An alleged sighting of two "alien" figures recorded last year in the backyard of a Las Vegas home has led to calls for photo analysis and forensic experts to step up and scrutinize the evidence.
In June 2023, a Las Vegas teen identified by reporters as Angel Kenmore uploaded footage on YouTube claiming that he had recorded an encounter with an alien in his backyard in May of that year. Reports about the encounter were widely shared, and his original video has been viewed more than a million times.
Nearly a year later, crime scene reconstruction expert Scott Roder has told audiences that the footage shared by Kenmore is original and has called for other experts to disprove or debunk the claims behind it all.
What Does Original Video Show?
In the original video uploaded by Kenmore last year, it isn't easy to see that much after slowing the footage down using rudimentary tools. He described seeing a green light falling from the sky before the encounter, a sight that appeared to have been captured by police body camera footage.
Kenmore, then 16, says in the video: "The only thing I can see in the backyard is a tall creature probably around 8 [or] 10 feet tall, very thin, so I called my dad. He went to the backyard, and he saw the same thing, the same creature I saw."
He continued: "He told me to go inside the house. At this point, we all freaking out, me and my family, and here's the video where we were in the backyard area. You can see. You cannot see it too good on camera, but it's there."
Kenmore describes the alien as being a "tall, skinny, lengthy creature" with a "gray, greenish color." He said he saw "weird-looking feet and a big face and eyes, and you can see a big mouth, and I could hear his loud deep breathing, and I could see his stomach moving."
The incident was reported in June 2023 by Newsweek. The family, speaking to the officers in person, again attempted to describe what they believed they saw. One of the individuals described the figure as a "big creature, 10 feet tall."
After a Las Vegas police officer said his partner saw a bright light, two of the four family members who spoke to police said they saw something similar in the sky.
Bodycam footage shows one of the officers trying to ask a motorist whether they had seen any unusually bright lights in the sky, adding that it might across as a "really dumb question."
The police investigation was unable to determine what occurred. It did not conclude whether the two events are connected, according to a report by Las Vegas TV station KLAS.
What's Been Said Recently?
In an appearance on the Extraterrestrial Reality podcast with Jim Quirk, Roder revisited the encounter, which he has examined in detail since the footage went viral last year.
Roder said artifacts within the video showed the creature in it had used some kind of technology to hide its appearance. He also said there was something "interfering with the camera's ability to capture the image," noting that the video was "original" and that there were two creatures in it.
Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Roder via email for further comment.
Roder, who has worked on cases that include the 2014 Oscar Pistorius murder trial in South Africa, said he wanted to open up his findings to others for scrutiny after some suggested the appearance of the two "creatures" in the video was simply an effect of the light.
"To me, you know, I applied the same principles that I would apply to any kind of homicide investigation, and you have to look at the totality of the evidence," Roder said.
"And you're going to have debunkers who are going to be like, 'Well, but the shadow it could be this, that or the other.' No, no, no, it cannot."
He continued: "And I want to open this up, everything that we've done. I'm opening it up for peer review, OK? Anybody out there with a degree in photography, anybody out there who is an expert qualified witness in video analysis like I am, anybody out there with a master's degree or higher in education in video analysis, video editing, photography, film development, computer animation and so on and so forth, bring it on.
"Look at what I've put on my YouTube channel, look at what Jim and I are going to talk about today, and I'm willing to hear what professionals in my field have to say about this and open it up," Roder said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
");jQuery(this).remove()})jQuery('.start-slider').owlCarousel({loop:!1,margin:10,nav:!0,items:1}).on('changed.owl.carousel',function(event){var currentItem=event.item.index;var totalItems=event.item.count;if(currentItem===0){jQuery('.owl-prev').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-prev').removeClass('disabled')}if(currentItem===totalItems-1){jQuery('.owl-next').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-next').removeClass('disabled')}})}})})
