Ike Bishop uses his investigative skills learned at the Central Bureau of Investigation school to unravel unidentified flying object sightings in Idaho.
Bishop, formerly of Jerome, is a member and field investigator for The Mutual UFO Network based in Seguin, Texas. The nonprofit, grassroots organization is dedicated to the scientific study and research of the UFO phenomenon worldwide.Bishop investigated a cascade of lights seen over Fairfield, Hagerman and Gooding in February, 1991. Residents saw a red and blue strobing light. First, the lights were thought to be a natural weather phenomenon, but this theory was later disproved. This case is still open.
A second case has already been depicted on the television program "Encounters."
A month ago, residents of Post Falls saw lights in the skies making patterns. The police department investigated the calls and Bishop was contacted. A series of cattle mutilations have been reported along with the sightings.
In 1958, similar lights were seen from Idaho to San Francisco. This case is also still under investigation.
"It's my job to disprove rather than to prove," Bishop says.
In the past 20 years, sky anomalies have been reported over Jerome, Picabo, Sun Valley, Wendell, Idaho Falls as well as Gooding, Hagerman, Fairfield and Post Falls.
Bishop and other members of the Idaho Mutual UFO Network have organized a discussion and research group that meets at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month at Borah High School in Boise. The public is welcome.
Of the sightings he investigates, 99.9 percent can be explained, Bishop said. "But it's that 0.1 percent that is so interesting."