Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 6, Episode 22 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries an airline pilot vanishes leaving a trail of wives children and
Scandal across the country this cab driver is turned into a human time bomb and then forced to rob a
bank a sheriff is shot while on patrol before dying he's able to describe his attackers are is it enough to catch a
killer and is there a vast underground river in the Dy desert of Nevada a former NASA scientist claims satellite
photos led him to this amazing Discovery murder missing persons wanted fugitives and the Paranormal I'm Dennis
finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries [Music] [Music] he Jack and Caroline lter had known each
other for two years before they were married Jack was a pilot for United Airlines Caroline a marine biologist
then one day Jack vanished Into Thin [Music] Air I was married to Jack for 6 years
and we together for eight years and for most of those years it was a very happy time and over time time I grew more and
more in love with him which I thought was impossible to do I tried to understand the fact that
he was a pilot and yes Pilots are gone away from home a lot and so many times if he' tell me he'd be home the next day
and he didn't show up I would cry and be in years cuz I planned my weekends for him to come
home for 4 weeks Jack didn't call and Caroline had no idea where he had gone the situation became more serious when
their son Jonathan was diagnosed with a hernia and needed immediate surgery Caroline called the airline to try to
find Jack when she spoke to his supervisor she got news she never expected other women had also been
calling about Jack lutter it was a terrible feeling I felt very betrayed extremely betrayed and
after loving him so deeply all these years I felt that my love for him had been violated I found out that every
single thing he told me were lies I found out that there was many many many women in his
life some of those women were not just girlfriends in fact they were actually married to Jack letter his deception
played out in six condos and six houses with Six Wives and at least 15 children letter initially met each of
his wives through chance encounters one of them Fatima fell under his spell on an airport bus in Seattle there aren't
many people on thiss I wasn't thinking that he was attracted at all it's just that he was very friendly so I was
looking at him is just seems like a very nice person and then he offered his phone number and he asked for my phone
number just a few months later Fatima and Jack letter were married in Reno she unknowingly became his fifth wife they
moved to San Francisco where they had two children I don't get much opportunity to have a social life lutter
didn't marry every woman that he dated Teresa was a common law wife they met in Denver had a child and then he moved her
to Al Paso like his other wives Teresa needed a job to make ends meet we were going to spend the rest of
our lives together so I never believed he was unfaithful and he always said that he always hated
people that get divorced because he doesn't believe in divorce once letter disappeared his
wives began calling each other Teresa and Caroline began by piecing together the true story of lutter's numerous
marriages his fifth wife Fatima investigated a condominium in San Francisco where lutter's grandfather
supposedly lived there was no grandfather but Fatima did find the secret stash of Letter's personal
belongings including explicit sexual photos of his many wives the whole thing was like a
nightmare it was really hard for me to look at the pictures and it was really hurt that I could find out that I was
not the only woman this man is just practicing the same thing that he's saying just no meaning to
[Music] it knowing that letter always left his car at the airport Caroline took a spare
set of keys and searched it in the trunk she found checks and mortgage receipts for various properties he owned all over
the country not only did he have other women but he had lied to me about his uh financial situation too for him never to
have supported me at all in all these AG years to have borrowed money from me only to turn turn around and use my
money to pay the these mortgage payments and I knew that many of these mortgage payments were for wives or women living
in these homes and it was my money that he was using to support some of the other women that I was extremely angry
at that Caroline packed up lutter's belongings filed a missing person's report and asked the police to
investigate her suspicions of bamy to me it's unbelievable the farther I got into the case the more G I was at
the the job that this guy had to do yeah they just told me I just you never missed anniversaries or holidays or
birthdays or anything for his children or his wives it's unbelievable swee pity that this man has for detail and his
abilities to disengage himself from one family entirely and re-engage himself with
another family and take up as if he hadn't been gone at all Jack lud's wife all lived in cities
on his airplane routes his scam had worked perfectly until he was promoted and then his routes suddenly changed his
