In 2016, Secret Service agents caught this man outside the White House. He was throwing papers and a flash drive over the fence because he believed he had to warn the whole country about aliens from Mars.
30‑year‑old former US Marine Kyle Odom, from Idaho, became wanted for the attempted murder of Pastor Tim Remington in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Witnesses and police said Odom ambushed Remington in the church parking lot after Sunday services, shooting him multiple times in the head, back, hand, and side at close range before fleeing, yet the pastor survived, which his congregation viewed as a “miracle.”
The day before the shooting, Remington had prayed onstage with US presidential candidate Ted Cruz at a campaign event, which initially led some people to suspect a political motive. Police soon identified Odom as the only suspect and launched a two‑day manhunt.
Two days after the shooting, on a Tuesday evening, Odom appeared unexpectedly at the White House in Washington, D.C., where tourists were taking photos. Secret Service agents saw him throwing items—documents and a flash drive—over the White House fence and detained him.
When they checked his name, they discovered the Idaho arrest warrant for attempted murder, and his arrest in Washington suddenly ended the nationwide search. Investigators then learned that he had driven from northern Idaho to Boise, boarded a flight, and traveled across the country to deliver his message to the US president, even though he was already wanted for the shooting.
At the same time, Odom had mailed or sent a 21‑page or 40‑plus‑page “manifesto” to his parents and several Idaho TV stations, and he also posted on Facebook about aliens from Mars, changing his profile picture to an alien image.
In the manifesto, he introduced himself as a bright, successful person: born and raised in North Idaho, raised in a loving family, joined the Marine Corps after high school, developed a strong interest in science, studied biochemistry at the University of Idaho, won scholarships and awards, and graduated magna cum laude before being invited to Baylor College of Medicine to work on genetics. He insisted that he was “100% sane, 0% crazy,” but the rest of the document clearly showed an increasingly paranoid, delusional state of mind.
Odom wrote that his problems began in spring 2014, during his final semester at the University of Idaho, when he was stressed by a heavy course load and turned to daily meditation to cope. As he practiced more, he believed he was achieving “extreme states of consciousness,” and during one meditation session, he described an out‑of‑body experience: complete darkness, loss of physical awareness, and then a blue light approaching that he interpreted as another being. After this, he felt his classes suddenly became very easy, as if he had tapped into some new power, and he said he performed far beyond what he had before.
Later, Odom accepted a PhD offer in human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston but quickly decided to leave, claiming the work had become too easy after his “awakening.”
He wrote that the day after deciding to leave, his life turned into “a living hell”: he could not sleep, he felt he was being targeted, and he believed people around him—including classmates—were not real humans but aliens trying to provoke him into becoming “the next school shooter.” Feeling persecuted, he left Texas and returned to his hometown of Coeur d’Alene, convinced that unknown forces were manipulating his life.
During flights and everyday situations, Odom began to think that strangers were sending him secret messages and that newspaper headlines carried hidden meanings directed at him. Because he had applied to several government agencies, he initially thought this strange communication might be some covert government contact method.
Once back in Idaho, he received a text message from John Padula, an outreach pastor from the Altar Church, inviting him to attend services. When he went, he immediately felt that something was terribly wrong, as if his life was in danger inside the church, so he left.
Odom then began receiving text messages from Pastor Tim Remington, which in reality were Bible verses and spiritual encouragement, but he interpreted them as threatening communications from a hidden group. He believed the verses referred to “their power,” that Remington was sending coded warnings, and that the word “angels” in one message was somehow linked to helicopters flying over his house, which he saw as a sign that powerful beings were after him.
Around this time, he began experiencing intense involuntary physical sensations, which he described as feeling as though external forces were affecting his body. He also reported hearing music and later voices in his head.
As his symptoms intensified, the inner voice, which he believed came from aliens, told him he would be “sacrificed like Jesus and beheaded.” When a stranger with a religious pamphlet knocked on his door, he became delirious and convinced that his death was imminent.
He fled on a one‑way flight to visit family in Albuquerque but believed that the man sitting next to him was reading his mind and that, at the baggage claim, he was “surrounded” by aliens identified by their constant sniffing, which he thought was a dominance behavior. He came to believe that these beings were everywhere, disguised as humans but truly giant green frog‑like creatures with a snout‑like proboscis on their heads.
Odom wrote that the aliens kept pressuring him to go outside alone, and when he refused out of fear they would kill him, they allegedly threatened his family. To protect his family, he claimed he agreed to do whatever they wanted, and he believed they responded telepathically by telling him to “Go to church,” which he took as a command to return to the Altar Church.
At the church, he noticed a smell like “reptile and vinegar” and concluded that whoever he was dealing with was an extraterrestrial species. He admitted that he was hearing voices more often and seeing hallucinations that he intellectually knew were not real, yet he still insisted these were caused by telepathic aliens, not by any mental illness.
