 ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Something happened in Illinois in January 2000 that has never really been explained. A number of UFO sightings occurred in the southwestern part of the state and got a lot of attention, and it wasn't just in Illinois. The sightings gained national attention because there has likely been no other time that so many people witnessed something so unexplainable that it managed to perplex people all over America. The incident involved a number of reliable witnesses, which consisted mostly of police officers from a number of small towns in the area, and led many to believe that something very strange was going on in the skies over Illinois. Even more convincing than mere sightings, the officers maintained radio contact through most of the event, which carefully tracked the progress of the UFO that passed over the area. Adding to this, Scott Air Force Base was only a mile or so out of the flight path of the anomalous craft, and this helped to focus media attention on the event for weeks after it actually occurred. Lebanon, this is a call from Highland PD in reference to a truck driver who just stopped in. He said there was a flying object in the area of Lebanon, it was like a two-story house. It had white lights and red blinking lights, and it was last seen southwest over Lebanon. Could you check the area? They say the truck driver was DUI or anything. 10-4. I'm out. Just a quick question. If I happen to find it, what am I supposed to do with it? If I see it, I'm not saying a word. Also, we advised the last thing that went over Lebanon. This was approximately five minutes ago. It was a military cargo plane. It looked like a C-5. We advised. There's a very bright white light east of town. It looks like it's just east of Summerfield, and it keeps changing colors. I'll go over there and see if it looks like an aircraft. It doesn't look like an aircraft, though. It's not the moon. It's not a star. If you would, would you contact Scott Air Force Base and see if they have anything flying in this area, please? Well, it's a plane or not. It's heading westbound now. You should be really close to Scott now. As a matter of fact, if the Shiloh officer looks up, they can probably see him by now. I see something, but I don't know what the heck it is. It's probably heading to Lambert. That object inside, also. Are you serious? It's huge. Does it look like a... What does it look like to you? Um, it's kind of V-shaped. It looks like it's possibly headed towards Lambert. That's what Shiloh said when it was heading towards Fairview Vights. Six-double-o-four. This is thirty-nine-twenty-three on County Two. Six-thousand-four. Go ahead. I'm not sure what you're seeing. It appears to be pretty high in the area. When I could first see it with binoculars, you could see it was different colors. No, it appears to be white. Is it very large? It's hard to tell. It's pretty far off in the distance. This object was above me about five hundred feet, and it was huge. Appears. It's probably twenty or thirty thousand. It's about where planes usually are. It's not low at all. Something very strange visited southwestern Illinois on January 5, 2000, but what it was remains a mystery to this day. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this episode. If you've ever wanted to play a game of catch with a ghost boy, race of phantom Camaro, or encounter a mythological beast, Clinton Road in New Jersey should be your next destination. In Malawi, vampires attack people and suck blood from them. This is not lore or scary storytelling. It's happening now. Imagine a coin rolling past you in a long hallway, yet you are completely alone in the building. For years, mysterious lights of Dover have puzzled observers, and it's been happening for centuries. The strange sighting of a UFO in the year 2000 still has people looking to the skies of southwestern Illinois. But first, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, did you know that she had kept her dead husband's heart for 30 years? We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Mary Shelley is perhaps most well-known for writing the novel Frankenstein. Aside from being the mother of all creating-a-monster stories, she was also the wife of well-known poet Percy Shelley. Percy was still married when he and Mary began their affair in 1814. Perhaps that was a bad omen for what was to come, as all of the following happened over the next four years. Percy and Mary ran off together. Mary returned, bearing Percy's child. That child was born prematurely and later died. Mary's half-sister killed herself. Percy's first wife killed herself. Mary and Percy got married. Mary created Frankenstein during a rained-out retreat with her husband and Lord Byron. Mary's second and third children with Percy died. A fourth child survived. Then, four years after all of the seemingly nonstop drama, Percy drowned in a sailboat accident in 1822. And so, one of the most famous literary couples of all time spent less than 10 years together, mostly broke, dealing with one horrible thing after another. In fact, it is entirely likely that we might not even know much about Percy Shelley if Mary hadn't been so dedicated to seeing his works published. Mary was obviously devoted to her husband in both his life and his death, but assuring her husband's legacy wasn't enough for the Queen of the Grotesque. She also kept a piece of him for herself. Literally. Now, it's not like Mary originally meant to keep the heart saved or anything like that. Percy was actually cremated. We have first-person accounts of people who watched the body burn, and though they might not agree on the size of his heart, all agreed that it refused to burn, possibly because it had become calcified after about with tuberculosis. After fighting to get it back from Percy's friend, Lee Hunt, who claimed that he was keeping it because his love for his friend was greater than any other love, man or woman, Mary Shelley kept the heart for the rest of her life. Now, it's up for debate as to whether she actually carried it around with her, although many claim that she did. Regardless, the heart was definitely found in her desk the year after she died, wrapped in one of the last poems Percy ever wrote to John Keats called Adonize. It's a long piece, but Mick Jagger read a portion of it at the Brian Jones Memorial Concert on July 5, 1969, two days after the drummer for the Rolling Stones drowned in his own swimming pool, and that feels like as good a selection as any from the eulogy to share here. Peace, peace, he is not dead, he doth not sleep. He hath awakened from the dream of life, to his we who lost in stormy visions keep, with phantoms and unprofitable strife, and in mad trance strike with our spirit's knife invulnerable nothings we decay, like corpses in a charnel fear and grief convulse us and consume us day by day, and cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. The one remains, the many change and pass, heaven's light forever shines, earth shadows fly, life like a dome of many colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity, until death tramples it to fragments, die. If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek, follow where all is fled. If you've ever wanted to play a game of catch with a ghost boy, race a phantom Camaro, or encounter a mythological beast, Clinton Road should be your next destination. Just climb in your car, going with a friend is recommended, and hit the road. Rural New Jersey's Clinton Road will certainly make your skin crawl. A number of haunts and strange buildings are reputed to make Clinton Road their home. Depending on what time of day you drive through, you may encounter one, two, or all of these Clinton Road legends. The Boy on the Bridge Under one of the bridges crossing Clinton Brook, also known as Dead Man's Curve, you can find one of the road's most famous haunts. Rumor has it if you throw a quarter into the water below, then take a few steps back, the quarter will be thrown back by the ghost of a boy who drowned while swimming. In some stories, the ghost shoves the living visitor into the water if they peek too far over the side of the bridge. Ghostly Car Crash Victims There are first-hand accounts of tourists and locals seeing a ghost Camaro driven by the girl who supposedly died in a tragic crash in 1998. This appearance is triggered by a mere mention of the incident. Others claim to have encounters with two park rangers near Terrace Pond who are thought to be the ghosts of two rangers who died while on duty in 1939. Ghost Truck There are countless accounts of phantom vehicles. The majority of the sightings are of pickup trucks, but in some cases, they are only floating headlights not attached to any vehicle. The headlights chase drivers to the end of Clinton Road, then disappear. Strange Creatures From hellhounds to monkeys, a variety of bizarre creatures have supposedly been seen on this road at night. In some cases, people report seeing an unidentifiable hybrid, which vanishes too quickly for them to get a good look. The more exotic sightings are blamed on survivors of jungle habitat, an attraction which housed wild and exotic animals before closing its doors in 1976. A Druidic Temple This oddly shaped stone structure is said to be the place where local Druids practiced their rituals. Legends tell of awful things happening to those who look too closely or come too close to the ruin at the wrong time. In more historical terms, the building is actually the remains of an iron smelter from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The site has now been blocked off to prevent any injury caused by exploring such a rundown building. Cross Castle In 1905, Richard Cross built this castle near the Clinton Reservoir for his wife and three children. A few years later, it fell to ruin after a fire destroyed part of it. It has since become a popular destination for hikers and local teenagers looking for secluded places to camp and have parties. Many visitors have reported strange occurrences near the site. These include people who have gone into seizures, bruises which randomly appear after visiting, and strange and disturbing visions after leaving. Satanic symbols have appeared on the inside of the castle's walls in areas that were previously thought to be inaccessible. The Iceman In 1983, a body was found in the woods near Clinton Road. An autopsy showed the man had been murdered as well as something even stranger. Ice crystals had formed in blood vessels near his heart. His internal organs had also decayed at a rate far slower than his skin. After a drawn-out investigation, an arrest was made in 1986 of Richard Kuklinski, also known as the Iceman. Kuklinski was a New Jersey native and a hitman involved in organized crime with a local mafia. Are you brave enough to discover what the legends of Clinton Road have in store for you? Residents of the African country of Malawi are in a state close to panic. Already, several dozen people said they were attacked by midnight vampires that sucked blood from them. People are so frightened that seven Lancers have already been killed by vigilante detachments suspected of being vampiric. The threat has become so serious that UN workers and volunteers from the US Peace Court were withdrawn from Malawi. The hysteria about vampires in Malawi began in September, and it seems that by December it did not abate. Although UN staff decided to return after the heat of September, local residents claim that all of this is not hysteria, not rumors, but real facts. 40-year-old Jamia Balani tells that something alien entered her house and attacked her, and then began to suck her blood. Jamia lives in the village of Angolinglovia, in the south of the country and this village was in the center of vampire hysteria. It's not rumors, it sucked my blood, I know it, she said. I lay on the bed at night and suddenly saw light in the corner under the roof. I could not move a hand or a foot and then something pierced my hand and I felt pain. Jamia, who works selling a ragout of wild peas, says that before she lost consciousness from the loss of blood, she heard a sound as if someone ran on the floor. After that night, the woman was taken to the hospital and she was treated there, taking medicine and vitamins. She did not inform the authorities that she had been attacked, but there are many such cases in and around the district. Here they believe in witchcraft, vampires and black magic, and people crave revenge on those who attacked them. Another victim is the 27-year-old Florence Keelung. She says that she slept at night in her house next to her husband and suddenly saw the light as if a fire had been lit in the house. Then she heard the sound of the half-open door and then a pain in her finger as if a needle had been stuck into it. The entrepreneur Orlando Shepondra miraculously escaped death from a vigilante who saw in his house a sucker of blood. He says that he was lucky they did not manage to get to him. Orlando called the police who drove people away from his house. It does not really matter to them whether you are a vampire or not. They envy the rich and attack anyone and call him a vampire if he has a car, Orlando says. The Malawi National Blood Transfusion Service, the only institution that has a government permit to collect blood from donors for hospitals, says that rumors of vampires have also affected their work. This problem has greatly affected us they say. It prevents us from doing our work and collecting blood from donors. For attacks and attempts of lynching in Malawi, 250 people were arrested and more than 40 in neighboring Mozambique where vampires were rumored to have come from. The situation forced President of Malawi Peter Matarica to intervene. There is no evidence of any attack by vampires, he says, but these false rumors are destabilizing the area. Those who spread such rumors run into our laws. Meanwhile, riots due to vampires have knocked down the country's tourism industry. There are going to be less and less western tourists and so the budget of the poor Malawi is short of a lot of superfluous money. A few weeks ago, I was in the basement of University Hospital in London, Ontario. This is where the physiotherapy department is. I was dropping off information about upcoming knee surgery to one of the therapists. To leave, one must walk down a hallway, go through a set of doors, then cross another hallway diagonally to the doors that lead to the reception area. There is not a high volume of people in these basement corridors. When I left through the first hallway door about to cross the second hallway diagonally, I heard a noise to my right. I identified the sound immediately. It was the sound of a coin that had fallen. I spun my head to the right to see a coin rolling from within an inch of the wall adjacent to me and then rolling across the hallway until it hit the wall across from me where it came to a stop. I was rooted to the concrete looking for a plausible source for this as I thought I was alone. To the left of me, the hallway went for about 60 feet, completely empty, and to the right for at least 100 feet and again, completely devoid of people. There was a folded up wheelchair not far, but that was all. I stood there for a few seconds wondering how this was possible. I finally walked over to the coin and picked it up. It was a Canadian 1964 5 cent piece. The condition was very good and looked to have oddly a very little wear due to circulation. I walked through the door to reception and asked them if the place was haunted and described what had happened. They both found it curious but had no experiences themselves. The date, 1964, has no significance that I can think of and other than its obvious worth neither does a 5 cent coin. Although I set the coin aside in my entry closet when I got home, I saw it there for about a week. I cannot now find it. Perhaps I picked it up and put it in my pocket with other change and spent it, but I don't think I would have been that absent minded. My wife says that she did not pick up the coin either. As I write this, I recall this is not the first time I had coins fall next to me. About ten years ago, I was five minutes into a shower and a 5 cent piece and a 10 cent piece fell next to me on the tile floor. The second unrelated occurrence was two weeks ago. We were sitting at the supper table which doubles as my wife's marking table, she is a high school teacher, and when she lifted up a report to set the table for breakfast, there were two guitar picks underneath it. She asked me and my daughter who was visiting if we had put them there. Neither of us had. I asked her if she recognized the guitar picks and she did. They were hers and had both been sitting on the upright piano for well over a year. We asked the obvious questions about the picks being moved with the papers, but she says that the papers were never near the piano. This is not the first time we have had objects move in the house, but it has been many years since it has happened. The previous odd things were the classic Have You Seen the Car Keys thing. You look all over for them and then they appear in the spot you looked for them at first, a half hour previous. As much as we try not to invite disembodied visitors here, it seems they occasionally cross paths with us anyway. This amount of activity I can tolerate is not scary and makes for interesting conversation. I would not like it to go much further though, at least not at home. When Weird Darkness returns, the strange sighting of a UFO in the year 2000 still has people looking to the skies of southwestern Illinois. But first, for years, mysterious lights of Dover have puzzled observers and it has been happening for centuries. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts or addiction, please visit the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I have gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as well as the Crisis Text Line. Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Those struggling with depression can get help through the Seven Cups website and app, and there is information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs, alcohol or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts. The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor, to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy, and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. For years, mysterious lights of Dover have fascinated enthusiasts interested in unusual and unexplained phenomena. People systematically come each night to a remote area located only 10 miles north of Dover, and not far from Russellville, Arkansas, hoping to see this light phenomenon. If they are lucky, they can observe the so-called Dover lights in a variety of colors, such as orange, yellow, red or blue or simply white. Sometimes the lights are flickering, but it also happens they look like lanterns or flashlights and their brightness can light up the entire valley in the Ozark Mountains. The lights have been observed since the late 1800s and many legends are associated with them. The Dover lights are a phenomenon that even to this day remains a mystery. One popular legend tells a story about a coal mine which collapsed one day, trapping and killing many miners. In this case, the lights symbolize lanterns, which belong to miners who desperately tried to find their way back to their homes. Another one explains the lights as the spirits of ancient Native American warriors and tribal leaders, and yet another tells the story of an elderly and poor couple that had not money to pay for doctors' help. Instead, the doctor was offered a bag of homemade bullets in payment. Years later, after the old couple had both passed away, the doctor was cleaning up his office and accidentally found the long-forgotten bag of bullets. He realized the bullets were not made of lead, but of pure silver and decided to give up his practice and devote his remaining years to a search for that lost silver mine. The light that occasionally appears hovering over the valley is believed to be his lantern that he needs to continue his search from beyond the grave. The Dover lights phenomenon has never been solved despite it has appeared in thick forest of the area since the 1800s. Some believe the Dover lights are nothing but a hoax, and perhaps they are right. Others suggest the phenomenon is the refraction of lights from distant points. However, many eyewitnesses to the Dover lights definitely disagree because the area where lights appear is hardly accessible and the lights have been appearing for many years. Moreover, they cannot be electric lights because there has never been electricity in the area of observations. The lights may also be of supernatural origin, but in that case, it is doubtful that their mysterious origin will ever be solved. As we know, supernatural is something associated with forces we don't understand, and science cannot explain either. Something happened in Illinois in January 2000 that has never really been explained. A number of UFO sightings occurred in the southwestern part of the state and got a lot of attention, and it wasn't just in Illinois. The sightings gained national attention because there has likely been no other time that so many people witnessed something so unexplainable that it managed to perplex people all over America. The incident involved a number of reliable witnesses which consisted mostly of police officers from a number of small towns in the area, and led many to believe that something very strange was going on in the skies over Illinois. Even more convincing than mere sightings, the officers maintained radio contact through most of the event, which carefully tracked the progress of a huge UFO that passed over the area. Adding to this, Scott Air Force Base was only a mile or so out of the flight path of the anomalous craft, and this helped to focus media attention on the event for weeks after it actually occurred. Something very strange visited southwestern Illinois on January 5, 2000, but what it was remains a mystery to this day. The first person to notice anything strange during the early morning hours of that day was Melbourne Knoll, the owner of a miniature golf course in Highland. During the winter months, Knoll worked as a truck driver, making deliveries at all hours of the day and night. He was just returning from a delivery at around 4am and before returning home, he decided to make a quick stop at his miniature golf course just to make sure everything was in order during the off-season. He parked his truck in the back of the building and as he climbed out, he looked up and noticed what he thought was a bright star in the northeastern sky. He didn't give it much thought at the time and went into the building. After a few minutes inside, he left and locked the door behind him. As he walked back to the truck, he again noticed the bright light. This time, he stopped and looked at it more closely. It was then that he realized that the star was actually moving in his general direction. As he watched it, he began to realize