Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 3, Episode 9 | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA: Next, on "Unsolved Mysteries," a gang of masked intruders, a house ransacked,
an innocent man terrorized. Who are these violent intruders? Please help us. DENNIS FARINA: Modern day prospectors
follow century-old blues and close in on a mother lode of gold. They are known as men in black.
No one knows who they are or where they come from. A school that offers music scholarships for kids
seems too good to be true. It is. Join me for these stories of murder, missing persons,
fugitives, and the paranormal. I'm Dennis Farina, and this is "Unsolved Mysteries."
[theme music] DENNIS FARINA: It can happen anytime, anywhere-- from big cities to small towns.
Home invasion robberies target innocent victims who never see it coming. [phone ringing]
You're alone in your home, feeling safe and protected. You lie down to take a nap, and you wake up to a nightmare.
That's exactly what happened to Dr. David Cawood. Jefferson County, Tennessee-- All right.
Wake up. [interposing voices] Where's your-- where's your vault? Where'd you come from?
I remember not being able to figure out what's going on, and then sheer terror. What do you want from me?
A lot of people like you have them. [yelling] DAVID CAWOOD: I received a blow in the abdomen, a blow
on the right side of my chest, a blow in the back of the head that knocked me out.
DENNIS FARINA: Dr. Cawood's wife, Jeannie, and their son, Trinity, returned home.
[thudding] What was that? [glass shattering] Oh, my god. What was that? [yelling]
DENNIS FARINA: In a blind panic, Jeannie ran straight towards the intruders. I had my hands up in my hair.
I was more or less in shock. Lay down, on the floor. On the floor. Down! Hands out.
[jeannie whimpering] OK, lady. Where is everything? Tell us what you got. We know you got a vault.
[interposing voices] JEANNIE CAWOOD: And they wanted to know where the vault, the cash, and the gold was.
Of course, I don't have a vault. [sobbing] INTRUDER: Yes, you do. No, I don't. INTRUDER: Are you gonna talk?
Are you the one that's gonna talk? You are, aren't you? TRINITY CAWOOD: You know, I told them where the jewelry was.
I mean, I didn't know anything else to do. You know, I figured Dad was already dead,
and I was just trying to keep Mom and myself alive. INTRUDER: Good boy. [whimpering]
INTRUDER: Let's go. DENNIS FARINA: The intruders left Jeannie and Trinity alone and continued to ransack the house.
Moments later, one of them reappeared. Oh, god. Please help us. DENNIS FARINA: I knew at that point
that they were gonna shoot us. So I immediately started praying with Trinity. I told her I loved her, and that I was ready to go.
And you know, I was sure I was going to heaven. And I was just ready to go. I didn't think I'd see another day.
Well, as we finished the conversation, Trinity and I did, I could hear this man choke up.
And when he did, he turned around and walked away. [sobbing] JEANNIE CAWOOD: I think that is probably
what saved Trinity and me. I've got to do something. DENNIS FARINA: Jeannie struggled against the ropes
and managed to free herself. They're gonna kill us. Trinity, I'm not gonna lie here on the floor
and get shot in the head. OK. DENNIS FARINA: Afraid the intruders were still upstairs,
Jeannie and Trinity ran for help. JEANNIE CAWOOD: All I knew is I had to get out of the house.
I threw the knife in the garage and I went next door and banged on my mother-in-law's window.
And she came to the back door, and I ran in and I got her gun and I told her to call 9-1-1.
DENNIS FARINA: The Cawood's house was a mess. The thieves had trashed every room
and made off with more than $40,000 in cash and jewelry. Upstairs, investigators found Dr. Cawood
bound and gagged on his bed, drifting in and out of consciousness. I love you, honey.
DENNIS FARINA: Dr. Cawood survived the ordeal with seven fractured ribs and a concussion.
To this day, he has no idea who the attackers were. Oh-- [jeannie sobbing] DENNIS FARINA: For the Cawoods, the official investigation
was an exercise in frustration. No fingerprints were ever found. None of the jewelry was recovered.
And the police never came up with any solid evidence. The Cawoods began their own investigation,
and soon found a dozen other families who had had the same terrifying experience.
Four months after the attack, they met with Ken and Patsy Jenkins, who lived 25 miles away.
Their story was so similar, the Cawoods were convinced that both families had been
attacked by the same people. [screaming] INTRUDER: Are you gonna talk? It was one of the most frightening things I have
ever been through in my life. DAVID CAWOOD: We not only went on physical descriptions,
but we concentrated on the personalities of the perpetrators-- how they moved, what they said.
And it's astonishing. One or two members of the cast of characters may change from time to time.
But it's the same people. DENNIS FARINA: The Jenkins had been hit five years before the Cawoods,
also on a Sunday night. Who is it? What do want? INTRUDER: Just do everything we say and everything's
gonna be just fine. INTRUDER: You gonna cooperate? Yes. [coughing] I remember that he disguised his voice,
and he stood with a pillow between him and me. At the time, I was afraid maybe he might
be gonna me through the pillow. DENNIS FARINA: But murder was not part of the plan.
Just like the Cawoods, the intruders were after money, gold, and access to a vault.
OK, listen, you got a vault here, old man? KEN JENKINS: Well, uh-- uh, I don't know.
INTRUDER: Yeah, come on, you. Just take what you want. SHERIFF DOUGH QUARLES: There was a lot of similarities.
They come in in the nighttime, sometime Sunday night, or at least a time when someone's at home.
They wear dark clothing. They use force by show or threat of weapons. INTRUDER: We got the vault. We need the combination.
SHERIFF DOUGH QUARLES: They use somewhat regimented tactics. Now. SHERIFF DOUGH QUARLES: They methodically
go through the house and then remove what they come after. KEN JENKINS: Dollar-wise, it's hard put a value on sentimental
things-- maybe $25,000. They ransacked the house real fast. Actually, one person done the ransacking second.
One stayed at our bad all the time. We got it. We got it all. Don't even think about calling the law.
We are the law. OK? DAVID CAWOOD: They move like a SWAT team. They bark orders like a cop.
And I think that they will use whatever violence they deem necessary to achieve their goals.
DENNIS FARINA: The Cawoods believe they've linked 12 break ins over 10 years to the same gang.
It was a connection that no local law enforcement agency had ever made. The Cawoods' research was so impressive that the Jefferson
County DA convinced the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to launch an official inquiry.
We got so much information for you to look at that we've compiled over the last couple of years
that-- ROBERT E. DENNEY: Dr. and Mrs. Cawood have done a lot in this case to help us and assist us.
They have met with several of the other victims and have formed, I guess, a coalition of people that want
to try to get this case solved. We do feel like the perpetrators have an awful lot of information on the victims in these cases.
All right! ROBERT E. DENNEY: They come in and ask questions that only the victim could
have shared with someone else. Where's your money? ROBERT E. DENNEY: And I think they're casing the houses
real well, maybe the lifestyle of the people, when they come and go. What was that?
ROBERT E. DENNEY: So we feel that these people are doing an awful lot of homework on these victims.
These people are going to do it again and again. And they need to be stopped. We have found victim after victim.
And these victims, to the person, they feel exactly as we do. And they feel that most precious thing has been taken
from them is their security. DENNIS FARINA: The statute of limitations has run out on these violent crimes.
All the cases are now officially closed. INTRUDER: All right! DENNIS FARINA: However, a similar home invasion
in another part of the state led to the arrest and conviction of several robbers.
Although police don't have enough evidence to prove it, they believe the group was responsible for the earlier
crimes as well. Next, is there a fortune in gold waiting to be found in the Arizona desert?
Gold! [cheering] DENNIS FARINA: The Arizona Territory, September 1864-- troopers from Fort Apache find two prospectors
wandering in the desert. By the time they reach the fort, the men are barely alive.
