02x09 - The Abduction

[bunniefuu]

I was struggling to breathe.

What's going on here?

What explains this pain?

Where are we? What's going on?

I recalled getting out of the truck.

UFO was just sitting there.

Travis, get back in the truck.

I thought the world was coming to an end.

Bam.

[Engine revving]

[All shouting at once]

I truly feared for my life.

We saw this thing. I think it was a UFO.

I thought it was a hoax of some kind to cover up a crime.

If he is not found, his disappearance will remain a mystery.

Where is the body of Travis Walton?

I was amazed at the results of the examinations.

The fear was absolutely over the top.

Stay away from me!

Felt like I was fighting for my life.

I sort of mark time in my life by November 5, 1975.

The trauma from this event has never gone away.

Even yet after all this time, to recall it puts me there, and I sort of relive it.

I was out of my mind with fear.

Some people just keep telling themselves such things can't happen.

If you're gonna judge this, first take a look at the facts.

They brought me back.

The facts speak for themselves.

I was 22. I was young, single.

Basically considered by the locals to be a bit of a rebel, not being a real church regular.

Travis was something.

Travis did things his way.

I remember him being a fighter and wild bull rider.

Morning, easy rider.

Morning.

Could you possibly drive something a little more quieter in the morning?

I have to wake you up, don't I?

We were headed out of the woods one day, and then a bear ran across the road, and he jumped out and ran after it.

Pretty tough kid.

That pickup didn't ride very good.

I think it needed new shocks or something.

It was quite a long drive to get out there.

Right up on one of the highest points in the Sitgreaves National Forest.

All right, boys.

Mike Rogers was the crew boss.

I had a contract to clear trees out of an area, about 1,200 acres' worth.

Trav?

Yeah.

Him and Travis were real good friends, you know?

Help him out?

Yeah, sure.

I had six men working for me.

I wouldn't have hired them unless they were all hard-working, level-headed guys.

[Chain saws buzzing]

We were basically there for the purpose of work, and it wasn't a group of buddies or anything like that.

John basically got along with everybody.

It was a tough job, and it was a tough bunch of people.

Running a chainsaw, you had to be fast and also be careful.

A chainsaw won't slice you, but it tears chunks of meat out of you.

Kenny was a real straitlaced sort of a guy.

I was raised in Mormonism, and I'd been married a couple of years, and we had a baby.

I was planning on doing some other things, but in the interim, I was gonna work with Mike for a few weeks.

Steve Pierce was the youngest guy on the crew.

I lied about my age to get the job.

[Chuckles]

They didn't know I was 17 at the time.

Mike thought I was 18, and I lied to him because my mom was hurting for money, and I had to go to work.

One of the guys had only been on the job three days.

Dwayne Smith, I don't think he was that used to that kind of work.

He wasn't stacking right, and Mike jumped on me for it.

I didn't like that too well.

[Chain saws buzzing]

Allen was sort of the black sheep of the crew, I guess you'd say.

Allen Dalis and Travis Walton, they didn't get along with each other.

At one point during the day, Allen cut a tree.

It fell close enough to me to where it was kind of alarming.

I looked at Allen like, you know, watch it.

We were putting in some pretty long days.

You'd take a big, old paper sack full of food, and we'd eat about three times a day, you know?

It was hard work.

The contract was behind, so I was pushing them extra hard.

We worked until the sun was going down.

That's a long day out there, you know?

I can remember packing everything away.

That's what was my job. I packed the gear away.

[Chuckles]

It was dark by the time we got everything loaded up.

The path that we were following was along this logging trail.

We really got to pick up the slack tomorrow.

Everybody's pretty b*at, you know? They're pretty tired.

Enough about work, man. Let's talk more about the women.

We were talking about this girl or that girl or going out partying.

Does she have a sister?

She's got three sisters, right?

I love the girls, man.

We hadn't driven very far when we caught sight of a glow through the trees.

Hey, guys, do you see all that?

What is that?

What the heck is that?

It was just little glimpses and glimmers.

Is it the moon?

At first, we thought it was the moon, and then off to the left, you could see the moon.

Moon's over here.

I thought, what in the heck is it?

Somebody said they thought it was a forest fire.

If it were a forest fire, there'd be smoke coming over those trees.

That's not fitting. That doesn't look quite right.

Someone was saying that it could be a crashed plane.

No, man. I've seen plane crashes before.

I'd been in the navy. It didn't appear that way to me.

Hey, Mike!

I said, Mike, hurry up!

Let's get up there where we can see.

We come around this one bend, and there's a clearing.

Stop the truck!

I was throwing the door open even as the truck skidded to a stop.

It was... Boom.

UFO was just sitting there.

It was a clearly defined metallic object.

Hovering less than 100 feet away.

Perfectly still, 15 feet off the ground.

It was a white that I've never seen before.

And haven't seen since.

I'd never seen anything defying gravity like that.

I could actually see framework.

It had panels that were lighted.

It was beautiful.

Ah, it was prettier than a brand new corvette.

Travis.

It was terrifying, but it was beautiful.

Get back in the truck.

Everybody in the truck started yelling at Travis to get away from there.

[All yelling at once]

Frightened all of us.

[All yelling]

The closer I got, the louder they got.

Travis!

He glanced back once, but he didn't look scared.

I thought it would be gone before I got close enough for it to be dangerous.

My heart was really pounding.

The closer I got to it, the more I realized that it wasn't gonna take off.

It was really terrifying and exciting at the same time.

But I was looking up at about a 45.

It was like glass.

It was making these strange sounds...

That suddenly got louder and more powerful.

Soon the light would be coming alive.

Like it was winding up to leave.

I knew something was gonna happen right then.

Can I make a run for the truck?

This greenish blue light came out and zapped him.

I really thought he was dead.

He went about 15, 20 feet.

I immediately thought they'd k*lled him, and they were gonna k*ll us.

The guys were all screaming at me to leave.

They said, they've got him.

I felt the jerk of the pickup.

Hit the gas and took off down the road.

[Engine revving]

[All yelling at once]

Everybody was yelling.

Complete panic.

Is it following us? Is it after us?

Mike kept saying it was following us, but I don't think anybody was looking back.

I was terrified.

I truly feared for my life.

[All yelling]

If the thing that we saw didn't scare them, my driving certainly did.

Slow down!

[Panting]

I want to go home.

I saw it! I saw it!

I know.

What are you doing?

We got to get out of here.

We need to think. We need to think about this. We can't...

Total confusion when we come to a stop.

Just let's think for a second, guys, come on.

Brought to our knees like that.

I got to go. I got to go home.

A real traumatic experience.

Whew.

Um...

It was scary.

I need to go home.

We've got to go!

I can't be here anymore.

Just be quiet for a second, guys. I've gotta to think this through.

I can't stay here!

I can't be here anymore.

Guys, just calm down.

Just calm down! Shh!

I got to think. I got to think. I got to think.

Come back...

Just let me think for a minute.

Come on, man. Get back in the truck.

We've got to get home.

I knew we had to go back.

[All yelling at once]

Mike, we have to go.

We have to leave.

The guys argued about it.

We got to get out of here, man.

He's gone.

He could just be uncon...

I thought the world was coming to an end.

We don't even know what happened.

You saw it. It hit him in the chest.

One of the other guys said he was incinerated.

He went flying 20 feet.

I saw it.

You saw it.

I had assumed it had k*lled him.

He's incinerated. You saw it.

I said no, I seen him hit the ground.

He's there. He's there. He's there.

I'm gonna go back and check. You guys can wait here.

So I told them, well, you can stand here and wait, but this truck's going back.

I'll come back and pick you up, okay?

Just wait here.

The light!

I'll go back and...

All of the guys decided to stay in the truck.

They didn't want to wait in the dark.

Either you're gonna go back, or you're gonna be out beside the road by yourself.

I was thinking he was lying there, and I thought we'd find a body.

You just knew he was dead.

We got back to the spot.

Travis?

The thing was gone.

Travis was gone.

He was right here. I swear, we left him right here.

Travis, where are you?

We was all hollerin' for him.

