Season 04 Episode 20: The Homecoming (RERUN)

countless times before. But when the crew returned home that night, one of them was missing, leaving those left behind to relay a story so bizarre that it would divide not just their community, but the entire country. This is Unexplained, Season four, episode twenty, The Homecoming. Navajo County Deputy Sheriff Chuck Ellison was sitting down to eat dinner with his wife when the telephone rang. The voice on the other end was hard to read, both frantic and oddly hesitant

at the same time. Ellison asked the caller to calm down and start again by telling him who he was. It was Kenny Peterson, came the speedy reply, and they needed the police right away. As Peterson went on to explain, he and his forestry Service co workers had been clearing a section of Arizona's Apache Sitgreave's forest earlier that night when something inexplicable had occurred, and now one of their

crew was missing. But when Ellison pushed for more details, Peterson paused for a moment before replying that perhaps it would be better if they could explain it to him in person. Ten minutes later, after apologizing to his wife for having to leave so suddenly, Ellison pulled into the parking lot of Wilbur's Market shopping center in Habor, a small junction town about one hundred and fifty miles northeast

of Phoenix, Arizona, where he'd agreed to meet Kenny. It didn't take long for the deputy to spot the man and his colleagues Mike Rogers, John Guillette, Alan Dallas, Dwayne Smith, and Steve Pearce all gathered together in an anxious huddle by the entrance, still covered in dust and debris from the day's shift. At least two of the group was struggling to hold back tears. In no mood to mess around, Ellison asked the men to explain exactly what was going on.

They all looked sheepishly toward each other, as if they didn't quite know what they were going to say to him, until finally Mike began to speak. The twenty eight year old Mike was an independent contractor and the crew were his responsibility, so too, ultimately was the man who was missing. His name was Travis Walton, who also happened to be

Mike's best friend. Ordinarily they would never have left him behind up there in the forest, but as Mike tried to explain to Ellison, these were far from ordinary circumstances. You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Like the rest of Mike Roger's crew, twenty two year old Travis Walton lived in Snowflake, a farming town located about thirty miles east of Habour with a population of just

over two and a half thousand. It was founded by Mormon settlers in eighteen seventy eight and was comprised largely of life orise houses and small local stores, all overshadowed by the huge red bricked Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that dominated the town square. Delinquency was not looked on lightly by the community, nor was anyone

who deigned to be a little different. Back in nineteen seventy one, Travis, who with his long hair was dismissed by many as effeckless hippie, and a friend were convicted of forging payroll checks from a local company. The pair were given two years probation and forced to pay the money back. In a town as small and god fearing as Snowflake, such reputations were hard to shake. Those who

knew Travis, however, knew a different story. Some of his school teachers even considered him one of the smartest pupils that they'd ever taught. After dropping out of Northern Arizona University a few years b previously, Travis had been picking up work wherever he could find it. When Mike Rogers, a forestry contractor with nine years experience, procured another of his United States Forest Service contracts, Travis jumped at the

opportunity to join the team. The job was to clear one thousand, two hundred and seventy seven acres of thick scrub brush from a section of the Apache Sick Creeves National Forest known as Turkey Springs, which was about ten miles into the pine covered mountains just to the west

of Haber. That Wednesday, November fifth, started out just like any other day, as one by one Rogers collected each of his crew members in his battered crew Cab International from their homes in Snowflake, then headed off on their forty mile journey into the mountains. With it being November, there was always a slight chill in the air first thing in the morning, but it soon heated up when

the sun came out. Though the work was arduous, cutting back all new growth less than six inches in diameter and gathering it up into great slash piles, Travis never tired of being up there on that mountain ridge, with the fresh air in his lungs, wild horses galloping through the trees all around them, and that ancient forest stretching out below, older than the people whose name it took,

older even than God themself. Hours later, with darkness returning, and so too that light chill in the air, the men called it a day. Gathering their tools, they slung them into the back of Night's truck before piling in themselves. Travis and Kenny up front with Mike, while the others, all smokers, sat in the back gleefully lighting up. Mike switched on the engine, bathing the narrow forest road ahead in the light of the headlamps, and eased out of

the clearing. They'd barely made it two hundred yards along the rugged forest track when Alan broke in from the back. Hey, what is that, he said, pointing toward a soft glowing light coming from out of the trees to the right. Have you guys never seen the moon? Mocked Kenny, only as the others were quick to point out the moon was already sitting high in the sky above on the

other side of the truck. The soft white glow grew brighter as they continued on, slowly edging ever closer toward it, Now no more than one hundred yards from its source. The light bled out across the road before them, but frustratingly, whatever it was, remained obscured by the trees until eventually they reached a clearing and they were finally able to see it. A large disc like structure roughly twenty feet wide and eight feet high, hovering a good fifteen feet

above the ground. It was so close they could even see the detail on its surface, how it was divided into a series of thin panels with a thin, darker band that seemed to circle all the way around it, and how its glow appeared to be coming from inside. Before Mike had even brought the truck to a stop, the side door was opened and Travis was gone, hurrying off toward it. The others yelled for him to come back, but Travis just kept on going, edging closer and closer

toward it. Then came a strange noise that seemed to emanate from the craft, high pitched at first, before steadily shifting into something much lower, like a vast turbine engine. When suddenly a blinding blue light shot out from the disk,

holding Travis in some kind of grip. With his body now completely rigid, he was slowly lifted a good foot into the air and suspended there for a moment before being flung hard onto the ground, skidding shoulder first into the stone and dirt, and there he lay completely still.

