Navigation: Prologue – Chapter 1 – Chapter 3 – Chapter 4 – Chapter 5 – Chapter 6

The year was now 1998: I’m at my home in Ridge, NY sitting at the dinner table when the phone rang. My father, Nicholas, answered the phone and I heard him say, “Oh Yes! I remember you, sure hold on…”. My father asked me If I remembered Sam? Surprised and excited I answered the phone. Sam explained to me that he suddenly remembered my phone number while relaxing, drinking a beer and we continued a conversation to catch up on the past 10 years of no contact between us.

When the conversation returned to the UFO encounter on Long Island, Sam told me that he and his family had experienced several alien encounters and abductions since he moved to Texas. He told me stories of seemingly government agents that had routinely conducted surveillance on his home. Sam also informed me that Budd Hopkins and his assistant Ms. Souza had been keeping track of his abduction experiences.

At the time I had no idea who Budd Hopkins was, nor did I know what to make of Sam’s stories. He was convincing however, I wasn’t about to just take his word for it, even though we both saw an EIV together ten years prior, I thought maybe he was just still excited with a wild imagination and didn’t think anything more about the stories he told me.

After some phone calls with Sam, eventually Sam had asked me if I would like to visit him in Texas and I agreed to take a much needed vacation, even if it was to a desert. When the time came, I packed my guitar, practice amplifier and clothes into my 1991 Honda CRX and began my trip down to Texas. As soon as I got on the road I immediately had a feeling come over me that I should get down to Texas as fast as possible and this feeling stayed with me the whole time. When I left New York, I didn’t first stop until I reached the state of Virginia. I saw a beautiful golden sunset over the mountains where I snapped this photo:

Soon after, I found a hotel room to catch a few hours sleep, before getting back on the road. That late day I traveled as far as I possibly could, only stopping briefly at rest stops for a snooze, meal and fuel until I reached Tennessee. While in Tennessee, I stopped once again for a hotel and a few hours sleep.

The morning after I stopped at an Pancake House for breakfast and got my first taste of the South in a comical way. I ordered a simple egg breakfast and the waitress asked, “Would you like grits with that?”. “I have no idea what grits are”, I replied. She replied with a laugh and commented, “Oh! you must be from up North eh?”. She then explained what grits were to me and that didn’t sound very appetizing so, I declined the grits.

My second taste of the south was stopping at a gas station in hopes of buying a bagel I could take with me for lunch. After looking around the store and not finding a bagel, I asked the clerk if he had any bagels? The clerk replied, “Bugles?”(A brand name snack), “No!” I replied, “A bagel, you know a roll with a hole in it?”. The clerk laughed at me and said, “Oh! you must be from up North, we don’t have bagels down here in the South!”, and we laughed.

I took to the road again and while I was driving through Texarkana, on the border of Arkansas and Texas, I tuned to the local weather station on my car radio to listen to a report about an outbreak of 49 Tornadoes across the South that day/night, while I was driving on Interstate 30 through many miles of nothingness.

As I’m traveling at speeds of approximately 70 MPH, suddenly the pavement of the highway was not there for about 100′ feet of what was road! When I hit the other side of the pavement where the road suddenly began again, the Honda took a pretty hard hit on the suspension. Myself shocked and rattled, I pulled onto the side of the road and checked my vehicle for damage. It seemed OK however, my nerves were not, as I looked back at the highway I just came through and realized the road is missing, because a tornado came through it recently. According to the lack of tread marks on the dirt only being my own, I was the first person to drive through it or the first person not to notice it until it was too late. There appeared to be no damage to my vehicle.

It’s noted that I do seem to be missing or may not have taken a photograph of the incident. Perhaps I was too shaken up and in a rush to take out the camera.

Back on the road again and nearing Dallas TX, I snapped a photo of Dallas, TX…

…before taking the roads South of Dallas to a town called Venus, which is located about 30 miles south of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I had arrived to my destination within a total of 18 hours driving.

When I arrived to Sam’s home and parked in his driveway, Sam soon came out of the home to greet me and bring me into the home. (The exact home is not labeled to protect current residents privacy):

Sam opened the door for me, I stepped into the home and saw Melanie sitting on the couch. I said, “Hello” and Sam walked in behind me, introduced me to her, then he showed me the guest room where I would bring my belongings into.

