Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 2, Episode 9 | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: Next on "Unsolved Mysteries," Sonny Liston, controversial former heavyweight boxing
champion, when he died suddenly, some say that it was drugs. Others say it was murder.
In Belgium, strange objects have been sighted in the skies. Thousands have seen them, including the air force.
Mickey Thompson, he was a car-racing legend until he and his wife were gunned down in their own front yard.
And a young newlywed dies while on a romantic horseback ride. He claims that it was a tragic accident.
But was it? You might have the one vital clue to help us solve one of our cases.
I'm Dennis Farina, and this is "Unsolved Mysteries." Join us. [theme music] ANNOUNCER: Patterson is a proud champion.
Liston, you will know, has a good left hand. NARRATOR: September 25, 1962, the title
bout for the heavyweight boxing championship of world. The current title holder, Floyd Patterson,
battles a 30-year-old former convict named Charles Sonny Liston. ANNOUNCER: Sharp right to the body, Lipton
has Patterson down. NARRATOR: In two minutes and six seconds, Patterson is knocked out.
Sonny Liston is the new world champion. ANNOUNCER: Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson
in one round to become the 21st Heavyweight Champion of the World. NARRATOR: Nine years later, Las Vegas,
Nevada-- Liston's wife, Geraldine, arrives home from a trip out of town. She's worried because she hasn't heard
from Sonny for several days. As she walks towards the bedroom, she sees Sonny lying on the bed.
Charles? NARRATOR: Sonny Liston is dead from what police say was an accidental drug overdose.
But his family and friends believe that the official verdict is wrong. Sonny never used no drugs.
If he did, I didn't know anything about the drugs, and I'm sure I know a dope head when I see one.
And Sonny never used drugs. I'm sure in Mr. Liston's life, he had enemies. and I somehow believe one of them killed him.
And I don't think one man could have done it. I'm sure it took several. There is compelling evidence that Sonny Liston was murdered,
a victor who became a victim. His story begins with a lonely bus ride in 1944. Sonny Liston was one of 25 children
of a sharecropper in Arkansas. At age 12, after selling a bag of pecans for bus fare,
Sonny left for Saint Louis, hoping for a better future. But once there, this path led to prison.
Most of his prison records were strong arming. [inaudible] would turn on the streets and strong arm people
to get money to make a living. Somebody had to support him, so he done what he had to do to make a living.
NARRATOR: Liston received two concurrent five-year terms for the armed robbery of a gas station.
In prison, Sonny put his strength and energy into boxing. He was paroled after 29 months.
Sonny went pro, winning 32 of his first 33 fights, 22 by knockouts. When he got in the ring, he was mean.
He'd come to fight. And he had only one thing in mind when he went out, and that was to win.
NARRATOR: Sonny Liston was finally ready to challenge Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight title.
[bell ringing] ANNOUNCER: Liston with a left, a sharp right to the body, a left hook, and Patterson is down.
NARRATOR: After his victory over Patterson, Sonny remained champion for 17 months.
And then he fought a young man named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali. Ali's superior agility simply overwhelmed Sonny.
He gave up after six rounds. Mohammad Ali had taken the title from Sonny Liston.
Sonny stayed in Las Vegas after his loss, and rumors circulated that he was drinking heavily.
Sonny was really on the downside with his career, and people beat him out of millions of dollars.
He didn't trust very many people, and I didn't blame him. It was a shame that most people didn't realize how nice
a guy he really was. NARRATOR: Sonny decided to resume training when Ali lost his title after he refused to be drafted.
Back in the ring, Sonny won 14 consecutive fights. Davey Pearl became his unofficial manager
and signed Sonny to fight Chuck Wepner, an up-and-coming heavyweight from New Jersey.
Both fighters had an eye on Ali's vacant heavyweight title. Day after day, Liston prepared to meet and beat Wepner.
Rumors circulated that some gamblers were betting heavily on Liston to lose. Johnny Tocco believes that two days before the fight, Liston
met with two of these gamblers. JOHNNY TOCCO: I believe that Sonny was approached to drop the fight.
