Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 8, Episode 4 - New Updated Episode | Forensic Files

next on unsolved mysteries in a tiny baptist church a deacon and his wife are murdered
was it a robbery or something more sinister when she was 18 adelia fasani was forced
to give up her baby for adoption but she never stopped hoping that she would find her one day
professional psychic james von prague says that he can talk to the spirits of the dead
we will put his claim to the test and agents investigating a small-time drug case find themselves on the trail
of a multi-million dollar counterfeiting operation sound intriguing if you better believe
it these are unusual cases that you won't want to miss i'm dennis farina and this
is unsolved mysteries [Music] in the tiny town of waverly georgia the heart and soul of the community is the
rising daughters baptist church waverly is mostly african-american and this church is where many of the locals
come to worship and to socialize it is also the site of a violent and still unsolved double murder
the brutal shooting of harold and thelma swain harold was a well-respected deacon of
the church and a member of the county jury thelma his wife of 43 years was also active in church affairs
on the night they were murdered harold and thelma held their weekly tuesday night bible class
nine women attended do i put my trust let me never be put to confusion now let us pray
in jesus name amen amen amen now is there any other business that you care to discuss sister brenda yeah well
i'd like to remind everybody at ten minutes before nine one of the women announced that she had to leave early
she ran into a stranger in the church entryway yeah i want to talk to somebody oh
somebody in there want to talk to him some of the other women caught just a glimpse of a young white male is that in
april excuse me oh the women rushed into the pastor's office and tried to call for help but
the phone didn't work 20 minutes passed while the women waited in fear finally one of them ran to her car and
got help that night the georgia bureau of investigation was brought in harold and thelma were personal friends
of mine and my families and it was kind of a shock to me i think i was in shock for a
while when i got there there was a lot of confusion no one really knew what had happened
they didn't know what the facts were they didn't know who had done the killing they didn't know what the motive
was the people there were very frightened swains highly respected people very active in the community
are just not the type of person that would be the victim of a murder plot there was a lot of physical evidence at
the scene bullet casings two pair of glasses one we were able to determine belong to harold swane
the other pair no one knew who they belonged to the first gut reaction that i had was a
transit because the glasses appeared to belong to a person who did not have enough money to
properly maintain their glasses or to buy glasses when they needed them none of the witnesses recognized the
assailant giving weight to the theory that he might be a transient rising daughter's church is located on
highway 17 and that's where detectives began their search for the killer those hitchhiking along highway 17 often
stop at the church for a free meal or a handout mr swain was the type of person that if
you ask him for something he would probably give you the shirt off his back if you tried to take something from him
he would do everything he could to stop you had a drifter tried to rob harold swain
and if so why did he leave 300 in harrell's pocket some evidence suggested that the crime
had been planned in advance the telephone lines at the church had been cut which
could or could not say that it was a premeditated murder could have been a premeditated armed robbery attempt
that just went bad the woman who left the church early clearly saw the attacker fearing for her life she agreed to be
interviewed but not on camera he was calm i was thinking that he was there for a handout
he didn't seem to be someone to hurt anybody i didn't see any weapon or anything and
it seemed like he had on scuffed boots and he had long blonde hair shoulder-length hair
but i really wasn't looking at him that hard you know because i wanted to leave all right can i have another song the
police tried to create a picture of the killer but conflicting eyewitness descriptions
resulted in four different portraits and then a composite drawing was made for five months the police searched for
the killer using this sketch but no new leads or clues surfaced and then one year later agent joe
gregory came across a face and a crime bulletin from kansas that seemed to match the picture created by
one of the witnesses at the church it literally gave me a chill when i saw the composite because there are so many
hundreds of thousands of combinations to make a composite and what are the odds that
two of them being exact and these composites were exact matches the kansas suspect was wanted for armed
robbery in a church but had never been caught they don't know who he is other than the fact that he drove an
older car with a florida tag on the brutal murders of harold and thalma swain remained a mystery were they just
random killings committed by a violent transient or were they a planned and premeditated murder and if so
