WEBVTT - S04 Episode 20: The Homecoming (Pt. 2 of 2) 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:14.800 You're listening to Unexplained, Season four, episode twenty, the Homecoming, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:25.800 Part two. Not long after Grant Neff hung up the phone, 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.760 in the early hours of Tuesday morning, just over thirty 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.199 miles away in the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.440 Sheriff Marlin Gillespie was enjoying a rare moment of peace, 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.479 with the search for Travis Walton called off for the 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.000 day and all his deputies gone home. The well liked 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.800 lawman took a moment to reflect on the events of 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:52.960 the previous week. First and foremost, a young man was missing, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.520 and no matter what anybody else said, though he couldn't 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.840 rule anything out, it was his duty to take the 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.360 family at their word that they knew nothing about any 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.479 of it, and if so, that was a family desperately 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.199 worried about the fate of a brother and a son. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.880 Of the rest of it, he couldn't make head nor tail. 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:20.080 He certainly wasn't ready to accept that Travis might genuinely 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.440 have been attacked and possibly even abducted by a UFO. 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.240 And yet, as his own man sy Gilson had attested, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.960 Travis's co workers, in all statistical likelihood were telling the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:37.399 truth about what they'd seen, and hadn't he too seen 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.720 the odd unexplained object or light in the sky from 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.240 time to time, driving those quiet forest roads alone at night. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:52.800 Just then the phone rang startled Gillespie grabbed the receiver. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.840 The local phone company had traced a call placed close 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.520 to midnight to Allison and grant Net property from outside 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.200 a gas station in Haber, the town closest to where 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.640 Travis had gone missing. It must be him, thought Gillespie. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.079 And yet if it was Travis, why hadn't he called 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:19.799 the police instead. It was barely thirty minutes later when 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.760 Deputy Chuck Ellison and Lieutenant A. M. Romo, on Gillespie's orders, 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.680 pulled up to the Haber gas station. With the place 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.840 completely deserted. Ellison and Romo made their way over in 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.560 the dark to the three phone booths at the front 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:40.920 of the store and began dusting for Prince. In the end, however, 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.520 there were just too many to be able to tell 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.960 whether Travis had been there or not. Meanwhile, at the 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.480 junction of Highway seventy seven and two seven seven, the 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.360 road out to Phoenix from Snowflake, Deputy Glen Flake roused 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.000 from bed by an excited Gillespie sat in his patrol 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.200 vehicle keeping a firm eye on the road ahead. By 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.640 two am, however, he'd seen no sign of any vehicles 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:12.480 belonging to the Walton family. A short time later, Flake 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:17.720 pulled up to Travis's mother, Mary Kellett's home. Seeing lights 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.160 on inside, he stepped out of his car and quietly 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.560 headed toward the front door when he noticed Travis's brother, 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:29.720 Dwayne siphoning petrol from a vehicle on the driveway. Surprised 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.600 to see the deputy, Dwayne explained that he had been 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.520 late getting back from the Sheriff's office earlier in the day, 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.120 so had missed the chance to get more gas for 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.760 his car in preparation for his return to Phoenix that morning. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:47.560 Since Dwayne said nothing about Travis, Flake thought it reasonable 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.400 to assume the perhaps it wasn't him, after all, that 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.320 had called the neft property earlier that night, And with 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.520 that he said his goodbyes and returned home to bed. 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.240 It was around lunch time the next day the reports 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.560 began filtering through that Travis was back and being treated 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:17.120 in a hospital in Twucson, Arizona. Angered not to have 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.680 been kept in the loop a deeply frustrated Gillespie is 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.720 finally called by Dwayne late on Tuesday to inform him 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.280 that Travis isn't in Tucson after all, but at home 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:33.240 with him in Glendale, just outside of Phoenix. Dwayne was 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.200 still talking when Gillespie slammed down the phone, grabbed his 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.400 hat from the peg, and piled into his patrol car. 