Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 4, Episode 14 | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA: Next on "Unsolved Mysteries." Kevin McElroy is in a terrible jam.
He has to raise nearly a quarter of a million dollars in ransom or kidnappers will murder his son.
In 1945, five Navy bombers vanish fueling the legend of the Bermuda triangle. Now one of those missing planes may have been located.
A beautiful young woman is found murdered in an empty schoolyard. A stranger was seen hitting on her in a supermarket.
Could he be the killer? And 10 savings accounts in eight different states opened by a mysterious man named George J. Stein.
His unknown heirs could inherit everything. Whether it's murder, missing persons, or the paranormal.
For the next hour it's "Unsolved Mysteries." I'm Dennis Farina. [theme music] DENNIS FARINA: Troop, Texas.
The home of 18-year-old Kyle McElroy. Ha, ha! Day shift is over. Time for the real workers.
DENNIS FARINA: Kyle worked for his father Kevin, who owned a plastics factory. At the end of each day, Kyle would
take over as the supervisor of the night shift. Together, father and son made their plastics company
a huge success. Kyle had a bright future. McElroy Plastics. DENNIS FARINA: Friday, March 10th
Who is this? DENNIS FARINA: 9:20 AM. Sarah who? Bonnie came in and told me that--
asked me if I knew a Sarah. And I said, well what company does she work for? She said, she wouldn't tell me nothing.
This is McElroy. How can I help you? SARAH (ON PHONE): Kevin. We have your son. Take the 110 South.
You'll find his truck there. Look in the truck for further instructions. Do not call the police.
KEVIN MCELROY: I'm thinking, you know, it's maybe a joke. I'm not really in the mood for this right now.
KEVIN MCELROY: And I'm really not believing what I'm hearing. Put him on the phone.
So she put Kyle on the phone just for maybe five seconds or so. KYLE (ON PHONE): Daddy.
Do what they say. They mean it. Or they're gonna kill me. DENNIS FARINA: Kyle had last been
seen at the end of his work shift the previous night. His father was now certain that the mysterious Sarah
was for real. Kevin McElroy had only seconds to decide what to do. Despite the kidnappers warnings, he contacted the police.
His son's life was at risk and he needed all the help that he could get. DENNIS FARINA: Kevin set out to give the kidnappers
instructions from Kyle's truck. One officer followed him at a discreet distance.
A second officer, pretending to be a rancher, would be stationed just up the road from Kyle's truck.
The truck was locked and Kevin did not have a key. KEVIN MCELROY: I was thinking, what if while I'm trying to get
in the pickup it blows up. DENNIS FARINA: The ransom note, however, was right where Sarah said it would be.
The letter said that they were asking for $200,000 in $100 bills. And that I had seven hours to come up with the money
and then go back to my office and that's when they would call me and tell me where to drop it off at.
DENNIS FARINA: Only 6 and 1/2 hours remain until the deadline expired. The FBI had taken charge of the case and briefed Kevin
on their plan. There was nothing in that note to tell us where Kyle was, where to get the money, or what means Kyle would be released.
So we knew the abductors had to contact Mr. McElroy again. DENNIS FARINA: For their plan to work,
FBI agents needed to be at Kevin's factory when the kidnappers called again, but no one could know.
Kevin's workers were told that there was a break down at the plant and they were all sent home.
At 4:00 PM, the FBI moved in. By this time Kevin had collected only half of the $200,000 ransom.
We're inside. DENNIS FARINA: 6:30 PM. Hello. SARAH (ON PHONE): Do you have the money?
KEVIN (ON PHONE): I got most of it. SARAH (ON PHONE): What do you mean most of the money?
I can't get the whole $200,000. It's Friday. The banks don't have it. DENNIS FARINA: The FBI worked quickly to trace the call.
SARAH (ON PHONE): You don't have any more time. The FBI had asked me to stall her.
