Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 4, Episode 12 | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Up next on "Unsolved Mysteries," Dale Williams responds to a call for help
from a stranded motorist and never returns. When his truck is found in the river,
police suspect foul play. When the owner of a beauty salon is brutally murdered,
a door-to-door saleswoman becomes the key witness. A woman is found strangled. Her husband is the prime suspect.
Four years later, he disappears. When an infant dies, his mother is accused of murder,
then a twist of fate proves her innocence. Our team is standing by. Perhaps someone is watching who can
help solve one of these cases, and maybe it's you. I'm Dennis Farina and this is "Unsolved Mysteries."
Join us. [theme music] Montrose County, Colorado. A family taking a Sunday swim discovers a pickup
truck in the muddy water. The sheriff's department responds to the scene and it turns out to be more than a simple recovery operation.
The truck belonged to Dale Williams, who had not been seen or heard from for six weeks.
The pickup and the crime scene gave no clues to Dale's whereabouts. The only lead was a mysterious call that Dale
received before he disappeared. It was a call for help. 42-year-old Dale Williams was a devoted husband and a father
of two teenage daughters. He owned and operated an auto body shop in the town of Nucla.
The night he disappeared, Dale didn't make it home for dinner. At first, his wife, Diana, assume
d he just lost track of time, but by bedtime, she was worried. Hi, Dale. It's me.
I called the shop a couple of times and no answer. Give me a call as soon as you get in.
Bye-bye. So I thought, well, maybe he's just didn't hear the phone because he was using
the air ratchets or something. I went there about 10:00. I laid there and I felt like something was wrong.
I tossed and turned all night, woke up several times, and still wasn't home. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): By dawn,
Dale still had not returned. As soon as she got her kids off to school, Diana drove straight to Dale's garage.
Dale? When I first walked in the shop, the door was unlocked, the hood was still up on the van,
his tools were just laying around the vehicle like he had just walked away from it for a few minutes.
I went over to my mother-in-law's and she hadn't heard from him the day before or that morning.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): They searched for hours before calling the police. We thought we'd probably find him
along the way on the road somewhere where he'd maybe ran off the road. We felt like that something had to happened to him for sure,
but we felt like we would find him. But as it happened, we didn't find him. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Investigators
learned Dale had made a brief stop at Tami Lowrance office at about 12:15 the day he disappeared.
I had a windshield that I needed repaired on truck of ours. Listen, I stopped by to let you
know that I can't do your windshield until next Wednesday. - That's OK. I thought it was strange that Dale
stopped in because he didn't have to stop and tell me. He could have called me. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Dale was in a hurry.
He told Tami he was on his way to help a stranded motorist. Maybe he felt uneasy about who he was going to go give a tow.
I really don't know. All right. See you later. Bye. That was the last time that I saw Dale Williams.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Investigators also found out that Dale's friend, Tom Ross,
and his son stopped by the body shop late that morning. It was just getting close to the noon hour.
And he said, I'm real busy today, I've got a full shop. But he said, I've got time for one game of darts
if you've got time. I said, yeah. Sure. Nice job, bud! [phone ringing] A phone call come in and they were broke
down they said about 3/4 of a mile east of the Bedrock, Colorado store, just a little country store.
Yeah. I think I know where that is. TOM ROSS (VOICEOVER): I was under the impression
that it might have been a lady that called. Nothing was actually said, it was just
the way he talked and stuff. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Dale's shop did auto body
repair, he wasn't a mechanic. So it was strange for him to receive a call for roadside assistance.
I did feel odd that they called Dale for assistance. Sorry, guys. I'm going to have to take off.
But at the same time, Dale was one that was willing to go and help somebody if they were broke down.
We said our goodbyes at the shop door. That's the last time I ever saw Dale. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Dale's friends
and family printed missing posters and put them up all over town. We had missing posters up.
And I noticed I put some in the post office and about two days later, they were all gone.
