31/10/2024 – Redbourn – Missing Time, Signs Of Contact

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 28/10/2025

Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used and certain location details have been omitted

In July 2025, “Simon” got in touch with Birmingham UFO Group requesting guidance regarding hypnotic regression following an unexplained incident that occurred on 31st October 2024.

The event involved he and his wife “Emma”, and took place during their return journey from St Albans to their home near Redbourn. Following his initial contact, I obtained in-depth statements from both witnesses. Their consistent testimonies, supported by verified timestamps, provided a clear foundation from which the case could be examined in greater depth.

At first, the case appeared to involve a simple navigational anomaly. However, further investigation revealed a complex sequence of spatial and temporal irregularities with no immediately apparent conventional explanation.

Incident Details

On the evening of 31st October 2024, Simon and Emma travelled to The White Hart Hotel, located on Holywell Hill, St Albans, to meet friends’ “Jerry” and “Fiona” for a meal followed by a Halloween ghost tour of the hotel. The White Hart is reputedly haunted, but it was purely a social outing.

Simon parked the car in a nearby private car park further just off of Holywell Hill and walked to meet their friends at approximately 6:15pm. The evening was clear and calm.

After dining and completing the ghost tour, the group left The White Hart at approximately 8:30pm. Simon was confident of this time because he had taken a photograph at the entrance, which recorded the exact timestamp on his phone. For privacy reasons, this image is not included in the report, although it has been verified.

They then walked roughly four minutes to The Snug, a nearby bar on French Row.

It was quiet in there so they were able to get served quite fast. They stayed for one drink before departing at around 9:20pm. Simon and Emma then walked back to their car through Vintry Garden. Up to this point, the evening was entirely ordinary. Neither witness reported excessive alcohol consumption or any unusual sensations before beginning their drive home.

At approximately 9:30pm, Simon and Emma left St Albans, driving North-North West along Redbourn Road (A5183). Simon was driving; Emma sat in the front passenger seat. They passed several land marks on their journey home including a Shell petrol station on the left-hand side of the road.

As they passed the station, Simon noticed a light off to the right, glimpsed peripherally. At the same moment, Emma remarked on the petrol station’s newly installed electric vehicle charging points, brightly illuminated in neon blue.

Her comment carried particular context: in previous years, the couple had leased an electric car for a period of several years but never installed a home charging point. Charging had always been inconvenient, relying on public facilities nearby. Seeing the new chargers, Emma expressed surprise and mild frustration that such facilities had only recently appeared.

Distracted by her comment, Simon looked left toward the chargers. When he looked forward again, the light on the right was no longer visible. However, he did notice a car approaching the roundabout ahead, approximately one hundred yards in front, travelling from the direction he was about to head towards.

Shortly afterwards, Simon turned right at the roundabout on the south-eastern edge of Redbourn to continue north-east along Redbourn Road. Within seconds, he experienced a sudden and peculiar sensation, almost like a brief blackout or momentary lapse, as if his head had been sharply moved side to side. Although brief, it was strong enough to leave him unsettled. He made no comment to Emma but found it distinctly unusual.

As they continued along the road at an estimated speed of around 45mph, they passed a side turning on the left. Emma curiously asked what was down there. Simon replied that it was “probably something to do with British Telecom,” noting a BT van parked nearby. (This van appears to be there quite often as it has been captured on Google Street View)

Simon continued driving along the road. The car was now roughly half way between where the side turning had been and where the next roundabout was situated.

Moments later, they realised something was wrong. Without warning, they were no longer on Redbourn Road, but on a narrower, unfamiliar lane. Startled, Simon slowed the car and said “I don’t know where we are!”

His vision became blurred and distorted. I asked Simon what this was like, to which he responded “It was like I had two pieces of glass in front of me, one on each side going into a point with water running down the outside making everything sort of moving and blurry.” 

Despite this, he remained in control of the vehicle. He observed a tall, neatly trimmed laurel hedge on the left, approximately 7-8 feet high, and on the right, an uncut hedgerow separating the road from what appeared to be a field, followed by a line of trees. Among these, he noticed a young, leafless tree before the treeline thickened beyond it.

