The Stanford, Kentucky Abduction

Tuesday night, 6 January 1976. Mona Stafford's 36th birthday. She had spent it with two friends at the Redwood restaurant on U.S. 27. Louise Smith, 44, drove her 1967 Chevy Nova, with Elaine Thomas, 48, beside her in the front seat. At 11:15 pm they set off for Liberty, about 35 miles away.

About a mile southwest of Stanford, on KY Highway 78, Stafford saw what she first took for an airplane on fire. It was an enormous, metallic, disc-shaped object with a dome on top. It descended from the right and hovered at treetop level, about 100 yards ahead. A ring of red lights circled its middle, and a yellow light blinked beneath. Smith said it was as big as a football field.

It rocked back and forth. Then it crossed the road, circled behind some houses and swung around behind the car. It flipped on its end and came extremely close to the driver's side. A bluish-white light shot into the car.

Something wrested control of the car away from Louise Smith. The speedometer read 85 mph. "I can't hold the car on the road," Stafford said. "My foot wasn't even on the gas pedal," said Smith. Their eyes burned. A haze filled the car. Their last clear memory was being backed into a pasture entrance lined with old stone walls.

Then, a wide, brightly lit road ahead of them. Seconds later, Highway 78 again, near Hustonville, about 8 miles on. They reached Smith's home at about 1:20 am. They had expected to be home by midnight. About an hour and twenty minutes of missing time.

Red marks appeared on the backs of their necks. Stafford was treated for severe conjunctivitis. Smith lost 28.5 lb. That same night, a couple near Stanford saw a large, luminous object pass over. A farmer saw a low-flying object shoot a white beam of light to the ground.

The story reached the Danville Kentucky Advocate on 1 February 1976. APRO, MUFON and J. Allen Hynek of the Center for UFO Studies took an interest. In June 1976, Dr R. Leo Sprinkle hypnotised the women in Liberty. Stafford recalled a white table in something like an operating room, and short humanoids in "surgical masks". Thomas described a narrow chamber with a window and four-foot beings with dark eyes and grey skin. Smith sensed a telepathic promise that she would be returned. Sprinkle concluded that "abduction and examination is the best hypothesis to explain the apparent loss-of-time experience."

MUFON's Jerry Black and Leonard Stringfield investigated, as did Jim and Coral Lorenzen of APRO. Around 1 July 1976, MUFON brought in the National Enquirer, which paid for the remaining hypnosis, the polygraph tests and exclusive rights. Detective James C. Young of the Lexington Police Department, once a UFO sceptic, ran the polygraphs. All three passed. His report added that the women "believed they were telling the truth as they understood it," but that earlier interviews might have shaped those beliefs.

The APRO account criticised MUFON for showing the women sketches of UFOs and occupants beforehand, and said "some very suggestive or leading questions were asked by Mr. Stringfield and Mr. Black of MUFON." After seeing alien drawings, Stafford said, "It was shaped like that head!" Sceptical writers, in the Skeptical Inquirer and elsewhere, argue that hypnosis encourages confabulation. No one has accused the women of a hoax. The case is filed as a close encounter of the fourth kind. Thirty-five miles. Just over two hours.