Original subtitles

On this episode of "Expedition Files."

In 1971, rock legend Jim Morrison dies in Paris.

Or does he?

Now, a wild theory ripped from the tabloids claims

Morrison faked his death, is still alive today,

and has now been found.

Then, in Japan, what is said to be a fossilized mermaid is

discovered in an ancient temple's vault.

But what is this mystery specimen?

New scientific testing finally uncovers the truth.

And at a place called Devil's Den,

a U.S. airman is certain he had an alien encounter.

Now he's revealing the evidence that he says proves

he was abducted by a UFO.

In the corridors of time...

are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now I'm traveling through history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates.

And these...

are my "Expedition Files."

Brace yourself for some shocking news.

It turns out that sometimes the tabloid media takes a story

and sensationalizes it,

blowing it out of all proportion.

Not me, of course. I'm one of the good guys.

I would never lie to you. No siree.

And to prove it, I'm going to read

the fine print of three sensational stories to see

whether the media made a myth out of a molehill

or if the truth really is stranger than any fiction.

We begin on July 7th, 1971,

in the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris,

the final resting place

of some of history's most famous celebrities.

And one of them is being laid to rest today.

But you wouldn't know it.

There's no crowds, no fanfare, not even a priest.

Just a plain wooden coffin. Who's inside?

Jim Morrison, the 27-year-old frontman

of legendary '60s rock group The Doors,

who passed away four days ago. The official cause of death?

Heart failure.

But the secrecy, the speed, and the silence

surrounding this funeral don't just raise eyebrows.

They ignite an extraordinary conspiracy theory that

plays out in the media for decades to come --

the idea that Jim Morrison's body isn't in this coffin

at all, because he isn't actually dead.

It may sound crazy, but 50 years on,

a documentary filmmaker claims to have evidence

that rock's ultimate outlaw faked his final performance

and is still alive and well.

Born in 1943 in Melbourne, Florida,

Jim Morrison is a Navy brat with a restless mind

and a nonconformist soul.

As a boy, he witnesses a violent car crash

on a family road trip, a moment he later claims

marks him forever.

And while other kids toss footballs

or dance to doo-wop,

Jim is lost in darker worlds, reading French poet

Charles Baudelaire and German philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche.

Their belief that suffering and pain are essential

for creative growth grips the young Morrison.

By the mid-1960s, he heads to Los Angeles to study film

at UCLA, chasing images as intense as his inner world.

Then, one afternoon in 1965 on Venice Beach,

Jim bumps into former UCLA classmate Ray Manzarek.

Jim shares some lyrics he's been scribbling --

strange, poetic fragments about fire, desire, and the end.

Manzarek is stunned. "Let's start a band," he says.

The Doors is officially born.

Morrison on vocals, Manzarek on keyboards,

with guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore

rounding out the lineup.

[sticks clack count-in]

[music plays]

Anchored by Jim's haunting lyrics,

the band's sound is dark, poetic, and defiant.

Perfect for a '60s generation that's disillusioned by war,

assassinations, and broken promises.

With hits like "Break On Through,"

"Light My Fire," and "Riders on the Storm,"

Morrison becomes the face of the counterculture.

Equal parts sex symbol, shaman, and showman.

And despite Jim's heavy drinking, drug use,

and erratic behavior...

[clattering]

...The Doors become nothing short of a global phenomenon.

The first American group to achieve

eight consecutive gold LPs.

In 1969, though, the now self-proclaimed Lizard King

gets arrested for indecent exposure while on stage

in Miami, sparking national backlash,

canceled shows, and a headline-grabbing trial.

He receives a six-month jail sentence and a $500 fine,

but remains free pending appeal.

The combination of the scandal and Jim's escalating

substance abuse strains his relationship with the band.

In 1971, Morrison decides to break free from The Doors.

That March, Jim and his longtime girlfriend,

Pamela Courson, flee to Paris.

It's supposed to be a reset, a chance for him to dry out,

write poetry, and enjoy a quiet break

from his rock-star persona.

