The Runner in Red: Our Encounter with the Telegraph Road Ghost
In the early nineties, my husband and I kept a boat at a local marina. One Friday night during the summer, we brought one of his friends along for a ride. After docking the boat for the night, we dropped the friend off at his home in Flat Rock, just off Telegraph Road.
As we headed toward Ecorse, we traveled north on Telegraph Road and veered off into the Dix-Toledo junction in the Woodhaven area. Just as we rounded the first curve at approximately 1:00 a.m., I saw a man sprinting across the road.
A Shared Vision
I shouted to alert my husband. He slammed on the brakes at the exact same moment. We sat in the middle of the road, hearts pounding, staring at each other in total silence. There was no one there.
We both searched the area, bewildered. When we compared what we saw, our descriptions matched perfectly. We both saw a tall, young man with long brown hair, wearing blue jeans, white tennis shoes, and a vibrant red t-shirt. The detail was so clear that it didn’t feel like a trick of the light—it felt like a person.
The History of the Junction
The next day, my husband called me from work with a chilling update. He had told his friend about the incident. His friend wasn’t surprised at all.
“Yeah, quite a few people have seen him,” he said. He explained that a young man matching that description was struck and killed by a car in that exact spot back in the 1970s. Ever since, locals have reported seeing the Telegraph Road ghost running across the street, forever trying to reach the other side.
It is rare to find a ghost story with two witnesses who see the exact same thing at the exact same moment. Although I have driven through that junction many times over the last 30 years, I have never seen him again. However, that night remains burned into our memories.
