Roger Marsh
UFO Examiner
April 8, 6:35 PM
Few UFO cases receive widespread media attention - those that make it to network coverage are mostly limited to cases with a combination of multiple witnesses and clear video footage. Much of that coverage is done with a sense of amusement.
American media seems to report louder and stronger though when a UFO hoax is revealed, especially after original reports described a mystery. As the recent Morristown, NJ, sightings became clear April 1 that it was all a hoax - a strong parade of mainstream media chimed in - including rather discouraging and weak reporting from a Newsweek blog.
But long before April Fool's Day, America's leading group of ufologists - the Mutual UFO Network - had already dismissed the case as a hoax, and in fact had discovered the two men who carried out the deed.
While the Morris County Daily Record in January mentioned that "Agents Mulder and Scully were not needed," it appears that the a very real "Agent Scully" might just have investigated and solved the case.
Among the MUFON "heroes," was STAR Team member Kristen Ann Winslet - a field investigator who works the north New Jersey beat. While the broadcast and print media is free to call upon MUFON for a case evaluation - no one called.
Reached at her New Jersey home Tuesday, Winslet detailed for The Examiner her investigation process and the case timeline.
The story unfolded over time for Winslet as multiple and seemingly related sightings were logged into the MUFON UFO content management system (CMS) reporting database - something anyone can do when they have a UFO encounter. The public simply logs their reports at the group's web site at mufon.com. Winslet was asked by MUFON headquarters to examine this case immediately and to create a report on her findings. Those findings were assembled into a written report finalized on March 15, 2009.
The following is just a portion of Winslet's report for MUFON (with only minor edits), titled "MUFON STAR Team Case Study, 'UFO Balloons,' March 15, 2009."
Beginning on September 13, 2008, a series of ‘UFO Balloon’ sightings took place in the Morris County, N.J. area. One event made the 6 o’clock news on CBS in NYC.
The disposition of these cases were proven to be ‘Hoax - Events’ as defined in the MUFON Field Investigator handbook. It was concluded that ‘Incendiary Devices’ carried aloft by ‘Balloons’ otherwise known as ‘UFO Balloons’ were the objects witnessed in all four cases.
There were two additional events identified on Wikipedia “Morristown UFO” where no MUFON CMS cases were reported which occurred in January.
A Summary of the Cases are as Follows:
Event #1 (09/13/08): Bernardsville, N.J. - Case#12461, (determined to be a test), (4 to 5 Objects Sighted).
Event #2 (01/05/09): Morristown, N.J. - Case# 14785, 14787, 14789, 14811, 15167, (5 Objects Sighted).
Event #3 (02/07/09): Morris Plains, N.J. - Case# 15389, 15391, 15392, (3 Objects Sighted).
Event #4 (02/17/09): Denville, N.J. - Case# 15559, 15577, (7 to 9 Objects Sighted).
The Facts of these Cases:
1.) Each event occurred in the Early Evening at about 20:30 Hrs EDT (1).
2.) The same type of objects, (lights) were witnessed in each event (3 to 5 objects) (2).
3.) No sound could be heard from these objects, (lights).
4.) The altitude of the objects, (lights) were roughly 500ft.
5.) The objects, (lights) were red and they flickered as if they were incendiary devices.
6.) The objects, (lights) drifted slowly as if taken by the winds.
7.) The objects, (lights) began to descend as they apparently extinguished, (flames).
8.) Each object, (light) appeared to be independent from the others.
9.) First sighting appeared in southern Morris County. The preceding cases were reported to occur one by one following a northerly tract along a ridge overlooking Interstate 287 & US Highway Route #202, (see map on the next slide).
(1) The first event occurred during daylight savings time.
(2) The fourth event reported 9 objects spotted.
Event #1: September 13, 2008 (Bernardsville, N.J.) - Gathering the Evidence
South of Morristown, N.J. in the small rural town of Bernardsville, a witness files a case in the MUFON CMS sighting 4 to 5 strange red lights on what appeared to be balloons early in the evening of September 13, 2008.
