Burnside Abduction Newspaper Clipping
[Archivists note: This document was transcribed from a newspaper clipping.]
Local Pastor Claims Extraterrestrial Abduction
BY MYRT PYATT
BURNSIDE – Jeb Hughes, 47, local pastor of the Idabel Lake Seventh Day Adventist Church, was found by police up in the high branches of a Douglas fir outside city limits early Wednesday morning. A fire crew was called out to safely bring him down. He was dressed in the same suit he'd worn to church that Saturday.
After being treated for minor cuts, bruises, and a moderate case of hypothermia, Hughes was kind enough to speak with us. According to him, he'd been driving home after the Saturday evening service when his Buick "slammed on the brakes by itself." He looked down to see the brake pedal firmly pressed to the floor, despite his foot not touching it. He went on to say his car began to "vibrate and hum," a sound that was more felt than heard, "like one of those subwoofer speakers cranked to full volume."
He said he looked out to the road ahead, and saw the glint of eyes in the distant dark: "Several pairs, big eyes." He claimed these "eyes" spoke to him without saying a word, communicating the message: "Be not afraid." Which apparently only made him more scared. Hughes told us "everything is a blank after that," right up until the moment he awoke in the tree four days later.
Police are still on the search for his vehicle, and they tell us the site where it went missing matches Hughes' story. As of Wednesday, the burnout marks are still visible on the road, with no evidence of the car being driven or towed away. In the words of Sheriff Caldwin, "It's as if somebody just tied the thing to a helicopter and airlifted it to heaven."
The story follows two independent sightings of a pitch black, diamond shaped object levitating over Idabel Lake. One sighting by local rancher Simon Beltraine, and the other by our very own Editorial Assistant Jade McMillan. Both witnesses claimed the object was roughly the length of a school bus, and that it had appeared instantaneously, lingered in dead silence for about ten seconds, then disappeared in the blink of an eye. Both witnesses felt a queasy sense of dread after seeing the object, with Simon Beltraine admitting to nearly "throwing up his dinner."
Is something really out there?
[Archivists: In the margins are two images.
Image 1: a black and white photo of a Douglas fir, the caption below reading: "The tree Jeb Hughes was rescued from. Locals have already started a petition to name it "Hughes' Tree.” Forty signatures and rising."
Image 2: A penciled sketch of a black diamond, the caption below reading: Simon Beltraine's sketch of the Idabel Lake Diamond.]