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.240 In the past five days, Gillespie's office had spent over 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.840 ten thousand dollars looking for Travis, damaging several expensive vehicles 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.760 in the process. One of the department's horses had also 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:58.120 been put down after sustaining a devastating injury during the search. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.840 Coupled with the count less hours Gillespie had put in 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.520 fielding one call after another from news outlets all over 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.080 the world regarding Travis's bizarre disappearance, it was fair to say, 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:16.080 at the very least, the sheriff deserved some answers. It 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.200 was late in the evening by the time Gillespie arrived 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.640 at Dwayne's house. At first sight of the sheriff, Dwayne 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.480 did his best to apologize for not alerting him sooner, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:32.839 while insisting that he only had Travis's best interests at heart. Unmoved, 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:38.520 Gillespie demanded to see Travis immediately. Dwayne hesitated for a 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:43.480 moment before showing the sheriff through to the living room. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.039 Gillespie was in the process of detailing exactly just what 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.000 length his department had gone to to help Dwayne and 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.760 his family when the sight of an exhausted looking Travis 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.760 stretched out on the sofa stopped him in his tracks. 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.800 It wasn't that he seemed physically different, although he'd never 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.359 seen Travis with five days of beard growth before, but 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:11.680 something about his demeanor had changed. Then Gillespie realized what 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:17.919 it was. It was shock. The sheriff quietly took a 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.320 seat next to the young man and began by asking 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.640 him to describe everything he could remember about the last 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:30.760 few days. Travis glanced nervously toward Dwayne, who nodded for 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:41.479 him to begin. As Travis went on to recount, he 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.719 remembered being up on the ridge in the forest, seeing 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.839 the object glowing in the trees, and then having the 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.159 overwhelming urge to get close to it. He just turned 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.960 back to see Mike and the others begging for him 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.000 to return to the truck when he was engulfed in 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.960 a blinding white blue light. In an instant, he felt 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:04.640 as though he'd been hit on the back of the 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.839 head by a baseball bat, and that his whole body 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:12.840 was being electrocuted. The next thing he knew, he felt 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.200 as though he was waking up from a deep sleep, 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.040 but in excruciating pain, as if his whole body had 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:24.480 been burned inside and out. Finally opening his eyes, he 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.000 found himself lying down on some kind of table with 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:33.120 a large rectangular light above him. Gathering his thoughts. Though 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.160 he didn't recognize the place, he assumed he was in 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.000 a hospital of some sort, thinking that he must have 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.000 sustained an injury on the job and his friends had 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.080 brought him in. Looking down his body, he could see 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.760 that his shirt and jacket had been pushed up towards 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:54.040 his shoulders, leaving his chest and belly exposed over which 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:59.280 seemed to be some kind of device. Scanning his body slowly, 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.640 With his eyes beginning to focus, he was able to 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.440 make out three blurry figures stood around him, dressed in 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.880 bright orange and wearing white surgical masks, which he assumed 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:15.560 to be doctors, only realizing with horror moments later when 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.360 he locked eyes with one of them that these weren't 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:23.200 like any doctors he'd seen before. Panicking, he leaped from 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.240 the table, knocking the scanning device to the floor. As 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.760 two of the figures approached, Travis stumbled back into some 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:35.439 kind of instrument tray. Then, grabbing whatever came to hand, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.880 he prepared to defend himself. It was only then that 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.120 he observed the figures properly for the first time. They 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.600 were each about five feet tall, uncannily familiar with their 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.480 two arms, legs, and five digits on each hand, but 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.840 that was where the familiarity ended. Their bodies seemed unusually 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.160 light weight, while their skin was bright white, without a 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:08.240 crease or wrinkle anywhere to be seen. Their eyes were 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.040 big brown discs about an inch and a half in diameter, 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:17.680 and their hands had no fingernails. As Travis went on 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.120 to explain, he was just about to attack them when 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.800 