Phantoms and Monsters

UFO Sighting Starts Flap In Fresno / Clovis, California
Video: Ghostly Cemetery Encounter - Marysville, California
Fortean / Oddball News - 7/9/2010
'Mr. Mike' Bigfoot Encounter - Statement From Lan Lamphere

UFO Sighting Starts Flap In Fresno / Clovis, California

Posted: 09 Jul 2010 09:59 AM PDT

The following was forwarded to me from Jeffrey Gonzalez, MUFON State Section Director/Investigator and founder of Sanger Paranormal Society:

MUFON CMS #24103 - Short Description of UFO Event: 2 bright lights huge object no sound thought we were going to die

Detailed Description of the UFO Event:

Im not sure how long it lasted because we thought we were going to die but you will understand in this description. It felts like minutes but I know it was seconds because we really thought we were going to die! Here is the story: I am reporting this in sadness because of this event my dog died! My daughter went to get the dogs from outside to bring them in (she's 15) and she ran screaming "get out a plane is going to hit us" "run" and she was hysterical. Me my husband and my son and I went running downstairs and my husband went to the backdoor (running) to investigate because my daughter is very meek and quiet and never screams. The next thing I know my husband is yelling "run" "its gonna hit us" and he started praying to God that we lived and if not take us to Heaven and let it be quick. We ran straight out the door as fast as our legs would go. Myself and my son never heard or saw anything we were just running for dear life. My husband told us to stop behind the trees because he thought at any moment it would hit and we wouldnt get much father ( didnt atually even think we would make it out the front door) and we live in the country so its all mostly open space in front of us. When nothing happened after a few seconds he told us to keep running as I horrifyingly saw him turn back toward the house. We kept going hurrying down the road and as we went we were trying to call our dogs that had escaped with us. My husband returned in his truck to state the object simply was gone/vanished he had no idea where it went but it never hit our house or flew over us and not a single sound was heard. So we continued the search for our dogs however one was struck by a car and killed. Later when I spoke with my husband and daughter I was informed it had 2 bright lights and was up in the sky they could see the back neighbors house below it and it made no sound and teetered a little back and forth but the lights were always horizontal to each other. This object made no sound what so ever and my husband said he saw the silhouette and it was as big as our back pasture across and very dark. I am very saddened but wanted to report this because weird things have occurred before here that we never mentioned to people. Like for one instance our laser pointer lights (we would play with our dogs with) when we would point them in the field they would disappear at some points but would be seen all the way to the orchards at other points and we always laughed that it was like something invisible was sucking up the light at that spot. Im now truely scared and wanted this reported in the case something happens to us. Now it is time for me to grieve. I am afraid to sleep. I truly believe it must have landed in our pasture but everything appears normal. Something very wrong happened here tonight...please help!! Has anyone else ever experienced this?

Jeff noted: Hey Lon, here is a case I am working on for MUFON....MUFON case #24103

The media here picked up on the story but did a piss poor job...and you can say I said that...they left out very important points...which I gave them. Here is the video link of the newscast, go ahead and use this so people can see when they compare to the actual MUFON report...also, they used a video in the news clip that had nothing to do with the report...Someone posted this on you tube which they recorded on the night of the sighting and they used it to make the news clip more exciting....that's not what this family saw that night..Here are 2 links to youtube. I recorded 2 unmarked vans sitting across the street of the house that reported the sighting the night before...These vans were parked out front the following morning....I was working that day ( AT&T Telephone) in that same area and as I was driving past the house I noticed the first van then a second one showed up...I parked 3 houses away in my van and started to record them...They both were wearing suits and this drew a flag because we are talking Saturday morning out in the country....

Click for local news clip

Click for video - white vans

Click for local media followup clip

UFO Sighting Starts Flap Over Fresno / Clovis, California

Video: Ghostly Cemetery Encounter - Marysville, California

Posted: 09 Jul 2010 09:15 AM PDT

I received the following email from a reader in California:

The encounter I am about to share with you happened early December 2009. I do not wish to share the exact date because we were trespassing on private property at 1am at a Marysville, CA cemetery I'm keeping our names unknown for now.

