File 024 · 3 September 1965
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire, United States
Opened 9/4/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. A New England roadside field at night. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
What was claimed
An 18-year-old and two police officers watched a large, silent object with pulsing red lights move along a field at treetop height.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
Norman Muscarello was hitchhiking on Route 150 when a set of five bright red lights rose from the trees and passed over him. He ran to the Exeter police station. Officer Eugene Bertrand, who had already spoken to a frightened woman in a car, drove Muscarello back to the field. The lights returned, illuminating the officers and the boy, then drifted toward a farmhouse.
Officer David Hunt arrived in time to see it depart. Pease Air Force Base took the report. Blue Book offered a refraction of the planet; the officers rejected it. John G. Fuller’s book made the night national.
Three sober witnesses, two of them armed policemen, at close range, with no sound but dogs barking: that is the Exeter file.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
Satellites were already up. The station was not. Starlink was not.
Always
Venus and the bright planets
A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Paper on this file
Official or public documents that belong with this case — not a verdict.
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
Same craft · Same country · 10 September 2026, night
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KLAS aired a viewer video of sparkling lights hovering in the Las Vegas night sky on 10 September.
Same craft · Same country · 6 September 2026, noon
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A noon post from central California described four objects after military aircraft passed, then all of them gone.
Same craft · Same country · September 5, 2026, shortly before sunset
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Unidentified
Multiple residents observed and filmed a cluster of mysterious shimmering, sparkling lights in the sky that appeared shortly before sunset.
Same craft · Same country · August 2026
Multi-light object, Coeur d’Alene
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho · United States
Unidentified
A lake-country report described a large multi-light object that hovered, then dropped behind the trees.
Same craft · Same country · August 2026
Lights over the Las Vegas valley
Las Vegas, Nevada · United States
Unidentified
Valley posts described pale lights hovering on the desert edge of the city, away from the Strip.
Same craft · Same country · August 2026
Cluster of six orange lights, Fresno
Fresno, California · United States
Unidentified
A valley-city report described six solid orange lights clustered over Fresno, not aircraft strobes.