Are you sure you're gonna be all right? Don't worry about it. It's [inaudible]. JOHNNY TOCCO: He had to be approached because the talk
that was around, it seemed to me like they wanted a Chuck Wepner win. And the only way they can do that, Sonny
would have to be involved. ANNOUNCER: This is the main event this evening, 10 rounds of boxing, heavyweight division.
NARRATOR: Sonny Liston was ready to be back on top. Only Chuck Wepner blocked his way.
JOHNNY TOCCO: Sonny, everything is OK. Go to work on the guy. Fifth or sixth round, Sonny told me-- and it's the first time
in my life that I ever thought I would hear this from him-- he says, I'm afraid to hit this guy anymore.
He had hit him so many times in the face. NARRATOR: By the ninth round, Liston had beaten Wepner so badly that the fight had to be stopped.
Wepner needed 54 stitches in his face alone. Sonny Liston had won the fight, but the victory
may have cost him his life. Just six months after the Wepner fight, Sonny Liston was dead.
In his kitchen in plain view, investigators found three small bags of heroin. A small amount of marijuana was also
discovered in Sonny's pocket, and a syringe was found near his body. In my opinion, it was either a natural or self-induced drug
overdose, and the only reason I dwell on the drug is simply because there was this found in the kitchen.
NARRATOR: An autopsy discovered needle marks on Liston's right arm. The official report stated that Liston
had died of a cardiac arrest after injecting himself with heroin. But actually only small traces of heroin byproducts
were found in his body. There were some traces of morphine and codeine found in the kidney tissue, but the level
of drugs in his own tissues did not indicate that it was an overdose type of drug death.
NARRATOR: Only a month before his death, Liston was briefly hospitalized. Davey Pearl believes that the needle marks came from the IV
he received at that time. Man, I hate these needles, Dave. [beeping] He hated needles with a passion.
A few times, you know, he'd start to get a runny nose or something like that, a little cold.
And I'd say, come on, Sonny. I'll take you to the doctor. He wouldn't go to the doctor.
Mr. Liston would not go for common shots, for colds or flu, because he hated the needle to that extent.
He was a strong, healthy man. He was not depressed. He was not prone to suicide certainly.
I think Mr. Liston was killed. I think Sonny Liston was murdered. I think that somebody promised him some sort of a deal.
At that time, Sonny had no income. He was hanging around with the wrong crowd. And I told Sonny, I says, keep away from these people.
NARRATOR: But if Sonny Liston was murdered, why were there no signs of violence?
Some believe that his drink was drugged, that he was taken home and then given the fatal injection.
But if this theory is true, why were such minute traces of chemicals found in his body?
And even if he had committed suicide, why would he have injected himself with such a small dose of heroin?
To this day, Sonny Liston's death remains shrouded in mystery. I often wonder what actually happened,
but I-- I doubt I'll know. He did come from nowhere to get where he was. And I'd like the world to know that he was a good husband.
He was a good man. That's the way I'd like the world to remember him. NARRATOR: Coming up, the perfect husband turns
out to be a killer in disguise. [music playing] Pittsford, Michigan, in this small farming community,
newlyweds Dave and Shannon Davis prepare to go for a sunset horseback ride. Within an hour, Shannon is dead.
According to Dave, Shannon was not an experienced rider. When they reached the edge of the woods,
she lost control and fell off her horse. Her head smashed to the ground, and she was killed instantly.
Dave's explanation was simple, and it was believable. Shannon's parents had no reason to doubt his story.
I felt that Shannon's marriage was made in heaven. I really felt this. I had began to love David.
I described him probably to a lot of people as a man's man. He was an outdoor person, hunting, fishing.
He just, uh, was very likable. And she'd say, isn't he neat, Mom? And I thought he was neat.
I thought he would protect her from anything. I had no idea of what he was really like.
NARRATOR: After Shannon's death, Bob and Lucille Mohr began to discover that Dave Davis was
not the man he seemed to be. They suspected that their daughter's death was not an accident.
Shannon was pronounced dead at the hospital. Minutes later, her parents were stunned and upset
when Dave insisted that their daughter's body be cremated. Please, let's talk her back to Toledo.
Let's take her home. That's not what she wanted. BOB MOHR: I suppose our voices were
getting a little bit loud because I don't believe in cremation. I knew Shannon didn't want that.
This is what she wanted. I felt so strongly that if he was going to insist on it,
I was going to go try and find a judge and get a temporary restraining order to stop him from doing it.
NARRATOR: That night, Lucille couldn't sleep. She remembered that her husband, Bob, caught Dave in A lie
about life insurance. LUCILLE MOHR: Bob says, David, do you have insurance on Shannon?
He said, no, and it just shot right through me. I remembered Shannon coming home from her honeymoon
the very next day, saying, David took out a large life insurance on me. That was the first lie I picked up.
NARRATOR: At Shannon's burial, Bob and Lucille noticed that Dave seemed cold and removed.
I bless the body of Shannon with the holy water. NARRATOR: After the funeral, Shannon's parents
found out that Dave lived a life of deceit. He had bragged that he'd been wounded in Vietnam,
but his own parents said that he was never in the military. All this was crowding in on me.
And all I could think inside is, David, did you kill my daughter? And it just was there.
I knew that he had murdered my daughter. I didn't know what to do with it. NARRATOR: Two days after the burial, six different insurance
companies contacted the funeral home, requesting copies of Shannon's death certificate.
Her death left Dave with $330,000. And then Bob Mohr discovered that Dave may have been involved in other insurance scams.
He'd burnt the farm down across the road, and he had other fires and the fake injury
from when he worked for the automotive company. I think he was just out to live on insurance money.
It started out with a simple fire, and now he was up to the point where he was gonna collect big insurance.
NARRATOR: Bob and Lucille insisted that Shannon's body be exhumed. The medical examiner found that her injuries
were consistent with a fall from a horse. However, indications of an unknown drug
were found in Shannon's body. But the medical report still ruled Shannon's death an accident.
Three months later, an article in "The Detroit Free Press" exposed Dave's alleged insurance swindles.
The case was reopened. By then, Dave had moved to Florida. Detective Don Brooks was assigned to investigate.
The information that was contained in that newspaper article was phenomenal. I thought, if this is even 50% accurate,
we're onto something here. NARRATOR: Brooks spoke with the toxicologist who had found the traces of a drug in Shannon's body.
I explained to him that we had a very large number of chemicals that we were looking at.
There's over 250,000 chemicals in common use, and we had searched for and ruled out maybe 1,000.
And I said that what I need is some help. Look at the medigraph right here. This is it.
You see the peak is right here. DON BROOKS: He asked me for information about Davis's background.
And one of the things I told him was that he was a dirt farmer, and he had some large animals on the farm.
Dr. Forney and I then discussed the idea of contacting veterinarians in the area that
may have serviced Dave Davis. I'm Don Brooks with the State Police. I talked with you a little bit earlier.
That's right, Don. I happened to ask two or three different vets in the area if they know of any drugs that may affect the muscular system
or the nervous system that they would use on large farm animals. And when I did so, one of the veterinarians I talked to
provided me the name of a drug. NARRATOR: Dr. Forney tested that drug, an animal tranquilizer.
It was a perfect match to the sample taken from Shannon's body. And now Brooks needed to connect that drug to Dave Davis.
We were able to determine that several years ago Dave Davis took part in a deer hunting camp at which members of the camp
used this drug to hunt deer with, with bow and arrows. NARRATOR: Shannon's was exhumed a second time.
Two injection marks were found-- one on Shannon's shoulder and one on her wrist.
Detective Brooks theorized that Davis pushed Shannon off the horse. He then wrestled her to the ground
and paralyzed her with a lethal tranquilizer. He then struck Shannon's head on a rock
so that the injuries would appear accidental. Don Brooks called. And he said they found Shannon was injected with something.
And we're going to move now. We're going to get him. NARRATOR: The grand jury issued a first-degree murder
warrant for his arrest, but Dave Davis disappeared. I don't think there's any question that this
is premeditated murder. I believe he married Shannon Davis to kill her and to profit.