We gotta get back. We gotta get back. DENNIS FARINA: One of the prospectors, known only as Adams, tells the army
surgeon a remarkable story. You don't understand. There's-- there's mountains of gold up there.
There's a river full of gold up there. There's gold up there the size of acorns.
Me and my men rode up the Gila River up into the mountains, was looking for Zigzag Canyon.
And that was supposed to be full of gold. DENNIS FARINA: Adams and his band of 20 miners
were led by a Mexican guide, nicknamed [inaudible]. MAN: [inaudible], where was that canyon at?
DENNIS FARINA: [inaudible] promised to take Adams to the gold in return for two horses, a saddle, two $50 gold
pieces, and a red silk bandana. He even said the miners could shoot him if he couldn't find the gold.
This canyon don't go nowhere. If you've been lying to me, you're gonna pay for it.
DENNIS FARINA: Eventually, they reached what appeared to be a dead end. But [inaudible] led the party through a hidden door
into a narrow zigzag canyon. TOM KOLLENBORN: I think [inaudible] played the major role in getting them to the site.
And the reason he was able to do this was the fact that he was raised by the Apaches.
And he knew the area. And he was familiar with the fact that gold was important to the white man,
not so important to the Apache. DENNIS FARINA: The men found a stream fed by a 20-foot high waterfall.
It was full of what they had come for. Gold! Gold! Gold! [cheering] TOM KOLLENBORN: There was a waterfall there
and there was sufficient water. But the amazing thing, and according to a story,
again, the gold was visible right on the ground. Realizing that gold is heavy, that it settles down,
you'd have to think, well, how much gold was there there? If there was still gold visibly on the ground that means
every flash flood that brought water over that waterfall has brought more gold from above.
DENNIS FARINA: Adams and his men agreed to pool their fortune and share it equally.
They set up camp and the prospecting began. Several days later, unexpected visitors
arrived-- a local Apache chief and 20 of his warriors. Adams, we've got company.
TOM KOLLENBORN: The Apache, there were several things that were sacred to them. One thing was mountains-- all mountains.
The Zigzag Canyon probably, undoubtedly, was sacred, maybe in some way, because it
was part of the mountain. [non-english language]. TOM KOLLENBORN: The Apaches believed that gold
was the tears of the sun. Nobody touched the tears of the sun, because the sun was a almighty thing to most Indian cultures--
I mean, the source of all life. Hand me that rifle. A gift. TOM KOLLENBORN: They met with Chief Nana.
And Nana had set down the rules-- that they do not go above the waterfall, for whatever reason,
probably because he knew there was more gold up there and he know it would attract more white men to the area.
He hoped they would fill their pokes and leave and not come back. DENNIS FARINA: Adam struck a deal with the chief.
Any miner found above the waterfalls would die. [inaudible]. DENNIS FARINA: Then one morning, a miner
chasing a stray horse ventured above the falls. Look what I found, Adams. DENNIS FARINA: He came across a gold nugget
the size of a chicken egg. Ain't that the biggest nugget you ever seen? Where'd you get this at, son?
Above the falls? - You went above the falls? Adams, he didn't mean nothing. My horse got away, Adams.
I don't care. I promised the chief we wouldn't go up there. DENNIS FARINA: The discovery triggered
gold fever in the camp. Without telling Adams, miners began prospecting above the falls.
Some of the gold was stored in a coffee pot hidden under the flagstone of the camp fireplace.
According to legend, the miners found almost 300 pounds of gold. Whoa. DENNIS FARINA: One morning, Adams and his partner
Davidson were a mile out of camp when they heard the sound of gunfire. [horses neighing, gunshots]
DENNIS FARINA: Chief Nana had been true to his word. From a lookout above camp, Adams and Davidson
stared down helplessly. [yelling] No. It ain't gonna do us no good now. [gunshots]
Just wait'll things settle down, then we'll head on up the canyon, get out of here.
We waited till the sun went down, then we snuck up the canyon. You don't believe any of this, do you?
