WEBVTT - Season 04 Episode 20: The Homecoming (RERUN) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.560 Hello, it's Richard mclin smith here with Unexplained on an 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:05.880 end of season break. We'll be dipping back into the 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:10.560 archive each week until season nine begins on Friday, October thirty. First, 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.320 this week's episode takes us to the forests of Arizona 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.080 in November nineteen seventy five, where a crew of loggers 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.840 were finishing another hard day's work in the wilderness. It 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.279 was meant to be routine, just another evening drive back 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.960 to town through the darkening woods, a journey they'd made 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.360 countless times before. But when the crew returned home that night, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.600 one of them was missing, leaving those left behind to 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.959 relay a story so bizarre that it would divide not 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:45.800 just their community, but the entire country. This is Unexplained, 0:00:46.080 --> 0:01:03.200 Season four, episode twenty, The Homecoming. Navajo County Deputy Sheriff 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.160 Chuck Ellison was sitting down to eat dinner with his 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.280 wife when the telephone rang. The voice on the other 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.440 end was hard to read, both frantic and oddly hesitant 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.520 at the same time. Ellison asked the caller to calm 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.800 down and start again by telling him who he was. 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.000 It was Kenny Peterson, came the speedy reply, and they 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:32.000 needed the police right away. As Peterson went on to explain, 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.840 he and his forestry Service co workers had been clearing 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:40.360 a section of Arizona's Apache Sitgreave's forest earlier that night 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:45.360 when something inexplicable had occurred, and now one of their 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:50.120 crew was missing. But when Ellison pushed for more details, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.200 Peterson paused for a moment before replying that perhaps it 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.440 would be better if they could explain it to him 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:02.120 in person. Ten minutes later, after apologizing to his wife 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.840 for having to leave so suddenly, Ellison pulled into the 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:10.200 parking lot of Wilbur's Market shopping center in Habor, a 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.920 small junction town about one hundred and fifty miles northeast 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.639 of Phoenix, Arizona, where he'd agreed to meet Kenny. It 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.320 didn't take long for the deputy to spot the man 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:26.920 and his colleagues Mike Rogers, John Guillette, Alan Dallas, Dwayne Smith, 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.040 and Steve Pearce all gathered together in an anxious huddle 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.720 by the entrance, still covered in dust and debris from 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.400 the day's shift. At least two of the group was 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.240 struggling to hold back tears. In no mood to mess around, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.640 Ellison asked the men to explain exactly what was going on. 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.520 They all looked sheepishly toward each other, as if they 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.360 didn't quite know what they were going to say to him, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:03:00.800 until finally Mike began to speak. The twenty eight year 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.240 old Mike was an independent contractor and the crew were 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.440 his responsibility, so too, ultimately was the man who was missing. 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.200 His name was Travis Walton, who also happened to be 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.960 Mike's best friend. Ordinarily they would never have left him 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.520 behind up there in the forest, but as Mike tried 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:28.120 to explain to Ellison, these were far from ordinary circumstances. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:41.080 You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Like 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.120 the rest of Mike Roger's crew, twenty two year old 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.800 Travis Walton lived in Snowflake, a farming town located about 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.720 thirty miles east of Habour with a population of just 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.680 over two and a half thousand. It was founded by 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.560 Mormon settlers in eighteen seventy eight and was comprised largely 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.480 of life orise houses and small local stores, all overshadowed 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.680 by the huge red bricked Church of Jesus Christ of 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:13.480 Latter Day Saints that dominated the town square. Delinquency was 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.120 not looked on lightly by the community, nor was anyone 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:21.520 who deigned to be a little different. Back in nineteen 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.760 seventy one, Travis, who with his long hair was dismissed 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.719 by many as effeckless hippie, and a friend were convicted 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.920 of forging payroll checks from a local company. The pair 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.839 were given two years probation and forced to pay the 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.760 money back. In a town as small and god fearing 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.960 as Snowflake, such reputations were hard to shake. Those who 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.200 knew