In an incident that occurred on January 6, 1976, in Kentucky, three women named Mona Stafford, Louise Smith, and Elaine Thomas reported being abducted by extraterrestrial beings. A lie detector test confirmed that they were telling the truth.
On the night of January 6, 1976, just after 11:15 p.m., these women were driving home to Liberty, Kentucky. They were heading southwest on Route 78 to their home after having a late dinner in Lancaster. While they were driving, they saw a bright crimson glow in the eastern sky. As they were moving further, the glow expanded in size and intensity until it quickly and quietly dropped down at an angle until it was just above the trees to the right of the car.
According to the three women, what they spotted was a disc-shaped object with round windows surrounded by flickering red lights that revolved counter-clockwise. The top of the object was adorned with a glowing blue dome, while a series of yellow lights were glowing beneath the object.
“The dome was blinding, and it reflected on a metallic surface which I’m sure was more than one hundred feet wide.”
Mona Stafford
Mona Stafford stated that the object flipped on its side as it approached their car after moving in a quick half-circle motion. Just after this, the object flashed three beams of bluish-white light on the road to the left of their car. The interiors were illuminated as if they were in sunlight when one of the beams of light entered their car.
Before exiting the car, Louise Smith, who had been driving the car, came to a halt. Stafford described her as “petrified” as she pulled her back into the car. Smith forgot this particular aspect of the incident. Stafford felt something, what she quoted as “dead silence. Even the wind stopped.” Once Smith was back in the car, Smith “deserted.” They could not stop them from crying. Their skin felt like it was being scorched. They also started getting really bad headaches.
Smith was shocked when she learned that the vehicle was still moving at a high speed of 85 mph even when she took her foot off the pedal. The lights on the UFOs also went off. At this point, Stafford, who was sitting next to her, agreed to help her steer, but it didn’t work at this point because Stafford could barely see anything. Stafford felt like the car was “being pulled and we were going over a long, straight road,” even though Route 78 is not straight. On the other hand, Smith remembered that “it felt like we were going over road bumps or flying in air pockets on a plane.” All I could see was a long, straight road ahead, with no lights, no houses, nothing I could recognize. ” The strangest thing of them all was that the engine was off.
Later, within a few seconds, they were just outside Hustonville, a place that was eight miles from where they initially observed the UFO (one mile south of Stanford). Finally, when they arrived at Smith’s trailer house, they drank a glass full of cold water as they felt dehydrated and depleted.
By chance, Smith caught a glimpse of the kitchen clock, and she was shocked as the clock showed the time was 1:25. and to cover the distance between Stanford and Liberty should have taken no more than 50 minutes. When she took a glimpse of her wristwatch, she was hit with another shock. As the wristwatch showed 6 o’clock, the minute hand appeared to be moving like a second hand. For the confirmation of time, they verified the reading from the kitchen clock with the bedroom clock, by which they realized a good hour and a half went missing.
All three friends tried to recall the events of the previous night. Stafford also contacted the state police, but they showed disinterest. They were in pain when they woke up the next morning. They also had raw skin, blisters, headaches, and burning eyes. Even the eye drops prescribed by Stafford’s doctor didn’t help her at all.
The Inspection Of The Incident
When the news of the incident spread among the general public and local media, Ufologists tried to interview the three ladies, but they denied it as they didn’t want any publicity. Eventually, the witnesses agreed to cooperate, and finally, on February 29, a team from the Texas-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) met with the women in person.
Leonard H. Stringfield, a ufologist, said that “the effects of the close encounter were still painfully apparent.” He went on to say that all three ladies appeared tired and stressed and that all three had experienced a sudden weight loss. When you look at Stafford’s eyes, they show “strong traces of inflammation.” When Smith revealed her nape of the back by lifting her hair, Stringfield noticed something that he described as a “round pinkish-gray blotch the size of a half-dollar.”
The main concern for the women was the missing time. According to Stringfield, hypnosis has the potential to remove the layer of amnesia. Later, Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, a consultant from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), which is a University of Wyoming psychologist, attempted hypnosis on Stafford on March 7. During the hypnosis, Stafford described the parts of the story she could remember, but at the point when Dr. Leo asked her about the parts of the incident that she did not remember, she got frantic.
Even though none of the ladies had indicated they had seen inhabitants of the extraterrestrial object, Stringfield drew a painting depicting entities described in numerous close calls of the third kind. Stringfield remained silent. Stafford quoted “This is it” while pointing toward one of the pictures. He further raised the question, “Is this what you saw after you mentioned the light coming into the car?” To which Stafford replied, she had a mental image that “comes and goes, fades and reappears like fog.” Later, even Thomas would independently point to the same figure, according to Stringfield.
Stringfield was criticized for his actions, as critics believed that he planted ideas and images into the psyche of an impressionable woman who was in an open state of mind. By the year 1976, the phenomenon of alien abduction and its characteristics were common, so the criticism was justified. Nobody, not even Stafford, could deny that a witness was being hypnotized to learn about the events of that night.
Funding problems slowed down the investigation. For further continuation of the hypnotic regression, none of the UFO organizations (APRO, MUFON, or the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS)) were ready to send a qualified investigating official to Kentucky, and they were not ready to bear the expenses involved in the investigation.
