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<v Speaker 1>The SoCoRo Sighting. On a quiet Friday afternoon in April

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty four, in the desert outskirts of a small

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<v Speaker 1>New Mexico town, a police officer named Lonnie Zamora witnessed

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<v Speaker 1>something he would never be able to explain. What he

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<v Speaker 1>saw wasn't just a light in the sky or a

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<v Speaker 1>fleeting glimpse of something strange in the distance. He came

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<v Speaker 1>face to face with an object that landed on the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>He saw it in broad daylight. He saw beings, he

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<v Speaker 1>heard sounds, and then it was gone. This was not

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<v Speaker 1>the kind of encounter that left room for much imagination.

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<v Speaker 1>It wasn't fuzzy. It wasn't seen through binoculars or filtered

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<v Speaker 1>through half sleep. It was direct, vivid, and grounded in

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<v Speaker 1>the real world, so much so that it would become

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<v Speaker 1>one of the most thoroughly investigated UFO sightings in American history.

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<v Speaker 1>The Air Force's own Project Blue Book would mark it

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<v Speaker 1>as unexplained. This is the story of SoCoRo. This is

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<v Speaker 1>Brief Encounters. I'm Nick, and this is episode twenty eight.

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<v Speaker 1>The SoCoRo Sighting. April twenty fourth, nineteen sixty four, five

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<v Speaker 1>forty five pm. Lonnie Zamora was a patrol officer for

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<v Speaker 1>the SoCoRo Police Department. At five forty five pm, he

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<v Speaker 1>was pursuing a speeding car near the outskirts of town.

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<v Speaker 1>The area was flat, dry and scattered with brush, a

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<v Speaker 1>classic desert stretch with a few winding roads, open scrub land,

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<v Speaker 1>and distant hills. As he was driving, Zamora suddenly heard

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<v Speaker 1>a loud roar and saw a flame in the sky.

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<v Speaker 1>It wasn't a typical explosion, and it wasn't coming from

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<v Speaker 1>the direction of the car he had been following. The

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<v Speaker 1>sound was strange, deep and mechanical, unlike anything he'd heard before.

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<v Speaker 1>Zamora stopped the chase and turned his car toward the

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<v Speaker 1>source of the noise. He drove up a small hill

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<v Speaker 1>and came to a stop at the top. What he

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<v Speaker 1>saw next changed the course of his life. In the

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<v Speaker 1>arroyo below, less than two hundred feet away was a

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<v Speaker 1>white egg shaped craft. It was resting on what appeared

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<v Speaker 1>to be four landing legs. It was about the size

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<v Speaker 1>of a small car, roughly fifteen to twenty feet long

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<v Speaker 1>and maybe ten feet high. It had no windows, no

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<v Speaker 1>visible seams, and a strange insignia painted on the side

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<v Speaker 1>a red inverted V with a line or bar across

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<v Speaker 1>the top. Next to the craft, Zamora saw two figures.

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<v Speaker 1>They were small, dressed in white coveralls and standing near

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<v Speaker 1>the object as if they were examining or repairing it.

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<v Speaker 1>At first he thought they might be children or possibly

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<v Speaker 1>technicians in protective suits, but the presence, combined with the

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<v Speaker 1>strange craft, instantly put him on edge. He radioed the

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<v Speaker 1>dispatcher to report a possible aircraft crash, then moved closer

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<v Speaker 1>on foot to get a better look. As he approached,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the beings turned and seemed to notice him.

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<v Speaker 1>Almost immediately, the figures disappeared behind the object, and within

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<v Speaker 1>seconds the craft emitted a loud, high pitched sound. Then

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<v Speaker 1>it lifted off the ground. Zamora described a sound as

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<v Speaker 1>almost deafening. It wasn't a wind, and it wasn't like

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<v Speaker 1>a jet. It was a shrill, rising roar that shook

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<v Speaker 1>his chest. The craft began to rise slowly on a

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<v Speaker 1>column of flame and dust. There were no visible engines,

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<v Speaker 1>no rotors, no wings, and no propellers. The entire object

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<v Speaker 1>lifted straight up into the air without tilting or shifting.

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<v Speaker 1>Once it was about twenty to thirty feet off the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>The flame and noise suddenly stopped. Then the object moved

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<v Speaker 1>silently away, speeding off into the distance in a straight line.

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<v Speaker 1>The entire encounter had lasted just two minutes, maybe free

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<v Speaker 1>at most, but for Zamora it felt much longer. He

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<v Speaker 1>was stunned. Whatever it was, it wasn't any aircraft he

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<v Speaker 1>had ever seen, and as a police officer who had

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<v Speaker 1>worked in the area for years, he knew every type

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<v Speaker 1>of plane, helicopter, and weather balloon used in that region.

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<v Speaker 1>This was different. It didn't match anything in the local inventory,

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<v Speaker 1>and it had landed with legs and visible contact with

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<v Speaker 1>the earth. Zamora called for backup, and other officers soon

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<v Speaker 1>arrived at the scene. Among them was Sergeant Sam Chavez,

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<v Speaker 1>who found Zamora visibly shaken but coherent. Zamora pointed out

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<v Speaker 1>the location and they began inspecting the site. There in

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<v Speaker 1>the dirt were impressions from the craft's landing, four clear

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<v Speaker 1>depressions forming a rectangle spaced exactly as Zamora had described.

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<v Speaker 1>The brush underneath the craft was scorched, small rocks were

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<v Speaker 1>blackened and cracked. The soil itself was baked. There were

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<v Speaker 1>no footprints, no tire marks, no signs of hoax equipment

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<v Speaker 1>or prank materials. What they found matched Zamora's account in detail.

