The Redding Cloud

The next day two of the girls had puncture-like marks on their skin. On the evening of 7 May 1980 a woman named in the record as Mrs Riley was driving three teenage girls home near Redding in northern California. Two were her daughters and the third was a friend. At about 9 pm they drove into a glowing cloud of fog or smoke that swallowed the car. All sound stopped and they seemed to float. In the archive's telling they came out about 150 feet further on with 30 to 40 minutes gone. The outside record gives about 30.

The after-effects in our telling are many: extreme thirst, sensitivity to light, a drained car battery and a watch running slow. There were nightmares too. Our telling describes a face like a wolfman's. The outside record says all of them later dreamed of men pointing weapon-like objects at their heads.

What is on the record

The four reported it to the police, who referred them to APRO, a private UFO research group. Two independent origins carry the case. One is the APRO Bulletin of June 1980. The other is Jacques Vallee's own investigation, published in his 1990 book Confrontations. No standard explanation is on record.

Some details need correcting. Our record files the case under Anderson, and our transcripts render the town as Reading. The public record places it on Airport Road, which runs between Redding and Anderson near Redding Municipal Airport. Our telling gives the driver's first name as Elizabeth. The public record uses only her surname. The three passengers were 15, 14 and 13 at the time, and this page does not name them.

Why it sits where it does

The archive holds one video on one channel and resolves three claimants: Riley, her two daughters as one entry and the friend. The count groups people, so it does not match the four in the car. The case grades L3 for independent witnesses describing one connected event. Unusually for a missing-time case, two separate investigations stand behind it. What happened on Airport Road is not resolved here.