South / Toppenish, WA being encounter — February 1970

The fuller source is a July1995 MUFON UFO Journal article about experiences reported by a family identified as Bill and Susan Smith near Toppenish. Its February1970 episode begins with a male friend repairing a septic line behind their house. The friend came indoors acting disturbed and said a man-like shadow had approached while he was working in the ditch. According to Bill’s retelling, he could make out legs and the outline of a body; the shadow returned several times during the day. The friend reportedly left the job the next day, leaving Bill to finish. A few days later Bill heard two male-sounding voices speaking rapidly behind the house in an unfamiliar language. He listened briefly, then rounded the corner. The voices stopped and he found no one. Susan said she had not been speaking with anyone or using a radio, and both indicated the same location from which they had heard voices. These are related but successive claims, not two people jointly watching solid aliens inspect an excavation. The article also discusses lights and other experiences across several years; those should not be compressed into a landed craft at the septic trench. The account was published roughly twenty-five years afterward. No figure’s face, clothing, measured trace or identity was established for this episode. The plate illustrates the reported shadow as a shadow, with the later disembodied voices and regional aerial sightings kept separate.