Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 4, Episode 19 | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Next on "Unsolved Mysteries," at a remote campground, a young man has a strange encounter
with a beautiful blonde woman. And then-- What are you looking at, man? What's your problem, man?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): After a huge explosion at a Navy ammo dump, 50 sailors refuse
to continue unloading bombs. They're in prison, but was it really a mutiny? This little girl had a rare disease
and doctors thought that she would die by the age of 10. And then she met Father Ralph DiOrio.
And a woman's search for her missing grandmother reveals a dark family secret hidden for almost 100 years.
There is nothing like a good mystery, and you know what-- they're even better when they're true.
I'm Dennis Farina. Join me for an hour of "Unsolved Mysteries." [theme music] The Angeles National Forest, nearly 700,000 acres
of wilderness just outside Los Angeles. For city residents, it's a perfect weekend getaway.
For killers, it's the perfect place to hide a body. On a winter day, Jeff was exploring
a remote campground when he stumbled upon a puzzling scene. I noticed this one little road off of the side
and I saw somebody had set up a camp there. As I pulled up, directly in front of me
there was an old panel van. To left of that was a tent, to the left of the tent there was a very attractive girl sitting there by herself.
Her hair was done up, it was curly and long. She appeared to have makeup on. She was looking down and she very slowly raised her head
and we had eye contact. What are you looking at, man? What's your problem, man? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Jeff's side trip had suddenly
taken a frightening turn. What's your problem, man? Leave! Leave! I never thought about calling the police,
nor did I think that these guys were really dangerous to anybody. I thought they were being protective of their camp.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Just over a year later, the Los Angeles County Coroner was called to investigate
a possible murder site. Skeletal remains were found only 50 yards from where Jeff
had seen the young blond woman. The coroner checked dental records of missing people in the LA area and found a match.
The remains were identified as 20-year-old Kimberly Pandelios, who had disappeared a year before.
It was a tragic end to a promising young life. When she disappeared, Kimberly was
living in southern California. She was taking business classes and worked part-time as a model.
She was loved by everybody in the family and she was so sweet, so kind. The very end of her life, I don't
want even to think about it. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): After her remains were identified,
Kimberly's story made headlines on the local news. The TV was on and I said, that's the girl.
That's the girl I saw sitting there. In my mind, there was no doubt that the girl on TV
was the same I saw in the camp-- the same girl. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Jeff called authorities and took
them to the spot where he had seen Kimberly, but too much time had passed and there
were no clues left behind. The coroner could not determine what caused Kimberly's death.
Police only knew that she was no longer a missing person. Her case was reclassified as a probable homicide.
Detectives learned that the day before Jeff saw Kimberly, a burnout car was found near a campground
in the Angeles Forest. The fire was started in the passenger compartment on the passenger side of the front seat.
We were able to determine that the front seat was pulled forward in a position that would be as
if she drove to that location. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): They found a charred spiral notebook in the car.
It belonged to Kimberly Pandelios. After running a DMV check on the plates, the police were able to contact Kimberly's
husband, who had already reported his wife missing. A few weeks later, two hikers found a second notebook
under a nearby bridge. It was Kimberley's day runner, but it didn't provide investigators with any fingerprints
or other clues. It is believed that a third notebook belonging to Kimberly is still missing.
Rita, did you talk to Kimberly-- DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Investigators did have one lead.
On the day she disappeared, a man named Paul had called Kimberly at home. What happened after that?
Well, this Paul called again about 7:00 PM. Kimberly still wasn't home. He said she'd left her appointment
book when she met with him. The notebook that Paul has is probably the most valuable notebook.
That might have her appointments or contacts for later that day. There's a possibility that Kimberly went up
into the mountains to meet someone and that appointment might be in her book. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Kimberly
told her husband that she was scheduled for an outdoor photo shoot. She had responded to an ad in a local newspaper.
JOHN LAURIE: A theory is that she drove to that location by herself and met someone to do an outdoor shoot
and that once she was there, she was taken off the road back into the area that she was ultimately found.
Hi. I'm Kimberly. Ready for a little walk? Come on, let's go! [scream] Come on! DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Authorities
believe Kimberly was abducted sometime on Thursday afternoon. When Jeff drove up, it was just past noon on Saturday.
In retrospect, she might have been drugged. But I just had no idea. If she would have cried out, if she would have said something,
if she would have given me an indication she was in trouble of course I would have done something.
