​Cases of Interest blog

A Wisconsin witness at Orfordville reported watching two helicopters apparently following a triangle-shaped object, according to testimony in Case 89435 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness was westbound along Highway 11 heading toward Brodhead at 5:20 p.m. on January 8, 2018.

“I saw the Green County helicopter hovering over Brodhead,” the witness stated. “Pretty normal. They always come around. Then to my left I saw another chopper heading south going directly over me. Wanting to get a better look, I turned to look for the helicopter and the tree line ends at this point. When I see ‘it,’ I don't know what this was, but it was at least four times the size of the chopper and had two extremely bright, white-blue (like daylight bulb) lights coming from the rear that flashed every second or so.”

The witness pointed out having grew up around an airport.

“There were no green and red lights, and it was way too big and moving way too slow to be a plane. Plus, the size of the lights would have been the entire wing of a passenger jet. I have no idea what I saw but two choppers were watching too. The one followed it all the way to the Illinois border. I guess because the chopper flew south and stopped for a minute, then turned around and headed back. Everyone can give me garbage for not having my phone, but I was just going to grab some food quick and this is not a joke.”
Wisconsin MUFON State Director Sue Brittnen closed this case as an Unknown Aerial Vehicle.

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by Roger Marsh

UFO encounters may be frightening as witnesses observe never-before-seen objects moving in incredible ways. But some sightings are further stressed when the object morphs into different shapes.

Four shape-shifting UFO sightings were listed in the recently-released book, UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

A New Mexico witness at Albuquerque reported watching a boomerang-shaped object just 500 feet away that hovered and seemed to change shape while moving, according to testimony in Case 82456.

The witness was outside walking north on a lunch break at 12:30 p.m. on March 2, 2017.

“A light gray shape caught my eye,” the witness stated. “The object was approximately 500 feet away, and about 50 feet in the air over a building. At first, I thought it was a flock of birds, and I said, ‘That's interesting. What kind of birds would those be?’ It seemed to be moving east in a slow flutter. Then it disappeared, like it folded back into the sky.”

The witness thought that was strange.

“It then reappeared in a fat boomerang shape. It seemed to be made up of multiple light gray, possibly reflective objects, but working together, like a school of fish, or sequins on a purse or dress. It did seem to have a common background that was dark gray or black. It was still fluttering, but it paused and hovered and moved backward, just slightly.”

At this point, a bare tree blocked the view, but the witness kept walking to see the object again.

“When I saw the shape again, it had changed. And it seemed to be a soft, billowy, upside down parachute shape, or the bottom of a puffy cloud or a puff of factory smoke. I almost convinced myself it was a deflated weather balloon, but there was no top to the shape, only a distinct bottom. The color of this object seemed to blend with the sky. I could only decipher a dark gray sitting in the bottom of the cloud/parachute.”

Then the object changed again.

“Now it became almost transparent, as if the sun were reflecting on an invisible craft. Now there really is no overall shape that I can make out. I saw a few smaller, very rigid shapes, like flat prisms or solar panels, and they seemed to fold backwards into the object and then the whole object faded away.”

The witness said these events occurred in about 20 - 25 seconds.

by Roger Marsh

Sound deadening of Mother Nature’s natural noise is one thread UFO witnesses report when unusual crafts move close.

Four cases where natural sound was absent during a UFO event were reported in the Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) new book release, UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition. The book sites 241 cases of interest from 2017 where further study is encouraged.

In addition to other case elements, all of the witnesses note the exclusion of natural sound during the event.

A Pennsylvania witness at Camp Hill reported watching a circle-shaped light “the size of a house” hovering at the tree line that appeared to “mesmerize” both the witness and a dog, according to testimony in Case 82029.

The witnesses’ dog woke the witness at 2:17 a.m. on January 7, 2017 and was immediately taken outside to the backyard.

“She immediately ran around the pool four times, without ever stopping to go to the bathroom, and then stopped in the middle of my yard, facing the field behind my backyard,” the witness stated. “All of a sudden, a bright light appeared at the end of this field.”

The witness described the light.

“It was perfectly round and was about the size of a house. The light was hovering slightly above the trees. There was no origination point – either above, below, left or right – to this light. The light tiled downward and, at that point, the light appeared to be oval-shaped. The edges of the light were defined, with no shadows or extending light from it. There were no noises or sounds. As a matter of fact, everything was unusually still and very dark that evening.”

