Sunday, December 19, 2010

Maneater Horror at Karak!

Ever heard of this story?

Late one night around early 80s, a couple was traveling on the Karak Highway. Just after the tunnel (heading east) the husband wanted to urinate and/or answering the call of nature and stopped at the roadside. As there were few vehicles at that time of night, the husband asked his wife to stay in the car, lock the doors and not to open them unless he rapped on the window in a particular style. After some time, the wife heard something heavy slamming onto the car' roof. She did not take notice about it, after all, her husband asked not to get out of the car. Not long afterward, she noticed the the rotating lights of a police patrol car behind hers. She heard the policeman asked her (through the loudspeaker) to come out of the car and move towards them. They also ordered her not to look behind. This she did, however, at the last moment she turned around....and saw the bloody, mangled and headless body of her husband on the car roof.....

Horrific isn't it? There are additional details to the story such as the policemen saw what had 'eaten' the unfortunate victim (described as a huge Bat-like creature) and that they managed to fire a couple of shots at the creature. The creature was also variously described as a pontianak, langsuir, a Big Foot-like creature or even a leopard or a tiger. The question is, was it the truth?

I have heard the story ever since I was a kid and somehow this tory is still around. However I have begun to suspect that it is just another urban legend. The reason? First there is no consistency in the story itself. It was variously said to have taken place at the Karak Highway, the old Bentong road, the Genting road and even the Gua Musang-Kuala Lipis road. The other reason is that...the wife or the policemen were never tracked down. Even the policemen characters in this story was sometimes substituted with soldiers or even TNB workers! There is also a major inconsistency in that, in some versions, the policemen loosed a few shots at the creature...with the woman seemingly did not hear the gunshots! However there are people who believed the story and gave their opinion on what the creature actually were. The story was believable enough then since Karak highway went through thick jungles with little or no traffic at night. However the story even got 'updated' as recently as 2005!

In a local forum, one of the forumners told of the event that had gave birth to the urban legend. Even though it still has to be treated with a grain of salt, this was the most believable 'actual' story.....In the 1970s, one of the forumner's uncle was serving as a police constable in Perak. One night he received a call about a fatal road accident in a remote road. By the time he arrived, there were already spectators surrounding the scene (it's all the same, whether the 1970s or 2010!). So he set up a parameter, cordoning off the immediate area. He and his colleagues tried to persuade the victim's wife to come out of the car but she refused - telling the policemen that her husband had ordered her to stay in the car until he himself do so. From what the police can gather, the husband was a victim of a hit-and-run accident while trying to cross the road. Since it was a hit-and-run, there was actually no clear evidence (to laymen) and furthermore, no other witnesses (since the wife was presumably asleep). Of course the wife was asked not to turn back since the condition of her husband's body was too gruesome to look at. And since she did so, well, who's not hysterical when one saw one's loved one in that condition?

However the following morning, when he was having his breakfast at the local coffee shop, the police constable overheard the locals talked about that incident, This time however the tale included how a witness 'saw' a mysterious creature grabbed the dead body and banged it against the car's roof in order to entice its another 'victim' to come out.....while others talked about jembalangs, langsuirs and pontianaks! And so the story acquire life of its own until now.....

So that's it....how a typical hit-and-run road accident was turned into a mysterious, even mystical cause of death!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

aik... apa pasat itu itu jembalang, langsuir tadak terus masuk dlm itu kereta ma.? bukan dia boleh ka.?

mz@mymil