Cases Reports
Illinois Mutual UFO Network
1-5-2000 St. Clair County, IL
This UFO incident involved multiple witnesses, which mainly consisted of police officers from a number of small Illinois towns.The officers were able to track the unknown object and maintain radio contact with each other during the event. Adding to this, Scott Air Force Base was only two miles away from the flight path of the UFO. This episode became the focus of intense media coverage, which continued weeks after the actual event. The first person to notice anything unusual that early morning was Mr. Melvern Noll. Mr. Noll is the owner of a miniature golf course located in Highland, IL, which is approximately 24 miles from St. Louis, MO. During the off-season, Mr. Noll is a truck driver making deliveries at all hours of the day and night. Mr. Noll was returning from a delivery run he had just completed at approximately 4 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 5. Before returning home, he thought he would check his miniature golf course and make sure everything was in order. He parked his truck in the back of the building and began to exit the vehicle. While doing so, he noticed a "bright star" over in the northeast sky. He didn't give it much thought at the time and proceeded to enter the building. After checking things inside, he locked the building and was returning to his truck. Again, he noticed the "bright star" in the northeast sky. This time, he stopped and observed it more closely. He noticed the light was, in fact, moving in his general direction. In just a few minutes, Mr. Noll noticed the bright white light was only part of a larger object. It appeared to be rectangular in shape. The apparent size of the object was comparable to the size of a football field. Mr. Noll added that the object was also very tall. This object had a series of "windows" that ran down the side. He also noticed two "floors" each having two "windows." These were described as rectangular with an intense white light radiating out from them. The "windows" appeared to be located more toward the rear of the object. When the object was very close, Mr. Noll stated he could see a large number of dim red lights on the bottom. He assumed the exterior color must have been black or dark gray (figure 1).The description he used to initially describe the object was looking like a "two-story house" in the sky. During this time, Mr. Noll did not notice any sound, odor, or emission coming from the object. As it moved away to the southwest, Mr. Noll noticed "windows" on the back of the object. He added that these appeared to have a series of lines or bars in them that ran up and down.The object appeared to move in a northeast to southwest direction. The speed was determined to be slow when compared to conventional aircraft. Mr. Noll did state that he recalls the object slowing down as it passed in close proximity to him before regaining speed as it moved away. Mr. Noll estimated the object was possibly a half-mile distant when it moved closest to his location. The altitude was estimated to be approximately 500 feet. The duration of this sighting was estimated to be around 5 minutes in length.
D o u b l e - c l i c k h e r e t o e d i t t h e t e x t .
Mr. Noll promptly drove his pickup truck to the Highland Police Station. He thought that nobody would believe him, if he told his story. He hoped that the Highland Police could contact a neighboring town's police officer that could verify there was something strange in the sky. The dispatcher at the Highland Police Department listened to Mr. Noll's account and determined that he was a rational individual, despite his unusual claim. She then contacted the Lebanon Police Department. Officer Ed Barton responded to the call around 4:10 - 4:15 a.m.
Figure 1
