Vegas Ghost Hunt, Alien DNA, Area 51 Crash, Shapeshifting Snake and More Mysterious News Briefly
A roundup of mysterious, paranormal and strange news stories from the past week.
The most unusual story to come out of Area 51 in years concerns a mysterious drone which crashed near Area 51 two weeks ago and caused authorities to close the airspace above and around the crash, even though there was no indication it had crossed over into Area 51’s restricted airspace (known as ‘The Box’); to add more strangeness to the mystery, the Air Force has now publicly disclosed that it and the FBI are investigating some unusual tampering at the crash site afterward; an official statement said in part: “On September 23, 2025, an aircraft assigned to the 432nd Wing was involved in an incident with no fatalities or injuries. The site was secured and guarded until recovery and cleanup operations were completed on September 27th. During a follow-on site survey on October 3rd, investigators discovered signs of tampering at the mishap location, including the presence of an inert training bomb body and an aircraft panel of unknown origin that were placed on the site post-incident. The matter is under investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the FBI. No further details are available at this time.” MQ-9 Reaper drones are housed by the 432nd Wing at the nearby Creech Air Force Base, but experts say it is highly unusual that the Air Force and FBI would be involved in the recovery of one. Could the announcement and unusual activity be a cover-up for what really happened?
The historic El Cortez Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is one of the city’s oldest operating casinos (it opened in 1941) and paranormal investigators say it has plenty of activity, including mysterious knocks and cold spots, which one lucky person will get to experience themselves in the casino’s new Weekend Ghost Hunt contest; the winning applicant will receive a free flight to Las Vegas, a fee weekend stay at El Cortez, access to allegedly haunted areas, the use of ghost-hunting equipment, including specialized flashlights and thermal sensors; all activity the winner witnesses must be photographed and documented in order to receive a $5,000 prize; applications are open until Halloween, October 31st, 2025, at 12 pm EST. It’s a safe bet that there will be activity, provided the winner promises to split the prize with the ghosts.
They’ll never find me here – I blend right in.
The European Space Agency quelched conspiracy theories by announcing that it had turned the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft towards the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars and ExoMars TGO captured a series of images showing what looks like a “slightly fuzzy white dot moving downwards near the center of the image” – the dot is the comet’s center which consists of an icy-rocky nucleus and its surrounding coma; the coma, measuring a few thousand kilometers across, is “clearly visible” as it is heated by the Sun, releasing the gas and dust which surround the nucleus; while the full size of 3I/ATLAS could not be measured, this should put to rest the conjectures, led by Harvard professor Avi Loeb, that the space object is an interstellar spacecraft and not a comet – Loeb is now saying it could be a Trojan horse spaceship disguised as a comet. It’s so human and a sign of our times that so many people are disappointed that 3I/ATLAS is “just an interstellar comet”.
Few properties for sale in the U.S. have ‘conjured’ up as much controversy as the so-called Conjuring House – the Rhode Island home where the Perron family claimed to have been haunted for nearly a decade by various spirits, a state confirmed by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose alleged experiences inspired the Conjuring movies; the house was supposed to be sold at an auction on Halloween of this year, but a plea from Andrea Perron, daughter of the family who lived there, to preserve “the farm” as a paranormal investigation site reached Jason Hawes of the paranormal TV program ‘Ghost Hunters’; Hawes was raising money to buy the Conjuring House when it was suddenly announced by JJ Manning Auctioneers that the property in Burrillville had been sold to an unnamed buyer and the Halloween auction was called off. Has anyone checked to see if Annabelle is smiling and rubbing her little hands together?
A number of media outlets are posting headlines declaring that “alien DNA” has been found inside humans, where it was allegedly inserted by extraterrestrials; these stories are based on a non-peer-reviewed study by. Dr. Max Rempel, the founder and CEO of the DNA Resonance Research Foundation; Rempel analyzed 581 complete families from the 1,000 Genomes Project and claims he discovered ‘large sequences’ of DNA in 11 families that didn’t appear to correspond to either parent – the subjects were born before 1990 so he could rule out human gene-editing technologies like CRISPR which wasn’t used before 2013; Rempel also analyzed 23andMe results from people who claimed to be alien abductees and alleges that some families showed evidence of non-parental markers; if the study is confirmed, Rempel says “it could be possible to detect which humans carry alien DNA – essentially identifying hybrids” but he admits that there is “no conclusive evidence yet” and he needs “need better datasets which are available only on approval” to someday “consider how much alien hybridization is healthy for the planet and which alien races we might give priority”. I’, not saying it’s alien DNA – in fact, despite the headlines, no one should be … yet.
The latest on-site Loch Ness Monster report comes from the loch’s shore in Fort Augustus where tourists Erica and Mariusz Kawka of Malta were walking on a recent afternoon when they spotted and recorded a dark shape in the water that neither they nor other witnesses on the shore could identify; this would only be the fourth on-site sighting of Nessie in 2025, which is one more than 2024 but less than the 10 in 2023 and in other double-digit years. Ironically, sightings are no longer “logged” in the registry but are instead listed or registered.
The mystery of how the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) were able to move those massive stone statues and heads the island is famous for may have finally been solved by a new study which culminated with just 18 people needing only 40 minutes to move a 4.35-ton replica of one of them 300 feet with ropes as their only tool; the new study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science and details how co-author Carl Lipo of Binghamton University led a team from that university and others to first develop created high-resolution 3D models of the statues to help identify distinctive design features such as D-shaped bases and a forward lean that would make them easier to move in a rocking, zig-zagging motion, which has been a popular theory of how it was actually done; according to Lipo, “The physics makes sense”; the team found that as the statues get bigger, “it still works”; he notes that the roads of Rapa Nui measure 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) wide with a concave cross-section, making them ideal for stabilizing the statues as they were moved”; the statues were then key to the road system on Rapa Nui and vice versa, demonstrating that “the Rapa Nui people were incredibly smart. They figured this out,” said Lipo. “They’re doing it the way that’s consistent with the resources they have. So it really gives honor to those people, saying, look at what they were able to achieve, and we have a lot to learn from them in these principles”. Learning from the past – what a concept!
They moved this with nothing but ropes? Sounds like a non-union job.
On a day known as Public Grievance Day (Samadhan Diwas) in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district, a man complained to police officials that his wife turns into a snake at night, bites him, chases him and otherwise frightens him to the point he can no longer sleep; he claims she’s tried to kill him several times but he has caught her in time to prevent his murder; while the comments on social media run the gamut from support to ridicule, the District Magistrate took it seriously and ordered an investigation by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and the police; the wife claims the husband is harassing her for dowry and wants to get rid of her to marry someone else; while Indian folklore has many shapeshifters, medical experts say it could be a delusional disorder affecting one or both of them. With stories like this, India is becoming the Florida of countries.
Disclosure of secret UFO files was once restricted to presidential campaigns as a topic of discussion and a promise prefaced by “And if I’m elected, I will open …”; however, it has moved to congressional races as Representative Lauren Boebert, running for reelection in Colorado, promised to push the administration to do it, saying: “For decades, our government has shrouded the truth about UFOs in a veil of secrecy. Strange crafts have been spotted soaring through our skies, defying the laws of physics, and yet the bureaucrats in Washington act like we’re too NAIVE to handle the facts. They tell us we’re crazy like we can’t see these things flying through the air with our own eyes. I SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The American people aren’t children to be spoon-fed half-truths or dismissed with vague excuses. We deserve to know what’s really going on up there.”; the email includes a link to a site about extraterrestrials and one to make donations; Boebert questioned UFO experts during a congressional hearing in 2024 and has participated in many Congressional hearings on UFOs. Is Boebert serious, or is this a smokescreen to hide a cover-up to cloak a distraction?
If it’s true that there is strength in numbers, then the number of Loch Ness Monster hunters has strengthened itself by doubling its members, as has the number of Bigfoot and Yeti hunters, with the formation of the new World Federation of Legendary Monsters; it is headquartered at the Loch Ness Centre in Inverness on the shore of the loch, where Nagina Ishaq, of the center described its mission: “For decades, Loch Ness has inspired scientists, storytellers, and sceptics alike. Now we are looking beyond the Highlands to build a global network of expertise as we look for new ways to uncover the biggest mysteries. We want to bring together the leading voices in folklore and science to share their theories, challenge assumptions and celebrate these legends in new ways”. If one of the famous cryptids is found, who gets to display the trophy?
