An FBI Image Based on an Agent’s Account

Something unidentified was reported near a sensitive security facility in the western United States. The incident lasted two days in October 2023. A federal agent who was there gave a firsthand account, which the FBI later used to create an image.

The image might look like a record of what happened. But it was created from one person’s description, not from a photograph of the incident. One surprising detail: the record that mentions the image does not say exactly what it depicts.

From Description to Image

The agent was a federal law enforcement officer. The agent gave a firsthand account of the incident, and the FBI used it to create a digital image. In simple terms, the image attempts to depict what the agent described.

The FBI calls it an artistic interpretation. It was made to illustrate an account, not to show a photograph of what happened. The record offers no details about the object’s shape, color, or movement. So it’s impossible to tell from the record what the agent described looked like or whether the image includes any particular details.

Why Did the FBI Create It?

The FBI created the image at the request of the U.S. Department of War in 2026. The record links the incident report to the image created afterward. It also makes clear that the image is based on an account from someone involved in the incident, not footage captured by a camera.

It’s easy to look at an image and assume it shows exactly what happened. Here, its source changes how it should be read: it illustrates an account but provides no independent photographic evidence of the incident. The fact that the agent gave a firsthand account explains what the image was based on, but does not reveal what it shows.

What We Still Don’t Know

The record does not say what the agent saw or what caused the incident, and it offers no conventional explanation. It does not include the account itself, so there’s no way to compare it with the image or know why the image was requested or what was done with it.

The image sits between two things: an incident that lasted two days and an account that has not been disclosed.