Encounter at Gulfport, Mississippi

We shall call our experiencer Eve. Eve was only 12 years old when she had an eerie encounter with the unknown. She was living with her Aunt and her cousins in Gulfport, Mississippi during the summer (July) of 1966. Gulfport is only a short distance down the coast from Pascagoula, which would be host to the landmark 1973 abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker.

At the bewitching age between childhood and adulthood, Eve would portray both roles this particular day. Playing in the back yard with her cousins, she began to feel a strange sensation… like something or someone was calling her, or watching her.

She turned to look behind her, and was stunned by the sight of a craft in the distance. The craft had an array of colored lights, a pretty and alluring sight to a twelve-year-old girl. The lights were blinking on and off. They encircled the strange craft, and these lights seemed to be of a color she had not seen before, and were extremely bright and clear. In her own words, “The more I looked, the more I wanted to keep looking.”

Though the onset of the sighting had been unnerving, she now felt a strange sense of contentment. The sight of the beautifully colored lights made her happy. She could not take her eyes off the craft and its twinkling lights.

The sighting had interrupted the children’s game of “hide and seek.” Eve was “it,” and since she was taking too long to find anyone, the others began to call for her. Eve could hear their cries, but she could not respond to their pleas. She was so strongly drawn to the craft, it was if she was glued to its presence… its charm.

The importance of her game was now insignificant compared to the strange object that had her mesmerized. Finally one of the impatient children found her and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. This jolted her back to reality, and she was then able to move. Eve was asked, “Why weren’t you trying to find us?” She responded, “I don’t know, but isn’t it pretty?” still drawn to the object.

She had not even turned toward her playmate, the craft still holding her attention. Eve pointed to the hovering, distant object. She said, “Look at that!” Her friend asked, “What is it?” The rest of the “hide and seek” gang was now on the scene, staring at the UFO. Mostly frightened, they wanted to leave, afraid it would “get them.”

One of the kids told Eve to come inside, but Eve refused, wanting to continue her watch.

Being warned that she might get into trouble by being outside after dark, Eve had watched her friends run to the back door, and then as she turned back to get one more look at the craft, she noticed it was much closer now. She could see two beings inside through a window! She could make out part of one of their bodies, and another being seemed to be controlling the UFO. The two appeared to be conversing with each other.

Eve felt as if they were talking about her, the lone person drawn to their presence. Both of the beings had long, slender arms, and the pilot of the object seemed to be focusing on Eve now.

Her happiness was beginning to turn into fright and she began running. She fled not in the direction of her house, but toward some bushes near the house. She was trying to lure the object’s attention away from her family inside the house. The UFO moved even closer to the ground now. Eve could hear no sound, but felt she was being targeted.

In her frantic run for safety, she looked back to see where the house-sized object was. A white beam was now projected from the bottom of the object, obviously searching for Eve.

She made it to the bushes before the beam could find her. She was now kneeling, shaking, and crying to herself. She prayed for God to help her, as the craft edged even closer to her hiding place.

“Had the craft found her?” she asked herself. The beam was moving…scanning the ground close to her. The object was totally motionless as the beam angled toward the ground. Soon the light disappeared up into the craft, not turned off, but drawn into the craft in one motion. Within a moment, the craft was gone.

She could barely make it out and it rose further into the sky. There were now three other craft just like the first one she saw. Eve could sense they were working in unison. The four craft were now moving slowly. Should she make a run for the house? No, not yet. Oh no!

Another craft now filled the place of the first one, and began searching the ground around the house and the bushes. After a few short moments, the beam was drawn back into the craft just like the first one had been. The second search craft now reunited with the remaining three. After what Eve estimated as some 20 seconds, the objects made a type of jerking motion, and in flash, they were gone. This was her chance. She ran for the house, and tried to open the screen door.

It was locked. She couldn’t believe she was locked out of her own house, and she began banging on the door, shaking the screen door, making all the noise she could.

“Where was everybody?” she thought. She called to her Aunt, who eventually came to the back door in her bed clothes. She asked Eve, “Who are you?” Eve said, “It’s me.” Her Aunt asked her what she was doing out so late. Eve told her that her cousins had just came in a few minutes before. Her Aunt’s reply shocked her, “Everyone has been in bed for a while.”

Her Aunt explained that she remembered Eve was in the house when she locked the doors. Eve went to her and her cousin’s bedroom, and woke her cousin to ask her what had happened.

Her cousin also stated that she thought Eve was safe inside the house with the others before the doors were locked. The strange UFO and its occupants are gone now, but Eve’s haunting memories are not. She, to this day, does not understand what exactly occurred or why.

She turned her story in to one UFO investigative group, but no follow-up was done, and she was basically ignored. The case was not recent enough, she was told. The significance of what happened to Eve is not diminished by the passing of time. It is as important today as it was then.

Did Eve go into the house as the others claimed? Was she then abducted by the occupants of the UFO? Eve was too afraid and traumatized at the time to tell anyone what happened that summer night in Mississippi. Eve now wants to tell her story. Who will listen?