The story of an alleged alien abduction is told by the people who were involved.
“Before you judge this, take a look at the facts. The facts speak
for themselves”
Travis Walton was a young, single 22-year-old rebel living
out of Snowflake, Arizona. He was a fearless man that spent his time
bullriding, boxing, and riding his bike. He was also a working man and was part
of a group of men that were dubbed “The Loggers” and would do lumberjack work in
the rural areas of the town. The Loggers crew was led by Mike Rogers and his
team consisted of Travis, John, Kenny, Steve, Dwayne and Allen. They were assigned
to work through the woods of the Sitgraves National Forest and they all worked
long, strenuous hours from dawn until dusk. Most of the guys got along well
with each other but Allen and Travis weren’t too fond of each other. Allen
would cut down the trees and they would land next to Travis…but Travis gave him
a look that would let him know to watch it. Other than that, the crew worked
hard together.
 |
| Another day at work |
It was a normal workday on November 5, 1975 when the sun set.
Mike was packing up all the gear and the boys, tired and weary, climbed in the
truck to head home. During the drive, the boys were joking around and talking
about girls and partying when they see a glowing light in the distance within
the trees. They assumed it was a bright moon but they noticed the moon was
already risen above the forest. “It’s
not fitting…it doesn’t look quite right,” Travis recalls. The men drove over to
where the light was and Travis got out of the truck to run towards the glow.
The men were shocked at what they saw;
“It was a clearly defined metallic object hovering
less than 100 ft. away!” (Travis)
“It was a light I’ve never seen before and haven’t
seen since….” (Mike)
“It had panels that were lighted. It was beautiful…”
(Ken)
“It was pretty beautiful, like a brand new
corvette! Terrifying but beautiful!” (John)
 |
| Flashing lights.... |
All the sudden, a piercing, bright blue light shot out and “zapped”
Travis in the chest, causing him to fly back and hit the ground. The guys
screamed, terrified that their friend died before their own eyes. The guys,
fearing their own lives, left the location and drove down the rural road,
panicked and arguing over what they saw and what to do next. The guys stopped
the truck, trying to recollect what just had happened and debating whether or
not to go back to the spot where Travis was to collect his body. They decided
to go back to the spot where the UFO and Travis were and to their shock, Travis’
body was missing. Guilt and shame set in and the guys broke down as they
realized that they left Travis’ dead body behind and now he was gone. Now they
had to debate whether or not to call law enforcement to report their friend is
missing. But how would they explain to the police what they saw? Would the
police even believe them? They took the chance and contacted the Sheriff’s
department.
Marlin Gillespie, who was the Sheriff at the time, was
called out to the scene and asked the guys what had happened. While Sheriff Gillespie did take note that
they did look fearful, he suspect that as the guys talked about the UFO and
Travis, that they were just partiers that were loaded on drugs and alcohol. Sheriff
Gillespie relayed this information to Ken Coplan, the assistant Sheriff. Both
thought that the UFO story was used as a cover-up of a crime that was
committed. The next day, the deputies conducted a search party to search for a
body or injured individual in the area. About 60 men were called upon the
search.
Upon the search, Mike noticed that the volunteer members had
Geiger machines with them to test for radiation. The guys asked the volunteers
to run the machine over them and they came out clean. Then they remembered they
were in fresh, changed clothes. They then checked the hard hats. The needle on
the machine spiked drastically and the volunteers left. The guys asked the cops
who the volunteers were and even the cops had no idea.
 |
| Search Party |
On Friday November 7th the second day of the
search, the Sheriff’s department had a helicopter that circled wide area. The
sheriff also searched abandoned warehouses and cabins. The Deputy Sheriff took
the case seriously but the Assistant Sheriff didn’t take it seriously. He kept
antagonizing the guys to tell him the truth. He talked about the repercussions
about what would happen if the body wasn’t found. The next day , the news had
spread worldwide and the department was getting blown up with phone calls and
messages about the case. Most of the calls were in regards to the rumors of a
UFO.