The witness became “frozen and mesmerized” by the light source.

by Roger Marsh

The temperature was 15 degrees February 2, 2017 when a solid-looking, white ball of light moved above Fridley, Minnesota – a short, 15-minute drive north of downtown Minneapolis.

Two friends were standing outside saying goodbye when the object caught their attention. First a spec of light at a distance, the object quickly descended to an altitude just above 500 feet and at a distance away somewhere between 500 feet and one mile.

Despite the Hollywood-driven allure of UFOs in the classic disc shape or the more modern triangle-shaped objects, most reports of anomalous objects in the sky are a sphere shape like the Minnesota sighting closed as an Unknown Aerial Vehicle by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) after an investigation by Investigator Stephen Hero.

Case 81872 was the only Minnesota case to be chosen as a Case of Interest for further study by MUFON in the recently-released book, UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition.

by Roger Marsh

Alabama UFO reports totaled 63 cases received by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 2017 with three important reports included in the recently released annual UFO Cases of Interest book.

Of those 63 reports, 38 cases occurred during 2017 and six of those cases were closed by Alabama Field Investigators as either an Unknown Aerial Vehicle or an Unknown Other. From that list, three reports were included in the book detailing a cylinder being chased by the military, a circular object over an army base and a triangle-shaped object flying under 500 feet.

An Alabama witness at Remlap reported watching a dark, cylinder-shaped object, being followed by a jet plane, according to testimony in Case 81858.

The witness and a daughter were driving along Route 79 north at 6:25 p.m. on February 1, 2017.

“All of a sudden, we saw two lights that were strobing across the sky, from east to west, right above the trees with a jet plane directly behind it in pursuit. It was so low that we were able to see the doors of the landing gear on the jet.”

These first few seconds of the sighting scared the daughter.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Please tell me we just didn't just see what I thought we just did!’ All I could do was confirm with her what we had both seen. I was at my mother's house within two minutes and called my husband immediately because my daughter and I have always been sceptics, but my husband had always been a believer.”

The woman’s husband told her and their daughter to draw what they saw immediately.

“So, we sat in the car and we drew it out. We went into my mother's house and told her what we saw, and my mother said she heard a roaring, rumble noise that vibrated the house. Like an engine was accelerated to the max. We are still in shock, not really believing what we saw. My husband told me about this website and wanted me to report this.”

Alabama MUFON Field Investigator Roger Moore investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown Aerial Vehicle.

by Roger Marsh

Tennessee is a “top six” state for UFO sightings listed in UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, according to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
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Higher populated states California and Pennsylvania topped the list with 15 cases each, then Missouri followed with 13 cases, Florida 12 cases – and Ohio and Tennessee with 10 cases each.

Tennessee is the 36th largest state, and the 16th most populated state, but editors were choosing from the 7,651 UFO reports received worldwide in 2017. Of those total cases, 5,485 occurred in the U.S., and 2,098 of those cases after investigation were deemed closed as Unknowns or Information Only. And from that final group, 1,827 occurred during 2017. MUFON editors then chose 241 for the book that appeared to be the best cases for further research.

MUFON Communications Director Roger Marsh released the 281-page book that covers top cases from 2017 at MUFON’s annual Symposium the last week of July. The book also offers readers four indexes for tracking cases: Location, Object, Site and Witness.

Tennessee UFO activity kicked off early in the year and popped up in six different months between January and October 2017 with a variety of shapes including, triangles, discs, cylinders, spheres and diamond-shaped objects.

The case overviews follow in the order they occurred during 2017.

by Roger Marsh

One standard UFO report detail is the object’s size. Despite their shape – ranging from classic discs and triangles to spheres and balls of light – most UFOs tend to be in the 10 to 30-foot length range. But over time you see witnesses logging in cases where they describe very gigantic objects and often compare size to a football field.

From 241 reports listed in UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, there are two cases where the witness used the “football field” term in their object description. Both objects were under 500 feet as the witness watched.

A Maryland witness at Boonsboro reported watching a low flying, blimp-shaped object, according to testimony in Case 86700.

The witness had just dropped off his son's girlfriend and was leaving her house at 8:35 p.m. on September 13, 2017.

