Close encounter with acre-sized UFO leaves three Missouri witnesses baffled

Posted by: Roger Marsh August 13, 2014 0 1,786 Views

Three Joplin, MO, UFO witnesses are speaking out on the July 8, 2014, sighting where the object was originally reported as “bigger than a house,” according to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Missouri Assistant State Director Margie Kay and STAR Team Investigator Larry Jordan.

Kay and Jordan examined sites on July 13 where three credible witnesses saw a UFO and had strange experiences.

From Kay’s report issued today:

“A retired airline pilot who asked to remain anonymous, Joplin Globe general manager John Cruzan and health technician Traci Cruzan of south Joplin, Missouri, had a close encounter with an Unidentified Flying Object.

“On July 8 at 9:15 p.m. the retired pilot was walking his dog in front of his house when he noticed a quarter-sized object with orange lights in the sky north of his location. As the object approached from a high altitude to a low altitude on a straight-line trajectory he realized that it was no standard aircraft. The object was very large, teardrop in shape with multiple orange, blue, and yellow lights underneath.

The three Joplin, MO, witnesses drove one mile away to this field where they believed the UFO may have landed. (Credit: MUFON)

“As John Cruzan and his wife Traci rounded the corner in their Jeep, the pilot flagged them down. The two jumped out of their vehicle just as the object was flying an estimated 300 feet or less overhead. The three witnesses said that the object was approximately one-acre wide and one-acre in length. They said that there was absolutely no sound coming from the object whatsoever, and that this concerned them.

“The pilot said, ‘I know what different aircraft sound like and there should have been a engine sound but there was none. And what was keeping that thing in the air? There were no wings or tail and it was flying too slow to be airborne.’

“The witnesses all said they felt like the situation was surreal. The pilot said that there was no sound in the area as he watched the object overhead, yet John Cruzan heard the pilot’s dog barking at the object. The neighborhood dogs all barked at the object as it flew over the homes in the area.

“The three witnesses watched the object go down behind trees and thought that it may have landed in a nearby cow pasture. They jumped in the Jeep and raced to the field which is approximately one mile away from their homes.

“As the three pulled to the side of the road, the vehicle’s warning beep started to go off. There were no doors open to cause the sound. John shone a large bright flashlight into the field but the flashlight went very dim. He had a difficult time getting the Jeep in to gear, which never happened before.

The Jeep the witnesses were driving experienced mechanical problems when they were close to the area where they believed the UFO landed. (Credit: MUFON)

“Finally, he got the Jeep to move on, and then turned around, but when they arrived at the same spot the vehicle’s warning beep again went off and the flashlight went dim again. The next day, the radio’s presets were all gone.”

Missouri MUFON investigators found anomalous electro-magnetic field readings on the ground at the site as well as the top of the Cruzan’s vehicle.  More investigative techniques will be used in the near future including testing of trees and grass at the site.

Investigators took readings at the original area, pictured, where the sighting occurred. (Credit: MUFON)

The story was originally covered as: Missouri couple says UFO was ‘bigger than a house’

The three witnesses decided to go public in an effort to get answers to what they saw. Missouri MUFON requests that any other witnesses to this event or similar events contact Margie Kay at 816-833-1602 ormargiekay06@yahoo.com.

Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of Missouri, population 50,150.

Google Map of the sighting area. (Credit: Google Maps)

Missouri has a current UFO Alert Rating of 4 with a higher than average number of recent reports nationally. Missouri had 24 UFO reports in July 2014 – the 9th highest reporting state – while California had 104 reports as the highest reporting state. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

The UFO Alert Rating System is based on five levels – 1 through 5 – where states with 150 or more reports for the month are rated an Alert 1; states with 100 or more reports are rated an Alert 2; 25 reports or more for the month are rated an Alert 3; 13 or more reports are rated an Alert 4; and those states with less than 13 reports for the month are an Alert 5.

ABOUT ROGER MARSH

Roger Marsh is a UFO writer, author, playwright and independent filmmaker. He is editor of the monthly MUFON UFO Journal for the Mutual UFO Network and is the National UFO Examiner at examiner.com. He is the author of Sacred Dialogue, editor of Silent Invasion, and co-editor of Ron Paul Speaks.