Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained, Season four, episode twenty, the Homecoming,
Speaker 1: Part two. Not long after Grant Neff hung up the phone,
Speaker 1: in the early hours of Tuesday morning, just over thirty
Speaker 1: miles away in the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook,
Speaker 1: Sheriff Marlin Gillespie was enjoying a rare moment of peace,
Speaker 1: with the search for Travis Walton called off for the
Speaker 1: day and all his deputies gone home. The well liked
Speaker 1: lawman took a moment to reflect on the events of
Speaker 1: the previous week. First and foremost, a young man was missing,
Speaker 1: and no matter what anybody else said, though he couldn't
Speaker 1: rule anything out, it was his duty to take the
Speaker 1: family at their word that they knew nothing about any
Speaker 1: of it, and if so, that was a family desperately
Speaker 1: worried about the fate of a brother and a son.
Speaker 1: Of the rest of it, he couldn't make head nor tail.
Speaker 1: He certainly wasn't ready to accept that Travis might genuinely
Speaker 1: have been attacked and possibly even abducted by a UFO.
Speaker 1: And yet, as his own man sy Gilson had attested,
Speaker 1: Travis's co workers, in all statistical likelihood were telling the
Speaker 1: truth about what they'd seen, and hadn't he too seen
Speaker 1: the odd unexplained object or light in the sky from
Speaker 1: time to time, driving those quiet forest roads alone at night.
Speaker 1: Just then the phone rang startled Gillespie grabbed the receiver.
Speaker 1: The local phone company had traced a call placed close
Speaker 1: to midnight to Allison and grant Net property from outside
Speaker 1: a gas station in Haber, the town closest to where
Speaker 1: Travis had gone missing. It must be him, thought Gillespie.
Speaker 1: And yet if it was Travis, why hadn't he called
Speaker 1: the police instead. It was barely thirty minutes later when
Speaker 1: Deputy Chuck Ellison and Lieutenant A. M. Romo, on Gillespie's orders,
Speaker 1: pulled up to the Haber gas station. With the place
Speaker 1: completely deserted. Ellison and Romo made their way over in
Speaker 1: the dark to the three phone booths at the front
Speaker 1: of the store and began dusting for Prince. In the end, however,
Speaker 1: there were just too many to be able to tell
Speaker 1: whether Travis had been there or not. Meanwhile, at the
Speaker 1: junction of Highway seventy seven and two seven seven, the
Speaker 1: road out to Phoenix from Snowflake, Deputy Glen Flake roused
Speaker 1: from bed by an excited Gillespie sat in his patrol
Speaker 1: vehicle keeping a firm eye on the road ahead. By
Speaker 1: two am, however, he'd seen no sign of any vehicles
Speaker 1: belonging to the Walton family. A short time later, Flake
Speaker 1: pulled up to Travis's mother, Mary Kellett's home. Seeing lights
Speaker 1: on inside, he stepped out of his car and quietly
Speaker 1: headed toward the front door when he noticed Travis's brother,
Speaker 1: Dwayne siphoning petrol from a vehicle on the driveway. Surprised
Speaker 1: to see the deputy, Dwayne explained that he had been
Speaker 1: late getting back from the Sheriff's office earlier in the day,
Speaker 1: so had missed the chance to get more gas for
Speaker 1: his car in preparation for his return to Phoenix that morning.
Speaker 1: Since Dwayne said nothing about Travis, Flake thought it reasonable
Speaker 1: to assume the perhaps it wasn't him, after all, that
Speaker 1: had called the neft property earlier that night, And with
Speaker 1: that he said his goodbyes and returned home to bed.
Speaker 1: It was around lunch time the next day the reports
Speaker 1: began filtering through that Travis was back and being treated
Speaker 1: in a hospital in Twucson, Arizona. Angered not to have
Speaker 1: been kept in the loop a deeply frustrated Gillespie is
Speaker 1: finally called by Dwayne late on Tuesday to inform him
Speaker 1: that Travis isn't in Tucson after all, but at home
Speaker 1: with him in Glendale, just outside of Phoenix. Dwayne was
Speaker 1: still talking when Gillespie slammed down the phone, grabbed his
Speaker 1: hat from the peg, and piled into his patrol car.
