ANNOUNCING: Supernatural is BACK!

Speaker 1 What can 160 years of experience teach you about the future?

Speaker 1 When it comes to protecting what matters, Pacific Life provides life insurance, retirement income, and employee benefits for people and businesses building a more confident tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Strategies rooted in strength and backed by experience. Ask a financial professional how Pacific Life can help you today.

Speaker 1 Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska, and in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

Speaker 8 They shouted. Would they find it in one place?

Speaker 10 This they questioned and doubted.

Speaker 11 When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start.

Speaker 13 And each who added headphones, TVs, and games to their carts.

Speaker 14 With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.

Speaker 4 They cried out, who knew, and ordered their gifts in a hurry.

Speaker 11 Shop the latest tech gifts in the Walmart app.

Speaker 15 When it comes to delivering flowers for life's special occasions, trust the name that's been setting the standard for nearly 50 years, 1-800flowers.com.

Speaker 15 From breathtaking bouquets to one-of-a-kind arrangements, 1-800 Flowers is your authority on quality blooms. Always fresh, always stunning, always delivered with care.

Speaker 15 And right now, for a limited time, you can save up to 40% off your bouquet and make someone's day. Save up to 40% off today at 1-800Flowers.com/slash SXM.
That's 1-800-Flowers.com/slash SXM.

Speaker 16 Hi, Park Enthusiasts. The case you're going to hear today is another obscure story that you may not have heard of before.

Speaker 16 It's a story of a couple of friends who go out looking for a little bit of fun in the form of a wholesome game of bingo.

Speaker 16 But as they navigate the back roads of a densely wooded area in what should have been a peaceful drive, the two women and one six-year-old boy witnessed an encounter so bizarre that they made a pact to keep what they saw a secret.

Speaker 16 This is AudioChuck's newest weekly podcast, So Supernatural.

Speaker 16 Most of the time, supernatural claims can be debunked, but sometimes to get to the truth, you have to look beyond what we know is real and consider what else there could be, even if it's hard to believe.

Speaker 16 While the parks and natural wonders of the world show just how beautiful our world can be, these places also hold the unknown.

Speaker 16 Every Friday, So Supernatural examines strange and surreal occurrences from across the globe and unravels all the possible explanations to try and figure out what really happened.

Speaker 16 I think this podcast is one that you park enthusiasts are going to want to add to your listening list. So I'm sharing one episode of So Supernatural with you right here.

Speaker 16 But there's a second brand new episode that was also released today, and there are over 100 more episodes already waiting for you in the So Supernatural feed.

Speaker 16 So after you listen to this episode on the events that unfolded in Dayton, Texas shortly after Christmas in 1980, head over to So Supernatural wherever you're listening for even more.

Speaker 16 This is So Supernatural.

Speaker 17 Welcome back to So Supernatural. I hope you're ready for that special hour where you can put on your tinfoil hat and match everyone else in the room.
So let's go.

Speaker 17 The topic of UFOs has fascinated me practically since childhood.

Speaker 17 The idea that there's some world out there beyond our own with its own intelligent life, its own technology, its own culture and history, it's incredible, especially if you take into consideration that they would have to travel light years to reach us.

Speaker 17 But I would be lying if I didn't say the idea of extraterrestrials terrifies me too. I wonder a lot what would the arrival of aliens actually mean for us.
Would they be harmless?

Speaker 17 Or would life as we know it come to an end? I honestly think it's that fear, that unknown that keeps so many people from taking UFOs seriously.

Speaker 17 Sure, there is the occasional light in the sky, a blurry photo of a strange hovering object. Ignorance is bliss, and it's easy for people to say, but no one ever has physical proof.

Speaker 17 But what if I told you they did?

Speaker 17 Today, I'm covering the Cash Landrum incident. In Dayton, Texas, back in December of 1980, two middle-aged women and a six-year-old boy spotted the mother of all UFO events.

Speaker 17 It not only changed their minds about the unknown, it created long-lasting bodily harm so severe that they sued the U.S. government over it.

Speaker 17 And just a heads up, I will actually be coming to you next week with a huge surprise. So make sure you stay tuned.

Speaker 5 The Who's in Houdoonville were in love with new tech.

Speaker 6 Where can we find Sonos and Samsung and Nintendo?

Speaker 8 They shouted. Would they find it in one place?

