Paranormal Witness - Wednesdays 10:00/9:00C on SyFy
This second episode took an entirely different direction than the first in the stories it shares. I’ll get to those in a minute. There were things I liked and didn’t like about the stories. The biggest disappointment was that once again there were no actual photos, video or other evidence of the accounts. I am not pointing this out because I don’t believe the accounts and I need proof but because I have been looking forward to any photos or footage they might share. It’s an excellent marketing ploy but so far no payout.
STOP reading now if you are planning on checking out this episode.
Haunted Highway
California, 1994
The story opens with Deborah Hoyt telling us that she was visiting relatives in Sacramento when she woke up in the middle of the night with a strong desire to go home. She persuaded her husband to leave right away. They head home on Highway 50 which is a winding road that leads into the mountains. She notes that she does not like driving on this road at night. As they approach a particular bend in the road she sees the figure of a female lying on the side of the road completely naked and extremely pale.
The story cuts to five days earlier in another part of California where a man named Dave starts telling us his story. It centers on his daughter Christine and her little boy Nick. Christine worked her way through school and got a job as a paralegal in southern California. She and Nick were getting ready to start their journey to their new lives and her new job. She told her parents she would call in a couple days after she got there and got settled. On Wednesday the friend she was to stay with calls Dave and his wife extremely upset. Christine and Nick never showed up. They were supposed to be there on Monday. Dave and his wife now concerned, contact the police. The police are not helpful at first.
The story cuts again to another person. At this point my head is already spinning on all the unconnected people they are introducing but it will all work itself out as the story continues. Richard Stasser, a former deputy of Placerville, CA, tells us that at first they thought this was just a routine missing persons. They get many of these daily.
On Thursday, Christine’s parents start handing out fliers in the area. That night they receive a call from Christine’s Aunt Karen of San Bernardino. She had a dream that extremely distresses her. In it she can see Nick and a lot of bright light and the number 16 over and over again. Dave tells us his sister has had premonitions before. She insists that she needs to come to see them right away.
On Friday the case becomes a priority for the police in the area. They start checking in with the 24 hour gas stations in the Placerville area. One of the clerks does remember seeing Christine and her son 2 days prior. He remembered the short conversation he had with her telling us she mentioned how tired she was. Deputy Richard Stasser notes the clerk is the last person to see them before they disappeared.
The story has come full circle as we get back to Deborah Hoyt and she reminds us that she felt the need to drive home in the middle of the night on Highway 50 with her husband. As they were going around a bend she saw the body of a naked woman. She notes that the body had no shadow. Her husband wants to go back and check on the woman. She could still be alive. Deborah insists that they do not. She doesn’t have a good feeling about it and suggests it could be a ploy that is pulled on unsuspecting drivers in desolate areas. They find a phone at a rest stop a little further down the road and call the police. They are instructed to wait in their car for an officer to arrive. When the cops arrive they drive them back to the area where they saw the girl. The officers go around the bend using that infamous cop spotlight and come back to report they saw nothing there. Deborah and her husband go home. That night Deborah does not sleep at all. She cannot get the woman on the road out of her head.
The next day Deputy Stasser meets up with the officers who took the call. The officers say they believed Deborah’s story they just did not find any proof. Deputy Stasser then takes a call from the Sheriff’s station and meets with Christine’s aunt and uncle from San Bernardino. He wonders if the two items are connected and wants to start a search. At this same time Aunt Karen and her husband decide to do a search of their own.
Deputy Stasser drives to the bend where Deborah reported seeing the woman on the road. He starts looking for any evidence in the area and finds a child’s shoe on the road under some brush. It could be Nick’s shoe. Past where the shoe is found there is a very steep drop. He looks down and sees debris everywhere. He spots a red car. The roof of the car appears to be peeled back and removed. He makes his way down to the wreck and finds Christine in the driver’s seat. She is already gone. He then finds Nick. Nick looks dead but upon closer inspection he notices shallow breathing. He calls in for help and tries to interact with Nick. When back up arrives, Stasser makes his way back up to the road to stop Karen and her husband from coming down to the wreck. He lets them know the situation and Nick is taken to the hospital.