they ran from the room, leaving him all alone. Seeing 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.400 his chance, he bolted out into the corridor and ducked 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.800 into some kind of control room, which was completely empty 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.960 except for a chair in the middle of it covered 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.120 in levers and buttons. But as he made his way 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.400 toward it, the walls began to disappear, revealing a giant 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.880 three hundred and sixty degree panoramic map of the stars 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.160 that wrapped all around him as if he were standing 0:09:51.200 --> 0:10:01.160 alone in the vastness of space. Moments later, Travis was 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.560 joined in the room by what he assumed at first 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:08.000 was another human man of large muscular build wearing a 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.960 blue outfit and a bubble helmet over his head. Only 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.079 when Travis saw the intense color of his electric blue 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:21.320 eyes did he realize he wasn't human at all. Travis 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.760 pleaded for his help none the less. In response, the 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.720 being led him through an air lock into what looked 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:32.080 like some kind of aircraft hanger. Stepping out onto a ramp, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.000 Travis realized he was exiting some kind of craft that 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.600 was similar to what they'd seen in the woods, but 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:44.200 considerably larger in size. From there, no longer feeling any pain, 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.800 he was led through another series of doors and corridors, 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.359 until finally he came to a bright white room occupied 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.400 by three other figures similar to the man who led 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.920 him there. The beings then lifted him on to a 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:03.080 table and faced some kind of respiratory device over his face. 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.200 The next thing he knew, he was lying on the 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.760 pavement in the freezing dark, staring up at the stars 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:14.520 in the night sky. Looking frantically about, he realized with 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.079 relief that he was back in Arizona, somewhere on the 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:24.800 highway just outside of Haber. Dehydrated and disorientated, he stumbled 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.200 to the Haber gas station, from where he made the 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:36.720 call to his sister's home. It was all true, insisted Dwayne, 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.880 as he then explained to the sheriff. He'd been out 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.440 at his mother's home in Snowflake when they got the 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.880 call from Grant, their brother in law, informing them that 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:50.439 Travis was alive. Having raced off with Grant to pick 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.720 him up from the gas station, they found him huddled 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.680 down inside one of the phone booths, still wearing the 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.640 clothes he'd gone missing in despite it being well below freezing. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.520 According to Dwayne, Travis was so traumatized when they arrived 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.800 that he tried to run away, not realizing who Dwayne 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.320 was at first. When they finally got him in the car, 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.720 the clearly disorientated Travis was convinced he'd only been missing 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.000 for a few hours. When Dwayne then told him to 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.960 feel the beard on his usually clean shaven face. Travis 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.160 was shocked to find it had been more like five days. 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:34.240 Sheriff Gillespie ran a hand through his hair. Could it be, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.800 he asked, that he really was hit on the head 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.040 by a baseball bat. Perhaps one of his co workers 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.480 had done it and then drugged him afterwards. Perhaps he 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.480 really had woken up in a hospital after all, but 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.760 the effect of the hit on the head and the 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:54.080 drugs had left him confused and discombobulated. But the brothers 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.480 were having none of it. For a start, there was 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.760 no injury to his head, nor to any other part 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:05.240 of his body for that matter. According to Dwayne, this 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.720 was one of the first things he checked when Travis 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.199 got home, shortly before helping him into a hot bath 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.960 to warm him up. He also claimed to have weighed 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.240 his brother beforehand, finding that he'd lost at least ten 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:28.520 pounds in the days since he'd disappeared. That first day 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.320 since Travis's apparent return had been an eventful one for 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.160 Dwayne and his brother, as they went on to explain 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.240 to Sheriff Gillespie, it was back during the search for 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.600 Travis that Duane had been approached by William Spaulding from 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:48.240 the Ufology Group Ground Source a Watch, an organization first 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.400 founded in nineteen