As Simon drove forward, he saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle emerging from a right-hand bend ahead. It was then that he became aware of how narrow the road was and how fast he was travelling, estimating his speed now to be around 30-35 mph. The lights were extremely bright, obscuring the body of the vehicle and intensifying the sense of confinement within the lane. Simon instinctively moved the car as far left as he safely could to avoid a collision, fighting against the car’s lane-keeping assist system, which resisted the manoeuvre.

The oncoming vehicle passed extremely close, causing Simon to flinch. Almost immediately afterwards, their car entered a sharp right-hand bend. With little time to react, Simon focused entirely on keeping control, using the curb as a visual guide to steer safely through the turn. He later recalled that the curb appeared raised and newly finished, its clean edge standing out in the headlights as he guided the car around the bend.

Exiting the right-hand bend, the road then turned sharply left, leading into a wooded area. Here, the atmosphere changed noticeably. The road was enclosed by dense trees on both sides, and Simon described the surroundings as “quiet and peaceful,” a striking contrast to the confusion and intensity moments earlier. This wooded stretch continued briefly before ending at a T-junction. Still uncertain of their location, he turned left onto a wider road.

After travelling a short distance, he noticed a directional road layout sign on the left-hand side. The sign displayed several local destinations, including Redbourn, but the first name that caught his attention was Southdown. It was a place he had never heard of before, and the unfamiliarity only deepened his sense of confusion. In that moment, his focus fixed on the one name that made no sense to him, and as a result, he failed to register the others, including Redbourn, as they drove past.

They then reached a roundabout and came to a stop, noting that no vehicles were behind them. It was at this point that Emma saw the Redbourn on another sign and pointed it out to Simon.

Realising then where they were and how far they had somehow travelled, Simon exclaimed, “How the fuck have we ended up here?”

Simon recognised the junction from previous journeys to and from Harpenden train station, but it was not a route he used regularly, nor was the name Southdown familiar to him. Although he had passed that particular sign a couple of times in the past, it had never registered as a familiar landmark.

What confused him most was the direction from which they had arrived. They had not even reached the roundabout on Redbourn Road before the incident occurred. Had they done so, they would have continued straight ahead along it towards Junction 9 of the M1. If, by mistake, they had turned right at that roundabout instead, they would have later approached St Albans Road roundabout from the West. However, they actually arrived from the South, a direction that made no logical sense given their last known position.

At this position they should have logically taken the first exit towards Redbourn to get back on track and complete their journey. However instead of this Emma said “Let’s go straight over through Harpenden.” (This was a route she had driven in the past so was not particularly unusual). Simon went along with this suggestion, even though he was well aware that this alternative route would add around 6 minutes onto the remaining journey time.

When they arrived home they discussed what had taken place. Like him, Emma could remember the tall laurel hedge, the lamp-post and the left turn at the T-Junction onto St Albans Road.

In the morning Simon was still puzzled by what had happened the night before. He wanted to find out precisely what time they had returned home, so decided to check the CCTV footage from their security camera. He found out that they had arrived home at 10:22pm.

He was certain that they had set off from the car park in St Albans around 9.30pm. He had driven the route home many times before and knew that the journey time in low traffic conditions was 21 minutes. Even with the alternative route home adding approximately 6 minutes to the time they should have been back home around 9.57pm. There was 25 minutes of missing time he could not account for.

Around mid-day Simon tried to contact Jerry via phone to discuss what had happened but he did not pick up. A minute later he received a Whatsapp message from him explaining that he could not chat because he was in a meeting. He asked Simon if he was ok. In response to this Simon briefly explained what had taken place. Below is a screen grab of these messages which Simon provided (censored for anonymity):

Simon could not get the incident out of his mind. A few days later he visited the housing estate to the West of St Albans Road which he and Emma both felt they emerged from. Both he and Emma were convinced that they had turned left onto St Albans Road, which meant that there was only a limited number of roads which they could have “appeared” on.