On a recent podcast, author and geologist Gregg Braden claimed an ancient human civilization lived on the Moon and Mars 50,000 years ago, but these humans “from us, from a time in our past” but these space colonists “destroyed one another through war, and that we’re repeating that cycle”; Braden claims the U.S. has had the only evidence of this civilization for some time, but China’s upcoming robotic Chang’e 7 mission and India’s Chandrayaan-4 mission, both to the Moon, will be looking for them so that both nations can “make the bombshell revelation” of their discovery to the public; many of Braden’s claims are based on grainy photographs from NASA’s Clementine mission to the Moon which show angled structures he claims were built by an ancient civilization, but most experts believe they were formed by erosion.
Let future generations take note – this is not what we signed up for.
Actress Kristen Wiig Reveals admitted on a recent podcast with fellow actress and Saturday Night Live alum Amy Poehler that, although she has never seen one, she believes in ghosts strongly enough that after she bought a 100-year-old, $5 million home Pasadena, California, she contacted a “professional ghost buster” who works remotely; the ghost buster must have done something because Wiig noted that ” I swear to God, my house felt different [after]”; Wiig also told Poehler that she “believe[s] in astral projection” because her great aunt “visited me in a dream after she died” when Wiig was 14. That podcast should have been called, “Not Live From New York”.
On the celebrity cryptid front, movie and theater actress Anna Kendrick revealed that, on a recent trip to Scotland, she went to Loch Ness, “and I saw her, I saw her”; while not mentioning Nessie by name, Kendrick said, “There was a thing and it came out of the water and it looked right at me. It might have actually just been one suspicious ripple. But I’m telling you there was something. I felt it”; Kendrick didn’t whip her phone out fast enough to capture a selfie with the cryptid. Of course, she didn’t – what Hollywood actress wants to be in a blurred photo?
A short video making the rounds on both social and mainstream media in Colombia shows what looks like a strange humanoid creature ambling in a crouched position across a road while well-lit by headlights; the social media post described the scene: “Travelers traveling in the middle of the night along the Balsillas-Neiva highway encountered a strange creature with human features that walked in an odd manner. One of the vehicle’s occupants managed to record the strange event with his cell phone”; commenters were skeptical, with some saying it was a boy play-acting, but as is the norm in Central and South America, believers said it was a shapeshifting nahual moving into or out of an animal form; no other information was supplied by the witness. If a shapeshifter gets stuck halfway between shapes, do we have the makings of a new horror movie?
The latest survey of places when one is most and least likely to see a UFO used sightings reports from the National UFO Reporting Center and digital media coverage to determine that the best place in the U.S. to see a UFO is in Washington state, where one in 1021 residents has reported seeing one – that moves Washington up from the #2 spot in a previous survey; #2 is nearby Oregon (1 for every 1,105 resident), followed by Florida, Delaware and New York; at the bottom, people are least likely to see a UFO in Louisiana (one in 3583 reported seeing one), followed by Mississippi, Alabama and New Jersey; in Canada, Alberta is #1 with 1 sighting per 568 people, followed by Ontario, British Columbia and Manitoba; at the bottom are the sparsely populated Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Is Louisiana a low spot because of swamp gas blocking the view or people having too much good food to waste time looking for UFOs?
A sickly black cat adopted from a shelter is showing his gratitude to his rescuer by ‘reading’ her tarot cards with what she calls ‘eerie’ accuracy; Emily Cook says Cole began pawing at her tarot cards instead of chewing them or tearing them up like most cats would, saying “He just started ‘shuffling’ like a litter box toss and picked one with his little cat teeth and laid it on the carpet. I reinforced this with treats. I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, he’s not just doing it, he’s accurate!’”; seeing an opportunity, Cook has put Cole and his feline forecasts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and claims he has a waiting list of people waiting for a reading. Is Cole still working for treats or is he accepting PayCat?
