The "Trinity" / San Antonio (NM) Crash Claim documented-hoax
A modern crash-retrieval claim that two boys witnessed an 'avocado-shaped' craft
and 'creatures' crash near San Antonio, NM weeks after the Trinity atomic test —
promoted by Jacques Vallée and Paola Harris (2021) but resting entirely on
testimony first told publicly in 2003 by then-elderly men and contradicted on
numerous documented, checkable points by archival researchers, including
UFO-sympathetic ones.
Trinity is the corpus's clearest study of how a PROMINENT AUTHOR'S
IMPRIMATUR (Vallée) is not corroboration. The only documented facts are the
Trinity test and geography, the story's post-2003 provenance, the witnesses'
verifiable self-misrepresentations, and an 'artifact' that is ordinary aluminum;
every element of the alleged event is claim. It is the modern counterpart to
Roswell and Aztec in the crash-retrieval lineage — and a discipline test in
refusing to launder late-recalled, contradicted testimony into evidence.
Timeline
1945-07-16
The Trinity atomic test is detonated ~20-30 mi southeast of San Antonio, NM.
(Documented historical fact — the only firmly established backdrop.)
witnesses: US Army / Manhattan Project
primary source: historical record
1945-08
ALLEGED: Jose Padilla (~age 8-9) and Reme Baca (~6-7) claim to witness an
avocado-shaped craft crash on the Padilla ranch, see tall thin 'creatures,' and
watch a later military recovery; Padilla allegedly pries off a metal piece. No
contemporaneous record exists; even the date is unstable (Aug 15/16/18).
witnesses: Jose Padilla · Reme Baca
primary source: CLAIM — no contemporaneous documentation
2003-11-02
The story first appears publicly, ~58 years later, in journalist Ben Moffett's
Mountain Mail (Socorro, NM) article — told by men in their sixties, not
contemporaneously by children.
witnesses: Ben Moffett · Padilla · Baca
primary source: Ben Moffett, Mountain Mail (2 Nov 2003)
2002-2003
REBUTTAL: a ~30-minute recording (surfaced by Douglas Dean Johnson) captures
Baca privately pitching DIFFERENT boyhood crash stories (a 1947 version to
Schmitt; a 1946 version to Tom Carey) — incompatible with the later 1945 account.
witnesses: Reme Baca · Douglas Dean Johnson
primary source: Douglas Dean Johnson, 'The Reme Baca Smoking-Gun Interview'
2021
Jacques Vallée and Paola Leopizzi Harris publish 'Trinity: The Best-Kept
Secret' (with later revised editions), the story's promotional vehicle. The
retained metal 'artifact' is lab-identified as ordinary terrestrial aluminum
alloy with metric dimensions; Vallée himself speculates it may have been
manufactured in Mexico.
witnesses: Jacques Vallée · Paola Harris
primary source: Vallée & Harris (2021); Wikipedia
2023-2024
Multi-month archival debunking by Douglas Dean Johnson and Brian Dunning
(Skeptoid #929) documents fatal contradictions; even pro-UFO researcher Ryan
Wood calls it 'most likely' a hoax.
witnesses: Douglas Dean Johnson · Brian Dunning · Ryan Wood
primary source: douglasjohnson.ghost.io; Skeptoid #929
Named personnel
- Jose Padilla — Primary surviving witness and ranch owner; Vallée/Harris repeatedly cited his 'retired California Highway Patrol officer' background to bolster credibility — but the CHP had no record of him, and his claimed Korean War combat is chronologically impossible (he was 13-16 during the war); his own son said he never served rank at time: primary witness to: the alleged crash, creatures, and recovery
- Reme Baca (deceased) — Co-witness; claimed to be a political 'kingmaker'/executive staffer for WA Gov. Dixy Lee Ray (he was a tax-compliance clerk) and is alleged to have plagiarized in the 2011 memoir; pitched earlier, incompatible crash stories rank at time: primary witness to: the alleged crash
- Jacques Vallée — Respected information scientist and veteran ufologist; co-author — criticized for citing Padilla's false credentials uncritically, weak metallurgy claims, and distancing from Baca in later editions rather than confronting the contradictions rank at time: role: the principal promoter
- Paola Leopizzi Harris — Investigative journalist/ufologist who conducted the core interviews (from 2010) and co-authored the book rank at time: role: the interviewer/co-author
- Douglas Dean Johnson — Independent, largely UFO-sympathetic researcher; the most thorough debunker, via archival and military records rank at time: role: the archival debunker
Object — reported
shape
ALLEGED: an 'avocado-shaped' metallic craft with a transparent dome (the shape drifts to 'disk-shaped' in some tellings)
size
described as large enough to enter; no physical object survives except a ~12-inch metal bracket allegedly pried from the interior
surface features
claimed 'memory metal' strips and silver wires inside; ~1.5 m tall thin 'creatures' with pear-shaped heads (likened to a praying mantis or Jerusalem cricket); a later military recovery
observed behaviors
- all of it is CLAIM — the craft, creatures, and recovery have no documentary existence before 2003
- the narrative shifts across tellings (date, transport, craft shape, creatures, distance, duration), with whole episodes added after 2003
- the only physical item, the retained metal, is ordinary terrestrial aluminum (metric, possibly Mexican-made)
Theories that invoke this case (3)
The claim the case asserts — a crashed craft and non-human creatures — recorded to mark the reading the evidence does not support.
The corpus's leading reading: late-recalled (58-years-after) child-witness testimony, shifting across tellings, embellished over time, and resting on demonstrably false self-credentials — manufactured belief by accretion, whether self-deception or deliberate fabrication.
The physical-evidence claim — a retained 'artifact' — recorded because it was actually analyzed and resolved to ordinary terrestrial aluminum, the opposite of an exotic signature.
Theories that do NOT invoke this case — and why
an alleged craft-and-occupants crash, not a creature/cryptid record
no associated exotic phenomenology beyond the unsupported narrative
a privately-promoted crash claim, not part of any government-disclosure process
Conventional explanations advanced — and their status
A documented hoax / fabricated narrative
proponents: Brian Dunning (Skeptoid) · Douglas Dean Johnson · Ryan Wood (pro-UFO)
The convergent reading: the keystone 'state trooper who entered the craft' (Eddie Apodaca) was in Europe with the US Army in Aug 1945 and not commissioned to the NM State Police until 1951; the story has no pre-2003 record; the witnesses made verifiable false biographical claims; the artifact is ordinary aluminum. Held documented-hoax.
Late-recalled, embellished, sincerely-misremembered childhood event
proponents: the most charitable defensible reading
The under-corroborated alternative — but the verifiable falsehoods, the pre-2003 absence, and the incompatible earlier tellings push it past mere lack of corroboration.
A genuine 1945 crash-retrieval
proponents: Jacques Vallée · Paola Harris
Still promoted as genuine by the authors, but unsupported: contradicted on multiple documented points (the Apodaca alibi, retrofitted map details, post-1945 site features) and resting on testimony with no contemporaneous record.
Where further investigation has leverage
- Johnson's archival contradictions (the Apodaca service record; the late-1950s cattle tank and renamed-1967 'Italian Peak'; the 1982 BLM-map tower) — all checkable.
- The Baca 'smoking-gun' recording of incompatible earlier crash stories.
- The metallurgy of the retained piece (ordinary aluminum), already analyzed.
Corpus status
documented-hoax
Held documented-hoax (with the note that it is still actively promoted as genuine by
Vallée and Harris). The strongest published assessments — Dunning explicitly, Johnson
via fatal documentary contradictions, and pro-UFO researcher Ryan Wood — converge on
deliberate fabrication. The keystone alibi (Eddie Apodaca on another continent in
1945), the total absence of any pre-2003 record, the witnesses' verifiable false
credentials, the narrative that shifts and accretes across tellings, and the
ordinary-aluminum 'artifact' together place this past mere under-corroboration. A
prominent author's imprimatur is not corroboration; the only documented facts are the
Trinity test, the geography, the story's provenance, and the falsehoods.
status history (1)
2026-06-14 · new → documented-hoax
— seeded 2026-06-14 — corpus-growth pass (contested modern crash-retrieval claim)
Threads of evidence
This case is one node in the connections that run across the record. It appears in 1 thread: