Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 2, Episode 20 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries a Michigan couple on a weekend outing interrupts a killer covering up
his crime 12 people claim they saw a bizarre creature in the mountains of Colorado is
Bigfoot more than just a legend in Miami a drug bus gone bad exposes a conspiracy of police
corruption okay okay relax in Atlantic City A desperate father searches for answers after the
vicious murder of his 7-year-old son I want to see my son right five intriguing stories stories
that you won't want to miss I'm Dennis finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries [Music]
Cold Water Michigan a lonely road outside of town I like Ray and Marie Thornton went
for a drive in the country as they did every weekend we were driving South on snow
Perry Road and all of a sudden a van just on us and cast guy coming around us jeez must be in a hurry several miles
down the road the Thornton spot at the van a second time as we approached an old schoolhouse
I saw a man behind it and he had what appeared to be a bloody sheep a bloody sheep where as we continued passing the
school I saw the van parked between the building and a big tank the van appeared behind them again
it tailgated their car for almost 2 miles I'm going to start riding a step down finally Ray turned off the
highway when he did the van pulled to the side of the road we decided to turn around and come
back see if we get a license plate number we felt if we could get the license number then we could turn into
the police the guy was acting very suspicious and uh we just felt that authorities should be notified he's in
the back of van he looks like he's Chang he is he's changing plates he was behind
his van with the passenger front door open and I saw that the passenger door was covered with blood there's blood all
over that door what door the passenger door that guy has done something he he has the thoron suspected something
awful they went back to the schoolyard to search for the Sheep well I was beginning to get
nervous when we got back to the schoolhouse we tried to find what this white thing was that he had been
[Music] carrying it was a blood soaked blanket definitely blood all right let's go call a
police Ray and Marie Thornton had found evidence of a shocking crime it was the result of a bitter conflict between a
husband and a wife that ended in murder man in the open Dennis and Dew had a comfortable life Dennis was a
property assessor and Marilyn was a high school counselor now you be careful together they were raising three
children beneath the surface things were different Dennis was angry and withdrawn and he accused Marilyn of
turning the children against him it's not that they you know fought all the time cuz they didn't it was just you
know they just didn't really talk she would just say in general that she was unhappy and when the lawyer or someone
else would ask her why she wanted to get a divorce she would say because the marriage is broken up and because there
was no longer a marriage there sign it on this page and signed it on the last page after 18 years of marriage Marilyn
finally gave up thank you bye got keep your jack no Dennis was granted limited visitation rights often
the children didn't want to spend time with them even after she changed the locks on the doors there were some
sometimes when she would come home and unlock the house and go in and there was Denis sitting on the
couch she didn't know how he got in and she seemed a little frightened about that he sort of out of the blue just
indicated to me one day uh that he was contemplating suicide and and [Music] murder on Easter Sunday Dennis came to
pick up his kids his youngest daughter Julie said she would not go with him on let's
gock stop with leave him alone Mak things terrible I hate help her you're hurting her the oldest
daughter Jennifer ran to a neighbor's home to call the sheriff's office she wasn't walking completely on
her own he was like holding her up we're going to the hospital and when they were
walking I you know I just like you know said mom Mom you know she she didn't even look at me she was just like kind
of like in a day the deuse never arrived at the hospital investigators immediately began
searching for the missing couple that same afternoon Ray and Marie Thornton found the bloody blanket in the
schoolyard the area was quickly secured deputies found several fresh tire tracks and a large pool of
blood the tracks were later matched to Dennis's van the blood was [Music] Maryland's the next day a highway worker
discovered Marilyn Dew's body off a deserted Road between the schoolhouse and her home she had been shot once in
the back of the head we had a feeling that he had really done something terrible it was so brutal
and premeditated that makes you so angry if she'd been killed in an automobile accident you could get over
that but not this after the murder Dennis sent a series of rambling letters to friends
and relatives in which he tried to justify Marilyn's murder to coworker Jan marowski Dennis
