The incident in the village of Bispberg outside Säter is very unusual, both by Swedish and foreign standards. Here, a woman is affected both physically and psychologically by an unknown object that she can see for a long time. Family pets are also affected.

During January 1985, the Dala Democrat and the Falukuriren were filled with reports and question marks about light phenomena seen in the sky. Even the defense showed interest and the explanations ranged from bright planets to ball lightning and car headlights.

On January 10, the Dala Democrat's photographer Rune Österlund managed to capture a strange shining object in a picture, but despite this the solution to the riddle did not come any closer.

In January 1986, it was time again, which prompted UFO-Sweden's local group Västerbergslagen's UFO association to invest a year later, in January 1987, in a large investigation project where they sent their field investigators out into the bitterly cold winter to try to capture the brilliant phenomena on film . The group had also invited researchers from other parts of the country and during an intensive week coordinated the project, unique for its time, which was carried out in several places in Dalarna. But the results were meager and only one observation of its own was made by the group, although a number of sightings of phenomena in the sky also came in from the public during the rest of the month.

But perhaps the most interesting sighting in Dalarna in many years only happened at the end of this year, 1987. The event is very unusual because the object observed also seems to have damaged the clothes of one of the observers.

Spouses Karin and Rune Lagerstrand had only managed to sleep for a couple of hours when they were woken up by the dog and cat being anxious and wanting to go outside. But soon after they were let out, both pets wanted back in. It was now around one in the morning on Thursday 31 December 1987 and we are in the village of Bispberg outside Säter in southern Dalarna. The New Year's Eve fireworks were still almost 24 hours away.

The night would continue to be restless. Now the animals wanted out again. They acted as if they had discovered something dangerous. The collie Cinda was aggressive and barked and the cat raised bristles. Nothing seemed to help. They both looked as cut inside as they were outside.

The strange behavior of the dog and cat continued until shortly after three. Then the couple decided to get up and get dressed to find out what was troubling the pets.

Karin Lagerstrand looked out the bedroom window in the hope of seeing something that could explain it all. Perhaps there was some animal there that worried the cat and the dog, who were now outside again. Outside, a waxing crescent moon shone in a starry sky. But it wasn't the starry sky that first attracted Karin Lagerstrand's eyes. Cinda stood impassively outside by the flagpole, her tail between her legs and her teeth chattering in her jaws. Because she thought the dog had seen a badger, Karin went out on the kitchen stairs that face south. The time was then 03.30.

- When I came out, I smelled a very strong smell of sulfur and started looking around to see where it came from, Karin Lagerstrand later told me. Then I saw an ice-blue object shaped like a huge light bulb hanging at the height of some birch trees maybe 500 meters from me.

The object had a cold , metallic blue color while an aura of light gray haze with splashes of orange surrounded it. Although the object was shining, none of the light was reflected in the trees. It was wider than it was high and later Karin estimated the size to be 6 by 8 meters. While Karin stood on the kitchen stairs and watched, things started to happen at the bottom of the "bulb".

- At the bottom there was a neck-shaped opening from which came lightning bolts that resembled long spears. They were straight like lances with a point at the front and they didn't look like ordinary lightning. The spears are fired from the object all the time, one at a time. It seemed as if the lightning bolts were somehow hurled out and then pulled back into the orb.

While she stood there wearing only a nightgown and sweater, something happened that almost scared the wits out of the then 59-year-old woman. Karin Lagerstrand felt how the jaws were locked and how she got goosebumps all over her body. But worst of all, she felt like something was being sucked to her forehead above her left eye.

- I was as if paralyzed. I couldn't call for help and I couldn't get out of there. It was terrible, says Karin. I was so scared that I was completely destroyed. My husband had gone back to bed and I couldn't call out to him! I just shook.

Whatever it was that had hit her, it hurt terribly and Karin thought she was going to die. After about five minutes, the orb suddenly disappeared, sideways or downwards, and only then could Karin move again. Just as she turned around, her right shoulder blade stung.

Meanwhile, Rune had fallen asleep again. Just before he had been able to hear a whirring sound like that of a car idling and thought it was the oil pan that was having trouble, but was so tired that he didn't get up and look at it. Rune had also felt uneasy and found the air to be strangely oppressive. Later he discovered that the wristwatch had stopped.

