Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 4, Episode 6 - Aliens of Hell Highway - full transcript

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Worldwide,

27 billion cameras are watching us...

On our street, at work, and in our homes.

They capture things that seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man: This is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: Experts carry
out forensic analysis

of these unusual events.

Now, that's an explosion.

[ screaming ]



there's got to be something
we're missing in this video.

Something we're not seeing, right?

What else is going on here?

Narrator: Coming up...

A baffling blitzkrieg
over the buckeye state.

Is this town under attack?

Narrator: Judgment day comes to california.

Morales: Is that jesus christ? Please!

I really felt like it was
him, so I started praying.

Narrator: And havoc on the highways.

Is that slime? That looks gross.

What the heck just happened?

Narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.



Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.

What is the truth behind
this strange evidence?

Now, a shocking but mysterious
event in an american suburb.

Something weird is happening here.

[ explosion ]

it sounded like a bomb went off.

Narrator: A strange light and a shock wave

that shakes churches and family homes.

[ explosion ]

definitely flooded the area
with light when it happened.

Narrator: But the event is still
unexplained and the authorities

are unwilling to discuss what's going on.

It would be nice to have some answers

or at least to have them
admit that this is happening,

but it's been basically radio silence.

Is this town under attack?

♪

Narrator: Slavic village
in cleveland, ohio,

just north of wright-patterson
air force base.

This is where the
military's t2 intelligent unit

is known to have carried out
projects sign and bluebook,

official investigations into
unidentified flying objects.

May 12, 2018.

On a spring evening, the
quiet neighborhood sleeps.

It looks like a normal neighborhood,

it's nighttime.

You can see there's a cat mulling around

on like a garbage can or something.

Narrator: But then, the streets light up.

All of a sudden, there's a
flash of light out of nowhere.

Narrator: Dogs begin to bark,

buildings shake on their foundations,

and residents leap from their beds

at the sound of these enormous blasts.

It whitewashed all of it, so I mean,

it wasn't just one particular location,

it was there.

It was across the whole
entirety of the horizon.

It was the feeling of the house shaking

and it was just very usual,
so that's what really got me.

Narrator: Slavic village
resident kim kempke

rushes to her window.

Kempke: So I woke up
and I, the whole house shook

and the windows shook and
I was like, "what was that?"

it sounded like a bomb went off.

The people at the church
right across the street up here

said that it shook the whole church,

I mean, that's a big building.

[ cat meows ]

narrator: Kempke's neighbor
steve hart describes the event.

The night of may 12th, we were
just sitting enjoying ourselves

in the garage, like we normally do,

it's almost another room in our house.

My son dylan was sitting here.
I was sitting there on the couch

and then all of a sudden, a
huge flash of light happened.

So I came out here

just to see if there was
anything that was going wrong.

And then just seconds
later, an enormous explosion.

[ explosion ]

that's when we all said,
"we need to get inside

because we do not know that this is."

narrator: The next morning,
kempke drives towards

where she thinks the explosions happened

and finds police at the scene.

Kempke: There were a couple
of sheriffs' cars, two or three.

They weren't in the car, though.

They were like walking around,

and I asked one of them what was going on

or if they knew anything,
and they really wouldn't

say anything. They
just kind of blew me off.

I just thought that was weird.

Narrator: Usually when
things explode in the sky,

traces fall to the ground

but kim finds no evidence at the scene.

It's just bizarre. Like,
some people tell me

they think it's the government.

Whatever, I really don't know.

Narrator: Explosives engineers,
physicists, and other experts

are equally mystified by the event.

I think if this went off
in the middle of the night

with your loved ones, kids in the house,

I don't know whether
you would shelter in place

or want to go outside and
see if the war just started.

Is this town under attack?

My sister lives in ohio and,
you know, I'm concerned.

Something big blowing up
that makes that much light

and that much noise is probably bad news.

[ explosion ]

narrator: It's hard to determine
the altitude of the blasts.

Science journalist amy teitel

considers where the
suburban security cameras

could have captured a strike from space.

One possibility is that it's a meteor.

There is a pretty loud bang seconds after

the flash of light.

As a meteor is entering the atmosphere

it's traveling so fast,

it's actually traveling faster
than the speed of sound,

this creates a sonic boom.

We have that experience with jet aircraft.

They're traveling so fast
that it sends out a shock wave,

sound wave, and that's
what we're hearing here.

An estimated 25 million meteoroids

and other pieces of space debris enter

the earth's atmosphere every day.

Narrator: Are the blasts
in the sky over cleveland

the beginning of a
catastrophic bombardment?

♪

But when physicist david
wallace looks at the footage,

he is reminded of a
special type of aerial bomb

used in he second world war.

There is a scenario back in world war ii

where the japanese used
what was called a fu-go

and this was an attempt to send
bombs across the pacific ocean

to hit the united states.

Narrator: 6,000 miles of
pacific ocean puts america

out of range of the japanese bombers.

The imperial solution
is fiendishly cunning...

The fu-go, or hydrogen balloon bomb.

Wallace: It would float
up, get into the jet stream.

Around three days, they
would cross the pacific,

come over continental united states.

At this point, they would
fall down to the earth

and cause destruction,
blow up buildings, kill people,

or just wreak all sorts of havoc

amongst the population there.

Narrator: The first
balloon bomb is released

on November 3, 1944.

It is followed by almost 9,000 more.

During world war ii, fu-go bombs

failed to achieve their
goal of mass destruction

but only 284 have yet been found.

In 2014, a fully functional fu-go

was discovered in canada.

Local resident steve hart
discovers a modern spin

on the fu-gos...

An internet craze for
turning hydrogen balloons

into homemade floating bombs.

Hart: What I saw were
people filling huge balloons

with this stuff and then
setting them off for parties

or just their group of friends.

And it makes this kind of flash
and it makes that kind of boom.

[ explosion ]

narrator: Coming up, can
hollywood pyrotechnics

blow open the mystery
of the buckeye blitzkrieg?

I suppose we made a bit of a bomb.

And over burbank,
california, a spirit in the sky.

Morales: Is that jesus christ?

The bible describes him as
coming down from the sky.

Maybe that's what we're seeing here.

♪

Narrator: Mysterious
blasts of light and sound

over cleveland, ohio, baffle residents.

Definitely flooded the area
with light when it happened.

Narrator: Pyrotechnics
expert matt kutcher considers

if the explosions may be caused

by someone playing with explosive balloons.

Mischievous kids figuring
out how to get balloons

up in the air and detonate them?

Entirely possible.

Narrator: To test this theory,
kutcher sets up an experiment.

We're gonna take a big
balloon, like a weather balloon,

fill it full of hydrogen and blow it up.

Narrator: Hydrogen is
very flammable and it floats.

Don't try this at home, kids.

So actually what we've tied
it with is our detonation cable.

We're going to send a
charge of electricity up it.

That'll burst the balloon and spark.

I suppose we made a bit of a bomb.

Let's go get this done, guys. Come on.

We ready?

And in three, two, one. Hit it!

Narrator: The balloon detonates
in mid air, causing an explosion

and a small sonic boom across the yard.

Kutcher: Just like the video, right?

I mean, you had a huge, high-powered flash,

you get a nice concussive bang.

I think it's quite the success!

Narrator: Matt's experiment
proves that exploding

hydrogen balloons
create a flash and a bang,

but it would take a truly
vast hydrogen balloon

to create an explosion as
big as the ones in the footage.

[ explosion ]

eyewitnesses are unconvinced.

I find it hard to believe
that something like that

could shake my whole house

and wake me up out of a dead sleep,

it just felt too powerful.

I definitely think it's a possibility

that there's something bigger going on.

♪

Narrator: Now a figure appears
descending from the heavens.

It bears an incredible resemblance

to depictions of christ
dating back centuries.

Morales: Is that jesus christ?

I really felt like it was him,
so I started praying in spanish,

saying "please lord, father god".

Narrator: The bible
predicts a second coming,

when the messiah returns to
judge the living and the dead.

Morales: Please. Oh, my god.

Narrator: Scientists speculate
as to what else this might be.

It's so silent, it's
actually kind of creepy.

♪

Narrator: Los angeles, california,

home of hollywood,

the glitzy dream factory of the world.

May 8, 2019.9:30 p.M.

Union carpenter pablo morales

steps out of his home for some air.

Morales: That night, it just seemed weird,

the gray sky, the thunder, no lightning,

it just felt like a real like
weird night that night.

