Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
The Las Cruces Photograph
An anonymous witness took four Canon PowerShot G2 landscape photographs west of Las Cruces. Two small marks were noticed only after downloading and enlarging the final frame; nothing unusual was seen at the time. NUFORC logged the report but noted that it never received copies of the photographs.
Why This Case Matters
A clean example of why visually saucer-like enlargements should not be treated as eyewitness evidence when the anomaly was discovered only after photography.
Chronology
- 5 Oct 2002 four landscape frames taken; final frame timestamped 16:49
- witness notices two marks after computer enlargement
- report filed to NUFORC 7 Oct
- NUFORC requests photos but records that copies were not received
- UFO Casebook later enlarges/reinterprets brighter mark as triangular
The Witnesses
Evidence
The following evidence types are documented for this case:
Conventional explanations: Bird, insect, airborne debris, near-camera object, image/compression artifact or deliberate staging remain plausible. No distance/scale can be derived.
What Remains Unresolved
- Native Canon files/EXIF
- the other three frames
- witness identity
- exact camera position/orientation
- independent forensic review.
Key Takeaways
- The witness saw no UFO. What exists is a photographic anomaly discovered later, and the downstream 'triangle' label contradicts the witness's own 'disc' description.
Sources
Primary and secondary sources for this case file: