TV networks broadcast a film allegedly showing an alien autopsy. In reality it shows a genetically deformed girl.

A strange corpse lies on the dissection table: completely hairless, about 1.3 meters long, hydrocephalic [enlarged head], with elderly features.

Pathologists approach wearing protective suits. Cautiously they feel the maggoty [?] white corpse. They cut out the inner organs with scalpels.

These shocking scenes are in a black and white film that caused a sensation when shown last summer. The fuzzy pictures allegedly show how U.S. military surgeons dissected an unworldly being from a crashed UFO. Circulation of the obscure work was by a British filmmaker. Many TV networks bought the alien autopsy from him; in Germany sequences were run on RTL - the belief in the UFO community was enthusiastic.

But the U.S. government had recently shown it was no UFO in 1947, but rather a spy balloon that had crashed. Therefore skeptics quickly guessed that the film was a forgery. So their opinion was that the alleged extraterrestrial was a rubber dummy. However, the truth is much more macabre. The person lying on the pathologist's dissection table doctors have now proven to be a genetically deformed girl.

"About 13 years old, she had unmistakable Progeria -- everything fits together," said the dermatologist Thomas Jansen from the Ludwig- Maximilians University. People sick with Progeria age with remarkable swiftness. Even as children they look old. They suffer dwarfism, hair and teeth that fall out, and clogged arteries. Most of them die before puberty from heart attacks or strokes.

"There is no treatment," continued Jansen, "the decaying process cannot be slowed down." The illness is extremely rare. In the entire world, there may only be around 20 "old children." Dermatologist Jansen has observed two himself, including an eleven year old boy who lives near Munich. Outside of physical therapy for joint pain, there isn't much a doctor can do for these patients.

In the entire world, there are only a handful of medical people who specialize in this mysterious hereditary disease. Most doctors aren't even familiar with the exact symptoms. Still, when Jansen saw the alien film on television, the diagnosis was clear for him. "A textbook case," so the dermatologist pointed out "all the typical identifying characteristics of the illness progeria" seen in the autopsied corpse.

Only the bones of the skull grow normally, the growth of the other bones is retarded. Therefore the head is overproportioned.

The beak-like nose, the stunted ears and mouth give the dead girl a "bird-like" appearance.

The genitals are "not mature." The belly is swollen because of the way the intestines arch themselves.

With the expert opinion on the alien film showing the way, it wasn't long before Ufologists and skeptics were united on one point: it couldn't be a person if the bellybutton was missing. But Jansen can also clear up this mystery.

With the "old children" the subdermal fatty tissue shrinks. Their skin is tight and stretched like plastic wrap. In this way, progeria makes it appear that the navel is missing. "It's like an umbrella," declared Jansen, "when I open it, all the folds disappear."

Also, it's not unusual that the dead girl has six toes and fingers. Polydactyly [extra digits], said the dermatologist, is often seen accompanying rare deformities.

Jansen considers his circumstantial evidence to be "one hundred percent watertight." Professors around the Ludwig-Maximilians University agree with this judgment, the findings being published in the Munich Weekly Medical Journal.

So far Jansen has found no indication of cause of death or which doctors did the dissection. However, he stands firm that the autopsy was "expertly carried out."

Only the masks with protective suits seemed overdone. "Either the pathologists were fearful of a new contagious disease," said Jansen, "or they were playing a bad joke"

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