Karin Wolf, Madison arts administrator, said the Olin-Turville display was not funded by Blink!, a city public art program.

It started like this: A local resident called the police Sunday after seeing the items in the park on the shore of Lake Monona. The responding officer found about 30 sets of clothing.

“It was as if people had been on their backs and vanished in their birthday (suits), leaving all material possessions behind,” DeSpain said in the report. “There were wrist watches where arms should have been and sets of keys in pants pockets.”

He also quoted the officer describing burn marks on the clothing, which was spread out in a circular fashion: “All outfits ... were perfectly laid out as if the people wearing them had met with some sort of forceful and immediate action. (The clothing) had varying levels of what appeared to be burns or melting, as if exposed to some sort of intense heat source.”

The officer put on protective gloves to examine the clothing and found a kind of “business or calling card” that depicted an ark-like vessel with lines coming from it.

In the middle of the circle was a black cylinder-shaped object, which the officer called “a Beacon of Light,” that emitted a strobe-like white light toward the heavens.