Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 1, Episode 16 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Next on "Unsolved Mysteries," in a brazen armored car robbery, thieves get away with more
than $10 million in cash. A vengeful ex-cop armed with a powerful homemade bomb holds an elementary school hostage a woman's skull
and an anonymous note, both clues to a murder. Perhaps the victim's husband knows more than he's saying.
A beautiful young woman full of promise vanishes in the glittery lights of Reno, Nevada.
Join me for these intriguing stories, plus updates on cases that were solved by you.
I'm Dennis Farina and this is on Unsolved Mysteries. [theme music] Bridgeton, Missouri, the Casa Gallardo restaurant.
Two having lunch notice something strange outside the window. What they find soon has the full attention of police.
There in the bushes is a human skull. It's very well-manicured area, plants and gravel and what have you.
And the way it was situated, it would give one the impression that somebody put it
there so that you would see it. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The skull is determined
to be of an adult woman. CHIEF WALTER MUTERT: During that time period, they were relocating a cemetery that was in the area
and a lot of bodies were being exhumed, graves were being moved. So it gives you the impression that this may be a prank.
And there would be no reason to suspect that there was any foul play. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The skull
goes into the evidence room at the morgues and is soon forgotten. One year later, a mysterious letter arrives.
Right. OK. Get back with me. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It states that the Bridgeton Police have quote L. Sherman's skull.
Dental records show the skull is, in fact, that of Linda Sherman, a 27-year-old wife and a mother
who was reported missing five years before. A missing persons case was now a puzzling murder mystery with
a lot of unanswered questions. Why was Linda Sherman's skull left outside a local restaurant?
Where's the rest of her body? And most importantly, who's responsible for her death?
Linda was only 17 when she married Don Sherman, her high school sweetheart. When her daughter, Patty, was born,
Linda could always count on her mom to watch the baby while she completed her senior year.
Don, get out here. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Don took a job at a local gas station to support his new family.
It was hard, but it was rewarding. We were very happy together. The relationship was rocky later on in our marriage
several times, but not in the early years. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Money problems
and working opposite shifts at their jobs strained the relationship. In their 10-year marriage, Linda took Patty
and moved out several times, but the couple always reconciled. Come on, Don. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): According to Linda's older
brother, Dennis, Don was obsessed with knowing Linda's every move. No, she's not here.
Don was very possessive over her. She said, when I get off of work, if I'm not home within five minutes he wants to know what's going on,
who are you seeing, what are you doing out that late? He's always hitting her and things just weren't right.
I go to work every day and I come home! I don't run around on you. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Linda told her family that she was
afraid of Don's violent temper. She even got a restraining order to keep him at a distance.
She had already made the decision to move out. She had filed for divorce. She had definitely made plans to start a new life.
She was going to do it this time and she really meant that she was going to leave Don for good.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): On April 22, Linda left her night job at around 2:00 in the morning.
She didn't come home from work until about three o'clock in the morning. We got into an argument about the fact
that she wouldn't tell where she'd been. We stayed up until at least four o'clock in the morning
discussing that. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Linda was still on the sofa later that morning when Patty left for school.
She always took me to school, but my dad took me to school that day and I remember
her laying on the couch with her face to the back of the couch. And she didn't get up.
She didn't get up to kiss me goodbye, she didn't say anything to me. She was just laying there.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): That would be the last time Patty ever saw her mother.
Don claims that when he returned to the house that afternoon, that Linda was on edge.
DON SHERMAN: When I came back home, Linda was still there. She should have been at work by then.
I overslept. I'm late. I've got to go. DON SHERMAN: And she was mad because she was running late.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Don says Linda drove off at about 6:00 PM, but there were no witnesses that
saw her leave. Linda never arrived at work and she never returned home. When she didn't come back, I assumed
it was typical of the previous times that she had left and I thought that she'd took off with somebody.
We knew that if she left, there was no way she was leaving without the daughter and the daughter was still at home.
And so there was definitely foul play. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Linda's parents
insisted that Don go to the police station and file a missing persons report. Meanwhile, Sam and Fran searched frantically for Linda.