Travis!

Travis!

Travis!

See he wasn't in the clearing, so we started walking through the trees around the perimeter.

Travis, where are you?

He's gone.

We stayed in a real close bunch, shoulder to shoulder.

It was very scary.

Travis. Travis!

Mike realized he was gone.

Let's get back to the truck.

He kind of broke down.

I realized we left him there, you know.

I was very ashamed.

[Crying] I can't!

We... We left.

Drove into town.

We can't go to the cops, man.

We got to... Let's just get out of here. Let's go home, guys.

We were confused, not knowing exactly what to do.

We can't go home.

We have to go home.

At least three of us were pretty apprehensive about calling the law.

I didn't want to call the cops because I knew the cops weren't gonna believe us anyway.

They're never gonna believe us, man.

Yeah, my friend just got zapped by a UFO. I can't find him.

Allen Dalis had been in trouble with the law before and said something to try to discourage it.

Mike, I can't talk to the cops.

That's what we had to do, you know, to try to find him.

Mike was just too upset to even make a phone call.

I didn't want to be the one to explain it to somebody like a Sheriff.

I was afraid to tell them anything about a UFO.

I need to report a missing person.

Said he'd be right over.

It'll be fine. It'll be fine.

Everybody was pretty close to hysterical about it.

We shouldn't have called the cops.

We need help.

We don't have any other choice.

And it was awful lying about it because you just cause yourself more problems.

There was no hiding that something had happened.

We have to tell them what we saw.

Only thing you could tell him was... Just tell him the truth.

[Siren chirps]

I can remember him arriving.

He didn't look too happy.

Evening, boys.

What's going on?

I know this is gonna sound crazy.

You're never gonna believe me, but we saw this thing, and I think it was a UFO, okay?

I was looking at his face.

I was expecting total disbelief.

And it took our friend Travis, all right?

He's out there somewhere. We don't know where he is.

All of them were trying to talk at once to...

Explain what they had...

Apparently seen.

We don't know what happened to him.

Extreme light! I don't know...

You boys been drinking tonight?

Absolutely not. We've been working all day.

He looked over the pickup.

Anyway, so Travis gets out of the truck...

He thought we were drinking and partying and stuff, you know?

All of them seemed to be shook up with fear.

He's missing. He's out there. You've got to find him.

Well, they were acting pretty excited but, I thought they were just putting on, really.

So what you're saying is, is this here is a missing persons case?

Yes.

I did not put much stock in the UFO story.

They took him. He's gone.

Okay.

I thought it was a hoax of some kind to cover up a crime.

That's a negative, Sheriff.

[People speaking indistinctly]

The next day, everybody headed back there.

We made a decision to get a large search party in the area.

My primary thought was we would be searching for a body, or an injured individual.

We had about 60 men out there searching, looking in all the brush piles.

If he'd wandered off in a daze or something, being as cold as it was, he could've frozen to death.

In my mind, Travis is dead.

I ain't going back out there with 100 cops.

So while my mom was talking to them, I just snuck out the back door.

I hid a lot after that.

The searchers just fanned out in different directions, searched for a mile or two and then doubled back and take a different route back.

They found every piece of paper and coffee cup and plastic bag.

We also had some volunteer people with geiger counters.

I looked over and noticed these guys had some instruments.

Excuse me.

I asked them what they were doing.

Just checking for radiation.

Are you finding anything?

Nothing. Just background radiation.

And I says, well, why don't you check us?

He ran this machine over me, and there wasn't any radiation.

You're clean.

Okay, but we showered...

But then I remembered, you know, we had all changed clothes and everything.

And I said, well, I have our hard hats.

Here. Check these.

All right.

[Geiger counter ticking]

And the needle went... [Trills tongue]

Seconds after that, they left.

Hey, do you know who those guys are?

What they're doing here?

Nobody knew who they were.

The second day of the search, we had a helicopter.

They circled a wide area.

Our thoughts were that this individual could have traveled, a pretty good distance.

He might be holed up in some abandoned ranch house or a cabin, so we made it a point to check every building 20 miles around the site.

