by Charles Lear
In last week’s blog, we looked at a recent report from the Pampas region of Argentina that involved a missing woman who was found the next day in a town around 65 km from where she was last seen. She reported being in her yard in Jacinto Aráuz, seeing a light, and then suddenly finding herself sitting on a road in the town of Guatraché with no memory of how she got there. The case caught the interest of a local UFO researcher, as it bore a resemblance to an alien abduction case reported in the area in 1983. The researcher was interviewed in connection with the story in the local paper La Arena and the woman’s disappearance was presented in the paper with the alien angle in mind. Since the last blog was posted, the woman has come forward and was interviewed for a video segment hosted on the web based news site Crónica TV. In case there might be any question of whether the presenters had any sort of bias towards the alien explanation for the woman’s experience, the segment is titled “Habló la mujer abducida por un OVNI en La Pampa” which in English, according to Translate at Duck Duck Go, is “Spoke the woman abducted by a UFO in La Pampa.”
The woman has been identified as Irma Rick and she was interviewed by a man in the yard outside her house and a man and a woman in the studio. At this point she still had no memory of what had happened to her between seeing the light in her yard and finding herself in Guatraché.
Rick tells the interviewer that her husband had gone to “look after another property“ and that she had gotten up that morning, had 2 or 3 cups of mate, a caffeine rich drink made from ground yerba leaves, and was playing with her phone. Her phone started acting up (she described that there were lines crisscrossing it) and then she heard a buzzing noise outside “like when the wind whistles against a window.” She thought her husband might have forgotten something and was coming back, so she went outside. She then heard what sounded like an incredibly powerful wind and saw “lights, many lights” that were so bright that she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
In the first reports, Rick was said to have woken up sitting in the middle of the road with her phone in her hand. In her interview, she says she found herself sitting on the edge of the road with legs outstretched. Her arms were on her legs, and her phone, still on, was in the pocket of her housecoat.
The interviewer asks her when she “vanished” and she says it was around 7:00 a.m. The interviewer clarifies that this was 7:00 a.m. on Monday and that she “appeared” at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Rick corrects him saying, “No, I disappeared on a Tuesday and reappeared on a Wednesday.”
Rick says that the first thing she did after finding herself in Guatraché was to call her children. She found herself unable to speak and began texting. The man in the studio points out that she was still unable to speak in the hospital (where she was taken after being found by a Guatraché police patrol) and Rick confirms this.
The man in the studio brings up the abduction idea with this question:
“Irma, evidently, this is the first time you’re telling your story…the possible abduction–is that how you say it?– by a UFO, in the enormity of the province of La Pampa. Now, you’ve surely told this to your friends, relatives, acquaintances. How did you say it, and how was it received? Did they believe you or not?”
The interviewer points out that this is the first time she’s spoken about what happened to her with anyone other than her husband, and Rick corrects him saying she’d discussed it with her husband and her kids. The man in the studio asks what they had to say about it and Rick replies: “What were they going to say? They’re just as startled as me. I would like to know what happened to me, but I still don’t know anything.”
The man in the studio and the interviewer start a discussion with Rick about the fact that her clothes were clean in spite of the long distance she’d traveled. She confirms that her clothes were clean but that she was told that she was “very dirty, smelly.” The interviewer with her asks if she walked 60 km and she replies: “I don’t think I could walk such a distance in that time.”
The woman in the studio asks if Rick had any marks on her body and Rick tells her that there is a mark on her head. The camera zooms in on a small mark on her scalp and the man in the studio says, “Look at that cut! So weird. This is incredible, Marco! It’s a meticulous incision. And a tough one to do, am I right?”
The interviewer asks if Rick can walk with him to the spot where “it happened” and they do so. She points out the location and the interviewer asks, “So the abduction took place right there?” Rick replies, “I don’t remember, but I know I got that far.”
The interviewer attempts to rule out a conventional vehicle being involved by pointing out that the road is about a kilometer from the house and says, “If there was a vehicle involved, she would have noticed. Right, Irma?” Rick replies, “Yes, I suppose I would have. Aside from that, take a look, all I could hear was the wind. A very strong wind that seemed to suck you in, but that’s where I lost consciousness.” The man in the studio says that the staff is checking on the weather for the day in question and that there “was no call for strong winds, at least from what the records show.”
The man in the studio brings attention to some indentations and asks, “Would those be the mark, the record, of the event? Am I saying it right or not?” There is some interference and the man in the studio gets back to his question and asks, “I was saying that those indentations, depressions on the soil…could they be a record of the event? Could it be a key to this investigation?” He brings the interviewer’s and Rick’s attention to a specific depression and she explains “that’s something the dog does.”
The man in the studio asks if Rick would be willing to tell her story “to an agency tied to the research into these matters?” She tells him “No, I didn’t speak to anyone.” The man asks: “But would you be willing to do so?” Rick replies, “Yes, yes.”
UFO researcher Luis Burgos posted his take on the case in a blog titled, “A Contrarian Viewpoint: Argentina’s Alleged Abduction in La Pampa,” on the blog site Inexplicata–The Journal of Spanish UFOlogy. There, he presented his views on the case, his criticism of the way in which it was handled by the “sensationalist media,” and accused Crónica TV of “engaging in its own UFO circus.” Burgos laments that no proper onsite investigations were done and that Rick’s phone, which could have been used to track her location during her missing time, was never turned over to authorities.
Turning to Rick, Burgos points out that she had reported another sighting in 2002. He considers this fact to be something that works against Rick’s credibility. According to Burgos, Rick reported that on June 19, 2002, she was awake at around 4:30 a.m. when a bright bluish light shone into the house. She opened the door and saw a brightly lit “device” floating over a silo. She said a creature descended that “looked slender and had a sort of head in its upper section.” She said, “I notice any hands, feet or eyes.”
Rick watched as the creature hovered for about a minute. It then dove “into the light and went inside it.” Rick continued, saying, “The light turned off and I didn’t see where it took off to.” She said that the police told her that the bird droppings on the top of the silo were burned.
While what happened to Rick remains a mystery, one thing that we can take away from this case is that investigators should be careful to distinguish trace evidence of a UFO landing from “something the dog does.”
12-21, ANOTHER UPDATE: In last week’s blog, we posted an update on a case from Argentina involving a woman, Irma Rick, who went missing on November 6th of this year. She was found the next morning in a town about 65 km away. She reported that she found herself there sitting on the edge of a road and that her last memory was standing in her yard in a strong wind and seeing some bright lights. The case was treated as a possible alien abduction case during a web-based newscast interview with the woman in a manner described by UFO researcher Luis Burgos as a “UFO circus.” Burgos criticized not only the handling of the case by the press, but also the fact that there was no proper investigation of her case. In particular, he bemoaned the fact that the woman had her phone with her, which had been on during the period in question, and that it hadn’t been handed over to officials who could use it to determine her movement. The latest news is that has now happened. Rick’s phone has been turned over to the Sole Office of the Public Prosecutor in the 3rd District of General Acha. Deputy Prosecutor Dr. María Virginia Antón is the person responsible for the investigation of Rick’s case and she gave Burgos an interview. According to her “The investigation aims at dismissing all suspicions that the event might have had: Spousal abuse, kidnapping, extortion, injury, etc.” The results will be given to the parties involved and will not be made public by her office. As far as the possibility that aliens might have been involved Antón said, “We investigate earthly matters.”