The stretch of U.S. Route 3 cutting through the White Mountains of New Hampshire stood nearly empty on the night of September 19, 1961. The winding road offered little company to Betty and Barney Hill as they drove home to Portsmouth following a vacation in Canada. The couple had no reason to think this night would be anything but ordinary. They expected to arrive home by midnight, with only stars and a bright moon illuminating their path through the mountains.

Betty noticed it first at approximately 10:30 PM near Lancaster, New Hampshire. A bright light moved across the sky, initially resembling nothing more unusual than a falling star. But this light behaved differently. It stopped. It changed direction. It grew larger.

“I kept watching it,” Betty later stated in recorded interviews. “I nudged Barney and said, ‘Look, there’s a light following us.'”

Barney, a practical man who worked for the postal service, initially dismissed it as a satellite or aircraft. He continued driving while Betty observed the unusual light through the car window. The object descended lower, moving erratically across the night sky.

Near Indian Head, the Hills pulled over at a picnic area. Barney retrieved his binoculars from the car and stepped out to get a better look. What he saw through those lenses would haunt him for years to come. The craft now appeared as a large, silent, pancake-shaped object with a row of windows along its edge. Most disturbing of all, Barney could make out figures moving inside.

“I could see occupants inside,” Barney later recalled under hypnosis. “They were looking at me.”

Fear gripped Barney. He ran back to the car, telling Betty they needed to leave immediately. His hands shook as he started the engine. The craft descended directly above their vehicle, filling the windshield with its metallic underside.

What happened next remains one of the most debated aspects of their account. The Hills recalled hearing a series of beeping sounds. Their consciousness seemed to fade. When they became fully aware again, they found themselves driving near Ashland, about 35 miles south of Indian Head. Nearly two hours had vanished from their memory.

The remainder of their drive home passed in uneasy silence. They arrived home at approximately 5 AM, much later than planned. Both felt dirty and disturbed. Betty noticed stains on her dress that hadn’t been there before. The tops of Barney’s shoes appeared deeply scuffed. The couple felt compelled to take showers before sleeping, an unusual action for them at that hour.

In the following days, both Hills experienced unusual symptoms. Betty suffered from terrible nightmares in which she recalled being taken aboard a craft and examined by small beings with large eyes. Barney developed ulcers and high blood pressure. Mysterious circular marks appeared on their car’s trunk, which caused a compass needle to spin wildly when brought near.

Two weeks after the incident, Betty began documenting her nightmares in detail. She described small humanoid figures with grayish skin, large wraparound eyes, and thin lips. She recalled lying on an examination table while these beings extracted samples from her body. They communicated not through speech but through thought.

Barney resisted discussing the experience. Whenever Betty brought up the subject, he grew anxious and changed the topic. The missing time troubled him deeply, but he couldn’t bring himself to explore what might have happened during those lost hours.