Speaker 1: In the past five days, Gillespie's office had spent over
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars looking for Travis, damaging several expensive vehicles
Speaker 1: in the process. One of the department's horses had also
Speaker 1: been put down after sustaining a devastating injury during the search.
Speaker 1: Coupled with the count less hours Gillespie had put in
Speaker 1: fielding one call after another from news outlets all over
Speaker 1: the world regarding Travis's bizarre disappearance, it was fair to say,
Speaker 1: at the very least, the sheriff deserved some answers. It
Speaker 1: was late in the evening by the time Gillespie arrived
Speaker 1: at Dwayne's house. At first sight of the sheriff, Dwayne
Speaker 1: did his best to apologize for not alerting him sooner,
Speaker 1: while insisting that he only had Travis's best interests at heart. Unmoved,
Speaker 1: Gillespie demanded to see Travis immediately. Dwayne hesitated for a
Speaker 1: moment before showing the sheriff through to the living room.
Speaker 1: Gillespie was in the process of detailing exactly just what
Speaker 1: length his department had gone to to help Dwayne and
Speaker 1: his family when the sight of an exhausted looking Travis
Speaker 1: stretched out on the sofa stopped him in his tracks.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that he seemed physically different, although he'd never
Speaker 1: seen Travis with five days of beard growth before, but
Speaker 1: something about his demeanor had changed. Then Gillespie realized what
Speaker 1: it was. It was shock. The sheriff quietly took a
Speaker 1: seat next to the young man and began by asking
Speaker 1: him to describe everything he could remember about the last
Speaker 1: few days. Travis glanced nervously toward Dwayne, who nodded for
Speaker 1: him to begin. As Travis went on to recount, he
Speaker 1: remembered being up on the ridge in the forest, seeing
Speaker 1: the object glowing in the trees, and then having the
Speaker 1: overwhelming urge to get close to it. He just turned
Speaker 1: back to see Mike and the others begging for him
Speaker 1: to return to the truck when he was engulfed in
Speaker 1: a blinding white blue light. In an instant, he felt
Speaker 1: as though he'd been hit on the back of the
Speaker 1: head by a baseball bat, and that his whole body
Speaker 1: was being electrocuted. The next thing he knew, he felt
Speaker 1: as though he was waking up from a deep sleep,
Speaker 1: but in excruciating pain, as if his whole body had
Speaker 1: been burned inside and out. Finally opening his eyes, he
Speaker 1: found himself lying down on some kind of table with
Speaker 1: a large rectangular light above him. Gathering his thoughts. Though
Speaker 1: he didn't recognize the place, he assumed he was in
Speaker 1: a hospital of some sort, thinking that he must have
Speaker 1: sustained an injury on the job and his friends had
Speaker 1: brought him in. Looking down his body, he could see
Speaker 1: that his shirt and jacket had been pushed up towards
Speaker 1: his shoulders, leaving his chest and belly exposed over which
Speaker 1: seemed to be some kind of device. Scanning his body slowly,
Speaker 1: With his eyes beginning to focus, he was able to
Speaker 1: make out three blurry figures stood around him, dressed in
Speaker 1: bright orange and wearing white surgical masks, which he assumed
Speaker 1: to be doctors, only realizing with horror moments later when
Speaker 1: he locked eyes with one of them that these weren't
Speaker 1: like any doctors he'd seen before. Panicking, he leaped from
Speaker 1: the table, knocking the scanning device to the floor. As
Speaker 1: two of the figures approached, Travis stumbled back into some
