Spaur-Neff Chase

The Encounter

On the morning of April 17, 1966, at approximately 5:00 AM, Deputy Dale Spaur and Deputy Wilbur "Barney" Neff of Portage County, Ohio, were investigating an abandoned vehicle on Route 224 near Ravenna when Spaur noticed an intense bright light emerging from the nearby woods. What appeared to be an airplane in distress quickly transformed into something else entirely — a well-defined, disk-shaped object approximately 40–50 feet in diameter with a polished, metallic appearance. A powerful beam of white light projected downward from its underside, and the officers detected a faint humming sound emanating from the craft.

The 86-Mile Chase

The object accelerated and the deputies pursued at speeds ranging from 80 to 105 mph, far exceeding the legal limit but justified by their conviction that they had encountered something genuinely anomalous. The chase lasted approximately two hours and covered 86 miles, crossing from Ohio into Pennsylvania. Remarkably, the object sometimes slowed and appeared to "wait" for the police vehicle to catch up—behavior that baffled the officers and contradicted any conventional explanation.

During the pursuit, the UFO was observed by multiple independent witnesses, including Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua, Ohio, who managed to photograph the object as it passed overhead. The consistency of descriptions across multiple, uncoordinated witnesses strengthened the credibility of the account.

Official Investigation and Dismissal

Project Blue Book dispatched Major Hector Quintanilla, the project's director, to investigate. His initial explanations—first a satellite, then the planet Venus—were transparently inadequate and rejected outright by the deputies and other investigators on the scene. Quintanilla's terse, dismissive approach to the witnesses infuriated both law enforcement and citizens; congressional pressure was eventually required to compel a more rigorous in-person investigation.

Personal Toll

The incident devastated Deputy Spaur's life. Despite his credible status and consistent account, he lost his job, experienced severe family deterioration, and suffered lasting psychological harm from public ridicule. Yet Spaur remained convinced until his death that he had encountered a physical, intelligently controlled object—a conviction shared by the vast majority of serious UFO researchers who have examined the case.