Travis, however, knew a different story. Some of his 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.839 school teachers even considered him one of the smartest pupils 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.360 that they'd ever taught. After dropping out of Northern Arizona 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:02.360 University a few years b previously, Travis had been picking 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:07.320 up work wherever he could find it. When Mike Rogers, 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:11.839 a forestry contractor with nine years experience, procured another of 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.120 his United States Forest Service contracts, Travis jumped at the 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.800 opportunity to join the team. The job was to clear 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.119 one thousand, two hundred and seventy seven acres of thick 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.240 scrub brush from a section of the Apache Sick Creeves 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.800 National Forest known as Turkey Springs, which was about ten 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.120 miles into the pine covered mountains just to the west 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:41.039 of Haber. That Wednesday, November fifth, started out just like 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.520 any other day, as one by one Rogers collected each 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.760 of his crew members in his battered crew Cab International 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.520 from their homes in Snowflake, then headed off on their 0:05:52.520 --> 0:06:03.120 forty mile journey into the mountains. With it being November, 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.760 there was always a slight chill in the air first 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.600 thing in the morning, but it soon heated up when 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:13.000 the sun came out. Though the work was arduous, cutting 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.320 back all new growth less than six inches in diameter 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.880 and gathering it up into great slash piles, Travis never 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.359 tired of being up there on that mountain ridge, with 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.159 the fresh air in his lungs, wild horses galloping through 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.359 the trees all around them, and that ancient forest stretching 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.040 out below, older than the people whose name it took, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:44.760 older even than God themself. Hours later, with darkness returning, 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.599 and so too that light chill in the air, the 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.920 men called it a day. Gathering their tools, they slung 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.719 them into the back of Night's truck before piling in themselves. 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.800 Travis and Kenny up front with Mike, while the others, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:07.320 all smokers, sat in the back gleefully lighting up. Mike 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.200 switched on the engine, bathing the narrow forest road ahead 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.400 in the light of the headlamps, and eased out of 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.880 the clearing. They'd barely made it two hundred yards along 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:24.400 the rugged forest track when Alan broke in from the back. Hey, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.280 what is that, he said, pointing toward a soft glowing 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.200 light coming from out of the trees to the right. 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:37.120 Have you guys never seen the moon? Mocked Kenny, only 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.160 as the others were quick to point out the moon 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.520 was already sitting high in the sky above on the 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.480 other side of the truck. The soft white glow grew 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:53.360 brighter as they continued on, slowly edging ever closer toward it, 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.760 Now no more than one hundred yards from its source. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.440 The light bled out across the road before them, but frustratingly, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.400 whatever it was, remained obscured by the trees until eventually 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.720 they reached a clearing and they were finally able to 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.720 see it. A large disc like structure roughly twenty feet 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.920 wide and eight feet high, hovering a good fifteen feet 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.000 above the ground. It was so close they could even 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.800 see the detail on its surface, how it was divided 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.320 into a series of thin panels with a thin, darker 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.079 band that seemed to circle all the way around it, 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:40.360 and how its glow appeared to be coming from inside. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.960 Before Mike had even brought the truck to a stop, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.319 the side door was opened and Travis was gone, hurrying 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.400 off toward it. The others yelled for him to come back, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.840 but Travis just kept on going, edging closer and closer 0:08:55.880 --> 0:09:01.120 toward it. Then came a strange noise that seemed to 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:06.200 emanate from the craft, high pitched at first, before steadily 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.520 shifting into something much lower, like a vast turbine engine. 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.600 When suddenly a blinding blue light shot out from the disk, 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.400 holding Travis in some kind of grip. With his body 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.120 now completely rigid, he was slowly lifted a good foot 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.760 into the air and suspended there for a moment before 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:32.040 being flung hard onto the ground, skidding shoulder first into 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.760 the stone and dirt, and there he lay completely still. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.680 That was enough for Rogers, who, with four kids of 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.560 his own and the rest of his crew to worry about, 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.840 turned the key and tore out of the clearing as 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.480 fast as the truck could go, and then they were 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.959 racing through the trees, bouncing over the dirt track at 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.719 speed as Rogers did his best to keep the thing 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.320 on the road, with the rest of the crew's deeming 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.920 for him to keep going faster and faster, until it 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.559 was just one bend too many, with a huge pine 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.680 tree looming up before him, Rogers pulled hard on the 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.760 wheel and brought the truck slamming into a pile of 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.360 bulldoze dirt by the side of the road. The men 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.679 looked frantically about for any sign of the strange craft, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.520 but saw nothing but the frigid dark and the bright 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.880 half moon above. And for a moment there was silence, 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:36.160 and then all hell broke loose. We've got to go back, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.520 yelled Kenny. No way, said Steve, as tears streamed down 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:45.360 his face. We've got to get out of here. Kenny's right, 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.439 said Mike, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.800 Only then had it dawned on him that, without even thinking, 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.240 he'd abandoned his best friend alone out there with that thing, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:02.880 whatever it was. We're going back, he said. Finally, you 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.240 can either come with me or you can wait for 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.560 me here. With no one willing to take their chances 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.880 in the forest alone, they headed back to look for Travis, 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:15.600 but by the time they got to where they'd last 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.640 seen him, he was gone. And that, as he finished 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.959 explaining to an utterly perplexed Deputy Ellison, was when they 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:35.400 decided to call the police. After hearing the men's story, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:40.280 Deputy Ellison reluctantly relayed it back to Sheriff Marlin Gillespie 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.520 at the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, another forty 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.560 mile drive north of Habor. Though Ellison was quick to 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.679 clarify that he didn't believe any of it, he had 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:57.280 little doubt the men had experienced something traumatic. Less than 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.600 an hour later, Sheriff Gillespie arrived with Deputy Kenneth Coplin 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.960 in tow and Mike's crew repeated their extraordinary story for 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:10.040 the second time that night, but Mike was getting impatient. 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.640 They needed to get back up there and search for Travis. 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.280 Kenny and Allan were keen to join, but by then 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.040 all John, Dwayne and Steve, who at seventeen was the 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.160 youngest of the group wanted to do was go home, 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.880 taking Mike's truck. They headed back to his house to 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.960 let his wife know what had happened, while the remaining 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.680 three joined the sheriff and his two deputies and headed 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:41.840 back toward Turkey Springs. It took a while to find 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.520 the exact spot again, but soon the men were out 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.240 in the cold air, flashlights in hand as they scoured 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.880 the ground for any sign of Travis. But the men 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:57.720 found nothing. No scarred or broken trees other than the 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.040 ones the team had cut down, no scuff marks in 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:06.480 the dirt, no sign of Travis's bootmarkings. Neither did they 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.920 find any pieces of clothing or any blood for that matter. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.320 It was almost as if no one had ever been 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:18.480 there at all. All that was clear was that Travis 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:24.640 was gone. Sheriff Gillespie eyed Mike and his men with suspicion. 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.400 Clearly Travis hadn't been abducted by a UFO, so what 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.280 then exactly had taken place? And if he was still 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.000 alive out here as the men claimed he might be, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.320 it was an awfully cold night to only be wearing 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:46.320 plaid and denhim. Ellison notified more deputies and members of 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.840 a local volunteer organization to join in the search, but 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.040 by midnight there was still no sign of the missing man. 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:01.119 Growing increasingly desperate, Rogers suggested it was time they notified 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:12.640 Travis's mother. At fifty seven years old, Mary Kellett had 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.959 raised Travis and his five siblings on her own after 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.240 making a living running a boarding house in Phoenix. By 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.840 nineteen seventy five, she divided her time between her home 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.000 in Snowflake and a cabin in Bare Springs, a stretch 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.360 of woodland a good ten miles to the southeast of Habor. 