Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 23 - 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
December 12th 1985 a chartered plane went down in flames outside gander Newfoundland Canada killing 248 American
soldiers officially the crash was ruled an accident caused by ice on the wing but eyewitnesses telev intense fires it
could not be extinguished and a mysterious cache of weapons recovered from the wreckage but the Yong GIS have
fallen victim to a terrorist bomb as a child Peggy Lloyd was haunted by the elusive
vision of a brother she barely remembered finding the discovery of an old snapshot launched Peggy on a
determined quest for answers perhaps you can help end her search for her long-lost brother
the terrible tragedy in Waco Texas has focused the nation's attention on the scattering of religious coasts across
the United States in one cult unrelated to the Branch Davidian sect Nelson de Cloud was seen as a dynamic charismatic
Messenger of God by his followers however according to one member who fled the cult
I'll use his position to demand sexual favors from some of the women in this congregation also tonight a moving and
joyous update thanks to our broadcast to childhood friends separated for more than 30 years been reunited
join me for these fascinating stories of tonight's unsolved mysteries [Music] [Applause]
[Applause] [Music] these men were members of the elite 101st airborne unit of the United States
Army on December 12th 1985 they were among 248 young soldiers cut down in their prime all killed instantly when their
transport plane crashed at gander Newfoundland it was a worst single air disaster in US military history
officially the crisis written off to ice in the planes wings but many of the young men's families as well as several
key investigators believe it the true cause of the gandered tragedy remains an unsolved mystery on December 11th 1985 a
one hundred and first Airborne left Cairo Egypt on a chartered air aware dc-8 much like this one they were going
home to Fort Campbell Kentucky after a six-month peacekeeping mission in the Sinai following one stop in Germany they
landed for refueling at the gander Newfoundland Airport in Canada an hour later just after takeoff tragedy struck
[Music] the dc-8 crashed less than three miles from the gander control tower killing
everyone on board the wreckage was scattered over an area 1,300 feet long and 130 feet wide almost immediately a
man purporting to represent the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad telephoned a US consulate in Algeria to
claim responsibility nevertheless US army officials who arrived in gander within hours quickly discounted the
possibility of terrorist involvement later a Canadian Board of Inquiry stated that ice on the planes wings had brought
it down however four of the boar's nine members publicly dissented insisting that ice did not cause the crash there
was certainly some kind of an explosion and a small explosion had disabled the control system that led to the sequence
of events that led to the disaster but what caused that explosion whether it for sabotage or whether it was the
accidental detonation of some kind of military equipment that was carried down against regulations we really don't have
a better idea than we had in 1988 the dissenters are particularly disturbed by the pulverized state of the wreckage
usually in a take-off crash large sections of the plane remain intact if any passengers survived a normal kind
of takeoff accident can be quite serious and can involve the fire but basically the aircraft isn't completely destroyed
you usually don't have a huge explosion because when the tanks are full it doesn't give the fuel a chance to mix
with oxygen like you need for an explosion you get an explosion when the aircraft
crashes with partial tanks and takeoff accidents are usually survivable the US government claimed there was no evidence
that an onboard explosion had caused the crash they steadfastly deny that either
explosives or ammunition had been carried as carnold eyewitness reports McEnroe airport however cast doubt on
the government's position the 101st airborne waited for eight hours while they were transferred to a larger plane
in the process the duffel bags of 41 soldiers were left behind on the tarmac to make room for several large wooden
boxes many believe the boxes contain some type of classified weapons at the gander crash site one of the rescue
workers Harvey day says he saw five wooden boxes sir that's as far as you can go decided to walk down to see what
was in this area I had of a ten feet from it and this military guy who walked up towards me he said when I stopped and
looked and I saw what people are beginning to say it didn't exist I saw five large wooden boxes they were black
bit burnt from the fire and I saw harms rifles and I saw things like missiles a little metal boxes did look like
ammunition boxes and it was our pile of very neatly into this corner very just want to see what's desert you don't have
to see anything this is official military business if you don't leave I'll have you removed by force from the
premises in addition they recalls one unusual hot spot resulting from the crash there's two firefighters and they had a
continuous stream of water onto this pile and I thought a very peculiar and I walked over to one chap and I asked the
Benedicta water way is as flared back up again and I said we've got to do this he
sent till he said it burns out he said it cools down tilt it to the point we can remove what's there within weeks
Harvey Day and several other rescue workers began to complain of health problems to some the symptoms sounded
suspiciously like radiation poisoning I think we had over 30 who describes some type of malady or sickness as a result
of the crash and they range from liver problems to what people thought were heart attacks and just general illnesses
and this is what was checked out and it got to be rather scary according to one unnamed source the United States
government allegedly sealed his crash investigation records for a period of 70 years however several government
agencies including the Department of Defense the National Transportation Safety Board deny that any such records
exist we know that this the files on the gander incident would not be sealed for
70 years if it were simply ice we know that there had to be something very very politically embarrassing that could have
been very harmful to the Reagan administration that had to be covered up as one family member put it she wants to
know if her family member died protecting this country or if he died because our government was protecting
itself in the early 1980s the United States government had begun illegally selling
arms to Iran in a covert and Byzantine operation now known as iran-contra the operation ostensibly aimed at freeing
American hostages on the Middle East through was apparently in jeopardy at the time of the gander crash the
Security Council I assumed that the president was just a few days before the crash Colonel Oliver North Warren in at
least two separate memos that the United States risked quote a renewed wave of terrorism a u.s. reversal now could
ignite Iranian fire the hostages would be our minimum losses whatever happened in gander I believe would have either
caused political embarrassment or an international incident or both and whatever the reason was for the cover-up
in 1985 still exists today US government investigators did appear to be behaving strangely first off the
crash site was bulldoze within three months a highly unusual practice the US Army says it was done simply to
discourage souvenir hunters secondly the remains of the plane were quickly disposed of buried in a dump again
highly unusual procedure as a rule downed airplanes are virtually reassembled in order to study the crash
one of the young men who lost his life at Gander was 23-year old sergeant James Douglas Phillips the only son of dr.
Douglas Phillips a pathologist disillusioned by the official reports dr. Phillips and his wife zona formed an
organization called families for truth about gander they requested several scrap sections from the dc-8 and were
surprised when the government sent them an expert hired to analyze the scraps claimed the outward puckered edges
showed that a blast had indeed occurred inside the plane I think the airplane exploded in midair
and then went down and hit the ground with a gigantic fireball ensuing upon hitting and the fuel ignited but there's
no doubt in my mind that there was a fire or an explosion while the plane was still in flight
dr. Philips turned up one final chilling fact autopsies revealed that many of the
dead soldiers at a significant amount of carbon monoxide in their bodies the toxicology report showed that the
victims had indeed read in carbon monoxide prior to the plane hitting the ground and exploding this had to be from
a detonation a fire or explosion onboard the craft I guess the thing that bothers
me the most is there are people out there living ordinarily ordinary day life going about their business and
their jobs and they know what happened and they won't tell us and they won't help us in 1990 a congressional hearing
on the ganda disaster was convened in Washington DC while the committee did criticized the government's lackluster
post crash investigation he stopped short of recommending a full-scale reinvestigation the families of the dead
men are left to wonder why and how their sons husbands and brothers really died next a woman discovers that her
long-lost father was a circus clown with a broken heart [Music] during the Second World War more than 16
million American men and women were called upon to serve the country inevitably many families would not
survive the stress of wartime separation twenty-eight-year-old leaked early lloyd
was one of those whose marriage was a casualty of the war effort our Curley was in the service his son and two
daughters lived in Oroville California with a woman who ran a boarding house for children at the time Peggy Lloyd was
three years old her sister 4 and their little brother Arthur - one day in 1944 Curley's wife arrived at the boarding
house she was accompanied by the man she would marry when her divorce was final um I've come here I want to take my
children just the girls are not Arthur Peggy and her sister went to live with her mother and the man who was to become
their stepfather [Music] Peggy's brother Arthur was left behind [Music] PEGI logu up being told that her father
had deserted the family and questions about her brother were ignored or brushed aside she began to wonder if
arthur had ever even existed until a quiet summer day in 1948 I climbed up into the attic and crawled along kind of
looking at things and in the back was a bunch of boxes [Music] so I was playing this particular group
of boxes and I found this picture when I looked at the picture I just I knew that it was Arthur now and I
couldn't say that that was a memory it was a feeling it was like he looked like me he was the right age it just felt I
knew that it was Arthur what are you doing look it's Arthur my brother then that proves it he's my brother she took
the picture from me and it went away and I never saw the picture again and I still never got an answer but of course
in my mind I just knew and so I guess that I just grew up believing that wherever my father was Arthur was
Peggy's life at home grew increasingly difficult at the age of nine she was sent to the first in a series of foster
homes and boarding schools she married in 1958 at age 17 and raised four daughters of her own over the years
Peggy remained in contact with her mother but never learned anything more about her brother or father finally in
1983 Peggy presented her mother with a picture fell genealogical chart as a way of once again bringing up the subject of
Arthur and curly first one starts with 1879 you look right here look at me I was an adult now and she didn't have to
be so afraid of what I did and perhaps she would give you that information and feel like enough time had passed that
she could do that I forgotten that one but you know mom there is still something missing
I still don't have any information about my own father Peggy don't start with me
again please we just want to know where he was born mom in the end Peggy's mother relented and reluctantly revealed
Curly's birthplace Lindsey Oklahoma thanks the next day I called there on the phone and I put an ad in their local
weekly newspaper asking if anybody knew his whereabouts or Arthur's and it was from there that things began to happen
[Music] the family secrets of nearly 40 years were unlocked with stunning speed just
nine days after placing the ad Peggy received a letter from an aunt Velma Lloyd who was married to Curly's
brother Velma had included her phone number and Peggy immediately called her newly discovered relative hello may I
speak with Velma Roy wait please I found while I was talking to her on the phone
I was like flipping through the rest of the letters and there I saw this one that had him when those return address
stamps on it that said curly and cue clown alley Spokane when I saw the letter from my dad it's like I felt like
my heart stopped it was a mixture is like I was really excited I'm really emotional I started crying but I was
really frightened I didn't know anything about my father I thought well what if what he says in the letter is I don't
want anything to do with you but of course I just overcame that in and I opened the letter and the letter said my
beloved daughter how thrilled I am to hear from you it was like it's undescribable Peggy was surprised to
learn that for many years both before and after the war her father was a clown with Ringling Brothers and other smaller
circuses in 1955 curly had even performed within five miles of Peggy's home in Southern California but they
would not see each other until Peggy's 43rd birthday in 1984 this home video was shot at Peggy and curlies
long-awaited reunion the Spokane Washington it was the first birthday Peggy had spent with her father
since she was three years old suddenly I had a grandfather and aunts and uncles and cousins and just this whole world of
family and they just all acted like I'd been there my whole life like they'd always
spend my family yeah it's just a wonderful thing the celebration was perfect in every way but one Peggy's
brother Arthur was not with the family but finally Peggy was able to learn what had happened to Arthur since she last
saw him in 1944 for four years Arthur had traveled with a circus watching his father perform in
towns and cities across America Curley had no idea where his ex-wife and his two daughters were living hey prissy
monkey you real good in the show today at first Curley believed that circus life would be rewarding for his young
son Curley himself that joined the circus when he was nine and saw nothing wrong with her itinerant life his
friends advised him otherwise the circus people told him that Arthur needed to be
in school Arthur needed a home stability real parents and a family that he could grow up with in one place and
that the circus life wasn't a good home for him yes after much soul-searching Curley reached a painful decision he
sought out a Catholic priest in Logan Utah where the circus was performing in the fall of 1948 Church can find him a
home I appreciate take care of yourself okay thank you Father thank you buddy your son Arthur
[Music] hey I want you to carry yourself okay all right and uh this man here he's
gonna take care of you'd be good remember everything daddy told you okay all right
your long [Music] artha was six years old when curly gave him up for adoption fifteen years later
curly would receive two letters from his son but neither contained Arthur's adopted last name or his return address
the letters have been mailed from Colorado Springs Colorado I tried Colorado Springs I didn't find
anything there I seem to be at a loss and when my dad became really ill it was like I have to find Arthur I have to
find him before he dies look at you just a mess just a mess curly and I had seven
really wonderful years of friendship yeah we became really good friends and we talked about Arthur a lot he really
felt really sad about it and he felt really guilty about it only got one worker we have wonderful daughter
I will find him sorry it was like he said to me Peggy I don't know about Arthur I'm so sorry about Arthur but I know
that you'll find him somehow I believe that I know that we will leak early lloyd died in 1991 at the age
of 77 he was comforted at least in some measure by Peggy's promise to continue searching for Arthur this is one of only
two known photographs of Arthur Franklin Lloyd when the picture was taken Arthur was 2 years old that blond hair
yes blue eyes would today be 50 years old I have to find Arthur I have to find him to say you have a family you have
someone not just myself but all of Curly's family who love you and want you and we want to know you
but we returned a young woman accuses a spiritual leader of rape authorities need your help to find him Tim this is
Julie what are you doing it's late shortly before midnight on September 17th 1992 a young woman named Julie
Cooper made an impassioned phone call a cry for help - Tim Santee a virtual stranger whom she had met only once when
he repaired the satellite dish on the farm where she lived Julia told me bits and pieces of what had gone on but I'm
still not aware of the whole story and I'm thinking well you know it's no big deal nobody's gonna catch us we
tentatively set the time for 1:15 in the morning I drove up to the corner before
you get to the road down to her house at 1:13 I waited for two minutes and drove
down there and she was crouched down in the grass with a trash bag full of clothes
oh she was very very nervous and very afraid that you are the wearers of way Julie Cooper told Tim sandy that for 16
years she'd been trapped in a religious cult called the de Cloud family the family nearly 30 men women and children
lived together in a compound far removed from the outside world in some ways that
account family resembled the Branch Davidian sect the religious caught led by David Koresh and Waco Texas that
group lived in a fortified compound where a two-month standoff with federal agents recently ended in tragedy David
Koresh's group was just one of an estimated 2,000 religious cults which have sprung up throughout the country
many are headed by self-proclaimed Messiah who with absolute authority on Julie Cooper finally escaped from under
cloud family she began to make accusations which paint a horrifying picture of life within the commune the
most chilling allegations focus on the leader of the cult Nelson de Cloud Nelson de Cloud is an ex-police officer
from Raytown Missouri a suburb of Kansas City his family as he calls his followers had actually been founded by
his father Forrest a cloud around 1968 before Forrest died in 1988 Nelson ascended to the role of spiritual leader
so new Buddhist followers to an isolated farm in Liberty Missouri nearly all family members were encouraged to change
their last names to the cloud literally of the clouds and welcomed him into the temple to class praise the Lord praise
the Lord today's lesson from revelations 13 open your Bibles please Nelson thought that
he was God son not really that he was Jesus Christ but that he was one of God's sons and that he couldn't do any
wrong and I said unto him Sir Nelson had a very booming voice his eyes were like
these are they which came white blue ting with legislation and that scary robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb praise the Lord [Applause] Julie Cooper was just 6 when her family joined the cult in the mid 70s who
claims she eventually learned that the cloud expected perverse almost repulsive forms of devotion from his followers
holiday when she was 10 Julie says the cloud forced her to watch him have sex with a female member of the family he
asked me to have sex with him and I didn't want to I didn't what I want you to do Julie and what God wants you to do
you understand me all right I guess he was so far in didn't he couldn't do any wrong kind of deal it didn't matter to
him now you listen to me do you know how old Mary was when she had Jesus 14 years
old 14 years old now you think about that there's nothing wrong with that if you put me out just like wooded area I
didn't have any food and jacket or anything like that I'll know when to come back God will tell me when to come
back according to Julie she stood in the field alone and shivering for eight hours before Nelson took her back to the
compound this obedience there is a sinner amongst us and I am deeply troubled Judy says that another
member of the family was publicly humiliated the clown about his coolies disobey my words she has chosen to
disobey God's he was gonna make an example of her in front of me in front of others College penance that's enough
to scare and he knew that I was already scared ourselves I felt like it was my fault because here she tried to stand up
for me and I wasn't giving in and maybe if I had given in earlier he would have done this
they found me you know and he says well are you ready now but of course you know
after all that had happened I said yes Julie Cooper claims she became a virtual prisoner in the compound forced to serve
as one of the clouds unwilling sex partners when she was 15 Judy says she made her first attempt to
escape after everything had happened to me everything was going on I decided to run away you know I just couldn't take
any more Judy's absence did not go unnoticed Nelson the cloud immediately organized search parties to comb the
area Julian stop right where you are you hear me boy you stay right there stop right
there pick me up handcuffed me and took me back I was just scared of him of what
would happen to me [Music] according to Judy she was ordered to disrobe and later she was severely
beaten offer your shirt Nelson switched me burn my clothes from my shoes and it was like a symbolic
thing after that he always kept me with him I always had to sleep with him and his in his bus in his area he wouldn't
let me out of anybody's sight I always had to be watched so that's one thing that really kept me on edge you know and
kept me from ever trying to run away cuz I was afraid someone would see me seven
more years past Julie Cooper remain feeling stripped of her freedom and dignity waiting for one more chance to
escape then in the fall of 1992 the opportunity arose at Nelson's request Judy contacted a satellite dish
repairman numerous calls followed until finally Tim santi made his appearance at
the de cloud commune as I pull into the driveway I see several cars I see a lot of kids running around and the first
impression that I get is it you know this has to be some type of sister Julie could I interrupt you just a second this
is Tim he's the man from the satellite company when I got into the office I guess I sort of more or less recognized
Julie's because I had built up a rapport with her on the telephone and in the weeks preceding to me coming up there
and doing the service call Julie was very meek in as much as she wasn't as outgoing as she was on the phone that
she seemed stifled or held back because of some some other reason than than anything obvious brother Nelson this is
our brother in god Nelson declawed Nelson I'd like for you to meet Tim when Tim was introduced to Nelson she didn't
show him in a respect he didn't think of her as anything or anything and that made me feel good it made me feel like I
could trust in someone I could actually talk to this person and he could understand me over the next couple of
weeks afterward I had asked her out for a date and she had seemed like she was willing but was
not that there was something that was holding her back well he had asked me out and of course I told him that I
couldn't go and I couldn't go for a year you know wouldn't be able to get out for
a year that was just the way of putting him off and seeing if he was willing to go on with trying to wear me down
in the course of our conversations on the phone we had she had come up with a plan that she had that she would need to
sneak out at night undetected I called him up missed' I'm gonna go tonight well he made a time in 1:15 in the morning
you know sure enough 1:15 hit he was there after I left I was afraid they would take me back
it would beat me do something to my mom I'm still afraid that he is torturing my
mom in some way for what I've done at dawn nelson de cloud went looking for julie allegedly masquerading as police
officers Nelson and another family member drove to Tim Sandy's address hey Julie where is Julie
[Music] fortunately for Jude the address belonged to Tim's brother 10 Tim and Judy just a few yards away sound asleep
in the house next door the next day Ted came up to me and said what the hell's going on here
two strange people had come into his home looking for me like I you know like I was a criminal or something and that's
when Julie had told us the whole thing of what was going on why did you want to run away she had also alluded to the
fear that any man that was physically able from that group would probably come and try to get hurt and they raped me
and I can't stay there anymore how long that's when we decided to put restraining orders against anyone who
was physically able to abduct her I never want to go back ever when you first get out you feel kind of you don't
know what you are to do you know how to stop things and that was just the first step for me just to keep him away
because I knew they had brought people back before they had gone away and beat them and stuff and I was afraid
something like that would happen to me last Thursday I called my friend Tim to come pick me up detective Duane Wiersma
of the Clay County Sheriff's Department had long been suspicious about the cult please what happened when he brought
Julie Cooper in for questioning she provided a detailed and harrowing account of her entire childhood I was
abused I believed Julie from the beginning beautiful protective B's we had a hard
time trying just to focus on the charges that of a rape at the time because there's so many other things that could
have been he could been charged with before an arrest warrant could be issued Nelson declawed ordered the women and
children to load their possessions out of four converted busses Nelson then took them away from the condo the other
men departed a week later the cloud family has not been seen since it's not an everyday occurrence where you up on a
religious group led by such a powerful individual as Nelson to cloud we believe they're still together because Nelson
feeds off the power of being in control of a group if he doesn't have the group then he has no power I want Nelson to
get caught because it's not fair to anyone else that's up there my mom and dad they they need to know that he isn't
the Messiah you can't do things on his own and think he could get away with it he's not above
that there's a criminal what he was doing was wrong [Music] after our broadcast several viewers
Masson Angelo Texas a small town 500 miles from the clouds old headquarters in Missouri call to say they had seemed
to clouds wife in the area the coat had apparently settled in this farmhouse when state and local agents converged on
the scene the cloud kicked out the screen of the upstairs window in an attempt to escape the deputies
approached him and he tried to wrestle with a few of them briefly there are so many law enforcement officers though
that he didn't that didn't last very long they put the handcuffs on him and escorted him out of the building
Nelson declared was booked at the local County Jail and later extradited to Liberty Missouri to stand trial on for
criminal counts including forcible rape and sodomy since they rested Nelson the cloud other former members of the group
have come forward willing to testify about things they witnessed when they were members of the group no Santa Cloud
is currently out on bail thanks to twenty five thousand dollars raised by followers a trial is scheduled
for November 16th 1993 if convicted on all charges Nelson the cloud could spend the rest of his life in prison I feel
confident now that I can have a normal life after seeing him caught knowing that it can be done
for Julie Cooper her long ordeal is almost but not quite over she still has to testify the clouds upcoming trial
however this courageous young woman has already found a happy ending to her story
last summer Julie became engaged to Tim sandy a man who helped her escape [Music]
next a dramatic reunion a woman finds a long-lost best friend who helped her overcome the trauma of polio recently we
featured the moving story of Judy Davis he was stricken with polio as a young girl Judy was searching for her best
childhood friend Becky Terry the two girls had been wrenched apart back in 1958 when Becky's family moved away Judy
and Becky had met on the first day of junior high to the other students Judy her braces and crutches was an unnerving
sight she was often the object of curious stares but one girl was different one girl offered Judy the
precious gift of unconditional friendship [Music] 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 during our special live broadcast last winter Judy waited anxiously at her home in Tucson
Arizona hoping that Becky would be found - everyone's joy they were reunited by phone while the program was still on the
air [Music] three months later Becky and her husband flew from their home in West Virginia to
meet Judy and Tucson if he hadn't stopped jumped out anyway hosting their sickening that yard I couldn't like this
leader finding Becky and telling her what off what she meant to me was really important and I didn't want life to end
without being able to tell her that she hasn't changed that much maybe we're a little fat or you know but we love it
good friends yeah that's the one thing I always loved about Becky she accepted me
for the way I was and I still feel that way happily Judy and Becky's reunion had
none expected PostScript as girls in junior high school they shared a very special friend his name was David major
David had first been Becky's boyfriend and later on Judy's during our live broadcast David contacted our telecenter
and left his phone number on the day of their reunion Judy and Becky just had to
call him back now the circle was at last complete so the two girls who taught David major how to kiss took their
husbands out to celebrate the renewal of a very special friendship a toast to old
friends and new ones yeah thank you for joining us and please join us next time for another edition of
unsolved mysteries [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

The episode covers the Gander plane crash, a woman's search for her brother, and a cult escape story.

Key points

The Gander Crash Mystery. On December 12, 1985, a plane crash killed 248 soldiers, but the true cause remains unsolved.
Peggy's Search for Her Brother. Peggy Lloyd embarks on a quest to find her long-lost brother after discovering an old photo.
Curley's Heartbreaking Decision. Curley, a circus performer, gives up his son for adoption, believing it’s for the best.
Julie Cooper's Escape. Julie Cooper calls for help after escaping a religious cult she was trapped in for 16 years.
Julie Cooper's Escape. Julie Cooper's harrowing journey from a cult to freedom is a testament to resilience.
Nelson de Cloud's Arrest. Cult leader Nelson de Cloud is apprehended after a long search, facing serious charges.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What caused that explosion?

The ongoing mystery surrounding the plane crash.

4:55WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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