He drove around various roads attempting to find the precise position where this had happened, starting with West Common. Driving along the Eastern section of the road, he initially felt sure he had found the right place. The straight section leading up to the T-Junction was heavily wooded on both sides, exactly how he remembered:

The position of this road also made sense, as it was the closest road on the Western side of St Albans Road to the roundabout, and he recalled only driving a short distance between exiting the road and reaching it. However, when he drove further along West Common various things started to look incorrect. He found that the road split into two short cul-de-sacs:

Initially he took a right, drove along the Northern road and turned the car around at the end of it to see if it was the location he recollected. But it became clear that this had an area of grass to the left of it, and housing to the right, completely different to what he remembered:

Also there was no curve to the right, only a curve to the left marked with short wooden posts, which he had no recollection of:

Simon felt certain this was not the road the car had “appeared” on. He then drove along the other Western cul-de-sac and again turned around. This looked a little closer to what he remembered from the night. There was a curve to the right and then another back to the left. There were also sections of neatly trimmed hedges to the left (especially near the first curve).

However, to the right were more trimmed hedges, not the rural hedgerow he remembered seeing:

The first curve to the right was far less sharp than he remembered it being, and there was no old fashioned lamp-post visible ahead of him as he reached it:

The second curve to the left was again very shallow. It had no raised curb. There was an old fashioned lamp-post visible off to the right here, but it was a short decorative one situated in an area of cut grass, rather than the full sized one he remembered seeing:

As mentioned, the approach to the T-Junction did look correct, with a narrow width and trees on either side:

He then checked the next road further South, West Common Way. Driving along this he did see a tall laurel hedge on the right (which would have been his left if the car was facing the other way of course). But there were also a couple of large stone pillars which he did not recall seeing, and speed bumps on the road, which he again had no recollection of (and would surely have felt when driving over):

There were also no major curves in the main road, just other T-Junctions leading to side roads. Feeling that this was incorrect, he exited the road and continued driving South along St Albans Road. After a more significant distance he came across a third cul-de-sac, Maple Cottages. He checked this but again this did not feel right. There was only a single curve, lots of housing and white fencing:

The last road he decided to check was Beeson End Lane. Simon did not think he had driven that far along St Albans Road before reaching the island, but checked it anyway, again driving along it a short while before turning around for a comparison against his memories.

The road did have a tall hedge on the left, and a lower hedge with farmer’s field beyond it on the right. However, the hedge on the left was not a neatly trimmed laurel hedge:

It also had two curves to the right and then back to the left. But, similar to West Common, the bends in the road had no straight section between them, they just went from one directly into the other. And in front of the first bend was a house behind a tall fence, not an old fashioned lamp-post:

Before reaching St Albans Road there was an additional T-Junction with Burywick, which he had no recollection of:

In addition to the above points, the area close to the T-Junction with St Albans Road was not heavily wooded:

Confused at his lack of success in finding the precise position, Simon next visited the Shell garage and spoke to the man at the counter, informing him that he had passed the station several days before. He asked to check the garage’s CCTV to see if he could find out the precise time he had driven past it. However, the man refused to let him check the footage, possibly suspicious that he was up to no good.

On 11^th November Simon finally received a response from Jerry via Whatsapp stating that he would give him a call:

The following morning after not hearing from Jerry, Simon prompted him with another message:

Late afternoon on 13^th November Jerry got back to Simon explaining that he was in hospital waiting for a surgeon and was currently drugged up for an operation:

The following morning Simon responded in a jovial manner, prompting Jerry to speak with Fiona and ask her to confirm what time he and Emma left St Albans on 31^st October. Jerry informed him he would ask her and contact him back later:

Early in the evening Jerry sent Simon another message stating the time that he believed they had departed from St Albans (presumably after consulting with Fiona). Simon went over what took place again. Jerry suggested that his drink may have been spiked. It should be noted that this was a joke, and not an actual proposal for what may have taken place. As you can see from Simon's response he took it as intended:

In the following weeks he considered going for hypnotic regression to see if anything else took place that he could not currently remember. He reached out to two contacts, but one was too far away, and the other did not respond.

Ever since then this bizarre incident has weighed on Simon’s mind, which in the end prompted him to get in touch with BUFOG.

Emma’s Testimony

In mid-October 2025 I was able to speak directly with Emma via phone about what she recollects happening on the drive home from St Albans:

“I want to start by saying that I’m not really into the subject that much. But it was a bit weird. We left St Albans and headed for home. The first thing I clearly remember was loads of charging positions in this petrol station because we had an electric car. I said to Simon ‘Oh god, they’ve got loads of charging points now, but we haven’t got the car anymore!

