Police radio connected several observations of unusual lights across south-western Illinois before dawn on 5 January 2000. Craig Stevens's account at Millstadt and David Martin's account at Shiloh belong to different locations and have different surviving documentation. A reproduced CENCOM communications log establishes a sequence of department-labelled transmissions, while later investigator accounts supply names, descriptions and reconstructed images. Matt Birkland's separate observation remains unestablished in the inspected record; the named Lebanon and Dupo accounts belong to other officers.
Millstadt police officer with a reproduced written account, sketch and photographic attempt
Craig Stevens
The Millstadt observation and attempted photograph
The early online reproduction of Stevens's written account dates his patrol observation to approximately 4.28 am. He says that he heard the Lebanon and Shiloh reports through CENCOM, drove first to Millstadt's east end and then parked at Liederkranz Park on the north side. He described a very large, low-looking object moving slowly, estimated its height at 500–1,000 feet and reported a faint buzzing sound. He then notified dispatch and attempted a Polaroid photograph before returning to the station to write his account and make a sketch.
Valerie Schremp's Post-Dispatch article of 9 January describes his arrowhead-like impression, three bright lights at the rear and dimmer surface lights. It reproduces the sketch beside the photographic print and says that the exposure showed lights without the described outline. Stevens attributed its poor development to the cold. The photograph and subsequent drawing preserve different information: the former is an attempted exposure, the latter his interpretation of the form.
Evidence review
The department-website text survives here through an early reproduction rather than a newly authenticated signed police file. Its description of a very low buzzing sound prevents an absolute-silence claim. Height and size remain visual estimates; the faint photographic marks do not independently measure those quantities or establish the drawn outline.
The wristwatch time and communications record are different references. The reproduced CENCOM log places Millstadt's sighting notification at 4.39.27 am and its description at 4.40.43 am. The difference from 4.28 am has not been resolved through the original recording or clock records. That unresolved difference prevents a reliable speed calculation from an assumed synchronised timetable.
Statement and reporting history
5 January 2000: written-account reproduction gives approximately 4.28 am for his Millstadt observation.
5 January 2000: the reproduced CENCOM log records Millstadt notification at 4.39.27 am and description at 4.40.43 am.
9 January 2000: Post-Dispatch publishes his named account with a reproduction of the sketch and Polaroid.
Complete short reproduced text read. Links to the former department website and preserves route, wristwatch time, sound and photographic-attempt details. This is an early transcription, not a separately authenticated signed departmental original.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 10 inspected at high resolution. Named Stevens interview, Polaroid/sketch reproduction and reported base response. Other articles and pages in this clipping issue were not comprehensively inspected.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 3 inspected. Archive clipping dates it 19 January 2000; the early Rense reproduction carries 20 January. Reports Stevens and investigator statements, without naming the Lebanon officer or supplying an original flight measurement.
Complete original-looking sheet visually inspected in Barker's private reproduction. Department-labelled entries include Shiloh 4.23.57 and Millstadt 4.39.27. It summarises transmissions, does not name officers and is not a verbatim transcript or continuous target log.
Linked purported original Polaroid scan and cropped underside sketch actually inspected; enhanced images and documentary frames were not treated as originals. The acquired scan is privately reproduced material, not the original photographic print or a laboratory examination.
Unverified attribution in the existing case roster
Matt Birkland
The unresolved attribution
The available early newspaper reports describe an officer in Lebanon without naming him. Darryl Barker's later, personally authored investigation identifies the Lebanon officer as Ed Barton and the Dupo observer as Matt Jany. The early NUFORC entry identifies its submitter as a Lebanon police officer but does not publish a personal name. None of these inspected sources establishes an observation by Matt Birkland or identifies that name with Barton or Jany.
Evidence review
A similar first name or a place in a later witness list is insufficient to transfer another officer's description, employment or route. Birkland's connection to the event remains an unverified attribution. A source identifying him and preserving his own account would be needed before assigning firsthand access, a police department or an encounter time to this record. The unresolved name supplies no additional corroborating observation.
Statement and reporting history
The inspected January 2000 reports do not provide a separately attributable Birkland statement.
Barker's later investigation names Barton at Lebanon and Jany at Dupo; the reproduced CENCOM log identifies departments rather than individual officers.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 10 inspected at high resolution. Named Stevens interview, Polaroid/sketch reproduction and reported base response. Other articles and pages in this clipping issue were not comprehensively inspected.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 3 inspected. Archive clipping dates it 19 January 2000; the early Rense reproduction carries 20 January. Reports Stevens and investigator statements, without naming the Lebanon officer or supplying an original flight measurement.