Speaker 10 This they questioned and doubted.

Speaker 11 When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start.

Speaker 13 And each who added headphones, TVs, and games to their carts.

Speaker 3 With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.

Speaker 7 They cried out, who knew?

Speaker 8 and ordered their gifts in a hurry.

Speaker 11 Shop the latest tech gifts in the

Speaker 11 app.

Speaker 17 If you venture out of the big city of Houston, Texas, and take a 40-minute ride northeast, you'll come to a small little town called Dayton. It hasn't changed a ton in the last 40-plus years.

Speaker 17 Sure, maybe they added a jack-in-the-box, a subway sandwich shop, but for the most part, those buildings stand just like they did back when our story takes place.

Speaker 17 Just a few days after Christmas on December 29th, 1980.

Speaker 17 That night, 51-year-old Betty Cash picks up her friend, 57-year-old Vicki Landrum.

Speaker 17 Vicki's six-year-old grandson Colby is also there because she's his sole caretaker ever since his mom left the picture. Now, Betty and Vicki are old friends.

Speaker 17 In fact, they're working on opening a restaurant together. They're only about two weeks out from this open, so they have some business to tend to at the location.

Speaker 17 But after they wrap it up, Betty and Vicki go out looking for a little bit of fun, which to them means a wholesome game of bingo.

Speaker 17 They love it so much, they know all the good bingo spots within like a 20-mile radius of Dayton. But that night, so close to Christmas and New Year's, pretty much every spot is closed.

Speaker 17 So somewhere near the town of Newcaney, they pull off for a bite to eat instead. Around 8.30 p.m., they pay their bill and hit the road for home, ready to call it a night.

Speaker 17 Betty's behind the wheel of her newish Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, a car that she loves, and it navigates the back roads of Texas pretty well.

Speaker 17 Vicki is in the passenger seat and little Colby is in the front between the two of them. But this peaceful drive down a quiet two-lane road in a densely wooded area is about to take a turn.

Speaker 17 All of a sudden, the women see this plane headed towards Houston Airport, or at least they think it's a plane.

Speaker 17 The lights on this object are super bright and it's pretty dark, so they can't quite make out the shape from a distance.

Speaker 17 But they can tell that it's flying dangerously close to the treetops, so much so that they're feeling a little concerned.

Speaker 17 As they drive, I think it dips out of sight for a bit, but just as they turn around another bend, they see the lights again, almost right freaking above them.

Speaker 17 And now they can tell this is no plane, not even close.

Speaker 17 This is a craft. It's a metallic diamond shape and about the size of a freaking water tower.
And it has this belt of blue lights around the center.

Speaker 17 Every few minutes, it spurts flames from the bottom, practically melting the road's asphalt in the process. Now, the women realize they can't just keep driving forward.

Speaker 17 There's no way they're passing under this thing. And Betty tells Vicki she's afraid to turn the car around because she thinks that the wheels might get stuck in the mud along the side of the road.

Speaker 17 And then, just as they're having this conversation, the engine on Betty's one-year-old Oldsmobile just dies.

Speaker 17 In the dark, in the silence, Vicki turns to Colby and says, at one point, that's Jesus. He won't hurt us.

Speaker 17 Now, I know that might seem like an unrealistic response to some, but remember, we're in a small Texas town in the 1980s. UFOs aren't exactly top of mind for two ladies who attend church every Sunday.

Speaker 17 They're convinced whatever this thing is, it's gotta be a sign from the heavens. I mean, for all they know, it might even be the second coming of Jesus Christ himself.

Speaker 17 So Betty and Vicki put on their bravest faces. They order Colby to stay in the car and they get out.
Like, surely this is what they're meant to do, what God or this thing wants them to do.

Speaker 17 But just as the two women step out, the object starts making this otherworldly beeping sound. It's unlike anything they've heard before.

Speaker 17 The beeping fades into this dull, persistent roar almost, kind of like the hum of a train engine.

Speaker 17 And then those flames start back up again, scorching the asphalt in front of them, creating this incredible heat.

Speaker 17 And it's at that point when Vicki is like, nope, this is starting to feel like the fires of hell, not so much heavenly. So she's out.
She races back to the car and into the passenger seat.

Speaker 17 But the inside of the car is just as hot as the outside. And when she puts her hand on the dashboard, she notices that the vinyl is actually melting.

