in the forest alone, they headed back to look for Travis,

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Speaker 1: but by the time they got to where they'd last

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Speaker 1: seen him, he was gone. And that, as he finished

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Speaker 1: explaining to an utterly perplexed Deputy Ellison, was when they

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Speaker 1: decided to call the police. After hearing the men's story,

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Speaker 1: Deputy Ellison reluctantly relayed it back to Sheriff Marlin Gillespie

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Speaker 1: at the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, another forty

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Speaker 1: mile drive north of Habor. Though Ellison was quick to

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Speaker 1: clarify that he didn't believe any of it, he had

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Speaker 1: little doubt the men had experienced something traumatic. Less than

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Speaker 1: an hour later, Sheriff Gillespie arrived with Deputy Kenneth Coplin

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Speaker 1: in tow and Mike's crew repeated their extraordinary story for

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Speaker 1: the second time that night, but Mike was getting impatient.

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Speaker 1: They needed to get back up there and search for Travis.

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Speaker 1: Kenny and Allan were keen to join, but by then

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Speaker 1: all John, Dwayne and Steve, who at seventeen was the

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Speaker 1: youngest of the group wanted to do was go home,

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Speaker 1: taking Mike's truck. They headed back to his house to

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Speaker 1: let his wife know what had happened, while the remaining

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Speaker 1: three joined the sheriff and his two deputies and headed

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Speaker 1: back toward Turkey Springs. It took a while to find

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Speaker 1: the exact spot again, but soon the men were out

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Speaker 1: in the cold air, flashlights in hand as they scoured

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Speaker 1: the ground for any sign of Travis. But the men

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Speaker 1: found nothing. No scarred or broken trees other than the

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Speaker 1: ones the team had cut down, no scuff marks in

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Speaker 1: the dirt, no sign of Travis's bootmarkings. Neither did they

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Speaker 1: find any pieces of clothing or any blood for that matter.

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Speaker 1: It was almost as if no one had ever been

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Speaker 1: there at all. All that was clear was that Travis

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Speaker 1: was gone. Sheriff Gillespie eyed Mike and his men with suspicion.

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Speaker 1: Clearly Travis hadn't been abducted by a UFO, so what

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Speaker 1: then exactly had taken place? And if he was still

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Speaker 1: alive out here as the men claimed he might be,

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Speaker 1: it was an awfully cold night to only be wearing

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Speaker 1: plaid and denhim. Ellison notified more deputies and members of

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Speaker 1: a local volunteer organization to join in the search, but

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Speaker 1: by midnight there was still no sign of the missing man.

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Speaker 1: Growing increasingly desperate, Rogers suggested it was time they notified

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Speaker 1: Travis's mother. At fifty seven years old, Mary Kellett had

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Speaker 1: raised Travis and his five siblings on her own after

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Speaker 1: making a living running a boarding house in Phoenix. By

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, she divided her time between her home

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Speaker 1: in Snowflake and a cabin in Bare Springs, a stretch

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Speaker 1: of woodland a good ten miles to the southeast of Habor.

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Speaker 1: It was funny, she thought, as she watched Deputy Copland's

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Speaker 1: car pulling up outside the cabin. Just earlier in the day,

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Speaker 1: she'd been overcome with the strange conviction that something terrible

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Speaker 1: had happened to her son, Travis. When Mike stepped out

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Speaker 1: of the vehicle, whom she knew well as a good

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Speaker 1: friend of Travis's, her worst fears were confirmed. Once inside.

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Speaker 1: Coplin was as clearly distraught. Rogers explained to Mary about

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Speaker 1: what they'd seen that evening and how Travis had disappeared.

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Speaker 1: It was odd, thought Coplan, how calm Mary seemed to

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Speaker 1: be in the face of such unusual and disturbing news,

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Speaker 1: almost as if it wasn't news to her at all.

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Speaker 1: About an hour later, Coplin made his goodbyes and headed

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Speaker 1: back to Sheriff Gillespie to report his findings. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: Rogers drove Mary in her car to her daughter Allison's

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Speaker 1: home in Taylor, a town just south of Snowflake. Alison,

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00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:43,040
Speaker 1: who lived with her husband Grant Neph, was especially close

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00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:47,320
Speaker 1: to Travis and was understandably devastated to hear the news.

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00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:51,280
Speaker 1: Skeptical of the story, however, she demanded to hear again

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00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,920
Speaker 1: from Mike exactly what had happened, but he could only

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00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:59,720
Speaker 1: tell her what he knew. A few hours later, unable

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00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:03,040
Speaker 1: to work eight any longer, Mary called her son Dwayne

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00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,360
Speaker 1: at his home in Phoenix to give him the worrying news.

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00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,880
Speaker 1: Though Dwayne was Mary's second oldest son, she'd always considered

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00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,920
Speaker 1: him the most mature, and it was often to him

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00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,560
Speaker 1: that she first turned in times of stress. Minutes later,

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00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:23,200
Speaker 1: Dwayne jumped into his car and started out on the

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00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,400
Speaker 1: two hundred mile journey to Snowflake to meet up with

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00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:37,600
Speaker 1: the others. At eight a m. The morning after Travis's disappearance,

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00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,360
Speaker 1: a number of search teams assembled in Turkey, Springs to

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Speaker 1: assist the Navaju County and Silver Creek Sheriff's officers in

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00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:50,160
Speaker 1: their continued search for the missing man. Among them were

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Speaker 1: a group of US Forest Service personnel drafted in for

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00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:59,360
Speaker 1: their knowledge of the local area. Mike Rogers, Kenny Peterson,

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00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,600
Speaker 1: and Allan Dallas were back too to help with the search.