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.200 It was funny, she thought, as she watched Deputy Copland's 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:40.640 car pulling up outside the cabin. Just earlier in the day, 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.200 she'd been overcome with the strange conviction that something terrible 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.440 had happened to her son, Travis. When Mike stepped out 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.000 of the vehicle, whom she knew well as a good 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:58.920 friend of Travis's, her worst fears were confirmed. Once inside. 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:03.720 Coplin was as clearly distraught. Rogers explained to Mary about 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.680 what they'd seen that evening and how Travis had disappeared. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.560 It was odd, thought Coplan, how calm Mary seemed to 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.000 be in the face of such unusual and disturbing news, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.280 almost as if it wasn't news to her at all. 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.160 About an hour later, Coplin made his goodbyes and headed 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.080 back to Sheriff Gillespie to report his findings. In the meantime, 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.840 Rogers drove Mary in her car to her daughter Allison's 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:39.440 home in Taylor, a town just south of Snowflake. Alison, 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.040 who lived with her husband Grant Neph, was especially close 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.320 to Travis and was understandably devastated to hear the news. 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.280 Skeptical of the story, however, she demanded to hear again 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.920 from Mike exactly what had happened, but he could only 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:59.720 tell her what he knew. A few hours later, unable 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.040 to work eight any longer, Mary called her son Dwayne 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.360 at his home in Phoenix to give him the worrying news. 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.880 Though Dwayne was Mary's second oldest son, she'd always considered 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.920 him the most mature, and it was often to him 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:19.560 that she first turned in times of stress. Minutes later, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.200 Dwayne jumped into his car and started out on the 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.400 two hundred mile journey to Snowflake to meet up with 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:37.600 the others. At eight a m. The morning after Travis's disappearance, 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.360 a number of search teams assembled in Turkey, Springs to 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.320 assist the Navaju County and Silver Creek Sheriff's officers in 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:50.160 their continued search for the missing man. Among them were 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.200 a group of US Forest Service personnel drafted in for 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:59.360 their knowledge of the local area. Mike Rogers, Kenny Peterson, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.600 and Allan Dallas were back too to help with the search. 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.400 That morning, the thirty or so search team, starting from 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.760 the point that Travis was last seen, began the laborious 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.960 task of scarring the forest of any sign of him, 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.359 a search that would eventually encompass a region of roughly 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.919 a mile squared. As the forestry workers scoured the area 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.360 for any sign of unusually broken trees or foot markings, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.520 it was hard to ignore just how dry the whole 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.080 area was, with some of the dead brush piles being 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.040 almost a year old and the floor carpeted in dry 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.360 pine needles, though no one gave it much credence. If 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.560 some kind of craft had indeed lifted off from around there, 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:50.359 the whole place would have gone up in flames. Elsewhere, 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.159 Sheriff Gillespie and Deputy Ellison were looking for something a 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.800 little different, trying to square the obvious distress shown by 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.520 Mine and his crew the previous night. With the ridiculous 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.639 cock and bull story they had given them, Gillespie and 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:11.040 Ellison had got to thinking could it be whether it 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.200 was premeditated or the result of a tragic accident That 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.360 the men knew only too well where Travis was after all, 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:24.080 because they had buried his body. As the two police 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.840 kept one eye on the men for any sign of 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:31.159 suspicious activity, their other was kept firmly on the ground, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.200 looking for any sign of recently disturbed earth or fresh 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:42.280 piles of dirt and of course blood. Later that afternoon, 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.679 Mary and Dwane also joined the search, with Mary seeming 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:52.520 once again far too calm for Deputy Copland's liking. By 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.280 the afternoon, however, the search teams were yet to find anything. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.040 With little else to go on share, Gillespie suggested contacting 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.520 the nearest firewatch tower. Perhaps they had seen something that night. 