The objects seemed to disappear one by one as they rose into the autumn evening sky without any sound. Five witnesses to the sighting were said to have seen the event based on the only report that was filed in the MUFON CMS, (The names of the other four witnesses were not provided).
Witness 1: David TenBarge - David owns an Advertising/Marketing Firm called BluePrint, Inc. His e-mail address is: dtenbarge@blueprint.com. (NOTE: The YouTube account was later created as “bluestarluv80” - the word "blue" appeared in both David's email address and the YouTube account name.)
* David TenBarge did ‘NOT’ recognize my name when I tried to connect to him on Linked-In, (www.linkedin.com) after I investigated his case. He did not reply to my second attempt to contact him in March, 2009 either.
Event #2: January 5, 2009 (Morristown, N.J.)
CBS Evening News in New York City reports five strange red lights over the eastern Morris County, N.J. area on the six o’clock news broadcast on January 6, 2009 with video provided by witness Paul Hurley.
Paul Hurley is a Pilot and works out of the Morristown Municipal Airport. “The objects did not have a radar image and did not interfere with air traffic in the area.”
Witnesses in the surrounding municipalities called police on 911 lines reporting strange lights in the sky from Cedar Knolls which is just east of Morris Plains to Madison, New Jersey, (Southeast of Morristown).
Five sighting reports were filed in the MUFON CMS over the following few days following this event.
Event #2: January 5, 2009 (Morris Plains/Morristown, N.J.)
Witness 1: Steve Salerno - Steve reported the case with video footage. Steve later identified himself as Joe Rudy: jrudy80@gmail.com. (Note the "80" in Joe's email address and the YouTube account name of "“bluestarluv80.”
Witness 2: Michael Burns - Michael reported the case from Madison, N.J. Michael is an IT Network Technician: michael@L5Networking.com
Witness 3: Gregg Waldron - Gregg reported the case from Morristown, N.J. Gregg has a BS in Physics: gfnwaldron@yahoo.com
Witness 4: Thomas Bender - Thomas reported the case from Morristown, N.J. Thomas is a Web Developer: tjbender@verizon.net
Witness 5: Jamie Squire - Jamie reported the case from Morristown, N.J. Jamie’s e-mail address is: jsquire1@hotmail.com
As a result of the January 5th sightings, (Event #2) being publicized in the news, the investigation became a STAR Team deployment. I was assigned the case and began investigating in the area which was identified as the suspected debris location based on a witness report.
Image: Giralda Farms complex in Madison, NJ - note the guard house.
Although I was unable to enter the grounds where the suspected landing sight of the debris of the objects may possibly have landed, I surveyed the surrounding area by vehicle, (Suspected debris adjacent to Giralda Farms).
Image: Suspected debris adjacent to Giralda Farms.
I then traveled to the Morristown Municipal Airport to see if I could find additional witnesses to the case. No additional information was ascertained as a result of this effort.
Event #3: February 7, 2009 (Morris Plains, N.J.) - Gathering the Evidence
Once again reports of strange red lights were sighted over the eastern Morris County, N.J. area, this time in Morris Plains, N.J.
Two witness reports were filed in the MUFON CMS over the following days after this event.
Witness 1: Robert Lambert - Robert reported the case from Morris Plains, N.J. Robert is a Business Analyst: lambertb@optonline.net
Witness 2: Ken Parisi - Ken reported the case from Fairfield, N.J. Ken is a Musician in a band called ‘Drone D’: kenparisi@gmail.com. (* NOTE: Ken also has an AOL e-mail Account: ‘GrundlePolice’
Event #3: February 7, 2009 (Morris Plains, N.J.)
Ken Parisi is a musician just as Steve Salerno/‘Joe Rudy’, (from in the January 5th case) according to their Linked-In profiles.
