1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 On this edition of CITINGS, what's the British military hiding? 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Two Army helicopters approached us and appeared to be harassing us. 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Startling videotape reveals the truth behind crop circle formations. 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Then, is the human race the result of an extraterrestrial experiment? 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,000 We are the direct descendants of the intelligent people who landed here. 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Also, dangerous entities are terrorizing this hotel. 7 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,000 It's even possible these people don't know that they're dead. 8 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Plus, a young girl's premonition turns to tragedy. 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,000 She drew that picture. She knew she was going to die. 10 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:38,000 And... 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,000 It was exactly the kind of signal that we were looking for. 12 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,000 A narrowband signal, a clear of the intelligent origin. 13 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Have we made contact with a civilization from another galaxy? 14 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Finally, an update. 15 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:51,000 The sculptor whose psychic vision helps families find missing loved ones. 16 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:22,000 Music 17 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,000 Welcome to CITINGS. I'm Tim White. 18 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,560 The ancient hamlet of Avery in southwestern England is the site of two distinctly different 19 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,260 supernatural events. 20 00:01:32,260 --> 00:01:38,000 In the Avery area, more than 300 crop circles have been discovered since 1990. 21 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,680 And then there are the bizarre glowing orbs that locals have dubbed the Avery Mystery 22 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:44,880 Lights. 23 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:50,260 The two phenomena seemed unrelated until recently, when videotape was shot showing what appears 24 00:01:50,260 --> 00:01:58,020 to be a glowing ball of light actually creating a crop circle. 25 00:01:58,020 --> 00:02:04,260 This is a military helicopter circling a field in Avery, England, as captured on home video. 26 00:02:04,260 --> 00:02:08,700 The researchers who shot this tape believe it is evidence that the British government 27 00:02:08,700 --> 00:02:12,100 is involved in secret crop circle research. 28 00:02:12,100 --> 00:02:16,900 Watch carefully as the helicopter hovers near a mysterious ball of light in the middle 29 00:02:16,900 --> 00:02:18,820 of your screen. 30 00:02:18,820 --> 00:02:24,660 In the field below, a crop circle. 31 00:02:24,660 --> 00:02:29,620 The crop circle activity in this area this year has been quite considerable. 32 00:02:29,620 --> 00:02:35,380 We have something in the region of 100 major patterns in Great Britain currently. 33 00:02:35,380 --> 00:02:39,500 Over 90% of them are in this area once again. 34 00:02:39,500 --> 00:02:42,820 Some of the crop circles are made by my few exoterrestrials. 35 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:50,500 When you study the material over the last 40 years from many countries, you have solid 36 00:02:50,500 --> 00:02:56,220 metallic looking objects landing, taking off, leaving a characteristic ground feature like 37 00:02:56,220 --> 00:02:58,260 an ordinary crop circle. 38 00:02:58,260 --> 00:03:03,540 It was like a clear sphere, oranging inside with like thousands of lights spinning and 39 00:03:03,540 --> 00:03:06,740 rotating and the whole thing was spinning. 40 00:03:06,740 --> 00:03:11,340 Most of the lights that are seen above the crop formations and some of them are actually 41 00:03:11,340 --> 00:03:14,020 seen in the fields. 42 00:03:14,020 --> 00:03:19,940 There must be some connection although at the present we haven't got that little thing 43 00:03:19,940 --> 00:03:22,180 that clicks the two together. 44 00:03:22,180 --> 00:03:27,700 Every night sky watchers ring the hills around Avery waiting for a glimpse of the mysterious 45 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:28,700 lights. 46 00:03:28,700 --> 00:03:33,980 The following amateur videotapes of unexplained lights in the night sky have all been taken 47 00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:35,620 within the last three years. 48 00:03:35,620 --> 00:03:40,460 It was only very short lived but for the five seconds it was there, it was tremendous. 49 00:03:40,460 --> 00:03:45,380 It was like looking at something half the size of the moon just sat on the ridge top, 50 00:03:45,380 --> 00:03:47,500 brilliantly glowing orange. 51 00:03:47,500 --> 00:03:49,980 They looked like orange balls of light. 52 00:03:49,980 --> 00:03:55,500 You could see that they were mushroom shaped, revolving and emitting orange lights out from 53 00:03:55,500 --> 00:03:59,060 the bottom so we were quite fascinated by it. 54 00:03:59,060 --> 00:04:07,580 I'd describe it as being spherical oval shaped, silvery white, slight orange tinge. 55 00:04:07,580 --> 00:04:13,020 It came over from the left to the right of the trees and it went back and it came back 56 00:04:13,020 --> 00:04:14,020 again. 57 00:04:14,020 --> 00:04:19,620 Then all of a sudden it looked like it tripled in size and changed colour to orange. 58 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:24,780 But then after that we see the white ball came out from the side of it and that went 59 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:28,620 off to the left and we never see that no more. 60 00:04:28,620 --> 00:04:35,260 The lights are there and they're not aircraft, planets or radio towers but are they extraterrestrial 61 00:04:35,260 --> 00:04:36,580 craft? 62 00:04:36,580 --> 00:04:40,700 The astronomers believe the Avery mystery lights are a natural phenomenon but so far 63 00:04:40,700 --> 00:04:42,380 they don't know much more than that. 64 00:04:42,380 --> 00:04:50,080 At the heart of a lot of genuine sightings of UFOs are these balls of light cavorting 65 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:55,820 around in the night sky perhaps coming down very close perhaps changing shape. 66 00:04:55,820 --> 00:05:00,900 It's quite possible that those balls of light are a glowing plasma which is the same type 67 00:05:00,900 --> 00:05:05,260 mechanism that we do think is involved in crop circle formation. 68 00:05:05,260 --> 00:05:10,340 Plasma being very simply electrically charged air particles and they start high in the 69 00:05:10,340 --> 00:05:14,980 Earth's atmosphere and come down and towards the ground. 70 00:05:14,980 --> 00:05:19,460 So if you have plasma coming from high in the Earth's atmosphere you should expect 71 00:05:19,460 --> 00:05:23,500 that it's likely to be swirling by the time it gets anywhere near the ground and that's 72 00:05:23,500 --> 00:05:27,380 completely consistent with what we find in crop circles. 73 00:05:27,380 --> 00:05:35,100 It is just conceivable that some of the circles may result from balls of light that just touched 74 00:05:35,460 --> 00:05:40,180 down and touched this very responsive surface of a corn field. 75 00:05:40,180 --> 00:05:45,060 The ground here is chalk and limestone crisscrossed with underground springs. 76 00:05:45,060 --> 00:05:49,260 Some scientists hypothesize that the interaction between the water and the rock creates an 77 00:05:49,260 --> 00:05:53,460 electrical charge that either attracts or helps create the lights. 78 00:05:53,460 --> 00:05:59,660 But what is so strange is that these lights appear to be moving purposefully and that's 79 00:05:59,740 --> 00:06:05,460 for me what sets it aside from the natural phenomenon to one which may well be controlled 80 00:06:05,460 --> 00:06:11,540 by an intelligence of some sort or indeed in itself may well be intelligent. 