Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 9 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries these intricate formations are known as crop circles they often pop up overnight in
the middle of nowhere many are attributed to clever pranksters others have no rational explanation at
all are they the work of some strange force on earth or something not in this world
still lonely and heartbroken from the sudden death of his beloved wife Charles Barker was happy when a new woman
entered his life however his happiness was to be as short-lived as the relationship Ashley pond and Miranda
Geddes same age same height same features dance teammates and neighbors until they were snatched off the street
near this Oregon City apartment complex unspeakable crimes that have left a small town gripped with fear and
authorities hunting for the worst kind of predator a violent gang member reportedly wreaks havoc on the quiet
streets of Milwaukee leaving three innocent people dead police are asking for your help and apprehending the
suspect before more lives are lost one final piece of information maybe all this needed to solve a mystery perhaps
someone watching can help perhaps it's you [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music]
Edmonton Alberta on the western edge of the Canadian Prairie rusty Manuel Anthony Whitman have been driving home
from the city when they were flagged down by one of their farmhands yeah he said you have a circle in your field and
I said yes I know the darn animals they're always lying down and and flattening the green he said oh no it
had to be an awfully big animal to make this circle but rusty and Feli discovered were seven crop circles
pressed into thistle and barley comprising a formation about 190 feet long it was just amazing
what made this how could it be made you know what's going on here the grain was all flattened down and it almost looked
like a powder and like petals the way the Grange a moat and then the heads turned back in towards the center gate I
got ahold of the city police the city police didn't come out he was totally amazed soon after the
startling discovery was made the Canadian crop circle research network was contacted see CCRN as a group of
volunteers dedicated to gathering information about the mystery of crop circles Judy aren't is a field researcher with
the organization it looked like a place had been electrocuted the plants were so
badly frazzled it was just amazing looked like there had been a huge force of some sort so it's over there
I was very curious to see what we could see and look at the details of the formation skeptics are quick to call the
whole affair a hoax but ribbiting the work too clever pranksters like those shown in this TV documentary well I'm
from a farming background so I know what it looks like when plants are driven over or flattened in some way so it was
very clear to us that it hadn't been flattened by somebody out there with planks and boards you can't do that to
thistle it was very densely grown and it would be very difficult for anybody to get in
without leaving tracks behind Paul Anderson director of the CCC RM has studied many similar formations in
Western Canada well anybody can go out with a board and flatten down weed you know I could do that anyone could do
that and yes something you have to take into account is it's not just the formation
itself but it's the complexity of how it's actually constructed what's even in some of the ones here into scouts when
we've seen haven't quite elaborate like multiple layers going in different directions while on top of the other and
so on Paul believes another factor makes it improbable the so-called Edmonton circle was a hoax
unlike england's mysterious stonehenge region for many crop circles have been sighted Western Canada holds little of
that same mystique what would be the point you know usually when you hoax something you want to claim it after and
make a big fuss about it and you know make a name for yourself as Judy art examined the site she carefully
documented each of the circles within the formation Judy also gathered up crop and soil samples for scientific analysis
each sample is numbered and there's a corresponding sample of the grain stocks and of the soil at that particular
location so those are all numbered and written on a chart the samples are analyzed by Nancy Talbot in Cambridge
Massachusetts Nancy works with a consortium of scientists who have studied more than
350 crop circle cases from eight different countries the three major changes in plants in the
real McCoy as opposed to man-made crop circles are no D long Gatien expulsion cavities at the nodes and germination
abnormalities each of these conditions was present in the crop samples sent from Edmonton in other words both
internal and external characteristics of the crops were profoundly altered in ways that could not be induced by humans
using ropes and boards there is a a sense that you're walking into something special
I have always equated it to walking former high-ranking British government official Colin engine as witnesses
phenomenon many times there's preciseness the geometry is precise there are no tracks in or out the plants
are not damaged they're bent over they're not knuckled or broken the plants are changed in their internal
structure at the cellular level you don't find that in the hoaxes meanwhile the soil samples from the
Edmonton site were sent to dr. Sampath Iyengar in California dr. Iyengar is an expert in material analysis we went
ahead and looked at the mineralogy of the clays using a technique called x-ray powder diffraction that's the technique
that can be used to identify the type of place and the type of various other minerals that are present in a soil the
results showed a dramatic difference between the soil samples taken from inside the crop circle compared to those
taken from outside the circle this has been seen by geologists before but this is in a geologic time who were several
millions of years plus at a lot higher temperature than what you would expect in a crop circle and this has to be some
kind of fantastic energy or some kind of who lays a type of thing that's causing
this change and I don't have any idea what it is [Music] the crop circles in Western Canada
finally provide conclusive evidence of unknown forces at work skeptics say no they blame pranksters who proudly take
credit for making 80 percent of these often complex formations creations they call human land art but what about the
other 20% it's a debate that's been raging since the mid 1970s on the wave of crop circles captured worldwide
attention the most compelling question remains unanswered if they are not the work of humans than who or what created
them and how theories range from geothermal and magnetic forces to some kind of cosmic energy we looked at
meteorology we looked at earth energies with added chemical application of farmers and all of them led to a blank
it just did not fit what we now know is we have a solid mystery this cannot be explained in the terms of people making
them we have many hundreds that are absolutely certainly not man-made and that is a solid fact things like
compasses will deviate or even spin if you sit them on the ground you know like in the center of a circle the things
like that which to me hoaxing simply doesn't explain because something has to be affecting that compass even compasses
and airplanes have been affected flying over some of these you know I had problems with my own camera both on the
ground and in the plane any kind of electrical equipment well often a dismal function or go completely dead inside
some of these perhaps most intriguing of all the proposed series is the one that
claims at least some crop circles are the work of extraterrestrials I was contacted by a young couple who had been
driving along in the late evening so do have to work next weekend maybe they're gonna come she was taking
her husband to work in North Edmonton he looked out the window and saw some lights and rolled down the window to
make sure it wasn't just reflection on his passenger side window and the lights were still there he got quite excited
about it and asked his wife to pull over there were two small lights brilliant blueish then they said these two lights
looked like they were playing tag with each other one's ever gonna believe this and it went on for I don't know 20 30
seconds this sighting occurred about a week before the crop circle formation was found then a few days later
rusty Manuel and Thule Whitman had their own close encounter we were just approaching her firm when
we saw this light what first you thought it was a helicopter because it moved like a helicopter but still there was no
other lights on it it was just bright and would just hover over the field and sort of move off and then come back
again I tried to picture it as being an aircraft but it was too much too big furniture craft that's no airplane and
it just seemed like it passed over the back end of the pickup and it just it just disappeared it just was so fast was
there a connection between the strange lights in the sky and the sudden appearance of the Edmonton crop circles
just days later seth shostack his senior astronomer at the SETI Institute an acronym meaning the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence Seth and his colleagues explore the heavens for any sign of life I believe that the
aliens are out there but I don't think that they're visiting here the fact that so many people
feel that there may be something unusual going on here crop circles UFOs and so forth I think this speaks a
psychological need that we all have to believe that there are some powers that we don't understand and after all it's
much more interesting to think that this pattern in the weed here was graffiti from beings from another world than to
think that it was students from the local university that's not a terribly interesting story but what about crop
circles are simply defy logic formations that show no sign of human intervention
that certainly seemed to be the case in Red Deer Alberta not far from Edmonton according to a stunned local farmer this
giant star of david' formation literally appeared overnight in one of his fields
it measured an incredible 422 feet across still skeptics like seth shostack believe it's all smoke and mirrors when
I go to a stage show in Las Vegas and I see these grand illusions produced by these magicians I don't understand how
they're all done in fact I don't understand how most of them are done and I could assume some unknown physical
forces involved this would be terribly important if it were true about the crop circles but the facts are that to say
that they are made by something other than humans is a radical a revolutionary claim and consequently I'm not going to
be swayed by what amounts to very anecdotal evidence it's got to be better than that I don't think we need
necessarily to be talking or trying to prove that it is or isn't extraterrestrial I don't know that
either what I know is what I'm looking at that has arrived in our fields something
knows what it's doing here there is intelligence of some sort and I know they're not all made by people
[Music] over the past three decades researchers have compiled a database that includes
more than 10,000 crop circle reports from around the world if 8000 of these strange formations can
be attributed to pranksters that still leaves more than 2,000 are simply unexplained hello yeah I'd like to put
an ad in the personals for a week single white female 47 August 1998 a woman calling herself Diana Rea
decided to place an ad in the personals section of a Louisiana newspaper an honest and hardworking and seeking a
compatible single white male 45 to 55 to enjoy life together diana ray was hardly being honest according to
authorities diana was a drifter who hitchhiked around the country looking for her next mark a lonely man to latch
on to and drain his bank account in fact her real name was not Diana at all it was hazel Lyoto head a man named
Charles Barker would have been interested in any one of these details if he had only known Charles Barker had
recently suffered through the devastating sudden loss of his wife of ten years she was killed by drunk driver
it was a settlement out-of-court and he came into a lot of money but after she died it just seemed like he kind of fell
apart he didn't know what to do with himself I think he was depressed but then later on he it's like he snapped
out of it and wanted to do things go fishing and travel he bought a Winnebago a boat I guess that's when the
loneliness set in you know he didn't like doing them by herself [Music] the riverboat casinos operating on the
red river in Bossier City Louisiana became Charles Barker's latest diversion although he probably believed he and
Diana became acquainted by chance given her track record she undoubtedly orchestrated the meeting Charles Parker
carried pretty large amounts of cash with him hazel would have almost certainly noticed that because she'd be
looking for those kinds of things and so he would have become a target for her I
might ask you to help me because I'm not doing too good here well your hand looks pretty
good right now let's see they shared a whirlwind romance and less than a year after the death of his wife
and within days of their initial meeting hazel had moved in with Charles Barker [Music]
dad told me he'd met a woman in a casino you know didn't think anything of it you
know I just hope he's happy and I don't want to see him alone you know I thought
maybe she would be a good companion for him and evidently he was happy with her for a while because he would call me and
say if he liked her he needed someone some companionship he didn't like to be alone one weekend Jennifer made the
nine-hour drive from her Austin Texas home to meet her father's new girlfriend and I want you to meet my daughter
Jennifer when I first met her she was in the casino with my dad she was a very you know a real presentable woman you
know there's no class she looked like a a barfly you know I was suspicious ever I knew she wasn't right for him daddy
what's going on you do not a short time later even Charles apparently began to share that opinion one big ol messy
situation here according to his daughter Cindy Charles admitted he was troubled in a fully conversation but declined to
reveal what his problems were I can help you with this please sweetheart listen to me trust me here when my dad called
me he just sounded so different and he started crying and I've never you know heard my
cry or anything and but he told me he called me into three days everything would be okay and let me know what was
going on but that explanation never came shortly afterward Jennifer tried calling
her father to arrange another visit I'd been trying to phone him for the whole week and no answer and I finally called
my aunt and she said we'll go by there and check on him Charles Barker's sister julienne and her husband drove over to
see if there was a problem June stringer and her husband noticed that the front door of the residence is open so they
proceeded further the husband looks in and sees mr. Barker slumped over the bar Charles Barker had been dead for five
days killed by a single gunshot to the head as investigators combed the crime scene several observations were made our
detectives found no sign of a struggle they did not find a house that had been ransacked mr. Barker had a 25 caliber
raven arms pistol that he kept in his residence there were no prints found on the gun but the ballistics evidence
indicates that that was the weapon that was used mr. Barker had a safe that he kept in his bedroom the safe was opened
when investigators arrived except for Charles Barker's personal papers it was empty
I know for a fact that my dad always kept money in there and at that time I believe he probably had $45,000 at least
and that safe also missing was Charles Barker's Lincoln Towncar and his girlfriend mr. Barker's vehicle
was found the next day after his body was discovered it was found near the airport inside the car were pieces of
clothing that belonged to hazel also found in the car was DNA evidence physical evidence that we believe
definitely links her to the car we believe she is the one that took the car from his residence and drove it to that
spot near the airport a background check on hazel had revealed that she'd been married as many as ten times and was
known to use more than a dozen aliases there was also an outstanding warrant for her arrest in Lincoln Nebraska
hazel head had allegedly burned down her boyfriend's mobile home then fled before
standing trial did hazel had murdered Charles Barker and escaped with an unknown amount of cash had this been her
plan from the very beginning our investigators theorized that mr. Barker was probably at the bar reading the
newspaper hazel came out of the bedroom with the gun the 25 caliber he didn't realize that she was behind it
we believe that mr. Barker probably never knew what hit him but was hazel head plotting yet another
scam even while she was still living with Charles Barker Louisiana authorities subsequently recovered a
recording of a personals ad she plays shortly before his murder this is hazel head in her own voice lonely men
everywhere beware hazel head is known to frequent truck stops often hitching rides from town to town investigators
believe she easily blends into that environment and never stays long in one place
hazel head is a very street-smart woman she flies below radar to track hazel head is very difficult
she becomes almost like a ghost it's like she's here and she's gone but it must not be forgotten that she is
a dangerous person that she might have killed even before mr. Barker was murdered she may have killed since she
has a dark side to her hazel head stands five feet two inches tall she has a scar near her right eye
and a gap between her front teeth head is wanted for the first-degree murder of Charles Barker and should be considered
dangerous Oregon City Oregon is a small blue-collar town of 27,000 people just south of Portland a friendly place where
adults trust their neighbors and children play without fear but suddenly everything changed over a six-week
period two young girls vanished without a trace setting in motion one of the most
complex and unusual investigations state authorities have ever encountered nestled among the hills of Oregon cities
its Newell Creek Village Apartments the complex includes 125 units and is home to more than 325 residents including
Laurie Pond and her 12 year old daughter Ashley January 9th 2002 Ashley was running late as usual
it was a little after 8:00 a.m. and she had only a few minutes to catch the bus [Music]
the walk up the hill to the bus stop took less than 10 minutes Ashley was a popular student and member of both the
swimming and dance teams on that Wednesday she was looking forward to practice after class
Laurie Pond expected to hear from her daughter by 6:15 p.m. when she didn't Lauri became worried and called the
school high the dance coach answered she said no Ashley wasn't there I said well
can you ask the kids maybe they saw and they said no and they said they hadn't even seen her in school and that's where
I went no this is this is wrong something's wrong because Ashley would not have done that and she would have
called me now when was actually last seen Lori immediately contacted the Oregon City police she told the officer
none of Ashley's clothes her personal belongings was missing at school things she was sure her daughter would have
taken had she run away no no no I didn't sleep that night at all I just thought maybe she would you know come home and
I'd you know knock on the door or whatever but she never did the police concluded there might be a
child abductor on the loose and opened an investigation detectives first talked with some of Ashley's classmates they
said she never got on the bus next police canvassed the entire apartment complex looking for leads or possible
suspects they found neither the investigators have been able to search every apartment within that complex
including crawl spaces and attic spaces and are confident that there was nothing
there to see the search expanded hundreds of volunteers combed the surrounding area while detectives
questioned Ashley's father looking at Ashley's Internet activity and check dot lists of known sex offenders again no
clues no suspects and no sign of Ashley detectives then contacted the FBI we moved to the larger community around the
apartment complex we've been through the school we've talked to individual students who are associates with talk to
teachers we've talked to administrators we talked to the school as a whole [Music]
more dead ends and still the same fundamental question remained unanswered what had happened Ashley pond between
8:05 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. meanwhile 13 year-old Miranda Gattis Ashley's neighbor and dance teammate found
herself in the middle of an intense investigation could you tell me how long you actually know Ashley since about
third grade the FBI talked to Miranda a lot about Ashley because they've known each other
so long stay wordfriends and I'm sure that they knew pretty much the same people
[Music] days turned to weeks still no sign of Ashley pond and life at the apartment
complex became somewhat normal again March 8 2002 Michelle Duffy packed up for work as usual it was 7:30 a.m.
her daughter Miranda was a no hurry she still had 45 minutes before the school bus arrived
[Music] police believe Miranda left her apartment a little after 8:00 a.m. and headed up the hill for the bus stop
[Music] Knight is Michelle about 120 my oldest daughter called me she didn't and said
Miranda's friends said she wasn't at school so of course I called home no one answered and then I called the school
and the school said oh yeah she's absent and then I got very upset oh my god something's wrong thank you no no thank
you and I went to the police station and they took a report and started right then on the case everybody's reaction
was the same of you know oh my god not again minutes later police raced to the apartment complex hoping I guess hope
Miranda goddess would show up she didn't they notified the FBI and immediately ratchet up just a full-scale
investigation in search well when I heard Miranda had came up missing also my heart dropped into my stomach and I
cried because I was like reliving the day Ashley came up missing all over again the circumstances surrounding
Miranda's disappears on March 8th 2002 were eerily similar to those of Ashley pond two months earlier even more
ominous was a striking resemblance between the two girls they're about the same height and weight and both have
brown eyes we've got a mirror image of a victim and an occurrence it is almost as if the
same child disappeared twice and it was just to repeat like Ashley Miranda usually took the road up the hill to
catch the bus had she been snatched by a stranger on the way had actually met a similar fate it's feasible that if we're
dealing with a stranger abduction that Ashley's disappearance was a it was a crime of opportunity at that one moment
in time and that the offender having been successful came back to the same area to do it again a crime of
opportunity committed by a stranger it was certainly plausible but the mothers of the two girls found it highly
unlikely they both would have put up a stink if somebody tried to take them like that they didn't know if someone
grabbed Miranda she would have thought and there would have been something laying in the road
without an apparent crime scene police began to focus on another perhaps more likely theory there's nothing to
indicate there was a struggle or any resistance no blood no articles of clothing
anything of that nature so so we also the possibility we're dealing with somebody that that both of them knew
since the disappears of Ashley pond and Miranda Geddes school bus now picks up students right outside their doors
however residents of Newell Creek Village Apartments indeed all of Oregon City remain on edge terrified that a
child abductor walks among them this is the type of offender that doesn't stop on their own volition this
type of multiple sexual predator is someone that at least in the general experience dictates that they will
continue until they're stopped investigators have processed over 3500 tips still they have no suspects however
the search continues for any lead that might help crack these puzzling cases meanwhile two hard-working single
mothers suffer through every parent's nightmare and try their best to remain hopeful Miranda I love you and your
family loves you your friends love you and everyone misses you and we want you home and whoever has you we're never
gonna give up we're gonna be here forever I can't wait for the day that I can wrap my arms around Ashley again and
tell her I love her update on August 27th 2002 the desperate search for Ashley pond and Miranda
Gattis ended tragically at a neighbor's house just a few hundred yards from where the girls were last seen the
remains of Miranda Gatos were found in a shed in the backyard award weavers right
at home two days later in the same backyard investigators broke up a concrete slab to unearth the body of
Ashley pond and the gruesome discovery was made the 39 year old Weaver was in custody
charged with raping his son's girlfriend he is being held on a 1 million dollar bond Weaver is expected to be charged in
the deaths of the two girls [Music] [Applause] the southside of Milwaukee's honker
hunters of law-abiding blue-collar families not long ago this peaceful neighborhood was invaded by a vicious
gang of drug dealers known as a Lopez family allegedly the gangs principal enforcer is 20-year old Arthur Lopez jr.
police believe Arthur's behind a bloody wave of terror that has left three people dead and countless lives
destroyed hopefully someone watching can help authorities find Arthur Lopez jr. the
Lopez family reportedly bought seven houses in a two block radius to oversee their drug empire when a rival gang
called the Latin Kings tried to move into their area authorities believe the Lopez's did not hesitate to act
anyone who gets in their way reportedly has to face this man Arthur jr. the alleged hitman for the Lopez family
carlos hernandez was once a member of the Latin Kings but according to his family Carlos had recently left the gang
and turned his life around he just seen drive-bys and he started to see how very rarely do they hit their
intended target they they'll hit innocent bystanders kids playing on her bikes in front of their houses he knew
it was a possibility that could happen to anybody and he felt best that he'd get out the gang and and turn it around
and and really try to help the neighborhood come back to what it was once was before Carlos Hernandez
organized a youth basketball league and took a job with a city organization that
helps kids stay out of gangs a major part of his job was to try and mediate problems between the gangs in
that particular area so what do you think Bob before thinking allured business the Lopez family had come to
mr. Hernandez with a problem with the Latin Kings over territory police believe that Hernandez failed to
resolve the Lopez's turf dispute with a Latin Kings Arthur Lopez jr. was allegedly given the
order to take care of Hernandez according to witnesses Arthur Lopez jr. as several family
members surrounded the building where Carlos Hernandez worked [Music] there was a predetermined code that they
were going to broadcast on the radio when mr. Hernandez was spotted the code was it's a beautiful day in the
neighborhood and that code was put out when mr. Hernandez left from his business to his vehicle at 4:30 p.m.
authorities believe Arthur Lopez jr. donned a mask hopped on a bike and coasted toward the unsuspecting
Hernandez [Music] carlos hernandez was hit by eight bullets and died instantly there was a nightmare
maybe we missed some we wish it had never happened [Music] the hardest part is uh family gatherings
seeing my sister and my mother cry [Music] because he's not her although Arthur Lopez jr. was a suspect in Hernandez's
homicide police had little evidence against him or his family then Arthur made a seemingly harmless mistake
Arthur Lopez was arrested for driving without a license while he was being processed police received an unexpected
visitor Arthur's father Arturo senior cuz I can in command of the Lopez family Arturo Lopez senior demanded the release
of his son and threatened to return with a firearm and to kill all the police officers who were involved in Arthur
Lopez Jr's arrest Arthur Lopez jr. could not be held on the misdemeanor traffic charge and was
released but our torah senior was convicted of threatening a police officer and sentenced to 18 months in
jail his incarceration gave the authorities the opportunity they'd been looking for while Arturo Lopez senior
was in prison he made daily phone calls to his son and other members of the Lopez family basically directing the
continued narcotics distribution activities of the Lopez gang it's gonna give you a bucket
I want you to drop it off at Gino's pad all of these phone calls that were made by Arturo Lopez senior were recorded by
the prison phone system so there are recorded copies of all the conversations from both ends of the telephone as
authorities continue to build their case against the Lopezes that was yet another
violent outburst once again according to witnesses arthur lopez jr. played a principal role it's
clear man is clear come on on August 11th Maximiliano Castillo a known member of the Latin Kings and his girlfriend
Vanessa Rivas returned home after a quick trip to the grocery store a car was shadowing the couple I am gone
police believed that the driver was arthur lopez jr. and that his passenger was another lopez gang member named luis
Acevedo [Music] max if I saw homes if my soul bro I got a message for my friend bro yeah so what's
up you a dead man pump Vanessa Rivas a completely innocent bystander who had just celebrated her
15th birthday was unable to escape the rain of bullets we know that Vanessa Revis was hit once
in the side bullet did a lot of damage and she basically bled to death mr. Castillo was
struck a number of times at least three times by the bullets fired by mr. Acevedo and he also died from his
injuries in the ensuing months authorities use Arturo seniors tape phone calls and eyewitness testimony to
secure arrest warrants against Arthur Lopez Jr and the rest of his family on December 15th a multi-jurisdictional
task force moved to put the Lopez gang out of business for good large stashes of guns drugs and money
were seized eight individuals were arrested destroying the gangs ability to terrorize a community only one Lopez
family member managed to escape the citywide dragnet our third Lopez jr. he has now avoided arrest for nearly two
years he's gotta pay he's done so much hurt too many people families and and he's a
coward he's he's hiding we need we need we need to get him get him off the streets
[Music] [Applause] for every mystery there is someone somewhere who holds the key join me for
the next edition of unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
[Music]

Brief Summary

This episode covers crop circles, missing girls, and gang violence in Milwaukee.

Key points

Crop Circles: Mystery or Hoax?. Exploring the origins of crop circles and the debate surrounding their creation.
The Tragic Story of Charles Barker. A man finds love after loss, but tragedy strikes again.
The Disappearance of Two Young Girls. A small town is shaken by the mysterious vanishings of two girls.
The Disappearance of Ashley Pond. Ashley Pond goes missing after school, sparking a frantic search.
Miranda Gattis Goes Missing. Miranda Gattis, a neighbor of Ashley, disappears under similar circumstances.
Tragic Discovery. The remains of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gattis are found, leading to an arrest.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Are they the work of some strange force?

Questioning the origin of crop circles.

0:21WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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