I want to get him, and I want him sealed and locked up. And I want him to feel at all times
that we're breathing right down his back. I will not let go. They can't bring her back, but put
him-- put him away before he does it to some other girl. And he will. He will. NARRATOR: Update-- after our broadcast,
a viewer recognized Dave Davis as an acquaintance living in American Samoa, a small island in the South Pacific.
Davis was arrested nine days later by FBI agents. At the time of his arrest, Davis lived in this house
with his 20-year-old Samoan wife. He told her that his first wife had died in a tragic accident.
3 And 1/2 weeks later, Davis was returned to Michigan to stand trial for murder.
Any comment on the charges against you, Mr. Davis? I didn't do it. NARRATOR: After only 2 and 1/2 hours of deliberation,
a Michigan jury convicted Dave Davis of first-degree murder. For Shannon's parents, the verdict
brought an end to their nine-year struggle for justice. This This is what we waited for, and we got what we wanted.
He's gonna be locked up the rest of his life. That's what we wanted. We'll go on the rest of our life missing her.
That's why I said he gave us the death penalty. Now we're giving it to him. NARRATOR: Dave Davis is currently serving a life
sentence without the possibility of parole in a maximum security prison in Michigan.
Next, a wave of UFO sightings in Belgium, are they mass hysteria or the real thing?
And later, a young man on his way to see his girlfriend tries to stop a car thief and is shot.
[music playing] Brussels, Belgium, since 1989, thousands of people have reported mysterious lights and shapes
in the skies above Belgium. Basically, what he saw was this big triangle object with three bright white lightnings in the corners.
[non-english speech] INTERPRETER: In the middle was a flashing red light. It passed by, approaching the roofs,
since it was flying so low. INTERPRETER: I got out of the car, and hovering over us
was a big black triangle. It was very dark. The triangle had a large light on top of it,
and the light circled around while the triangle remained suspended in the air. INTERPRETER: You could see three white lights,
which formed an equal triangle. NARRATOR: These drawings are based on the testimony
of credible eyewitnesses. Almost all describe a huge, triangle object with bright lights at the corners
and one light in the center. Two years later, high-ranking members of the Belgian military
announced that their air force jets had attempted to chase down the UFO and recorded the incident
on their radar screens. This is the footage that was presented at that conference.
Most government and military officials deny the existence of UFOs. What you are about to see is a first.
This story was filmed with the complete cooperation of the Belgian Air Force and Belgian law
enforcement agencies. The mystery of the Belgian UFOs began near the small town of Eupen, less than 7
miles from the German border. Gendarmes Heinrich Nicoll and Euber Von Montige were on a routine patrol.
[non-english speech] INTERPRETER: As we approached the crossroads at [inaudible] road, our attention
was drawn to an unusual sight. We saw a field near the road that was all lit up.
It was like lights on a huge football field. We thought it was strange, and we wanted to know
what was causing those lights. There was a huge, triangular platform, and underneath
it strong headlights. And in the middle was this blinking, pulsating orange light.
The whole thing was floating in the air. NARRATOR: The gendarmes immediately called Albert Creutz, the dispatcher in Eupen.
[non-english speech] INTERPRETER: Suddenly, they told me they were seeing a strange object in the sky.
It made no noise. We joked about it and said it might be Santa Claus, trying to land.
NARRATOR: Creutz noted the unusual report in his log, but was skeptical. The gendarmes followed the object
as it flew across the Belgian countryside toward Eupen. [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: We could see it clearly because the headlights
were very strong. We could also see the flickering orange ball underneath. We were driving very slowly because it seemed like there
was someone in that object and that someone was trying to observe what was happening on Earth.
NARRATOR: A strange light flashed across the window of Creutz's office. [non-english speech]
DON BROOKS: Off in the distance, I could see something bright, but I didn't know what it was.
Suddenly, I saw something that looked like a laser beam shooting out of the light and then
come back to the light. [music playing] [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: We continued to observe the object as it
circled over the city of Eupen. It appeared to be heading toward the forest. On each side of the object, there was a kind of laser beam
and a ball that was leaving the object and coming back, as if the ball were trying to measure something.
So it was easy for us to keep track of it in the sky. NARRATOR: Creutz contacted four local airports.
