NARRATOR: Next on "Alien Highway"...
CHUCK: There's some type of unknown phenomenon
going on with these animals.
The mare, when I found her, she was dead.
TOM: Something broke its back.
Do you think there's a conspiracy?
To me, it has to come from the sky.
HEATHER: I see something over here, Chuck.
What was that?
Something's scaring them.
[ Cows mooing ]
- Right there. - What is that?
♪♪
CHUCK: There's something happening across our land.
It's carving a terrifying path.
Right there. - Whoa!
Lawmen don't want to talk about it.
I have no idea how you would explain that.
And the government denies it's even happening.
ANCHORMAN: The White House has dismissed
a full UFO investigation.
Those who speak up face ridicule or even worse.
ANCHORWOMAN: An El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy
fired from his job.
They took my badge, but they can't take my voice.
I'm determined to uncover what's happening.
Look at that thing! Do you see that?
I saw it that night.
I listen to people who are afraid to speak out.
Nobody is gonna believe me.
I find evidence that's hiding in plain sight.
This is it right here.
Together with my son, Dan Zukowski...
It's absolutely moving right now.
...and investigator Heather Taddy...
We never really get this close.
I'm here to find the truth...
DAN: I see it!
CHUCK:...along America's Alien Highway.
♪♪
NARRATOR: Westcliffe, Colorado.
Situated at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains,
this quaint town lies in a region
that has recently been plagued by something unexplained.
Ranch animals are mysteriously dying.
In many cases, their organs seem to be surgically removed.
Are these deaths somehow connected
to the area's numerous UFO sightings?
And if so, could these extraterrestrials
be experimenting on our animals?
♪♪
CHUCK: Where we're headed right now
is Westcliffe, Colorado.
We're gonna be talking to a rancher there
about a strange animal death he thinks is connected to UFOs.
And it's a really interesting yet very scary case
because whatever killed his horse,
killed his cow, killed his hog,
and then killed these other animals,
and we don't know why they're dying.
HEATHER: So, you go to a rancher,
and he's having all these mysterious cattle deaths.
He has no idea why they're happening.
Does he notice that he starts experiencing unusual activity,
like, right before this happens or during or...?
They've seen balls of light
either a month or two before,
or even a couple days prior to the strange animal death.
Not every case, but the majority of cases
shows tie-in between UFOs and strange animal deaths,
which has been the case since 1967.
It's nothing new.
NARRATOR: In the late 1960s, the United States
started experiencing strange animal deaths
at an alarming rate.
The incidents occurred from Oklahoma to Nebraska.
Animals were being slaughtered, some with bizarre incisions,
and many under circumstances that defy explanation.
In a span of only two years,
130 cases were reported in Colorado alone.
Newly declassified files from 1978 allegedly
reveal that federal authorities
investigated a strange animal death in Taos, New Mexico.
The FBI probe appears to have recovered
an unidentifiable substance from the scene of mutilated animals.
In that same month, in that same town,
another FBI report purportedly cites evidence
of a similar material --
this time, at the site of an alleged UFO encounter.
From here, the paper trail appears to go cold.
CHUCK: I've been investigating strange animal deaths
for over 28 years now.
What would kill an animal out here that size
that you would know of?
Not an animal.
This case is very important to me
because it's very similar to the one that cost me my badge.
The case where I lost my badge, they had no other choice.
They can't leave it as an open case, so they closed it.
And then when I contradicted them, basically saying,
"Oh, you know, this is a paranormal case,"
someone in my department pulled my badge.
Did you try to, like, fight it or anything?
Oh, yeah.Or were you just like,
"I'm done"?Oh, yeah.
You know, for the longest time, if you typed
"deputy fired UFO" on the Internet,
my name popped up.
It went international.
Wow.
♪♪
Mr. Walker, nice to see you again.
Nice to see you.Nice to meet you.
This is Heather,
and she's gonna help me investigate what's going on.
Mm-hmm. How many animals have you lost?
Well, I lost...
The two goats, the three steer, the hog, and the mare,
within a week and a half, died. Hmm.
And it's been unreal
trying to get information what caused it.
I fed the steer the night before,
and he was up, around,
walking, acting normal, ate half his feed
while I was standing there beside him.
And the next morning, he's laying there dead.
What could kill him? [ Sighs ] I don't know.
You know, I've had the water checked.
The grain that I was feeding him,
I kept feeding my stallion, and he's...
Well, there he is, right over there.
He's the only one that survived.
And there's no signs at all of a predator killing it?
No sign of struggle.Nothing.
I mean, very strange.
The mare, when I come out and found her, she was dead.
She was somewhere between seven, eight months pregnant,
and she was to the point you could feel the colt kick.
And whenever the necropsy...
found out she wasn't pregnant.
And there was no sign of a colt, no sign that she aborted.
Where'd the colt go?
I mean, you would definitely see signs of...
Yep. ...a fetus laying around somewhere.
You'd see blood.
As far as the vet's concerned, it was never pregnant.
Never pregnant.
They won't talk to me.
The state vet won't talk to me.
That must be frustrating.
It is. Yeah.
Not doing his job.
He's talking about a red flag.
That was a real big one.
Yeah.
I also heard reports of strange lights seen in the area.
See strange lights all the time over these mountains.
I had a light right back at my back fence --
one of them pitch-black nights, no moon,
and it was a very bright light.
Talkin' maybe 200 yards.
I picked up a rifle with a scope to see what it was.
♪♪
All of a sudden, the light went out.
Do you think there might be a correlation
between those lights and your animals dying?
You tell me.
You sit there and watch them mountains for a week at night,
and you're gonna see some strange stuff.
So, this is the location that the mare was found.
Yep.
When we come back out tonight, first thing we're gonna do
is we're gonna scrape some snow in different areas here.
Then we're gonna use our ultraviolet lights,
and we're gonna look for any blood
that might be still present in the area.
Then we're gonna hit it with a Geiger counter
to make sure that there's no radiation here.
We want to make sure it's safe
for your other animals and for you.
Then we're gonna see if there's any type
of electromagnetic fields in this area.
So does that sound like a good idea?
HEATHER: Yep.I'm fine with it.
Alright. Let's do it.
♪♪
While we're waiting for the sun to go down,
I'm gonna go ahead and meet with the local sheriff...
Okay. ...see if I can learn anything from him
on what's going on in this area.
And that's probably a good time for you
to go talk to the state vet.
Yeah. I've got a lot of questions for the vet.
Then we'll reconvene and compare notes, okay?
Okay. Yeah. Sounds good.
NARRATOR: While Chuck and Heather are following up
on their investigation,
Dan is looking into additional leads.
[ Cellphone rings ]
- Yeah? - Hey, Mike.
This is Dan Zukowski.MIKE: Yo.
So, my dad was talking to me a little bit about
how you had some strange animal deaths in the past.
I was wondering if you can kind of tell me
about that a little bit.
I've had two cattle, uh...
two cows that were mutilated.
There were no...
There were no tracks at all.
Wow.
You know, it was -- it was kind of --
kind of crazy.
At first, I thought she had died just of old age.
And then when I went over,
I saw that she had been mutilated, also.
Can you text me your address?
And I'll get my team, and we'll head out there.
Okay. Awesome.
Thanks, Mike. We'll talk to you here in a little bit.
Okay. Thanks, Dan.Alright, thanks.
♪♪
Deputy Kendall was the first person on scene
when rancher Walker lost his horse.
I'm here to learn what he knows.
It was my case originally.
Tommy said that he went to bed, got up that morning at 7:00.
8:30, he noticed that the horse was dead.
[ Police radio chatter ]It had just snowed that morning.
I don't remember a lot of footsteps.
And initially, I observed that the sexual organs
had been removed from the horse.
Is this the first time you've ever seen anything like this?
It's the first time I've ever seen
anything like this on a horse.
So, you've had strange animal deaths out here before, then,
reported to the office?
Um, yeah.
Mostly cattle, though.
And they had the same type of cuts or marks?
Um... In general, yeah.