81 00:06:11,540 --> 00:06:17,580 I turned and I saw this glint and I thought what's that? 82 00:06:17,580 --> 00:06:20,700 And automatically almost I picked my video camera up. 83 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:27,140 On July 26th 1990 crop circle researcher Stephen Alexander captured this remarkable footage 84 00:06:27,140 --> 00:06:30,900 of one of the mysterious earth lights in a field near Avery. 85 00:06:30,900 --> 00:06:34,180 The earth light was maneuvering next to a newly formed crop circle. 86 00:06:34,180 --> 00:06:39,900 This object just actually curved round and dropped into the crop and disappeared for 87 00:06:39,900 --> 00:06:44,740 a while and then it started maneuvering through the crop and it was glinting and flashing. 88 00:06:44,740 --> 00:06:48,220 It was a very intense sort of energy source it seemed to me. 89 00:06:48,220 --> 00:06:53,620 Then you can see that object actually take off and in the distance was a tractor driver 90 00:06:53,620 --> 00:06:57,740 and you can actually see the tractor driver stop as the actual object went over the top 91 00:06:57,740 --> 00:06:58,740 there. 92 00:06:58,740 --> 00:07:00,940 Where is that piece of paper? 93 00:07:00,940 --> 00:07:05,060 I couldn't explain it and in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't a bird or a balloon 94 00:07:05,060 --> 00:07:07,860 or just something blowing in the wind. 95 00:07:07,860 --> 00:07:11,380 I knew that it was something important there. 96 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:16,740 This videotape of another earth light above Avery was taken from a hang glider by Dutch 97 00:07:16,740 --> 00:07:22,820 UFO researcher Foka Kooja but scientists and ufoticists may not be the only ones interested 98 00:07:22,820 --> 00:07:24,020 in these lights. 99 00:07:24,020 --> 00:07:27,780 It appears that the British military is also studying the phenomenon. 100 00:07:27,780 --> 00:07:30,780 That is what you look at. 101 00:07:30,780 --> 00:07:32,780 Look at these bristles with equipment. 102 00:07:32,780 --> 00:07:35,300 Right, we get this here. 103 00:07:35,300 --> 00:07:40,780 We get a picture of him in front of us. 104 00:07:40,780 --> 00:07:41,780 Oh yeah. 105 00:07:41,780 --> 00:07:42,780 There you go. 106 00:07:42,780 --> 00:07:43,780 The crop circle is right there. 107 00:07:43,780 --> 00:07:44,780 Hop out. 108 00:07:44,780 --> 00:07:45,780 Hop out. 109 00:07:45,780 --> 00:07:46,780 Hop up. 110 00:07:46,780 --> 00:07:51,340 What appeared to be happening was that we had moved, walked into a situation which was 111 00:07:51,340 --> 00:07:57,580 undesirable because what happened was that the two army helicopters approached us and 112 00:07:57,580 --> 00:07:58,900 appeared to be harassing us. 113 00:07:58,900 --> 00:08:00,300 I mean he was so close. 114 00:08:00,300 --> 00:08:01,940 It was unbelievable. 115 00:08:01,940 --> 00:08:08,100 One helicopter broke away across this field to the far side of the field to my left and 116 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:15,100 what you can see on the film is a small white object pulsating identical to Stephen Alexander's 117 00:08:15,100 --> 00:08:19,380 very similar to the Dutch people's footage and others. 118 00:08:19,380 --> 00:08:24,540 And this helicopter went directly to the light which we could see on the footage. 119 00:08:24,540 --> 00:08:27,460 Some flashing thing on the ground. 120 00:08:27,460 --> 00:08:30,460 He's not moving right or right now. 121 00:08:30,460 --> 00:08:31,460 Oh yeah. 122 00:08:31,460 --> 00:08:32,460 Oh yeah. 123 00:08:32,460 --> 00:08:34,260 Did that move? 124 00:08:34,260 --> 00:08:35,540 It overshot it. 125 00:08:35,540 --> 00:08:40,340 The helicopter you can see backing up to get this back into full view as this white light 126 00:08:40,340 --> 00:08:47,940 is pulsating underneath it and on film this light just disappears. 127 00:08:48,060 --> 00:08:52,340 Once again on film we have something we cannot explain. 128 00:08:52,340 --> 00:08:57,780 If the lights are simply a natural phenomenon why would the British military be involved? 129 00:08:57,780 --> 00:09:02,700 If the lights are nothing more than concentrations of superheated energy how could they create 130 00:09:02,700 --> 00:09:05,820 these intricate designs? 131 00:09:05,820 --> 00:09:10,020 These things are seen to move from one pattern to another. 132 00:09:10,020 --> 00:09:15,860 They appear to have total awareness of their surroundings and on occasions we have many 133 00:09:15,900 --> 00:09:21,700 reports of an interactiveness between the people who are observing them. 134 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:25,300 And so therefore for me that puts it into a slightly different slot. 135 00:09:25,300 --> 00:09:29,300 We're looking at what might be intelligence. 136 00:09:29,300 --> 00:09:33,220 He's moving right or right now. 137 00:09:33,220 --> 00:09:38,260 The British Ministry of Defense has stated that the helicopters in Colin Andrews' videotape 138 00:09:38,260 --> 00:09:42,700 were on a training exercise and that no one involved with the exercise saw anything unusual 139 00:09:42,700 --> 00:09:44,020 that day. 140 00:09:44,180 --> 00:09:48,700 According to the Defense Ministry the pulsing white object is simply a reflection from the 141 00:09:48,700 --> 00:09:51,420 helicopter's strobe light. 142 00:09:51,420 --> 00:09:56,420 Coming up, startling new theories suggest that there is a missing link in the story of human evolution. 143 00:09:56,420 --> 00:10:01,420 Don't call them aliens because we look like them, they look like us. 144 00:10:04,820 --> 00:10:11,020 When Charles Darwin published Origin of the Species in 1859 it ignited a worldwide controversy 145 00:10:11,020 --> 00:10:14,380 that continues to divide science and religion. 146 00:10:14,380 --> 00:10:18,860 But the controversy doesn't end there because within the scientific community itself there 147 00:10:18,860 --> 00:10:20,780 is bitter division. 148 00:10:20,780 --> 00:10:26,620 And now new evidence that a conspiracy of silence among mainstream anthropologists is 149 00:10:26,620 --> 00:10:32,620 covering up evidence of what some believe are our true extraterrestrial origins. 150 00:10:33,180 --> 00:10:39,680 The Bible answers the riddle of our origin in four simple words, and God created man. 151 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:42,640 Darwin looked at monkeys and saw Michelangelo. 152 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:47,600 But for modern anthropologists who try to put a name and a date to the dawn of humankind, 153 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,080 the answer is constantly changing. 154 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:55,200 Fossils discovered recently in Ethiopia put our earliest ancestors at around 4.4 million 155 00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:01,040 years, but some scientists believe that there is evidence that we are much older than that. 156 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:06,120 On an archaeological dig in Weatlico, Mexico, Dr. Virginia's steam magentire discovered 157 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:08,880 tools that predated the earliest known humans. 158 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:10,960 Her find created a storm of controversy. 159 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,280 I don't really want to be in the center of a controversy. 160 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:16,800 I never asked to be in the center of a controversy, but I'm here. 161 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:20,200 And dog on it, I want to get the information out. 162 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:21,200 I want to get at the truth. 163 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:23,720 I guess that's what it is. 164 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:29,400 Why does Dr. Steen Magentire feel the need to protect her artifacts from her more mainstream 165 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:30,760 colleagues? 166 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:35,560 Why are contradictory findings being met with contempt instead of excitement? 167 00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:39,920 Some researchers charge it's because these new findings would turn modern anthropology 168 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:47,640 on its head. 169 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:53,320 I believe that we came from outer space. 