Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 6, Episode 3 | Forensic Files

DENNIS FARINA: Next on unsolved mysteries. After a San Francisco teenager strays into a world of magic,
witchcraft, and mysticism, he's found dead at the bottom of a cliff. A young man is terrified when he comes face
to face with the beast called Chupacabra. Authorities need your help to catch Carlos Berdeja, who brutally murdered a young mother
for no apparent reason. And when he died, this eccentric man left behind 50 empty coffee jars, 80 pairs of white socks,
and an unclaimed fortune of a quarter of a million dollars. Whether it's murder, missing persons, or the paranormal,
for the next hour it's "Unsolved Mysteries". I'm Dennis Farina. Join us. [music playing]
DENNIS FARINA: San Francisco, California. One Saturday in September, Kurt McFall,
a 17-year-old high school student, drove from his home in Concord, California across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.
He told his father that he was staying with a friend, and he would be home Sunday evening.
Kurt never returned. On Monday, two birdwatchers spotted a half naked body on a remote beach below the cliffs of San Francisco Bay.
Kurt McFall was dead. TOM MCFALL: Kurt told this friend of his that he was involved in some kind of satanic cult
and that he wanted out but thought that they might try to kill him. He really feared for his life.
It was a murder. It needs to be investigated. There's no doubt in my mind that Kurt could have handled himself
in that cliff area, because he was an experienced mountain climber and he was a diver.
So he would not have drowned in the water or fallen down the hill. Kurt McFall was a handsome and popular
high school student, a confident young man who made friends easily. But his father Tom has learned there was another side
to his teenage son. A dark side that may have gotten him killed. In Kurt's room, Tom discovered a knife made from a deer's hoof,
a necklace of stone and feathers, and drawings of witchcraft and violent fantasies.
These seem to prove that Kurt was leading a double life. The year before he died, Kurt joined a group that enjoyed
reliving medieval customs. They dressed in costumes and practiced sword fighting in the parking lot
of an Oakland subway station. Kurt also joined another organization that initiated
him into a pagan religion. This new group frightened one of Kurt's old high school friends.
He later contacted Tom McFall and then began to fear for his own safety. Gradually, over a period of perhaps six months,
his attitude towards other people changed drastically. He kind of moved from just studying
with an interest in medieval religion to actually adopting that religion as his.
DENNIS FARINA: Kurt's guide into the pagan religion was Gabriel Carillo, who uses the ancient Welsh name Caradoc.
GABRIEL CARRILLO: This is a religion which is also an art. A craft which has techniques which are at their essence
magical. I met Kurt because he had evinced and interest in magic. Kurt was real bright and real curious
about just about everything. His involvement with this group can be compared to a drug
addiction, where you begin thinking that you've got it in control, and you can take it when you want
but gradually losing that sense of knowing when to stop until you're a junkie. GABRIEL CARRILLO: I do not make any attempt
to control people's lives. People are free to come and go at their own discretion
just as Kurt did. If anything, the emphasis that we have is on individuals taking control of their own lives.
DENNIS FARINA: On the last night of his life, Kurt stayed over at Caradoc's apartment.
They had dinner, went to a movie, and around midnight Kurt went swimming at Ocean Beach, a few blocks from Caradoc's home.
According to Caradoc, Kurt had trouble sleeping and knocked on his door at about 3:00 in the morning.
It's too hot in here. I'm going to the beach. DENNIS FARINA: Kurt was never seen again.
My best guess is simply that he took one too many chances. He might have gone swimming in the ocean
and been pulled up by the undertow. He might have come on climbing on the cliffs at Land's End
and slipped and fallen, or any one of a number of other things. DENNIS FARINA: The following evening, Kurt's car
was found abandoned on a golf course overlooking the ocean. There were a number of puzzling clues.
Kurt's driver's license was on the floor. His car keys on the seat. A $20 bill was in the glove compartment.
And the prized suit of armor, which Kurt had made for sword fighting, was missing from the trunk.
There were also beer bottles scattered in and around the car. The car has to be a phony scene.
To me, that was set up, because Kurt did not drink beer. That's also inconsistent with the autopsy report that
shows that there was no sign of alcohol or drugs on the body when it was recovered.
DENNIS FARINA: At 10:15 the following morning, national park service lifeguards recovered Kurt's body.
It was lying in a cove less than two miles from Caradoc's apartment, just below the cliffs at the golf course
where Kurt's car was found. BRIAN CAMERON: When We came upon the body, we noticed it was in fairly good condition, fairly pale,
usually a sign of being in the water for an extended period of time. No obvious external trauma.
He looked pretty clean other than a few small abrasions on the body but nothing obvious.
DENNIS FARINA: Kurt had no shoes, socks, or shirt. His back and shoulders were covered
with cuts and abrasions. The belt he wore was missing it's buckle. With the facts that we have in this case,
it's really anybody's guess as to where he actually entered the water where he came from.
My guess would be, and that's all it is, an educated guess, that he simply fell off the cliff.
And that's what it appears to me. DENNIS FARINA: The coroner determined that Kurt died from multiple traumatic injuries
and severe blood loss. But no one knows what caused those injuries. Perhaps Kurt died after stumbling over the edge
or perhaps he was pushed. The coroner ruled cause of death unknown. TOM MCFALL: I went to the San Francisco coroner
and I said, what do you think happened to Kurt? And he said, I think the most probable cause of Kurt's death
is homicide. But he said, he didn't have enough to testify to that in a court of law, and so he sent it up to homicide
classified as unknown. And I can't accept that. DENNIS FARINA: The police investigated further
but found no reason to change that ruling from unknown to homicide. They declined to be interviewed for this story.
Kurt's father continues to believe that his son was murdered. TOM MCFALL: Kurt may have uncovered something
in the organization and may have indicated to people that he was going to expose this.
And I feel that all of these things probably contributed to them wanting to do away with Kurt.
If I wanted to murder somebody, the last person I would murder would be somebody
who was staying at my house, and his father knew that he was staying at my house.
I mean, the whole thing is stupid. DENNIS FARINA: Tom McFall hopes that someone will
come forward with new evidence that could reopen the investigation. If you have any information regarding this case,
please log onto our website at unsolved.com. Next, a young mother vanishes in the middle of the night.
What happened to Christi Joe Nichols? When a young mother of two small children disappears with no note and no explanation,
well, people begin to wonder. When Christi Joe Nichols disappeared, her husband Mark was the last person to see her alive.
Rumor has it that he knows a little more than he's saying. MARK NICHOLS: in small towns, they talk a lot.
And a lot of these rumors tend to get pretty vicious. There's been a couple rumors that I
chopped her up and put her in garbage bags and buried her at the dump. That's one of the first ones I heard.
And that one really got to me, because I guess they were actually up there digging around.
DENNIS FARINA: It was in Gothenburg, Nebraska that Christi married Mark Nichols.
She was 19 years old and soon to be the mother of two toddlers who became the focus of her life.
CONNIE STANLEY: Christi never felt she did anything until she had her children, and there was something
she could look at and say, hey, I did this pretty well. Nobody can do this any better, because she was
just so proud of her children. She loved them. I would have never thought that Christi would run away.
She would have never left her children. Mark, could you just wait out here for--
DENNIS FARINA: 10 days before she disappeared, Christi had gone to a local hospital
after being injured in a fight with Mark. MARK NICHOLS: The only bad fight I can remember
is when I was trying to get her to stay home from going out, and she was getting so upset at me
she started to try to hit and kick me. And that's when she burned the side of my neck
with a cigarette she was holding. And I tossed her onto the water bed, and she landed wrong and kind of twisted
up her thumb underneath her. I saw Christi on the Friday after Thanksgiving. She came to the emergency room complaining of a sore thumb.
She was acting like a scared rabbit, if you will. She's never been one for great eye contact
or been very verbal. She obviously wasn't telling me everything either. DENNIS FARINA: Christi told her cousin Debra
Frederickson that she had been abused by Mark. DENNIS FARINA: When I went to see Christi,
she was working at the bar. When we left the bar, Christi showed me a bruise on her side
and it really scared me. I told her she needed to go get help from somebody, and I asked her how it had happened.
And she said, her and Mark had gotten in an argument and he had thrown her around.
And she just acted like it wasn't a big deal. It was something that happened a lot.
As far as a violent argument, which there seemed to be a lot of rumors going around
that I was always beating up on her, that's just totally wrong. DENNIS FARINA: Two days before she disappeared,
Christi went to see a divorce attorney. She didn't want Mark to find out, so she found an out of town lawyer.
What can I do for you, Christi? We do a lot of divorce work. I've handled hundreds of divorces,
but she had to rank up in the top five of being very distressed and upset and nervous
and needed help. And when she explained certain abuses that she had been subjected to, we
decided to make some telephone calls to call the authorities and to report certain crimes that had taken place.
I can say that the day that Christi was in my office on December 9th she was not panic stricken to the point that she would run or leave.
And in fact, she had planned to come back. When she left, she had made an appointment
to come back to my office. DENNIS FARINA: The next day, Christi and Mark went Christmas
shopping with their children. This was the last afternoon she spent with her family.
I felt really uncomfortable the day before she left, because I felt a lot of anger coming from her.
DENNIS FARINA: However, that evening they hired a babysitter and went out to the local bar where Christi worked.
When I babysat the night that she disappeared, I was surprised that those two were going out,
that both of them were going out because I knew they weren't getting along. MARK NICHOLS: When we were at the bar,
things seemed to be going really well. I felt there was a good attitude about herself
and myself and a lot of laughing and carrying on. DENNIS FARINA: Mark says that he and Christi
left the bar around midnight and stopped at an all night convenience store. According to the babysitter, Mark arrived home between 12:30
and 1:00 in the morning. The babysitter was doing her homework in front of the television and does
not remember seeing Christi. I was about five or six yards behind her when she reached the door, and she walked right by the living
room where the babysitter was at back towards the kids' bedroom and went into the main bathroom.
DIANE JANSSEN: It seemed strange, because Mark had paid me with cash when Christi
usually pays me with a check. It was unusual for Mark to pay me. I really can't believe that I didn't see her, because I
would have heard footsteps. And I would have heard her go into the bathroom, because I was there between 5 and 10
minutes so that I would have been able to hear Christi somehow. But I didn't hear or see Christi.
DENNIS FARINA: According to Mark, Christi went to bed immediately after the babysitter left.
He claims the last time he saw her was at 2:00 AM when he went to sleep beside her.
MARK NICHOLS: And that's the last thing I remember until my kids woke me up the next morning.
And the first thing I noticed was she wasn't in the bed. DENNIS FARINA: Mark says that he searched the house
and noticed that Christi had taken a suitcase full of belongings with her. But both family cars were still sitting in the front yard.
At 9:30 in the morning, Mark received a phone call from Christi's mother who lived 100 miles away.
Even though he knew his wife was gone, Mark told her mother that Christi was still in bed asleep.
I'll have her call you. I didn't want to worry her at the time, because I didn't know where she was.
So I told her that she was still in bed sleeping, because I didn't think she felt real good.
DENNIS FARINA: At 11:30 AM, Mark took his children over to Christi's grandmother's and asked
if she could take care of them so he could go search for his wife. Well, I didn't think much about at the time,
but like I say, later, he never asked me at all or telephoned me to take care of the kids
where they always did before. That was really about the strangest thing. He never asked if Christi was at my house
or if I'd seen Christi. He just said that Christi was missing, and he acted like he was shook up.
MARK NICHOLS: I spent approximately two hours just riding around town trying to spot her maybe coming out
of a store or I drove some residential streets where we knew some people. When we checked out Mark's story
about driving around looking for Christi, we could find nobody in the city of Gothenburg that
had seen him driving around. DENNIS FARINA: At 1:37 PM, Mark filed a missing persons report
with the police department. I was, I was real upset, because there was no indication
whatsoever that she would just pack up a suitcase and just leave. DENNIS FARINA: During the investigation,
it was discovered that Mark moved out of the house the day after Christi disappeared.
A few weeks later, he boxed up all of her clothes and sold both of their cars. Three months after she vanished, Christi's suitcase
was discovered in a roadside rest area 30 miles west of Gothenburg. Police found it surprising that the contents exactly matched
the detailed list of missing items that Mark had given the police when she first disappeared.
POLICE OFFICER: It appeared to everybody present that the suitcase had been placed there
instead of just thrown out. The items were neatly laying around. It was like the person that put them
there wanted them to be found. If my wife had left me, I wouldn't be able to look through the closet
and tell you what she had taken. I probably would be able to tell you maybe what suitcase she had taken.
But he was listing items of clothing right down the line and knew what she had taken.
DENNIS FARINA: The area surrounding Gothenburg has been searched extensively. No other trace of Christi Nichols has ever been found,
and no one has ever been charged in the case. It remains open. I'd have never done anything to hurt my wife.
I just-- That's just the person I am. A lot of people think I'm a violent person.
I'm not. I'm not. I'm not a violent person. I hope, I hope and pray that she is alive.
But if she isn't, I'd like to have her buried someplace where I'd know where she was.
I want very much for Kirsti to come home. But if for some reason she doesn't want to come home,
you know, Christi, at least call somebody. You know, let us know where you are, whether you're all right.
DENNIS FARINA: Mark Nichols insists that he is innocent. But until Christi returns, he will remain
under a cloud of suspicion. If you have any information about this case, please log on to our website at unsolved.com.
Next, in Puerto Rico dozens of eyewitnesses believe they have seen a blood thirsty creature
called Chupacabra. The Yunque rain forest on the island of Puerto Rico is a lush, tropical paradise.
But eyewitnesses have reported that a mysterious beast lurks on the fringes of the forest here.
When it moved, I could see it had something here on its head. It was like a crest, but it moved and make noise.
[makes buzzing sound] I felt like he was watching me because of certain movements
made by its eyes. I could see three fingers on each hand, and on each finger very long claws.
DENNIS FARINA: They called the beast Chupacabra, and it preys on livestock, pets, and small animals.
It may look like a creature from a low budget horror film, but these drawings are based on descriptions
from dozens of eyewitnesses. In this day and age, it seems almost impossible that such
a creature might even exist. Tales of the Puerto Rican monster have been dismissed as fantasy and imagination,
it's attacks blamed on wild dogs or even monkeys. And yet, the sightings continue.
The legend began when David Negron went out one September morning before dawn to check on his goat.
He was startled to find it had been killed. After I found the goat dead, I was standing there looking around and that's
when I saw the creature. It was black and hairy. It had large red eyes, and a crest on top of its head.
When I saw it, I felt scared and I began to run. I'd never seen anything like it, and I've
never been that scared before. DENNIS FARINA: Later that day, the investigators from the civil defense agency examined the goat.
The only injuries they found were two small puncture wounds on the back of its neck.
And yet, the goat was almost entirely drained of blood. The local press jumped on the story.
The creature was quickly dubbed Chupacabra, the goat sucker. Over the next three months, dozens of similar attacks
on small animals were reported. In many occasions there's puncture wounds about, I would say, maybe a fourth to an half an inch
in size. Perfect circles. These small puncture wounds go into the animals. And in most occasions we have found
that they seem to go right to the brain of the animals and kill the animals affecting the brain
and the nervous system of the animals. In other occasions, they go right straight into the animals in different areas
as if looking for certain organs. DENNIS FARINA: Attacks had been reported all over Puerto Rico
with the greatest concentration in the village of Canovanas, 30 miles east of the capital city, San Juan.
There have been more than 100 animals killed. We're talking about 70 or 80 attacks.
At the moment, we have some hysteria, some real problems, and some fear. I'm determined to resolve this matter.
DENNIS FARINA: Despite the hysteria, there were still many skeptics. Among them, police detective Eliezer Rivera.
I didn't believe in this Chupacabra. The people were just speculating or perhaps
because they were emotional or afraid, they exaggerated things. Personally, I never was convinced of these stories.
I just never believed them. DENNIS FARINA: That all changed one night as Rivera and a friend drove home from church.
I saw something strange on the roadside. I thought it was a puppet. But as I watched and observed the puppet, it began to move.
And I thought, what is this? It had long eyes that were illuminated. It had fangs.
It was hairy, and it had three fingers with claws. When I opened the car door, the animal stuck out
a long spike from his mouth. I interpreted this spike as a defense mechanism, so I sat back, closed the door, and kept watching.
In my experience as an investigator, we're trained to analyze and quietly evaluate things.
It was in that moment, I can't lie to you, I was scared. Now I know what's out there when people talk about Chupacabra.
He exists. He's not any known animal. I tell you sincerely, what I saw was not of this world.
Most of the eyewitness descriptions are describing the same type of creature with the same details.
They describe something beast-like, animal-like, with a strange type of head, more humanoid
looking, with big red luminous eyes, a flat nose, a small sleek-like mouth with some fangs
protruding out from it. Almost no ears. DENNIS FARINA: Jorge Martin and a TV news crew
asked veterinarian Carlos Soto to examine two rabbits allegedly killed by Chupacabra.
He was puzzled. There was a precise circular wound on the back of one rabbit's neck.
The internal organs had been moved, and there was no sign of rigor mortis. I thought, wow, there's something strange here
because this is not normal. In my eight years in practice, I had never seen that before.
It was my first time to see something that odd. DENNIS FARINA: A month later, Dr. Soto
examined 20 dead birds. Each had been killed by a puncture wound to the back of the neck.
In the animal autopsies that I've done, the evidence does suggest that these animals
were attacked by something. DENNIS FARINA: Dr. David Morales, a veterinarian and spokesperson for the Puerto Rican government,
doesn't believe the rumors of a strange, unknown beast. We think that they were attacked by dogs.
They might be wild dogs. They could be vicious monkeys or could be tigers. There are a number of possible predators
that could attack these animals in this way. Something strange is going on. This isn't about dogs or monkey or bats or anything like.
It's something very strange, and the creature that we're searching for is very intelligent.
These attacks can't be dismissed as the accounts of drunken people or ignorant people,
because we're talking about highly reliable people all over Puerto Rico who are witnessing these attacks
and these creatures too. DENNIS FARINA: Ferocious attacks on domestic animals had been reported from Maine to Texas, from Colombia to Russia.
DNA tests on some samples from some of the attacking animals show them to be diseased coyotes that have
been made hairless by mange. But the Chupacabra remains a mystery. Coming up, a young mother goes to work in a restaurant,
and is brutally murdered by a hot tempered coworker. A woman named Jeanne Molina had a dream, a frightening dream
that she believed was a premonition of violence against her. This nightmare was so intense that Jeanne
made drastic changes in her life hoping to avoid the fate predicted in her vision.
Little did she know that these changes would put her on a deadly path toward the attack
rather than away from it. She had had a dream that I was going to badly beat her up,
and she felt that she should get out of my house. And I never understood why she would have a dream like that
and believe that dream. DENNIS FARINA: Jeanne Molino was raised in Merced, California.
Following a tour of duty with the Navy, she returned home and married Frank Reed
and had three children. FRANK REED: We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of respect for each other.
She just had all of the things that I've always wanted. I mean, she was-- she made me want
to be married for a long time. DENNIS FARINA: But when her youngest child was two years old, Jeanne needed a change in her life.
She also wanted to escape the savage beating that was predicted in her dream. Jeanne left Merced, and move some 300 miles south
to the city of Tustin. Her experience as a cook in the Navy helped her land a job
with a restaurant chain. Within six weeks she had been promoted. She was going to be training all of the new hires
at each restaurant as they opened up. She'd had planned to take Joanna with her,
so it was kind of a neat experience for her. She was really excited about it. She was real happy.
DENNIS FARINA: Jeanne had been at her job for about two months when she arranged for Joanna, her oldest daughter,
to come down from Merced and live with her. Jeanne's parents agreed to drive 10-year-old Joanna to Tustin
Jeanne was real happy, because Joanna was going to come and live with her. And we made arrangements to take her down that weekend.
DENNIS FARINA: But when they arrived at Jeanne's home as planned, no one was there.
Jeanne's parents then checked the restaurant where she worked. Is Jeannie here? Jeannie Molina? - Uh, Jeannie?
No. She didn't come in today. Maybe we made a mistake. DENNIS FARINA: The next morning, they went back to Jeanne's room
hoping to find her. There was no note, no clue to where she might be. Finally, they went to the local police
and reported her missing. Yesterday we were supposed to meet with my daughter. Deep down I did know that something was very wrong,
but I tried not to think about it because I knew that it would just make things worse.
DENNIS FARINA: Jeanne Molino was nowhere to be found. Her parents took Joanna back to Merced.
Little did they know that on the same day they had driven to Tustin, a gruesome discovery was
made in Westminster, a town 10 miles away. The badly crushed body of an unidentified woman
was found near an abandoned construction site. It was one of the more vicious crime scenes
that we've investigated, and we've investigated an awful lot of homicides. DENNIS FARINA: Just after daybreak that Sunday,
a husband and wife witnessed a man acting suspiciously near his car. He picked up some type of a large object,
and we later found that to be a piece of asphalt. And with both hands above his head just thrust it down hard.
And then, looked up and saw her. And in her words, He panicked and jumped back in this compact vehicle and sped off from the scene
at a high rate of speed. We didn't feel that robbery was a motive. She had some money on her.
She had a ring on her finger. We felt that probably under the circumstances, the suspects that did this knew her in some way.
They were trying to prevent us from finding out who she was. DET. MICHAEL PROCTOR: She was so badly damaged
that we couldn't tell if she was a female Asian, white, Hispanic. DENNIS FARINA: An autopsy revealed
that the woman had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and bludgeoned. Then, run over by a car.
Jeanne Molina's landlord read a newspaper article about the unidentified female victim
and thought that it might be Jeanne. He called the police who contacted Jeanne's husband.
Possibly the most difficult thing in my life I ever had to do to go down and identify
somebody who was beaten so badly she was unrecognizable. DENNIS FARINA: It wasn't until Frank
was shown the victim's ring that he was certain it was Jeanne. Despite Jeanne's dream about her husband beating her,
investigators were able to quickly eliminate Frank as a suspect. I'd kind of come to believe that the dream wasn't about me.
It was a dream about something else, and she had foreseen what was going to happen to her.
DENNIS FARINA: Detectives went to the restaurant and questioned Jeanne's coworkers.
DET. MICHAEL PROCTOR: One of the things we found out was that she had worked on July 16, just about until 11 o'clock
at night. One witness stated that she did come back after signing out on the time card.
She did come back and talk to this particular individual for a few minutes. DENNIS FARINA: That individual was short order
cook Carlos Garcia Berdeja. Jeanne might have gone with Berdeja to celebrate her daughter's arrival.
What she probably didn't know was that he had a history of violence and a hair trigger temper.
Carlos, Maria will never go out with you on account of your ugly. DENNIS FARINA: Carlos Berdeja had threatened a fellow cook,
and then bragged about killing a man in Mexico. (Angrily) Hey! Who do you think you're talking to, huh?
Hey, that's not funny. How's that? [speaking spanish] Yeah. I killed a Mexican. DET.
MICHAEL PROCTOR: Berdeja then came back in, according to the person that we interviewed, the next day
and had some kind of paperwork with him stating that he was wanted someplace in Mexico
for an additional homicide. He came in the morning, but he didn't show up at night.
DENNIS FARINA: Carlos Berdeja quit his job the day that Jeanne disappeared. At Berdeja's apartment, police learned
that he and his common-law wife had left suddenly on the day of the murder. That afternoon, another neighbor saw Berdeja behaving
strangely around his car. Berdeja was then seen attempting to clean out parts of the vehicle.
Wait. Hold on. DENNIS FARINA: When Berdeja's car was later found abandoned, it provided police with even more proof
that he was the killer. Evidence not only in the vehicle but on the undercarriage of the vehicle, that secured
in my mind with beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the vehicle that had been
used to run over Jeanne Molina. DENNIS FARINA: Authorities had been searching for Carlos Berdeja ever since.
Well, I hope they catch him. And I just hope to be able to tell him what I think of him.
You're a coward, and you hide beneath your mother's skirts. DENNIS FARINA: Carlos Garcia Berdeja
is in his late 40's, 5 feet 7 inches and weighs 180 pounds. He may be using an alias and should be
considered extremely dangerous. There are no warrants out for Berdeja's wife, Leticia Herrera Estevez, but she is considered
a person of interest. Both are believed to be living together in the United States.
If you have any information, please log on to our website at unsolved.com Next, he lived at the Y, ate out for a few dollars a day,
and left a quarter of a million dollar inheritance unclaimed. Howard Drummond moved to the Lansing, Michigan YMCA
when he was 74 years old. He rented a room for just $49 a week and chose not to pay an extra $5 a day
to have a private bathroom. He always ordered the same breakfast, fried eggs, bacon,
and rye toast for only $1.99. He also bought two extra breakfasts, packed them in his gym bag, and took them back to his room
for lunch and dinner. Howard saved money and everything else. In his room, he kept 50 coffee jars all empty.
He collected hundreds of magazines and thousands of rubber bands. He owned 80 pairs of white socks and eight
identical suits and hats so he can wear the exact same outfit every day. Howard spoke to a few people in the course of his day,
but when he did, he was always polite. Primarily, Howard had a very regimented lifestyle.
He would pay his rent at a certain time every month. The same amount every month.
His receipt, he would want stapled to a certain piece of paper a certain way every time it was done.
DENNIS FARINA: Every day, Howard went to the downtown Lansing post office to pick up the "Wall Street Journal"
and his magazine subscriptions. He often received envelopes from banks and sent out registered letters to banks.
Howard never failed to stop for a chat with postal worker Frances Dodge. She agreed to help him with his shopping,
and he gave her the money to cover items he put on his list which were written on the back of old envelopes.
I thought he didn't have anything. Why would anyone go around in the same clothes all the time?
He just looked really poor to me. I always asked him why he wore that same hat all the time?
And he said, well, it's not worn out yet. DENNIS FARINA: After completing his daily routine in Lansing,
Howard returned to the YMCA. Until he died at the age of 78, Howard Drummond never let anyone into his room.
Two days after Howard's death, a county appointed attorney came to the YMCA. Since Howard left no will, Paul Rosenbaum
was given the job of settling the estate and finding Howard's heirs. Looking for clues, Rosenbaum spread
Howard's possessions all over the conference table at his law office. PAUL ROSENBAUM: It took probably 2 and 1/2 weeks
to sort out everything. He had every single piece of paper from probably 25 years.
He had a diary that was one of the most unbelievable things I have ever witnessed in my life in which he kept
an hour by hour account of the headlines and news stations across the whole United States.
He had three watches that wouldn't work. There were thousands of used shoe laces, unlimited amount
of newspaper clippings with a lot of it having to do with the royal family and Princess Di.
He was infatuated with her. It was unique to say the least. To the best of my knowledge, he had 11 separate bank accounts
from coast to coast with a quarter of a million dollars in cash in the bank accounts.
And that quarter of a million dollars is not even the tip of the iceberg. He has a whole lot more money out there.
DENNIS FARINA: Strangely, the gym bag Howard always carried with him was not found in his room.
Some say Howard kept his most important papers in that bag. Rosenbaum did find a key marked number 29.
It seemed like a standard locker. The type you might find in a bus station. Could Howard's missing gym bag be in that locker?
Could the paper's inside help to identify his heirs? We know little about Howard Thomas Drummond.
He was born in Houston, Texas in 1911 and was an only child. He served in the Army from 1942 to 1945.
Drummond was once fired from a job at a California bank for stealing Scotch tape.
And then, he became a postal employee in Pasadena, California. He lived at YMCAs in Pasadena, Denver, and Dayton
before moving to Lansing, Michigan. He died at the age of 77. Update. After our story aired, several heirs
were able to prove their relationship to Howard Drummond. After attorneys fees, the inheritance
was divided among Drummond's half brother, niece, and nephew. The county has closed the case and is
no longer looking for heirs. [music playing]

Brief Summary

Kurt McFall's suspicious death, Christi Joe Nichols' disappearance, Chupacabra sightings, Jeanne Molina's murder, and Howard Drummond's unclaimed fortune are featured.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Kurt McFall. A teenager's involvement in a cult leads to his mysterious death. 'Kurt told this friend he wanted out but feared they might try to kill him.'
Christi Joe Nichols Disappears. A young mother vanishes without a trace, leaving her family and friends in shock. 'I hope and pray that she is alive.'
The Chupacabra Encounter. A witness describes a terrifying encounter with a creature that defies explanation.
Jeanne Molina's Premonition. Jeanne's dream leads her to make drastic changes, ultimately leading to tragedy.
Howard Drummond's Hidden Wealth. A man lived frugally while hiding a fortune in multiple bank accounts.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Kurt told this friend he wanted out but feared they might try to kill him.

Tom McFall recounts his son's fears about a satanic cult.

2:08WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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