It usually is soft tissue.
Since '67, we've had, they estimate,
close to 10,000 cases across the United States.
And out of all the cases that were investigated,
no law-enforcement agency has been able to pin
anything directly related to either a predator
or to a human.
Honestly, they're pretty hard.
They're really hard to tell how the animal dies.
Usually, there's not a lot of blood
anywhere around the scene, in the wounds.
They're almost always a dead end 'cause unless you see it happen,
you know, you can only speculate what it might be.
So, if you would've saw some type of human evidence,
then you probably would've marked the case report
"animal cruelty"? Yeah, yeah.
You would go down that animal cruelty route, yeah.
Okay. But this one is not.Mm-hmm.
I didn't classify it as animal cruelty
because I have nothing to say
that it was really animal cruelty.
You can never really tell what does it, who does it --
whatever you want to go with.
When I interviewed rancher Walker,
he told me
that his horse was pregnant. Mm.
The initial report he got back from the vet
was there was no fetus in the horse.
And he swears that the horse was pregnant,
because he could feel that there was something inside.
I- I have no idea how you would explain that.
Honestly, 'cause when I was there,
I mean, it looked pregnant.
♪♪
TOM: There's something strange happening.
MIKE: I know no human could do that.
TOM: I thought it was an earthquake.
CHUCK: It's too bright for a satellite.
♪♪
NARRATOR: After questioning a local deputy
about the strange animal deaths in the area,
Chuck regroups with Heather to hear about her progress.
CHUCK: Well, what'd you find out?
HEATHER: Well, I can really understand Tom's struggle
because those calls were pointless.
I didn't get anywhere.
I called the local vet, and they told me
they couldn't tell me any information.
So I called the state vet through the Department
of Agriculture, and they just kept saying,
"We can't disclose any of this information to you."
So, you got stonewalled.
Yeah, and then I even called the game warden --
nothing.
Nobody'll talk to you.No.
No one will say anything.
Did you find out anything from the sheriff?
They don't know what happened to the animal.
They don't know how it died.
They have no evidence it was a human.
It really looks like there's something going on here,
and people aren't talking about it.
So, you know, we really need to get out there tonight,
see if we can find our own answers
and figure out what's going on.
♪♪
NARRATOR: While Dan continues to pursue other leads,
Chuck and Heather return to Tom Walker's Ranch,
searching for any evidence
that can lead them closer to the truth
about the strange animal deaths.
The question remains -- was it a human, predator,
or some otherworldly being that harmed these animals?
CHUCK: This is the exact spot
where rancher Walker's mare died.
So, first thing I want to do is,
I want to test the soil for any type of radiation.
I'm looking for any type of residual substances
that might've been left behind,
like the cases from the late '70s.
Inside that pack, you're gonna find a Geiger counter.
Here.
♪♪
Picking up just a little bit of ambient here,
but not enough to worry about.
Since we're right here, might as well check EMF.
You have the pack? Yep.
Here we go.
Needle right now is measuring in microteslas,
so that's like 3 microteslas.
That's about ambient.
So everything reading-wise at this point is normal.
So, next, what we need to do is grab the light I have.
It's in here?
Yeah. Okay.
See right here.
This is a blood light.
If a predator killed his horse at this location,
we'll see a lot of blood in the soil.
It should turn up dark.
♪♪
I don't see any blood.
There's around 9 gallons of blood in a horse.
There should have been blood at this site.
So this wasn't a natural predator.
♪♪
What was that?
That sounded like footsteps.
I can't tell.
Flash the light over there.
♪♪
I don't want anybody coming up on us.
♪♪
Could be the wind, but, I mean,
I didn't hear it before with the wind picking up.
There's nobody over there.
Just keep an eye out every now and then.
Just kind of, like, flash the light over there.
Like I said, I don't want anybody walking up on us.
♪♪
NARRATOR: The animal deaths on this ranch
were accompanied by reports of strange lights overhead.
The team surveys the night sky
searching for evidence of a connection
between the two phenomena.
Did you see the mountain range over here?
Uh-huh. Okay.
