Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 7 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries two families move into an idyllic suburb only to discover that their homes lie on
top of an abandoned graveyard soon they are tormented by strange phenomena and threatening apparitions are driven into
a state of complete terror are the spirits of the Dead seeking vengeance of a living for the desecration of their
graves it was an affair that began with an all-consuming passion but quickly disintegrated
now both joy and Albanese and John Edwards are missing could their love have transformed into a deadly obsession
Halloween 2001 Penn State University 21 year old senior Cindy song partied into the wee hours of the night then grabbed
a ride home with a friend Cindy waved goodbye and headed up to her apartment she has not been seen or heard from
since these mysteries are all stories a personal quest for the truth and a final
solution someone watching may know where that solution can be found perhaps it's
you [Applause] [Applause] [Music] just outside of Houston stands a Newport subdivision known for his 1,500 upscale
homes manicured lawns and bucolic setting in the early 1980s Sam and Judith Haney bought a house at the far
western edge of the development when we bought the house in Newport it was the house that we had always been looking
for so it was the house that we intended to stay at for a long period of time but
there was a morbid secret about the Haney's perfect home one that would soon turn their lives into a never-ending
nightmare it all began when a mysterious stranger showed up at their door with an
ominous warning yes this elderly man told me that he had noticed that we were putting a swimming pool in our backyard
and that there was something about our backyard that I needed to know about there so I followed him around to my
backyard he pointed at the ground and said that there are some graves right here there
were two graves and he marked a spot on the ground where they were and I really didn't know how to react to that I
didn't know if he was just joking I couldn't understand why anybody want to joke about something like they had all
of a sudden just from a knock on the door our beliefs our emotions everything sort of changed because it was like
critius I have bodies in my back in my yard using a backhoe the Haney's decided to
see if the man's alarming claims were true [ __ ] stop hold it hold it I think I see
something we encountered some wood fragments and at that point we stopped with the
backhoe and we got down into the hole and continued digging by hand there was pine boards when we lifted up
the first board we could see the indentation of skeleton form it didn't take long to figure out that it was an
actual human remains Sam had uncovered a very old pine coffin over the years it had been crushed by
the weight of the earth [Music] Sam immediately called the sheriff and County Coroner who conducted an official
exhumation most of the bones had turned to powder but 25 fragments were found some so brittle that they disintegrated
when touched a second coffin located alongside the first was left untouched two wedding rings were on the frail
index finger of the exposed skeleton they handed me the Rings and it was sickening my feelings were sick of my
stomach to think that I had desecrated somebody's grave horrified me aghast at the thought of human remains beneath the
plush green lawn the Haney's vowed to find out their identities their search led them to a longtime resident named
Jasper Norton [Music] as a youth Jasper had dug several graves in the area he told the Haney's at their
home and surrounding houses were built on top of an old african-american cemetery called black hope
the deceased for mainly former slaves the last burial was in 1839 and as many as 60 people were interred there in
paupers graves the people had very little money they marked their graves however they could with markings on
trees with little stones with fences around them like a family plot the two people buried in the Haney's backyard
were Betty and Charlie Thomas this picture of Betty is the only known photograph of either one census records
revealed that the married couple were born into slavery in the mid-1800s and freed after the Civil War they died
during the 1930s and their graves were eventually forgotten Betty and Charlie's family wasn't there anymore and it was
up to me to give them the dignity that they deserved and that was very important to me
Judith and Sam Haney made an extraordinary decision plagued by guilt for digging up the Thomases they Ribery
the long departed couple in their own backyard I'm so sorry the Haney's resolved to live peacefully
side by side with the Thomases but according to the Haney's what what follow was anything but
peaceful [Music] there was a clock in my bedroom and one night it started sparking and putting
out sort of a blue glow when Judith checked the clock she found that it was unplugged the clock was only the
beginning one evening Sam went to work the night shift leaving Judith alone I heard the sliding glass door open and
I heard which I thought was Sam saying what you doing and that sort of shocked me and I thought well he forgot
something everything was quiet the sliding glass doors were locked and I thought well you
know you must be losing your mind this really must be getting to you but much to my amazement that's not where
the story ended in the morning I awoke went in my closet to get my red shoes and I could not find them anywhere so of
course I started looking for them and went through all of her closets where she normally puts things and we just
couldn't find it we had walked just a short distance where the gravesites were and I could