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00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:08,400
Speaker 1: That morning, the thirty or so search team, starting from

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00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,760
Speaker 1: the point that Travis was last seen, began the laborious

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00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:14,960
Speaker 1: task of scarring the forest of any sign of him,

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00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 1: a search that would eventually encompass a region of roughly

239
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,919
Speaker 1: a mile squared. As the forestry workers scoured the area

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00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,360
Speaker 1: for any sign of unusually broken trees or foot markings,

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00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:29,520
Speaker 1: it was hard to ignore just how dry the whole

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00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 1: area was, with some of the dead brush piles being

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00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,040
Speaker 1: almost a year old and the floor carpeted in dry

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00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:41,360
Speaker 1: pine needles, though no one gave it much credence. If

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00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:44,560
Speaker 1: some kind of craft had indeed lifted off from around there,

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00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:50,359
Speaker 1: the whole place would have gone up in flames. Elsewhere,

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00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:55,159
Speaker 1: Sheriff Gillespie and Deputy Ellison were looking for something a

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00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 1: little different, trying to square the obvious distress shown by

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Speaker 1: Mine and his crew the previous night. With the ridiculous

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00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,639
Speaker 1: cock and bull story they had given them, Gillespie and

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00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:11,040
Speaker 1: Ellison had got to thinking could it be whether it

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00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:15,200
Speaker 1: was premeditated or the result of a tragic accident That

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00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,360
Speaker 1: the men knew only too well where Travis was after all,

254
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:24,080
Speaker 1: because they had buried his body. As the two police

255
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:26,840
Speaker 1: kept one eye on the men for any sign of

256
00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:31,159
Speaker 1: suspicious activity, their other was kept firmly on the ground,

257
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:35,200
Speaker 1: looking for any sign of recently disturbed earth or fresh

258
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: piles of dirt and of course blood. Later that afternoon,

259
00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,679
Speaker 1: Mary and Dwane also joined the search, with Mary seeming

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00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:52,520
Speaker 1: once again far too calm for Deputy Copland's liking. By

261
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:56,280
Speaker 1: the afternoon, however, the search teams were yet to find anything.

262
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:02,040
Speaker 1: With little else to go on share, Gillespie suggested contacting

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00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:06,520
Speaker 1: the nearest firewatch tower. Perhaps they had seen something that night.

264
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,359
Speaker 1: At the very least, it would end all the ridiculous

265
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:16,320
Speaker 1: talk about UFOs. Sadly, however, the guard stationed at the

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00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,840
Speaker 1: tower only a few miles to the west, had gone

267
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: off duty at five PM. The search continued the next day,

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00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,719
Speaker 1: this time with the help of search dogs from Arizona

269
00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:34,119
Speaker 1: State Prison. But still no evidence of Travis's whereabouts or

270
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 1: any sign that any unidentified flying object had been in

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00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:49,680
Speaker 1: the vicinity was found. On Saturday morning, Gillespie was back

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00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,840
Speaker 1: in his office in Holbrook when a kerfuffle was heard

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00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:57,040
Speaker 1: in the reception running through. He was startled to find

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00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,680
Speaker 1: Dwayne and Mike Rogers, demanding to know why no one

275
00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,360
Speaker 1: was up on the ridge looking for Travis. The pair

276
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,639
Speaker 1: had gone out to join the third day of the search,

277
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:11,960
Speaker 1: only to find nobody there. Having begun to suspect that

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00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,560
Speaker 1: some kind of hoax was being played out, Gillespie was

279
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,320
Speaker 1: somewhat taken aback by the evident concern and passion in

280
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 1: Dwayne and Mike's demand. Within an hour, the search was reinstated,

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00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 1: with horses, jeeps, and a rescue helicopter brought in for

282
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 1: good measure, having flown in helicopters during his time in

283
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:38,320
Speaker 1: the military. That afternoon, Dwayne joined the helicopter crew in

284
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,240
Speaker 1: the air, peering down at the gaps in between the

285
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 1: trees for any sign of his brother. He couldn't decide

286
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: whether to be worried or relieved when by the end

287
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 1: of the day they'd once again failed to find anything.

288
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,880
Speaker 1: Back in Snowflake, a Volkswagen van pulled into the town

289
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:02,120
Speaker 1: square to join the throng of news vans and other

290
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,879
Speaker 1: unfamiliar vehicles that had been steadily descending on the town.

291
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 1: By then, news of Travis's disappearance and the unusual explanation

292
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 1: behind it had spread far and wide, with many journalists

293
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:20,720
Speaker 1: and UFO enthusiasts keen to investigate the wild story for themselves.

294
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:26,439
Speaker 1: One such enthusiast was Fred Sylvanus from Phoenix, who for

295
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 1: the past twenty years had conducted field research for the

296
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: Arizona Regional UFO Project. That afternoon, Fred was put in

297
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:39,440
Speaker 1: touch with Mike and Dwaine, who agreed to join him

298
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:43,879
Speaker 1: in his van for an interview. Mike began with an

299
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,080
Speaker 1: account of the craft they'd seen, how pretty it had been,

300
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 1: like a fancy new car, he said, and how he'd

301
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 1: been almost mesmerized by just how beautiful a thing it

302
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 1: was to look at. Then Twain chimed in with something unexpected.

303
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 1: He had also seen one almost identical to what Mike

304
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 1: described in broad Daylight twelve years before. Not only that

305
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: he and Travis had discussed UFOs at great length and

306
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: what they would do if they ever got close to one,

307
00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:21,800
Speaker 1: which was what asked Fred they would try to establish

308
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 1: contact with it. Of course, came Dwaine's reply. It was

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00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:30,880
Speaker 1: an alarming admission to Sylvanus, since he was previously under

310
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,200
Speaker 1: the impression that none of the men involved had any

311
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: prior interest in UFOs. In his experienced opinion, evidence of

312
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: such interest was often a red flag where stories of

313
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:48,479
Speaker 1: apparent sightings and abductions were concerned. And then came another

314
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 1: troubling revelation, this time from Mike. As it turned out

315
00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:58,919
Speaker 1: he and his crew were wildly behind schedule on their contract.

316
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: Having already received one extension, the crew were struggling to

317
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: meet their second deadline. As Mike left slip to Sylvanus,

318
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,680
Speaker 1: perhaps with all that had been going on, the Forestry

319
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: Service might be willing to offer them a second extension.

320
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 1: There was just one final question, said Sylvanus, before wrapping up.

321
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: Where did the pair think that Travis was now? Wherever

322
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 1: he is? Said Dwayne, It is not on this earth.

