Debbie, the youngest daughter, according to Roach's letter, said that two men had walked her out of her room the same way they had walked her sister out. "She thought she floated out rather than walked… She did say that she was afraid they wouldn't bring her back. She said there was a man in the corner of the living room and he smiled at her."
Apparently Debbie and the man had a conversation. "She said there were no lips on his mouth and he didn't talk with his mouth but with his 'head.'…She said in the spaceship they told her she wouldn't be sick anymore. She said the spacemen looked like Indians but with shorter hair. There was an 'Indian' girl with a long dress in the spaceship seated at some controls."
Debbie said that she had seen "a lot of children from our neighborhood in the ship. There seemed to be a few from each family on the block. She said one child was lying on the examining machine and another was standing in a small room off the large entrance room. She said they told her to tell no one but her family about the incident."
Roach, in her letter to me, wrote, "When I tried to think if I could remember anything about the night it was very hazy. All I could remember was a bright light coming into the living room. I remember walking up steps like that of an airplane with a solid grey steel wall to the side."
In the text of the letter, Roach also reported that family members had been moved. Of Bonnie and Debbie, her daughters, she wrote, "She [Bonnie] woke in bed and Debbie, the six-year-old, was gone. She awoke again and their places were switched in the bed."
Reporting what her daughter had said, Roach wrote, "She also said Kent [her four-year-old son] was across the room covered by a blanket and I was on the couch. He would never voluntarily leave my side so someone had moved and covered him."
Next to the Roach house was an empty field. Although partially hidden from the rest of the neighborhood by trees, the side next to the street was open and would allow those living across the street to see anything in the field. Roach wrote, "She [Debbie] said there was a spaceship parked in the field. It was saucer shaped with port holes on the sides. She said as she walked up the steps entering the ship she heard a "beep beep and didn't remember anything [sic] except pressure on the top of her left arm. She said she returned through the fence and as she did cut her chin on the wire. She did have a cut in the morning that hadn't been there the night before. As they took her through the dining room she noticed the clock said 1:00 A.M."
She finished the letter, writing, "It was hard to believe although I knew 'something' had happened that night so I placed Bonnie and Debra in separate rooms and told them to draw a picture of the 'spacemen'. The drawings were just alike except the triangle at the top of the suit was reversed in Debbie's drawing."
Here was what would eventually be seen as a classic abduction case that demanded investigation. It held everything that the researcher could want, from the multiple witness point of view, the suggestion of independent, neighborhood corroboration, and even the possibility of police documentation. Most importantly, this was the first time it had been reported that the aliens had entered the house to take the people out to the ship.
It was Roach who suggested hypnosis and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) Headquarters had the solution. Coral Lorenzen, one of the organization’s founders, suggested Dr. James Harder, APRO's Director of Research, as the scientist to use hypnotic regression. Harder was not a psychologist but a civil engineer who had been trained in the use of hypnosis and who had investigated other abduction reports.
On July 8, 1975, Harder and I visited Roach at her home in Utah. Harder and I discussed the case with her for a short time, he told her about hypnosis and what it was, and then suggested a session to put her at ease. He wouldn't ask any questions about the abduction during that first session. He would just put her under so that she would experience hypnosis with no pressure.
Two hours later, with Roach relaxed, the first of the three hypnotic regression sessions began. Harder put her under and then told her, "Get the feeling of concentration, going back in time, get that feeling that you had that day, that you were going to bed… tell me, tell men that… you've got the feeling of being on air… What was the feeling you had."
"I'm surprised by… It was a bright light…"
"Did you go to the window?"
"No. I was in the living room and I was on the couch… I sleep there occasionally… You know two figures were standing over me. I was lying down, you know, and they're bright. They're skinny. Whatever they were, they're skinny and they look like they've dressed up in all white. People that would be in the service or something?
"What gave you that idea?" asked Harder.
"Their uniforms."
"Did they talk to you at that time?"
"No."
Harder continued to probe trying to determine who was present in the room. Once he had established that some of Roach's children, but not all of them, were with her in the living room, he wanted to know what happened next.
But Roach claimed she couldn't remember anything else. She mentioned that one of the men was in the corner. "He's standing by us… I don't remember what happened."
Harder told her that she could remember, pressing her on this point and she finally said, "They have a machine that they carry. They're very businesslike, and they hurt my arms because I don't want to go anywhere… They seemed to grasp me on my upper arms… I don't remember going out the door… I see bright room, big bright room… They're standing around."
Harder had her describe what she could see around her. She was in a big, round room and she could see stars. "It looked like a lot of technology. It's all machines and buttons and on the wall." Finally she said, "That's all I want to remember… I don't remember being examined but I know I was and that's what bothers me."
"You think you have been physically examined?"
"Yes."
"Probed?" asked Harder. "Somebody touched you?" "Yes."
Harder pressed on. "Did you get the impression that you were up on a table?"
"Yes."
"Were your clothes on? Did they take your clothes off?" "I don't remember."
"It might be hard for you to remember," said Harder. "Did they tell you that you wouldn't remember this? Did you get that impression that you wouldn't remember?"
Roach responded, saying, "They really didn't talk to me."
Harder asked her more about the creatures surrounding her, trying to learn what he could about their attempts, or the lack of attempts to communicate with Roach. She told him that she didn't like their attitudes. She found them to be cold-hearted and cold-blooded. According to Roach, they were interested in gathering their data but cared nothing for her emotional state or her feelings.
Harder then tried to get a description of the beings. He asked her, "Can you remember what the face looks like?"
"I remember the big eyes."
"And do you remember a pupil in the eyes, a round pupil, or was it a slitted pupil like a cat?"
"It doesn't matter… let me think. Cause they looked at me closer in my face."
"Did they?" asked Harder. "How big would you say their eyes were? The size of a quarter?"
"They were big."
"A fifty cent piece?"
"No. Quarter."
"Was it round?"
"No… Oval. It had a big pupil. It was a round pupil."
"Was it black?"
"Yes."
"What about the nose? Do you remember anything about the nose?"
"Don't remember a nose."
"What about a mouth?"
"A fish."
"It looked like a fish?" said Harder. "Does that mean it didn't have any lips?"
"Yes."
Harder then wanted to know how tall the beings were, suggesting three feet and then four feet. He wanted to know how their arms related, proportionally, to the bodies. He then said, "Remember their hands. What they looked like."