Form: 97 Report
SIGHTING ACCOUNT
DATE OF THIS REPORT: April 3, 1987
FIELD INVESTIGATOR: James
Delehanty
(Corydon, Indiana is about 20 air miles west of Louisville,
Kentucky and in the center of Harrison County. Field Investigator,
Jarnes Delehanty, lives at Jefferson (IN), a few miles NE of
Louisville.
It was late evening on the 13th of March when the National UFO
Reporting Center in Seattle (WA) asked the MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC.,
in Seguin, TX to check out a report by a lady caller in Corydon. She
had contacted authorities and was given the UFO hotline in Seattle, a
clearinghouse for such information since 1974 which covers North
America and uses the MUTUAL UFO NETWORK as its investigative arm.).
Mr. Delehanty's report as follows:
At 0015 hours on 14 March I received a phone call from MUFON
International Director, Mr. Walt Andrus. He told me that a young woman
in Corydon, Indiana has been seeing UFOs in the area during the past
week and he thought it was worthy of being investigated. He further
stated that the witness, Ms. Mickey Shawler was frightened and the
Harrison County Police Department had been notified. Due to a heavy
work schedule I was not able to contact Ms. Shawler until Monday, 16
March. She was very cooperative and willing to be interviewed,
therefore a meeting was set for 1500 hours on 18 March, after setting
the interview I phoned Assistant State Director, Jerry Sievers (at
Vincennes,IN) and advised him that there was activity in the Harrison
County area.
I drove out I-64 to Corydon, Indiana, a friendly historic city, located
approximately 30 miles (by road) west of Louisville, Kentucky. The town
has a population of less than 5,000 people . Mickey Shawler met me at
a predetermined location and I followed her to the house. The sighting
area was outside of town in a rural setting. Ms. Shawler began to
describe the sighting of the UFOs. The objects have been seen every
night since 10 March, at 2300 hours EST. She said there were four
lights seen in the sky over the treeline, hovering. The largest object
was orange in color with three small white lights above it and a red
and green one on the bottom side. About four months ago she had first
noticed the strange lights. At that time she summoned police, but no
one responded to the call.
On Tuesday, 17 March at 2330 hours EST Ms. Shawler saw the
objects again. The orange lights were hovering above the field which
faces NE and the treeline beyond. At no time was any noise whatsoever
heard (*). She said the larger orange ball hovered and then maneuvered
and the smaller white lights seemed to be "swallowed" up and
disappeared. Officer Steve Harnm of the Harrison County Sheriff's
Department responded to Ms. Shawler's call within five minutes. Officer
Harnm confirmed her story of seeing UFOs and hearing no sounds. During
his sighting he said that there were as many as twelve lights seen.
For almost the next two hours Hamrn and Mickey Shawler followed the
objects in the police cruiser, fit one point the UFO was chasing the
police car alternating slowly down and speeding up. Ms. Shawler
described it as "playing with us". Officer Hamm said he was joined at
the site by off-duty jailer Randy Fessel, who also saw the objects and
described them as "amazing, like nothing I've ever seen before, a large
object with lights flashing around it." Officer Hamm
said one of the objects seemed to be right at the top of the trees
within 200 or so yards of him. He and Fessel shined a spotlight at
the UFO and it's lights vanished and the object was gone in a second,
joining two others in the distance. Harmm is a veteran of nine years
as a police officer and has never seen anything like UFOs before.
Sheriff Ed Davis, Jr. seemed to downplay the incident, stating that
there was probably a logical explanation, but Hamm and Fessel both
stand by what they saw. Hamm believes that there is a larger object
with smaller ones nearby. Both he and Ms. Shawler say the UFOs seem to
have the ability to hover, spin and go from bright to dim. The only
time Officer Hamm ever heard a sound (*) was a slight whine after he
put the spotlight on the object. I asked him if he noticed any
electromagnetic interference with his radio or engine. He stated that
at one time he did have to "use the squelch" on the radio. He said at
no time did he feel the objects were hostile in nature.
