Thieves or a UFO?

The area of Blue Run/Morris Lane is still fairly rural and secluded.
(image courtesy of Google Earth)

On the Evening of August 17, 2004, according to the late investigator Kenny Young, three ladies from Lucasville ventured outside to check out what they believed to be headlights or powerful flashlights from someone illegally trespassing on their property. There had been a number of thefts in the area recently, according to their report, and their initial concern was that someone was there looking to steal something. Little did they know how that evening, and those to come, would play out.

The lights
Lisa, her roommate Sheila, and Sheila’s friend Della (last names withheld by the investigator for privacy reasons) had been spending the evening socializing at the home near Blue Run and Morris Lane when they first spotted the lights. After watching them for quite some time, as they reflected off of a mailbox, they moved into the kitchen to see if they could determine exactly where they were coming from. It was then that they noticed that lights were also reflecting off the vehicles parked outside, bathing them in a sort of blue haze. Curious, they decided to venture outside to determine where the lights were coming from. Still thinking the source was a vehicle somewhere up on the road, they never thought to look skyward at first. It was only after the security light on the property began to grow brighter, up to 4 times its regular strength, that they looked skyward and were shocked by what they saw there. What they noticed were pulsing lights in the eastern sky. According to the witnesses the bluish-white lights would fade and then grow brighter, in what they described as a regular “heart beat” pattern. Lisa and her friends claimed to observe the object for several hours as it moved back and forth, and rotated, sometimes showing three lights and sometimes four. But always in motion and emitting no sounds.
After watching it for several hours a second craft, this one triangular and making sounds that the witnesses described as being like a jet airplane, came into view around 4:30 a.m. This object, which was described as covered in pulsating, multicolored lights, approached from the west and then moved southeast before doubling back and covering the area in this pattern for around one minute. As they watched this object they became aware of a number of other small, white, pulsating lights in the background. Two nights later, on the 19th, Lisa reported that the lights were back. Only this time it was a large, white cylindrical object which she attempted (unsuccessfully) to capture on tape. Although the object captured on tape is not clear, according to Young, Lisa was adamant about what she had seen and “acknowledge(d) being an amateur videographer”.

The creature
A week later, on August 24, the lights were back. But this time, they seemed to touch down near the woods bordering the home. Sheila described the lights as “lined up… almost like on a board” and as strobing or alternately flashing from the upper right to the bottom left and back again. After these lights descended into the tree line, they noticed two bright flashes which flew across the field and into the woods opposite where the first set of lights descended. The “board” then began to flicker until it faded from view, as if it were descending into the field behind the tree line. It was approximately 15 minutes later that they spotted what they believed to be the creature. Although neither lady referred to the creature as an alien while they discussed the situation with Young on the telephone, they were noticeably excited. Lisa described seeing brush move, and then the reflection of the eyes. Sheila appeared to have a better view. She described a large white head in addition to the reflective eyes. Although she could not make out the body due to the heavy brush, she felt that it was moving about on two legs as it scurried and rushed back and forth in the field across the road and into the edge of their front yard. At the closest, the duo estimated the creature was within 25 feet of the east-facing bedroom window where they watched.

Follow-up
Due to the property’s location, Lisa believed that guards on the towers at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility should have been able to see the same lights she did, but no reports from guards were ever forthcoming. Lisa told Young that she had contacted the sheriff’s department, and was told they would follow up, but never heard from them. Though he does not state if he confirmed Lisa’s phone call, Young was able to confirm that the Scioto County Sheriff was using drug force helicopters at the time in question, but only during daylight hours. Therefore this does rule them out as a possible source of lights. Young thought that perhaps some seasonal astronomical phenomenon might explain some of the lights, especially those seen for long durations, but the pulsing and free movement seemed to rule this explanation out for him. As for the creature, Young believed it was possible that this was simply an animal, and the excitement and anxiety of the other sightings of lights caused what he termed a “situational cross-interpretation” wherein a banal sighting was conflated with extraordinary circumstances.
Some readers might also notice that the proximity to the prison puts this very close to the location of the old McDaniel Hermit Place, where a late nineteenth century “ghost” story with some odd and hard to categorize peculiarities, including a possible abduction, took place. This begins to give this little corner of Lucasville quite the history for odd occurrences, and makes one wonder what other stories are still waiting to be told.

Got a story to share? Email it to jeremy@latetothegames.com

(A previous version of this story ran in The Scioto Voice newspaper as part of the River Valley Myths & Legends series.)