Dear Jeff, This story certainly has been causing a great stir here in the city of Monterrey, N.L. Mexico and I would like you to know the facts involving a police officer , a flying humanoid entity and a mobilization of police forces in a bizarre, unprecedent incident. - Santiago. It was very early in the morning 3:15 AM on Friday January 16, 2004 when police officer Leonardo Samaniego from Guadalupe, N.L. Mexico was doing his daily vigilance routine in his patrol car around Colonia Valles de la Silla not knowing the shocking experience that he was about to live, a true drama that he will never forget.

The night was cold and dark and the streets were empty when Samaniego made a turn onto Alamo street and immediately noticed something very unusual. A huge, black object fell from a tree beside the street but it stopped just before touching the ground...and then slowly landed and turned itself to face the patrol car. At that moment, officer Samaniego knew that something was wrong. So he turned on the high beams of his car to try to see what was this black object that fell from the tree was. That's when Samaniego's nightmare began. "It was a woman...all dressed in black that fell from the tree but she didn't touch the ground, just remained floating several feet from the ground, declared officer Leonardo Samaniego. I saw her very well and then she landed softly on the ground and stood there looking at me. She was trying to cover her face from the lights of the car, I think they were bothering her. I could see two big black eyes on her, completely black without eyelids, and her skin was dark brown. She was all dressed in black with cloak and cape like a witch and she seemed very upset by the lights." In a matter of seconds, the scene turned into a terrific sequence of events almost like a horror movie...but all too real. The being jumped very fast over to - and onto - Samaniego's patrol car trying to get at him while the shocked police officer tried to runaway in reverse while shouting desperately for back-up assistance on his radio. Stunned Officer's Eyewitness Description Here is officer Samaniego's testimonial of these terrifying seconds that for him must have seemed like a never-ending nightmare. "As soon as I realized it was a kind of woman being, or a witch, very strange standing there trying to cover her face, she threw herself against my car very fast, falling on the car and hitting the windshield. She was flying very fast and it took only a second to hit the windshield glass. I was so shocked by this action that I put the car in reverse and pushed the accelerator trying to get away while requesting backup assistance by radio." According to officer Samaniego's statement, the female being was trying to grab him with her hands right through the car's windshield. She was separated from the officer by only the few centimeters of the car's windshield. It was at this moment that officer Samaniego got his best visual look at the being he described as a "witch". "It was a woman with big black eyes, everything was black, no eyelids. Her skin was dark brown and her expression was horrible. She was furiously trying to get me with her claws while I was running away in reverse calling desperately for backup assistance to any units around. When I finally hit the end of the street, I was so shocked that I covered my eyes and then I fainted." Officer Leonardo Samaniego lost consciousness after he covered his eyes trying not to see the frightening being still glued to the windshield trying to get to him. The severe amount of high stress experienced by him caused him to pass out. Some minutes later, two police units arrived as well as an ambulance that was nearby. When they got to the patrol car they found officer Samaniego unconscious. Fortunately, he was not injured, perhaps due to the fact that he never abandoned the car during the incident. That decision may have prevented a tragedy. After several minutes, he regained consciousness and was attended by the paramedics on the ambulance. A tv camera crew that arrived with a police unit recorded officer Samaniego's first interview just minutes after he felt calmed enough - during the interrogation by his police colleagues. All this occurred at the same place of the bizarre incident. Officer Samaniego stood firmly on his account, insisting that the being was a witch that could fly and attacked him and his patrol car.

Note - One look at the young officer's stunned and shocked facial expression speaks volumes. -ed An extensive search was done around the area by the police units trying to find any tracks or evidence of the mysterious female being but nothing was found. The ambulance took officer Samaniego to the Hospital Universitario for a medical evaluation and he remained there all day. Drug Tests And Psychological Tests All Negative The Secretary of Public Security of Guadalupe, Mr. Hamlet Castilla Garcia, informed that several drug tests as well as other examinations were conducted on officer Leonardo Samaniego to check for any toxic substances in his body like alcohol or any kind of drug. All tests were negative. Also, Dr. Edelmiro Perez Rodriguez who is coordinator of medical services in Hospital Universitario informed that after several psychiatric and psychological examinations they found officer Leonardo Samaniego mentally and physically healthy. Guadalupe mayor, Mr. Juan Francisco Rivera, declared the next day that Samaniego is a fine police officer in the department and there is no reason whatever to think that he would have invented such a story. But he added that maybe it was an excess of work or too much stress that made him believe what he saw, not necessarily what really happened. He said that life sometimes puts people in weird situations that we can't explain. Needless to say that the story broke in the television headlines the next day and a the people of the community awoke to a great controversy. Local tv channels 2 and 34 took the story very seriously and decided to cover all the incidents and follow the case in a huge display of information through all of their newscasts for the next days. The people's response was great and literally hundreds of reports and testimonials of similar things sighted arrived at the tv station. Several witnesses were interviewed saying that they saw the mysterious black being flying over their homes.

Other Officers Saw The Same Being 3 Days Earlier A police officer from Santa Catarina, N.L., Mr. Jorge Contreras, declared that he and two more policemen from the Regia Police saw EXACTLY the same flying being that officer Samaniego saw, but three days before. They saw it flying and decided not to say anything - until they heard about this case. Norma Alicia Herrera who lives in Colonia La Playa declared in a tv interview that she and her brother saw also the being flying at daytime and that it looked weird. She said that her brother was so stunned by the sighting that he was sick for almost a week afterwards. A neighbor in that sector also videotaped, several days before, a strange flying humanoid being and gave the video to the tv station. The footage was released the same day during the newscast of channel 34 and later on channel 2 causing even more commotion among the people. The story was also released by major newspapers like El Norte and Milenio. The same Friday, January 16, special surveillance units were stationed where the incident took place and streets surrounding as an operative to protect the neighbors in case an eventual new attack. At the same time, an investigation was initiated by the Public Security Corporation in Guadalupe. Police officer Leonardo Samaniego remained in seclusion receiving his treatment for the next two days when he was interviewed again on tv, maintaining his story in every detail.

Further Research According to the being's description and characteristics as given by Samaniego - especially those of the eyes - I looked in my archives for any similar cases trying to sustain the theory of the humanoid encounter. I found the classic case from Flatwoods, West Virginia in 1952. The drawings are very similar to what officer Samaniego declared attacked him. Of course, the Mothman story came to mind, also from West Virginia but in 1966 - a still unsolved case of a strange humanoid. These are famous cases that remain an enigma. Reviewing the footage taken by a witness of the strange flying entity, I found the shape of this being or object very unusual in terms of any ufological analogy but not so in my dossier of evidences of cases in which I have found similar reports of humanoid shaped entities or beings. Here in Mexico, we have been witness to several cases of extremely rare humanoid-shaped flying things, objects, entities, beings or whatever the definition may be. We simply don't have any idea what these strange figures are that resemble a human flying in the sky without parachute or any propulsion device, defying all known laws of physics. These kinds of things have been witnessed and taped more than a few times here in Mexico and we still don't have any clue of what this next level phenomena may represent. The case of officer Samaniego is now another challenge to confront and most probably will remain inconclusive and unexplained. But we have witnesses, evidence and testimonials that something very real and weird is happening in the sky, and now among us, maybe a frightening menace or just an encounter with the unknown. In any case, Friday January 16, 2004 will remain seared in officer Leonardo Samaniego's memory as the night that he confronted the horror of encountering the unknown. Santiago Yturria

Monterrey, N.L. Mexico s

yturria@intercable.net