by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
In the November 1978 Vol. 24, No. 3, Flying Saucer Review, there is an article (page 9 of pdf) by W. K. Allan headlined, “The Fort St. James Sightings,” that details Allan’s investigation of a case in British Columbia, Canada, along with the editor of the Canadian UFO Report, John Magor. Allan describes becoming interested in the case upon seeing a report (page 2 of pdf) headlined, “Possible Canadian Abduction,” in the March 1977 APRO Bulletin. According to Allan, he and Magor travelled, along with their wives, to Fort St. James to interview the witness, who identifies himself as Kirk Alore in the transcription of his story as told on tape. His account includes what seems to be a period of missing time, and this is likely what led the APRO investigator, Michael Sinclair, to consider that Alore might have been abducted. As they looked into the case further, they encountered some problems with Alore’s story but got corroboration from his parents.
According to Alore (described as 17 years old in the Bulletin) at 4:10 in the morning on January 5, 1978, he was driving from his parents’ house in salmon Arm in the Okanagan and was about 30 miles past Prince George and hadn’t seen a car since passing it. He came around a corner and saw a red light above some “hydro towers” (electrical towers) about a mile away to his right. He then saw a car about a half mile away, and at this point, the red light “just shot right over the top of the car that was coming towards me.”
According to Alore, when the oncoming car was about 300 yards away, the light shot towards him. He said it was “huge” and “took up about two highway widths.” He said that the interior of his cab (he was driving a ‘77 GMC pickup) was lit up with red light, and he “got strange sensations such as my arms or legs falling asleep like pin and needles.” He swerved to miss the “thing” and then blacked out.
He said that about 15 minutes later, he came to in the passenger seat as the man from the car was shaking him. The man asked him if he was okay, and he answered yes even though he “was aching all over.” The man said, “The strangest thing happened to me; I came to standing outside my car.” Alore said the vehicles were stopped two feet apart and there were no skid marks even though he was going about 70 mph when he swerved.
According to Alore, he and the other man went to the hospital in Vanderhoof where they were told they were just in shock and sent on their way. He said he didn’t get the name of the man and that the hospital hadn’t either. He said, “We’re having a really bad time trying to get ahold of him.”
A transcript of a question and answer session follows, and by the second page, Magor’s name becomes “Major.” While he’s still Magor, he asks Alore to describe the object. Alore said it was “sort of oblong” and that its surface looked like alligator skin, a description that shows up in the Bulletin as well. He said it had small triangular wings with rounded ends and on the bottom, it had “a circular thing – like an electric razor, a disc turning inside the other.” He said there were little lights inside that were constantly changing colors and “one straight beam of red light.”
Allan and Magor pressed Alore on the details and he was consistent as he went through them again. They asked what the models of the vehicles were, and Alore said he was driving a ‘77 GMC pickup, and that the other man was driving a Ford Galaxy 68. When he was asked if the other man had told him what he had seen, Alore said the man told him he saw the red light moving in on him in his rear-view mirror and said he got the same sensations as Alore had.
In the course of the interview, it came out that there was distortion on the radio. Alore described it as “Just crackling, and it sounded like the radio was going to blow up.” He also told the investigators that his truck lost all power. Then, a new element is introduced:
Magor: Kirk has just said he had a polygraph test.
Alore: Yes, I had a polygraph test from a man in Prince George, and he was from another magazine, and I can’t divulge his name.
Magor: It wasn’t Sinclair from APRO?
Alore: No.
Magor: And you came through with a pretty clear record.
Alore: Yes, I did.
According to Allan, the RCMP said they only used their polygraph for criminal cases and they didn’t know of anyone else who had one in Prince George. Allan concedes that a reporter might have brought his own. He says that a check of the hospital records showed no indication that Alore had been there. He fails to note that there is no mention of the hospital in the APRO report. He does note that in the APRO report the other man’s car is identified as a Pontiac and that the dimensions of the object as given by Alore are smaller in the Bulletin than those that came out in the course of the interview. An explanation for this may be that it was Magor who suggested them as can be seen in this excerpt:
Magor: But it was longer than it was wide?
Alore: Yes, most definitely.
Magor: And it was about 120 feet wide so it might be up to a couple of hundred feet long.
Alore: Mmm Hmm, could be.
Alore had earlier said that the object “took up about two highway widths” which is around 24 feet for a two-lane road.
According to Allan, “These contradictions caused the interview to be put in storage until some confirmation was obtained.” That confirmation came from Alore’s parents, mostly from his mother. As was done with Alore’s testimony, his mother’s transcribed statement is presented followed by an interview.
According to Mrs. Alore, at about 6:10 a.m. on January 6, 1977 (Allan doesn’t address the date discrepancy), she got a call from her excited son who was at the hospital. She said he told her, “he had been knocked off the road by a UFO.” She asked him if the doctor had given him anything and he said yes and that he was “going to go to bed to sleep for a while.”
According to Allan, Mrs. Alore was shown the APRO report and she confirmed that the story told there was the same as what her son had told her and her husband, but she added the detail about the radio which is not in the APRO report.
Allan asked Mrs. Alore to repeat what her son had said about the doctor’s reaction to his story. She said, “Yes, I asked, ‘What did the doctor say when you told him?’ He replied, ‘They just kind of laughed … and didn’t pay too much attention.’” Mr. Alore confirmed his wife’s account saying he was on another phone listening in at the time.
Mrs. Alore added that her son had had another encounter along with his girlfriend in November, but she said he had asked her not to say too much about it or the disturbing feelings and dreams he’d had.
Allan put together details from the conversation with Mrs. Alore, a report in the Caledonia Courier, and the interview with Kirk. According to Allan, at 11:25 p.m. on November 3, 1977, Kirk, now 18, and his girlfriend, Mary Ann Sampson, were walking along the road on the south shore of Stuart Lake when they saw a glowing sphere of light behind some trees. They walked towards it thinking it was the moon and then saw that it was actually a half sphere with a flattened top. According to Sampson, Alore was “freaked out.” At Sampson’s urging, they walked towards the object and were stopped by some sort of force, and basketball-sized blue sparks shot out from the Volkswagon-sized object.
According to Allan, they drove to a farmhouse half a mile way and the object followed them at treetop level. At the farmhouse, they called the RCMP and when the officers arrived, the object was gone but “a peculiar odor of burnt electrical insulation remained.” As they got closer to the area of the initial sighting, the smell was stronger. When they got there, the officers took pictures of the area.
According to Allan, Alore had been having dreams since the first sighting but hadn’t had any for a month prior to the second. After that, he and Sampson reportedly had identical dreams on the same night, but he wouldn’t describe them.
Mrs. Alore added that she, Kirk, his sister, and neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Mork all witnessed a UFO for a short period in Prince George. She said that Kirk had had two more sightings with Mary Ann in January 1978. According to her, asking Kirk, “Have you seen any UFOs lately?” had become a family joke.
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