So I put some more in there and in two or three days, they'd disappear. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A surveillance camera
hidden by police captured this photo of the man who tore down the flyers. He was a former friend of Dale and Diana Williams.
The individual depicted in the photographs was questioned. He denied any involvement in Dale's disappearance.
He also was able to give us some alibi for the 27th of May, and for the most part that alibi is consistent
and has been confirmed. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): 12 months before Dale vanished,
Dale and Diana had helped move the man's ex-wife to another state without his knowledge.
He was angry at Dale for helping his ex-wife move and then we wouldn't tell him where she
was at or anything like that. And I feel like he was really angry with Dale for that.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A month after the move, Dale found some disturbing items outside his shop.
He went to work and he noticed some pictures torn up there, just laying all over the ground.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The torn photographs had been stolen from his shop. They were pictures of Dale and Diana
with their now divorced friends. Several 22 caliber rounds were scattered on the ground.
A few days later, Diana made a strange discovery in the drop box at the video store she managed,
a 22 caliber revolver. The gun, like the torn photos, had been stolen from Dale's shop.
I was really nervous because I didn't know what to think. And Dale just told me to not worry about it,
things would be OK and things will settle down. Whatever happened, it was more scare him,
he felt like, than anything. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Police interviewed Dale's former friend about the burglaries.
He denied any involvement. There were no other mysterious incidents after that until 11 months later when Dale disappeared.
Dale's truck provided more clues. At the time the truck went into the river, the ignition was on
and the vehicle was in gear. The angle between the highway and the river was extremely sharp, indicating someone
had deliberately steered Dale's truck into the water. When Diana saw pictures of the truck,
she was sure someone other than her husband had driven it. The half open window was an important clue.
Dale usually drove with the driver's window all the way down, but never halfway-- always down or up.
Somebody put it in there to get rid of it, somebody who knew the river. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Police
never found the stranded driver that Dale Williams went to help. Hello there. Boy, oh boy.
It looks like you're having a-- DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): However, investigators
now know that the call was placed from a stolen cell phone. There is one more confusing fact.
Some people claim that Dale's truck was parked at a shop at 1:30 PM the day he vanished.
If that's true, Dale or someone else returned his truck within 90 minutes of the distress call.
There were even witnesses who claimed to have seen Dale early that evening at a market
in a neighboring town. I do believe that the people who saw Dale Williams between five and six
o'clock at the local grocery store did, in fact, see Dale and they are people in the community
that their word can be trusted. So what happened to Dale Williams and where is he now?
I believe Dale either saw something he shouldn't have or knew something he shouldn't have
and somebody was looking to shut him up. Maybe he was ready to go to the cops and tell what he knew
and that was their way of shutting him up. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Dale Williams
stands five feet, seven inches tall and has light sandy hair and blue eyes. If you have any information about his disappearance,
please contact us at unsolved.com. Next, a door-to-door saleswoman comes face to face with a murder suspect
moments after the crime. Roebuck, South Carolina. One summer evening, a woman we'll call Shirley
sells a bottle of cleaning fluid to a new customer, 27-year-old Dana Satterfield.
Dana owns and operates her own beauty salon just off State Highway 221. She is the mother of two and has recently
separated from her husband. She was real nice and she told me to wait because she
wanted to see my product. She was real friendly. She was outspoken, real friendly.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): After the sale, Shirley headed down the road to look for other customers.
On her way back, she looked in the window and saw that it was 8:11 PM. Dana was cleaning up to close up the shop for the night.
She was wiping out the sink. She was standing right between where I left my product at.
I waved at her and I kept going. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): After she made two more stops,
Shirley returned to the salon to wait for her ride home. I noticed the lights were on so I went and stood at street,
at the edge of the pavement. Then I noticed I heard a noise, a loud thump noise.
I kept hearing about two or three thump noises. I kept looking back. The next time Shirley turned around,
someone had turned the lights out. And I said, wow, she's getting ready to come out.