That was enough for Rogers, who, with four kids of his own and the rest of his crew to worry about, turned the key and tore out of the clearing as fast as the truck could go, and then they were racing through the trees, bouncing over the dirt track at speed as Rogers did his best to keep the thing on the road, with the rest of the crew's deeming for him to keep going faster and faster, until it was just one bend too many, with a huge pine tree looming up before him, Rogers pulled hard on the

wheel and brought the truck slamming into a pile of bulldoze dirt by the side of the road. The men looked frantically about for any sign of the strange craft, but saw nothing but the frigid dark and the bright half moon above. And for a moment there was silence, and then all hell broke loose. We've got to go back, yelled Kenny. No way, said Steve, as tears streamed down his face. We've got to get out of here. Kenny's right, said Mike, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

Only then had it dawned on him that, without even thinking, he'd abandoned his best friend alone out there with that thing, whatever it was. We're going back, he said. Finally, you can either come with me or you can wait for me here. With no one willing to take their chances in the forest alone, they headed back to look for Travis, but by the time they got to where they'd last seen him, he was gone. And that, as he finished explaining to an utterly perplexed Deputy Ellison, was when they

decided to call the police. After hearing the men's story, Deputy Ellison reluctantly relayed it back to Sheriff Marlin Gillespie at the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, another forty mile drive north of Habor. Though Ellison was quick to clarify that he didn't believe any of it, he had

little doubt the men had experienced something traumatic. Less than an hour later, Sheriff Gillespie arrived with Deputy Kenneth Coplin in tow and Mike's crew repeated their extraordinary story for the second time that night, but Mike was getting impatient. They needed to get back up there and search for Travis. Kenny and Allan were keen to join, but by then all John, Dwayne and Steve, who at seventeen was the youngest of the group wanted to do was go home,

taking Mike's truck. They headed back to his house to let his wife know what had happened, while the remaining three joined the sheriff and his two deputies and headed back toward Turkey Springs. It took a while to find the exact spot again, but soon the men were out in the cold air, flashlights in hand as they scoured the ground for any sign of Travis. But the men found nothing. No scarred or broken trees other than the ones the team had cut down, no scuff marks in

the dirt, no sign of Travis's bootmarkings. Neither did they find any pieces of clothing or any blood for that matter. It was almost as if no one had ever been there at all. All that was clear was that Travis was gone. Sheriff Gillespie eyed Mike and his men with suspicion. Clearly Travis hadn't been abducted by a UFO, so what then exactly had taken place? And if he was still alive out here as the men claimed he might be, it was an awfully cold night to only be wearing

plaid and denhim. Ellison notified more deputies and members of a local volunteer organization to join in the search, but by midnight there was still no sign of the missing man. Growing increasingly desperate, Rogers suggested it was time they notified Travis's mother. At fifty seven years old, Mary Kellett had raised Travis and his five siblings on her own after

making a living running a boarding house in Phoenix. By nineteen seventy five, she divided her time between her home in Snowflake and a cabin in Bare Springs, a stretch of woodland a good ten miles to the southeast of Habor. It was funny, she thought, as she watched Deputy Copland's car pulling up outside the cabin. Just earlier in the day, she'd been overcome with the strange conviction that something terrible

had happened to her son, Travis. When Mike stepped out of the vehicle, whom she knew well as a good friend of Travis's, her worst fears were confirmed. Once inside. Coplin was as clearly distraught. Rogers explained to Mary about what they'd seen that evening and how Travis had disappeared. It was odd, thought Coplan, how calm Mary seemed to be in the face of such unusual and disturbing news, almost as if it wasn't news to her at all. About an hour later, Coplin made his goodbyes and headed

back to Sheriff Gillespie to report his findings. In the meantime, Rogers drove Mary in her car to her daughter Allison's home in Taylor, a town just south of Snowflake. Alison, who lived with her husband Grant Neph, was especially close to Travis and was understandably devastated to hear the news. Skeptical of the story, however, she demanded to hear again from Mike exactly what had happened, but he could only

tell her what he knew. A few hours later, unable to work eight any longer, Mary called her son Dwayne at his home in Phoenix to give him the worrying news. Though Dwayne was Mary's second oldest son, she'd always considered him the most mature, and it was often to him that she first turned in times of stress. Minutes later, Dwayne jumped into his car and started out on the two hundred mile journey to Snowflake to meet up with

the others. At eight a m. The morning after Travis's disappearance, a number of search teams assembled in Turkey, Springs to assist the Navaju County and Silver Creek Sheriff's officers in their continued search for the missing man. Among them were a group of US Forest Service personnel drafted in for their knowledge of the local area. Mike Rogers, Kenny Peterson, and Allan Dallas were back too to help with the search.

