by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
Betty and Barney Hill came to the world’s attention when the report that they were abducted in 1961 by occupants of a UFO was taken seriously in the mainstream press. What is not widely known is that Betty turned to UFO investigation after this, and when Barney died in 1969, she became more deeply involved and travelled from conference to conference giving lectures on the subject. Betty’s niece, Kathleen Marden, co-authored the 2007 book with Stanton T. Friedman, Captured!, about her aunt’s and uncle’s experience. In Chapter 25 titled, “Fall From Grace,” Betty’s “commitment to solve the UFO mystery” is described. According to the authors, Betty received cautions and criticisms from members of the UFO community who were concerned that her subjective approach and intense belief were causing her to become the subject of media attention for all the wrong reasons and putting her credibility at risk. Even so, she is credited with participation in cases that have become part of the literature, and this week, we’ll look at one of those.
In the January-February 1974 APRO Bulletin, a case is described (page 5 of pdf) under the headline “Occupant Encounter in New Hampshire.” It’s said to have been “condensed from the very detailed and excellent report submitted by Mr. Walter Webb, one of APRO’s Consultants in Astronomy, as well as that of Mrs. Betty Hill, F.I. in New Hampshire.” We take from this that Betty was a New Hampshire field investigator for APRO.
According to the account, at around 2:45 a.m. on November 2, 1973, after signing out at the Swedish Sauna in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she worked as a masseuse, Lyndia Morel went and had coffee with a friend in a restaurant 10 minutes away. After about 45 minutes, she headed off in her 1964 Chevrolet Corvair. At what seems to have been sometime after 4:00 a.m., as she was crossing the Queen City Bridge over the Merrimack River, her attention was drawn “to a large, bright, yellow light in the sky to her left and ahead of her.” It’s described as looking like a star and flashing “red, green and blue colors.” Morel is said to have been unsure if it was moving and to have also become aware of another object to the left “which undoubtedly was the planet Mars.”Morel UFO
A mile farther on, the object went dark as Morel was looking at it and “she entertained the idea for the first time that the object might be a UFO.” The light is described as coming back on and then repeatedly disappearing and reappearing while maintaining its relationship with the car as Morel came into Goffstown, where she lived. Morel is reported to have said that she was “astounded” to see the light “dead ahead” of her after she veered left near a popcorn stand at the intersection of routes 114 and 13. It’s described as being lower “and positioned as if waiting for the observer.”
Morel described seeing a globe that had a translucent quality. She said it was gold and orange except for a paler oval window and that it was covered in a honeycomb design. Flashes of red, green, and blue rays are described as coming “from a source in the center.” She described a high-pitched whine coming from the object that caused a tingling sensation throughout her body.
Morel said she went from being amazed to being panicked when she found that she could not take her hands off the steering wheel. She said her eyes were pulled toward the object and she felt like it was taking control of her and drawing her to it. She is described as having a memory loss covering a half mile’s worth of distance. However, it is said that “she felt her eyes followed the UFO without interruption.” She is said to have “speculated that ‘they’ may have retrieved and recorded her memory during this interval.”Morel Occupant
According to the account, Morel became aware of where she was and that the car was out of her control and moving at a high speed. She felt like the object was pulling her toward it as it moved in closer and she described it as being at least the size of a large car. It’s at this point that she is said to have seen a “figure in the upper left window.” She said she could only see the upper body of the creature which she described as having a round, grayish head that was darker on top, a face that had wrinkles like an elephant’s skin, a slit for a mouth that “turned down at the corners,” and “two large ‘egg-shaped’ eyes with large dark pupils” that grabbed her attention to the point that she felt like she couldn’t look away.
Morel said she received a communication (described by the writer as an impression or awareness) to not be afraid. Apparently, this didn’t help because she is described as being panic-stricken at the thought that “she was in imminent danger of being captured by the UFO.”
According to the account, as she was passing a cemetery, she saw a house on the left. At this point, the UFO is described as becoming “so dazzling” that she covered her eyes as she turned into the driveway of the house and came to a stop partially on the front lawn. She said that as she opened the door, a German Shepherd came at her, and while a strange dog would have normally frightened her, “she said she ‘belted’ the animal across the mouth!” She is said to have not remembered running to the house before “pounding on the kitchen door, ringing the bell, and yelling over and over again, ‘Help me! Help me! Help me!’”
According to the account, Morel looked to her right and saw that the UFO was hovering directly across the street as if to keep her in sight. She described the whine as being unbearable at this point. She said that after two minutes of trying to get the attention of the house owners, the man of the house, Mr. Beaudoin, opened the door as she was sinking to her knees and near fainting. Mrs. Beaudoin is said to have described seeing “an obviously frightened woman, her eyes wide open with terror…” fall into her husband’s arms “… crying, ‘Help me! I’m not drunk! I’m not on drugs! A UFO just tried to pick me up!’” She said Morel was covering her ears, but that she and her husband didn’t remember hearing anything unusual. Morel said the sound then stopped, and two minutes after that, the tingling sensation stopped as well. The clock on the kitchen wall is said to have read 4:30.
Mrs. Beaudoin said she called the Goffstown Police even though Morel’s story seemed impossible. Patrolman Daniel Jubinville is said to have responded and to have arrived at the Beaudoins’s house at 4:40. He is described as turning off the engine and the lights of Morel’s car on his way to the house and then to have heard Morel’s story. His statement in a report to Webb is quoted: “This writer took note that the subject was quite shaken up and this writer did not note any evidence of alcohol or drug influence.”
Jubinville, the Beaudoins, and Morel are described as going outside and seeing the object, “whose light seemingly went out when a flashlight was trained on it, and appeared to move slightly, occasionally changing colors.” In his report to Webb, however, Jubinville wrote that the multiple witness sighting “must be ruled ambiguous” because Mars “was too close to the UFO’s estimated position to entirely dismiss the planet from contention.”
In Captured!, Betty is described as having lent “emotional support” to “several” alleged UFO abductees as cases were being reported in the U.S. in the mid-1970s. There are additional details in Morel’s case of an abduction involving a physical examination that came out during regression hypnosis. Damage to the dress Morel was wearing that night, consisting of small holes just above the waist and lower back, is said to have reminded Betty of the damage to her own dress after her experience. According to the authors, Betty had a “cordial relationship” with Morel that lasted for several years.