There has been much controversy around the photographs and story that Meier allegedly put a hole through a tree using a laser pistol loaned to him by the Plejaren, who claimed that it was actually a very old weapon of theirs (see And Still They Fly colour plates some of which are shown below).
Reproduced below is Wendelle Stevens' own written account of the enigmatic episode:
Alena with a laser gun or pistol outside.
"When I first saw these laser pistol photos I had serious misgivings about them and the whole story of this so-called "ancient weapon". But then Eduard Meier took me to the place in the Frecht Nature Preserve, near Hinwil, where he had tested the first one. He showed me a seared line of vegetation that went in a true straight line until it struck an embankment and stopped. He showed me another, and then a limb high above our heads on a tall tree over 60 feet tall, that was severed cleanly at a place about 45 feet above the ground and 20 feet out from the trunk, where the branch was about one inch in diameter. The severed part of the branch was still lying on the ground where it had fallen, and I picked it up and examined it.
A second photo showing an extraterrestrial with a weapon, this time inside a building.
It was severed cleanly without any fraying but the most noticeable thing about it was the thin layer of seared wood at the break. The charring was no more than 1 inch to 1 1/4 inch deep into the wood, all the way through the branch, and the searing of the bark was likewise very narrow at the break, and so sudden and quick that the sap in the bark did not bubble out and run. Certainly no blow-torch could have done this, and how would a one-armed man get himself or any equipment up to such a fragile and high up position in the big tree? The trees grew so close together here and in such a way that no vehicle could get through without removing some trees first, and that would certainly have been evident.
A third photo of Alena, this time outside from a different angle.
"The weapon was neither made of metal, nor plastic, nor ceramic, any other substance recognizable in our technology, but most nearly like the composition of a solid nylon block, or bearing. It was smooth to the touch and felt a little slick. It seemed to be made of one piece and was composed of two colors of the same material, a grayish-tan and a rosy-pink or pinkish red end of the barrel and a chamber on the top.
"When Ray Stanford, of Project Starlight, saw these pictures in my home in Tucson in 1979, he insisted the gun was a plastic toy weapon and that it could be proved that the color of the muzzle of the weapon was the same color as the freshly painted red fence in Meier's yard, also seen in the pictures. This, however, was not seen to be true in the same photos for the fence was painted with a glossy blood red enamel, whereas the muzzle of the weapon was a flat rosy-red color.
A fourth photo of Alena
"But Ray did not know that we had been there and seen the color and the finish of the painted fence ourselves. Nor did he know that we had been to every toy supplier in Switzerland and failed to find any toy weapon anything like the laser pistol Meier photographed. A search of sporting good stores was equally fruitless. To this day we have never found a match for that laser pistol.
"But just as intriguing was our search for a gold Mylar jacket that might look like the one Alena is wearing in the picture with her arm holding the gun. We looked in all the clothing stores, all the sporting good stores, and even checked the uniform supply stores for such a jacket, or even such gold material as might be necessary to make such a jacket, like the arm of the one worn by Alena as she holds the pistol for Meier's photographs. We never found anything like it.
The tree that Billy shot with the laser gun. Note the oval shape which is impossible to accomplish with a drill.
"Then there is the problem of the hole in the tree. The tree was a good 10" to 12" in diameter, and the tree was green and full of sap. How would a man with one arm bore such a hole? An auger bit would have been impossible because it would surely bind in a hole that long in a living tree. How would Meier hold it? How would he turn it? Where would he get an auger bit 12" long by 1" in diameter, a non-standard size that would have to be special ordered and made up by a tool maker? This would leave tracks that could be later traced. And the hole in the tree had to be made in 20 minutes or less and all equipment removed and hidden, never to be discovered again in that short time available.
A picture of the tree that Billy shot. It is possibly Jacobus pointing at the tree there.
"Jacobus came on the scene with Meier crouched at the tree examining the still smoking hole that had been burned cleanly through the center of the big tree trunk. The charring was superficial but clear through the tree and out the other side. Then the hole in the tree, which a man could insert his thumb into, was not completely round inside, but somewhat oval in some places, like the hole made by pouring hot water into a snow bank. And the charring through light and penetrating into the wood no more than 1/4" or less, was uniform throughout, including the front entrance and the rear exit from the trunk. And the dark soil behind the tree, in line-of-sight through the hole, was still smoking and fused. I am not taking anybody else's word for this because I was there a short time later and personally examined all for myself.
"For Ray Stanford to say that this was a toy pistol off-the-cuff and without investigation was irresponsible but typical of Ray. He even mentioned this "toy pistol" in writing later as proof that the Meier case was invalid. Many others have taken the same position on this case with equally invalid and unconsidered statements. To our knowledge, none of them have ever undertaken any on scene investigation to support their armchair statements.
"We think investigators should make very responsible statements and back them up with some kind of evidence, which simply does not seem to happen with this case in Switzerland.
"One well known UFO researcher who claimed he went there to see for himself, actually went to Zurich for 3 days on other business, and then took a half a day out and went down to Wetzikon to talk to Hans Jacob, a man suspected of informing the police on Meier's contact rendezvous, who was then asked to leave the group. Hans was in the group when Meier took the tree-circling photos at Fuchsbuel-Hofhalden, and he took the UFO researcher to that site near Wetzikon, or tried to, but couldn't find the place again; or so he told me when I visited him a couple of days later. It is in the "investigations" by this man, and others like him, that MUFON relies for their information on the Meier case."
"I was permitted to photograph a laser pistol with which I shot a hole through the trunk of a dying apple tree that miraculously began to bloom a short time later and bear fruit again ever since, something it had not done for years."
