Viswa Vanapalli
In 2000, two Navajo Nation (an area occupying portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah) rangers were picked to look into residents reporting paranormal activity on the reservation. Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries: Paranormal Rangers’ focuses on the experiences these two rangers went through and how they dealt with them. Stanley Milford Jr. is one of them and is featured on the show. So, if you’re curious to find out more, we’ve got you covered.
Who is Stanley Milford Jr.?
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Stanley Mike Milford Jr. was initially recruited as part of the Navajo Rangers working at Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation. He remembered the job taking him to some of the most beautiful places that most people would never visit. Besides greeting visitors and escorting people to the bank, Stanley helped with search and rescue, traffic tickets, and medical issues.
Apart from that, Stanley had to deal with domestic disturbance calls. Just months into the job, one of his coworkers was killed while on duty. In 2000, he and Jonathan Dover were tasked with investigating paranormal cases. The two had known each other well and were picked because they were familiar with the Navajo Nation’s way of living as well as the world outside; they didn’t hold the same traditional beliefs as the Navajo Nation’s residents.
As per the show, one of the first cases they worked on was a Bigfoot sighting by the San Juan River flowing through the Navajo Nation. Brenda Harris, a resident, had brought it to the authorities’ attention. They later investigated a resident seeing strange orbs in the sky that appeared to follow her on her way home while driving. Over the next few years, they continued looking into such cases, including mentions of people seeing a skinwalker.
On the show, Stanley explained that in Navajo culture, a skinwalker could shapeshift into an animal from a human form. He claimed to have seen one in 1989 when he was on his way to the movies. Stanley stated that he saw something running parallel to his car and keeping up with him at around 55 miles an hour. When Stanley got home safely and told his father about it, the latter believed it was a skinwalker.
Where is Stanley Milford Jr. Today?
Stanley Milford Jr. studied at the University of Arizona. While he was a Navajo Ranger, he took up various responsibilities, including archaeological and antiquities protection and backcountry patrol, in addition to flooding, boating, forest fire, and tactical operations. Stanley was also the SWAT team leader and a senior firearms instructor and supervised the department’s administrative section.
In an interview in 2021, Stanley said, “As an investigator, you’re collecting the physical evidence, either documenting it in photographs or audio or in some way. You let that report and what you’ve collected speak for itself. You don’t go into it with a preconceived idea of what it is, especially with the paranormal. You can get into it and start investigating it and you end up with more questions at the end than you could ever imagine.” He mentioned on the show that he stopped working for the department but was still keen on helping people. Stanley now lives in Gallup, New Mexico, and seems to be a metal fan.
Read More: Where is Navajo Ranger Jonathan Dover Now?
