UK UK - Ali Durrani, 32, U of York student, went for walk to 'clear his head', last seen talking to a woman at a bus stop, Birmingham, 6 Feb 2025

Feb 5, 2026
Report crime, get prevention advice, and see the latest news on our website http://www.westmidlands.police.uk/You can get in touch with us via Live Chat at westmidlands.police.uk, via 101, or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

I live in Birmingham and was watching the local news (Midlands today) and this was the lead story this evening.

Never heard of this case before and pretty disheartening to learn he's been missing a full year.

As said on last few pages the report had interview with his parents and was summarised he went for a early afternoon walk to "clear his head." Was then caught on CCTV around half 5 that day speaking to someone at a bus stop and then his phone pinged near University Hospital later that evening.

So he was certainly in the local area still for many hours after so clearly didn't just pop out with the intention of coming home quickly.

I live in North Birmingham (Sutton Coldfield) but know the Stirchley area pretty well so can only think he did get on a bus or even the cross city line which is right by the bus stop as that would take him in the vicinity of University Hospital.

Did they scan CCTV of New Street station that evening to see if he popped up at any point? Or even a bus as clearly if he was hovering around bus stops then the intention must've been to use some form of public transport to get somewhere else in the Midlands region. Or Beyond.

Sad case. There is also very long stretch of canal that can take you well out of Birmingham if you walk on it for hours so perhaps he might've slept rough along it and then something regrettable happened?

Just read the report, the bus stop sighting was seen the day AFTER he left home for his walk.

So surely the biggest question is where he spent the previous night? Home of an associate, canal, somewhere else?

Similar to Andrew Gosden case as he withdrew £200 + from his account so that money must've been used for something, probably onward travel.

I would've been checking CCTV of all local train stations from that evening.

Inspector Evans said:

Never heard of this case before and pretty disheartening to learn he's been missing a full year.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, once someone has been missing for 12 months it's statistically very unlikely that they will be found. There are a few who turn up years, sometimes even decades, later but those are few and far between.

October 25, 2025 re-post
''The 32-year-old had never disappeared before or showed signs of self harm and wasn’t in any trouble. So why hasn’t Ali come home?

‘There’s no evidence of death anywhere. He didn’t take his passport, or his phone charger. We don’t think he’d have killed himself…We’ve asked: “Would he just leave? Did he just want to leave his life and go somewhere else?” We’re pretty sure he wouldn’t have because he was so family-orientated’, his aunt Naureen Mohammed told Metro from her home in London.

Ali had been out of work for a year, which had left him feeling anxious, but with plans to set up his own business, the family does not believe he would have harmed himself. ‘We don’t think he just walked out of his life. So could he have come to some harm?’ she asks.''

Blue backpack aswell when he was last seen.

With the withdrawn money he certainly had plans to travel and go somewhere else imo. Further reading suggests something speculative sightings in London in the last year as he had family connections.

This case featured on Crimewatch Live today.

A little bit more info than News reports when I was posting six weeks back.

He was shown on CCTV in early hours of the morning withdrawing cash near Sandwell and Dudley Train station.

I know that area pretty well and there is Smethwick canal very close by so hints to me he slept rough during the night.

Just surprises me in this case if he wanted to disappear he then went back to Northfield the next day and was practically walking around his home area for most of the afternoon without going back home.

Any suggestions to that? He was contemplating going back home after being missing for 24 hours and then backed out at last minute? Or just wanted to see it for final time?

Last picked up on CCTV right by Northfield train station. You'd think if he boarded a train police would release that.

He is only half an hour walk from Lickey hills and plenty of rural areas to lie low.

Yes, that sighting at Sandwell & Dudley is interesting. I’m sure you can walk the canal from University all the way to S&D (I walked a fair bit of it myself years ago), I’m guessing he might’ve walked all that way? Could explain why there don’t appear to have been too many sightings of him? You can get direct trains from S&D to London can’t you? But it seems as if he returned to his patch of Birmingham instead after the S&D sighting? Very peculiar if he walked around like this only to end up disappearing close to home.

rvlvr said:

Yes, that sighting at Sandwell & Dudley is interesting. I’m sure you can walk the canal from University all the way to S&D (I walked a fair bit of it myself years ago), I’m guessing he might’ve walked all that way? Could explain why there don’t appear to have been too many sightings of him? You can get direct trains from S&D to London can’t you? But it seems as if he returned to his patch of Birmingham instead after the S&D sighting? Very peculiar if he walked around like this only to end up disappearing close to home.

Click to expand...

The Northfield/Selly Oak canal takes you into central Birmingham and then you change direction around the Mailbox/Brindley Place to take the one westwards into the Black country. It would take a couple of hours if you walked without stops.

I'm not sure what sort of presence he'd have in his local area but going back there increases the chances of him being spotted be neighbours or even his family or police possibly looking for him (I don't know when his family rang to report him missing).