Each reported no unusual activity. For at least 30 minutes, the gendarmes watched as the object
hovered in the distance. And then-- [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: All of a sudden, it came out
of nowhere, another spacecraft. We were a little frightened. The one we'd been following was still over there,
and now a second one was rising up into the sky. At a given moment, it tilted slightly.
We could see again the shape of a triangle with bright headlights. We could see some kind of dome on the top with two
or three small windows, and there was a light inside the object. By the time we realized what it was, the object flew away.
NARRATOR: Moments later, Albert Creutz became a believer. [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: Through the open window,
I saw a strange machine floating about 500 feet away from me. It looked like a large ship, floating in the air.
It drifted in front of me for a few seconds, then flew away in the direction of La Calamin.
It was a beautiful thing to see. NARRATOR: Within minutes, two others gendarmes reported a similar object over the village of La
Calamin, 8 miles to the north. INTERPRETER: We had heard our colleagues talking about this flying object.
We thought it was some sort of joke, but then we saw something. It wasn't fun anymore.
INTERPRETER: So both of us had a strange feeling. It was impossible to explain what the object was.
We thought it was an America airplane or something. We had no other explanation for what it might be,
but it was real. And it was above us. NARRATOR: All four of these incredible sightings
occurred in one hour and within 20 miles of each other. That same day, 11 other gendarmes and more than 100
private citizens came forward with similar reports about the Belgian UFOs. When we return, a video radar recording from the Belgian Air
Force that tracked the UFO. [music playing] On November 29, 1989, gendarmes in Belgium
reported sightings of a UFO. Over the next two months, hundreds of witnesses came forward, all describing a similar triangular object.
And then in April of 1990, this amazing photograph was taken. It shows the same ray of lights described by the eyewitnesses.
By using a computer to enhance the film's contrast, this triangular shape is clearly visible.
This amazing image is the first photographic evidence that UFOs invaded the skies over Belgium.
Overwhelmed by the number of sightings, Belgian authorities brought in an organization called SOBEPS
to coordinate reports and set up procedures for dealing with future close encounters.
They didn't have to wait very long. Captain Jacques Pinson of the Gendarmerie was called to a home outside of Brussels
when dinner guests reported seeing strange lights in the sky. INTERPRETER: These points of light
were very different than the other stars. They were much bigger and much brighter
and not the color of stars. The main colors were reddish or yellow, and the others were green.
Later, they began to travel short distances in an erratic manner. NARRATOR: At that same time, radar at a NATO
tracking station detected an unknown object in the exact location. It showed up as a small circle with a tail
in the lower-left quadrant of the radar screen. We phoned to other civilian and military radar sites
like Semozag, Virton, Saint Hubert, and they had precisely the same echo at the same place.
We were unable to identify this echo as being either an enemy, either friendly. It looked very clear for us that it was an aircraft.
Juliet, golf, 2, 4, 3. [klaxon sounding] NARRATOR: With conformations from four radar stations,
two F-16s from the Belgian Air Force were immediately deployed, their mission-- to locate
and identify the object. The pilots soon locked on to the object with onboard radar.
But after just five seconds, the object bolted out of range at an incredible speed.
We measured some exceptional accelerations which can not be related to conventional aircraft.
That is clear. NARRATOR: For the next hour, the object seemed to play a high-tech game of cat and mouse.
Every time the pilots achieved lock on, the object darted out of range. The pilots confirmed that it was
impossible for them to accelerate as quick as the target was. NARRATOR: This is a portion of the actual onboard radar
footage recorded that night. The UFO appears in the center of the screen as a diamond shape.
The figure in the upper-right-hand corner indicates the altitude of the object in thousands of feet.
When the pilots first locked on, the object was at 7,000 feet. But within seconds, it had climbed to 10,000 feet.
Then incredibly, the object plummeted to just 500 feet in only 5 seconds and accelerated to more
than 1,000 miles per hour. That's 1 and 1/2 times the speed of sound. This extraordinary combination of acceleration and descent
would be fatal to a human pilot. And another peculiar fact-- even though the craft exceeded
the speed of sound, no one on the ground reported hearing a sonic boom. The data, then, of all these performances
which were registered during the lock on of the radar, it was totally outside of the normal performance
envelope of any airplane. NARRATOR: The UFOs have been observed by thousands of eyewitnesses.
