First Interview 3/21/99 (Investigator 1)

The witnesses were a young couple in their thirties. The husband was a self-employed carpenter, schooled originally as a game warden (there was a hiring freeze on when he graduated (Ohio Department of Natural Resources?), so he ended up in construction). The wife was an emergency room nurse. Their home was a moderately large dwelling, with a high ceiling. Renovations were in progress, and the husband informed me he was doing them as time permitted. He had put in some large windows the previous year. Other than normal mass media SF (i.e. a Star Trek movie) on video, there was no sign of a library, UFO or otherwise, or any special interest in SF or UFOs. The witnesses were casually dressed and their home was well-kept (except for the obvious renovation in progress).

The sequence of events as reported by the husband (interviewed by the above named investigator), is as follows (including information gleaned from reenactment):

1. The witnesses had been fishing at a quarry which took water from a nearby river. They had left the quarry after fishing for an hour with little luck, and were driving down the road that leads directly from the quarry. The vehicle was an older pickup truck used by the husband in his business. The windows were down waiting for the A/C to start working, and the radio was on. It was a very hot day, sunny, partly cloudy, and the air was still (the husband mentioned early that the mosquitos had been biting and that he thought that would not have happened if there had been wind). Their speed was about 20-30 mph.

2. After some distance (0.35-0.40mi) they had passed beneath a power line that crossed the river and the road, and had entered into an area where the trees were further back from the side of the road, when the husband observed what appeared to be a large shadow crossing the road. He looked up from the shadow and saw a large metallic disk over the trees to the left. Because the small rise of the road ends about 0.1-0.15 mi ahead of this position, followed by a dip where the shadow would have been invisible, the shadow could have been no further ahead. The witness had looked at the vehicle clock shortly before, so the time was close to 2:45 PM.

3. The witness reported that everything felt like slow motion. The object seemed to hover (though this may not be reliable because of the subjective time issue). The radio was not affected nor was the clock. The object passed slowly and smoothly over the road on a course approximately perpendicular to the road. The object's apparent size (closely matched between both witnesses) was about seven inches at a distance of two feet (prior to measurement, the witness estimated about 1 foot). The elevation angle was measured about seven degrees. The time taken to pass from initial appearance to disappearance behind the trees to the right was about 10-15 seconds. During this part of the event, the witness let off the gas and coasted but did not brake. The speed was sufficient to coast over the small rise, and the object was almost directly to the right of the vehicle as it disappeared over the trees. The object initially appeared to be no more than a hundred feet above the trees.

4. The witness stated that he believed that the object was the size of a jumbo jet, and was at very close range. The surface of the object was a non-specular slightly metallic grey ("battleship grey silvery", roughly similar to a silvery spray paint), and was apparently faceted (reminded the witness of stealth fighter geometry), with all facets of roughly the same size as the glass panes. No reflection of the sun, the sky, or the ground was observed. There was no sound, and no flame or smoke. The trees were not affected by its passage. There was no sound, including any roaring or wind, or the sound it might make passing through the air. No gondola or basket was observed. A band of what looked like panes of dark glass (like that on a skyscraper - not mirrored, but dark smoked) crossed the upper portion of the disk roughly halfway between the rim (the widest diameter of the disk) and the top of the dome. These facets were neither recessed nor protruding. The bottom was visible, and the witness saw no areas which might be openings, panels concealing landing gear, etc. The witness had grown up in Ohio and had seen blimps all the time. This object did not resemble a blimp.

5. After the object was gone, the witnesses continued to drive. They turned off the road they were currently on, and on their way back to the highway, passed a house where a gathering was underway (about 15 people in the yard). The witness believed that these people might have seen something because they seemed to be looking up. Also, the witness believed that the object would have had to have passed nearly over the house or within view of the gathering. As we shall see later, this is not necessarily true..

The witness selected Haines Shape Classification T2 on top of T6 with B6 for the bottom. The windows mentioned (D10) are between the T2 and T6. Cashman metal sample A (silvered cardboard) was selected as most closely resembling color and reflectivity.

The witness did not remember the sun location clearly, but believed it was to his left, and perhaps slightly behind him at the time of the sighting.

The witness mentioned that they had not discussed it even among themselves for a year. He stated "when you were kind of scared and you know no one's going to believe you anyway, why tell anyone?.. but we didn't even discuss it among ourselves, and that kind of throws you for a loop... why not?"

The witness seemed uneasy with being forced to come to the conclusion that this was not an observation of anything normal. When he said "it wasn't an airplane, it was some kind of... ship" the "ship" was said with an uncomfortable sort of bark. This also happened when he pointed out that there were no flames "you know, some sort of thruster, or something".

When discussing the description, the witness disclaimed artistic ability - said he had tried to draw it before and failed. However a reasonable sketch was obtained. The band shown was black glasslike in appearance, while the rest of the object was a soft (diffuse reflector) silver color.

He stated he had watched UFO shows since and they had never seen anything like what they had observed, though one night when he was in the shower, she came in and told him she thought she had seen it on a program.

The witness repeatedly marveled at the size of it, and seemed at a loss for words to describe it when attempting to spontaneously account for why it seemed so strange. He was shocked that he could not see anything apparently responsible for making it move or fly "it seemed to defy all law".

The witness was not familiar with the layout of the sighting location on a map, but could find his way there. He and is wife independently confirmed that he had learned of the area (which is definitely obscure) from a friend who had fished there.

During the reenactment, the husband recalled seeing the object pass over the trees to the north above the house to the right.

At the time of the observation, the house with the party (316 Campville Rd) was stated by the witness to be white, but in 1999 it was blue. This may help to confirm the date (Note: a 7/29/99 visit determined that the house had never been white. 20 years ago it had been yellow for a period followed by black with white shutters, followed by the current color (siding)). Also, note that the witness remarked (even though there was no deciduous foliage at the time of the site visit) that the trees had grown noticeably larger in the four years which had passed since the sighting.

The witness stated that he felt like "one in a million" having seen this. He thought, because of its size, that everyone should have seen it. However, he, remarked on how remote the area was, and that maybe even something that large might not be seen.

Assessment Of The Witness

The witness appeared sincere and sincerely puzzled by the event. A natural fascination with the event was coupled with fear of ridicule. The witness was glad to have gotten the event off his chest to someone who took it seriously. Leading questions were not followed unless they matched the original statement. The witness did have some areas of confusion. The largest discrepancy was in the position of the vehicle at the onset of the sighting (about 0.1 mi at most). This was resolved when the two witnesses were brought together for the final measurement portion of the on-site visit.