Law enforcement officials say they are treating this case as a missing person.

They are searching on foot and by helicopter, just as they would for anyone lost in this rugged part of the state.

Five of the group knew Walton for 3 to as much as 12 years.

The sixth met him Monday for the first time.

The area around Heber is full of deer hunters this time of year.

If Walton is there, searchers believe he will be found.

If he is not found, his disappearance will remain what it is now...

A mystery.

They were searching pretty thorough.

And the Sheriff was very serious about it.

But his deputy Sheriff was very skeptical.

You know, if you boys just tell us where the body is, we can get this over with and all go home.

He starts telling me, hey, tell us what you did to Travis.

Huh? [Chuckles]

He chuckled and he said...

I suppose Travis is halfway up to Mars by now.

He told me that he was the best bloodhound in Navajo County.

I know something happened up here.

Because I didn't believe the story from the start.

If you tell us the truth, we'll go a lot easier on you.

Hadn't thought much about, the repercussions for us if, you know, Travis wasn't returned.

All the boys have reported in. They've seen nothing all night, Sheriff.

We made a thorough search of the area.

Unit two, you anything?

That's a negative, Sheriff.

And of course, we didn't find anything.

That's it for tonight. All right?

We did not find any sign of a crime.

We didn't find any indications of a UFO.

Sheriff's office. Deputy Coplan. What can I help you with?

The news by then had spread worldwide.

No, it's a missing persons case.

We were trying to do our regular business, and we just couldn't get anything done.

We only had one phone line.

Oh, for Pete's sake.

There's no aliens. There's no spacecrafts.

I always told them just what I thought.

Sheriff!

They didn't want to talk to anyone else.

They wanted the Sheriff.

Sheriff Gillespie.

I felt stress over the entire situation.

As far as we're concerned, this is just a missing persons case.

Good-bye.

[Phone rings]

Just as soon as you hang up, somebody else calling.

Sheriff Gillespie.

It felt like I had a telephone growing out of both ears.

He's probably holed up in the woods somewhere.

I got tired of it.

That's right. No.

Sometimes I was frustrated and maybe a little short with them.

I'm going out for coffee.

Yes, Sir.

It'd been four days of searching, and there was no trace of him.

That's when the accusations came around.

Most of town thought we'd k*lled him.

I'd hear shouts from people driving by.

Where's the body?

I started getting scared about it, wondering where this was gonna lead.

Hey, boys.

At that point, my thoughts were that they had done harm to this guy and was trying to do something to cover that up.

What's this?

You boys still sticking to your story?

It's the truth.

He thought they had probably knocked Travis in the head and buried him.

How would you feel about submitting to a polygraph examination?

What?

A lie detector test.

That's when the nervousness came in.

We knew we had to do it.

Did you really see a UFO?

Comment. Can you give us a comment?

My mom brung me.

Do you really think that you saw a UFO that night?

Where's the body?

Did you really see a UFO?

You saw a UFO...

There was a lot of people there.

Do you think you'll pass the polygraph test?

Lot of media, a lot of cameras.

They were really pushing us.

Where is the body of Travis Walton?

Did we k*ll him?

Do you really believe that you saw a UFO that night?

Where's the body?

Did you really see a UFO?

Can you tell us what happened?

Tell us what happened.

I do remember telling them, I don't know what it was.

It's not from this planet.

John!

Where did you hide the body?

John!

All right, folks. Please leave the Courthouse steps.

You're gonna be here for a while, so make yourselves comfortable.

I'd say we were locked up.

We were starting to get pretty scared about it.

What if this is just a setup?

What if John didn't see the exact same thing as me?

What if he says something different? Then they think we're all lying.

They were all arguing with each other, trying to decide what to say and...

I was scared to death, you know.

This don't feel good.

No, this doesn't feel good at all.

It was a bad day. It was a scary day.

We were introduced to a lie detector guy.

Gentlemen, this is Mr. Cy Gilson.

Cy Gilson was his name.

He'll be administering the polygraph tests.

Please give him your undivided attention.

Morning, all.

He was a top-rated polygraph examiner in the state of Arizona.

