Ep. 75 | Death from Above
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Hey Prime members! You can binge episodes 73 through 80 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. In August of 1994, a police officer in the tiny town of Oakville, Washington was driving his patrol car on a typical overnight shift. Since basically everybody in town was asleep, there really wasn't much to report, so the work was fairly tedious.

At about 3:00 AM, as he was sitting in his car, it started to rain. The officer was used to the dreary Pacific Northwest weather and turned on his windshield wipers. But as the blades began swiping from side to side, his windshield only seemed to get dirtier instead of clearer.

Eventually, a film covered all but a small portion of the officer's windshield, and so he slowed his cruiser to a crawl. Then he positioned himself so he could look out the one clean spot in his windshield and carefully drove over to the nearest gas station. Clearly, he needed new wiper blades. However, when the officer stepped out of his cruiser to see what was actually clouding his windshield, he made an unsettling discovery.

What was on his windshield was not the typical grime that splashes off the roads. Instead, what was on there looked like some kind of clear, slimy coating. The officer ran his finger over the material, and it felt gooey, almost like jello. He looked up at the sky and thought, "What in the world is going on here?"

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From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. So if you like today's story, tape use other door signs on every exterior door in the Follow Buttons workplace. This episode is called Death From Above.

One morning in May of 1994, a woman named Erica Carver was kneeling in her mom's garden in Oakville, Washington, pulling at the stubborn weeds at her feet. The tomato seedlings she'd carefully planted just a week or two ago were already being engulfed by thistle and other weeds. Erica hoped they'd survive into the summer, but the weeds grew so fast.

She'd been at it all morning, helping her 64-year-old mom, Maggie, prepare the vegetable garden for the warmer months. All the rain they got up here was a blessing and a curse. It helped turn the whole farm lush and green, but that meant a lot of work mowing grass and pulling weeds. Erica wiped the sweat off her brow and then gave one final tug on a giant thistle still rooted to the ground. Just then, Erica heard a thumping noise. And this noise, which was sort of constant, got louder and louder like it was getting closer.

A moment later, Erica looked up to see what was making the thumping noise. Two enormous black helicopters appeared just above the treeline. The cows started shuffling nervously and some began to moo as the helicopters flew over them. The choppers were moving so slowly that Erica thought it almost looked like they were searching for something on the ground. She turned to her mother and asked her if she knew what was going on. But Maggie just shrugged and continued weeding.

Without even glancing up at the sky, she told her daughter that helicopters had actually been doing flyovers in the area for months now. Nobody really seemed to know what they were doing, but they seemed harmless. Erika watched the helicopters until they disappeared into the distance. It definitely did not seem like a regular flyover to her. But if her mom wasn't worried, Erika wasn't going to dwell on it either. So Erika got back on the ground and kept tending the garden.

About four months later, on the morning of August 7th, 1994, Erica peered out the window of her mother's farmhouse on another rainy day. It had taken some time for Erica to get used to the Washington weather after moving here from the Arizona desert to help her mother now that Maggie was getting a bit older. But Erica had come to like the wet climate. And as she looked out the window, she could see that all the rain she was starting to like had given them an abundance of tomatoes. Erica went out to the kitchen to make herself some coffee before she began her chores for the day.

But as soon as she got to the kitchen, her mother's dogs burst inside followed by her mother, whose face was as white as a sheet. Erica shouted over the dogs, who were barking like crazy, and asked her mother what was going on. Maggie said she had let the dogs out while there was a lull in the storm. And when she was over near the barn, Maggie said she noticed there were all these strange things all over the box of firewood. They almost looked like hailstones, but when she touched one, it felt soft and jiggly.

Erica was very confused by this and just went outside to see for herself. As she walked to the barn, sure enough, Erica saw dozens of small transparent gelatinous blobs covering the ground. And as Erica neared the box of firewood that her mom had referenced, she saw that it was covered in these strange objects. Erica walked over to the garden and she saw the plants were also drenched in this slimy goop as though it had rained transparent slime.

And so Erica looked up at the sky and then back down at the tomatoes and lettuce and wondered if it was even safe to eat the vegetables now. Erica hurried back inside and found the phone number for the Department of Agriculture. But when she spoke with a representative about this goo, he did not seem too concerned. He said he didn't have an explanation for what the goo was. Sure, it did sound totally weird, but also it was very likely harmless. Toxic substances did not rain from the sky like that.

Whatever this goo was, the next rain would very likely wash it off the crops and everything would go back to normal. But Erica wasn't so sure. After she got off the call with this representative, she called her brother, James, who was a paramedic in town. And he told her he had actually seen the goo as well where he was and agreed that something didn't feel right about it.

He said he had gotten reports that this stuff had been falling all over Oakville and he'd even heard over his emergency scanner that a local police officer had had to pull over on the road because his cruiser had suddenly become covered in it and he couldn't even see. James told his sister that he was actually off for the day and said he would come over and they could try to figure out what this was together.

A little later that day, Erica and her mother sat in the living room with James. And Erica told her brother that the Department of Agriculture guy had said the goo was harmless and therefore, you know, the crops were fine to eat. But James agreed with Erica. He wasn't sure the crops were actually safe to eat despite what this guy said. And they couldn't be positive until they knew more about this goo. And so Erica and James decided to go outside to have a closer look and just in case this stuff was actually dangerous, they told their mom to just stay inside.

Once the brother and sister were out in the yard, James reached into his pocket and pulled out two sets of latex gloves. Erica had asked him to bring them over as a precaution. Back in Arizona, Erica had worked for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, and so she knew from experience that unknown substances should be handled with care until they knew for sure that it was not toxic. Erica kneeled down next to some of the goo, James right beside her, and carefully, she scooped up one of the blobs into a glass jar.

The transparent, viscous goo wasn't moving on its own, but when she touched it, it jiggled almost like jello. Over the next few minutes, they scooped up enough of these blobs to fill up the jar, and there were still countless more of these small gelatinous globs all over the yard. Erica put the lid back on the jar and then held the jar up to the sunlight. She could see the blobs were completely transparent, like aloe vera gel.

Erica was fascinated. She had always been curious by nature, and her old job with OSHA had really taught her to think like a scientist. So she decided to do a little experiment. Back inside, Erica set up a makeshift laboratory in the kitchen. She placed three bowls on the counter, one filled with water, another with rubbing alcohol, and the last was empty. Then her brother James reached into the glass jar and pulled out the first blob. She noticed it stuck to his latex gloves.

Erica held her breath as James carefully placed the blob into the water bowl. And right away, the blob just sort of floated on the surface. Now, this didn't answer a whole lot of questions, but what it did do is tell her that the blobs had to contain chemicals other than just water. If it was just water, it would have broken apart and dissolved inside of the water, but it didn't. And so Erica reached out and took another blob with her gloved hand and placed it into the alcohol bowl. And again, it did not dissolve.

Erica urged James to be gentle as he placed the final blob into the empty bowl. And then she watched as her brother held a lighter to that blob for a few seconds. But the fire did nothing. It didn't burn the blob at all. Erica was intrigued. She was not exactly sure what any of these reactions truly meant. All she knew was that she still had no idea what the substance could be. And when she made eye contact with her brother, she could see from the expression on his face that he also was totally confused.

The following day, Erica was at her mother's house when she suddenly heard a loud thud coming from her mother's bedroom. Erica ran into the room to find her mom lying on the floor with her face pale and sweaty. Erica rushed to her mother's side and cradled her mother's head, and Maggie looked back at Erica with these glazed eyes. And after she sort of composed herself, Maggie told Erica that the room had just started spinning and she felt nauseous, and then she said everything had gone black and she collapsed.

Erica helped get her mother into bed and then ran to the phone to call 911. After she placed the call and was just sort of pacing around the kitchen, she spotted the jar of goo on the counter. And suddenly a thought popped into her head. Her mom had actually been the only one to touch the strange blobs without gloves on. What if these blobs had something to do with her sudden illness? Later that day, Erica paced around an exam room at the hospital.

She glanced over at her mother, who was resting quietly in her hospital bed. Some of her color had returned, but Erica thought she still looked very weak. Erica shifted her attention to James, who was sitting next to their mom, inspecting the glass jar Erica had brought along with them. A moment later, a calm, young-looking physician entered the room and introduced himself as Dr. George Grant. Dr. Grant asked Maggie how she was doing, and she told him about her fainting spell. Dr. Grant nodded and thought for a second.

Then when he spoke, he said based on Maggie's symptoms, it sounded like she might have an inner ear infection, which would explain the dizziness and also the nausea. He said most of the time these infections are caused by a virus, like influenza or Epstein-Barr. But Dr. Grant said he couldn't be sure without further testing. If Maggie didn't get better in a few days after managing her symptoms, he might have to order a CT scan or an MRI. In the meantime, she would stay at the hospital for monitoring.

Erica felt her body tense up as the doctor spoke. She knew that it must be somewhat serious if they're having her mom stay at the hospital like this. Her gaze again turned to the jar in her brother's hands. She asked him for the container and then turned to the doctor.

Erica told the doctor about all the goo that had fallen from the sky and how their mother had touched it with her bare hands. Erica explained that she and her brother had collected some samples of this goo that they had brought along with them in this jar. Erica asked Dr. Grant while holding up this jar if maybe the goo had something to do with her mother's illness. As Erica extended the jar out to him, she could see the confusion in the doctor's eyes.

He said it sounded pretty unlikely, but he would be happy to run some tests on it. Erica hoped that maybe a real lab would give them some real answers. That evening, Erica and James pulled up to their mother's farmhouse. Erica slowly stepped out of the car and let out a deep sigh as they walked up the stairs to the front door. It had been a long and draining day. All Erica could think about now was crawling into bed and falling asleep. Erica reached inside of her purse and pulled out the keys to her mother's house.

But when she looked up again, her heart nearly stopped. Her mom's new kitten was sprawled out on the deck. Erica rushed over and kneeled down next to the cat, and she saw it was dead. Erica's mind raced as she looked down at this tiny motionless creature.

She didn't see any bite marks or scratches on it. In fact, the cat looked absolutely fine from the outside. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought it was just sleeping. Then a realization hit Erica. First, her mother had gotten sick, which they thought might have something to do with these blobs that apparently came out of the sky. And now her mother's kitten had died suddenly with no clear marks or injuries on it. Could its death maybe be connected to these blobs as well?

Erica turned to James and asked him what he thought, and he kind of shrugged. And then Erica wondered aloud if maybe the cat had tried playing with this goo or maybe even tried to eat it.

Earlier, before they had left the hospital, Dr. Grant had told the siblings that a lab analysis showed that these blobs contained human white blood cells. However, the hospital didn't have the equipment to test for anything beyond that. Now, the white blood cells themselves were not toxic, but the doctor had no idea what else could be in these blobs, so they could definitely be harmful. And so as Erica and her brother just stood on the porch stunned...

Erica thought to herself, if the blobs did kill the cat, what were they going to do to her mother? This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. I used to think that I had to handle all of my emotions on my own, that I could only rely on myself to navigate the most difficult of life's situations. What I didn't expect was therapy to make such a difference, but it totally caught me off guard in the best way. We all need a support system. We alone do not have all the answers, and so we need to ask for help, like a therapist.

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Four days later, Erica helped her mother walk up the front steps of her house. As she climbed, Maggie could only take one stair at a time. She was doing a lot better, but she still was not fully recovered. Whatever was wrong with her, it was not an inner ear infection. However, the doctors didn't know any more than that. Her discharge paperwork said that she was sick from some kind of virus. But they had nothing more to test for, and Maggie was well enough to be back on her feet, so the doctor said it was safe for her to go home.

This vagueness only made Erica more suspicious about the gooey substance and the threat it might pose to the residents of Oakville. The day after she and James had found the dead kitten, Erica shipped a sample blob to the Washington State Department of Health and personally delivered a second sample to the State Department of Ecology, and she'd been waiting for the results ever since. Erica carefully guided her mother through the front door and to her bedroom, her mind still very much on the blobs.

Once her mom was all settled in, Erica made her way back to the kitchen. As she filled up a glass of water to bring to her mother, the phone rang and Erica ran and picked it up immediately. It was the Department of Ecology.

Erica felt her heart start to race as she listened to the government official on the other end of the line. He told her that they had run some tests and they determined that the goo had come from a living organism. However, the hospital lab had been wrong. The blobs did not contain any human white blood cells. The department scientist thought the blood cells had come from jellyfish.

To Erica, this made zero sense, and that's what she told the scientist. The closest beach was almost 40 miles from Oakville, so how could a jellyfish, or parts of a jellyfish, fall from the sky 40 miles from the ocean? The scientist said he had no idea. He knew this explanation sounded crazy, but according to the sample, that's what it was. Erica thanked the official for looking into it, then she hung up and walked to the dining room table to sit down.

As Erica rested her chin on her hands and tried to make sense of what the official had just told her, she glanced down at the day's newspaper sitting on the table. And the front page was littered with headlines about the quote, Oakville Blobs. Erica picked up the paper and began reading.

People all over town had apparently been seeing these things, including that police officer James had mentioned. And it seemed like the blobs were making other people sick too. One article said that an estimated 30 Oakville residents had become ill, and they all had the same flu-like symptoms as Maggie. And as Erica kept reading, she saw that hundreds of dead crabs had washed up on a beach about 100 miles away. The paper said that a gelatinous substance had washed up alongside the crabs.

At the mention of this beach, Erika's mind snapped into focus. Erika turned to another article where one scientist offered a theory that maybe a large swarm of jellyfish had been sucked up by a powerful water spout like a small tornado out on the ocean. The water spout had then whirled the jellyfish around like a blender until they were reduced to small pieces and hurled up into the sky and then those pieces rained down on Oakville.

Erica still thought it was totally crazy to think these were jellyfish falling from the sky, but maybe they were. However, that still didn't explain why these blobs, whether they were jellyfish or not, had killed animals and made more than 30 humans sick. Maybe if these really were jellyfish, it was a particular kind of jellyfish that was poisonous. Just then, Erica heard raindrops bouncing off the roof.

She looked up from the paper and towards the window and she gasped because once again it was raining blobs. The next day, a microbiologist named Mike McDowell peered down at the gelatinous substance resting on the petri dish. Mike was running tests on the goo samples that had been sent to the Washington Department of Health from an Oakville resident named Erica Carver.

Mike had never seen anything like it before. When it came to his research and investigations, he usually had some sort of idea about what he was dealing with. But not this time. He knew some people, including scientists, had theorized that these blobs were jellyfish that had rained down from the sky. But so far, Mike hadn't found any jellyfish cells in his sample.

And there also weren't any human white blood cells either. But whatever it was, he felt confident he would get to the bottom of it. Directly observing the material under a microscope had not yielded any results. So Mike had placed some samples in an incubator to see if it grew any bacteria. If it did, then maybe he could identify what type of bacteria it was and that might shed some light on what this goo was.

Finally, the sample was ready, so Mike pulled them out of the incubator and when he did, his pulse quickened. Because the sample had grown bacteria. Mike immediately performed some biochemical tests and was able to identify that this particular bacteria normally came from the digestive tract, which meant this goo had to be from some kind of an animal and might even be from a human. Mike grabbed his notepad and pencil and scribbled furiously as he worked through the implications of his discovery.

How did gut bacteria end up falling from the sky? Then he had a thought. Mike wondered if these blobs were actually just toilet waste dumped from an airplane. It was possible that when the waste was stored at such high altitudes in the plane, it could turn into a jelly-like material. However, Mike realized there was at least one problem with this theory. He knew that airlines typically used blue dye to stain their toilet waste. And these blobs were completely clear.

Mike sighed and walked back over to the microscope and refocused the lens on the gooey blob. As he stared at the sample through the microscope, he started to wonder if this was a man-made compound called a matrix, which is a carrier or delivery system for other chemicals. It's like an envelope you can use to contain dangerous substances without anyone detecting it. More specifically, a matrix can be used to deliver a harmful substance to an unsuspecting target.

But Mike couldn't understand why there would be parts of a jellyfish or whole jellyfish or toilet waste inside of a matrix. What would the purpose be? Why would anybody do that? His mind raced as he thought through the possibilities. Then it hit him. A matrix containing dangerous elements does not just randomly appear in a rainstorm. Someone had to place it there.

Mike paced around the lab as he toyed with this idea. If he was correct, then these blobs were more than just a strange phenomenon. It seemed crazy to even think about, but he couldn't help but wonder. Could it be they were some kind of bioweapon?

Mike was starting to get a headache and decided he would come back to his work tomorrow. So he carefully removed the sample from the microscope, he placed it back inside the container and sealed the lid shut. Then Mike carried it to the biosafety storage facility next to his lab. The separate secure room contained a cabinet where Mike stored important samples and materials. He gingerly placed the container into the cabinet and shut the glass window. The next morning, Mike walked inside of the lab and headed over to the storage facility where he had left the sample.

He entered the code, the door swung open, he reached inside for the container, but his hands came away empty. Mike peered inside. The blob was gone. Mike began walking all around the lab looking for the container, wondering if he had maybe misplaced it when he was cleaning up the night before. But as he thought about the night before, he could have sworn he put it right back where it was supposed to go.

Mike was suddenly afraid. He had worked at the department for decades and never lost a sample before, especially not one that was this important. What would happen to him when they discovered he had done this? Mike finally rushed over to his supervisor's office to beg for forgiveness. However, when Mike told his supervisor what had happened, a strange look came over the man's face. His eyes locked on Mike's, and he told the scientist that it would be better not to ask any more questions.

By his tone, Mike could tell that was the end of their discussion about this sample. Mike nodded and kept a straight face, but inside he was now fuming. This was a possible bioweapon. Without that sample, he would never know what made 30 people sick and killed animals and pets. It was a crushing blow to this investigation. Not only could it have brought peace of mind to the people of Oakville, but possibly it could have exposed a dangerous weapon being used against people of this country.

But as bad as all this seemed, Mike did know better than to keep asking questions. His boss had made it perfectly clear that he needed to stay out of this. So he just had to hope that everything would be okay and that he had not just participated in a massive government cover-up. Throughout 1994, a total of six storms dropped gelatinous blobs on the city of Oakville, Washington.

Dozens of pets and livestock died, but thankfully, Maggie Carver and the other 30 residents who got sick after touching the blobs all recovered. Erica continued to send out samples of the blobs she had collected, hoping somebody would finally learn the truth about what they really were. But no one ever came forward with an official explanation. Theories like pulverized jellyfish or airplane waste have never been confirmed.

To this day, Erica believes the full story of the blobs has never been told. Just as the scientist Mike McDowell began to suspect, Erica feels certain that these blobs might be part of some secret government experiment.

After learning about McDowell's theory that the blobs could be some kind of bioweapon, Erika thought back to the black unmarked helicopters she saw over her mother's farm that summer. Those kinds of helicopters are frequently associated with secret government projects, and so she wondered if they had something to do with these blobs. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence for them not to. But like all the other theories around these blobs, this one has also never been confirmed.

She and her family still don't know why those helicopters were flying slowly over the area around the same time the blobs fell. And so for now, the Oakville blobs remain an enduring mystery.

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to new episodes of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. And also, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries ad-free. Join Wondery Plus today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at listenersurvey.com.

From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick note about our stories. They are all inspired by true events, but we do sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and also some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Natalie Przyszowski. Our editor is Heather Dundas.

Sound design is by Ryan Patesta. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. And our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffen. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Bytack and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson.

For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and also Nick Witters. For Wondery, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Moore. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery. Wondery.

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