But then, in the early hours of July 3rd, four months

into their French getaway, Pamela allegedly awakes

to find Jim unresponsive in the bathtub.

[crying] Jim!

[Josh] She eventually calls nearby friends

who bring in the French authorities.

But it's too late. Jim Morrison is dead.

A doctor on the scene believes Morrison died of heart failure.

No foul play is suspected. No autopsy is conducted.

But here's where the story starts to twist.

Considering Morrison's wild, rebellious lifestyle,

some fans find it hard to accept that their hero died

of natural causes at the age of 27

while simply taking a bath.

Something doesn't make sense.

[door thuds shut]

Then there's the secrecy and speed of what follows.

Pamela had waited hours before alerting anyone.

Along with no autopsy, there's no public viewing,

a sealed casket, and just a handful of people

at the funeral.

Not even his bandmates or family are there.

To many, it seems suspicious.

The perfect conditions for conspiracy rumors to take root.

Over the years, several theories surface.

One of the most persistent, that Morrison overdosed

hours earlier in a Paris nightclub.

According to a former manager at the club,

Morrison showed up that night in rough shape.

Two drug dealers arrived and escorted him

into the bathroom with a load of heroin.

He claims Jim never came out.

A little while later, the nightclub manager says

Jim was found slumped in a bathroom stall, unresponsive.

Allegedly, the club's owners were worried about

a drug scandal and allowed the pair of dealers

to carry Morrison out the back door

and to his apartment.

There, they helped Pamela Courson get him

into a cold bath in an effort to revive him, to no avail.

The next morning, Pamela tells authorities that

she found Jim dead in the bathtub.

I'm so sorry.

[Josh] There's no mention of the club, no mention of drugs,

just heart failure.

The nightclub theory has plenty of skeptics,

and for good reason.

There are many conflicting versions of events.

And at the time, not a single person

at a Paris nightclub stepped forward

to testify having seen one of the most famous rock stars

in the world, which leads some to a darker conclusion.

Maybe Morrison never left the apartment at all,

but heroin was still ultimately what killed him.

Multiple sources say Pamela often used the drug,

while Jim stuck mostly to alcohol

and occasionally cocaine.

But that night may have been different.

The theory goes that Pamela had heroin on hand.

Jim, either curious

or mistaking it for cocaine, tried some.

Think Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction."

Except in this case, it's fatal.

Some suggest that Pamela wakes to find that he's overdosed.

Jim!

[Josh] Panicking, it's argued that she clears the drugs

from the apartment before calling for help,

maybe to avoid being blamed, or maybe because she fears

no one would have believed it was an accident.

With no autopsy or toxicology report,

there's no way to know for sure if heroin caused Jim's death.

But we do know this.

Pamela Courson died of a heroin overdose herself

just three years later.

There's one more theory, though, the most extraordinary of all,

that argues Jim never died in Paris

because he never died, period.

Supposedly, Jim faked his death and is still alive in 2025.

Could it possibly be true?

[Josh] For decades, suspicion has shadowed Jim Morrison's death.

Heart failure never quite fit the strange details

of that night.

And one shocking theory claims he may not have died at all.

But how could that be?

By 1971, Jim is burned out.

He's facing a jail sentence for the indecent exposure incident

in Miami.

He's hounded by the press, bloated, depressed,

and fed up with fame.

Friends say he dreamed of disappearing,

shedding the rock star persona and living quietly as a poet.

Some even recall him joking about faking his death

and sitting back to watch the legend grow.

Over the decades, people have claimed to spot him alive,

living under the radar in places like rural Oregon,

Australia, even the Congo.

Most of these are chalked up to wishful thinking,

fans unwilling to let go of their hero.

But now, documentary filmmaker Jeff Finn says the impossible

might actually be true.

That Jim Morrison is still alive and he's been found.

There are numerous alternative theories abounding regarding

Jim post-death, post-July 1971.

Certainly those helped inspire me to -- to, you know,

dive deeper down the rabbit hole.

Chief among them was a fascinating story from one

of The Doors roadies who became a dear friend of mine,

the late Gareth Blyth.

Gareth told me that he had friends

in the Bay Area, San Francisco, who were convinced

they saw Jim in 1972,

a year after his supposed demise.

Now, this is fascinating because this sort of

corroborates other sightings

that were listed in the media through the years

of Jim in the Bay Area.

So a picture emerges of Jim on the move.

I had this, you know, innate sense that someday

I'm gonna find Jim Morrison alive.

I kept all my notes, and those I added up

to all the research I'd already done.

And then there came a point in 2012 where I was ready

to make a documentary film about Jim.

In his film, Finn documents his years-long investigation

into Morrison's fate.

The search leads not to some distant foreign hideaway,

but to upstate New York.

And to a man Finn wants to call Frank X,

not revealing his full name because, well, Frank X is

allegedly Jim Morrison, alive and well.

I first encountered the man I nicknamed "Frank X"

in December 2016.

I've joked that it's not so much that I found Frank,

it's that he let me find him.

He began following my official Facebook page,

and I remember just being...

struck and, you know, zooming in with my eyes

and then later pulling the photo up and enlarging it

to see what I believed was the spitting image

of an elderly Jim Morrison.

And he was standing next to John Densmore,

The Doors drummer.

That's one of the most haunting moments I've ever experienced,

like seeing a real ghost.

Eventually, Finn convinces Frank X to sit for an interview.

And during their conversation, Finn becomes certain that Frank

and Jim Morrison are one in the same.

[Jeff] I will never forget when we finally met in person

in May of 2017.

One of the many things that just blew my mind

uh, during the interview was Frank's expressed interest

in French poet Charles Baudelaire,

who was essentially synonymous with Jim's interest,

going back to his formative years,

certainly his teen years.

I like Baudelaire.

I don't read a lot of new poetry...

[Jeff] And forgive me, whose quote was this?

Baudelaire.

This was just astounding to me.

Detractors will immediately say, this guy has brown eyes,

you know, and indeed he does.

But at one point in the interview,

I kindly asked him to remove his baseball cap.

If you would be so kind as to let us see you without your hat

so we can see your face better, because the bill on your cap

covers your eyes like...

I looked into his eyes, and I instantly felt there was

a murkiness there.

And I thought, my God,

he's wearing brown contact lenses.

In terms of physical matches, it went on and on.

Vein matches on the arms, moles, scars,

uh, one nostril being slightly wider or flared than the other.

It's incredible.

After the interview was completed, my editors and I

extracted a vocal clip from my on camera interview

with Frank X, and we created a comparison,

an audio comparison.

I then played that comparison for a number of

Jim's former friends, lovers, acquaintances, etc.

[Frank X] Well, I like Artificial Paradise.

[Jim Morrison] I like interviews because...

And each time I played it for them,

they just assumed it was Jim.

They went, "Oh, there he is," or "There's his voice."

And I would tell them, "No, no, that first voice is Frank."

It's incredible.

As for Frank X's take on all this, well,

he hasn't copped to the fact that he's Jim Morrison.

But Jeff thinks that Frank is just toying with him.

It felt to me, you know, like a game of cat and mouse.

I think he loves it.

He, in fact, has basically said as much.

He loves the game.

He loves the attention, the respect.

If, in fact, he ever does fully give it up,

it's got to be under his terms.

And I respect that, I understand that,

and I appreciate that. I knew...

definitively, you know, for what it's worth,

every molecule of my being.

I was like, this is him. It all adds up.

[Josh] The so-called Frank X denies that he is Jim Morrison,

though he has always been a huge fan of his music.

Frank claims he's lived most of his life in upstate New York,

where he worked as a maintenance man.

Let's get real, though.

None of Jim Morrison's former bandmates or friends believe

he made it past the age of 27.

And for my money, Frank X is a little more Duck Dynasty

than Lizard King.

But hey, wouldn't it be great to learn that one of rock's

greatest icons defied the odds to forego fame and fortune

in favor of the quiet life?

Now that Finn's documentary has gotten attention,

Frank X was recently invited to throw out the first pitch

at a Syracuse minor league baseball game.

If Frank really is Jim, he seems to be living

his best life.

"Break on through to the other side," indeed.

It's 1842, and crowds flock to P.T. Barnum's American Museum

in New York, eager to catch a glimpse

of an astonishing oddity.

The mummified body of a supposedly real mermaid,

but Ariel she is not.

This preserved creature is half fish, half monkey,

and Barnum's mysterious marvel isn't alone.

Across the Pacific in Japan, similar mermaid monkeys have

also been preserved and displayed.

Now, if you're like me, you're probably thinking

this whole thing sounds a little, well, fishy.

So what's the real story?

The answer involves dredging up a legend that dates back

thousands of years and a scientific study

that will finally reveal the truth

behind one seriously scaly tale.

Long before gracing your coffee as a Starbucks logo,

the legend of merfolk goes back millennia.

First surfacing in Mesopotamia

with the half-man, half-fish god, Ea.

Centuries later, stories emerge of sea nymphs, sirens,

and beautiful women of the water -- mysterious,

seductive, and just dangerous enough

to keep sailors on edge.

But in Japan, another version of this creature exists,

the Ningyo, meaning human fish.

It has scales, a fish-like body,

and a monkey-like face with tiny teeth.

The first written account of Ningyos appears

in an 8th-century book called the Nihon Shoki,

a compilation of Japan's myths.

It describes how in the year 619,

a fish with humanoid facial features is

allegedly spotted in the Gamo River.

Later that year, it documents how a fisherman in the town

of Settsu claims to have netted a gruesome creature with both

human and fish traits.

But there's more to a Ningyo than its eerie

fish-meets-monkey form.

In Japanese folklore, these creatures carry powerful

and dangerous supernatural baggage.

Catch one, and legend says you could unleash raging storms

that swallow ships whole.

Not every Ningyo encounter ends in disaster.

Some stories claim that the Ningyo's tears can crystallize

into shimmering pearls.

And the boldest legend of all?

That a single bite of its flesh could grant you immortality.

There are generations of powerful stories about

the Japanese mermaid, but is there anything

that could back them up?

Remarkably, the answer is yes, and it's about to be revealed.

The Japanese legend of the Ningyo,

half fish, half human with monkey-like features,

has long captivated the public.

But is there any hard evidence for these reported creatures?

Wow.

[Josh] Starting around the 17th century,

alleged Ningyo mummies are often bought by the wealthy

as exotic curiosities.

Ningyos are also enshrined in temples and featured

in traveling sideshows.

But there is one so-called Japanese mermaid mummy specimen

that is seemingly more convincing than any other.

It is said to be discovered in the 18th century

off the coast of Japan's Tosa province.

Early one morning, two fishermen allegedly land

their most astounding catch ever,

the seaweed-covered corpse of a half fish,

half human creature.

They soon learn they've dredged up a Ningyo and hear

of the potential curses it can bring.

[indistinct]

The story goes that the Tosa fishermen sell it

to the wealthy Kojima family to avert any potential curses.

For generations, the family regards

the mermaid mummy as a cherished heirloom.

Later, it will find its way to the Enjuin Temple,

a Zen Buddhist order near Okayama, Japan,

where it then sits in storage for the next 200 years.

[door creaks]

A monk carries in a dusty wooden box to show

his high priest.

They have heard whisperings about its contents,

but the gruesome, withered form that greets them still comes as

a shock, a mummified Ningyo.

They know the legends,

but where did this one come from?

Inside the box, there's also a handwritten note.

The note seemingly dates back over two centuries and recounts

this mermaid's storied history, from the fishermen who found it,

to the Kojima's, to its relocation at the temple.

The head of the temple puts the mermaid mummy on display.

Almost overnight, it becomes a sensation.

For the next 50 years, tens of thousands of pilgrims

and tourists alike flock to the Temple, all eager

to lay eyes on a supposedly bona fide Ningyo.

In fact, during the COVID-19 pandemic,

people even prayed to the mummy.

Desperate for it to help ease the crisis.

For 50 years, the Tosa mermaid is treasured

as a miraculous relic, the preserved remains

of a magical sea creature.

Yet skeptics argue the corpse is not what it seems.

So what exactly is it?

In 2022, scientists at Kurashiki University are

the first in history to gain permission

to investigate the relic.

Using cutting-edge technology, they set out to solve

the mermaid mystery for good.

Professor of religion Dr. Max Moerman followed

their unprecedented work closely.

[Dr. Moerman] The scientists were given permission by the head priest

of Enjuin to bring the Ningyo

into their veterinary hospital suite.

They used CT scans and x-ray

and found that there were no internal organs,

but rather that the interior of the Ningyo was made up

of inorganic matter, textiles, cotton,

and paper built up to form the interior of the body.

And then the outside skin was coated with a substance of

ground charcoal and sand and coated with

a shellac-like substance.

It was not an actual creature, just a structure built to

resemble an actual creature.

If this was all just a fabrication,

how did it manage to be so convincing for so long?

Well, it turns out that while the interior of the mermaid was

fake, the exterior was all too real.

DNA analysis revealed that the two halves were largely

a monkey and a fish.

So the upper part of the torso was mainly primate,

the head, the torso, the arms.

The jaw, however, was carnivorous fish.

The lower part was a fish, probably a croaker.

Biological elements included just enough realism to convince

the viewers that it just might be an animal.

As for being discovered in the 1700s, well, turns out

that's not true either.

They were able to use radiocarbon dating on the paper

and the cotton that was used to make the Ningyo.

According to the data, it was produced

between 1870 and 1890,

which is over 100 years after it was allegedly

dredged out of the water.

[Josh] In other words, those two 18th century fishermen

who supposedly found the Ningyo,

they were a myth too.

And the so-called note of provenance?

A forgery.

There was in the late 1800s, early 1900s in Japan,

a booming culture of public sideshow entertainment,

carnivals and the like called misemono.

And they exhibited all sorts of curiosities

like the Ningyo.

So, it's very likely that this particular Ningyo would have

been produced for this sort of context.

So, sorry to be the bearer of bad news,

but the Japanese mermaid is definitely a fake.

But what about P.T. Barnum's Fiji mermaid

that we met back at the beginning of our story?

Surely that's real.

Well, it turns out both specimens had a lot in common.

In a way, they were kind of the same species.

Because the Fiji mermaid was not only completely fake,

but most likely also handcrafted in Japan.

Though there is one important distinction.

While P.T. Barnum's mermaid was just for spectacle,

its Japanese counterpart was a nearly sacred object

of worship.

The Tosa Ningyo and other dried Ningyo in Japan

had protective value to those who viewed it.

It had its own legend.

It had its own cultural history.

Despite the findings about the Enjuin Temple's mermaid mummy,

the chief priest decided to put it back on display,

where it remains a popular attraction to this day.

He sees it not as a deception, but as a symbol

of people's ongoing fascination with the mystical and unknown.

And sometimes that can hold much more power than the truth.

Anyone for sushi?

June 1977.

Two men, Terry Lovelace and his co-worker Toby, are

on a camping trip at Devil's Den State Park

in Arkansas.

It's a beautiful setting with stars twinkling

in the gathering night sky, but in a moment,

this peaceful evening will reportedly turn to terror,

kick-starting a decades-long mystery

with out-of-this-world evidence.

Because these two men are allegedly about to be abducted

by a UFO.

According to Terry Lovelace, before the lights appeared

over Devil's Den, his life was altogether normal.

Four years into his Air Force service

at the Whiteman Air Force Base,

he's newly married and studying to become a lawyer.

He's also an EMT.

He spends his nights working the graveyard shift as a medic.

His partner on the shift is Toby, a close friend,

fellow medic, and amateur astronomer.

And on a long weekend in June of 1977,

they take off on a four-day road trip,

getting away from the city to go camping.

The men drive six hours from the Air Force Base

to a remote part of Arkansas, a place called Devil's Den.

[animal howling]

They settle in for a night under the stars.

And then that massive triangular craft shows up.

It hovers over their campsite, a beam of light shooting down

over the two terrified men.

Terry will later report that a strange wave of exhaustion

washes over them, keeping them from running away.

Terry says the next thing he remembers is waking up,

his body scorched and aching, his clothes disheveled.

Is it still out there?

[Josh] To his horror, when he looks outside the tent,

he sees the craft hovering even lower.

And more shocking, several small gray beings

on the ground.

This is the story as reported by Terry.

He claims that the terror he experiences this night

will haunt him for the next 40 years.

Many are skeptical about his account.

That is, until a shocking medical discovery

changes everything. Hold on to your hyperdrives.

This sensational story is just getting started.

[Josh] According to Terry Lovelace, he and his friend Toby have

an alien encounter in 1977.

After spotting an unexplainable craft hovering above them,

they black out, only to wake up and find mysterious gray beings

surrounding their camp.

The two men sit frozen, watching in silence

as the gray figures dissolve into a beam of light.

Moments later, the ship itself slips soundlessly back

into the sky.

Terry and Toby huddle fearfully in their tent.

And when dawn finally breaks, they bolt for their car,

leaving all of their camping gear behind

and never daring to look back.

Before they make it to town, Toby recalls

something astonishing.

Memories of both of them being taken on board the alien craft

and experimented on.

The men are shaken and feel lucky to be alive,

but are due back on base,

reporting for duty later that day.

But Terry says their supervisor takes one look at them

and sends them straight to the base hospital

for medical attention.

The men are allegedly examined and both supposedly share

near identical symptoms.

Burns, dehydration, blurred vision,

and red welts across their bodies.

According to Terry's account, his time in the hospital is

painful and disorienting.

His eyes are extremely sensitive to light,

while doctors photograph him, draw blood, and run tests.

Then, he says a senior officer persuades him to meet with

agents from the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.

Terry says these real-life men in black have him consent

to chemical hypnosis to help him recall what happened.

However, Terry feels their primary concern is not

his mental well-being.

Instead, it's initiating a cover-up.

How many pictures did you take?

Sir, not one.

[Josh] He says that before they leave,

the government official gives him a final order.

"Forget what happened."

As Terry tells it, after he returns to work,

he learns that Toby is reassigned to a base in Japan.

In fact, he never sees him again.

Over time, Terry, too, moves on, putting the events of

that horrifying night in the rearview mirror.

In fact, he goes on to an impressive career.

He earns his law degree and later serves

as Assistant Attorney General for the state of Vermont.

Over 30 years pass.

Then, one morning in 2012, Terry wakes with a strange

sharp pain in his leg.

At the VA hospital, Terry says that doctors take an X-ray.

And what appears on the scan is shocking,

a mysterious metallic object that looks like a microchip

embedded deep in his leg.

Never having had any surgeries or injuries before,

Terry fears the worst. Could this be an alien implant?

Thirty-five years after Terry Lovelace's alleged abduction,

he says an X-ray reveals an unknown square object lodged

deep in his thigh, and he has no explanation

for how it got there.

Baffled, Terry fears it's some kind of alien tracking device.

A mysterious object in your body is pretty alarming,

and for Terry, it was the catalyst to dig deeper

into the memories he said he'd repressed over the years.

He undergoes regression hypnosis,

a highly controversial technique that claims to pull

lost memories back to the surface.

Terry says the treatment unlocks vivid memories

he believes were buried by the trauma of abduction.

Under hypnosis, one of his first recollections is

being inside a massive craft.

Looking around, he sees diminutive gray beings

with large heads and almond-shaped eyes.

Terry recalls being restrained on a surgical table.

They begin probing and cutting, pain searing through his body.

For Terry, the memories are a horrible validation.

He is now completely certain he was abducted by aliens.

He's also determined to convince the world

of his encounter.

In 2018, he publishes a book, goes on tour, and is embraced

by the UFO community.

Terry may be convinced, but me?

Uh, I got a few questions.

Chief among them, what happened to Toby?

The only other eyewitness to this extraordinary encounter.

Well, Terry claims he tried to track his old friend down,

but says an FBI agent told him Toby died in 2007.