323
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,719
Speaker 1: Many in the town had been uttering it among themselves,

324
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,040
Speaker 1: but it was Snowflake town Marshall Sanford Flake who said

325
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: it the loudest that all this talk of UFOs and

326
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: Travis Walton being abducted was complete rubbish. Some put this

327
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,879
Speaker 1: down to an ongoing grudge with Travis due to a

328
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:00,199
Speaker 1: disagreement from a previous year, but either way, Flake was

329
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: determined to put an end to the nonsense. Having deduced

330
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: that Travis had orchestrated the whole thing in collaboration with

331
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: his brother Dwayne, using some kind of balloon to fool

332
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: his colleagues, Flake became convinced that he was merely hiding

333
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,199
Speaker 1: out at his mother's cabin in bear Lake. In the

334
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 1: days since Travis's disappearance, Marshall Flake made a number of

335
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,159
Speaker 1: unannounced visits to Mary Kellett's cabin, hoping to catch the

336
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 1: family out, one time even bringing a documentary crew with

337
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: him from the United Kingdom, but Mary could only tell

338
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 1: him what she had told everyone else, that she had

339
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,439
Speaker 1: no idea where her son was. Such rumours were becoming

340
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 1: a struggle for the rest of Mike's crew, too, who

341
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: couldn't step outside their homes without being harassed by reporters

342
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: or neighbors telling them to give up the hoax and

343
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: tell the truth about what happened. On Monday morning, with

344
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: Travis now having been missing for five days, Mike Rogers,

345
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: Kenny Peterson John Gullette, Steve Pearce, Alan Dallas, and Dwayne

346
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 1: Smith received an ominous request to assemble at Sheriff Gillespie's

347
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: office in Holbrook. The men arrived on the assumption that

348
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,440
Speaker 1: they would be giving another statement about the events of

349
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 1: the previous Wednesday. What they found was something a little different.

350
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: Greeting them alongside Gillespie was Arizona Department of Public Safety

351
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:38,720
Speaker 1: employee Cy Gilson. Gilson also happened to be an expert

352
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,400
Speaker 1: in polygraph testing, and he was there to give them

353
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:46,919
Speaker 1: a lie detector test. Steve Pearce went white at the

354
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: sheer mention of the device. It was just as his

355
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: mother had been telling him. It didn't matter if he

356
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: had anything to do with Travis's disappearance. This was how

357
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 1: the law really worked. They were going to try and

358
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 1: pin something on him, and one way or another, if

359
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 1: Steve wasn't careful, he would not be leaving that station

360
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:14,439
Speaker 1: anytime soon. Alan Dallas also grew suddenly nervous, a reaction

361
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: not lost on Sheriff Gillespie. As the Sheriff then explained

362
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: to them, since they had no evidence to back up

363
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 1: any of their claims, he'd been forced to take drastic action.

364
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,679
Speaker 1: If they couldn't find Travis, at the very least, he

365
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,359
Speaker 1: could dismiss their ridiculous story, and if they were telling

366
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: the truth, none of them had anything to worry about anyway.

367
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: Having been observing the men closely since they arrived, Gilson

368
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 1: was quick to pick out Steve, the youngest and clearly

369
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,200
Speaker 1: most anxious of the group, as a possible weak link.

370
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: If they had indeed concocted the whole thing up together,

371
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: it was Steve, he reasoned, that was most likely to

372
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 1: break alone. In the interview room, Gilson took a moment

373
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 1: to calibrate the equipment, then asked for Steve to be

374
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 1: sent in. After nervously taking a seat, Gilson proceeded to

375
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: connect Steve to the machine, pulling the wires tightly across

376
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: his chest, before asking him to sit up and try

377
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:29,920
Speaker 1: his best to relax. And then, after switching on the machine,

378
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: Gilson began Did you cause Travis any serious physical harm

379
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:41,160
Speaker 1: last Wednesday afternoon? Asked Gilson, as the graft paper spulled

380
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:46,679
Speaker 1: out endlessly under the needles, No, said Steve, quickly, looking

381
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:50,239
Speaker 1: anxiously toward the fragile arms of the machine as they

382
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: flickered lightly across the page. Gilson nodded to himself, then

383
00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 1: jotted something down in his notebook. I'm not lying, said

384
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: Steve with quiet determination, Ignoring him. Gilson continued, do you

385
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: know if Travis Walton was physically injured by some other

386
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: member of your work crew last Wednesday? No, said Steve emphatically.

387
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,119
Speaker 1: And then do you know if Travis Walton's body is

388
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 1: buried or hidden somewhere in the Turkey Springs area? No,

389
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:32,400
Speaker 1: came Steve's emphatic reply. Again. Then, finally, did you tell

390
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: the truth about actually seeing a UFO last Wednesday when

391
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: Travis Walton disappeared? Steve looked Gilson in the eye, and then,

392
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: after only a moment's pause, yes, he said. One after

393
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: the other, Mike's crew came and gave their answers to

394
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: the same set of questions, taking about twenty minutes at

395
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: a time as they went over and over again, all

396
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 1: giving the exact same answers as Steve, and not once

397
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 1: deviating from their story. No, they didn't harm Travis, nor

398
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: know of anyone who did. And yes, they did see

399
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 1: a UFO that night. At ten pm that evening, the

400
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:24,479
Speaker 1: men were sent home, after which Gilson presented Gillespie with

401
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: the results, the sheriff could only gorpe in amazement. According

402
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: to Gilson, not one of the men, with the exception

403
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 1: of Alan Dallas, whose results were deemed void, could be

404
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: determined to have lied about their experience, or, as Gilson

405
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,600
Speaker 1: understood it, going by the results, the chances that all

406
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 1: five had cheated the test was something in the region

407
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: of one in seventy eight thousand. As Gillespie reported to

408
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: the press soon after, there's no doubt they're telling the

409
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 1: truth right down the line. I feel sure that all

410
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 1: six of them saw a UFO. It was close to

411
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: midnight on Monday when the phone rang in Allison and

412
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 1: Grant Nef's home in Taylor. Having just gone to bed.

413
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 1: Grant roused himself awake and stumbled to the receiver, nef residence.

414
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: Who's this, he muttered wearily. Then a scared and faint

415
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: voice crackled up from the other end of the line.

416
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,280
Speaker 1: It's Travis. I'm in a phone booth at the Hebre

417
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 1: gas station. I need help. Please come and get me.