About the gold? Look at this. TOM KOLLENBORN: Well, Adams, like many prospectors,
spent the rest of his life searching for that Zigzag Canyon and never could find it.
I think that once a person sees that much gold in a place, like Adams did, he couldn't give up that dream.
There's no way. He knew it was there. He had to continue to search for it till he found it.
DENNIS FARINA: Adams never did find his motherlode. Years later, he died drunk and penniless,
and the story of the lost gold grew into legend. During the 1920s, John Mitchell, a man
who worked on the railroad, wrote about his search for the treasure. To this day, his account inspires others to hunt
for the Lost Adams Diggings. Ron Feldman is a camping guide who has studied Mitchell's accounts for years.
RON FELDMAN: If you pay attention to what John Mitchell said, he tells you basically where
the Lost Adams Diggings is. DENNIS FARINA: By comparing Mitchell's references with modern maps, Feldman discovered
that many rivers and landmarks have gone under different names. He figured out that Adams' canyon was
on Eagle Creek near the town of Clifton, Arizona, 200 miles north of Tucson. Ron Feldman and geologist Mick McPherson
went to Eagle Creek hoping to find the lost Adams fortune. MICK MCPHERSON: When Ron and I walked into the canyon
and discovered the little hidden portal that led into a zigzag canyon, my feeling immediately
was that this was the spot. This is where Adams had been. This fits the stories that I've read.
It has the right appearance and it is an appropriate place where gold could have been concentrated
in great quantities as a placer deposit. DENNIS FARINA: Everything about the canyon seemed
to fit Adams' descriptions. That's gotta be the waterfall. It's gotta be it. DENNIS FARINA: Feldman and McPherson even
found the trickle along the canyon wall where a waterfall had once flowed. MICK MCPHERSON: If you put more water into the system,
as there was when Adams was there, you would have a beautiful cascading waterfall into an open pool at the base of the fall.
It's very hard to explain the feeling that rushed through me. It was very exciting.
And of course, we both knew the legend of the coffee pot of gold buried in the floor of the cabin.
We soon discovered the ruins of a cabin, started digging in the floor. We found some relics, but no potful of gold.
Look at that, huh? Little gold pan. DENNIS FARINA: Feldman and McPherson also found a section of train track.
MICK MCPHERSON: In the early days, John D. Mitchell, the author, was actually a railroad man.
He worked on the railroads. And we thought of Mitchell when we found those items.
We thought of Mitchell when we didn't find the pot of gold. DENNIS FARINA: Perhaps John Mitchell already
found the coffee pot of gold. But Ron Feldman and MIck McPherson are convinced they found the area of the huge gold deposit.
Their share of the motherlode is still waiting to be found. Coming up, if you ever report that you've seen a UFO,
you may receive some unexpected visitors-- the men in black. But first, how viewer tips led to the capture
of a woman who helped her lover escape from prison. Cumberland, Maryland. For 10 years, Kay Beeman worked as a prison guard
at a maximum security facility. Edgar Kerns was being held there while awaiting sentencing
on charges of check fraud. JAMES BARNES: Come on, man, hurry up. DENNIS FARINA: and in another inmate, James Barnes,
made a daring escape. It appeared they had taken Kay Beeman as a hostage. Authorities later learned that Kay had actually
helped with the escape. She was in love, with Edgar Kerns. I don't think I've been too demanding, either.
No, you haven't. CRAIG ROBERTSON: I guess you maybe fall in love with somebody and you do some strange things.
But Kay's pretty well lost about everything that she ever had over this one incident.
DENNIS FARINA: Update-- just six hours after our broadcast, Kay Beeman and Edgar Kerns
were captured in Canada. They had checked into a motel and registered as husband and wife under the assumed
names Fred and Sandy Smith. JOE MITCHELL: I was watching TV, and all of a sudden,
this lady's picture come on. So I call my wife, and she was out in the kitchen ironing.