That morning, the thirty or so search team, starting from the point that Travis was last seen, began the laborious task of scarring the forest of any sign of him, a search that would eventually encompass a region of roughly a mile squared. As the forestry workers scoured the area for any sign of unusually broken trees or foot markings, it was hard to ignore just how dry the whole area was, with some of the dead brush piles being almost a year old and the floor carpeted in dry

pine needles, though no one gave it much credence. If some kind of craft had indeed lifted off from around there, the whole place would have gone up in flames. Elsewhere, Sheriff Gillespie and Deputy Ellison were looking for something a little different, trying to square the obvious distress shown by

Mine and his crew the previous night. With the ridiculous cock and bull story they had given them, Gillespie and Ellison had got to thinking could it be whether it was premeditated or the result of a tragic accident That the men knew only too well where Travis was after all, because they had buried his body. As the two police kept one eye on the men for any sign of suspicious activity, their other was kept firmly on the ground, looking for any sign of recently disturbed earth or fresh

piles of dirt and of course blood. Later that afternoon, Mary and Dwane also joined the search, with Mary seeming once again far too calm for Deputy Copland's liking. By the afternoon, however, the search teams were yet to find anything. With little else to go on share, Gillespie suggested contacting the nearest firewatch tower. Perhaps they had seen something that night. At the very least, it would end all the ridiculous

talk about UFOs. Sadly, however, the guard stationed at the tower only a few miles to the west, had gone off duty at five PM. The search continued the next day, this time with the help of search dogs from Arizona State Prison. But still no evidence of Travis's whereabouts or any sign that any unidentified flying object had been in the vicinity was found. On Saturday morning, Gillespie was back in his office in Holbrook when a kerfuffle was heard

in the reception running through. He was startled to find Dwayne and Mike Rogers, demanding to know why no one was up on the ridge looking for Travis. The pair had gone out to join the third day of the search, only to find nobody there. Having begun to suspect that some kind of hoax was being played out, Gillespie was somewhat taken aback by the evident concern and passion in

Dwayne and Mike's demand. Within an hour, the search was reinstated, with horses, jeeps, and a rescue helicopter brought in for good measure, having flown in helicopters during his time in the military. That afternoon, Dwayne joined the helicopter crew in the air, peering down at the gaps in between the trees for any sign of his brother. He couldn't decide whether to be worried or relieved when by the end of the day they'd once again failed to find anything.

Back in Snowflake, a Volkswagen van pulled into the town square to join the throng of news vans and other unfamiliar vehicles that had been steadily descending on the town. By then, news of Travis's disappearance and the unusual explanation behind it had spread far and wide, with many journalists and UFO enthusiasts keen to investigate the wild story for themselves. One such enthusiast was Fred Sylvanus from Phoenix, who for the past twenty years had conducted field research for the

Arizona Regional UFO Project. That afternoon, Fred was put in touch with Mike and Dwaine, who agreed to join him in his van for an interview. Mike began with an account of the craft they'd seen, how pretty it had been, like a fancy new car, he said, and how he'd been almost mesmerized by just how beautiful a thing it was to look at. Then Twain chimed in with something unexpected. He had also seen one almost identical to what Mike

described in broad Daylight twelve years before. Not only that he and Travis had discussed UFOs at great length and what they would do if they ever got close to one, which was what asked Fred they would try to establish contact with it. Of course, came Dwaine's reply. It was an alarming admission to Sylvanus, since he was previously under the impression that none of the men involved had any

prior interest in UFOs. In his experienced opinion, evidence of such interest was often a red flag where stories of apparent sightings and abductions were concerned. And then came another troubling revelation, this time from Mike. As it turned out he and his crew were wildly behind schedule on their contract. Having already received one extension, the crew were struggling to

meet their second deadline. As Mike left slip to Sylvanus, perhaps with all that had been going on, the Forestry Service might be willing to offer them a second extension. There was just one final question, said Sylvanus, before wrapping up. Where did the pair think that Travis was now? Wherever he is? Said Dwayne, It is not on this earth.