“I got to the stop sign and was looking left,” the witness stated. “No cars. Looked right. No cars. I looked back to the left and noticed a dark object floating at my 11 o’clock position. I sat at the stop sign a minute, kind of dazed and wondering what the heck was I looking at. The object was dark, and I could only make out the outline of its shape when I saw the red lights on either side (left and right) blink. It looked like a football field size and was really low to the ground.”

The witness also described the object’s lighting configuration.

“I also noticed a white light blinking on the top and bottom of what I was seeing. I was thinking that whatever it was would surely crash so I turned onto the route and continued to watch it. I turned off the radio in the car and rolled down the windows, I couldn't hear any engines. Nothing. I was on a ‘country’ road, so there were no other cars at the time to interfere sound or sight wise.”
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The witness pulled over and watched the object slowly float towards the southwest.

by Roger Marsh

UFO investigations have clearly identified one object maneuver occasionally seen by a witness – where a larger object is emitting smaller objects. These smaller objects are often observed simply moving away from the larger object and speeding away, but in other cases move toward the ground level and eventually return back to the larger object.

From 241 reports listed in UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, there are three cases where the witness watched as smaller objects moved out of a larger object.

A Missouri witness at Kansas City reported watching a tear-shaped bright light eject a smaller orb of the same white color, according to testimony in Case 84756.

The witness was outside about 4:20 p.m. on July 1, 2017 and looked up at the sky through a break in the tree.

“I saw a teardrop-shaped bright light, (similar color of a LED light), stationary,” the witness stated. “It ejected a smaller orb of same color. “The large teardrop-shaped UFO was moving right then left, then right again, at last shifting upward and then it shut off or disappeared. The smaller orb was moving faster than any jet. If I had to guess it was higher than a jet liner.”
The witness was unable to get another witness.

“I walked around the house and looked in the west direction when I saw another orbed light (LED) moving at a very fast speed. It was moving toward the north. It was approximately 10 miles away I would have to guess.”

by Roger Marsh

​On the scary side of UFO encounters – beyond just being frightened by a large hovering object, or seeing multiple UFOs carousing nearby – there are those few cases where the object actually seems to be following or chasing the witness.
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From the 241 cases logged into UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, there were seven cases where the witness reported the object followed them, based on reporting data from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

A Virginia witness at Bastian reported watching a rectangular-shaped object that descended to about 300 or 400 feet off the ground, according to testimony in Case 82503.

The witness was picking up her 16-year-old daughter from a school function at 8:30 p.m. on March 3, 2017.

“We started back home,” the witness stated. “When we reached the top of the mountain, I noticed a super bright star on my left just above the mountain ahead. We live in the valley between these two mountains. As we descended the first mountain, the object started descending along the side of the opposite mountain. There is only one road over there on that mountain that it was on. And it is a very rough fire track which is locked by the National Forest Service at this time of year.”

When the witness first saw the object, they were at 2,900 feet.

“We descended to about 2,100 feet and it descended along with us until it appeared to be maybe 300 or 400 feet above us. It seemed to almost touch the ground at times. At other times it moved along just ahead of us and would be in the forest because I could see trees outlined in front of it.”

As the witness traveled up the valley along the creek, the object moved along with the vehicle.

by Roger Marsh

​Indiana UFO witnesses reported multiple disc, triangle and cylinder-shaped objects flying low over the state in 2017, according to UFO Cases of Interest: 2018 Edition, based on the best reports for further study from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

Indiana witnesses reported 111 UFO cases to MUFON in 2017. From that group, 90 cases occurred within 2017. From the 2017 cases, 51 were closed by field investigators as Unknown Aerial Vehicles, Unknown Others or as Information Only - the three case criteria used for the book, released July 11, 2018.

Seven cases were selected for the book as best cases for further research. 
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An Indiana witness at Kouts reported watching a silent, disc-shaped object just 50 feet above the tree line, according to testimony in Case 81407.

The witness was outside walking a dog at 5:10 a.m. on January 8, 2017.
“It was around 5 in the morning with a clear, dark sky,” the witness stated. “When I was on my way to my house, I noticed a very bright light moving above the trees in the forest. It was around 50 feet above the trees moving from north to south.”

The witness described the object.

“It was a circular object around 10 feet in diameter. As it moved over the trees, it did not light up the woods underneath the light. As it approached the road, the object and light just disappeared. It made no sound.”

Indiana MUFON State Director Phil Leech Jr. investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.