Hmm, never heard of it before...
15 years ago? Then that would be in 1989 then? I was too young to
read and understand newspapers back then, that's probably why I
missed it I guess. 
Anyway, such cases are not uncommon in the US, several cases have
been reported to the press, albeit being blasted at by skeptics for
being fake. Many"victims", so to speak, of such cases have admitted
to making up the stories after being questioned.
I'm not saying that this isolated PIE case is made up or something
like that, but in the space of 15 years, nothing similiar had
happened along the same stretch, so I'll take this story with a
pinch of salt.. 