I said, you're going to get your money. I said, but I want to talk to Kyle and I want to make sure he's all right.
She said, he's fine. She said, you're not going to get to talk to him. SARAH (ON PHONE): Listen to me.
Pay attention. Take the money you have. DENNIS FARINA: Sarah told Kevin to drive to a pay phone
outside a nearby restaurant. There he would find another note telling him what to do next.
SARAH (ON PHONE): Go alone. DENNIS FARINA: The call was traced to a remote phone booth.
But by the time the FBI got there Sarah was gone. The only thing to do now was to follow her orders.
It's for your own protection understand me? Yeah. DENNIS FARINA: 7:15 PM. KEVIN MCELROY: I didn't see a note.
I was expecting a little brown envelope like the ransom note come in. Maybe there's something in this trash.
Maybe on a candy wrapper. On the very bottom of that pile was a note. DENNIS FARINA: The note told Kevin
to take the ransom to a laundromat a half a mile away. He would then get another call at his office telling
him where he could find Kyle. The FBI quickly set up a SWAT team near the back of the laundromat.
FBI AGENT (OFF SCREEN): We got a 360 degree view. There's no movement at this time.
When Kevin drove up to the laundromat to drop out the ransom money there was a lot of tension.
Any time someone's life is on the line there's a lot of tension. You want to get this done and then find
the victim as soon as possible. DENNIS FARINA: One hour passed. FBI AGENT (OFF SCREEN): Suspects approaching from the north.
Beanie caps, blue sweatshirts, blue jeans. They're looking around. Going for the money.
Got the money. They're go. FBI freeze! Go, go, go. Go, go. DENNIS FARINA: The FBI arrested three men.
One, Victor Faredes, was an employee of McElroy Plastics and a friend of Kyle's.
The FBI soon learned that his real name was Daniel Rios. But the woman who called herself Sarah was nowhere to be found.
The suspects told the FBI that Kyle was waiting at an abandoned farm outside of town.
It was late in the evening. They asked me if they could speak to me. They had some information for me.
And I could tell by the looks on their face that it wasn't good. And they said he that was dead.
They found him dead. It's like somebody walking up and hitting you, but you can't feel it.
You know, you think about it and it just-- it just makes you mad. DENNIS FARINA: The medical examiner
determined that Kyle had been killed before the first ransom call was ever made.
The FBI believes that Kyle's abductors recorded his voice and then killed him. Sarah later played this tape to Kevin over the phone.
Investigators learned that Sarah was actually Desiree Dawn Lingo-Perkins, a transient with a history
of mental illness. Police issued a warrant for her arrest. Update. Desiree Lingo-Perkins has been captured
in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. She caught the attention of police on a routine patrol when she fled for no apparent reason.
After they captured Lingo-Perkins, police learned that she was wanted in the States.
Desiree Lingo-Perkins pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Alfredo Romero was sentenced to 30 years. Ernesto Baylon to 50 years. And Daniel Rios to life in prison.
Next, five Navy bombers disappear while on a training mission. Could they be victims of the Bermuda Triangle?
[music playing] Fort Lauderdale, Florida. December 5th, 1945. Five Navy Avenger torpedo bombers take off
on a routine training flight. There are 14 men on board. The mission is known as Flight 19.
Five hours later the entire squadron has vanished without a trace. A modern legend of the supernatural is quickly born.
It has been called the Triangle of Death, the Hoodoo Sea, or the graveyard of the Atlantic.
But to most of us, the area where the five planes disappeared is known as the Bermuda Triangle.
This area extends from the south of Florida, northeast to Bermuda, and then southeast to Puerto Rico.
Some researchers claim that since the early 1900s, over 100 ships and planes have disappeared in this region.