Speaker 1: kind of instrument tray. Then, grabbing whatever came to hand,
Speaker 1: he prepared to defend himself. It was only then that
Speaker 1: he observed the figures properly for the first time. They
Speaker 1: were each about five feet tall, uncannily familiar with their
Speaker 1: two arms, legs, and five digits on each hand, but
Speaker 1: that was where the familiarity ended. Their bodies seemed unusually
Speaker 1: light weight, while their skin was bright white, without a
Speaker 1: crease or wrinkle anywhere to be seen. Their eyes were
Speaker 1: big brown discs about an inch and a half in diameter,
Speaker 1: and their hands had no fingernails. As Travis went on
Speaker 1: to explain, he was just about to attack them when
Speaker 1: they ran from the room, leaving him all alone. Seeing
Speaker 1: his chance, he bolted out into the corridor and ducked
Speaker 1: into some kind of control room, which was completely empty
Speaker 1: except for a chair in the middle of it covered
Speaker 1: in levers and buttons. But as he made his way
Speaker 1: toward it, the walls began to disappear, revealing a giant
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty degree panoramic map of the stars
Speaker 1: that wrapped all around him as if he were standing
Speaker 1: alone in the vastness of space. Moments later, Travis was
Speaker 1: joined in the room by what he assumed at first
Speaker 1: was another human man of large muscular build wearing a
Speaker 1: blue outfit and a bubble helmet over his head. Only
Speaker 1: when Travis saw the intense color of his electric blue
Speaker 1: eyes did he realize he wasn't human at all. Travis
Speaker 1: pleaded for his help none the less. In response, the
Speaker 1: being led him through an air lock into what looked
Speaker 1: like some kind of aircraft hanger. Stepping out onto a ramp,
Speaker 1: Travis realized he was exiting some kind of craft that
Speaker 1: was similar to what they'd seen in the woods, but
Speaker 1: considerably larger in size. From there, no longer feeling any pain,
Speaker 1: he was led through another series of doors and corridors,
Speaker 1: until finally he came to a bright white room occupied
Speaker 1: by three other figures similar to the man who led
Speaker 1: him there. The beings then lifted him on to a
Speaker 1: table and faced some kind of respiratory device over his face.
Speaker 1: The next thing he knew, he was lying on the
Speaker 1: pavement in the freezing dark, staring up at the stars
Speaker 1: in the night sky. Looking frantically about, he realized with
Speaker 1: relief that he was back in Arizona, somewhere on the
Speaker 1: highway just outside of Haber. Dehydrated and disorientated, he stumbled
Speaker 1: to the Haber gas station, from where he made the
Speaker 1: call to his sister's home. It was all true, insisted Dwayne,
Speaker 1: as he then explained to the sheriff. He'd been out
Speaker 1: at his mother's home in Snowflake when they got the
Speaker 1: call from Grant, their brother in law, informing them that
Speaker 1: Travis was alive. Having raced off with Grant to pick
Speaker 1: him up from the gas station, they found him huddled
Speaker 1: down inside one of the phone booths, still wearing the
Speaker 1: clothes he'd gone missing in despite it being well below freezing.
Speaker 1: According to Dwayne, Travis was so traumatized when they arrived
Speaker 1: that he tried to run away, not realizing who Dwayne
Speaker 1: was at first. When they finally got him in the car,
Speaker 1: the clearly disorientated Travis was convinced he'd only been missing
Speaker 1: for a few hours. When Dwayne then told him to
Speaker 1: feel the beard on his usually clean shaven face. Travis
Speaker 1: was shocked to find it had been more like five days.