wrote Marilyn had many many opportunities to treat me fairly during this divorce and she chose to string it
out trick me lie to me and when you lose your wife children and home there's not
much left I was too old to start over Dennis sent a total of 17 letters postmarked in Virginia Iowa and
Oklahoma it seemed as if Dennis was trying to say that those of us who were friends of Maryland were the ones who
caused her death when in effect it was Dennis who pulled the trigger update at around 8 8:30 on the night of
our broadcast a woman will call Mary returned home her boyfriend Hank Queen was already
there his van was parked in the driveway which was out of the ordinary because he
usually kept it inside the garage he told me that his mother was very ill and then he needed to make an
emergency trip home here could you make me some sandwiches that I can take it's a really long drive I was sure that
something else must really be going on but I didn't know what help to find a man suspected the brutal murder of his
exwife he was getting clothes out of the closet uh closed out of some drawers Gathering up some of his
personal items at the same time giving me instructions on preparing some food for him to take on the long
trip what do you want to drink [Music] everything Al I hate you aren't you going to give
me a hug he just gave me a little peck of a kiss and I gave him a big hug and said
goodbye to him I realized that something was troubling him and I knew I would never
see him again later that that night Mary was shocked to learn that Hank Queen was
really Dennis Dew and he had just been featured an Unsolved Mysteries looking back on it now I think
that he was deliberately keeping my uh attention distracted in the kitchen so that I wouldn't see the segment and so
that he could leave after the broadcast a viewer who knew Hank Queen and Mary gave
authorities the license plate number of the van 4 hours later Louisiana state troopers
tried to pull him over but Dennis wouldn't stop he led them on a 15m high-speed chase breaking through two
police barricades I told the deities if the van refused to stop to shoot a tire off over
the front tire and they missed front tire but they got both back on he traveled about half a mile and
stopped thew fired two shots at deputies through his windshield and another through the open
window then he turned the gun on himself and fired it for the last time I think he intended to die whether
he had to do it by his own hands or where he could get us to kill him in one of the 17 letters Dew had written trying
to justify murdering his ex-wife he included these lines an eye for an eye a life for a life at
the time Dennis Dew had no idea just how prophetic those words would be coming up Miami police officers who
try to get away with murder on a previous broadcast we told you about a family of fortune tellers in
Peoria Illinois who ConEd their clients out of millions of dollars Lena Marie Wilson her daughter an Corelli and their
accomplished Joe Marx were arrested all three jump bail Wilson and Marx were convicted in
absentia update Joe Marx has been captured within minutes of our broadcast police in
Springfield Missouri received a call from a viewer who recognized marks deputies arrested him at his parents'
home where his mother was operating a palm reading business he was returned to Illinois to
serve his sentence of 6 years in prison for conspiracy to commit theft following
another tip police tracked Lena Wilson to her home in Boston Massachusetts she was arrested and returned to Poria there
a judge ordered her to serve her original 10-year sentence plus an additional year for jumping
baale an Corelli is 5 ft tall and weighs between 140 and 170 lb she has brown hair and brown eyes she could be using
the aliases Lori Wilson Lori Kelvin or an marks the statute of limitations has run
out on this case investigators are no longer looking for and Corell Miami Florida during the early 1980s more than
120,000 refugees arrived from Cuba 30,000 are hardcore criminals released from Cuba's jails
at the same time racial tensions lead to 6 days of rioting in the [Music] city Miami quickly doubled the size of
its police force to deal with these problems and some say that questionable applicants slipped through the screening
process and soon Miami had another problem corrupt officers in its own Police Department
it began slowly the early abuses were minor shakedowns their targets smalltime dope
dealers a number of the early ripoffs were simple car stops where the police officers would see small amounts of
drugs and money and would proceed to take those drugs and money uh believing that the people who they were stopping
weren't going to report those incidents to the police department they felt that they were
Invincible as long as they stood together as long as no one talked it was their word against common thugs on the
street these police officers succumb to Greed and they would go out and say we're not harming law- abiding citizens
and that's how they rationalized and Justified a lot of their crimes that they [Music]
committed one of the most notorious was Armando Garcia in high school he hung out with a group
of drug users a fact that he didn't mention when he joined the police force Garcia was not satisfied with small time
shakedowns he began confiscating large drug shipments in fake police operations that were totally off the books the
raids eventually became violent come on move it move it man Garcia learned that some 400 kilos of
pure cocaine would soon be coming into Miami he had intercepted a similar shipment just 2
weeks earlier Miami Police Drop It Go but this time Garcia's plans fell apart get out of here face the
consequences six of the dopers jumped in the water to escape the police officer thinking it was an official
raid three of them drowned the officers left for 400 kilos of cocaine Metro Police Department began
the investigation immediately after the three bodies were found and they thought
it was a routine homicide all happened real fast I need you to tell me exactly what it was you
saw sure I I saw police cars come into the yard how many there were three of them detectives were stunned when a
Harbor security guard said the three men drowned while escaping a police raid Miami
Police there were no records of the raid in police logs further investigation exposed Armando Garcia's secret
operations he and 34 other Miami police officers were arrested on corruption charges relax they're all
gone we have no choice we must eliminate our Pro while in prison Garcia came up with a
plan to kill key witnesses that were scheduled to testify at his trial when Garcia and his associates
were released on bail they put their plan into action they supplied $50,000 to one hit
man for that hit but it did not take place he took their money and did not commit the hit and they attempted even
themselves they hid in the bushes waiting for one of the government Witnesses but never could find
him in the end however none of the Witnesses were hurt and they were able to testify against Garcia in court but
the corruption case ended in a mistrial but by then there was evidence of the assassination plots the former officers
were then indicted on a second set of charges including conspiracy to commit murder several of the officers after the
indictment decided that they would cooperate the other officers realized then that
the case had reached a point where it was almost a sure conviction if they went to court at that point they made a
decision to take flight update Armando Garcia was finally arrested in Khali Columbia also taken
into custody was Garcia's father a week later Victor Zapata one of Garcia's accomplices gave himself up to
the police in San Juan Puerto Rico all three suspects were returned to Miami Armando Garcia was sentenced to 25 years
in federal prison his father received 10 years and Victor Zapata was sentenced to
13 [Music] years next Footprints of a strange creature in the mountains of Colorado
could it be Bigfoot Pikes Peak Colorado 100,000 acres of dense Wilderness surround this mountain your
average hiker might catch a glimpse of a mountain lion a bobcat or even a black bear but recently there have been
reports of a different kind of animal living in the woods basically looked like a big man or a big
shape coming toward us and we turned around and started running it had long hair hanging off its arms and its legs
it had a small torso but long legs and long arms whatever these creatures are I believe they're more human than ape I
believe that possibly there may be a group of anywhere between seven and possibly 10 a small band of these
creatures living here in the Pikes Peak region Bigfoot many think this aplike creature
is either a hoax or a misidentified common animal but now new evidence suggests that perhaps Bigfoot
really does exist it was a cold morning in March when Dan messiah's son discovered a set
of mysterious tracks in the fresh snow hey look at this what we got there's some weird tracks tracks what
kind of tracks Dan had spent lots of time in the outdoors but he didn't recognize these tracks upon examination
of the footprints I determined that it was something very strange and related to the passp footprints we had seen
around our home the next night my son and I stayed up late downstairs we watched television and every 15 or 20
minutes I kept going to my [Music] window at quarter of 12 I could see two large creatures running down the road
one of them was a small one well which was about 5' 6 5' 7 and the other creature was about 6' maybe
6'2 other than the hair which appeared to be covering their body they look just like human
beings down there so we can take Dan took pictures of the tracks it the large set was almost a foot
long the smaller set 8 in Dan Messiah is not the only one who says that he saw Bigfoot while hiking Pikes Peak Jeremy
swisser and his friends also came face to face with a creature they had never seen we came around the base of this big
rock and we saw this it looked like an individual and it turned around and it started to chase us it looked like a
fairly good size man it was around 6t tall that's the shape of it the arms might have been a little bit longer than
normal the Run was more or less like that of a an athlete a man of some sort he was right across the road from us and
that scared us enough to take take off for the rest of the way home the recent sightings in Colorado
have all taken place near Pike National Forest I'm positive that I saw some type
of creature that was the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life it wasn't a bear it wasn't like
anything I've ever seen before I had a fear in me I I I got out of the truck and I and it passed me I I
got behind it but a clear enough distance because I wasn't about to go tackle it or anything but it seemed to
have the figure of a human being I didn't see the face at all but it had hair covering its body
another witness claims that his cabin was broken into by a large creature he rushed to the back porch but
the Intruder had vanished the cabin door was practically destroyed the next morning two boys
found toughs of hair caught in the screen door we sent this hair to a laboratory at the unity University of
California in San Francisco I've tested these hairs for all the major groups of mammals that
have large specimens like you know deer bear and so forth and it only reacts with the primates and of the primates it
only reacts with homono and there are only five homono human chimpanzee gorilla orangutang and Gibbon and I've
eliminated all of those except human and chimpanzee so it's some large animal closely related to human and
chimpanzee using four eyewitness accounts a scientific illustrator drew a picture of what Bigfoot might look
like is it possible that the Sho her humanlike creature might actually exist until concrete evidence appears Bigfoot
will remain a creature of Mystery next a police officer search for answers in the murder of his 7-year-old
[Music] son Atlantic City New Jersey morning gar it was a midweek holiday for 7-year-old Gary Grant junor Gary lived
with his mother may she and Gary's father an Atlantic City police detective had been separated for about a year and
after breakfast are you going to go out and play with your friends no Mom not tonight why not I was
asking him with who and he said it was a secret so I thought you know it's silly
you know he's a little boy something to do maybe with his little girlfriend around the corner or something so I kind
of left it at that she wanted to go out and play so he got dressed and he went out to
play Gary went out about noon he said he would be back by 400 p.m. before it got
dark it got to be 4:30 and he still hadn't showed up for dinner and he liked his dinner he never missed so I started
getting worried and I went down to where two girls that were friends of his and um asked them if they had seen Gary do
you want to come in no I'm just looking for Gary well he was here in the afternoon but he left around 4:30 to go
home oh okay well if you see him will you please tell Gary to come home thanks bye bye another 2 hours passed with no
sign of Gary May telephoned her husband I searched until well after midnight probably around 1 2:00 in the morning I
walked around as as a matter of fact I called out from work that night I was due to go into work at midnight and uh I
I called my sergeant and advised him that I wouldn't be coming in by the next morning the Atlantic City
Police Department had started an allout search regulations prevented detective Grant from taking part in the official
investigation but as a father he could not stand by and do nothing I started searching every
possible place I could think of I started searching abandoned houses uh I started searching underneath the
boardwalk I started searching arcades and questioning people who were working in the arcades Gary Grant have you seen
this Bo been missing take a good look please by Friday night it started getting dark again and still no signs or
no word of Gary I started then looking in Alleyways and trash cans and dumpsters the streets can be pretty mean
now you know for an adult let alone for a seven-year-old child and by that time I I was fearing the
worst the next afternoon the body of Gary Grant Jr was found in a vacant lot less than two blocks from his
home he had been beaten to death a short length of heavy pipe lay nearby I didn't want to believe that it was
him I want to see my son being a father you don't want to believe that you're that your kid is
lying back there somewhere you know and he's never going to get up again when they told me that Gary was
dead I just went totally num my whole body I didn't want to believe it I just can't imagine why would
someone would do that to a 7-year-old boy any seven-year-old Boy Hey kid the investigation began like
all others detectives chasing the victim's Final hours and talking to those who knew him best do you know Gary
Grant sure he lived around here over in Arctic when was the last time you saw him uh a couple days ago who was he with
he was with boo would that be buo Mason Carl Mason nicknamed Buu was a mentally challenged 12-year-old with an
IQ of 65 he was smaller in height and weight than Gary even though he was 5 years older the two boys were good
friends and often played together we're with the Atlantic City Police Department
we need to ask you a few questions did you know this Gary Grant kid sure I knew Gary when did you last see him uh
Wednesday you sure you didn't see him on Thursday yeah we were supposed to meet on Thursday but Gary never showed up boo
said he hadn't been with Gary but uh detectives canvasing the neighborhood kept coming back with stories that he
had in fact been with Gary so they didn't know what to do there was this conflict uh boo seemed like such a
harmless character he was um known as a scaredy-cat in the neighborhood but they
just couldn't reconcile the conflict no I seen him the day before and that was it and then it is
said okay and they asked me some other questions but I remember then later on that night they came back and they took
me that night Buu was driven to Police Headquarters with his grandmother he was then taken into a
room for questioning his grandmother did not go in with him look just tell us the
truth and we can all go home what happened when you and Gary left the school gym we went to the park
over on Texas but that was on Wednesday what did you do at the park I didn't see Gary on Thursday he didn't
show up in questioning boo his stories were inconsistent and the detectives wrestled around with it until finally
around 3:00 one version of the story he acknowledged being with the victim at the crime scene and that he in fact hit
him with the pipe I hit but he threw rock at me and what did you do after you hit him well once he fell
and he didn't get up so I just left he was telling police what they felt were details that only the killer
could have known and that got everything into high gear because they realized that boo was now the
suspect everybody knew what happened to him they found the body then like that day they were like they found weapon me
those all different stories what happen to him I guess you might as say bringing
your grandom in will just be another minute after three long hours police believe they had a confession what we
did is had your confession typed up we need you to read it and sign it with you boo signed a document but insisted he
had not murdered his friend have you told us the truth now yes but I didn't do it Bo Mason was charged with murder
and sent to a juvenile detention center I did not have anything to do with his murder the one cop said if you
admit that you did it we'll let you go home so me at the age of 12 I was so tired I said if you say so but I didn't
and then next thing I know I winded up in a home do you live in Atlantic City yes
buo was given two polygraph tests did you hurt Gary Grant no in both the first and second lie detector tests it was
determined that Buu had answered truthfully when he said that he did not kill Gary Grant you now told the entire
truth about Gary Grant's murder yes I feel that he very easily could have been intimidated by the person who did it or
who was there when it was done could have told him that hey if you say anything to anybody you're
next I have completed three and a half days of testimony with Ed the adiss a hearing was held to determine whether
Buu's confession was admissible in court and this court cannot find Beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the
statements made by the juvenile were voluntary statements the charges against bu Mason were dropped the police never
found another suspect but 2 years later it became obvious that someone had not forgotten Gary Grant
Jr early one morning a chilling message was found on the side of an Atlantic City patrol
car Gary Grant dead I am living another will die on January 12th if all goes right January 12th was the second
anniversary of Gary Grant Jr's murder from what I observed on the car it appeared to me that it was written on
there by an adult however as far as uh ever finding out who did that we've never found that
out January 12th came and went without incident but a few weeks later another message was scratched on a
sidewalk Gary Grant Jr lives I still killed him son of a pig officer payback is a
MF this second message caused some to believe that Gary's murder was revenge for an arrest that his father
made well that thought has gone through my mind a thousand million times but there's not one thing that stands out
that I could think of cuz I've never had anybody look at me in the face and say to me I'm going to get even with you for
this no further messages were received but whoever wrote them is still out there somebody knows something there's
no doubt in my mind it's it's just not possible that something like that could happen without somebody seeing or
hearing something or somebody saying something to somebody about it I would like to see the person or
persons who are out there and they know who they are to come forward so I could have a little peace too in my mind in my
heart if you have any information about the murder of Gary Grant Jr please log on to our website at unsolved.com
coming up a slippery con artist who steals the hearts of his victims vendor cash and
