Deadly UFO Experiences Of The Sixth Kind

By
Marcus Lowth
Published Date
October 26, 2016
Last Updated
October 12, 2021
Estimated Reading Time
21 min read
Comments
3
Posted in
UFOs, Close Encounters

While most people who witness a UFO, even those who claim to have been abducted, live to tell their tales, others are not so lucky. For some, these seemingly out of this world encounters appear to have killed them – either at the scene of the sighting or in the immediate hours or days following.

These deaths are referred to as close encounters of the sixth kind. And there are more than you might think.

Zigmund Adamski, for example, was found dead in June 1980 on top of a large pile of coal in Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, having been missing for five days. There were no coal marks on his clothes – as if he had been placed on the coal pile from above – and there was also the presence of an unidentified gel on the back of his neck.

Alien abduction

Alien abduction

Frederick Valentich literally appeared to vanish into thin air in October 1978 as he was flying his small aircraft over the Bass Strait in Australia. He had reported to the radio tower of seeing a strange metallic object flying above him. His final moments were caught on the radio exchange recording at the tower. It is truly one of the most harrowing yet intriguing cases on record. Not least as Valentich remains missing and the case remains unresolved. The incident has been examined and investigated by multiple UFO and aviation researchers, and Timothy Good included an in-depth analysis in his book Beyond Top Secret.

We will move on to the Valentich case in detail shortly, as well as several other similar encounters. First, though, we will turn our attention to Hynek Scale and what it means.

J. Allen Hynek and the Hynek Scale

J. Allen Hynek is an important figure in the UFO community, even now thirty years after his death. Not only was he one of the first “serious” scientists to show a level of respect and interest in the UFO phenomena (despite his initial skepticism), but he also devised a system with which researchers and investigators could better log and catalog such sightings. His research and theories resulted in the Hynek scale – something that is still utilized by ufologists and researchers today.

Hynek’s scale originally had three “levels” but as more and more research into the UFO phenomena is carried out, more “extensions” are added.

In short, the Hyneck Scale is as follows:

  1. A close encounter of the first kind is a visual sighting.
  2. A close encounter of the second kind is where there is some kind of interference (perhaps electrical) or there is damage to vegetation or the ground where the event took place.
  3. A close encounter of the third kind is where an actual “pilot” or and “animated creature” are seen during a UFO sighting.
  4. A close encounter of the fourth kind is where a person is abducted by the UFO.
  5. A close encounter of the fifth kind is one where communication takes place between humans and extra-terrestrial intelligence – this includes the much reported telepathic communication.
  6. A close encounter of the sixth kind is where a death of a human (or an animal – including cattle mutilations) has resulted during or because of a UFO event.
  7. A close encounter of the seventh kind is the creation of an alien/human hybrid.
  8. A close encounter of the eighth kind is a reference to any individual’s unique event that may include several of the first kinds of encounters together.

Check out the short video on J. Allen Hynek and the Hynek Scale below.

Fred Valentich And The Final Flight

On the evening of 21st October 1978, 20-year-old Fred Valentich set out in his Cessna 182L aircraft from Moorabbin Airport in Victoria, Australia on a routine training flight. A relatively inexperienced pilot, Valentich had around 150 hours of flying time to his credit but was also qualified to fly at night as well as day.

We should perhaps also note, that Valentich had drawn the attention of aviation authorities several times prior to the fatal flight that evening in 1978. For example, there was considered prosecution [1] for “flying blind into a cloud”, as well as receiving a warning for flying in restricted air space. What’s more, he had only had his private pilot license for a little over a year, having obtained it in September 1977.

He left the runway at just short of 6:20 pm. A little over 45 minutes later what was a non-eventful flight changed drastically. At 7:06 pm, at an altitude of around 4,500 feet, Valentich would radio the control tower in Melbourne asking if there were any other aircraft in his airspace. After the control tower replied that no traffic was in the same airspace as he was, he would report that he could clearly see an unidentified aircraft approaching. He would further describe that it appeared to have four bright landing lights.

Valentich would continue that the aircraft had passed over the top of his vehicle at high speed. So fast, that he couldn’t focus on the details of its shape. After several moments, according to the tapes of the transmissions, Valentich would offer:

…it seems to be me that he is playing some sort of game…he’s flying over me at two to three times at a time at speeds I can’t identify…

Then, things turned even stranger.