Speaker 1: Sheriff Gillespie ran a hand through his hair. Could it be,
Speaker 1: he asked, that he really was hit on the head
Speaker 1: by a baseball bat. Perhaps one of his co workers
Speaker 1: had done it and then drugged him afterwards. Perhaps he
Speaker 1: really had woken up in a hospital after all, but
Speaker 1: the effect of the hit on the head and the
Speaker 1: drugs had left him confused and discombobulated. But the brothers
Speaker 1: were having none of it. For a start, there was
Speaker 1: no injury to his head, nor to any other part
Speaker 1: of his body for that matter. According to Dwayne, this
Speaker 1: was one of the first things he checked when Travis
Speaker 1: got home, shortly before helping him into a hot bath
Speaker 1: to warm him up. He also claimed to have weighed
Speaker 1: his brother beforehand, finding that he'd lost at least ten
Speaker 1: pounds in the days since he'd disappeared. That first day
Speaker 1: since Travis's apparent return had been an eventful one for
Speaker 1: Dwayne and his brother, as they went on to explain
Speaker 1: to Sheriff Gillespie, it was back during the search for
Speaker 1: Travis that Duane had been approached by William Spaulding from
Speaker 1: the Ufology Group Ground Source a Watch, an organization first
Speaker 1: founded in nineteen fifty seven that sought to provide a
Speaker 1: legitimate outlet for people to report sightings of unusual aerial
Speaker 1: phenomena without the fear of ridicule. Having dealt with a
Speaker 1: number of similar cases before, Spaulding advised Dwayne to contact
Speaker 1: him should Travis be found alive. In return, GSW would
Speaker 1: provide a free medical examination and shelter from the inevitable
Speaker 1: media storm that would follow in the hope of gaining
Speaker 1: proof that he had been abducted by an unknown sentient species,
Speaker 1: if indeed that was the case. As it transpired, according
Speaker 1: to Dwayne, Travis was already back at his mother's house
Speaker 1: in Snowflake the night Deputy Flake saw Dwayne in the
Speaker 1: driveway siphoning gas for his car. Realizing that he wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to keep Travis's apparent return a secret for long,
Speaker 1: Dwayne informed the press that he was being taken to
Speaker 1: a hospital in Tucson to recuperate from his exhausting ordeal.
Speaker 1: That morning. The pair then traveled to Phoenix, whereby they
Speaker 1: immediately contacted Spaulding, who gave them an address for a
Speaker 1: doctor Leicester Stewart, who would be conducting the medical exam.
Speaker 1: When they arrived there soon after, however, the brothers were
Speaker 1: surprised to find doctor Stewart's office located in a fairly
Speaker 1: run down westward Hoe hotel. They only became more concerned
Speaker 1: when they saw the sign on doctor Steward's door, which
Speaker 1: read hypnotherapist. After thirty minutes or so of Travis detailing
Speaker 1: what he could about his missing five days, it became
Speaker 1: clear that not only was Stuart Ill equipped to carry
Speaker 1: out a full medical exam on him, but that he
Speaker 1: wasn't a medical doctor at all. Returning home, frustrated, Dwain
Speaker 1: was then contacted by Coral and Jim Lawrenson from another
Speaker 1: UFO organization called the Aerial Phenomena Research Group. Much like
Speaker 1: Crown Sourcer Watch, APRO prided themselves on their rational scientific
Speaker 1: approach to the UFO phenomena, with large staff of consulting
Speaker 1: PhD scientists among them, most notably doctor James Harder, a
Speaker 1: civil and hydraulics engineering professor from the University of California, Berkeley.
Speaker 1: Famed UFO researcher j Allen Heineck described APPRO as one
Speaker 1: of the best civilian organizations of its day. Still desperate
Speaker 1: to prove what had happened to him, Travis agreed to
Speaker 1: then let Apro conduct the medical exam. That afternoon, doctor
Speaker 1: Howard Kendall, predominantly a pediatrician and general practitioner, Doctor Joseph
Speaker 1: Saltz arrived at Duane's house to assess the apparent abductee.
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Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast to day to Get Started, That's t e
Speaker 1: la DC dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Kendle and Salts
Speaker 1: were shown into a bedroom where Travis was waiting for them,
Speaker 1: lying down on the bed in his shirt and jeans.