Narrator: Morales looks up
and sees what appears to be

a christ-like figure floating from the sky.

At first, I thought it was jesus.

Is that jesus christ?

Please, please, our father god.

The way the apparition was moving,

it was just hovering.

Like, you could see his arms

and it was just hovering in place.

Narrator: The figure clearly resembles

depictions of christ

common in christian homes
and churches across the world.

You can't really see it in the video

because it's a little grainy, but live,

it has like a sash, a robe.

Es un hombre!

Woman: A what? Are you sure?

Yes, mom.

Kind of looks like it turns back at us,

so it kind of seems like
it didn't want to be filmed

or it didn't want to be seen,

so that kind of put
me a little bit unsettled,

you know, because that
was end of the world type stuff.

Narrator: The christ-like shape
briefly stops, looming over him,

and then descends out of sight.

Morales: It went behind
the neighbor's house.

It was maybe 100 feet
past the neighbor's house.

Narrator: Morales rushes to investigate.

Morales: Me and my wife
decided to jump in the car

to see if we could find out what it was.

So this is where the
apparition flew behind.

This is the street where
it should have landed.

It should have landed either
in these trees, in this street.

We couldn't find anything at all.

Narrator: The second coming of christ

is foretold in the book of revelations.

The idea of the second coming is central

to a lot of christian belief

and that's that jesus,
having risen to heaven,

will descend one day back to earth again.

Narrator: The gospel of
matthew foretells the son of man

will appear in the sky to vanquish satan...

And save the faithful.

There is one thing the
experts all seem to agree on.

It definitely looks like it's a person.

Morales: Es un hombre.

Yes, mom.

If it's human, it defies
the laws of physics.

Narrator: Former nypd
video analyst conor mccourt

studies the footage.

My first question is,
is this authentic video?

To me, it's hand held,

it doesn't seem like
there's any after effects,

no special effects.

That's the first thing I look for.

What we have here is a humanoid figure

gently descending to the ground

and it's passing right across a tree,

so it gives us
perspective of how big it is.

What we have here is actually something

that's about the size of an average man.

Narrator: Science writer linda zimmerman

considers the location

where the footage was
shot and sees a possible clue.

Well, this takes place in california,

where there were a lot of hoaxes and cults.

Narrator: One such cult, heaven's gate,

used holograms to fake miracles,

like making people appear to levitate.

These illusions, or tricks,

are convincing enough to persuade

cult followers to take their own lives.

On March 26, 1997, 39
members commit ritual suicide

in order the reach the
extraterrestrial spacecraft

that they believe is following
the comet hale-bopp.

Zimmerman wonders if
the figure in the footage

is intended to deceive.

Zimmerman: There are many reasons to create

a religious hoax, but for the most part,

it brings the hoaxer fame and fortune.

Narrator: But material
scientist sian proctor considers

whether the u.S. Military could have a hand

in this apparently miraculous visitation.

Where this was filmed

is actually one of the aviation
capitals of the united states.

When you think of the history there,

you've got people like
howard hughes's aircraft,

amelia earhart's aircraft.

They were all built in burbank.

It's a hotbed of aviation
technology development.

Narrator: Coming up,
is the figure of christ

really a flying soldier?

It's not beyond the realm of possibility

that somebody in this area

is working on hoverboard technology.

Narrator: And on an oregon highway,

ectoplasmic alien slime.

It's really hard not to think about slimer

from the "ghostbusters" movies

and the trail of snot
that he leaves behind.

♪

Narrator: In burbank, california,

a figure resembling historic depictions

of jesus christ descends from above.

Morales: Please. Oh, my god.

Narrator: Investigators
wonder if the area's

high tech companies could be responsible.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility

that somebody in this area

is working on hoverboard technology

or something similar.

If there's gonna be a hoverboard
in someone's backyard,

it might as well be there.

Narrator: The working hoverboard
is first developed in 2015

and quickly takes off.

In 2019, a french inventor, franky zapata,

built a hoverboard

and flew it across the english channel.

Pappalardo: One thing
you can say about franky

is that he is not shy and
he's got a lot of daring.

Narrator: The next time zapata appears,

it's bastille day in paris.

At this mind blowing demonstration,

zapata flew around the
champs-elysee holding a rifle

while he was in the air.

