St. Peter at the Sonic Drive-In, Pt. 2
Clues Uncovered, the “Strange Faith” in Russell, and Possible Human Deception
Donna Butts and her group of loyal followers were still missing by September 24th, 1991. Russell County Sheriff Robert Balloun had investigated all manner of rumors, including one going around that the women had hidden themselves in one of the limestone caves in the area.1 Balloun stated that the only thing tying the missing persons together was their unorthodox UFO beliefs, with very little else to go on. The women were all considered “respected members of their community” with their Christianity-tinged UFO interests not coming up in most of their day-to-day interactions. “They really didn’t make any big secret of their beliefs,” Balloun state. “They were a closed little group, and I don’t think they openly discussed it much, but it wasn’t a real big secret.”2 The sheriff estimated that there were about ten people in the group but noted that new members continued to crop up in his investigations.
Leads were scarce even from those who hadn’t disappeared from Russell. Butts’ car was still at her rural home, as were her purse and other essential items—only her driver’s license couldn’t be found. More confusingly, Marcia Brock’s car remained undiscovered despite its description being given to police departments nationally. In a search of Brock’s daughters dorm rooms at the University of Kansas, a tantalizing pamphlet was found that included dates of events related to the “biblical days of feasts and sacrifice.”3 The dates lined up with the disappearances almost exactly, but while perhaps relevant to the group’s motivations, there was no hint as to where they might be. It wasn’t long after, however, that Stephanie Brock’s roommate received a call from an airline. Even with local police, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI on the case, it was a college student who would finally begin the journey to resolution.
~
Butts was a habitual contactee and channeler who talked with extraterrestrial beings and angels consistently after her experience on Interstate 70 in 1980. The Wichita Eagle does a serviceable job of describing the unique cosmology she formed around her encounter, taken from her and Scott Corder’s 1989 book, UFO Contact: The Four. They quote Wendelle Stevens, who published said book, as saying: “They (the beings) came back again and again and programmed her so they could contact her. They came back several times, and she was on board (the spacecraft) at least three times.”4 As the visitations became more common, Butts and her UFO group’s theology became more complete:
A cryptic book crammed with often impenetrable religious allusions, (UFO Contact) offers several strange connections to the current disappearances.
The book explains that the spaceship visitations are by angels known as “Neeki”—depicted in a sketch as wide-eyed humanoids in space suits—preparing for the Second Coming of Christ. (…) Her parents had been visited by UFOs and she was chosen as a messenger for their arrival.5
While she had formed a respectably sized group in Russell, not everyone viewed her proselytizing favorably. In a letter sent to the local paper by a relative written before her disappearance, Butts decried her reception in the town, claiming that she and her followers had been harassed. “I do not run nor belong to any circle, cult, coven, group, or gathering,” she wrote. “The ‘witchhunt’ going on is misdirected, because I have nothing to hide or to defend. I have made some dear friends in Russell, and obviously, some enemies, but rest assured I and my family intend to stay right here.”6 As we know, she did not keep this promise during her disappearance, but whether or not this was due to pressure from neighbors is unclear. Butts’ husband believed there was a struggle due to a shotgun being out of place and a messed up rug. One paper stated Sheriff Balloun was of the opinion that the struggle “looked ‘concocted and suspected the disappearances were rigged.”7 This idea is not elaborated further and seems strange given that the women were, by all accounts, missing. Perhaps he thought they were hoaxing an alien abduction to convince skeptics of Butts’ contacts, but her husband (who was left alone with their five children) seems genuinely concerned about foul play in most articles where he is spoken to.
Of the missing, Butts was the least-known around the small community. The part-time housekeeper was apparently in an isolated area of the county compared to the Brocks. Sheriff Balloun commented that she seemed normal but that “a lot of things happened to her which don’t happen to other people, always unexplainable.” He speaks of “a case (…) a few weeks ago where she was abducted out on the highway one night, supposedly, and tied up.”8 While nearly as strange as her meetings with extraterrestrials, this incident purportedly involved human beings. As per another article, Butts noted that in this specific instance, her abductors were “wearing Kansas Highway Patrol uniforms.”9 Four years earlier, in 1987, Butts experienced a similar supposed encounter with very human individuals, again involving some form of law enforcement harassing her. Corder writes in UFO Contact: The Four:
(Butts) got a call from a man claiming to be from the “Justice Department.” He had another man with him, whom he didn’t introduce. (Butts) had seen them both around her town and caught them going into her house one afternoon upon arriving home early. He told her to “be careful and to remember what country she had been born in!” He said this was a warning, not a threat. (She has had months of putting up with this man and his friend.)
(Butts) saw the man a few days later. He didn’t let on like anything had ever happened. At this writing, they were still in her town watching and listening.10
The descriptions of the encounters sounds remarkably like other Men in Black sightings amongst UFO witnesses. However, they also resemble the claims of gangstalkers or schizophrenics. Concurrent with her extraterrestrial visitations, she received numerous phone calls and notes from “watchers” who appeared to be stalking her, explaining why Sheriff Balloun commented on an array of unexplained police matters surrounding her. Was some authority toying with Butts and her UFO group? Was it simply disgruntled Christian neighbors that were trying to scare Butts out of her admittedly odd religious beliefs? Was it all in her head?
