One day she showed up, outside the high school in a longish, gaudy sequin dress. She must have bought it at a thrift shop cheap. It was after that people started calling her “Sequin”. Around December or January, she was found dead outside, still wearing that gaudy sequin dress. She had frozen to death in a sleet storm.
Ten years later, Disco was king, and everybody was boogying-down in urban nightlife scene. Three students from Baltimore City College spied a young woman walking all alone in the dark along Route 40 (US 40) in a glittering Sequin dress. They pull over and asked if she was OK, or needed a ride anywhere. She told them her name was: “Sequin”, and she was: “Just going out.”
One of the students said, “We’re heading out to Party. Do you want to come?”
The girl replied, “Yes, I would like a party.”
[Note: for anyone not familiar with Baltimore City College (B.C.C). It is a college preparatory high school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland.]
[Note: for any one not familiar with how Baltimore County connects to Baltimore City; In Maryland, US 40 bisects Baltimore County and Baltimore City, continues west as Baltimore National Pike through rather dim and lonely forested areas in Patapsco Valley State Park to Howard County. Along the way to Howard County, Route 40 passes through Catonsville, a Baltimore area suburb and shopping district, with car dealerships, shopping centers, Westview Mall, and and fast food restaurants.
There were plenty of dark areas along Rount 40 between commercial zones in the 1970's, but hardly any sidewalks. Traffic was fast, not a safe place to walk at night. Once the boys were on Route 40, it was a straight shot into downtown Baltimore to some of the hotspots, like "Girard's Disco".]
As the three students chattered quite happily, and didn’t notice that the girl just sat very quietly. Frankly, they were delighted just to have connected with any young lady.
After reaching the disco, the three students took turns dancing with the girl. One of them ordered her a beer—or some other beverage—but she apparently never touched it. At the end of the night they drove her back to an address she gave them. When they arrived, she got out of the vehicle and they all waved and said, “Good night.”
After they were headed down the road, one of the three students noticed that she left her jacket—or purse—in some retellings. They all agree to return together the next day and gallantly return the item she left behind in the vehicle.
As is often the case in versions of the hitching hiking ghost legend, the three students learn that the pretty girl they had spent the evening with, had actually passed away 10 years earlier. In some versions, they are told where she was buried. In another version, one of the students lent her a jacket because he noticed she was ice cold when he touched her shoulder; in that case, the three students found the missing jacket neatly draped over the tomb stone marking her grave. I think one time it was revealed that her real name was “Elizabeth” or “Betty”.
Sequin is a Baltimore variant of the “vanishing hitchhiker” urban legend, which I think appeared sometime between in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. I remember first reading about the tale in a newspaper article.
The “vanishing hitchhiker” (also known under variations of the name, “disappearing hitchhiker”, “phantom hitchhiker”, or “hitch-hiking ghost”) is an urban legend in which people—travelling by vehicle—meet and/or give a ride to a hitchhiker, who later vanishes without any logical explanation.
Jan Harold Brunvand published a non-fiction book The Vanishing Hitchhiker, 1981. In his book, Brunvand suggests that the story of the “vanishing hitchhiker” could be traced as far back as the 1870’s. (Alas as I recall, he does not give that 19 th century variant of the tale in his book. )
Apparently, similar stories have been reported across the world.
--Myth Woodling, August 2021