Maybe he went back wanting to be found but when he just spent hours walking around with no interactions he decided to leave home permanently? Trying to understand his mentality in those 24 hours given the out of character disappearance.

He was also of course spotted talking to a woman at a bus stop which was the last CCTV spot I think. Please don't tell me in a year it's been impossible for police to trace this woman and know what the conservation was about.

There is probably a bit the police are keeping back here in regards to CCTV. If that is genuinely all they have then it has to be rough sleeping along canals if he's off the grid for hours.

Inspector Evans said:

The Northfield/Selly Oak canal takes you into central Birmingham and then you change direction around the Mailbox/Brindley Place to take the one westwards into the Black country. It would take a couple of hours if you walked without stops.

I'm not sure what sort of presence he'd have in his local area but going back there increases the chances of him being spotted be neighbours or even his family or police possibly looking for him (I don't know when his family rang to report him missing).

Maybe he went back wanting to be found but when he just spent hours walking around with no interactions he decided to leave home permanently? Trying to understand his mentality in those 24 hours given the out of character disappearance.

He was also of course spotted talking to a woman at a bus stop which was the last CCTV spot I think. Please don't tell me in a year it's been impossible for police to trace this woman and know what the conservation was about.

There is probably a bit the police are keeping back here in regards to CCTV. If that is genuinely all they have then it has to be rough sleeping along canals if he's off the grid for hours.

Click to expand...

The canal seems a great shout I think, particularly if you enjoy long walks and don’t want to be bothered - or tracked. And the odd bench or secluded area to get your head down if needs be.

I don’t think I ever went to Lickey Hills when I lived that way but yes, looking at the map that seems quite walkable from where Ali was last seen. I wonder if he could’ve passed away there and not been found in all this time? I expect a lot of hikers and dog walkers go there but it looks like there’s a lot of dense woodland too?

rvlvr said:

The canal seems a great shout I think, particularly if you enjoy long walks and don’t want to be bothered - or tracked. And the odd bench or secluded area to get your head down if needs be.

I don’t think I ever went to Lickey Hills when I lived that way but yes, looking at the map that seems quite walkable from where Ali was last seen. I wonder if he could’ve passed away there and not been found in all this time? I expect a lot of hikers and dog walkers go there but it looks like there’s a lot of dense woodland too?

Click to expand...

Yes my thoughts really. He could've easily ventured south of Brum after he was last seen into Worcestershire which has many rural spots to hide out undetected. It's a similar distance to walking all the way to S&D from where he lived.

I'd still like to know more about that 24 hours when he first disappeared and then popped up back in Northfield the next afternoon.

Did he know anyone around Sandwell and Dudley area? He had to travel back to Northfield aswell during the day so surely people saw him and could've remembered the state he looked in e.g. rough sleeping.

A strange case for me in that he went back to his home patch after a night away from it. He couldn't have known what sort of searches there would've been for him in that area at that time so could've easily been spotted and talked to.

He wandered around for a few hours and then has just seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth with no known contact for a year.

I’m going to be an armchair psychoanalyst here and please this is all speculation and MOO. He leaves his job due to unknown (to us) medical reasons and then gets better. He’s 32 years old and living with his family. He is out of work. In every picture he looks so sad. Even the pictures where he tries to smile it never quite makes it to his eyes. He contacts his friend Dannyboy16 for help with a job. Dannyboy is able to get him contract work paying 3 times the amount he would have made at his old company where Dannyboy works. His CV is so good they hire him on the spot without an interview. Yet he turns down the job saying it is ‘haram’ because it is with Marks & Spence. I suspect a little bit of familial pressure here. It sounds to me like he was excited about the job. Then suddenly turns it down as haram. I would have to ask Dannyboy16 when you told him about this side contract did you tell him up front it was with M&S? I can’t see him not knowing who he is sending his CV and applying for. He had to know when Dannyboy told him to apply who he was applying for. Only to later turn it down as haram. This is where I feel like family may have been putting pressure on him to work only for halal companies or companies they considered halal. I think he felt he was under huge pressure from family.

I feel like there are 2 possibilities here. One…he walked out of his life for good. Possibly because of the pressure from family (to have a job in a halal company and perhaps, this is total speculation, to get married and have children since he was in his 30’s) he just decided to start over somewhere else. The other possibility is that due to these same reasons he saw no way out and lost hope. To me from looking at the videos and pictures he has a deep sadness behind his eyes. His poor mother has aged 10 years in the last one. For her sake I hope they have answers soon.

This is all my own armchair psychoanalysis, speculation and MOO.

Does anyone know when in the missing timeline his family reported him missing to police?

I can't get over he went out for an afternoon walk, didn't return, family have no idea where he is overnight....and then he just returns to his home patch the next day and walks for hours around the roads. Many many vehicles would've passed him so surely someone was looking for him at that point (and he wouldn't know any of this if he was off grid).

Odd behaviour and then he really does disappear off the face of the earth.