Roadways and Waterways

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Story 1.

The Manchester Pusher.

Over the past decade, close to a hundred people have lost their lives in the canal network of one northern English city.

In this episode, we examine evidence which suggests that a significant number of these deaths were the work of one person.

The Manchester Pusher.

During the reign of Queen Victoria, the advent of the Industrial Revolution saw a sudden and uncontrollable increase in the size of Britain's northern towns and settlements.

The city of Manchester was a perfect illustration of this expansion, rapidly evolving from a modest producer of clothing and textiles into a gigantic industrial powerhouse.

As hungry and desperate souls flocked from all over the region in search of employment, the city's infrastructure had to evolve in order to accommodate the growing pressures it now faced.

In addition to increases in housing, transport links were also expanded, with miles of new canals carved into the rolling countryside to supplement the broadening road and railway networks.

At the start of 1761, the third Duke of Bridgewater received permission to construct a lengthy waterway to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to fuel the city's perpetually hungry furnaces.

This was followed by the creation of two more canals to the east of Manchester, leading out to Huddersfield and Rochdale, but by far the most ambitious project was the final addition to the network, the Manchester Ship Canal, a 36-mile run that led out to the coastal port of Liverpool.

Eventually, the four waterways converged at the heart of the city, creating a complex warren of junctions and tunnels.

To this day, There is little consistency to how different parts of each canal system have been maintained.

Some were were built over many years ago, now having no pedestrian access.

Others have been lovingly sculpted and refurbished to fit in with the ongoing regeneration work within the city.

But all of them are part of a dark and sinister nightmare, which remains hidden in plain sight.

In April 2018, a 34-year-old local man by the name of Tom was cycling home along the Bridgewater Canal.

It was late evening, and he was travelling home from work after a long day.

As he made his way along the cycle path, he did not notice a dark figure step out of the shadows in front of him until it was too late.

This figure swung a brawny forearm across his path, sending him flying over the handlebars and into the deadly embrace of the nearby waters.

Fighting the freezing paralysis that had instantly afflicted his muscles, Tom swam hard for the nearest bank.

As he planted one hand firmly on the side and went to raise his other, a savage kick sent him flying backwards once again into the icy waters.

This time the struggle to regain the surface was twice as hard as before, with every muscle and joint screaming at him in protest.

Kicking his legs as hard as he could to remain afloat and raggedly gasping for air, Tom could see the shadowy figure still standing patiently at the canal side, as if anticipating his next move.

Starting to tire, Tom turned his head quickly from left to right, looking for assistance, but the streets around him remained stubbornly devoid of life.

Desperately, he began to skull backwards to the far side of the channel, feeling his strength fade with every stroke.

Almost immediately, the silence was broken by the wail of approaching sirens.

Tom's elation upon first hearing the speeding police car proved to be short-lived.

as the emergency service vehicle hurtled straight past en route to another incident, but it was enough to force his assailant to retreat back into the shadows and off into the night.

When the shaken and shivering commuter eventually made it home and told his wife what had happened, she took straight to Facebook to warn others in the community.

Over the next few months, the bodies of two young men would be recovered by the police from local canal basins.

Word immediately spread throughout the city like wildfire.

The pusher had returned.

The idea that a serial killer could be stalking Manchester's streets was first suggested back in 2015.

Whilst liaising with the authorities about an unrelated matter, a local journalist discovered that over 85 dead bodies had been hauled out of the canal network during the previous seven-year period.

When he studied this data, the reporter was astonished to discover that roughly a third of these cases resulted in an open verdict.

This is one of the more extraordinary rulings that a coroner can make, in essence, admitting that they cannot define the circumstances leading up to the person's death with any degree of certainty.

Disregarding incidents that were classified as murders or fatalities arising from other crimes, a total of 28 unexplained deaths remained.

The victims were almost all male, and in each case, the coroner had eliminated the possibility of suicide or misadventure.

Worryingly, there was evidence in many cases that the victim had not been alone at the time of their death.

On the 17th of December 2010, Nathan Tomlinson was drinking at a canalside bar in the city with colleagues at a Christmas party.

The 21-year-old trainee teacher had sent a text message to his mother at 10.30pm to let her know that he had not had much to drink and would be home soon.

The following morning, when he still hadn't arrived home, his parents called the police to report him missing.

convinced something untoward had happened to him.

