Occurred: 2008-01-20 05:58 Local
Reported: 2008-04-13 20:02 Pacific
Duration: 7-8 MIN
No of observers: 2

Location: East Dublin, GA, USA

Shape: Other


This investigation was conducted by:
David I. Marchant Sr./ Assistant State
Director of MUFON of Coastal Georgia
2328 Bona Bella Ave.
Savannah, Ga. 31406
Ph#912-354-2632
Email/dmarchants@bellsouth.net

This investigation was conducted with the cooperation and permission of Mr. Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Davenport, Washington who took the original report of the witness through his NUFORC reporting system.





The original report is as follows minus witness personal information:

Date: 01/20/08
Time:05:58 am
Duration: 7 minutes
Sighting City: East Dublin
Sighting State: Georgia
Sighting County: Laurens
# of witnesses: 2
Shape: Oval
# of craft: 1

Description: Landing of a 3 lighted, fairly large craft with pulsing red to amber lights. No sound at all.

Description by witness narrative:

I wasn’t going to report this until I saw that someone else from this exact same city experienced something similar just two months ago. So,I decided to also write a report since there must obviously be something going on here that is unexplained and I would like answers.

Earlier this morning (Sunday Jan. 20th, 2008) at approximately 5:58 AM I decided to look out my front door to see if the ground was covered with ice( we had a lot of rain last evening and freezing temperatures overnight) , and as I was looking out the front door I noticed something completely strange to my left. It was floating above the tree line across from a field approximately ½ mile from my front door. The lights were pulsating from red to orange (similar to flames from a forest fire) as this thing or craft was slowly receding behind the tree line behind the open field " "It seemed to have three large lights from the side I was seeing. And judging from the neighbor’s house down the road and the distance this craft was from their home and ours, it had to be at least the size of 4 or 5 homes combined, possibly even larger. A truly amazing sight and a camera was the last thing on my mind."

Anyway, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, so I went to wake my wife up to verify what I was seeing. She quickly awoke when I told her that she had to see something that was going to blow her mind. I was hoping this thing wouldn’t be gone before we made it back to the front door. When we both got to the front door it was still there and was now half way down behind the tree line. My wife said, "Oh my God, what is that?" We both looked at it in awe as it descended behind the trees and seemed to have landed.

The area it seemed to have landed in is near a creek in a swampy area. In a place people wouldn’t normally go or have good access to. All I could think is why would someone or something be landing there."

My wife and I stared in the direction for nearly an hour to see if it was going to fly away. She described it as being similar to the sun going down behind the trees due to the brightness it displayed and the red and orange colors, but this definitely wasn’t the sun, it was only 5:58 AM and was in the north west during the dark of night. She was only able to see the top half of the object and the lights as it was already landing as I awoke her. We both couldn’t believe what we had just seen. This definitely was like nothing I had ever seen, especially this close to our own home.. I must mention that I am prior military (US. Army Veteran) and I am very observant and have an IQ of 138. This definitely didn’t seem like any modern day aircraft that our military would have and even if it were, why would they land in the middle of the swampy creek area at 5:58 AM on a Sunday morning? As far as the shape of the craft, it seemed to be an oval shape and had no sound at all as we stepped out the front door to listen as it was landing. Another thing that was real odd was that this is in a suburban neighborhood with lots of yard animals and none of the dogs were barking at all and the air was dead silent”.

"As big as the object was and as bright as the lights were, we were expecting to at least hear the neighborhood dogs barking, but none were."

:After waiting on the front porch of our home for close to an hour with blankets to keep warm, we finally decided to go back into the house. We were hoping this craft would come back up from the wooded area and would show itself once again while leaving, but it never did. And no, I don’t plan on going in that area of the woods and swamp to see it close up either. I will be keeping a guarded eye on that area for the next few nights and even months to see if anything else happens there."

"All I can say about this is that we’re definitely not alone and these things are making themselves known. I’m just wondering why they aren’t trying to communicate more clearly if they are superior life forces. It\ almost feels as though we are like the ants living in the ant farm and they just observe us when they want to. A little food for thought there."

"Anyway, thanks for allowing me to vent about this here, because I surely can’t tell me friends(sic) about this. I’m not sure how they would take it."

END OF ORIGINAL REPORT! Upon receiving the permission of Mr. Peter Davenport to investigate this sighting report he sent this Field Investigator for MUFON the witness contact information.

I contacted the witness by phone and set up an appointment at his home for January 31st, 2008 at 3PM.

The primary witness is married with two children, a boy and a girl . He owns his own business. His wife works at a local business. Their residence was very clean and modern. East Dublin, Ga. is a very clean and prosperous appearing town located in Laurens County, Ga. long: w 82.9 and lat: n 32.5.

This FI arrived at the witness’ address at 1PM on 1/31/08 and spent the next hour scouting the area of the sighting and getting the lay-out of the community/neighborhood surrounding the residence.

Moving West past the residence on the road they live , on the right side of the road at approximately 100 feet distance from witness's driveway is a high-end subdivision made up of approximately 1 acre parcels with large ,modern homes which are located in an open, spacious property with a view across its expanse of approximately ½ mile in most directions. The road upon which the witness lives dead ends 1.10 miles into another road that runs in a South to North direction. 100 yards to the North on this road is a Georgia Power Company grid line of tall electrical towers. On the South side of this road the grid can be seen running at the foot of a long ridge (hill) approximately 250 to 300 feet high in a South to North direction. This power line grid crosses over this road in a Eastern direction where a creek crosses under the roadway at a bridge and the creek and the grid together runs into and through a swampy, mixed forest area of several 100’s of acres. The creek has created a boggy, wet-land area and there are no roads, paths, or other entrances into this location, which is the direction of the witness’ sighting from his residence of 1.10 miles from of the creek.

Heading back East on the witness’ road I went to the junction with another Georgia highway and headed North for 3 ½ miles. This road led me to a power substation in 2 miles from the resident’s road. I also noticed the other side of the ridge and swampy wet-land with several tree farms and cotton fields for the 3 ½ miles.

Back at the residence, directly in front of it is a tree farm . This appeared to have a road that runs around the North border of the subdivision but aerial maps indicate that it does not run far enough around to give access to the presumed landing area and falls short at least ¾ of a mile from it, ending in the forest behind the subdivision. Another road West of residence of witness does give access through a home owner’s property, but the witness is reluctant for them to be contacted at this time.

Leaving the neighborhood I drove back into East Dublin business district and decided to have lunch at a very small, one room restaurant . I enquired of the owner if he had heard of any UFO sightings. He had not.

I arrived at the witness’ residence at 3PM. He was warm and friendly but was still plenty excited about what he and his wife had witnessed the morning of 1/20/08 and began immediately showing me the area and recapping the event. Inside the home I conducted an interview and at first brought up the issue of the time of the sighting at 05:58 AM mentioned several times in the original report, inquiring as to what he was doing up at that time of morning after a cold, rainy, stormy night, on a day most would "sleep in." The witness stated he arose to check for "snow" as the local weather provider had said it was a possibility that night and he wanted to show it to the family.

This FI having checked the weather report, etc. before my interview, indicating according to the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Department as follows: For the East Dublin area 1/20/08 @ 04:21 AM EST- winds had been out of the NW with gusts up to 20 MPH. There had been rain/sleet over the area for several hours: humidity averaged 81 % . A severe weather system with lots of lighting activity had moved across Georgia the evening of 1/19/08 and on into 1/20/08. Temperature averaged around 47* F. No snow recorded in the area. But witness indicated there was ice everywhere 1/20/08 Sunrise 1/20/08 was @ 7:32AM/ EST. The Moon was waxing Gibeous with a (95% disk surface showing/ illuminated and was 2 days before full which set at the "exact" time of 05:58 AM that morning 1/20/08(Thanks to MUFON ASD GA. MARK AUSMUS for exact moon charts) Charts on file. Witness said the sky was clear at the time of the sighting.

Please note that the lack of animal activity (barking of dogs) that the witness originally reported as unusual does not seem to this FI to be in anyway connected to the sighting as most family yard dogs would be bedded down after such a weather system that lasted around 12 hours and 2 hours before sunrise.

Nothing appears unusual of this time frame(at this time) and the witness remembers seeing the exact time of 05:58 AM on the DVD player near the front door from which the sighting took place, which he showed me.