Speaker 17 So much so that when she touches it, it leaves an impression of her hand on the dash. Now, mind you, little Colby is inside the car, practically frozen in fear.

Speaker 17 And meanwhile, Betty is still out there. She's standing there, completely frozen, almost like she's in this trance-like state, and she's unable to take her eyes off the craft.

Speaker 17 Even though Vicki is like yelling Betty's name, begging her to come back and at least seek shelter in the car. And it takes a few seconds, but she does eventually snap out of it.

Speaker 17 She races back, goes for the door handle, and says it nearly fries the skin off her hand. The metal is that hot.
But there's no time to think.

Speaker 17 She shoves her hand in the pocket of her leather jacket and uses that to pry the door open and get inside.

Speaker 17 Right as she does, the craft starts ascending higher over the trees. The further up it goes, the more things start to cool down inside that car.

Speaker 17 And once it starts slowly moving away from them, the engine on Betty's Oldsmobile miraculously starts working again. But that's not even the strangest part.

Speaker 17 As As they're watching this thing meander away over the treetops, they start hearing another roaring sound. This time, it's a helicopter, and then another, and another.

Speaker 17 It's almost like a swarm of bees returning to the hive. I mean, they count as many as 23 of these things in total.

Speaker 17 And all of them are flying low enough for Betty and Vicki to make out the United States Air Force markings on them. And we're not just talking any helicopter.
It is the serious kind.

Speaker 17 These are the Chinooks with the tandem rotors, the ones that you rarely see flying around, but when you do, you know someone means business.

Speaker 17 Betty and Vicki are just baffled by the whole thing, mainly because they can't tell whether these military copters are either chasing off or escorting this UFO through the skies.

Speaker 17 But either way, before long, they're out of sight.

Speaker 17 When Betty looks at her watch, she realizes that the entire encounter only lasted maybe 15 minutes or so, but it feels like they've been out there in the woods forever.

Speaker 17 Now, it's hard to believe someone just getting into their car and driving home after something like this, but what else do you do?

Speaker 17 That night, she and Vicki and Colby, who is safe, but probably terrified, they all ride the rest of the way in silence. But the ladies do mention one thing to each other.

Speaker 17 Let's never repeat what we saw here tonight to anyone.

Speaker 17 I mean, even with a melted handprint on the dash, like who's going to believe them?

Speaker 17 Well, it turns out that's a pact that they could only keep for so long.

Speaker 18 PNC Private Bank doesn't take unnecessary risks managing your wealth because we know that maintaining its integrity is important to you.

Speaker 18 But as humans, we crave a little adrenaline, so our advisors have some ideas.

Speaker 17 Sometimes I book a hotel without reading the reviews. Occasionally, when no one is looking, I double dip.

Speaker 19 Once while driving, I came to a full stop for two seconds instead of three.

Speaker 18 However you get your kicks, just know your wealth will remain steady and secure with us. PNC Private Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865.
PNC Bank National Association member FDIC.

Speaker 2 Tis the season of gifting and holes to deck.

Speaker 5 And the Who's and Who Looville were in love with new tech.

Speaker 6 Where can we find Sonos and Samsung and Nintendo?

Speaker 8 they shouted. Would they find it in one place?

Speaker 10 This they questioned and doubted.

Speaker 11 When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start.

Speaker 13 And these who added headphones, TVs, and games to their carts.

Speaker 14 With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.

Speaker 7 They cried out, who knew?

Speaker 8 And ordered their gifts in a hurry.

Speaker 11 Shop the latest tech gifts in the Walmart app.

Speaker 17 Betty drops Vicki and Colby off at their house and says goodnight at about 9.50. Knowing darn well nobody's going to be getting any sleep that evening.

Speaker 17 And it isn't just the adrenaline that's keeping them awake. Almost immediately after Betty parks her oldsmobile in her driveway, she starts feeling these flu-like symptoms.

Speaker 17 And really, it comes out of nowhere, the sweating, the headaches, the constant vomiting. And it only gets worse.
In the morning, Betty wakes up with these blisters all over her face and scalp.

Speaker 17 She looks like she spent days in a tanning bed. I mean, imagine the worst sunburn of your life and then triple it.
And back over at the Landrum household, things aren't going much better.

Speaker 17 Vicki and Colby also have these flu-like symptoms. They're a little milder though, and without the sunburn part, which, if you think about it, kind of makes sense.

Speaker 17 I mean, Vicki rushed back to the car before Betty did, and Colby never left it. And maybe because of that, they did bounce back two days after the incident.
But not Betty.

Speaker 17 She seems to be getting worse and worse as the weeks go on.

Speaker 17 Those flu-like symptoms persist, her face swells up to the point where she can't really even open her eyes, and her hair starts falling out in clumps.

Speaker 17 Now, from what I can tell, she lives alone, so Vicki insists that Betty come over to her house so she can take care of her.

Speaker 17 But on January 4th, which is six days after the encounter, Vicki realizes there is no nursing Betty back to health. Regardless of how wild their story sounds, they need to get Betty to a hospital.

Speaker 17 Stat.

Speaker 17 Now, Betty still tries to keep the details of that night a secret, even from her doctors. And she does this for the first 12 days that she's in the hospital.

Speaker 17 She doesn't say a peep about a UFO because she knows how absurd it sounds. It's actually not until Colby comes to visit that he spills the beans.

Speaker 17 And that's when they start to have an idea about what Betty really went through. And finally, then she confesses to her medical team.

Speaker 17 She tells them right before her symptoms started, she had a close encounter with an inexplicable flying object.

Speaker 17 It's not totally clear whether her doctors believe her, but I know they move her to her own private room and slap a biohazard sticker on the door.

Speaker 17 Whatever's going on with Betty, they sure as heck don't want it spreading. After this, she's hospitalized three different times in just under a month.

Speaker 17 And in all that time, Betty's doctors can only come to one conclusion. She seems to be suffering from radiation poisoning.
the open sores, the skin burns, the hair falling out.

Speaker 17 I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense. And they are convinced she came in contact with something, right?

Speaker 17 Even if it's radiation like they think, to be this bad, this quick, she had to have been within close proximity to something that you don't see around these parts every day, or really ever.

Speaker 17 And if anyone is questioning her story, she points to her car as more proof. The one-year-old Oldsmobile has its own share of problems now.

Speaker 17 After that night, the radio and the clock on this almost new car just stopped working. The engines got issues still and the plastic that covers the exterior light melted.

Speaker 17 Plus, it reeks of burnt metal. Not to mention, Vicki's handprint is still clearly stamped on the dashboard.
So, I mean, Betty's new car is a mess, barely drivable.

Speaker 17 Something heated it to a temperature well beyond a hot summer Texas day, and this happened in the middle of December.

Speaker 17 And speaking of the car, while Betty's in the hospital, Vicki offers to go file a police report.

Speaker 17 I mean, I'm not sure if this is covered under any insurance policy, but I mean, what else are you going to do? But there's a problem.

Speaker 17 When she goes to the police, she's passed around like a hot potato. She calls the Dayton police who tell her to call the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Washington.

Speaker 17 And then they pass her on to another civilian group called the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. And they're the ones who finally get her in touch with someone who can help.

Speaker 17 A former NASA engineer named John Schusler. John makes the trip down to Dayton to head up his own investigation into the matter.

Speaker 17 And when he starts questioning locals about that December night, he finds out that Vicki, Colby, and Betty weren't the only ones who saw something odd.

Speaker 17 52-year-old Nellie Zadek was driving with her son and daughter-in-law 20 miles east of Dayton when they saw a diamond-shaped craft.

Speaker 17 That was within a 30-minute window of Betty, Vicki, and Colby's encounter. An oil field worker named Jerry McDonald saw it too.

Speaker 17 He was out in his backyard when he spotted what he thought was a blimp in the sky.

Speaker 17 But with a longer look, he realized it was a diamond-shaped object shooting bright blue flames from its undercarriage.

Speaker 17 Off-duty Dayton Police Sergeant Lamar Walker and his wife were driving down the same street as Betty and Vicki that night when they spotted the team of helicopters.

Speaker 17 They thought their National Guard was on a training exercise until they realized they had their spotlights pointed towards the ground, clearly looking for something.

Speaker 17 All told, there were about 10 people who reported seeing this diamond and then eight people who spotted the helicopters after.

Speaker 17 John also speaks with other local UFO investigators who say they visited the scene of the crime right after December 29th.

Speaker 17 They found what looked like a few scorched trees and it appeared as if the road had been very recently paved over. So John digs into that fact and he discovers that around 6 a.m.

