Occurred: 2003-04-08 01:36 Local
Reported: 2003-06-29 13:02 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Dubuque, IA, USA

Shape: Light


Following is the result of 3 Iowa MUFON members' investigation of an incident reported to NUFORC on: 4/9/2003 3:04:06 PM 15:04.

A daughter and her mother (ages 38 and 58) were driving home to Dubuque, Iowa from a concert in Cedar Rapids, Iowa after midnight on Tuesday April 8, 2003, when a golden-bronze light descended to the right front of their car (the daughter was driving, with the mother in the passenger's seat) and passed through, and perhaps alongside their car. (Investigator's note: It is important here to note the weather conditions: Light snow; OVERCAST WITH 1100 FOOT CLOUD BASE; 26 Degrees Fahrenheit; Wind NE 12 mph.) As the light passed through the car, both witnesses felt unusual physical sensation. The driver (daughter) felt a burning, tingling sensation along her right side - and felt as if the light, which was a bit to her right, had affected mainly that part of her body, and stated that her "insides" felt as if they were being pulled to the right as the light passed through. The mother also felt physical sensation which, because of the medication, Oxycodone, which she'd taken an hour before the incident for a condition called neurofibromatosis, she thinks she should not have been able to feel. The mother saw the light first as it began descending toward the car, with the daughter then able to perceive it as it appeared in front of the car and moved through (and perhaps along the right side) of the car. (Keeping in mind the 1100 foot cloud base, we at least know that the light would have been below 1100 feet when the mother first saw it descending.) To the witnesses, the duration of the sighting and passage of the light seemed like no more than perhaps 5 seconds. The daughter/driver remembers her head whipping to her right briefly as the light passed through. The next thing she knew she was staring straight ahead at the road with her hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, with the words, "Focus-focus-focus-focus-focus" going through her mind as the car moved along at 55 miles per hour. She immediately looked at the car clock and saw that it was 1:36 a.m., although neither witness is aware of the ti! me when the incident began, and so the question of the length of the incident goes unanswered. At no time did the witnesses see a craft, but both of them perceived some kind of energy they find it difficult to describe. The mother sketches a series of horizontal and vertical marks within the light, and the daughter mentions a kind of swirling, fluid black mist in the light. Oddly, it was later found that a gold T-shirt purchased at the concert, which had been inside the mother's bag in the front seat prior to the incident, was now, following the incident, on the floor in the back seat. Physical effects on the daughter/driver continued to manifest, i.e.: for 3 days her husband noticed the hair on her right arm would "stand up," with the hair on her left arm lying down normally. She also had the sensation of heat on the right side of her body, at the same time she felt normal temperature on the left side of her body. When the daughter related the incident to a friend from out of state, her friend advised her to check her body for marks, and she and her husband noted a puncture mark about an inch below her navel. Whether this is related to the incident, of course, is not definitely known, but the witness says she doesn't know how it got there. About 10 days after the incident, the daughter/driver's lymph nodes began to swell (Whether this is at all related to the incident is not known; it is simply something to take note of). The daughter/driver witness has now been to the doctor several times, with blood tests being taken, and nothing found amiss. The swelling persisted at high level for about 6 weeks, then began to decrease somewhat, although there is at this writing (June 29, 2003) still some swelling of the nodes.

After the light had disappeared, mother and daughter say that there remained a golden glow on the clouds as they made their way on the rural highway toward Dubuque, Iowa. When they came to the Dubuque airport some 25 miles further on down the highway, they noted that the airport lights could not have been the golden light they'd seen because the airport lights were definitely white instead of gold. Iowa MUFON personnel continue to maintain frequent telephone contact with the daughter witness as she continues to have her health assessed by doctors in her area.



NUFORC Note:

We express our gratitude to Iowa MUFON State Director, Beverly Trout, for requesting the case for follow-up, and for submitting the report to NUFORC. PD


Posted 2003-07-16

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.