170 00:11:53,320 --> 00:12:01,800 All the evidence suggests that human beings, as we know them, did not originate on this 171 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:08,560 planet, but have come to this earth from other dimensions. 172 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:15,360 I believe that we came from outer space, that we are the direct descendants of the intelligent 173 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,760 people who landed here a long time ago. 174 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:23,200 Gene Phillips is the founder and president of the Ancient Astronaut Society. 175 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:27,440 He claims that museums are hiding thousands of artifacts that do not conform to their 176 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,160 narrow view of anthropology. 177 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:37,240 This is an exact replica of an object that is in the Smithsonian Museum, and they call 178 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:39,240 it a stylized insect. 179 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:45,360 The Smithsonian had it on display, and they used to sell replicas in their shop. 180 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:50,280 Phillips claims that after the Ancient Astronaut Society interpreted the object as a prehistoric 181 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:57,000 space shuttle, the Smithsonian removed the original from public display. 182 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:02,960 Phillips and his group have studied more than 150 ancient sites in 30 countries. 183 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,840 These 5,000-year-old masks were unearthed in Eastern Europe. 184 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:12,880 They bear a striking resemblance to modern-day depictions of supposed aliens, known as greys. 185 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:18,280 There's a site in Bolivia, South America, called El Fuerte. 186 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:23,280 What it looks like is a catapult type launch site for space vehicles. 187 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:28,280 The Ancient Astronaut Society is not the only group supporting the theory of interplanetary 188 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:29,280 contact. 189 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:33,840 Author Zachariah Sitchin concurs in his book The 12th Planet. 190 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:41,960 There is one more planet in our own solar system, not light years away, that comes near Earth 191 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:48,840 between Mars and Jupiter every 3600 years, at which time people, intelligent people, 192 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:55,280 beings like us, come and go between their planet and our planet, and brought us homo sapiens 193 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:59,760 about sooner than we might have appeared otherwise. 194 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:04,640 Don't call them aliens, because we look like them, they look like us. 195 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,600 All we ask is that people have an open mind. 196 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:12,280 Look at something with an open mind with today's space age eyes. 197 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:16,760 Scientists on the fringe of modern anthropology believe that their theories are not taken 198 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:21,920 seriously because mainstream scientists are afraid to admit that they've been wrong. 199 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:28,320 All the textbooks would have to be rewritten, all the exhibits in the museums would have 200 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:30,400 to be changed. 201 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:37,720 This would be very embarrassing, and people who have positions to defend like that don't 202 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:41,480 like to be embarrassed. 203 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:46,440 The idea of alien evolution does sound far-fetched, and its proponents are well aware of the 204 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:49,880 fact that they're looked at as eccentric outsiders. 205 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:55,040 They may not have all the answers, but it's often the so-called eccentrics who ask the 206 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:56,840 most interesting questions. 207 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:02,280 Next, they call him the recomposer of the decomposed, and he solved another case. 208 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:10,760 The payoff emotionally is helping to put somebody's cases to rest. 209 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:15,960 Recently, Siding's profile forensic sculptor Frank Bender, his uncanny gift for sculpting 210 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:21,240 a human face on the bare bones of an unidentified skull, has brought closure to many unsolved 211 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:22,920 murder cases. 212 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:29,080 And now, because of our original broadcast, another family can put a long-lost loved one 213 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,080 to rest. 214 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:39,840 In 1980, police made a grisly discovery in a row house on North Lithgow Street in Philadelphia. 215 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:45,440 The body they found was badly decomposed and bore no resemblance to the young woman she 216 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,120 once was. 217 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,240 That's where forensic sculptor Frank Bender comes in. 218 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:57,800 He has an uncanny gift for creating a face on a bare skull, for giving life, if only 219 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,680 in clay, to the victims of unsolved crimes. 220 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:07,520 His studio is the final resting place for men, women and children who have no names. 221 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:13,440 Bender's technique combines forensic science with an emotional, some call it psychic, attachment, 222 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:14,680 and it works. 223 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:19,840 On a previous Siding's, we profiled Bender and his amazing success rate. 224 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:24,320 After the first segment of Siding's aired, I received numerous phone calls from people 225 00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:31,960 all around the country, basically saying that they were thanking Siding's and also thanking 226 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:37,600 me and the team involved for the work that we're doing. 227 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:43,040 And now, the woman who Frank Bender resurrected from a skull found on North Lithgow Street 228 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,760 has a name. 229 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:49,360 The one brain and waiting are over for one Philadelphia family. 230 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:53,480 After 15 years, they know what happened to Jackie. 231 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,240 All these years I've never moved because I thought maybe she would come home. 232 00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:59,200 Never changed my phone number. 233 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:00,960 Everything's been the same. 234 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:07,160 Just in case she would reach out as they say in phone home. 235 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:11,960 Because of our broadcast, Frank Bender met police officer Virginia Hill, who works in 236 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:16,000 the missing persons unit of the Philadelphia Police Department. 237 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,800 Officer Hill inherited the Jackie Goff case three years ago. 238 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:27,000 The search for Jacqueline Goff started with me in 1991. 239 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:31,980 The first time Officer Hill visited Frank Bender's studio, she was struck by the resemblance 240 00:17:31,980 --> 00:17:36,560 between Jackie Goff and one of the busts Bender had sculpted. 241 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:44,080 I came over to his studio and we talked about it on a show that he was doing. 242 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:48,960 And we put two and two together and we both believed the same that it was Jacqueline. 243 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,280 Forensic evidence supported the matchup. 244 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:54,880 Jackie's dental records indicated she had an extra tooth. 245 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:57,280 So did the skull that Bender had worked from. 246 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,200 A photo of the bust was given to the Goff family. 247 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,200 They made positive ID. 248 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:07,240 When I came here up, I would almost have to say how deadly that it was. 249 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:14,760 Frank has never met Jackie, but when he made this, it seemed like he knew her when he made 250 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:15,760 it. 251 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:21,920 Because that looks like her through her eyes, top part of her face. 252 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:27,760 DNA results are still pending, but Frank Bender is confident he has made another match. 253 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:35,360 The payoff emotionally is satisfaction, the satisfaction of helping, helping to put some 254 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:37,520 of these cases to rest. 255 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:41,800 Officer Hill is continuing to work with Frank Bender on other missing persons cases. 256 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:43,160 The future is promising. 257 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,640 I work with families that are in great distress. 258 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:52,880 A lot of families haven't heard from their children in 10, 15, even 20 years. 259 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:58,480 I get a lot of relief when the family has put it to rest, when we can positively identify 260 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:03,280 someone and then they can go on with their lives. 261 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:10,480 Sadly, the bust that Frank Bender was sculpting during our original broadcast has still not 262 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:12,040 been identified. 263 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:19,120 Here again is the face of an unnamed child found murdered in Philadelphia in 1994. 264 00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:23,120 If you have any information about the identity of this little boy, believed to be 5 years 265 00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:27,800 old at the time of his death, please contact the Homicide Division of the Philadelphia Police 266 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:45,800 Department. 267 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,800 1849, the gold rush is on. 268 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:58,240 More than 85,000 people flock to California in search of the mother load. 269 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:02,840 A few become millionaires, but most barely scratch out a living. 270 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:10,080 And many of the legendary 49ers die, laboring with hand tools inside unstable mines. 271 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:15,880 It is the ghosts of those who died trying that many believe are still here today, haunting 272 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:21,360 a small town in the Sierra foothills of California. 273 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:28,440 You can hear explosions, you can hear fire crackling, you can hear people screaming. 274 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,880 In California's gold country, the mines are idle now. 275 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:34,040 The streams and creeks played out. 276 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:41,640 But in Jamestown, the spirit of the 49ers is still alive inside this hotel. 277 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:46,600 You can still find a hot meal and friendly conversation at the Willow Hotel. 278 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:50,560 And some people believe you can still hear strange echoes from the past. 279 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:54,320 I went into the bathroom, went to turn the light on and something touched me on the back 280 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:55,320 of my hand. 281 00:20:55,320 --> 00:21:01,040 I've seen spices fly off the shelves, laughter in the kitchen when no one's there. 282 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:08,000 Ceiling fans coming on by themselves, lights in here constantly going on and off. 283 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,680 Why does the Willow Hotel seem to be the focus of so much haunting activity? 284 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:17,360 Many people believe it's because of a great mine disaster that killed 23 miners here in 285 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:20,560 1862. 286 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:24,480 Before the dust had settled, construction began on the Willow Hotel. 287 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:30,320 It was built directly on top of the mine where so many had lost their lives. 288 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,440 Jamestown tried to put the past behind it. 289 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:36,320 The hotel thrived, hosting presidents and gun slingers. 290 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,240 But the past did not go away. 291 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,440 There's a lot of good here, but there's a lot of evil also. 292 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:46,080 The Willow Saloon has been in constant operation since 1862. 293 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:49,160 But for the past ten years, no one has slept here. 294 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:53,640 A series of mysterious fires have engulfed the sleeping quarters three separate times 295 00:21:53,640 --> 00:22:02,240 and always on the same date in years ending in 5, July 21st, 1955, July 21st, 1975, when 296 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:07,440 the hotel burned on July 21st, 1985, no one wanted to rebuild. 297 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,560 We smelled smoke all day. 298 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:14,560 And then later that evening, we spotted flames in the wanes coating over in the dining room. 299 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:18,880 When the fire department came, they chopped the wall up and went through it and everything. 300 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:20,320 Inside the wall, there was no electrical. 301 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:22,040 There was nothing there to make that fire start. 302 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,400 It just had started from nothing. 