Many in the town had been uttering it among themselves, but it was Snowflake town Marshall Sanford Flake who said it the loudest that all this talk of UFOs and Travis Walton being abducted was complete rubbish. Some put this down to an ongoing grudge with Travis due to a disagreement from a previous year, but either way, Flake was

determined to put an end to the nonsense. Having deduced that Travis had orchestrated the whole thing in collaboration with his brother Dwayne, using some kind of balloon to fool his colleagues, Flake became convinced that he was merely hiding

out at his mother's cabin in bear Lake. In the days since Travis's disappearance, Marshall Flake made a number of unannounced visits to Mary Kellett's cabin, hoping to catch the family out, one time even bringing a documentary crew with him from the United Kingdom, but Mary could only tell him what she had told everyone else, that she had

no idea where her son was. Such rumours were becoming a struggle for the rest of Mike's crew, too, who couldn't step outside their homes without being harassed by reporters or neighbors telling them to give up the hoax and tell the truth about what happened. On Monday morning, with Travis now having been missing for five days, Mike Rogers, Kenny Peterson John Gullette, Steve Pearce, Alan Dallas, and Dwayne Smith received an ominous request to assemble at Sheriff Gillespie's

office in Holbrook. The men arrived on the assumption that they would be giving another statement about the events of the previous Wednesday. What they found was something a little different. Greeting them alongside Gillespie was Arizona Department of Public Safety employee Cy Gilson. Gilson also happened to be an expert in polygraph testing, and he was there to give them a lie detector test. Steve Pearce went white at the sheer mention of the device. It was just as his

mother had been telling him. It didn't matter if he had anything to do with Travis's disappearance. This was how the law really worked. They were going to try and pin something on him, and one way or another, if Steve wasn't careful, he would not be leaving that station anytime soon. Alan Dallas also grew suddenly nervous, a reaction

not lost on Sheriff Gillespie. As the Sheriff then explained to them, since they had no evidence to back up any of their claims, he'd been forced to take drastic action. If they couldn't find Travis, at the very least, he could dismiss their ridiculous story, and if they were telling the truth, none of them had anything to worry about anyway.

Having been observing the men closely since they arrived, Gilson was quick to pick out Steve, the youngest and clearly most anxious of the group, as a possible weak link. If they had indeed concocted the whole thing up together, it was Steve, he reasoned, that was most likely to break alone. In the interview room, Gilson took a moment to calibrate the equipment, then asked for Steve to be

sent in. After nervously taking a seat, Gilson proceeded to connect Steve to the machine, pulling the wires tightly across his chest, before asking him to sit up and try his best to relax. And then, after switching on the machine, Gilson began Did you cause Travis any serious physical harm last Wednesday afternoon? Asked Gilson, as the graft paper spulled out endlessly under the needles, No, said Steve, quickly, looking anxiously toward the fragile arms of the machine as they

flickered lightly across the page. Gilson nodded to himself, then jotted something down in his notebook. I'm not lying, said Steve with quiet determination, Ignoring him. Gilson continued, do you know if Travis Walton was physically injured by some other member of your work crew last Wednesday? No, said Steve emphatically. And then do you know if Travis Walton's body is buried or hidden somewhere in the Turkey Springs area? No,

came Steve's emphatic reply. Again. Then, finally, did you tell the truth about actually seeing a UFO last Wednesday when Travis Walton disappeared? Steve looked Gilson in the eye, and then, after only a moment's pause, yes, he said. One after the other, Mike's crew came and gave their answers to the same set of questions, taking about twenty minutes at a time as they went over and over again, all giving the exact same answers as Steve, and not once

deviating from their story. No, they didn't harm Travis, nor know of anyone who did. And yes, they did see a UFO that night. At ten pm that evening, the men were sent home, after which Gilson presented Gillespie with

the results, the sheriff could only gorpe in amazement. According to Gilson, not one of the men, with the exception of Alan Dallas, whose results were deemed void, could be determined to have lied about their experience, or, as Gilson understood it, going by the results, the chances that all five had cheated the test was something in the region of one in seventy eight thousand. As Gillespie reported to the press soon after, there's no doubt they're telling the

truth right down the line. I feel sure that all six of them saw a UFO. It was close to midnight on Monday when the phone rang in Allison and Grant Nef's home in Taylor. Having just gone to bed. Grant roused himself awake and stumbled to the receiver, nef residence. Who's this, he muttered wearily. Then a scared and faint voice crackled up from the other end of the line. It's Travis. I'm in a phone booth at the Hebre gas station. I need help. Please come and get me.