It all started with...

I play drums in a band from San Francisco, Ca. The trip consisted of myself and three other band-mates/friends. (Singer, bassist, myself, and our good friend the photographer.) We went up north to play a festival in Quincy, California. This was a day trip so we drove up early to Quincy, played and headed back. We drove through Marysville, California on the way up during the day and noticed an amazing old cemetery. Thought nothing of it blah blah blah. However, on our drive down from Quincy, at around midnight, we were stopping off the side of the road in various places to take advantage of some "out of the box" photo ops. We then all started to remember the old graveyard we passed on the way up during the day and were all kinda joking about how cool it would be to take photos there at night.

We are finally drawing near the location of the cemetery in which the only land mark was a distant gas station, so we saw the gas station and turned around to find the entrance road to the cemetery. We enter this little road leading to the cemetery and there is a huge bar blocking any further access to the road. So we park the car and get out, walk about 300 yards to the old iron gate leading into the graveyard. It's padlocked (obviously)... it was 1am at this point. We read the sign posted at the gate stating something like "Access by appointment only, cemetery closed to the public, call ##### for appointments".

At this point I was like, "guys it's closed lets just get out of here" the bassist (my brother) says "no way, lets jump the fence and take some band pictures, this place is sick" The singer and I are saying NO WAY, we were all a little creeped out anyways, let alone trespassing in the middle of the night. Lo-and-behold, what do we do...we all jump the fence and make our way into the cemetery.

There is only one very orange light in the center of the cemetery, and numerous motion activated lights throughout as well. Chills were crawling through all of our spines only due to the fact that is was an adventure in itself. We never even brought up ghosts or any feeling related to that. At this point is was plain creepy being that it was in fact an old rickety cemetery late at night, in the middle of bum-f**k nowhere.

We did a few snap-shots here and there under the orange lighting and in front of some old marble tomb stones. We then started to just have a little fun, running around joking, and trying to scare each other.

About twenty minutes into our antics, my brother (bassist) mentions that he wanted to go deeper into the cemetery, the rest of us were saying "hell no, no way". It was pitch black beyond the orange light in which we were standing. A few minutes after while discussing going deeper in we heard this very clear, LOUD, noise coming from one end of the cemetery. The sound was as if someone had a very large sheet of metal and was rubbing it on a rock. shhhhhingggg! Chills ran up all of our backs.....we all stood there and asked each other "did you hear that?" "yes, yes, yes".....everyone heard it. We stood quiet for a moment......the sound happened again. shhhhhingggg!...in the direction in which we thought the sound was coming from a motion activated light came on....I'd say about 100 yards from where we were standing. It then turned off almost as fast as it came on. Then, a little to the left, another light came on, and then off, as if something was triggering it. Yet we saw nothing. We ALL at once ran to the fence and jumped over to the outside of the cemetery. We thought maybe it was someone coming to tell us to get out and that we were trespassing. We ran all the way to the car and caught our breath. There was no one in sight. Just us. The sound kept occurring all the while...about once every 30 seconds or so. We stood bewildered by the car, quiet and a little confused as to what the sound was and as to why those two lights were triggered. We were a bit spooked but also very curious about what was happening. So we remained standing by the car. I lit a cigarette and gazed into and around the cemetery. I SH*T you not...this next part is all true with four of us to varify it.

I heard it first....

A young girl's voice giggles in the distance. This sounds cliche, I know, but it is a very real experience. I ask the guys to "Shhhhhh, did you hear that?" We all stand very quietly, the giggle happens again and everyone heard it plain as day. A third time it happened and at that moment foot steps running very fast in our direction followed. We freaked and all jumped into the car. We started to drive off and then my brother and myself said, "stop the car...stop the car". We were having such REAL experiences out here that we wanted to try and catch something on film. Why not right? So my brother and I get out of the car with our friends camera. We stand up above the cemetery and start filming. We catch on film, crunching noises, tractor engines. We actually caught on film what we still think to this day is an apparition of a woman in a dress. Here is the youtube video.......bad quality because of the transfer to youtube, but if you are interested I will send you the raw HD footage. You say the word.