Connection to Case 2 & 3 ? (Joe Rudy / Ken Parisi)
Ken states in an e-mail: “I have yet to show this to my drummer.” Ken mentions that there is a video on YouTube: “bluestarluv80”
* Interesting similarity between the name of the YouTube account, Joe Rudy’s e-mail account & David TenBarge's e-mail account:
1.) Joe Rudy’s (Event 2) e-mail address: jrudy80@gmail.com
2. David TenBarge (Event 1) e-mail address: dtenbarge@blueprint.com.*
It was also discovered that Ken Parisi made a number of comments on the “bluestarluv80” YouTube site about the February 7th UFO video. From this it was discovered that Ken owns a YouTube account called: ‘GrundlePolice’
Event #3: February 7, 2009 (Morris Plains, N.J.)
Matt Wilson who assisted me with the February 3rd cases (Event #3) provided information regarding the YouTube account: “bluestarluv80”
Matt,
I would be happy to give you an interview over e-mail. I've heard that these same lights have been spotted on numerous occasions in the northern NJ area over the last month or so. Everyone is talking about it. There was another very big sighting of the same lights on Jan. 5th in Morristown. There is even a Wikipedia page about it. Go to "Morristown UFO" *
Nina LaFieri (Joe Rudy ?)
The Home Page of Ken Parisi's 'GrundlePolice' YouTube Account is http://www.youtube.com/user/grundlepolice. GrundlePolice as they call themselves are apparently the only ones who seemed to keep checking back to make comments about the video posted regarding the February 7, 2009 Hoax - Event. This is their YouTube home page and as you can see, they like to goof around. Note the Alien Mask . . . The Band that they are members of is called "Drone D"
http://www.myspace.com/dronedband
You may recall the Drone sightings in 2007 and the music video about them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTtoIH9RLw
Event #4: February 17, 2009 (Rockaway/Denville, N.J.)
For a forth time reports strange red lights were sighted over the eastern Morris County, N.J. area this time in the Rockaway/Denville, N.J. area.
Two witness reports were filed in the MUFON CMS over the following days after this event.
Witness 1: Lance Borroughs - This report was made in the MUFON CMS as a Secondary Witness. Lance’s e-mail address is: Fuqwah@msn.com
(This e-mail address was returned ‘MAILER-DAEMON’ Undeliverable)
Witness 2: Kiara Gialanella - This case was reported being seen over Interstate 80. Note the number 80 once again. No e-mail address given.
(Witness did not return call back)
Case Disposition
Events #1 - 4: “Hoax - Event”
It was concluded that the four events reported in the MUFON CMS are all related and most likely were perpetrated by the same individual or group of individuals. While an attempt was made to try to identify the suspect(s) in these cases, no solid or substantiating evidence was collected to be able make any claim. Some of the relationships pointed out here are intriguing.
If you would like to contact me for additional information, please feel free to do so either by telephone or e-mail. You may also refer to the MUFON CMS to review the case reports identified in the presentation on the first slide.
Kristen Winslet
MUFON Field Investigator - NJ
(STAR Team / SIP Project)
Five Individuals Connected with These Cases:
1. David TenBarge (Marketing & Advertising)
2. Joe Rudy & Chris Russo (Writer/Entertainer)
3. Ken Parisi (Entertainer/GrundlePolice)
4. Lance Burroughs (Secondary Witness)
Final Question:
Relationship between Wikipedia Site’s ‘ukexpat’ / David TenBarge / Joe Rudy & UFO Hunter ???
2 comments:
Didn't Sam Maranto and MUFON have Joe Rudy and Chris Russo appear (via telephone) at a UFO symposium in Illinois on February 21, 2009? The answer is yes, they did. As I recall they were asked on to explain their video and were graciously thanked by Sam. Yeah, you guys really exposed these two!!! You sure caught them! Sorry I can't stop laughing over here. Do you need a towel to wipe that egg off your face, MUFON?
Hey Claudia have you seen I put your badge on my members site worldufospace?
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