This Paranormal Life - #032 The Disappearance of Travis Walton - Part 2

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

It's been 5 days since Travis Walton was reported missing. His friends claim he was abducted by aliens, the police think he's dead... But what really happened on that cold November night? time for Rory and Kit to #INVESTIGATESupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time on This Paranormal Life... Rogers stopped the car. Hovering over their heads was a gigantic, mechanic, silver disc shining brightly in the night sky. What? Nothing. A beam of blue light shoots down and strikes his body, blasting him backwards through the air. They're starting to believe this entire story could possibly be to cover up a homicide and at this point that's the only logical explanation either walton truly was abducted by aliens as the men claimed or walton's dead and no one can be prosecuted

you don't you don't need caught up with the story do you no no you remember what's happened we've been looking at travis walton went out who shit what went out into woods with his buddies was allegedly abducted by aliens went missing and where we picked up the story it's five days later and he's just phoned his brother-in-law, Grant, to come pick him up. That's right. All right, so let's... He's a crazy cliffhanger. Let's dive right in here. I know you guys are hungry right now

and Roy Powers is serving up a big bowl of cereal. Oh, no. You know he's been waiting all week to say that. You know he's talking about it day and night. It's time to cereal. It just doesn't mean what you think it does. It's a wintry night in Herber, Arizona. Walton wakes up on the cold pavement.

Sorry. Yes, Jesus. Where, Arizona? I told you not to interrupt. I'm cerealing. Yes, we were in Snowflake. Now we are in Herber. Can you keep up with this?

Okay. Jesus Christ. Amateurs. I'd also like it to be known that I've been a paranormal investigator 15 more years than Kit has been a paranormal investigator. That's because you're 30 years older than me. So I think it's fair. I'm 12. I'm 12. Oh, shit.

It's the weirdest combination of paranormal investigators. A 35-year-old man, a 12-year-old boy. I've been interning as an investigator for the last three months. And what would you say about your boss, Kit, after these three months? Bear in mind, you're still on probation. I would say he's a premier dickling. All right,

to you. You're not the first intern and you won't be the last. Jesus. It's a wintry night in Herber, Arizona. Problems? I didn't do that.

Fine now, I can keep going. You're on a very short fuse, I would say. Walton wakes up on the cold pavement, weak and tired. He's lying flat on his stomach with his head resting in his arm. Okay. He slowly tries to pick himself up, but he can barely stand.

After a few moments, he manages to catch his balance and start walking down the cold road. The clink of beer bottles. No, not beer bottles bottles maybe alien test tubes or anal probes i don't know what it was but it wasn't beer he's not an alco aliens don't drink bud light they drink ales only walton said as soon as he could, he began to run wildly down the highway, making sure to stay on the brightly lit road and avoid any dark areas. Now, I'm not going to go into it just yet, but let's assume he's just been through something horrific. If you don't even want to look at the shadows.

Walton reached a house with smoke coming out of the chimney and lights on. He claims that he pounded up against the door but after a while nobody answered that must be really scary and horrifying yeah so he continues down the road until he manages to find a row of telephone booths he goes into the first booth and it's broken shit goes into the second booth and he finally manages to call his brother-in-law so his brother-in-law answers the phone But he doesn't actually believe that it's Walton Travis Walton is dead. That's what everyone believes He's been gone. I think this is like a hoax exactly

It's not a number you recognize But this is when Walton starts screaming down the phone and somehow manages to convince his brother-in-law to come pick him up Yeah, well, I guess like you don't really much option. Do you look like what would you say? the phone and somehow manages to convince his brother-in-law to come pick him up yeah well i guess like you don't really have much option do you well like what would you say so if i died and i called you to say i need picking up yeah what would be like the the question that you would ask so i could authenticate myself to you um i was thinking more kind of the cool shit that I got for Christmas last year. Right. Yeah.

Right. I feel like that's something we've talked about. I told you about it. The Mr. Frosty, make your own ice cream frosty machine. That's right. Yeah. So just for the record. Would you like some ice cream?

It's all melted. It's all melted, Kit. It's a Coke float. You brought it here three hours ago. You knew it would melt. It's better warm. It's just melted, Kit. It's a Coke float. You brought it here three hours ago. You knew it would melt. It's better warm. It's just syrup and cups. The worst part is I asked you when you came in.

I said, there's room in the fridge for your Mr. Frosties. And you said, no, they're better warm. Ice isn't better warm, Kit. Ice is water. Sorry, I'm just getting a little heated because we both know I wanted that Mr. Frosty. And you got it. I made an appointment, I have to say. This is the conversation happening over the payphone.

