Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 3 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries a woman is listed among the hundreds of missing following the terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center she would be assumed dead if it weren't for one troubling fact she disappeared the night before
the twin towers collapsed best friends his childhood Diane Shawcross and Jennifer Luth moved
to a suburb of Phoenix Arizona and immersed themselves in the local singles scene two months later both would be
dead authorities now need your help in finding their killer a divorced mother disappears under bizarre circumstances
suspicion focuses on her estranged husband who is described by some as a loving father but by others as a
sadistic psychopath and now he is a fugitive from justice a young beautiful girl becomes lost in the neon glitter of
reading she leaves behind paranoid emails gruesome drawings and books on how to change your identity her family
prays if someone in our audience can help start palumbo find her way home join me for these fascinating stories
perhaps someone somewhere has at one vital clue that can solve a mystery perhaps as someone is watching perhaps
it's you [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] everywhere you looked they stared back
painful reminders of the human toll taken by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center following September
11th New York City was blanketed with homemade posters of missing loved ones [Music]
joining the thousands of distraught family and friends canvassing the city was Ron Lieberman his wife a 31 year old
physician of Indian descent named Sneha Phillip was last seen in the vicinity of
the World Trade Center but Sneha story is drastically different from the other hundreds of people still
listed as missing and presumed dead in fact snare Philip disappeared on September 10th 14 hours before the Twin
Towers catastrophic collapse while she may have been caught in the World Trade Center disaster
Sneha may have also succumbed to foul play her fate remains a mystery I think this is a very difficult situation
because of the confusion with September 11th that leaves every single possibility open I mean in our heads
right now anything is possible only one year earlier Ronon Sneha were exchanging
vows of everlasting love their future happiness seemed assured there are certain people that you meet in your
life who just you connect with so strongly and right away we knew and basically inseparable since the first
day we met the newlyweds shared an apartment in Battery Park City an exclusive neighborhood just four blocks
from the World Trade Center at 11:15 a.m. on September 10th Ron let furries shift as a doctor at Jacobi
hospital Sneha who was also a doctor at the next three days off kissed her I told her I
loved it and I left luckily I left my keys at home so I went back and I got to kiss her again and that was the last
time that I saw her when Ron returned at 11:15 that night Sneha was not home but Ron felt there
was no reason to be concerned my schedule is so crazy so sometimes she would feel uncomfortable staying by her
cellphone at home and her brother lives very close by and her cousin also lives very close by so she would sometimes go
spend the night with them and I thought well maybe she just decided to stop at her brother's house or her cousin
the following morning Ron rose early and headed to work for an 8 a.m. meeting he
expected Sneha to call him once she woke up September 11th began as a perfect day
the weather was unseasonable warm and the sky a brilliant blue like Ron millions of New Yorkers what about their
daily routines unaware that the entire world teetered on the verge of disaster there
was an accident a plane hit the World Trade Center after the meeting that came outside and we saw the TVs were on and
we saw the first plane hit so I immediately went and called home so now I figure I pick up the phone and there
was just the message machine on I need you to call me let me know that you're okay I love you
and then we learned that the second plane hit and now everyone realized that this is an attack and then when the
buildings came down everyone was just you know people were crying but still trying to work and it was a very very
emotional time I think for obviously for everyone I called back again about 10 o'clock in the morning still just the
message machine was on and then after that the phones went dead I was frightened for my wife because I
could get in touch with her I was sad what happened devastated by the whole situation you know there's so many
emotions everyone is in shock and where's my wife I don't know her on lieberman's personal nightmare coincided
with one of the worst global nightmares in history imagine tried to find your wife in the
chaos and confusion following the tragedy of the World Trade Center any evidences of what happened to Sneha
Philip was most likely buried under 1.2 million tons of rubble still Ron Lieberman pray the stea was simply lost
in the turmoil enveloping New York City and that you would soon find her way home
[Music] ron's hopes were based on Sneha spending the previous night with her brother or
cousin but honey finally got through to them both said they had not seen or heard
from Sneha in over 48 hours realizing that no one had spoken to her yet I realized that this is a serious
situation at that point I decided you know I'm gonna try to get down to the apartment all roads into lower Manhattan
were closed only emergency vehicles are being permitted through the barricades Ron hitched a ride in an ambulance and
then made his way on foot to the apartment the scene down there was just chaos there was this more most scariest sights
I've ever seen in my life as I start approaching my apartment building I started seeing trucks blown up fire
engines turned upside down pieces of the building or what looked like the building on the ground also Ron's
apartment in Battery Park City was chained shut he soon learned from a neighbor the snare was not in the
building so now at this point I didn't know what to do and with all the chaos going on I thought well how am I gonna
find her right now and I went back to my friend's place and I spent the night and
that was a very difficult night I was by myself on the couch wondering where my wife was frightened that something awful
happened the day following the attacks Rahn filed a missing-persons report with a NYPD we
knew she was missing since Monday and when we told the detective if they just said okay we'll take your
missing-persons report but that was lumped into the world trade center you got the feeling that the police were
just completely overwhelmed and that they had very little time or effort to be able to put forth towards this the
NYPD believes a snail was more than likely one of the many lost in the World Trade Center disaster but ron was
convinced that she disappeared the night before he hired a private eye and launched an investigation of his own
they would uncover several disturbing questions but one above all others had haunted Ron from the start
where was Sneha on the night of September 10th ron discovered that an employee at the couple's apartment
building remembered seeing stay of that evening at 5:15 p.m. he saw her leaving alone wearing a brown dress and sandals
by tracing credit card receipts Brown found evidence that Sneha may have then gone shopping at a department store near
the World Trade Center at 7:15 p.m. shoes lingerie and bed linens were purchased with Saez credit card but was
a sniper who used a card or an imposter who had stolen it excuse me from what was purchased it sounded like it was her
you know sheets for the beds and things like that's how we assumed it was her without proof yet Ron hoped to find that
proof on the department store's surveillance video and for about two weeks I sat and
watched this tape for about five hours a day you know frame-by-frame it's one of
those stop action photos where I actually found my wife on the tape shopping alone after the department
store Snares trail turns completely cold she leaves the store and then she just disappears there is not a trace of her
nothing not a credit card transaction no money taken out of her account no emails
no phone calls nothing how does that happen it's it's a complete mystery where did stay ago after leaving the
department store she was carrying two large bags of merchandise but neither the bags nor the merchandise were found
as snails apartment suggesting that she never made it back home near the department stores to the Millennium
Hotel inside was a connoisseur bar and grill the private investigator hired by Ron theorized a snare could have stopped
in for a drink is it possible that something happened here that ultimately led to her disappearance the Millennium
Hotel was closed down after the attack frustrating Ron and the investigators efforts to see if she went there
in fact the entire area was stea was last seen lay in ruins as a result any theory about what happened to her was
virtually impossible to prove was Sneha a victim of random violence could she have left on her own accord to start a
new life the question seemed endless any answers were surely destroyed along with
the Twin Towers but then a mysterious clue emerged spinning the investigation into an entirely unexpected direction a
clerk at the department store saw the missing flier of Sneha and stepped forward giving Ron ensnares family
renewed hope from the shoe sales clerk told us that she remembers my wife and that she'd known her as somewhat of a
regular customer and that she remembered her there that day and said that she was
with another person an Indian woman and that she just said was her friend and then they said after she went to buy
shoes that they were thinking about going to the lingerie area based on this new information Ron re-examined the
department store surveillance tape two women are captured leaving the store together
could this be Sneha and her companion so far all efforts to identify the mysterious woman have failed we have no
idea who this person is and that she never existed in snazz past we've gone through her phone books we've gone
through her email there is no like phone call even made to this person during that day she doesn't exist anywhere else
I mean I it could be very possible to say I ran into her it could be an old-time friend is it possible the snare
stated the unidentified woman's house on a night of September 10th if that was a
case then Slayer could well have been heading home the next morning at the approximate time of the World Trade
Center attack if Sanae was near the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th knowing the kind of
person she was it would just be instinctual with her to try to help and she would might have
gone into the building or she might have helped people out it would have just been that's the kind of person she is
she just cares about people if Slayer was inside the World Trade Center she had no chance of surviving
but that scenario assumes as snare was alive the previous night the Spanish somewhere other than with ROM her family
and all of her known friends she's never just spent a night out without informing
us where she is informing a husband ratios it's never happened why would this night be any different so I mean I
really think that something happened to her September 10th it's difficult to continue you know each day is the day
that you that we suffer because we don't know you know sometimes I think she might just walk through the door or she
might just call but it just each day doesn't happen and it's it's it's really torture
[Music] the Cedar Creek Apartments outside of Phoenix Arizona a brutal heat wave
passes through the region after graduating from high school Diane Shaw Croft 20 and her best friend
Jennifer Luth 19 had left their homes in Colorado for the sunny suburb of Glendale Arizona they moved in with
Diane's older sister Christine three young women living in a one-bedroom apartment soon led to tension when did
you become mom I said no smoking maybe I'll just go then maybe you should they said they were gonna walk to the store
to get cigarettes in a in a pump and that they would be back in a little while they didn't take anything with
them and they never went anywhere without their makeup so that's what made me think they were coming right back
Diane and Jennifer headed for the mini-mart two blocks away they never returned for the first time in their
lives Diane shocked Croft and Jennifer Luth were living away from home girls began to explore the boundaries of their
newfound freedom they were swept into an exhilarating whirlwind of late nights new friendships and lively parties but
authorities now fear that Diane and Jennifer's carefree lifestyle may have ultimately put them in harm's way
dinah and Jenny were very very close they were probably closer than most sisters when Jenny was a little more
flirtatious diana was a little quieter and more shy but she's the woman basically took care of both of them I
believe they were pretty open to just about anybody they like to hang out they like to have lots of friends but they
like to go go go they wanted to be doing something all the time they didn't care
if it was 3:00 in the morning or 3:00 in the afternoon on the day they disappeared Diana and Jennifer was seen
at a mini-mart at approximately 7:00 p.m. hey girls Hey how are we doing according to the
cashier the girls bought cigarettes and sodas but instead of going home they lingered outside the store
[Music] two hours passed the girls were still in front of the mini-mart when the cashier
saw a man pull up in a blue truck they conversed for quite a while they got into the truck and then the truck
drove off and that's the last time that anyone that knew we know of has seen them alive I believe she knew this
person because she would never ever get into a vehicle with strangers she just wouldn't do it she wasn't the kind that
would hitchhike or do anything like that she was very careful and very cautious three months later two men were hunting
in a remote desert 100 miles north of Phoenix as they traversed a steep incline they came across a gruesome
sight Diane Lynne shocked roughly on top of Jennifer su Luth both had been murdered
even in death diana seemed to be protecting her best friend because the investigation is ongoing police are
withholding the cause of death but the location of the girls bodies offered several clues as to who the killer or
killers might be the area is extremely isolated sixteen miles from the nearest highway and accessible only by pickup
truck or four-wheel drive we feel that this person is probably been in this er er frequented this area
are certainly was aware of this area in some way by their own forward driving or
hunting or at least some personal knowledge of the area the deepness of the ravine also raises another troubling
possibility they were both fairly decent-sized girls so you would have had to have handled each one of those so
either we had a very strong person our we had more than one person possibly that were involved and taking these
bodies out Jennifer was a strong girl and she was a scrapper if she needed to be it wouldn't be easy for one person to
overpower Jennifer alone but with two of them it's it's just sort of an conceivable to me that one person was
able to do that to two girls the police investigation centered on finding the mysterious man in the blue
truck believing that both girls knew this man police delved into their personal lives not in Phoenix Diane and
Jennifer had attended numerous parties and night clubs they had a lifestyle with a lot of males
involved in it they were a lot of male friends and male relationships they were involved in so many people's lives they
were involved in many strangers lives to the point it could have been somebody they just met what are you from Colorado
mr. really small town where it's like zero degrees right now we're so happy to be here I think both Ginni and Diana
were very naive and very innocent I think like most night senior olds they think they're invincible and can just
conquer the world lots of people guys should come down really and I think whoever got involved
with them knew that could read him like a book and took advantage of them there was one final strange twist to
this case the families erected a shrine where the bodies were found pictures of both girls
were placed at the foot of two wood crosses police decided to occasionally survey the site hoping for a morbid
visit from the killer no one ever showed up at least while authorities were at the scene on
September 29 2000 the tech t'v discovered that both photos of the girls had been removed from their frames only
police and the victim's family knew the precise location where the girls bodies had been found nothing else seemed to be
disturbed and it definitely raised questions as to who would want the pictures who would go to that much
effort to go back in as far as it is get the pictures and take them hard to even
imagine who would be or why they would do it unless is the perpetrator have the killer return for a macabre souvenir of
his brutal act police can only speculate no evidence that might identify the murder has ever been found
search for Diane and Jennifer's killer or killers continues authorities would especially like to question the man who
was the last person seen with the girls he may be driving a blue pickup truck to
friends a 44 year old Brenda Bowen arrived at her rural Alabama home after she fails to show up for a prayer
meeting earlier that morning but Brenda is nowhere to be found within hours the Shelby County Sheriff's
Office responds to the scene Brenda's clothes were laid out on her bed as if to Drey us after she got through there
her shower on her dresser was her jewelry everything was laid out real nice and lead
also they saw her curling iron was in the on position in the bathroom but there was no other signs that you know
brenda was there at all brenda bowen lived a life most of us would envy she was blessed with two
healthy teenage children a thriving real-estate business and a sprawling home in the beautiful Alabama
countryside her friends and family could find no reason why she would suddenly vanish when Brenda went missing it was
devastating to us I stayed at home I thought she might call you know but ain't my heart I knew but something had
happened to Brenda something bad the only source of friction of Brenda's life was her ex-husband Jerry Lee Bowen two
years earlier Brenda's long lasting marriage to Jerry had abruptly fallen apart they worked together for about 18
or 19 years and they'd work good together but Jerry Jerry got out and found a girlfriend he asked
her for divorcing Jerry you've agreed to give Brenda complete and unencumbered use of the house until your daughter
turns 19 Brenda you will give Jerry use of the guesthouse in the back as his own
with the help of a divorce attorney Jerry and Brenda separated on good terms and even agreed to a very unusual living
arrangement Jerry would reside in the guesthouse behind the main residence he also gave Brenda the bulk of the
couple's assets Jerry lived quietly in the shadow of his ex-wife until he ran into financial
difficulties friend I'm asking for your help here hello Jerry you're asking me to live a lie it's only
a business arrangement and he told her he was in financial trouble and they had to get back
together he had to have some relief benders answer was I'd have to think about that year so you're not gonna help
me I don't know Jerry can't we talk about this in the morning Jerry Jerry we can talk about it in the
morning I'm gonna take you back to cohort four days later brenda bowen vanished anything you'll find I want bag I wanted
fire police began their investigation at the bone holding Gerry bull was fully cooperative and even offered his own
theory on what happened to Brenda as I started to leave Gerry says well Don what do you think happened to Brenda
well let's just hope she's on a beach somewhere down in Florida tan in her buns you're wrong
she's dead I said well if she's dead where do you think we could find her and Jerri looked
at me he says you could find her in water somewhere that same night Brenda's car was found stuck in the mud 43 miles
from her home we found a personal item belonging to Brenda that we found her purse we we
found this cellphone it was checkbooks there so that told us that this was not a robbery
that perhaps the car was left where it was just as a decoy that Brenda would not be found there
Brenda's own son raised an even more troubling question about the car I was wondering what position of the driver's
seat was in all the way back right yeah it was all the way back well my mom she's only five two
with a car seat completely pushed back Brenda's feet could not have reached the pedals but the strangest question of all
came out of Jerry Boone's own mouth when he unexpectedly appeared at the crime scene is that the car that belongs to
the woman is missing yeah now this was his ex-wife's car he knew whose car that was and it turned
out later to be a question that we felt was very important to pinning down list who was responsible for Brenda's death
Jerry was taken to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office for an interview where his behavior continued to raise red
flags he was not of any help to us whatsoever he showed no concern for her well-being
and doing the process the interview he actually went to sleep but Jerry's friends and family adamantly claimed
that he was in a state of shock and overcome with worry for his former wife Jerry was very concerned about her but
he was also upset that the police thought it might be him he said often that that he was innocent so there was
no way he was going to be pinned with a murder they stripped him down they checked him for any cuts or bruises or
bites or anything they didn't find a scratch on him anywhere but they got in his face and told him we know you did
something to her whatever happened her we know you did it and we will prove it and they had televisions from that night
Oh manners zero doubt in my mind the Giro and killed my daughter Brenda no doubt
but there was no evidence linking Jerry borne to his wife's disappearance and he
was released several months later three fishermen saw something floating in the murky waters of the Coosa River it was
the body of Brenda bone bound and tied inside a sheet the advanced state of decomposition made it impossible for the
coroner to determine the cause of death when Brenda Bowens body surfaced she was for
lack of a better way of saying it packaged in a certain manner around her body was a green top sheet off of a bed
around that was a length of nylon rope the sheet was positively identified as coming from the Bowen home and there
were several curious aspects about the rope it was tied with two specific nuts a Boland and a slip and the ends had
been deliberately burnt the son asked to look at the rope that was around his mother's body and he looked at it and
tears filled his eyes he said I've seen that same combination of knots from Jerry Bowen dozens of times he said I've
never seen anybody else do it in addition to that every time Jerry Bowen cut a piece of nylon rope he would take
a cigarette lighter and burn the ends of the knots the car seat the burned ends of the rope it all starts pointing back
to Jerry Bowen gerri born was arrested and tried for the murder of his wife Brenda the case
against him was almost entirely circumstantial except for one crucial element Jerry could not account for his
whereabouts prior to 9:30 in the morning of Brenda's disappearance a jury took only six hours to decide his fate
guilty but the bizarre story of Jerry Bowen did not end with his conviction while awaiting sentencing Bowen was
released on bond the day of the hearing Jerry's sister received a blunt letter it read this may be a dumb move on my
part sis but I don't feel I should serve time for a crime I didn't commit therefore I am running when jr. was
convicted my thought was it's payday when Jerry fled I felt like payday evaporated and and it did the FBI
descended on Jerry's home looking for any clues as to his whereabouts but no one was prepared for what was found on
Jerry's computer thousands of violent and sadistic pornographic images jury is very polite respectful to others
but when he's back in his own secret place within his own residents the bizarreness of his behavior starts to
emerge when he's visiting websites of women being abused tied up shackled and tortured as well as a fascination for
pregnant women that are naked [Music] no other evidence was recovered from Gerry's home that would lead detectives
to the convicted killer he has now evaded capture for over a year he's still on the roof and we can't have
closure until he's found and come back to the Sheriff's Department reblogs I hope they bring him in change
[Music] [Music] [Music] in the early morning hours of April 26 2000 the young woman is spotted
wandering in a restricted area of the reno-tahoe International Airport she appears disoriented and frightened an
airport police officer is called he finds a woman cowering near a truck [Music] the woman identifies herself a star
Palumbo she then claims she's trying to find her younger sister who was running loose on
the tarmac okay we searched the grounds for your sister with the description that you gave us she no what have you
found the airport police officer felt there was a possibility the star story was not true but he also believed the
star had no criminal intent for being out on the runway he had no idea why she was out there she gave no logical
explanation but instead of arresting her he decided to release her [Music] star Palumbo was dropped off near a
hotel and disappears into the kaleidoscope of blinding neon lights the next day an illegally parked car is
discovered at the airport and why ran a routine license check on to put an impound sheet the register owner came
back to start Palumbo as I just go through the vehicle during the impound I found appeared to be loaded with all
her personal possessions also in the car was Starr's cell phone and purse including $600 in cash and star had left
behind other items that caused even more concern copies of three emails sent to the white house indicated the star felt
the government was trying to murder her a morbid drawing depicted a woman who looked like star bound and gagged and
finally there were two books on how to change your identity star never showed up to claim her car she has now been
missing for over a year there are two very likely possibilities the first is that she is suffering from some type of
either organically caused or drug-induced psychosis and is a set woman and doesn't know who or where she
is and the second possibility sadly is that she's been the victim of a serious crime and has either been murdered or is
in a position where she can't contact her friends and family the mystery of what happened to star palumbo began long
before the 25 year old woman vanished star was once a vivacious brunette full of hope and promise but authorities
believe that she tragically drifted into another world of drugs and desperation placing her life and imminent danger her
family is convinced as stars alive and with your help for one day come home star lived very happy childhood
and she's very dependable and she's very trusting person she's a very happy person sociable person and she really I
guess trusted people too much one year prior to her disappearance star left her home in Tucson Arizona and moved to Reno
Nevada she lived there with her grandmother it was in Reno investigators believed the star's life began to careen
off-course interviews the stars friends there revealed a portrait of a troubled woman who had lost her way
in this particular case star seems to have fallen in with a very bad crowd and had been involved in a more increasing
degree of drug use and specifically with methamphetamine at a level that could only be disastrous according to her
friends and the weeks leading up to her disappearance stars drug habit costs more than she could make as a cashier at
a pawn shop police believe it is possible that the increasingly distraught woman began to look for other
ways to make money there is an indication that star had been dabbling in prostitution in her phone books there
was reference to a number of men we really don't have a good feeling for the extent of the relationships with a
number of those men however certainly prostitution is a high-risk occupation and one of the factors that causes us
concern about what has befallen star in her disappearance plan and Reno star continued to call her mother on a weekly
basis and seemed in good spirits but on the day she disappeared star made a final phone call that took on an ominous
and paranoid tone she would only talk to us for a little bit she said that she felt somebody was
following her and when she talked on the phone she thought maybe the phones were
tapped and somebody was listening and she mentioned how something was going on and she was afraid for her life and she
wouldn't discuss it anymore than that according to her mother Starr expressed a desire to turn her life around she
then talked about flying home to Tucson and starting over I love you Gail Palumbo has not heard from her daughter
since following star's disappearance her parents mounted a massive effort to locate their daughter thousands of
fliers were distributed and stars picture was posted throughout the state of Nevada
it appears that those efforts have paid off Linda fields owner of a silver dollar
casino in Elko Nevada claims to have seen star there a full eight months after her disappearance miss fields
described seeing a young woman who in her mind she was very certain was the star palumbo who had come into the bar
one evening had looked frightened was alone and that the young woman had volunteered to her that her name was
star and that she was being chased or was trying to escape from a pimp Linda field says that star became
extremely agitated when a man peered through the bars window a short time after that star left the bar with
another young woman if the woman was star then where did she go after leaving the bar
maybe the ridi was somebody after her could she have used the books found in her car to change her identity and
escape it is this scenario the stars family clings to I'd like to say star that your mom and dad really love
you and no matter what you've done or anything that we we should contact us see if we could help you join me next
time for another fascinating edition unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

Five mysterious disappearances are explored, revealing complex circumstances and potential suspects in each case.

Key points

The Disappearance Before Disaster. Sneha Phillip vanished just hours before the 9/11 attacks, leaving her husband desperate for answers.
The Mysterious Blue Truck. Diane Shawcroft and Jennifer Luth were last seen getting into a blue truck, leading to their tragic fate.
Brenda's Mysterious Disappearance. Brenda Bowen vanishes under suspicious circumstances, leading to a police investigation.
The Discovery of Brenda's Body. Brenda's body is found tied in a sheet, raising questions about her death.
Star Palumbo's Disturbing Behavior. Star Palumbo is found wandering an airport, claiming her sister is missing.
Star's Final Phone Call. Star expresses paranoia and fear for her life in a final call to her mother.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Where's my wife? I don't know.

Ron Lieberman's desperate plea after the attacks.

6:46WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High 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.