~
Dr. Scott Corder’s transition to full believer in Butts’ tales also involved some contacts that seemed remarkably human. After first meeting Butts in the mid-1980s and finding her compelling, Corder did some soul-searching, trying to figure out if there was credence to her claims. A key moment occurred at a Sonic Drive-In in December 1986, one that Corder says “would later prove to be very important to” him:
I remember it vividly. It was while with my son, who was 3 years old at the time, at a local drive-in, having supper. We had just finished and I turned in my seat to reach for my seat belt. I noticed a car coming into the stall next to us. What really caught my eye, was the older man who was driving that car was looking right at me with the strangest smile and slightly nodded his head up and down at me, as if to say, "I know who you are!" The thought "Peter?” flashed through my mind, but I shrugged it off. I did notice the tag on the rear of the car was from a different county than ours. I didn’t recognize him as anyone I knew. I wondered if it could have been Peter, but decided he was just some old guy who thought he knew me.11
Peter (Simon Peter, St. Peter, etc.) was one of Butts’ major extraterrestrial contacts and it was his messages who she often reported to others. Soon after this event at the Sonic, Corder began to buy into Butts’ contacts and abilities wholesale. It wasn’t long until Corder believed that through the extraterrestrial/angelic beings, Butts could control the weather12, even the stock market.13 Yet, Peter seemed incredibly human and grounded. If it was all in Corder’s imagination, his imagination certainly was not as vivid or science-fictional as it tended to be. St. Peter is described as a normal, familiar old man who winked at Corder. The strangest details are his smile and out-of-county plates—implying that St. Peter lived elsewhere in the state of Kansas. Butts too reported him as a normal-looking human being, albeit gorgeous, when she first saw Peter at a laundromat. He apparently drove “an older model, maroon colored, mint condition Rolls-Royce” but was never seen driving the same car in subsequent meetings.14 Butts reported that he always had California plates. I am reminded of Woodrow Derenberger’s encounters with Indrid Cold, ostensibly out-of-this-world meetings that seem incredibly earthly on reflection:
Also alarming in Butts’ conception of extraterrestrial/angel intervention was that her and Corder were two of “the ‘Chosen,’ earthlings implanted with monitoring devices to prepare for” the eventual alien arrival and subsequent judgement day.15 Perhaps your humble author’s brain has been broken from looking into so many alien abduction/UFO experiences that seem to have some sort of government involvement, but Butts and Corder’s odyssey may be no exception. In the next installment, we will look into a purported government contact of the Russell UFO group—a man given the pseudonym “Mr. Jai” who held “a very important job in D.C.” with some connection to the Pentagon.16
Thank you for reading Getting Spooked, I hope you have enjoyed this further exploration into a little-known UFO/contactee affair in the 1990s. If you like what you read and want to support the publication, consider a monthly or yearly subscription on Substack or a one-time donation on Ko-fi. As always, articles will remain free, but donations enable this research to continue. Until next time, stay spooked!
Limestone caves left behind from excavation dot the entirety of Kansas and have in recent years become popular for doomsday preppers: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2344975/Inside-Kansas-survival-shelter-save-humanity-devastating-meteorite-nuclear-holocaust.html
Norman, Bud. “A sign from above – or something sinister?” The Wichita Eagle, 19 September 1991. Accessed 1 January 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115608339/the-wichita-eagle/
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Laviana, Hurst. “Missing woman: I was harassed.” The Wichita Eagle, 20 September 1991. Accessed 1 January 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115607831/the-wichita-eagle/
The Wall Street Journal. “Odd tales of UFOs, Second Coming visit Kansas town.” The Daily Item (Sunbury, PA), 17 October 1991. Accessed 1 January 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115483835/the-daily-item/
Norman, Bud. “A sign from above – or something sinister?” The Wichita Eagle, 19 September 1991. Accessed 1 January 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115608339/the-wichita-eagle/
Associated Press. “Missing women, doctor turn up on flights to Israel.” The Parsons Sun, 27 September 1991. Accessed 1 January 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115606446/the-parsons-sun/
Butts, Donna R. and S. Scott Corder. UFO Contact: The Four. Tucson: UFO Photo Archives, 1989. Page 185.
Ibid., page 97-98.
Ibid., page 175-176.
Ibid., page 181.
Ibid., page 36.
Braun, Stephen. “The Strange Faith of Dr. Corder: He Believes That Aliens Walk Among Us and the Apocalypse Is Nigh. But Does That Mean He Isn’t a Good Doctor?” Los Angeles Times, 23 October 1994. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-23-tm-53920-story.html
Butts, Donna R. and S. Scott Corder. UFO Contact: The Four. Tucson: UFO Photo Archives, 1989. Page 114-115.