{{Pause=2}} CHAPTER 31 {{PAUSE=1}}The Professor's Disappearance {{Pause=2}} Playing the Devil's Advocate, Wendelle Stevens wrote Zitha Rodriguez in Mexico City and raised all the doubts other advisors had mentioned to him concerning this very mysterious case. There was the disappearance of the principal and probably only witness to the actual contacts. There was the disappearance of most of his hundreds of pages of notes and diary entries. There was the apparent hostility of the Professor's wife, who indicated no willingness at all to cooperate or to again produce the professors' papers returned to her by Zitha Rodriguez. There was the unwillingness to allow any interviews with the professor's children who might have been able to contribute something to the investigation. There was the lack of professional colleagues and even personal friends with whom the professor might have shared his confidence, because he himself, after first attempts, had come to fear their reactions to such a story. This did not make for much tangible support for a case like this, and Stevens expressed a desire to renew the investigation with better resources and try to collect some real substantial evidence. He had interested some backers in supporting such an effort to discover more tangible evidence and had given Zitha Rodriguez a list of things to try to set up for reinvestigation when he could bring a team of researchers to Mexico City. Zitha was trying to do this as best she could, facing great difficulty in trying to reopen the case. Apparently some Mexican government investigators had entered the scene and were trying to frustrate any other effort besides their own. She learned that the professor's wife herself was under suspicion in the disappearance of the professor, and that police detectives had been unable to close the case for lack of a body. The straightforwardness of Zitha's reply and the poignancy of her interview with Senora Rodriguez, are so revealing that we have decided to publish that whole letter here for you to read for yourself. {{Pause=2}} (What follows is a translation of Zithra’s letter to Wendelle April 17, 1988) Dear Mr. Wendelle: Excuse my tardiness in answering, but motivated by your doubts, that you amiably made me understand in your last letter, I decided with all the possible risks, to interview Senora Hernandez. But I had to think of a way to do it. I believed that she must have more information... and I was not mistaken. I looked in truth for the manner of interviewing her in the best way, as to say, without injuring her sensitivities, since she is a person really difficult to deal with. I shall not go into details about how I did it. To begin with, it was not easy because Senora Hernandez has passed through a series of very difficult situations. She never conducted herself with me in any courteous manner whatsoever. At first, she argued that she did not want to have any contact with journalists, and let me tell you, Mr. Wendelle, that after having listened attentively, I understood perfectly -- her situation and her attitude. One of the first questions I asked was, where is the professor? She pursed her lips and remained silent for a moment, and then she began to cry and said to me that she did not know. She answered me saying that actually she had investigated his MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE, which occurred on 2 February 1984, and that many of the writings that were left by the professor are in the hands of, since that date, some investigators that -- are studying the case. She believes that in some of the many writings there is information or some fact about the professor. But up to now she has been able to learn absolutely nothing of him. Senora Hernandez told me that she has carried on investigation in the most discrete manner possible, and that she has no desire to allow publicity of the case. Unfortunately, neither she, nor her children, nor those who have investigated the case, believe in the existence of extraterrestrial beings, and I say unfortunately, because in reality, to me, after analyzing the circumstances that surround his disappearance, it makes it much easier for me to believe that he left with his extraterrestrial friends. If the professor had written something in those last days, or even only one day before his disappearance, the investigators could have discovered it, but I have not had access to those writings, and the little that the wife of the professor has in her hands will be made available to me after she returns from a trip she is going to make to Cuautla. (They lived in Cuautla when he disappeared.) I asked the Senora, why have you told me absolutely nothing about the disappearance of the professor, and said that she did not want to involve me in the investigations, moreover the detectives had told her not to speak to anybody about the affair as they feared it would thwart the investigations, because they always believed they were dealing with a crime though they had not found the body. She affirmed that the first time that the professor had been interned in a hospital was in 1982 and that he remained there because he had a very serious burn on one knee (she said she couldn't remember well whether it was the left side). Though this burn was very strong, to the surprise of the doctors, it healed much more rapidly than normal considering the age of the professor. What really happened was that the treatment was prolonged nevertheless, and that was when they asked him how he had burned it, and he, quite simply, said that he had been about to descend from an extraterrestrial ship. This surprised me, Mr. Wendelle, because he always wanted to keep his secret at all costs. why did he say that? Only he knew about it. From there they sent him to the psychiatric clinic for all kinds of analysis to understand his state of (mental) health and to determine what it was that was making him mention UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. The wife agreed to this, because it could be said that she herself believed that he would be better off in a hospital and that, as well, there they could cure him of that illness which she supposed was mental. He remained there 4 months until he was released apparently cured. He convalesced in his house for a month, more or less. It was in Cuautla, where his disappearance occurred two years later. Of that which the Senora rescued from the house, little remains in her hands. Some days before, neighbors of the place, saw him conversing excitedly with