THINK ABOUTIT ABDUCTION REPORT

1968: Buff Ledge Abduction

On the evening of August 7, 1968, two teenage summer camp employees at Buff Ledge Camp on Lake Champlain, Vermont — sixteen-year-old maintenance worker Michael Lapp and nineteen-year-old water ski instructor Janet Cornell — watched a bright light descend from the sky, split into three smaller objects that performed impossible aerial maneuvers over the lake, and then endured an event they would not understand for over a decade. One of the remaining craft submerged into Lake Champlain, re-emerged, approached the dock where they sat, and directed a beam of light at them so intense that Michael could see the bones in his hand. Their next conscious memory was staring at the craft from the dock in full darkness, with no idea how long they had been there. They never discussed the event. Ten years later, Michael contacted the Center for UFO Studies, and under regressive hypnosis administered by investigator Walter Webb, both witnesses independently described being lifted into the craft, examined by childlike entities with elongated necks and large wrap-around eyes, and returned to the dock.

Date: August 7, 1968

Sighting Time: Sunset, extending into full darkness

Day/Night: Dusk to night

Location: Buff Ledge Camp, north of Burlington, on Lake Champlain, Chittenden County, Vermont

Urban or Rural: Rural (lakeside summer camp)

No. of Entity(‘s): 2 (observed through transparent dome; additional entities implied during abduction)

Entity Type: Small humanoid — childlike in size

Entity Description: Childlike in stature with elongated necks, large heads, no hair, and large eyes that extended around the sides of their heads. No visible ears. Mouth without lips. Two small nostril openings. Three pointed, webbed digits for fingers. Skin felt “damp and clammy.” Entities communicated mentally; one mimicked Michael’s knee-slap gesture. During the hypnosis-recovered abduction, entities shone lights into Janet’s eyes, scraped her skin, and took bodily fluids. They communicated that their mission was to “make life like ours… other places.”

Hynek Classification: CE-IV (Close Encounter IV) — Abduction. Both witnesses experienced missing time. Under independent regressive hypnosis, both described being taken aboard the craft and examined.

Duration: Initial observation (sunset maneuvers) lasted several minutes; abduction period unknown (missing time from beam event to full darkness)

No. of Object(s): 4 (one large craft that split into three smaller objects; one of the three was the primary encounter vehicle)

Description of the Object(s): Initial appearance: a bright glowing light that descended and flattened as it approached. It split into three smaller luminous objects that performed zigzag maneuvers, loops, and leaf-fall descents over the lake. After two objects pulled back (accompanied by a sound “like a thousand tuning forks”), one remained. This craft had a transparent dome through which two occupants were visible. It submerged into Lake Champlain, re-emerged, approached the dock, passed overhead, and directed a beam of light at the witnesses. Under hypnosis, Michael described being inside a larger craft.

Shape of Object(s): Disc with transparent dome

Size of Object(s): Not precisely estimated

Color of Object(s): Bright white/glowing when first observed; details of hull not described beyond the transparent dome

Distance to Object(s): Directly overhead at time of beam contact

Height & Speed: Objects performed high-speed zigzag maneuvers, loops, and leaf-fall descents; one submerged and re-emerged from the lake; final approach was slow and direct

Number of Witnesses: 2 primary (Michael Lapp and Janet Cornell). Additional camp members confirmed seeing strange lights over Lake Champlain the same night. Two other employees reported a separate 20-minute UFO observation over the lake earlier that same summer.

Special Features/Characteristics: Transmedium capability — craft submerged into and re-emerged from Lake Champlain. Beam of light with “liquid” quality that produced free-floating sensation and X-ray-like transparency (witness could see hand bones). Missing time. Independent regressive hypnosis of both witnesses produced corroborating accounts. “Thousand tuning forks” sound when two craft departed. Entities demonstrated mental communication and behavioral mimicry. Entities stated their mission purpose. Corroborating sightings from other camp personnel.

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Walter N. Webb, Encounter at Buff Ledge, 1994 | Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) investigation

Summary/Description: Two teenage camp employees at Buff Ledge on Lake Champlain observed multiple UFOs performing aerial maneuvers at sunset. One craft submerged into the lake, re-emerged, approached their dock, and directed a beam at them. Both experienced missing time. Ten years later, under independent regressive hypnosis, both described being taken aboard and examined by childlike entities. Additional camp members confirmed anomalous lights over the lake the same night. Investigated by Walter Webb for CUFOS.

Related Cases: 1961: Betty and Barney Hill abduction (New England, CE-IV, regressive hypnosis) | 1975: Travis Walton abduction (beam of light, multiple witnesses) | Lake Champlain anomalous phenomena (general)

Detailed Report

Buff Ledge was a girls’ camp situated north of Burlington on the shores of Lake Champlain. In the summer of 1968, the camp’s staff included sixteen-year-old Michael Lapp, who worked maintenance, and nineteen-year-old Janet Cornell, a water ski instructor. On the afternoon of August 7, the swim team had traveled to Burlington for a meet, leaving the camp virtually deserted. Michael and Janet were relaxing on a boat dock, watching the sunset over the water.

A bright light appeared in the darkening sky. Michael initially assumed it was Venus, seen at unusually close proximity. Then the light began to move — descending and approaching. As it drew closer, the round glow flattened, suggesting a disc shape. Michael exclaimed that “Venus was falling.” The light then split: three smaller objects dropped from the larger one, which quickly ascended and vanished. The three smaller objects began maneuvering over Lake Champlain — zigzagging, looping, descending like falling leaves — clearly under intelligent control. They moved closer, formed a triangle, and then two pulled back, accompanied by a sound Michael later recalled as being “like a thousand tuning forks.” One craft remained.

The remaining object passed over Michael and Janet, shot upward and momentarily vanished, then reappeared tilted to one side and dropped into the lake. After a couple of minutes submerged, it re-emerged and began gliding directly toward the dock. It was now close enough for the two teenagers to see through a transparent dome on the craft. Inside were two childlike beings with elongated necks, oversized heads, no hair, and large eyes that wrapped around the sides of their heads. Michael sensed mental communication. When he slapped his knee, one of the occupants mimicked the gesture.

The craft moved directly overhead and projected a beam of light at Michael and Janet. Michael grabbed Janet’s shoulder and pulled them both flat on the dock. He screamed, “We don’t want to go!” The beam was blindingly bright — bright enough that Michael could see the bones in his hand, like an X-ray. Both later described the beam as having a “liquid” quality, producing a sensation of free-floating.

Their next conscious awareness was of staring at the object from the dock. The sky was now completely black. Michael had no idea how long they had been there. Janet appeared drowsy, disoriented, and trancelike. The swim team was heard returning from Burlington. The craft moved upward, flashed its beam repeatedly, and vanished.

Michael and Janet did not discuss the experience — not that night, not for the remaining weeks of camp season. They went their separate ways. Over the next several years, Michael began having disturbing recurring dreams about being kidnapped. In 1978 — ten years after the event — he contacted CUFOS. Investigator Walter Webb was assigned to the case and recommended regressive hypnosis.

Under hypnosis, Michael vividly recalled the abduction. The beam lifted him into the craft’s interior. He was taken to a larger craft. He saw Janet lying on a table being examined. The small entities shone lights into her eyes, scraped her skin, and took bodily fluids. All the entities looked alike — large eyes, lipless mouths, no ears, two nostril slits, three pointed webbed fingers. Their skin was damp and clammy. They communicated that their purpose was to “make life like ours… other places.”

Janet also underwent regression. Her independent descriptions corroborated Michael’s account: she recalled feeling cold on an examining table, something pulling her hair and pinching her neck. Webb subsequently located additional camp members who had witnessed anomalous lights over Lake Champlain the same night. Two other employees reported a separate observation of UFOs hovering over the lake for approximately twenty minutes earlier that same summer.

Researcher’s Notes

The Buff Ledge Abduction — Lake Champlain 1968 and the Independent Corroboration Standard

Independent Hypnotic Corroboration: The Buff Ledge case’s strongest analytical feature is the independent corroboration between Michael Lapp’s and Janet Cornell’s regressive hypnosis accounts. The two witnesses had not discussed the event in the ten years between the experience and the investigation. They underwent regression separately. Their descriptions of the abduction — the beam, the examination table, the entity morphology, the procedures performed — align on specific details that would be extremely difficult to coordinate after a decade of silence. Independent corroboration between separately regressed witnesses is the highest standard of evidence available in CE-IV cases, and the Buff Ledge case meets it cleanly.
Transmedium Capability: The craft’s submersion into and re-emergence from Lake Champlain constitutes a transmedium observation — the object operated in air, submerged into water, and returned to air. This detail, reported in 1968 (and investigated in the late 1970s), predates by decades the U.S. Navy’s public acknowledgment of transmedium UAP observations and the inclusion of “transmedium” capability in the congressional language of the 2022 NDAA. The Buff Ledge transmedium observation is one of the earliest detailed civilian reports of this capability in the American case literature.
Third-Party Corroboration: Webb’s subsequent identification of other camp personnel who witnessed anomalous lights over Lake Champlain on the same night provides independent third-party corroboration for the aerial component of the event, even though these witnesses did not observe the abduction itself. The two additional employees who reported a separate 20-minute UFO observation earlier that same summer establish a pattern of repeated aerial activity over the lake during the Buff Ledge camp season — the abduction occurred in a context of ongoing anomalous aerial presence, not as an isolated incident.

The Buff Ledge abduction earns its place among the most carefully investigated CE-IV cases in the American literature on three converging strengths: independent hypnotic corroboration between two witnesses who had not communicated about the event for a decade, third-party confirmation of anomalous lights over the lake the same night, and a transmedium observation that presaged by fifty years the capability framework now being discussed at the congressional level. Walter Webb’s investigation — thorough, methodical, and published in full — sets a standard for CE-IV case documentation that few subsequent investigations have matched. Whatever lifted Michael Lapp and Janet Cornell from the Buff Ledge dock on that August evening, it left two sets of memories that converge on the same experience and a hole in the evening that neither witness could explain until someone finally asked the right questions.