After finishing with the Fitzgeralds, the sergeants called on other supposed witnesses in Lorain. Satisfied that they had completed a thorough investigation, they returned to Dayton and presented the information to their superior officers for evaluation. None of the evidence suggested that the phenomenon had been a spacecraft[XIII-12]. The UFO had been the “special effect” of a peculiar combination of circumstances: 1. The time. The sighting had occurred about 3 A.M.; the exact moment was not known and could not be determined. 2. The geography. The shore of Lake Erie lay about three fifths of a mile north of the Fitzgerald house. South of the house, roughly 100 yards away, ran the tracks of the New York Central Railway. Southwest of the house about one and a half miles stood a steel foundry. 3. The weather. A drizzling rain was falling at the time of the sighting. There was some haze and wind; no moonlight. 4. Other factors, (a) Between midnight and 4 A.M. a Coast Guard cutter equipped with an eight-inch spotlight had been plying back and forth on Lake Erie, searching for an overdue cabin cruiser. At about 3 A.M. the cutter had been headed east toward Lorain, reaching there at 3:15, had then continued east beyond Sheffield to Avon, before turning back to the Lorain lifeboat station and berthing at 4 A.M. (b) At 2:52 A.M. a train had left the Lorain railroad station, roughly three miles from the Fitzgerald house. Eight minutes later it would have been passing south of the house at a distance of about 100 yards. The engine was using a rotating headlight.