We went round a roundabout and further along passed a side turn. I said ‘I’ve never noticed that before.’ Simon said ‘I think it’s a BT thing’ as there was a BT van parked there.

After that I wasn’t really paying attention. Next thing I know was seeing some lights and Simon holding the steering wheel and saying ‘Fucking hell!’ Next thing I remember really is seeing a light in the middle of a triangle of grass, and another light coming from a house on the right, and a long laurel hedge. We came out and turned left.

At that point we didn’t know where we were. Simon said ‘There’s a sign saying Southdown, I’ve never heard of that before.’ We got to the roundabout. I said ‘There’s Redbourn down there’. We couldn’t work out how we’d got there. It was just strange, really weird. It’s not like we haven’t lived around the area, we have been here a long time. It’s played on Simon’s mind ever since.

I did think it was weird. It was strange as we would have come up that road had we gone right. It was bizarre. We were facing the opposite direction to where we should have been facing. The weird thing is I would have said we’re going the wrong way. There’s no reason we would have gone onto that estate.”

As you can see, Emma’s testimony closely matches what Simon previously stated.

Incident Analysis

This is an absolutely fascinating series of events, some of which cannot be easily explained in mundane terms. It is important to break down what took place and analyse each aspect.

The first unusual thing which occurred that night is the light which Simon saw out of the corner of his eye. Obviously he did not look round at it, and is not even sure whether it was low down or up in the sky, so in itself is not particularly impressive, but there is the possibility that it was related to what would happen soon afterwards. Emma’s testimony backs up the fact that she distracted him by mentioning the electric points at the petrol station.

Next is the odd sensation which Simon felt less than a minute later after exiting the island. It is clear from Emma’s statement that she did not feel this sensation, it was something only Simon felt. This could be put down to a medical explanation rather than something affecting him from outside, for example a brief moment of faintness. However, if this is what it was, it should be noted that Simon confirmed he has never felt anything similar to it, either before or since.

The sudden shift in position of the vehicle is of course one of the hardest aspects to explain. This was clearly not just a case of Simon getting lost, because he was aware of the route home, it was a route they had driven numerous times before. Emma’s testimony backs this up and confirms that it seemed to be a sudden jump, on one road one moment and elsewhere the next.

At present neither I nor the witnesses have managed to locate a definite position where the car “re-appeared” due to differences between what they recollect and the actual roads present in the area. This is something which continues to frustrate Simon. Logically it must have been one of the roads on the Western side of St Albans Road, as both of them recall turning left at the T-Junction onto this road.

During the investigation he drove back out to the housing estate on numerous occasions, even contacting me via video call while out there. Yet despite looking around the vicinity on both sides of St Albans Road he was still unable to locate a precise spot that appeared correct.

Below is a drawing he provided showing his recollection of the route he drove after “re-appearing”, including the road layout, on-coming vehicle and position he recalls the lamp-post being situated:

Emma’s memories of the road layout prior to St Albans Road seem less clear, probably due to the darkness and panic of the situation, and the fact that she was a passenger in the car not the driver. However, like Simon, she recollects seeing a long laurel hedge. She also recalls seeing the lamp-post, but unlike Simon she remembers it being in the middle of a triangle of grass.

The fact that they both recall seeing the old fashioned lamp-post, and the fact that the only road which has such a light is West Common, certainly implies that this was the road they “re-appeared” on. Sections of West Common do indeed have laurel hedges. The lamp-post really is in a triangle of grass, just as Emma recollects. However, the difference in the actual road layout to what Simon remembers driving along is puzzling.

After studying his drawing and the layout of the housing estate on Google Maps I initially thought I had worked this anomaly out. On Google Maps it appears that there is a road linking West Common with West Common Way:

However, this is not the case. It is actually two short dead end sections of road, separated by a thin pedestrian path through some trees, as you can see in the below photograph taken from West Common:

I wondered if the car had “re-appeared” at the Western end of West Common facing East, Simon had driven along it, turned right around the initial bend, but then instead of turning back to the left he had driven straight on. It was dark, he was confused as to what was happening and also his vision may still have been blurry at this point, so maybe he did not notice that the road had come to an end and had continued along the path.

If so, he could then have ended up joining the fork of West Common Way, would have turned left here driven along until he reached the T-Junction with St Albans Road, and finally turned left onto it. Below is a map indicating this proposed route:

If you compare this to a tilted version of Simon’s hand drawn map the similarity in the layout of the route is clear:

However, I soon realised that there was one glaring issue with this theory. At a certain point along the path I discovered that there is a wooden post, and the gap at this position along the path is clearly too narrow for a car to pass through without crashing into it. In the below photograph the post and available width of the gap can clearly be made out:

The footmark on the Google Maps image indicates that it was taken in April 2023:

Simon also confirmed that the post is still there today when I chatted with him via video call. This means that the post must have been there at the time of the incident (unless you assume it was temporarily removed and then put back, which seems unlikely).

On top of this, when I went over this theory with Simon he felt that he would surely have seen the lights from the large house after making the left turn. Although it was dark, it was not very late at night, so it’s likely they would have had some lights on, yet he does not recall seeing any at that position:

While this could just be put down to him paying particular attention to the left turn (as he previously indicated), the presence of the wooden post clearly makes this route impossible.

With this particular route dismissed, the most likely explanation is that the car "re-appeared" at the Western end of West Common, Simon drove the car along the length of it until reaching the T-Junction, turned left and then headed North until reaching the island, as indicated by the below aerial map:

Maybe the turns in the road that Simon remembers were actually much closer together and more gradual than he recollects (perhaps they felt tighter due to the speed the car was moving). Both witnesses would have seen the lamp-post off to the right as the car made the second gradual turn to the left. Perhaps the difference in positioning of this in Simon’s recollection was down to the confusion at the time, and the lamp-post being something which particularly stuck out in his mind.

If we take the stance that Simon must have driven the car himself to this position, he clearly has no recollection of doing so, so he would have had to have been in an altered state of mind while doing this.

“Highway Hypnosis” is where people can sometimes drive automatically without fully realising they are doing so. This is very common, and can occur when the route is very straightforward and repetitive, such as a long stretch of motorway. It can be seen that the roads of the area involve numerous bends and turns, so this does not apply.

However, it can also occur when the route is very familiar to the individual, which of course is the case here. But in this instance the individual would automatically drive the route that they know. They would not make wrong turns without realising this fact and end up in a completely unexpected location. I therefore believe this possibility can be disregarded.

Could Simon have suffered from a temporary medical issue in which he lost track of where he was driving but still maintained control of the vehicle? This could potentially explain both the strange sensation he got a minute before losing track of where the car was, and the blurred vision he experienced after realising he was on a different road.

If, as I suspect, the car “re-appeared” at the Western end of West Common, then we know that this position is approximately 1.5 miles away from where the car had previously been on Redbourn Road. But it should also be noted that this road is a cul-de-sac. There is no way to enter it via anywhere else other than St Albans Way.

Immediately to the East of the position where the car “disappeared” is open farmer’s fields, there are not many routes which he could possibly have taken. Logically, for the car to have ended up in the “re-appearance” position, facing the direction they were in with the car still in motion, Simon would realistically have had to have driven one of two routes.

The most logical route would have involved him continuing to drive the direction he was already facing. He could have continued along Redbourn Road, turned right onto Redbourn Lane (B487), driven approximately 1.2 miles East along it, turned right at the St Albans Road roundabout, driven South along St Albans Road, turned right into West Common, driven along it until reaching the Western end of the road, performed a U-turn, and then sped the car back up to 40-45 mph:

This seems unlikely, but of course could technically still be possible. The alternative route, in which he would have turned the car around, seems even more implausible.

In order to have approached West Common from the South via the shortest route he would have had to have continued along Redbourn Road, gone around the roundabout, headed back South South West the way he had come from, taken the first left at the previous island to continue along Redbourn Road, travelled 2 miles South South East to the nearest lane which passes across the fields, travelled another 1.8 miles along this, turned left on Harpenden Road, continued North North West along this a mile, travelled a further 0.5 miles along St Albans Road, turned left into West Common, driven along it, performed a U-turn and then sped the car back up:

While the possibility of Simon driving in an altered state of mind may sound like it is worth considering, It’s also important to remember that he was not alone in the vehicle. If he had started driving either of the above routes, surely Emma would have noticed him doing this and realised they were heading away from the direction they needed to go in? Emma specifically pointed this out in her testimonial statement to me. Just like Simon, she too could not recollect the journey to this new position.

