Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 9 - 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 tonight on unsolved mysteries
in honor of Veterans Day the compelling saga of America's last POWs April 20th 1965 American involvement in Southeast
Asia was on the rise Colonel Charles Shawn an Air Force pilot stationed in Okinawa said goodbye to his wife and
children for the last time nine days later Shelton was shot down and captured while on a top-secret reconnaissance
flight over Laos for the next 25 years Shelton's wife Mary and waged a valiant crusade to prove that her husband was
still alive long after the war and Vietnam was over in 1991 a young woman was driven to a remote area and Florida
brutally murdered by two men who thought they had committed the perfect crime but
they didn't know that another man hiding nearby had seen everything also tonight
another edition of special alert authorities need your help to capture a convicted killer who recently escaped
from prison jointly perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery [Music] [Music]
on a chilly morning in October of 1990 the family of air force pilot Charles E Shelton was joined by friends and
dignitaries at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC they were gathered to mourn the death of an
American Hero but it was not Colonel Shelton who was laid to rest that day it was his wife
Marion Marion Shelton spent the last 25 years of her life fighting what may be the final battle of the Vietnam War a
battle for the truth about her husband and more than 2,000 other American servicemen missing and unaccounted for
since the war's end Colonel Charles shot me was shut down in the spring of 1965 long before Vietnam had become a
household word today Colonel Shelton has earned a unique but tragic honor he is the only missing serviceman still
officially listed as a prisoner of war representatives of the Armed Services declined to participate in this
broadcast the more than a quarter century has passed the story of Colonel Shelton is
still the subject of intense controversy according a Charles shot this family precious little diplomatic or military
effort was ever expended by the US government to actually find Colonel Shelton and bring him home
some believe that his prisoner of war status is simply a concession to powa penis and a commemoration of his
legendary resistance as a captain but strong evidence suggests that Colonel Shelton and perhaps other servicemen
missing in Southeast Asia they'd still be alive the Shelton's family the possibility
seems very real that one day they will celebrate the return of America's last POWs Charles Shelton and Marian Pullman
were high school sweethearts they married in 1951 and their family quickly grew to include five children
but Charles and Marian always acted as though they were still on their honeymoon is everybody ready
[Music] now look at the camera my father in my mother's relationship they were very
much in love with each other they were each other's first loss even after 10 years of marriage it was just real
intense and and he all often said that he that she was his first love and only love and last love Charles joined the
Air Force in 1954 and move rapidly through the ranks at the time American involvement in Vietnam was quietly and
steadily on the rise Charles Shelton was swept up in the tide in 1962 Shelton was sent to Saigon to
Train Vietnamese pilots three years later he began flying top-secret photo reconnaissance flights over Laos in 1965
dad was definitely at the peak of his career he was just about finished with his tour of duty in the secret part of
the war in Indochina he had been at that time the senior tactical reconnaissance
United States Air Force pilot involved in the war in Laos Laos borders Vietnam on the west although officially neutral
during the war Ocean Territory was used by North Vietnam as a staging area the United States bombed targets air
frequently and covertly now you kids go wait in the car for your mother Colonel Shelton was stationed in Okinawa Japan
or his wife and children join him but he was often gone for weeks at a time and enduring the pain of separation became a
familiar duty for Marion and Charles I [Music] I'll wait right here till you get back
we better on April 20th 1965 they had no idea they were saying goodbye for the last time
dad's 33rd birthday April 29th 1965 although he wasn't home the family decided to celebrate the birthday anyway
on that day mom invited some friends of hers and their children other officer wives and their families over to the
home to celebrate his birthday [Music] I done all right I thought you were flying today
Am I man I need to talk to you what is it Maryanne Charles plane was shot down a
couple of hours ago he's alright they've been in radio contact with him there's a
search-and-rescue mission underway even as we speak where is it he went into the
area called The Plain of Jars in northern Laos near the Pathet Lao headquarters in salmon away
this is grasshopper 32 come in whiskey angel American planes made visual and radio contact was Shelton
but before rescue helicopters could reach him a sudden change in the weather sealed his fate there was a low cloud
coverage which made it impossible for anybody to get in really close and maneuver without a tremendous amount of
danger so dad was left sitting on that hill for three days waiting and nobody ever came there was just no organized
rescue in those days that was 1965 he was shot down if he was shot down in 1968 at the place he was shot down at I
think he'd been out of there and an hour and a half for three days Shelton eluded
capture by the Pathet Lao the communist forces operating in the area [Music] a platoon of Pathet Lao surrounded dad
one of the Pathet Lao present actually was an informer for our government and reported the story he said that they
apprehended him and the story ends that particular intelligence report saying that dad's body went limp forcing his
captors to have to carry him [Music] Charles shuttles defiant resistance will become legendary among American
servicemen and even when the grudging respect of his captors he was tough and he was tenacious and he just didn't let
go I think that if anyone could survive over there it'd be Charlie Shelton no doubt in my mind
Marian Shelton was officially informed that her husband was a prisoner of war his personal effects returned by Air
Force officials were a somber reminder of his predicament but they also raised deeply troubling questions inside the
footlocker Marian found her husband's dog tags in his military ID which are normally carried by Air Force personnel
at all times [Music] Marian also found her husband's camera when developed the roll of film inside
included this picture shot just before Shelton's ill-fated flight he was wearing what is known as a sanitized
uniform devoid of any official insignia many years passed before the Shelton family would fully understand its tragic
implications if he were captured and lost you were never going to come out the war in Laos was that sensitive that
the government was not going to bother with politicizing our presence there by looking for the return of POWs or
hostages and to this date I don't believe our our government is ever admitted to having troops present in
Laos officially when and we've never negotiated for the men and Laos officially three months after Charles was shot down
Marion and the children returned to Kentucky while the war in Vietnam dragged on for eight more years rumors
and unofficial accounts of Charles Shelton filtered through the military grapevine and back to the United States
from time to time pilots would come through from Indochina and they would come with some news by word-of-mouth
about dad's situation they'd come through tell mom that dad was sick or healthy if he'd been wounded or if he'd
escaped again or this type of thing mama kept a lot of that information away from
us because again she was afraid that that would hurt us and I didn't want to hear it I loved my father I loved him
very much and when mama started telling me stories about what had happened to dad I heard about him being kept in a
shallow grave with bars and and they poked him trying to keep him awake I couldn't stand to hear about stuff about
torture I have asked for this radio and television time tonight for the purpose of announcing that we
today have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam finally on January 27th 1973
President Richard Nixon appeared on national television with a message that Americans had been so desperate to hear
throughout Indochina will be released there will be the fullest possible accounting for all of those who are
missing in action the family was told that all POWs would be included on one of two lists those who are coming home
those who had perished in captivity those lists were scheduled to be turned over to our government and we understood
that the Defense Department would be calling the families all day long letting them know whether or not their
husband or father's name was on which list finally the phone rang way late into the night
[Music] hello yes I am I see thank you [Music] she began to cry and of course I knew
what that meant dad's name wasn't on the list we naturally concluded that therefore you know we would be told soon
just how he died in captivity and his body returned and that was the end of the story and I think we all felt
although a sense of loss at the time there was also an even greater sense of relief that the waiting was over
January 1973 operation homecoming for most Americans who returned a591 POWs seem to signal at last the end of the
war soon after in April of 1973 the Pentagon issued a statement that stunned the
families of those servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia there was no indication that American POWs were alive
anywhere mom realized I think more and more that if dad would ever come home or if any of the prisoners would come home
that it really depended on the efforts of the families and she seemed convinced too that early on you know so much so
that she ventured into Southeast Asia [Music] August 1973 only a few months after the
end of the Vietnam War Marian left the safety of Kentucky and traveled halfway around the world
accompanied by reporter Leah Larkin she visited the jungles and Liao's that had claimed her husband variants piratin
guide was an American operative fluent in local dialects we met with villagers where he was supposed to have been or
was held alive in a cave there were sightings of Minda cave and some of the villagers had actually visited some of
these caves and had seen prisoners she'd hoped that she would get some positive proof her husband was still alive she
got no positive proof people said yes there must be men alive but nothing really no no concrete evidence
one day she'd convinced herself he must be dead there's no way he could still be
alive then the next day something would happen to give her a glimmer of hope it was this constant going back from one to
the other he's dead no he's not dead and I think I mean that's a torment that's very difficult to live with and it's
obviously torment that plagued her the rest of her life Marian Shelton returned home
empty-handed and disheartened but two years later events in Southeast Asia provided a windfall of new information
and new hope [Music] on April 29th 1975 Saigon fell to communist forces it was ten years to the
day after Charles Shelton was shot down thousands of refugees fled Vietnam crowded into vessels that were barely
seaworthy these so-called boat people brought stories about American service to sent shock waves with a Pio wmia
movement they came out all over Southeast Asia Hong Kong Malaysia the Philippines Thailand and hundreds and
then thousands told of seeing American pilots American prisoners still in Chains gaunt starving begging for food