I've been shanked by a homeless person. I'm like, you know damn well I deserve that Mr. Frosty. And you've resented me for it ever since that day. You never grind up enough ice! You don't add enough syrup! I hope everyone, I hope our whole audience knows what a Mr. Frosty is. He's essentially a machine you could get shaped like a snowman. You put ice in his hat and turn a handle and it would make slush puppies, I guess, essentially.

30 minutes later or so, Grant shows up to the meeting location. But 30 minutes have gone by. When he gets there, he finds Walton collapsed in the phone booth. Oh, shit. He managed to get him in the truck, drags him into the truck, and he takes him home. So they're in the truck driving home and Walton sees the time. You know, he's all shaken up. He can see the clock on the dashboard, which is now past midnight.

So he mentions, oh, I must have been gone for hours. That's when Grant looks across at him strangely and told him, Travis, you've been gone for five days. So he thinks it's just been like, boom. He thinks it's the same night. He thinks he's been out in the woods, guess stumbling around dropped off that's crazy five days grant tells him he goes feel your face and he can feel five days worth of beard growth on his own face right that must be scary i mean that's a trope of these alien stories right is lost time

which i think has become a little bit sort of like i don't know maybe not taking that seriously anymore it's like oh well that's just a psychological phenomenon anyone could experience that but i don't know like i've never experienced lost time have you experienced lost time sir well i feel like i've been abducted because i don't have a free goddamn second in my life so i feel like i'm losing time losing sleep losing hair i feel like aliens have come and abducted my quality of life i feel like they've abducted my my my my goddamn human rights my raison d'etre my my goddamn mr frosty i feel like they straight up ganked my mr frosty i've got that but uh right nothing else alien you alien thief sir you gray little big-eyed sticky-handed alien

thief excuse sorry sorry what do you think an alien is i'm sorry i'm warm can i actually have one of those slushies no just for me pal one of those boiling how have you got it that warm there's steam rising from your slush my mr frosty is broken it has been for some time how is it capable of producing more of a mr that hot it's borderline lava my tongue taste buds burnt off it long ago. I eat more or less four or five meals a day off of this thing. You're sweating profusely. Scurvy, yes.

I don't crunch up ice as much as I crunch coal in the Mr. Frosty. I call him Mr. Devil. He makes hot treats for everyone. I call him Mr. Devil. He makes hot treats for everyone. Your parents went to the toy store around Christmas time and they were like, Rory would really love a Mr. Frost. We've been talking about it for months now. Sorry, man.

We're sold out of the Mr. Frosties. We do have Mr. Devils. Just make spicy Mexican soup. Yeah. Okay. So Travis gets home safe and sound and is finally reunited with his family. I mean, they cannot believe it.

At this point, there's a lot to be filled in. They now know two things for sure. Number one, that the loggers hadn't murdered Walton. That's true. They've been pretty much absolved of this crime. Which is great. And two, that he hadn't died in any sort of accident. It's true. It's true. They've been pretty much absolved of this crime. Which is great! And two, that he hadn't died in any sort of accident. It's true. It's true.

So at this point, notifying the police would seem like the best idea, the logical idea. Mm-hmm. But then, Walton seemed hesitant. And he decided to tell them what really happened that night. Oh, okay. Pull up a chair, folks. Let's see. Brace yourselves, guys. We're going straight into it. Okay. Let's slap down that bowl,

stick a spoon in it, because the cereal's coming at you. Yeah, I never felt what it means. You're not grabbing onto this metaphor? That's fine. I'm just gonna keep laying it on, bowl by bowl. Again, this may be cereal style. That's fine. Please please join in don't interrupt me okay chip in anytime

chip in at any time but just don't talk over you exactly yeah so once again let's go back to november i feel like you i thought you were gonna talk over me and i psyched myself out out don't even look at me turn around you know what go just leave i'll do it better myself i'll call you when i need you you leave and i can't even say like two words so let's go back i it's actually harder without you come back there's a podcast isn't that interesting with one person so once again let's go back to november 5th the day travis walton disappeared the first thing travis says he remembers after being hit by the beam is waking up in a lot of pain slowly drifting in and out of consciousness. Yes, sir, you giggled. You think there's something funny about a man being blasted in the ass by a laser beam? Jesus Christ, some people.

And then they say, you know, the world's going to shit. Now we know why, folks. What do I have to do with that? Now he remembers approaching the craft and being blown backwards. So he says his immediate thought was that his friends had picked him up and rushed him to a hospital. Okay. Understandable. He could feel he was on some sort of raised surface and he heard movement around him. Possibly doctors.

Mm-hmm. Tiny little beady-eyed doctors. Gray little naked doctors. Little beady-eyed doctors. Gray little naked doctors. At this point, it hurt so much to move that Travis thought it would only make things worse and more complicated. So he just lay there on his back, trying to adjust his focus. Right.

So while laying there, he managed to get enough strength to just about turn his head to the side to try and see where he was and who was around him. Yeah, okay, like what hospital? He's looking for a nurse, looking for a doctor. Exactly, what's going on here? Maybe is it the residential snowflake hospital? Is it the Herber Hospital? That's right. Because, you know... Cupcake Mountain Hospital, that's right. Exactly. And when he turned, he saw someone standing by his bedside.

Uh-huh. It wasn't a doctor. Travis was face to face with another being. Okay. In absolute fear, Travis lifted his arms and managed to push the creature away and roll off the platform. Uh-huh. He pushed this creature so hard, he said it was lighter than he thought it was going to be. He pushed it, and it stumbled backwards into the other one.

Right, so there's more than one of these things. There's more than one of these little beings. You can't quite see them, because it's still kind of adjusting its focus. Okay, but they're small. And humanoid? No. Not humanoid. We'll get to a little description later on, but monstrously different. Okay, but monstrously different.

Okay, but very light. But very light. Deceptively light. Travis hits the floor and staggers away until he backs up against some sort of workbench behind him. In his defense, he grabs an object from the bench and begins swinging it at the creatures. Screaming threats at them, trying to keep them away. Right. Being like, oh, get out of here.

You're lighter than I thought you'd be. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. It's kind of rude. I mean, he doesn't really know what the intentions are here. I guess he's kind of going for the, you know, like if you face a bear in the wilderness. Yeah. They tell you to act big, make yourself as big as possible yell be noisy yeah to try and scare the bear away because you can't communicate with it so it's just

you just gotta that's a bear for i don't want to fight you yeah as big as possible and go it's like in perfect grammar it's like a really eloquent speech yeah it seems that seems like a bad idea what make yourself as aggressive looking and tall as possible yeah because the bears are going to be like oh damn another bear let's do this bear fight yeah yeah i've been a bear fighting weeks brad pitt style fight club era yeah he's gonna be like this is what i live for man it's been a long week raising cubs and eating salmon i'm ready to throw don against this that's the spin-off movie frankly tough guy over here who's egging me on the tyler durden of bears has been like mentoring this whole time he's like who you talking to? Tyler Bearbin Is that bear chewing a toothpick?

I know what the movie's called Go on Fight Cub Oh! Damn, dude I'm pretty sure I just saw that bear Sink a bottle of Stellar Dwa Jesus Christ Okay

Grabs an object Swinging it at the aliens Trying to scare them off. Trying to scream at them. Yeah. Get them away. Surprisingly, it worked. Okay.

They understand. The creatures froze and raised their hands, no longer advancing towards Travis. Okay. They seem to understand, like we can understand when a bear is scared of us. It was at this point that Travis was able to get a clear view of what he was looking at. Oh, Jesus. When describing the creatures, Travis said they were shorter than five feet.

They had bald heads. No hair. Irishman, if you will. Their heads were domed. Very large. They looked like fetuses. Scotsman, if you will. They had large eyes. had large eyes enormous eyes eyes of an englishman we're narrowing it down really getting there uh enormous eyes almost all brown without much white

in them at all he actually said the creepiest thing about them were the eyes okay the eye at this moment the creatures all just stared at him and he said he doesn't have many nightmares about it since it's happened but that's the one he always has is the eyes just thinking about the eyes just looking straight at him it's always satisfying when someone with a paranormal experience can give us a specific detail to latch onto because it just gives it that little bit more believability factor because i could really see that happening and in fact you just reminded me that i have an artist's interpretation of the creatures really yes i do rory you've got a sketch pad in chalk i don't know are you the artist is that where this is coming from maybe you started the sketch just now are we gonna be here long no no just i just have so

many colors of brown and hazel and i don't know which one to pick for the eyes there are 50 crayons there and all 48 of them are brown i melt them down into one big crayon why is that so hard with my mr frosty and i broken mr frosty the beasts were said to look like this okay i'm i'm reaching over to this i'm not letting you take it i can't what is it oh is there other evidence another picture underneath that i don't want you to see. I guess you could just hold it and don't look underneath. I can't actually reach it. Okay.

I have to laugh because one... You don't have to laugh. Sorry, continue, but you don't have to laugh. It's serious. For those at home, which is everyone, this image, Rory's passed me. The image is cut off at the waist, and Rory's not letting me look below the waist.

No, because there's another picture. Not because their, like, penises are out or something. So you're telling me this image does stop at the waist. It stops at the waist. Okay. Maybe they had no legs. We don't know these things. So these aliens have humongous heads.

Balloon heads. Yeah. They are all wearing matching mustard yellow polo necks yeah uh very specific very very much true to the era the style of the times they're very humanoid you said they weren't humanoid but they're incredibly humanoid do you know what humanoid mean like a human obviously because they're more or less Human in shape, size, stature

The definition of humanoid They look like they've got two arms, two legs, heads, that kind of thing That's all it takes to be a humanoid Yeah So I suppose you think a tiger is humanoid Two arms, two legs, a head, and a tail It doesn't stand, it doesn't wear polo necks. I suppose you think...

I'll get one. You can only think of one animal. I suppose you think a meerkat is humanoid. Such weird suggestions. Stands up on its legs, has little hands. You have kind of got me there. Hides in a hole so travis takes a minute to collect himself yes the clear way out of the room was behind

these humanoid meerkats yeah so travis immediately starts thinking about how we can burst past these creatures and escape yeah maybe punch him in the head yeah slide through the legs you could probably pop one of those things with a decent sized pin. Absolutely. But before he can make a move, the creatures turn around and leave. Whoa. That's a pretty creepy twist of events. What's happening?

Yeah. Travis is now alone in the room. Oh no. This is when he decides to make a break for it. He can see that there's a passageway just to the left. So desperately trying to find a way out, he runs to the passageway and goes through it. He can see that there's a passageway just to the left. So desperately trying to find a way out, he runs to the passageway and goes through it. Okay. He honestly says that part of him at that point thought there was a chance the ship would hopefully still just be in the woods. And in his brain, I guess he thought he could just hop out and escape. Yeah. But the

further he ran, it became evident this was not an option okay finally travis said he reached a door that he could enter the door opens and he walks into the room now it's this giant room with this chair in the middle it looks like some sort of command chair of course like in a vip is gonna be sitting there so walks into the room, but the closer he gets to the center, the entire room and all of the walls get darker and it lights up with constellations of the universe. Wow. So essentially by the point he's reached the chair,

he's just standing alone in space, essentially. So he tries to find some way out by essentially bashing buttons on a control pad. But of course, you're to work. Nothing seems to work. I like to think there's a giant button with a sign in English saying, Button back to Earth. And he's like, hell, I can't make head nor tails of it.

Smashing everything around it. That's just what they would want me to press. I'm going gonna go for immediate dissection! An alien pops out. You passed. You're much smarter than we believed you were. Then, suddenly

Travis says he noticed someone standing in the doorway where he entered. Oh no. But to Travis' surprise surprise it's another human whoa wearing what appears to be some sort of space suit and helmet okay all right he runs over to the man assuming that it's someone from nasa or the government that's come to rescue him maybe he's caught up in some sort of experiment but as travis begins to approach the man and plead for help, he notices the man isn't responding.

Odd, but Travis thinks that there's a chance it could just be the helmet. Maybe he can't hear. Okay, sure. The man is weird. He just, he looks very human, but he's got quite wide eyes. Ooh.

And he just has this kind of blank smile on his face. Uh oh. That's not good. It's not a situation to be smiling. I'm so glad you're here. Things are really weird, big eye Joe. You look like a guy who knows his way off this thing. So Travis begins to follow

the man down the hallways. The man leads him out of the craft. Freedom at last, you're thinking. Wow, that's lucky. The ship wasn't in the woods anymore, Kit. Or even on the planet. Oh, Jesus. Travis claims he walked out into a giant extraterrestrial UFO hangar.

Oh, Jesus. There were tall, curved, white-paneled walls and what appeared to be other types of spacecrafts resting in the large hangar. Oh, no. I think everyone's had the experience of they're sitting on the bus or the train and they've got their earphones in,

listening to their favorite tune, and then you look up and it's like the bus is reading the next stop and you're going shit I missed my stop god damn it you have to get off

open city mapper find out like when the next bus is going back the way you came bash the buttons try and get home god damn it skull some god damn

humanoids on the way back if it takes it the walls are stars everything stars all I see are stars at night at day and it takes like 20 minutes out of stars. Everything's stars. All I see are stars at night, at day. And it takes like 20 minutes out of your journey and suddenly you're having to apologize.

You go down boss while you're late for work. Of course. Imagine that except you're looking at the outer fringes of the Milky Way. Yeah. Jesus Christ. I know. There is not a technology I'm aware of

that is able to rectify this situation. That, but the bus is a spaceship. Yes. The driver is a grey. Yes. Oxford Street is the Andromeda Galaxy. Jar Jar Binks is flipping goddamn croissants from a self-service kiosk.

Instead of getting to your desk and sitting down late, you pass out in a phone booth in the middle of nowhere. This must be so much to take in. You turn around, you can see the ship that you've come out of, the ship that was in the woods that night. Yeah. But there's so many other crafts in this hangar. Unfortunately, Travis does not have much time to take it in

because the man escorting him seems to be in a hurry. Uh-oh. And I guess, you want to follow this dude? He's like the closest link. Maybe? I don't know. He looks like freaking Pennywise in a NASA suit. Imagine being trapped on an alien planet and Pennywise. You spot Pennywise walking around the street and you're like,

Oh shit, I have to talk to Pennywise, don't I? Oh Jesus, at least Pennywise walking around the street and you're like oh shit I have to talk to Pennywise don't I oh Jesus at least Pennywise speaks English it reminds me of do you ever see The Brass Eye that show The Brass Eye no

they do like fake news stories and they did this one story one time where it was like the world's most notorious pedophile

has now been blasted off into the realms of outer space so he can, like, never hurt another child again. But scientists soon discovered they'd accidentally trapped a six-year-old boy

on board the craft. It's like, experts are saying this is the one thing we didn't want to happen. It's exactly like like blasting pennywise out into space it's like all right we're finally rid of them uh where are the kids that brought him here shit yeah we've accidentally sent pennywise to uh the uh infant galaxy infant galaxy nine where uh children are infinite and scared of almost anything they try and launch him to like creepy clown planet but the trajectory is off by like half a hair and it just catapults him straight towards child world i love the idea of

being somewhere so alien you know literally or figuratively and then being in this alien hangar full of goddamn boba fett guys like running around and then you just like you just see out of the corner your eye one spaceship with an led sign on the front reading Oxford Circus. And you're like, can it be? Should I? You get on and you just see like the little map and you just see, oh shit, this is the Eastbound service. It's like the Milky Way is a complete other direction. They've just been to Oxford Circus.

They're heading towards andromeda eventually the man leads him down a hallway off of the hangar where he's brought into a room filled with a couple more humans now these humans are dressed the exact same as the man who escorted him plain blue jumpsuit no insignias or anything but these guys weren't wearing helmets okay so travis is thinking the ball's rolling you know maybe i can finally get through to these people talk to these people right right right so he starts talking to them trying to figure out what's going on but they don't say a word oh it's like they're talking to each other telepathically okay so that's what he's

getting from this he can see the way they're behaving it's like they seem to be operating yeah they seem to be moving doing things in synchronization interesting unless they talk in like creepy smiles now this is why i didn't want you to fall down the sheet because i also have an artist's interpretation of the aliens hogs the humans really okay yeah before you show me right this is a fantastical story yeah uh there's a lot i know it we came from realism we were serialling in the real world now we're serialling now we've added marshmallows to this bowl and it's blasting off you know yeah it's yeah it's like those cereals that go a little bit too far in the tasty direction remember like cookie crisp or whatever it was called. Yeah. And they tried to

just make cookies as cereal. How did they get away with that? That's small cookies in a bowl. Illegal. That's no longer a cereal. That's a dessert, sir. Uh, so I'm hoping that in the midst of all this craziness that's going on with Mr. Walton and this alien world, that this artist's interpretation can hopefully bring things back down to earth with some gritty realism. I hope you're not disappointed, Kit. Go fuck yourself. I don't know where to begin. So the men in this realm are jacked.

Yeah. The women uh giant and perfect breasts yes ample bosoms i think it's the scientific term they kind of look like um like action figures like a barbie in a can action figures with crazier hair yeah it's very much of a time i don't really know why earth Styles made it to this space base. But anyway, I'll move past that. I guess they just look like pretty perfect humans. I guess that's what they're trying to get across in this. Yeah.

The lady here is holding some sort of object. Don't read into that. That's coming up. Don't look at that. That's not for you. I should have folded the page again. Over the... Whatever she's holding in the middle of the page.

Give me the page. Okay. You just lost your evidence privileges. Peeping Tom. So defensive. You know what? As well, you just... You lost your wallet privileges.

Jesus Christ, Matt. Give me your wallet and your shoes. How is this supposed to end? So you're planning on taking my things illegally but also continuing the podcast you ever heard of an illegal alien what is this how the internship program usually ends at this paranormal life limited you're like i'm 12 i have very little little money shoes much much too small for your 35 year old feet I flip them on the child market I was a test intern huh it's a little thing called a hazing we do around here the newbies last couple uh pussy newbies couldn't handle it. They actually freaking called the cops on me, but you pass.

Well done. Lord knows they said if I do this again, I'm going back to the slammer. Please don't tell your parents about this. It's just a little one-off thing. So with this point, the humans are working together. They force Travis down onto another operating table oh no and put what appears to be some sort of oxygen mask on his mouth thanks kit for ruining that little twist so that's what that was yeah that's she's holding the oxygen mask we're

okay cool travis says he tried to fight them off but he, I was so weak and they were so strong. They ripped, dude. They didn't have much trouble trying to get me on that table. I did manage to jerk my hand away and get it under the edge of the mask. Oh, okay. That's a good move. But before I could pull it away, I blacked out. Wow.

For all he knows, he's probably had goddamn injection in his neck. They just sedated him. I do like the idea of the moon, like, shh, like, it's fine. Look, here's the oxygen mask. It's okay, here it comes. And then as soon as it's about to get them, someone just clobbers him over the head.

So it's like, he wasn't scared at all. He just thought he was getting put to sleep. Nice space punch, David. Thanks, Space Thomas. The next thing Travis can remember, he's waking up face down on the road, weak and cold. He looks up into the sky to see a silver rounded surface hovering above him. But in a second, the vehicle shot straight up into the sky

and was gone in seconds without any noise at all god damn but obviously this is an audio medium so i'm going to tweak the story a little bit the ship exploded into the night sky they were They were blasting kisses party every night, I think. As they took off. They soared off, shooting fireworks into the sky. And just like that, the ship was gone. We continue our story. Travis reaches the phone booth and calls Grant to come pick him up. So Travis is now back home with his family and safe.

Thank God. Everyone's speaking. No one's ripped anymore. But what is next? The family want to take Travis to the doctor to make sure he's okay. But here's the problem. While Travis was missing and the UFO claims were being made, Travis's family were warned by a number of strangers

about being careful with the authorities. Oh, okay. So a number of grounded saucer people recommended that they do not hand Travis over if he was returned. Interesting. Another woman who worked as a nurse called the family and said she had an elderly couple come to the hospital claiming that they had a similar encounter. The next day, the couple and all the records of them were completely gone. Woof. That's crazy.

So. What do you do? I know, what do you do? The people you can trust, you can't trust. So, instead of informing the public straight away, they decide to keep it under wraps. Yes, sir. But, there's one problem. The night that Travis called his brother-in-law,

he obviously didn't have any money to pay for the phone booth. So he had to be connected by a phone operator. Okay, a collect call. Exactly. Now, in these days, this wasn't an automated process. The operator was a human being. That's right. Is it automatic now?

Even when we were growing up, you had to talk to someone. I think it depends on your location. Like a small town like Snowflake, automatic no even when we were growing up you had to talk to someone i think there's it's probably i think it depends on your location yeah like a small town like snowflake it probably is going to be a local service okay sure so when he made the phone call in his distressed state and was connected to his brother-in-law the operator actually listened in on the phone call? Of course. Because they hear, you know, it's me, Travis! I picked me up! There's frankly a UFO screaming in the background.

I would love the idea if he phones up and he's like, hi, I'd like to be connected to this number. It's like, okay, yeah, can I get a name, please? Travis Walton. Okay. Yeah, okay, you're connected now, Travis. be uh connected to my uh this number it's like okay yeah can i get a name please uh travis walton um okay yeah okay you're connected now travis oh thank you very much i'm sorry i actually haven't connected you oh sorry just wait just a minute okay so patching you through oh no still not there still not there so You know what? If you could just give me some sort of countdown, I feel like we would help this. Sure. So, uh, patching you through in three, two, one...

Are you gonna... Wait, are you gonna... Are you gonna patch me through on one? Are you gonna... Or on go? I'll patch you through on... Uh, at the end of the countdown. So...

Three... What are we ending on? What is the countdown ending on? Are we gonna end on... You say go. Uh-huh. And then we'll do it. We'll connect the call, and then I'll be ready to go.

Okay. Three, two, one. Grant! They're still not there. Literally that time. Three, two... Wait, I forgot. What are we connecting on?

Go. Grant! Nope, still not there. You said the key word, sir. I'm just going to patch you. At some point, you have to understand that this is half your fault. Do you know what? He's not even there.

I liked it when the humans couldn't talk. How about that? It's going straight to Answer Machine. That'd be so funny. It's like, all right, we're going to patch you through right now. You're connected. Grant! Oh, it went to voicemail. Okay. Hey, Grant. Just's like, all right, we're going to patch you through right now. You're connected. Crap! Oh, it went to voicemail.

Okay. Hey, Grant. Just tried to catch you there, buddy. Yeah, I'm in a phone booth. They abducted me. Yep, just call me when you can. I know. You couldn't keep up the same level of energy.

Grant! Call me back! That's probably why he was passed out in the phone booth by the time he got there. He's just like, Grant! So the operator listens and is in the phone booth by the time he got there he's just like grant so the operator listens on the phone call here's the whole thing he decides or she i don't know who it is decides to tell the sheriff because there's a man claiming to be the missing travis walton asked to be picked up because they quote unquote brought him back. So shortly after this, word gets out that Travis has returned. Sheriff Gillespie arranged for a polygraph test. But when word of the exam was leaked to the press, they cancelled it.

Because Travis and his family believed that it was Gillespie that had leaked that they were going to do a polygraph in private. Interesting. Next up, the National Enquirer to walton to take a polygraph and he agreed but insisted that he would have the power to veto any public disclosure of the test results right already a little bit suspicious if you were that worried would you take the test in the first place but i guess he wanted to try and get the justification for the story. Yeah. So they did some interviews with Walton before the exam,

and McCarthy, who was administering the polygraph, found two things out about Walton. First, that he had smoked marijuana a few times. But did not use the drug regularly okay and secondly that mike rogers younger brother and him had created uh check fraud a few years earlier by altering payroll checks okay that was his only we all that was his only like, brush with the law prior to any of this. Okay. McCarthy then finally administered the polygraph,

which there's a lot of controversy around this. Oh, boy. Walton insists that McCarthy behaved unprofessionally during the polygraph, while McCarthy says that Walton both failed the polygraph and tried to cheat. McCarthy says that Walton both failed the polygraph and tried to cheat. So Walton said that at one point McCarthy asked if Walton had quote unquote colluded with anyone to perpetrate a hoax. Walton said that he was unfamiliar with the word colluded. And then he reported that McCarthy replied to him saying, collusion was planning or conspiring with another,

just as you had colluded to steal and forge payroll checks. Oh, he iced him there. So it's like, yeah, calling him out a bit. Like, if you're trying to do a fair polygraph, I wouldn't, like, throw violent accusations at someone i don't know it's like we're doing a uh uh it's essentially a lie detection test lie as in uh the thing you told to everyone when you disappeared sorry i didn't mean to flip out and you just know you lying piece of shit i mean sorry said i'd reserve all judgment until the end of the test,

but you failed in my eyes. The quote from McCarthy's official report says, based on his reaction on all charts, it is the opinion of this examiner that Walton is attempting to perpetrate a UFO hoax and that he has not been on any spacecraft. Very interesting. Yes, if we want to take this polygraph as gospel yeah then you know we have to hold ourselves accountable that we are taking every polygraph test administered to those

uh other loggers as gospel as well uh-huh and allegedly that's true allegedly travis has taken polygraph tests since then he claims five and has passed all of those so it's a tough situation that is tough damn now one thing that we do a lot which i think is good and smart on this podcast is look at the people giving these testimonies and seeing how it's affected their life and how they've kind of embraced the controversy and the change that it brings to their life. So some people become hermits, you know, shy away. Their families leave them and whatnot. Kids disown them. Travis is the opposite.

He's released books about it. He has appeared in documentaries there is even a hollywood adaptation of his story called i believe fire in the sky it's a dramatic retelling of the whole event i mean he's embraced it he does speeches at ufo events and conventions and things like that he's fully pardon the pun on board with the situation as we're talking about the motive you do have to look at those uh logger accomplices yeah um i don't mean to use a loaded term there but look at the other loggers and their story look at these hacks i mean what these hack cowards what did they stand to gain from all of this i wonder well there's um the original idea

that it was to cover up the fact that their project was massively behind schedule and kind of worked for everyone i guess yeah so walton got rich and the guys were able to slack off and not finish the job to come back to that point i was raising earlier about the uh walton's mother that was a little bit off it was nearly as if she'd been tipped off about the whole thing in advance well i think um like again i breezed through a lot of this but i think it was mentioned that walton and his brother had at least a keen interest in ufos as really as just science fiction, in the science fiction world.

And there was a popular UFO film that had aired on television literally three weeks before the abduction took place. So then I think when a person comes home and it's like, Walton was abducted by aliens, and she was like, does anyone else know about this? More of like, he's going to come back. He's hiding in the woods eating berries for five days yeah i'm gonna be honest with you rory all right all right i don't

know what to make of this what you know you investigate this case you're the expert for today's episode i think it's a bit too fantastical for me. Yeah. And there's too many suspicious situations surrounding it that I think I'm going to have to come down on a no. It breaks my heart because it's a colorful, fun story. You know, it's nice. I love cereal as well. It's delicious, healthy if you eat the right ones, not the cookie ones.

You've just totally forgotten about me. We were talking about cereal, right? Whether it's good. whether cereal was good i feel like you started talking about one thing and you've moved to another in your reference to cereal yeah that's fine i guess i mean the more i investigated the story i just felt like like each fact was a new bottle of milk poured onto the you know this already crisp layer of delicious storytelling and with every spoonful i was being fed i could feel myself just wanting more until the box quote unquote if you will was empty and i was uh quote unquote scared because there was supposed to be a quote unquote toy inside and

i i didn't know if i had quote unquote consumed the toy in the haste of the consumption of the box right it's no you're right i see i got sidetracked there yeah i was thinking about earlier when i can you just look in my mouth and see if i ate a toy because i think i ate a toy okay open up ah oh my god there is nothing but toys so you hate your teeth are legos grab one not the teeth i need those i need those to bite actually could you build me some fangs your throat is a slinky your teeth are legos whenever you pass me evidence your stretch arm strong arms i never noticed before but you're a toy of a man a toy boy if you will um yeah i think it's it's a no from me unfortunately but don't let that you know don't let that just disparage you from believing uh kit what is that uh stop you from being a dumb dumb piece of shit uh yeah uh excellent

story very interesting thank you i personally find it very difficult when experiences of extraterrestrials are this unimaginative right and i mean that whenever i said whenever if if the folks at home could see these images of the artist interpretations of the aliens and the humans on board this spacecraft i mean it's like this might have been cutting edge back in the dizzay but today it's like really like it's so but maybe it's because it's real maybe it's kind of like whenever if you see these insane alien gray beasts that have like drugged you and done tests on yourself maybe your brain is just scrambling like i've heard that people in fight or flight situations life or death situations let's say against wild animals yeah

or finding themselves parachuting and their parachute stops working and they have to scramble to survive will poop themselves shit everywhere frankly people have reported seeing in black and white the there's the possibility that your brain goes into like survival mode shuts down all cognitive abilities other than basic survival yeah maybe these guys have been abducted their mental faculties aren't there and they're just seeing what their brain is letting them see right to get through the situation and whenever they recall it they can only imagine so much it's hazy yeah exactly they got a piece all all together, the little pieces. All this being said, it's too ridiculous for me.

It's all horseshit. And for that reason, I'm out. You're out. Well, unfortunately, that concludes our episode on the disappearance of Travis Walton. A fantastic story. Bravo. Thank you. Thank you.

A fantastic story. But unfortunately, we're coming down on fictitious that's right travis if you're listening which i assume you are you know come to our place we'll have a polygraph ready you lying piece of shit i was gonna say keep preaching keep doing the good work but no okay we'll do good cop bad cop that's how we'll do good cop, bad cop. That's how we'll do it. You pour him a cup of coffee. I slap it out of his hand. Sorry about that.

I go to take his chair out so he can sit down. You rip it away. He falls backwards. And he's like, this is overall a bad experience. I'm leaving. The good he's doing is far outweighed by the bad. I help him up. You punch his neck.

I'm out. I'm done. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of This Paranormal Life. If you want to check out us on social media accounts, wish you should because we're, you know, we're popping off constantly all the week with polls and fun pictures and all that jazz. You can follow us on Twitter at This Paralife. You can also check us out on Facebook, which I is just this paranormal life on facebook uh my twitter is at rory has powers and kit you are at kit greer that is right i think that's about all for this week thank you so much for joining

us on this special bowl of cereal and we will see you again next tuesday for a brand new paranormal tale praise rah