The following is an timeline of events during my two week stay in Venus, Texas:

Day 1: Soon after my arrival, I felt extremely tired and asked to take a few hours of sleep before we got to doing anything else. This evening we stayed in the house talking about everything we could before Melanie cooked up a dinner for us and we all retired to our rooms for the night.

Day 2: We spent the day home, talked, watched TV and I played my guitar on and off for a few hours. That evening Sam fell asleep in the living room, on the floor, in front of the TV. Melanie and I were seated at the dining room table and decided to start putting a puzzle together. We talked about each other, she told me the things she enjoys doing with her life, one of which was writing poetry. She read a few of her poems to me that were in a large binder filled with hundreds of poems. Sometime in the night we retired.

Day 3: Sam and I went to the town of Midlothian to purchase food etc. that we’d all enjoy, without grits on the menu for myself. We spent the day driving around, chatting and later watched TV back at the home. That evening once again Sam fell asleep in the living room, on the floor, in front of the TV. Melanie and I stayed up at the dining room table working on our puzzle and chatting before nodding off and retiring.

Day 4: No Memory

Day 5: Sam, Melanie and I decided to bring the two children “Maria” and “Laura”(Ages 1 – 2) to Sam’s brothers home, to be watched for us while we spend the day out around the town of Midlothian. No further memory.

Day 6: No memory.

Day 7: No memory.

Day 8: At approximately 1:00 AM we were all awake and watching TV, when suddenly the TV started beeping and scrolling a message about an eminent tornado in the area. We quickly and nervously started moving about the house looking out of windows and eventually Sam and I stepping outside of the home onto the porch, while Melanie grabbed the children and sat with them at the TV. While Sam and I were standing outside, we could feel the winds picking up, swirling very hot and very cold air all around us. Sam knew that the extreme mixture of air temperatures in the winds meant that a tornado is likely to be nearby.

We then heard the air sirens in town begin blaring across the plains however, we could not see a tornado in the darkness. We soon heard a rumbling approaching in the distance, like a slow moving train. That’s when we became frightened!

We considered grabbing the children to put them in the master bedroom bathtub and cover them with their bed mattresses, along with ourselves divided between the two bathtubs. We prepared by secluding everyone to one room with the mattresses however, within a few short minutes it all stopped and we felt safe enough to come out of hiding, quite shaken up. Soon after, the TV stopped with the warnings, we couldn’t see anything wrong or anyone outside. We all went to sleep the best we could. That early morning we found out on the local news that the tornado was a category F1 that mostly hit a farm or open land nearby, with no damage to the homes in the area.

They’re Real And They’re Here

“Time was no longer, Time has gone somehow. I’ve come to you by the hand of fate, our hour is never too late.” -The Never Ending [B.M.]

Day 9: I do not recall the events of the day until later in the evening around 10:00 PM. Besides myself, everyone fell asleep while we were watching a movie on the TV/VCR. Sam fell asleep on the floor of the living room, the children were sleeping in their swing chairs against the wall of the living room, Melanie and I were on the couch in front of the TV when she fell asleep next to me. Around 10:30 PM, I left the TV and VCR playing the movie that we watched for approximately an half hour before I too felt sleepy and retired to the guest bedroom.

I do not remember even taking off my clothes as I was lying in the bed for about for about 5 minutes while thinking about the recent days etc. when I heard an overpowering, low pitch and somewhat deafening hum throughout the house. I was tempted to search for the source of the noise, when a sudden feeling of paralysis came over me. I could not move any more than my head and eyes, nor could I speak.

Moments later I saw what appeared to be an illumination emanating from the other side of the bedroom wall, as if whatever entered the home made the walls look like semi-transparent paper. On the other side of the wall was the hallway to the washroom, where there is a door to the outside behind the house.

I saw what appeared to be 3 human form beings, slowly walk into the home, one behind the other, step by step until they were near the corner of the room and doorway where they seem to have faded from view as they entered the living room. That is when I noticed from out of thin air, a golden triangle appeared by the door hovering approximately 4” inches above the floor. The triangle appeared to be a digital hologram, however physically solid. It was made up of many small pixelated squares of various colors, although the overall color coming from it was golden. It appeared to be paper thin with an approximate 7” inch diameter.

