Episode Recap: The Mojave Encounter

Steve and Dawn Hess were looking for a quiet getaway. What they got was a night of encounters too close for comfort!

Steve and Dawn were looking forward to a weekend of camping on the Mojave Reserve. They left their kids, Steven and Bethany, in the care of Steve's parents, borrowed the camper and journeyed into the desert.

They ended up camping a little off the beaten path when they arrived to find Mid Hills Campground completely full. They were delighted by their isolated little spot, enjoying the quiet and beauty of nature.

And then they saw several bright lights in the sky, which soon created a sort of 'M' formation. They looked on in wonder as small red lights descended from the larger white ones, gliding to the ground as if they were parachuting. What's going on here? A military exercise?

Suddenly, the red lights started advancing toward them at a rapid rate, soon revealed as night-vision lights on the headpieces of impish, elf-like beings. Terrified, Steve and Dawn retreated into the camper, where they were quickly surrounded by the creatures. They soon heard a low, hydraulic hum, followed by a blinding red light coming from above them. The camper began to shake violently as some sort of suffocating mist started pouring in …

The next thing they knew, Steve and Dawn woke up, holding each other in the camper, shielding their eyes from the morning sunlight. A radio newscast didn't announce anything out of the ordinary, though Dawn had two small red dots on the side of her neck, as if from a puncture wound.

They started the camper and got the hell out of there, stopping only to ask another camping couple if they had seen or heard anything strange the night before. They hadn't.

After they returned home, Steve and Dawn tried to get on with their lives, but that bizarre night haunted them … as did the unaccounted hours between the mist appearing in the camper and them waking up the next morning. Little Steven got in on the mystery when he woke up one night to the sound of the low, hydraulic hum and flashing red lights, later telling his mother, "Don't let those little guys with the red eyes get me."

Steve told his best friend Paul about the experience, who in turn contacted Ron Silver, an author who at the time was working on a book about post-traumatic stress. Ron visited Steve and Dawn, noting their uneasiness and reluctance to talk about the experience, after which he recommended they see Dr. Anixster, a colleague who specialized in regression therapy.  

Dr. Anixster hypnotized Steve and Dawn individually, and they both described being taken into a large spacecraft, where they were put on examining tables and forced to endure painful experiments. Dawn's experience was especially harrowing as she was drugged via a strange device (explaining the two marks on her neck) and later felt as if something was being put inside her!

After waking up Steve and Dawn, Dr. Anixter was convinced there was no con or hoax going on here. When he asked them if there was anything they hadn't shared with him yet, Dawn revealed she was pregnant.

The following summer, Dawn gave birth to a healthy — and seemingly completely human — baby girl.