Grant stood for a moment, trying to think. It certainly didn't sound like Travis, and since the family had been fielding crank calls ever since his disappearance, it seemed reasonable to assume that this was just another one. Don't call here again, Grant said, But just as he was about to hang up, the voice came back, more desperate this time. Wait, Grant, it's me Please, I'm hurt and I need your help. Please come and get me. Not long after Grant nef

hung up the phone. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, just over thirty miles away in the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, Sheriff Marlin Gillespie was enjoying a rare moment of peace with the search for Travis Walton called off for the day and all his deputies gone home. The well liked larman took a moment to reflect on

the events of the previous week. First and foremost, a young man was missing, and no matter what anybody else said, though he couldn't rule anything out, it was his duty to take the family at their word that they knew nothing about any of it, and if so, that was a family desperately worried about the fate of a brother and a son. Of the rest of it, he couldn't make head nor tail he certainly wasn't ready to accept that Travis might genuinely have been attacked and possibly even

abducted by a UFO. And yet, as his own man, sy Gilson had attested, Travis's co workers, in all statistical likelihood were telling the truth about what they'd seen. And hadn't he too seen the odd unexplained object or light in the sky from time to time driving those quiet forest roads alone at night. Just then the phone rang

startled Gillespie grabbed the receiver. The local phone company had traced a call placed close to midnight to Allison and Grant Nef's property from outside a gas station in Haber, the town closest to where Travis had gone missing. It must be him, thought Gillespie. And yet, if it was Travis, why hadn't he called the police instead. It was barely thirty minutes later when Deputy Chuck Ellison and Lieutenant A. M. Romo, on Gillespie's orders, pulled up to the Haber gas station,

with the place completely deserted. Ellison and Romo made their way over in the dark to the three phone booths at the front of the store and began dusting for Prince in the end, However, there were just too many to be able to tell whether Travis had been there or not. Meanwhile, at the junction of Highway seventy seven and two seven seven, the road out to Phoenix from Snowflake, Deputy Glenn Flake, roused from bed by an excited Gillespie, sat in his patrol vehicle keeping a firm eye on

the road ahead. By two a m. However, he'd seen no sign of any vehicles belonging to the Walton family. A short time later, Flake pulled up to Travis's mother, Mary Kellett's home. Seeing lights on inside, he stepped out of his car and quietly headed toward the front door when he noticed Travis's brother Dwayne siphoning petrol from a

vehicle on the driveway. Surprised to see the deputy, Dwayne explained that he'd been late getting back from the Sheriff's office earlier in the day, so had missed the chance to get more gas for his car in preparation for his return to Phoenix that morning. Since Dwayne said nothing about Travis, Flake thought it reasonable to assume that perhaps it wasn't him after all, that had called the nef property earlier that night. And with that he said his

goodbyes and returned home to bed. It was around lunchtime the next day the reports began filtering through that Travis was back and being treated in a hospital in twoson, Arizona, angered not to have been kept in the loop. A deeply frustrated Gillespie is finally called by Dwayne late on Tuesday to inform him that Travis isn't in Tucson after all, but at home with him in Glendale, just outside of Phoenix.

Dwayne was still talking when Gillespie slammed down the phone, grabbed his hat from the peg, and piled into his patrol car. In the past five days, Gillespie's office had spent over ten thousand dollars looking for Travis, damaging several expensive vehicles in the process. One of the departments horses had also been put down after sustaining a devastating injury

during the search. Coupled with the countless hours Gillespie had put in fielding one call after another from news outlets all over the world regarding Travis's bizarre disappearance, it was fair to say, at the very least the sheriff deserved some answers it was late in the evening by the time Gillespie arrived at Dwayne's house. At first sight of the sheriff, Dwayne did his best to apologize for not alerting him sooner, while insisting that he only had Travis's

best interests at heart. Unmoved, Gillespie demanded to see Travis immediately. Dwayne hesitated for a moment before showing the sheriff through to the living room. Gillespie was in the process of detailing exactly just what lengths his department had gone to to help Dwayne and his family when the sight of an exhaust looking Travis stretched out on the sofa stopped him in his tracks. It wasn't that he seemed physically different, although he'd never seen Travis with five days of beard

growth before, but something about his demeanor had changed. Then Gillespie realized what it was. It was shock. The sheriff quietly took a seat next to the young man and began by asking him to describe everything he could remember about the last few days. Travis glanced nervously toward Dwayne,

who nodded for him to begin. As Travis went on to recount, he remembered being up on the ridge in the forest, seeing the object glowing in the trees, and then having the overwhelming urge to get close to it. He just turned back to see Mike and the others begging for him to return to the truck, when he was engulfed in a blinding white blue light. In an instant, he felt as though he'd been hit on the back of the head by a baseball bat and that his

whole body was being electrocuted. The next thing he knew, he felt as though he was waking up from a deep sleep, but in excruciating pain, as if his whole body had been burned inside and out. Finally opening his eyes, he found himself lying down on some kind of table with a large rectangular light above him. Gathering his thoughts. Though he didn't recognize the place, he assumed he was in a hospital of some sort, thinking that he must have sustained an injury on the job and his friends

had brought him in. Looking down his body, he could see that his shirt and jacket had been pushed up toward his shoulders, leaving his chest and belly exposed over which seemed to be some kind of device scanning his body slowly with his eyes beginning to focus, he was able to make out three blurry figures stood around him, dressed in bright orange and wearing white surgical masks, which he assumed to be doctors, only realizing with horror moments later when he locked eyes with one of them that

these weren't like any doctors he'd seen before. Panicking, he leapt from the table, knocking the scanning device to the floor. As two of the figures approached, Travis stumbled back into some kind of instrument tray, Then, grabbing whatever came to hand, he prepared to defend himself. It was only then that he observed the figures properly for the first time. They were each about five feet tall, uncannily familiar with their two arms, legs, and five digits on each hand, but

that was where the familiarity ended. Their bodies seemed unusually light weight, while their skin was bright white, without a crease or wrinkle anywhere to be seen. Their eyes were big brown discs about an inch and a half in diameter, and their hands had no fingernails. As Travis went on to explain, he was just about to attack them when

they ran from the room, leaving him all alone. Seeing his chance, he bolted out into the corridor and ducked into some kind of control room that was completely empty except for a chair in the middle of it covered in levers and buttons. But as he made his way toward it, the walls began to disappear, revealing a giant, three hundred sixty degree panoramic map of the stars that wrapped all around him as if he were standing alone

in the VARs of space. Moments later, Travis was joined in the room by what he assumed at first was another human man of large muscular build wearing a blue outfit and a bubble helmet over his head. Only when Travis saw the intense color of his electric blue eyes did he realize he wasn't human at all. Travis pleaded for his help, nonetheless, in response, the being led him through an airlock into what looked like some kind of

aircraft hanger. Stepping out onto a ramp, Travis realized he was exiting some kind of craft that was similar to what they'd seen in the woods, but considerably larger in size. From there, no longer feeling any pain, he was led through another series of doors and corridors, until finally he came to a bright white room occupied by three other figures similar to the man who led him there. The beings then lifted him onto a table and placed some

kind of respiratory device over his face. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the pavement in the freezing dark, staring up at the stars in the night sky. Looking frantically about. He realized with relief that he was back in Arizona, somewhere on the highway just outside of Haber. Dehydrated and disorientated, he stumbled to the Haber gas station, from where he made the call to his sister's home. It was all true, insisted Dwayne, as he then explained

to the sheriff. He'd been out at his mother's home in Snowflake when they got the call from Grant, their brother in law, informing them that Travis was alive. Having raced off with Grant to pick him up from the gas station, they found him huddled down inside one of the phone booths, still wearing the clothes he'd gone missing in despite it being well below freezing. According to Dwayne, Travis was so traumatized when they arrived that he tried to run away, not realizing who Dwayne was at first.

When they finally got him in the car, the clearly disorientated Travis was convinced he'd only be missing for a few hours. When Dwayne then told him to feel the beard on his usually clean shaven face, Travis was shocked to find it had been more like five days. Sheriff Gillespie ran a hand through his hair. Could it be, he asked, that he really was hit on the head by a baseball bat. Perhaps one of his coworkers had

done it and then drugged him afterwards. Perhaps he really had woken up in a hospital after all, but the effect of the hit on the head and the drugs had left him confused and discombobulated. But the brothers were having none of it. For a start, there was no injury to his head, nor to any other part of his body for that matter. According to Dwayne, this was one of the first things he checked when Travis got home, shortly before helping him into a hot bath to warm

him up. He also claimed to have weighed his brother beforehand, finding that he'd lost at least ten pounds in the days since he disappeared. That first day since Travis's apparent return had been an eventful one for Dwayne and his brother,

as they went on to explain to Sheriff Gillespie. It was back during the search for Travis that Dwayne had been approached by William Spaulding from the euphology Group Ground Saucer Watch, an organization first founded in ninety In fifty seven that sought to provide a legitimate outlet for people to report sightings of unusual aerial phenomena without the fear of ridicule. Having dealt with a number of similar cases before, Sporting advised Dwayne to contact him should Travis be found alive.

In return, GSW would provide a free medical examination and shelter from the inevitable media storm that would follow in the hope of gaining proof that he had been abducted by an unknown sentient species, if indeed that was the case. As it transpired, according to Dwayne, Travis was already back at his mother's house in Snowflake the night Deputy Flake saw Dwayne in the driveway siphoning gas for his car.