When Karin came back in, the kitchen clock showed 03.35. The object had disappeared but the smell of sulfur lingered. Both the dog and she stank of sulphur. The cat had run away and didn't come back until a while later.

- I made a cup of coffee and I took off the sweater that I had hung over my nightgown, she says. But it wasn't until New Year's Day that we discovered there was a long burn mark on the back. I had also started getting strange tingling in my shoulder blade.

Rune looked for marks on his wife's back where she complained of burning, but he found none. Karin's skin was still gnarly and her jaws felt stiff for a long time afterwards. After the incident, Karin had a headache for four days. She still had the stitches in her shoulder when I met her ten years after the incident.

Now that the object was gone, both the dog and the cat calmed down again. Karin gave Cinda some candy and the cat went into the closet and lay down.

At 4 o'clock Rune went out with Cinda for the usual walk and he then smelled a strong creosote-like smell. Cinda was acting nervous and sniffing around in the grass, sometimes huddling. None of the neighbors seemed to be awake yet.

Still four days after the incident, a faint smell lingered in the air around the house. For Karin Lagerstrand, the incident was the beginning of a long period of illness. She suffered from several inflammations and often felt tired and sluggish. In February 1988, she had to go to the doctor urgently to remove a loose bone chip on her right leg. The bone chip later turned out to be calcified fatty tissue.

UFO-Sweden's field investigators Berit Bergqvist and Birgit Sälgström from Västerbergslagen's UFO association, who investigated the Lagerstrand family's sighting, put in extensive work to investigate the case.

- We picked up the jumper and could see that there was a five centimeter long mark at the back on the right side. Thread loops were burned into the badge. We also called the head of health care in Säter who came and measured the radioactivity on the jumper, but the test was negative, there was no elevated radiation, says Berit Bergqvist.

In order to have the brand analyzed, the investigators sent Karin Lagerstrand's shirt to the Norwegian Defense Research Institute for analysis. The examination was carried out by Arne Groth in the middle of March 1988 and at the end of June came his statement: "The so-called burn mark does not appear to be a burn mark when I look at it under the microscope - 40x magnification. The dark color has arisen by having fibers of a different and darker type as if welded to the fibers of the jumper. That a dozen fibers were both transported and welded to the jumper in this way indicates a strong electrostatic phenomenon with local spark formation at the relevant place on the body," writes Groth in a handwritten letter addressed to Berit Bergqvist.

Despite FOA's statement, few took notice of the investigation. Arne Groth himself was very uninterested and also knew the circumstances surrounding how the brand came about. His investigation was hardly neutral and the handwritten report sloppy and without the scientific rigor that was so badly needed. And a "burn mark" hardly proved anything. Indeed, it could have arisen in a number of different ways.

One of the theories that the investigators worked with was that Bispberg's old mine, which is almost directly below the Lagerstrand couple's house, could be a cause of the phenomenon. Gases from it could have ignited when they came into contact with one of the many power lines that cross the area.

However , that theory is completely dismissed by Boris Serning, former vice president of Gränges and head of raw material assets within the group. Serning has 50 years of mining experience and says he has never heard of gas from a mine being able to cause a light phenomenon in the air above.

- It is very unlikely that the methane gas could rise up and cause such a light phenomenon, he says. Partly because the gas itself is heavy and sinks to the bottom, partly because it would be diluted very quickly if it were to leak into the air anyway.

On September 10, 1988 , seven months after the event, new, interesting information suddenly appears. During a visit to Karin Lagerstrand's home, Berit Bergqvist and Kurt Persson, from UFO-Sweden's local group UFO-Z in Östersund, learn that Karin has discovered a new brand. The mark was clearly visible in a curtain by the kitchen door where Karin stood during the observation. The height above the floor was 1.5 meters, which agreed well with the branding in the shirt.

UFO-Sweden's investigators knocked on doors in Bispberg in the hope of finding more observers to the event, but to no avail. Many had been away during the New Year's holiday and those who had been home had slept. Even so, one more observer appeared.

Petri Lyttbacka, 19 years old, worked as a cook at Scandic Hotell in Falun. On the night of December 31, 1987, he was, as so many times before, on his way by car along road 266 south from Falun towards Säter. It was between 01.00 and 01.30 when he arrived at Trollbo at the exit road towards Stora Skedvi, seven kilometers from Bispberg.