A bit of a nod to the
potential military application

for this kind of hoverboard technology.

Narrator: But science journalist
jon farrow spots a problem

with the hoverboard theory.

Farrow: Hoverboards
are basically jet engines

that you strap to your feet.

Morales: Is that jesus christ?

And sure, they can lift you up into the sky

but they're gonna make
a lot of noise doing it

and we just don't hear it in this clip.

Narrator: Experts are unable to explain

this mysterious vision,

but pablo morales is convinced

he saw something beyond
human understanding.

I just think, you know, it
was something unnatural,

something unexplained,
something not of this world.

Whatever it is, it remains a
mystery needing to be solved.

Narrator: Now a mysterious ectoplasm mass

of alien-like worms

causes cars to crash on an oregon road.

Is that slime?

That looks gross.

I've never seen anything like that before.

Narrator: Baffled
scientists still do not know

what precisely is going on here.

This is really disgusting,

this entire road seems
to be covered in mucus

and it's obviously led to
several car accidents already.

It's unsettling because there's
no immediate explanation

for what caused the road
to be covered with slime.

♪

Narrator: Highway 101 runs
all the way along the west coast

from california through oregon
and all the way to washington.

It connects the tech
companies of silicon valley

with the many military
bases in southern california.

July 13, 2017.

Highway 101 near depoe bay, oregon.

A motorist makes an emergency stop

as he encounters a mysterious
slime oozing across the asphalt.

Morgan: Oh, there's a wrecked car

covered in slime.

There's all this viscous,
slippery mucus on the road.

Narrator: Writhing
around in the weird mucus

are the twisting bodies
of strange creatures.

I don't have any conventional explanation

for why slime would be covering everything

on a modern major highway.

We're just seeing this absolute disaster.

♪

Narrator: Marine biologist danni washington

thinks that this ocean of
filthy slime might be produced

by the alien-like creatures
that are using it to move around.

When I look at the footage I can see

that this animal is producing the slime

and this is obviously not
their natural environment,

they're meant to be in the water.

Narrator: Animal
behavior expert kevin kasky

thinks the creatures bear
a striking resemblance

to terrifying parasites normally found

in the deep ocean a
mile beneath the surface.

They're the only creature known to man

that has a skull and no vertebrae.

So as food floats down to
them, they bore into the creatures

and they eat them from the inside out.

Narrator: These monstrous freaks

are known as slime eels or hagfish.

Washington: They can
produce up to five gallons of slime

from the hundred slime glands

that they have all over their body.

Kasky: It's a slippery, gooey mucus,

hence why there was a
car crash involved with it.

This slime allows them
to wriggle their way out

of the mouths of the predator and get away.

Narrator: Experts ask how
body munching monsters

from the deep ocean

could end up devouring cars on the freeway.

Muñoz: Researchers have
gone to places like depoe bay

to just gather them by the
thousands and truck them

to research facilities
all over the united states.

So what we could be
seeing here is a truck full

that may have jack-knifed on the highway.

Narrator: Neurophysiologist kiki sanford

looks into the human uses

of this hagfish creature's slime.

What she discovers leads her
to suspect the mess on the road

could be the remains of a
top secret military pay load.

Their slime does have
military applications.

Could it be possible

that they had a military
destination in store?

Now, the interesting thing about this slime

is that really it's quite
a durable type material.

It's actually five times
stronger than steel.

The u.S. Navy is looking into hagfish slime

as a potential shield
that's flexible like a fluid

but then when it's struck,
gets hard like a solid.

Kind of like a non-newtonian fluid.

Narrator: Non-newtonian
fluids like this hagfish slime are

so-called super materials,

almost like black
panther's vibranium armor.

The navy even has an idea
that the slime from the hagfish

can be used as a coating on
the outside of the submarine

that might even potentially stop a torpedo.

Could you imagine a submarine

surrounded by this kind of a slime shield?

This would revolutionize
underwater warfare.

Narrator: Coming up, the danger to earth

from alien super slime.

That slime could pose a threat to humanity.

Narrator: And a rain
of fire on the freeway.

Are we under attack?
What's gonna happen next?

♪

Narrator: An oregon highway is overtaken

by a mass of mysterious
worm-like slime monsters.

Material scientist doug holmes considers

if the alien slime is part of
some weird medical experiment

that has possibly gone disastrously wrong.