complex Web of Lies began to unravel L vanished and for 6 weeks none of his wives heard from
him then in the middle of the night lutter called Caroline he said that he was calling from a pay phone inside a
Cuban prison where he had been held captive after being Shipwrecked off the Cuban Coast Caroline knew that he was
lying but she pretended to believe him 2 Days Later letter called from the airport Caroline had plan to alert the
Police but that night she decided to confront him first hi honey how are you she insisted that they talk in a public
place so they drove through a restaurant near the airport I want to talk to you and what about these women by the
end of their conversation Caroline did not have the heart to turn jack in there's a woman in San Francisco and I
know there's also this other woman in Sao who are they what I saw in front of me was a man whose whole life had just
broken apart and to me he was like a wounded cornered animal not willing to admit to the
truth we spent the weekend together and on Monday he said he was going to go try
and Salvage whatever he could with his job and I took him to the airport L walked down the ramp and out
of Caroline's life forever and then he simply went to one of his other wives for 6 months he lived in El Paso with
Teresa and although she knew about the other women she didn't turn him in either lutter was fired by the airline
and then he disappeared again I know why Jack has done what he has done I know when he did it and for
how long and I know what the results are what I don't know is where he is right now that's the
mystery update Jack lutter was finally captured at after he was spotted at Los Angeles
International Airport he was taken to Seattle and convicted of bigamy he served the sentence of 90 days and was
released on probation but he disappeared violating probation and he failed to make Court payments a warrant for the
arrest of Jack letter has been issued by a Seattle Court Jack letter is 6' 2 in tall and weighs about 200
lb if you have seen but please log on to our website at unsolved.com coming up a cab driver is wired with
explosives and forced to participate in a bizarre robbery scheme Modesto California 65 5-year-old Harvey McLoud
had been driving a cab for 10 years and had seen just about everything so he wasn't too surprised when a man in a
turban with a phony beard and mustache flagged him down one afternoon it was just a normal Fair he did have a turbine
but we have several of those in Modesto so I never thought anything about it going up to jamest town hey that's a
50-minute ride that'll run you $90 I'll have to get that up front the passenger spoke in a coarse whisper he only had
about half the fair but he said he could pick up the rest at his brother's house
which was on the way have to stop by my brother's place and pick up the rest stop by your brother's house all
right yeah just keep driving east we'll take a left right up here lit Road that's right he said his brother
lived on lit road so I didn't think too much about it until he told me to stop after for a couple of blocks and so I
stopped the car and turned around and here that gun was staring me right in the nose do exactly what I tell
you cut the wires to the radio transmitter and get out that door so I I just basically thought it
was a robbery but this was no ordinary robbery in fact the mysterious passenger was not
going to take any of Harvey mccloud's money he had bigger plans his first step was to turn Harvey McLoud
into a human time the gunman chained a black metal box with a numeric keypad onto Harvey's
stomach he ran a wire lead around his neck and clipped it shut and then he activated the Black
Box you do exactly what I say and you'll be all right you screw up at all you'll
die the bomb is remote controlled all I have to do is dial a number on my cell phone you're gone I was terrified
mine was going 100 Mil an hour and I was trying to figure out how am I going to get out of
this 10 minutes later Harvey was on his way back to Modesto you're going to rob a bank I
want you to listen to me very carefully there's a second bomb in this box I want you to take this
briefcase and the bomb into the B I want you to leave the bomb in the bank when you're done you understand me yep well
he kept reminding me that he could set this bomb off by his cell telephone and me I don't know that much about
Electronics but what you see you know in papers and TV you do about anything with
electronics nowadays so I believe I need to see the bank manager uh sorry sir she's unavailable you just
have a seat I need to see the bank manager now it's important sir excuse me please just have a seat I need see man I
cannot wait I I understand that of course is there a problem I need to see the manager are you the manager I am may
I help you I thought I was dealing with an irate customer because he was agitated I proceeded to read the letter
and about Midway through it it shocked me and it upset me did you read this look what he did to me I looked around
the lobby saw how busy we were and it was very scary that if I didn't do the right thing that all of us could
be blown up as a result of that the bank manager and another employee filled the briefcase with the
exact amount of money demanded in the letter 10 and then Harvey performed a quiet Act
of heroism I didn't want to see innocent people get killed like couldn't do much
about me but I could at least take the bomb with me and to protect the other people in the bank so I walked out the
door with it in the back of the cab Harvey found a list of instructions first he drove to a
hardware store and parked the cab leaving behind the cash and the car keys and then he walked half a mile to a pay
[Music] phone the instruction said the gunman would phone with directions for dismantling the
bomb I waited about 5 10 minutes and no call came in so I went over and happened
to look at the telephone and it said no incoming calls so then I knew something was up so then that's when I called my
dispatcher and told her what happened within minutes the police were on the scene and the area was being
evacuated Harvey McLoud sat alone in the eye of the storm and they say I looked calm but I wasn't
very calm inside um I was shaking my stomach was rolling and and I had all these things going through my mind and I
just wondering how long I was going to be there in this old world eventually the bomb squad arrived
and released Harvey from the device x-rays determined that both bombs were fakes there's a package back here let's
get this roped off the robbery had been perfectly executed almost when the gunman was dropped off
across the street from the bank there were two witnesses that observed a male adult that was unusually
dressed they thought at first that um since there was a bank in close proximity that possibly someone was
having a a birthday party and they hired this person to do some type of uh gig for them inside of the bank when this
person reached the van he took off a turban as well as dark sunglasses and a fake beard and mustache and the
secondary thought that the male witness had was maybe this person had just robbed a
bank however the two eyewitnesses were unable to provide police with a license plate number this case is still unsolved
the statute of limitations has expired on the robbery but not on the kidnapping Witnesses describe the suspect as about
6 feet tall and 160 lb the man has short cropped hair that is silver or salt and
pepper in color if you have any information please log on to our website at unsolved.com
next a woman who provides shelter for homeless dogs is terrorized by a mysterious assment
bonter Missouri this 110 Acre Farm is Mabel Wood's dream come true Mabel is a dog
lover so much so that she set up a sanctuary in the country for dogs that would otherwise have been impounded and
possibly put to sleep she built a $60,000 kennel to house her 115 dogs the dogs were offered for
adoption but those that didn't find new homes lived out their lives on the sanctuary Mabel felt that the farm was
an ideal location because her nearest neighbors were over a mile away and would not be disturbed by the
dogs but 18 months after she moved to the farm Mabel's peaceful life was shattered one night someone broke into
her kennel the Intruder fired at least four rounds from a 22 caliber rifle killing
two dogs and seriously wounding two others the next morning when I went up to open the kennel I found my dog's dead
in the beginning I thought oh there's been a fight they killed each other but as I looked I I realized that they had
been shot he was shot right in the nose it's it's a miracle that he's even living because he was laying in a pool
of blood when I found him I was upset about it and I called the sheriff's office but I knew there was nothing
really nothing that could be done at that point probably police investigated the
shooting but because the killing of an animal is only a misdemeanor the case was given a low
priority after the shooting Mabel hired a man named Charlie Jacobs to help out around the kennel Charlie moved into the
guest house and doubled as a Hired Hand and night Watchman come there girls for two months nothing unusual happened
Mabel and Charlie settled into a comfortable routine and then one night Charlie was
in his kitchen when he noticed a bright orange glow through the window what the hell the Cel was on
fire the fire bar on fire by the time Charlie reached the kennel it was engulfed in flames inside
were 60 dogs they had no no way to escape that was awful Flames are real high there are a few yipes every once in
a while the place is on fire I mean it's like a Inferno Charlie managed to pull only one
dog from the Flames but could do nothing to save the others there was no reason for the kennel to
burn because the kennel was so new the great deal of it was green Lumber I knew it had to be arson because
the dogs were blazing which they would not have done without something put on 13 the fire was so intense that it set
off smoke alarms in homes over a mile away have you had any problems with anyone recently no haven't have you
noticed anybody around the property that as I watched the kennel come down to the
ground and realized that my dogs were all dead I just didn't realize why anyone would do
that there just wasn't anything left except a few scraps of metal in the [Music]
concrete the local volunteer fire department began an investigation [Applause] we wanted to clean off the debris of the
the barn to get a look at the floor we start to see a pattern that's called Spalding spalling occurs when a
flammable substance is ignited on concrete the extreme heat causes the concrete to crack or erode this pattern
is not normal in a fire it l to to the assumption that the fire was set with a flammable liquid
we believe that night that the suspect entered the building through the door they used normally to get between the
two rolls of pins he entered the building poured A flammable liquid Down the Walls as he
went in the hallway led to a bigger open area at the far end he continued pouring
the wall at that point there's probably when he lit it and then he took off 100 yd from where the kennel once
stood police found a tire track in the mud left out in a hurry this track and the spalling patterns burnt into the
kennel floor are the only evidence police have in this case let ready to we don't have any Le don't have any
suspects that haven't been eliminated most of the people that you find in this part of the country are dog lovers we
have dogs we have hunting dogs we care a lot about our dogs there's people in this County who would shoot you a whole
lot quicker over their dog than they would to away within 10 months of the fire Mabel
had built a new kennel Our concern for Mabel safety is an ongoing thing we keep an ey on that
lady we keep an eye on her property despite this protection the harassment continued someone spread
Nails across Mabel's driveway her house was shot at twice finally a warning was painted on Mabel's property it said
quiet or die there we go what we do but mael stood her ground I thought about it and I decided
this was a perfect Farm it's it's very pretty I've got the creek which I love I decided I am not going to leave it is my
farm I bought it paid for it and I'm staying the person who burned down Mabel's kennel has never been caught and
the case is still open if you have any information please log on to our website at unsolved.com
next controversy surrounds a former NASA scientist who claims he's found a vast untapped water supply in the middle of
the Nevada desert deep in the desert of Nevada in 1927 a prospector named Earl D was lured
to this unforgiving Wilderness by an old Indian legend it told of a secret Cavern leading to an
underground river that sparkled with nuggets of gold earldor was just crazy enough to believe that he could find
it according to a story Earl later published he and a friend eventually found the secret opening and squeezed
through it he described a treacherous 3500t descent into a murky underground Canyon
where they found the legendary River Earl said they explored for 4 days they followed the river for 8 Mi and found
vast amounts of gold what he's describing is something like the world's largest natural underground slle where
light rocks are carried away by the water and the heavier minerals like your gold your Platinum Group Metals rare
earths would be settling out and concentrating so it's almost kind of a too good to be truth thing Earl claimed
that the rich black sand contained 100 o of gold per cubic yard but Earl had one
very big problem someone else owned the land at the entrance to the cavern Earl thought that he could find another way
in so he decided to close the original opening but Earl never did find another entrance to the underground river others
would follow in his path but the local location of the legendary River seemed lost
forever decades later a former NASA scientist named Wally Spencer was examining photographs of the Nevada
desert taken from space he spotted what he believed was an ancient river Channel bone dry for 500
million years he believed that plants would have flourished along such a river and over millions of years may have
decomposed into crude oil power Wall-E built a prospecting device from common laboratory
instruments he based his design on two simple facts first the Earth naturally emits a
low level of radiation second a large subsurface pool of liquids such as oil will block this
radiation Wall-E believed that as m radiation detector could find a hidden reservoir of
oil with the help of his wife and son Wall-E put it to the test for 3 weeks they bounced across the Sands waiting
for the device to react whoa barely stop stop hold it hold it we went off scale I
don't know something happened we went totally off scale he was hoping for oil but further testing indicated that they
had actually found water perhaps the same river Earl door had talked about half a century
before it was very disappointing when we found out it wasn't oil because once we
started Ming it looked like the river and everybody says hey you found the river you didn't find a pocket of oil
very disappointing but it was so large that it had to be exciting Wally estimated the flow could
be an incredible 17 billion gallons a day there is enough water for 170 gallons a day for 100 million
people now that has got to be something that is extremely of interest to the Western United States to Nevada to our
nation as a whole in Nevada water is as precious as gold Wally Spencer was certain that he'
discovered a Priceless Resource One that promised to make him rich but Wally soon
found himself in a bureaucratic stand off with the state of Nevada Nevada law required that anyone
drilling for water had to First apply for a permit and that meant revealing the river's location before doing so
Wall-E asked the state officials to guarantee that he would receive a finder's fee even though the state would
own any water that he found however authorities insisted that Wall-E apply for a drilling permit just like anyone
else no no promises no guarantees if I filed for Appropriations permit it could be denied on any kind of
whimsical notion the state has like not in the best interest of the people or not in the best interest of the state
they would own it I would have nothing there's nobody going to try to Rob him of his water rights there might be other
speculators out here that try to might also claim but he has priority if he files the proper documentation and a
lawyer can help him do that you really think it's necessary to do Wally and his wife Beverly were concerned that others
might try to steal the secret of their find they asked two experts to scan their house for
bugs according to WALL-E the sophisticated equipment picked up a bug on the phone
line you see this kind of thing we're talking about Wally and Beverly also say that
the investigators found a high-tech listening device hidden in their living room they were trying to probably find
out the location we never discuss the location of the water it's not in our vocabulary so I don't know who did it I
don't know why they did it but they haven't gained from it scientists who have worked with Wally believe that he
is totally credible though Nevada state officials question his account he has never revealed his technology he can't
show where the water's coming from he can't show where the water's going and he won't reveal the location so it's not
a lot different than the guy that's walking around the desert with a willow stick dousing for water or the guy
that's walking around the crust of the Earth with a turquoise bead on a gold chain witching for
water Wally's one of the true scientist problem solvers that you can run into he's the type of guy that doesn't run to
the textbook to pull out the equation to solve the problem he takes Newton's equations and he deres what he needs out
of them to solve the problem so he's a a true scientist you know I'd like it to be true I mean I I don't think you'll
find anybody in Nevada that wants to find Water Resources like uh like w has described but you have to be practical
at the same time and the way to be practical is just simple questions Wally what have you found with that technology
and the second thing is let me see [Music] it up Wally Spencer died in 2003 his wife
Beverly has since filed 16 water rights applications which are still pending Beverly remains convinced there are 20
million acre feet of water running under the Nevada desert beginning in British Columbia and emptying into the Pacific
Ocean is there a huge river flowing beneath the desert in Nevada while some say the idea is far-fetched
Wall's family believes it is only a matter of time before they'll find water next a police officer is shot in
Cold Blood and a bullet hole in a burnt out car leads police to the [Music] killer Lee County Virginia
in the early morning hours patrolman John Martin a 17-year veteran of the sheriff's department is making his
regular rounds when he notices something unusual 604 to Jones go ahead 604 I'll be checking a
park vehicle out at the Western Lee County Health Clinic John Martin reported to our
dispatcher in Jonesville at 250 8 a.m. on the morning of November 4 that he was checking a car parked behind the Lee
County Health Clinic in y Virginia this vehicle just pulled out on me and then he came back and said that the car was
moving out on him and then he was stopping it about halfway down the driveway and that was the last
transmission that John Martin ever made authorities believe that he left his patrol car and approached the driver
ever to question him see your operator's license [Music] please when I arrived at his location I
found officer Martin lying in the driveway of the clinic when I got to him he told me Doug I've
been shot and I'm hurt bad I contacted the dispatcher and had a rescue squad dispatched I knew the point when I found
him he was probably critically injured and it was very important that I be able to maintain the scene and to be able to
get what information I could from him while he was conscious did you see who did it or did you get a description of
the vehicle he was in his mid 20s had a most t i' ask him about the automobile and about the tag he could not read the
registration numbers from the tag but uh he was able to give me a rough description of the vehicle as a Buick
light brown or tan 1970 to 1977 perhaps one of the large Buicks Martin was able to give officer
Parson's one final piece of information about the license plate it read Land of Lincoln the motto for the state of
Illinois did you shoot into the car or shoot any one yes I shot at the vehicle he had advised me he had emptied
his gun into the car I checked his weapon and it was empty he had fired all six rounds from
his revolver Martin was rushed to the nearest hospital 22 Mi away he had been shot three times doctors removed one 44
caliber bullet from his body but he lapsed into a coma 3 days later John Martin [Music]
died he was laid to rest with full honors hundreds of local residents and police officers from seven states came
to pay their final [Music] respects I just thought it wouldn't happen to him we had talked about it but it don't
feel real out of this we're hoping that we can possibly catch whoever done it that's
our main priority right now that's all we want the next day police in Effingham Illinois impounded a stolen car burnt
almost beyond recognition inside they discovered evidence that indicated that this was
the car used in John Martin's killing the key a bullet hole in the driver's side door
authorities uncovered information that linked a 24-year-old man named David Wayne Mills to the car when Mills
arrived home he was arrested during questioning Mills revealed the location of the 44 caliber
pistol ballistics confirmed that it was the gun that killed John Martin update a jury found David Wayne Mills
guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of John Martin during the trial Mills claimed that an accomplice fired
the Fatal shots but the jury didn't buy it David Wayne Mills was sentenced to life in prison plus 15
years on a previous broadcast we profiled a young English woman named dilia fani when deia was 18 years old and
unmarried she gave birth to a baby and named her Michelle deia's father insisted that she stay at a Convent
until her baby was adopted 2 weeks after Michelle was born deia's parents visited the convent D
hoped that once her father saw the baby that he would let dilia keep her but he wouldn't even look at his
granddaughter in the end deia had no choice but to give give up Michelle for adoption you've only got 30 minutes to
say goodbye what you try to do is look at her face to burn the impression into your mind but you're feeling her body
because that was the last time you going to see her one minute I had a baby next minute
it was gone two photographs were all that deily had to remember Michelle and she never
stopped trying to locate her deia eventually learned that her daughter had been renamed Laura an
adoption official agreed to send her a note that dilia had written in the brief message deia asked Laura to watch her
story on Unsolved Mysteries on a chilly spring evening in 1964 deia F sat in her
face in New York Mills New York on the evening of our broadcast deia's daughter Laura Franklin was
watching that was just the way they did things they just there she is left the responsibility to go when I found out my
birth mother was searching for me it was pretty touching to know that she had looked that far um to try to find me if
you have any information please call our toll-free number after the broadcast Laura contacted our phone center and
asked to be put in touch with dilia a few weeks later Laura her husband their two children and many friends
assembled to greet deia after a long [Music] flight it was a lot of anticipation a
lot of what she going to think when she sees me and um what is she going through
right [Music] now God she was everything and more that I'd expected absolutely everything she's a beautiful
girl proud of her before Laura's adoptive mother died she had shared all she knew about
Laura's background dilia and Laura could now fill in the remaining gaps in the nearly 30 years of family history
finding my birth mother now I don't think has really changed my life as much as it has probably enhanced it because
now I can find out some about my past and my history and things that I never thought that I would ever find out
about I can't replace her mother but I'd like to think that I could be pretty close this reunion was only the
beginning Laura and her family also made plans to travel to England to spend time
with de IA and her many other new relatives many of the other cases are not yet resolved if you have any
information about any of the stories profiled on this program please log on to our website at unsolved.com
[Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Jack Lutter's double life, a cab driver forced to rob a bank, and a potential underground river in Nevada are featured in this episode.

Key points

The Vanishing Pilot. Jack Lutter, a United Airlines pilot, disappears, leaving behind a web of lies and multiple wives.
The Human Time Bomb. A cab driver is forced into a bizarre robbery scheme involving explosives.
Mabel's Dog Sanctuary. Mabel Wood's peaceful life is shattered when someone attacks her dog sanctuary.
The Mysterious Arson. Mabel's kennel is set ablaze, killing many dogs, leading to an ongoing investigation.
Wally Spencer's Water Discovery. Wally Spencer believed he found a hidden reservoir of oil, but it turned out to be water.
Tragic Shooting of Officer Martin. Officer John Martin was shot while on patrol, leading to a manhunt for his killer.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I felt very betrayed, extremely betrayed.

Caroline reflects on her husband's deception.

2:52WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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