Click for video

NOTE: Something does walk in front of the orange light and something does light up near the light. As well, there are noises and voices. I took a screen capture and enlarged it...not sure what that is. I have requested from the witness any further evidence available. I will post if it arrives...Lon

Video: Ghostly Cemetery Encounter - Marysville, California

Fortean / Oddball News - 7/9/2010

Posted: 09 Jul 2010 07:43 AM PDT

UFO Disrupts Air Traffic Over Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

peopledaily - An unidentified flying object (UFO) disrupted air traffic over Zhejiang's provincial capital Hangzhou late on Wednesday, the municipal government said on Thursday.

Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected at around 9 pm, and some flights were rerouted to airports in the cities of Ningbo and Wuxi, said an airport spokesman, who declined to be named.

The airport had resumed operations, and more details will be released after an investigation, he said.

A source with knowledge of the matter, however, told China Daily on Thursday that authorities had learned what the UFO was after an investigation.

But it was not the proper time to publicly disclose the information because there was a military connection, he said, adding that an official explanation is expected to be given on Friday.

Inbound flights were diverted to the nearby airports in Zhejiang province's Ningbo and Jiangsu province's Wuxi. Outbound flights were delayed for three to four hours.

A staff member at the airport's information desk said the airport had "no idea" how many flights were affected by the closure.

At around 11 pm on Wednesday, a netizen wrote three entries announcing the airport's closure in his microblog at Sina.com, but they were all soon deleted.

He posted an apology at midnight, saying the news had not been confirmed and asking those who had republished his earlier entries to delete them.

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Oldest Person in the World Turns 130

dailymail - Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia claim a woman from a remote mountain village turned 130, making her the oldest person on Earth.

Antisa Khvichava from western Georgia was born on July 8, 1880, said Georgiy Meurnishvili, spokesman for the civil registry at the Justice Ministry.

The woman, who lives with her 40-year-old grandson in an idyllic vine-covered country house in the mountains, retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965, when she was 85, records say.

'I've always been healthy, and I've worked all my life - at home and at the farm,' Antisa said, in a bright dress and headscarf - and red lipstick.

Sitting in the chair and holding her cane, Antisa spoke quietly through an interpreter - since she never went to school to learn Georgian and speaks only the local language, Mingrelian.

Her age couldn't immediately be independently verified. Her birth certificate was lost - one of the great number to have disappeared in the past century amid revolutions and a civil war which followed the collapse of the USSR.

But Meurnishvili showed two Soviet-era documents that he says attest to her age.

Scores of officials, neighbors, friends, and descendants backed up her claim as the world's top senior.

The Gerontology Research Group currently recognizes 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard of Saint Barthelemy, France, as the world's oldest person. Antisa would make Eugenie look like a spring chicken - but the research group is yet to examine Antisa's claim.

She has a son, 10 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and six great, great grandchidren.

Her 70-year-old son Mikhail, who was also at the party, apparently was born when his mother was 60.

She said she also had two children from a previous marriage, but says they died of hunger during World War II.

Mikhail said that, although his mother had difficulty walking and had stayed largely in bed during the past seven years, she made a point of hobbling unaided to the outhouse on the other side of the yard, because she hates to be a nuisance.

Though her body has all but quit on her - her fingers cramped by age mean she can no longer maintain her love of knitting - relatives say her mind remains sharp.

'Grandma has a very clear mind and she hasn't lost an ability to think rationally,' said Khvichava's granddaughter Shorena, who lives in a nearby village.

To mark Antisa's birthday, a string ensemble played folk music out on the lawn, while grandchildren offered traditional Mingrelian dishes like corn porridge and spiced chicken with herbs to all guests as the party.

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Brazilian Footballer's Ex-Girlfriend Was Strangled, Fed to Dogs

bbc - The missing former lover of a top Brazilian football star was strangled and then fed to dogs, police say.