A strong adult-themed element ran through his delusions. He described these alleged Martian beings as “hypersexual” and claimed that both male and female entities acted out inappropriate fantasies within his mind.
In one episode, he described being in a grocery store bakery surrounded by older men whom he believed were aliens who mentally stimulated him and instructed him to imagine inappropriate acts. These experiences, along with persistent voices and visions, severely affected his mental health and led him to attempt to take his own life twice.
In one incident, he described trying to harm himself inside his car but later said the perceived entities intervened before he could follow through. Afterward, he admitted himself to a local Veterans Affairs hospital for help. The article notes that it was not immediately confirmed what treatment he received.
After being discharged from the hospital, Odom returned to the Altar Church, where he later said he had a face-to-face meeting with Pastor Remington around August of the year before the shooting. According to Odom’s account, he believed the pastor revealed what he described as a “true” alien form during their conversation. He wrote that the pastor’s appearance seemed to change, with his facial features looking different and his eyes appearing unusual.
Odom later claimed he became convinced that members of the church were involved in a plot against him. He left the church and did not return for some time. In his writings, he described ongoing fears that he was being followed or harassed, including when he attempted to resume his studies.
Odom tried to rebuild his life by studying pharmacology at North Idaho College and said he began to feel some recovery. However, he believed that the aliens followed him into every class, interfered with his ability to study, and harassed him during tests, making it impossible to succeed.
In his view, they targeted him specifically because of his intelligence and his knowledge of genetics, fearing he might spark a “scientific revolution” that would expose them. He wrote that they had trouble controlling his mind because he was “too smart,” so they decided to remove him from society altogether.
After the repeated suicide attempts and ongoing torment, Odom concluded that the only remaining option was to “take action” against the beings he believed were ruining his life. He wrote that his life had been destroyed by “an intelligent species of amphibian‑humanoid from Mars” and said Remington and Pastor Padula were either these aliens themselves or their puppets.
The manifesto did not clearly explain why he chose that specific Sunday to attack, but he openly admitted that he had plotted to shoot Remington. On the day of the attack, he later boasted on Facebook that he had shot the pastor 12 times and claimed no normal human could survive, using this to support his belief that Remington was not human.
In the same manifesto and social‑media posts, Odom expanded his theory into a global conspiracy. He said the world was secretly ruled by an ancient Martian civilization that had infiltrated all levels of human society, and that Pastor Remington was one of them and the reason his life was ruined.
He claimed these Martians are “ubiquitous,” living as both blue‑collar workers and powerful leaders, controlling governments, militaries, and corporations while monitoring every “wild” human like animals in a zoo; he said our freedom is only a carefully crafted illusion. He put together a list of “noteworthy Martians” that included about 50 members of the US Congress from both parties and dozens of Israeli leaders, “every prime minister since 1948,” and he said this list was far from complete.
Part of the manifesto was addressed directly to US President Barack Obama. Odom began by thanking him for his sacrifice to the country, then claimed that aliens were controlling and humiliating the president, boasting to Odom about what they supposedly did to him. He urged Obama to stop letting them humiliate him and framed himself as someone taking a stand to end this nonsense, asking if there could be a better legacy than exposing the Martians. He said his “last resort” was to act to bring all of this to the public’s attention, insisted he was a good and innocent person, and added that the “people” he killed were not what others thought.
After sending his manifesto to family and media and posting online that the world is ruled by an ancient civilization from Mars, Odom traveled to Washington, D.C., to get his information into the president’s hands. When he was arrested at the White House fence, authorities found he had been throwing documents and a flash drive—likely containing the same manifesto—over the fence, and police in Idaho said this document heightened their concern about him during the manhunt.
Not long before his arrest, he had written on Facebook that he was being chased, was sending his story to major news organizations, and had no time left. His capture ended any immediate threat he might pose to the many people he had identified as “Martians” in Congress and elsewhere.
In November 2017, the legal outcome of his actions was decided. In the Idaho state court, then‑32‑year‑old Kyle Odom pleaded guilty to an enhanced aggravated battery charge for shooting Pastor Tim Remington and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with a requirement that he serve at least 10 years before being eligible for parole.
Remington testified that being shot in the head, hand, and side left him with memory lapses and ongoing health problems that affected every part of his life, yet in court, he publicly forgave Odom, called him the real victim, and said he wished him no harm and would remain his friend despite the attack.
At sentencing, Odom told the court he was deeply remorseful and explained that, at the time of the shooting, he believed his delusions were real, including the idea that Martians were interfering in his life and controlling people around him. He said he felt like he was dreaming and could not wake up, and that he still sometimes felt that way, emphasizing how lost in his own hallucinations he had been. The judge ordered him to pay more than $216,000 in restitution to cover Remington’s medical expenses, with the possibility of more as new bills came in, reflecting the serious long‑term damage caused by the attack.