Actually there's a research
team from newcastle, England,

working on trying to see if they
can turn slime from the hagfish

into something that
can slow bacteria growth.

Narrator: Bacteria are
easy to experiment on

but hard to control

and can bring life or death.

There's a worry with that as well...

Can it be reverse engineered

to actually create a bacterial infection.

Narrator: Maybe it's
fortunate that the slippery cargo

never reached its final destination.

♪

Now in a quiet english town,

a weird light falls from the sky.

Almost like it's being controlled.

Narrator: It quietly lands
in a woman's garden

as she prepares to go to bed.

This is very strange.

So, what is this thing
and what does it want?

Narrator: Some fear this glowing orb

could be a drone with an agenda.

People are using drones
to spy on their neighbors,

hoping to catch them in amorous acts.

♪

Doncaster, a blue collar
town in northern britain

with a history that dates
back to roman times.

January 17, 2019.

A local woman is
disturbed by a noise outside

and checks her security camera.

It's an awfully strange sight.
Suddenly, you get this object

descending from the heavens, it seems.

It's glowing, it's flashing,

it seems sort of circular and orb-like.

It reminds me of

"close encounters of the third kind."

narrator: The brightly
shining ball of energy

is just feet away from the woman.

It throws out a blinding,
otherworldly glow,

then is starts to pulsate.

It feels like some
glowing object settled in,

just waiting for the
homeowners to come out.

Narrator: Science writer amy teitel

looks into the aerospace
records of the area.

She uncovers more similar reports

of mysterious flying objects.

This isn't the first time
people in this area of the u.K.

Have seen glowing lights.

In the year before this sighting,

there have been two or three other reports

of glowing lights falling to the ground.

If these incidents are connected,

we need to figure out
what exactly is going on.

Narrator: Science
journalist jeff wise wonders

if the woman in the house

is the target of this brightly lit object.

I mean, given the size of
it and how fast it's moving

and the way that it kind of settles down

fairly gently out of the sky,

maybe it could be somebody's drone.

I mean, maybe somebody's
flying a drone around at night.

Narrator: There are over a
million of these flying robots

owned by americans, and it's estimated

there are around 130,000
drone users in britain.

Anyone over the age of 18

can legally fly a drone
after passing a test online

and paying an annual registration fee.

Wise: One of the kind of
creepy things about drones,

it's very difficult to track
who's operating them.

Narrator: Anyone could be
stalking you from the skies

with complete anonymity.

People are using drones
to spy on their neighbors,

hoping to catch them in amorous acts.

Narrator: As drones
become smaller and cheaper,

they're increasingly being
used to spy on individuals

and couples in their most intimate moments.

In 2017, a couple in utah
was arrested for using a drone

to spy on a guy in the bathroom.

Narrator: In orem, utah, in 2017,

john henson steps out of his shower

only to hear the whirring of a drone

hovering outside the bathroom window.

He runs from the house and
pursues the drone until it lands

and he's able to grab it.

He takes it to police,

who review what they
describe as disturbing footage.

Wise: Maybe something
like that was happening here.

It's nighttime, maybe some kind of person

in a dirty overcoat

was looking for some
stimulation and they, you know,

were flying around
peeping in people's windows.

Narrator: Military analyst joe pappalardo

looks at the nearby area

and sees another suspicious
use for a late night drone.

The footage is taken close to
one of britain's toughest jails,

her majesty's prison,
doncaster, or as the locals call it,

doncatraz, after america's
notorious island prison.

There are prisons nearby and drones

have been used to smuggle
contraband into prisons.

That would be one reason
you might want to fly it at night.

If you smuggle in a weapon or a cellphone,

that's one flight and, as an inmate,

changes your life incredibly.

Narrator: Strange and
sometimes dangerous things

are also smuggled out of jails.

Palestinians in israeli prisons
have managed to impregnate

ten women outside the jail.

Some believe they're using drones

to smuggle their sperm over the walls.

Drones are great for hopping
over that natural barrier.

Narrator: Terrified by the glowing orb,

the woman is too scared

to leave her house and investigate.

I can see why people would be freaked out

by this video, to be honest.

Narrator: By dawn, the
glowing object has gone,

leaving no clues behind.

Its true identity remains a mystery.

