Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 11 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

this program is about unsolved mysteries whenever possible the actual family members and police officials have
participated in recreating the events what you are about to see is not a news broadcast in 1991 a weekend fishing trip
off the coast of Mexico apparently ended in a tragic death for four young Americans
but two of the bodies were never recovered ever since repeated sightings of a strange young man have been
reported up and down Mexico's Baja Peninsula convincing many that one of the victims
Gordon Collins is still alive and suffering from amnesia the night Gordon Collins's family needs your help
perhaps you pull the crucial clue that can bring their son back home join me this intriguing new case and more on
another edition unsolved [Music] [Music] in the 1940s and 50s a mysterious and terrifying epidemic swept the United
States polio the victims were almost all children thousands died thousands more were crippled for life in 1952 dr. Jonas
Salk developed a vaccine against polio it was nothing short of a miracle but for many children it was a miracle
that came too late such was a case for Judy Davis of Beverly Ohio Judy was just five years
old in 1949 when both her legs were hopelessly crippled by polio my attitude towards polio was it was a challenge my
parents decided that I was going to live as normal life as possible and regardless the doctors wanted to put me
in a convalescent center and my mother just hit the roof she says no way that child is going to live as normal as
possible and I did when she was eight Judy was enrolled in a special elementary school then at the
age of twelve she entered a regular school or her braces and crutches provoked fears stares and uncomfortable
giggles September 1956 the first day of junior high for Judy Davis here Judy would be the only handicapped student
here she would for the first time face a world which might be unintentionally cruel I was petrified because I didn't
know anyone in the school so I was really petrified [Music] Oh my father he was the type of person
who encouraged me to do things for myself and he kind of instilled in me that there was nothing I couldn't do as
long as I tried okay I was able to get in and out of the car by myself and I would have been able to
climb the stairs to the school if there was a railing but there was no railing so I was resolved to let my father
carrying the end of the school it's okay seeing all the kids stare at me when I entered the school it was really an
awkward feeling because I was it was something new for me and I'd never had that before
my father carried me up the steps and sat me down at the top of the stairs and this girl comes over and she says hi can
I help come on I'll show you okay bye daddy bye honey Judy had made a real friend in the weeks
that followed she and Becky Terry would become inseparable Becky was a very warm
person I'm very warm very outgoing I mean she had to be - to be so open with me the
first day of school but the other kids in the school it was like I was an alien from outer space and I felt that way
except when Becky was around around Becky I felt like everything was possible she made me feel like there was
no braces there was no crutches that I was just like her all through seventh grade the girls
friendship grew in eighth grade becky and judy even took to coordinating their wardrobes they were often mistaken for
sisters and in fact no sisters could have been closer Becky and I talked about music we talked about boys we
talked about marriage we talked about everything under the Sun but Judy and Becky's favorite subject was definitely
boys at the junior high serialized horror movies were shown each day at noon before long a boy began sitting
next to Becky all of a sudden he wasn't just sitting there he was holding Becky's hand knowing Becky had a
boyfriend was I don't know it was kind of sad for me because she had a boyfriend and I didn't have a boyfriend
so I felt kind of left out Becky's boyfriend was David major a fellow 7th grader but judy was so shy that she
couldn't bring herself to talk to David or to any other boy well one day Becky had a big load of books and she wasn't
able to carry my books on top of her books are you sure I'm sure I was so shy I would rather have died than to ask a
boy for help I was very shy at that age especially around boys so here I was trying to carry maybe 3 or 4 books plus
pencils and a notebook and they fell all over the floor I had a class with David so I knew who
David was even before Becky and he became involved and shortly after Becky and David became an item they broke up
and Becky decided she liked this boy named Gordon and evidently he liked her because they started holding hands in
the movies and David started holding my hand in the movies so I was really thrilled about
that it was real exciting because now we both had boyfriends a few months later Becky
came to Judy's house in a somber mood the girls had been through everything two friends could experience except
separation [Music] hey what's wrong something awful has happened really awful my dad got a job
that's good it's in West Virginia we're moving we're moving tomorrow he says account B I was brokenhearted when Becky
told me she was leaving Becky's friendship to me meant that I was able to be accepted by the other
students in the school and it made me feel like I was more like everyone else and that there was no difference between
us and at the age of 12 that meant a lot and it still means a lot Becky and Judy
wrote to each other for several years and Becky even came back to visit once but eventually they lost touch in 1960
Judy's condition deteriorated and she was confined to a wheelchair nevertheless Judy or daughter Mary and
have four children she also became an outspoken advocate for the rights of the disabled in 1979
Judy divorced and later moved to Tucson Arizona through it all her friendship with Becky has been an inspiration I
would really like to find Becky I kind of like to tell her how how much she meant to me as a friend and I'd like to
get that friendship back if it's possible [Music] [Music] September 1991 a young American
disoriented penniless and obviously out of place wandered into the Mexican village of Colonia Vicente Garrido 300
miles south of San Diego California he lingered for months living on handouts depending on the charity of strangers
for one California couple tales of the young stranger were a ray of hope in the search for their 34 year old son Gordon
Collins who had been missing for five months I know he's alive we have our priority now to try to find him and I
can't get on with my business I can't get on with nothing until you know we're getting home inside your heart you're
just you're always longing to just to that day you're gonna be able to hold him and know it's for real
the strange saga of Gordon Collins began on April 19th 1991 used vacationing with his girlfriend
Anastasia seals and another couple near Santa Rosalia a popular deep-sea fishing spot midway
down the Baja Peninsula four days after they arrived the group secured a boat at
the local hotel Gordon's friend Wayne Schwartz had fished off the Baja coast many times and
knew the area well as a group left port a fisherman on his way in warned them that a storm was brewing
[Music] yeah [Music] the fisherman's warnings apparently went unheeded several hours later a fierce
storm would indeed hit the area Gordon Collins and his friends never returned [Music]
the next day a hotel employee was set out to search for them his search end 28 miles northeast
[Music] [Music] Wayne Schwartz and Gordon's girlfriend Anastasia seals were dead but Gordon
Collins and Schwartz's wife Arlene Burlington are nowhere to be found the bodies and all a paraphernalia out
of the boat was all within one square mile of each other because I talked to the fella that fished the bodies out and
and so we said hey where's the other two jackets where's the other two people for
three days the United States Coast Guard searched a 250 mile area of the sea of cortez in the baja shoreline finally
they suspended the search pending further evidence it seemed obvious that Gordon Collins and Arlene Burlington had
perished the US consulate in Mexico asked Gordon and nollies Paris assigned death certificates however reports that
Gordon was still alive had already begun to filter across the border his parents
came to believe that he'd been picked up by a fishing boat and brought ashore they were certain that Gordon was
suffering from amnesia and was unable to find his way home John and Mary Lou Collins traveled from Moreno Valley
California to the area where the two bodies had been recovered they combed Santa Rosalia desperately hoping for a
clue to Gordon's whereabouts we got Flyers made up and so we were spreading them all out when two Mexican
fishermen come running up to us and kept pointing to the to the flyer yep he said
they seemed a guy out of the water come out of the water she just had shorts he was all cut up waiting there that
they're trying to get on a bus state bus they're at the bus station I wasn't very
excited the things started fitting together because this is where the accident happened they found the bodies just a
mile and a half off of this Shore it's not a big lorry [Music] around the same time
Gordon was also cited on a nearby beach by a man named Jose Peralta you haven't --blanket --blanket cold
Jose said that Gordy said he was working for friends he went fishing and could he
have Jose's blanket cuz he was gonna sleep on the beach there a cab oh and wait for his friends neither lead panned
out and the Collins returned home it was a beginning of a frustrating seemingly endless pattern I would go down until I
wouldn't get any more sighted and then I'd go back home and and we get a phone call or something and so boom I get on a
plane and we'd head back on down and and hit these errors were the siding was evidently was was that on one trip we're
headed toward the pause and we stopped at the movies taco places and missus yeah I seen him an hour ago so we went
on down for them probably another three or four miles we stopped stopped again the guy says yeah we've seen them about
30 minutes ago so we finally got right into town and missus yeah within five minutes and then they seen us all seen
us together and I don't know what happened but everybody just clammed up we couldn't get oh we couldn't get no
more information I don't know if they thought we were the the poiice the FBI or the DEA or what you know and we
couldn't get no more information and bam it was just stopped over the next three
months Gordon Collins was spotted at least 50 times in seven different locations all
in the area of La Paz and Cabo San Lucas at the southern end of the Baja Peninsula
it almost seemed that Gordon Collins had wanted to disappear and might be hiding
out but Gordon had called his parents the day he left for Mexico so they would know her he was John and Mary Lou
Collins are adamant that Gordon would never desert his ten-year-old son Christopher and causes family such pain
and suffering I believe he can't remember what happened and cannot make the choice to return home because he
doesn't know more you know home is and you can't leave your child wandering around in a country aimlessly and not
only were we exhausted but our money was exhausted and we began to think we weren't doing it right we decided we
needed a professional at this point the Collins hired bill Garcia a private investigator who alerted newspapers in
Baja after the articles ran Garcia received several calls from the village of Colonia Vicente Guerrero it was for five
months here in town he never worked here never work and he only hang around yeah
here in town he was walking all the time move it moved too much here and almost in the town everybody knows him we've
shown in pictures and everyone recognizes him and they're positive that it's him the people I have talked to him
know know some things about him about Gordon and feel confident that he is there or was there
according to Amador Gordon was eventually arrested for stealing food the local sheriff or delegate who
brought in James Hatfield an American living in the village to translate there's no doubt in my mind it's Gordon
because when when you met him in jail I introduced myself to him and he gave me his name Gordon and then when the flier
came out it's right there on the flyer Gordon and you can't get the two pitchers mixed up it's the same
he moved on shortly before we were able to get to that area and we haven't been able to find where he's gone from there
the Gordon seems to be just wandering through the different towns in Baja not really knowing where he's going I don't
think he's attempting to get home because he seems to go north then he seems to travel back sell over the next
year sporadic sightings of Gordon continued the last was near the village of Rosarita 25 miles south of Tijuana
the US consulate has now officially reversed his position and no longer presumes that Gordon Collins is dead you
just can't cup and give up because it's your son I know it keeps me driving and keeps me going and I want to get him
home to get him home safe and back to normal again [Music] recently we featured the story of WB Mac
MacDonald a self-made millionaire who was searching for his heir a child whom Mac had seen but once forty-three years
ago Mac story began in 1948 in Pomona California that summer he fell in love with a 16 year old girl named Mary Helen
Connor but their courtship was cut short by Mary Helen's mother she threatened to
have Mac arrested if the romance continued my whole life was revolving around her it upset me you know because
I was in love with a girl and we were planning on a future together and here were these tremendous stumbling blocks
being thrown out into the paths Mack moved to Houston Texas three weeks later Mary Helen ran away from home and
joined him posing as husband and wife the young lovers moved in together but their happiness was short-lived a friend
tipped off Mack that the police are on the way to the apartment Mary Helen's mother had made good on her
threats authorities carried warrants charging Mac the statutory rape and illegally living with a minor Mac made
his escape with no time to spare I was devastated again they jerked her back to California and I hadn't I had no
way of contacting her again a year later Mac returned to California and was shocked to learn that he was a
father he visited Mary Helen and met his child for the first and only time but fearing that authorities were still
looking for him Mac fled after only five minutes he never even learned if the baby was a
boy or a girl now a wealthy businessman Mac wants to find the child he left behind 43 years ago I feel that the
youngster is entitled to my estate and I would want to I'd want that youngster to
know that I love him and I wanted to have the best [Music] the night of our broadcast Mac McDonald
learned that he had a daughter named sherry the long-awaited news came from a viewer in Dallas Texas Mary Helen car
Sherry's mother unlike many of the reunions we have featured the end of this search of oak decidedly mixed
emotions from Mac from Mary Helen especially for their daughter sherry who'd been raised by loving and caring
stepfather I'm 43 years old and pretty well said in my life and everything and and I didn't
know what to think you know I'm very happily married and have two great kids and you know we just have a normal
American family and and this is quite a shock to everyone one week after our broadcast Mac
McDonald arrived at Sherry's home in Denver Colorado for Mack the reunion would bring a bittersweet and at times
unsettling reconciliation with the past [Music] it's hard to describe the feeling that I
had for my daughter when I opened the door and she was there and I was able to hold her I just tried to come to the
realization that it really was my father standing there and I just to see does he
look like me is he act like me you don't have all these things I need to learn about him I don't know what to say at
this point in my life to find that there is someone who is my father and who wants to establish a
relationship with me it's just emotionally very traumatic apparently he wants to be part of her life and if
that's the case it's okay I hope since he's gone to this much effort to find her that he doesn't bring
any sorrow the fact that I didn't stay in fight the battle it's most unfortunate I don't believe I would do
it that way again however yesterday unfortunately can't be redone I'd like to no matter how you look at it he left my
mother was a with a tiny baby you know and I have to deal with that I have to deal with the fact that I have a father
who loves for me who has raised me who's cared for me that I believe there's enough room in this family for everyone
and I sincerely mean when the afternoon of March 11th 1992 paramedics were dispatched to an emergency at a toy
store in Redwood City California inside sprawled on a table in the employees lunchroom was 23-year old Gilbert Ortiz
he was sweating profusely in experiencing severe convulsions Gilbert managed to tell the medics that he
become ill after drinking a high protein amino acid milkshake commonly used by bodybuilders to help them bulk up and
strengthen muscle and how long ago did you join France Gilbert Gilbert began to slip in and out of
consciousness his wife was contacted and paramedics rushed into nearby Sequoia Hospital
is that the shake right there doctors in the emergency room were baffled by Gilbert's condition they examine the
plastic bottle which it contained the shake and set it aside so the contents could be tested later within moments
Gilbert's wife Elizabeth arrived in the emergency room doctors hoped that she could provide an explanation for
Gilbert's sudden mysterious illness just a few minutes ago and they said that after taking that sports drink over
there about 15 minutes later he started vomiting he's very disoriented I can't get anything straight out of him have
you ever seen that bottle no never I've never seen you know what we're thinking we're thinking it might have had an
overdose of drugs maybe some street grunts or maybe something else Cooper doesn't do drugs are you sure okay by 10
o'clock that evening Gilbert had developed pneumonia and his kidneys had failed he was admitted to the intensive
care unit he would later suffer cardiac arrest and slip into a coma as his life hung in the balance doctors worked
feverishly to determine what had caused him to become so violently ill [Music] sometime that afternoon the plastic
milkshake bottle similar to this one mysteriously disappeared it was a first in a series of bizarre incidents that
would lead authorities to believe that Gilbert Ortiz had been poisoned by someone he thought he could trust
in 1987 gilbert was serving in the army when he met Elizabeth Fuentes they married three years later shortly
after the birth of their son Jonathan Gilbert took an entry-level position in the toy store in Redwood City but he and
Elizabeth frequently fought over money in March of 1992 Gilbert received a promotion in the future suddenly seemed
brighter less than a week later gilbert was in the hospital fighting for his life Gilbert's mother and sisters soon
joined Elizabeth at the hospital they said that while they were in the waiting room
Elizabeth received a strange phone call which seemed to upset her she got nervous when she came back from from
that phone call I don't know why I don't know what they told her and so she decided that she was gonna go see
Jonathan she was concerned about Jonathan for some reason and she was gonna go to Gilbert's work cuz she knew
the combination for the locker and she was gonna go see if she could find anything because Gilbert wasn't getting
any better and about two hours later she came back she was a star up gone you should keep saying and somebody has
Jonathan this this guy has Jonathan Jonathan somebody has done it then outside in the parking lot he said he
was gonna hurt Jonathan wait he has Jonathan outside no yeah no he the man said he was gonna kidnap but wait a
minute I thought Jonathan was with your mother and so I was like in a Wayne and I call her mom and her mom you know I
asked any news Jonathan there and then she saw like yeah he's free he's right here
I'm like why I'm like because I'm Elizabeth she said that some guy had him well Brenda was on the phone Elizabeth
blurted out a disjointed frightening story she said she had been approached by a small boy in the hospital parking
lot who then directed her to a man man in a parked car did you know I just covered his face what did you do
What did he say he said that he knew what had happened to Gilbert and then Gilbert had drank the wrong stuff
what was stuff in the bag Gilbert just inside the paper bag was a bottle of liquid insecticide the ICU nurse
immediately made two phone calls under the national poison control center and the other to the Redwood City police
poisoning to report I need to speak to an officer five days later Elizabeth was questioned about the mysterious masked
man she said had handed her the insecticide so tell me about the little boy that ran after you well when I was
in my car I turned on my car and I was for about the first hour of the interview she maintained the story that
she had given the officers and the nurses at the same stating that the man with a mask and a little boy and she
told me that she thought it was definitely a strange story but it was the truth if what you're telling us is
the truth how would this guy have known that Gilbert drank this thing how should
I know how would the little boy know I don't know I don't know I've never seen anything before in my life your story
doesn't make sense I just I still couldn't believe what she was telling me and so my partner and I started to jam
her by you know telling her certain things to see how she would react like we knew more than we actually did and
that man gave me the bottle there was a witness in the parking lot he didn't see
a man with the mask and he didn't see a little boy all he saw was you there was no masked man and there was no
little boy okay all right okay I made that part up why because the doctor you know he was he said that whatever
Gilbert drank was in the house okay and so I went he asked me if I had any insecticides and I looked they searched
in the house and that's when I found the bottle why did you make story up about the man with the mask and
a little boy because I was scared I didn't know if Gilbert had done this to himself on purpose she told me that
maybe he was trying to hurt himself and and so I asked her you mean you think he
was trying to take his own life and she said yeah maybe maybe he was depressed and and I didn't want him to get in
trouble Elizabeth would you be willing to take a lie-detector test look I have a job
interview okay so I gotta go what about the lie-detector test okay when later this afternoon after your interview okay
Elizabeth never returned to the police station the next morning detective Anderson
reached her at her mother's house in San Francisco 20 minutes from Redwood City this time Elizabeth refused to come in
11 days later Gilbert regained consciousness and police suspicions were finally confirmed
Gilbert had apparently been poisoned by his own wife Elizabeth she was working for some people and she called me about
12 or so and told me she wanted to have lunch with me Gilbert explained that Elizabeth had
told him about a co-workers son who had bucked up by drinking amino-acid milkshakes you know I live weights and
of it I I could never get big and that's the kind of guy she likes do you know this guy no some guys she worked for so
she mix something up and brought it for you to drink no the guy that guy mixed it up gave it to her she came to my work
lunchtime and dropped it off Gilbert said Elizabeth met him around 2:00 p.m. in the toy store parking lot the shake
was already mixed in a plastic sports bottle I'm gonna tell you to drink it before
you eat anything it smells like chocolate what did you say wasn't it amino acid they're supposed to make me
stronger yeah this guy is real big he's real fast and he said it might taste a little
nasty but that's okay it's supposed to well actually I didn't open it until I got inside he looked like a real shake I
mean I got really chocolate shake that's what I looked like so I kind of tried it
right and then I want to try to dissolve like burn my throat a little bit listen
maybe that's why it's supposed to taste I don't know I don't know if it was supposed to be sour or spicy cuz it was
spicy but I thought the weight just was and I kept drinking and drinking and butter in touch the food at all I mean
pretty close I almost finish the bottle and then I started feeling really hot my
throat's really valid really really burning and I was all shaky and then I feel like Kate is sick then I passed out
that I was in the emergency room police obtained a search warrant to see if they
could trace the poison or the plastic bottle to Elizabeth but when they arrived at the Ortiz apartment they made
a startling discovery Elizabeth Ortiz had vanished along with a couple's two-year-old son Jonathan
then that's when I hit me she didn't I really really heard it you know especially you want to tell me so
where's the baby she he's gone that's that's the main point that really got me hurry you know
fine she's gone she's gone but the kid and I was too attached to the kid I still AM nearly one year has passed as
Gilbert Ortiz was poisoned but he still has not fully recovered the insecticide caused serious damage to his liver and
nervous system his right foot is numb and he has difficulty walking without assistance doctors don't know if I'm
gonna get back to normal or if it's permanent damage to my nerves same thing with my hands tip of my fingers numbed I
can't feel anything mmm I really messed up my life because if I can't do anything my feet I can't work
johnathan Fuentes Ortiz has not been seen since March 17th 1992 he was born on May 13th 1990 and has brown eyes and
black hair an arrest warrant has been issued for Elizabeth twenties Ortiz the charge attempted murder with a special
consideration for torture elizabeth is 23 years old five feet six inches tall and weighs 140 pounds she has black hair
brown eyes a prominent cleft in her chin [Music] [Music] on a previous broadcast we featured the
agonising story of a young English woman Delia Hasani in 1964 she was 18 years old unmarried and had just had a baby
whom she named Michelle at her father's insistence Delia was staying at a convent until the baby was adopted two
weeks after the baby was born Delia's Paris visited the convent Delia hoped once her father saw Michel he
would relent but he wouldn't even look at his granddaughter in the end Delia had no choice but to
give up her daughter for adoption you've only got 30 minutes to say goodbye what you tried to do is look at
her face to burn the impression into your mind and so you feel the the shawl and what maybe because it's warm but
you're feeling her body because that was the last time you're gonna see her and that was it I can't explain one minute I
had a baby makes me it was gone two photographs were all that Delia had to remember Michel and she never stopped
trying to locate her finally after 15 years of frustrated research Delia's efforts began to pay off last
July Edina learned that her daughter had been renamed longer and adoptions official agreed to send a letter to
Laura that Delia had written in the brief note Delia said that she would soon appear in unsolved mysteries and
asked her daughter to view the broadcast in New York Mills New York on the evening our program was aired Delia's
daughter Laura Frankland experienced firsthand the heartbreaking events leading up to her adoption when I found
out my birth mother was searching for me that was pretty touching to know that she had looked that far to try to find
me [Music] after the broadcast Laura contacted art Ellison and asked to be put in touch with her birth mother
against nearly impossible odds Delia had at last found her daughter a continent away amidst a population of millions on
[Music] September 19th 1992 Laura her husband their two children and Laura's closest
friends assembled a Syracuse International Airport the separation of birth mother and daughter that had
lasted more than a quarter of a century was about to end there was a lot of anticipation a lot of what's she gonna
think when she sees me and what is she going through right now [Music] she was everything and more that I'd
expected absolutely everything she's a she's beautiful girl proud of her before Laura's adoptive mother died in
1989 she had shared all she knew of Laura's background Delia and Laura could now fill in the remaining gaps in nearly
30 years of family history fighting my birthmother now I don't think has really changed my life as much
as it has probably enhanced it because now I can find out some about my past and my history and things that I never
thought that I would ever find out about I can't replace her mother but I'd like
to think that I could be pretty close the September reunion is only a beginning at Christmas Laura and her
family plan to travel to England where they will spend time with Delia and the many relatives looking forward to
meeting them for the first time [Music] join me next time perhaps you may be able help solve a mystery
[Music] you [Music]

Brief Summary

Gordon Collins went missing in Mexico; Judy Davis seeks her childhood friend and reflects on her polio experience.

Key points

Judy's Journey with Polio. Judy Davis overcomes the challenges of polio with the support of her family and friends.
The Mystery of Gordon Collins. A tragic fishing trip leads to the disappearance of Gordon Collins and his friends.
A Bittersweet Reunion. Mac McDonald learns he has a daughter after 43 years apart, leading to mixed emotions.
Gilbert's Mysterious Illness. Gilbert Ortiz develops pneumonia and slips into a coma, raising alarms about his health.
The Disappearance of Jonathan. Elizabeth receives a strange phone call and fears for her son Jonathan's safety.
The Poisoning Revelation. Gilbert's poisoning is confirmed as police investigate the circumstances surrounding it.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was brokenhearted when Becky told me she was leaving.

Judy reflects on her friend's departure.

10:00WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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