The Legend of Master Trooper Darrell Higgins

The unmistakable black and silver markings of a North Carolina State Trooper’s cruiser came into view for only a brief moment as the car slowly rolled past under the streetlight. Chip Mitchell remembered watching the car, as it disappeared into the midnight fog and mist without so much as a tap of the brake lights making a sharp turn at the end of the street.

Yet the familiar paint scheme, and massive whip antenna seemed somehow off. The markings while standard for the North Carolina Highway Patrol were different. The more he thought about it the more he became intrigued. 

The next morning his google search turned up countless photos of modern NCSHP cruisers where Dodge Chargers seem to be the norm, bright graphics emblazoned with North Carolina and State Trooper end to end. 

Then he clicked on a link and there it was, a late 1970s Plymouth which was once the car of choice for the NCSHP.

Was it possible that the highway patrol was still using these older cruisers? 

Within a few hours the car and that night was forgotten.

Three counties away Anna Sherrill was late for an appointment when she suddenly noticed headlights behind her. She immediately became concerned because the headlights were rapidly gaining on her, closer and closer they came. She checked her speed and saw that she was doing better than 75 along the four-lane road. 

Taking her foot off the gas pedal, she slowed to the posted speed limit of 55 as the unmistakable image of a state trooper pulled into the left lane and stayed behind her for more than a mile. 

The Trooper’s presence annoyed her, she was running late and the last thing she wanted to do was drive the speed limit.

Fearing she was about to be pulled over for speeding she glanced down and reached for her cell phone, scrolled through the numbers, and called her husband.  

But before her husband could answer she realized the trooper was gone. 

Her rearview mirror showed nothing but an empty four lane mountain road, and on the curving highway ahead not a car or truck as well. She unconsciously slowed further on the empty highway. 

As her husband answered her call, she was still scanning in all directions, still trying to find the state police cruiser. 

When she finally said hello, her husband replied: “hey babe you’re butt dialing me again?” but her silence got his attention.

“Babe are you ok?” 

Anna replied: “What?” and quickly added “Oh hey hold on”. 

As she rounded the blind curve there was a massive rockslide blocking the road. It had clearly just happened. Slamming on her brakes her car drifted slightly to the left but managed to miss several large rocks in the road. Her heart was racing, as several smaller boulders suddenly tumbled toward the pavement.

Anna went back to her cellphone: "you won't believe what just happened!" "yes, I'm ok". 

Thankfully the only other vehicle near the rockslide was a tractor trailer heading in the opposite direction and was far enough away from the rockslide. His flashers were on as he moved slowly past the few rocks that had crossed over the concrete barrier and into the opposite travel lane. 

Within minutes the North Carolina Department of Transportation was on the scene and local sheriff deputies were directing traffic and she was on her way again. But what of the State Trooper? 

Anna would dismiss the encounter with the state Trooper’s car to her lifestyle, the three kids, and a job that she loved as a real-estate agent. She thought maybe she was just suffering from the long hours and her out of control work life balance. After all she was in a hurry and somewhat distracted, but how could the Trooper just disappear? And so she was left to assume that the trooper had simply turned around. 

And then in a sobering moment she realized the Trooper had saved her life. Had she not slowed down she would have been hit by the rockslide on the blind curve.

Thoughts come and go as life races on, and so it was that Anna went about her daily routine. It would be sometime before she thought of the State Trooper again.

A few weeks after her near encounter with North Carolina Mountain’s frequent rockslides, Anna sat down at the local Cracker-Barrel with her clients, an older couple looking to retire to the North Carolina mountains. 

Gary and Christina were from New York, she already had learned that they were tired of the Rochester New York winters but were not willing to give up the seasons and particularly fall. 

After some small pleasantries Christina stated that she was a nurse, and that Gary was a retired State Police Captain. Anna must have looked surprised at the mention of State Police because Christina was quick to ask if that was a problem. 

Anna apologized: “oh no it’s just that I saw a State Trooper the other day and it was really weird”. She went on to explain to her new clients about her encounter and how the cruiser had just vanished. 

Their conversation drifted on to other small talk and then the business at hand. Before long Gary and Christina said their goodbyes leaving Anna to collect the check and pay on her way out.

But before she could reach the register to pay her bill, she was stopped by an older gentleman. 

“I couldn’t help but overhear your State Trooper concerns” the man said.

 “I’d spect you’d seen Trooper Higgins”. The gentleman looked away as if to be certain no one else was listening. 

Trooper Higgins? Anna asked.

“Trooper Darrell Higgins or more properly Master Trooper Darrell Higgins NCSHP Troop F out of Newton, North Carolina. Graduated in 1976.” Stated the man.