The witness had viewed the object as he looked out of the decorative glass, front door panel, noticed the lights and opened the door.

Recapping ( again) the sighting as recorded in the original report to NUFORC, I had the witness go over the statement about the size estimate . I discovered that what he actually saw were 3 large, bright red/orange lights encapsulated inside a half "dome" shape, rounded part to the top, and the 3 lights were inside, tapered back from the bottom to the top as if they were 3 panels of light. The panels of light appeared "fire like" the sun, rather than pulsating. Estimating the size of the object by the witness was based on a neighbors house approximately ¼ mile West on his road. I had him do a measure at arms length exercise and we determined the object to be 1 ½ inches to 2 inches at arms length. This FI using www.ufotools.com their website calculations estimated the size at a ground distance of approx. 5000ft.(1524 m) at an angle of elevation 10 degress based on the terrain lay-out from the witness’ front porch at eye level. The estimated length of the object at the base of the ½ dome was approx.93.624 ft.(28 m). The altitude estimate was 882 ft (269m). FYI/ this FI is comfortable with the distant from the witness calculation of 93 ft. due to the fact the object could have been as close as ½ mile and as far as 1 mile due to the angle in which it was viewed across various landscape/terrain. There was no way to get an exact measurement from either side of the objects landing area. One being a neighbor’s yard that the witness didn’t want me to contact and the inaccessible swamp on the other .

The entire time period of the actual event was 7 to 8 minutes.

Google maps of the location will follow at a later date.

Next the witness took me outside to show the exact location ( again) where he saw the object and where his wife joined him on the porch. The direction was North, North West, as originally reported. It was NNW across the open area over the subdivision at approximately 3/4/ to 1 mile (approx. 5000ft) distance according to my compass readings and previous drive through observations. If the object had been floating down behind the ridge line off the other road north of the location, it would not have lit up the trees, like the witness stated to this FI, and it did light up trees located closer to a small pond located on the North West side of the subdivision. It appeared to come down behind the silhouette of one specific, large pine tree near the pond about ¼ mile away but the distance of the object was probably closer to a 3/4 to 1 mile away in the swamp land. The witness stated that the object maneuvered "blimp like," moving very slowly and drifting down from about an 80 degree flat , right to left angle above the large pine tree and there was sky line well below the object estimated at about 100 to 150 feet above the large pine tree. Again, I wish to emphasize, as this FI viewed the exact angle of the object’s dissent seen by the witness, it would have had to go down in front of the ridge line located on the other road to the West , not behind it. Again, this ridge is approx. 1.5 miles from the residence and an astronomical object would have went down behind the ridge.

That would put the object going down into the swamp off the Western border road.

I next spoke to the second witness, the wife, by phone at her place of business and her description was as the original report, but reiterated that "It looked like the Sun going down at Sunset."

I asked if she had noticed anything unusual since the sighting. She stated that their house lights had been surging up and down over that day and a few days following. At this phone interview (on speaker phone) her husband recalled with her that the automatic, dawn to dusk, mercury vapor light in the driveway had gone out as well during that time and had not come back on. This driveway light has sense been repaired and both bulb and sensor had to be replaced. The witness also remembered at this time that he had been having all the rechargeable batteries in their cell phones, remote keyboard to his business computer and the children’s electronic toys in his home office being drained of their charges. He would charge them up and next day they would be discharged. This FI after returning to Savannah discovered that my brand new camera’s batteries were completely drained and I had put new ones in that morning before leaving for East Dublin. Coincidence? Maybe! Witness had also noticed an intermittent humming sensation/noise in his and his wife’s ears for 3 weeks after the sighting.

I had the witness file a formal complaint with the Georgia Power Company and at first the customer service representative said that they are not able to look up previous power problems. Instead they did a new report on the fact that witness was experiencing humming noise and "possible power surges sense the 19th-20th through the end of January 08. No mention was made of the battery drainage to Georgia Power Company. A Ga. Power technician was dispatched to the residence that day. The witness inquired if they could explain the humming sensations and the power fluctuations, or any other problems for that time period. The Technician’s log book indicated that 2 power sub-stations went out between January 20th and 21st, in the area. He unlocked the house’s power meter and did a few tests inside the meter ands stated it was working fine. The humming noise was not detected and the technician could only say that what had been happening must have been caused by the 2 downed sub-stations . The GP Technician could give no explaination for the substations failures. At this writing the only problem electrically , seems to be the continual drain of freshly charged batteries in the home. This FI nor the witness can figure this out at this time.

