UFO Files

On December 2, 2005, UFO Files first aired an episode related to this incident, titled "Texas' Roswell" hosted by Bill Case, an aviation writer for the Dallas Times Herald and the Texas state director of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). The show had two new witnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, said her parents forbade her from going to the crash site and to see the alien body even though they went. Charlie Stephens, who was age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora. Charles told how his father went to town the next day and saw wreckage from the crash.

The show's investigation also uncovered a piece of metal, reportedly from the wreckage. Upon further analysis the alloy was revealed to be very uncommon in nature and given the presumption that it originated in 1897, the sample could not be of terrestrial nature. But MUFON can't authenticate the metal was from 1897.

The show also investigated the Aurora Cemetery, and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from its metal detector. After the MUFON investigation, the marker disappeared from the cemetery and a three-inch pipe was placed into the ground; MUFON's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from the grave.

MUFON's report eventually stated that the evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a hoax.

UFO Hunters

On November 19, 2008, UFO Hunters aired "First Contact" on the Aurora incident.

The documentary featured one notable change from the UFO Files story - Tim Oates, nephew of Brawley Oates and the now-owner of the property allowed the investigators to unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. The water tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum present and had no significant contents. Any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. The remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property.

In addition, the Aurora Cemetery was again examined. Although the cemetery association still did not permit exhumation, an unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890's graves with ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits. The condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not prove what type of remains existed.

Hoax Theory:

The hoax theory is primarily based on historical research performed by Barbara Brammer, a former mayor of Aurora. Her research (featured as part of the UFO Files episode on the incident) revealed that, in the months prior to the alleged crash, Aurora had been beset by a series of tragic incidents. The town's cotton was destroyed by a boll weevil infestation, a fire claimed several buildings and lives, a spotted fever epidemic nearly wiped out the remaining citizens, placing the town under quarantine and a planned railroad got within 27 miles of Aurora. Essentially, Aurora was in serious danger of dying out. Brammer's concluded Haydon, who was known in the town to be a bit of a jokester, wrote his article in Dallas Morning News as a last-ditch attempt to keep Aurora alive.

The theory was further supported by the fact that Haydon never performed any sort of follow-up on the story, not even to report on the alien's burial, which is highly unusual given the significance of the event.

Further, in 1979 Time magazine interviewed Etta Pegues who claimed that Haydon had fabricated the entire story, stating that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying." Aurora, Texas UFO incident is located in Texas Location of Aurora, near Dallas, Texas.

Pegues further claimed that Judge Proctor never operated a windmill on his property, a statement later refuted as part of the UFO Hunters episode.