But the triangle's most famous victims were the five Avengers of Flight 19. Some say that Flight 19 was swallowed up
by supernatural forces in the Bermuda Triangle. But after years of research a former helicopter pilot
named Jon Myhre has a more scientific theory. In fact Myhre believes that he has located
one of the missing planes. DENNIS FARINA: Jon Myhre has carefully studied the squadron's flight plan,
radio transmissions, and the weather on the day of the disappearance. When I read the story, and I read the transcripts
of the radio conversations, and I said, if this is true and this is true, then I think I can find one of the airplanes.
DENNIS FARINA: It all began at the Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
It was the afternoon of December 5th, 1945. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was assigned to command Flight 19.
He was known as a cool, capable pilot, with over 2,500 hours as a Naval aviator.
You will fly 123 miles southeast. DENNIS FARINA: Before takeoff, the crew of Flight 19
was briefed on the routine training exercise. That afternoon the five planes lifted off and headed out
over the Atlantic. Their plan was to fly 123 nautical miles southeast, practice a bomb run, push 73 miles northwest,
and had 120 miles back to Fort Lauderdale. Flight 19 consisted of four student pilots who
were qualified Naval aviators. They had gone through all of their training but this one flight.
FT 28 to flight I'm making my clearing turn. The flight was not following Charles Taylor.
He was the instructor pilot who was trailing behind the rest of the flight. He was grading their performance.
He wasn't doing the navigating. The other pilots in the flight were doing their own navigation.
FT 28 to flight. Target is at 12 o'clock, one mile out. Let's see what you're made of.
DENNIS FARINA: The men successfully completed the practice bomb run. But on the second leg of the flight,
Taylor's compass began to malfunction. I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn.
Powers, what does your compass read? POWERS (ON RADIO): Lieutenant, we're at 330 degrees.
DENNIS FARINA: Myhre believes that the crewman's compass reading was correct. But Lieutenant Taylor remained convinced that they were lost.
TAYLOR (ON RADIO): My compass is out. Time I am over small islands. Believe to be Florida Keys.
DENNIS FARINA: Taylor had made a critical mistake. He thought that Flight 19 was in the Gulf of Mexico,
flying over the Florida Keys. Myhre believes that the flight was actually flying over the Abaco Islands in the west
Atlantic, 300 miles northeast of where Taylor thought he was. From the air the two island chains look very similar.
Taylor ordered the plane to fly northeast and then due east. If they had been over the Keys, this route would
have taken them safely home. Instead it took them further out to sea. By 5:00 PM the sun was setting and the weather
was getting worse. Flight 19 was headed east away from their base when they began to lose radio contact.
The base heard one of the last pilot-to-pilot communications. PILOT (ON RADIO): We just head west we get home.
Dammit if we'd just head west we get home. DENNIS FARINA: Fuel was low and time was running out.
According to Myhre, Taylor finally listened to his crewmen and headed west towards the Florida coast.
JON MYHRE: So he flew due west for 49 minutes until the first airplane crashed. PILOT (ON RADIO): Dammit, I'm going down.
I got to ditch. Do you read? Do you read? Dammit, do you read? DENNIS FARINA: Myhre thinks that the remaining four pilots then
made another fatal mistake. They were only seven minutes away from the Florida coast,
but they still had not spotted land. They began to think that they were flying over the Gulf of Mexico.
So they once again reversed their course and headed east. This took them back out to sea where they would disappear.
For the next five days the Navy conducted a massive search. No trace of the planes or the 14 missing men was ever found.
Myhre believes that the first plane crashed here, only 30 miles off the Florida coast,
near Cape Canaveral. But finding a single Avenger in the ocean was an overwhelming task.
Until a national tragedy struck. In 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger exploded
after liftoff some of that debris fell in the exact location where Myhre believes
the first plane crashed. The underwater search for the challenger record you may have uncovered one of the Avengers from Flight 19.
Next, the daring attempt to raise the unidentified plane from the sea. [music playing]
Shortly after World War II, five planes carrying 14 crew members mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.
Decades later when the space shuttle Challenger exploded after takeoff, the search for its debris
may have uncovered remnants of one of the Avengers. 30 Miles from Cape Canaveral, the salvage team
found a wrecked plane submerged in 400 feet of water. Jon Myhre believed the discovery supported his theory.
Several years later he was able to see the wreckage for himself. Myhre went down in a submarine to inspect it.
We knew we had a wreck, but we didn't know what type of airplane it was. To say I was on the edge of my seat, along with my colleagues,
would be an understatement. DENNIS FARINA: As they came near the wreck, the wing of a plane
became visible. JON MYHRE: Oh my god. I can't believe I'm here. DENNIS FARINA: But was it the right plane?
One distinctive feature of the Avenger is its bomb bay, located under the fuselage.
The submerged plane is upside down. Here the bomb bay cavity is clearly visible.
JON MYHRE: I can't believe it. DENNIS FARINA: Another recognizable feature of the Avenger is its wheel well.
Here it can be seen on the underside of the wing. JON MYHRE: Oh my god. DENNIS FARINA: However, the Avenger's most unusual feature
is the ball turret, which protected that gunner behind the pilot. The plane Myhre found is upside down and partially buried
in the sand, but the unique crosshatch of the turret's window frame is clearly visible.
JON MYHRE: There's no question we've got an Avenger, folks. After all, at this point, eight years of research,
to actually be right over top of this wreckage was just incredible. DENNIS FARINA: Using the submarine's mechanical arm,
Myhre removed the engine cowling. He was hoping to find a serial number that would confirm
that this Avenger belonged to Flight 19 but after examining the cowling, Myhre was unable to find
any serial numbers. JON MYHRE: The only way to prove whether this is indeed Flight
19 aircraft is going to be to raise that sucker out of the water. It'll remain a mystery until we can raise the airplane.
Lifting a plane from the floor of the ocean is no easy task, but Jon Myhre's solid research had attracted supporters.
With his new partners, Larry Schwartz and Diana Laws, Myhre began a massive recovery operation known as Project 19.
DENNIS FARINA: Previous dives had revealed that the engine and propeller had separated from the main body of the plane.
The wreckage would be brought up in two sections. First, the engine and propeller assembly,
and then the main body. There was a Navy bureau number on the engine, and there was also a manufacturer stamp
number in the engine block. So we raise that engine we should be able to get a positive ID from that.
DENNIS FARINA: At last the moment of truth is at hand. The submarine's robotic arm wraps
nylon straps around the propeller and the engine housing. 400 feet above a 50-ton crane begins raising the wreckage.
Slowly, the propeller and the engine assembly is lifted on board. But the condition of the wreckage
makes the immediate identification of the plane impossible. The corrosion that has taken place over the last 50 years
has deteriorated any number, or any sort of marking on the engine itself. DENNIS FARINA: The next step is the recovery
of the wing and fuselage. The submarine's crew attaches a cable to a harness that holds the sunken plane.
The crane begins to lift the plane 400 feet to the surface, but the coral-encrusted Avenger weighs about three times more
than expected. The harness and cable strain under the weight. Suddenly the crane's steel cable goes slack.
Shut it down. Shut it down! The plane either collapsed, or something caught it. Something went boom, and now there's not much load.
DENNIS FARINA: The cable snaps in two, sending the Avenger back to the bottom. At dawn, the crew is ready to try again.
It's still sitting in the same position that it was before, which is upside down.
All the rigging is still on it. And so all we've got to do is get down there, hook onto it,
and it's going to come up. We're going to see it today. DENNIS FARINA: But this time as the plane comes up,
there's yet another problem. The wings are buckling. Divers immediately go down to reinforce the wings.
If they fail, the wings will tear off and the plane will sink again to the ocean floor.
The Avenger torpedo bomber resumes its assent. Finally, gloriously, the plane breaks the surface.
For Jon Myhre, the successful recovery of the Avenger marks the end of a nine year quest for the truth.