And I said, do you recognize this lady? And she said, yes, she's the lady that's living in room 12.
SGT. MIKE HOLK: The officers at the emergency response unit forced the door open.
The room was found to be vacated. DENNIS FARINA: A witness later told police that he had seen the fugitive couple
getting into a taxi. We were able to determine the name of the cab. And a check with a cab company revealed the driver.
I asked them where they were going, and they said the Red Rose Motel. DENNIS FARINA: A few minutes later, the emergency
response unit moved in. At the window! Good. [yelling] SGT. MIKE HOLK: Kerns-- he wanted to know how we
had learned of his whereabouts. We asked him if he had ever seen the program before.
He said, yes, he had. We told him that he was on it tonight. He was astounded. DENNIS FARINA: Kay Beeman and Edgar Kerns
were returned to Maryland. Kerns finished out his prison term, and Beeman served time for her role in the escape.
After their release, the two lived together until Kay Beeman's death. Thanks to Hollywood, just about everyone
has heard of the men in black. But few realize that there may be evidence that men in black
are real. Austin, Texas-- Ray Muniz owns and operates an auto tinting shop. He says he's had five separate encounters with UFOs.
Because of all the experiences that I have, or have had, I thought it necessary for me to start looking into all of this.
So I started this show here in Austin, this local cable access show called "Project UFO."
World power. DENNIS FARINA: One of Ray's viewers sent him this home video, which supposedly
shows an unidentified spacecraft in the sky over Georgetown, Texas. MAN: Look at that.
MAN: It's a UFO, man. RAY MUNIZ: And on the video, you can see a radio station tower, which has three red lights on it.
Well, right next to this tower is this huge UFO that's just hovering there, like parked.
WOMAN: It's no airplane. MAN: Those ain't no airplanes. And they're getting closer.
MAN: Oh, heck, that's a lot of them. DENNIS FARINA: Several days after he received the tape,
Ray says some unexpected visitors showed up. RAY MUNIZ: They were dressed in black suits,
black ties, the black glasses, the whole nine yards. Mr. Muniz. Yes? Raynaldo Muniz?
Yes? I have a summons. A summons? Internal Revenue Service. Am I being audited? Just show up.
RAY MUNIZ: I walked back out to see where they had gone to. And there wasn't anything out there.
There was no time for them to drive away in a car or walk away. It was very strange.
DENNIS FARINA: Ray said he went to the address listed on the summons. RAY MUNIZ: I took my box of my papers and everything,
all my tax stuff. And I laid it down the guy's desk. I said, well, here it is. He looked at me and said, OK, thank you.
You can leave now. And I said, excuse me? He said, thank you. You can leave now.
And I said, aren't you gonna look at my stuff? He said, no. Thank you. You can leave now.
DENNIS FARINA: Ray says he returned home to find his video collection ransacked.
He now believes this was the reason for his visit from the men in black. RAY MUNIZ: They wanted me at a certain place at a certain time
so they could go to my house and look for that tape. They didn't find the tape. I still have the tape.
So it's either something that was government, that they didn't want people to know about, some new aircraft,
or it was a UFO that they don't want people to know about. The men in black maybe intelligence
operatives working from deep level black book projects. Their entire agenda is to silence UFO witnesses
and experiencers to relating to the public what they may have encountered. I was concerned for my safety.
I felt a little bit harassed, if you can put it that way. And I did not know what to expect.
So I was on guard. DENNIS FARINA: San Juan Capistrano, California-- Collette Peters, an accomplished figure skater.
She has won several national medals. She claims to have had two UFO experiences and one encounter
with a man in black. When I was approximately 19 or 20, I was in New York City, walking down one of the main avenues.
And I started to encounter a very, very bizarre feeling. It was pure evil. When I looked up, what I saw was a very tall,
lanky man walking towards me. But he seemed out of place and quite odd. His skin, to me, did not look normal.