“It’s Not An Aircraft!”

The control tower continued to request information about the strange craft Valentich claimed he could see. At 7:09 pm – three minutes after first contacting the control tower – Valentich would state with a distinct sound of panic in his voice that the vehicle was “not an aircraft” before his microphone remained open for several seconds.

He would further offer that the object appeared to be a “long shape” before stating:

…it seems like it’s stationary…what I’m doing right now is orbiting and the thing is orbiting on top me…also, it’s got a green light and a sort of metallic…it’s all shiny on the outside…

As the time turned to 7:12 pm, the control tower asked Valentich where he was intending to fly to. He would reply that he was headed to King Island before continuing that:

…the strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again…it is hovering and it’s not an aircraft!

Around 30 seconds later, after the open microphone captured the scraping metal sounds, the transmission ended. Shortly after, an extensive search would get underway. It would last four days and would involve RAAF and civilian aircraft.

In total, over 1,000 square miles were searched but no sign of the wreckage or Valentich himself was ever found. Even the radio survival beacon that was on board the plane failed to identify its location.

However, further investigations into the incident would leave people divided as to what happened. Did Valentich have the misfortune to run into a UFO? Or did he simply become disorientated due to his inexperience?

“He Was Definitely Concerned For His Safety!”

According to Timothy Good, those taking part in the search were asked by the military to report any incidents of “UFOs or strange lights” to them only, and not to speak publicly of any potential sightings. What’s more, any planes who were airborne at the time were told to keep any communications they might have heard on the frequency wave out of the public.

Whether these orders – if indeed they were issued – were done so in the knowledge of UFO activity in the region or not, or whether it was simply an order given to prevent panic or sensationalizing of the incident, remain open to debate.

There were several tentative sightings – one of an oil slick, and one of apparent wreckage in the water – but neither appeared to be connected to Valentich’s Cessna, with the wreckage itself not officially confirmed.

The eventual findings of the report, released in 1982, would state that “the reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined”. They did, however, presume that the result was “fatal” to Valentich.

Despite the mystery, perhaps the most convincing evidence that something very much untoward did indeed take place that evening in October 1978 over the Bass Strait, are the words of Steve Robey, the person on the radio control in Melbourne. He would state that he didn’t for one minute believe that Valentich was attempting to carry out a hoax incident.

Robey would elaborate that in the final moments “he was definitely concerned for his safety”. He would further describe this communication as “rushed” and “as if he was startled”.

Theories And Claims

In light of the report, there was an abundance of theories and claims as to what might have happened to Valentich.

Some claimed that it was likely that Valentich had become disorientated, possibly due to the reflection of the setting sun off the water shining back at him. Further suggestions asserted that due to this disorientation he very well could have ended up flying upside down, perhaps even mistaking the lights from his own aircraft reflecting off the water, in the seconds before crashing into the water.

There have also been suggestions that the “long shape” that Valentich reported was actually his perception of the planets Venus, Mars, and Mercury, as well as the star, Antares (which is particularly bright).

However, while these suggestions are certainly possible, surely such a scenario would have led to a discovery of wreckage in the vicinity. After all, a search mission was in place almost immediately. Even though Valentich did have an active interest in UFOs, it is also surely a little bit of a stretch to think that he imagined the metallic exterior after mistaking planets and stars for its lights.

A Clear Case Of Alien Abduction?

Of course, at least to UFO researchers, it was likely that the unfortunate pilot was the victim of alien abduction. And what is more, there is some apparent evidence to at least support the notion that a strange aerial object was in the area that evening.

Aside from the declaration that the object was “not an airplane”, as well as the horrendous metallic scraping noise, there is the fact that Valentich and his plane had seemingly vanished into thin air. Not a trace of wreckage was discovered at the time of the search, and nothing has washed to shore or floated to the surface in the decades since.

There were several residents who would inform UFO researcher, Paul Norman, a little over a decade after the incident, that they had witnessed “an unusual green light flying just above an aircraft” on the night in question. And we should remind ourselves that there was – at least officially – no other aircraft in the region other than Valentich’s.