You'd think you'd be elated, and everybody screaming and jumping up and down. It's there, but it's subdued, you know.
It's tempered by knowing some good people died a long time ago, and we're not going to forget them.
DENNIS FARINA: The wreckage of the Avenger was taken to Marineland near St. Augustine, Florida.
And there, members of Project 19 recorded the numbers from parts of the recovered aircraft.
Several of these numbers did partially match those of one of the lost Avengers from Flight 19.
But Meyer and his team were unable to positively identify the recovered aircraft.
Perhaps some day the other planes that were lost that fateful day will be found and the mystery of Flight 19 will finally be solved.
Next, he could have been a friend, or he could have been her killer. Who was with Veronica Jefferson the night she was murdered?
[music playing] Arlington, Virginia. Police arrived at a schoolyard where the body of a young woman
has been found. She has been raped and shot once at point blank range. I think when you arrive at a crime scene at 3 o'clock
in the morning, and you find a young woman shot to death. She was sexually assaulted and then murdered.
I think you start out with kind of a sick feeling in your stomach. Kind of a disgust for crime in general.
DENNIS FARINA: The condition of the woman's clothing indicates that the rape was not a random act of violence.
In most rape cases there are some signs of force. Maybe there are tears in the clothing, which there
were not any on the scene. It may have been more like a date rape. Someone that she knew and it went too far.
DENNIS FARINA: The victim is identified as 24-year-old Veronica Jefferson, who had recently moved to the DC area from Oklahoma.
At the time of her death Veronica was working as a finance officer for the CIA, but nothing in her background suggested
any motive for her murder. The next day Veronica's red Camaro with its distinctive personal license
plates reading "MS VLJ" was found parked at a supermarket two blocks from her apartment.
The vehicle was unlocked, and the keys were missing. The vehicle was examined for fingerprints,
but the car appeared to have been wiped clean. Looks like we have a receipt inside.
Time and date stamped. DENNIS FARINA: This receipt showed that Veronica left the market at 9:30 PM.
Purse on the rear seat. DENNIS FARINA: Surprisingly, Veronica's cash and her credit
cards were still in her purse. Box cutter. DENNIS FARINA: This box cutter and the location of the car led
detectives to focus their investigation on the workers at the supermarket. They began to interview all 186 employees.
- Agree to cooperate? - I'll take you two. Why don't you follow me? How about this gentleman?
One good suspect admitted that he had seen her the day that she was killed in the supermarket.
And he was able to describe her all the way down to her red shoes. Did you ever talk to her?
Yeah I talked to her a few times. You ever go out with her? No. I tried, but I don't think she was interested in me.
BOB CARRIG: When we were able to narrow the field down from 186 down to six, it was my job to get a sample of their blood
to either eliminate them, or possibly to find the individual that committed this crime.
DENNIS FARINA: Body fluid that was found at the crime scene showed a rare blood type common to only 4% of the population.
Veronica's attacker could definitively be identified by crosschecking this blood
type with a DNA sample that was also found at the crime scene. But there were no matches.
All six suspects from the market were cleared. But four days after the murder, an off duty police officer
claimed that he had seen Veronica the night that she was killed. She was in her car and there was a man driving.
I was on my way to work. It was approximately a quarter of 10:00 PM in the evening.
While I was waiting to make a left, there was a car approaching me from the opposite direction.
It had its bright lights on me. That's what first drew my attention to the car. As this car turned the corner, he ran over the curb
and I don't mean just bumped it, but really ran over the curb. As the car turned, I noticed the license plate on the car.
They were personalized tags and they read "MS VLJ." The driver was apparently very involved
in conversation as he was driving slow and weaving up the road. It did not seem like there was any trouble in the car.
The woman got out of the car. She bent down and they had words for 15, 20 seconds.
She wasn't in any distress. She wasn't frantic. They just seemed to be friends and he was saying bye.