Eliza Samudio, 25, was a former girlfriend of Bruno Fernandes, goalkeeper for Flamengo, Brazil's most popular club.

He handed himself into police after a warrant was issued for his arrest over her disappearance nearly a month ago.

Mr Fernandes, 25, has denied any wrongdoing, and said he has a "clear conscience".

But police say a teenage cousin of Mr Fernandes has given evidence that the goalkeeper was involved in her kidnap and suspected murder.

Ms Samudio had said that the married footballer was the father of her baby.
Search for remains

Police say Ms Samudio was taken by force from a hotel in Rio de Janeiro on the day of her disappearance and was strangled in the city of Belo Horizonte.

They say her body was cut up and parts were fed to dogs, while the rest was buried under concrete.

Police are still searching for her remains, but say her death is "materially proven".
Flamengo goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes in a file photo from May Bruno Fernandes is team captain of Rio de Janeiro's Flamengo

Police have also arrested Mr Fernandes's wife, Dayane Souza, and several of his friends.

They say interrogation of the other suspects has backed up the account given by Mr Fernandes's teenage cousin.

Flamengo have suspended Mr Fernandes's contract and say the club lawyer will no longer be acting in his defence.

He had been goalkeeper of the Rio de Janeiro club since 2006, and captained them to the Brazilian championship last year.

Mr Fernandes has expressed regret that the allegations could damage his chances of playing for Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.

NOTE: he regrets he may not play soccer in 4 years...but has no regret that his ex-lover was killed and fed to the dogs? Lon

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Witchcraft Doomed Cameroon World Cup Team

allafrica - The phenomenon of witchcraft in football resurfaced as a hot topic of debate in the Cameroonian media after Cameroon were eliminated from the 2010 World Cup. This situation has whipped up doubts as to the potency of witchdoctors who were part of the Cameroonian delegation.

During the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, one of Africa's supposed strongest contenders, Cameroon, had a strong team of witchdoctors in their delegation. However, the Indomitable Lions were one of the first teams to be sacked from the competition.

In the aftermath of their elimination, many Cameroonians joined in what has become a national debate on the Lions' failure to proceed to the second round.

In the streets of Yaounde and in drinking spots around the government ministries, there is passionate debate on why the government allocated huge sums of money to the players, staff and a number of witchdoctors in the delegation, only for them to put on a poor performance.

The debate even reached the Cameroon National Assembly at the end of its June session. During the heated plenary session, Hon. Abakar Mahamat from the Logon and Shari constituency of the far north region, expressed the bitterness of Cameroonians. He sought to know why the Lions put up such a dismal performance after huge sums of tax payers' money were disbursed to the team, what happened to the balance of the money and what measures could be taken to take the Lions and football out of the abyss.

The question to the Sport Minister was hinged on the fact that the performance of players was not commensurate to huge sums spent for the 2010 South African trip.

Answering the parliamentarians, the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Michel Zoah on July 2, declared that, "witchcraft, besides mysticism, internal wrangling, jealousy and disorder was the cause of the Lions debacle".

The declaration seems to confirm allegations of a witchdoctor, Adamou Amadou, at the Melen Market neighbourhood in Yaoundé who claims that, "players always consult witchdoctors whenever their performance seems to fade, as was the case with the Lions' striker Samuel Eto'o Fils. He had to go to Gashiga in Garoua to regain his ability to play again".

The witchcraft debate has taken a wider dimension owing to the fact that witchdoctors were part of the official delegation to the African Cup of Nations in Angola and recently in South Africa, unlike in the past when they were hardly noticed.

Jean Calvin, a journalist, confirms that he was lodged in the same hotel room with a witchdoctor called Dr. Eli, in Angola whose behaviour was "absurd."

"He carried about a box of matches but does not smoke, lit candles in broad daylight and was seen in the company of weird persons," Calvin said about the witchdoctor. It was therefore an open secret amongst journalists that witchdoctors like Dr. Eli were amongst the juju men present in South Africa.