There is also the intriguing photograph captured by Roy Manifold over the Bass Strait around 20 minutes before the disappearance of Valentich (you can see that picture below).

Not only the picture but his son, Jason, remained outside after his father returned inside and recalled hearing the sound of a small aircraft in the distance. He would listen to this for several moments before realizing it had suddenly stopped “as if someone had turned it off”.

Had Roy Manifold captured the object that was responsible for Valentich’s disappearance on film? And did his son, Jason, hear those final moments play out?

Did Valentich Fake His Disappearance? Not Likely!

There are other intriguing theories that we should examine, however. For example, some researchers and investigators assert that Valentich had orchestrated the whole affair in order to disappear and then begin a new secret life, possibly in Cape Otway. And while such claims are perhaps outrageous, there are some intriguing details to examine.

We know, for example, that Valentich had a keen interest in UFOs. And we also know that his run-ins with the aviation authorities led to deliberation as to whether he was to face charges at the time of his disappearance.

He also gave two different reasons for being in the air that evening, telling flight officials that he was traveling to King Island to pick up some friends, while telling others he was making the journey to pick up crayfish. Furthermore, it would later come to light that he had not correctly informed King Island Airport of his intention to land there.

In truth, despite apparent sightings of Valentich in the area over the coming years, it is highly unlikely that Valentich did fake the incident. Perhaps the tape recording alone dismisses such a notion. Aside from the obvious panic in his voice, he also appears confused, particularly when he first reports the strange craft when he claimed the lights were the landing lights of an aircraft before realizing he was mistaken.

Unless Valentich’s acting skills were of the highest caliber and his ability to plan such details as mistaking the lights for landing lights was so intricate, we should probably push the staged disappearances to the very back of the backburner.

An Unexplained, Perplexing, And Seemingly Deadly Case

Despite the proposed explanations on one side and the assertions by those in the UFO community that the incident is one of alien abduction, and certainly a UFO encounter, on the other, the disappearance of Fred Valentich remains unexplained and just as mysterious today as it did almost half a century ago in October 1978.

It is perhaps also interesting that the incident took place over the Bass Strait – a stretch of water, as we have examined previously, has a long history of strange disappearances, bizarre lights, and UFO sightings. Might Valentich not have been a victim of alien abduction but of something more akin with the unknown fate that meets those who are lost in such mysterious locations as the Bermuda Triangle? Or might the two even be connected?

If we return our attention back to Roy Manifold’s photographs for a moment, it is perhaps interesting to note that some UFO researchers claim they show the object – fast moving and of a triangular-type shape – leaving the water. Might this suggest some kind of alien base under the Bass Strait off the coast of southeast Australia? And might this potential extraterrestrial facility be where Valentich was taken?

While it is unlikely that the Valentich case will be officially reopened or investigated in the near future, many researchers of UFOs and strange, unsolved events remain fascinated with the incident. Indeed, it is only through further investigation and examination of the case that we can hope to get to the truth of what happened that October evening in 1978.

Jacques Vallee’s Investigations Into Sixth Kind Experiences

In his 1990 book Confrontations, Jacques Vallee – an associate of the previously mentioned Allen Hynek and himself a respected ufologist – told of many UFO sightings that had resulted in the deaths of the people who had witnessed them.

Perhaps one of the most chilling – and the incident that made Vallee take a look at such UFO sightings – was an event that had occurred in August 1966 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

A local teenager came upon the corpses of two men while looking for his kite. The scene was puzzling. Both men lay on their backs with no signs of having put up a struggle. Both were dressed in neat raincoats and suits, and both had lead masks near to their heads. Examination of them appeared that they had died from a heart attack, which by itself would not be anything out of the ordinary. However the fact that two men, both dressed the same, with makeshift protective headgear both suffer a heart attack in the same spot, at the same time.

When Vallee studied the case notes, he surmised that the two men had been witness to a UFO. He even went as far as to state they were at least hopeful, if not expecting, to witness such a craft due to the lead masks that he theorized they had used to offer some kind of protection from any harmful rays. They were identified as Jose Viana and Manuel Pereira da Cruz – both local television transmitter engineers.