I was happy because I wanted to talk to her. By that time, I heard a big crash sound.
When I look to my left, I noticed a man getting off the ground off his knees and I just grabbed my bag
and I started running. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Shirley ran to a liquor store 50 feet away to call police.
And we met and we looked at each other. You know how a crazy person looks when they're crazy?
That's how he looked, like he was real crazy. And he scared me, so that's why I had to run
again to get away from him. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): tried trying to flag down help,
but nobody stopped so she ran to the nearest house and called 911. A deputy Sheriff arrived, assuming the beauty
shop has been robbed. He had no idea if Dana was still inside. Dana Satterfield had been beaten severely,
she had been raped, she had been strangled. And there was no indication that robbery was a motive
and there was no evidence of any other disturbance in any other part of the salon.
I just couldn't believe that anybody would want to hurt her because she never heard anyone.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): At first, police focused on Dana's husband, Mike. However, Mike says their breakup was friendly
and he did not fit the description of the man seen running from the trailer. But all friends and family and people that knew us
know that I didn't have anything to do with Dana's murder because I wouldn't put someone through that
or put my children through that or I couldn't do something like that. We've not ruled anyone out in terms
of saying that one person or another has absolutely no connection with this case.
But at this point in time, we're not actively pursuing Mike Satterfield as a suspect.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The police looked into the possibility that Mike had hired someone
to kill his wife, but the brutality of the murder was inconsistent with a professional hit.
We believe this is a predator, a serial killer, a person who would have stalked Miss Satterfield
and waited for an opportunity to kill her in the manner that they did. I'm sure he didn't anticipate a saleslady, and certainly not
a saleslady who would make a sale earlier in the evening and then come back by and be standing
in front of the trailer maybe even while this murder was taking place. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It was
pure chance that Shirley came face to face with the killer. Then, two weeks later, a second eyewitness came forward.
Ken Smith was one of Dana's customers. At around 8:40 on the night of the murder,
he was driving past the salon. As I come up to 221, I looked over at Dana's. I seen the lights off, I seen her car sitting there,
and I thought that was odd that her car was there without her lights on. As soon as I turned back around and looked at the road,
that's where I seen this guy run out of the road to the shoulder. He turned around and looked at me while he
was standing at his Bronco. As I come by, he sort of just turned around and gave me a go to hell look.
And he's got to pay for what he did to my child. And if he's done this to somebody else,
we need to stop him. Sometimes I wake up at night and sit straight up in bed and I see somebody strangling her and I can't get to her.
It's hurt us all. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Update-- 10 years after the murder, a man contacted
police with the name of a former classmate, Jonathan Christian Vick. The witness told police that he knew Vick had killed Dana
but that Vick had threatened to kill him if he told anyone. The man kept silent until one day
he just happened to meet Dana's daughter. Overcome with remorse, he decided to talk.
Police used DNA evidence to link Vick with the crime. Jonathan Vick was charged with murder, kidnapping,
and criminal sexual conduct. And he was sentenced to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in the year 2035.
Next, a bizarre double mystery. A woman is murdered. Four years later, her husband disappears.
Could there be a connection? Morro Bay, California. On the surface, a picture postcard
seaside fishing village. But this charming town holds the secret to a murder, or maybe two.
Morro Bay, California. Hugh Harlin was a well-known resident of Morro Bay who sometimes worked as a fisherman.
210. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Hugh worked when the spirit moved him, so Hugh wasn't a wealthy man.
That makes 16,000. There were a number of times that he would stop by our business and we'd be unloading fish
and he'd roll up his sleeves and pitch in. And six or seven to 10 hours later, when we're finally done,
he wouldn't take any money for his help. He wasn't just a weirdo. He might have been weird at times, but he wasn't a weirdo.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Unfortunately, his wife, Diane, squandered what little money Hugh made
on her friends and her dogs. I'm going down to the docks. Yeah. Bring me some money, Hugh.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It led to more than a one bitter argument. Groceries, food.