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall's report would later state that from the moment
Speaker 1: they saw him, it was clear that Travis was suffering
Speaker 1: from extreme stress and anxiety. Kendall and Salts observed that
Speaker 1: his vital signs were all normal, with no overt signs
Speaker 1: of weight loss, though his mouth was unusually dry, suggesting
Speaker 1: a high level of dehydration. Examining his body for any
Speaker 1: signs of bruising or damage, curiously, doctor Kendall discovered a
Speaker 1: two millimeter wide red spot in the crease of Travis's
Speaker 1: right elbow, much like a needle puncture wound. Travis suggested
Speaker 1: that it might have been a thorn wound picked up
Speaker 1: at some point while he was working out in the forest.
Speaker 1: After the preliminary examination, Dwayne then handed doctor Kendall a
Speaker 1: jar that he claimed contained Travis's urine, which William Spaulding
Speaker 1: had advised him to collect. The sample was later found
Speaker 1: to be normal, displaying no evidence of drug use or
Speaker 1: anything else untoward, with the exception that it contained no
Speaker 1: trace of acetone. Had Travis not eaten in the last
Speaker 1: few days, ordinarily acetone, which is created when fat stores
Speaker 1: are broken down in the body, would be present. If
Speaker 1: Travis had indeed lost ten pounds, an absence of acetone
Speaker 1: would have been deeply unusual. Intriguingly, the doctors also noted
Speaker 1: that the combination of Travis's unmarked body and the fact
Speaker 1: that it was relatively odorless despite apparently not having used
Speaker 1: any soap since his return, seemed to suggest that wherever
Speaker 1: Travis had been for the past five days, it wasn't
Speaker 1: outside in the woods. Sheriff Gillespie, having listened to it
Speaker 1: all with quiet patience, thanked the brothers for bringing him
Speaker 1: up to speed, then stood up to leave. Sensing the
Speaker 1: sheriff wasn't entirely convinced by the story, Travis made a request.
Speaker 1: Since his co workers had taken a polygraph test, it
Speaker 1: only made sense that he should be able to take
Speaker 1: one too. Perhaps then people might believe him. We'll be
Speaker 1: in touch, said the sheriff, before thanking the young men
Speaker 1: again for their time and heading out. The following day, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: November twelfth, Travis and Dwayne were moved into the Sheraton
Speaker 1: Hotel in Scottsdale, courtesy of the National Inquirer. By the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, The Inquirer, a notorious and controversial tabloid that
Speaker 1: had previously promoted fascist causes, was enjoying a resurgence as
Speaker 1: the nations go to paper for all things celebrity and bizarre,
Speaker 1: with a particular interest in apparent altercations with UFOs. Having
Speaker 1: managed to get hold of Coral and Jim Lawrenson before
Speaker 1: Travis's medical examination, the paper struck a deal with both
Speaker 1: Travis and APRO to cover all costs in their efforts
Speaker 1: to prove he was telling the truth. In return, Travis
Speaker 1: gave them exclusive rights to his story. Later that afternoon,
Speaker 1: doctor James Harder of the University California, Berkeley arrived at
Speaker 1: the hotel to conduct a regressive hypnosis session with Travis,
Speaker 1: in which, while apparently under hypnosis, Travis repeated the exact
Speaker 1: same story he told everyone else about his experience on
Speaker 1: board a UFO. Afterwards, Travis is informed by Sheriff Gillespie
Speaker 1: that a polygraph test has been arranged for him in
Speaker 1: two days time, to be conducted by sy Gilson, the
Speaker 1: same individual who tested his coworkers. The test is agreed
Speaker 1: to on the one condition that it remained a secret
Speaker 1: from the press. However, the test is abruptly canceled at
Speaker 1: the last minute by Dwayne when he receives a call
Speaker 1: from a reporter an hour before the test is due
Speaker 1: to be taken, wanting to know where it's taking place.
Speaker 1: The next morning, a new story breaks in the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Gazette with the headline ufocase is linked to drugs by expert.
Speaker 1: The expert turned out to be none other than doctor
Speaker 1: Leicester Stewart, the hypnotherapist that Duane and Travis had blown
Speaker 1: off after spending only a few minutes with him at
Speaker 1: his office in the westward Hoe Hotel. Only the way
Speaker 1: Steward told it, it had been more like two hours,
Speaker 1: in which he had ample time to assess the patient.
