Case File Status: Likely Explainable

Background

Report by Christopher Connelly, TBV Investigations

On 12/1/17, I came across a post on Reddit that that caught my eye.  The author of the post (Machinegamer), wrote the following describing what we are looking at:

“Was having a drink with my boss in his office today. I’m a conspiracy theorist and he picks at me from time to time regarding some of the stuff I share with him. So he goes “did I ever tell you my ufo story?”

I was like hahahahaha ok thanks for making fun of me, his face got serious and he goes “listen to this story…”

So he said “20 or so years ago I was driving in northern Michigan near glen harbor (sic) at 2:30am in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden my entire car lit up”.

He described this insane light and shrieking noise that hurt his ears… and he’s going on and on and im waiting for him to laugh and be all like gotcha!!

He had been taking pictures of northern Michigan cuz photography is his hobby, so he had a camera on the passenger seat of his car.

He said he got out and this craft was hovering over him for what seemed like a very long time, he was afraid. Then he remembers he had his camera, so he took it out and said he took pictures.

Still I’m waiting for him to laugh. I gave him a “ya ok” look…then he rolled his chair over to his file cabinet and started rustling around folders…

See the photos attached to this post…the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and my arms. My jaw dropped.”

The original pictures appear to come from an older model camera and the film was developed to what you see here. The only images available for investigation, was a photograph of the photographs, which is not ideal for analysis.

The pictures appear to have been taken at night, and there appears to be snow on the ground, leaning towards a low temperature.

It’s almost impossible to tell if there is any cloud coverage or any other meteorological formations. The ground is heavily illuminated, creating an almost complete coverage of the area. Light formations resembling pillars are seen rising from the middle of the illuminated area. The light has an almost blue color to it. It appears there are no other vehicles, personnel or animals in the picture.

There appears to be a sign to the lower right hand side of the photo, on the opposite side of the road, which may mean that these is a side road leading to this area or near it. The light appears behind the treeline but I cannot judge its distance from the witness. 

When I encountered these photographs, they were posted by an anonymous user of the website Reddit. This user was the coworker of the actual witness, so all details are coming from him/her. The actual encounter took place 20 years ago, date unknown. 

Per the co-worker: Witness was located outside of Glen Arbor, which is located in Northern Michigan. This area is known to be rural and a well known area that is the victim of hydraulic fracturing. The approx. time was 0230 when the witness was traveling down a snow covered road when his surroundings and his car began to light up. The witness then got out of his car to see a craft overhead. The witness described the craft as making no movement but sounding like a “Banshee.” No further information has been given.

The Analysis

There is no craft visible in the picture, but I can tell that there is a valley where the lights are coming from and upon further inspection, the lights do appear to be hitting some sort of low lying fog or small cloud formation. I believe that this may be a city, construction site or a fracking site. The lights resemble the amount of light that a small town or site would have.

The pillars may be explained by ice crystals, or “light pillars” which are defined as the following:

“A light pillar is an atmospheric optical phenomenon in the form of a vertical band of light which appears to extend above and/or below a light source. The effect is created by the reflection of light from numerous tiny ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere or clouds. The light can come from the Sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. It can also come from the Moon or from terrestrial sources such as streetlights.”

Based on the assumed temperature, forming in the air and the light reflecting off of such, this could be a viable explanation. With the witness being near the lake, I’d say that the temperature could easily be in the 20’s.

This “light pillar” phenomena is quite common in colder climates, such as Canada and Michigan where these photographs were taken.  

I have attempted many times to contact the witness, but have received no response. 

Due to this fact, it is difficult to put the story together, as it lacks many details and due to it being 20 years ago, human memory tends to fill in a lot of the gaps.

The Photographs

The post Strange Light Phenomenon, Northern Michigan, Circa 1997 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Strange Light Phenomenon, Northern Michigan, Circa 1997 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Description: Mr. Puckett,

You may remember me and my friend Ryan from a report and interview with you several years ago regarding an incident outside of North Bend, WA. I am writing to inform you of another incident that occurred this past weekend. A very different encounter, but still very strange.

My wife and I were traveling to Banks Lake in Eastern, WA to spend the weekend with her brother and his wife. We left Bothell, WA Friday, 8/7/15 around 7:45 PM with an ETA in Electric City of midnight according to the GPS. We were about 6 to 8 miles west of Coulee City around 11:00 to 11:15 PM. It was completely dark as there are no cities, homes, or anything out there. There was no moon that night. We hadn’t seen another vehicle on the road for at least ten minutes. We were traveling east at about 70 MPH.

Suddenly there were two bright flashes of pure white light from behind us. The light was bright enough and from a position high enough to illuminate the inside of the vehicle. We immediately thought we were being pulled over by the authorities. We both looked behind us, but it was completely dark. There was nothing there. Still traveling at 70 MPH, we both watched in the mirrors and within a couple of seconds, there was another bright light again. We both witnessed a perfect circle of white light directly behind the vehicle traveling with us. It was only illuminated for a second then was gone. My wife asked if she should pull over and I told her to keep going. If it was a police officer, he would use his red and blues to pull us over.

At this point I was concerned. I was expecting to crest a hill and find a roadblock with some punks who were going to rob us. We both kept watching the mirrors to see who was behind us. Suddenly, the light came back on. This time however, there were horizontal lines going through it erratically and it blinked out. The only way I can describe the horizontal lines disturbing the light source would be like a hologram. In the movies, when a hologram is fading out, the picture is disrupted by horizontal lines before disappearing. This is what my wife and I both saw. The light went out with the horizontal lines and was gone. Within a few miles, we crested a hill and could see Coulee City below us. We didn’t see anything else for the duration of the trip and we arrived right on time so no loss of time to report.

I could dismiss the first two flashes as someone messing with us from the side of the road. I could dismiss the second flash as possibly a police vehicle following us with the lights off then hitting us with a spotlight or something although I think I would have seen a vehicle. But the last light, and the way it went out, that part was very weird and very different from anything I have ever seen before.

I should point out that at no time during this encounter did we see another vehicle coming or following us. We watched closely for tail lights or a vehicle turning off behind us somewhere. We didn’t encounter another vehicle for at least six or seven more miles. Could it have been a car with very powerful headlights or high beams several miles behind us? I would have to say no because the light source was 10 to 20 feet behind the vehicle. And when we made it into Coulee City, we could see at least a mile behind us and no vehicles followed us into town.

My question for you would be, Have you heard of similar encounters? My wife and I are both curious as to what this could have been. We are both open to ideas and interpretations on this one. Any information would be useful. If you have any questions, email is probably the best way to contact me.

The post Couple Terrified by Bright Light Flashes to Rear of Car first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Couple Terrified by Bright Light Flashes to Rear of Car appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

When the film was developed, the couple was more than surprised to see a figure wearing glasses sitting in the back seat of the car. Mrs. Chinnery immediately recognized the image of her mother – the woman whose grave they had visited on that day. A photographic expert who examined the print determined that the image of the woman was neither a reflection nor a double exposure. “I stake my reputation on the fact that the picture is genuine,” he testified.

The post The Back Seat Ghost first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post The Back Seat Ghost appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.