Case description
Gary Flatter, a Hartford City gas-station owner and wrecker driver, went out with Deputy Ed Townsend and a state policeman after the Donathans reported small figures on October 22, 1973. Their first visit produced only a high-pitched sound. Flatter later returned in his own truck while the policeman searched farther east. APRO places his encounter around midnight, within about fifteen minutes; the imported 00:15 time is more precise than his recollection.
South of the earlier sighting, Flatter stopped for rabbits, cats, an opossum and a raccoon crossing the road. Hearing the sound again, he saw two approximately four-foot figures in a ploughed field about seventy-five feet away. Their tight silver suits reflected his spotlight intensely. They turned their entire bodies toward him, and he switched the light off. He described egg-shaped heads, gas-mask-like coverings with hoses descending to the chest, and square, thick feet extending behind the heels. He could not distinguish eyes, ears or hands.
The figures reportedly rose and fell slowly several times, then departed upright into darkness, leaving brief red streaks. Flatter reported no craft beside them. The next day investigators and witnesses found seven small alternating impressions near the Donathans’ earlier location. Their maker was not demonstrated. The connected sightings provide context, without making Flatter’s solitary view independently verified evidence of flying beings.