Speaker 1: It was his conclusion that Travis had made the entire
Speaker 1: thing up, going on to speculate that his cosmic visions
Speaker 1: had been nothing but the hallucinatory effects of LSD. William
Speaker 1: Spaulding was also quoted in the article stating that in fact,
Speaker 1: it had been Dwaine and Travis that specifically asked him
Speaker 1: to set them up with a hypnotherapist. Spaulding, having only
Speaker 1: days before been so convinced of Travis's story he was
Speaker 1: willing to offer them financial support to prove it, was
Speaker 1: now convinced more than ever that it was all just
Speaker 1: a hoax. Though we can never know for sure whose
Speaker 1: version of events is the truth, it has been pointed
Speaker 1: out that it would have been physically impossible for the
Speaker 1: Walton brothers to have spent even one hour with doctor
Speaker 1: Stewart and got back to Dwane's home in time to
Speaker 1: receive the later phone call from Coral and Jim Lawrenson.
Speaker 1: That doctor Stuart was found not to even have a
Speaker 1: license to practice medicine in the United States also cast
Speaker 1: further doubt on his credibility. The sudden attack, as some
Speaker 1: have suggested, appeared to have been made out of spite
Speaker 1: more than anything else, in retaliation for Travis's rejection of
Speaker 1: Spaulding's help. The following week, doctor James Harder released his
Speaker 1: own assessment to Travis on behalf of apro coming to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that, one way or another, whether the events
Speaker 1: had occurred or not as Travis said they had, Harder
Speaker 1: had little doubt that, at the very least, Travis believed
Speaker 1: he was telling the truth. Harder's assessment was made partially
Speaker 1: from the medical evidence, but also on account of another
Speaker 1: apparent abduction case that had supposedly occurred three months previously.
Speaker 1: The case involving US Air Force Sergeant Charles Moody had
Speaker 1: never previously been reported, and yet Moody's description of the
Speaker 1: beings that he allegedly encountered bore a striking similarity to
Speaker 1: those described by Travis, also being five foot tall, with
Speaker 1: large bald heads, large eyes, and unusually light weight body.
Speaker 1: The National Inquirer would eventually publish the story, for which
Speaker 1: Travis was paid two thousand, five hundred US dollars equivalent
Speaker 1: to twelve thousand dollars today, with each of his co
Speaker 1: workers receiving just over four hundred dollars. Over time, the
Speaker 1: national interest in Travis's story began to die down, until
Speaker 1: eventually the news outlets stopped calling, and the colorful array
Speaker 1: of out of towners and UFO buffs headed back to
Speaker 1: wherever they had come. From By the new year, Sheriff Gillespie,
Speaker 1: still none the wiser, with no one to prosecute or
Speaker 1: charge for Travis's bizarre disappearance, closed the case two months later.