see something on the grave it was the shoes that Judy was looking for that morning and they were both side by side
like someone had just picked them up and carried them over and laid them down on
the graveside even more disquieting to the Haney's was when they realized what day this was Betty Thomas's birthday and
it kind of got the feeling that it was like Charlie was giving Betty a birthday present I began to come to the
realization that this was not all in my mind and that this had to have some relationship to Betty and Charlie's
graves being disturbed their spirits were saying this isn't right [Music] the Haney's are not alone a dozen
neighbors whose homes were built on top of the abandoned cemetery reported lights televisions and water forces
turning on and off for no apparent reason many claim to hear unearthly sounds some even saw supernatural
apparitions and there seemed to be an increasing maliciousness to the bizarre events could the spirits of the Black
Hope Cemetery angry the desecration of their graves be seeking vengeance [Music]
like the Haney's ben and jean williams thought the advanced suburban paradise when they moved into the same
neighborhood and then after we moved in everything changed when I tried to plant
new plants they just would not live no matter what I did you know fertilizer whatever I stay still and I would not
live and I constantly had a foreboding feeling a feeling of things are not right or something bad is about to
happen the Williams said that near the flowers sinkholes appeared in the unmistakable shape of a coffin the
Williams would fill them in only to have them mysteriously reappear after the Williams also noticed strange markings
on an oak tree by the sinkholes an arrow pointed towards the ground beneath it were two horizontal slash marks a
longtime resident of the area told the Williams he was the one who had marked the tree as a way to identify where his
two sisters were buried I was devastated I couldn't believe that you know my god
here we are living on on top of graves I felt guilty and I felt like well I mean
we've desecrated graves according to the Williams their ideal home was soon invaded by a menacing
presence nebulous shadows rapidly slid along the walls whispered words and a putrid smell followed in their wake
had the dead sisters or other spirits disturbed from their eternal resting places come back to life at the time the
Williams granddaughter Kali lived with the couple during the blazing heat of summer connie said she would stumble at
a bone-chilling pockets of freezing air it would be very very chilly and you'd have just this feeling of foreboding or
just you know like either something wasn't right anywhere in the house you'd have a feeling that you were not alone
that somebody was watching you you terrified me to be in the house by myself [Music]
the toilets used to flush on their own can you hear the voices as the water went down I could hear it
was almost like conversations I could get here people murmuring to themselves it was a presence or spirit or something
there something that wanted to be heard wanted me to know it was there one time Carly and I decided to take a nap
Carly had her book and she was reading and all of a sudden we heard the back door open someone come in close the door
we heard footsteps coming up the hall we both looked at each other and and then we both looked towards the door
it was at this point that I realized somebody was in our house that didn't belong there
we looked everywhere nothing there wasn't a soul in that house but us what the noise was I don't know
that was terrifying even to this day I still feel it was a presence I ghost if you will I mean it was it was something
there it was something that was trying to scare us I absolutely believe that all of these things happen to us because
we were on the graveyard and that we were simply going to be tormented until we left there as the unexplainable
phenomena seemed to increasingly target the Williams Ben and Jean debated what to do next the man gene we talked it
over and she said well what can we do walk off and leave him she said where it got enough money to pay doubt on another
home I said we always been fighters we're gonna stay right here and fight it and who try to beat it it wasn't long
before Ben got his chance I came home from work around 10 after 12:00 for midnight shift and I walked
straight to the kitchen open the refrigerator door and that's when I seen these two ghostly figures
[Music] and they went straight backwards in into the den and then they started moving toward the
hall dawn down the bedroom I noticed that they was heading right down the hall to jeans well when I walked through
the bedroom door instead of two farms being there they were just one and it was standing right about a foot and a
half on the end of the bed the old thing I really thought of they mess with my wife
[Music] then what are you doing as I drove through it I felt a sticky cold sensation in my body are you okay and I
turned around looked at the end of the bed and what nothing there but the Williams nightmare was far from over in
rapid succession six of the Williams immediate relatives were diagnosed with cancer three succumbed to the disease
you just don't have that much sickness and death in that short period of time the spirits of the Dead wanted me and my
family to get off of their graveyard the Haney's lives were also unraveling I was
crying all the time I was frightened I was scared of doing my daily routine in my own home if you can think of every
gambit of emotions that a person can have I was going through those things the Haney's decided to fight back in
court they sued the developer for not disclosing that their home was built over a cemetery in parts so that
everyone would know what was happening at the Newport subdivision a jury awarded them 142 thousand dollars for
mental anguish but in a devastating reversal the judge ruled on legal grounds that the developers were not
liable the verdict was thrown out and the Haney's ordered to pay fifty thousand dollars in court costs and at
that point we decided to file bankruptcy so all in all we ended up losing the case losing the money losing the house
we were exhausted and we got in our car and went where there was love and support and tried to put it behind us
the Williams also explored legal recourse but they say they were told that without definitive proof of his
cemetery on their property nothing could be done to complicate matters it was illegal in Texas to disturb a grave
without permission from the family it was then the gene made a decision she will forever regret that was the last
straw you want a body I'll show you a body so I thought to myself I can dig and I can dig about two feet a day and I
knew I would reach a body but soon after she started digging Jean felt dill I'm gonna do the rest later her daughter
Tina volunteered to finish the job and she dug for I probably say almost half an hour and I remember her saying
that she was that she felt funny she was getting dizzy as well and uh she put the shoulder down and she
went back inside and she just laid down on the couch she's like mom I'm daddy I don't feel
right there's something wrong we got to call 9-1-1 the last thing I remember her
saying was Mommy take care of my baby take care of my baby and she looks so scared
talk to me Tina almost immediately her eyes started glazing over and I was talking to her trying to talk her out of
dying please Tina talk to me and all this time her eyes were changing until they got to
the point where I knew that she wasn't with me or she wasn't you know responding at all Tina had suffered a
massive heart attack two days later she died she had just turned 30 years old [Music]
and I realized that I had desecrated another grave and now I'm paying I told man I says we have to get out of
here it doesn't matter what we lose what we had nothing matters except that we get out of it and I knew that if we
didn't that I was not gonna make it because my fight was gone I could fight no more forever the Williams escaped to
Montana and later moved back to Texas today they are a happy growing family no longer plagued by mysterious noises
horrific apparitions or heartbreaking tragedies none of the subsequent residents living in the Williams Haney
or other nearby homes ever experienced any paranormal activity if we would have known what was gonna happen we would
have left a lot sooner than we did a lot sooner we paid the price Oh the price was so heavy we paid with
our family we paid with our help we paid with our savings everything was gone if
we had not left the cemetery we would not be here today I believe that [Applause]
after spending along weekend with their divorced father amber and Brittany Albanese returned to
the Las Vegas home they share with her mother joined [Music] the two girls quickly notice telltale
signs that something is not right [Music] jo-ann's two daughters came home and they found the mother wasn't home Joanne
was not there which might have not been that uncommon but when they went in her bedroom they found her purse and they
found particular items of jewelry that Joanne only took off when she showered immediately upon completing the shower
she would put them back on after Joanne failed to turn up the following day she is reported missing
Las Vegas police detectives soon discovered that a second person is disappeared Joanne's boyfriend of five
months John Edwards it appeared that his boyfriend/girlfriend went out on an outing and just hadn't returned yet and
when Joanne and John failed to show up at work contact her family that's we figured we
had better take a little closer look at him after years of suffering through disappointing dates and dead-end
relationships Joanne Albanese believed she had finally found the perfect mate John Edwards was handsome charismatic
and attentive to her every need John would often take Joanne on romantic getaways and initially police thought
the couple had simply left for the weekend but as the investigation unfolded it became apparent that John
Edwards was not who he seemed to be [Music] and remember the guy I told you about
very charming no wives no kids well he's back there training somebody a friend introduced 39
year old Joanne albanese to John Edwards and she soon agreed to date the smooth-talking fitness trainer
nice to meet you Joanne Joanne like most women thought him to be you know very dynamic and very interesting and
attractive men they began going out quite a bit John Edwards quickly integrated himself
into Joanne's lively and the two appeared to be madly in love but it wasn't long before disturbing signs
emerged that Edwards was no Prince Chung's AdWords paid for nothing apparently living off of Joanne's
earnings and his charm had transformed into an all-consuming possessiveness if Joanne complained John reportedly became
violently angry well you should he makes sure that he's pretty much the only person she's with obviously she was with
her children as well but that he takes up most of her time he from what we understand even made sure that he was
there when she would go to the bathroom on the day of her disappearance Joanne left her job at 4:30 p.m. she
allegedly told family and friends that she planned to end her relationship with John at dinner that evening Joanne was
never heard from again four days later and 250 miles away Joanne's car was found parked in a
remote desert area outside Prescott Arizona there was no sign of Joanne or Johnny
the car notice nothing fighting the car abandoned where it was that pretty well confirmed our fears that we had a foul
play incident here police discovered a truck parked outside Joanne's home that was positively identified by witnesses
as belonging to John Edwards that truck would expose the first crack in Edwards carefully constructed facade we ran that
license plate and they came back as absolutely no record which is rather unusual plate doesn't go to the vehicle
or anyone in particular so there's a problem there somebody's trying to cover something we started questioning whether
or not John Edwards was who he claimed to be any doubts police had about Edwards identity were confirmed when
they searched the house where he was staying we began looking through some of his belongings were found a wallet that
was duct taped closed and when I open that wallet I found identification with the person we knew as John Edwards but
it was the name of John Anna's velasca driver's license a certification card from the state of Alaska saying he is
certified in crime scene investigations she can't so we realized at that point that the person we were told was John
Edwards was in fact at John Amos who was John at us and why had he gone to such extreme lengths to conceal his identity
the answer to that question did not bode well for the ultimate fate of Joanne albanese as a tech tips delve into a
disease past the uncovered allegations about a vicious trail of battered women that began in the Alaskan wilderness Las
Vegas police discovered that John Addis was actually once a law enforcement officer himself he joined the Alaska
State Troopers in the early 70s and quickly rose up the police ranks to become a crime-scene investigator
John was a very intelligent man as an investigator John really wasn't a people person as much as some others perhaps
work but if you wanted good science at a crime scene and someone who could think
in these terms and these concepts John Addis was the guy by 1980 John Edison his wife Jodi had been completely
accepted by the tightly knit Fairbanks law enforcement community such a big waste we got to see the territories and
mother only Jodi was aware her husband had a darker side he was very controlling it started out by just
pushes or shoving and then it was grabbing my hair pushing me up against the wall with his hand against my throat
after 11 years of marriage and four children Jodi finally had enough while a couple
were driving into town John started yet another fight I decided I can't live like this anymore John hadn't make a
decision I decided I am NOT gonna put up with this and I jumped from the vehicle
[Applause] although John reportedly chased her down and threw her back in the truck
Jodi ultimately was able to escape shortly thereafter she was granted a divorce in the ensuing years that is
quit his job as a state trooper and married wives number two and three I started to trace back all of his prior
relationships what I saw was an escalation in violence it was extremely violent with his third
wife who after just having a baby with her he was choking her so badly that her feet were off the ground he had
physically raised her as he was strangling her it was during this time that John Addis abducted his four
children from his first marriage he was arrested and served one year in prison before being paroled to Fresno
California but John Addis broke his parole and disappeared from sight five years later
at his resurfaced in Las Vegas as John Edwards gray met Joanne Albanese authorities now believe that Joanne
tragically became the alleged chronic batters first murder victim our best guess on what happened
was probably before they went to dinner they got into a heated argument and as a
result of that argument we firmly believe that John and her got into a fight and John killed her
and once she was dead John panicked John packed her into her own car and drove her down to Arizona
and ultimately disposed of the body and a car outside of Prescott Arizona a full
three years after her disappearance a hotter discovered Joanne albanese as skeletal remains one mile from where her
car had been abandoned a warrant for murder was issued for John Addis he has now been missing for six years this is
not a stupid individual this is a homicide detective who taught crime scene investigation he's as sharp as
they come and that's what makes him tougher to find John Ennis won't be easy to catch and and won't be easy to to
arrest I hope I'm wrong I hope he watches this segment and decides to do the honorable thing and give himself up
[Music] [Music] I'm strong I'm beautiful I can do anything I want the words of Cindy song
posted to her personal website eight months before her scheduled graduation from Penn State University in May 2002 a
day that would celebrate a lifelong dream Sindhi grew up in South Korea but left
in 1995 to live with her aunt and uncle in Virginia and attend high school her past rich and family tradition her
future full of promise Cindy was enjoying every minute of her newfound freedom in America but on
Halloween 2001 Cindy songs dream was apparently shattered it was a Wednesday the perfect
excuse for students to party on a school night cindy and two of her girlfriends Stacy
Peck and Lisa Kim showed up at their favorite haunt rest in costumes ready to drink and dance the night away
Cindy rabbit outfit she had bunny ears and tail that she thought it was a very cute outfit it wasn't like a sexy outfit
it was very cute outfit that was her thing she was very cute she liked to look cute
the girls partied until 2:00 a.m. next up a friends to play some video games than home it was now 4 a.m. on Thursday
November 1st 2001 Stacey waved goodbye to her friend and drove off she never saw Cindy enter her apartment and has
not seen her since nor has anyone else [Music] cindy song simply disappeared that night
police were baffled we have no body we have no crime scene and we have no actual crime so it's been
very frustrating without any of those pieces of the puzzle and because of that it seems that she just vanished in thin
air back in Seoul South Korea Cindy's mother learned the heart-wrenching news I wanted to be here for her but I was in
Korea at the time if God will just allow me to see her hear her and touch her again I will be so grateful
cyndy song was known to have an independent streak and liked to be spontaneous but she was also hardworking
and responsible an art made you achieve good grades and held down two jobs friends say running
off on a whim was simply not something Cindy would ever do questions and theories concerning what may have
happened to Cindy abound yet her fate remains a complete mystery a search of Cindy's apartment a few days
after her disappearance showed no sign of any struggle but there were some clues we found her eyelashes on the
counter because she was wearing fake eyelashes so we knew that she must have at least come in and took those off and
her backpack was in her room as well which she had been carrying earlier so we knew that she at least came in and
dropped that off another clue Cindy's cell phones still in her bag according to friends she never went
anywhere without it [Music] her bunny costume however was nowhere to be found we know that whenever she left
the apartment she was wearing the clothes she had on that night we also know that her purse or pocketbook or
whatever she had with her that evening that contained her driver's license and credit cards were with her too because
we could not locate those in the apartment detectives check Cindy's phone records no calls in or out
then her credit cards and email there was no activity on her credit cards and there were no emails or any activity on
your email accounts that gave us any clue on to her disappearance early November police and volunteers combed a
wooded area near Penn State University [Music] no trace of Cindy song she had apparently vanished leaving detectives
with nothing to go on but hunches and theories first Cindy state of mind had she become depressed and taken her own
life friends say no way they remembered Cindy's upbeat mood on Halloween night that's actually how she always is she's
very bubbly she's just always happy enjoys once everyone else to be happy around her
so if Cindy wasn't depressed and she perhaps run off somewhere without telling anyone that theory was also
quickly dismissed when we conducted the initial search of her apartment some of the things we found were two tickets to
a Britney Spears concert that were coming up a couple days after her disappearance and we also found some
printouts from where she had ordered a computer and was due to be delivered I believe on November 6th so if she was
gonna leave the area on her own she would've ordered these or planned to attend those functions so what did
happen to Cindy song that Halloween night friends said it wasn't unusual for a city to run out to a nearby 24-hour
market no matter how late it was [Music] upon her going there or coming back something happened such as an abduction
maybe somebody had grabbed her and abducted her a few days after Cindy song disappeared
a chilling scene reportedly unfolded in Philadelphia's Chinatown district nearly
200 miles from Cindy's apartment a woman matching Cindy's description was seen crying and yelling for help later the
eyewitness came forward with a description of the alleged abductor a police artist created this composite
drawing of a man with holla'd to light brown complexion and medium length hair he is not a suspect but police would
like to question him [Music] meanwhile Cindy's mother flew to Philadelphia to help in the search since
her arrival Benson's song has kept her daughter's story alive locally but also generating national and international
coverage it is a seemingly endless ordeal yet she is not about to give up I want to stay in America until I can find
Cindy I will do anything to find Cindy because Cindy is always in my heart this is a last photo of Cindy song taken the
night she disappeared Cindy is 21 years old in this picture stands just over five feet tall and
weighs 110 pounds she has long straight black hair and brown eyes join me products journey into the unknown on
unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

Three unsettling mysteries: haunted graves, a missing couple, and a vanished student.

Key points

Haunted Suburbia. Families discover their homes are built over an abandoned graveyard, leading to terrifying hauntings.
Joanne Albanese's Disappearance. Joanne Albanese goes missing after planning to end her relationship with John Edwards.
The Haney's Nightmare. Sam and Judith Haney uncover human remains in their backyard, turning their lives into a nightmare.
The Dark Side of John Addis. John Addis, a former law enforcement officer, had a violent past that escalated over time.
Cindy Song's Mysterious Disappearance. Cindy Song vanished after a Halloween party, leaving behind no clues.
A Mother's Determination. Cindy's mother vows to keep searching for her daughter despite the odds.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What if the spirits of the dead are seeking vengeance?

A chilling question about the haunting events.

0:24WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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