a man of mature age, but of healthy vigorous appearance. On the day of his disappearance he wore a pullover shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes, without socks. The last time he was seen was with a newspaper in hand seated on a bench in the park that was a few streets from his residence. He wore no watch, and no important amount had been withdrawn from the bank for nearly a week. Nor did he say goodbye to his 12 year old daughter whom he adored, and he failed to keep the appointment with a friend to play chess. In the final years his relations with his wife were tyrannical, but not the same with his children to whom he gave priority of importance. His wife affirmed that in those last months he carried on a life rather leaning toward a philosophy almost pure Tibetan. At first his wife did not worry because on occasions the professor went out without advising her, though this time, he didn't even say anything to his daughter. A day passed, two and on the third she told the police. The investigators asked her why she had not given them notice before. She argued that his interests had been very distant and that she participated in almost nothing of his experiences. Nevertheless, she became the principal suspect. But since they could not find the body, they could not proceed against her. And of course this made her accumulate more resentment against her husband. She returned to Mexico City in the automobile of her husband 15 days after she had planned. (apparently she was by now living apart from him.) Since then she has wanted to talk to absolutely nobody about the affair. I spoke with her daughter, and she commented to me that sometimes her father, in a somber tone, had told her that he knew too much about aspects that involved some risk -- but she never understood what he tried to say about this. The discussions with her (Zitha with Senora Hernandez) were really long, in clear language, both of us expounding our points of view. I told her, yes I believed in UFOs, because the professor had convinced me of them, and that many contactees obtained interesting information about beings from other planets. I described to her the manner in which I had known her husband and how all of the conversation about life on other worlds had developed. She resisted the belief that living beings exist outside of the Earth. She did not believe that Lia could be extraterrestrial. She is sure that this deals with a terrestrial woman. She told me that she would look for the papers that remained, though I do not know if she will find them because she demonstrated reserve in some respects. I do not want to compromise myself with her over the writings of the professor, supposing that it might be due to the fact that she still continues her investigation. Nevertheless, despite my insistence, I did it subtly and always left a little of the decision to her.. She asked me not to interfere in the investigations, because I could make myself suspect. I saw that she was afraid, since her husband had disappeared under circumstances outside of normal. I told her of the advances I had already made toward a book and tried to convince her to help me with a photograph of the professor. THAT infuriated her. She told me I was trying to take advantage of the situation. She begged me that if I made a book, I should not mention even the professor, nor his children, much less her. But taking this case at a personal level, I will continue investigating, though this would be at my expense. On the other hand, I know that you have doubts because, the difference is that I knew the professor and was also very close to him on this, while you only have my word, a very weak instrument. Nevertheless, I who knew him, learned much from him about the UFO phenomenon, notwithstanding the fact that he was a confirmed skeptic. These last months in which I reopened the book (project), my notes and some other things, excite me about the edition. I have learned a great many more things, but I believe that I have learned also that the Senora Hernandez has good reason in defense of her way of thinking. The disappearance of the professor brings me to suspect the circumstances in which all this developed. I want to believe that his interplanetary friends have invited him to pass two days, a week, a month, at least some time (with them), but considering that in space the time and this collapse together, can we presume that the professor would return within various dozens of years, or perhaps he will never return, or perhaps he has returned from there remembering absolutely nothing. I will send you all I can about Lia, sometime after the 30th of April. This is all for now, Mr. Wendelle. I wish you much success. [Signed,] Zitha Rodriguez {{Pause=1}} P.S: On the other hand, if you consider that the history of the professor is not duly documented, we can wait for me to find the material that is lacking. I am in no hurry to publish the book. Though I can well tell you that the time when we will have an extraterrestrial invasion, is near. I don't want you to look "like a fool" on my part only because I send you what I have. I have many things more but need to know what to send you (it is in shorthand). However, if you believe that it is not sufficiently interesting, I do not want to compromise the publication. {{Pause=1}} END LETTER {{Pause=2}} As you can see, there is much unresolved in this case, and a great deal of mystery still unexplained. Zitha and Stevens have themselves become involved to the extent that they too have become a part of this bizarre affair. Let us hope that Senora Hernandez can find professor Hernandez' last written notes or papers, and that there is some clue in there to tell us whether Hernandez expected to be picked up and taken away or not. This might be instrumental in clearing Senora Hernandez of the suspicion she is under with the police. If the police investigators have those papers in the ones they took from the Hernandez house, and they refuse to release them, or copies, back to Senora Hernandez, we may never be able to clear her of the heavy pall of unwarranted suspicion. So now we learn that the professor did not disappear from the institution as previously supposed, but that he was released and went to his home in Cuautla, where he was now living apparently separated from his wife, at least temporarily. He had given no indication that he planned to leave, and said no goodbyes. He just disappeared as though he had dropped from the face of the Earth, and perhaps he has.