What did you do with the money I gave you yesterday? I spent it, OK? They weren't getting along very well.
And Diane would do bizarre things, including opening a can of dog food and serving it to Hugh for dinner.
I can't support the entire county. Hugh, do you want dinner or not? It's as simple as that, OK?
Don't walk away-- Hey, don't you touch me! DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It seemed Diane cared more for her dogs than she did for Hugh.
In fact, around town Diane was known as the dog lady. When the badly decomposed body of a woman
was found just off the beach at Morro Bay, police could not identify her but they could
identify the murder weapon. The victim had been strangled with a dog leash. Investigators immediately put out a news media release
with a description asking for the public's assistance in identifying this individual.
Later in the evening, the department was contacted by Hugh Harlan. Hugh, do you recognize this?
Hugh Harlin was shown several pieces of jewelry and he identified that jewelry as belonging
to his wife, Diane. That was hers for sure, yeah. When was the last time you saw Diane, Hugh?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Hugh had told police that Diane had been away from home for 12 days.
He said he wasn't worried until he heard about the body. I came home about 7 o'clock, she wasn't home.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): First there he told detectives the night Diane disappeared, the dogs had come
home with their leashes on. Then he said the dogs were not wearing leashes when they came home.
They didn't have their leashes. Well, which way is it, Hugh? Did they come home with them--
When Hugh Harlin changed his story, the investigators began to look more closely at him
as a possible suspect. I asked him, I said, do you know a lot of people suspect you and did you kill her?
I know she's bizarre and I know she tried to push your buttons, did you do it? He said he didn't do it.
I knew when he answered that question he was telling the truth. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Eventually, police
ruled out Hugh as a suspect. The case remained unsolved and four years passed. Then one day, Hugh went to a friend's
house to borrow some tools for a construction job up the coast. You probably need these hand tools.
Yeah. Throw them up in there. You're all set, Hugh. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Hugh set off for San Simeon,
27 miles north of Morro Bay. The next thing we knew, I had gotten a call from a mutual friend in Cambria
wondering why Hugh's truck was just sitting off the side of the road and had been for a day or so.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Steve Matthew and a friend, Eddie Grimes, drove to Cambria to check
out Hugh's abandoned truck. Got a wheelbarrow there. No keys in the truck. I got curious as to what was going on.
I took a look inside. I saw Hugh's glasses on the dash. I saw a couple of tins on the dash.
One was tobacco and one was some ragweed pot that he smoked quite regularly. All of these things weren't really adding up to me
since three days or so had transpired since the last time I'd seen him and this is
basically the way he had left. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Before Steve and Eddie left,
they did a quick search of the area. Hey, Eddie. Here's the keys. What the hell are they doing there?
STEVE MATTHEW (VOICEOVER): It was at that point that I decided that there were just too many
elements involved here to be a straight-up situation. I think we ought to call the cops.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Did Hugh Harlan meet with foul play or did he just choose to disappear?
There are several possibilities as to what could have happened to Mr. Harlin. Number one, he simply it could have possibly
staged his disappearance. He knows he had been at one time questioned regarding the homicide of his wife.
I totally believe that Hugh was smart enough and crafty enough to engineer his own disappearance, and just
in exactly this manner. The thing that I have never been able to decide is if that's actually what he did
or if there was some foul play here. If he wanted to disappear, Hugh's the kind of person that would have
left his truck with somebody he wanted to have it. He wouldn't have left it by the side of the road like that.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Authorities now think that Hugh may have been murdered by the same person who killed Diane.
I believe and I think investigators at time believed that Hugh Harlin knew more about the case
than he was telling them. And my concern is that possibly he was harmed by some individual who may very
well have harmed Diane Harlin. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The case of Diane and Hugh
Harlin remains unsolved. The key to the mystery lies in finding Hugh Harlin, if he's alive.
At the time of his disappearance, Hugh weighed between 130 and 150 pounds. He is five feet, six inches tall and is
missing the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. If you have any information, please log on to our website
at unsolved.com. Next, a young mother is convicted of murdering her own child. She must find a way to prove her innocence.
A young mother rushes her critically ill baby to the hospital. His breathing is labored and he's vomiting uncontrollably.
It's just the beginning of a nightmare that will last more than two years. St. Louis, Missouri.
The baby was three-month-old Ryan Stallings. Since birth, he had suffered from chronic gastric distress.
Ryan was immediately placed in the pediatric intensive care unit. He was hooked up to a respirator
and all kinds of tubes going in and out of him. And it was awful. It was just a shock to see a little baby
incapacitated the way he was. It was to the point where they said, well, they don't know how long he's going to be here,
we don't know what's wrong with him yet. So you might as well just go to the waiting room
and stay out there until we can tell you what's wrong. Hi. Mr. Stallings? Yes, sir.
I'm Dr. Baylor, chief of Pediatrics. Happy to see you. This is Mrs. Jergensen of Family Services.
David and Patty Stallings rented a hospital room to be near their son. After three agonizing days, the Stallings' learned
that Ryan would recover. Ryan's fine. There are no problems. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The diagnosis, however,
was shocking. Ryan had been poisoned. When the lab tests came back, we found a couple of substances.
Those substances are ethyl glycol and acetone. Ethyl glycol is the substance that you'll find in radiator
antifreeze and acetone is in fingernail polish remover, for example. He goes, do you have in the house?
I said, yeah. Patty uses it on her fingernails to remove her old fingernail polish.
He goes, well, that's got acetone in it. I said, OK. He said, do you have antifreeze?
I said, yes. I have antifreeze. I'd just rebuilt the radiator on my vehicle and I had a partial gallon left in the basement.
He says, well, that's what we're saying he may have gotten. Do you happen to know how he could have gotten it?
They were very polite yet suspicious. They would not allow us to see Ryan alone.
There would have to be at least two nurses or a doctor present. We were never allowed to be on his bedside alone.
Now, that bothered me but I still didn't understand because I wasn't looking at it the way
they were, I guess. I just have to ask you a few questions if you could come in for a moment.
Sure. David, you have a seat. I'll come get you in a minute. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): On that same day,
the police were brought in to investigate. We were split up and talked to by detectives.
They immediately started asking me, well, is there a problem at home? Are you and David fighting?
They were saying that they knew that that baby had been poisoned by either me or my husband.
It infuriated me and I was just devastated. I was blown away. I just could not believe that they could even think-- I mean,
Ryan was my world. Ryan was so beautiful and he was perfect. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Ryan's condition improved.
After 12 days, he was released from the hospital but not to the custody of his parents.
A social worker come up to us and told us that they were taking custody of Ryan from us.
And at that point, I became very angry. She said, well, this is policy. When there's a suspected poisoning,
we take children from the parents and put them in foster care. That's a boy. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Patty and David
were allowed only a one-hour visit each week on Thursdays. I just could not wait till Thursday.
My whole week I would tell everybody over and over and over how last Thursday went.
That was my life-- Thursday, Thursday morning. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): For five weeks,
the parental visits continued. During the sixth visit, Patty was left alone with Ryan for a short time.
Three days later, he suffered another severe attack of vomiting. Once again, he was rushed to the hospital
and once again, the diagnosis was poisoning. I have a warrant for yourself. A what?
PATTY STALLINGS (VOICEOVER): We were getting out the car and they said, stop right there.
And I turned around and I was like, well, come on into the house. And they said no, you're not allowed to go into the house.
They immediately slapped handcuffs on me and said, you're under arrest for assault.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Patty Stallings was arrested and charged with assault. And if that weren't enough,
David was left alone to deal with their dying son. I knew it wasn't true. I didn't care what they thought.