303 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:30,200 Then after we got the fire put out, then Kevin, the owner, asked us to stick around just in 304 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:31,200 case it re-ignited. 305 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:38,480 And at that time, we started hearing two scratches from underneath the bar floor by the waitress 306 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:39,480 station. 307 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:45,640 I took a fast exit out the door and then shortly after that, out of this wall that I'm leaning 308 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:49,880 against came like two massive exhales. 309 00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,320 Word spread about the strange fires at the Willow. 310 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:57,720 A local news crew came in to conduct an overnight surveillance. 311 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,560 We set the camera back on the tripod and we left it just sitting there. 312 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,080 Nobody touched it. 313 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,680 And the camera went to black and white. 314 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:11,040 And we had the electrical was blinking in and out. 315 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:18,960 And the walls of the booth in the front there started rolling as if like an earthquake was 316 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:20,880 making the walls roll out. 317 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:21,880 We did play it back. 318 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,080 Yeah, we had lines going across it and then started rolling. 319 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,600 And then ever since then, I haven't been able to really view it. 320 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:33,440 We kept shutting the VCR off, ejecting the tape and there was a brand new tape. 321 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:39,120 That same television crew took these photographs and claimed they saw transparent entities 322 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:40,760 hiding in the shadows. 323 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:45,760 I just looked across the room and I just saw somebody standing at the booth. 324 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:47,800 And as soon as I got up, he just disappeared. 325 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:48,920 He was gone. 326 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:54,280 That was the reason why I took a picture of the booth to see what would happen. 327 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:59,800 And then it appears that there are two faces in the booth, one on each side. 328 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,480 And one of the faces looks like he has like a miner's hat. 329 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,960 Are these entities somehow responsible for the fires? 330 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:12,320 Do they have a connection to the Great Jamestown Fire of 1896 that destroyed almost everything 331 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:13,320 but the willow? 332 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:18,160 In the late 1800s, when the town was burning and they've dynamited some of the other buildings 333 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,640 to save this one, they said while they were dynamiting, a man was killed. 334 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:27,000 And they said one of the kinfolk from the man that was killed is who keeps lighting 335 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,480 this place on fire. 336 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:35,240 Or is the haunting here related to the turbulent times the willow experienced during prohibition? 337 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:40,680 In 1925, Gus Rado, who was leasing the bar at the time, went upstairs to his wife's room 338 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:41,680 and called to her. 339 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:47,280 And when she opened the door, he fired one shot into her head and turned around and shot 340 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,120 another into his own head. 341 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:55,080 Since 1972, the places belonged to the Mooney family. 342 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,640 When Kevin Mooney took over four years ago, he was a confirmed skeptic until he had his 343 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:00,640 own sighting. 344 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,200 I'm getting ready to walk through the back door. 345 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:08,200 When I look up at the window and there's eyes like red like this, two red eyes looking 346 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:09,200 through the window. 347 00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:10,920 I just, my heart started going, oh God. 348 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:12,240 I get outside my heart's going to go boom. 349 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,680 I look around, there's nothing there. 350 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:19,880 The Mooneys had earlier contacted parapsychologists Nick Nosarino and Chuck Pelton to conduct 351 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:20,880 a thorough investigation. 352 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:25,200 You got something here that's very hot. 353 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:26,200 Very hot. 354 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:30,080 This is where the apparition should be. 355 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:34,160 If there's going to be an apparition, it should be in this area. 356 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,040 When you walk through this building, you still feel heat. 357 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:38,320 You feel fire. 358 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,160 You smell smoke. 359 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:45,240 Pelton and Nosarino believe that there are three layers of hauntings here caused by what 360 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:48,600 they have termed residual thought forms. 361 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:56,360 Well thought form is probably an event that took place that these people are reliving. 362 00:25:56,360 --> 00:26:06,000 And if you tie that into a quick death, had it been from a fire explosion, a mine cave, 363 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,160 it's even possible these people don't know that they're dead. 364 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:13,400 No one can predict if the haunting forms of the past will appear again. 365 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:19,440 You can bet everyone in Jamestown will be keeping an eye on the willow every July 21st, 366 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,040 ending in five. 367 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:27,840 The pattern of fires occurring on the same date nearly every decade since 1955 has all 368 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,400 the earmarks of a classic arson pattern. 369 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,840 That's what the Toilomy County Fire Department originally thought. 370 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:40,200 But their extensive investigation has ruled out arson as a possible cause. 371 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:46,040 When sightings continues, a child's premonition turns tragedy into hope. 372 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:53,960 Katie was given a glimpse from the other side. 373 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:58,600 Most psychical researchers believe that we are born with extraordinary powers of ESP. 374 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:03,520 But as we grow older, our psychic ability is weakened by a world that teaches us to 375 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,640 rely on empirical thinking. 