A moment later, I noticed a similar oval shaped, blue illuminated, holographic object hovering by the only window in the room, with an approximate diameter of 5” x 7” inches, within 2’ feet from where I was laying.

Original Drawing by Byron Malerba made on the morning of this encounter.

What seemed like moments later, I heard a shrill cry from one of the children in the living room. This was no ordinary scream from a child. It was a long, breathless scream that lasted for close to ten seconds and ended with a choking sound. I became increasingly frightened and tried to get up and run into the living room however, I couldn’t move nor say a word, as I realized what was happening to us.

Moments later I found myself standing outside of the home, seemingly in the backyard, in a field of tall grass. My vision was seemingly recessed behind my eye sockets, where I had no peripheral vision and  I was frozen in a trance-like state looking at four grey colored, humanoid beings with large black eyes, large heads, small lanky bodies and a neck that barely looked like it could support the head. They stood approximately 4’ – 5’ feet tall, with their legs mostly hidden in the tall grass that was approximately 3’ feet tall.

They were staring at me or us, seemingly communicating, though not with their mouths. I don’t remember hearing any words, it’s just been an overwhelming feeling or fleeting memory that they were speaking telepathically to me or us. They slightly moved and twitched their heads and their eyes would glimmer strangely as if blinking somehow or moving however, they appeared to have no eyelids.

Moments later I was suddenly witnessing another scene. This time I was seemingly sitting up against a wall in an oval, unpolished, stainless steel room, with the approximate dimensions of an 20’ foot diameter and 8’ – 10’ feet in height.  In the center of the room was a metallic table with the approximate dimensions of 6” inches thick and 7’ – 8’ feet in length. It had a metallic, tubular, cone shaped base that was thick at the bottom and came to a point where it intersected the tabletop.

From the ceiling a similar cone shaped structure faced downward toward the center of the table, that appeared to have a hole at the point. There was approximately an 3’ – 4’ foot clearance from the table and the ceiling structure. Both of the structures looked identical to each other, with an estimated diameter of 5’ feet at the base, 2’ – 3’ feet at the point and 4’ feet in height.

The entire room appeared to be empty except for this table, though I seemingly don’t remember being able to look around, rather I lifted my head and opened my eyes for a few moments to see what was happening directly in front of me, in a daze.

One of the daughters was lying on her back on the table with her arms at her sides, eyes were closed and she was motionless. One of the Gray Alien beings appeared seemingly out of nowhere and walked toward her. The alien being had a polished metal cylindrical device in one hand. The device was approximately 6’ inches long, 2’ – 3’ inches thick, with a red glowing tip, as if it was a laser. The best way I can describe it is like an oversized laser pointer.

The alien pointed the device onto the top of the child’s head, right in the center, then my vision suddenly changed again.

Original Drawing by Byron Malerba made on the morning of this encounter.

I was once again in the bedroom of the home. I noticed the sun was coming up through the window, the humming had stopped, the glowing objects were gone and I could move again. I immediately got up out of the bed, still dressed in all my clothes and feeling wide awake. I ran into the living room where I noticed that everyone was sleeping in the same positions they fell asleep the night before. I looked at the television, which was now showing only noise, when I heard the video that we had been watching the night before, suddenly started automatically rewinding. The clock on the VCR showed the time was exactly 7:00 AM.

I then awakened Sam and Melanie. They were very groggy and confused however, when they saw my expression, Sam’s expression changed dramatically, turning Red in the face, then he began sweating as I started telling them what I just witnessed. Melanie put her face in her hands and Sam became extremely nervous pacing around the house mumbling to himself, when the phone rang.

The Mysterious Phone Call

Sam answered the phone and soon started telling the person on the other end that yet “another event” had occurred, and he tried explaining what I had just told him. Sam soon called me into the kitchen to explain that Budd Hopkins’ assistant, Ms. Souza, wanted to speak to me. Souza expressed to Sam on the phone that she “had a sudden feeling that something might have happened to him”, and she decided to call to check on the family. I did not hesitate to begin telling her all I could remember however, after a few minutes of barely being able to comprehend what I remembered and why I’m suddenly on the phone with someone I didn’t know, explaining a very serious personal matter, she requested I draw pictures and send them to her right away.

I drew the ‘original’ images you see above, that morning. Just a few minutes after speaking on the phone with Ms. Souza, I suggested that I take a photo of Sam, Melanie and the children at that very moment. Sam’s face was red and sweaty, Melanie with the look of disgust, exhaustion and humiliation, and at least one of the children with flushed cheeks to say the least, were sitting on the couch as I took the photo. (The original printed photo became damaged over the years. Sam’s portion of the photo(while holding one of the children) was destroyed, so I removed that portion of the photo. Note: I believe I still have the photo negatives.

Note: You’ll notice in the photo taken just ten minutes after the abduction, the window in the background to the left of Melanie’s head, you’ll see the heavy fog and tall grass out in the backyard. That’s where I and or we were seemingly standing with the ET’s. Also take notice to the redness of their skin. We were all like this. I’d show you their faces and how red/flushed we were however, I have no such permission to do so.

I realized during the phone call with Ms. Souza, that from the time I went into the bedroom until I saw the sun coming up, it only felt like a few minutes had passed. In reality, nine hours had gone by! This was was very shocking to all of us, not understanding what we just went through and what to do with ourselves.

All I could do was reflect on whatever moments of memory I had, draw the pictures and greatly wonder how Ms. Souza knew to call Sam, just after our experience, fist saying, “I had a feeling something may have happened to you”, at 7:10 AM in the morning?

Because of the fact that Souza called, that just happened to be right after our abduction, there could only be 2 ways to explain this. Either she really did, “just have a feeling”, which is extremely odd, and even if she had a feeling, why bother someone so early in the morning? Why not ask sometime later in the day? This leads to only one other likely scenario…

With sadness, I have to report that it is very likely that Ms. Souza(more recently known as Russo) and either another person(s) or Budd Hopkins himself, were conducting a field study on Sam and his family, watching from afar, which is easy to do around the area Sam lived, because the landscape was flat and visibility was for miles. Yes, I am stating that she, at least was spying on Sam’s family and I, where they actually witnessed our abduction, that was likely to have been photographed and or video recorded.

This is a very serious accusation, but not without merit. Two years after our abduction, it is known by Sam that Ms. Souza supposedly retired from MUFON and or whatever UFOlogy work she was doing, then literally disappeared not wanting to be contacted. Sadly, Budd Hopkins passed away in 2011, also likely taking this secret(s) with him or leaving our case study with family members?

During the two year period of Sam’s contact with Souza and Hopkins, Hopkins wanted Sam to give him rights to write about his and or our case of alien encounters for an upcoming book. For some time this was discussed between Sam and Hopkins however, on a personal note, Sam informed me that this offer was squelched after a series of intrusive demands towards Sam that made Sam extremely uncomfortable to allow further contact between them. This goes without saying, Mr. Hopkins dropped our case or at least didn’t get to write the book with our case, that we are aware of.

Our questions now are, where is Ms. Souza to clarify with a confession, this incident between us? Where are our case files that are recently discovered to be missing from MUFON archives? Why is our case and story being hidden?

Without getting further ahead of myself with this story…

I’d like to state that Sam nor Melanie had any memory of the encounter until after I left Texas. It was ten years later that Sam told me what he remembered of this night and he made the following statement:

“I remember just before falling asleep on the floor, it seemed my outside motion detector flood lights kept turning on and off or at least I have some memory of lights, whatever they may have been. I then fell asleep.

Sometime in the night I remember my daughter screaming very loudly, but I could not move nor open my eyes. I also remember being in some sort of room, speaking to seemingly at least 6 beings, that looked like people I recognized, wearing grey colored business suits.

I asked them where I was and who they were? They simply told me, “We look familiar to you so not to frighten you with our true appearance”.

I asked them if I could be with my daughter and they told me, “She is in another room, you will be together soon”.

This is all Sam can recall of this night.

UPDATE: Ms. Souza has been located by name only so far. Our search continues for a Patricia Souza.

The Aftermath

Day 10: I have no further memory of what we did that day or how we conducted ourselves until later that night; Sam suggested we all go to Dallas to watch someone make a large brownie at the West End Chocolate Factory. We drove to Sam’s brother’s house briefly to drop the children off with Sam’s mother before heading into Dallas.

While at the Chocolate Factory, we watched a man make a very large, table sized brownie that we, along with a group of people, eventually ate a large portion of. When we were done, we returned to pick up the children in Midlothian and traveled back to the home in Venus.

“Soon the day would come, when all was said and all was done, I traveled on into the shadowed sun. It was the way to the morrow, where I’d come undone with sorrow”. -The Never Ending [B.M.]

Day 11: The last day, there is no other way to describe it other than an extreme emotional battle between all of us. Sam, Melanie and I were arguing and very depressed over the stressful events of the week to the point where Sam and I nearly had a physical fight, according to Sam’s memory. Why I do not remember this is beyond me. I suppose is the same reason why 10+ years later Sam, Melanie and I have difficulty remembering the two weeks I was there. It certainly seemed that we were acting irrationally and confused so to speak.

Sometime after our bickering, while discussing in private with Melanie, their situation and what we’re all going to do about this? I asked Melanie for another photo of her for a reason I actually don’t remember, she’s not even smiling in the photo and the child was hiding her eyes from looking in my direction. We eventually all said goodbye with heavy hearts and I left Venus, TX for the trip home to NY.

On the way home I took a photo of the town of Venus, Texas as I drove away, and I have absolutely no memory of my return trip home beyond this point and this baffles me even until this day. My father recalls that I called our home at some point on the way home, but doesn’t recall me mentioning anything was wrong. I don’t believe I would have said anything at this point so not to worry him, I was focused on just going home.

When I arrived at home, I immediately explained to my family what happened to us in Texas. I don’t remember the emotions or conversation we had however, we knew at least my life would forever be changed.

There was also something else bothering me. There was an image burned into my mind along with the scenes of what happened to us. It was an image of a symbol and I began drawing it randomly throughout the years on paper and partially into digital artwork. I’m reluctant to display the true symbol publicly. The reason for that is because of what happened in an encounter which I’ll explain in a later chapter (See The Florida Encounters and Sightings: Fort White, FL).

The image I will present is similar in basic form, but not exact. The only true part of this image compared to the actual symbol, is the large triangle and the large/small circles surrounding the triangle. The rest of the image is edited and faux.

It wasn’t long, within days that Sam, Melanie and I stopped talking to each other again over continued bickering and shame to say the least. We seemingly ended our friendships and moved on, but not really. This would only be the beginning of many more encounters throughout our lives now, and it would take yet another ten years before we all started speaking again.

Sam 3 Days After: During the 2017 interview with Sam, he explains that his neighbor approached him from his driveway while Sam was working on his vehicle. The man stated, “A few nights ago I woke up and saw you standing outside your backyard, under a light, with a bunch of little kids that looked like cancer patients, what was that about”?

Sam didn’t know what to say to him other than, “You must have been dreaming”. Fully aware now that the neighbor actually witnessed our abduction and saw at least Sam standing outside with them or perhaps mistook myself standing out there (as for my recollection) or perhaps the ET’s took us out of the home one by one or some other scenario. Either way we have another rogue witness though, likely this person will remain anonymous, because no one remembers his name. [Currently being researched]

UPDATE: Sam had remembered his old home address. I used that information to find out who lived next door during that time period. I then gave Sam a list of names and one stood out immediately for him. Unfortunately I do not have permission to give the persons name. I made contact with him on Facebook social media. I currently sadly have to report that this man does not remember what he saw the night of our ET encounter. He knows who to contact if he ever does remember.

The Priest And The Abductee

Three days after returning home from Texas, I felt I needed answers from someone outside the family, and since the subject of Alien Encounters wasn’t something I felt I could just speak to anyone about at the time, I knew of only one type of person to turn too that basically had to hear about my experience by profession and that would have a different point of view or more knowledge than I about ET’s. That person ended up being a priest.

I drove down to a church in Middle Island, NY on Route 25, asked for a priest, and when one came to me, I told him I had a very important situation/story to talk about and it would require privacy.

He lead me into his office, we sat down and I got right to the point. I told him about our Alien abduction in Texas. He listened quite well without interrupting me. When I was finished, he simply said, “I’ve no problem personally admitting that I believe the bible wouldn’t make sense to me without extraterrestrials and I’m well aware there are very strange things that have been seen and happen throughout the world, that may only be explained by their presence. However, as priests, we are not allowed to teach this openly to congregation. When people like you in your situation come to church with stories like you have, seeking answers, I feel it’s only right to listen and offer any advice we can”.

He went on to ask me about how I feel about myself etc. since the abduction? I didn’t really have an answer besides that I was certainly questioning everything and wanting to know more about them and who to turn too for answers? I believe he simply advised me to research what I could from books and listen to other people with experiences. We left it at that and ever since, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

The Psychic

Within a few months after the Texas experience, I took a dear friend Alejandra and her friend Dakota to see a reputable psychic in New York City. I do not remember the psychic’s name though, I remember she had two different colored eyes naturally and she had her place in either the East Village or Lower Manhattan at the time.

The three of us walked into the psychics storefront, myself ahead of the girls so to hold the door for them as they walked in. The psychic suddenly pushed back the chair she was sitting in, while her hand remained at the desk, she looked a little shocked as she was staring at me intently, before suddenly getting up to briskly walk over to me now closing the door behind the girls.

She put her hand up in front of the girls and said, “No No! You two, please wait outside now(she opens the door and gestures the girls out). The girls look at me for approval and I just shrugged and told them, “I’ll be out in a moment I guess”.

The psychic practically pushes them out without touching them, closed the door and turned the lock.

She turned to me and said, “Sorry, they’re no good for you anyways, Please sit down”.

I was quite confused as to why she was acting this way, so I asked her, “Why my friends have to wait outside?”. She replied, “I don’t care about them, you however, we need to talk. Who are you?”. Surprised by her response, I still told her my name as she looked about me, not at me, around me. She looked like she just saw a ghost… I asked, “Is something wrong?”. She replied, “I’ve never seen anyone like you, your aura… why? what happened to you?”. I wasn’t sure what to say and she went on to say, “Your aura is the most amazing I’ve ever seen, it’s nearly blinding me yet, there’s something much darker surrounding it and I can’t make sense of it”.

She then picked up a pile of tarot cards that were on the table before her and began placing them out in a spread, while looking at me like I had 10 heads… or rather one strange aura. She didn’t even tell me about the cards or what she read from them until she looked out the window at the girls again, looked at me after a few nearly frightened reactions to her cards and said, “That girl with the black hair, she’s going to hurt you so badly one day, you’re better off running from her as soon as possible, she’s not worth it”. At the time I thought that was absurd, Alejandra and I were best friends, we did everything together for 8 years, nearly every day. I wasn’t sure what to say to her about that other than pout a bit.

Next she asked to see my palms. She read on them and said, “You’re going to have a serious health problem that’s going to plague you. You’ve got something or someone or many someone’s watching over you from beyond, but, they don’t all seem to be spirits… there’s something about you, you need to tell me what it is!?”.

I was disturbed about this and asked her again, “Why there is such a problem with seeing me?”. She couldn’t put her finger on it, something was divine and or strange about my presence, as if I’m not entirely human, as if forces were around me that no one else she’s seen, has?

I stopped her from the steam coming out of her ears, by admitting that I was recently abducted by aliens in Texas. When I was done briefly telling her what happened in Texas, she wrote down her phone number and said I should call her as soon as possible, “We need to talk”. She then got up more calmly and asked me to leave with the girls.

Within a day or two, I called the psychic on the phone and she wanted to hear everything I had to say about my encounter, as she listened intently and asked whatever questions she could think of. When we were done talking, she asked me to keep it touch.

Some days later I called again, but this time I was the one with questions about her and her abilities. Someone she knew(a woman) picked up the phone. I asked her if the psychic had any public credentials behind her psychic abilities etc. that I could review? The woman on the phone burst out in anger at me, damning me for even thinking she was anything but the truth to me, before hanging up on me.

Again I called another day, this time the psychic answered and she wasn’t too happy about what I asked her friend, but she asked if she could come see me, knowing I lived out on the Eastern end of the island. She told me she would not charge for the visit. I thought at the time, this was getting to be too much with her, as I really didn’t understand why she was so demanding in having to know me. I ended the conversation with an unsure reply.

For two weeks she called nearly every day wanting to speak to me. I made a decision not to speak to her anymore and I never spoke to her since.

Life strangely turned out exactly as she said. Alejandra suddenly cut off our friendship shortly after I visited her in 2013, for reasons I need not explain here. As far as what the psychic told me about illness, this too happened. I came down with severe psoriasis, which I’ve been battling since nearly 2 years after yet another abduction…