This article was published in the daily newspaper the Daily Mail, U-K, on July 15, 1977
Men in face masks, using metal detectors and a geiger counter, yesterday scoured a remote Dartmoor valley in a bid to solve a macabre mystery. Their search centred on marshy grassland where 15 wild ponies were found dead, their bodies mangled and torn.
All appeared to have died at about the same time, and many of the bones have been inexplicably shattered. To add to the riddle, their bodies decomposed to virtual skeletons within only 48 hours.
Animal experts confess they are baffled by the deaths at Cherry Brook Valley near Postbridge.
Yesterday's search was carried out by members of the DevonUnidentified Flying Objects centre at Torquay who are trying to prove a link with outer space.
They believe that flying saucers may have flown low over the areaand created a vortex which hurled the ponies to their death. Mr.John Wyse, head of the four man team, said:
"If a spacecraft has been in the vicinity, there may still be detectable evidence. We wanted to see if there was any sign that the ponies had been shot but we have found nothing. This incident bears an uncanny resemblance to similar events reported in America."
