2008-06-30 - St Louis, MO - Unknown

UFO – Angel Hair Sighting Sighting Report submitted for Stella XXXX by John Budrys (FI #22542) 5 June 20 On 2 Apr 20, I, John Budrys, was assigned Stella’s MUFON sighting report #XXXXXX of an event witnessed with her husband in 2008. I completed my FI report on 11 May 20, but continue to stay in touch with Stella. During one of the conversations with Stella about her other life experiences, she related a remarkable event. As Stella said she had trouble working with the MUFON reporting forms, I offered to submit this report for her. Stella thought it occurred during one of her truck driving jobs in about 2004, though she said it might have been in 2005. She suggested records of the train wreck would help pinpoint the date, as these don’t happen that often. Stella and her husband, both professional truck drivers, were in the process of making another delivery in the St. Louis area. They heard from other truckers via their CB radio of a train wreck that had occurred several days earlier, so decided to visit the site that afternoon and have lunch. She that the train wreck was on a ! side road next to Hwy I-44, about 30-40 miles west of St. Louis. She said since they were “bob-tail”, which means they had no trailer attached to their cab, they were easily able to drive on the side road and have a look while they had lunch. Stella guessed it may have been March, as the day was fairly warm, and they had their windows open.

They sat in their cab looking at the two wrecked train boxcars that were still there, and the firetrucks that were spraying water on them. After about ten minutes, Stella said they noticed wispy strands floating down and hanging on the trees, street signs, and from the visor in front of their large truck windshield and side mirrors. Stella said she reached her arm out the window and picked up one of the strands that had fallen on the truck’s mirror. She said it dissolved within one or 2 seconds at most as she touched it, and left no residue. She said she thought it might be “Angel Hair” from a UFO, which she had read about in a Time Life book on UFOs.

Stella said despite having read in the book that angel hair was associated with UFOs, she failed to look up to see if there was anything there. In retrospect, she was sad she hadn’t looked up to see what the source might have been, and also regretted she hadn’t tried to save some in a jar. I asked how much of this angel hair was falling. Was it like a snowfall, or just an occasional strand? Stella said there were only a few strands falling at a time, but it was like a very light snowfall. And that there was quite a bit of it. It hung from the nearby trees, street signs, and their truck. I asked what the strands looked like. She said they were light gray, about the thickness of “Silly String” that kids shoot out of spray cans, and had lumps on them, perhaps a few small lumps per strand. I asked how long each strand was, and she said they were about 12 to 18 inches long, with some shorter strands. Stella said the Time Life book she read talked of skeptics suggesting people rep! orting angel hair were just seeing spider threads. Stella said what she saw was definitely not spider silk, and that it would be “absolutely ridiculous” to try and call it that. She was quite familiar with spider silk from living in country environments. She said if you are walking in the woods and get a strand in your face, you definitely feel it, and then might carry a stick in front of you to prevent another strand from getting in your face. I said yep, that’s exactly how I react. She said when she tried picking up the strand from the side mirror of her truck, she felt nothing, it dissolved immediately, and left no trace in her hand. Totally different from spider silk.

As they watched, the strands on the trees and signs were slowly dissolving away, and she noted, interestingly, that the ones on her windshield were shortening as they dissolved away. Stella said they lasted perhaps a few minutes, and covered a roughly circular area around them about 200 feet across. When I asked, she said that they seemed to be in the center of this circle. Though they found the angel hair interesting, Stella thought it was quite common, so they were actually more interested in viewing the two wrecked train cars and fire truck activity than the angel hair. They left after about a half hour, having finished their lunch, at which point the angle hair was still draped over the trees and signs. Because she thought angel hair was common, and because she had no idea to whom she might report it to, she never did.

I asked Stella if her husband would be willing to speak with me about what he recalled of the event. Unfortunately, he has several serious medical issues including the beginning of dementia, and she said he did not feel like talking, but did say he agreed with everything Stella had said about it. He did recall that the angel hair was disappearing as they drove off. When I asked for more detail on how it was dissolving, Stella said she really wasn’t paying attention to the angel hair as she had to concentrate on helping her husband, who was driving, in maneuvering the large truck. She said it’s always good to have two sets of eyes.

I emailed a copy of my first draft of this event to Stella to review what I wrote and answer a few questions, which she did by email. To clarify a few more questions, I called her on 1 June 20 at 4:40pm. Her husband Paul answered, and said Stella was running a few errands and would be back in a few hours. I did not mean to bother him, knowing he was not doing well, but did take the opportunity to ask his recollection of the event. I found him lucid, and speaking normally, though he did admit he could no longer remember the train wreck. I asked how the angel hair appeared, and he said it was like a light snow all over, but in strings. It was draped over the trees and signs and their truck. He said it did not dissolve immediately unless you touched it. And that it left no residue when you touched it. I asked how long it persisted, and he said it fell for about a half hour! And did not dissolve, but just hung on everything. I asked if it stuck to the windshield, i.e., was it st! icky? Or did it blow off like straw as they took off? Could they see through the windshield, or did they have to turn on their wipers? He said no, they had no trouble seeing through the windshield and they did not have to turn on their wipers, as it wasn’t that heavy, and that it wasn’t sticky but blew right off as they started moving.

So was it like “Silly String”, as Stella described it? He said it was, but not as heavy as Silly String. So did it have lumps like Stella noted? He said it was more like “it had ripples in it”. I asked what they thought it was when they saw it. He said they knew about angel hair, so figured that what it was. They probably should have tried to save some, but didn’t.

He then said he had to go, so I didn’t pester him with more questions. But what he did convey pretty much confirmed what Stella conveyed. And he was able to add a few more very interesting details. The few differences in his recalled details actually adds validity to their recollections, as a perfectly matching story would suggest a coordinated tale. I did not find him confused, but honest and clear in his answers. I did not press to keep him on the line, as I realized he might not be feeling well. I asked him to let Stella know I’ll get back with her. Phonecon ended at 4:47pm.

In my last call on 4 June 20 to clarify a few more details, I asked Stella if anything odd had occurred before the angel hair began falling. She said no. Wondering about the firetrucks spraying the boxcars, I asked if these were spraying anything that could have wafted up into filaments, like some sort of flame retardant. She said she didn’t recall any hazardous markings on the boxcars, so could not say what was inside them. But it appeared to her that the firetrucks were just spraying water. She again suggested there should be some way to look up news reports of this train wreck, which would not only establish the date, but also might shed some light on the contents of the boxcars.

I asked how long they were there total. She said about a half hour, as they only had a simple lunch. So if the angel hair started falling about ten minutes after they arrived, that would mean it was falling for about 20 minutes. Stella figured that was about right. She had read the second draft of this write-up I’d sent her, which included her husband’s observations. She disagreed with his recollection that none of it had dissolved when they left. She said if it was hanging free, like from a branch, it seemed not to be dissolving. But if it was laying on something, like the windshield, or when touched, it would dissolve. She confirmed there was no need to turn on their windshield wipers, and that it didn’t leave any residue on the glass. She relayed an incident near an airport where jets were circling right overhead and their truck got some jet fuel on it. She was surprised at how much fuel the jets were dropping. The angel hair, by comparison, left nothing on their truck. S! he also disagreed with her husband’s thick as Silly String estimate, saying it was thinner than Silly String. She did agree with his “ripples” description, saying it looked crinkled. I also asked her to clarify her saying it shrank up as it dissolved. She said it didn’t so much shrink up, as dissolve starting at the end and getting shorter and shorter. The mental picture I got from her description was something like a fuse burning down its length, which she said was fairly correct.

I thanked Stella for all her time, and will be sending her a copy of this final write-up.

Just before I submitted this report for Stella, I happened across an older U-Tube video of a Brian Boldman speaking at a “NUFOC” conference, which I gleaned from the sign behind the podium. He had done extensive research on hundreds of angel hair sightings, going back many centuries. He reported some New York sightings of angel hair have been found to be radioactive, and some have been found to contain Tritium, which is very odd. He has handled some samples with tweezers, and found them to have quite a bit of static electricity. Most descriptions compare it to cotton candy, asbestos fibers, or spider strings. Though most skeptics dismiss it as spider webs, he has found a peak of sightings to be in October, while spiders migrate in spring. He submitted a sample he managed to obtain from a 1999 California sighting to Phyllis Budinger, whom I’ve worked with on other physical evidence cases, and who is very reputable. Mr. Boldman said she had found the samples he submitted conta! ined volatiles like carbon disulfide and 2-methyl 1-propene, unusual for a solid, but which might explain how the angel hair might “sublimate” directly into a gas, bypassing any liquid stage. I found Ms. Budinger’s formal report on these samples she analyzed, posted on “The Black Vault” site. She concluded they were organic in nature, were not spider silk, but were more similar to caterpillar silk. She noted no weight loss or physical degradation even after 4 months. This does not resemble the quickly dissolving material Stella or many others report. I will decline from further entering into this controversy, as it seems much remains to be researched yet on this phenomena. But I do thank Stella for her time and willingness to share her experiences. JB I have submitted this report to NUFORC as the MUFON website surprisingly does not let me submit this report without numerous detail that is unknown. I am saddened as a long time MUFON FI that MUFON must be rejecting many reports due to the requirements for unknown minor details. This eliminates the vast majority of reports, to the detriment of study of this phenomena. I can see why witnesses do not find the MUFON reporting system user friendly. This is my first experience with trying to submit a sighting report to MUFON, and I am extremely saddened by my experience. Thank God for NUFORC! John Budrys 7 June 20