What actually happened to Duncan鈥檚 Granger Taylor 38 years ago?
He left a note for family and friends on Nov. 29, 1980, telling them he was boarding a spaceship, but no one has seen or heard from him since then.
Stacey Jenkins of Alibi Entertainment said, 鈥淲e think it鈥檚 a very interesting story. We are doing a documentary for a major national broadcaster. I can鈥檛 say any more because we are still working on the contract.
鈥淎 gentleman, Tyler Hooper, wrote a really interesting article about it and it caught the attention of one of the members of our development team. The job of the development team in a TV production company is to create the new things we are doing and pitch them. The article was in Vice magazine, it鈥檚 an online magazine that鈥檚 very popular with millennials.
鈥淲e started to look into it further, and decided to develop a documentary on it because Granger would be turning 70 this year and we thought we might be nearing the end of an opportunity to tell this story with people who were his immediate family,鈥� Jenkins explained.
鈥淗e [Taylor] is intriguing. He had this interest in space but he was a mechanical genius. He built a one-cylinder-car when he was 14 or something. He only had a Grade 8 education but he dug out this abandoned, decrepit steam engine out of the woods and transported it to his farm and restored it to working order. It now sits at the BC Forest Discovery Centre. I鈥檝e seen pictures of it and it鈥檚 gorgeous,鈥� she said.
Another thing he restored was a Kitty Hawk plane that was located by the Trans Canada Highway for some time, before eventually selling to a collector.
鈥淚n terms of locomotion, he understood how things worked,鈥� Jenkins said. 鈥淗e was amazing at making and fixing everything to do with motors.鈥�
But mechanics weren鈥檛 his only interest, and his imagination took him in a decidedly otherworldly direction.
鈥淗e was a genius. But he started to imagine, knowing how cars, and planes, and trains worked here, that aliens had better technology,鈥� Jenkins said.
鈥淗e told his friends that aliens had spoken to him, and he started to fantasize about being taken by aliens. He also built a pseudo space ship in his back yard out of scrap metal. It was never intended to fly but it became almost like his treehouse. He would hang out in it and fantasize about how aliens would power their ships,鈥� she said.
When Taylor disappeared, Jenkins said, his family was heartbroken. It鈥檚 something the documentary producers are being careful to respect.
鈥漌e鈥檙e not trying to present him like a nut,鈥� Jenkins said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to portray an intriguing kind of a Canadian, a genius, that we think other Canadians would want to know about.
Tyler Hooper researched his Vice article carefully, she said, including visiting Taylor鈥檚 family.
鈥淚 spoke to him. He went and met with the family. He was in his [Granger Taylor鈥檚] room, which is still preserved to this day, 38 years after his disappearance. He was also very moved that this person was really loved by his family. He also has some theories about what happened.鈥�
The documentary should hit television screens at the end of 2018.
Taylor鈥檚 story has intrigued many people over the years.
Videos on Youtube ask questions.
Stories in The Times Colonist kept interest high and, more recently, on websites like Vice, authors like Hooper followed the paper鈥檚 lead in wondering what happened. It was so bizarre that writers couldn鈥檛 resist it.
A Times Colonist story on March 18, 1985 by Derek Sedenius starts with drama: 鈥淭he silver spaceship sits on metal pillars under the trees at Jim and Grace Taylor鈥檚 farm near Duncan. Its aluminum-plate ramp door is ajar and broken 鈥� the Taylors suspect from children playing 鈥� but inside, the large old sofa, pot-bellied stove, and plywood sleeping ledge are much the way their son, Granger, left them. All around the verdant property that sweeps down to the marshes of Somenos Lake, there are collections of old equipment 鈥� steam pots from donkey engines, old tractors, an ancient bulldozer, railroad artifacts of a bygone era 鈥� that their son culled lovingly from Cowichan Valley bushes.
鈥淭hey are much the way Granger left them, too. The Taylors have tried to keep everything the same. His bed in his bedroom next to the kitchen is untouched. The plaques he saved from engines he鈥檇 repaired 鈥� triumphs and trophies of his mechanical aptitude 鈥� hang on a cupboard door. His books are there, too, paperbacks, mostly, with titles like Black Holes, The Secret Forces of the Pyramid, Flying Saucers Here and Now, and From Outer Space, stored now in a cardboard box.
鈥淭he Taylors desperately want to believe their son will come back. But after 51 months, it is tough to keep up hope.鈥�
Taylor often talked of aliens and spaceships and before leaving, he tacked a note to his father鈥檚 bedroom door.
His father found it when he came home from work the afternoon of Nov. 29, 1980, according to the Times Colonist story by Sedenius.
鈥淒ear Mother and Father,鈥� [the note] said. 鈥業 have gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship, as re-occurring dreams assured a 42-month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Love, Granger.鈥欌��
After the 42 months were up, according to Sedenius, 鈥渢he Taylors left the back door unlocked that night just in case he showed up. But he never did. RCMP in Duncan have tried to find Granger, who would have turned 36 last Oct. 7, but despite what Cpl. Mike Demchuk described as 鈥榚xhaustive checks鈥� nothing has turned up, not a single clue to his whereabouts.鈥�
Granger presumably left in his 1972 light blue Datsun, one of several older model pickup trucks he owned.
The vehicle is still missing and to Demchuk that is the most baffling element of a most baffling case.
鈥淥ne would expect the car at least to be found,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou just don鈥檛 get rid of something that large without someone knowing about It.鈥�
The vehicle鈥檚 licence expired in 1981 so police are reasonably certain it is no longer on the road.
In researching his internet story, Hooper talked to Taylor鈥檚 former best friend, Robert Keller, who said, 鈥淗e did have dreams that they [aliens] were coming to get him.鈥�
As part of Alibi鈥檚 research for their documentary, they have discovered that the last time anyone saw Taylor, he was having supper at Bob鈥檚 Grill in Duncan, where he was a regular.
Apparently, Linda Baron was working in the kitchen. According to Sedenius鈥檚 story, Baron saw Taylor enter and take a table by himself.
The folks at Alibi would like very much to talk to Baron, if she is still around, Jenkins said.
Taylor was a big, shy guy, who could fix anything but he was obsessed with finding out how spaceships were powered. All of his friends knew of his interest because it was one subject he liked talking about.
A month before he disappeared he told a friend he had had contact with an alien being and that he鈥檇 been invited to go on a trip through the solar system but he apparently didn鈥檛 reveal details of the rendezvous to anybody.
According to Sedenius, 鈥淭he night before he left he went into his father鈥檚 bedroom and had a long talk with him about how grateful he was for all Taylor had done for him. Granger was a stepson but that distinction had never mattered in the past. His mother was in Hawaii, her first holiday in years. She鈥檚 never completely forgiven herself for being away at this critical time. Granger left two wills with detailed instructions to his parents on what to do with his possessions. The word 鈥榙eceased鈥� was scratched out and substituted with 鈥榙eparted.鈥� 鈥�
At Alibi, it鈥檚 been an exciting subject for a documentary.
鈥淲e have a fair push here. We want to do the production part now, then it will be edited for several months,鈥� Jenkins said.
Along with Baron, Jenkins and her people are trying to track down Taylor鈥檚 close friends, Robert Keller, who might be about 65 years old; Bob Nielson (or perhaps Nielsen, or another spelling) another close friend; Danny Flanagan; and another friend named Tim.
Contact Stacey Jenkins at Alibi Entertainment: 416-979-2100 or stacey@alibientertainment.ca with any information you may have.