This is actually the Continental Divide
that we're looking at.
We're completely surrounded by mountains.
The closest metropolitan city is 100 miles away, behind me.
There should be no lights out here.
So, if we start scanning the top part using our cameras,
we can start looking for any of those strange lights.
♪♪
I see something over here, Chuck.
♪♪
CHUCK: Yeah. No, that's definitely a plane.
But do you see the light over there?
There's something going on just over that hill over there.
I'm not sure what that is.
And sometimes it flashes red.
♪♪
Oh, now it's out.
Yeah, what is it?You see? It's gone now.
♪♪
You can't see it. Now it's back again.
See that?
It's just going out and coming back.
♪♪
Now it's gone.
Yeah, I don't see it anymore.
Planes don't move like that.
NARRATOR: The results from tonight's investigation
are puzzling.
Although the Geiger counter and EMF had normal readings,
the unexplained lights and lack of blood
in the soil remain a mystery.
I think we should call it a day.
What do you think?Yeah.
I can't feel my toes.
[ Chuckles ] You can't feel your toes.
Well, on that note, let's go ahead and pack up.
A new day brings a new lead.
Chuck has learned that a nearby rancher
is also experiencing strange animal deaths,
so Dan rejoins the team to further investigate.
CHUCK: So, Thomas Walker --
he's got a friend that lives adjacent to this ranch
where they've had these strange animal deaths.
And she has photo evidence.
I want to compare them to rancher Walker's photos
and see if we're dealing with the same thing.
NARRATOR: The unknown cause of these animal deaths
has been creating feuds between ranchers since the 1970s.
Tensions escalated until senators became involved,
begging the government for answers to figure out who --
or what -- was murdering their animals.
CHUCK: I talked to the local deputy,
and it turns out that this was his fifth strange animal death
in that area, which tells me this isn't an isolated incident.
This is something that's been going on in that area.
Heather tried to get information from the state vet.
HEATHER: They wouldn't talk.
No information to share with me.
And then I even called the game warden,
and it was the same.Oh, perfect.
I was gonna ask if you had contacted DOW.
Yeah. Okay.
We're not getting the answers from the state.
They don't know.
So we're kind of like, "Okay.
We're kind of on our own with this one."
♪♪
[ Knock on door ]
Hi, I'm Chuck Zukowski, and rancher Walker
said you had some information.
JENNIFER: Yeah, he said you were gonna be coming by.
I'm Jennifer.Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
This is the pictures that we were talking about.
Let's go out here. Alright.
Come out here beside the wall, get out of the wind.
♪♪
NARRATOR: Jennifer and Steve Macoskey
have witnessed cattle from the neighboring ranch
mysteriously die at an alarming rate.
Can you talk me through what's actually on this thumb drive?
Was taking my walks with my dogs,
and I came across a pile of dead cows.
♪♪
How many dead cows do you think you actually saw out there?
I counted 21 rib cages.
Wow. So...
- To start with. - Wow.
You're saying there was more afterwards?
Well, yeah, months later.
I mean, we watched cows all around here --
For several months.
Did you notice any horses? Or have you heard stories?
There was dead horses that happened
on the other side of us.Really?
What do you think caused their deaths?
I'm not sure what caused it.
You know, is it an illness?
Are my horses gonna die?
Are my dogs gonna die?
At any time, do you think that what's ever killing the animals
could cross species or jump species?
We were told no.
This is what we heard, so...
Have you guys talked to DOW at all?
Yep. Oh, yeah.
What have they said?
Nothing. Nothing?
Nothing.
No information about anything going on?
Seems to be a lot of cover-up of why these cows died.
Nobody's really talking about it.
They all just shut it right down.
If there was something that was on an epidemic level,
you think they would say something.
Why are you stonewalled?
Why was Heather stonewalled
trying to get information on this?
Why wouldn't the government jump in and intervene?
I mean, why? What's your opinion?
I don't think it's over.STEVE: Oh, yeah.
CHUCK: Oh.I don't think it's over.
You think it's still ongoing.
Oh, yeah.
