Stanislaus County town plagued with occult activity during the mid 1980's

In the mid 1980's Stanislaus County was witness to several cult related crimes, including Satanic rituals and the desecration of a body at the Denair Cemetery.

In 1985 several Modesto residents received ominous letters signed by a "Natas" (Satan spelled backwards) that said "Watch out for when you hear footsteps at night, and see SHADOWS on the WALL, and then the ghostly sounds of SILENCE as the MIST begins to fall and a scream goes out like THUNDER and SATAN calls this number 666 'AND FOR YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE, FOR HE SAID IT MUST BE DONE." Also scribbled on the type written letters were upside down crosses representing the antichrist and swastikas representing forces turned against nature.

Nearly a year later the small town of Denair was shocked when sheriff's deputies found the town's small cemetery was the site of a satanic ritual that including digging up and desecration of an interned body.

According to deputies the grave robbers left two unmistakable telltale signs that they were practicing some form of devil worship, a fire blackened circle on the ground near where the body was unearthed. The other was that the body was partially dismembered, though details weren't given about the dismemberment besides stating that body parts were missing. Deputies said the markings on the ground were consistent with satanic rituals and that they stand inside the burned circle as part of the ritual to protect them from harm. Evidence at the scene suggested there were at least six people involved.

Local residents were both shocked and outraged at what happened. Though people had their suspicions as to who the culprits were, no one was ever arrested for these crimes. At the time agencies in the area said they were convinced that the incident was part of a growing trend of devil worship.

Despite the fact that the Modesto Bee said this was one of several occurrences of cult activity in the area, I couldn't find anything else mentioned besides some random posts of someone's dad seeing figures in black robes on the side of a road nailing a dead cat to a stop sign, or of a severed goat's head found in Stockton. I do find it funny that the article then goes on to blame heavy metal artists like Ozzy Ozzbourne and Motley Crue (Motley Crue is heavy metal?) for the rise of interest of Satanism in teenagers.

Still it's interesting that there was a rash of cult activity in Stanislaus County. I wonder what happened to the members. Did they just grow out of this phase of their lives? Or did they just disappear into everyday society and took their cult activities underground and are still practicing this day? No one may ever know.

Radio-controlled planes have some Modesto residents seeing UFOs

They come in peace.

Those lights you've seen swooping and swerving across the Modesto night sky are not extraterrestrial. They do not want to be taken to your leader. They're not even unidentified anymore.

Instead, the culprits are a bunch of model plane enthusiasts who have attached lights to their radio- controlled aircraft and fly them through the night sky for fun.

"This was never intended to be seen as a UFO," said Robert Merrill, the de facto captain of the Nor Cal Nite Fliers. "We figured we'd try something, fly at night. Next thing you know people are calling the cops, TV and thinking they're UFOs. We never really thought it'd be this kind of a spectacle."

The 39-year-old Modesto resident and a group of about eight other men often meet at Modesto Hobby & Crafts, off McHenry and Bangs avenues in north Modesto, for their night flights.

They've flown all over Modesto and across the area, including Ripon and Tracy.

The crafts have about a 6-foot wingspan and weigh about 2 pounds. Each flier has customized his lights design.

Merrill, who had been flying model planes for about eight years, came up with the idea in August when he found the lights online from a manufacturer in Hong Kong.

The 1-meter adhesive LED strip is about a quarter-inch wide and comes in red, white, blue, green and amber.

Because they run on batteries and turn off to glide at altitude, the crafts are nearly soundless. In flight, the planes resemble a graceful, digital albatross.

So why fly a $250 model plane at night when it's, well, dark?

"I think (it's) just the calmness of it. The whole thing is, when you get off work, you bring your plane out to the park and literally kick back in a chair and fly them," Merrill said. "Nighttime, you can fly it farther because the lights are so bright you can see it farther than in the daytime."

Some members admit the E.T. factor adds to the excitement.

"Honestly, the most fun is messing with people," said Modesto resident Rick Sanchez, 40. "People will see the lights (from their cars) and their heads will hang out the windows. It's amazing how many people think they are UFOs."

The group flies almost every night that the sky is clear. Manteca resident John Gilmore, 46, started about eight months ago.

"The challenge of it interested me. And it's definitely a challenge," he said. "We're having fun. We're not trying to freak anyone out or cause problems. It's just good, clean fun."

The Modesto Police Department is well aware of the group. Lt. Clint Raymer said he first saw the lights driving to his north Modesto home. He has since talked with the men and discussed the pertinent municipal city codes.

"They're not supposed to fly them in the city limits," he said. "But the industrial area (off Bangs) is fine. I see the cars pulled over and people gazing at those things in the sky. They catch people's attention; they're neat to see."

He said the planes haven't set off anything close to a "War of the Worlds"-level hysteria. While the department has fielded a few UFO calls, Raymer said "it's not a burden."

"Whenever I see people looking, I pull over and tell them it's remote-control planes," he said. "It kind of takes the fun out of (it) then."

Modesto Airport has fielded a handful of calls about the lights in the sky. Airport manager Jerome Thiele said the Federal Aviation Administration has an advisory circular with guidelines for model aircraft standards.

The circular encourages "voluntary compliance" and includes cautions about operating near airports, hospitals and schools. It recommends flying no higher than 400 feet.

"I just want to make sure that they don't intentionally fly close to the airport and keep clear of the medical helipads close to the hospital and other populated areas," Thiele said.

No specific complaints about the model crafts have been filed with the FAA's Flight Standards District Office in Fresno. FAA Inspector Jim Henry said the advisory circular is meant to encourage hobbyists to be careful in the airspace.

"We can do the enforcement if it's an egregious danger to the public," he said.

Merrill said he was familiar with the FAA advisory and that the group never tries to interfere with active aircraft.

"If we see a plane fly by, we'll move away," he said. "We try to stay out of people's way."

The group caused a minor commotion over Super Bowl Sunday when members flew their planes near Briggsmore Avenue. Modesto Hobby & Crafts owner Joe Keevil said drivers stopped along the busy thoroughfare to rubberneck at the night sky. Police later came and asked them to stop.

"We try to stay away from busy roads now," said Keevil, who doesn't participate in flying planes but knows all the men from his store, where they all met.

Even from their north Modesto flight area, the planes and their lights can be seen all around town. Merrill said he can fly as high as 1,000 feet with his craft. He has heard reports of sightings as far away as Maze Boulevard near Highway 99 and in Riverbank.

"Every single night (we fly) somebody comes out and wonders what they are, if they're a UFO," Merrill said. "We sort of laugh about it."

Original story can be found here.

Several UFO sightings seen in Central California over the past week

In the last part of August 2009, there were several UFO sightings reported to the National UFO Reporting Center of UFOs seen in the central part California. I'm not sure if they are all the same craft, there are a few similarities but I think they are different craft. Still I believe they are worth mentioning in hopes that maybe someone else has seen one of them and will then report what they saw. Below is what was reported linked back to the original report.

Occurred : 8/16/2009 14:00
Location: Auberry, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:15 seconds

Silver triangle shape - Silent

I hesitated to report this, as we only saw this for a short time. We live in the Sierra Mountains about 4,200' elevation. Sitting at the table and looking due south thru a huge window, we saw a long silver triangle (jet or plane [?]) close at a low elevation. What is unusual is we live under a flight plan for Fresno - Las Vegas & back. These go north of our home. This craft appeared to be 1 mile or closer and low, almost equal with our elevation. At most I estimate it might have been 5,000'. It was headed west and when it tilted it was totally sleek from pointed nose to the tail which was completely straight across. No wings, just a very long thin triangle shape. We ran to the west deck & couldn't see it anymore. Did our eyes deceive us? No noise.

Possible fighter jet, w/no markings, but no noise.
Link.


Occurred : 8/18/2009 09:03
Location: Fresno, CA
Shape: Other

Two Jets following or escorting an unknown white dot looking craft.

I was walking with my mother on the Dakota and Fruit ditch in Fresno, Ca. I heard two jets so I looked up and saw that they were really close, and then I looked back up and saw that they were following something. The UFO was a white dot it kind of looked like the international space station does when it goes over. It had no blinking lights like the jets. It looked peaceful, moved slowly it looked to me as if the jets were escorting it somewhere.

We live close to the airport and it has an air defense base, I heard jets take off about ten minutes before, they were heading north then turned east, when I saw the two jets following this craft side by side they were head south west.

I remember the time being 9:03am because that is when I twittered about it.
Link.


Occurred : 8/19/2009 21:00
Location: California (central part), CA
Shape: Diamond
Duration:10 secs

On Aug 19, 2009 around 9:00pm me and my family were driving back from San Francisco to San Diego. We don't know exactly where we were but we were definitely in central California, deep in the boonies. As we were heading South, on our right side of the road we saw a diamond shaped flying object. It had red and green lights that surrounded the object. The object was first low then it tried to fly away but it seemed like something pulled it back then it went like 3 feet closer to the road then it went lower again. That's all I could see, we were driving too fast for me to see if it went in the sky or not. The object was definitely close to the ground, maybe about 4-5 feet off the ground.

I'm not good at describing how it moved but it certainly moved.
Link.


Occurred : 8/24/2009 17:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Changing
Duration:15 seconds

It looked like three bright dots, small gap then three more bright dots. it was dancing gracefully a mile or two above the horizon.

Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 20:45
Location: Clovis, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:2 minutes

Three flashing red lights in a triangular shape seen south of Fresno

I saw three flashing red lights in the formation of a triangle. View looking south of Fresno at an approximate 30 degree angle from horizon. Maintaining formation, they lowered until I could no longer see them past the trees.
Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 21:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Cigar
Duration:45 Min.

Two crafts spotted over Westfield shopping cntr. Modesto

2 crafts 1 with bright lights across could be cigar or saucer shaped. Other was cigar shaped deep bright neon blue glowing. It would glow and then fade out and come back. The other one hovered up and down quit a bit and side to side like having engine trouble. The blue cigar one stayed close as if to make sure the other was ok. A police or military white I think with markings plain stayed close by flying between them. Then they faded out. The hight I would say would be about 15 to 20 stories up in the sky.
Link.


Occurred : 8/27/2009 21:00
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Light
Duration:15-20 minutes

3 unidentified aircraft over Modesto, CA

August 27, 2009 9:00pm PCT I was riding my bike tonight and observed what appeared to be two aircraft of some kind at about 1000 ft. above our neighborhood. There were about 10 people in the street watching.

The highest craft had two bright white lights on it, and the craft appeared to be hovering, then moving a few feet, and then hovering again.

Beneath this craft was a second craft that had two very bright neon-blue lights. It made wide circles about 100 feet under the other craft.

Both craft made small changes in altitude and direction, but generally stayed in the area above our neighborhood for about 15-20 minutes or so.

A third craft (with blinking red and white lights on it) started to close on the higher craft, and this one looked more like a conventional aircraft.

At one point it flew between the two craft (below the higher one and above the lower one). At that point the lower one (with the bright neon-blue lights on it) began flying in a fast semi-vertical circular pattern.

The third craft continued on, and eventually the higher-flying craft began to fly away in a northwestern direction.

I ran to my house and got my camera, but by then they were all gone. I checked, and no else had a camera to take any photos.

I called the Modesto Police Dept. to see if anyone else had reported seeing the lights. I was told that someone else had called in, but no record was made of the call. Nor were they interested in making one of my call.
Link.