Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 85 · UFO Afrinews No 9, February 1994

Locked Outside in the Dark (Charmaine's Story)

1978 · Natal (the childhood home with a big garden is not named), South Africa

What was reported

Charmaine, now 24 and living on an isolated Natal farm, has dreaded the dark since about age four and will not go into the garden, the fields or a dark room alone. Her first frightening memory dates from age eight or nine: after being tucked into bed during the summer holidays she remembers only coming to, standing in the middle of the family's big garden facing the house, cold and utterly alone. She walked to the back step, where her mother, finding her bed empty, discovered her. She has never sleepwalked and could not reach the top bolts on either door. For the four years until they moved she could not go near the spot by the old garden shed, even by day. Questioned recently, her mother recalled a long, paper-thin cut on Charmaine's inner thigh, unbleeding and looking a few days old, with her nightie untorn; a very thin 10 cm scar remains.

What Hind made of it

The editor had suggested Charmaine question her mother, which produced the scar detail; presented under Abductions without further verdict.

Explanation offered
Her mother shrugs the episode off; no explanation offered

In their words

  • All I can remember is waking up, standing in the middle of our big garden, facing my house.

    Charmaine, spread 10

  • I could not reach the topmost bolt on the back or front doors, so how could I have got outside?

    Charmaine, spread 10

  • I still have this scar on my thigh today; it's about 10 cm long and very, very thin.

    Charmaine, spread 10

Cross references

  • Case No 85 second incident (09-10-2)
  • Budd Hopkins, Intruders (1987)

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 9 (February 1994), spread 10

Nearby

Stories within 60 km