that the light was a part of a much larger object. It looked like a giant rectangle in the sky that was roughly the size of a football field. It was very tall and had a set of windows that ran down the side. There were two floors with windows that emitted a very bright light, Noel saw, and as the object got closer, he also spotted a number of dim red lights on the bottom of it. The entire object was black or dark gray in color and he later described the thing as a two-story house in the sky. Noel watched as it moved silently across the sky and as it passed to the southwest, he also spotted more windows across the back of the object. As the ship passed over him, Noel realized that it was moving much slower than a conventional aircraft and it certainly did not look like one. The entire sighting lasted almost five minutes. As the object vanished from sight, Noel promptly climbed into his truck and drove to the Highland police station. He was sure that no one would believe him but hoped that whoever was on duty might be open-minded enough to at least contact a neighboring town's police department and see if the strange object in the sky could be verified. The dispatcher in Highland was skeptical of Noel's account but because he did appear to be rational, agreed to put a call into the police in Lebanon and asked them to be on the lookout for anything unusual. Officer Ed Barton received the call in Lebanon at around 4.15 am. Not surprisingly, he was dubious of the report at first and asked the dispatcher if he was joking. When he was assured that it was a serious call, he drove to the north end of town past Horner Park and onto Whitticus Road. He saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary but followed the road as it turned to the north and the east toward Illinois Route 4. A short distance along this road, Officer Barton looked up and saw two large, brilliant white lights in the sky. Curious, he now began to drive a little faster. When he arrived at Route 4, he turned south and headed back towards Lebanon, watching the lights from his driver's side window as he sped along. At some point, he stated that the two lights seemed to merge into one, and he turned on his overhead emergency lights, convinced now that the lights in the sky were part of a low-flying aircraft that was experiencing mechanical problems. The more that Barton drove, the more he started to notice details about what he was observing. He first noted that one of what he thought was a round light was actually somewhat long and cigar-shaped. He also saw that the object was not really moving but sitting stationary in the sky above the neighboring town of Summerfield. A few moments later, it began to move again, this time in his direction, and Barton stopped his car. He turned off his lights and then turned off his car radio in order to hear any sound the craft might be making. As far as he could tell, though, it was completely silent. As the dark shape got closer, he could make out more details. It appeared to be a massive, elongated, narrow triangle, and at each corner, he could see a bright white light. The lights never wavered in their intensity and appeared to be pointing straight down. They did not light up the ground, but they were, Barton noted, still very bright. Amidst them, he also saw a smaller red light that was flashing. The ship moved closer and the officer realized that all of the sky above him had now been blotted out by the shape. Even at this close distance, which he guessed at no more than a thousand feet from the ground, the object made no noise. Continued to watch as it turned in a southwesternly direction, never banking like a normal aircraft would, but rotating in the sky, always remaining completely level. Barton now scrambled for his radio and called in to describe what he was seeing. In between transmissions, he saw the aircraft start to pick up speed and travel away from him. As it did, he saw the back portion of it for the first time and would later describe it as rectangular and illuminated with white light. By the time he finished his last call, he told the dispatcher that he estimated the object was now above the town of Shiloh, about eight miles to the southwest. At this time, Officer David Martin of the Shiloh Police Department joined in on the sighting and radioed back that he could indeed see something in the sky. He had been driving along the southern end of town when he saw the mysterious object which he saw moving to the west. Martin saw the three brilliant white lights as well as the flashing red one before he actually saw the dark mass of the ship's body. He thought the object resembled a wide triangle or an arrowhead and as he chased after it, he stuck his head out the window to see if he could hear any sounds coming from it. Like the other witnesses, he heard absolutely no sound. Finally, the craft picked up speed and moved out of the area. By this time, the weird radio transmissions were attracting the attention of other officers on early morning duty in surrounding small towns. While a number of officers would eventually be involved in the sighting, one has to wonder how great the numbers may have been if the craft had appeared in the sky over a large Illinois city rather than a series of sleepy little towns with only a few policemen on duty. One officer who became curious about the affair was Craig Stevens, a cop in nearby Milstatt. After hearing the other calls, he drove to the east end of town in an attempt to see this thing in the sky. He drove around for a time, seeing nothing, and then ended up at Lederkranz Park on the north end of town. He was looking out the windshield of his squad car when he spotted a large, triangular shaped object in the sky. He described it as moving very slow, and he said that it made no