why [Music] update there are new developments in this case here's one of our staff with
details 15 years after the murders police arrested a man named dennis arnold perry
who lived near the church perry was found guilty of the murders but maintained his innocence
after perry served 20 years in prison dna evidence found at the crime scene was tested and matched a different
suspect eric sparr dennis arnold perry's conviction was overturned and the charges against him
have officially been dropped next a british woman searches for her long-lost daughter who was adopted by
an american family london england [Music] delia fasani sat in her favorite pub waiting for her boyfriend to give him
news that no 18 year old girl wants to hello deliver you look great i can't even bring myself to say it
i'm pregnant it's not fine what do you mean i won't have it it's definitely not mine it's yours what
do you think i was devastated i mean i wanted to marry him i mean i loved him but he just didn't want the
responsibility of it that was just the way they did things then they just left the responsibility with the girl
after that the first fear obviously was to tell my dad that i was pregnant i thought well i'm either going to tell
him and he's going to kill me on the spot or i don't know what's going to happen
delia's father had immigrated from italy and ran a very successful restaurant in
london he was a strict and religious roman catholic he was a sort of man that was always on a short fuse
everybody was frightened of him and i was absolutely petrified to tell him for seven months delia disguised her
pregnancy with corsets and loose clothes finally when she couldn't hide it anymore she asked a friend to break the
news to done her till you calm down [Music] you are so common you've done the worst thing possible
you tell no one and you'll have nothing to say about this i'll take care of this problem
and then i think it was only a matter of about a couple of weeks and he just came home and announced that
i was going to this place wherever it was i wanted to keep my baby i thought well
maybe once i have the baby he's gonna feel different delia's father banished her to loretta
convent 30 miles north of london it was a home for unwed mothers and they arranged adoptions as well
when we drove up to the convent i just felt that i couldn't believe that they just
he'd just put me there we've been expecting you dealer we're glad to have you with us you know you cringe at
taking your dog to the pound because you don't want to leave him there um and yet he just easily just took me
there and and left me and that was my father this way two months later delia gave birth to a
baby girl she named her michelle [Music] they didn't like you to see your baby other than the feeding times and the
changing times because the more you saw the baby the more you held it you were more likely to bond to the baby
so when it came for adoption that you could just hand it over so they thought as though
nothing had happened but you do make that bond even though you're only seeing him for
certain times you've still given birth to her so the bond is there automatically
when michelle was four weeks old delia's parents visited the convent it was the moment that delia had been waiting for
i was just hoping that my father was gonna say well you know okay um you know you come back home and
and you bring your baby up and that's fine that's what i wanted [Music] i know my dad was
yearning to to take a peek but didn't want anyone to see him doing it [Music] and i thought well
at least he's looking [Music] i knew as soon as he walked away from the pram that that was it
there's no way that i'm going to change his mind two weeks later delia was allowed one
final visit with michelle she was told only that the adopting parents were americans
such a beautiful baby you've been very brave dealio when delia was alone she slipped a note into michelle's
blanket the note asked the adoptive parents to tell michelle that delia loved her and
had given her up unwillingly you've only got 30 minutes or whatever it is to say
goodbye so what you try to do is try to look at her face to burn the impression into your mind because that was the last
time you're going to see her [Music] i'm sorry delia it's time she came over and and and she took her
and she took her out of the room and um locked the door behind her and that was it
[Music] that was the last time i saw her i can't explain one minute i had a baby
next minute it was gone [Music] delia and her parents never spoke of the adoption again
she eventually married twice but had no other children 13 years later when her father died she
began to search for michelle delia's mother rosalinda refused to help honoring her late husband's wish that
the details of the adoption be kept secret years later while rosalinda was hospitalized with a terminal illness she
finally broke her silence [Music] the people who got michelle the name of the people you want
is walters rosalinda fasani died two weeks later having at last given delia the last name
of michelle's adoptive american family i can honestly say that not one day has passed where i haven't thought about
her or thought what she might be doing um she's there all the time you just you just can't can't rest you
can't leave it alone i've got to find her update just before the story aired delia found
out that her daughter had been renamed laura a british adoption official agreed to send her a letter that delia had
written in the note delia said that she would soon appear on unsolved mysteries and she asked laura
to watch 1964 at her home in new york mills new york laura not only watched the show but set
up a video camera to capture the moment but he just didn't want the responsibility of it
that was just the way they did things when i found out my birth mother was searching for me that was pretty
touching to know that she had looked that far to try to find me [Music] after the broadcast laura contacted our
phone center and asked to be put in touch with her mother in england against nearly impossible odds delia had
at last found her daughter a continental way soon after the broadcast laura brought
her family and friends to witness the end of the 27-year separation from her mother
there was a lot of anticipation a lot of what she going to think when she sees me
and what is she going through right now [Music] she was everything and more that i'd
expected absolutely everything she's a she's a beautiful girl proud of her before her death laura's adoptive mother
had shared all she knew of laura's background delia and laura could now fill in the
remaining gaps in nearly three decades 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 [Music]
coming up can we communicate with spirits of deceased loved ones thousands of people who have met psychic
james von prague say yes burbank california a collage of photographs celebrates the
brief life of a young man named doug raskin that he is present jewish tradition teaches us that when a
person dies it is only the body that dies i believe that one week earlier the 32
year old attorney an accomplished outdoorsman had fallen to his death while climbing
mount fuji in japan doug's parents sue and don raskin were shattered by his untimely death just
seemed like nobody could comfort us and one of my relatives had mentioned james van praagh
who was a medium and i kind of picked up on it real fast because i was looking for anything or
anybody who could help don and i at this time i couldn't imagine anybody have the
ability to be able to see somebody in another place and i was very very skeptical
before their meeting with james von prague the raskins gave the psychic no details whatsoever about themselves or
their son this recreation is strictly based on transcripts from the actual session son
did you have a son that passed over to the other side he's here yes oh god was this some kind of accident uh-huh
cause he gives me accident was it car or something no mountain was their head injuries the raskins were
impressed with von bragg's knowledge of their son's death but that wasn't all that amazed them
is there a nicki or a mickey mickey's my father who's ben ben's my dad when he told us all about these events
and named all the people that were already gone many many years some of them were gone a dozen or so years ago
and their personalities that they had that were so right on i mean there's just no way possible
uh basically i'm a claire sentient and i'm clairvoyant clara sentient means clear sensing i'm
an individual who senses feelings and emotions with spirit people people that pass to
the other side i'm a sensitive i'm able to pick up their thoughts and i feel their emotions when they come through
and that's what i relate to people and he shows me flowers for the raskins any residual doubts that they may have had
were erased when von praag spoke of another family tragedy that had occurred 33 years earlier
you don't have another son do you no [Music] did you ever lose a baby yes she lived for five days
i had completely forgot about that because i was there only for doug and i said what
i made him repeat it he says i said your daughter's all grown up today i said oh
my god he knows about our daughter then i became such a believer he likes the picture of himself taken at
the base of the mountain was there a picture of him taken at the base of mount fuji
do you know i don't know i haven't seen it the session brought enormous comfort to
sue and don even though von prague was not 100 correct in fact the raskins felt that he had
completely missed the mark when he talked about photos of doug on mount fuji in the helicopter two months after
we had been to james went to the mailbox and i came running into the house of yell there's an
envelope here from japan as it turned out doug's climbing team had gone back to the spot where their
friend perished and found his camera inside the package was the exact photograph
james von prague had talked about this is the picture taken at the base of the mountain
isn't that beautiful there was just so many things that occurred that james could not have known
about it would be impossible for him to have ever looked up or researched or anything
and that's really what made me a believer in him almost everything he said was correct
and it really changed my whole belief there is another side and that james gable was able to open it up to us
sue and donner are among the thousands who believe in james van praag's amazing powers
are his psychic abilities real or is it just wishful thinking in a moment we'll put van praag to the test
[Music] does james von prague have genuine psychic abilities that allow him to communicate with the dead
we invited 10 people to a session with van praag none had ever seen or talked with him
before they all hoped however to make contact with loved ones who had passed away
the session lasted several hours we have included some of the more dramatic moments
there's a lady that stands behind you and she's a very pretty woman i'm going to tell you she's a very pretty woman
her skin is very soft don't put it that way and i feel she's she's young lady i gotta tell you
paula hartland was anxious to find out about her mother who had died of emphysema
she says something about and when she comes back she's very connected to you okay
it's your mom it's your mother he might have passed over jackie mcdonald's daughter had been
murdered in her own home and then she goes back into bed and she thinks oh it's just her mind playing
games and she climbs back to bed and i have to say that she she falls asleep and she shows me
see the next thing she shows me is her being attacked and there was someone on top
with a knife and i see the man oh boy he grabbed something the counter looks like the knife was in it it was in a
block it was wasn't it it was in some kind of a a holder because he pulls it out just a
big block of knives that's it because it's not a drawer the daughter showed me a visual
it's almost as if it's a very quick movie in front of my head in my mind and i see things very fast it's a little
shadowy but certain details stick out von prague was unaware that a skeptic had been planted in the group this man
professor michael shermer investigates claims about psychic phenomena because he's showing me bleeding did you try to
get him to the car van prague is a mentalist a mentalist is a magician doing an act
he's doing what we call cold reading that is you meet somebody you've never seen before and you tell them things
about them you start general you throw things out rapid fire you watch their facial expressions to see if you're
getting hits or misses when you get a miss you go right on to the next thing you don't even blink when you get a hit
you follow that till till the end until they start saying no again and then you go to the
next thing and you just keep doing that did she see different doctors at one period of time thank you she was
bedridden also wasn't she was she in a bed the reason i asked questions yes or no
questions is number one i am also very human i have to validate that what i'm getting
from the spirit is indeed i'm on the right level with this individual i'm speaking with i want to
make sure that the spirit person is coming through right that the information is correct
yes you're going to get married again he says you will get married again you will
and he's going to help you [Music] and then prague will always keep it positive he wants you to know he loves you well
of course what else is he going to say he wants you know you'll be remarried well what's he gonna say you'll you'll
never be married again you'll be miserable miserable spins to the rest of your life uh this isn't gonna happen
right so these are just general principles of cold reading he says you have to stop stan wheel
attended the seance with his wife theresa they intentionally sat on opposite sides of the room you've had
major loss a traumatic loss got you thank you very much and you're you're connected aren't you you two liu
two is this your wife yes because he's pointing to her you know you're his wife what's your name teresa
teresa the wheels came to the session hoping to find out about their 19 year old son kevin who had been innocently
gunned down by gang members in a drive-by shooting yeah i want to bring in your is it a boy
yes because i get a boy yes okay it's a little son he says i'm their son yes okay was he killed yes because he
says i was killed yes [Music] was there a gun involved here please yes because he shows me a gun and he says he
was shot yes um i don't feel he was shot once i feel he shot more than once okay
i feel riddled i i really do with bullets i do i feel many bullets in me and this is what he's giving me here
i'm sorry it's a gang it's a gang yes gang of kids gang of kids teresa approached me to coming to see
james on prague i was very skeptical i really didn't want to come but then to know that kevin was
killed with a gun and it was multiple shots it was outside on a street he just kept alluding to more and more
of the things that he he had no idea he would have had no idea i got a big k and i don't know why but
i'm being given the k is his name with a k please like candice or ken kevin kevin
thank you that's what i said he said i see a big k and the first name he said was kevin
i mean how can you can't get that off of you know just being around this room it
was just amazing i think he's wonderful absolutely wonderful first of all she had her son's ring on
big black ring with a k in diamonds on this ring around her necklace around her neck
um now maybe he saw that maybe he didn't i i don't know i go a big k and i don't
know why i was watching her eyes you know what you know she starts crying eyes are like
saucers and and he already knows it's it's her son that died so two most common names for boys with starting with
a k ken and kevin he says ken or kevin she says kevin bingo kevin now she'll run home and tell everybody he got my
son's name kevin right like that i didn't tell him no he didn't get it however teresa claims that von prague
could not have seen the ring because she kept it hidden in her dress but perhaps disagreements about details
are beside the point six of the ten participants felt that von prague correctly identified the
people that they had hoped to contact and most felt a sense of comfort and healing
i do feel a little more at peace i know that there is another life after this because what james had told me through
kevin and the fact that he sees me that he hears me talking to him that it's not all in vain is what really
makes me feel at ease sometimes you don't know how you're going to make it from one minute to the
next it's so horribly painful but now i know that my debbie can see me and that she can hear me
and i can tell her i love her and when one realizes that there is a life after death it indeed will change
their life and how they live on the earth and how they treat each other and that is really my most important
belief my mission next a young man searched for the big brother who changed his life
[Music] elkhart indiana when jeff fisher was only seven years old his father left home forcing jeff's
mother to raise her young son and daughter alone what's the matter i don't want to go in
there with you why not there's only guys in there and you're not a guy i want to go in there with my dad
it was very hard on jeff after his dad left because he had been very close to him
and suddenly he was gone and jeff went through the feelings of that a lot of children have that maybe this was my
fault maybe i said something maybe i did something that made my dad leave jeff was a very sensitive shy little boy
so things like that bothered him a lot i would always ask my mom you know where's daddy you know where's daddy and
she'd say oh you know he's gone away and you know i don't know when he's gonna be
back and you know it was just the fact that he just wasn't there anymore and you know i
just felt a real loss you know because i had been so close to him and now he just wasn't there anymore
two years later big brothers of america opened a chapter in jeff's hometown jeff was their first little brother
got a sports d-line his big brother was john novotny a local salesman and father
of a two-year-old daughter he was a big guy he was over six feet jet black hair just a really solidly built guy a very
commanding uh type of guy um but really easy to get along with you ever put a tent up before no
you're about to learn john gave me the companionship that i really needed at that time
he would take me out and do things you know that you know mom wasn't able to either afford to take us to do or just
didn't have the time because she was working so much just the fact that this was you know an
older guy that i could hang around with and not have him tell me to go away and you know come back later and stuff some
you know a guy that wanted to spend some time with me you know made me feel really good looks
pretty good i think it's ready to light yeah okay after jeff and john started seeing each
other i noticed that jeff had a lot more confidence in himself and he was very proud of the fact that
he had a big brother and and he would tell the other kids well well john and i are going to go do this or my big
brother and i are going to go do this he was very proud of the fact that that he
had a man in his life that was just his that just belonged to jeff a year and a half after they met john's
company transferred him to another state but he and jeff stayed in touch by phone
when he was 10 jeff underwent open-heart surgery to correct a congenital defect it was a terrifying experience
however a phone call from john who also had heart problems helped to calm jeff's
fears i think it helped jeff to see that that john was this big strong guy and he had
a bad heart and so if if john can be big and strong then then maybe this heart condition isn't the end of the world
and i think that was a big help to jeff jeff feels that john's support and understanding was the key to his
complete recovery over the years they lost touch but now that jeff has a family of his
own he wants to reconnect with his big brother tell me a story about it he just introduced me to a world that i had
never seen before that was you know really beautiful and really just so different from what i was used
to and if i finally see him again i just want to thank him i just want to say god john thank you
because you just you know i still think about you he made a lasting impression it's been
20 years and he's still a really vivid part of my memory update thanks to our viewers jeff's search for
his big brother ended the night of our broadcast and the two were soon reunited there they are
[Music] there they are [Music] bye guy it's unbelievable i was absolutely stunned i had absolutely no idea that
jeff you look just like your face was looking for me and then as the show aired uh people from
elkhart and from michigan started calling me on the phone telling me that i was on television
jeff fisher was looking for me and we must have got 35 calls that night and at least that many the next night you know
i've been wanting to say thanks to this guy for 18 years and you know whatever it took to
come out and say that you know i was willing to do this is when we were down in lexington kentucky for a john
mellencamp show when i first started being a big brother the question was would i really have
enough time to do it right and then 20 years later to find out that i really did make a difference i mean it
brings the whole thing to reality law enforcement can be tedious work investigators often have to work
hundreds of tips that turn out to be dead ends but every once in a while what looks like a nothing lead can turn into
a jackpot brownsville texas what are you shipping today what do you mean what's inside the box
well what did i put on down on the farm you wrote down clothes yeah that's right
close it all started when a man named john vogel addressed the package to himself
in minnesota the clerk was suspicious with vogel's answers to the questions being that it's
on a border town and being cognizant drugs do originate out of mexico into the united states she contacted u.s
customs officials there you go customs officials arrange for a drug sniffing dog come in
dog alerted or hit on the package for the president's narcotics customs officials then arranged for the pact
should be forwarded on to minnesota let's see what we got here local police and custom agents were waiting for the
parcel when it arrived in minnesota a search warrant allowed them to inspect the contents
inside the package they found various pieces of men's clothing and also two aerosol containers with fake bottoms
inside the containers were about four grams of cocaine and 38 100 bills and several strips of test print that's
using counterfeit that reflects the treasury seal and serial numbers the four gram cocaine bus didn't even
make a dent in the war on drugs but the evidence of counterfeiting took the investigation into a new and
interesting direction federal investigators put vogel's cocaine and counterfeit bills back
inside his package and then the parcel was taken to vogel's business special delivery
courtesy of a secret service agent moments later vogel had visitors [Music] yeah federal agents we have a search
warrant search your premises got the package mr vogel you're under arrest officials
found approximately fifty thousand dollars in counterfeit money some of the counterfeit looked like it had just
recently been printed it was drying open on the various work benches in the shop
vogel's counterfeit was described as very good or excellent he used various colors of ink on the
bills as well as some of the colored threads that are put into the bills for authenticity
officials also searched a storage locker vogel had rented in that locker they found
196 114 counterfeit 100 bills holy moses john vogel was a self-made millionaire the bogus sea notes added up to over 19
million dollars the fourth largest hall in united states history and this wasn't vogel's first brush with
the law he had served time for armed bank robbery and was captured only after a violent
high-speed chase while he was incarcerated he was assigned to the printing industry there
it's believed he learned the counterfeiting trade from another inmate authorities learned that vogel had
logged thousands of miles crisscrossing america and spending his phony hundred dollar bills one by one
by the time he was arrested he had spent a total of fifty thousand dollars in nearly half the states in the country
surprisingly vogel was released on a personal recognizance bond not surprisingly
he immediately disappeared and has not been seen since update six months after john bryson vogel
disappeared his criminal career came to a sudden and violent end after robbing this bank in sioux falls
south dakota at gunpoint vogel led police on a high-speed chase for 60 miles vogel then ran his car into a ditch
where he took his own life with a single gunshot wound to the head pogo's death officially ended one of the
most extensive counterfeiting investigations in history [Music] you

This episode includes: Slain Swain, Goldie's Girl, James Van Praagh (Pts. 1 & 2), Thanks Big Brother and Fugitive Counterfeiter.

Brief Summary

Unsolved Mysteries features a double murder, a mother searching for her daughter, and a psychic session with James Van Praagh.

Key points

The Unsolved Murders of Harold and Thelma Swain. A shocking double murder in a small church community leaves many questions unanswered.
Delia's Heartbreaking Adoption Story. Delia Fasani's journey through pregnancy and adoption reveals deep emotional struggles.
A Long-Lost Daughter Reunited. After decades apart, Delia finally finds her daughter, now named Laura.
James von Prague's Psychic Abilities. The Raskins seek closure after their son's death through a psychic medium.
The Power of Cold Reading. A mentalist uses cold reading techniques to connect with clients, revealing personal details.
A Heartfelt Connection. A grieving mother receives messages from her deceased son, providing comfort and closure.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can’t explain one minute I had a baby, next minute it was gone.

Delia reflects on her adoption experience.

15:22WatchMar 16, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.