On Sunday, it was the 4th day of the search and there was still no trace of Travis. That’s when the guys started getting accused from murder. Meanwhile, Deputy Gillespie approached the guys and asked them if they wanted to take a lie detective test. On Monday, as the men were going to the department, the media had a field day with news reports and photographers hovering the suspect men and asked them about the UFO and of a possible murder. Cy Gilson was going to conduct the tests: Cy at the time was a top rated polygraph examiner in the state of Arizona. Cy gave them a brief idea of what they were going to do and how he was going to conduct the questions. The guys realized then that they were being questioned about murder and not a UFO. They all felt that the guys were going to get set up but they still agreed to take the test. Sheriff Gillespie was confident that the test results would solve the mystery that day. Steve was the first one to be tested. Cy figured since he was the youngest, he would be more willing to confess. Steve was nervous to the point where he felt his nerves would flunk him. Cy explained his tests had 92-97% accuracy and he would not tell the guys the results of the test. All the men were tested. But in an interesting turn, when Allen was tested, he wasn’t cooperative. He was moving his arms so the needles would deflect and because of that, no determination could be made with him. The testing took all day and into the evening. Cy looked over his results and wanted to view the results with another examiner.
On Sunday, it was the 4th day of the search and there was still no trace of Travis. That’s when the guys started getting accused from murder. Meanwhile, Deputy Gillespie approached the guys and asked them if they wanted to take a lie detective test. On Monday, as the men were going to the department, the media had a field day with news reports and photographers hovering the suspect men and asked them about the UFO and of a possible murder. Cy Gilson was going to conduct the tests: Cy at the time was a top rated polygraph examiner in the state of Arizona. Cy gave them a brief idea of what they were going to do and how he was going to conduct the questions. The guys realized then that they were being questioned about murder and not a UFO. They all felt that the guys were going to get set up but they still agreed to take the test. Sheriff Gillespie was confident that the test results would solve the mystery that day. Steve was the first one to be tested. Cy figured since he was the youngest, he would be more willing to confess. Steve was nervous to the point where he felt his nerves would flunk him. Cy explained his tests had 92-97% accuracy and he would not tell the guys the results of the test. All the men were tested. But in an interesting turn, when Allen was tested, he wasn’t cooperative. He was moving his arms so the needles would deflect and because of that, no determination could be made with him. The testing took all day and into the evening. Cy looked over his results and wanted to view the results with another examiner.
 |
| Truth or lies? |
When the guys were waiting for the results, Cy walked passed
them and they demanded the results. Cy said he would not disclose the results.
This did not please the men and as they kept on demanding and pressuring Cy to
give them the results, Cy caved in and told them “as far as I can see, y’all
are telling the truth”. Cy went home but he was stunned. “I don’t think it’s
even possible for 5 of those individuals to ask the same questions and beat me
at my game,” Cy explained. Cy relayed this information to Sheriff Gillespie,
who was stunned when he asked about the UFO and realized the men had passed.
But there still was no sign of Travis.
Meanwhile, five hours later; Travis’s brother-in-law receives
a phone call from Travis……
(to be continued...)
(to be continued...)
Jane's Notes: This episode is actually an hour and a half long, hence why I decided to divide up into two parts. I'll post the second part either tonight or tomorrow morning. I will say this...first of all, I was DREADING this recap because while ghosts and spectres don't scare me, my skin crawls at the sight of aliens and UFO's. I HATE anything having to do with aliens, UFO's, abductions, etc. I know, it's wierd, right? You'd think I'd be all over this and would be the first to step in a UFO but NO. There are just some things that make me go;
But all in all, I braved through the episode and it wasn't too bad actually. I actually am looking forward to seeing what happens next (I didn't watch it all through, God bless DVR). I'm also more curious as to who the "mystery volunteers" were. I'll definitely do some more digging on this so stay tuned for the next recap!
Picture Credit: Syfy
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