In 1994, mysterious translucent gelatinous blobs rained down on Oakville, Washington. Residents who touched them fell ill, and lab analysis reportedly found human white blood cells—but all samples vanished.
Early morning, August 7, 1994. Residents of Oakville, a small town in Washington State, rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
It was raining. But it was not water.
Translucent, gelatinous blobs were falling from the sky. Soft, rice-sized globules of clear, jelly-like material blanketed the town—coating car windshields, lawns, and rooftops as though the heavens were weeping something alien.
And it did not happen just once. Between August 7 and August 20, the mysterious gel rained down on Oakville a total of six times.
The consequences were immediate.
Resident Dotty Hearn touched the substance with her bare hands. Within hours, she was struck by violent dizziness and nausea. Her mother developed a severe respiratory infection and was rushed to the hospital. Across the neighborhood, residents began reporting identical symptoms—fatigue, difficulty breathing, and inner-ear disturbances.
More disturbing still were the animals. Multiple residents reported that cats and dogs that came into contact with the blobs died shortly afterward. A quiet dread settled over the town.
Hospital staff who treated Dotty's mother collected a sample of the gel and sent it for analysis. When Washington State Department of Health microbiologist Mike McDowell examined the specimen under a microscope, he could not believe what he saw.
The gel contained human white blood cells.
But this substance had fallen from the sky. Why would it contain human cellular material? When McDowell attempted further analysis, the sample was transferred to another agency on orders from above. It was never returned. Every known sample of the Oakville blobs has since disappeared.
Many Oakville residents suspected the U.S. military. Military aircraft had been spotted flying over the town around the time of the incidents. Rumors of a biological weapons test spread rapidly.
Scientists offered alternative explanations. One theory proposed that a school of fish was sucked into a military jet engine over the Pacific, pulverized, and dropped inland. Another suggested a waterspout had lifted a colony of jellyfish into the atmosphere.
But neither theory accounts for the presence of human white blood cells. And the one piece of evidence that might have provided a definitive answer—the sample itself—no longer exists anywhere on Earth.
The Oakville Blobs incident was featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries in 1997, bringing national attention to the case. Yet no government agency has ever acknowledged responsibility, and no natural explanation has gained scientific consensus.
Something fell from the sky over Oakville, Washington, six times in two weeks. It made people sick. It killed animals. It contained human cells. And then every trace of it vanished.
The sky above Oakville looks perfectly ordinary today. But the residents who lived through those August nights know that what came down was anything but.