But I didn't know. It just gets to me that I didn't do something right then and there to help her.
This person basically died because of my inaction or my ignorance. You can't bring the girl back, but I would like
justice to be done, of course. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Update-- in the case of Kimberly Pandelios, justice
has finally been served. 12 years after Kimberly's disappearance, a convicted sex offender, David Rademacher,
was arrested for her murder. Authorities Rademaker to Kimberly using phone records and were able to make the arrest
thanks to the testimony of a teenage girl that he had been harassing. A judge sentenced Rademaker to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. Coming up, a World War II disaster results in prison time for 50 sailors charged with mutiny.
Are they really guilty? It was the largest and one of the most controversial mutiny
trials in US Naval history. The defendants were 50 African-American enlisted men
who were all found guilty. But they insist that they are innocent and they want to clear their names.
Just outside San Francisco, California, during World War II more than a million African-American
served in the military, which at the time was still segregated. In the Navy, they were almost always given the messiest
or the most dangerous jobs. At Port Chicago, a Navy weapons center near San Francisco,
African-American sailors were assigned the risky task of handling bombs and ammunition,
even though they had no specialized training. Their superiors often placed bets on whose division
could load a ship the fastest. The gambling increased the danger. The bombs were slathered in grease
and were extremely difficult to handle, but because winning the bet was top priority,
safety precautions were ignored. The sailors were forced to move quickly, too quickly.
It was hard work, regular work, dangerous work, but I didn't realize how dangerous.
We at one point as a kidding situation, we would say, hey, I'm going to be the first one out of this ship
if it blows up. I talked to the officers on many occasions concerning the affairs I had, and it was always
waved off as insignificant. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Joe's concerns were anything but insignificant.
[boom] On July 17, 1944, two massive explosions seconds apart ripped through Port Chicago.
The two blasts sent a column of smoke and debris 12,000 feet into the air. The dock and two cargo ships were blown to pieces,
320 people were killed-- every single man in the loading zone. Man, I'm telling you, it was a sight that you
don't want to talk about. And an arm here, a leg here, a shoe with a foot in it and all that sort of thing.
And this is on the water, on the ground, and [inaudible]. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Three days later, Rear Admiral
Carlton H. Wright praised the Port of Chicago seamen for their bravery and five African-American enlisted men were awarded medals.
The exact cause of that disaster was never determined. Many of the surviving sailors and their officers
were transferred to another munitions depot. But when the order was given to go back to the loading dock,
the entire division stopped dead in their tracks. Seamen, if you're not going to obey orders, just fall out.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Lieutenant Ernest Delucchi, the officer in charge, ordered Seaman First Class Joe Small
to the front of the formation. Small, you gonna go back to work? No, sir. If Small don't go, we're not going either.
Yeah. Yeah. It was spontaneous. We had not discussed it, we had not planned it. Each man made up his own mind.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A month later, the 50 men found themselves center stage in one
of the largest court-martials in the United States Naval history. They were charged with conspiracy to commit
mutiny during wartime. I think that what they were trying to do was to set an example because we were black.
They said, well, maybe the next crew won't do it if we do this now and we get this under our hats.
The next bunch coming in here will walk the chalk line. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The chief prosecution witness
was Lieutenant Delucchi. So I immediately told this man if he wasn't going to be orders to fall out.
And with that, why practically the whole division fell out. And then what happened?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): In the end, Delucchi admitted that the men actually obeyed every order he issued except his order
to load ammunition. Even so, prosecutors still claimed the men were guilty of conspiracy to mutiny.
There's no such charge under Naval jurisdiction of conspiracy to attempt mutiny.
There is a charge of mutiny, period. Either you commit mutiny or you don't. I don't think they were any more guilty of mutiny than I was.
Without undergoing the experience of a blast practically unprecedented-- DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): During the trial,
the defense tried to introduce the sailors' claims that those in charge showed absolutely no concern for their safety,
but testimony on that point was not allowed. However, during the second week of the trial,
a seaman named Ollie Green was given the opportunity to speak freely. Seaman Green, do you have anything further to say?
I've got a couple of things to say, sir. The reason I was afraid to go down and load the ammunition,
them officers were racing each division to see who could put on the most tonnage
and I know the way they were handling the ammunition it was liable to go off again.
If we didn't work fast at the time, they wanted to put us in the brig. And when they exec came down to the docks,
they wanted us to slow up. That's the exact way, put it on fast or they want to throw us in the brig. That's my reason
for not going down there. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Ollie Green's statement became part
of the permanent trial record. But it had no effect on the outcome. A verdict was reached after just 80 minutes of deliberation,
guilty as charged. Seaman Small, please stand. To be confined for a period of 15 years,
then to be dishonorably discharged from the United States Naval Services. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The other 49
men were also convicted. Each received the same sentence as Joe Small, 15 years in prison.
The verdicts caused a nationwide outcry. After the war ended, all the men were eventually released,
but they had spent almost two years in prison. I believe I did the right thing because my actions were
dictated by my own conscience. I was 18 years old, being chained and shackled. It's no right that can correct the wrongness because it's
so deep, it has goes so long, and I've had to kind of wipe it out of my mind. It's the kind of experience that you really
don't want to talk about. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): For over 50 years, the men convicted of the Port Chicago mutiny
have carried what they feel is an undeserved burden of shame. Update-- one of the 50 court-martialed sailors,
a man named Freddy Meeks, received a presidential pardon. Meeks was the only sailor to receive a pardon
because by then, 48 of the sailors had died and the other survivor declined to participate
in the pardon effort. Congressman George Miller was present at the trial and he has petitioned the president
for pardons for the rest of the sailors who have died. A decision has yet to be made.
In a moment, a murderer escapes from prison with the help of a quiet, churchgoing housewife.
Wellsville, Pennsylvania. Diane Brodbeck, a 43-year-old housewife, lives in this small Pennsylvania town.
She is a devout Christian and very active in her local church. One spring day, Diane disappears.
A month later, her abandoned car is found in a nearby motel parking lot. In the trunk, the police find her overnight bag.
The same day that Diane vanishes, a long-term inmate at a local prison escapes. His name is Jon Yount and he has been serving
a life sentence for the brutal murder of an 18-year-old schoolgirl. At the exact time that he escapes,
Diane is seen a half a mile from the prison driving along the same country road where Yount vanishes.
I don't know if Diane's alive. I hope she's alive, I really do. I believe personally that she is alive
and I think she is with Jon. Diane was a respected member of her church and community,
and apparently she was happily married. Well, then why would she vanish without a word?
There are two theories. Diane was either kidnapped by a desperate prisoner or she willingly helped a convicted murderer escape.
I know my daughter. She would not deliberately help a convicted murderer escape from prison.
My daughter would not do this. Yes, I think my wife probably did help Jon Yount get out of jail under pressure.
For what reason, I don't know. It's hard to say. She could have been threatened by Jon Yount.
I don't know what happened, I really don't. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Diane and her husband,
Chester, had two daughters and had just celebrated their silver wedding anniversary.
Diane worked as a bank manager, and as one of her many community activities she wrote letters to prisoners
who had no family or friends. 16 years earlier, Jon Yount had been convicted of raping
and murdering a teenage girl. He was sentenced to life in prison. In time, Yount began writing to Diane.
Hi, my precious lady. I wanted you to be close to me so much today. I hope my enjoyment and adoration of you
is an incentive to be the best you can. You are a classy lady. I miss you and love you.
Jon. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Jon Yount was a model prisoner. He played organ for the choir.
A former math teacher, he taught in the prison school. Around here, it was very easy for him to be liked.
And he had a real good manner about him in terms of getting involved with people.
Jon is a strong-willed person and very persuasive. I believe that he could probably crossway
almost anybody, given the right opportunity and given the right time. He has a lot of skill in being able to manipulate people.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Diane then began visiting Yount at the local jail and continued to see
him even when he was transferred to a prison over two hours away. She was his girlfriend definitely.
It was not a casual visit like a brother and sister visiting. When they started their visit, they would embrace and kiss
and the same when they left. I'm fine. I'm always fine when I see you. Diane talked about Jon Yount, I know she was writing him.
I know she visited him. That's about all. It was just a little bit as far as I knew.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): On Valentine's Day, Yount wrote to Diane, be my Valentine, love, forever.
You are my heart. I hope more than anything this is the last Valentine Day that we will spend apart.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Yount eventually earned the right to work unsupervised
outside the prison fence. One day he decided to take advantage of that privilege.
The morning of the escape, Jon was to go out and cut some hay. What I'd like you to do is take this hay wagon out
to the garden in back. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): That was the last time Jon Yount was ever seen.
