Extraterrestrial Dilemmas

In the vast Midwest, cows roam hundreds of acres of farmland under the searing sun, through crunchy snow, and in muddy puddles daily. The environment isn’t what these animals need to fear the most, however.

When a farmer noticed one of his month-old calves didn’t show up in the morning during feeding, he went searching. Somewhere between the feeding station and the edge of his property the farmer found the leftover skin and fur that once stretched over his calf. The spine was missing, its pelvis crushed, and most of its organs had been removed, including the eyes.

What Manuel Sanchez found on his farm in San Luis, Colorado were four of his calves slaughtered, though that word might not be scientific enough. The calves' eyes and tongues were removed and the skin on their faces sliced. The cuts were described to have been done with something like a laser. All four carcasses were completely drained of blood, but where that blood went is a mystery. There were no footprints, no uprooted plants, no disturbances of any kind.

Sanchez comes from a long line of farmers, and in that time he’s seen what cougars and coyotes can do to cattle. “A lion will drag its kill. Coyotes rip and tear flesh. These were perfect cuts—like with a laser or like a scalpel. And what would take the waste—all the guts—and leave the nice, tender meat?” Sanchez said in an interview with The Denver Post in 2009. 

Cattle mutilations as precise as these aren’t a 21st century development. For decades cattle have been slaughtered with laser-like cuts, removing specific parts of the body. The problem is the lack of information with each new mutilation. The cattle might be sliced and different organs might be removed with surgeon-like precision, but with no trail leading to the culprit. 

The more cattle farmers lose to these unexplainable mutilations, the more theories and conspiracies marinate behind closed doors of the community and the government. Some think it’s a secret organization of individuals causing mayhem to farmers, others believe it’s more alien than that.

UFO investigator Chuck Zukowski researched several of these strange mutilations. Although he couldn’t find an answer to what might have done this, he did rule out paranormal involvement. He said in the Denver Post article: “I’m looking for obvious things. I don’t like to say aliens did it. There are just too many unknowns. I like to lean on human intervention until I actually see a UFO come down and take a cow.”

However, Mike Duran, who had cattle killed in similar ways since 1995, wasn't sure there was another explanation. In the same 2009 article, he said, “I do believe it was UFOs. This universe is so big.”

No new developments have surfaced in these horrific and seemingly scientific mutilations. Farmers and police are left to wonder what animal or human has the ability to dissect such a large animal and not leave a trace or a speck of blood behind. While aliens are an unpopular explanation, it shouldn’t be ruled out so quickly.

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In the Manhattan Transfer Abduction, aliens are the only explanation.

Straight from her Manhattan apartment, Linda Napolitano was abducted by an unidentified flying object in 1989. She said she remembered standing in open air, looking up into whatever spacecraft was abducting her. Inside the spacecraft was where her memory became spotty, but she reported being lead down a hallway with sliding doors that opened into rooms with buttons and dials. The room she was lead into had a long table. She remembered not wanting to get on it. She remembered screaming. She remembered a hand wrapping over her mouth to quiet her.

On the Brooklyn Bridge two United Nations bodyguards saw Napolitano floating up into this spacecraft they described as glowing orange, white blue, and orange again when it descended into the East River. The men told the man investigating this case at the time, Budd Hopkins, under the pseudonyms Dan and Richard.

In the bustling city of New York City, one must assume that more than only two bodyguards saw something strange in the sky that day. The amount of witnesses who saw a UFO hovering above the building Napolitano resided in made this case one of the most controversial alien abduction stories. 

Napolitano’s life was now consumed with coping with and understanding what happened to her. Dan and Richard found themselves in the same situation. Obsessed with figuring out what had happened to Napolitano, the men abducted her in 1991 to question her about her experience. 

Perhaps it was the fear of the unknown that fueled these men’s obsessions. A bewildering seed had been planted after what they saw on that winter day in 1989.

Their obsession drove them to disregard Napolitano’s emotional or physical state at that point. Their need for answers outweighed her own.

Apparently Napolitano denied being abducted by an alien space craft, but they wouldn’t accept it. She probably thought that if she confessed to nothing, they would realize they made a mistake and let her go. Or maybe the abduction never really happened. 

Was it a hoax? Was it a vision the two men shared? But what about the others who saw Napolitano’s abduction that day? 

The possibility that it didn’t happen might have stoked the coals of these men’s obsession. When questioning her wasn’t working, the men forced her to put on a white nightgown similar to the one she was wearing the night she had been abducted. When she saw the chance for escape, she fled her abductors but was caught on a beach by Dan. In a fit of rage, he forced her head underwater. It’s hard to imagine he didn’t feel confused by his actions, that he was acting and not thinking.

Richard shoved Dan off Napolitano and took her home. The interrogation and abduction was over. They had no answers. Later Richard informed her that Dan had been admitted into a mental asylum. 

Maybe the idea of something as foreign and anomalous as an alien abduction was enough to drive at least one person to insanity. More than an image of an alien abduction or mutilation, the unknown may be what pushes someone over the edge, like a body guard or a farmer. It makes one wonder how he would react in such a confusing situation.