fifty seven that sought to provide a 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.600 legitimate outlet for people to report sightings of unusual aerial 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.160 phenomena without the fear of ridicule. Having dealt with a 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.600 number of similar cases before, Spaulding advised Dwayne to contact 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:10.280 him should Travis be found alive. In return, GSW would 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.439 provide a free medical examination and shelter from the inevitable 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.440 media storm that would follow in the hope of gaining 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.280 proof that he had been abducted by an unknown sentient species, 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:26.200 if indeed that was the case. As it transpired, according 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.720 to Dwayne, Travis was already back at his mother's house 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.240 in Snowflake the night Deputy Flake saw Dwayne in the 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:38.800 driveway siphoning gas for his car. Realizing that he wouldn't 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.360 be able to keep Travis's apparent return a secret for long, 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.680 Dwayne informed the press that he was being taken to 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.720 a hospital in Tucson to recuperate from his exhausting ordeal. 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.080 That morning. The pair then traveled to Phoenix, whereby they 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.600 immediately contacted Spaulding, who gave them an address for a 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:03.680 doctor Leicester Stewart, who would be conducting the medical exam. 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.160 When they arrived there soon after, however, the brothers were 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.200 surprised to find doctor Stewart's office located in a fairly 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:16.720 run down westward Hoe hotel. They only became more concerned 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.440 when they saw the sign on doctor Steward's door, which 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:26.520 read hypnotherapist. After thirty minutes or so of Travis detailing 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.840 what he could about his missing five days, it became 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.200 clear that not only was Stuart Ill equipped to carry 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.920 out a full medical exam on him, but that he 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:42.040 wasn't a medical doctor at all. Returning home, frustrated, Dwain 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.320 was then contacted by Coral and Jim Lawrenson from another 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:52.240 UFO organization called the Aerial Phenomena Research Group. Much like 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:57.280 Crown Sourcer Watch, APRO prided themselves on their rational scientific 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.480 approach to the UFO phenomena, with large staff of consulting 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.920 PhD scientists among them, most notably doctor James Harder, a 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:12.120 civil and hydraulics engineering professor from the University of California, Berkeley. 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:18.640 Famed UFO researcher j Allen Heineck described APPRO as one 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:24.200 of the best civilian organizations of its day. Still desperate 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.000 to prove what had happened to him, Travis agreed to 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:33.200 then let Apro conduct the medical exam. That afternoon, doctor 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:38.600 Howard Kendall, predominantly a pediatrician and general practitioner, Doctor Joseph 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:43.560 Saltz arrived at Duane's house to assess the apparent abductee. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.240 Are you always taking care of your family? Do you 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.360 often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.920 time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.800 You deserve it. Tele Adoc gives you access to a 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.200 licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.440 to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.240 to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.960 are available seven days a week from seven a m. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.400 To nine p m. Local time. 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Kendle and Salts 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.399 were shown into a bedroom where Travis was waiting for them, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.200 lying down on the bed in his shirt and jeans. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.159 Doctor Kendall's report would later state that from the moment 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.080 they saw him, it was clear that Travis was suffering 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:16.560 from extreme stress and anxiety. Kendall and Salts observed that 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.360 his vital signs were all normal, with no overt signs 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.399 of weight loss, though his mouth was unusually dry, suggesting 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:28.640 a high level of dehydration. Examining his body for any 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:33.359 signs of bruising or damage, curiously, doctor Kendall discovered a 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.399 two millimeter wide red spot in the crease of Travis's 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:42.320 right elbow, much like a needle puncture wound. Travis suggested 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.719 that it might have been a thorn wound picked up 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.240 at some point while he was working out in the forest. 