jewelry Palm Beach Florida the robbery takes place in broad daylight the thief has a key to the
house he is selective and seems to know what he wants no fingerprints are left behind it
is obviously an inside job at the door the thief leaves a note for his victim he signs it
l many of Florida's retirees are widows or divorcees they can be easy targets for a sleazy kind of con man who prays
on their emotions and then takes off with their cash okay we're going to speed it up for
you with a little Shuffle let's all get up and dance it was a Friday night in West Palm
Beach a widow who will'll call Mrs Kay went to a singles dance at St Mary's Church a good-looking man named Arthur
Frankford asked her to dance she was flattered my name is Art Frankford hello and yours Emily nice to meet you
em when I first saw him sitting up against the wall I thought he was too old you know it is a singles dance and
you do look them over after he'd asked me to dance I realized he wasn't as old as I thought he first
appeared that night Mrs Kay and Arthur danced every dance from the day that I met him till the time that he left never
once was I suspicious of any move that he made as far as to question his character who he was that he was a liar
and a thief Frankfurt told Mrs K that he was a geologist and had recently retired from
a government job he also said he owned a house and several other rental properties in nearby towns and lived off
the income in addition to his retirement pay so one night he come home and he said that instead of running another
place for himself he thought it would be better if he lived here once he moved in
it was great I would come home from work he'd have my dinner ready he would do the grocery shopping he would make
dinner he would clean the house vacuum the house there was no reason to have anticipated what he did I'm getting very
excited about Mrs K and Frankford settled into a comfortable routine oh Emily it certainly will we
started to play Jin and during the course of the Gin game he stopped what he was doing you really love
me yes I do very much I guess that means I can get away with anything at that time I
thought he meant the Gin game because he would like to try to cheat he had to win one day Mrs K came home and found
the bed she shared with Arthur unmade my bed's always made either art made it or I made it whoever was last up
even then it did not appear out of the ordinary to me until the time that I walked into my closet to change my
clothes and discovered all the clothes from the closet missing and then I realized that he had
left Mrs K was heartbroken on the hall table she found a note it said sorry things too possessive
L which was their word for love then Mrs Kay remembered giving him the combination to her
safe I didn't realize until the time that I read the note and went back and opened the safe and then I discovered
that I was robbed $4500 worth of jewelry was gone so were her late husband's wedding ring handgun
work ID card and driver's license renewal form took a lot of courage to call the
police I didn't want want to say it out loud to myself that art was who he was update within minutes of our broadcast
two viewers called to report that they recognized Arthur Frankfurt the individual said I know
where Arthur Frankfurt is I'm his ex- brother-in-law we received another call about 20 minutes later from a white
female says Arthur Frankford lives next door to me in Whitley Kentucky this was the confirmation call that I was looking
for at that time uh I knew we had our Man 2 hours later Frankfurt was arrested in his home in Kentucky he was living
under the assumed name James Ferguson with his new wife of 2 months during his search of frankfurt's house police found
several identification and credit cards with different names they also found a handgun that may have been stolen from
Mrs K's home police learn that frankfurt's real name is Harry Fielding Donaldson he was tried and found guilty
of fraud he served 2 years in a Florida prison and was released he died 6 months
later

This, Episode includes: War of the Depues, Update: Gypsy Fraud, Armando Garcia, Big Foot, Payback Killer and Florida Film Flam + UD.

Brief Summary

Four stories: murder cover-up, Bigfoot sightings, police corruption, and a child's tragic murder.

Key points

A Father's Desperation. A father searches for answers after the murder of his 7-year-old son.
Suspicious Van Encounter. Witnesses spot a suspicious van and a bloody scene, leading to a shocking discovery.
Murderous Intent. Dennis Dew's letters reveal his mindset after the murder of his ex-wife.
Police Corruption Uncovered. Miami police officers engage in corruption, leading to a major scandal.
Bigfoot Sightings. Recent sightings in Colorado raise questions about the existence of Bigfoot.
Tragic Discovery. The body of Gary Grant Jr. is found, leading to a father's heartbreak.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was a blood-soaked blanket.

Evidence of a shocking crime discovered by witnesses.

3:38WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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