Speaker 17 on the morning after the sighting, there was a huge team of people out there laying new asphalt. And listen, I don't know how things work where you live, but God help us here in Indianapolis.

Speaker 17 I have killed a tire or two in potholes that last for seemingly, I mean, what feels like a lifetime, at least a year.

Speaker 17 And you're telling me someone happens on this road, TBD if it's even officially been reported, and poof, 6 a.m., the road has new pavement. Come the frick on.

Speaker 17 So between John's involvement and the news of Betty's condition, it doesn't take long for reporters to catch on to this story. And soon enough, it's getting national exposure.

Speaker 17 And when Betty is questioned, she makes it clear that even she is incredulous about the whole thing. Betty said, and I quote, I've never believed in UFOs.
I was the first one to laugh.

Speaker 17 Now I'm afraid to look up, End quote.

Speaker 17 And who could blame her? The event ruined her health. I mean, heck, it ruined her life.

Speaker 17 In the months following her release from the hospital, Betty had to leave Texas and move back in with her mother in Alabama just so she could have someone help take care of her full time.

Speaker 17 But even with all of this, Betty still had a hard time believing her experience was caused by little green men.

Speaker 17 She and Vicki feel that the most possible scenario is that this unidentified flying object was some sort of government technology.

Speaker 17 Particularly because when they played it over in their minds, they felt convinced about those helicopters. They weren't chasing that thing.

Speaker 17 They were, in fact, escorting it.

Speaker 17 Now, if a conspiracy wasn't brewing already, it was about to be. Because when the U.S.

Speaker 17 Army press officer for the local Fort Hood base is questioned, he he says that none of their aircrafts were dispatched that night.

Speaker 17 And he says he looked into other Texas, even Louisiana bases, but they knew nothing about these choppers either.

Speaker 17 In fact, he tells the press, quote, I don't know what it could be unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it, end quote.

Speaker 17 Eventually, even Lieutenant Colonel George Saran with the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Army chimes in.

Speaker 17 He says that he's looked into it and he can't find any evidence that the helicopters even belonged to the U.S. military.

Speaker 17 Meaning, either the strategy is deny, deny, deny, or whatever they were pursuing was so top secret that it even went beyond the clearance of the Inspector General.

Speaker 17 Well, know what was top secret back then?

Speaker 17 Aliens.

Speaker 17 No one is talking about what happened. Local authorities can't do squat as far as an investigation goes.

Speaker 17 And it's like everyone is just shrugging their shoulders and going, well, that was weird, anyways.

Speaker 17 But of all people, guess who actually gets to the bottom of this? Friggin' Vicki Landrum herself. And it's by complete coincidence.
Well, sort of.

Speaker 17 So get this. It is now April 1981, four months after the incident.
Vicki's grandson Colby is now seven and he's developed a fear of helicopters ever since what happened. Like, duh, so would I.

Speaker 17 So Vicki takes him to the Future Farmers of America livestock show in Dayton to see a Chinook on display. The same kind of helicopter that had been escorting the craft that evening.

Speaker 17 She's hoping that maybe if he can like see it up close, he won't be so afraid anymore.

Speaker 17 Now there's a pilot there with the chopper who's chatting up all of the locals, letting them take a peek inside the cockpit.

Speaker 17 And while he's showing people around, Vicki hears him say something like, oh, I'm back. I was actually in town a few months ago.

Speaker 17 I was flying over the Dayton area because I was called to deal with a UFO.

Speaker 17 And obviously, Vicki's ears perk up because here is someone who may be directly connected to her sighting, someone who might even be able to validate it, provide some answers for once.

Speaker 17 So she introduces herself and says that she is so relieved to meet him because she was one of the witnesses of that UFO sighting. She tells him even about the illnesses she suffered after it happened.

Speaker 17 And in that moment, the pilot's face turns ghost white.

Speaker 17 He ushers her and Colby out of the helicopter and basically refuses to say another word to them. That was it.
But Vicki kept trying to push. She knew what she saw.
She knew there was truth there.

Speaker 17 Green men or government, honestly, at this point, they didn't care. They just wanted some sort of explanation.
I mean, from Betty's perspective, she is now drowning in hospital bills.

Speaker 17 So if her government wasn't gonna offer her an explanation, the least they could do was pay her health care bills. So the two women wrote tirelessly to senators and congressmen.