They've been recorded on military radar, and one unknown object evaded sophisticated fighter jets.
Yet skeptics dismiss the sightings as nothing more than UFO hysteria. They believe that the radar reports
are the result of false echoes or changes in atmospheric conditions. INTERPRETER: Some people don't believe
us and the things we have seen. Well, they are free not to believe us. It doesn't matter to me.
But I have seen something, and what else can I say? It was not some invention of my mind.
I saw it, and I it very real. It happened just as I have said. There have seen thousands of observations in Belgium.
And I think it's our job to try to find out if there is really something in the air, where it comes from, what the origin is,
and what the intentions are. Indeed, there is something going on in Belgium which is beyond our control.
NARRATOR: Despite thousands of sightings in Belgium, there have been just a few reported
in the neighboring countries France, Germany, and the Netherlands. For skeptics, this is more proof that the sightings
are the result of overactive imaginations. Some people, however, speculate that the UFOs may be attracted
to Belgium's highway system. It is so brightly lit at night that it was even visible to the astronauts on the moon.
Coming up, 19 years after Mickey and Trudy Thompson were murdered, justice has been served.
[music playing] Bradbury, California, on a previous broadcast we told you the tragic story of the murders
of race car legend Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy. Mickey Thompson was an innovator in the world of car racing.
He was the first American to break a 400 mile per hour land speed record. His innovative designs changed the face of racing.
Mickey developed an extremely profitable stadium racing venture. He and his wife, Trudy, worked hand in hand to promote
their many business ventures. But one of those ventures turned into a dispute with his former partner, Michael Goodwin.
He called me on the phone. And he said, Sis, I'm really concerned. Mickey had never said to me he was concerned about anything.
And I says, what's the matter, Mick? And he said, I'm afraid Goodwin's gonna hurt my baby,
meaning his wife, Trudy. And I responded, oh, Mick, you don't really think so, do you?
And he says, I'm telling you. He's absolutely capable of it. NARRATOR: Just days after that conversation,
Mickey and Trudy were brutally gunned down as they left their home. When Mickey came out through the garage,
he was suddenly confronted by two armed gunmen. One of the gunmen immediately shot
and immobilized Mickey, while the second gunman approached Trudy. And as Mickey laid helplessly on the driveway,
he was forced to watch as a second gunman shot his wife. And essentially, he witnessed her execution.
Both gunmen then turned their attention back towards Mickey and executed him as well.
NARRATOR: Detectives knew immediately that robbery was not the motive. Trudy Thompson was wearing $70,000 worth of jewelry.
They believed that it was a contract hit, put out by Michael Goodwin. Update-- after years of investigation,
Goodwin was finally arrested. Well, we do believe that Mr. Goodwin orchestrated the murders.
We believe he planned the murders, and we believe that his motive was based on a personal vendetta along with financial gain.
There is simply no evidence, nor has there ever been, that implicates Mike Goodwin in the murders.
The key innuendo or motive has always been the alleged civil dispute between Mike
Goodwin and Mickey Thompson. Mike negotiated a settlement with Mickey Thompson. There are third-party witnesses that confirm that.
There was no motive to kill Mickey Thompson. NARRATOR: Sheriff's investigators claim that an eyewitness saw Michael Goodwin sitting
in a station wagon in Thompson's neighborhood several days before the murders. He appeared to be spying on them with binoculars.
We've taken his exact description of where he says he saw the vehicle and Mr. Goodwin.
And we basically re-enacted it, and it's almost hilarious. You would not be able to see Mickey and Trudy
Thompson's home from there. The charges against Mike Goodwin are entirely meritless.
There's no evidence. No charges were filed for 13 years in this case, and there's a reason for that.
NARRATOR: The jury disagreed. Michael Goodwin was tried and sentenced to serve two consecutive life terms without the possibility
of parole. Investigators, however, are still looking for the men who actually carried out the hit.
