The

The May 1st, 1976

May 1st, 1976.

A man named Anton Lagrange had just left a small Karoo town of Uniondale and was driving towards Utsworn located in the western Cape Province of South Africa.

Night had already settled across the landscape.

Once the last lights of the town disappeared behind him, the road became very dark.

Uniondale sits in a rural farming region.

In the 1970s, the roads between towns were quiet at night.

A driver could travel for long stretches without seeing another vehicle, and on this particular night, the weather had turned bad.

Rain was falling steadily, and the wind moved across the open farmland beside the road.

Anton drove slowly watching the narrow beam of his headlights on the wet tarahead.

The windshield wipers moved back and forth.

Beyond the headlights, everything was black.

After a few minutes of driving, Anton noticed something standing beside the road.

At first, it looked like a shape in the rain, and as he got closer, he realised it was a person.

A young woman was standing alone on the gravel shoulder.

She looked to be in her early 20s. She

had dark hair and pale skin. She was wearing slacks and a duffel coat, clothing that suggested

she had been outside for some time in the cold, wind and rain. Anton slowed the car and pulled

over.

On rural roads like this, stopping for someone stranded at night, was not unusual.

There were long distances between towns and anyone left walking in bad weather could face a difficult journey.

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