I assume that nobody here has gone through this before, so I'll let you know what we're doing here.

I gave them a brief idea of what we were going to do.

We start off with a series of control questions.

He sounded and acted rather skeptical.

So those are the questions, if y'all want to have a look.

And I was scared once I saw what the tests were for.

I'm starting to realize this isn't for a UFO.

This is for m*rder.

So those are the questions, if y'all want to have a look.

No.

What's it say?

No, it was not that kind of...

What does it say?

What kind of questions are these?

We had a confrontation.

Are these questions set up?

We're trying to get at the truth here.

Is this a setup?

I want to know what kind of questions...

Allen Dalis' mother was telling us that they were gonna set it up to where we look guilty.

This isn't funny. This is our lives.

They didn't trust me to start with...

[All shouting at once]

Even though they did not know me or my reputation.

This is the best way...

We came here to show you the truth.

Mike, Mike, get your boys in order.

Boys, please.

Tell your boys to calm down.

The Sheriff guaranteed that the tests would be fair.

Just relax, all right?

So I finally agreed to it.

See you all soon.

I was expecting that the results would disclose that they had done something to Travis Walton and this was a hoax to cover up a crime.

I was more scared that day than the day we saw the UFO.

Because I thought we was gonna go to prison for m*rder.

Steve Pierce.

You're up, son.

And I was the first one to take the polygraph test.

All right, son, take off your jacket and have a seat, please.

He was all business.

For your respiration. This is gonna measure your blood pressure.

Okay, now I want you to relax.

He told me to be calm.

I want you to answer truthfully.

All right, son?

It was hard to be calm.

Take a few deep breaths, and remember, it's important to tell me the truth.

He was the youngest of the group.

He would probably be the easiest one to get a confession from.

Do you know if Travis Walton's body is buried or hidden somewhere in the Turkey Springs area?

No.

I figured, me being so nervous, that I would flunk it no matter what.

Did you do anything physical to cause Travis' death or to cause him injury?

No.

In my case, the tests were looked on as having...

Ninety two to ninety seven percent accuracy.

Are you telling the truth about seeing a UFO?

Yes.

Took me about two hours or so for each one.

I would not tell any of the individuals how they did when they finished the examination.

I was by myself.

I guess they didn't want us talking afterwards.

Ken Peterson.

He's an eager beaver.

I've had dreams about being on my way to prison.

Did you do anything physical to cause Travis' death or to cause him injury?

I don't know how much of an emotional reaction you had to show.

No.

And the thoughts of ending up in jail because he's gone and we can't explain the right reason for it.

John Goulette.

I was starting to get quite worried about it, especially when they weren't coming back.

Are you telling the truth about seeing a UFO?

Yes, Sir.

Is it gonna show that I'm lying because I'm scared?

Are you telling the truth...

Yes.

Are you telling the truth...

Yes.

Why are you asking me these questions?

Dalis and Travis had a personal conflict.

Did you do anything physical to cause Travis' death or to cause him injury?

What kind of question is that?

He was not gonna cooperate at all.

Will you just answer the question yes or no, Sir?

Why would you ask me that question?

He would move his arm or something, and these movements caused deflection of the pins, and at the end, no determination could be made with him.

The tests took all day and up into the evening.

Where the hell is he going?

I wanted to have another examiner review the charge first before I'd give a final answer.

Hey, where are you going?

I don't know about you gents, but I'm going home.

We'd ask him...

What about the results?

He says, I can't really discuss the tests.

We've been waiting all day. You got to be able to tell us something.

I'm afraid Allen's test was incomplete.

We had to do a little pressuring.

What about the rest of us?

He says, as far as I can see...

Y'all are telling the truth.

Five of the six passed examination.

Just... My...

All the suspicion was just pressing down on you, and then we could breathe easy.

Good day, gents.

And everything from that point...

Well, everything wasn't better but...

At least we were no longer suspected of m*rder.

I don't think it's even possible...

For five of those individuals to answer the same questions...

And b*at me at my game.

Well?

I remember telling the Sheriff...

They all passed.

What?

And, of course, he's...