Speaker 17 They made it clear that they were not going away. Whatever happened that night had to have had some kind of government tie.
I mean, they saw the helicopters.

Speaker 17 And after eight long months and a long line of dead ends, in August, Vicki finally got a call from Air Force officials. They were ready to sit down and talk.

Speaker 5 The Who's Down and Who Newville were making their list, but some didn't know Walmart has the best brands for their gifts.

Speaker 6 What about toys?

Speaker 17 Do they have brands kids have been wanting all year? Yup, Barbie, Tony's, and Lego. Gifts that will make them all cheer.

Speaker 11 Do you mean they have all the brands I adore?

Speaker 17 They have Nintendo, Espresso, Apple, and more.

Speaker 10 What about so the Who answered questions from friends till they were blue? Each one listened and shouted, From Walmart?

Speaker 5 Who knew?

Speaker 11 Shop gifts from top brands for everyone on your list in the Walmart app.

Speaker 17 Betty and Vicki are told to report to the Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. There, Air Force officials are willing to hear them out and see if they can help in any way.

Speaker 17 So it seems like they're prepared to take some responsibility for the whole event. During their interview, Air Force officials appear to take their account seriously.

Speaker 17 They even help Betty and Vicki fill out some damage claim forms, and they advise they seek out a civil attorney and say they'll be in touch. The whole transaction they have is pretty clinical.

Speaker 17 Betty and Vicki don't get many answers about their experience, but at least they feel heard. The question becomes, well, what now?

Speaker 17 A month after that interview, the Air Force sends the Texas Department of Health's Bureau of Radiation Control. Yes, this is a thing.
They send them out to the site of the encounter.

Speaker 17 They scan the area for any residual radiation, but they say they don't find any. Now, maybe that's because nine months have passed since the sighting.

Speaker 17 Now, even during this, Vicki and Betty don't have any idea what's going on behind the scenes. So they do as they're told and they hire an attorney to help them with their lawsuit.

Speaker 17 They choose a guy named Peter Gerston. And Peter is,

Speaker 17 I don't know, let's just say unconventional. He loves taking on these UFO cases.

Speaker 17 And if that doesn't spell quirky, he later becomes famous for announcing that he's going to leap from the bellrock in Sedona, Arizona at the moment of the predicted 2012 Mayan apocalypse.

Speaker 17 Spoiler, he chickens out, doesn't happen. Now, Peter, to some might not seem like the most reputable attorney, but he's helping them file for $20 million in damages.
So he seems worth the risk.

Speaker 17 Now, as these cases often do, it crawls through the legal system for the next several years while Betty fends off creditors trying to collect on her growing hospital bills.

Speaker 17 And eventually, in August of 1986, they hear something back. The U.S.

Speaker 17 district court judge says they couldn't find any evidence those helicopters Betty and Vicki saw that night belonged to the United States government.

Speaker 17 And there's no documentation to support that the diamond-shaped craft that they witnessed belonged to the military either.

Speaker 17 So after waiting years on bated breath, Vicki and Betty learn that their case has been dismissed. They won't be seeing a dime.
The end.

Speaker 17 It's a disappointing way for this case with so much evidence to end. Because you can feel it, right? The government ick.

Speaker 17 Someone has to know what the F happened that night. So who's lying? Now, over the years, skeptics were happy to come out of the woodwork to pick apart Betty and Vicki's story.

Speaker 17 A lot of those people focused on the small discrepancies like the fact that Betty and Vicki had a hard time recounting exactly where on that stretch of road that they saw the craft.

Speaker 17 But I don't know about you. I've driven through the woods before.
At some point, it all starts to look the same. Not remembering the exact mile marker isn't a cause for doubt in my opinion.

Speaker 17 Others had a problem with the fact that Betty first told John Schusler that she couldn't make out what the craft looked like, but then later told Air Force officials that it resembled a giant diamond.

Speaker 17 Again, not that odd to me considering that she might have been going off what Colby and Vicki remembered it looking like.

Speaker 17 Unfortunately, though, skeptics will use these tiny holes in the narrative to cast doubt on a witness's experience, sometimes coming up with stories that feel even less likely to me than being a real UFO.

Speaker 17 For example, in 1994, a debunker named Stuart Campbell offered his frankly uneducated theory. that the women saw the reflection of a star on the road.
Like, can you feel my eyes slowly blinking?