in prison in captivity on work gangs this is how we knew for sure that our men were left behind this propaganda
film shot in North Vietnam shows American POWs held during the war according to the refugees many were
still alive two years after the war had ended for reasons that remains a subject
of controversy the US government withheld the refugees accounts in classified files the stories are
overwhelming in their specificity in their clarity and in their numbers but if you mark it secret and you keep it
locked up in the safes behind locked doors behind guarded doors then we don't know it's there eventually through the
Freedom of Information Act marryin obtained hundreds of classified documents pertaining to her husband
credible sources many of them CIA operatives reported that Charles was alive even as late as 1983 18 years
after he parachuted into Laos there were so many documents that said Colonel Shelton and other men were alive it was
apparent that there was just such a gigantic amount of evidence there are reports in his file that he was shot in
the legs because they were so tired of him escaping and more reports that he just kept trying to escape afterwards
a particular report that was picked up off of the radio between Pathet Lao headquarters and Hanoi indicated that in
1968 the path that Lao turned out over to the North Vietnamese and they decided to interrogate
[Music] Charles Sheldon I have heard about you know pathology Oh methodology [Music]
when the North Vietnamese returned with more personnel to apprehend and control dad they found that he had already
killed the other guards that were present during the interrogation the report finished with the recommendation
that this prisoner be moved north on whether that meant to China or Vietnam we can't be sure but it commented that
he was incorrigible the more Marion dug through official records the more she believed her husband was still alive
these often vivid accounts became her ammunition for a bureaucratic showdown on October 7th 1980 priority hearings in
San Antonio Texas 793 Air Force servicemen already had the classification changed to presume dead
Marion was determined to convince the government that her husband was still alive when I was in Vietnam in Laos in
1973 I met with a delegation of the North Vietnamese I was seeking any information I could find regarding the
fate of my husband when I asked specifically about my husband I was told by the North Vietnamese why are you
asking us when your own government says they are all dead I am terribly disappointed that our government has
made it so easy for them to evade and accounting I feel that presuming people when they set up and decided to hold
these status review hearings I don't think they had any idea about burden of proof burden of proof is a legal concept
what they were going to do was make the Servicemembers family come in and prove he was still alive when the only
information about whether he was really alive was in the hands of the government
that seemed quite unfair we argued that instead it should be the service's duty to approve
he should be changed to kilt an action in other words what evidence do they have that he was dead they do have
evidence he was alive now what evidence do they have to change that the Board finds that by a preponderance of the
evidence Colonel Charles E Shelton can reasonably be presumed dead these findings were reached by a majority
decision in the board four years later Secretary of the Air Force Vernon R refused to accept the board's
recommendation in 1984 he upheld Charles Shelton status as a prisoner of war making him the only one of more than
2,000 missing servicemen not listed as presumed dead do you think your husband's alive I think he very well can
be and probably is it was a weary Marion Shelton who took to the airwaves in late
1980s before national audiences at numbered in the millions she continued to press for a vigorous follow-up to the
reports of surviving POWs they know there's prisoners over there and I think they know that my husband's over there
my mom was so busy doing a lot of the POWs things and going all over the country and speaking and and on
television and she didn't know how to cope with it and when she would come home she would drink in private and
sleep she couldn't take it any longer she knew that Colonel Shelton was alive she knew many other men were alive and
she could not stand to hear the US government continually lie about it slowly her heart started to break that
that are the United States government what my dad fought for was not gonna bring him home or was not trying hard
enough so it devastated her her her you know her American dream that we're all supposed to have was broken this
finally over well Marian Shelton on several occasions in 1987 and 88 she was hospitalized for alcohol abuse Marian's
25 years struggle for her husband's freedom finally came to an end on October 4th 1990 her body was discovered
by friends on the patio of her home Marian Shelton had shot herself in the head Marian Shelton was the powa
she's done more did more while she was alive than just about any other person to try to bring those men home Charles
was my childhood sweetheart my best friend my protector I prepared myself as did my husband for
him to be wounded captured or killed but we were never prepared for him to be abandoned by his own country I do know
that there are men still there and I'm pretty sure my dad's one of them and even if he died 10 years ago
I blame our government for not bringing him home and leaving him behind to those
people who would listen to our story and just conclude that we're living in a kind of fantasy land I would remind them
that two years ago the government of the Soviet Union repatriated to Japan 70 prisoners of war taken from Japan in
World War two and that the French were still being released by the Vietnamese as late as the 70s and early 80s who
were captured at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 so it's not unusual for as we see communist governments keeping citizens