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.359 At the very least, it would end all the ridiculous 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:16.320 talk about UFOs. Sadly, however, the guard stationed at the 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.840 tower only a few miles to the west, had gone 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:25.280 off duty at five PM. The search continued the next day, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.719 this time with the help of search dogs from Arizona 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:34.119 State Prison. But still no evidence of Travis's whereabouts or 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.960 any sign that any unidentified flying object had been in 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:49.680 the vicinity was found. On Saturday morning, Gillespie was back 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.840 in his office in Holbrook when a kerfuffle was heard 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.040 in the reception running through. He was startled to find 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.680 Dwayne and Mike Rogers, demanding to know why no one 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.360 was up on the ridge looking for Travis. The pair 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.639 had gone out to join the third day of the search, 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.960 only to find nobody there. Having begun to suspect that 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.560 some kind of hoax was being played out, Gillespie was 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.320 somewhat taken aback by the evident concern and passion in 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:24.600 Dwayne and Mike's demand. Within an hour, the search was reinstated, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.240 with horses, jeeps, and a rescue helicopter brought in for 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.720 good measure, having flown in helicopters during his time in 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:38.320 the military. That afternoon, Dwayne joined the helicopter crew in 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.240 the air, peering down at the gaps in between the 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:45.800 trees for any sign of his brother. He couldn't decide 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:48.800 whether to be worried or relieved when by the end 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.240 of the day they'd once again failed to find anything. 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.880 Back in Snowflake, a Volkswagen van pulled into the town 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.120 square to join the throng of news vans and other 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:06.879 unfamiliar vehicles that had been steadily descending on the town. 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.600 By then, news of Travis's disappearance and the unusual explanation 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:16.000 behind it had spread far and wide, with many journalists 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.720 and UFO enthusiasts keen to investigate the wild story for themselves. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:26.439 One such enthusiast was Fred Sylvanus from Phoenix, who for 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.040 the past twenty years had conducted field research for the 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:36.320 Arizona Regional UFO Project. That afternoon, Fred was put in 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.440 touch with Mike and Dwaine, who agreed to join him 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.879 in his van for an interview. Mike began with an 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.080 account of the craft they'd seen, how pretty it had been, 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.520 like a fancy new car, he said, and how he'd 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.560 been almost mesmerized by just how beautiful a thing it 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:59.200 was to look at. Then Twain chimed in with something unexpected. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.320 He had also seen one almost identical to what Mike 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:09.920 described in broad Daylight twelve years before. Not only that 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.080 he and Travis had discussed UFOs at great length and 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.800 what they would do if they ever got close to one, 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.800 which was what asked Fred they would try to establish 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:27.000 contact with it. Of course, came Dwaine's reply. It was 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:30.880 an alarming admission to Sylvanus, since he was previously under 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.200 the impression that none of the men involved had any 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:39.560 prior interest in UFOs. In his experienced opinion, evidence of 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.080 such interest was often a red flag where stories of 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:48.479 apparent sightings and abductions were concerned. And then came another 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:54.600 troubling revelation, this time from Mike. As it turned out 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:58.919 he and his crew were wildly behind schedule on their contract. 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.560 Having already received one extension, the crew were struggling to 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.960 meet their second deadline. As Mike left slip to Sylvanus, 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.680 perhaps with all that had been going on, the Forestry 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.080 Service might be willing to offer them a second extension. 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.920 There was just one final question, said Sylvanus, before wrapping up. 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:26.720 Where did the pair think that Travis was now? Wherever 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.720 he is? Said Dwayne, It is not on this earth. 