Thetford Contact Case – Greys, Missing Time, Possible Abduction
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 23/04/2023
Last Updated: 25/09/2026
In April 2023 I was contacted on Facebook Messenger by a lady named Debby after I was recommended to her by the owner of Alien Abductions & UFO Sightings group. I reached out to her via phone to discuss a fascinating incident which she, and her husband at the time, Tony, had experienced back in the summer of 1991.
At the time of the incident Debby had no knowledge of UFOs or contact phenomenon. Up until recent years she had always put what happened down to a ghostly experience rather than contact-related. However in 2022 she was listening to a paranormal-themed radio show which invited listeners to call in. She decided to share her story and got in touch. After hearing the details, the host suggested that the experience may have been ET related, which prompted her to start looking into the contact subject, and join numerous groups on social media.
This report describes what took place in depth and features numerous drawings Debby has drawn on my request.
Incident Details
Back in 1991 when Debby was 23 years old, she lived with Tony in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. One day in either July or August they decided to head to Great Yarmouth on the East coast for a day out at the seaside. Debby’s parents agreed to look after their one year old daughter for the day.
It was a very pleasant day with warm and clear weather. At around 10.15 pm they began their drive back to Hitchin.
One of the main roads that leads between Great Yarmouth and Hitchin is Thetford Road (A1066) which leads between Scole and Thetford. It was approximately 11 pm, and they were driving West along this road towards Thetford. To the East of Thetford is an area of dense woodland known as Thetford Forest Park. Debby believes that they were on the stretch of road which passes through this area.
Due to the time of evening it was fully dark, but a still and clear night, with the stars visible in the sky. It was quite quiet on the road, and at this particular point of the journey she believes there were no other vehicles either ahead or behind of them. Tony was driving and she was in the passenger seat.
All of a sudden she began to feel extremely hot and very tired at the same time. This feeling seemed to come on very suddenly rather than gradually. It was accompanied by a very strange feeling, almost like “being inside a vacuum”. She does not recall saying anything to Tony about how she was suddenly feeling as she thought he would very likely have just dismissed it as her being naturally tired. But it felt like she was being put off to sleep against her will.
The next thing she became aware of was of Tony loudly exclaiming “For god’s sake what’s going on? What the bloody hell’s going on here?” in a panicked fashion, and of him slamming on the brakes of the car. She opened her eyes and immediately saw in front of the car four short figures lit up in the headlights.
The beings were standing in a line and facing to the right. They were silvery-grey in colour and covered in a shimmering effect, almost like they were holograms instead of being physically there. Most of them seemed to be about 4 feet in height, but the one furthest on the right was a little taller, perhaps 5 feet. As they appeared to be only about 4 feet away from the front of the car she could not see their legs, only their waists and upper bodies. She could not make out any physical details, but could see that their heads were larger than human children’s would have been.
They seemed to be levitating and gliding along in the same direction as the car. But even though they were slowing down, it was immediately clear that they were going to collide with these figures. Just before they reached them they seemed to dissolve away, almost like breaking glass.
Next Debby saw what looked like a wall made out of rounded sections appear in front of the car. It reminded her of a rural cobbled wall. It too was shimmering in the same way that the beings had been. It was about 4 feet in height. Again as they were about to crash into it, this too seemed to disintegrate into shards and vanish.
Several seconds later the four figures appeared in view, standing in the same positions that they had been in before, all looking to the right. Debby finds it very hard to explain what happened next, but she says they seemed to drive along for about two minutes, with the figures remaining a few feet ahead of the car.
After this time, the figure which was slightly taller than the other three suddenly turned its head and looked directly at them. Its face looked pale and skeletal, but she could make out large dark “empty sockets” for eyes and a thin line for a mouth. No other facial features were visible.
At this point she seemed to black out for an unknown period of time. Her next conscious memory was of hearing Tony exclaim “Oh my god what’s happening here?” As she came round and opened her eyes she realised they no longer seemed to be on the road. They were driving very fast along a dirt track, with embankments of soil on either side of the car. It was like they had left the road and were now on a track through a field. It was extremely dark as the only source of light was the headlights ahead of them.Once again Debby lost track of what was happening. Her next memory was of being back in her flat in Hitchin. She had no idea of how she had got there. She could not remember the remainder of the journey home or even entering the flat. It was the early hours of the morning, about 2. She was sitting at the table in the living room opposite Tony. They both had cups of coffee which she assumes he must have made.
Tony said to her “Something really weird happened on that stretch of road!” Without telling him anything about what she could remember happening, she asked him “What do you mean?” He said “There were some figures standing in the road.” After Debby realised he was remembering the same things as herself she agreed with him and then they discussed with one another what had taken place. She found out that he had experienced pretty much the same things as herself – the sudden feeling of heat and tiredness, the figures ahead of them, the strange vision of the wall, and then memories of driving down a dirt track in the dark. Debby felt traumatised by what had happened. Her hands were shaking and palms were sweaty. These after effects lasted for several days but slowly subsided.
Because of the pale features of the figures she had seen, and the dark “eye sockets” of the one that had looked at her, she put the incident down to a number of ghostly apparitions. Debby says that her sister has an interest in the paranormal, so soon after the incident she told her sister what had taken place. She cannot recall how her sister reacted to the news.
After this she pushed the memory to the back of her mind and did not mention it to anyone else. It was only in 2022 that she finally spoke out about the incident on the radio show, and discovered that it might have been contact related. After looking online she realised that the beings she had seen could well have been Greys, and what she thought was empty eye sockets in the being which looked at her could have been large black eyes instead.
She says that in the years since then she has made numerous trips to Great Yarmouth and travelled along the same stretch of road, but as the incident happened after dark with no distinctive landmarks observed she is unable to locate the precise place which it happened.
Incident Analysis
This is a very intriguing incident, and one made up of many different aspects. It is important to break it down into parts in order to establish what may have taken place.
Debby says the experience began with a sudden feeling of heat and tiredness. If it had been just her who experienced this then the entire incident could have potentially been put down to a medical issue such as heat stroke, or potentially just a sudden natural requirement to sleep after a long day out, followed by some bizarre dreams.
However Debby confirmed that she gets nervous when in cars, so never drops off while being driven places. She had not consumed any alcohol in the day, and had not felt sleepy at any previous point of the drive. Even though it had been a warm day it had obviously got cooler now that the sun had set, so there was no real explanation for either the sudden warmth or tiredness.
Of course the main issue with this possible explanation is the fact that this feeling of heat and tiredness, and everything that subsequently followed, was experienced not only by her but also by Tony. After the incident he confirmed that everything she had experienced he had also seen. I am unable to speak with Tony directly as they have now separated, but I have no reason to doubt what Debby has stated.
The likelihood that both of them would drop off to sleep at the same moment, and then happen to have exactly the same dreams is ridiculously small, so I believe this explanation can be ruled out on this basis. It should also be noted that I have investigated other completely separate contact experiences where the same things have been reported – a feeling of warmth and sudden stillness.
The four beings that both the witnesses then saw appear in front of the car certainly had the characteristics of Greys – the short height, bald heads and large dark eyes, which Debby took for empty sockets at the time. The scenario sounds quite surreal, with the beings seemingly drifting along in front of the car, and also dissolving away when the car was about to crash into them.
Then there was the image of a barrier of some kind made up out of rounded sections that reminded Debby of a cobblestone wall. I have not had this described to me before in any other cases. Due to the way in which it too dissolved away it does appear to have been linked with the beings rather than an actual country wall, but exactly what it was is open to speculation.
It is possible that the beings seen in the road then abducted both witnesses for an unknown period of time. The sudden jump in position of the car is an indicator that there is a gap in their memory of events. It appears that they had left the main road and were driving along a dirt track in the vicinity. I have been unable to locate any potential tracks of this nature using aerial maps, although the incident took place decades ago so perhaps it is no longer present.
This memory was again followed by a period of missing time. It is astounding that neither witness had any recollection of driving the remainder of the journey, arriving at their house, or entering it. This is a substantial distance – there is 62 miles between Thetford and Hitchin. Could they really have driven the entire journey in a daze without any memory of it? Or was their vehicle literally lifted off the road and then returned to their address? This may sound wild, but there are a number of abduction cases on record where people have reported vehicles being taken in addition to passengers.
An avenue open to Debby, should she choose to proceed down it, is hypnotic regression. Perhaps under hypnosis she may recall some of what happened during the missing gaps in her memory. However at present she has not arranged this as she is a little concerned about what may be uncovered.
There are some really interesting elements to this case. Although we only have the single testimony to go on at present, I feel that the details provided are too specific and unusual to have been fabricated, and it is important to remember that it has only been in recent years that Debby has even viewed it as being contact related in the first place. She comes across as an extremely trustworthy witness, and I am pleased that she reached out to me to discuss this incredible incident!
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026
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