These witchdoctors were given special treats using tax payers' money. They received transportation fare, accommodation, and it is rumoured that they got the same 45million FRS as the players. Government officials have, however, denied such allegations. They did, though, receive an allowance from the Ministry of Sports like every member of the delegation and not the football federation.

Cameroonians have expressed indignation at the squandering of public funds and questioned the importance of witchdoctors if they could not use their magic in Cameroon's favour.

A famous Indomitable Lions photographer, Ebanga Maurice, who covered the World Cup, exclaimed after the Cameroonians lost to Denmark in Tshwane, Pretoria, "Look at them, heads down in shame, what is the use of witch doctors if they cannot deliver the goods?" he said, booing the witch doctors.

Claiming that he was not aware of the witchdoctors at Lions' Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga in Durban, the Team Press Officer, Linus Pascal Fouda acknowledges that they were part of the delegation, presented to him as the federation's administrators. But he questions, "What were they doing and what purpose did they serve?"

Many have wondered why church services were organised to pray for the Lions on the eve and on departure to South Africa at the Yaounde Nsimalen Airport only to fall back on witchdoctors.

Why did the witchdoctors fail in South Africa?

Many Cameroonians like Essambe Livinus who hails from the Southwest region known for witchcraft practices, point to the fact that the selection of witchdoctors that travelled to South Africa was based on influence, relationship and kickbacks for their mentors.

Adamou, the witchdoctor who claims to have spent six months under the waters of River Benue in the northern region, seems to agree, "Witchdoctors from the south region of the country are selected even if they do not possess any powers".

Adamou seems to hold to the fact that witchdoctors are of different calibres. Those from the north, Bassas and Bamelikes, are held in high esteem, though he chips in, "If I had been contacted, Cameroon would have gone to the quarter finals".

Witchcraft practices seem to have taken Cameroonian society hostage as Essambe Livinus confirms that witchcraft is not just in football.

"Ahead of cabinet shake up, government officials indulge in witchcraft practices such as sleeping in the cemetery and at the municipal lake to be appointed to ministerial positions," he says.

But has black magic ever worked in football?

Adamou, the witchdoctor, is confident that black magic works for football. He narrates how such practices work, "All I need to do is have a name of one player from the opposite side and I either make them fall, unable to run, tie their legs, or have the opponents miss their balls". He further boosts, "I made Kameni, the Lions' goalkeeper, move to France. I equally work for the presidency".

However, the power of magic in football is gradually waning and Cameroonians are now realising that football scores cannot be manipulated by incantations and magic.

If Cameroon had gone beyond the first round to the semi-finals stage, many like Adamou would have tapped their feet and beaten their chest that they had done it.

Essambe Livinus thinks that technology is the best witchdoctor as, "matches can now be viewed critically for a better evaluated taking into account speed, techniques to counter the opponent." To him, society has evolved and there is need to abandon certain practices.

Fortean / Oddball News - 7/9/2010

'Mr. Mike' Bigfoot Encounter - Statement From Lan Lamphere

Posted: 09 Jul 2010 04:44 PM PDT

Lan Lamphere, host of Overnight AM has posted the following statement:

We introduced the story of "Mr. Mike", who claims that he is experiencing repeated Bigfoot sightings in the backyard of his home, on July 3, 2010 when "Mr. Mike" joined the program and we found ourselves inadvertently making history.

I've met with some criticism due to a badly placed headline on my website that the skeptics have already begun using as a means of detracting from my efforts to validate, and verify, the story of 'Mr. Mike's' Bigfoot encounter. I take personal responsibility for that mistake.

The headline on my web site was placed very quickly due to being up against a deadline for the beginning of the show on July 3, 2010. Of course I wanted to grab peoples attention, but not mislead the world. I should have stopped to rethink my words of choice, but I didn't. I was in a hurry to get on the air as I was running behind and had hardly been able to prep for the show after spending 11 hours on the phone with virtually every person in the field of Bigfoot research, or trying to reach them.