Whilst not immediately concerned, local officers were conscious that there had already been 11 water-related deaths in the city that year alone, so searches in and around the local waterways were carried out.

This proved fruitless however, and it would be seven long and painful weeks before Nathan's remains were finally located near the Adelphi Bridge, in a stretch of the River Irwell.

Subsequent CCTV inquiries tracking back from where the body was found, showed that Nathan had taken an unnecessary meandering route over two miles in the opposite direction to to his home address.

At times in the footage, he could be seen breaking into a run, looking over his shoulder as if he was being followed.

When it was discovered he was missing his wallet, passport and coat, Nathan's mother told the police she believed he had been attacked and mugged.

Their curt response was that there was no evidence of this.

Nathan had sustained no obvious signs of injury.

and the missing items could easily have been lost when he had entered the water.

Despite her desperate pleas for further investigation, the case was closed.

On New Year's Eve 2012, art student Suvic Pal was socialising in the city with friends from his college course.

By the time they had arrived at a local club to end their evening, they had become separated into smaller groups.

Suvic arrived alone and was refused entry by the doorstaff for being too intoxicated.

despite several determined attempts to get in.

Whilst his friends continued to party party inside the nightclub, assuming he was already inside somewhere, he sent a number of text messages, but due to the network being busy, these were not received until the following morning.

The club's CCTV cameras showed him remonstrating with the doorstaff, before walking off down a nearby canal lock in the company of another male.

The two figures were briefly picked up on a camera attached to one of the club's neighbouring buildings, before disappearing down into one of the more secluded stretches of the Bridgewater Canal.

Half an hour later, one of the two was seen to emerge, before disappearing off into the depths of a nearby industrial estate.

Suvic's body was eventually found 22 days later.

The officers investigating the death told his family they believed that he and the other male had been trying to find somewhere where they could cross the canal and then sneak into the club's smoking area.

They believed that Suvic had fallen into the water and had been unable to get out due to his level of intoxication.

The student's father rejected this theory, stating his son would easily have been spotted by the club's bouncers, particularly if he had swum across the canal as officers were suggesting.

He also asked why, if this was the case, the other man Suvic was with had not identified themselves or even tried to seek help for his son.

Once again, the death was filed as unexplained, against the family's wishes.

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By far the most mystifying and disturbing case attributed to the pusher is that of David Plunkett, a university student who disappeared on his way home in April 2004.

When his parents received a phone call from one of his friends at 1.30am, concerned that David had become separated from the main group, they immediately called his mobile phone.

The call was not answered until the third attempt, and when it connected, David's mother could not get a reply from the person on the other end.

She desperately tried to get David to speak, pleading with him to tell her where he was so she could come and find him, but all she could hear was the sound of the person on the other end of the call breathing, apparently walking around somewhere outside.

After eight minutes of frantic attempts to get David to speak, his mother was horrified to hear the sound of an anguished and terrified scream, before the line went dead.

When subsequent calls failed to connect, she called the police.

Two weeks later, David's bruised body was found submerged in water, less than a mile from the pub where he had been drinking.

The family were told that the weather that night had been particularly poor, and David's injuries were consistent with having drunkenly fallen into the water.

Again, David's mother and father refused to accept the official explanation.

If he had been drunk and looking for a taxi, the canal was the last place he would have been.

At no point in the call had she heard the sound of splashing, or any other noises consistent with him falling in the water.

They could think of no reason for him not to have responded to them, unless he had been under duress, and were convinced that his final horrifying scream must have been the realisation that he was going to be killed.

With somewhere in the region of 500,000 residents, Manchester has a population roughly half that of Birmingham or Amsterdam, both of which possess urban canal networks of comparable size, and yet the number of water-related deaths in those cities is nowhere near as high, indicating that something very sinister might be taking place in the north of England.

The legend of the pusher is widely known, having attracted no small degree of national interest at the time it was first publicised, and yet the drownings have continued to occur.

This is despite the best efforts of Greater Manchester Police, who have deployed a combination of both uniformed and undercover officers onto canal footpaths at night to try and keep revellers safe.

The deaths are of particular concern to Manchester's homosexual community, with several waterways running directly through the Canal Street area, where most of the city's LGBTQ bars and nightclubs are located.

There have been regular complaints to the police that it is gay victims who are being targeted by the unidentified killer, and that attacks and incidents are under-reported.

as those involved are not prepared to identify themselves to officers.