Deborah hears the reports of the wreck on the news and realizes it is the same girl she saw on the road. She doesn’t want to believe it because at the time she saw the woman on the road, Christine had already been dead for 5 days.
Nick Skubish remembers some images vividly from that night. He remembers going down the hill. He remembers waking up next to his mom in the car. He remembers thinking she was sleeping. He remembers seeing bright lights next to the car and his mom and through the back window. He remembers looking up towards the road and seeing a silhouette with no features standing there. He remembers not being scared of the silhouette.
Two weeks later Dave and his wife go back to the crash site. They show this part at night and I am sitting there going really? At night? You are going to travel this same windy dangerous road at night to go to the crash site and look for anything that might have been left there. Yeah right. Anyway the whole point of this last piece is that when they get out of the car to check things out they find a sign for mile marker 16 covered by some tree branches. So Aunt Karen is not crazy; she really is psychic like on that TV show “Medium.”
The parting thoughts come from Nick and Deputy Stasser. Nick thinks maybe the bright lights he saw were God’s hand or an angel or maybe even his mom looking out for him. Deputy Stasser can’t explain it but he knows for sure something happened out there.
I enjoyed this story so much more than the one we saw last week. Sure the one last week with the imaginary friend was scary but there was absolutely no resolution to it. This one was by far less scary but more satisfying.
Kentucky UFO Chase
Kentucky, 1993
The title pretty much says it all. The dramatic interpretation on the other hand is quite the comedy.
Kenny Graham is a helicopter pilot. He is working with Kenny Downs, a new member of the staff with no flight experience. Their job is to aid the police in situations where air coverage is necessary. At about 10:30 one night they decide to take the helicopter out to do a patrol. They want to make their presence known to all those criminals living in Kentucky.
Kenny D. is directing the helicopter spotlight while Kenny G. is piloting. I think I should point out so as to get the bad joke out of your head and mine, Kenny G. is black. Anyway it has been a quiet and clear night out. They receive a call about a burglary in progress. They head to the location and are directed where to shine the spotlight by the officer on the ground and his flashlight. It ends up being a false alarm. They decide to head back to take a break.
As they start going over some trees near the area Kenny D. asks Kenny G. when they erected a tower with an orange light on it in the area. Kenny G. says there is no tower in the area and Kenny D. directs him to look towards the trees where there is a very distinct pear shaped light. Neither of them are sure what it is and move the helicopter a little bit closer to investigate. When they get a little closer the light comes up in mid air so that it is level with them. It starts to circle them like it is also investigating them. Suddenly the light flies off at warp speed (their phrase, not mine) and comes right back.
The officer (Joe) on the ground has noted that the helicopter has been hovering in the air above the GE parking lot. He radios them and they direct him to look in the sky near them. He too sees the light. The helicopter moves towards the light and suddenly they are in an air and ground chase with this unidentified light. Officer Joe in the car can’t keep up with what’s going on in the air and watch where he is driving on the ground so he stops. At this time the light has stopped and so has the helicopter. At the last moment the light starts shooting “fireballs” at the helicopter. In the reenactment they do not look like “fireballs” but more like what Tinkerbell looks like in the movies. I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies. Maybe in real life they were more fireball-like. Either way at one point the helicopter has to maneuver out of the way so as not to get hit. When they maneuver back into their previous position the light has disappeared. There is no word from the office on the ground if he saw where it went. He must’ve blinked.
Kenny G. and Kenny D. head back to base in silence. They have been trained not to believe in UFOs but that’s what it was…an unidentified flying object. No one is saying aliens here people.
The episode was kind of light on the creep factor although the first story had its elements. I did enjoy it much better than last week for the reason I have already mentioned…more resolution. Although it is still too early to tell if this is a show I would normally watch every week or something I would just catch on reruns or when there is nothing else on. I have to review it so either way, I’ll be watching. Will you?
-LT-
