Debris field of the Roswell Crash
Case File: Roswell UFO Crash
Location: Roswell, New Mexico
Date: July 2, 1947
Description: Founded in 1891, Roswell is a city in the county seat of Chaves County in the southeast New Mexico, United States. The center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution and petroleum production, it is also the home of the New Mexico Military Institute. The Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located a few miles northeast of the city on the Pecos River, and the Bottomless Lakes State Park is located twelve miles east of Roswell on U.S. 380. In recent years, Roswell has become a mecca for UFO enthusiasts.
Case
History: On the night of July 2, 1947, a violent electric storm sweeped over the plains of Roswell, New Mexico, and rancher Mac Brazel waited out the storm in his house when he heard an explosion. According to his son, Mac was on the fields later that day when he looked to see where the rain had hit, he found the debris field of an unknown object, and whatever it was, it was broken beyond identification. The debris was 3/4 mile long, and scattered along was pieces of plastic-like metal, about three feet long and as thin as newspaper, and flexible beams. Later that day, Mac went to his neighbors, the Proctors, and told them about the debris, and Mac brought one of the pieces, and although they tried to do several things to it, but the object was unchanged. Mac Brazel went to the sheriff the next Monday and he informed the local military base, and that afternoon, Mac led two army intelligence officers to the crash site. One of the officers was Major Jesse Marcel Sr., an experienced combat pilot, whose peacetime job was investigate air accidents. Despite his experience, Marcel was unable to identify what kind of craft it was. Marcel died in 1982, but before his death, he was interviewed for a UFO documentary. He told that there was just fragments strewn a cross a 3/4 mile long and several hundred yards wide. He tried to burn it, bend it, and even hit it with a sledgehammer, but none of that worked.
Newspaper Article
One thing that he was certain of was that it was not a weather balloon, airplane, or any kind of craft he knew. The night that his father found the debris, Jesse Marcel Jr. saw and handled the debris because they had brought it back to the Marcel home. He found that on one beam there were strange markings that appeared to be hieroglyphics. Jesse Sr. then brought the debris back to the Roswell base, and some believe that the debris was flown to Dayton, Ohio, the next day, and it apparently stopped in Fort Worth, Texas. That same morning, Colonel William Blancher, the commanding officer, went public about the story by Mac Brazel and the UFO that he had located. The story was quickly picked up by media across the country. That same day, an engineer named Barney Barnett made an astonishing discovery while driving near Socorro.
Craft and Bodies seen by Barney Barnett
He found a spaceship that was oval shaped and it had crashed and broken open. There were four beings located on the ground near the craft and their heads looked larger than normal and had strange spacesuits on. At that same time, a group of archaeology students arrived at the site after seeing it near their dig. The military soon arrived and told Barney and the students to leave the scene and not tell the story to anybody. Barney eventually told the story to a friend years later, and to this day, none of the archaeology students have ever been found. Although the story was only told second hand by a friend because Barney died in 1969, the evidence found makes many believe that the story is credible. On July 8, 1947, the story of the discovery of a UFO hit newspaper stands worldwide. That same day, a cargo plane apparently carrying the debris arrived at an airbase in Fort Worth, Texas, and the army soon received information that another crash site and bodies were found. General Roger Rainey's office issued a new press release claimed that the wreckage was not a UFO, but instead a weather balloon. Meanwhile, some reports said that Mac Brazel was being held at the Roswell base until the new cover story was put out, and by then all traces of the debris had been taken from his ranch to a military air field in Ohio. Investigators believe that some of the bodies and debris were taken to other places after arriving in Ohio, but that others are still there. However, there was only circumstantial evidence to say that something other than a weather balloon crashed into the field in Roswell until thirty years later. UFO researchers found a document that proves that the Roswell incident actually happened. In 1984, a top secret document, known as the MJ12 memo, was anonymously sent to a researcher. The MJ12 was a group of twelve people that was supposedly hired by the government to get rid of the debris and help cover up the incident. In part it read, "On 07 July, 1947, a secret operation was begun to assure the recovery of the wreckage...Aerial reconnaissance discovered that four small, human like beings had apparently ejected from the craft...About two miles east of the wreckage site. All four were dead...Civilian and military witnesses in the area were debriefed, and news reporters were given the effective cover story that the object had been a misguided weather balloon."