What about the UFO?

It's not a hoax.

I don't know what it was, but they saw something.

He was a bit shocked.

I think, if I remember the expression on his face.

They're not lying to you about that.

A little surprised, yes, I was.

Speechless for a matter of a minute or two.

But still there was no Travis.

It's me, Travis.

They brought me back.

I was laying on the edge of the highway.

I could see there was a light coming from above.

But before I could shift my gaze...

The light went out.

I could see the bottom of this craft.

It just sh*t straight up.

I immediately shifted my attention to, where am I?

I felt kind of unsure of my footing.

Took off running.

I was energized by the feeling of freedom.

I recognized the town down below.

I ran towards the lights.

Took every bit of strength I had to get that far.

I called my brother-in-law.

It's me, Travis.

They brought me back.

He thought it was a prank call.

No, it's Travis.

I screamed, no, it's me! It's me! It's Travis!

I'm at the gas station...

In Heber.

I just kind of collapsed.

It seemed like, boom, lights coming into the phone booth.

Travis.

That light in the forest...

My brother Dwayne sat there next to me.

I tried to tell him what I'd been through.

It's okay.

I just broke down so much that he said, okay, just don't try to talk.

We've missed you for the past few days.

Few days?

What do you mean days, you know?

My brother says, Travis, feel your face.

And I felt a five-day growth of beard.

We need to get you to a doctor.

I just kind of went catatonic there.

Kind of gave up.

I was in a constant state of terror.

The memories of what I'd been through, I just couldn't let it go.

My brother Dwayne took me to Phoenix.

And set about trying to get me checked out.

His demeanor was compatible with being through some type of...

Traumatic experience.

One might call it maybe slightly dazed.

We did some blood work on him...

Chemical tests...

Blood count...

Blood proteins.

I was looking for signs of trauma. I was looking for signs of exposure.

What is this here?

The only sign of any trauma was a little, possible injection site.

Then we went back to Dwayne's house.

Let's go.

[Phone ringing]

Dwayne spoke to the Sheriff.

Dwayne Walton.

The Sheriff apparently already knew that I had been returned.

Yes. Yeah, he's here.

They tried to discourage me from coming to Phoenix.

No one is gonna see him until I am satisfied he's okay.

The Sheriff was insistent that he needed to interview me personally.

I immediately left Holbrook and drove to Phoenix.

When I first went in the house, Travis was sitting on a couch.

He looked like he was very tired.

There was a kind of a tension, nervous tension.

And I said... Just tell me what happened.

What I related to the Sheriff was rather broken and got a little confused.

I was in no condition to be interviewed about what had happened to me.

I felt the law enforcement was the victim of a fraud, but we were not able to get evidence that would lend to any prosecution or further investigation.

Travis Walton, on numerous occasions, told friends he would attempt to make contact if he ever came close enough to a flying object.

The rest of the group is openly criticized in Snowflake.

A town with a strong family church foundation, the young people with long hair and anti-establishment attitude don't mix well there.

It was becoming more and more apparent that the news media had gotten onto the story.

[Phone rings]

Dwayne Walton.

No. No, he's not here.

Dwayne's saying, well, yeah he's back, but we took him to a hospital.

Tucson.

No, in a hospital.

Of course, then every hospital in Tucson started getting calls from everywhere.

My brother, he really put himself out there to protect me.

He's not able to speak at this time.

He was at his strongest when I was at my weakest.

[Knocking at door]

It just seemed like a nightmare that wasn't going away.

You okay?

Pretty soon, the National Enquirer's on his doorstep.

I hear your brother's back in town.

In exchange for an exclusive on the story, they were willing to fund testing.

[Echoing] Give us a couple words of what your experience was.

Just a few words... What really went on.

They arranged for us to be brought to a hotel.

Travis, what did they take from you while you were away?

What did they look like?

It was crazy. It was a madhouse.

Anything at all, Travis.

There was huge pressure for answers.

Travis, how long were you there, and what did they do to you?

Tell us exactly. The world is dying to know.

I had no concept of the ramifications of cooperating with them.

The world wants to know tonight, Travis.

Travis...

I was so traumatized that I was basically, dealing with things inside of myself.

I was at the mercy of some pretty powerful forces that had nothing to do with what I needed.

Just relax. You'll be okay.

Just let the doctor talk to you for a minute, okay?

You'll be all right.

I hadn't even told the entire story to my brother.

I just was so traumatized, I broke down.

It was suggested that hypnosis be done.

The purpose being to relate these details, without so much of this overpowering fear.

Travis, I'm going to bring you back to night of the forest.

I didn't remember anything at first.

I was just overpowered by the pain.

It was so hot and humid.

I could tell I was on some raised surface because of how close the ceiling and the light above me were.

I was struggling to breathe.

What's going on here?

What explains this pain?

And there was this sort of curved thing...

Down over my chest.

I became aware of the sounds of movement around me.

People bustling around.

I thought I was seeing doctors.

Maybe somebody with a white surgical mask and cap.

I recalled getting out of the truck and the crew when they were yelling at me.

And I figured I must have been hurt somehow.

Maybe the crew had taken me to the hospital.

My vision abruptly cleared.

I just totally flipped out.

I was lying on my back looking up.

I could see that there was sort of a rectangular light fixture above me.

You know, something gave me the impression that I was in a hospital.

I could make out these vague forms that I thought to be doctors leaning close, looking at me.

I struck out with my arm.

[Objects clattering]

The thing that was on my chest fell off.

The fear gave me the strength to be able to stand up.

There was three of them...

Small, four feet or less.

Non-human but intelligent.

Intelligent and unemotional.

They were coming around the table towards me.

I bumped into this shelf, grabbed the biggest thing there.

Don't come any closer now!

I started lashing out at them.

Get away from me! Stay back!

Don't come closer! Stay away!

The fear was absolutely over the top.

Stay back! Get away from me! What do you want?

Leave me alone! Stay back!

Adrenaline was surging through me.

Get away! Get away!

Leave me alone!

Get away! Leave me alone!

They stopped out of reach.

And all of a sudden, they turned and just went.

My immediate fear was that they would come back.

I looked to see if they were still out there.

They'd gone to the right, and so I went to the left.

As I moved down the passageway, it was curving so tightly that I couldn't see behind me very far to see if they were pursuing me.

It was just this kind of blind hysteria.

I was out of control with fear.

Just thinking, I've got to find a way out.

I came to the next door.

This little room was empty except for a chair.

I thought there might be one of those creatures sitting in it.

I was feeling fear in every corner of my mind and every inch of my body.

When I got to the side, I could see there was no one in it.

That's when I felt safe enough to move more into the room.

I was thinking that I could open a door, and it would lead outside.

There was no doorknob, no button.

There was buttons on the chair, and I thought, well, if I push those buttons, maybe they open the door.

When I moved into the room...

It darkened, and I could see little points of light.

I sat in the chair.

There was a degree of fear about pushing a button.

Most of them didn't seem to do anything.

There was a lever there.

It made all these stars move together.

[Yelps]

Hey.

I turned, and there was a man standing there in the doorway.

I seized on the fact that this is somebody that looks like a human being.

Hey! Where are we?

I thought maybe Air Force, NASA, something like that.

But there was something odd about the eyes.

Help me, please! Please!

Where are we? What's going on?

What are those things?

I was asking questions.

Why aren't you talking to me?

He didn't speak.

Who are you?

I thought maybe it's because of the helmet preventing him from hearing.

Why aren't you saying anything? Come on!

He took me by the arm.

Where are you taking me? Where are you taking me?

I just thought that he was there to save me.

Who are you?

I continued to try to talk to him, but I'd kind of given up on getting an answer.

He took me through some doors.

Had to be a purpose to step into this tiny space.

Then the cool air came in.

He wanted me to go down this ramp.

I looked back, and I saw that we had just come out of a craft like the one in the woods.

My eyes were still adjusting to the brighter light.

I don't know if this was part of a larger craft or, like, an airplane hangar.

It really seemed huge.

There was other craft in there, like the disc-shaped craft we came out of.