Realizing that he wouldn't be able to keep Travis's apparent return a secret for long, Dwayne informed the press that he was being taken to a hospital in Tucson to recuperate from his exhausted ordeal that morning, the pair then traveled to Phoenix, whereby they immediately contacted Spaulding, who gave them an address for a doctor Lester Stewart, who would be conducting the medical exam when they arrived there soon after, however,

the brothers were surprised to find doctor Stewart's office located in a fairly run down westward Hoe hotel. They only became more concerned when they saw the sign on doctor Stewart's door, which read hypnotherapist. After thirty minutes or so of Travis detailing what he could about his missing five days, it became clear that not only was Stuart ill equipped to carry out a full medical exam on him, but

that he wasn't a medical doctor at all. Returning home frustrated, Dwayne was then contacted by Coral and Jim Lawrenson from another UFO organization called the Area Phenomena Research group. Much like ground Sourcer Watch, at pro prided themselves on their rational scientific approach to the UFO phenomena, with a large staff of consulting PhD scientists among them, most notably doctor James Harder, a civil and hydraulics engineering professor from the

University of California, Berkeley. Famed UFO researcher j Allen Heineck described at PRO as one of the best to civilian organizations of its day. Still desperate to prove what had happened to him, Travis agreed to then let APRO conduct the medical exam. That afternoon, doctor Howard Kendall, predominantly a pediatrician and general practitioner, doctor Joseph Saltz, arrived at Dwayne's

house to assess the apparent abductee. Kendall and Salts were shown into a bedroom where Travis was waiting for them, lying down on the bed in his shirt and jeans. Doctor Kendall's report would later state that from the moment they saw him, it was clear that Travis was suffering from extreme stress and anxiety. Kendall and Salts observed that his vital signs were all normal, with no overt signs of weight loss, though his mouth was unusually dry, suggesting

a high level of dehydration. Examining his body for any signs of bruising or damage. Curiously, doctor Kendall discovered a two millimeter wide red spot in the crease of Travis's right elbow, much like a needle puncture wound. Travis suggested that it might have been a thorn wound picked up at some point while he was working out in the forest. After the preliminary examination, Dwayne then handed doctor Kendall a jar that he claim aimed contained Travis's urine, which William

Spaulding had advised him to collect. The sample was later found to be normal, displaying no evidence of drug use or anything else untoward, with the exception that it contained no trace of acetone. Had Travis not eaten in the last few days, ordinarily, acetone, which is created when fat stores are broken down in the body, would be present. If Travis had indeed lost ten pounds, an absence of

acetone would have been deeply unusual. Intriguingly, the doctors also noted that the combination of Travis's unmarked body and the fact that it was relatively odorless despite apparently not having used any soap since his return, seemed to suggest that wherever Travis had been for the past five days, it wasn't outside in the woods. Sheriff Gillespie having listened to it all with quiet patients, thanked the brothers for bringing

him up to speed, then stood up to leave. Sensing the sheriff wasn't entirely convinced by the story, Travis made a request. Since his coworkers had taken a polygraph test, it only made sense that he should be able to take one too. Perhaps then people might believe him. We'll be in touch, said the sheriff, before thanking the young men again for their time and heading out. The following day, Wednesday, November twelfth, Travis and Dwayne were moved into the Sheraton

Hotel in Scottsdale, courtesy of The National Inquirer. By the nineteen seventies, The Inquirer, a notorious and controversial tabloid that had previously promoted fascist causes, was enjoying a resurgence as the nation's go to paper for all things celebrity and bizarre,

with a particular interest in apparent altercations with UFOs. Having managed to get hold of Coral and Jim Lawrenson before Travis's medical examination, the paper struck a deal with both Travis and Apro to cover all costs in their efforts to prove he was telling the truth. In return, Travis

gave them exclusive rights to his story. Later that afternoon, doctor James Harder of the University California, Berkeley arrived at the hotel to conduct a regressive hypnosis session with Travis, in which, while apparently under hypnosis, Travis repeated the exact same story he told everyone else about his experience on board a UFO. Afterwards, Travis is informed by Sheriff Gillespie that a polygraph test has been arranged for him in two days time, to be conducted by cy Gilson, the

same individual who tested his coworkers. The test is agreed on the one condition that remained a secret from the press. However, the test is abruptly canceled at the last minute by Dwayne when he receives a call from a reporter an hour before the test is due to be taken, wanting to know where it's taking place. The next morning, a new story breaks in the Phoenix Gazette with the headline

UFO case is linked to drugs by expert. The expert turned out to be none other than doctor Lester Stewart, the hypnotherapist that Dwayne and Travis had blown off after spending only a few minutes with him at his office in the westward Hoe Hotel. Only the way Steward told it, it had been more like two hours, in which he had ample time to assess the patient. It was his conclusion that Travis had made the entire thing up, going on to speculate that his cosmic visions had been nothing

but the hallucinatory effects of LSD. William Spaulding was also quoted in the article stating that in fact, it had been Dwayne and Travis that specifically asked him to set them up with a hypnotherapist. Spaulding, having only days before been so convinced of Travis's story he was willing to offer them financial support to prove it. Was now convinced more than ever that it was all just a hoax.