Actual MJ12 Memo
The government continues to deny comment on the MJ12 memo. If we are to believe the memo and the other sightings, we are to believe the possibility that the government located life from another world, and then covered it up. Apart from Barney Barnett, only one man claims to have seen the alien bodies, Oliver Henderson. His wife claims that he never told anything that he wasn't supposed to, and he did not tell anything about what he had seen until thirty four years later, in 1981. Oliver was the pilot who flew the first pieces of wreckage out of Roswell, and he told his wife that despite the military denials, the incident actually happened. He told her that the bodies were smaller than humans, but the heads and eyes were much larger, and the clothing was of strange material that he had never seen before. Its been more than sixty years since the object apparently crashed in Roswell, but to this day, nobody is certain what the object truly was.
Background: Roswell is a city in New Mexico that had a population of about 14,000 in 1947. The city has become very famous due to the UFO incident. Several local merchants have used the story of the crash to attract Ufologists and science fiction enthusiasts.
Investigations: None
Extra Notes: The case was featured as a part of the September 20, 1989 episode, the update aired as a part of the September 18, 1994 episode.
Results: Unresolved. Several witnesses have since come forward claiming that what happened at Roswell was true, and one of those people was Glenn Dennis. In 1947, Glenn was 22 and just out of college and working as a mortician's assistant. Two days before the Roswell story became public, Glenn received a strange phone call from the Roswell air base. A man called asking what sized baby caskets did they have there. Later that day, Glenn had to transport an airman to the air base and was surprised to find that the base's infirmary had several MPs. Glenn looked into an ambulance and he saw strange wreckage that was purplish and bluish and other wreckage. Glenn claimed that there was a great amount of confusion that day at the base, and that when he asked if they needed any help, a military man ordered him to be escorted back to the mortuary. Then another man told Glenn to not tell anyone about this or "they'll be picking out your bones from the sand". Then, a bunch of people came out of one room, one of which was a nurse that Glenn knew. She said that he needed to get out of there or else he would get in trouble. Glenn then talked to the nurse the next day, and she told him she would tell her story as long as he would not reveal her name. She told him that they were doing a partial autopsy on bodies of small beings, that she first thought were children, but she later realized were aliens. The doctor then used forceps to show the arm of the body, that had four fingers with suction cups. There were no ears, but instead strange cartlidge and other things on the body. In all, the nurse claimed to have seen three bodies in total, and none of them were human. The next day, Glenn unfolded the newspaper on the desk, and it was the infamous article. Glenn never saw the nurse again, and a few weeks later, he heard that she had died in a plane crash after being transferred out of the country. To this day, Glenn is convinced that her story is true, even though she was never located. Many are convinced that the Roswell incident began the UFO cover up conspiracy done by the government. Six hundred miles west of Roswell, there is a secret military base known as "Area 51". It is not seen on any map, and even though it can be seen from a ridge by the naked eye, the military claims that it does not exist. It has apparently been there since the 1960s, and it is site where advanced military aircraft have been tested there at night. Bob Lazar claimed that he had worked at a site near Area 51, and that he had worked with UFOs and that the government has them hidden. Bob claims that in March of 1989, he witnessed the test flight of a UFO by the government. Some believe that Bob is a fraud, while others are certain that he is genuine, and that there are other witnesses who claimed to have seen the UFOs as well. When Unsolved Mysteries asked the government about Area 51, they denied that the base existed. Bob believes that the secrecy is not just hiding alien spacecraft, but also the aliens. To this day, nobody knows what really happened in Roswell back in 1947, nor if Area 51 or the government may have been involved.
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