Georgia, USA

April 6, 1997

I was about 17 years old at the time. My friend Tina and I were out driving around. This place was called the witch’s graveyard in Marietta, near the train tracks and the old covered bridge. Tina and I had been there taking photographs of the graves. It must have been fall, around Halloween.

It was late in the evening; the sun was starting to set. I walked to her car, got in and began to drive home. I went around the corner, through the covered bridge and took a right towards the train tracks.  The road was kind of curvy, and on the right side, there was a small river. As I was getting closer to the tracks, I noticed a red pickup on the left side of the road. 

I saw five guys get out of that truck. There were four white guys and one black guy. The black guy was pretty beaten up, and he had a rope around his neck. The white guys were all carrying shotguns. I slowed down to better understand what was going on. 2 of the guys started signalling to the guy who had been driving the red truck. He was pointing at Tina’s car. I got scared and took off as fast as I could. I went under the train tracks and tried to get out of there. 

I noticed a black pickup truck behind us when I got to the traffic light on Thorton Road. The light turned green, and I turned left. The truck followed. As it got closer, I noticed that two of the guys in it were two of the guys I had seen back at the train tracks. I decided to try to lose them. I drove around neighbourhoods, left and right, but the truck still followed. 

I had been driving around for an hour, followed by these guys. I couldn’t lose them, so I drove to the police department. The truck stayed on my tail the whole time. I took a right into the police parking lot, and finally, the car sped off. 

I parked the car in front of the police station. I was still scared. I don’t know why I didn’t go to the police and make a report then; I just didn’t. Instead, I sat there for a bit and then drove home.

Sincerely,

Kelly Smith