FACT OR FAKED - Haunted Mansion Mist; Starlight Intruder

SyFy - Original Air Date: 10/28/10

Possible cases this week include: strange sand circles in El Paso's Rio Grand basin (turns out to be an art project); the Beast of Gum Hill, which seems to show a bigfoot crossing upriver from an ATV group (but on closer inspection looks like a human, and appears staged, too), and the two cases they investigate.  The McPike Mansion is supposedly haunted and some ghost hunters videotaped a "strange" mist in the cellar.  Also, a Delta UFO in Fremont, California, was captured on a night vision camera on December 5, 2008.  They start with the mansion in Alton, IL, and try to replicate the mist in the video, which swirled and seemed to follow people.  They use a blower to put dust made from Fuller's earth in the air, and it looks very similar to the video.  They also experiment with an insect swarm, but the bugs keep landing on the experimenters, and it doesn't look right.  They use an air conditioner and a humidifier to create their own fog, but that, too, doesn't look right.  Their issue is that the mist and dust linger, rather than dissipating quickly.  So they do their Ghost Hunter bit, and get some EVPs - ghost tapping - and what looks like bug feelers on the camera.  Some of the team conclude the "mist" was really dust, though others think the mansion may be haunted.

In Freemont, CA, the second team hunts for the triangular UFO, talks to the witness, etc.  Then they test a kite with lights (too unstable), a wicked cool RC jet (too noisy & doesn't remain triangle shaped as it moves), and finally a hang glider with lights on it.  And, bingo!  The glider is a perfect match, and it turns out that there are hang gliders that do night flying with anti-collison lights on.  Great explanation. This show came closer to any they've yet done to having 2 rational explanations.  In fact, until they went ghost hunting at the mansion, it seemed pretty clear that they'd found a reasonable explanation for the mist (combination of dust and moisture).  Too bad the show seems to want to pander to "believers," even when they don't have to.  Still, a much more thorough set of investigations this time around. Good job!