Did They Die Trying to Talk to Aliens? (The Lead Masks Case)

The summers in Brazil are short, hot, wet, and cloudy, and Nita Roi is no exception. Jorge LaCosta was stuck in the humidity as he walked through the town on his way home. He stopped to catch his breath and glanced at the mountaintop. There were two men at the top, and he couldn't see very well, but it seemed like. They were wearing suits. It was strange. This was not the kind of day he wanted to hike up Vintim Hill, but he shrugged and kept walking home. Three days later, the sun was shining and the skies were clear. This was the perfect day to head up to the mountain, so Orgea grabbed his kite and headed out. The breeze was gone and his kite just dropped. As he stood in the still heat, a rotting smell attacked his senses. Orgea followed the scent, wondering why it was so bad, and as he walked he saw his kite on the ground, so he reached to grab it, but the smell became unbearable. Holding his breath, he looked up and found. The cause of the odor. There were two men laying on the ground. It looked like they were asleep. Because of the smell, Horrieque knew that they were dead, but finding the men wasn't a strange part of all this. Horges saw that the two men were both in black suits, and so he realized these were the men that he saw during the storm three days ago. When he realized this, he was shocked, so he just left his kite and ran down the mountain straight to the local police station. In today's story, will dive into one of the strangest stories of a potential alien encounter. Despite all these years, still remains a mystery. Can you help figure it out? My name is Edwin and here's. A horror story. By the time Horghe had got to the station, it was too late for them to go back to Vintim Hill. Detectives walked up the next morning and they were met with the same scene that horteg Haez stumbled upon. Two men, each wearing a black suit on the ground. Each was laying on their back right next to each other, their arms behind their heads. They were homemade lead masks next to them. The masks were featureless, there were no holes to be able to look through them, and they were made again of lead. Confused about what they were seeing, Police searched the men's pockets and the men had letters in there in language no one understood. There were charts covered in mathematical formulas, a handkerchief, two receipts, and a note. The note was in much help and left detective even more confused. It only said four thirty pm. Be at the designated location six thirty pm. Take capsules after effect protect metals, wait for mask signal, mask signal metals. The body seemed to be releasing radiation and the grass all around them was dead. So if you were to stumble upon a scene like this, you would agree it made no sense. But through regular old police work, the identity of the men was discovered. They were Miguel Jos Cevianna and Manuel Pereira Lacruz. They were long life friends, both from humble families and both very hard workers. They were both married, but only Miguel had children. They were both electricians and both were from Campos those Goita Casis, which is about four hours away from the mountaintop and neath it O. Finding out who the men in the masks were was probably the easiest part of the case. After this, investigators needed to know why two humble, hard working family men were found dead four hours away from their home. As you'll soon see, looking for answers proved to be difficult. Investigators were met with strange discovery after strange discovery. In the morning of August seventeenth, nineteen sixty six, Miguel and Manuel each left her home for the last time. Manoel's wife didn't question him when he said he was heading to South Paulo to buy a car with Miguel. Neither did Miguel's wife, but his sister did. Why would you go buy a car so far away? It's much cheaper to find a car here. Miguel hesitated, but he told her something else. He said that he was going to go find out the truth, that this experiment would change everything, but used to say anything else. And that was true. The men didn't go to salth Paulo. They got on a bus together headed to Nictroi, and hours later they got off the bus and went into a store. That's where they bought matching raincoats. Then they walked into a bar together but only asked for water. Miguel was nervous and kept staring at his watch, the bartender handed them the receipts and their water bottles. She watched as they pocketed the receipts and walked out. They seemed like an odd pair and like they were in a rush. Miguel and Manuel headed up Vintim Hill and reached the top near the evening. The rain was pouring and no one was around, at least no one of the two men could see because remember down below, eighteen year old Horge la Costa was speed walking home and Jorge was the last person to see them. They died some time after this. Along with the cryptic note to the receipts for water, the documents, masks and handkerchief, police found out that the men had almost three thousand dollars with him, a small amount was missing. Maybe this was a motivation for their death, but things didn't add up. Neither Miguel nor Mannuel had any physical injuries, and even one investigator wondered what if maybe they died from a heart attack. But this, just like other parts of the case, made no sense. I mean, how would two healthy thirty year old men suffer from heart attacks? At the same time, there were no more answers to gain from keeping them at the crime scene, so they took the pair for autopsies. For some strange and unknown reason, medical examiners didn't get to work right away. By the time they finally examined the men, it was too late to do a comprehensive toxicology report. They were only able to check for the basics, like arsenic, but even this couldn't be relied on. You see, the test wasn't one hundred percent accurate because of how badly decomposed they were. Investigators felt stuck. They had more questions and answers, and they were not getting close to figuring out what happened to Miguel in Manuel, And just when all hopes seemed lost, a man named Elsio Gomez came forward. He apparently was friends with the men, and he told the officers something that were shocked to hear. Miguel and Manuel died because they were trying to talk to aliens. You could imagine the police reaction to that. But it turns out that the men belonged to a group that called themselves scientific Spiritualists. Most of the electrical workers in compos those Goita cases were part of the same group. They believed in aliens, but not just that. It turns out that their goal was to make contact. The group used psychedelic drugs to help them talk to aliens, and they believed if contact was made, there would be a blinding light and lead masks would protect them from the light. Manuel was trying to build a machine that could help him contact other worldly beings, and Miguel helped them. The first attempt was dangerous but not fatal. They built a metal machine Manuel's garden, but something went wrong and there was an explosion. It was loud, but thankfully no one was hurt. Manoel's wife even confirmed the explosion did happen, but she didn't know what the machine was for. After their first experiment failed, the men moved their work to a remote location. They just didn't want to hurt anyone. Miguel told Elzel that they were building something important and he joined the pair. The three men drove to Atafona, a beach town, to try out their new machine, and as they were preparing it, everything went dark and silent. There was a mechanical hum and the men looked up, and that's when they saw an oval shaped saucer casting a shadow. Over their machine. Suddenly, their newly built contraption exploded and the flying object flew into the ocean. Other residents in Atafona felt the explosion too, Even the local Brazilian Navy investigated it. None of the men were seriously injured, just some cuts and scrapes, but Elsio was sure that his friends died trying to experiment a third time. The last words Manuela told him were haunting. He was closed to taking a final test, and after that test he would know if he was a believer. This obviously sounded like a lie to the police, and they decided to look into Elsio a little bit deeper. You see, your story had a few holes, and I'm about to tell you all about them. The men had no injuries, and Ilsio's explosion theory fell apart. Police searched the men's homes and they did find evidence that the men belonged to the group like They found tools and scraps from when the lead masks were made, as well as. Literature from the group. But this didn't mean much to the police, especially when one of the men's wives told them about a fight with a friend and that friend turned out to be Elsio. Elsio had gotten into some sort of fight with Miguel and Manuel. Revenge for the fallout of a friendship seemed like much more of a realistic motive an upset friend, not aliens. But when Elsea was questioned, his alibi was air tight. He could not have done this, So was the answer really out of this world? Were they aliens? Six months after the men were found, a man named Charles Bowen connected their deaths to other UFO sidings. In the area. He wrote about it in the. Flying Saucer Review, which, believe it or not, was apparently a trusted source back in those days. And it wasn't just a Flying Saucer Review. Two other local newspapers reported about a UFO siding as well. On August seventeenth, Gracina at Bosa, Couccino de Sosa was driving home with her kids. They were on the main road when suddenly an orange light filled the sky. Her daughter yelled, mommy, mommy, look as she pointed toward the Vintim Mountain. Gracina pulled over and turned to where her daughter pointed, and there was a bright oval object hovering over the mountain. It had a ring of fire around it and it stayed there for a few minutes, she felt uneasy and pulled into the road. She ignored the kid's questions on their way back. She didn't know what. That thing was. She just knew that it scared her. And once they all got inside the how she told her husband about what they saw, and then he begged her to forget about it, and she tried to listen. But then when the news about the men and the lead masks on the mountain broke, her husband began to wonder did this have anything to do with what Gracina had told him. He told her this, but she didn't want to talk. To the police. She was a wealthy woman in town, respected and well known. She was worried about what people would think if she suddenly started to talk about UFOs. She gave in to her husband's begging, so she went to the police and told them about the orange light on the mountaintop. It actually happened around the same time that the two men died. Her talk with the police became town gossip, but no one judged Gracina for it. Instead, more witnesses came forward. Another man and woman saw the orange saucer moving up and down Vintim Mountain, but they were afraid to say anything. Five months before the mysterious death of Miguel and Manuel, an industrial technician in NITROI saw a UFO exactly like the one that Gracina saw On August seventeenth. Charles Bowen wrote about these UFO sightings in The Flying Saucer Review, but he mentioned another very strange case. You see, four years before Miguel and Manuel were found dead at the top of Vintim Mountain, another man met a similar fate. It Miss Luis Faithosa, was found dead on top of a mountain in nineteen sixty two. The details and facts of this case are even more difficult to find than Miguel and Manuel's case. Some say it happened on the same mountain, Vintem, Others say that it was a different mountain named Crusado. No one knows the exact date. What is known is that Edemis was found laying on the ground with zero injuries and no obvious cause of death. He was wearing a handmade lead mask, just like the two men, and also just like them, he was in the same field of work, and although the cases had those things in common, police dismissed any connection between the two kind of odd. Charles Bowen, on the other hand, believed all three men died of overdose. He believed that they had taken LSD twenty five or mescaline. If you remember our episode of Horrible Cia experiments, then you know these are both psychedelic drugs that alter your mind. Sense of time, self awareness, and vision are all affected. In the end, police were left with UFOs psychedelic drugs and no real answers. The case was closed and no one knew what really happened. Three years later, an inmate named Hamilton Bessani told police that he knew exactly what happened to Miguel in Manuel. Two of his friends came to him asking for help. He would get paid if he agreed, and it was a job down in NiTi Roi. Hamilton and his friends attended a seance and came across Miguel and Manuel. They found out that the pair were on their way to buy a used car and had the cash with them. They followed Miguel and Manuel and robbed them at the top of the mountain, and after taking their money at gunpoint, they forced the men to drink some poison and he and his friends. Left with the money. The police were desperate to solve the cold case, but there were too many holes in this story. He named the wrong mountain, he didn't know about the strange documents the men had, and he couldn't expect the lead masks. And even if his story was true, why did he and his friends take all the money? Why would they climb up the mountain to rob the pair. The truth was that Hamilton had a reason to make it all up. He had already spent years in prison and still had a long time left in his fifty year sentence. He wanted to be moved up to a better prison and return for a confession. So they were back to the beginning with no answers. Inspector Gomez those Rays told newspapers, this case is unlike anything we've encountered before. We're pursuing every lead, but the more we uncover, the more mysterious it becomes. We're dealing with intelligent individuals who leave behind more questions than answers. Years after their death, in nineteen eighty, Jacques Valet landed in Brazil to investigate the lead mask's case. He was a French scientist and eufologist. He believed it was possible that the two men made physical contact with extraterrestrial beings. As he stood at. The Vintim mountaintop, he quickly noticed strange things. There was no vegetation where the men were found. It never grew back. He collected soil samples, and they contained traces of radiation. He considered this strong evidence of extraterrestrial contact and even mentions it in one of his most famous books, Confrontations. We may never know what really happened to Miguel in Manuel, they truly believed there were aliens out there and they could have made contact. When the pair made their first metal machine, the one that exploded into the backyard, there was a blinding white light and powder. They believed this was a sign of contact. During their second experiment at the beach, they saw the same light and powder and an actual UFO. They believe they had made contact. Their mountaintop experiment was her third and last attempt, And if they believe that they had already made contact, then were they really trying to do? Why did they tell Elsio that they were close, that this was her final test, and that after this they could really believe. What was her goal to be taken? There's so much mystery surrounding this case, and I don't think we'll ever find out the truth. Any evidence that was missed in nineteen sixty six six gone, possible clues are lost now, and many witnesses are not with us anymore. But still it makes you wonder they really see beings not. From this world? Were they right about through theories? And what was the purpose of their machine? What do you think happened? If you know of a strange story or a haunted play, send it my way. I'll leave my contact information and the description of this episode. AD free versions of the show are available over on scaryplus dot com. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.