In reality, the figures do not appear to bear this out.

Canal Street and the surrounding area only account for 9 out of the 28 identified cases, and homosexuality does not seem to be a factor that significantly links the victims.

The police maintain that the high death rate is more to do with a poor local drinking culture and a rabbit warren of old fences and alleyways where drunk people try to traverse the canals on their way home.

and inevitably come to harm.

However, there are too many unanswered questions about the Manchester drownings for this argument to feel fully comfortable.

If these are indeed simply cases of people falling into the water through either intoxication or misjudgment, why are survivors not regularly being encountered by people who are walking past?

Surely there should be more instances of victims being found who are either still immersed in the water experiencing difficulties or are unresponsive but managing to cling to life.

What is making it so difficult for the victims to swim a short distance and clamber up out of what is relatively shallow water?

In fact, many of the areas where bodies are found can be waded.

Why do deaths continue during the summer months, when the water temperature is much less likely to cause paralysis and nerve damage?

The canal network is a closed system, with no reason for the bodies to float away from the point where they entered the water.

So where do they go prior to being discovered many weeks on from the event?

Every year in the United Kingdom, there are between 400 and 500 deaths as a result of drowning.

The victims in these cases are statistically most likely to be male, accounting for two-thirds of all deaths, with the bulk of those involved being either young or middle-aged.

Is there some strange syndrome or psychological condition that either draws males towards water or causes them to completely disregard the dangers that await them?

Or is there some force at work in nature that we as a species do not yet fully comprehend?

The concept of so many unsolved disappearances and deaths taking place so close to densely populated areas, where emergency services and other members of the public are on hand to assist, is one of the key arguments for the missing 411 theory by retired police detective David Pilidas.

Pilidas conducted research into mortality rates across America's National Park Network.

and identified hundreds of unsolved cases where victims have been killed in seemingly impossible or incomprehensible circumstances.

Some were pulled out of sight whilst walking in the company of friends and family.

Others left forensic evidence or personal effects at the scene that completely contradicted any conceivable hypotheses for how they died.

His conclusion is that there is a mysterious phenomenon or entity that haunts the fringes of our society, striking and killing lone victims before retiring back into the shadows.

On the more rational side, drowning has always been somewhat perceived as the perfect means for getting away with murder.

Recovering criminal evidence from a body that has been submerged for any length of time has always proven notoriously difficult for investigators, with blood and fibre transfers washed away and vital DNA evidence quickly degrading beyond effective use.

The Manchester Pusher incidents are uncannily similar to the alleged smiley face murders in the United States.

A pair of retired NYPD detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, have spent the last 20 years arguing that the deaths of numerous young men across 11 Midwestern states were the work of an individual or organised group of killers.

In the 45 cases they identified, the majority of the victims were college-aged white males, who were found drowned near graffiti art that contained a smiling face painted somewhere within it.

All of the bodies were in isolated locations and were preserved in remarkably good condition, despite having been missing for sustained periods of time.

There are of course a number of arguments against the existence of the pusher, which use evidence from a variety of different studies to undermine and discredit the theory.

The first of these is that the 28 cases are not restricted to just Manchester city centre, but instead extend out for miles along the network to neighbouring towns such as Bolton and Wigan, naturally skewing the overall results.

Academic studies carried out in Holland have identified that the majority of deaths that occurred in Amsterdam's canals were due to misadventure and over half were directly linked to excess alcohol consumption.

In 10% of cases, the victims' flies were found undone, indicating they had been trying to urinate at the time they had entered the water.

Tests around the effects of alcohol on the human brain have found that male subjects in particular failed to effectively acknowledge danger or risk and struggle to judge distance correctly, particularly at night time.

After drinking a couple of beers, victims trying to clamber or climb over obstacles do not factor in issues such as bad weather or the freezing cold temperature of water until it is too late and with shock already setting in.

There is also the possibility that some of the victims may have been under the effects of drugs as well as alcohol.

Over the years, the cost of illegal substances has dropped whilst availability has only increased.

A mixture of drink and drugs would effectively render a victim incapable of carrying out simple tasks, and traces of the substance in the bloodstream would be destroyed in the water.

For the last four years, stories of the Manchester Pusher have circulated and swirled around the public consciousness, showing no signs of dying away.

