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Good evening.

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There are strange tales that run through many different human societies and exert such a hold in our imagination that they pop up time and time again.

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Tonight we look at two of those legends.

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The Phantom Hitchhiker is a modern myth, the stranger who appears at the roadside accepts a ride and then disappears.

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But first a more ancient belief, the power of the curse, like the earls of North-Esk, who were haunted by a green lady whose appearance at Ethy Castle in Tayside

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means one of them will die.

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But our example tonight is a Celtic tale that happened not so very long ago.

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The remote and beautiful islands of the outer Hebrides.

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Their isolation means they've been only lightly touched by the 20th century.

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The islands are much as they were when the Vikings first landed over a thousand years ago.

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And the old superstitions are still a part of everyday life.

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With very religious, whether we're Christian or not, with very, very religious, even those who perhaps have abandoned God,

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are still got that superstitious side to their natures.

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This is all very much part of our makeup and graveyard particularly.

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In this ancient and overgrown burial place, within the grounds of the ruined Hau-Mor chapel, lie the remains of the clan of Clan Randalld, buried here since 1490.

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Randalld MacDonald is the 24th Chief of Clan Randalld.

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He believes the clan has its own special protection.

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The sad thing is that anybody who actually tampers with the property of the clan,

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have never really had any advantage and often has not had met with some evilness,

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and the property has always been returned.

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There are those who believe that many of the ancient medieval artifacts on the Hebrides have strange, mystical powers.

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The modern word might be cursed, but I'd like to use something more remote than that.

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It is something that holds the whole spirit together, because we've been going so many, many centuries.

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Whatever it is, the power of the curse has reappeared throughout the history of the clan.

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During the 1745 uprising, Redcoat soldiers broke into the clan's island graveyard, intent on stealing the valuable St. Finan's bell.

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But the bell was to be there downfall.

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Whatever they did, it refused to stop its eerie, persistent ring, and attracted the attention of the local caretaker.

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St. Finan's bell was returned to the clan Randalld Clan, its rightful home.

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St. Finan's bell has been taken twice during the last couple of centuries.

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Both times, I'm told, the people who have taken it have met an unhappy end,

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but the bell has always returned to the altar.

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The clan believes that whenever its property has been threatened, the curse has returned.

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The clan Randalld Stone bears the ancient symbols of the clan,

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and marks the resting place of Alan Moidart, famous chief and protector of the clan who died 400 years ago.

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A reproduction of the gravestone was built into the walls of the clan's castle by French stone masons in 1708.

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The castle took seven years to build, but was occupied for only seven years.

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On the night before the clan chief died in battle, the castle was consumed by fire.

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Still, the stone survived, but more recently, there was a further threat to its existence.

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Early one morning about four or five years ago, the man who runs the home farm heard this chipping,

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and he looked towards the castle ruins, and there was a man trying to prize out the memorial stone with a hammer and a chisel.

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So he just chased him for his life. We don't know to this day who he was.

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It seemed that the legend of the clan was again protecting all its ancient monuments.

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But then disaster struck. The clan's most important relic, the Moidart gravestone, was stolen.

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It was one morning when my niece wanted to go and look at the stone, and we went into the graveyard and she said it's not here.

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I said of course it's there, just move along round the corner, but it wasn't there.

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Later one of the crafters showed me a mark where the stone had obviously been dragged from the graveyard all the way along, several hundred yards, to the parking place outside the church.

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As shockwaves hit the community, people wondered how the 300-weight gravestone could have been stolen without detection.

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To get it out, well they must have used a small crowbar or something, and I mean it's within the wit of man, but it would have been quite a difficult determined journey to get that from chapel to boot of car.

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Amongst the islanders, the theft reawakened memories of the old clan legends.

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Well the local people knew that to desegrate any graveyard is really bad, and because they were so shocked, they knew that no good end would come to the story.

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The search for the stone continued, but only one man knew where it was hidden, in a tiny London bed-sit.

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The legends had said the grave robber would be doomed to an early death. Would the curse prove to be simply a quaint piece of history? The clan chief never stopped believing in its power.

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In terms of the clan, which was nearly a thousand years, it wasn't a long time that it had gone, and I wasn't that concerned that it had gone forever. I thought that it would turn up sooner or later, somehow or other.

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It was to be five years before the clan heard any news. The first signs of the missing gravestone surfaced here at the British Museum.

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I was working late one night in February in the museum, and I got a phone call from the information desk. They told me there was a gentleman there who urgently wanted to see someone.

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They said he was a little upset, and so I spoke to him over the phone, and he came down to the department.

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We get all sorts of inquiries on the duty desk in the department, but this was one of the most curious stories that I've been involved in.

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He showed me a photo of a carved stone which he said was in a nearby flat in Houston.

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He said his son had been on holiday some years previously on Southview-ist and had found it in a field and brought it back to London. He was in London for his son's funeral.

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His son had died quite suddenly a week or so previously.

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On the 22nd of February 1995, almost five years to the day since the stone was stolen, 33-road Lauren Mayburn died alone in a London flat.

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Only a few feet away from his bed was the stone of Clan Rammelt. The coroner's verdict was death by misadventure.

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I was not surprised, but when it was found in these circumstances I said it's a sort of thing that might have happened in the Celtic world, not in the heart of London.

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When I first heard the stone was found, of course I was delighted, but as information gathered I was little concerned and saddened and slightly spooked by the fact of the boy's death.

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And it rather brought reminiscences of the things I'd heard and the mystery of our clan.

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Beneath the disquiet there was some sympathy for the outsider who'd stolen the island's heritage.

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Remember everybody who live in our cities are searching for roots.

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They would do anything to catch up with roots because a lot of people nowadays in the last hundred years have lost their roots and are wondering about the surface of the earth aimlessly, whereas we can describe the people we came from back to seven, eight, nine generations.

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So it was that on the night of June 10th 1995 the Clan gathered at the quayside for the stone's return to its ancestral home on South Uist.

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Its final journey from London was almost complete. It was to arrive as it had left in the boot of a car.

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The next day the island turned out to celebrate. Among them Neil McMillan from the local historical society, who was there to give a Gaelic welcome.

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They're very proud that the stone has come back and it's been the story behind it is really out of the world.

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It would have found its way back but people are delighted that it is back and it's here to stay now.

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And perhaps this time the curse of the Clan-Ranald Clan will finally have been laid to rest.

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Some will dismiss the story as superstitious nonsense but the Clan leaders have managed to stay in power for nearly a thousand years.

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So maybe Clan-Ranald do have something watching over them.

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If you haven't heard of Phantom Hitchhiker's story then someone you know probably has.

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It's become a modern myth, a story so appealing it's destined to be told and retold despite the fact that concrete evidence is hard to come by.

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But if it was possible to track down those who'd experienced it at first hand, would their evidence stand up to closer examination?

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Well tonight we talk to some individuals who say they gave a ride to a Phantom Hitchhiker.

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Maria Rue and Hiel Prittorius had recently become engaged and on Good Friday in March 1968 were driving through the arid scrub of the Karoo Desert, 200 miles east of Cape Town.

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They were going to meet her parents to discuss their wedding plans. The route was taking them towards Uniondale along the M9.

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Music

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Hi, you wanna lift?

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Are you alright?

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Where you going?

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You know you ought to be careful, it's dangerous out here for a young girl like you.

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Where are you?

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Puzzled and frightened Anton Legranci headed straight for the police station in the nearest town, Uniondale.

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Today the station is run by warrant officer Moschert.

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Sergeant Portgietter was in duty, he was alone on duty.

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Sir, you got a problem?

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When Mr. Legranci came in he told Sergeant Portgietter about experience he had on the road.

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I was driving into town and I stopped to pick up the school hitchhiking. I don't know man, she just disappeared.

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What exactly do you mean just disappeared?

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Sergeant Portgietter didn't believe the man and he think the man wants to waste his time.

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I'm sorry, please just come out there with me.

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Sensing that Legranci was not joking, Snowy Portgietter agreed to go back with him to the spot.

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Sergeant Portgietter didn't handle, in situations.

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I think this specific situation he rattled.

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Did you see that?

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Yeah, you fiddling with those people.

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The

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Sergeant Portgate didn't rattle in situations but in this specific

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situation he rattled. Did you see that? Yeah, you fiddling with the door. I didn't

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touch it! It wasn't just that, did you hear the woman laughing?

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Look Mr. Geranzi, I'm getting tired and impatient! Now we'll drive past it once

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more. This time you put the interior light on, you put your hands on the steering

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I'll be right behind you and I'll be watching.

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Hey, unlock your doors!

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Did you see that?

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Yum! Listen, let's just get the hell out of here, man!

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When Sergeant Portgidou came back,

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he was snow white in his face and he was rattled.

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So he left the police station, he locked the station and went home.

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For Snowy, the description of the girl had stirred some unsettling memories.

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At about 8 o'clock this Sunday morning, Snowy confronted me

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and said, do I remember this girl that was killed in the sudden accident a few years ago?

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At McDonald had been the first officer to the scene of the crash that day.

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I found a Volkswagen Beetle off the road

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and a girl was lying on her back with her head against the one in bankment.

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She had died of head injuries.

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I later ascertained that her name was Maria Rue, the driver survived her.

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I explained to him what the girl actually looked like.

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Which was exactly the same description that was in the Kiernsburg given by Lechronse.

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The words spread around uni and Dale like wildfire.

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There was a phantom hitchhiker on the N9.

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Within days the newspapers got hold of the story and contacted Maria Rue's mother.

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I told her about the story and the people thought it's her daughter that is haunting in the city.

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She gave me a fine, I can get a photograph of her.

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Anton Lechronse was asked if he could recognize the girl he'd given a lift to.

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Would he pick out Maria?

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That's her!

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That's her!

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Union Dale's phantom hitchhiker had been identified as Maria Rue.

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There were no more sightings of her.

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I don't know if she was a woman, but she was a woman.

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There were no more sightings of her. Until two years later.

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Corporal Darve Van Yasfeld was doing his national service at Utschorn Army Base, 100 miles from Union Dale.

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He was on his way there to spend holidays with his girlfriend.

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His journey took him along the N9.

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When I reached the intersection I saw somebody standing in the road, on the side of the road.

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Just as I turned to the right, she kind of lifted her arms up.

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Like, oh no, aren't you going to stop?

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Why do you want to lift me to town?

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Put this on.

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There's a hearpiece with some music.

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I asked her to please hold tight around my waist, so that I can feel if something goes wrong.

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After a few, say, a kilometers to the bike out of Utsch, I thought she fell off.

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A lot of things went through my mind.

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I turned around, I wanted to see if I still had somebody with me.

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There was nobody.

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I turned around, I went back with a motorcycle, looked if there was anybody lying around the road.

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And then I got a fright.

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I saw the helmet, it's back on.

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The earphone is just lying there, and then I just had to move off.

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Because I realised in the garden that I'd pick somebody up.

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Darvi was badly shaken.

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Not knowing what could have happened to the girl, he fled to the safety of Uniondale.

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The couple Darvi van Jaarsveld also said she was a shorty's girl.

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Dark hair, she was a brunette, short hair, and she had slacks on in the jersey.

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And that was the description of the grantee as well.

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I'm telling you, it scared the living die-lights out of me.

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I didn't think there was something wrong at that time.

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I didn't notice that it was a spirit or something.

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But I did feel strange.

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Any suspicions Darvi might have had were reinforced when he returned to his bike.

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The headset was ruined.

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It was completely done.

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It was melted, you know, it was unusable at all.

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And the helmet too turned out to be unusable.

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The helmet that the lady put on, this is the helmet.

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And nobody worn this helmet after she had put the helmet on.

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Because even my girlfriend wouldn't wear it again.

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She was just scared.

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The third appearance of the Phantom hitchhiker was in 1980.

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On Good Friday, André Hötzi was driving along the N9 past Uniondale,

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looking for a friend who he thought might have run out of petrol in the desert.

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All of a sudden I felt hands around my waist.

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I could actually feel the pressure and as I looked down I saw the hands.

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I was very, very scared.

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And well I felt that I must get away from that place.

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That's when I accelerated.

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And I said at about 150 or 160 watts he gave me a few wax against her head.

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And then she just disappeared.

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Never saw nobody standing next to her over nothing.

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Once again it was Uniondale that was the first to hear of the latest sighting.

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I think I've seen the ghost.

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I was riding my bike down the dirt road.

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André Hötzi was a third confirmed sighting.

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But since then there have been numerous unconfirmed reports of the Phantom hitchhiker.

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And they were real.

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There have been lots of theories as to why the ghost of Maria Roux should continue to haunt the N9

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since that fateful Easter of 1968.

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Local journalist Janne Meijer has been following the story for over 20 years.

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One of the theories why she apparently can't get, can't go to rest for good

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is that she was fast asleep in the car when the accident happened.

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And she didn't prepare herself for death.

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She dearly wanted to finalize her wedding arrangements.

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And the theory is that she will carry on until she reached her destination.

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The Phantom hitchhiker story first came to prominence in Britain in the 1950s.

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Particularly on the A38 between Wellington and Taunton in Somerset.

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But the earliest sighting was of a mysterious man in black

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forever striding along the road towards some Boswells in the border regions.

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The witness, a Miss Louisa Scott, didn't actually call him a Phantom hitchhiker.

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But that might be because the date was 1893. Good night.

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.