It's not often that I make apologies on my radio show, or on my web site. Most of the time it is not needed. But this event has quickly become larger than the show. I'll be the first to admit that when we decided to cover this story on the show that the topic was viewed as a venue to bolster our listening audience because of world wide interest in the subject of Bigfoot. It's not like we don't choose to cover the strange and unusual on Overnight AM. The whole radio show was built around, and for, strange and sometimes unprovable subjects and speculation. But then the story became 'real' based on our own research, conversations and other historical evidence. It was then that I choose to stop, back up and re-evaluate my position, and my responsibilities to this audience, which frequently happens when hind-site becomes 20/20.

Because 'Mr. Mike's Bigfoot encounter began to show signs of being a very real, and scary event, I uncharacteristically re-positioned myself, and the show, in my commitment to discover, and report, the facts rather than focusing on the entertainment. However, It's not my responsibility to take the position of trying to single handedly save a sacred cow from slaughter if a story doesn't pan out just the way the audience expects. In fact, I'll be the first to slam a knife into it and carve myself out a fat steak to chew on.

BFRO

On July 3, 2010 I stated on air inside an interview with "Mr. Mike" that we had plans to send a camera crew to his location and document the events around his home regarding what he calls Bigfoot. I also said that we would not leave the Bigfoot Research Field Organization out of the loop, and welcomed their participation. Since then, some members of the BFRO have become critical of this story, without knowing all of the facts.

It's for that reason that I have elected to forgo the inclusion of the BFRO in any field research and have turned over the responsibility of hand picking a team of qualified experts to investigate these events to Mr. Bill Birnes (UFO Hunters – History Chanel / Publisher of UFO Magazine/Author).

The Camera Crew

The Camera Crew will consist of one, or more, trained professionals inside of the field of wildlife photography. This is the arena that I've had the most inquiry about, and have received the most advice on, over the past seven days via email and phone conversations.

The World Responds

At this time the story of Mr. Mike's experiences have met with open ridicule and support from opposing factions inside the arena of interested Bigfoot enthusiast. That was expected. I appreciate healthy skepticism just as much as I appreciate healthy interest and enthusiasm. My position has been to establish the credibility of Mr. Mike, and his story, before money, time, effort and energy was spent on what could easily be, or become, a farce or scam not only on me, but on this audience.

I do not enjoy being removed from my postion as a talk show host and forced into the arena of investigator. I said that we would move quickly on this story on July 3, 2010 in Mr. Mike's first interview on Overnight AM, and I was serious. I just didn't tell the audience what I had in mind to validate Mr. Mike's story. I had a story on my hands that couldn't be confirmed, but had body and form. Sure the story was a great avenue for a Overnight AM show. It was right up my alley. A great entertainment avenue for any listener who was interested in the subject of Bigfoot. But after listening to the show again, and again, and again- I came to the conclusion that Mr. Mike was telling the truth and I decided to act on it. I even went as far to write Bill Birnes a email after seeing that this story was beginning to build more momentum, and that the character assassination of Mr. Mike, myself and anyone else involved, was a real threat. If we were going to do this we had better commit to it 100%. Otherwise we would be placing ourselves in a precarious situation if this story wasn't investigated and acted upon correctly.

What's happening now?

Time schedules were rearranged. I've slowed the progression of the investigation. Specific people are being sought out with plans to contractually bind them to Security-Nondisclosure Agreements for the protection of Mr. Mike, the creatures (if any) and anyone else involved in this story. A feature length article is being prepared for Overnight AM's Intrepid Magazine. Right, wrong or indifferent.. the story continues.

NOTE: I know this statement is going to piss off a few people, including friends and associates, but it needs to be said. These groups, ex. BFRO, exist because their quarry is a legend and a mystery. If Sasquatch is proven to exist beyond any doubt, their appeal as a research group will diminish immensely. Thus, they are usually the first to question ANY claim...again, that is the case here. Granted, they have been burned by hoaxers on numerous occasions...but, IMO, their efforts to discredit witnesses is extremely detrimental...Lon

'Mr. Mike' Bigfoot Encounter - Statement From Lan Lamphere

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