On the evening of Thursday, October 4th, 2001, in Gundiah, Australia, 3 Australians would experience a terrifying event that would change their lives forever. Keith Rylance, age 40, wife Amy, age 22, and their business partner, Petra Heller age 39 had been working on the property to develop their new business, a winery. During this time, they had brought their recreational vehicle and were living out of it. On the night of the 4th around 9:30 pm, Keith decided to go to sleep, while Amy decided to watch TV in the living space. Petra too decided to head to sleep, leaving her door slightly open.
Around 11:15 pm, Petra woke up and looking through her door to the lounge space, she saw a rectangular beam coming in the open window. Inside the beam, Petra says she saw Amy, headfirst and sleeping, being slowly carried out the window. Oddly, other items that were sitting on the coffee table next to her were being carried out as well.
Petra before passing out due to terror, would peek through the window and see a UFO hovering slightly above the ground.
As Petra regained consciousness, she woke up screaming which immediately woke up Keith. Petra would later state she didn’t believe she was out for that long. As Keith walked into the lounge room, he would meet an extremely upset Petra who was crying and screaming incoherently. Keith would soon see the window screen was torn on the window that was opened. As Petra continued sobbing, she finally was able to tell Keith what happened. But Keith refused to believe it and ran outside searching for Amy. Frustrated and terrified, he decided to call the police.
Keith called the police and reported that his wife had been abducted. After an hour and half, Senior Constable Robert Maragna from the Tiaro police and another officer arrived. Both Keith and Petra told the officers that Amy had been abducted by a spaceship, but the officers didn’t believe them and suspected foul play. Soon, Sargeant John Bosnjak was called in and the three began investigating the property.
Soon they noticed a bush to the left of the window showed that it had been affected by something, possibly heat. On the other side of the window, a similar type of bush didn’t display the same signs. Samples were taken of the bush and the screen was examined too.
While police were investigating, the telephone rang. A woman was calling from the town of Mackay, Australia, which was around 800 kilometers north of where they resided. The woman told Keith that she encountered a woman who was dehydrated and distressed and took her to Mackay Hospital. The woman let Keith know that the woman, later identified as Amy Rylance was ok, and was being examined by a doctor.
The Mackay Police would then venture to the hospital to get a sworn statement from Amy. What Amy recalled next would truly be jaw dropping.
Amy recalled the last thing she remembered was lying on the couch in the recreational vehicle. Then, the next thing she remembered was lying on a bench in a strange rectangular room. She had no memory of floating through the window as Petra described. In the room, she recalls the walls were illuminating as well as the ceiling.
She stated she said “Hello” to which she heard a voice, she described as male asking her to remain calm and assuring her, she would be ok.
Then, the wall opened, and something walked into the rectangular room. The alien was 6 feet tall, slender and covered from head to foot in a full body suit. There was a black mask covering his face with holes for the eyes nose and mouth.
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The being told Amy they were returning her to a place not far from where she was abducted. The being said they couldn’t return her to her property because the lights were wrong, and it might not be safe. Amy would fall asleep then on the bench.
The next thing she remembered she was waking up disoriented on the ground looking up at the trees. She got up and began walking through the forest smelling the ocean. Finally, after walking for some time, she ended up hitting a highway and then she walked toward a light coming from a gas station.
At the station, she went inside, and the staff immediately started helping her as they saw she was in bad shape. They offered her water and began asking questions regarding who she was and what happened? Amy initially wasn’t able to answer these questions and didn’t know where she was. They asked her if she was drinking earlier or did drugs, and Amy said no. She was tired, sore and lethargic and asked a woman to take her to the hospital, The woman and her friend took Amy to the hospital. There, Amy would speak with two police officers and also eventually spoke with her husband Keith on the phone. After the hospital, she went to the Mackay police station where she gave her statement.
In her statement, Amy would indicate nothing like this had ever happened to her, but she did note an experience she had when she was younger. When she was in in school, she recalls seeing a large UFO surrounded by small objects.
The police put Amy in a motel until her husband arrived. As Petra and Keith arrived later during the day they talked extensively about what happened. They took detailed notes and photographed a triangular mark on her inner right thigh. Fascinatingly, Amy’s hair had started to show her former color as well as body hair was longer than one would expect for just a few hours. Many believe that this indicates that a decent amount of time had passed for her.
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After compiling the notes, on October 5, the day after Amy was taken, Keith Rylance contacted the Australian UFO Research Network office.
The case immediately piqued the interest of Diane Harrison who took the call. She would reach out to Bill Chalker, and both would investigate the case.
On October 9, Diane and Bill travelled to Gundiah, arriving at the Whispering Winds winery property, just after 10 pm.
After beginning their investigation, Diane and Bill would find several things that seemingly cast doubt on the trio’s story.
First, Keith and Amy owned a dog, one that could have possibly caused the screen damage. Second, the damage to the plants seemed to have a scientific explanation. This could be due to prosaic causes, such as heat stress. They noted a plant at the front of the house had similar damage. After some research it was discovered that the plant species often had random damage.
After Diane and Bill investigated the property, they were going to head up to Mackay to meet with the three. However, as they were supposed to meet, the motel indicated that the three had already left and looked to be bouncing around to different hotels. While Keith would later call and apologize, he would state that the Men in Black were searching for them. Keith stated they would go into hiding until further notice.
This little-known UFO case has become quite controversial since it occurred. Some believe it happened while others question it.
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Supporters note that it has multiple police reports documenting it. It has multiple witnesses. It’s also tough to explain how Amy traveled 800 kilometers in 90 minutes. Other support includes the photographs and her body hair have grown. As we mentioned the plants and screen could be explained, but still it is possible something else caused the damage.
The witnesses are all deemed credible, and we’ve seen cases where abductees are dropped off far from where they were abducted- most notably the Travis Walton case. One other piece of evidence is that the three were seemingly terrified when it occurred and disappeared due to fear. If they were lying and trying to become famous, we would expect the opposite.
Still, skeptics exist and question this case since no hard evidence seems to exist. Some question whether she really travelled the distance in less than 3 hours. In other words, did Keith drive her up there earlier in the day or the day before?
While this case was investigated early on, it’s important to note a thorough investigation wasn’t conducted as the three were scared and moving around.
Perhaps if this was looked at earlier and with more detail, more evidence would have been found regarding this strange incident.
