Background

On January 16, 2018, the following post went “viral” on the Facebook wall of Kurt Norris, who appears to be one of the originators and the root of this story.

Although I do not “blame” him for the misinformation regarding this case, the internet as a whole did that part all on it’s own by forwarding, sharing and reposting the photos, most with allegations that aliens were attacking or that the government was using a particle beam weapons.  Many posts claimed that Facebook was deleting the evidence, and urged others to forward/share/like etc. which fueled the popularity.

Here are some examples of the photos that surfaced with multiple misleading headlines:

The story deepened, because on the same night, a meteor was also seen in the same area.  The internet as a whole, began connecting the photos you see above, with the following video that surfaced (among others):

The Analysis

Internet lore deepened the mystery, but when dissecting the events, one can determine that the above evidence, is unrelated.  The meteor falling had nothing to do with the original photographs with the “beam” along with the third photo in the array above, which appears to be onlookers looking at a fire in the distance (but lacks a “beam”).

It was determined that this third photo (lacking the “beam”), along with others that surfaced online, were taken near a garage fire in Taylor, Michigan.  According to MLIVE, which reported on the fire:

TAYLOR, MI – A fire that destroyed a pickup truck inside a garage in the metro Detroit community of Taylor was not started by a piece of falling meteor fragment Tuesday night.

Fire crews were called to a garage fire at about 8:24 p.m., Jan. 16, on Merrick Road after the homeowner noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment of a pickup he was working on inside the garage, according to the Taylor Fire Department.

The fire started at about the same time a meteor reportedly entered the atmosphere and several onlookers near the scene assumed the garage was hit, officials said.

The original Facebook poster, which arguably started the online craze after garnering more than 37,000 shares (at the time of writing this), even said the photos were taken of the garage fire. He updated his post with the following, well after the story went viral:

*Two of the photos are from the garage fires in Taylor, MI… the shake and meteor was near Detroit area. The shake and sound was the sonic boom from the speed and going through the atmosphere and causing a 2.0 earthquake. The last picture I just saw circulating from people posting in Taylor, MI area but no one claimed to have taken the photo so it could be a fake.*

The photographs with the “beam” have also been determined to be photographs of a controlled burn from the Canton Marathon Oil refinery in Canton, Ohio. Fox 8 in Cleveland reported on this story:

CANTON, Ohio – Drivers and local residents saw a huge fire at the Marathon Oil refinery in Canton Tuesday evening.

But it was all planned, according to the company.

A Marathon representative told Fox 8 that the fire is called a “controlled flaring” and is used as a “safety valve.”  He adds that “operational circumstances often require it.”

The burn still made for quite a blaze that could be seen for miles and miles.

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.

As the photographs seem to be easily explained, that leaves simply the meteor story.

Since none of the “beam” photographs resemble anything related to the meteor, and have other easily verified stories attached to them to offer a viable explanation, it is safe to say that the incidents are not related, and the video of the meteor, is explained simply, as a video of a meteor.

Conclusion

With the evidence above, I believe we can label the case a “hoax” perpetrated by social networks and click bait sites that help fuel the story, and the dissemination of it to the masses.

In short – don’t fall for the online hype. 

The post What was this strange beam of light in Taylor, Michigan? first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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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.

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