It seemed to fit the criteria of what people call the men in black. I think people have had genuine experiences which
are anomalous and unusual. In my opinion, they are disinformation agents using a combination of physical alteration of their appearance
with electronics. And it is intended to simply set people off from looking in the direction of what's
really going on with the UFO or extraterrestrial issue. DENNIS FARINA: There is, of course, another possibility.
Skeptics claim that the men in black are merely the product of a few overactive imaginations.
Just show up. I'm a I'm a gotta touch it, feel it, see it type of person. I was there.
I saw. I felt. You know? I mean, why would I put my life in danger for a lie? I don't feel that it could have been
a figment in my imagination because of the physicality of it, because I'm talking about the hair actually
raising up on your skin. It was something I'll never forget. DENNIS FARINA: Coming up--
Let me see your hands up. DENNIS FARINA: Two con artists use a chain of music schools
as a front for fraud. North Hollywood, California-- a working class Hispanic neighborhood.
MAN: One, two, three. [playing accordion] DENNIS FARINA: A new music school has just opened,
and hundreds of parents eagerly sign up their children for low cost lessons. Very good.
Now, let's go-- DENNIS FARINA: The school is owned by Mario Yunis and Omar Arroyo.
They hired instructors to teach students the lost art of playing the accordion. I knew they had a hold of something big.
And I knew that it was going to be a lot of money. I just knew it. And I wanted it to work.
Give John a round of applause. Yunis was a studio musician fluent in several languages.
Arroyo was an aspiring salsa singer and used car salesman. That was excellent. I'm very, very proud of you.
And I think it's time for you to move up to the next level. What? That sounds great, Seline.
Wonderful. That's good. MARTHA GALLARDO: They said that my daughter had won a scholarship to learn piano or accordion in Oregon.
I thought, oh, great, you know? This is the perfect opportunity for my daughter to get some lessons.
What I need for you to do is to choose one of those. I'm gonna recommend that [inaudible] take--
DENNIS FARINA: Mario Yunis acted as the front man. Charming and persuasive, he smooth-talked parents
while his partner worked behind the scenes. Well, the Mercedes package is $2,500,
and the Toyota package is $1,800. Oh, I see. I think I'll take the Toyota package.
MARTHA GALLARDO: The package was that it was the accordion that you were buying. but they were gonna
teach three different instruments by the end of the three years. We will be taking $32 increments every month
if that's OK. And part of it would be also taking them on field trips, like Disneyland.
DENNIS FARINA: The ink was barely dry on the contract when everything fell apart.
Early one morning, Martha Gallardo dropped off Audrey for her weekly lesson. Mom, they're closed.
JOHN CALWELL: What do you mean? You sure? GIRL: Yeah. MARTHA GALLARDO: She said, nobody's there.
They're gone. And at first, I thought, oh, don't be silly, you know? But then, it just like hit me.
And I said, oh, my god. Fraud. DENNIS FARINA: Martha wasn't the only one targeted for fraud.
Arroyo and Yunis even do their own employees. They lied about the credit card scheme,
and paid them with checks that bounced. STEVEN GREER: Got tired of getting bad checks.
I don't how many bad checks I got from how many different banks. And they said, well, we got another class for you.
I said, I gotta be paid. And they said, well, after you do this class, we'll pay you.
[playing accordion] DENNIS FARINA: Martha was shocked when she got her credit card bill.
Instead of the agreed upon monthly payment of $32, she found a single charge for the entire cost
of the accordion-- more than $1,800. It was a cheap import worth about 300 bucks.
Many other unsuspecting families were hit much harder. MARTHA GALLARDO: The parents were mad.
They were angry. They were hurt, because they felt like, OK, wait a minute. We have no money.
And what are we gonna do? These people, their credit cards were up to like $10,000, $20,000.
One particular guy was $39,000. [playing accordion] DENNIS FARINA: Authorities say that in just over a year,
Arroyo and Yunis took in more than $1.5 million. But these con men had more tricks up their sleeves,
and many more victims would suffer. Do you have a copy of the contract with you?