- After turning towards Stora Skedvi, I saw a blue light with hints of red over Bispberg's heel. "What the hell can it be?", I thought and stopped the car. At first I thought the light was stuck on an airplane but soon I saw it wasn't moving. I probably stood there looking at the light through the windshield for about ten minutes. I saw it very clearly. But I shook it off and went on. When I got closer to Säter, I could still see the light, it got bigger the closer I got.

- I have driven that road many times both before and after this incident but I have never seen that light again. Had it been a fixed light source, I should have seen it more often.

Could Petri Lyttbacka have witnessed the beginning of Karin Lagerstrand's nightmare? Or did he simply mistake a bright planet? One of the brightest celestial bodies, Jupiter, was just above the horizon in the west-northwest at 1 o'clock this night. But there is one fact that makes the planet theory less likely. When Berit Bergqvist interviewed Petri Lyttbacka just a few days after the incident, he described how he could see the light remaining over Bispberg even after arriving at Säter around 01:30. So in the opposite direction compared to the first observation. Jupiter would not have been able to be seen in that direction.

- It was absolutely not any star or planet, says Petri. Then I should have seen it more often because I went the same way almost every night.

Today, both Karin Lagerstrand and her husband Rune are gone. Rune died in 1995 and Karin in 2015. In one of the interviews I did with her, she told me how terrible the event was for her:

- This was the morning before New Year's Eve. Then you don't shoot off fireworks, says Karin. And the smell. Ugh, it was so strong with sulfur and creosote that it was something horrible.

- I don't want to experience it any more times. It felt like I was seeing evil itself.

By Clas Svahn

Source: https://www.ufo.se/index.php/fakta/arti/verkligheten-bakom-ufopodden-i-p3/1768-bispberg

Extraterrestrial life experts say the Knowles family case is one of the most significant close encounters in history. Faye Knowles was heading to Perth along the Nullarbor Plain in January 1998. She was with her three sons Patrick, 24, Sean, 21, and Wayne, 18. The road was deserted at the time and Sean was driving, with his older brother beside him. Ahead of them was a bright light and Sean decided to chase it. The light was shaped like an egg and was moving back and forth just above the road. Sean swerved to miss the object and continued driving. The egg was now following them and they started to feel the car being lifted off the road.

The mother stuck her arm out the window and felt something soft, rubbery and hot, her arm was then covered in a black dust. The voices of everybody in the car then became distorted, their talking had slowed and Patrick said after the experience it was as if his brains were being sucked out. The car then thudded back onto the road and the back tyre burst.

The Adelaide Advertiser reports the family hid in a bush for 30 minutes before heading to the police station. Ceduna Sergeant Fred Longley said the family was distressed, according to the Adelaide Advertiser. “They were in a terrible state — even though it was five hours after the incident. Something happened out there. Their car, even after being driven all that way, still had black ash — or dust — over it. Even on the inside,” he said.

Nightmare on the Nullarbor

We'll start in the outback, where a traumatised family was allegedly lifted off the ground by aliens. It was still dark in the early hours of January 20, 1988, when the Knowles family was driving along the remote Nullarbor Plain. The seemingly mundane trip from Perth to Melbourne quickly turned to terror when they encountered an unidentified flying object that tormented them for 90 minutes. A large glowing object "like a big ball" chased Faye Knowles and her adult sons Patrick, Wayne and Sean down the highway, before landing on their roof and plucking them into the air. "It apparently picked the car up off the road, shook it quite violently and forced the car back down on the road with such pressure that one of the tyres was blown," a police spokesman told media at the time.

In a state of shock, Sean Knowles put his foot on the accelerator as his mother screamed but, according to reports, their voices distorted like time was slowing down. "I wound down the window and I felt this thing on the roof... all of this smoke stuff started coming into the car, the car was covered in black stuff," Faye Knowles told reporters after the incident. "It was a small light and all of a sudden it became big like this, like a big ball. "We thought we were dying, then we got out the car and we hid behind a little tree and the bushes and it couldn't find us."

The family eventually made it to Ceduna and reported the bizarre events to police who took the report seriously, given the state of the car, which was dented and had dust over it. The story made headlines around the world with sceptics and believers alike trying to make sense of what happened on that lonely stretch of road.