At 9:00 p.m. on Friday, January 7, 2000, a blue light appeared in the winter sky above the Busch Wildlife Area west of St. Louis, Missouri. The temperature was 29 degrees. The wind was calm. A driver moving south on Highway DD toward its junction with Highway D slowed for the stop sign and saw a faint illumination through the darkness roughly half a mile ahead. It was not a reflection or vehicle beam. It appeared suspended above the tree line, steady, round, and then suddenly flared into a glowing blue haze.

The light grew brighter for several seconds. It spread outward from a point, forming a halo behind a massive object that seemed to take shape out of the black sky. The witness saw the rear of the craft clearly, flat and oval, sixty to one hundred feet across and fifteen to thirty feet tall. Its sides curved smoothly forward from the edges of the rear section, the bottom flat and uniform. The blue light revealed the surface for three to four seconds before dimming away, leaving the craft to melt back into the darkness.

He estimated the altitude at between five hundred and one thousand feet. The movement was westward, crossing the road ahead of him in level flight. It moved slowly, perhaps no faster than forty miles per hour. The air was still and silent. He heard no engine noise, no vibration, no propeller wash, no low-frequency rumble. The vehicle made no sound at all.

The man sat in his car, watching the sky until the glow vanished. He kept his eyes fixed on the path the craft had taken but saw nothing further. There were no stars bright enough to silhouette a shape, and no cloud cover to reflect city light. The night remained completely still.