noise except for a low decibel buzzing sound that he could barely hear. As he watched, it moved to the north and he saw the white lights and the single red light on the bottom. Stevens called his dispatcher to report that he had seen the object and then grabbed his Polaroid camera and jumped out of the car. He aimed the camera at the object and took a photo. Unfortunately, the cold morning air and the dark of the early morning hours produced only a murky and barely discernible image. Not long after the events that occurred that night became public, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office released copies of the dispatch tapes from January 5. The transmissions between the officers and dispatchers from the various towns make an eerie addition to the story. Lebanon, this is a call from Highland PD in reference to a truck driver who just stopped in. He said there was a flying object in the area of Lebanon that was like a two-story house. It had white lights and red blinking lights and it was last seen southwest over Lebanon. Could you check the area? I've seen the truck driver was DUI or anything. 10-4, I'm out. Just a quick question, if I happen to find it, what am I supposed to do with it? If I see it, I'm not saying a word. Also, we advised the last thing that went over Lebanon, this was approximately five minutes ago, was a military cargo plane, looked like a C-5. We advised there's a very bright white light east of town. It looks like it's just east of Summerfield, changing colors. I'll go over there and see if it looks like an aircraft. It doesn't look like an aircraft though. It's not a star. If you would, would you contact Scott Air Force Base and see if they have anything flying in this area please? Well, it's a plane or not. It's heading westbound now. It shouldn't be really close to Scott now. As a matter of fact, if the Shiloh officer looks up, they can probably see it by now. I see something, but I don't know what the heck it is. It's probably heading to Lambert. That object in sight also. Are you serious? Does it look like a... What does it look like to you? Um, it's kind of V-shaped. It looks like it's possibly headed towards Lambert. That's what Shiloh said when it was heading towards Fairview Heights. 6004, this is 3923, County 2. 6004, go ahead. I'm not sure what you're seeing. It appears to be pretty high in the area. When I could first see it with the binoculars, you could see it was different colors. Now, it appears to be white. Is it very large? It's hard to tell. It's pretty far off in the distance. This object was above me about 500 feet and it was huge. This thing appears... It's probably 20 or 30,000. It's about where planes usually are. It's not low at all. The DuPo officer mentioned in the transmission reports was the last officer officially to report seeing the object that morning. After hearing Officer Stephen's radio traffic, he decided to have a look for himself as to whether or not a huge craft was passing over the area. About five minutes after Stephen's sighting, the DuPo officer also saw the array of lights over his town. However, he stated that the lights were at a fairly high altitude and were heading to the north and northeast. In fact, they were now so high that he likely would not have noticed them if not for the radio calls that he'd been listening to. He watched it through binoculars but because of the distance, he really couldn't make out anything other than the red and white lights. He could see nothing of its shape or size. After that, the object disappeared from the sky but landed firmly into the mysterious history of Illinois. What was this bizarre ship? Was it really a UFO that would have passed over Illinois without incident if not for the watchful eyes of a miniature golf course owner and a few small town police officers? If it was, one has to wonder how it could have passed within a mile of Scott Air Force Base without causing some grave concerns on the part of the military. They would later state that they knew nothing of the large ship, leading many to believe that perhaps their denials only hid the fact that this was some sort of test plane and not a mysterious vessel at all. But those who might suggest that the craft came from Scott Air Base can forget about that. My brother was in the Air Force for many years and spent a few of them stationed at Scott. He told me flat out that not only are there no test planes kept at Scott but there would be no place to land anything like what was described that would be away from the public eye. UFO, secret test plane or something else altogether? No one knows but one thing is certain. Those officers certainly saw something in the Illinois sky that night. For now though, what it may have been remains unexplained. Thanks for listening! If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darron at WeirdDarkness.com. Darron is D-A-R-R-E-N. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases and more merchandise, sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Something is up there. The 2000 UFO invasion of Illinois was written by Troy Taylor. Frankenstein author Mary Shelley kept her dad husband's heart for 30 years was written by Larry Mitchell for DidYouKnowFacts.com. Clinton Road, take a terrifying drive down America's most haunted roadway, was posted online at the lineup. Malawi Vampires was posted at Earth Chronicles. Mysterious Lights of Dover was posted at Message2Eagle.com. Coins and Guitar Picks was posted at YourGhostStories.com. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. First Corinthians 15 verse 33. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. And a final thought. Don't behave as if you are destined to live forever. Marcus Aurelius. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.