What makes this whole thing mysterious
is nobody talking to us.
Nobody came here.
Not one official came here.
What are they hiding?
I'd like to know.
We're waiting to see what happens.
He saw two bright lights.
They just shot out, and then they went west.
NARRATOR: The Macoskeys' experiences
have further cemented
the widespread problem of mysterious animal deaths.
Ranchers are feeling threatened and concerned.
If the culprit isn't disease or natural predators,
and with no answers coming from the government,
could it be that UFOs are to blame?
Between Tom Walker and Jennifer and Steve,
there's a lot of frustration when they're trying to deal
with, you know, the vets and trying to figure out
what happened to their animals.
That's still weird to me,
that there's information being withheld.
DAN: That's -- right. That stuff is intriguing.
How many animals does it take for an outside agency
to get involved in an investigation?
CHUCK: Exactly.
There's some type of unknown phenomenon going on there,
and it's got everybody wondering what the heck
is going on with these animals.
You've got these lights in the sky, and nobody's talking
because either they're trying to cover
something up or they're afraid.
You have cows that are dying over there.
We have cows that are dying in this area here.
Why?
♪♪
NARRATOR: The team's next stop is the home
of rancher Mike Duran.
Dan's research revealed that Mike has also witnessed
strange lights in his backyard
and soon after reported bizarre cattle deaths.
They're hoping this lead will help them determine
if the animal deaths are in fact
being caused by other-worldly visitors.
DAN: So, Mike, tell us what's been happening.
I've lost two cows, and...
Wow...I don't want to lose any more.
Can you be more specific?
It was really weird.
When we found the cow, she --
she was laying on her back, and the teats were missing.
♪♪
It was like she was just placed there.
It almost appears as someone takes the animal to location A
to location B, and they do whatever they need to do to it,
and they bring it to location C, and they just place it there.
We know they don't drop it because there's no scuff marks.
There's no -- There's no movement of the animal at all.
Also, what was weird on this cow is that she has horns, okay,
and, horns -- the bone is part of the skull.
Mm-hmm.But then you have the shell,
and those are very hard to take off.
They were both missing.Oh, yeah.
They were taken off, and they were about...
maybe about 15-- 15, 20 yards from the cow.
How much do these cows weigh?
Anywhere from, uh, 800 to 1,500 pounds.
So, what could lift something like that?
Uh, I know no human could do that.
This is a place that's got a lot of UFO history --
not just really recently, but it goes way back.
I've had elderly people,
when they were even young back in the '40s,
that, where they had, in their old cars, lights follow them.
There's a lot of skeptics, debunkers say, well,
that's -- that's drones. Not in the '40s.
- Yeah. - No.
Someone else had seen something.
Okay. What was that about?
My neighbor, James -- one night, a light followed him.
He got scared, so he ran inside the house
to get his camera, so he took pictures.
Wow, I definitely want to meet your neighbor,
see those pictures for myself.
I can have him tell you that story.
DAN: I also heard that your son had a sighting.
We went up to Pueblo one evening,
and when we got back that night, my son --
he got out of the car, and when he did,
he noticed the lights back here.
By the time he told my wife, they had already disappeared.
So, do you think the lights and the cows --
there's some sort of a...
A connection?Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.Okay.
I think there is.
Can you show us the area where you saw them?
Sure. Great.
Okay.Nice.
You got this hill in the back, back here,
and my wife and my son pulled up in the car,
and when he got out and he saw two bright lights --
I mean, they looked like big headlights --
and then they just shot out, and then they went west.
CHUCK: Now, the lights were traveling east to west?
Uh, they went east to west, yes.
East to west, east to west. Yes.
And what was really funny about that --
my aunt lives about 35 miles west of here.
About five minutes later, she calls me.
She goes, "You won't believe what I just saw
come through my middle of my field.
She said two lights -- they just zoomed
right in her meadow right there, and she was all freaked out.
What does your wife think of that?
She will not stay here by herself.
She's afraid to stay in her own house
because of what's going on out here?
Yeah.
I wonder what's so significant about this area.
