Author claims to shed new light on 'alien-related' Dartmoor pony massacre
The deaths of 15 ponies whose mutilated bodies were discovered on Dartmoor over 30 years ago is the work of “an alien culture whose motives are unclear” – a new book has claimed.
Author Mike Freebury says a spate of bizarre sheep killings in the same Devon area between 2005 and 2008 were also the result of extra-terrestrial activity.
-
Author Mike Freebury believes Dartmoor ponies were targeted by something ‘out of this world’. Picture: John Allen
Mr Freebury, a former finance manager from the West Midlands, has been researching the strange and gruesome occurrences for the past 11 years.
His new book, Killers on the Moor, focuses on the discovery in April 1977 of 15 dead ponies in Hollowcombe Bottom valley, near Postbridge. It later documents his night time surveillance operations to try and identify those responsible for the deaths of 70 sheep over a three-year period from 2005.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
The 1977 ponies were found with broken backs and necks, some still bleeding, and are reported to have decomposed at an unusually fast rate.
Speaking at the time, secretary of The Dartmoor Livestock Protection Society, Joanna Vinson, told reporters: “We have spent many hours dissecting and examining what was left of the carcasses. Whatever happened was fairly violent.
“We are keeping an open mind.” Mystery and media speculation surrounded the find, made by a walker and his family, with predicted causes of death including a lightning strike, a poisonous plant, drowning, lazy owners and satanic rituals.
But the most eye-grabbing theory, put forward at the time by the Torquay-based Devon Unidentified Objects Centre, was that a vortex from a UFO could have thrown the ponies into the air, inflicting the fatal injuries.
A media frenzy began, the Western Morning News leading with the headline: “Outer space theory on deaths of moor ponies,” and other local and national newspapers exploring the alien angle.
During his research into the pony massacre, Mr Freebury began to look for similar strange animal deaths on Dartmoor, and in March 2005 stumbled onto the sheep mutilations that had been disturbing the Westcountry’s rural community.
Over the next three years there were regular discoveries of dead sheep, often with their necks broken and eyes, tongues and sex organs gouged out.
Police investigated the deaths but nobody was arrested.
After trawling through archives and interviewing landowners, Mr Freebury became convinced that the mutilations were connected with the 1977 ponies.
Dismissing widespread reports that the sheep were victims of occultists, he said the manner they were slaughtered did not support the idea, and furthermore claims that their bodies were not laid out in significant shapes, as has been suggested.
Following months of investigations, including 12 nights spent on Dartmoor hoping to catch the killers in the act, Mr Freebury now believes that the “only plausible answer” lies out of this world.
He said: “By a process of elimination I can’t see what else could be responsible. I don’t say that lightly, I understand that people will come at me for saying these things.
“Anyone with a logical mind will review the evidence and agree that what I am saying has a fair bit of veracity to it and presents a solid case.”
When asked what form he believes the aliens take, the author replied: “We just don’t know. When you start looking at UFOs they come in all shapes and sizes.
“There are probably several races involved, and they all probably have their own agendas. They are not all attacking the animals, but there obviously must be some that are. There must be a purpose behind it – and that’s the most chilling thing about it.”
Killers on the Moor is published on July 28.
Comments