Speaker 17 I can't with this guy. There's so many problems with this aside from completely discounting their medical conditions after the fact.

Speaker 17 Some even made more offensive claims, stating that the women might have been faking their conditions with some sort of supernatural munchhausen.

Speaker 17 A doctor named Gary Posner spent a lot of time looking for reasons to discount Betty and Vicki's testimony.

Speaker 17 And he claimed, like how a religious zealot might fake the symptoms of the stigmata, Betty had falsified her her radiation burns with a sunlamp.

Speaker 17 But you know what he didn't do from what I can tell? Actually speak with Betty directly, get a first-hand account of her experience, her symptoms, what she went through.

Speaker 17 Instead, he looked at Betty's medical records and wrote the whole thing off. And as more evidence of Betty faking, Posner argued this.

Speaker 17 If Betty had been exposed to enough radiation to cause her hair to fall out, burns, lesions, vomiting, et cetera,

Speaker 17 it would have required a dose so big that it would have killed her. But what Posner didn't consider was it practically did.

Speaker 17 After the incident, Betty was never able to work again.

Speaker 17 For the next two decades, she was under the constant supervision of doctors who felt confident that Betty had undergone an otherworldly amount of radiation.

Speaker 17 And at the age of 69, she died after battling cancer.

Speaker 17 Ironically, it was December 29th, 1998, the 18th anniversary of the sighting. Vicki has also since passed away in 2007 at the age of 83, which means that the now-grown Colby carries the torch.

Speaker 17 To this day, he is still seeking answers for what happened that chilly December night.

Speaker 17 And it's not too late for those answers.

Speaker 17 I mean, you might have missed it because it was tucked nicely in the news during the chaos of a global pandemic, but the government has openly acknowledged that there's unidentified flying objects in our airspace.

Speaker 17 Apparently, UFOs are here. They've been here.

Speaker 17 So what are they still hiding? Are they still denying simple things like the ownership of helicopters? I mean, that's the wild part to me.

Speaker 17 Like, okay, you said you weren't responsible for her medical bills because it was an alien and the government doesn't cover fault by aliens. But to be like, nope, we weren't there, come on, guys.

Speaker 17 How long can we deny that there is something going on in our skies, human or not, that the government doesn't want us privy to?

Speaker 17 They're starting to talk about it, but there is so much still not being shared. I don't know if they think the truth is too scary, but ignorance isn't real bliss.

Speaker 17 And I don't know about you, but I want to know what's out there.

Speaker 17 That is it for today's story. I hope you loved it as much as I loved telling it.
And again, I am so happy to be back with So Supernatural. And I actually have a big surprise for you next week.

Speaker 17 So make sure to tune in and find out.

Speaker 17 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, so supernaturalpodcast.com. And be sure to follow the show on Instagram at SoSupernaturalPod.
I really want to hear from you guys.

Speaker 17 What stories are you into? What folklore have you heard that you want to hear about on this show? DM me. So Supernatural, an audio check original produced by Crime House.

Speaker 17 Join us next Friday for an all-new episode.

Speaker 17 So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Speaker 18 PNC Private Bank doesn't take unnecessary risks managing your wealth because we know that maintaining its integrity is important to you.

Speaker 18 But as humans, we crave a little adrenaline, so our advisors have some ideas.

Speaker 17 Sometimes I book a hotel without reading the reviews. Occasionally, when no one is looking, I double dip.

Speaker 19 Once while driving, I came to a full stop for two seconds instead of three.

Speaker 18 However you get your kicks, just know your wealth will remain steady and secure with us. PNC Private Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865.
PNC Bank National Association member FDIC.

Speaker 2 Tis the season of gifting and holes to deck.

Speaker 5 And the Who's and Who Newville were in love with new tech.

Speaker 6 Where can we find Sonos and Samsung and Nintendo?

Speaker 8 They shouted. Would they find it in one place?

Speaker 10 This they questioned and doubted.

Speaker 11 When suddenly a who yelled, Walmart's the place to start.

Speaker 13 And Deech Who added headphones, TVs, and games to their carts.

Speaker 14 With Walmart, their shopping was done in a flurry.

Speaker 7 They cried out, who knew?

Speaker 8 and ordered their gifts in a hurry.

Speaker 11 Shop the latest tech gifts in the the Walmart app.