Did you see a UFO over Novi, Michigan in the Summer of 1961?

Novi, Michigan is a town of 55,000 citizens that is located approximately 25 miles north of Detroit. Michigan, particularly around the great lakes regions has long been a hotspot for UFO sightings.

Former Novi resident Nancy Tremaine describes being abducted by a UFO in Novi in the 1960s in the location she's standing -- off Orchard Drive near Meadowbrook Road. Tremaine, who says she's been targeted by UFOs for many years, says that many local residents remember seeing a large object floating above the area during that time. Former Novi Chief of Police Lee Begole recalled his deputies working in the area and reporting seeing a strange object as well. / JOHN HEIDER |

Nancy Tremaine remembers seeing the flying saucer over Borchart Road, and then she remembers running toward her home on Meadowbrook Road.

However, it’s after that summer night in the early 1960s when things took a turn for the former Novi resident. The sighting would go on to impact the rest of her life and now she’s looking for some answers.

“It was a very traumatizing experience that stayed with me,” she said of the incident when she was 12-years-old and saw what appeared to be a UFO floating over Novi.

Tremaine said she was taken up into the craft. She doesn’t remember much, but it has been coming back to here lately.

Nancy Tremaine drew this illustration of the night of her abduction by an alien craft in the 1960s in Novi. She said that she was concerned that her friend Cindy, pictured in this illustration, who was near her, would be abducted as well. / JOHN HEIDER

In recent years, she has gone through regression therapy and has sifted through years of forgotten memories with the help of Dr. Harry Willnus, a UFO researcher who said this story is similar to many others.

Now she is seeking out answers and other witnesses to the UFO sighting. Some might think she was imagining it or making this up, but she stands by her account.

“I’m not a liar and I’m not afraid anymore,” Tremaine said during a recent visit to the place where it all happened.

Although he didn’t see the UFO, former Novi Police Chief Lee Begole, 93, is one such witness. He was on duty the night at the police station when the incident occurred. He recalls hearing dispatch receive a call from an off-duty Novi police officer doing security at a construction site off of Meadowbrook at the time. The site had equipment and materials stolen from it in the previous weeks, so the officer volunteered to watch it.

“He called into dispatch and said there was a strange object overhead,” Begole said.

Police dispatch took multiple calls that night from people stating they saw a strange object, including one from a city council member’s wife. Not a believer in UFOs, Begole said it was a strange night nonetheless.

She’s not exactly sure of the year it happened; she believes it was 1961, but it could have been some time during the span from 1960-62. Tremaine is sure it was summer because it happened during dusk and there was still a little bit of light outside. She was at her friend’s home when the friend’s father asked them to come outside and see what was in the sky.

They looked up and saw a silver saucer shaped object with red, green and white lights that appeared to have been either rotating or pulsating. She said it was very noticeable.

“It was humongous to my young eyes,” she said of the UFO.

Tremaine said she saw a light beam down onto the officer’s unmarked car. It was then her friend’s father said she should run home. As she made her way, she felt a sensation like being shocked.

She was told she had been missing and later ended up at home with little memory of what had happened. Later she was told to forget about it.

She’s asking Novi residents if they remember that night, and if so, would they reach out to her. Putting together the pieces is one step in her healing process.