I got tired of watching and went around the car and on my way. The more and more I thought about it, the more I
wished that I could have pulled this person over at this time, and in some way, maybe that would have prevented
the death of Miss Jefferson. It had to have been someone that Veronica was familiar with.
A friend, an old friend, someone she really felt comfortable with. In order to let them drive her car.
We were able to get a list of male friends and acquaintances of Veronica's. All her male friends that we know of have been interviewed,
blood has been taken and all have been eliminated as suspects. After Veronica's friends were cleared
the investigation came to a complete standstill. Then a year after the murder two eyewitnesses came forward.
They remembered seeing Veronica in the market less than two hours before she was killed.
On the night in question my wife and I both went to the supermarket to pick up a few items.
On arriving at the deli counter, I noticed this very attractive, I would say beautiful girl. - Hello.
DELI CLERK (OUT OF FRAME): Hi, may I help you? Yes. JOHN FLANAGAN: A man approached her and started
a conversation with her. Salad, right? No. Now, come on. I know it's got to be salad with you looking that good.
I had the distinct impression that he was trying to pick her up. Because I generally had the feeling that he did
not know her, or had not been in any previous company of hers. DENNIS FARINA: Veronica was seen again outside the store she
was talking with the same man. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could watch the body language.
And I had the feeling that something was wrong. She continually looked around the parking lot.
She looked as if she was searching for someone who knew her, or someone to get her out of this situation.
But she did smile at him she did laugh. And I had an uneasy feeling about it, but it wasn't that dramatic enough
that would have made me push ahead to say do you need help. There's a possibility that the suspect
was once involved with Veronica and no one else knew that. He feels that his identity will never
be known because of that fact. We continue to investigate unsolved homicides until the end.
They may not be solved, but they're never forgotten. I think it's important that the killer understand that we
will not stop looking for him. We are still looking and we will find him. DENNIS FARINA: Update.
16 years after Veronica Jefferson was raped and killed, investigators matched DNA from a death row inmate
to DNA that was found on Veronica's body. Alfredo Rolando Prieto had already been sentenced to death
for killing a teenage girl in California two years after murdering Veronica in Arlington, Virginia.
Coming up, who is the mysterious George Stein, and where are the heirs to his fortune?
[music playing] On a previous broadcast we presented the puzzling case of Sandra Orellana, who fell 10 stories to her death
from this hotel balcony in southern California. Investigators weren't sure if it was an accident, suicide,
or murder. Sandra had come to California on a business trip with her boss Robert Salazar.
They checked into adjacent rooms on the eighth floor. The next morning Sandra's body was found
sprawled on the ground below. When police interviewed Robert Salazar, he told them that he had escorted Sandra out
to her room around midnight and that he left her alive and well. But detectives became suspicious when they found some
of his clothing in her room. When questioned again Salazar told a very different story.
He said that he had in fact gone into the room with Sandra and that they had engaged in sex.
And that they were on the balcony. Sandra had positioned herself on the railing of the balcony
in such a way that she threw one of her legs over the top of the balcony and lost her balance
and had fallen. DENNIS FARINA: Sandra's family was outraged. They felt that she would never have
had consensual sex with Salazar because she was devoted to her fiance. Police use the dummy to test Salazar's
account of what happened. We tried it several times, and we actually ended up trying to make it land where she landed.
And we had to basically throw the dummy in that direction to make it land there.
I don't believe that is possible that she could have fallen off the balcony I think that something else caused
her to fall off the balcony that Mr Salazar has not yet revealed. DENNIS FARINA: Despite suspicions of the police
Robert Salazar was not initially charged with a crime. Update. Five years after Sandra's death Robert Salazar
was arrested for her murder. The large item. Your honor, I'm going to ask-- DENNIS FARINA: Charges of both first and second degree murder
were filed after investigators re-evaluated evidence, and DNA tests. A year after his arrest Robert Salazar went to trial.