When the deaths of the two young men were announced, others came forward to tell of strange sightings around the area their bodies had been found. Usually reported was an oblong-shaped object that appeared to “glow orange” and emitted strange beams to the ground. Had this been the craft that the two television transmitter engineers had been hopeful of seeing?

Incidentally, you can read an in-depth account of the above incident in our book From Deep Within The Archives Of UFO Insight.

Another Deadly Alien Encounter Two Decades Previously!

Upon visiting the site of Viana and Cruz’s death as part of his research, Vallee was soon bombarded with other strange stories and tales from the region – some dating back two decades prior.

In 1946 Prestes Filho was returning to his village of Aracriguama at a little after 7 pm from a fishing trip when a strange object appeared overhead, shooting out a strange beam of light as it did so. The light “hit” Filho, who barely managed to get to his front door and inform his sister of what had happened.

Within hours his condition had worsened dramatically. Vallee wrote that he had learned from the reports, “his flesh had literally detached itself from the bones. It was as if he had been boiled in hot water for a very long time, so that his skin and underlying tissue fell!”

By the time Filho had reached the local hospital, he was dead. Bizarrely his skin continued to come away from his bones after death.

The strange Case Of Arcesio Bermudez

Another account took place three years after the original incident that Vallee had traveled to Brazil to investigate – this time in the small town of Anolaima [2] in Colombia. Just after 7 pm on 4th July 1969, two children saw a strange bright object land in a nearby field of a local farm.

One of the main witnesses, Mauricio Gnecco, had arrived at the farm with his Aunt Rosa, whose cousin was the owner. There were several other children, who were also part of the family and had arrived to spend several nights at the farm.

One evening during the stay, Mauricio along with three cousins, Andres, Marina, and Enrique, had ventured on to a hill to look at the stars overhead. It was as they were doing so that they first noticed the strange light, different from the stars, appear overhead.

The children remained where they were and watched the light as it moved. As they did so, they could clearly see that it was growing steadily larger, as if it were approaching. Bizarrely, though, they noted between themselves that no sound could be heard, even as the object continued its approach.

As Mauricio continued to watch, the other children began calling to the other family members to come and see this bizarre and unnerving light.

Like “Something In A Science Fiction Movie!”

Grabbing their torches, they began to flash and signal in its direction. The object responded and came rapidly closer to them. The rest of the family – the three adults and the six younger children – now alerted by the children’s terrified cries, came out to witness the bright craft.

In all, there were 13 family members who saw the object overhead. They would describe it as approximately the size of a car and a sphere-like shape. Furthermore, it glowed a particularly bright amber color which lit up the area below. Then, it began to move again back toward the main house over the field of blackberry crops.

Arcesio snatched a torch out of his child’s hands and made off in the direction the brightly lit craft had gone. He quickly disappeared into the blackberry crops that lined the field. The children followed, a little less eager than Arcesio. As they did, they could hear the general distress of the cattle and chickens, as well as the apparent agitation of the family’s dogs.

They suddenly arrived at one of the outbuildings behind the main house. There, in front of them was Arcesio, and across from him was the glowing object, hovering only ever so slightly above the ground.

They watched for several minutes as Arcesio and the strange object remained opposite to each other, as if in a bizarre stand-off. Then, it rose into the air and suddenly took off at breakneck speed into the night sky. Mauricio would recall how it was like something “seen in a science fiction movie”.

They all would return home. And although they would turn into bed as normal, no one in the house slept at all that evening.

A Tragic End To A Disturbing Experience

The next day the children were to return to their respective homes following the stay. Before doing so, they went to find their uncle (Arcesio) to thank him and bid him farewell. However, he had remained in bed due to waking up feeling extremely ill.

Then, three days later, things took an even more dramatic turn. Mauricio’s mother received a call from his aunty. She needed her to come back to the farm and take Arcesio to the hospital.

In the coming days, Arcesio became increasingly ill. Dark blue spots had appeared on his skin and he had a constant feeling of nausea. A week after the sighting, he had died. The official explanation for his death was put down to gastroenteritis.

The doctor in charge of his case, however, did note that he could not explain his very low body temperature. In fact, according to some reports, so cold was Arcesio that nurses were not able to take blood samples due to crystallization having occurred.

Perhaps even stranger is the account from Mauricio’s mother, who claimed that on the way to the hospital, Arcesio leaned on her for a moment. Not only could she feel how disturbingly cold he was, but that cold feeling remained on that side of her body until he passed away three days later.

Some reports even state that Arcesio had claimed to family that he had witnessed a “strange creature” in a clear part at the top of the craft on the night of the sighting. He had shone his light on it and alerted it to his presence, causing the object to light up once more and vacate the area entirely. How true this claim is, however, remains open to debate.

This truly bizarre and tragic case, though, doesn’t end there.

Just Where Is The Body Of Acresio Bermudez?

We should also note, as highlighted by UFO researcher, Scott Corrales, that far from being a strange case that no one has heard of, the incident drew national and international attention for a brief period in 1969, with several publications running stories and reports on it.

In fact, one of the leading UFO organizations at the time, APRO, would send several field investigators to examine the incident. It was their general opinion that Arcesio had arguably been exposed to large amounts of radiation due to his close proximity to the UFO.

They would seek permission from the family to have his body exhumed in order to perform tests. The family would, incidentally, refuse. However, several years later, when they eventually agreed to exhume the body, the situation turned even more disturbing.

Upon opening the coffin, all present would discover that the body was gone. What’s more, there has never been a satisfactory explanation as to what happened to it, or who might have taken it. Might we suspect that there was a military involvement in the removal of the body? Or perhaps even a discreet foreign intelligence? Especially given the attention the case received. One particularly outlandish suggestion was that whatever intelligence was behind the strange craft had returned to retrieve his body for study.

There has, however, been much speculation about the grim theft.

Perhaps the claim that rings truest, though, is one that the family themselves learned through their own investigations in the local community. According to what they were told, several strange men had offered a substantial amount of money to one of the gravediggers of the churchyard where Arcesio was buried in return for allowing them to dig up and remove the body. Who these men were, however, is not known.

A Small Glimmer That Some Information Might Be (One Day) Forthcoming

The tragic case of Arcesio Bermudez is one that still frustrates UFO investigators and enthusiasts around the world. And while the truth coming to light might be unlikely, perhaps the fact that Arcesio’s body was taken by a mysterious person (or persons) leaves open the possibility of a disclosing or leaking of information regarding the case.

We should, though, collectively keep the case alive through research, investigation, discussion, and the exchange of ideas and theories. Perhaps not least as the incident is one that appears credible and genuine. From the number of witnesses to the event, the official records of the treatment of Arcesio at the hospital in the days that followed the incident, as well as the attention it received in the press and across borders.

The main witness to the incident, Mauricio, has maintained an interest in the events of that July evening in 1969, events he would describe as life-changing. And he has also suffered a certain amount of ridicule and even “bullying” over the years for his open-minded approach to ascertaining just what did happen to his uncle.

The video below looks at this most strange of cases a little further.

Pulse Wave Technology?

Vallee concluded from his research in Brazil that many of the victims who had witnessed UFOs had died from “high-power pulsed microwaves” – essentially as if they had been placed into a large microwave and “cooked!”

Whether these deaths were intentional or just a result of someone being in the vicinity to such a strange craft is open to debate. As is who the people behind these “microwaves” might have been.

Were they extraterrestrial visitors from another world? Or might they have been secret government weapons being tested somewhere far away from home soil? Although the official word is that the US government for example was working with the beginnings of such technology in the 1960s, it is widely accepted that behind closed doors, they are generally twenty or thirty years ahead of their official position.

Dr. Steven Greer is just one of many people who believe this to be the case. He also firmly believes, that at least in part, recovered and back-engineered alien technology is the reason for this. In an extensive interview he gave in 2005, he stated to having in his possession “leaked papers” that showed the United States government alone monitors around five-hundred UFOs that enter the Earth’s atmosphere every year – these UFOs are codenamed “fast-walkers.”

The CEO of Lockheed Skunkworks – a company who oversees many secret government projects – is famous for having brashly stated to the media, “…anything you can imagine, we already have the technology to do, but these technologies are locked up in black budgets!”

You can check out the video below which is a recent lecture given by Dr. Steven Greer from November 2015. One word of note here though – this lecture is nearly four hours long, so it might be best to read on and then come back to this clip at the end. It is very interesting stuff to say the very least.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident?

The US secret government and military off-shoots are certainly not the only government to have at least come under some suspicion of such activities. In 1959 in the far northern reaches of the Soviet Union, following the discovery of nine missing, but experienced hikers, questions began to be asked if such weapons tests had contributed to their deaths.

The incident is commonly referred to as The Dyatlov Pass Incident and is one of the most bone-chilling mysteries of the twentieth century. Their final campsite was discovered in late February 1959 over three weeks after their last entry was made. Their tent had been cut out from the inside and it appeared that many of the hikers had left the tent unclothed and barefoot. Footprints were noticed in the snow but they stopped suddenly in the middle of nowhere.

A short distance away, the first group of four hikers were discovered. It was a further three months before the remaining five were found.

Military Testing Or Alien Intervention?

Examinations on their remains led to an official ruling of accidental death due to the extreme elements they were exposed to. However, all of the hikers had signs of radiation, and perhaps more telling, all of them had internal injuries that were more reminiscent in people who have been struck by a high-speed vehicle, despite no external injuries to suggest such a collision.

Was the Soviet military testing secret pulse weapons that evening? The area the hikers were found was close to land where such weapons tests had previously taken place.

Of course many also firmly believe that UFO activity – which was recorded by locals the evening of the group’s last recorded diary entry – is purely responsible for their deaths. There was also said to have been considerable damage and burns made to a tree overhead where the first four hikers were found – said by some to have been caused by an object that had descended on the group.

Several of the hikers appeared to have precise cuts to the mouth, eyes, and tongue – very much in the same way that cattle mutilations are carried out. This is interesting in itself, given that a much-debated topic of the cattle mutilation phenomena is just how the animals are “tamed” to allow such procedures to take place with no struggle. Might they also be subjected to “pulse” technology?

Check out the video below which looks at the Dyatlov Pass Incident in a little more detail.

The Truly Mysterious Disappearance Of Todd Sees

A possible UFO encounter that resulted in someone’s death in more recent times [3] is the unsolved and unexplained death of Todd Sees in 2002. Sees would leave his home where he lived with his family to embark on a morning scouting deer. He wouldn’t return home, however, and his body was eventually discovered only a short distance from his home in a place that had already been searched.

This last detail perhaps might remind us of other similar accounts from the Missing 411 research of David Paullides. However, when it came to light that there were several witnesses in the town that had seen strange objects over the area on the day of Sees’ disappearance, including one that would even claim to have seen a person trapped in a strange beam over the area where Sees vehicle was eventually found, investigators and researchers in UFO circles began to take a serious interest in this tragic affair.

Many such researchers and investigators of the paranormal have examined the Sees case, with Butch Witkowski perhaps conducting some of the most extensive research.

We should also note that the case is that of a real person with a real family who are undoubtedly more distressed and upset than anyone at Todd’s death. There are, though, it would appear, legitimate reasons to research and investigate the case and the links to UFO activity in the area.

An Early Morning Deer Scouting Trip That Turned Tragic

It was around 5 am on 4th August 2002 when 39-year-old Todd Sees left his home [4] in Montour Ridge in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He planned to scout deer, something he had done many times previously, with this family expecting him home around noon. He would set out in his 4WD truck, perfect for the rough terrain where he was headed.

However, when noon came and went without his return, his family became immediately concerned. They would soon notify local police of his disappearance and a search operation was put into action. This involved local and state police, search and rescue personnel, as well as around 200 volunteers. Furthermore, highly trained sniffer dogs and helicopter units would take part in the search efforts.

The entire area was searched, including the family property itself and the woodlands adjacent to it. Also searched was a pond that was around 70 feet from the family home. In fact, because of the small body of water and its close proximity to the house, this particular area was searched extremely thoroughly. No sign of Todd Sees was discovered; however, his truck was found around two miles from his home at a ridge where he had stated he would be that morning.

Around 36 hours into the search, by pure chance, something in the bushes near the aforementioned pond caught the attention of one of the searchers. They would go to investigate further and make the grim discovery of Todd’s body. Quite how it could have been missed only the previous day has not been explained. Equally baffling is the eventual official ruling of “fatal cocaine toxicity”, despite obvious areas of concern in circumstances surrounding the case.

In fact, it would be only the first of many controversial circumstances surrounding the death of Todd Sees.

Question After Question After Question!

We should perhaps start by highlighting the distance between Sees’ truck and the location of the pond where his body was discovered – a total of 3 miles. Had he attempted to walk home, leaving the truck on the ridge? If so, why? It was a particularly hot day when he disappeared, and such a walk, while not a great distance, relatively speaking, is still a fair distance on such a day.

What’s more, given that the cause of death was already established and no one was being sought in connection with it, why did the FBI seemingly have an involvement in the case?

Perhaps even more perplexing is that, according to a member of the search team in response to Butch Witkowski’s question on the state of the body, there was no sign of injury or bitemarks that would indicate an animal attack. In fact, his body was “intact”.

However, when then asked why his family had not identified the body Witkowski was informed that they were to be spared from witnessing his “emaciated remains” as he (Gary Steffen, the Northumberland County’s Chief of Police) knew Todd Sees well. If Steffen was indicating that Sees’ body had suffered from decomposition, why had this seemingly happened so quickly in a little over 24 hours?

This confusion was seemingly compounded when the coroner, James Kelley, referred to Sees’ body as “the remains”, indicating that something physical had indeed injured Sees.

Perhaps above all else, why was his body missed the day before? Was he somewhere wandering around the woods seemingly “missing” the searchers as he did so? We have to think that is unlikely, especially given how well he knew the area and the close proximity to his house.

The UFO Connection – Was This A Deadly Alien Abduction?

There were, of course, at least two UFO reports around the same time as Sees’ disappearance. Each would claim to have witnessed a “saucer-shaped object” over Montour Ridge – the location where Sees’ car was discovered.

Of even more concern, though, was the detail that a light beam had seemingly snared a human being and was moving it through the air and toward the disc-like object overhead.

It is perhaps also worth noting that the area – like much of Pennsylvania – has a long history of UFO sightings. And these sightings continue as we enter into the 2020s.

Was Sees the extremely unfortunate victim of alien abduction, and even that, on this occasion, turned deadly? If not, what was the reason for the apparent secrecy and closed nature of the authorities on the circumstances of his death?

It is a fine line to tread for those in the UFO community who wish to examine this case. On the one hand, there is the very real death of a young man with a family. On the other, there is a whole host of unanswered questions and reasons for suspicion, not to mention the claims of UFO sightings in the area on the day of Sees’ disappearance.

Check out the video below. It looks at this tragic case a little further.

References

References
1 The Valentich Disappearance: Another UFO Cold Case Solved, James McGaha and Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, Nov/Dec 2013 https://skepticalinquirer.org/2013/11/the-valentich-disappearance-another-ufo-cold-case-solved/
2 The mysterious death of Colombian 3 days after seeing alleged UFO, Cristian Avila Jimenez, El Tiempo https://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otras-ciudades/ovni-avistamiento-y-desaparicion-de-hombre-en-anolaima-cundinamarca-363292
3 The Death of Todd Sees, National UFO Reporting Center, August 24th, 2002 http://www.nuforc.org/CB020824.html
4 The Mysterious Death of Todd Sees, The Black Vault https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/mysterious-death-todd-sees-erika-southey-tbv-investigations/

Marcus Lowth

Marcus Lowth is a writer with a love for UFOs, aliens, and the Ancient Astronaut Theory, to the paranormal, general conspiracies, and unsolved mysteries. He has been writing and researching with over 20 years of experience.

Marcus has been Editor-in-Chief for several years due to his excellent knowledge in these fields. Marcus also regularly appears as an expert on radio talk shows including Troubled Minds and Unexplained Radio discussing these topics.

Read Marcus' full bio.

You can contact Marcus via email.

Fact Checking/Disclaimer

Fact Checking

The stories, accounts, and discussions in this article may go against currently accepted science and common beliefs. The details included in the article are based on the reports, accounts and documentation available as provided by witnesses and publications - sources/references are published above.

We do not aim to prove nor disprove any of the theories, cases, or reports.  You should read this article with an open mind and come to a conclusion yourself.  Our motto always is, "you make up your own mind".  Read more about how we fact-check content here.

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