Jerry Black, a member of MUFON, came into the story and took charge of the investigation. He brought the National Enquirer into the story even though the investigators had agreed to keep the story out of the newspapers, especially the Enquirer. Jerry Black made a deal that brought Sprinkle to Kentucky and paid the women for their help.
James Young, a detective with the Lexington police department and a polygraph expert who has worked with a lot of people, was also hired by the Enquirer. All three women took the test, which indicated that they were honest. This seems pretty obvious. It was found that these women were religious people. Also, it was found that Smith even played in a gospel band and was a well-known individual.
The three women separately underwent hypnosis over the weekend. Despite the fact that their stories about the incident were similar, there was no complete or totally coherent account. After being taken out of the car, Stafford “remembered” being placed on a white table or bed in a dark, uncomfortably hot room. She was examined by an eye-like apparatus and a bright white light with an apparent “power” or energy seemed to hold her down. She was in front of a web-like structure and was also covered in a burning liquid substance. A sensation of pressure could be felt by Stafford around her eyeballs. Also, she was very closely examined by small individuals in “surgical masks” and “surgical garments”.
While she was under hypnosis she made a cryptic allusion to “being in a volcano”.
“It was a long tunnel, dark inside with an opening at the top. It’s clear now; at the end, I can see an operating room. Everything is white, a white, round light shining on a white table, and I can see four small beings around the table. They have a tube on somebody’s stomach… It’s a woman there on the table, but I can’t tell who it is. Maybe it’s me on that table being examined.”
Explained by Mona Stafford under full consciousness.
On the other hand, after exiting the car, Thomas “remembered,” being in a “chamber” with a window. Around her, she could spot humanoids who were four feet tall, gray-skinned, and had dark eyes walking back and forth. Her neck was wrapped in a noose of cocoon-like devices, and whenever she tried to utter a word or think of something, the devices got tighter and choked her. Also, for a short period of time, a bullet-shaped object was placed above her left breast.
Of the three, Smith had the haziest “memories” of them all. She recalled being pulled backward by the car, and after that, she was enveloped in a “strange darkness.” Also, a sensation of severe heat that could burn her flesh was felt by Smith. Then she was drenched in searing liquid, and she felt as if she was being inspected. She was unable to move her arms and her mouth was dehydrated. She declined to go under hypnosis when offered again that weekend.
An “oval-shaped and large, with a brilliant circle of light” object was spotted by multiple residents of that area on the evening of January 6. The object traveled without making any sound and stopped only to hover for a brief moment before shooting away “at great speed.” Just a few hundred yards from where the incident took place with the women, there was a very interesting sighting at 11:30 p.m. A bulb-shaped object that was brightly lit up and was heading toward the south was spotted by a couple from their window.
Aftermath Of The Incident
When Stringfield called Smith on July 29 to check on her, she stated that she was in bed, too ill to go to work. Additionally, she stated that something had occurred during the last 24 hours. “A voice or whatever it was” had disturbed her deep sleep and made her drive alone to the place where that incident happened. Despite the fact that she was feeling frightened there, somehow, for a period of time, she was unable to go away from that place. There was also a tugging at her hands there. Then it was 3:00 in the morning when she dashed into her car and drove to Stanford. Somewhere along the way, she noticed that two of her rings had vanished from her hands. She could not get them out of her hands accidentally, because on rare occasions when she took them out, she had to first moisten her hands with soap in order to remove them.
She and a police officer searched for the ring the following morning, but they failed. Somehow, mysteriously in September, the two rings resurfaced at the door to her trailer home.
As time passed, the victim’s “memories” of their missed period evolved, and they were able to remember more about that incident. Stafford stated that “The aliens separated us, and I can remember leaving one ship and finding myself aboard another, with three floors, and there was a dome over me… Somehow, I also had the feeling I was in a cave or volcano – underground somewhere. ” Smith remembered that those extraterrestrial beings wore hoods and their bodies were completely covered. Their eyes were “frightening… large and pointed towards the temples”. Smith also stated that their hands were “like a bird’s wing would be if you could stretch it out.”
According to Stafford, she again encountered aliens. After her UFO encounter in Kentucky, Stafford was emotionally weak, so she moved in with her parents for a while. She did, however, decide to go back to her trailer one evening. She was comfortable on the couch when a mental “voice” told her to turn around. When she turned around, she saw an enigmatic creature drenched in light and standing near her kitchen counter. The creature was five feet tall, with reddish-gold colored hair and a beard, and was wearing a shiny robe. She said the creature “looked the way they were described in biblical days.”
Stafford was shocked and fascinated at the same time. The creature gave her a telepathic command to look into his eyes, but Stafford ignored it. The second command that was given by the alien was obeyed by Stafford, as she knew that she could not fight him. There was a “force” that kept her from getting close enough to the phone when she tried to pick it up. She forgot what happened after that. The creature said, “Buree, the mind is still hungry.” This was the thing that she remembered. The figure “just vanished” after that. She searched for the meaning of “Buree” in the dictionary when she arrived at her parents’ house. She was not able to find the meaning of the word and was convinced that she had “heard” it right.
This encounter made the women weak, and it took more time for them to recover. Then, for a while, they kept contacting Sprinkle to get more information and be calmed down. All the three women who encountered the aliens later had paranormal experiences, and some of those experiences even didn’t involve UFOs or aliens. For a while, Stafford lived in Florida before moving back to Kentucky, and Smith eventually moved to Las Vegas. In 1978, Thomas passed away.
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