This is very strange.

It's really not like anything
I have ever seen before.

Narrator: Now on a
highway packed with cars,

fire and brimstone rain down.

[ crashing ]

what the heck just happened?

The cars were getting rained
down on, just molten metal,

there's no escaping that.

How would you know which way to run?

Narrator: A burning, fiery rain
falls on cars and humans below.

The most terrifying part
of this is that it looks, to me,

like an incendiary bomb.

♪

Narrator: Shenyang
is the capital of china's

liaoning province and is headquarters of

the people's liberation army's
northern theater command.

May 11, 2017.

Commuters are driving to work

on an ordinary weekday morning...

But then, what sounds like
a giant moan from above...

There's this deep noise... [ deep groan ]

narrator: ...And a shocking
blast from the heavens.

Oh, my god. That's an
incredibly bright light.

Had I been in that situation,

I'd really be wondering,
are we under attack?

What's gonna happen next?

Narrator: Coming up, to solve the mystery

of the rain of fire,

investigators break out the big guns.

This is my tower of destruction,

a three million volt
lightning impulse generator.

Narrator: And security cameras
capture a bizarre vanishing act.

Wise: He's like a fog. He turns into fog...

And then he's gone.

♪

Narrator: On a busy highway...

Burning fire rains down from the sky.

Physicist stephen granade considers

if the footage shows an act of terrorism.

Something like that makes me wonder

is there a bomb,

has something dramatic like that happened?

Most terrifying part of this

is that it looks like it's burning metal.

It looks to me like an incendiary bomb.

Narrator: These lethal
weapons leave ribbons of fire

streaking through the air.

They melt everything they touch,

including metal, buildings, and people.

Incendiary bombs are
probably some of the most

vile things man's ever created.

I mean, they are just designed to create

as much devastation as possible.

Maximum killing, maximum maiming...

Maximum pain.

Not so dissimilar to
what we see in this video.

[ deep groan ]

narrator: But when biologist leslie samuel

looks more closely at the footage,

he finds a clue that points
in a different direction.

It looks like it's raining in the video.

I'm wondering if that had
something to do with it.

Was there a storm?

Is this a potential
result of a lighting strike?

Narrator: Weather
records show that there are

several lightning strikes
in the region on that day.

Lightning is very dangerous.

24,000 people are killed
each year by lightning strikes.

Narrator: But a lightning bolt on its own

couldn't produce a blast
of such biblical proportions.

Holmes: One thing I am curious about is,

is there anything nearby
that, if struck by lightning,

kind of would be a source

for a kind of further
explosion or fuel for flames?

Narrator: David wallace is a professor

of electrical engineering
at mississippi state.

He examines the video and
spots a clue in the footage.

So, watching the video,
I noticed right before

you see the sparks come out,
I hear this hum off to the side.

[ deep groan ]

now, this hum reminds me
of an electrical transformer.

They give you a very similar hum like this.

Narrator: To find out if
lightning hitting a transformer

could cause a rain of fire
like the one in the footage,

wallace builds a scale
model of the shenyang street.

So here to help me recreate
what we see in the video is my toys.

Now, if you look here to my left,

this is my tower of destruction,

a three million volt
lightning impulse generator.

This is what we're gonna use to recreate

the lightning strike hitting a transformer.

Narrator: Power lines can
carry up to 765,000 volts,

which could easily electrocute
anyone within ten feet.

Transformers on the line are
meant to prevent a power surge

but they aren't designed to
withstand a lightning strike.

So here we're making the connection,

so we can guarantee that our lightning bolt

will strike our transformer.

We're gonna direct it straight down.

Okay, we've got a rain storm started...

So let's get ready to
make a lightning strike.

Let's go ahead and shoot it.

Okay.

♪

[ blast ]

so we had our transformer explode,

we had the nice flash.

[ blast ]

we saw the sparks come
out from the vaporization

of the water.

Pretty good indication of
what we saw in the video,

just on a much smaller scale.

[ deep groan ]

narrator: David wallace's experiment

proves the rain of fire

could be caused by a lightning
strike hitting a transformer.

But there's a problem.

So, the one thing though
that sort of throws me

for a curved ball, is we
do not see any power lines

that indicate there's a transformer there,

so could this be something else?

Narrator: With no further evidence,

the true origin of the deadly fire attack

must remain a mystery.

Now a soldier parades
across a kentucky parking lot.

Ricky: Then just disappears.

Narrator: This one got his
marching orders 160 years ago.

One minute he's there,
the next second he's gone.

Narrator: One of almost a million men

killed in the civil war.

He died in battle clutching his memoir.

Narrator: On a final mission.

Has he come back to
get his personal property?

Narrator: Henderson, kentucky,
a small and sleepy town

on the banks of the ohio river.

But in March 2018, residents
ricky and pamela carter

catch something unexpected
on their home security camera.

You see a man walking across a parking lot.

He almost seems to be marching.

Narrator: But then, he begins to fade,

as though vanishing into thin air.

He's like a fog. He turns into fog...

And then he's gone.

Narrator: The couple are
terrified by what they see.

Pamela: That's weird.

Ricky: And then he just disappears.

It defies explanation.

I think there are definitely
people who would look

at something like this and
say, "okay that's a ghost."

narrator: Coming up, could this mysterious

marching man be the victim
of a military monstrosity?

The pentagon is spending a lot of money

building what they call
directed energy weapons.

You can actually make the
human body disintegrate.

♪

Narrator: In henderson,
kentucky, a security camera

reveals a man walking into oblivion.

Science author linda
zimmerman studies the footage.

She spots two details
that might help identify

this shadowy figure.

On second look, he does
not seem to be strolling along

like an ordinary person.

He almost seems to be marching.

There's a purpose to the way he's walking.

And plus his clothing,

it doesn't look like modern clothing.

It almost looks like an
old uniform of some sort.

Narrator: Former secret agent lindsay moran

digs into the area's military history.

Kentucky was hugely
important during the civil war.

So important that
president lincoln once said,

"to lose kentucky would
be to lose the whole game".

Narrator: Kentucky is a front line state

in the civil war.

35,000 kentuckians joined the confederates

and over 100,000 joined the union army.

Brother battles brother in
some of the most savage

fighting of the conflict.

Moran discovers one key civil war document

which might explain the apparition.

The henderson historical society

holds the diary of confederate
sergeant eugene johnston,

a henderson resident who died in battle.

[ grunts ]

when he died, he was clutching his diary.

Narrator: The diary chronicles
the battles johnston fights in,

the routes of his marches,

even the food he eats in amazing detail.

Has he come back to
get his personal property?

♪

Narrator: But when
physicist stephen granade

studies the footage,

he wonders if this is a real person,

rather than a ghost, how does he disappear?

You might ask yourself,
did he disintegrate?

Narrator: This is extremely unlikely,

but it is not beyond
the realms of possibility.

The u.S. Military is working on weapons

capable of doing just this.

Woman: It projects a
long range man-sized beam

of millimeter waves at a
range of up to 1,000 meters.

The pentagon is spending a lot of money

building what they call

directed energy weapons
where you can, like,

you know, beam a laser at a target.

Narrator: Incredibly, this
laser is designed to be used

by the american government
against its own citizens.

The government claims
the system is not meant

to vaporize its target.

Now, the u.S. Military will
use that for crowd control

to give a burning sensation

without actually setting anyone on fire.

Narrator: The technology
works like a microwave oven,

by heating up water molecules in the skin,

causing a burning sensation.

Granade believes the same
technology could be used

for a far more sinister purpose.

What you can imagine is jacking
that power up tremendously to

instead put up enough energy
into a target to break it apart,

I mean, you can actually
make solid things disintegrate.

You're looking at molecules,

which are atoms that are bonded together.

If you pump enough energy into that matter,

you can actually rip those bonds apart

and turn everything back
into its constituent atoms,

the elements that it's made out of.

That is actually something
that you can scientifically do.

Narrator: But using current technology,

it takes a lot of power to
make a human disappear.

If you wanted to break
all of the molecular bonds

in a human body, you'd be looking at about

three million kilojoules of energy.

Now, that's enough
energy to take one kilogram

and throw it into space
so hard, it's not in orbit,

it's gone. It will never
come back to earth.

It will have achieved escape velocity.

Narrator: It's unlikely that superpowers

are testing novel
weapons in this parking lot,

so right now, this footage
remains unexplained.

I'm curious about who this man is.

I'm even more curious
about where exactly he went.