On this episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural, Ryan and Shane discuss three compelling cases of alien abductions:
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The first case was on November 5, 1975, when Travis Walton was working in a seven-men tree-thinning crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Heber, Arizona.
When the men were finished for the day, Travis noticed a bright light coming through the trees. When they got closer they saw "a strange, golden disc" hovering stationary, about 20-feet from the ground.
Even though his coworkers warned him to stay away, Travis approached the craft. As the craft began spinning erratically he heard loud vibrations. Then, a blue-green light sprung from the craft and hit Travis in the chest and head.
He remembered:
When Travis opened his eyes, he remembered waking up in what appeared to be a medical office or lab among three humanoid beings.
He then attacked the three beings causing them to retreat. As Travis explored other rooms in an attempt to escape, he encountered a large muscular man wearing a helmet who forced him out of the craft and into a warehouse with other saucers.
His explorations eventually led him into another room with three very good looking people.
The people gently pushed him onto a table and placed a mask over his nose at which point Travis passed out.
When he woke up, Travis was laying on the ground in Heber, Arizona. He saw a silver disc-shaped craft hovering above the ground in front of him, which then flew up into the sky and disappeared silently.
Although he believed he was gone for an hour, he later learned he had been missing for five days. During this time, the rest of his crew were under investigation for foul play.
They all underwent psychiatric testing and polygraphs. Each test came back as passing or inconclusive.
In a recent Huffington Post Weird News podcast Travis said:
Travis also appeared on Fox's game show, Moment Of Truth where a polygraph taken onstage determined he was not telling the truth about his abduction.
The second case was the abduction of Linda Napolitano. Ufologist, Budd Hopkins worked closely with Linda to document and publicize her case.
On November 30, 1989, around 3:15 AM, Linda claimed she awoke to find short aliens around her bed. She found herself unable to wake her husband up because she perceived the beings telling her to "be quiet" in an odd language.
The three beings then levitated her "like an angel" outside her 12th story apartment window and floated into a blue-white light, which brought them into a clam-shell shaped spaceship.
Once inside, she claimed the beings performed experiments on her and put a metal object inside her nose.
In 1991, Linda reached out to Hopkins with an x-ray of her nose showing an object that Hopkins described as having "spiraling extensions that curl out away from her face."
Shortly after, Linda claimed the object was removed after another abduction. Linda eventually visited a nose and throat specialist who confirmed the object had been gone but "a conspicuous ridge of built-up cartilage showed where it had once been embedded."
Linda's abduction had common details to other abduction cases, but what makes this case famous are the eyewitnesses. In 1991, Hopkins received a letter from a police officer detailing an experience with his partner in November 1989.
The two were sitting underneath the FDR Bridge when they saw a blue light, with a woman being levitated along three strange beings as they made their way into a UFO.
The men eventually identified themselves as Richard and Dan. They claimed to be bodyguards for "an important political figure" and visited Linda multiple times to look for answers about what happened that night. But Hopkins told Linda not to speak with them to avoid contaminating their accounts.
A few weeks later, Hopkins received another letter signed by, Dan, Richard, and someone who went by "Him."
They said the political figure was also present with them the night of the abduction. Some Ufologists believed that the signature belonged to former Secretary-General of the UN, Javier Perez De Cuellar.
And while this could be plausible, it should be noted that Hopkins never officially met with Richard and Dan and only corresponded via letters, leading many people to believe Hopkins was the victim of a hoax.
But according to UFO abduction researcher, Sean F. Meers there were 23 witnesses on the public record ranging from family and friends to complete strangers.
And despite the questionable credibility of the two main sources, Linda insisted that all the witnesses were credible sources:
The third case was the disappearance of Instructor Pilot, Frederick Valentich.
On October 21, 1978, at 6:19 PM, Valentich began his flight from Victoria, Australia to King Island, Tasmania, over the Bass Strait in a Cessna 182-L plane. His destination was only about an hour away, visibility was good and there were only light winds.
Between 7:06 and 7:12 PM, he made contact with Steve Robey at Air Traffic Control in Melbourne. During the transmission, he asked if there were any known aircraft in his area and claimed there was a large aircraft flying about 1,000 feet above him with four bright lights.
He also said:
His last message to air traffic control was around 7:12 PM:
Authorities are said to have searched the area for four days but found nothing and Valentich was never seen again.
In May 1982, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary’s cause of the accident read, “the reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined.”
The man who signed off on the report, A. Woodward offered a range of unverified theories:
One alternate theory comes from a feature story in a 2013 issue of Skeptical Inquirer. The story mentions Valentich was inexperienced as a pilot.
Another source reported he was fascinated with UFOs and even had a UFO scrapbook with him when he disappeared.
However, other sources contest that Valentich was an experienced pilot. It's also important to note that the Cessna 182-L planes were designed to float in the case of a water landing.
Historian, Reg Watson also found numerous reports of UFO sightings near King Island two months prior to Valentich's disappearance.
Plus, a farmer allegedly saw a craft flying over his land near Adelaide the morning after Valentich vanished. And claimed that Valentich's plane was stuck to the side of the craft.
Furthermore, one of the last pieces of information on record was Valentich reaching Cape Otway at 7 PM. Where this photograph was taken 20 minutes before Valentich vanished;
Ultimately, nobody can say for sure if aliens are real, let alone alien abductions. Hopefully one day we'll have a definitive answer but until then the mystery remains unsolved.