Though we can never know for sure whose version of events is the truth, it has been pointed out that it would have been physically impossible for the Walton brothers to have spent even one hour with doctor Stewart and got back to Dwayne's home in time to receive the later phone call from Coral and Jim Lawrenson that doctor Stewart was found not to even have a license to practice medicine in the United States also cast further doubt

on his credibility. The sudden attack, as some have suggested, appeared to have been made out of spite more than anything else, in retaliation for Travis's rejection of Spauting's help. The following week, doctor James Harder released his own assessment to Travis on behalf of apro coming to the conclusion that, one way or another, whether the events had occurred or not as Travis said they had, Harder had little doubt that, at the very least, Travis believed he was telling the truth.

Harder's assessment was made partially from the medical evidence, but also on account of another apparent abduction case that had supposedly occurred three months previously. The case involving US Air Force Sergeant Charles Moody had never previously been reported, and yet Moody's description of the beings that he allegedly encountered bore a striking similarity to those described by Travis, also being five foot tall, with large bald heads, large eyes,

and unusually lightweight bodies. The National Enquirer would eventually publish the story, for which Travis was paid two thousand, five hundred U S. Dollars equivalent to twelve thousand dollars today, with each of his co workers receiving just over four hundred dollars. Over time, the national interest in Travis's story began to die down, until eventually the news outlets stopped calling, and the colorful array of out of towners and UFO

buffs headed back to wherever they had come from. By the new year, Sheriff Gillespie, still none the wiser, with no one to prosecute or charge for Travis's bizarre disappearance,

closed the case two months later. In February nineteen seventy six, Travis, Dwayne, and their mother Mary would all be given polygraph tests set up by the Aerial Phenomena Research Group, which concluded that all three were telling the truth with regards to their own experiences during those extraordinary days in November nineteen seventy five. In the months and years that followed, the people of Snowflake remained divided, with some convinced it was

a hoax and others not entirely sure. Being a Mormon settlement, many took umbradge to the heresy at the heart of Travis's story that the creatures he'd encountered were very much not in what they considered to be God's image. Though they accepted that God had created other worlds and populated them with people, that those people might look a little different was a stretch too far for their beliefs. As for the rest of the crew, the event appeared to

affect them in different ways. Kenny Peterson would eventually leave the town, making his way to Mexico, where he married settled down for a time before returning to Snowflake. Though Mike Rogers was stripped of the Turkey Springs contract, he was eventually paid in full for the unfinished job and

continued to work successfully as a contractor. Dwayne Smith and Allan Dallas later underwent hypnotic regression, and both maintained their original version of events pertaining to the night that Travis disappeared. Despite all the many strange looks and subsequent mickey taking that came with being part of the story, John Gouleette had no regrets, saying later only that he was glad

to have experienced it. All seven men involved have never altered their story once to this day, with Steve Pearce, who was suffering from financial hardship at the time, even said to have turned down a ten thousand dollar offer to retract his story. Travis Walton would eventually settle down and marry Mike Rodgers's sister Dana, with the pair taking up residents above a local store on Snowflake's main Street.

In nineteen seventy eight, he published a full account of his story in the book The Walton Experience that was later adapted into the nineteen ninety three film Fire in the Sky. He continues to lecture about his apparent abduction to day. In the summer of nineteen seventy six, a report was produced by journalist and prominent UFO skeptic Philip Klass that purported to provide a detailed forensic analysis of Travis Walton's story, demonstrating that it had been entirely fabricated.

Class's claim hinged largely on new and highly controversial information that he'd unearthed during his investigation. As it turned out, the polygraph test that Travis eventually took in February nineteen seventy six was not the first polygraph test he'd taken on the subject of his apparent abduction. In fact, he'd sat for one as early as November sixteenth, less than

a week after his return. Organized by the Aerial Phenomena Research Group and witnessed by a representative for the National Inquirer, the test was conducted by John McCarthy, the director of the Arizona Polygraph Laboratory, who determined on balance that Travis was not telling the truth. Both the National Inquirer and APRO agreed not to publish the result. It was a

few nights later. The Deputy Glen Flake was sat in the Navajo County Sheriff's office in Holbrook, fielding one call after another from news outlets across the world, desperate to know more about the forestry workers and the UFO. With the phones finally having calmed down, Flake was taking a moment of downtime when a burst of static from out of the station radio was followed by a flurry of excited voices discussing a strange light that was currently hovering

near the mountains just to the east. Flake listened in as the voices two deputies stationed at Pinetop, a town just fifty miles to the south, detailed the light and how it seemed to just be sitting there in the sky and slowly changing from red to white to blue. Seconds later, a third voice broke in in excitement, another deputy, this time from Saint john Sheriff's station, about forty miles to the east. They could see it too, Whatever it was,

he said, it was no aeroplane. Deputy Flake grabbed his coat, stepped out into the freezing cold night, and turned his eyes to the east. Well, I'll be damned, he said, as they're clearly discernible in the sky. Just above the forest sat a small bright light changing slowly from red to white to blue. Thank you as ever for listening, unexplained. As an av Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

also produced by me Richard McLain Smith, unexplained. The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story

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