LINDA.

The craft then reportedly descended into the East River. She was one of the contacts of UFO researcher Budd Hopkins, who became the principal investigator and chronicler of the case in his 1996 book Witnessed.

In subsequent months, Hopkins received letters from two men identifying themselves only as "Richard" and "Dan" — alleged security or law enforcement personnel — claiming they had observed the entire event from a stalled limousine on the FDR Drive while escorting an unnamed VIP. The unnamed VIP was implied to be former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who had left office in December 1991. A retired New York City police sergeant separately came forward to Hopkins claiming he had seen the event from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Napolitano case became an immediate subject of intense controversy within UFO research. Skeptical investigators including Joseph Stefula, Richard Butler and George P. Hansen issued a detailed critique arguing that the case had inconsistencies, that the additional witnesses' identities had not been independently verified, and that the methodology used to establish corroboration was flawed. Hopkins and Linda Napolitano disputed these conclusions. Pérez de Cuéllar denied any knowledge of the alleged event.

The Linda Napolitano case remains one of the most-discussed and most-divisive abduction cases in the modern record. Its inclusion here is for historical importance — it is frequently cited in any serious abduction-research literature. The reader should understand that the case rests primarily on the testimony of Linda Napolitano and on anonymous corroborating letters whose authors were never publicly identified. It should not be treated as established fact.