It is a theory that is simply too attractive for people to disregard as a possibility, and the stubborn resistance of the authorities to acknowledge it only makes it even more compelling.

In each of the three examples we mentioned, there is overwhelming evidence that at least one person was directly involved somehow in each death.

From the individual who was chasing Nathan Tomlinson, to the mystery man who accompanied Suvic Pal, and whoever it was that David Plunkett was screaming at with his final dying breaths.

Whether this was the Manchester pusher or indeed a number of different attackers, it feels as if the necessary inquiries into the matters were curtailed at far too early a stage.

Whilst those charged with investigating these incidents may be satisfied that that they occurred purely as a result of alcohol and accident, this will sadly never be a sufficient answer for the families and friends of the victims.

Our final thoughts are with those who so inexplicably lost their lives.

We hope that in sharing their memories and stories, something positive may yet come to pass that brings some final closure to their loved ones.

And in the meantime, If you are one of the many people who frequents bars and clubs close to waterways,

all we can say is watch your back.

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Story 2: The Uniondale Hitchhiker

The N9 is one of South Africa's longest roads, running from the golden shores of the southern coast right up into the heart of the northern Cape Province.

It is also home to one of the country's most famous ghostly apparitions.

Join us as we take a ride with the Uniondale Hitchhiker.

The storm had been coming down hard and heavy for the past few hours, and showed no signs of abating.

As torrential rain hammered down on the surface of the highway, a solitary motor vehicle battled its way through the horrendous conditions, headlights struggling to penetrate the relentless downpour.

It was Easter weekend of 1968, and the car in question was a Volkswagen Beetle, driven by a young man named Shiles Pretorius.

The unpredictable crosswinds and limited visibility made for difficult driving conditions, but as a corporal in the South African Army, Pretorius was no stranger to sticky situations.

Had it been up to him, he would not have elected to make a car journey during the worst storm in living memory.

but the reality was that he'd had little say in the matter.

The young soldier turned for a moment to look back at the sleeping figure curled up on the tiny rear seats behind him and allowed a contented smile to spread across his face.

Maria Rue was the first woman he had ever truly loved and the previous evening she had agreed to marry him.

Unfortunately, that agreement had come with the caveat that the happy couple would have to drive the 500km trip down to Riverdale to share the news with her parents in person.

Still, Shill reflected, in the grand scheme of things, this was an acceptable price to pay in return for spending the rest of his life with the woman he so adored.

As he turned his attention back towards the highway, the car was suddenly buffeted to one side by an incoming blast of wind.

Pretorius instinctively heaved on the steering wheel, attempting to counter a burgeoning sideways skid, but there was no response.

His eyes widened in fear as he picked out the onrushing tree line.

Then, there was darkness.

Pretorius awoke sometime later to find his clothes soaked from the rain pouring in through the car's now-shattered windscreen.

Blood was pouring down the side of his face from an injury to his temple.

He called out for Maria, desperate for confirmation that she had not been badly hurt, but there was no response.

Mustering the strength to haul himself out of the wrecked car, he found the rear seats empty.

With the growing realization that Maria must have been thrown clear of the vehicle, he repeatedly cried out her name as the storm continued to rage around him.

After some time spent fruitlessly searching the undergrowth, he staggered back up towards the highway, eventually collapsing into an exhausted heap at the side of the road.

It would not be until well into the following afternoon that the broken and shattered remains of his fiancée were discovered by a local farmer.

The coroner would later note in his report that Maria would have been unconscious at the time of her death and would not have felt any of the horrific injuries she had sustained.

He could not have known it at the time, but these closing comments would not be the end of her tragic story.

Eight years after the accident, a local youth by the name of Anton Lagrange set off from his home in Willowmore to attend a party in the neighbouring town of Uniondale.

It had been an uneventful trip, but as he was approaching the outskirts of of his destination, he caught sight of a solitary figure standing at the side of the carriageway up ahead.

As he drew closer, he was able to make out that the lone pedestrian was female, less than appropriately dressed for the tumbling temperatures of the Easter weekend.

It was this factor, along with the lack of other traffic on the road, which caused him to pull up alongside her and ask if she needed a lift into Uniondale.

She nodded silently in assent before opening one of the rear doors and climbing into the back seat.

As Anton pulled away, he spent the next few minutes attempting to strike up a conversation with the young woman, but it was to no avail.

