Unknown Microbe Kills Camper (1982)

[=VG= BLuDKLoT]

When I saw this I was concerned for you Semler, even thought you're in Bigfoot country! Pick your poison, lmao...read on.

CAMPER KILLED IN MICHIGAN: WERE UFOS TO BLAME?

?Andrew Holmes was a young geology student in his second year at Northwestern University, in Michigan. His grades had been good that year [1979] and so, when summer vacation came, he decided to reward himself by doing something he?d been planning for a long time: A solo hiking trip through the Upper Peninsula. Consequently, he filled a backpack, hitched a ride to a point just outside the town of Marquette -- near the northern tip of the state -- and set out into the woods.

?He never returned.

?The woods in northern Michigan cover a vast area and so, it was nearly a week before the body of Andrew Holmes was found slumped over a rock beside a quietly running river. Exposure to the elements had caused the body to deteriorate at a rapid rate and the odor must have been overpowering as the corpse was put inside a plastic bag and transported to the nearest hospital for examination.

?Holmes? backpack, which had been lying on the ground only inches from his body, was opened and found to contain enough food for several days. Furthermore, the body had been discovered next to a source of fresh water. Therefore, it seemed clear that Andrew Holmes had not died from starvation or thirst; nor did it seem he could have died from exposure since it was summer and he had a sleeping bag.

?As is standard procedure in such cases, an autopsy was performed on the body of Andrew Holmes to determine precisely what had been the cause of death.

?All the tests came up negative. Andrew Holmes had been a young man, strong, and in good health. There was nothing wrong with his heart, kidneys, or any other organ. No poisons were detected in the body, nor were any drugs. After three days, then, the doctors completed their examination as baffled as when they had begun it.

?The doctors were stymied, but duty demanded that they make every possible effort to determine the cause of Andrew Holmes? death. Therefore, since they had performed every test allowed by the facilities available to them, it was decided that the body be shipped downstate to the hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

?The University of Michigan Hospital was a state-of-the-art institution equipped with the latest in diagnostic equipment. If the experts there could not determine what had killed Holmes, then there would be no choice but to release the body for burial and write the case up as ?unsolved.?

?The doctors set to work in earnest. First, they repeated all the tests done earlier by the doctors upstate in order to confirm the upstate doctors? conclusions. They were confirmed.

?Though superior to the upstate hospital in many ways, it was in the area of microbiology that the U. of M. hospital had its greatest edge. It was decided to begin the new investigation there. Tissue samples were taken from various parts of the body and carefully analyzed. At first, the results were, as before, negative. But when the hospital?s electron microscope was brought into play, the doctors hit pay dirt. Dr. John Mellon, the microbiologist who headed the investigation, explains:

??We had been trying to find an overt physical cause of Holmes? death with absolutely no success. He was young, healthy, and his organs were in good shape; there was simply no logical reason for him to have . . . It just didn?t make sense.

??We decided, therefore, to attack the problem from a microbiological angle. Since the subject was obviously dead, something must have killed him. Perhaps it was something very small, something we were not familiar with, something that could kill without leaving any readily visible physical damage in its wake.

??It was the first time, to my knowledge, that an electron microscope had been used in the performance of an autopsy, but my colleagues and myself felt this unorthodox and unprecedented step necessary in light of the fact that all other methods used by us had failed.

??So we took a tiny scraping from the inside surface of the subject?s cheek and subjected it to examination with the electron microscope. The result was immediate, dramatic, and, to say the least, puzzling.?

?What Dr. Mellon and his colleagues found in the body of Andrew Holmes were extremely tiny microbes, much tinier and different in appearance than any virus discovered heretofore. Nonetheless, an attempt was made to put the microbe into some kind of classification. The attempt proved fruitless.

??What we have here,? Dr. Mellon said, continuing his explanation, ?is a new organism, a form of life that has never been seen before. What it is and where it came from is far beyond me. As for what it?s doing in the tissues of a human being is . . . Well . . . I just don?t know. I don?t doubt for a second that this is what killed Andrew Holmes, but I can?t tell you how it happened because, frankly, I just don?t know what the damn thing is.?

?In order to learn more about the strange organism, samples were taken and placed in petri dishes to multiply. So far, there has been little progress. As Dr. Marilyn Gladwell, another member of the scientific team puts it, ?The Holmes Microbe is something new, something we?ve never seen before, but more than that, it seems to be a complete anomaly. Its biological makeup and processes are completely unlike that of any other living thing on Earth. In order to study it, then, we must begin virtually from scratch.?

?Because of this necessity to ?begin virtually from scratch,? the investigation is proceeding slowly. Nevertheless, there is one hypothesis on which everyone studying the microbe agrees: the so-called ?Holmes Microbe? is not of this Earth.

??It almost certainly has to be of extraterrestrial origin,? states Dr. Manuel Ortega, an exobiologist called in soon after the idea was proposed. ?New organisms evolve from other organisms that preceded it. They don?t just appear out of nowhere.?

?It was at this point that we were contacted and asked to check its files for any record of UFO activity in the area of Michigan where the body of Andrew Holmes had been found. As it turned out, no sightings had been reported, but this did not necessarily disprove Dr. Ortega?s hypothesis. The area under question was vast, heavily wooded and sparsely populated. It would not be unusual for a UFO entering that area -- especially if it came low, just above the treetops and made little noise -- to go completely undetected. It was decided, therefore, to send a team of investigators to northern Michigan to comb the area for evidence of UFO activity.

?The search began early in the morning of Sept. 3, 1979. Using the spot where Holmes? body had been found as the center, a circle three miles in diameter was described and divided into grids. Each grid was assigned five searchers, one of whom was equipped with a metal detector. In addition, each team carried a walkie-talkie in order to make hourly reports to a central command post on its progress and to summon assistance should it become necessary.

?It was not until late afternoon of the second day that one of the searchers shouted excitedly into his walkie-talkie that he had found something. Quickly, the other teams converged on the area where they found the team that had sent the alert crouched around a circular burn-mark of about 20 feet in diameter. Beyond the circle at a distance of 30 feet, arrayed at three points around it, were three deep depressions.

?Was the burn-mark made by an alien spacecraft? Were the three depressions made by the craft?s landing legs? To many of the scientists working on the project, the idea seemed fantastic, but no more fantastic than the strange microbes that should not have existed, but nevertheless did. Also, to assume the presence of extraterrestrials in the woods near the place of Andrew Holmes? death would allow the scientists to form a hypothesis as to how the death occurred.

?Perhaps an alien craft really did land in the woods of northern Michigan and perhaps the occupants of that craft decided to take a little exploratory stroll, a stroll during which they encountered an Earth-man, a young male named Andrew Holmes. And perhaps, either deliberately or inadvertently -- probably the latter -- the human was infected by an alien microbe, a microbe against which his body would have had no defense. And the microbe killed him.

?Is this in fact what happened to Andrew Holmes on his fatal hike through the woods of northern Michigan? We believe it is.?

I found this on on Facebook....weird.

[=VG= Outlanders]

The Dyatlov Pass Incident
February 1959, Ural Mountains, Russia. Nine missing skiers found dead. Cause: Unknown

The mountain is about 1000 metres high and its name in the Mansi language means The Mountain of the Dead

"Investigators at the time determined that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow. Though the corpses showed no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. According to sources, four of the victims' clothing contained substantial levels of radiation. There is no mention of this in contemporary documentation; it only appears in later documents"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/1562/the_dyatlov_pass_incident.html

[=VG= SemlerPDX]

I do think about them as I walk alone at night very far from camp to high cliffs or forest clearings so sit and watch the stars.
I wonder about ancient aliens, if there were indeed several different "factions" taking advantage of our ignorant ancestors, posing as gods or worse.
I've seen the evidence throughout history and it seems they have great interest in us for some reason. I would love to say I believe its all for good and they may be "overseers" but I fear the truth is far more dark and terrifying that any of us would wish to acknowledge.

Ignorance is truly bliss. I like PITN's sig. Translated: "Live for the day, putting as little faith as possible in the future."

s/f