Several neighbors told investigators that they saw two men they believe to be the shooters riding bicycles down a nearby road.
They described the men as African American, approximately 6 feet tall, between the ages of 20 and 30.
This is a composite sketch of what the gunmen might look like today. A $1 million reward is being offered in this case.
If you have any information, please long on to our website, unsolved.com. Orange, California, a peaceful neighborhood
in this quiet community is about to be rocked by a violent crime. I was in my living room watching television,
and I heard an engine revving on the street, which is unusual at that time of night.
And I got up to look out the window, and there were shots fired. I immediately went out to the front of my house,
and almost instantly a car sped by with what turned out to be the suspects. And as he hit the end of the street, I saw him turn,
and then they were gone. This crime was just one of many that day, less than a minute on the evening news.
But a young man was shot and left paralyzed, his life changed forever. And now the police need your help to find his assailant.
Rohrey Wychgel was 25 and all set to ask his girlfriend to marry him. He had just graduated from a technical training school,
and he planned to open his own auto repair shop. That night, Rohrey was on his way to see his girlfriend,
and then he made a quick stop at his house about 9:30 PM. ROHREY WYCHGEL: I parked my car, turned
the headlights off, left the parking lights on, and left the car running. It wasn't uncommon for me to do that.
People know when I'm there and when I'm not, just by the sound of the car. NARRATOR: On his way out, Rohrey went into the garage
to find an extra set of stereo speakers for his girlfriend's sister. ROHREY WYCHGEL: I'm looking underneath a bench
for some boxes for those speakers because I knew I'd just saw it recently. And I wasn't in there for more than a minute at the longest,
and I heard my car rev up. [revving] [non-english speech] - Hey, what are you doing? - [non-english speech]
Get out of my car. NARRATOR: As Rohrey approached his car, the intruder pulled out a gun and opened fire.
All I remember is that I'm falling backwards, and for some reason I know I'm not going
to be able to get back up. I have no idea. I don't feel anything. I don't hear anything.
All I do is just see him running away, and then I lost my memory. I don't remember what happened then.
NARRATOR: As the suspect sped away, Rohrey's neighbors rushed to help. We just lost him.
He just passed out. Is he conscious? I got a pulse, no breathing. NARRATOR: He was shot twice, once in the leg
and once in the neck. ROHREY WYCHGEL: I should be dead. I lost at least twice going to the hospital.
They didn't think I was gonna make it through the surgery, but I did. Now I have a lot of gratitude, more than I can really express.
[gunfire] NARRATOR: Years have passed since the shooting. Rohrey Wychgel cannot move his legs or hands and has
limited use of his arms. The man suspected of shooting Rohrey is between 5 feet 8 and 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 165 pounds.
He has dark hair, parted on the right. Rohrey believes he was Hispanic. The getaway car was described as a dark GM
car, possibly a Monte Carlo, a late '70s or early '80s model. It has chrome wheels and a vinyl roof.
If you have any information about the shooting of Rohrey Wychgel, please log on to our website at unsolved.com.
[theme music]

This, Episode includes: Sonny Liston, Thumbs (a.k.a. Love Gone Wrong), Belgian UFO, Mickey Thompson and Down to the Wire.

Brief Summary

The episode covers Sonny Liston's death, Mickey Thompson's murder, a suspicious horseback riding accident, and UFO sightings in Belgium.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston. Sonny Liston, a boxing champion, died under suspicious circumstances. Was it an overdose or murder?
Shannon Davis's Tragic Death. Newlywed Shannon Davis dies in a horseback riding accident, but her parents suspect foul play.
Dave Davis's Deceit Uncovered. After Shannon's death, her parents discover Dave's lies and insurance scams, leading to suspicion.
Justice for Shannon Davis. After a long struggle, Shannon's parents finally see justice as Dave Davis is convicted of murder.
Incredible UFO Sightings in Belgium. Witnesses report multiple UFO sightings, including a triangular object with bright headlights.
Radar Tracking of UFO. NATO radar detects an unknown object, leading to a high-stakes chase by fighter jets.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sonny never used no drugs.

A friend defending Sonny Liston's character.

2:50WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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