Author's sequence and source-provenance passages read in the original investigator-hosted webpage. Original posting 2 August 2002, inspected version updated 18 January 2012. Names Ed Barton, David Martin, Craig Stevens and Matt Jany; combines interviews, documentary reconstruction and interpretation. No full documentary or interview recording auditioned.
Complete public entry read. Describes a Lebanon officer's observation, reports submission on 5 January and posting on 7 January 2000. No personal name published, so its testimony is not assigned to Birkland solely from the inventory association.
Complete original-looking sheet visually inspected in Barker's private reproduction. Department-labelled entries include Shiloh 4.23.57 and Millstadt 4.39.27. It summarises transmissions, does not name officers and is not a verbatim transcript or continuous target log.
Shiloh police officer described in investigator interviews and a reproduced sketch
David Martin
The Shiloh view after the radio alert
Barker's investigation places Martin eastbound on Lebanon Avenue in Shiloh after the Lebanon radio report. It describes a broad triangular form with three bright downward-pointing lights and smaller red and green lights. Barker says that Martin told him about an irregular underside and reported no engine sound when he stopped to listen. Martin's account of a sudden departure is preserved through this later interview narrative; it is not a measured acceleration track.
The sketch reproduced on Barker's site, labelled as Martin's police-report drawing, shows a broad pointed outline, three circular features across its wider end and two smaller marks near the rear edge. This cropped reproduction records a different drawn aspect from Stevens's concave-backed outline. It does not show the whole departmental form, a signature, measured range or the successive stages of the observation.
Evidence review
The CENCOM log records a Shiloh officer's possible identification at 4.23.57 am, 51 seconds after the Lebanon officer reported the object westbound near Scott Air Force Base. The log does not name Martin. Barker provides the participant attribution; the log independently supplies department-level reporting order. Fifty-one seconds between transmissions is not automatically the target's flight time between two surveyed positions.
Martin's location gives the regional record a separate viewpoint, but the preceding radio information directed his attention. Agreement between his description and another officer's therefore involves both an individual observation and a shared communications setting. His source does not supply calibrated bearings, target range or a photographic outline against which to test the reconstructed size and departure.
Statement and reporting history
5 January 2000: the CENCOM log records a Shiloh officer's possible identification at 4.23.57 am without publishing his name.
Barker's investigation identifies Martin as the Shiloh observer and reproduces a drawing attributed to his police report.
2 August 2002: original posting date given for Barker's case analysis; the inspected version records subsequent updates through January 2012.
Author's sequence and source-provenance passages read in the original investigator-hosted webpage. Original posting 2 August 2002, inspected version updated 18 January 2012. Names Ed Barton, David Martin, Craig Stevens and Matt Jany; combines interviews, documentary reconstruction and interpretation. No full documentary or interview recording auditioned.
Actual cropped image inspected. Caption attributes it to Martin's Shiloh report; the image itself contains no full report heading or signature. Distinguish this drawing from adjacent documentary reconstruction frames.
Complete original-looking sheet visually inspected in Barker's private reproduction. Department-labelled entries include Shiloh 4.23.57 and Millstadt 4.39.27. It summarises transmissions, does not name officers and is not a verbatim transcript or continuous target log.
Entire reproduced form visually inspected. Incident dated 5 January 2000, release 17 February, acknowledgement signed 18 February. Documents a tape-release transaction; no tape was auditioned here and no fresh departmental authentication obtained.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 10 inspected at high resolution. Named Stevens interview, Polaroid/sketch reproduction and reported base response. Other articles and pages in this clipping issue were not comprehensively inspected.
Dispatch sequence, estimates and reconstructed images
The communications record preserves a real reporting sequence without completing an object trajectory. The reproduced CENCOM sheet identifies exchanges involving Lebanon, Shiloh, Millstadt and Dupo, from the initial Lebanon alert at 4.11.55 am to later exchanges after 5 am. Its brief descriptions concern radio transmissions rather than continuous watching. An officer may observe before transmitting, while a transmission can describe a position already passed. Joining the entries into a flight path therefore requires additional sighting positions, bearings and clock checks.
The accounts give different directions for Stevens's observation. The reproduced account describes an approach from a southerly direction followed by a turn towards the north-east and Dupo; Schremp's article summarises a north-east-to-south-west passage. Those descriptions have not been reconciled through a scene survey or original interview recording. The unresolved geometry prevents treating either summary as a precise track across the towns.
There is documentary support for the existence and release of dispatch material. Barker reproduces a CENCOM tape-release form giving 17 February 2000 as the release date and 5 January as the incident date, with his acknowledgement signed on 18 February. The form and timecode sheet can be inspected as records. No dispatch tape was auditioned for this review, so individual phrases, vocal reactions and the completeness of circulated audio extracts are not represented as independently checked sound evidence.
The changing light configuration described in the early, unnamed Lebanon NUFORC submission belongs to its submitter. It cannot be inserted into the Birkland panel merely because that record has been associated with Lebanon. This source illustrates the wider comparison problem: different locations and different viewing angles can produce related descriptions, but a common label does not establish a shared identity or independently measured size.
Reconstructed television frames, enlarged sketches and processed photographic images have different origins. Barker labels documentary frames as reconstructions and separates an asserted original Polaroid scan from enhanced versions. Their explanatory clarity cannot be substituted for the camera's faint marks or treated as event footage. Stevens's photographic attempt appears in the early reporting; it does not independently resolve the physical structure depicted in later illustrations.
The inspected material supports police reports of an unfamiliar airborne appearance, transmitted across several jurisdictions. It does not establish a measured giant craft, extraordinary acceleration or a particular operator. Schremp also records Stevens finding a later online illustration of a stealth blimp that resembled his impression. That comparison is a participant's identification lead, not an operational flight record. The source-confirmed Stevens and investigator-attributed Martin accounts can be compared; the unresolved Birkland attribution supplies no third source-confirmed observation.
Key dates
5 January 2000
CENCOM's reproduced log records department-level reports across Lebanon, Shiloh, Millstadt and Dupo. Officer estimates and transmission timestamps remain distinct.
7 January 2000
NUFORC posts an early Lebanon officer submission without publishing a personal name.
9 January 2000
Post-Dispatch publishes Stevens's named account, sketch and photographic attempt.
19 January 2000
The archived Sun-Times clipping compares police reports and investigators' interpretations; the date differs from the later reproduction's 20 January heading.
17–18 February 2000
The reproduced tape-release form dates release to 17 February and Barker's acknowledgement to 18 February.
2 August 2002
Barker dates his original case-analysis posting to this day; the inspected version includes later additions and updates.
Complete short reproduced text read. Links to the former department website and preserves route, wristwatch time, sound and photographic-attempt details. This is an early transcription, not a separately authenticated signed departmental original.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 10 inspected at high resolution. Named Stevens interview, Polaroid/sketch reproduction and reported base response. Other articles and pages in this clipping issue were not comprehensively inspected.
Original article reproduction on PDF page 3 inspected. Archive clipping dates it 19 January 2000; the early Rense reproduction carries 20 January. Reports Stevens and investigator statements, without naming the Lebanon officer or supplying an original flight measurement.
Author's sequence and source-provenance passages read in the original investigator-hosted webpage. Original posting 2 August 2002, inspected version updated 18 January 2012. Names Ed Barton, David Martin, Craig Stevens and Matt Jany; combines interviews, documentary reconstruction and interpretation. No full documentary or interview recording auditioned.
Complete original-looking sheet visually inspected in Barker's private reproduction. Department-labelled entries include Shiloh 4.23.57 and Millstadt 4.39.27. It summarises transmissions, does not name officers and is not a verbatim transcript or continuous target log.
Entire reproduced form visually inspected. Incident dated 5 January 2000, release 17 February, acknowledgement signed 18 February. Documents a tape-release transaction; no tape was auditioned here and no fresh departmental authentication obtained.
Actual cropped image inspected. Caption attributes it to Martin's Shiloh report; the image itself contains no full report heading or signature. Distinguish this drawing from adjacent documentary reconstruction frames.
Linked purported original Polaroid scan and cropped underside sketch actually inspected; enhanced images and documentary frames were not treated as originals. The acquired scan is privately reproduced material, not the original photographic print or a laboratory examination.
Complete public entry read. Describes a Lebanon officer's observation, reports submission on 5 January and posting on 7 January 2000. No personal name published, so its testimony is not assigned to Birkland solely from the inventory association.