You're right in the middle of strange animal deaths,
lights in the sky.
I just can't believe how many witnesses there are.
Yeah.
So, let's get going, see if we can meet James,
and, uh, we'll just take it from there, okay?
- Great. - Let's go.
MIKE: Okay.
NARRATOR: Dan and Heather hang back
while Chuck questions Mike Duran's neighbor,
whose reported evidence of UFOs in the area
might reveal a connection to the unexplained animal deaths.
Is that the Purgatoire River?
JAMES: Yeah.
♪♪
NARRATOR: The Purgatoire River runs 196 miles through Colorado.
The locals call it the River of Lost Souls.
The Purgatoire River follows the road.
Right.
Oh, my gosh.
It wasn't moving erratically.
That's probably a little bit of a camera shake.
Wow.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
Uh-huh.
I looked out the window.
There was a red orb here and one right there.
I thought, "I'm just dreaming."
NARRATOR: Multiple eye-witnesses claim to have had encounters
with UFOs both in Westcliffe and Weston, Colorado.
For some, these sightings were followed by their animals
dying under mysterious circumstances.
Could UFOs be responsible for the strange deaths?
One man in particular was able to capture images
from his frightening otherworldly experience.
After you took those pictures, that camera won't work anymore.
One of the theories I have
is these balls of light absorb energy --
anything electronic that has a battery,
it tries to absorb that.
If it goes through the -- the circuit system of the device
you're looking into, it kind of burns it out,
which tells me that whatever you saw
is that UFO-type phenomenon.
You definitely proved to me that there's something here
in the area, and I got to get out there
and see if I can see for it myself.
Thank you very much.Yeah, same.
Uh-huh, thank you.
NARRATOR: After reviewing the images with James,
Chuck believes the connection might exist between UFOs
and the Purgatoire River.
The team is now headed to meet with the Millers,
a couple whose ranch land intersects the same waterway.
They, too have experienced unexplained lights
and bizarre animal deaths, raising the question --
are UFOs attracted to this water source
or to the animals that graze nearby.
DAN: Hey, Dad, is this it?
Yeah, got a lot of acres here, and he has free-grazing cattle.
This rancher has some very recent animal deaths.
I don't know why they keep picking on him,
but that's why we're here.
And the river's just behind us, right?
We just passed the Purgatoire River.
♪♪
Hi, how you doing, Tom?Hello.
I was over at Duran's place,
and, uh, we were talking about the balls of light
they'd seen in the sky and that you had an animal death
over here on your ranch, too.
Yes.
You know, there was no blood, but its back was broke.
SALLY: Its legs were displaced.
Yeah, like it went up a ways and then it fell back down.
Something broke its back.
Well, Tom, you've been ranching for a long time.
Do cows break their backs just falling over?
No, no, they're pretty hard --
What's it take to break their back?
It would take a real high fall.
It would take a lot of force to break that back.
The first thing I look at is, you know,
is there anything around here, a cliff, you know,
anything like that where the animal was found?
No.
We have a map, and we've got the locations on the map,
and so it's real interesting, because you can see --
most of them are right along the river.
Let's go in the house and take a look.
I'm kind of eager to see it. Sure.
♪♪
[ Barking ]
This is Highway 350 here,
and then that's the Purgatoire River
going here, and, if you'll notice,
most of them are just right along the river.
From your map, it looks like the water is the key.
Where's your most recent strange animal death?
This was the last one right here.
NARRATOR: But the Millers' experiences aren't confined
to just mysterious cattle deaths --
Tom had his own close encounter with a UFO.
This is where you saw the lights, huh?
Yeah, actually, uh, I was laying on the bed facing that a-way.
I turned over, and, uh, I looked out the window,
and there was a-a red orb here and one right there.
♪♪
They were bright red, and, of course, first I thought,
"I'm just dreaming."
So I just laid back, and about five minutes later,
the bed just started vibrating just like this.
Oh.
[ Rumbling ]
But as soon as I seen them --
Pssh!
-- they were gone just like that.
The bed stopped shaking.