Percy Craven stood up and formally introduced himself. 

“Hi I’m Anna” she was somewhat surprised.

Percy was quick to say that he knew who she was since she’s on two billboards on 321 going into the Highlands Resort.

She changed the conversation back to Master Trooper Higgins: “How do you know this State Trooper?” asked Anna.

Percy continued: “Good man served in Viet Nam joined the Highway Patrol right after he got back. Lost his wife the following year to a drunk driver and then committed himself to enforcing the law thereafter. Two years later he had been promoted and given several awards. Then one night he vanished. Never a trace of him or his cruiser was ever found.”

Anna tried to understand the details that Percy had just stated. Before she could ask what happened to the Trooper Percy continued:

“Lemma ask you something, you seem like a smart girl who might know your cars, what did the trooper’s car look like?”

“North Carolina Highway Patrol I’m certain not county or city police.” Anna told the older man. 

And then she continued “Silver and Black but not like a car I’ve seen before, and it wasn’t that is was old it was new looking but an older style. The windows were up but there was definitely a Trooper in the driver’s seat. Distinctive wide brim hat.” 

Percy smiled and chuckled to himself then went on to explain: "Some say he stumbled upon some boys from Tennessee moving shine across the state line near Hurricane, others say he left with a college girl from Cullowhee and moved to Mexico".  

“Well about two years after he disappeared folks swore, they saw him on 321 helping a man change a tire.”  Percy continued.

“Then there was a trailer fire back up “Cat Lick Hollow” in Sparta. A married couple and four kids escaped just in time, woken up by a State Trooper pounding on their front door. The Trooper even carried the families’ dog out of the fire. When the fire department arrived the Trooper was long gone.”

By this time the two of them had sat down at an empty table and ordered coffee.

"Then there's that murder suspect who somehow locked himself in a telephone booth in front of the Henderson County courthouse".

Percy continued to recount what he had heard over the years: 

“Back in the 1990’s a McDowell County Sheriff's Deputy escaped death when a North Carolina State Trooper pushed the deputy out of the path of an oncoming and out of control car. The deputy said that he had stopped behind an abandoned vehicle and was returning to his car when a drunk driver lost control and sideswiped the deputy’s patrol car. 

Collecting himself while climbing out of a ditch and seeing his destroyed patrol car he searched for the Trooper who had just pushed him into the ditch saving his life. He feared the worst but there was no trooper and no a sign of a Highway Patrol car. “

“Been a few years since I’ve heard anyone speak of him, but back in the spring there was a man handcuffed to a fence post out near Beaver Creek. Turned out he was a drug dealer wanted by the feds. Said he wanted to go to jail because he'd seen an apparition and was afraid the ghost he saw was going to come back and take him straight to hell." 

Percy pointed out "You see, some of these parts are sparsely populated he may have spent two or three nights out there in the cold. I figure that will make you see things. But over the years I’ve heard plenty of similar tales from other folk.” Percy’s words would echo for weeks to come.

The headlights of an approaching car became silhouetted against the backdrop of tall North Carolina oak and maple trees in their splendid fall glory at dusk.  Then at the crest of the hill the patrol car stopped as the blue flashing beacon of an older model police car and Wig-Wag Blue and White grill lights flashed across the rural landscape. 

From the opposite direction a suspect’s car crossed the bridge at better than 90 miles an hour, another police cruiser close behind. 

As the speeding car rounded the curve and the flashing blue and white lights came into view, the chase ended abruptly as the suspect pulled over to the far-right shoulder and put his car in park. The driver now stopped more than hundred yards from where the road was blocked by a North Carolina State Patrol car. 

The pursuing Police Officer pulled in behind the suspect’s car ordered the occupant out of the car. Within seconds the driver a young man in his 20s had his chin pressed firmly against the hood of the marked police car. 

With the suspect’s hands behind his back, he was promptly stuffed into the patrol car and the door slammed shut. 

Then as if on cue, the North Carolina State Trooper Plymouth eased down the hill and approached. As the Highway Patrol car passed the uniformed driver just touched the wide brim of his Smokey the Bear hat and drove on by.

Then the silver and black cruiser’s bubblegum machine blue light switched off and the Plymouth disappeared silently once again into the mountain mist.

Fall comes early to these parts of North Carolina, and while the Carolina Coast and the Foothills won’t seem fall like until late October, the mountains head into fall like a speeding patrol car. The sun falls swiftly along about four thirty and darkness comes on fast in the valleys and hollows, and with it sometimes the fog rolls down the mountains and makes everything seem just a little ghostly.