SIGHTING: HAMEL, ILLINOIS (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I was driving on i-55 and saw an object with apparent structure hovering during sunset. i do not know the towns near st. louis well, but google maps showed me just south of hamel, il, and the object appeared to be hovering over a city. it appeared to be hovering to the south when i first saw it, then moved a little to the southwest. i suspect that if i had been several miles to the south when viewing the object, i would have been able to see it very clearly; it did not seem to move much, if at at all, and only disappeared as i approached because of sunset. in the sky there were a number of long, transparent clouds more to the west--i wondered if this apparent object was a cloud because it felt like it was approximately at the same altitude, but it was much darker and well-defined. once it was completely dark, i noted several planes: these seemed much smaller in the sky than what i had been observing. at the moment i was simply reflecting on my life and looking forward to seeing my girlfriend in columbia mo. all i felt upon seeing the object was a sense that it was something unusual, but i don't remember thinking anything else. i provided a screencap i took of googlemaps of my exact location during this event. i attempted to take video but my phone camera was too weak to pick up the object."