376 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,520 If this is true, it might help explain why young Katie Thronson had a premonition of 377 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:16,020 death that tragically came true. 378 00:27:16,020 --> 00:27:20,400 This is the last picture Katie Thronson ever drew. 379 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,920 It was her vision of another life beyond this one. 380 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,720 It seemed to spring from an active imagination. 381 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:31,520 But less than a week after Katie showed the drawing to her mother, the little girl who 382 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,920 seemed heaven sent was gone. 383 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:43,440 Katie was a beautiful little girl who was really happy and was always kissing people. 384 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,160 Just really loving. 385 00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,920 She would always have her arms around other children. 386 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:54,460 She seemed to be the one that always brought children together. 387 00:27:54,460 --> 00:27:59,200 Over the course of almost seven years, she had hundreds of drawings. 388 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:06,440 She expressed herself by drawing hearts all the time because she was filled with love. 389 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:12,920 Julie Thronson vividly recalls one day in October of 1991 when Katie came to her out 390 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,640 of the blue with an unsettling question. 391 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:21,560 She came into the room where I was sitting, holding a tablet that she had been drawing 392 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:22,560 on. 393 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:32,400 And in a real innocent way came up to me and asked me, mommy, am I going to die? 394 00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:36,600 And I said, no honey, of course not, you're not going to die. 395 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,280 And she said, never. 396 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:46,720 And I said, Katie, no, you're not going to die. 397 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:51,680 Then she just danced off, happy that she wasn't going to die. 398 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,920 But two days later, Katie developed what appeared to be a severe flu. 399 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,840 The next day her condition worsened and she was rushed to the hospital. 400 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,120 Doctors suspected that Katie had a ruptured appendix. 401 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:15,840 In the hours after that time, in prior to her going to surgery, her prognosis had become 402 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:17,560 extremely grave. 403 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,260 Julie never left her daughter's side. 404 00:29:20,260 --> 00:29:24,620 Just before three o'clock, while Katie was waiting surgery, there was a change in her 405 00:29:24,620 --> 00:29:25,620 breathing. 406 00:29:25,620 --> 00:29:28,860 She lapsed into unconsciousness and Julie could not wake her. 407 00:29:28,860 --> 00:29:42,820 I said, Katie, Katie just talked to mama and she wasn't responding to me at all. 408 00:29:43,780 --> 00:29:50,860 I looked at the clock and it was right at three o'clock. 409 00:29:50,860 --> 00:29:59,740 I looked at the clock, I looked at her and suddenly she just sat up in the hospital bed, 410 00:29:59,740 --> 00:30:04,860 raised her arms out towards the window, opened her eyes. 411 00:30:04,860 --> 00:30:11,180 It was like she wanted me to pick her up, yet she wasn't in my direction. 412 00:30:11,180 --> 00:30:16,140 There was this stillness in the room that is indescribable. 413 00:30:16,140 --> 00:30:19,620 It was just completely still. 414 00:30:19,620 --> 00:30:24,820 It was like an infinite moment. 415 00:30:24,820 --> 00:30:30,900 And in my spirit, I just knew that my little girl had been taken. 416 00:30:30,900 --> 00:30:39,740 And I ran out into the hall and I just yelled, my little girl just died. 417 00:30:41,420 --> 00:30:45,060 I just saw her die. 418 00:30:45,060 --> 00:30:48,740 A medical team rushed in to try to revive Katie. 419 00:30:48,740 --> 00:30:54,300 Julie waited in the hallway, just outside the room where her daughter was dying. 420 00:30:54,300 --> 00:31:02,500 And then I noticed a pregnant woman walking towards me and I could tell by the look in 421 00:31:02,500 --> 00:31:06,180 her eyes that she was going to say something to me. 422 00:31:06,620 --> 00:31:10,820 She came right up to me. 423 00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:16,940 She touched me on the shoulder and she said, the Lord has spoken to me. 424 00:31:16,940 --> 00:31:19,140 You're to be like a lioness. 425 00:31:19,140 --> 00:31:22,500 Your little girl is okay. 426 00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:31,500 And I just felt this shiver go through my body and I thought, if the Lord has spoken 427 00:31:31,500 --> 00:31:36,340 to her, then Katie is okay. 428 00:31:36,340 --> 00:31:43,460 Whether she's going to live or whether she's gone to God, Katie's going to be okay. 429 00:31:43,460 --> 00:31:48,620 The woman disappeared as if into thin air and Julie never saw her again. 430 00:31:48,620 --> 00:31:51,100 Katie was being kept alive with machines. 431 00:31:51,100 --> 00:31:54,140 After three days, doctors pronounced her legally brain dead. 432 00:31:54,140 --> 00:31:58,100 The thronsons made the agonizing decision to remove life support. 433 00:31:58,100 --> 00:32:03,460 The autopsy indicated that there was indeed appendicitis and that there had been extension 434 00:32:03,460 --> 00:32:08,900 of this infection locally to other organs that were nearby. 435 00:32:08,900 --> 00:32:14,700 Officially, Katie died October 10th, but both Julie and her doctor believed Katie was gone 436 00:32:14,700 --> 00:32:16,980 much sooner. 437 00:32:16,980 --> 00:32:24,860 When I told the doctor that at that time she had raised her arms out towards the window, 438 00:32:24,860 --> 00:32:31,380 he said, I believe that that was the time that Katie left her body. 439 00:32:31,380 --> 00:32:41,820 And that although they artificially kept her alive, she had died at three o'clock. 440 00:32:41,820 --> 00:32:47,180 It was six-year-old Katie who was the first to be laid to rest in the family plot. 441 00:32:47,180 --> 00:32:52,660 It was an unspeakable tragedy from which the thronsons never thought they would recover. 442 00:32:52,660 --> 00:32:57,860 A few months later, there was a ray of hope stuffed inside a cardboard box. 443 00:32:57,860 --> 00:33:03,580 Julie found the tablet that Katie had been drawing on just days before her death. 444 00:33:03,580 --> 00:33:16,020 She had drawn a picture of these angels surrounding a light and the cloud and the moon had sad 445 00:33:16,020 --> 00:33:21,060 faces and all the angels had sad faces and some of them even had tears coming down their 446 00:33:21,060 --> 00:33:23,060 face. 447 00:33:23,060 --> 00:33:25,820 The picture said everything. 448 00:33:25,820 --> 00:33:33,820 When I saw it, I knew without a doubt that Katie had a premonition. 449 00:33:33,820 --> 00:33:36,780 Julie drew strength from that cherished drawing. 450 00:33:36,780 --> 00:33:42,060 Then five months after Katie's death, a picture appeared in Life magazine that seemed to confirm 451 00:33:42,060 --> 00:33:45,580 Julie's belief that her daughter's drawing was a premonition. 452 00:33:45,580 --> 00:33:50,100 This 19th century engraving was part of an article about life after death. 453 00:33:50,100 --> 00:33:55,940 The depiction of a welcoming vortex of light was strikingly similar to Katie's own vision. 454 00:33:55,940 --> 00:34:00,500 Both pictures have a circular pattern that resembles the tunnel of light, commonly reported 455 00:34:00,500 --> 00:34:02,620 in near-death experiences. 456 00:34:02,620 --> 00:34:03,620 Coincidence? 457 00:34:03,620 --> 00:34:06,100 Or did Katie receive a divine message? 458 00:34:06,100 --> 00:34:08,460 She knew she was going to die. 459 00:34:08,460 --> 00:34:10,020 She drew that picture. 460 00:34:10,020 --> 00:34:12,740 She asked me, mommy, am I going to die? 461 00:34:12,740 --> 00:34:21,420 Whether or not she knew the meaning of it, I believe her spirit did. 462 00:34:21,420 --> 00:34:27,680 Author, Dr. Gerald Jampulski is a child psychiatrist who counsels bereaved families. 463 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:32,300 After Julie Tronson saw the Life magazine article, she wrote to Dr. Jampulski and asked 464 00:34:32,300 --> 00:34:34,980 him to look at Katie's drawing. 465 00:34:34,980 --> 00:34:40,100 I pointed out that at three o'clock it looked like one of the angels was going toward the 466 00:34:40,100 --> 00:34:42,340 center and going toward the light. 467 00:34:42,340 --> 00:34:49,700 I was like amazed for a minute and he continued it, but I'm thinking he doesn't know that 468 00:34:49,700 --> 00:34:51,660 Katie died at three o'clock. 469 00:34:51,660 --> 00:34:53,940 There's no way he could know that. 470 00:34:53,940 --> 00:34:57,660 Julie also tried to find the pregnant woman who had comforted her. 471 00:34:57,660 --> 00:35:01,260 The hospital gave her the names and phone numbers of all the women in the maternity 472 00:35:01,260 --> 00:35:05,540 ward that day, but none of them remembered speaking to Julie. 473 00:35:05,540 --> 00:35:08,200 She was obviously an angel. 474 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:14,280 There was some kind of a message there of life and death and birth. 475 00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,760 The cycle of death and birth continues. 476 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:20,440 There is a new life in the Tronson family. 477 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:26,720 Little Cody was born on October 7th, 1992, one year to the day after Katie died. 478 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:29,280 It was an uncanny coincidence. 479 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,120 I was once told the definition of coincidence. 480 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,320 I've always found it very helpful. 481 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,320 A coincidence is a miracle in which God wishes to remain anonymous. 482 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,840 It makes a lot of sense to me. 483 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:44,960 When the Tronsons take Katie's brothers and sisters to her grave, the family remembers 484 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:48,280 and talks about what they believe is God's plan. 485 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:49,800 There was a gift from beyond. 486 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,560 Maybe a gift from God. 487 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:57,320 The impact that drawing has had on our life is just beyond words. 488 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,440 We have this to share with people. 489 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:07,320 We have the hope to share with people that there is a beautiful side to all of this. 490 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:11,960 It helped us in the healing because it gave us both peace. 491 00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:17,440 I felt honored that Katie was given a glimpse from the other side. 492 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:23,400 There's just the fact that there's life after death. 493 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,040 And even though we can't see it, it exists. 494 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,960 Just a few weeks ago, the Tronsons were in a serious car accident. 495 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:35,960 Unfortunately, everyone's all right. 496 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:37,520 They're recovering at home. 497 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,520 But something strange happened during that crash. 498 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:44,480 Three-year-old Christopher told his mother and father that right after the moment of 499 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,360 impact, he saw Katie. 500 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,360 Up next. 501 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,960 It was five to six times stronger than any signal in the past. 502 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:57,560 After receiving what could be an extraterrestrial message, this facility could be shut down. 503 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:08,280 The radio telescope at Ohio State University in Columbus is nicknamed the Big Ear. 504 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:13,720 Its job is to listen for anomalous sounds in the cosmos that might be evidence of intergalactic 505 00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:15,560 communication. 506 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:20,320 If someone out there is trying to get our attention, the Big Ear is probably the telescope 507 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:24,040 that will bring the message to us. 508 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,600 Man has always wondered, are we alone in the universe? 509 00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:32,840 Are there other intelligent beings somewhere that we might perhaps converse with at some 510 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,720 point or at least learn of the existence of? 511 00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:40,560 The universe has no beginning, no middle, and no end. 512 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:45,960 In such a limitless ocean of planets, moons, and stars, are we really the only lifeforms 513 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,000 searching outer space? 514 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,560 Is another civilization trying to make contact? 515 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:55,240 Astronomers operating this telescope believe contact has been made. 516 00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:57,640 It was exactly the kind of signal that we were looking for. 517 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:01,800 It's a narrowband signal that clearly have intelligent origin, clearly not interference, 518 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:03,160 not any of those things. 519 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:08,480 In the late 1950s, Ohio State University began construction on what would become the world's 520 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:10,640 largest radio telescope. 521 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,600 It was designed to pick up and record the noises of space. 522 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:19,960 And for over 15 years, it cataloged a symphony of static pops and hisses that were emanating 523 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:24,600 naturally from satellites, stars, and explainable sources. 524 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:31,160 In the mid-1970s, the radio telescope known as the Big Ear received NASA sponsorship and 525 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,760 began listening for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. 526 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,680 In 1977, they got their first hit. 527 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:43,760 I had the task to look at the computer printouts to see if there was anything interesting. 528 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,440 Anything four or above was definitely unusual. 529 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:51,120 Well, this was the equivalent of 30. 530 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:57,760 So it was so strong, five to six times stronger than I had seen any signal in the past, that 531 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:02,480 I was astonished and immediately wrote the word, wow, exclamation point in the margin 532 00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,480 of the computer printout. 533 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,440 The very strange thing is we have these two beams in the sky. 534 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,000 We saw it in only one of those beams. 535 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:17,080 So that means that it turned off or on one or the other as we were watching it, which 536 00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:20,360 is even further indication of intelligent origin. 537 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:23,680 The tantalizing thing is we went back and look hundreds of times later and it was never 538 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:25,520 there again. 539 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:27,440 So we will never know exactly what that was. 540 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,520 It could have been from some other civilization. 541 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:34,760 The spontaneous signal became known as the Big Wow. 542 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:38,080 It immediately sparked serious debate among astronomers. 543 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,680 No one could explain the origin of the signal, but many scientists would not accept it as 544 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,640 proof of intergalactic communication. 545 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:51,360 Researchers insisted the Big Wow was Earth's first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. 546 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:53,840 The debate continues to this day. 547 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:59,480 The fundamental problem in a scientific experiment is if you can't repeat it, you can't say it 548 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:00,480 exists. 549 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:05,440 Dr. Louis Friedman does not believe that the Big Wow is definitive proof of interstellar 550 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:10,680 communication, but he does believe it is an important piece of a larger puzzle that the 551 00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,080 Big Ear will someday solve. 552 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:18,520 Nonetheless, it has over the time made very useful observations in the whole search for 553 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,480 extraterrestrial intelligence. 554 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:26,640 But despite the Big Ear's scientific contributions, the radio telescope's future is on shaky ground. 555 00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:32,440 Congress did cut out the funding last year and that has made the SETI program really 556 00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:36,000 disappear from all government activities. 557 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,140 Because the subject deals with extraterrestrial life, it's a subject that is obviously capable 558 00:40:40,140 --> 00:40:41,160 of ridicule. 559 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:47,520 And Congress didn't continue the funding because they were susceptible to those kinds of jokes. 560 00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:52,400 Unfortunately, the land the Big Ear sits on is becoming more valuable than the radio 561 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,960 telescope itself. 562 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:59,920 Without federal funding, it's up to private organizations like the Planetary Society to 563 00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:03,360 stave off destruction of the project. 564 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:08,600 The idea that someone out there may be transmitting and we're not listening is not one that we 565 00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:11,120 in the Planetary Society are comfortable with. 566 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:14,560 Currently, everyone who works on the project works for free. 567 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:19,040 The Big Ear is supported by volunteers who don't want to see the project die. 568 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:20,640 We have people from all walks of life. 569 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:27,840 We have an attorney, we have physicists, astronomers, a chemist, school teachers, a jukebox repairman, 570 00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:32,600 people who just do anything that you can imagine to volunteer here. 571 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:38,120 The Planetary Society encourages anyone with an interest in the heavens to join them. 572 00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:42,720 Scientists who aren't physicists or astronomers learn from those who are. 573 00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:47,280 If it weren't for someone like me coming up and moving, repointing the telescope a couple 574 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:52,360 of times a week, then no such survey would be done. 575 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,720 Their equipment is sadly outdated, but the Big Ear volunteers are undaunted. 576 00:41:56,720 --> 00:42:02,240 Who knows when one of them will be able to write, wow, on a computer printout. 577 00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,760 There's no telling what extraterrestrial civilization's power is. 578 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,920 So even the weakest equipment might be able to pick something up. 579 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,960 Eventually they will transmit, and I think we'll hear it. 580 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,160 If not, my life is done then the next one. 581 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:20,080 Seems unlikely that only here in this very typical place that life would have formed. 582 00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:24,280 In fact, if we go on searching for a long period of time and never find anything, that 583 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:28,120 will be an even stranger situation, that we will have to then understand why did life 584 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:30,960 form only here and nowhere else. 585 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:32,920 We want the Earth to be listening. 586 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:34,600 We have a lot to learn in this area. 587 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:40,120 Who knows where we'll strike a little gold in those hills. 588 00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:46,360 The land underneath the Big Ear is leased to Ohio State by a land development corporation. 589 00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:51,720 The university's 10-year lease expires next year, and there are rumors that when it does, 590 00:42:51,720 --> 00:43:02,080 one of the world's tallest radio telescopes will be dismantled to make way for a golf course. 591 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,440 This has expanded its America Online area. 592 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:08,880 Key word, sightings, when you log on for access to sightings stories, images and events. 593 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:13,680 To subscribe to America Online, call 1-800-591-3344. 594 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:20,160 And you can still reach sightings 24 hours a day at 1-900-933-7444. 595 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:25,040 Until next time, remember, no mystery is closed to an open mind. 596 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,000 For Sightings, I'm Tim White. 597 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:35,000 Next on Sci-Fi, The Sentinel.