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.719 Many in the town had been uttering it among themselves, 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:44.040 but it was Snowflake town Marshall Sanford Flake who said 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.480 it the loudest that all this talk of UFOs and 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:53.080 Travis Walton being abducted was complete rubbish. Some put this 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:55.879 down to an ongoing grudge with Travis due to a 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.199 disagreement from a previous year, but either way, Flake was 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:04.680 determined to put an end to the nonsense. Having deduced 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:08.119 that Travis had orchestrated the whole thing in collaboration with 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:11.520 his brother Dwayne, using some kind of balloon to fool 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:15.879 his colleagues, Flake became convinced that he was merely hiding 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:20.199 out at his mother's cabin in bear Lake. In the 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.240 days since Travis's disappearance, Marshall Flake made a number of 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:28.159 unannounced visits to Mary Kellett's cabin, hoping to catch the 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:32.439 family out, one time even bringing a documentary crew with 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:36.800 him from the United Kingdom, but Mary could only tell 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.840 him what she had told everyone else, that she had 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:44.439 no idea where her son was. Such rumours were becoming 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.440 a struggle for the rest of Mike's crew, too, who 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:51.520 couldn't step outside their homes without being harassed by reporters 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:54.280 or neighbors telling them to give up the hoax and 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:59.480 tell the truth about what happened. On Monday morning, with 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.119 Travis now having been missing for five days, Mike Rogers, 0:25:04.520 --> 0:25:09.800 Kenny Peterson John Gullette, Steve Pearce, Alan Dallas, and Dwayne 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:14.359 Smith received an ominous request to assemble at Sheriff Gillespie's 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:18.840 office in Holbrook. The men arrived on the assumption that 0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:21.440 they would be giving another statement about the events of 0:25:21.480 --> 0:25:25.960 the previous Wednesday. What they found was something a little different. 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:32.800 Greeting them alongside Gillespie was Arizona Department of Public Safety 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:38.720 employee Cy Gilson. Gilson also happened to be an expert 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:42.400 in polygraph testing, and he was there to give them 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:46.919 a lie detector test. Steve Pearce went white at the 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.080 sheer mention of the device. It was just as his 0:25:50.160 --> 0:25:53.240 mother had been telling him. It didn't matter if he 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:57.080 had anything to do with Travis's disappearance. This was how 0:25:57.119 --> 0:26:00.480 the law really worked. They were going to try and 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:04.240 pin something on him, and one way or another, if 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:07.359 Steve wasn't careful, he would not be leaving that station 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:14.439 anytime soon. Alan Dallas also grew suddenly nervous, a reaction 0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:20.240 not lost on Sheriff Gillespie. As the Sheriff then explained 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:23.080 to them, since they had no evidence to back up 0:26:23.119 --> 0:26:26.520 any of their claims, he'd been forced to take drastic action. 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:30.679 If they couldn't find Travis, at the very least, he 0:26:30.720 --> 0:26:34.359 could dismiss their ridiculous story, and if they were telling 0:26:34.359 --> 0:26:38.080 the truth, none of them had anything to worry about anyway. 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:44.040 Having been observing the men closely since they arrived, Gilson 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:47.159 was quick to pick out Steve, the youngest and clearly 0:26:47.200 --> 0:26:50.200 most anxious of the group, as a possible weak link. 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:54.080 If they had indeed concocted the whole thing up together, 0:26:54.680 --> 0:26:57.720 it was Steve, he reasoned, that was most likely to 0:26:57.800 --> 0:27:08.000 break alone. In the interview room, Gilson took a moment 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:11.359 to calibrate the equipment, then asked for Steve to be 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:16.639 sent in. After nervously taking a seat, Gilson proceeded to 0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:20.399 connect Steve to the machine, pulling the wires tightly across 0:27:20.400 --> 0:27:24.080 his chest, before asking him to sit up and try 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:29.920 his best to relax. And then, after switching on the machine, 0:27:30.240 --> 0:27:36.560 Gilson began Did you cause Travis any serious physical harm 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:41.160 last Wednesday afternoon? Asked Gilson, as the graft paper spulled 0:27:41.200 --> 0:27:46.679 out endlessly under the needles, No, said Steve, quickly, looking 0:27:46.680 --> 0:27:50.239 anxiously toward the fragile arms of the machine as they 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:55.840 flickered lightly across the page. Gilson nodded to himself, then 0:27:55.920 --> 0:28:00.280 jotted something down in his notebook. I'm not lying, said 0:28:00.280 --> 0:28:08.080 Steve with quiet determination, Ignoring him. Gilson continued, do you 0:28:08.160 --> 0:28:11.320 know if Travis Walton was physically injured by some other 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:16.560 member of your work crew last Wednesday? No, said Steve emphatically. 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:21.119 And then do you know if Travis Walton's body is 0:28:21.160 --> 0:28:25.679 buried or hidden somewhere in the Turkey Springs area? No, 0:28:26.320 --> 0:28:32.400 came Steve's emphatic reply. Again. Then, finally, did you tell 0:28:32.440 --> 0:28:36.680 the truth about actually seeing a UFO last Wednesday when 0:28:36.680 --> 0:28:42.920 Travis Walton disappeared? Steve looked Gilson in the eye, and then, 0:28:43.520 --> 0:28:50.760 after only a moment's pause, yes, he said. One after 0:28:50.800 --> 0:28:54.160 the other, Mike's crew came and gave their answers to 0:28:54.240 --> 0:28:57.800 the same set of questions, taking about twenty minutes at 0:28:57.800 --> 0:29:02.040 a time as they went over and over again, all 0:29:02.160 --> 0:29:05.560 giving the exact same answers as Steve, and not once 0:29:05.680 --> 0:29:10.960 deviating from their story. No, they didn't harm Travis, nor 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:14.520 know of anyone who did. And yes, they did see 0:29:14.520 --> 0:29:19.440 a UFO that night. At ten pm that evening, the 0:29:19.520 --> 0:29:24.479 men were sent home, after which Gilson presented Gillespie with 0:29:24.560 --> 0:29:30.920