On a hunch, they headed to the local airport. SAM MILLER: As we pulled into to the short-term parking lot,
there's Linda's car sitting right there. Is that her car? I know my sister's car.
Yeah, I know. We could see inside the car and we could see her school books and her hat and everything.
So we contacted the airport police and they come and the car was locked but they tried the trunk and the trunk
was open. I hate to say it, but we fully expected Linda to be in there and she wasn't.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Don claims that he saw Linda with another man days after her disappearance.
He says that she drove past him in a van and quickly ducked out of sight. Hey! DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Five years later,
when the skull was discovered at the restaurant, no one even thought of Linda. A woman was sitting there eating
and she looked out and saw a skull looking right at her. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): In a bizarre coincidence,
the restaurant was one of Don's favorite hangouts. I was at the restaurant that evening
after the skull had been found. I'd heard about it that day when it happened. But never any connection to it until later on.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): No one made a connection until a year later, when the mysterious letter
arrived at the Vinita Park Police Station. I was rather astounded. It was obvious to me that someone
wanted us to know that we had obviously missed something and was trying to tell us that Linda's
remains had been recovered. It was scary. Somebody who had put those remains there at the restaurant
obviously knew me or knew that I hung out there. We're not talking about a place that I casually visited,
we're talking about a place that I would visit two or three times a week. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Perhaps the skull
was put there to threaten Don. Or did he have a reason to put it there himself? Some speculate Don wanted to remarry and needed proof
that Linda was dead. For Don, the skull provided the perfect piece of evidence. But for Patty, the find was devastating.
When the skull was found I just kind of lost all hope in life. I didn't know that she was dead.
I guess there was always some hope that she had just left. The only suspect that I've been unable to eliminate
is Don Sherman. At this point in time, he has never been ruled out as a suspect.
In my heart, I think that he might have done it. I can't think of anybody else who would have.
I had nothing to do with Linda Sherman's disappearance nor her death. I still think that she left with someone
and obviously met with foul play and died. I would really like to find the rest of her,
wherever it's at, so that we can have a proper burial for her, she can rest in peace.
And I'd like to know what happened to her and who did it. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Police
hope that new technology and soil sampling will someday lead them to Linda's body
and eventually her killer. If you have any information that might assist in solving this case, please log onto our website
at unsolved.com. Next, a small town faces tragedy when a deranged ex-policeman takes control of the local school.
And later, a young woman's family is sickened by her mysterious disappearance in Reno, Nevada.
Cokeville, Wyoming, they wheeled it into the school just after the lunch hour recessive,
a homemade bomb with the power of 25 sticks of dynamite. No fussing around. Over there.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): They ordered everyone at the school, 136 students and 17 adults, into one small room.
What is all this? Look, shut up and sit down! DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): His name was David Young
and he was no stranger to town. He had worked briefly as a policeman before he was fired for misconduct.
And now this. Innocent lives hanging by a thread at the whim of a suicidal madman, an entire school
held hostage to violence. This scenario, sadly familiar today, came as a shock to the town of Cokeville.
It seemed that only a miracle could save their children. OK, listen. You are all part of a great revolution,
one that began many years ago. The government and its schools have filled your minds with lies!
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): David Young made it clear that he was prepared to kill himself
and everyone in the room. Every child in Cokeville between the ages of five and 12,
an entire generation, was at his mercy. Among them, Melanie Chadwick, then eight years old.
Well, we're being held hostage and I remember Kevin saying, well, what does hostage mean?
We were really young and we didn't realize what was happening. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Now, so far you've been pretty good.
But if any of you tries to escape, we're going to have to shoot you. David told the kids that he would shoot them in the legs
so that they couldn't run away. He said, we don't want to hurt you but if you try to run away,
we will. You, come here. Are you the principal? Yes, I am. OK. You'll be my spokesman.
You tel them I want $2 million apiece for each of these kids and you tell them I'm attache to this bomb.
If I go down and this wedge pulls out, this school blows sky high. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): News of the crisis
spread through Cokeville. Police converged on the scene. They have all four of my children in there.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Distraught parents confronted the sheriff, determined to take
matters into their own hands. Take that rifle and put it back in your rig. I've got my boys in there.
If you can't get them out, I will. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): David Young was a human time bomb.
One tug of his wrist could destroy the school and everyone in it. [? CHRISTINE COOK: ?] At one time, one of the children jostled Mr.
Young and he became quite upset. OK, get out of the way. Come on. I guess he didn't want to set the bomb off.
Either Mr. Mitchell or Mr. Moore suggested that they put tape in an area about a nine-foot square
on the floor, what they called a magic square, so that the youngsters would not step inside that square
and would not jostle Mr. Young's arm. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): - At the time, Amy Bagaso was 10 years old.
I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I am going to die. I'm not going to see my family, I'm not
going to be able to grow up, I'm not able to get my driver's license, I'm not going
to be able to do anything. May we please open doors and windows and let some air in?
The fumes are making the kids sick. [? CHRISTINE COOK: ?] There were a lot of children getting ill,
throwing up and so forth from the smell of gasoline fumes. As the time went on and the fumes got stronger, most of us
felt pretty nauseated. Our dear Heavenly Father, we-- We prayed a lot. I remember just sitting there with my hands clenched
so tight, just praying to Heavenly Father to let something happen. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): When his hostages began to pray,
David Young became agitated. He appeared to lose his confidence. Moments later, he handed control of the bomb over to his wife
and he left the room. By then, the children had been inactive for nearly two hours.
They were restless and irritable. Could you please do something about the noise and help me get these kids quiet right now?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Eyewitnesses remember Doris Young gesturing carelessly.
They knew that one false move would trigger an explosion. --move them around a little bit.
We could get everybody from that side. We could move some of the kids over here and then
we could move some of the kids over-- [explosion] My babies! I could feel flames so hot on my back.
I saw flames coming from the corner of my eye on my right shoulder and started to burn.
So I dropped and rolled. I had a fifth grader, a third grader, and a first grader
in that room. When I seen that smoke coming out of the windows, I expected to see this school go in a million pieces.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A few children stumbled from the smoke seconds after the blast,
others were trapped in the classroom. AMY BAGASO: Teachers were throwing children out of the windows.
I could see all these little feet just scurrying out into the hallway. All these kids were just stepping over me and stepping
on me and jumping over me. And I looked up and saw Mr. Moore and Jack Mitchell and they were beating the fire off of me.
And they picked me up and they shoved me to safety. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Ambulances rushed
injured children to hospitals. Those who were unharmed were taken home by their parents.
No one knew how many youngsters had survived or how many might lay lifeless in the ashes.
Just inside the classroom, police found the body of Doris Young. David Young had also died, but not from the explosion.
He had killed himself with a single gunshot to the head. And now the grim search for Cokesville's children began.
After an hour, dread turned to hope and hope to joy. Not a single child died in the flames.
It seemed an extraordinary run of luck had helped the children survive. By staying outside the so-called magic square,
they were far enough away from the bomb when it exploded. With the doors and windows open, much of the bomb's force
blew harmlessly out of the classroom. And then there was the bomb itself. This is a fully intact blasting cap.
This bomb didn't even completely detonate. The potential of this explosive device
could have and should have destroyed that whole end of the school building, had it functioned the way it was supposed to.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Police learned that Young had built and exploded several bombs exactly like the one he brought
to Cokeville, yet in the classroom Young's bomb had unexpected problems. A container of blasting powder had become thoroughly soaked,
rendering it a useless paste. Detonation wires to other tubs of powder had been cut.
The reason, no explanation. There should have been 162 people dead in that room.
We should have been in there just picking up bodies. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The people
of Cokeville came to their own conclusion about what happened that day. I just have this overwhelming feeling
that Heavenly Father was there, that he was watching out over us. To me, I knew that the Lord was there with me
and I knew that he would make it all right and that we'd make it through it. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A few students
insisted that they had seen what they described as a presence hovering above the room in the moments
just before the bomb ignited. Some even believe the mysterious presence saved their lives.
In my mind, the only way out of that thing would have been divine intervention. We've always said guardian angels do help people out
and I believe it. And there was people that have went on before us that help us out.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Sheriff Deb Wolfley says that outside the school room,
he too felt the touch of heavenly guidance. I remember very clearly thinking in my mind,
what am I going to do? Here's a man in here with a bomb who wants to blow our kids up.
How am I going to handle that? I know that without a shadow of doubt that god in heaven
answered my prayers. A voice said to me, everything will be OK. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): One final discovery.
This ghostly image singed into the north wall of the classroom led some to believe that an angel was in school that day,
protecting innocent lives. Coming up, a ton of unmarked bills, more than $10 million
in cash, and two violent criminals still on the run. But first, patients take a turn for the worse when
this doctor makes his rounds. The strange case of Michael Swango. An intern at a hospital in Ohio checks
on a 69-year-old woman recovering from routine back surgery. No one knows why Dr. Michael Swango is in the room--
perhaps just to say hello. During Swango's visit, Rena Cooper seems to be doing fine.
Nurse, help! She started convulsing. I don't know. The-- DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): As doctors work on her,
Rena's struggles to tell them what happened. Why don't you write a note to us, OK?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): She writes, the doctor put something in my IV. That was Dr. Swango.
When I was over there I was taking some notes. What was Dr. Swango doing in here?
While this is going on, we know that another nurse decided to walk down the hall to calm the other patients since there
was a great deal of commotion and four rooms down within minutes sees Dr. Swango exiting
another room with a very funny grin on his face. The nurse goes into that room and finds
a large hypodermic needle with the plunger down sitting on the sink, which is very unusual.
Hypodermics aren't left lying around. Oh, Mike. Good. Glad you're here. Were you anywhere near room--
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Three different doctors confront Michael Swango about what
happened in Rena Cooper's room. Swango tells them three different stories. At one point, he claims that he was never even in the room.
But she just got out of surgery. It's common for patients just out of surgery to be delusional.
We expect a doctor to be a hero, not a villain, but sadly there are exceptions. Sometimes a doctor betrays a patient's trust.
He either becomes someone who hurts or even kills, someone like Dr. Michael Swango.
After graduating from an Illinois medical school, Michael Swango enrolled at Ohio State
University for his internship. By then, his personality had already begun to change.
Michael Swango became more and more withdrawn as he proceeded through his college classes
and eventually got into medical school. And though academically he did very well, the more the classes
became advanced and the more he needed to do hands-on patient work, the more he pulled away from that to the point
where he was held back a year. Take a look at one of these appraisals and you can see what I'm talking about.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Swango's problems continued during his internship. His supervisors told him that his medical career
was on the line. Are you saying you may not recommend me for residency? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It was shortly
after Swango was put on probation that Rena Cooper suffered her seizure. Rena survived, but at least five other patients died.
The upshot of it is that whenever these incidents occurred, Swango was always there.
A black cloud seems to follow Michael Swango. Wherever Swango was, there was an unexplained respiratory
arrest. And it didn't happen once or twice, it happened five, six, seven times. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Even though some evidence
pointed to Swango, hospital officials chose not to call the police. Instead, they watched it closely and they
told him that his internship would not be renewed. Swango did not appear disturbed by the university's
decision to let him go. Chicken, extra spicy. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): As a matter of fact,
on several occasions he treated staff members to what he called extra spicy chicken.
We know that from interviews with three doctors, they became violently ill within hours
of eating this spicy chicken, so ill in fact that they needed treatment for their eyes
from ruptured blood vessels from the vomiting. Whew. You weren't kidding. That really is spicy.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Michael Swango left OSU without being formally investigated.
No charges were ever filed. One month later, Swango had a new job, not as a doctor, but as a paramedic.
And one day, he brought doughnuts for the whole crew. I noticed there was something different about the doughnut.
It didn't spring back up like most donuts do. You all right in there? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Within 45 minutes,
Brent and several others became very sick. They wanted to test the leftover doughnuts,
but somehow they disappeared. No one had any suspicions of Mike at all at that time.
They figured that that was food poisoning. Since the doughnuts were gone and they couldn't analyze it,
they just more or less thought that that's what it was and let it go by at that.
The next night, I worked with Mike at a football game. At halftime, he offered to buy me a soda.
I started sipping the soda at halftime and by the start of the third quarter, I became deathly sick.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Swango's co-workers became more and more suspicious. Finally, the paramedics decided to fake
an emergency call to get Swango out of the building. They wanted to search his locker.
And in his gym bag, they found two bottles of ant poison, one full, one empty. Ant poison.
Michael Swango? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): In Swango's apartment, police discovered more incriminating evidence-- dozens
of bottles of poisons, books on poisons, recipe cards for making poisons, and an assortment of syringes.
One syringe was full of ant poison. Michael Swango was arrested, tried, and sentenced
to five years in prison. He served only half that time and amazingly, he found work again in a hospital.
After losing jobs in Virginia and South Dakota, Swango resurfaced again at Stony Brook University in New York.
But now, he was calling himself Dr. Michael Kirk. MICHELE SALCEDO: He's accepted into the Stony Brook program
and they never bothered to check him with a central registry for medical residents, which apparently had a file
that was an inch thick on him. There were 180 people who applied for 12 slots and he managed to get one of those 12 slots,
despite these clouds of questionable activity that followed him in at least four states.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): At this hospital, Swango met Barron Harris, a 60-year-old cabinet
maker from Long Island. Yes, we have. Hi, Mr Harris. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Harris
was hospitalized with a 104 degree fever and a slight case of pneumonia. I'm going home tomorrow.
Well, we'll see if we can't accommodate you. My first impressions of Dr. Kirk, he seemed very professional.
He seemed to be very concerned, he seemed to know what he was doing-- a very pleasant man.
Swango told Elsie to go home, that there was nothing more that she could do. Love you.
Love you, too. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Elsie Harris claims that sometime during the night, Swango-- alias Michael Kirk--
gave her husband a sedative. By the next morning, Barron had lapsed into a coma and was in intensive care.
It doesn't make any sense to me. He was coughing, he had a little fever. I don't get it.
I don't understand. Mrs. Harris, sometimes people have allergic reactions to certain drugs.
Now, that may have happened in your husband's case. He had a very smirky attitude, like a half-cocked smile
on his face, like a little kid with his hand in the cookie jars. Even though he had a terrific bedside manner,
there was just something sneaky about him. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Before Michael Swango vanished,
Elsie says that he told her that Barron would never come out of this coma. He was right.
Barron Harris died not long after. Once the story hit the wires and porters started converging
on the Northport VA Hospital and on his dorm room, he very hastily packed up and disappeared.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Update-- Michael Swango has been captured. After leaving a job at a remote hospital in Zimbabwe, Africa,
Swango returned to the United States to obtain a new visa. When his plane touched down in Chicago,
authorities closed in and arrested him. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to three
consecutive life terms. Swango has no chance of parole. Next, one of the biggest drug dealers in the United States
is arrested, with your help. West Glover, Vermont. When Brian Brophil arrived in town,
he charmed everyone-- that is, everyone who didn't know that he was the mastermind
of a major drug smuggling ring. Most knew him as a good-natured city slicker who didn't seem to have a clue about country life.
Brophil's taste in horses ran to rare expensive breeds. He spent thousands boarding his horses with the neighbor,
Peggy DuPont. He needs a blanket on. He paid in cash for his board. My husband immediately said, oh, he's a drug dealer.
And I said, he's not a drug dealer, you're out of your mind. He's a nice person.
[sirens] DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Peggy DuPont's husband was absolutely right.
Four years after moving to Vermont, authorities paid a surprise visit from Brophil's farm
and his secret life was exposed. Inside the barn was a forest of marijuana plants.
It was the biggest marijuana bust in Vermont history. Authorities estimated that Brophil's sophisticated pot
plantation had grossed up to a quarter of a million a month. But the marijuana farm was only a small part
of an international drug smuggling operation. Brophil dropped from sight immediately and stayed hidden
for more than three years, until "Unsolved Mysteries" aired his story. Update, alert viewers in Paso Robles, California,
called our telecenter. They recognized Brian Brophil as one of their neighbors. Local authorities immediately moved in to make an arrest,
but Brophil had vanished again. Our understanding is that Brian watched the show.
The show aired at eight o'clock and Brian was gone at 8:15. He had left all his personal belongings behind
and was just gone. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Before he fled, Brophil was using the name Brian Jenkins.
He worked as a handyman at local horse ranches and became an accepted member of the community.
Brophil never once drew the attention of the police. He was living comfortably with no fears.
We weren't even close to him. He could have wrote a textbook on how to hide, he was that good.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): But Brian Brophil wasn't quite that good. Viewers' tips helped authorities track
him south, to Carlsbad, near San Diego, where he was arrested. He was convicted on narcotics charges in Vermont
and spent seven years in prison. Rochester, New York, 6:45 AM. An armored car was on the way to a scheduled delivery.
Inside the truck was nearly $11 million in cash. Just after 7:00 AM, the armored truck made an unauthorized stop
at a convenience store. A guard who we'll call Mary Wilson went inside the store.
The driver, Albert Ranieri, waited in the truck. We'd stop there about once or twice a week
and usually they get about the same thing. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): While Mary was
buying coffee and doughnuts-- Put your hands on the wheel. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): --a daring assault was
unfolding just 100 feet away. We'll all get home tonight. Don't move or I'll kill you.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Five minutes later, Mary Wilson returned to the truck, unaware that her partner
was no longer in control. Here's your sandwich. Get down on the ground. MARY WILSON (VOICEOVER): It happened
so fast I didn't really get a chance to get scared. He pushed knee to the floor and tied my hands and my feet
together with plastic handcuffs. When I say drive, you drive. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Albert Ranieri
was forced at gunpoint to drive to a secluded location one and a half miles from the convenience store.
One couldn't have picked a better location. It was about 75 to 100 yards off the road
and it completely disappears from sight behind a small hill. And we know that the site had been
prepared prior to the robbery. There are several tree branches that had been freshly cut to make sure that this large vehicle
would fit. Shut up. Don't talk to me. Crawl through that window or I'll kill you.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Authorities believe that the two robbers were met by at least
one other accomplice. Albert Ranieri was bound and gagged and forced on top of Mary Wilson.
There was little dialogue between the robbers. The money was transferred quickly,
all 2,000 pounds of it. A tray of $1,000 bills, $1 million in hundreds, $8 million
in $20s, a total of about $11 million in cash. This was a lot of money, so we believe that it took probably
in the neighborhood of five, maybe 10 minutes to offload that amount of [inaudible].
I sat there quiet to make sure I didn't hear any more voices. I was scared for my life.
I kept thinking about my son and I just thought I was going to die. That why I broke loose because I wasn't
going to sit there and wait for somebody to come back and kill me. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It took
Mary Wilson 15 painful minutes to rip through the plastic handcuffs. Unable to free her partner, she drove
the armored truck to company headquarters and reported the robbery. The next day, the getaway van was discovered five miles away.
The interior was littered with over $13,000 in small bills, the leftovers from the largest on the road
armored car robbery in the United States history. It looked like an inside job. A conveniently broken porthole allowed one robber
to hold a driver at gunpoint while the other used a key to get in through the truck's side door.
Both gunmen more clothing which was nearly identical to the uniforms worn by company employees.
And only a few people were aware of the huge amount of untraceable cash being transported that day.
Update. It was, indeed, an inside job. Albert Ranieri, the driver of the hijacked vehicle,
was tried and found guilty of unrelated racketeering charges. But at the same time, he also pled guilty to the armored car
robbery. Ranieri refused to name his accomplices and none of the $11 million has ever been recovered.
A young, beautiful girl becomes lost in the neon glitter of Reno, Nevada. Her family prays that our viewers can help Starr
Palumbo find her way home. It's early morning at the local airport. A young woman is spotted wandering in a restricted area.
She appears disoriented and frightened. An airport police officer is called. He finds the woman hiding behind a truck.
Are you OK? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The woman says that her name is Starr Palumbo
and she claims that she's trying to find her younger sister, who is running loose on the tarmac.
We searched the grounds for your sister with the description that you gave us and she's nowhere to be found.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The airport police officer feels that Starr's story might not be true,
but he also believes that Starr has no criminal reason for being out on the runway.