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<v Speaker 1>Within hours, the FBI and the Air Force were notified.

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<v Speaker 1>Agents from White Sand's missile range and Kirtland Air Force

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<v Speaker 1>Base were brought in, Project blue books sent investigators. Over

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<v Speaker 1>the next few days, military and civilian experts combed the site.

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<v Speaker 1>Soil samples were taken, photos were snapped, measurements were logged.

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<v Speaker 1>The case quickly moved from local curiosity to national level incident.

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<v Speaker 1>One detail that stood out was Zamora himself. Investigators noted

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<v Speaker 1>that he was a reliable witness. He didn't see seek attention,

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<v Speaker 1>he didn't exaggerate, his story never changed. He wasn't interested

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<v Speaker 1>in money or fame. In fact, he was embarrassed by

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<v Speaker 1>the entire situation and wanted it to go away, but

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<v Speaker 1>he never recanted. One of the most intriguing details of

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<v Speaker 1>the Soucoro sighting was the symbol Zamora described on the

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<v Speaker 1>side of the craft, a red inverted V with a

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<v Speaker 1>horizontal bar. This was not a military insignia. It didn't

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<v Speaker 1>resemble any known aerospace or testing logo. Investigators took note

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<v Speaker 1>of it, but couldn't match it to any existing organization.

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<v Speaker 1>Years later, that symbol would show up in a handful

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<v Speaker 1>of other reported sightings. In one case, a witness in

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<v Speaker 1>France described a very similar emblem on a cigar shaped craft.

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<v Speaker 1>In another, a drawing of the SoCoRo symbol appeared in

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<v Speaker 1>a letter from a child who claimed to have seen

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<v Speaker 1>a landing in Argentina. Whether these were coincident, mental, or

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<v Speaker 1>influenced by Zamora's account is impossible to say, but it

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<v Speaker 1>added to the mystery. Despite intense investigation, no conventional explanation

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<v Speaker 1>ever emerged. The Air Force considered and rejected several possibilities,

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<v Speaker 1>a lunar lander test. No such test was scheduled or

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<v Speaker 1>authorized near Sikoro at that time, a hoax too elaborate,

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<v Speaker 1>with no evidence of human involvement, a weather balloon. The

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<v Speaker 1>physical traces left behind made that impossible. Project Blue Book

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<v Speaker 1>ultimately labeled the SoCoRo incident unexplained. Zamora's citing became a

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<v Speaker 1>benchmark for UFO researchers. It had all the right elements,

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<v Speaker 1>a credible witness, physical evidence, multiple investigators, a four government response,

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<v Speaker 1>and no clear answer. It was considered a classic close

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<v Speaker 1>encounter of the second kind fighting that includes physical evidence

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<v Speaker 1>but no direct contact with beings. Still, not everyone agreed.

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<v Speaker 1>Some skeptics argued that the craft might have been a

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<v Speaker 1>secret military prototype, But if that were true, why land

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<v Speaker 1>it in plain sight? Why allow a civilian officer to

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<v Speaker 1>witness it so clearly and then never offer a cover

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<v Speaker 1>story or plausible explanation. Others suggested it could have been

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<v Speaker 1>a misidentified helicopter, but Zamora was familiar with helicopters, and

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<v Speaker 1>they don't land on legs or rise straight up on

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<v Speaker 1>silent propulsion after lifting off with flame and thunder. There

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<v Speaker 1>were also psychological theories stress sunlight illusions, but Zamora had

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<v Speaker 1>no history of hallucinations, he was in good health, and

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<v Speaker 1>he wasn't alone. Sergeant Chavez and others saw the landing marks,

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<v Speaker 1>the scorched earth, the heat damage. Something landed there. That

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<v Speaker 1>much was certain. It's easy to reduce a story like

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<v Speaker 1>this to the bullet points, date, time, craft symbols. But

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<v Speaker 1>what makes the SoCoRo incident stand out isn't just the data.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the man. Lonnie Zemora didn't want this attention. He

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't a believer a conspiracy theorist or a fame seeker.

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<v Speaker 1>After the incident, he became withdrawn. He stopped giving interviews,

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<v Speaker 1>he avoided the press, and when asked in later years

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<v Speaker 1>if he thought what he saw was extraterrestrial, he always

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<v Speaker 1>answered the same way, I don't know what it was.

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<v Speaker 1>I just know what I saw. That honesty gave his

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<v Speaker 1>story weight. He didn't speculate, he didn't theorize, he didn't

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<v Speaker 1>turn his experience into a platform. He simply reported it,

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<v Speaker 1>helped with the investigation, and went back to work. He

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<v Speaker 1>remained in SoCoRo for years after eventually retiring from the

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<v Speaker 1>police department, but he never changed his account, not once.

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<v Speaker 1>The Socorro sit in is one of the few UFO

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<v Speaker 1>cases where everything lined up, a credible witness and still

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<v Speaker 1>no answers. For all our technological advancement, for all the theories

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<v Speaker 1>we've explored, we still don't know what Lonnie Zamora saw

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<v Speaker 1>that day. But we know he saw it, and maybe

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<v Speaker 1>that's enough to keep looking. Next time, on Brief Encounters,

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<v Speaker 1>we head to New Hampshire in the fall of nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixty one, where a couple driving home late at night

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<v Speaker 1>found themselves at the center of one of the most

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<v Speaker 1>famous abduction cases in history. That's episode twenty nine, the

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<v Speaker 1>Betty and Barney Hill abduction,