Speaker 1: In February nineteen seventy six, Travis, Dwayne, and their mother
Speaker 1: Mary would all be given polygraph tests set up by
Speaker 1: the Aerial Phenomena Research Group, which concluded that all three
Speaker 1: were telling the truth with regard to their own experiences
Speaker 1: during those extraordinary days in November nineteen seventy five. In
Speaker 1: the months and years that followed, the people of Snowflake
Speaker 1: remained divided, with some convinced it was a hoax and
Speaker 1: others not entirely sure. Being a Mormon settlement, many took
Speaker 1: umbridge to the heresy at the heart of Travis's story
Speaker 1: that the creatures he'd encountered were very much not in
Speaker 1: what they considered to be God's image. Though they accepted
Speaker 1: that God had created other worlds and populated them with people,
Speaker 1: that those people might look a little different was a
Speaker 1: stretch too far for their beliefs. As for the rest
Speaker 1: of the crew, the event appeared to affect them in
Speaker 1: different ways. Kenny Peterson would eventually leave the town making
Speaker 1: his way to Mexico, where he married and settled down
Speaker 1: for a time before returning to Snowflake. Though Mike Rogers
Speaker 1: was stripped of the Turkey Springs contract, he was eventually
Speaker 1: paid in full for the unfinished job and continued to
Speaker 1: work successfully as a contractor. Dwayne Smith and Allan Dallas
Speaker 1: later underwent hypnotic regression, and both maintained their original version
Speaker 1: of events pertaining to the night that Travis disappeared. Despite
Speaker 1: all the many strange looks and subsequent mickey taking that
Speaker 1: came with being part of the story, John Goulette had
Speaker 1: no regrets, saying later only that he was glad to
Speaker 1: have experienced it. All seven men involved have never altered
Speaker 1: their story once to this day, with Steve Pierce, who
Speaker 1: was suffering from financial hardship at the time, even said
Speaker 1: to have turned down a ten thousand dollar offer to
Speaker 1: retract his story. Travis Walton would eventually settle down and
Speaker 1: marry Mike Roger's sister Dana, with the pair taking up
Speaker 1: residence above a local store on Snowflake's main Street. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, he published a full account of his
Speaker 1: story in the book The Walton Experience, that was later
Speaker 1: adapted into the nineteen ninety three film Fire in the Sky.
Speaker 1: He continues to lecture about his apparent abduction today. In
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen seventy six, a report was produced
Speaker 1: by journalist and prominent UFO skeptic Philip Class that purported
Speaker 1: to provide a detailed forensic analysis of Travis Walton's story,
Speaker 1: demonstrating that it had been entirely fabricated. Class's claim hinged
Speaker 1: largely on new and highly controversial information that he'd unearthed
Speaker 1: during his investigation. As it turned out, the polygraph test
Speaker 1: that Travis eventually took in February nineteen seventy six was
Speaker 1: not the first polygrapht he'd taken on the subject of
Speaker 1: his apparent abduction. In fact, he'd sat for one as
Speaker 1: early as November sixteenth, less than a week after his return.
Speaker 1: Organized by the Aerial Phenomena Research Group and witnessed by
Speaker 1: a representative for the National Inquirer, the test was conducted
Speaker 1: by John McCarthy, the director of the Arizona Polygraph Laboratory,
Speaker 1: who determined on balance that Travis was not telling the truth.
Speaker 1: Both the National Inquirer and at PRO agreed not to
Speaker 1: publish the result. It was a few nights later, the
Speaker 1: Deputy Glen Flake was sat in the Navajoe County Sheriff's
Speaker 1: office in Holbrook, fielding one call after another from news
Speaker 1: outlets across the world, desperate to know more about the
Speaker 1: forestry workers and the UFO. With the phones finally having
Speaker 1: calmed down, Flake was taking a moment of downtime when
Speaker 1: a burst of static from out of the station radio
Speaker 1: was followed by a flurry of excited voices discussing a
Speaker 1: strange light that was currently hovering near the mountains just
Speaker 1: to the east. Flake listened in as the voices to
Speaker 1: deputies stationed at Pinetop, a town just fifty miles to
Speaker 1: the south, detailed the light and how it seemed to
Speaker 1: just be sitting there in the sky and slowly changing
Speaker 1: from red to white to blue. Seconds later, a third
Speaker 1: voice broke in in excitement, another deputy, this time from
Speaker 1: Saint john Sheriff's station, about forty miles to the east.
Speaker 1: They could see too, whatever it was, he said, it
Speaker 1: was no aeroplane. Deputy Flake grabbed his coat, stepped out
Speaker 1: into the freezing cold night, and turned his eyes to
Speaker 1: the east. Well, I'll be damned he said, as there
Speaker 1: clearly discernible in the sky just above the forest sat
Speaker 1: a small bright light changing slowly from red to white
Speaker 1: to blue. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories
Speaker 1: that have never before been covered on the show, is
Speaker 1: now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements
Speaker 1: of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of
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