The likelihood that they would both suffer from the same lapse in memory for a number of minutes, and then both come round at the same moment from it is extremely improbable. And if we assume that the odd sensation and blurred vision was in any way related to this, then why did only Simon experience these aspects, not both of them? Clearly the idea of the change in position of the car being down to an unusual medical issue (or their drinks being spiked as Jerry jokingly suggested in his Whatsapp message) has numerous issues, so is unlikely to explain what happened here.

Next let’s look at the suggestion that Emma made to drive straight on at St Albans Road roundabout, and Simon’s decision to go along with this. Regarding Emma’s suggestion, she confirmed to me that she would usually head this way from this roundabout. She did not feel any aversion to heading West. Simon was aware that this route would be a bit longer, but informed me that, to him at least, something felt physically off about travelling back West towards Redbourn.

He has considered the idea that he was subconsciously trying to avoid travelling along Redbourn Lane because it would have brought them much closer to where the car had moved position from. Like he was aware that something unusual had taken place and was trying to avoid getting near to the location, even though this meant that their journey home would be longer. I feel that this possibility is certainly worth considering.

Lastly there is the missing time which Simon found out about the following morning. In the Whatsapp message to him on 14^th November Jerry stated that he and Fiona felt Simon and Emma had left the car park in St Albans somewhere between 9:30-9:45pm. After considering every step of what took place after they left the White Hart at 8:30pm, Simon feels that close to 9.30pm is much more likely. He was familiar with the route home he also knows how long everything should have taken, even accounting for the change in position and alternative route that they drove the remainder of the journey.

There appears to be approximately 25 minutes of lost time (10 minutes at a bare minimum) which cannot be reconciled. This seems too long a period to be mistaken on, and suggests that something else may have taken place which Simon and Emma cannot currently recollect.

This case is extremely compelling, and I have no issues with the many specific details that Simon and Emma have passed on to me regarding what took place. The way that Simon clearly continues to be confused, and is currently unable to definitely confirm where the car “re-appeared”, are clear indications of authenticity. If the incident was fabricated, both witnesses would surely be much clearer about what happened that night. The fact that Simon wants to be regressed to see if he recalls anything else is another sign that he seeks answers to a genuine experience. Emma’s testimonial statement was also provided non-prompted and it was clear she had the same confusion over the events that took place as Simon currently has.

Possible Explanations

Although no confirmed UFO/UAP was seen at the time by the witnesses, it is entirely possible that they (and the car they were in) were abducted, with the memories of this entirely blocked out. I have dealt with similar cases before, and there are other cases of this nature on record which have been researched by other investigators.

The glint of light that Simon initially saw off to his right could have been a craft, but he was distracted by something else so did not look directly at it. Maybe the unusual sensation he felt was this craft beginning to interact directly with him in some way, and the blurred vision he noted later was a result of being put back (although Emma does not recall feeling and seeing these anomalies). Perhaps the car was returned to the nearby vicinity, but not directly at the same position it had been taken from, as has been reported in other cases before.

Another possibility I have considered is what is known as a “time slip”. This is where someone temporarily sees their surroundings change to those from a different point in time, usually the past. There are many cases of supposed time slips on record, and particular researchers who have studied this particular phenomenon in great depth.

This could explain why the road layout and some of the scenery looked different in Simon’s recollection to what is actually there. It could also explain the old fashioned full-sized lamp-post he recalls seeing on the first turn. However, there are some issues with this. Simon physically drove down this road, so it was clearly not just visual. Also the tall and neatly cut laurel hedge he and Emma remember seeing sounds like something modern, as opposed to something which would have been there prior to the housing estate’s existence. Lastly, the time slip possibility can only explain what happened after the car “re-appeared”, it does not explain the other aspects of the incident including the car’s sudden shift in position.

It is possible that further details may be discovered if Simon arranges to go ahead with the hypnotic regression, or if other data sources, such as local CCTV, or local witness reports become available. If so, additional details may be added to this report in due course. For now, what took place remains a truly fascinating mystery.

I would like to thank Simon and Emma for openly going over everything across numerous conversations and allowing the details of what took place to be shared.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025