Yes, we do. OK. I've seen some real unique case, but I've never handled a case as this,
where it has so many victims. We have over, I could say, 200 victims. And it involves a large amount of monies.
Have you seen any two males that might have looked like the owners of the place?
DENNIS FARINA: Detective Baello Hale discovered that Arroyo and Yunis, using fake names,
ran several other music schools. And cash is OK, yes? MAN: Yeah, cash is fine. DENNIS FARINA: The two con artists went
on separate spending sprees. And do you know who-- any kids who want to take any lessons?
DENNIS FARINA: Arroyo reportedly spent some of the stolen money to record a salsa
CD under the name Luis Omar. Yunis had also created a new identity. Well, I am his twin sister.
She's from Israel. No kidding. DENNIS FARINA: He was now a she, using the name Delia Leon.
DETECTIVE JUAN BAELLO: Mario Yunis I had undergone a sex change operation up in San Francisco,
and paid for this operation with one of the kid's parent's credit cards. The charges amounted to over $33,000.
DENNIS FARINA: Omar Arroyo and Delia Leon became lovers. I brought you some soda.
DENNIS FARINA: The two lived as a couple in a luxurious home with Arroyo's two daughters
from a former marriage. [interposing voices] You haven't filled out an application.
OK. DENNIS FARINA: But the good life soon came to an end when a new office assistant, overwhelmed
by complaints from angry parents, decided to go to the police. Right here. DETECTIVE JUAN BAELLO: So where are you working?
I'm working at Kids Music Kingdom. And that's in Mission Hills. DENNIS FARINA: It was the great Detective Baello needed.
DETECTIVE JUAN BAELLO: We conducted a surveillance in order to try to identify our suspects.
We were able to come up with their true names. DENNIS FARINA: Baello then followed the suspects
to their upscale neighborhood. A few days later, armed with a search warrant, police raided the home.
POLICE OFFICER: LAPD, police warrant. Let me see your hands up. DENNIS FARINA: Delia Leon attempted
to escape through the backyard, but was quickly apprehended. What are you doing?
I didn't do anything. Ow. What are you doing? DENNIS FARINA: She denied any involvement
in the credit card scam. - I was just a consultant. Watch your head please, ma'am.
DENNIS FARINA: Delia's partner in crime, Omar Arroyo, had left town just two hours before the raid.
DETECTIVE JUAN BAELLO: I was surprised in not finding Omar. And I later learned that he had left to Puerto
Rico the night before. Omar was in the process of doing promotions on his CD. DENNIS FARINA: Update-- Omar Arroyo has
been captured in Costa Rica. He was brought back to California and was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud.
Delia Leon, who had changed her name to Marilyn Yunis, was sent to a woman's prison for 12 years.
Next, the story of Charles Mule a model policeman-- or so his partners thought. A motel in Slidell, Louisiana-- Charles Mule
escorts a 12-year-old girl to his room. Minutes later, he is arrested and charged
with the sexual molestation of a minor. The police knew the suspect well. Charles Mule was a fellow officer.
In fact, he was the head investigator of sexual offenses at the Slidell Police Department.
The young victim-- a child he was counseling. Hey, man. MAN: Yeah, what can I do for you?
Well, I'm looking for some smoking dope. DENNIS FARINA: Sergeant Mule was a highly
regarded undercover officer. - All the way to California. - All right. DENNIS FARINA: He was a master at disguises,
and once arrested the same felon three different times without being recognized.
That looks like 40 bucks to me. Mmhm. There you go. Pleasure doing business with you.
Take it easy, all right. - Sheriff's office. You're under arrest. - What are you talking about?
Up against the truck. DENNIS FARINA: Mule was assigned to the case of a 12-year-old girl who had been upset by the advances
of an older boy. The use of narcotics. You have the right to remain silent. My daughter and a friend of hers in the neighborhood
had come to me complaining about a boy who had been harassing them very badly in the neighborhood.