He was found not guilty in the death of Sandra Orellana. According to investigators this case is officially closed.
DENNIS FARINA: On November 12th, 1936 a man named George J. Stein opened the savings account for $120 at a bank in Ripon, Wisconsin.
George left behind no social security number and no home address. For the next 16 years, George opened
over a dozen bank accounts throughout the Midwest. However he'd never return to get his money.
The deposits totaled more than $100,000. Stein's accounts were scattered across the Midwest.
Three in Wisconsin. Three in Minnesota and Indiana. And at least one in Iowa and Illinois.
Investigator Tom Becker became interested in one of the Indiana accounts. This was the only one that I could
find where he gave an address other than general delivery or YMCA. Or on the account might say address unknown.
He gave an address of 505 Washington Street, Indianapolis. DENNIS FARINA: This address out to be
a company that made men's hats, gloves, and other accessories. Tom was able to match a description of Stein
to a description of a traveling salesman named Ralph Barnett. Barnett's sales territories went through many of the same towns
where Stein had set up accounts. TOM BECKER: So as he acquired more money than he needed for living expenses,
my theory is he would mail it to one of the savings and loans. Barnett, or whoever George J. Stein was,
eventually met an unfortunate end. Maybe a heart attack. Maybe he was murdered. Who knows.
And as he disappeared very suddenly, he never made a withdrawal on any of these accounts.
Nobody deposits money without the intention of ever withdrawing it. DENNIS FARINA: Genealogist Frances
Scoll has a different theory. When she went through Stein's deposit records, she discovered a return address for the name Ed Fay written
on one of the envelopes. In some newspapers from 1903, she discovered who Ed Fay might have been.
FRANCES SCOLL: A man named Ed Fay had robbed a post office with his gang. And it was a post office up in Superior, Wisconsin.
Red. DENNIS FARINA: In 1903, Ed Fay masterminded a daring post office robbery. He got away with over $15,000 in stamps and cash.
Shortly after the robbery, Fay was arrested. FRANCES SCOLL: He had a reputation for being very,
very slick and well-educated. And could get away with almost anything. And he boasted that there was no jail that could hold him.
DENNIS FARINA: And no jail did hold him. He escaped with an accomplice and nobody
knows where he ended up. My theory is that he may have decided he needed the money.
He couldn't spend it as it was, and he may have been known as Eddie Fay. And the only way to do was to change his identity
so that no one would ask where Ed Fay got all that money, and then become somebody else.
And also have his bank accounts all in somebody else's names. DENNIS FARINA: Was George J. Stein
the notorious robber Ed Fay or was he a mild mannered salesman named Ralph Barnett?
Either way any legitimate heir could collect over $130,000. But they would first have to prove that they are related
to him, and they would have to provide a signature matching Stein's handwriting that was written at the period of time
when he made his many deposits. So far there have been five applicants, but no successful claims.
If you have any information that could help find George J. Stein's heirs, please log onto our website
at unsolved.com. [music playing]

Brief Summary

The episode covers Kyle McElroy's kidnapping, Flight 19's disappearance, Veronica Jefferson's murder, and George J. Stein's unclaimed savings accounts.

Key points

The Ransom Call. Kevin receives a chilling call from the kidnappers, confirming his worst fears.
A Father's Desperate Decision. Kevin McElroy must decide whether to follow the kidnappers' orders or contact the police.
The Recovery of Flight 19. Jon Myhre believes he has located one of the missing planes from Flight 19.
The Emotional Toll. Jon Myhre reflects on the emotional weight of recovering the Avenger plane.
Veronica's Car Found. Veronica's red Camaro was discovered parked at a supermarket, unlocked with keys missing.
Blood Type Evidence. A rare blood type found at the crime scene could identify Veronica's attacker.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Do what they say. They mean it.

Kyle's desperate warning to his father during the ransom call.

3:04WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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