I just thought, well, I'll be home in a couple hours. This will be over with, I'll get to go be with Ryan.
And then the day turned into a night and then it got really serious. I got really scared.
The doctors come up to me and tell me that they have a feeling that Ryan's not going to make it
and that maybe I should get in contact with a minister and have him baptized. I tried to get Patty up there and all I got from the judge
was no, absolutely not. I'm not going to let a baby killer up there. And I said, this lady did not kill this baby.
And when they finally come back to me and told me that we need to know if we can turn him off,
I told them go ahead and shut the machine down but I wanted to be in there with him.
So for three hours, I sat there with him in my arms knowing that Patty couldn't be there watching
this meter on this machine go down each time his heart would beat. They called me back about nine o'clock that night
and I went up to the phone and it was David's voice and he told me he died. And I started begging that he could come up and see me.
And the deputy on duty said he could. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): When Ryan Stallings died,
he was just five months old. Patty was charged with first degree murder and held without bail.
She was not allowed to attend Ryan's funeral. A few weeks later, Patty discovered
she was pregnant again. Six months later, David Stallings, Jr. Was born. Even though David, Sr. Was not a suspect,
he was not allowed to take his son home. The baby was placed in foster care. Ironically, this would turn out to be a stroke of good luck.
Without it, Patty might have spent the rest of her life in prison. Next, Patty and David Stallings are accused of poisoning
their second newborn child. When David and Patty Stallings' baby died, authorities charged Patty with murder.
Then she found out she was pregnant with her second child. When David Stallings, Jr. Was two weeks old,
he began to exhibit symptoms identical to the ones that had plagued his brother, Ryan.
This time, the diagnosis was different. David, Jr. Had a rare genetic disorder in which the body
produces chemical byproducts that are similar to the chemicals found in antifreeze.
It would be very simple to confuse the diagnosis of MMA with multiple poisonings because the symptoms are very similar.
But more importantly than that, MMA and other similar disorders are very rare and the majority of doctors
either will never have seen a case, or if they have seen a case didn't know that they saw it and actually confused it.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): While prosecutors re-evaluated the medical evidence, Patty Stallings was released from jail.
However, she was denied visitation rights with her newborn son. I thought it was over as far as the nightmare of being
accused of hurting Ryan. Even my lawyer said it was over. There was no way that they could not see the truth
right in front of their eyes. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Yet local officials continued
to pursue Ryan's case. Their position was that Ryan Stallings had not died from MMA.
In the judge's chambers, they cited four expert witnesses. The judge refused to allow the diagnosis of David, Jr.
To be presented to the jury. We were concerned that if it came out that David, Jr.
or Ryan, for that matter, had this methylmalonic acidosis unless it could be shown that he actually died of that
or it was some kind of a contributing factor to his death, we believe that that would not be relevant
and in fact might cause a jury to go off on a wild goose chase and make a decision based on something
that's really not relevant. First cases in the family are often missed, and it's only when it occurs again
that the medical practitioners are tipped off to the fact that this may well be a genetic disorder
and maybe the first child had that as well. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Without the medical testimony,
the case against Patty seemed airtight. The prosecution focused on one of Patty and David's
parental visits with Ryan. On the sixth visit, my parents were invited for the first time
and then about 20 minutes into the visit, my mom and dad decided they were going
to go ahead and leave that Patty and I had the rest of the time with him. We'll be right back.
So I escorted my mom and dad out of the room, walked down the hall. I was out of the room no more than 45 seconds at the most.
Patricia was left alone with the child from about three minutes to about eight minutes, during that time did actually
feed the child a bottle. The child again got the same symptoms had before, came back
into the hospital, was diagnosed with ethylene glycol poisoning. At that time, a number of bottles
were also examined for possible traces. And while there were negative effects and in all the bottles
but one, one bottle which was identified as the bottle she had fed the baby with actually contained
traces of ethylene glycol. That bottle had actually been prepared by the foster mother
and retrieved from the baby bag during a visit. The state believes, and certainly
circumstantial evidence suggests, that she slipped ethylene glycol or antifreeze into the bottle
during that feeding. What they were trying to say was she started feeding him before anybody got in there.
And that's wrong, that's incorrect. What happened was I walked back to the cubby hole
where Patty was with Ryan. He just started getting a little cranky, so I reached into the bag and took the baby bottle
out and started feeding him. I saw the bottle. I did not smell, I did not see any discoloration in the bottle
whatsoever. There was nothing done to that bottle-- absolutely nothing. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): According to Patty's lawyers,
Ryan's symptoms did not appear until three and a half days after the visit. I would be amazed if something as volatile and as easily
fusible as ethylene glycol would require 80 hours in order to cause symptoms in a young child.
I believe it would have to happen a lot faster than that, and therefore it seems much less probable
that this was a poisoning. Ryan was taken from the visit by the DFS worker to the foster parents' home but later that day or actually
early the next morning was taken to what we call respite home, temporary foster parents who
kept him just for the weekend. The second set of foster parents, not knowing what the child was like,
may well have overlooked symptoms that the first set would have seen. The defendant will rise and face the court.
On count one, assault with a deadly weapon, the court finds you guilty as charged.
On count two, murder in the first degree, the court finds you guilty as charged.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Patty Stallings was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Her few visits with her son were limited to one hour. David Stallings, Sr. was allowed to see his son once a week.
I cannot see how they can live with themselves knowing that they sent an innocent woman to jail
the rest of her life for something that she didn't do. If Ryan would have been correctly diagnosed with MMA,
none of this would have happened. None of this series of events in the last two years
would have happened. It all depended on whether he was correctly diagnosed, which he was not.
I truly do believe in the system. And I think that when 12 people heard the evidence
and they returned the verdict that they did, that it's the right person. On count one, assault with a deadly weapon,
the court finds you guilty as charged. I've lost one child to MMA, my second child is stricken
with MMA and may not live. I lost my freedom. I've lost everything. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Update--
shortly after this story aired, doctors from all over the country called to say that they
were familiar with MMA. A renowned scientist from Yale University performed tests which confirmed that MMA
was the cause of Ryan's death. At a press conference, the prosecutor announced that he had dropped all charges
against the Stallings family. Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering that the Stallings have endured during this entire ordeal.
And I apologize to them both personally and for the State of Missouri. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): David Stallings,
Jr. was finally going home. I just want to make up for the year and a half that we didn't have him.
It's hard to make up that much time, but I'm doing the best I can. His condition is very scary, but we've
tackled so many hard things that we've just kind of said, we'll beat this, too. And with that attitude, I know that DJ will do all right
and that we'll do OK. He is a miracle child and we're lucky to have DJ and we have our whole life back and it's
like we're starting over. It's indescribably wonderful. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): At the time
this program was produced, DJ was doing just fine. [theme music]

Brief Summary

This episode covers Dale Williams' disappearance, Dana Satterfield's murder, the Harlin case, and Patty Stallings' wrongful conviction.

Key points

Dale Williams Disappearance. Dale Williams goes missing after responding to a call for help, leading to a mysterious investigation.
Dana Satterfield Murder. A door-to-door saleswoman becomes a key witness in the brutal murder of Dana Satterfield.
Hugh Harlin's Mysterious Disappearance. Four years after his wife's murder, Hugh Harlin disappears under suspicious circumstances.
The Unsolved Mystery of Hugh Harlin. The case of Diane and Hugh Harlin remains a mystery, with Hugh's fate unknown.
A Mother's Nightmare. Patty Stallings faces accusations of poisoning her son, leading to a devastating ordeal.
Tragic Misdiagnosis. Ryan's death was linked to a rare genetic disorder, not poisoning, leading to wrongful charges.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Ryan was my world.

A mother expresses her deep love for her son.

28:38WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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