ORLANDO, Fla. — He appeared as if a hologram at first — then solid — suddenly there and clear at the edge of the forest behind Trish Bishop's home in Kissimmee in 2013.
When he turned around, it was his face, she remembers, that stopped her. Bulging eyes. Skin white as chalk. And massive jaw.
"I've got a freaking alien in my backyard," she thought.
And then he was gone.
It would be four years before she told her story, before she'd discover the Mutual Unidentified Flying Objects Network, a nationwide organization 50 years old, and file her report under case number 84886.
But she worried: Who would believe her? These days, more people than you'd think.
Across U.S. restaurants and meeting rooms, MUFON groups gather every month with the enthusiasm that once gripped the nation during the Cold War. The Space Coast group, made up of some former NASA employees and engineers, has 118 members. Across the nation, they number 3,500, with additional offices in 42 countries.
For many years, they were alone entertaining UFO theories. No more.