The Michigan Daily-Friday, November 19, 1982-Page 9
Joman di
GRAND MARAIS, Minn. (AP)- Drawn by
messages from "some higher power," Gerald Flach
and Laverne Landis drove last month from St. Paul
to the snowy, frozen wilderness of northeastern Min-
nesota to wait for a flying saucer, authorities say.
For more than four weeks they waited in their car,
apparently eating vitamins and drinking water from
nearby Loon Lake.
ON MONDAY, a motorist found Flach, 38, an elec-
trician from West St. Paul,, semiconscious on Gunflint
Trail, 41 miles northwest of here. Rescue squad
members found Ms. Landis, 48, dead in the front seat
of the car a few hundred yards off the main road.
An autopsy determined she died from a com-
binatioi of hypothermia, dehydration, and star-
- vation.
Flach, described by a friend as having become ob-
sessed with UFOs in recent months, was taken to
Cook County North Shore Hospital in Grand Marais,
where he remained yesterday.
COOK COUNTY Deputy Sheriff Frank Redfield
said there was no evidence of foul play and no
criminal charges were filed.
"Flach said he had been receiving messages
State gas tax
?s waiting
through Ms. Landis from some higher power," Red-
field said. "The most recent message directed them
to go to the end of the Gunflint Trail and await further
messages.
"These people kind of believed in flying saucers."
Jack McDonnell of Grand Marais found Flach
about 10:20 a.m. Monday, said Bruce Kerfoot of the
Gunflint Trail Rescue Squad. Flach told him his
friend in the car needed medical attention.
MCDONNELL took Flach to the nearby Gunflint
Lodge where he received first aid for hypothermia-
lower than normal body temperature.
The rescue squad used a four-wheel-drive vehicle
to reach Ms. Landis, Kerfoot said. the car was
snowed in on a small access road a few hundred
yards from the main road. It was out of gasoline.
"I believe they were parked there like four to six
weeks, just living in the front seat of their compact
car," said Kerfoot, who removed Ms. Landis' body
from the car. "Flach told me he hadn't eaten in four
weeks and they both looked very, very gaunt."
KERFOOT said he saw vitamin bottles in the car,
but no sleeping bags and no evidence of cooking. The
couple apparently drank water from the lake.
Dr. Michael DeBevec, who treated Flach, refused
to comment on the case Wednesday. Flach could not
be reached at the hospital.
"They told people they were conducting an ex-
periment on hypothermia for some university," Ker-
foot said. "We were all skeptical, but they weren't
breaking any laws, so what could we do?"
THE SHERIFF'S deputies checked on them every
week or 10 days, Kerfoot said.
Larry Hogen, Flach's neighbor and longtime
friend, described him as a very intelligent, gentle
man who worked as an electrician.
Flach was raised in a small town in the Dakotas
and his family knew very little about his interest in
the UFOs, Hogen said.
"Gerry just changed his whole personality, his
whole life in the past six to eight months," said
Hogen, who has known Flach for 10 years. "He came
on to this kind of obsession. . . purely with UFOs. I
don't know why he did."
Ms. Landis lived in St. Paul. Nothing further was
immediately known about her.
Police in St. Paul and West St. Paul said they knew
nothing about the couple or any local UFO group.
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V
LANSING (UPI)- The House
Taxation Committee yesterday ap-
proved the major elements of Gov.
William Milliken's five-year $2 billion
transportation funding proposal, in-
cluding hikes in gasoline taxes and
registration fees.
Committee Chairman William Ryan
(D-Detroit) said the package will
probably be taken up by the full House
Man dies
playing
rAcquetbali
o at CCRB
University Hospital employee
" Thomas Murphy suffered a heart at-
ffi tack and died yesterday while playing
= racquetball at the Central Campus
- & Recreation Center, University public
safety department reported.
Murphy, 55, was pronounced dead at
University Hospital yesterday after-
noon. Murphy was an accounting
supervisor at the University Hospital.
No information on Murphy's family or
funeral services was available yester-
day.
z, Murphy was stricken at about 2 p.m.
Murphy was playing racquetball with
two friends when he suffered the fatal
attack, 'according to Gale Stewart,
'a "assistant director of the CCRB.
following lawmakers' return from the
Thanksgiving vacation near the end of
November.
HE DECLINED to rate the
proposal's chances of passage, but said
legislative leaders-in a meeting with
Milliken earlier in the day-"pretty
much decided they would be supportive
of the package and try to get it passed."
The key bill approved by the commit-
tee was legislation expected to raise the
state's gasoline tax next year by 2 cen-
ts-per-gallon.
The bill cleared the tax committee on
a 11-1 vote, with two abstentions.
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GEO picks
negotiators
(Continued from Page 1)
election be tabled until the next
meeting to give the candidates more
time to speak and the voters more time
to think about their choices.
The main argument on the
bargaining position centered on how to
change the priority of a bargaining
issue. It was decided that a two-thirds
majority of those in attendance at a
meeting is necessary to change the
priority of an issue.
Much debate also focused on how ac-
countable the bargaining committee
should be to the union membership. The
union decided, as is in the existing
guidelines, that input would be
gathered at departmental and mem-
bership meetings and that the
bargaining team would report back to
the membership at all membership
meetings.
The two students who tied for the fifth
seat were Cay Horstmann, a
mathematics TA, and Barbara Joos, a
biology TA.. The two alternates are
Jerry Shaw, an English TA, and Jane
Holzka, an American studies TA.
After the meeting, Tim Feemen,
GEO steering committee member, said
the organizatioin will today file a
grievance against the University
because research assistants were given
a tuition waiver and teachings assistan-
ts were not.
John Forsyth, the University's chief
GEO negotiator, said earlier this week
that he was ready to arrange for the in-
creased tuition waiver, but he had been
unable to get in touch with GEO of-
ficials. Forsyth also said the Univer-
sity wants to grant TAs a 5.8 percent
pay raise, as had been proposed in the
defeated contract.
Action Sports tar
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Kingsway Shoes
Greater Detroit, Mi.
Eastside Rnnrtinn (Goods
Maumu Sporting Goods Sneakers 'n' Cleats
Adrian, MI. Southfield, Ml.
Sileley's Shoe Stores '
Greater Detroit, M1.
Bita Bill's
Superior Sports
Holland, MI.
Dunhams
Phillip's Shoe Stores
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WesternMI.