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Close Encounter: Aurora Burial

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Aliens Supernatural & Horror

          In the weirdosphere we often discuss alien sightings and crashes. What doesn’t necessarily come up is the aftermath. At least, we do not normally have the details for what happens after. Maybe that’s because the alien wreckage gets scooped up by the military or other government agencies right away. Maybe the survivors snatch up their dead and blast back out to space. For as few answers as we have for the during aspect of extraterrestrial encounters, we know even less about the afters. In most cases, that is. This month’s alien post centers around a ship crashing to earth in Aurora, TX, and how its unfortunate occupant – often referred to as Ned, for no discernible reason – ended up buried there.

(The historical marker that mentions the incident.
via CBS DFW)

The Burial

          Onlookers lept into action as they realized that there may be someone in the wreckage of the ship. As the story goes, they searched through the debris until they came across a body. Not human, but humanoid. Different enough to call martian, but same enough to classify as a sentient, living thing. Reports stated it was small and decidedly martian. Unsure of what to do with the body, the townspeople decided to bury it in the local cemetery. They provided a proper Christian burial, following all of the same sacred rites that they would for one of their own. It’s kind of…touching, really. At the site of burial, a simple stone marker was set. The alien had no name, so the stone was etched with a crude image of its ship. Eventually, it was given the name Ned – and Ned continues to be honored by the town of Aurora, TX to this day. Just take a look at their website.

(Ned’s burial marker.
via Find A Grave)

The Theories

          Okay, so there are two main theories here: either there’s an alien or there isn’t. If there isn’t an alien, then we have two possibilities: this whole occurrence was specifically orchestrated to deceive, or those involved truly believed that they witnessed a UFO or UAP crash and buried the alien to honor it. Or a mix of both, even. Those who spread the story first willfully deceived others who ended up truly believing, as more and more people found out. The question of why anyone would lie about burying an alien body is a bit trickier to even begin answering. The only potential possibilities I can come up with is that they wanted to get the town on the map, drive tourism of some sort, or hoped to sell the story in some way. Money’s the root of it, regardless.
          The theory of there being an alien is basically what was originally reported above. We won’t rehash the whole story here, but I do want to dive into some small conspiracies regarding the burial here – namely, the burial marker vanished. Now, the Occam’s Razor explanation here would be that some UFO aficionado or local teens took it as a souvenir of their visit, but some people see a deeper meaning in its disappearance. Maybe the marker is gone because the body is gone. And maybe the body is gone because the government took it. Which is spooky and all, but why would they wait so long? Why wait until after the advent of the internet, when so many people so rabidly await any news that even faintly resembles anything alien? It doesn’t make sense to me. If I had to guess, I’d say it was likely the result of a rowdy outing of teenagers.
          As for whether the whole thing truly happened or not – who’s to say? Not me, that’s for sure. All I can say is that I hope Ned’s resting in peace, wherever he ended up.

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Join me every Friday as I research and present topics ranging from cold case true crime to folklore from all over the world, in an effort to preserve and uplift underrepresented stories.

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