Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 1, Episode 4 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

this program is about unsolved mysteries whenever possible the actual family members and police officials have
participated in recreating the events what you are about to see is not a news broadcast
tonight on unsolved mysteries a story of a lonely housewife in Maine who searched
for love and her loose papers personal columns two years ago she went on a blind date and vanished and on the Queen
Mary dozens of eyewitnesses claimed they have seen or heard ghosts last month parapsychologist tape recorded phantom
sound of what some believe as a shipwreck that took place 40 years earlier they'll also examine the case of a man
awaiting trial for the murder of two teenage girls Joe Shepherd has escaped perhaps you can help kitchen the nice
cases feature ordinary people thrust into a vortex of mystery heartbreak and intrigue each one is searching for that
vital clue to end a story that so far has no ending perhaps you can help join me you may be able to help solve a
mystery [Music] this is the Queen Mary now permanently moored in Long Beach California on her
decks and in her quarters people have seen and heard things they can't explain I'd been here about 14 years when I'd
first had the first experience with actually seeing what I thought to be a ghost it was a December morning I was in
the work area and for some reason I picked up a cup of coffee went out to the table and there was a lady sitting
there I was so fascinated by her dress she appeared to be in a late afternoon cocktail type dress from the 40s she had
dark hair rolled at the sides no makeup on she seemed to be very pale but I never saw a movement I left the table
went up about ten feet turned around because I wanted to take another look and there was nothing there
I am probably the last person that should have had these experiences because I'm such a skeptic one day I was
standing on the stairs of the pool and out of the corner of my right eye I saw a woman probably in her 60s or 70s in
black and white so I went down the stairs and around the pillar expecting to find her standing there and she
wasn't anywhere to be found it was only a matter of seconds she couldn't have gone anywhere several
others besides Carol and Nancy say they have seen or heard ghosts here in the Queen Mary's first class pool how do we
explain these sightings are reportedly well balanced level-headed people could they simply result from the power of
suggestion stimulated by an eerie location a some parapsychologists believe that all locations are haunted
that is they retain memories of past events as some people with psychic sensitivities their ESP experiences
hauntings whatever the explanation the Queen Mary seems to be inhabited by something ethereal that has been seen
and heard but not explained the Queen Mary took her maiden voyage on May 27th 1936 and transported the titled and
elite from both sides of the Atlantic [Music] during that five-day voyage the Queen
Mary was a floating party a living symbol of luxury trout but we man [Applause] [Music]
in the Second World War the Queen Mary was turned into a troopship due to her ghostly gray camouflage she was
ironically nicknamed a gray ghost after the war she reverted back to her former glory and crossed the ocean a total of
1001 times in the over 30 years a ship was at sea she witnessed four births and at least 49 recorded deaths after her
arrival in Long Beach in 1967 one of the first people to work on board was marine
engineer John Smith part of my duties was to check and learn this ship thoroughly and so I explored it in the
evenings on my regular days work was done to his job took him into the remote regions of the ship's bow and several
times over a two-month period he heard something where there should only have been silence
[Music] he heard the sounds of metal Terry water Russia and then men screaming it sounded like there had been a rupture
of the ship's hull was frightful I went up to the extreme bow section of the ship the sound was here but there was no
water and nothing could cause it I don't believe in supernatural things but in all my experiences as a marine engineer
never seen anything like this years later Smith read about a wartime tragedy the Queen Mary's accidental collision
with a British Cruiser named the Kurosawa over 300 men were killed the Queen Mary's bow sliced the kurosawa in
half after I read that article I was so shook up and so overwhelmed the very area
I heard that mysterious water rushing was this exact same area that was damaged when the ship hit the Curacao I
said this is what it would have sounded and felt like it had been in that compartment at the time
but I knew it couldn't be that was 30 years earlier it couldn't be anything over the years dozens of sightings have
been reported late one night in the pool area maintenance supervisor Kathy Lud and a co-worker heard mysterious sounds
we came into the pool and I heard giggling sound of a little girl or a child playing in the area and at that
point I noticed they were splashing the splashing stopped the giggling continued
and we observed the footprints of a small child walking across into the locker room
[Music] I know that I saw what I saw I'm not sure exactly why I saw it but I know it was there
several unexplained encounters have occurred in shaft alley deep within the ship near the engine room here in 1966
during a routine fire man named John Penner was crushed to death and watertight doors
some believe Petter still haunts shaft alley what a day yeah what'd they say he was it was down here at shaft alley
somewhere both tour members and employees have experienced hauntings in shaft alley
coveralls in the beard yeah son Jim is dressing blue blue coveralls and he had a beard there was two different tour
groups to set it I had a second experience down in shaft alley it was about 5:30 or 6 o'clock in the evening I
was working in the capacity of a lead guide which meant my job was to close down the tour route and make sure that
there weren't any stragglers behind and I don't know why I turned around but I turned around I'm standing right behind
me on the step was a man he had blue overalls they were dirty when I stepped aside to let him go by he wasn't there
he was gone I don't necessarily believe any other ghost stories that other people have
come up with I only know what I saw and I only believe what I saw with my own eyes last month unsolved mysteries
brought to the Queen Mary a team of experts who've spent decades investigating hauntings using
sophisticated recording equipment they would attempt to verify the eyewitness accounts head out as soon as I got
around the corner it started again Danish born William rural Macon is one of the world's leading authorities on
poltergeists and often asked the question do you believe in ghosts and what I expect I will be asked you know
when I finished this investigation are there ghosts and this ship and these are questions that I cannot answer
Tony Cornell has researched paranormal activity for 25 years I am a skeptic but at the same time I must allow for the
fact that other people who are very sane and sensible have seen things and experienced things the apparitional
study I think is probably the most interesting stuff in the pool and the stuff in shaft and look as if they are
repeated cases so often that they must be genuine Cornell set up his surveillance
equipment William Earl led a team of psychics on lured all six claimed to know nothing about the ship's history or
about the haunting occurrences armed with maps and their psychic sensitivity they struck off in many
different directions alone [Music] after the search the psychics gathered together to compare notes though some
had nothing to report others sensed a great deal of activity that coincided with eyewitness reports
the ship did you mention something about a collision of felt a collision I see I felt the impression and of a collision
I see no sure I don't but I definitely felt the movement of the ship and I felt that a jerking hit mm-hmm and the
sensation from the body and I did hear footsteps I see let's go to the next one in shaft
alley one psychic sense - twenty-year-old tragedy Janice would you describe your experiences in that area I
felt that there had been not that I was hearing it physically but then at times someone could hear a very rhythmical
banging as if someone had a ranch or a large piece of iron banging against a wrench ring a wrench
that was the know someone had apparently gotten trapped it is a fact that some psychics managed to pick up things and
you can't quite see how they got it but you got to be suspicious about this because there's a thing called three
things I mean I've met enough mediums now who've read what they want to tell you
in the newspaper one investigator did find something well William roll was surveying the bar area he heard some
unusual sounds he couldn't explain there was the sound two men talking and it was
heard by the security guard who brought me there and by myself and it seemed to come from the lower levels the bow of
the ship in 30 years of investigation this was the first time that royal had heard an unexplained sound that had been
reported by a witness in this case he believes what he perceived was genuine parole placed a voice-activated
tape recorder in the bow area at the same spot where the voices were heard [Music]
for most of the night this is what was recorded nothing in the early morning for a full two minutes the tape recorder
picked up sounds where no sounds should be this is a condensed version of the actual tape
[Music] earlier the bar had been sealed off the researchers attempted to duplicate the
sounds through mechanical means they were unsuccessful but what we can conclude is that there is a physical
source for the sounds in now is it parapsychological or does it have some other kind of source and that that
remains that still remains uncertain a man has had this kind of experience as long as recorded history it is a human
experience it's going to continue going on and somebody's going to look at it it's a challenge and some mystery that
has got to be solved what can explain these hauntings overactive imagination a quest for publicity for something more
intangible something supernatural is the Queen Mary haunted we cannot say yes but we cannot say no
[Music] February 27th 1978 Teleco Plains Tennessee in a parked car sixteen-year-old Roxanne Woodson fought
off the advances of a man named Joe Sheppard two friends watched in the backseat Roxanne escaped ran off into
the night Joe chased after rocks and never returned when Roxanne failed to come home her
family began to worry Judis wringing your hands and there's no outlet there's no relief because you
haven't got her she's gone you don't know what's happened to her and she's out there and you can't reach her you
can't help her after 10 years the case of Roxanne Woodson still haunts her family and everyone living in Teleco
plains Tennessee for weeks there was no trace of Roxanne and as her investigation unfolded the police became
convinced that the last person who saw her Joe Shepherd was a psychopathic killer
the night after Roxanne Woodson is reported missing police went to the home where Joe Sheppard lived with his
parents to take him in for questioning the officers waited while joe went into his bedroom to put on his boots the gang
just wants to talk to him Joe Reese for a shotgun the officers fired two warning shots after a brief
struggle they wrestled the gun away from them he was then brought in for interrogation
Joe's initial story was that he had attempted to seduce Roxanne and she had gotten mad at him at his persistent
efforts and had jumped from the car and run into the woods that he went running after her and finally Joe came back
telling the two boys that he'd tried to get her back and that he didn't know where she'd gone
Joe Shepard was booked for assaulting a police officer made bond and was released for several days over 60 people
combed through the woods looking for Roxanne Joe voluntarily joined them the police
brought in dogs to follow Roxanne's scent into the woods they tracked her only a few yards and then the trail
abruptly stopped still the searchers found no trace of Roxanne and the girl's family began to panic we just fell on
her knees and said oh god no oh god no she loved her daddy so much and he knew she would not have ran out after a few
frustrating days the search was called off Roxanne Woodson had vanished until the
afternoon of April 8 1978 Roxanne's body was found after Joe's mother was standing at the window in the
kitchen looking out she noticed that the dogs were digging and going on that one
specific location there and she became alarmed she went outside and walked up on what proved to be an speaking out of
the ground she notified the authorities at that time and they came to the Shepherd home and did remove the body of
rocks and woods and from Joe Shepards mother and father's yard Roxanne had been buried in a shallow grave some of
her clothes were missing and her pants had been wrapped around her head at that point the Monroe County sheriff's deputy
took out a warrant charging the suspect Joe Shepherd of the first-degree murder we went to his mother-in-law ex
mother-in-law's home to conduct a search and they told us he wasn't there we went
in and searched the house and found him there was a child in the bed and he was rolled up in the covers on the foot of
the bed like the cover was just rolled out to pull of the bed he was hidden in there Joe look at me
we found Roxanne Joe Joe appeared Jeff during his second interrogation Joe's story began to change Joe began to fill
in the blanks of the segment that he had earlier given and he said that when Roxanne ran from the car and into the
woods he gave chase and that as she was running through the woods that she had fallen and reprobated I come up on her
and he told investigators that he panicked and returned to his car and come they left the area joe claimed he
returned to the scene later that same night unsure whether roxanne was dead or alive he carried her back to his car he
placed the girl inside and drove off into the night according to Joe Shepard not knowing what to do with in his
previous encounters with allow he was afraid to contact any law enforcement held then he decided to bury her and he
could find no other place other than just residence there in Teleco plains he never did it and actually admit to being
responsible for her death he admitted he where had been with her and she had died as was all except for a
head injury that she had attained when she failed Joe was brought before a judge he recommended that Joe be
formally charged with the murder of Roxanne Woodson to the grand jury bond is set at $150,000 as a Roxanne Woodson
story began a draw to a close another murder case was about to be reopened after Joe had been charged in regards to
the homicide the investigators who had topped with him in questioning they became pretty much buddies Joe had
learned to trust these people and he wanted to help them detective Joe Gray's have received an anonymous phone call
linking Joe to another disappearance that of a girl named Kathy Lauer's a local 14 year old who had vanished two
years earlier I'm taking the last place I saw her I need you to take us and show
us where she is now can you do that yeah I can take you there Joe told them that not only did he know Cathy Lauer's
he knew where she was buried he offered to take them there I have my we went into the woods I'm a couple
hundred yards off the highway Joe had designated sparkly all to do was taking along a pickaxe and shovel and
such and start digging in the ground we've gone down some death and hadn't uncovered a body at all and I took the
pickaxe just to sort of relieve the guy who had been doing the digging and after
about the second effort piece of red cloth came up on the head of the pickaxe I'll never forget Joe Shepherd was
hunkered down beside the the hole we were digging and he looked up with his cold smile on his face and said see I
told you something he was proud I think of the fact that he had produced a body for us and and showed no emotion at all
though the body was badly decomposed dr. William bass a noted forensic anthropologist was able to identify it
as that of Kathy flowers Kathy flowers had chipped a tooth and this match the chipped tooth that she had dr. bass is
there anything that indicates there was no evidence on the skeleton of cause of death there were no gunshot wounds no
stab wounds no broken bones whatever cause death did not leave its mark on the skeleton the clothing of this girl
the pants pants they have been wrapped around her head very similar to the man in which the Woodson child had been
buried they've been pants they wrapped around her head on April 17th 1978 Joe Shepard was formally indicted for the
murder of Kathy Lauer's while awaiting trial for the double homicides Joe was held at the Bradley County Jail on July
17th 1978 one of the jailers was someone who was cell near Joe's the jailer was lured into the cell by a man feigning
sickness [Music] after locking up the jailer the two men went to jump Shepards cell
they released him and the three men fled the prison well here the two escapees were recaptured the following week Joe
Shepard remains at large I feel certain that Joe is a danger to society the methodology that he put into each act
was that of a very criminal mind a mind that feels no guilt oh he is just there and he's capable of doing it at any time
we don't know what sets him off I would like to see him brought to justice I'd like to see justice done for personal
reasons and for the love of my granddaughter I would like to see it but also for the ones the mothers out there
that their daughters might be in danger these pictures of Joe Arlen Shepard were
taken in 1978 he is six feet tall and weighs about a hundred and fifty pounds he has brown hair a scar on his left
forearm and he may be working as an auto mechanic Shepard has recently been seen
in El Paso Texas and the authorities believe he may be living somewhere along the Mexican border update London Ontario
Canada the ten years search for Joe Shepard has ended after the unsolved mystery Shaun October the fifth we
received a phone call from a local resident saying that he believed the guy called Sheppard was in fact living in
London under the name Joseph Tripp we began an investigation and when we had identified him to our satisfaction
as Sheppard he was arrested at the time of his arrest Shepard was living in a government housing project
in London Ontario with his common-law wife and their two children it seems apparent that mr. Shepard was and London
Canada with just within a matter of days after escaping [Music] Wiscasset Maine a picturesque town of 3,000 people each
year vacation has come here to escape but for Gale Dewayne lived in Wiscasset this vacation paradise was a prison she
wrote about it in her diary Maine seems to bring out the worst in me I don't see
him into my loneliness it just seems to go on forever I need someone so desperately but
nothing seems to work Gale Delano was twice divorced and the mother of two teenage boys she looked
for companionship in the personal ads of her local newspaper when she placed the ads she described
herself exuberant a unique female 34 attractive trim intelligent affectionate independent slightly crazy night out
likes music movies dance dining Sikhs easygoing intelligent responsible not overweight male for growing relationship
I'm in Wiscasset where are you June 21st 1986 Gael Delano drove alone to a restaurant in Brunswick Maine to meet a
blind date [Music] Gayle's family never saw or heard from her again [Music] despite the tone of her personal ads
Gayle Delana was shy and withdrawn for Gayle placing these ads was an act of courage was also an act of hope last
entry in her diary read it would be nice to find someone to date over the summer
who knows maybe I'll get lucky and find someone interesting Gayle was searching not only for companionship but also for
a father figure for her two boys her desperate need to find love placed her in the center of an unsolved mystery
Friday evening June 20th 1986 Gail's son's recalled that she had a two-and-a-half-hour telephone
conversation with a man named John a man they assumed their mother had met through the personal ads the next
morning Gayle told her son she planned to have coffee with John at the Howard Johnson's and Brunswick and then if
things went well spend the afternoon with him [Music] that night gales thirteen-year-old son
Ryan returned home from a friend's house he discovered that his mother was not at
home Ryan was concerned but not alarmed when Gail did not return home the next night
her family called the police it was now 37 hours but time Gayle delano had left home to meet her date the police
immediately searched the Howard Johnsons parking lot allocated Gail's car there was no indication at that point that
there was any foul play basically it was an adult woman who has gone out and spent the night the history we got was
that that's not unusual for her to spend the night out although it was unusual for her to do it without calling you
know when she's been going that long it just wasn't right because she was so careful about keeping track with the
children where she was that we knew if she'd been going for that long that something was haywire aoes family was
forced to wait until 11 o'clock Monday morning to have her officially declared a missing person only then could the
police search her car when we got the car open we tried to see if there would be a note or anything that would be from
Gail I would explain particularly who she was with because at this point we figured the sky that shed the day was
had done something it's pretty clean and we looked the car over there was nothing
in the car normally I know the person's first and last name and where where he's
from but this one time we just missed the one had to be that one time I'd spoken with her earlier that afternoon
and she said I have a feeling I'm gonna have a date I'm gonna do something happy
and I'm gonna have fun this weekend and then look what happened two hours after the police had removed
Gail's car a Howard Johnson's busboy made a startling discovery manager of Howard Johnson called the bun to the
police department to notify them that one of their Busboys had found a set of keys in the parking slot where Gilliland
old car had been parked fired that they're moving in when the policeman handed those keys Gail's keys oh my god
I said they'd have to kill her short of getting those keys from her and I just about came unglued then and yes I was
said the plot you've got to find my baby where is she where is she two weeks later a nine-year-old boy
playing on the other side of the Howard Johnsons made a second starting discovery Kayla's
purse finding the purse at the parking lot kind of raised our concern about the possibility of foul play
I was just heartsick when I found out because again she would not let go of that handbag short of being bopped in
the head or dragged away actually the pocketbook was very neat inside and quite orderly so it appeared right from
the beginning that it had not been rifled through by anybody looking for any type of money or things of this
nature curiously while the purse appeared untouched there was no money in it even the emergency five-dollar bill
that Gail always kept tucked in a secret compartment was missing using a date book they found in her purse detectives
mallet and Bradford compound a list of the men that Gayle might have dated in the last year one of them was a man
named John from Old Orchard Beach this man swore he had never dated Gayle he said the only time he might have talked
to her on the phone was months before she disappeared not really wasn't a rain he had a
rock-solid alibi for the day Gale vanished so did all the other men the police questioned the police were
totally baffled Gale kept detailed records of the men who responded to her ads yet there was no record of a man
named John in her files who would call Gayle talked for two and a half hours a night before she
disappeared why were her keys found on exactly the spot where her car had been parked why was Gail's purse found on the
other side of the restaurant apparently untouched but with no money in or the keys and purse thrown where
they lay by someone who attacked Gail or is it possible Gail placed the keys and purse herself a
new theory about Gail's disappearance emerged when police interviewed a local late-night disc jockey I was working the
overnights it's his radio station and Gail would call sometime after one o'clock in the morning just to talk and
go on in general about life experiences and then Gail finally asked if I would like to meet her
Gail always seemed to be very very sad or depressed almost to the point of not being able to MOLLE always you felt that
Gail was just going to perhaps give up at any moment just it ceased to exist disappear
literally right sitting there on the couch for years Gail head struggled with depression had been on medication for it
several times she had considered taking her own life that talked about it with her sister
Darrell's family reluctantly considered whether her disappearance might have been a suicide I don't feel that Gale
committed suicide because I don't believe that she would ever have left and left us to go through this kind of
pain and not knowing if she's out there somewhere I think that she definitely doesn't know who she is and that would
be of course our best scenario is that she's out there somewhere and then we can find her with the help of truck
drivers Gail's family distributed missing posters throughout the eastern United States over a year after Gale
disappeared the truck driver spotted her missing poster in a Georgia truck stop on Friday
August 14th 1987 I received a phone call in the evening from man named John Scott
of Swansea South Carolina earlier that day he'd seen a missing-persons poster of Delano he recognized that woman
there's one that he had given a ride to several months earlier I was with her somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty
four hours she didn't talk too much but she had that northern accent pretty bad you know and I could tell she isn't Noah
she was sort of a neat type of woman and mostly you catch these regular hitchhikers I'd call him and truck stop
queen you don't care how they dress you don't have to go but this Roman was dressed pretty neat you could tell she
was bit but didn't erect the one you know and I asked him did he notice anything about her whether she was on
medication or took any medication or anything of this one he did notice and pill bottles but he had no idea what
might be in them my next question to him was how sure he felt that this was a fad
Gale Delano I would bet money on that that was her the truck driver story suggested another
possibility the gay love engineered her own disappearance from the Brunswick restaurant
Yale could have told the children that she was going to a restaurant to meet a gentleman by the name of John Gielgud
have easily driven to the restaurant dr. car either concealed the keys somewhere under the car but merely
tossed them under the car stating to herself she was going to give up her identity stole the purse in the
shrubbery and either catch a ride with somebody leaving the restaurant area or perhaps even a truck driver leaving the
area the Gail Delano I met did not seem to have it together enough or brave enough or sure of
herself enough to just pack it up and head for another part of the country without telling anyone what she was
doing they couldn't even get Gail Delano to go for a Sunday Drive or out to a restaurant or for an ice-cream and I
really cannot picture Gail playing I was just getting in a car and just going to
the other side of the country she could just as well have thrown my hands up and
said back with it all and just took off but what we're afraid of is that she's out there wandering around possibly not
knowing who she is needing our help I want her to know that if she's well I'm happy and I pray she is she doesn't
have to come home she doesn't even have to call she'll just let somebody know that she's alive so that we can put
ourselves at peace Gayle's parents are no closer to the truth and all the day their daughter
disappeared wish you the victim of foul play Marisha wandering somewhere unaware of
her own identity or could the blind date with John merely have been an elaborate ruse Yale
concocted to cover up her own disappearance [Music] the only thing I want is to find a man
to share my life I know I'm lonely and tired of doing it all by myself time is becoming a big enemy to me to say it
passes slowly is a laugh for me it seems to stand still update Mobile Alabama the
two and a half years search for Gil Delano has come to an end tragically she took her own life shortly after she
disappeared a forensic administrator in Mobe watched our procurement recognized gales photo as a woman who had died in a
local hotel room in 1986 when I saw the photo I immediately saw the resemblance between MS Delano and an unidentified
body that we had in our laboratory in Mobile after two weeks of forensic tests positive identification was made
police now theorized killed Elena orchestrated her own disappearance they believe that after she drove to the
restroom she hid her keys somewhere on the car removed all the money from her purse discarded it and then he flew to
Alabama that evening she checked into a hotel in MOCA where she registered under
the name Jackie Stafford three days later police discovered her body she had died from a drug overdose on November 11
Gail's family held a memorial service for and Brunswick Maine Gail's family showed remarkable courage is for two
long years they search for the truth her loss saddens us all and to her parents and sons we send our deepest sympathy
for every mystery someone somewhere who knows the truth perhaps if someone is watching
perhaps as you [Music]

Brief Summary

Gale Delano's disappearance, Queen Mary's hauntings, and Roxanne Woodson's murder case are discussed in this episode.

Key points

A Lonely Housewife's Disappearance. A housewife in Maine vanished after a blind date, leaving behind a mystery.
Ghostly Encounters on the Queen Mary. Eyewitnesses report strange sightings aboard the haunted ship.
The Haunting of Shaft Alley. A tragic accident leads to ghostly encounters in the ship's engine room.
The Disappearance of Roxanne Woodson. A chilling tale of a young girl's disappearance and the search for answers.
Joe Shepherd's Double Life. After being charged with one murder, Joe Shepherd leads police to another victim.
Gale's Desperate Search for Love. Gale Delano, a twice-divorced mother, seeks companionship through personal ads, revealing her loneliness.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don't believe in supernatural things, but...

A marine engineer's skepticism challenged by eerie experiences.

6:34WatchMay 16, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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