Death In Disguise

[upbeat music] At 5:30 AM on July 16th, 1945, a 13-year-old girl named Barbara Kent was sleeping inside of a cabin in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where she was staying for a sleepover summer dance camp.

And as she slept, suddenly there was this loud booming sound that literally shook her awake and actually caused her to fall out of her bed onto the floor.

Barbara sat up feeling totally confused, and she looked around the cabin and she saw the nine other girls that were also here for the sleepover camp.

They, too, were wide awake, and some of them also had fallen onto the floor.

And so the girls, they're all freaking out.

They're looking at each other like, "What's going on here? What was that?" And as this kind of pandemonium is ensuing, their lead dance instructor came running into the cabin and told the girls that she thought one of the cabin's heaters had exploded, and that potentially there could be a fire somewhere on the camp.

And so all the girls, they're already totally panicked.

Now they're getting really scared, and the instructor's just like, "All right, girls, go outside.

Stand by the river.

I'm gonna go find wherever this explosion happened and make sure everything is okay." And so the girls, they were let outside, totally a mess, and they went and stood by this river near the cabin and waited for their instructor to go look around.

And so Barbara and the nine other girls, they're totally terrified, and they're standing by this riverbank, and they're looking around the property seeing if they can see smoke or fire but they can't.

And as they're standing there waiting for their instructor to come back, Barbara felt something hit the tip of her nose, and it was cold and soft.

And she looked up, and she realized it was snowing.

But it's July in New Mexico.

It should not be snowing.

But sure enough, snow was coming down from the sky.

And as the snow came down on Barbara, she looked at the other girls, and they too were looking up and putting their hands up and letting the snow hit them in the face.

They couldn't believe it.

I mean, this was like a totally rare weather event.

And so a minute later, their dance instructor came back and told the girls that, you know, she looked all over the camp and there did not appear to be a fire or an explosion of any kind, that everything seemed fine.

You know, they didn't know what that loud sound was, but, you know, by all accounts, it seems safe here.

And so the girls were very relieved to hear this, but already their attention had completely shifted to the snow.

I mean, again, it's July in New Mexico.

There shouldn't be snow.

And so the girls, they turn to their instructor and they're like, "Okay.