So all you're really gonna be doing is talking to Sergeant Mule. Now, he's probably gonna ask you a few questions.
VICTIM'S MOTHER: Finally, I did appear at the police station. And that was the first encounter we had with Sergeant Mule.
We're the Josephs. Oh, Sergeant Mule. Hi. How you doing? You must be Claire. Hi.
Well, come on in. VICTIM'S MOTHER: I had no reason not to trust him. I never regarded him as anything but a policeman.
Sergeant Mule, a policeman. Now, if you folks don't mind, you can sit out here. DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT CATHY PORTER:
And I worked most of the sex crime cases that were reported to the Slidell Police Department
at that time. When I worked with him, I thought Charlie was a pretty good policeman.
Well, folks, I think I've got this figured out. And we may have a problem. VICTIM'S MOTHER: Well, what do you mean by--
Now, I don't want you to be too concerned. I'm gonna have to interview your daughter.
I'm gonna have to interview the boy again. DENNIS FARINA: Mule took the young girl
to a motel room he had reserved for undercover work. VICTIM'S FATHER: Our daughter, she started changing.
I knew that something was bothering my daughter, because she would say, Daddy, don't look at me.
DENNIS FARINA: After four months, the girl finally told her parents what had been going on.
VICTIM'S MOTHER: And all I could keep saying was, over and over in my mind, was I can't believe that he did this.
I remember her telling me how relieved she was to get it all out. DENNIS FARINA: Police, in consultation
with the reluctant family, asked the girl to make one more rendezvous with Mule.
This time, the motel room would be a trap with a hidden video camera to secure enough evidence
for prosecution. Sheriff's office. Freeze. You're under arrest. Having to investigate another policeman, especially one
that I had been partners with, was the hardest thing I've ever done. DENNIS FARINA: Officer Porter began to go
through Mule's personal files. She was hoping that the molestation of the girl was an isolated incident.
It wasn't. If You Honor please, considering the serious gravity of these offenses--
DENNIS FARINA: Charles Mule was indicted over 25 counts relating to the molestation
and rape of six young girls. JUDGE: The fact that the defendant has no prior record and his service
to the community in the past-- DENNIS FARINA: Mule was released on $150,000 bail.
On the morning of his trial, Mule disappeared. Two days later, his pickup truck was found
abandoned on a local bridge. Soon after, the sheriff's department received an anonymous phone call.
A suicide note, signed by Mule, had been left in a gas station restroom. There is no way you can convince me that Charlie
Mule committed suicide. DENNIS FARINA: In fact, the day after the note was found,
two people saw Mule coming out of a swamp. He was dressed in hospital clothes, one of his favorite disguises, and he shot at the witnesses.
Hey, how you doing? [inaudible] shot at you the other day. And I'd like for you to just--
MAN: That's him right there. DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT CLARK THOMAS: It's number five?
We were convinced more than ever that Charles was alive, that he was in this area, and he had
not moved far from this area. DENNIS FARINA: Update-- when we first aired this story,
the FBI received several calls from viewers who reported that Mule was living in Ocala, Florida.
Mule had seen our broadcast and left the Ocala area for approximately three weeks.
When he returned, he was arrested by FBI agents and local police. After serving his time and probation,
he is now a free man.

Brief Summary

This episode features home invasions, lost gold legends, a prison escape, and encounters with men in black.

Key points

Home Invasion Horror. Dr. David Cawood and his family face a terrifying home invasion by masked intruders.
The Search for Lost Gold. Prospectors discover a hidden canyon filled with gold, but danger lurks nearby.
Ray Muniz's UFO Encounter. Ray Muniz describes a mysterious UFO sighting and an unsettling visit from men in black.
Music School Scam Exposed. Parents discover their children's music school is a front for fraud.
Sergeant Mule's Dark Secret. A respected officer is arrested for molesting a minor he was counseling.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was sure I was going to heaven.

Dr. Cawood reflecting on his near-death experience during the home invasion.

4:04WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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