This FI first speculated that the witnesses may have seen the "Moon set" as it did in fact set at exactly the same moment the object seemed to land in the swamp. However, the Moon set in a wooded area directly "behind" the residence and was about 90 degrees in the opposite direction in the West South Westerly location at the time of the sighting.

The witness stated that the object never rose up after 1 hour . After approximately 30 minutes of waiting for the object to rise , a meteor, which the witness described as normal except that it was very short in duration with only a very short trajectory of about 1 to 2 inches at arms length appearing. They speculated that they felt it was connected in some way with the object. This FI does not.

As the witness’ children arrived from school on the day of the interview/investigation, he introduced me to them and I interviewed them briefly. They had not seen anything, but knew all about the details. The daughter had had a "nightmare" about seeing the lights similar to what her parent’s had described and had drawn a picture (on file) of the object. She slept with her parent’s that night.

This FI does not believe this was a "recall" experience by the child but simply that this incident has impacted this family in a stressful and negative way.

The witness claims to have a high IQ and so does his son. The witness has been troubled over the fact that he cannot reconcile what he saw with what he knows to be normal and logical, He has stated to this FI that it affected him as he has become protective and concerned for the families safety more than usual.

This FI believes the daughter has seen and heard her parent’s attempts to explain the incident and became fearful. I told the witness to consider playing down the incident to help his daughter overcome her initial fears. He agreed.

This FI has 35 years experience as a professional clinical counselor and 27 years as a Christian Pastor and I can say with some certain knowledge that the witnesses (husband & wife) have experienced something that has disturbed their normal life in a dramatic way and this disturbance has spilled over to their children. I have checked back once per week with the witness as of this writing and they are still trying to figure out what they saw.

UFO TOOLS website gives this case with the evidence available at a 57.5% reliability, strangeness 14.29%, info quality 10%, certainty 00.82% Valle classification is FB1 possibly FB2 considering the electrical circumstantial evidence.

The probability of the object being a plasma ball over the power grid would be highly likely except for the fact that it was first seen moving 100 to 150 feet above the tree line that hides the grid line from line of sight from the witness’ front porch. Along with the appearance of being a "dome or half a circle/sphere with lighted panels , this probability is slim . This FI contacted FI Brion Trainor/ a retired electrical engineer and team member of MUFONGA/ Coastal Georgia and he advised that due to the altitude the object was first seen and it’s coloration , that indeed, a plasma ball was very unlikely.

This FI also personally spoke with all 3 departments of Law Enforcement in Laurens County. East Dublin PD, Dublin PD and Laurens County Sheriff’s Department. None have received any UFO or unusual aeriel phenomenon reports as far back as memory serves them. I spoke either to the Chiefs or their Ranking officers and they were very cooperative and want to be contacted in the future regarding any such report and will contact this FI should they receive reports of this nature in their respected departments.

Also this FI has contacted a newspaper reporter to look into any media for that area that may have received reports for the sighting’s time frame of 1/20/08. Any information forth coming will be posted as received.

FYI/ The witness mentioned the reason he made the report was because of another sighting in East Dublin 2 months prior. This incident also was reported to NUFORC on 11/26/2007. The report is similar at first examination and I can see why this witness of 1/20/08 was prompted to file his report.

It was unfortunate that this FI was unable to gain access to the swampy area where the object went down to check for traces of its presence. However, due to the overall evidence of the circumstances and the insistence of the witness to remain anonymous, and the consistency of the testimonies and the adverse affect it had on the them and their children, I conclude at this time that this case should be classified "unknown." However, this case will remain open for this FI and contact with these witnesses will continue until I am personally satisfied they have some closure.

David I. Marchant Sr. /ASD/MUFONGA/ COASTAL AREA March 31, 2008

NUFORC Note:

We express our gratitude to David I. Marchant, Sr., and to MUFON/GEORGIA, for sharing the results from their follow-up report. If anyone has additional information about the incident, we urge the person to contact Mr. Marchant directly at the contact information he provides above. PD


Posted 2008-04-17

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