Growing slightly apprehensive at her complete lack of interaction, he eventually turned to face his passenger, only to find the back seat completely empty.

One of only two officers on duty at the Uniondale police station that evening was Constable Snowy Potgeeta, who was less than impressed when the hysterical Lagrange burst into his front office, claiming that he had just picked up a ghost on his way into town.

After listening impassively to Anton's bizarre story, Potgeeta asked him to drive back to the spot where he encountered the girl, whilst he followed behind him in a patrol car.

With darkness now descending, the two vehicles had been travelling in convoy for a few minutes.

when Potgeeta witnessed the rear passenger door of Lagrange's car unexpectedly open.

The young man slammed on his brakes and exiting his vehicle came running back towards the police car, yelling that the girl had suddenly reappeared, sitting on his back seat and staring at him in the rearview mirror.

Beginning to suspect that he was the target of some juvenile prank, Potgeeta told Lagrange to carry on driving.

This time, however, he was asked to switch on his interior lights.

so the police officer could see exactly what he was doing.

The journey resumed, only for the same door to suddenly fly open a short distance along the road.

As both cars screeched to a halt, Potgeeta angrily exited his cruiser and stormed over to the car in front.

Having satisfied himself that there was nobody else hidden inside LaGrange's vehicle, he was in the process of threatening the youngster with arrest when they both clearly heard the sound of an anguished female cry emanating from the tree line a short distance away.

In an instant, Lagrange was back in his car and driving full pelt back towards Uniondale, the policeman following close behind.

Back at the station, the bewildered Potgeeta took a brief statement from Lagrange before sending the terrified teen on his way.

It would not be until the following weekend that one of his colleagues had sought him out in relation to the report he had submitted.

Constable Pat MacDonald had been among the first officers to reach the mangled Volkswagen Beetle eight years previous and told Potgeeta that the description of the girl provided by Lagrange was an exact match for how Maria Rue had been dressed on that fateful Easter evening.

Two years later, another off-duty army corporal by the name of Darby Van Jarsfeld was heading along the N9 towards Uniondale on his motorbike when he encountered a lone female hitchhiker.

Accepting his offer of a lift, the girl silently climbed onto the back of the bike and donned the spare helmet that was handed to her.

After about 3km,

Van Jarsfeld felt the motorcycle jerk suddenly underneath him and immediately pulled over to ascertain what had happened.

There was no sign of the girl and the helmet she had been wearing was now securely strapped down, just as it had been several minutes before.

Two years on from this encounter, another motorcyclist, 20-year-old Andrei Kurtzy, would have a decidedly unnerving experience.

He had been travelling at speed along the N9, looking for a friend who had run out of fuel, when he had passed a young woman standing alone on the side of the road.

Focused on finding his fellow biker, he had simply ignored her and continued on his way.

Soon after, he had felt a sudden inexplicable tightness in his chest.

Looking down, he could see a pair of feminine-looking arms wrapped firmly around his waist and could feel a pressure on his back as if there was someone leaning against him from behind.

Crying out in alarm, he accelerated up to 80 miles per hour in an attempt to shake off his unwanted passenger.

Almost immediately, there was a violent blow to the back of his helmet, which almost caused him to lose his balance.

Kurtzy continued to increase his speed and was struck two more times in the rear of his helmet.

Finally, as the motorbike hit 100 miles per hour, the arms around his waist disappeared and the pressure on his back ceased.

When Andre pulled over and dismounted his bike, there was no sign that anyone had been behind him.

He proceeded straight to Uniondale to report the matter to the police.

It was there, whilst he was recounting his tale, that one of the officers showed him a photograph from the old case file.

On seeing the picture, The colour completely drained from Curtsy's face.

The girl he had passed, standing at the side of the road, had indeed been Maria Rue.

The phenomenon known as the Phantom Hitchhiker has been reported in countries all over the globe, with stories of spirits allegedly haunting the world's highways and byways sharing a significant number of common features, regardless of where they may have originated from.

In Switzerland, for example, It is said that a ghostly hitchhiker frequents the roads in the vicinity of the Belgian Motorway Tunnel near Basel.

The local police department has received multiple reports over the years from drivers who have stopped to give an elderly woman a lift.

Said to be dressed all in white, she apparently warns motorists of an unspecified impending disaster before disappearing from the vehicle.

A similar woman in white is alleged to haunt White Rock Lake Park in Dallas, Texas.

She has reportedly appeared to numerous witnesses along East Lotha Drive, completely soaked through, asking for a lift to her home.

She is believed to be the ghost of a visitor to the lake, who drowned in a boating accident at some point during the 1930s, and it is said that she leaves a waterlogged seat behind after she too vanishes from inside the car.

In many of these cases, most notably those that have generated a high frequency of reported incidents, it is relatively easy to ascertain that they are nothing more than urban legends.

In these instances, it proves impossible to identify any of the alleged witnesses, their identities conveniently withheld or forgotten by the storyteller, with the detail of the reported encounters becoming more elaborate and fantastic each time it is passed on.

That said, there are equally as many cases, especially those which have been reported in more recent times, where identifiable witnesses are more than happy to go on record with what they have seen.

And the existence of accompanying photographic or video evidence is also becoming more commonplace, where footage appears to show someone or something standing by the roadside, illuminated by the headlights of the approaching vehicle.

Numerous reports exist of a phantom airman appearing on the roads leading up to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

During the course of his most notorious appearance, he apparently asked a military policeman who had picked him up from the roadside if he could have a light for his cigarette.

When the driver passed a metal Zippo lighter back over his shoulder, he heard the familiar metallic sound of it being opened, struck and then closed, before the dull thud of it hitting the floor mats, as the ghostly passenger suddenly vanished.

Dash cam footage purporting to show the airmen circulated online in 2018.

The video shows what appears to be the hazy outline of a figure dressed in what may be the distinctive blue uniform of an RAF serviceman.

which then fades into a blur as the vehicle approaches.

Similar footage also exists from the Philippines, which is alleged to show the figure of a small boy, sitting on his own at the side of the road with his head in his hands, who disappears as a carload of students pass by.

One of the hallmarks of the so-called phantom hitchhiker, which sets them aside from most other ghostly apparitions, is their apparent ability to physically interact with the living, often succeeding in passing themselves off as a living person, until the point they disappear.

They seem to be able to handle physical objects, maintain conversation with the driver, and often display an eagerness or strong desire to get to a specific location.

Sometimes, they even complete the journey in question.

It has been theorised that in many of these cases, the spirit is either desperate to complete their final tragic journey, or may not even be aware that they are deceased.

This is one of the explanations for the Maria Roo hauntings.

Some observers have theorised that as she was fast asleep at the time she was killed, her consciousness was unable to fully comprehend that her physical body had been so quickly and cruelly taken from her.

In some cases, the slightly unusual behaviour of the spectral passenger suggests that they are merely replaying their final journey, and have no understanding of the time and events that have passed since they were killed.

But in others, quite the opposite is true.

with the hitchhiker displaying a clear desire for the driver to know something about them and the circumstances of their death before they fade away.

There is a slightly sinister footnote to the Maria Rue haunting, which suggests that her spirit did indeed possess some degree of awareness of what had happened.

The final recorded sighting of the Uniondale hitchhiker was in 1984, a year in which another significant incident would take place.

After Maria's death, Shield Pretorius managed to find love once again, and would go on to marry his new partner.

In a sad twist of fate, he too would lose his life in 1984, killed in another tragic car accident.

With her fiancée now joining her in the afterlife, it seems that whatever reasons Maria had for returning to the N9 highway passed on with him, and she was never seen again.

Naturally, a certain percentage of reported incidents involving roadside apparitions can be attributed to driver fatigue or simple fabrication on the part of some of the people reporting them.

But in the Uniondale hauntings, these explanations do not seem to marry up with what was being reported.

None of the accounts feel too fantastical, and those coming forward had little to gain from sharing their testimony with the authorities.

In addition to this, the evidence of Constable Snowy Potgeeta in particular adds a compelling and disconcerting degree of weight to the story.

An officer of the law would stand to gain nothing other than ridicule from his peers and superiors by coming forward and admitting to being involved in such an incident.

In the end, the story of the Uniondale hitchhiker is one of tragedy, heartbreak and longing rather than anything overtly sinister.

If there is any positive to be taken from this story, it is that despite the saddening circumstances of her death, it seems that the spirit of Maria Rue found the closure she needed in order to break the cycle she had become trapped in.

May she and Shield Pretorius now rest in peace together.