He had no idea why she was out there. She gave no logical explanation. But instead of arresting her, he decided to release her.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Starr is dropped off near a hotel. The next day, an illegally parked car
is discovered at the airport. I ran a routine license check on it. The registered owner came back as Starr Palumbo.
It appeared to be loaded with all her personal possessions. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): In the is Starr's cell phone,
her purse, and $600 in cash. But other items cause more concern. There are copies of three emails sent to the White House.
It seems that Starr felt that the government was trying to murder her. Police also find a morbid drawing
that depicts a woman bound and gagged, and finally they find two books on how to change your identity.
Starr never shows up to claim her car. There are two very likely possibilities. The first is that she is suffering
from some type of either organically caused or drug-induced psychosis and is a sick woman
and doesn't know who or where she is. And the second possibility is that she has been the victim of a serious crime
and has either been murdered or she can't contact her friends and family. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Starr Palumbo was once
a beautiful young woman full of hope and promise, but authorities believe that she drifted into a world of drugs
that threatened her life. Her family is convinced that she is alive and with your help will one day come home.
Starr lived a very happy childhood and she was very dependable and she's a very trusting person.
She's a very happy person, sociable person, and she trusted people too much. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): One year before she disappeared,
Starr left her home in Arizona and moved to Reno, Nevada. It was here, investigators believe, that her life
took a tragic turn. In this particular case, Starr seems to have fallen in with a very bad crowd
and had been involved with methamphetamine at a level that could only be disastrous.
Starr worked as a cashier at a pawn shop, but according to her friends, her drug
habit cost more than she made. Police believe she began to look for other ways to make money.
There is an indication that Starr had been dabbling in prostitution. In her phone books, there was reference to a number of men.
We really don't have a good feeling for the extent of the relationships with a number of those men.
However, certainly prostitution is a high risk occupation and one of the factors that causes
us concern about what has befallen Starr and her disappearance. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Starr lived
with her grandmother and she called her mother every week. In her final phone call, Starr sounded anxious and paranoid.
She said that she felt somebody was following her, and when she talked on the phone she
thought maybe the phones were tapped and somebody was listening. And she mentioned how something was going on
and she was afraid for her life and she wouldn't discuss it any more than that. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): According to her mother,
Starr wanted to turn her life around. She talked about flying home to Tucson and starting over.
I love you. Bye. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): But Gayle Palombo has not heard from her daughter since that call.
Starr's parents began a massive search for their daughter. Her picture was posted throughout the State of Nevada.
A casino owner, Linda Fields, claims to have seen Starr in her Casino eight months after she disappeared.
Honey? Honey? Are you all right? Ms. Fields described seeing a young woman who had come into the bar one evening,
had looked frightened, was alone, and that the young woman had volunteered to her
that her name was Starr and that she was being chased or was trying to escape from a pimp.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Linda says that Starr became extremely upset when she saw a man looking
at her through the bar window. Starr quickly left with another young woman. The disappearance of Starr Palumbo
is still an open investigation. Starr, mom and dad really love you and no matter what you've done or anything
that we wish you'd contact us, see if we can help you. Starr's friends have created a MySpace page about her.
She's described as 5 feet 4 inches, approximately 125 pounds, and has brown hair.
If you have any information about Starr Palumbo, please log onto our website at unsolved.com.
[theme music]

Brief Summary

Three cases: Linda Sherman's murder, Cokeville hostage crisis, and Starr Palumbo's disappearance.

Key points

The Discovery of a Skull. A human skull is found outside a restaurant, leading to a murder mystery.
A Hostage Situation Unfolds. A deranged ex-policeman takes control of a school, threatening lives.
Miraculous Survival. Despite the explosion, not a single child died in the flames.
Michael Swango's Dark Path. After a series of suspicious incidents, Michael Swango's medical career takes a dark turn.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Starr Palumbo. Starr Palumbo vanishes under suspicious circumstances, leaving her family desperate for answers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just kind of lost all hope in life.

Patty reflects on the discovery of her mother's skull.

8:39WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.