No word on the identity of this agent,

and Terry has refused to divulge Toby's full name

out of respect for his family.

Enter my old friend, UFO researcher Ben Hansen,

who's spent years digging into Terry's account,

starting with the memories he claimed to recover

during regression hypnosis.

[Ben] Hypnotic regression is very controversial.

It's used sometimes in law enforcement

because it can help a witness remember things

such as a license-plate number,

but often in the world of alleged alien abductions

and things of that sort, it also has the ability to

introduce what we call false memories.

Having interviewed several alleged abductees

and some of the most prolific cases,

I feel that Terry's case is very similar

in the description of the craft,

the interaction with the beings and their descriptions.

When it comes to very extraordinary stories,

I tell people, don't believe everything you hear,

but don't disbelieve it just

because you haven't heard it before.

[Josh] Open-minded but also skeptical,

Hansen then evaluated Terry's X-ray that potentially

showed a square-shaped implant.

I've seen the X-rays myself, and if this truly was

from the examination that occurred,

I am not a medical professional.

But it doesn't take a medical professional to say

that object does not belong in a human body.

You can see what looks like about a thumbnail-sized square

embedded in his right thigh.

And running down from that, it looks like two

very thin filaments or wires that come off of this.

There's no part of the anatomy I'm aware of

that should include a square object

with what looks like antenna or wires coming off of it.

This implant would seem to be the key to everything.

If it truly exists, it could be tested in a lab,

its makeup analyzed, its origin determined,

settling Terry's claims once and for all.

Unfortunately, there's just one small problem.

In 2017, Terry claims he wakes

with severe bruising on his thigh

where the object was first found.

He submits to a second X-ray, which reveals the object is

now gone, almost.

All that remains are what looks like

the two filaments or wires.

So, are they there?

In 2021, Ben Hansen opened an investigation,

arranging an experiment with Terry,

one Ben hoped would reveal if any foreign objects

were indeed in Terry's leg.

[Ben] In 2021, I met him at his home.

I need more people like you to tell their stories,

so I appreciate it. -Of course.

When I saw the X-rays, I was just shocked,

because for me, it was validation

that these things put their hands on me.

So I do have a few things here that we could try and test with,

but is that OK if we do that? -Oh, absolutely.

We tried multiple different things.

I used an electromagnetic-field meter.

I expected to find nothing.

It did come up with some readings,

which were kind of unusual.

It's kind of odd.

It's just really unusually high.

I took out a neodymium magnet such as this.

It's a very, very strong magnet.

And passed it over where he said the object had

originally been located.

I expected to find nothing.

But this little magnet, as powerful as it was,

had a pole to it, and it rotated slightly

in my hand. So as I would pass it over,

it would kind of wobble, and you could feel

that there was an attraction of something metallic

within Terry's knee.

The finding was intriguing, but Ben remained skeptical.

A single piece of circumstantial evidence is not

enough to close this case.

The biggest weak link in Terry Lovelace's story,

it's that all of the information

and the evidence that's been presented

comes directly from him.

What we don't have and what I wish we had is

more corroborating evidence.

But what I would really like to have is a witness,

but Toby's gone.

And so all we have is the story from Terry himself.

In the case of Terry, I found Terry Lovelace to be

a credible witness.

He was an attorney, very intelligent, who rose

to the level of Assistant Attorney General

in the state of Vermont.

He had a lot to lose, not a lot to gain

by coming out and talking about this.

So, it's unlikely that someone of his caliber, if you will,

would come forward with such a fantastical story

if it were not true.

But at this time, we just don't have enough to say

that it really happened exactly as he remembered.

And so, all we have is the story from Terry himself.

Terry Lovelace's story has won over many UFO enthusiasts.

But the skeptics note that we can't independently verify

any of his claims.

The square object seen on X-ray, conveniently gone.

The wires, never removed.

No hospital records,

no military reports.

And the one other witness,

a phantom.

The truth may be out there,

but for now, this is one sci-fi saga

in need of a sequel.

Title it, "The Evidence Strikes Back."

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you

on the next expedition.