I thought, well, it was an earthquake or something,
but then I started checking --
I looked at the pictures, and they weren't moved --
you know, like, an earthquake shakes everything.
Yeah. Wow.
The next morning, I couldn't walk.
- Really? - My one leg was --
was just stiff, so I had to go see a doctor,
and then the next morning, it was like nothing ever happened.
And when you saw those lights, was that around the same time
the cattle deaths were happening?
Uh, yeah, it was in that, uh, time frame.
The same time frame?It's all related.
We need to get out there.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: After hearing about Tom's close encounter,
Chuck wants to hear more specifics
about the cattle deaths to determine
whether they're connected to the lights in the sky.
SALLY: This last one, Chuck --
not only did we have the dead cow,
but another cow just never came back, so there were two.
So you're missing one.
So we were missing on the same day.
And when you get the sheriff's department out,
as you can well attest,
they either don't want to talk about it
or they'll say "mysterious death."
So you've had these same issues happen to you?
Yeah, we quit calling the sheriff.
Do you think there's a conspiracy?
I mean, when we talk about UFOs, it's "unidentified object."
We don't know that that necessarily
is some alien from another planet
or if there are agencies that are doing that,
but we have a military base just right next to us.
They raise their own cattle.
I don't think they want to come into our yard
and kill their neighbors' animals.
To me, it has to come from the sky.
SALLY: We have a military base just right next to us.
They raise their own cattle.
I don't think they want to come into our yard
and kill their neighbors' animals.
To me, it has to come from the sky.
NARRATOR: In addition to a close encounter
outside their bedroom window
as well as numerous mysterious cattle deaths,
the Millers have experienced UFO sightings
near the Purgatoire River.
Is it this river that attracts UFOs,
or do they come for the animals that populate its banks?
CHUCK: You've actually seen lights.
TOM: Yeah.
We were coming from Trinidad,
oh, about the middle of the night,
and we got close to the bridge down there,
and there were three sets of lights in the sky.
They were just sitting,
but the lights were too far apart to be a helicopter.
There's something strange
happening within mile post 6 to mile post 7.
Just one mile.One mile.
So many people have been killed in this one little stretch.
19 deaths total -- multiple in a car,
but 19 deaths total.
19 deaths, just along that one mile?
Yeah.
The Purgatoire is part of that one mile.
Right. Mm-hmm.
Correct. Right through the center of it.
Right -- oh, right through the center of the one mile.
Between mile marker 6 and 7.
Do you think these crashes are happening
because people are seeing these lights
that are disorienting them, causing them to crash?
No, you know, I don't know. I don't know for sure.
There were so many that the highway came in
and took off part of the top of the hill
because they thought, well, maybe they weren't able to see
what was coming in either direction.Oh, okay.
But even though they flattened it
and took the hill down, the deaths still occur.
- It's fairly... - It's fairly flat.
- It's fairly flat out here. - It's fairly flat, yes.
HEATHER: Yeah.
So, Dan, as a patrolman, have you seen anything like that
where you have, like, just a one mile of straight road
and then multiple deaths on that -- vehicle deaths?
The issue that we run into in law enforcement
is the fact that sometimes we can't get out into the area
to enforce traffic, so you'll have speeding.
SALLY: It's fairly well patrolled
because the prison is right across the street, so...
Okay, so, I don't see why that short stretch of roadway
would be such a high traffic-accident area.
Maybe there is some type of connection
between a water source, the lights in the sky,
and the strange animal deaths.
It looks like the water is the key.
♪♪
We got a lot to do.Yeah.
Dan, we need to get you in that area
where they've had those deaths across the highway,
and then, later on tonight,
walk around in the Purgatoire River.
See if you can capture any balls of light in that area.
♪♪
NARRATOR: With a seeming connection
between the lights in the sky,
the cattle deaths, and the Purgatoire River,
the team's next stop
is to investigate the adjoining stretch of road,
searching for a reason behind its many fatalities.
DAN: What we're gonna do
is we're just gonna drive the speed limit.
We're gonna be looking for anything
that could hinder people from seeing the roadway
to potentially give us some ideas
as to why these accidents are being caused.