418
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: Grant stood for a moment, trying to think. It certainly

419
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: didn't sound like Travis, and since the family had been

420
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 1: fielding crank calls ever since his disappearance, it seemed reasonable

421
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: to assume that this was just another one. Don't call

422
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: here again, Grant said, But just as he was about

423
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 1: to hang up, the voice came back, more desperate this time. Wait, Grant,

424
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 1: it's me Please, I'm hurt and I need your help.

425
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: Please come and get me. Not long after Grant nef

426
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: hung up the phone. In the early hours of Tuesday morning,

427
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: just over thirty miles away in the Navajo County Sheriff's

428
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 1: office in Holbrook, Sheriff Marlin Gillespie was enjoying a rare

429
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: moment of peace with the search for Travis Walton called

430
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: off for the day and all his deputies gone home.

431
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 1: The well liked larman took a moment to reflect on

432
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: the events of the previous week. First and foremost, a

433
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: young man was missing, and no matter what anybody else said,

434
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: though he couldn't rule anything out, it was his duty

435
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 1: to take the family at their word that they knew

436
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: nothing about any of it, and if so, that was

437
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: a family desperately worried about the fate of a brother

438
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: and a son. Of the rest of it, he couldn't

439
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: make head nor tail he certainly wasn't ready to accept

440
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: that Travis might genuinely have been attacked and possibly even

441
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: abducted by a UFO. And yet, as his own man,

442
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: sy Gilson had attested, Travis's co workers, in all statistical

443
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 1: likelihood were telling the truth about what they'd seen. And

444
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: hadn't he too seen the odd unexplained object or light

445
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: in the sky from time to time driving those quiet

446
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: forest roads alone at night. Just then the phone rang

447
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: startled Gillespie grabbed the receiver. The local phone company had

448
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: traced a call placed close to midnight to Allison and

449
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: Grant Nef's property from outside a gas station in Haber,

450
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: the town closest to where Travis had gone missing. It

451
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 1: must be him, thought Gillespie. And yet, if it was Travis,

452
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: why hadn't he called the police instead. It was barely

453
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: thirty minutes later when Deputy Chuck Ellison and Lieutenant A. M. Romo,

454
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 1: on Gillespie's orders, pulled up to the Haber gas station,

455
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 1: with the place completely deserted. Ellison and Romo made their

456
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 1: way over in the dark to the three phone booths

457
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: at the front of the store and began dusting for

458
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 1: Prince in the end, However, there were just too many

459
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: to be able to tell whether Travis had been there

460
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: or not. Meanwhile, at the junction of Highway seventy seven

461
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,719
Speaker 1: and two seven seven, the road out to Phoenix from Snowflake,

462
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: Deputy Glenn Flake, roused from bed by an excited Gillespie,

463
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: sat in his patrol vehicle keeping a firm eye on

464
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:13,239
Speaker 1: the road ahead. By two a m. However, he'd seen

465
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:16,320
Speaker 1: no sign of any vehicles belonging to the Walton family.

466
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: A short time later, Flake pulled up to Travis's mother,

467
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 1: Mary Kellett's home. Seeing lights on inside, he stepped out

468
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: of his car and quietly headed toward the front door

469
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: when he noticed Travis's brother Dwayne siphoning petrol from a

470
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 1: vehicle on the driveway. Surprised to see the deputy, Dwayne

471
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,280
Speaker 1: explained that he'd been late getting back from the Sheriff's

472
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 1: office earlier in the day, so had missed the chance

473
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 1: to get more gas for his car in preparation for

474
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 1: his return to Phoenix that morning. Since Dwayne said nothing

475
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 1: about Travis, Flake thought it reasonable to assume that perhaps

476
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 1: it wasn't him after all, that had called the nef

477
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: property earlier that night. And with that he said his

478
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: goodbyes and returned home to bed. It was around lunchtime

479
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: the next day the reports began filtering through that Travis

480
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: was back and being treated in a hospital in twoson, Arizona,

481
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:26,239
Speaker 1: angered not to have been kept in the loop. A

482
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:30,480
Speaker 1: deeply frustrated Gillespie is finally called by Dwayne late on

483
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 1: Tuesday to inform him that Travis isn't in Tucson after all,

484
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: but at home with him in Glendale, just outside of Phoenix.

485
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,880
Speaker 1: Dwayne was still talking when Gillespie slammed down the phone,

486
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 1: grabbed his hat from the peg, and piled into his

487
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: patrol car. In the past five days, Gillespie's office had

488
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: spent over ten thousand dollars looking for Travis, damaging several

489
00:35:56,400 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 1: expensive vehicles in the process. One of the departments horses

490
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 1: had also been put down after sustaining a devastating injury

491
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 1: during the search. Coupled with the countless hours Gillespie had

492
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 1: put in fielding one call after another from news outlets

493
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,960
Speaker 1: all over the world regarding Travis's bizarre disappearance, it was

494
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: fair to say, at the very least the sheriff deserved

495
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 1: some answers it was late in the evening by the

496
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,800
Speaker 1: time Gillespie arrived at Dwayne's house. At first sight of

497
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 1: the sheriff, Dwayne did his best to apologize for not

498
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,759
Speaker 1: alerting him sooner, while insisting that he only had Travis's

499
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 1: best interests at heart. Unmoved, Gillespie demanded to see Travis immediately.

500
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:48,680
Speaker 1: Dwayne hesitated for a moment before showing the sheriff through

501
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:52,839
Speaker 1: to the living room. Gillespie was in the process of

502
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,800
Speaker 1: detailing exactly just what lengths his department had gone to

503
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 1: to help Dwayne and his family when the sight of

504
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: an exhaust looking Travis stretched out on the sofa stopped

505
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:08,160
Speaker 1: him in his tracks. It wasn't that he seemed physically different,

506
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,360
Speaker 1: although he'd never seen Travis with five days of beard

507
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: growth before, but something about his demeanor had changed. Then

508
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 1: Gillespie realized what it was. It was shock. The sheriff

509
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: quietly took a seat next to the young man and

510
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: began by asking him to describe everything he could remember

511
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 1: about the last few days. Travis glanced nervously toward Dwayne,

512
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 1: who nodded for him to begin. As Travis went on

513
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,840
Speaker 1: to recount, he remembered being up on the ridge in

514
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 1: the forest, seeing the object glowing in the trees, and

515
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: then having the overwhelming urge to get close to it.

516
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: He just turned back to see Mike and the others

517
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: begging for him to return to the truck, when he

518
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 1: was engulfed in a blinding white blue light. In an instant,

519
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: he felt as though he'd been hit on the back

520
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 1: of the head by a baseball bat and that his

521
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 1: whole body was being electrocuted. The next thing he knew,

522
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,080
Speaker 1: he felt as though he was waking up from a

523
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: deep sleep, but in excruciating pain, as if his whole

524
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 1: body had been burned inside and out. Finally opening his eyes,

525
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: he found himself lying down on some kind of table

526
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: with a large rectangular light above him. Gathering his thoughts.

527
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: Though he didn't recognize the place, he assumed he was

528
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,439
Speaker 1: in a hospital of some sort, thinking that he must

529
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 1: have sustained an injury on the job and his friends

530
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:53,439
Speaker 1: had brought him in. Looking down his body, he could

531
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: see that his shirt and jacket had been pushed up

532
00:38:56,040 --> 00:39:01,200
Speaker 1: toward his shoulders, leaving his chest and belly exposed over

533
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,520
Speaker 1: which seemed to be some kind of device scanning his

534
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: body slowly with his eyes beginning to focus, he was

535
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: able to make out three blurry figures stood around him,

536
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:17,839
Speaker 1: dressed in bright orange and wearing white surgical masks, which

537
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:22,280
Speaker 1: he assumed to be doctors, only realizing with horror moments

538
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 1: later when he locked eyes with one of them that

539
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 1: these weren't like any doctors he'd seen before. Panicking, he

540
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 1: leapt from the table, knocking the scanning device to the floor.

541
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 1: As two of the figures approached, Travis stumbled back into

542
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 1: some kind of instrument tray, Then, grabbing whatever came to hand,

543
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 1: he prepared to defend himself. It was only then that

544
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: he observed the figures properly for the first time. They

545
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 1: were each about five feet tall, uncannily familiar with their

546
00:39:56,200 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 1: two arms, legs, and five digits on each hand, but

547
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 1: that was where the familiarity ended. Their bodies seemed unusually

548
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 1: light weight, while their skin was bright white, without a

549
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:15,839
Speaker 1: crease or wrinkle anywhere to be seen. Their eyes were

550
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: big brown discs about an inch and a half in diameter,

551
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 1: and their hands had no fingernails. As Travis went on

552
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 1: to explain, he was just about to attack them when

553
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:33,400
Speaker 1: they ran from the room, leaving him all alone. Seeing

554
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 1: his chance, he bolted out into the corridor and ducked

555
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: into some kind of control room that was completely empty

556
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 1: except for a chair in the middle of it covered

557
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: in levers and buttons. But as he made his way

558
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 1: toward it, the walls began to disappear, revealing a giant,

559
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:55,880
Speaker 1: three hundred sixty degree panoramic map of the stars that

560
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 1: wrapped all around him as if he were standing alone

561
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 1: in the VARs of space. Moments later, Travis was joined

562
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:12,880
Speaker 1: in the room by what he assumed at first was

563
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 1: another human man of large muscular build wearing a blue

564
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 1: outfit and a bubble helmet over his head. Only when

565
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,560
Speaker 1: Travis saw the intense color of his electric blue eyes

566
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:30,800
Speaker 1: did he realize he wasn't human at all. Travis pleaded

567
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,920
Speaker 1: for his help, nonetheless, in response, the being led him

568
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 1: through an airlock into what looked like some kind of

569
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 1: aircraft hanger. Stepping out onto a ramp, Travis realized he

570
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:46,000
Speaker 1: was exiting some kind of craft that was similar to

571
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: what they'd seen in the woods, but considerably larger in size.

572
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,479
Speaker 1: From there, no longer feeling any pain, he was led

573
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 1: through another series of doors and corridors, until finally he

574
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 1: came to a bright white room occupied by three other

575
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,319
Speaker 1: figures similar to the man who led him there. The

576
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,600
Speaker 1: beings then lifted him onto a table and placed some

577
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 1: kind of respiratory device over his face. The next thing

578
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 1: he knew, he was lying on the pavement in the

579
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 1: freezing dark, staring up at the stars in the night sky.

580
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 1: Looking frantically about. He realized with relief that he was

581
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:29,440
Speaker 1: back in Arizona, somewhere on the highway just outside of Haber.

582
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: Dehydrated and disorientated, he stumbled to the Haber gas station,

583
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:37,759
Speaker 1: from where he made the call to his sister's home.

584
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 1: It was all true, insisted Dwayne, as he then explained

585
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 1: to the sheriff. He'd been out at his mother's home

586
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: in Snowflake when they got the call from Grant, their

587
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:58,879
Speaker 1: brother in law, informing them that Travis was alive. Having

588
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,319
Speaker 1: raced off with Grant to pick him up from the

589
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: gas station, they found him huddled down inside one of

590
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 1: the phone booths, still wearing the clothes he'd gone missing

591
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 1: in despite it being well below freezing. According to Dwayne,

592
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: Travis was so traumatized when they arrived that he tried

593
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:19,800
Speaker 1: to run away, not realizing who Dwayne was at first.

594
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: When they finally got him in the car, the clearly

595
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 1: disorientated Travis was convinced he'd only be missing for a

596
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,640
Speaker 1: few hours. When Dwayne then told him to feel the

597
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: beard on his usually clean shaven face, Travis was shocked

598
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 1: to find it had been more like five days. Sheriff

599
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,480
Speaker 1: Gillespie ran a hand through his hair. Could it be,

600
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: he asked, that he really was hit on the head

601
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 1: by a baseball bat. Perhaps one of his coworkers had

602
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 1: done it and then drugged him afterwards. Perhaps he really

603
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 1: had woken up in a hospital after all, but the

604
00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 1: effect of the hit on the head and the drugs

605
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:04,440
Speaker 1: had left him confused and discombobulated. But the brothers were

606
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 1: having none of it. For a start, there was no

607
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: injury to his head, nor to any other part of

608
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: his body for that matter. According to Dwayne, this was

609
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 1: one of the first things he checked when Travis got home,

610
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: shortly before helping him into a hot bath to warm

611
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:26,319
Speaker 1: him up. He also claimed to have weighed his brother beforehand,

612
00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 1: finding that he'd lost at least ten pounds in the

613
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:40,840
Speaker 1: days since he disappeared. That first day since Travis's apparent

614
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 1: return had been an eventful one for Dwayne and his brother,

615
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 1: as they went on to explain to Sheriff Gillespie. It

616
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:51,879
Speaker 1: was back during the search for Travis that Dwayne had

617
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 1: been approached by William Spaulding from the euphology Group Ground

618
00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 1: Saucer Watch, an organization first founded in ninety In fifty

619
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: seven that sought to provide a legitimate outlet for people

620
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 1: to report sightings of unusual aerial phenomena without the fear

621
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 1: of ridicule. Having dealt with a number of similar cases before,

622
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: Sporting advised Dwayne to contact him should Travis be found alive.

623
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 1: In return, GSW would provide a free medical examination and

624
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:27,360
Speaker 1: shelter from the inevitable media storm that would follow in

625
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 1: the hope of gaining proof that he had been abducted

626
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: by an unknown sentient species, if indeed that was the case.

627
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: As it transpired, according to Dwayne, Travis was already back

628
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 1: at his mother's house in Snowflake the night Deputy Flake

629
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 1: saw Dwayne in the driveway siphoning gas for his car.

630
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,360
Speaker 1: Realizing that he wouldn't be able to keep Travis's apparent

631
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 1: return a secret for long, Dwayne informed the press that

632
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:58,359
Speaker 1: he was being taken to a hospital in Tucson to

633
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:03,839
Speaker 1: recuperate from his exhausted ordeal that morning, the pair then

634
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:08,439
Speaker 1: traveled to Phoenix, whereby they immediately contacted Spaulding, who gave

635
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,439
Speaker 1: them an address for a doctor Lester Stewart, who would

636
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:16,720
Speaker 1: be conducting the medical exam when they arrived there soon after, however,

637
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:21,400
Speaker 1: the brothers were surprised to find doctor Stewart's office located

638
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:26,320
Speaker 1: in a fairly run down westward Hoe hotel. They only

639
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:29,520
Speaker 1: became more concerned when they saw the sign on doctor

640
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:35,839
Speaker 1: Stewart's door, which read hypnotherapist. After thirty minutes or so

641
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: of Travis detailing what he could about his missing five days,

642
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 1: it became clear that not only was Stuart ill equipped

643
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 1: to carry out a full medical exam on him, but

644
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: that he wasn't a medical doctor at all. Returning home frustrated,

645
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 1: Dwayne was then contacted by Coral and Jim Lawrenson from

646
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:02,959
Speaker 1: another UFO organization called the Area Phenomena Research group. Much

647
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: like ground Sourcer Watch, at pro prided themselves on their

648
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:11,160
Speaker 1: rational scientific approach to the UFO phenomena, with a large

649
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:16,280
Speaker 1: staff of consulting PhD scientists among them, most notably doctor

650
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 1: James Harder, a civil and hydraulics engineering professor from the

651
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:27,360
Speaker 1: University of California, Berkeley. Famed UFO researcher j Allen Heineck

652
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 1: described at PRO as one of the best to civilian

653
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:35,839
Speaker 1: organizations of its day. Still desperate to prove what had

654
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,440
Speaker 1: happened to him, Travis agreed to then let APRO conduct

655
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 1: the medical exam. That afternoon, doctor Howard Kendall, predominantly a

656
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:51,320
Speaker 1: pediatrician and general practitioner, doctor Joseph Saltz, arrived at Dwayne's

657
00:47:51,320 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 1: house to assess the apparent abductee. Kendall and Salts were

658
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,799
Speaker 1: shown into a bedroom where Travis was waiting for them,

659
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,920
Speaker 1: lying down on the bed in his shirt and jeans.

660
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,800
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall's report would later state that from the moment

661
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,760
Speaker 1: they saw him, it was clear that Travis was suffering

662
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:22,319
Speaker 1: from extreme stress and anxiety. Kendall and Salts observed that

663
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: his vital signs were all normal, with no overt signs

664
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 1: of weight loss, though his mouth was unusually dry, suggesting

665
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:34,319
Speaker 1: a high level of dehydration. Examining his body for any

666
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: signs of bruising or damage. Curiously, doctor Kendall discovered a

667
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: two millimeter wide red spot in the crease of Travis's

668
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 1: right elbow, much like a needle puncture wound. Travis suggested

669
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 1: that it might have been a thorn wound picked up

670
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: at some point while he was working out in the forest.

671
00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:58,759
Speaker 1: After the preliminary examination, Dwayne then handed doctor Kendall a

672
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 1: jar that he claim aimed contained Travis's urine, which William

673
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:07,359
Speaker 1: Spaulding had advised him to collect. The sample was later

674
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:10,759
Speaker 1: found to be normal, displaying no evidence of drug use

675
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:14,920
Speaker 1: or anything else untoward, with the exception that it contained

676
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:18,759
Speaker 1: no trace of acetone. Had Travis not eaten in the

677
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:23,239
Speaker 1: last few days, ordinarily, acetone, which is created when fat

678
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 1: stores are broken down in the body, would be present.

679
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,360
Speaker 1: If Travis had indeed lost ten pounds, an absence of

680
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 1: acetone would have been deeply unusual. Intriguingly, the doctors also

681
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:39,840
Speaker 1: noted that the combination of Travis's unmarked body and the

682
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,560
Speaker 1: fact that it was relatively odorless despite apparently not having

683
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 1: used any soap since his return, seemed to suggest that

684
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:50,759
Speaker 1: wherever Travis had been for the past five days, it

685
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:57,279
Speaker 1: wasn't outside in the woods. Sheriff Gillespie having listened to

686
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: it all with quiet patients, thanked the brothers for bringing

687
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:04,800
Speaker 1: him up to speed, then stood up to leave. Sensing

688
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: the sheriff wasn't entirely convinced by the story, Travis made

689
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:12,960
Speaker 1: a request. Since his coworkers had taken a polygraph test,

690
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 1: it only made sense that he should be able to

691
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:21,479
Speaker 1: take one too. Perhaps then people might believe him. We'll

692
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 1: be in touch, said the sheriff, before thanking the young

693
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:36,480
Speaker 1: men again for their time and heading out. The following day, Wednesday,

694
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 1: November twelfth, Travis and Dwayne were moved into the Sheraton

695
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:46,320
Speaker 1: Hotel in Scottsdale, courtesy of The National Inquirer. By the

696
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:51,440
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, The Inquirer, a notorious and controversial tabloid that

697
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 1: had previously promoted fascist causes, was enjoying a resurgence as

698
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,680
Speaker 1: the nation's go to paper for all things celebrity and bizarre,

699
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 1: with a particular interest in apparent altercations with UFOs. Having

700
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: managed to get hold of Coral and Jim Lawrenson before

701
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 1: Travis's medical examination, the paper struck a deal with both

702
00:51:12,680 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 1: Travis and Apro to cover all costs in their efforts

703
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: to prove he was telling the truth. In return, Travis

704
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 1: gave them exclusive rights to his story. Later that afternoon,

705
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 1: doctor James Harder of the University California, Berkeley arrived at

706
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: the hotel to conduct a regressive hypnosis session with Travis,

707
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:39,040
Speaker 1: in which, while apparently under hypnosis, Travis repeated the exact

708
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:42,880
Speaker 1: same story he told everyone else about his experience on

709
00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 1: board a UFO. Afterwards, Travis is informed by Sheriff Gillespie

710
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,200
Speaker 1: that a polygraph test has been arranged for him in

711
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:55,239
Speaker 1: two days time, to be conducted by cy Gilson, the

712
00:51:55,239 --> 00:51:59,920
Speaker 1: same individual who tested his coworkers. The test is agreed

713
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 1: on the one condition that remained a secret from the press. However,

714
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,399
Speaker 1: the test is abruptly canceled at the last minute by

715
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:11,799
Speaker 1: Dwayne when he receives a call from a reporter an

716
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:14,760
Speaker 1: hour before the test is due to be taken, wanting

717
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:19,279
Speaker 1: to know where it's taking place. The next morning, a

718
00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,759
Speaker 1: new story breaks in the Phoenix Gazette with the headline

719
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 1: UFO case is linked to drugs by expert. The expert

720
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:31,200
Speaker 1: turned out to be none other than doctor Lester Stewart,

721
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:35,600
Speaker 1: the hypnotherapist that Dwayne and Travis had blown off after

722
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:38,360
Speaker 1: spending only a few minutes with him at his office

723
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:43,320
Speaker 1: in the westward Hoe Hotel. Only the way Steward told it,

724
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 1: it had been more like two hours, in which he

725
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 1: had ample time to assess the patient. It was his

726
00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: conclusion that Travis had made the entire thing up, going

727
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 1: on to speculate that his cosmic visions had been nothing

728
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:03,320
Speaker 1: but the hallucinatory effects of LSD. William Spaulding was also

729
00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 1: quoted in the article stating that in fact, it had

730
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:10,080
Speaker 1: been Dwayne and Travis that specifically asked him to set

731
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:15,320
Speaker 1: them up with a hypnotherapist. Spaulding, having only days before

732
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:18,719
Speaker 1: been so convinced of Travis's story he was willing to

733
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 1: offer them financial support to prove it. Was now convinced

734
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: more than ever that it was all just a hoax.

735
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:29,080
Speaker 1: Though we can never know for sure whose version of

736
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 1: events is the truth, it has been pointed out that

737
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 1: it would have been physically impossible for the Walton brothers

738
00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: to have spent even one hour with doctor Stewart and

739
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:40,920
Speaker 1: got back to Dwayne's home in time to receive the

740
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:45,280
Speaker 1: later phone call from Coral and Jim Lawrenson that doctor

741
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,960
Speaker 1: Stewart was found not to even have a license to

742
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:52,040
Speaker 1: practice medicine in the United States also cast further doubt

743
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 1: on his credibility. The sudden attack, as some have suggested,

744
00:53:57,480 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 1: appeared to have been made out of spite more than

745
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:04,239
Speaker 1: anything else, in retaliation for Travis's rejection of Spauting's help.

746
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:14,920
Speaker 1: The following week, doctor James Harder released his own assessment

747
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:19,399
Speaker 1: to Travis on behalf of apro coming to the conclusion that,

748
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: one way or another, whether the events had occurred or

749
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 1: not as Travis said they had, Harder had little doubt that,

750
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 1: at the very least, Travis believed he was telling the truth.

751
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:36,080
Speaker 1: Harder's assessment was made partially from the medical evidence, but

752
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,960
Speaker 1: also on account of another apparent abduction case that had

753
00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:45,719
Speaker 1: supposedly occurred three months previously. The case involving US Air

754
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:50,840
Speaker 1: Force Sergeant Charles Moody had never previously been reported, and

755
00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:55,000
Speaker 1: yet Moody's description of the beings that he allegedly encountered

756
00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:59,800
Speaker 1: bore a striking similarity to those described by Travis, also

757
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:04,280
Speaker 1: being five foot tall, with large bald heads, large eyes,

758
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:10,480
Speaker 1: and unusually lightweight bodies. The National Enquirer would eventually publish

759
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:13,719
Speaker 1: the story, for which Travis was paid two thousand, five

760
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 1: hundred U S. Dollars equivalent to twelve thousand dollars today,

761
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 1: with each of his co workers receiving just over four

762
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:27,120
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Over time, the national interest in Travis's story

763
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:31,840
Speaker 1: began to die down, until eventually the news outlets stopped calling,

764
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:35,280
Speaker 1: and the colorful array of out of towners and UFO

765
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 1: buffs headed back to wherever they had come from. By

766
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:43,399
Speaker 1: the new year, Sheriff Gillespie, still none the wiser, with

767
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: no one to prosecute or charge for Travis's bizarre disappearance,

768
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:55,239
Speaker 1: closed the case two months later. In February nineteen seventy six, Travis, Dwayne,

769
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 1: and their mother Mary would all be given polygraph tests

770
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:03,080
Speaker 1: set up by the Aerial Phenomena Research Group, which concluded

771
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:06,600
Speaker 1: that all three were telling the truth with regards to

772
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:11,520
Speaker 1: their own experiences during those extraordinary days in November nineteen

773
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:16,840
Speaker 1: seventy five. In the months and years that followed, the

774
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:21,080
Speaker 1: people of Snowflake remained divided, with some convinced it was

775
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,920
Speaker 1: a hoax and others not entirely sure. Being a Mormon settlement,

