1977: Six witnesses see UFO in Jayess, MS

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THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: February 5, 1977

Sighting Time:

Day/Night: Night

Location: Jayess, Mississippi

Urban or Rural: Rural

Hynek Classification: CE-I (Close Encounter I) Observation of an object in close proximity to the witness (i.e. within 500’)

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 1

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s): 50 yards

Shape of Object(s): like a dish turned upside down

Color of Object(s): grey

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

Special Features/Characteristics: Portholes/Windows

Source: Tylertown Times (Tylertown, MS), Feb. 17, 1977

Summary: “The most dramatic sighting of an UFO to be reported in this part of Mississippi took place near Jayess Saturday, February 5, and was seen at close quarters by at least six adults. Another sighting was reported in Madison County Wednesday, February 3, and was seen there by a constable and a deputy sheriff.”

Full Report

“UFO is sighted in Jayess by six”

The most dramatic sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) to be reported in this part of Mississippi took place near Jayess Saturday, February 5, and was seen at close quarters by at least six adults.

Another sighting was reported in Madison County Wednesday, February 3, and was seen there by a constable and a deputy sheriff.

The Wednesday sighting was reported by the associated press and on local television news programs from Jackson. One version of the Saturday sighting at Jayess, reported by the Brookhaven Leader-Times, was confirmed by another Jayess resident in a telephone interview with the editor of The Tylertown Times Sunday.

Mrs. Darwin Alexander, who said she had never seen anything like the object, said that she and her husband both witnessed the sighting.

“We looked out our patio window after my sister-in-law called and told me about it,” she recalls. The Darwin Alexanders live less than a half-mile from the Denver Alexanders on the same road. The road curves between the two homes, and the rear of the two houses are about 300 yards apart. Darwin and Denver Alexander are brothers and live about two miles west of Jayess toward Pricedale.

Mrs. Darwin Alexander said the object made a “swooshing noise, hovered silently, then disappeared without a sound.”

She said red lights were visible from the object. “I couldn’t really make out the shape because of the lights. I suppose it looked something like a dish turned upside down, but I’m not really certain. I saw it through a patio window.”

Her sister-in-law, Mrs Denver Alexander, her son Eddie, and Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Cothern, all viewed the object from the yard of the Denver Alexander home. The Cotherns had seen the object from their car on the road and stopped at the Denver Alexander home.

The Brookhaven newspaper reported the sighting that night, but did not identify the residents who reported it.

Four adult occupants described the object as grey in color with red lights at about 16-ft. intervals around a rim and a smaller dome at the top. It zoomed toward the house with a roaring noise and stopped about 50 yards away, they said, hung motionless and noiseless while the observers stared in disbelief. Then it just disappeared with no noise and no visible movement.

A belief that they they had “just been seeing things” was dispelled by a report from neighbors across a field that they had seen the same thing and by talk in the community Sunday among several others having had the same experience.

A pilot at Brookhaven Municipal Airport says several calls have been received at the airport from persons who have seen unidentified flying objects, often in the Ruth-Jayess area.

He, himself, tells of having witnessed from Lakewood Village, in the presence of “12 or 15 others,” an object of vague shape with lights around a rim hover in the sky and definitely dodge two passing jets. One of the jet pilots, he said, was overheard in radio contact with the McComb FAA Flight Service Station. He answered negatively when asked if he had seen the object.

The February 2 Madison County sighting was reported by deputy sheriff Ken Creel, 20 feet above his patrol car.

He said the craft was round, had portholes and gave off a soft light. “It moved with ease,” he said. “We turned the engine off to see if it made some kind of sound, but there was only a very faint noise.”

Creel was patrolling in the area with county constable James Duke. He said he did not believe in ‘ ‘stuff from outer space” but added that he had no idea what the object might have been “unless it was some secret Air Force test.”

Over the years, there have been reports of UFO sightings in the Tylertown area. Doug Walker said he was on board duty at the radio station WTYL on the night of Friday, Jan. 28, when a lady called to report a “strange lighted object in the northern sky.” Walker went outside to look, but failed to spot the object.

Dr. William Hughes at the University of Southern Mississippi keeps a record of UFO sightings in this area. To report sightings or obtain information, he may be called at 266-7206.