Alright, Dan, you're clear.
Go, go, go.
♪♪
Coming westbound, I really don't see a reason
why there'd be so many accidents there.
The vehicle's not pulling a certain direction,
and we can still see, you know, 300, 400 yards out.
We're gonna turn around up here and go the other direction.
Come on back, Dan.
♪♪
Slight slope right here.
You have an intersection here, also.
Vehicles pulling out...
There's a lot of brake signage here, also,
which means right here
is probably where the majority of the accidents would happen.
Alright, here comes Dan.
♪♪
Hey, Dan, what'd you find out?
It's a normal roadway.
Coming down, though, going eastbound,
you could see where people were braking up top of the hill.
Some of the vehicles came by doing 10 over --
at least 10 over.
Right, so, I was gonna talk about that.
So the reaction time is actually decreased now.
Yeah, I think, at 60 miles an hour,
I think it's, like, not even a second
for you to react if something was to occur.
Now, what if they come flying through here at 75, 80,
and now they see a ball of light,
something they're not familiar with, and they panic?
Your scenario -- they know the area,
they might be speeding, whatever.
That's what they normally do.
Now they see something weird in the sky,
and that causes them to freak out
'cause it's an unknown to them.
Some of those brake marks could be from vehicles
that have seen these strange lights
come up from the Purgatoire River
and they hit their brakes.
Possibility?
Everything's a possibility.
♪♪
NARRATOR: Positioned by the river they believe
to be the epicenter of activity,
the team regroups for a night watch,
waiting to see if any unexplained bright lights
appear in the sky --
craft that might be looking to prey on the nearby cattle.
This is a great night for a sky watch.
Whatever's out here, it's attracted to the cows,
and it's attracted to the Purgatoire River here.
We got something out here that's worth looking for,
so I'm just gonna put my spotlight right here.
You have a remote control for that, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
There we are.
So, what I'm doing is moving the spotlight around,
sort of like fishing for UFOs.
♪♪
Man, you can see the Milky Way.
You can see everything out here tonight.
If there's any balls of light, we're gonna see it.
♪♪
What's that?
- It's moving. - Right there.
What is that? Right there.
DAN: Turn your light off, Dad.
What is that?
What the hell's going on?
♪♪
HEATHER: What's that?
- It's moving. - Right there.
What is that?CHUCK: Right there.
DAN: Turn your light off, Dad.
Plane.
No, there's nothing blinking on it.
I mean, if that's an airplane, it's awful high altitude.
Can you see that, Heather?
It's a bright ball of light.
Nothing on it is blinking.
That's awful bright.
It's too bright for a satellite.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
♪♪
Did it turn, or is that just me?
It's still going?
♪♪
[ Cows mooing ]Huh.
What is that?
What the hell's going on?
NARRATOR: The camera crew quickly switches to night vision
in order to capture the action.
♪♪
Why are all the cows walking towards us?
I don't know. They're all coming towards us.
Something's scaring them.
Okay, they're coming in from another direction over there.
Back, back.
Get over here.
Yeah, it's a bull right here.
Oh, my gosh.
♪♪
Something got them running around out here.
We'll just stand right here.
Hey, guys, look at that.
See how it's dimming now?DAN: Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
NARRATOR: An unidentified flying object,
one that seemed to trigger a panicked reaction from the cows.
Could it be these animals experienced lights
like this before
and the terrifying results that followed?
CHUCK: Between all the people we talked to,
there's a correlation between what they're seeing not only
in Westcliffe but Weston and Trinidad.
Mm-hmm.
It just appears to be a pattern,
and it's all tied here to the Purgatoire.
This is a hot spot. I know it's gonna happen again.
At least we're able to give them some type of affirmation
that what they see other people are seeing, too.
NARRATOR: While there appears to be a link
between the Purgatoire River,
UFO sightings, and mysterious animal deaths,
the exact connection remains a mystery.
Is it the river that's drawing these visitors to the region,
and, if so, are they using our animals to study life on Earth,
choosing easy prey for their experiments,
and could we be next?