Just as the lights from the flying saucer reportedly appeared from nowhere, similar stories developed from thin air nationwide, ranging from fact to fiction to something in between. In an interview published by News Center Maine, Professor Emeritus Bill Ross referred to the Hills as “the Adam and Eve of alien abduction,” and it’s easy to see how their tale of woe became the origin for similar “sightings.”
According to Quartz, approximately 2.5% of United States residents now claim to have “some personal experience” of alien abduction. Their close encounters often hinge on similar themes, like the hovering saucer, lights in the sky, gruesome experiments, striking physical features such as large eyes and oblong faces, even jokes with the leader alien, and of course the foggy forgetfulness that results from initial memory wiping, as seen in so many films. Skeptics claim they’re victims of vivid imaginations. Believers swallow every savory detail. The rest of the world merely watches in awe, unsure of the mysteries that might exist in realms beyond imagination.
According to the University of New Hampshire, Barney died in 1969 at the age of 46. Betty died in 2004, age 85.