I was on the way up over [inaudible] Hill there headed for the bowling alley and I seen this car come down and I
just casually looked over. And I thought, that girl looks familiar. That looks like Jon Yount's girlfriend.
So I thought to myself, what is she doing on this road? DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): And that
was the last time that Diane Brodbeck was ever seen. - Hi, sheriff. - Roger? Yes, sir.
I'm Sergeant Decker from the Pennsylvania State Police and this is Trooper Robert Scutta.
When the troopers came to my door on Sunday wanting to know where my wife was, saying that Yount had been broken out of prison by someone
and thinking it was her, as far as I was concerned they were completely wrong. She had nothing to do with it.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): However, police discovered that Diane had a secret bank account
and had withdrawn $7,500 in the weeks just before she disappeared. We discovered that she also placed a car into a U-storage
facility and that car was placed in there within two weeks prior to the escape. And we discovered that there was telephone
contact with Jon Yount between she and he at the prison. The night before the escape, there
was a 14-minute conversation which occurred. At that point in time, we decided to file charges against her in assisting Jon Yount.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A month after Yount's escape, Diane's car was discovered at the local motel.
A bag was found in the trunk containing her jewelry, cosmetics, and over a dozen pairs of underwear.
There is a theory that Jon used Diane as an instrument of his escape. He discovers that he is not going to get
out of the prison system. He has a woman on the outside who can do things for him.
She does them. He then kills her, he would be gone free and clear. The other theory is that she really loved him
and he really loved her. That theory is one that I hold. I believe she is with him.
Well, my wife has grown up with another man. For sure I do not like it, that's for sure.
We were married for 25 years and I thought they were fairly good years. And I don't think she's alive because I
think if she is, she would contact somebody in the family. I will never even think that she is dead.
I know she's alive. I think of nothing else but my missing daughter and I want her back.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Update-- after we aired this story, authorities learned that Jon
Yount and Diane Brodbeck were living in Boise, Idaho under assumed names. Yount was sent back to prison to serve the remainder
of his life sentence. Brodbeck pled guilty to helping Yount escape and received a sentence of two to five years.
She was released after serving two years. Next, a little girl is cured of a deadly disease.
Her treatment-- a priest thought to have healing powers. Sometimes the journey from sickness to health
is mysterious. Every so often, a dramatic recovery is attributed to divine intervention.
In these cases, medical science has no answer-- especially for those patients who have been
helped by Father Ralph DiOrio. At father Ralph DiOrio's prayer meetings, worshippers often fall to the floor.
It's common to see dozens of people sprawled around the room. Some call it the slaying of the spirit.
They say that it is a total surrender to the power of God. Christina was born with neurofibromatosis.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Stan Umowski and his family speak from experience when they talk
about the extraordinary power of Father DiOrio's prayers. It's a degenerative genetic disorder.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Their ordeal began a few weeks before Christmas, when Stan's wife,
Mary, was cleaning the house. Hey, sleepyhead. Did you have a good nap? Christina?
I walked over to her and her eyes were kind of staring up at the ceiling and she didn't respond to me.
Sweetie, can you hear me? Her eyes were open, but she wasn't acknowledging me. She wasn't saying anything and she
was just making this little gurgling sound in her throat. Christina? Sweetie? Come on.
Come on, baby. As I dialed the doctor, that's when she started convulsing-- not a wild convulsion, it was basically a tremor
on one side of her body. Sweetie? Christina? OK. It's all right. It's OK. I don't know what told me to start timing it.
I remember it started at 1:00 that day, December 1, and the seizure lasted for 20 minutes.
I'm sorry, but the news is not good. Christina is suffering with neurofibromatosis.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The specialists all agreed, the disease was incurable.
It would damage Christina's vision and coordination and ultimately kill her. We sat down and we cried for weeks on end.
Tears would just come to our eyes at any time during the day or night. We couldn't sleep.
We were devastated by it. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): As expected, Christina's health deteriorated.
There's certain things she would not be able to do at all. Skipping, forget about it; running-- the coordination
wasn't there to do any of the things. Jumping, she couldn't get her feet off the ground.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): A friend suggested that the family attend one of Father
DiOrio's prayer meetings. Stan was quite skeptical, but he was willing to do anything for his daughter.
I still had some anger in me. Even though I agreed to go, I carried a tape recorder
in my pocket and I taped the entire service thinking that if this man is a fraud, I'll expose him.
Are there any children out there who are suffering? Please raise your hand. Father. Right here, Father.
Yes. Do you have a sick child? Yes, Father. My daughter. I was so excited and thrilled just for the fact
that they got called forward. After seeing a number of people there, I thought our chances of even being
called or having Christina blessed were almost nil. Sweetheart, what is your name?
Christina. Christina. Now, Christina, do you believe in Jesus? Yes. There are three types of healing.
There's the physical healing, the spiritual healing, and the psychological healing.
So God is aiming for all three of these healings to give this person a new chance,
a new chapter in the autobiography of that person's life, you see. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Stan and Mary
were hoping for a miracle, but they had no idea what one might look like or feel like.
Mommy, how did that man do that? Do what, Christina? When that man touched me on my head, he made me feel hot.
And then I remembered what Father DiOrio had said during the service about people
feeling a warmth in their body. By then, only then, me who was all bundled up, I was so cold.
I looked at her. Her hood was down, no gloves on. Her coat was hanging open. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Within two days,
it appeared their prayers had been answered. Right on the front stoop of the school,
she starts jumping rope. And her feet are not just an inch off the ground, she's literally jumping a half a foot off the ground
and not just a couple of jumps, she's jumping and she's jumping. And I'm looking at her in disbelief.
And she calls out, saying, Mommy, how can I do this all of a sudden? Her words-- all of a sudden.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Two weeks later, Christina's doctor call them with the results
from her latest MRI. How much is it going down? We went to see the doctor in person
and I said, well, doctor, show me where the tumor is. You said it was greatly reduced.
Please, show me where the tumor is. He put his finger on this one and he said, well, this is where it was.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): We asked a doctor not connected with this case to examine two of Christina's MRIs.
One was from almost a year before Christina visited Father DiOrio. It shows the tumor as a thickening
on the part of the brain called the optic chiasm. The second MRI was from shortly after Father DiOrio's blessing.
Christina's MRI scan in the region of the optic chiasm appears to be normal. It appears that the thickening of the optic chiasm
has disappeared when compared with the previous exam. In neurofibromatosis, there have been
rare instances of regression of optic nerve gliomas. But this is a rare event. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Recent MRIs
confirm that ever since Father DiOrio blessed Christina, the life-threatening tumor has not returned.
I thank God every day for what he's done for us. I thank Father DiOrio for being the catalyst in that healing.
It absolutely positively was a miracle and I could never thank him enough for that.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Father Ralph DiOrio emphasizes that any miracle is God's work, not his.
It appears that God has chosen me openly, clearly, publicly. And all he needed from me was, OK,
Lord, I'm willing to be your instrument of speech, of thought, of touch. So I become the visible presence of God.
But God is the divine healer. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Next, a woman's search for her missing grandmother reveals
a mysterious legend of murder. Brookfield, Wisconsin, the early 1900s. 38-year-old Conradina Olson says goodbye to her four children.
Guys, I'll see you tomorrow. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): She tells them that she's going to a doctor's appointment in Milwaukee
and will be back the next day. Are you sure you don't want to come along? No. I'd rather stay here.
Goodbye, children. [whistle blowing] DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): The Olson children
don't know it yet, but they're seeing their mother for the last time. Conradina's oldest son, Edwin, will
regret his decision not to go with her for the rest of his life. He felt that if he had went with her,
she would have been back. She would have come back to them. My father, he suffered for this all of his life.
He never knew why she went away and didn't come back. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Decades
later, Geneva Fuchser began investigating her grandmother's disappearance. She was hoping to find answers to the questions that haunted
her father his entire life. She learned that in 1891, 20-year-old Conradina married 30-year-old Carl
Olson, a railroad coachman. You listen to me when I'm talking to you! DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): It was
coming knowledge that their marriage was unhappy. But back in those days when there was a bad marriage,
people didn't get a divorce. One of the people just walked away from the marriage.
And this is actually what I had thought for many years had happened to her. But now I don't.
I feel she has taken. Something bad had to have happened to her. One One day at work, Geneva had a bizarre encounter
with a customer. This lady come into my store. I knew there was something different about her,
but I couldn't grasp what it was. And we got to talking. She told me her name was Susanna.
And she says, well, I'm a psychic. And just out of the clear blue sky, she said,
you want to ask me about your grandmother, don't you? And I was amazed. I said, yes.
And she said, do you have anything of your grandmother's here? And I said, yes. I said, I have a marriage license
and I have their wedding picture. And she closed her eyes and she says, now don't talk.
Be very quiet. And then all of a sudden she said, I can see her boarding a train.
I can see children crying. I can see her being beaten and I feel that your grandfather
knows what happened to her. It just kind of sent shivers down my spine. I was flabbergasted.
I thought, I don't believe this. How could she know? How good how could she know this about my grandmother?
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Later, Susanna told Geneva that she would soon be receiving
a packet of old letters. They would reveal the year that Geneva's grandmother disappeared.
I know this has something to do about-- DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): She also told Geneva
that the name Ellis was somehow connected to her grandmother and that her grandmother was buried in an unmarked grave.
And she says, also I see within a year's time you will be getting a letter from an unknown source yet not heard
from, somebody you don't even know of, that is going to tell you where this grave is.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Several weeks later, a package arrived. It was sent by Conradina's nieces and nephews,
relatives Geneva had never met. I did get a packet of letters from in the 1800s.
And within these old letters, it states there was some dissension in the marriage
and it also states that the last known heard from her was around 1910. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Geneva sent an account
of her grandmother's disappearance to a local newspaper and they printed it. To one reader, it sounded familiar.
I got in contact with Geneva when I read a piece in a monthly magazine that she was looking for her grandmother.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Bill Carpenter told Geneva about the unmarked grave of a woman.
It was in a small Missouri town by the name of Alice. And he says, it is an unmarked grave
and it's along the railroad right of way. And when he said, it's along the railroad right of way,
I couldn't believe it. Tears came to my eyes. I just wanted to cry. Now, this was another prediction of Susanna's that came true.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): At the turn of the century, Ellis was a small farming town.
According to local legend, one day a fashionably dressed woman got off the train.
She was seen arguing with a man. Witnesses said it appeared to be a lover's quarrel
and that the couple headed down the tracks. The man was later seen returning to the station alone.
He boarded another train and left town. Three days later, the woman's body was found
alongside the train tracks. She had been murdered. There was nothing to identify her
or to give any indication where she came from. Locals say that workers for the railroad
buried the body a few yards from where she was found. Geneva has come to believe that this mysterious woman
is her grandmother, Contadina. I want to think this is my grandmother's grave. In my heart, I think it is.
And I don't know what else could have happened to my grandmother. I think with all my research, I would have found out something.
DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): However, a newspaper article about a woman murdered near the Ellis train tracks
seems to contradict Geneva's theory. The account appeared in 1888, years before Conradina Olson disappeared.
Long ago, there was a young woman who was murdered in Ellis, Missouri. Could it have been Conradina Olson?
The way this is all coming about, I don't know what to think about it. I feel that there's somebody out there that knows what happened
to her and I just want to know. DENNIS FARINA (VOICEOVER): Perhaps Conradina did wave goodbye to her children and head off to a new life.
[train whistle] Or maybe she was murdered and buried in an unmarked grave next to the railroad tracks
in Ellis, Missouri. [train whistle] If you have any information about this story
or any of the other cases we profiled, please log onto our website at unsolved.com.
[theme music]

This, Episode includes: Model's Third Notebook, Port Chicago, Math Teacher Escape, Miracle Maker and Grandma's Grave.

Brief Summary

The episode covers Kimberly Pandelios' murder, the Port Chicago mutiny, Father DiOrio's healing, and the mystery of Conradina Olson's disappearance.

Key points

The Mysterious Encounter. A young man stumbles upon a beautiful woman at a remote campground, leading to a chilling discovery.
The Tragic End of Kimberly Pandelios. After a year of being missing, skeletal remains are identified as Kimberly, a promising young woman.
Justice for Kimberly. 12 years after her disappearance, a convicted sex offender is arrested for Kimberly's murder.
The Port Chicago Mutiny. 50 sailors are charged with mutiny after a disastrous explosion during World War II, raising questions of racial injustice.
Diane's Mysterious Disappearance. A respected housewife vanishes the same day a convicted murderer escapes from prison, sparking two theories.
Miraculous Healing. Christina's health improves dramatically after a prayer meeting with Father DiOrio.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There is nothing like a good mystery,.

0:56WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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