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:53.040 After the preliminary examination, Dwayne then handed doctor Kendall a 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:58.120 jar that he claimed contained Travis's urine, which William Spaulding 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.080 had advised him to collect. The sample was later found 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.480 to be normal, displaying no evidence of drug use or 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.480 anything else untoward, with the exception that it contained no 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.400 trace of acetone. Had Travis not eaten in the last 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.919 few days, ordinarily acetone, which is created when fat stores 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.360 are broken down in the body, would be present. If 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.360 Travis had indeed lost ten pounds, an absence of acetone 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:30.800 would have been deeply unusual. Intriguingly, the doctors also noted 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.400 that the combination of Travis's unmarked body and the fact 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.160 that it was relatively odorless despite apparently not having used 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:42.080 any soap since his return, seemed to suggest that wherever 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.440 Travis had been for the past five days, it wasn't 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:51.760 outside in the woods. Sheriff Gillespie, having listened to it 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.080 all with quiet patience, thanked the brothers for bringing him 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:59.239 up to speed, then stood up to leave. Sensing the 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.680 sheriff wasn't entirely convinced by the story, Travis made a request. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.639 Since his co workers had taken a polygraph test, it 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.360 only made sense that he should be able to take 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:15.879 one too. Perhaps then people might believe him. We'll be 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:19.200 in touch, said the sheriff, before thanking the young men 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:30.160 again for their time and heading out. The following day, Wednesday, 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.240 November twelfth, Travis and Dwayne were moved into the Sheraton 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:40.000 Hotel in Scottsdale, courtesy of the National Inquirer. By the 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:45.080 nineteen seventies, The Inquirer, a notorious and controversial tabloid that 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:49.360 had previously promoted fascist causes, was enjoying a resurgence as 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.320 the nations go to paper for all things celebrity and bizarre, 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:59.080 with a particular interest in apparent altercations with UFOs. Having 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.280 managed to get hold of Coral and Jim Lawrenson before 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.320 Travis's medical examination, the paper struck a deal with both 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.000 Travis and APRO to cover all costs in their efforts 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.840 to prove he was telling the truth. In return, Travis 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:18.680 gave them exclusive rights to his story. Later that afternoon, 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:23.959 doctor James Harder of the University California, Berkeley arrived at 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.080 the hotel to conduct a regressive hypnosis session with Travis, 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:32.720 in which, while apparently under hypnosis, Travis repeated the exact 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.600 same story he told everyone else about his experience on 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:42.040 board a UFO. Afterwards, Travis is informed by Sheriff Gillespie 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.879 that a polygraph test has been arranged for him in 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.879 two days time, to be conducted by sy Gilson, the 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.719 same individual who tested his coworkers. The test is agreed 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.479 to on the one condition that it remained a secret 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:01.080 from the press. However, the test is abruptly canceled at 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:04.080 the last minute by Dwayne when he receives a call 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.040 from a reporter an hour before the test is due 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.080 to be taken, wanting to know where it's taking place. 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.640 The next morning, a new story breaks in the Phoenix 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.920 Gazette with the headline ufocase is linked to drugs by expert. 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.920 The expert turned out to be none other than doctor 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.439 Leicester Stewart, the hypnotherapist that Duane and Travis had blown 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.480 off after spending only a few minutes with him at 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.680 his office in the westward Hoe Hotel. Only the way 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:39.240 Steward told it, it had been more like two hours, 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.359 in which he had ample time to assess the patient. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.399 It was his conclusion that Travis had made the entire 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:50.640 thing up, going on to speculate that his cosmic visions 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:55.960 had been nothing but the hallucinatory effects of LSD. William 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.760 Spaulding was also quoted in the article stating that in fact, 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.240 it had been Dwaine and Travis that specifically asked him 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:08.280 to set them up with a hypnotherapist. Spaulding, having only 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:11.960 days before been so convinced of Travis's story he was 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.359 willing to offer them financial support to prove it, was 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:18.160 now convinced more than ever that it was all just 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:22.280 a hoax. Though we can never know for sure whose 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.439 version of events is the truth, it has been pointed 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.399 out that it would have been physically impossible for the 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:31.240 Walton brothers to have spent even one hour with doctor 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.120 Stewart and got back to Dwane's home in time to 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:37.400 receive the later phone call from Coral and Jim Lawrenson. 