Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 6, Episode 5 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries a traffic accident opens the door to a murder case the prime suspect
is still on the Run 3 months after a 16-year-old girl disappears police get a call from an
eyewitness to her abduction how much does he really know a young man becomes the innocent
victim of a gang shoo and his parents take the lead in tracking down his killers and how do you treat an
arthritic tiger that has an attitude you call on Linda tellington Jones the therapist with a Magic
Touch some hot cases some cold cases and some cases with surprising Revelations I'm Dennis finina and this is UNS Sol
the [Music] [Music] Mysteries [Music] Denver Colorado at 2:00 in the morning two
vehicles Collide on a downtown Street One driver flees the scene leaving his pickup
truck a few minutes later police arrive coming right in intersection when they searched a truck they find a room key
from a local motel and a bloody Jack [Music] handle at the motel police discover the
room is registered to Larry Monroe in his room they find a pair of pants and a sweatshirt both covered in
blood it turned out the truck belonged to a man named Donald Smith from hemid California donal's wife hadn't heard
from him for 12 days what started out as a simple traffic accident would soon turn into a bizarre case of
murder when Don left hemt he was headed to Idaho to visit his daughter Brenda except for his two dogs Don was
traveling alone Brenda was the only child from Don's first marriage for most of her life she and her father have been
kept apart my mother kept me away from my father they didn't get along real well
after the divorce and I think I only saw him like once um up until the time my mother died and then I started searching
for him uh he was searching for me as well when Brenda was 26 years old she and her father were finally
reunited you know he was very protective of me and if any one ever you know if I
ever had a problem he said you know just let me know I'll take care of it for you
you know he was kind of a macho man I guess basically it was a real good relationship my father drank um which he
didn't do very often you know thank God he turned into kind of a different person when he was
drunk the day after Don Smith left home he and another man pulled up in front of
the hospital where Brenda worked as a nurse Don stayed in the truck while His companion
went in hi I'm looking for Brenda Walker she's not working today the receptionist
referred the man to Brenda's supervisor John slain yeah this is John slain went outside to talk to Don
he you're branda's dad yeah where's my baby girl Brenda yeah he was obviously had been drinking and he said where's
Brenda at and I said well she's on fishing with her girlfriend the guy that was driving leaned over you know to get
the directions 15 mil away Brenda and her two friends had given up fishing and stopped by a Tavern near the
lake the door opened and everyone in the bar turned around there was a a black man that had come in and he closed the
door he had sunglasses on took the sunglasses off and uh looked around for a few minutes I think he was probably
allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness then he walked into the the restroom
and about probably a minute later um this man came in with wild hair and his shirt was untucked hi is there a Brenda
Walker in here I want D it took me a minute to really realize who he was it was my father he looked so
different from the last time I saw him and he hugged me and sat at the bar with me for a minute and I realized that he
was drunk and I went into the restroom I was a little upset because he had showed
up drunk and it kind of embarrassed me in front of my friends she's such a sweetheart I sure missed her I went into
the restroom I came back out you okay uhhuh how about you I want to be with you so much he starts crying immediately
and he's babbling and he's talking about how he doesn't want to be alive anymore
and how he's got cancer and he was going to be with my mother in heaven and then
His companion came out of the restroom hey the black man just kept on walking you know he kind of looked looked over
at my father and then just kept walking like he didn't really know who he was and went out and got into the truck and
got into the driver's seat of my father's truck I don't know he looked real impatient looked disgusted with
being there yeah I don't want to hear you cry I don't want to hear this why don't you
just go get a motel room sober at and then come back and talk to me tomorrow about
it anyone want to fight in here let go I can FP anyone in here when her father became belligerent Brenda Walked Out Of
The Saloon after a few minutes Don followed Brenda outside but she left without speaking to
him I wish that I would have had more patience with him I wish I would have understood his situation I wish I would
have you know tried to be more compassionate with him it was the last time I saw him he he opened up the the
camper and let the dogs out and let them run around and I just drove away two weeks later in the high desert
outside Twin Falls a couple out for their morning walk made a horrifying Discovery think better follow the
police police were called in to remove and identify the dead body we observed a body that appeared to
have been thrown over the guard rail laying down uh the body was decaying for approximately 2 weeks we could not
recognize him at that point there was no identification found around him or on him at this time we had no idea who we
had we just had another John do an autopsy was done and we found a blung in marks on the back of the head indicating
cause of death was by blent also outside of the guard rail where possibly the victim was thrown
from uh we found a sack with a bottle of wine in it it was just taken as evidence the twinfalls sheriff's
department had no idea who the body was until they heard about the truck that had been abandoned about 700 mil away in
Denver Denver Police had sent out a teletype indicating that they had a vehicle involved in an accident that
possibly was involved in a homicide so I called the Denver uh police department and they gave me the name of a
subject Donald Smith fingerprints positively identified the dead man as Donald Smith police began to piece together the
events that led up to Don's murder on the day he left home he ran into trouble with a trailer that he was
Towing just outside Las Vegas he arranged to leave it with a local man one theory is that soon after Don
left Las Vegas he picked up a hitchhiker at some point along the away they started
drinking the day after he saw his daughter Don turned up in Park City Utah he called his sister and Vancouver
asking her to wire him [Music] $200 when Dan picked up the money he was with someone who looked exactly like the
man Brenda had seen with her father in the bar police believe that the hitchhiker
murdered Don for the money when he stopped to let his dogs out for a run on boy come Bo the murder weapon was
probably the Jack handle grabbed from the rear of the truck I want to know why he killed my father I
want to know why he took my my father away from me and away from my children my father was the only family I
had this composite of Don Smith's mysterious companion was made from various eyewitness accounts he is black
but with relatively light skin he's about 6 ft tall and weighs around 180 lb today he would probably be in his 50s he
may use the name Larry Monroe and might once have lived in Blackfoot Idaho if you have any information about
this man or the murder of Don Smith please log on to our website at unsolved.com
[Music] next police are looking for the eyewitness to the Abduction of a young girl
when you think Las Vegas you think slot machines Blackjack and high States gambling but just one mile Off the Strip
is another side of Las Vegas an ordinary part of suburban America 16-year-old Kathy Hobbs is
reading a romance novel in her bedroom at 11:00 p.m. she decides to walk to the local supermarket just 1 and 1/2 blocks
away to buy another book she came out to me and she said Mom I'm going down to the store and buy a
book and she said give me a kiss before I go and I said right I'll be up when you get back and she says well she says
I probably will stop and talk to the kids so you might be in bed when I get back so I gave her a kiss and that was
the last I saw of her Kathy often walked to the store late at night usually her friends hung out at
the apartment swimming pool so Cathy's mother Vivien wasn't worried about her assuming that Kathy would be with
her friends viven went to sleep then at 3:00 a.m. a strange dream woke her up I woke up at a sound sleep I
felt like I had been hit on the head and all of a sudden I got a very peaceful feeling and it was well it's over
now and I fell back to sleep the next morning Vivian discovered that Kathy's bedroom was
empty within the first day we had track down friends uh relatives and done a very extensive media campaign on the
television with Cather 's picture all day long at the end of the second day we were pretty much convinced that
Catherine was probably abducted Kathy's family had been terribly worried about her as a child
she had frightening premonitions several of them that she would die at an early age when she was eight she became even
more specific telling her friends that she would not live past the age of 16 she did not have a happy
childhood her father and I went through a divorce when she was 8 years old she and her father were extremely close when
she was in the seventh grade a very good friend of hers died of a heart disease that affected Kathy very
much and that's one of the main reasons we moved to Las Vegas was to give Kathy another chance to get away from that
atmosphere and the environment that she grew up in after the move Kathy BL blossomed and
made new friends but as her 16th birthday approached her old fear of dying returned she got very teared one night
and told me Mom I don't want to get any older I want to be a little girl and I told her I said Cathy we all
have to grow up and you know it's it's not the easiest thing in the world to do but we all do it she told me I'm not
going to she didn't think she'd make her 16th birthday Kathy spent all of her time in her room
and would not leave the house and then on the morning of her 16th birthday she was surprised and
relieved to find that she was still alive and she came out of her bedroom and she said Mom I did it I did it I
made it and I said what and she said I made 16 I didn't think I'd live to be 16 Kathy now seemed to have a new
enthusiasm for life she began to go out again and started making plans for her future she was ecstatic she came out she
goes I made it Mom I made it I'm 16 I did it I'm alive after Kathy vanished police
assumed that she had been abducted and issued photos to the media eventually one crucial clue
surfaced a clerk remembered seeing Kathy in the supermarket the night she vanished store receipts confirmed that
someone did purchase a paperback novel at 11:17 that night apparently Kathy had made it to the store but not
home this intersection is a large intersection widely traveled and the store is a 24-hour major store and to
have people coming and going from the store and nobody seeing anything with was very very
surprising 9 days after Kathy vanished a hiker was searching for rock crystals out in the desert near Lake me was
walking back to the car and was probably 150 ft 200 ft from the road and was stopped by a very strong odor decided to
see where it was coming from or what it was and that's when I found Catherine's body it was the most horrible thing I'd
ever seen in my life I had to sit down and and gather my thoughts and and make sure that what I was looking at was
real within probably 20 minutes of our arrival we knew it was Catherine there was no doubt in our own minds that it
was going to be Catherine and it does get very quiet and uh you can't help but look at it and see
your own children and say for the grace of God there goes one of mine you want to run home grab your
daughter by the arm and bring her to the scene and say this is why I say no you can't go out late at
night Tire prints at the scene showed where a vehicle had pulled in turned around and left investigators also found
two rocks spattered with Cathy's blood the coroner concluded that she died from repeated blows to the
Head she was 16 years 3 months and 3 days old when she was killed so she made it to
16 but uh not much after that but she was right you know she did have this premonition that she wasn't going to
live to be an adult after Kathy's death letters were found in her room addressed to each
member of the family they were dated 1 month before her 16th birthday dear Mother in event of my
death you shall get this letter I hope you live happily and I don't want you or anyone else to dwell on my death
I love you all very dearly you are good to me and nobody else could have been a better mother keep me alive in your
heart and don't ever forget me love always Kathy exactly 3 months after Kathy vanished A call came in to the Las Vegas
Police Department their answering machine recorded this message from a man who may have witnessed her
abduction grabbed this girl in front of the uh uh store on Desert in in Maryland this is a few months ago I've
been out of town for a few months and I wrote this down because she was screaming and they pull her in the car
she's a very young girl wearing a white uh jacket and pink pants and the guy's name he holler to him push you in the
car her his name was Robbie the theory that we have is is that she was abducted uh between the
store and her apartment uh by one or more suspects uh we think she was driven to the lake that night I believe that
she was abducted and killed that evening the caller reported the license number of the car but did not leave his
name or phone number the police checked the license number and discovered it did
not exist and the witness still has not called back today the murder of Kathy Hobs
remains unsolved her mother and the Las Vegas Police hope that the witness will call back and give more details or that
someone watching May recognize the voice of the mysterious caller update there are new developments
in this case here's one of our staff with details while the the witness never contacted authorities and was never
located this case has been closed an alleged serial killer named Michael Lee lockheart was a key suspect in Cathy's
murder after his arrest for another murder he was put on trial convicted and has since been
executed next how can the touch of a human hand ease the pain of a suffering tiger this woman has the
answer [Music] KO the killer whale escaped to the open sea in the film free Willie but in real
life Koo suffered from a strange wlike growth called the papala beneath his pectoral
fins for 10 years no one was able to cure it then Linda tellington Jones came along with a technique she calls the tea
touch when I was asked to work with k with the touches I really didn't know if it would help him or not what I was
hoping is that these little circular touches would actually affect the cells and help to reduce the effects of this
virus like papala koo's handlers saw results almost immediately the day after Linda was with
Koo we we saw big changes on the papiloma um it was very thin and it it wasn't broken as always
is so he was active also he was like kind of very happy Linda next tried her hand at the
Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Phoenix Arizona a 400 lb Bengal t tiger named Kipling had joints that were inflamed
and very painful Linda was convinced that she would be able to help by the tea touch her own system of therapeutic
touching they're a collection of circular touches done all over the body with the idea with the intent of waking
up the functioning of the cells jumping more than he we to make the connection I did big
circles and say feel you feel you and then when I really went into the joints it's this very directed connection so
that he really feels the intent of waking up those cells it's like turning on the electric lights of the
body it seemed to calm him down and his body relaxed and his breathing came heavier um so he was going into a a deep
uh relaxed state by her touch when she got to a point where it was obvious he his joints hurt him he reacted but not
violent in any way so now we know where to touch and where he really needs it just from from what she did with that
that session with him the Siberian tiger named Genesis offered the most dangerous test for
Linda's tea touch therapy Genesis had been known to attack anyone within reach even the handlers he had known for
years he has attacked me I have a personal experience with Genesis where he actually went through my arm and uh
way into my arm it was much too risky for Linda to go inside the Tiger's enclosure from outside she got it Bobby
in performing The Tea touch while another Handler kept Genesis calm by letting him lick her
fingers if there's a way you can keep him sucking and you reach back and you can get to the neck and shoulders and at
least te touched seemed to be working Genesis hadn't attacked anyone yet keep the primary contact with the hand where
he feels safe up on the shoulder and the other one just kind of moves back and up there what we find is that
the touches override fear or aggression those are instinctive responses and that when we do these
little circular touches all over the body you can take an animal who is very fearful or an animal who is aggressive
and suddenly you change them at a core level at the level of the brain as skeptic you know I don't I don't
understand part of her philosophy of Dr Irvin Ingram a phoenix veterinarian had treated jesis several times though he
had doubts about touch therapy Ingram watched with an open mind in the end he concluded that Linda had made an impact
quietly around the base of the something certainly made a difference and she's the primary difference I guess today but
there's no question from this morning to this afternoon much calmer seems almost
aware of what's around him instead of being in his own little world I don't know why it works I don't really know
how it works we only know from experience in six continents with Incredible numbers of animals and people
that it does work but it's a mystery there are more than 1,300 practitioners of the tellington method
in 26 countries lenda has written over a dozen books that have been published in
different languages She was recently inducted into the massage therapy Hall of Fame next it was only a childhood
promise made during a brief Hospital stay decades later the girl who made that promise was finally able to keep
it mommy when she was just 7 years old Nikki Crowder was in a hospital in Los Angeles to have several tumors removed
from her throat that's where she met 8-year-old Sharita Lyn Harding who had a very rare and a very dangerous form of
cancer I looked up to Sharita because when she was older and she was there first so she kind of initiated me of
what you know being in a new place new atmosphere the two girls became close friends
overnight there was a bond there because we mattered to one another we looked out
for what went you know went on and we had something in common and that was our illnesses
itself a few weeks after they met Sharita went through several hours of grueling surgery mommy is this going to
happen to me no honey this isn't going to happen so that's when my mother explained to me that charita had had a
very very delicate surgery and that she wouldn't be able to have kids and I remember feeling like oh that
you know was just the worst thing in the world that night Nikki did her best to comfort her
friend I'm sorry you're feeling so bad does it hurt I said you don't have to cry
because if I ever have a baby I said you can share it with me and we can both be
its mommy I said and I'll even name it Sharita after you don't worry after 5 weeks Nikki was released from the
hospital the two friends never saw each other again more than 20 years later Nikki
wanted to find her old friend so she could be godmother for the christening of Nikki's three-year-old daughter who
she named Sharita in honor of her friend I promise update a few minutes after we first
broadcast Nikki story we learned that Sharita Lin Harding was alive and well and living in
Oklahoma 21 years after they said goodbye the two friends were reunited at Nikki's home in Los
Angeles oh my God I can't believe a long time I'm so glad to see you hi I'm so glad you're alive I don't think Nikki
has changed that much she was always caring giving person seems like she's still the same she would have to be to
try to find me and you know all these years and be so persistent about it Nikki was finally able to keep her
promise protect her all the child of her life it's a gift you can't buy it's the
most perfect gift in the world and it comes from God and nobody should be deprived of that whether they have it
naturally or can share it with somebody and that's something that I wanted to share with Sharita because of all the
joy and strength she you know she gave me I could give her back something that she missed Lord bless them even as God
Parents being a godmother is special to me because I don't have any kids and and
it's giving me like a child of my own that I you know can share I'm just honored and so I try to
live up to it best as I can I Christ the Sharia Kennedy [Music] Crowder near nearly 400,000 Americans
are victims of gang violence each year many are innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire who don't even belong to a
gang victims like Kevin [Music] wheel Hawaiian Gardens California just south of Los
Angeles it was here that Teresa wheel's only son Kevin was Gunn downed by four suspected gang members
Kevin was what you might say a typical teenager he loved his music really loud he was a little bit on the shy side he
had a sense of humor you wouldn't believe and he always always had a smile on his
face Hawaiian Gardens had its share of gang activity and Kevin knew several gang members it was a casual Association
that proved fatal on the night that he was killed Kevin spent the evening at a friend's house he
was driving home around 11:30 p.m. when according to eyewitnesses a car began to
follow him [Music] Kevin was struck twice in the head and three times in the back an hour later he
was dead police immediately suspected it was a gang shooting some of Kevin's friends were
Hawaiian Gardens gang members but that doesn't mean that Kevin was a gang member he just associated with them and
I feel the other gang recognized the car and they just keyed on the car and not the occupants of the
vehicle I didn't want Kevin's case to be just another gang related shooting I didn't want it to be another shooting
that went unsolved I made a promise that I would do everything in my power to catch these guys who murdered him
Kevin's parents would not sit still they posted thousands of Flyers around the area where he was shot when the
investigation first started I thought you know there was so much information at first that this probably wouldn't be
no problem and being that Kevin wasn't a gang member you know people would talk but I was really
wrong gang shooting investigations are very frustrating within the gang culture the reason the uh Witnesses are not
coming forward is because they feel that that being a snitch is worse than death
itself get I hope so the hardest part for Stan and I right now is I think dealing with the anger the anger that
our son is dead and buried in a grave at 19 there was no Rhyme or Reason Why anybody would want to shoot Kevin he's
never been any fights or disagreements with anybody I mean he was just you know 19-year-old out having
fun it was just so senseless it's so stupid it was and still is such a shock that something like this could
[Music] happen police believe Kevin killers were four males possibly Hispanic they were
driving a white compact car and may have been members of a gang based in nearby RT if you have any information about the
murder of Kevin wheel please log on to our website at unsolved.com coming up a woman is convinced that
she's been contacted from Beyond the Grave by the spirit of her daughter the death of a family member is
one of the most difficult experiences any of us will ever face so it's not surprising that many people wish that
they could somehow speak with a lost loved one in our next story we'll meet a woman who believes that she got that
chance after the death of her daughter Karen Walker was the only child of Jean and Tom Walker Karen was very
bright read extensively uh from the time she was about three I no longer had to read to her she would read the stories
to me instead which was wonderful there was one story that symbolized the closeness Karen and her parents felt for
each other the Three Musketeers The Familiar phrase all for one one for all became the Walker family
Motel when Karen was 17 the Family Circle expanded to include her new boyfriend Jim
Alvarado Karen and Jim seemed an unlikely match Jim came from a large workingclass family he was a poor
student who had been told that he would never amount to much but Karen knew better she saw something in me in terms
of of potential as far as my intellect was concerned she didn't know you know what I lacked necessarily in academic
skills although over that period of time in study hall she began to to learn and
she began to help me even then the Clause may be renaming the subject when Jim's mind would wander Karen had her
own special way of getting him back on track pay attention you're not going to get
into college this way and she would get my attention and and I would straighten up and and and get back to work and and
do what I had to do she was my tutor she was my helper she was my friend and somebody who I love very very
much Karen was only 20 when tragedy struck the cause of a lingering pain in her right leg was finally
diagnosed Karen had Ying SAR coma a rare and usually fatal form of cancer we reacted with horror but with
determination we were going to see to it that she got well the Three Musketeers were going to stay
together Karen began an exhaustive series of radiation and chemotherapy treatments oh hello hello after two
months of treatment how you feeling Karen suffered a painful setback o Karen woke up about 5:00 in the morning
Mom pain in her leg for the first time in a long time she had been going through Cobalt therapy and the pain had
disappeared and suddenly the pain was excruciating my leg it hurts it hurt okay can't moving the cancer had
eaten the bone completely through the bone was no longer there through it all karen Spirits
remained strong and hopeful in March Jim proposed and they started to plan their
wedding but only 12 days before the ceremony Karen lapsed into a coma minute but I think we're losing
her remember what we used to say about the Three Musketeers how we'd always stick together huh one for all and all
for one I learned that the tumor had gone into into the brain I knew we had reached the
end she woke up in the middle of the night and I held her hand and asked her how she was because that was the
first time she had talked to me in 9 days Mom it's time I can't go on like this anymore I
can't think anymore I understand is it okay okay of course please tell Dad and tell
Jim that it was my decision that I was ready to go I will I promise and as I was
watching something went out of the top of her head it just lifted and it was like a whsp of smoke or or fog or
something and as I saw that happen I said goodbye Karen Karen died on December 17th two days
before she would have been married the night after Karen died Jim stayed at her parents house he tried to
study and keep from thinking about his enormous loss but Jim was about to get his first hint that Karen's Spirit had
survive death it was more than a kick it was really an Awakening on my part that got
my attention and I realized that at that point that you know Karen was was with me at that
point Karen's parents Tom and Jean were also searching for Comfort over the next
few days they went to psychics and mediums hoping they might contact Karen Spirit three times they tried and three
times the Walkers went away disappointed then they went to see a medium Jean had
read about the Reverend George daisley Jean and Tom agreed to limit the information they gave the Reverend they
only told him that their daughter had recently died but they did not give him Karen's name please take a seat I knew
they were graving parents I knew nothing about them whatsoever otherwise nothing
whatsoever Daisy's first comments amaz da I will tell you everything that she says your daughter is here she is safe
she is well she says she doesn't hurt anymore she wants me to tell you that you were the Three Musketeers and you
still are she says we are the Three Musketeers and we'll always be together I was just flabbergast Ed that
he could come up with the one piece of information that was so specific to us I think if he had said nothing else
that day I would always always know that Karen was still alive I'm hearing the name Karen yes yes
it's Karen it's her birthday soon I believe yes the details literally Spilled Out of
Reverend daisley the Three Musketeers Karen's name her birth date even detailed descriptions of two photographs
taken when Karen was just a child we went home smiling and crying but there was always
from then on there was that underlying current of I know she's okay according to Jean Karen eventually
began to communicate without the help of a medium and later guided her to write this book always Karen it describes
Karen's struggle with cancer her death and her firsthand views of Life Beyond this
[Music] one [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

This episode covers Donald Smith's murder, Kathy Hobbs' abduction, Linda Tellington-Jones' animal therapy, and emotional reunions after childhood promises.

Key points

A Bizarre Case of Murder. What began as a traffic accident escalates into a murder investigation.
Kathy's Premonition. Kathy Hobbs had a haunting premonition about her own life expectancy.
Letters from Beyond. Kathy wrote letters to her family a month before her 16th birthday, anticipating her death.
A Promise Kept. Nikki Crowder fulfills a childhood promise to her friend Sharita after decades apart.
Tragic Loss. Karen Walker, only 20, faces a fatal cancer diagnosis just before her wedding.
Communication from Beyond. The Walkers seek comfort after their daughter's death and receive a message from her spirit.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I want to know why he killed my father.

10:03WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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