776
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,080
Speaker 1: many took umbradge to the heresy at the heart of

777
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 1: Travis's story that the creatures he'd encountered were very much

778
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:36,879
Speaker 1: not in what they considered to be God's image. Though

779
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:40,839
Speaker 1: they accepted that God had created other worlds and populated

780
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:44,000
Speaker 1: them with people, that those people might look a little

781
00:56:44,040 --> 00:56:48,799
Speaker 1: different was a stretch too far for their beliefs. As

782
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:51,360
Speaker 1: for the rest of the crew, the event appeared to

783
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 1: affect them in different ways. Kenny Peterson would eventually leave

784
00:56:56,520 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: the town, making his way to Mexico, where he married

785
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:04,759
Speaker 1: settled down for a time before returning to Snowflake. Though

786
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 1: Mike Rogers was stripped of the Turkey Springs contract, he

787
00:57:08,239 --> 00:57:11,319
Speaker 1: was eventually paid in full for the unfinished job and

788
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:15,960
Speaker 1: continued to work successfully as a contractor. Dwayne Smith and

789
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:20,840
Speaker 1: Allan Dallas later underwent hypnotic regression, and both maintained their

790
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 1: original version of events pertaining to the night that Travis disappeared.

791
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 1: Despite all the many strange looks and subsequent mickey taking

792
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:34,080
Speaker 1: that came with being part of the story, John Gouleette

793
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:38,240
Speaker 1: had no regrets, saying later only that he was glad

794
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: to have experienced it. All seven men involved have never

795
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:47,000
Speaker 1: altered their story once to this day, with Steve Pearce,

796
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 1: who was suffering from financial hardship at the time, even

797
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:53,760
Speaker 1: said to have turned down a ten thousand dollar offer

798
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 1: to retract his story. Travis Walton would eventually settle down

799
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:03,880
Speaker 1: and marry Mike Rodgers's sister Dana, with the pair taking

800
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:07,800
Speaker 1: up residents above a local store on Snowflake's main Street.

801
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:12,480
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy eight, he published a full account of

802
00:58:12,520 --> 00:58:16,560
Speaker 1: his story in the book The Walton Experience that was

803
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:20,480
Speaker 1: later adapted into the nineteen ninety three film Fire in

804
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 1: the Sky. He continues to lecture about his apparent abduction

805
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:35,480
Speaker 1: to day. In the summer of nineteen seventy six, a

806
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:39,960
Speaker 1: report was produced by journalist and prominent UFO skeptic Philip

807
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:44,400
Speaker 1: Klass that purported to provide a detailed forensic analysis of

808
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 1: Travis Walton's story, demonstrating that it had been entirely fabricated.

809
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:54,600
Speaker 1: Class's claim hinged largely on new and highly controversial information

810
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:59,680
Speaker 1: that he'd unearthed during his investigation. As it turned out,

811
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:04,160
Speaker 1: the polygraph test that Travis eventually took in February nineteen

812
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 1: seventy six was not the first polygraph test he'd taken

813
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:11,880
Speaker 1: on the subject of his apparent abduction. In fact, he'd

814
00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 1: sat for one as early as November sixteenth, less than

815
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:19,360
Speaker 1: a week after his return. Organized by the Aerial Phenomena

816
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:23,720
Speaker 1: Research Group and witnessed by a representative for the National Inquirer,

817
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 1: the test was conducted by John McCarthy, the director of

818
00:59:28,880 --> 00:59:33,720
Speaker 1: the Arizona Polygraph Laboratory, who determined on balance that Travis

819
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:38,360
Speaker 1: was not telling the truth. Both the National Inquirer and

820
00:59:38,440 --> 00:59:45,040
Speaker 1: APRO agreed not to publish the result. It was a

821
00:59:45,040 --> 00:59:48,720
Speaker 1: few nights later. The Deputy Glen Flake was sat in

822
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:52,640
Speaker 1: the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, fielding one call

823
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:56,360
Speaker 1: after another from news outlets across the world, desperate to

824
00:59:56,400 --> 01:00:01,440
Speaker 1: know more about the forestry workers and the UFO. With

825
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:05,320
Speaker 1: the phones finally having calmed down, Flake was taking a

826
01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:08,720
Speaker 1: moment of downtime when a burst of static from out

827
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,840
Speaker 1: of the station radio was followed by a flurry of

828
01:00:11,880 --> 01:00:16,200
Speaker 1: excited voices discussing a strange light that was currently hovering

829
01:00:16,240 --> 01:00:20,560
Speaker 1: near the mountains just to the east. Flake listened in

830
01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:24,920
Speaker 1: as the voices two deputies stationed at Pinetop, a town

831
01:00:25,160 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 1: just fifty miles to the south, detailed the light and

832
01:00:28,920 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 1: how it seemed to just be sitting there in the

833
01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:37,560
Speaker 1: sky and slowly changing from red to white to blue.

834
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:42,640
Speaker 1: Seconds later, a third voice broke in in excitement, another deputy,

835
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 1: this time from Saint john Sheriff's station, about forty miles

836
01:00:46,680 --> 01:00:51,320
Speaker 1: to the east. They could see it too, Whatever it was,

837
01:00:51,400 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 1: he said, it was no aeroplane. Deputy Flake grabbed his coat,

838
01:00:57,440 --> 01:01:00,600
Speaker 1: stepped out into the freezing cold night, and turned his

839
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:04,680
Speaker 1: eyes to the east. Well, I'll be damned, he said,

840
01:01:05,480 --> 01:01:09,520
Speaker 1: as they're clearly discernible in the sky. Just above the

841
01:01:09,560 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 1: forest sat a small bright light changing slowly from red

842
01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:26,880
Speaker 1: to white to blue. Thank you as ever for listening, unexplained.

843
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 1: As an av Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith.

844
01:01:31,520 --> 01:01:34,760
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

845
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:39,160
Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard McLain Smith, unexplained. The book

846
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:43,160
Speaker 1: and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can

847
01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:47,720
Speaker 1: purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.

848
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:50,960
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get

849
01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:53,760
Speaker 1: your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with

850
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on

851
01:01:56,920 --> 01:02:00,000
Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story

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Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can find

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Speaker 1: out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online

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Speaker 1: through X and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook

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Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast h