A Mississippi man who claimed to have been abducted by aliens while fishing on the banks of the Pascagoula River has died.

WLOX News in Biloxi reports that Calvin Parker died on August 24, 2023, after a long battle with kidney cancer. Parker died at home, surrounded by his wife, Waynette and other loved ones.

On Oct. 11, 1973, Parker, who was 19 at the time, and Charles Hickson reported to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office that they were fishing off a pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi when they heard a whirring/whizzing sound, saw two flashing blue lights, and observed an oval-shaped object 30–40 feet across and 8–10 feet high.

Parker and Hickson claimed they were “conscious but paralyzed” while three “creatures” with “robotic slit-mouths” and “crab-like pincers” took them aboard the object and subjected them to an examination.

Both reported the event to the sheriff’s department and were checked out at a hospital after it happened on Oct. 11, 1973. The story has become known worldwide. Parker published a book about the experience in 2018. Hickson died in 2011. Both said many people doubted their story. A few witnesses have come forward to corroborate some details.

In 2019, the city of Pascagoula dedicated a historical marker at Lighthouse Park near the river where two men in southern Mississippi said they were abducted.