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13 rumors in the flying saucer mill that usually dissolved upon close inspection. Still, this one included the names of some of the people she had worked with, the sort of specific informa- tion consistently and conspicuously absent from most other stories. Friedman tracked down some of the names, which required considerable effort because of the years that had passed since the event, but he soon found himself stonewalled. There was no place to go. One person wouldn't talk at all (intriguingly suspicious, but hardly proof of anything), while another had no additional leads and only vaguely remembered the incident. Was this just another of the many stories that start out sound- ing so good and end up hanging in midair? Still, the Jesse Marcel anecdote could turn out to be both true and important. If the major was who he claimed to be, he could have been in a position to know what happened (assum- ing, of course, that something actually happened). But was he who he claimed to be, or did he have an unfortunately active imagination? And even if he was legitimate, did his story have any connection with that of Lydia Sleppy? Did they even hap- pen in the same year? Could it all be a mistake or garbled information? Those and many more doubts clouded the issue and kept Friedman from assuming he was finally onto the trail. Until some of the doubts were cleared up, it wouldn't be anything to write home about. Marcel's story certainly sounded exciting and important, but Friedman had no reason to connect it with anything else, because it lacked so much as an approximate date. It was filed away, but with a gold star so it could be retrieved on short notice, should the need arise. Later that year, on October 24, 1978, Friedman gave a lecture at Bemidji (Minnesota) State University and was approached cautiously by a couple who had left the hall at the end of his talk and then decided to return. They asked, after most of the crowd had departed, if he had ever heard of a saucer that crashed in New Mexico ... with alien bodies. "I've heard rumors about such stories." he responded. "Tell me more." It THE SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE BEGINS