I didn't know where he was taking me.

Not knowing is more terrifying than the most explicit terror.

He took me through some doors.

There was a short hallway there.

These three people were standing there.

There was something about their eyes that just seemed a little different.

These were my rescuers, right?

They were trying to get me to lay down on this table.

[Muffled speech]

No, please. What are you doing?

I started to get alarmed.

What are they gonna do to me? Why do they want me to lay on this table?

No! No!

All three of them were wrestling me down.

Felt like I was fighting for my life.

I was totally terrified.

No! No!

One of them had this plastic mask.

I remember just getting my fingers under the edge and trying to pull it away.

And then just... [Snaps fingers]

That was the last thing I remembered.

It was some time before I saw any of the crew.

We met up at Mike's house.

He was different.

Didn't act like Travis.

He looked pretty shook up.

He still had a great amount of fear in his eyes.

Are you okay?

What happened?

The details are still quite foggy.

The story Travis told was really bizarre.

I remember being in the forest.

Hard to believe.

But he was very sincere.

What would I do but believe it?

Soon as he told me, I believed it because I saw the first part.

Didn't think any way that a 22-year-old man could be knocked to the ground like that and just shake it off and hide and think up some story to tell people.

I didn't have any problem at all with it.

I'd known him for years. I knew he wasn't a liar.

They were dealing with the same kind of things I was...

Ridicule, suspicion.

People were desperate to explain this away any way they could.

One theory said that Mike or my brother or me hung up papier-mache in a tree.

I'm not even going there. That's just ridiculous.

A model hanging in the tree?

I've sat and thought it over many, many times, hoping it would be something like that, but it was not possible.

They just saw a ball of lightning.

There's no doubt in my mind of what I saw.

I could see the framework of this thing.

Some people said this was some kind of a drug hallucination or psychosis.

There was no evidence for any dr*gs in his urine or blood, no evidence of any psychosis.

If it was a hoax, why delay it for five days?

The law enforcement come up with the idea that maybe the crew had hit me on the head, slipped me dr*gs, and then made up the whole story.

[Laughing]

No, there might have been a couple of times I wanted to hit him, but... [Laughs]

We didn't. None of us did that, no.

I think they just decided that there was a way that they could tell this story and get in the news.

Who's gonna come into town and tell a story...

That we know half the population isn't gonna believe anyway?

I felt the law enforcement was the victim of a fraud.

I need to report a missing person.

I think they used us to enhance their story.

I think Travis was hid out somewhere out there and...

Did a good job of hiding out, because we didn't find him.

Travis wasn't hiding. We didn't make the story up.

He didn't make the story up. It was all for real.

Terrifying, but it was real.

We basically went our separate ways.

All of us experienced a life-changing trauma.

It had a profound effect on my life.

I kind of took off and went kind of wild for a while.

I didn't like being called a liar.

I didn't want people knowing about it, so I left the area.

And for years, I never talked about it.

It was the most horrifying experience of my life.

It was hard to come to terms with.

I got two brothers that don't believe me, and my mom don't believe me.

That's the hard part. You tell the truth, and people think you're lying.

I left Arizona and didn't come back.

It was an extremely hard thing to go through, and it's been very hard to remember over the years.

I had nightmares and...

For a couple of weeks after that I was...

Like a little kid...

Afraid of the dark.

I was afraid to look out the window.

I mean, for a guy of 25 years old...

Being afraid you were gonna see a spaceship...

Is something that I haven't gotten over.

I wish I could.

I know that Mike felt some guilt about having driven away.

Maybe there was some recriminations.

That experience is still inexplicable.

It's still bothering.

I'm 100% sure of what happened to me.

I tested Travis in 1993.

Travis was not lying.

It did happen as he said it did.

Exactly as it said it did...

Because the questions were made specifically on facts that he claimed to be true.

It does surprise me that they've stuck to the story.

Someday I would like to get the real story.

Just for my personal satisfaction.

I wish I had never gotten out of that truck.

I'd rather it never happened.

Those who doubt will continue to doubt.

If people don't want to believe it, that's their problem.

So I'm kind of left with that.