The objects have been seen by a total of 11 persons as of March
24. Included in the group are two newspaper reporters. Mrs.
Jackie Carpenter, a reporter with the local Corydon paper was present
during the interview and said she saw as many as five objects at one
time. She said they seemed to disappear on the spot and reappear
instantly. The UFOs are seen during the nighttime hours but have never
been seen past 0300 hours in the morning.
The time is 2015 EST, 19 March. I received a peculiar call from a
woman in Corydon who I will refer to as Ms. C. She asked rne if I was
the person who had spoken with Mickey the previous day. I said yes, and
she proceeded to go into a long litany of how she "felt" that the UFOs
were negative and dangerous to the citizens. When I questioned her
further she stated that she receives "messages" from time to time and
believes she was the victim of an abduction several years ago. Last
month WHAS-TV in Louisville did an investigative report on Satanism
which was going on in the Harrison County area. Ms. C told rne that she
was convinced that there was a connection between the UFO sightings
and the Satanic cult rituals. Ms.C had phoned Mickey Shawler earlier
that evening and she instructed her to call rne. Mickey, herself,
called rne at 2115 and said she was again seeing the objects and
the orange light seemed to be following her. She had become quite
scared and went straight away to the police station. I asked her if she
had spoken to Ms.C and she said yes, and the conversation had upset her
very much. Mickey told rne that she thought Ms. C "had some screws
loose".
Based on what Ms. C had told rne I recognized this as a possible
case
for MUFON abduction expert Bud Hopkins. I wrote and briefed him on the
case and advised him that I was not sure whether Ms.C was a "kook" or
if she had an experience and is trying to let someone know about it. In
the light of this new development and the esosteric nature, this case
has the potential to get very complicated.
I phoned Assistant State Director Jerry Sievers at 1630 hours on
20 March and brought him up to date on the case prior to
submitting the formal report. I told him my next move would be to go to
Corydon one night and try to observe first hand the UFO activity. The
State Director, Mr. Francis Ridge, contacted rne that evening and told
me that possibly both he and Jerry could travel to Harrison County and
assist in the investigation.
On 23 March at 2000 hours EST I placed a call to Mickey
Shawler inquiring about UFO activity. I had not heard from her since
the sighting on 19 March. She told me the objects were continued to be
seen every night but felt that it was better not to bring any more
attention to it. She said some neighbors were starting to panic and
there were threats to "shoot at them if they invaded their property".
She was alarmed by this and to prevent someone from possibly getting
hurt, no future notification to the police, media or MUFON would be
made. Mickey said she was not feeling any danger to her or her family
from the objects. Several persons have harassed her since the first
article was printed in the local paper. These skeptics would not
believe what she had seen for two weeks in a row. I called Jerry
Sievers and gave him the latest news and details. I told him that it
was time I get over to Corydon the next night and try to observe
activity. On 24 March at 1230 hours I received a call in
rny office from Mr. Bill Weronka, a reporter for the Louisville Courier
Journal. Bill had been out to the site the previous night and had seen
the strange lights. He described them as had the other witnesses. There
was a blinking white object that moved across the sky and a large
glowing orange light over the trees.
I met Bill and a photographer, Mike Fisher, at Ms. Shawler's home on
24 March. Jerry Sievers was not able to make it over from
Vincennes. I had talked with him at 1500 and said if we saw any
activity that I would call him and give him an account of it over the
phone. The weather deteorated after sunset and some thunderstorms moved
into the area with heavy to moderate rain. At 2200 hours the rain
stopped and clouds seemed to clear for a few moments but by
2230 the sky had again become overcast and light rain was
falling. It was decided to call a halt to the watch at 2240
hours. This had been the first night in 15 days the UFOs had not been
seen. There was speculation that the lightning in the area and the
storm may have been a factor.
I told Ms. Shawler to contact rne if the sightings started again and I
would make another trip for a chance to see the objects myself. Before
returning home Mickey told me that Ms.C had called her earlier in the
day. Ms. C told her that Budd Hopkins had phoned her and wanted an
interview concerning the possible close encounter/abduction experience.
The investigation continues. (Included with this report from Mr.
Delehanty were a completed Form 1 for events dated 10-17 March, one map
drawn of the immediate local sighting area, a map of the southern part
of Indiana showing Corydon).