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:40.919 That doctor Stuart was found not to even have a 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:45.000 license to practice medicine in the United States also cast 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:49.880 further doubt on his credibility. The sudden attack, as some 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.000 have suggested, appeared to have been made out of spite 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.960 more than anything else, in retaliation for Travis's rejection of 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:07.879 Spaulding's help. The following week, doctor James Harder released his 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:11.720 own assessment to Travis on behalf of apro coming to 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:15.480 the conclusion that, one way or another, whether the events 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:19.000 had occurred or not as Travis said they had, Harder 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:22.760 had little doubt that, at the very least, Travis believed 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:28.040 he was telling the truth. Harder's assessment was made partially 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:31.600 from the medical evidence, but also on account of another 0:24:31.720 --> 0:24:36.320 apparent abduction case that had supposedly occurred three months previously. 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:41.920 The case involving US Air Force Sergeant Charles Moody had 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:46.639 never previously been reported, and yet Moody's description of the 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:50.959 beings that he allegedly encountered bore a striking similarity to 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:55.320 those described by Travis, also being five foot tall, with 0:24:55.520 --> 0:25:01.040 large bald heads, large eyes, and unusually light weight body. 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:05.400 The National Inquirer would eventually publish the story, for which 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.720 Travis was paid two thousand, five hundred US dollars equivalent 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:12.760 to twelve thousand dollars today, with each of his co 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:18.720 workers receiving just over four hundred dollars. Over time, the 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:22.879 national interest in Travis's story began to die down, until 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:27.080 eventually the news outlets stopped calling, and the colorful array 0:25:27.119 --> 0:25:30.359 of out of towners and UFO buffs headed back to 0:25:30.440 --> 0:25:35.000 wherever they had come. From By the new year, Sheriff Gillespie, 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:38.439 still none the wiser, with no one to prosecute or 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:44.760 charge for Travis's bizarre disappearance, closed the case two months later. 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:49.600 In February nineteen seventy six, Travis, Dwayne, and their mother 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:53.440 Mary would all be given polygraph tests set up by 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:58.160 the Aerial Phenomena Research Group, which concluded that all three 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:01.800 were telling the truth with regard to their own experiences 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:08.320 during those extraordinary days in November nineteen seventy five. In 0:26:08.359 --> 0:26:11.639 the months and years that followed, the people of Snowflake 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:15.639 remained divided, with some convinced it was a hoax and 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:20.520 others not entirely sure. Being a Mormon settlement, many took 0:26:20.600 --> 0:26:23.719 umbridge to the heresy at the heart of Travis's story 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:27.280 that the creatures he'd encountered were very much not in 0:26:27.400 --> 0:26:31.280 what they considered to be God's image. Though they accepted 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:35.280 that God had created other worlds and populated them with people, 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:38.800 that those people might look a little different was a 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:42.960 stretch too far for their beliefs. As for the rest 0:26:43.040 --> 0:26:45.879 of the crew, the event appeared to affect them in 0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:51.320 different ways. Kenny Peterson would eventually leave the town making 0:26:51.359 --> 0:26:54.440 his way to Mexico, where he married and settled down 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:59.240 for a time before returning to Snowflake. Though Mike Rogers 0:26:59.320 --> 0:27:02.480 was stripped of the Turkey Springs contract, he was eventually 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:05.679 paid in full for the unfinished job and continued to 0:27:05.680 --> 0:27:10.479 work successfully as a contractor. Dwayne Smith and Allan Dallas 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:15.440 later underwent hypnotic regression, and both maintained their original version 0:27:15.480 --> 0:27:20.560 of events pertaining to the night that Travis disappeared. Despite 0:27:20.560 --> 0:27:24.040 all the many strange looks and subsequent mickey taking that 0:27:24.200 --> 0:27:28.000 came with being part of the story, John Goulette had 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:32.040 no regrets, saying later only that he was glad to 0:27:32.080 --> 0:27:37.280 have experienced it. All seven men involved have never altered 0:27:37.280 --> 0:27:41.199 their story once to this day, with Steve Pierce, who 0:27:41.320 --> 0:27:44.960 was suffering from financial hardship at the time, even said 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:47.880 to have turned down a ten thousand dollar offer to 0:27:47.920 --> 0:27:53.959 retract his story. Travis Walton would eventually settle down and 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.800 marry Mike Roger's sister Dana, with the pair taking up 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:03.199 residence above a local store on Snowflake's main Street. In 0:28:03.320 --> 0:28:06.280 nineteen seventy eight, he published a full account of his 0:28:06.359 --> 0:28:10.600 story in the book The Walton Experience, that was later 0:28:10.640 --> 0:28:14.600 adapted into the nineteen ninety three film Fire in the Sky. 0:28:15.720 --> 0:28:25.879 He continues to lecture about his apparent abduction today. In 0:28:25.960 --> 0:28:29.760 the summer of nineteen seventy six, a report was produced 0:28:29.800 --> 0:28:34.720