as long as they want to and sometimes prisoners can live obviously for decades in captivity
[Music] Albuquerque New Mexico August 18th 1984 10:25 p.m. 10:28 p.m. police units respond to that most urgent
and personal of emergency calls officer is down I knew I was losing a lot of blood I was worried about that and it
was getting hard to breathe because of the wound in my side in my left lung area but I had an attitude that I that I
was not gonna die that I was gonna make it through I think that helped a lot pretty good he's doing all right got two
dips here Vick web had been on the Albuquerque police force for five years and this
incident was the first time he had ever fired his gun on duty during the shootout web was struck twice without
the rapid response of his fellow officers he would almost certainly have died at any moment on any patrol police
officers must expect the unexpected the night he was nearly killed Vick web and another officer entered a local pool
hall with an arrest warrant for a female suspect in a fraud case instead they found themselves face-to-face with a
trigger-happy Xcode the evening began when Officer Rick Foley sat down at the police crime computer he discovered an
outstanding arrest warrant for a woman he wanted to question on another case an outstanding bench warrant please an
informant told Foley's of the suspect frequented in Albuquerque tavern called Gary's game room Foley and Vick Webb
arrived at around 10:00 p.m. another benchmark yeah although they were not ordinarily partners webbot volunteered
to assist in serving the warrant luboc 10 we noticed some people sitting at a bar off to the left and a couple of
people playing pool towards the back of the room there was a dark hallway so we decided to move back towards the back
and take a look glucose to me now this was a situation where we work hot cold and here was a guy
pointing a gun at us demanding our weapons I'd been out of the Academy for approximately a year and a half two
years a fairly new on the department and my first thoughts were I couldn't believe this was happening to me I
[Music] snapped back into reality and knew that if in fact he was gonna shoot me or kill
me I didn't want it to be inside the game room his first round hit me in the side and I was wearing a bulletproof
vest at the time but this round went in between the two panels on my side and entered the rib area although the first
shot had broken two ribs officer went managed to pull his own weapon and return fire
we were probably about three feet apart at this time but he was on one side of the wall and I was on the other side I
had fired five to six rounds by this time and he was continuing to fire back through the sheetrock
a bullet ripped through webs right arm severing an artery and destroying nerves his shooting hand was rendered useless
web made his way to the exit and struggled to his feet only later did authorities realize that the suspect had
picked up Webb's gun and used it to make his escape the alleged assailant was subsequently
identified as Lyle moody a paroled armed robber with a criminal record stretching
back 17 years the great irony in this case is that the fraud suspect web and Foley were initially seeking had been
arrested 18 months before but her name had never been removed from the police computer
since the night of the shootout Lyle Moody has been spotted Los Lunas New Mexico Oxnard California and Montebello
Colorado Bree was last seen in March of 1985 I would hope that the police officers
who run across him the next time know who he is and know how dedicated he is to not going back to prison
my fear is that he's going to be haunted by some other officers who may not know
who he is and more police officers are going to get hurt [Music] recently we were contacted by the FBI
with an urgent request they hope that our viewers might assist in locating a convicted murderer who had just escaped
from the State Penitentiary in Bismarck North Dakota please watch closely perhaps you
recognize Richard Lee McNair while in prison Richard McNair eagerly assisted authorities and presenting crime
prevention programs to local teenagers Richard McNair was a was a really a model prisoner here at the state pen he
was the editor of the inmate newspaper very polite to staff and most people seem to like him behind his facade of
cooperation McNair was dedicated to breaking out of prison his first attempt in April of 1991 was a
failure but McNair persisted on the evening of October 9th 1992 McNair and two other inmates finally discovered a
weak link in the prison security mr. McNair and and the other two individuals who escaped with him at the time were in
a education room they worked their way through the air vent coming into that room and crawled up into a mechanical
space where the vents for the institution are they then entered a second vent which leads to the roof area
of the institution the three inmates made their way over a series of rooftops and through several coils of razor wire
finally after dropping fifteen feet to the ground or out of the prison as soon as they hit
the second rough from they were heard by the officer who immediately reported it
to the captain our captain ran out of the institution as the three individuals were running about fifty feet in front
of her to the south of the penitentiary she then radioed for help within 48 hours two of the convicts were
recaptured however Richard McNair is still on the run authorities believe McNair may have stolen a light blue 1990
Chevrolet pickup truck like this one missing from AJ Thompson and sons plumbing company two miles west of the
prison McNair may be headed to Oklahoma where his family lives but a Washington state or he has a girlfriend we consider
McNair extremely dangerous very volatile very violent the original crime he was charged with in November of 1987 was a
shooting death his said he will not come back he'll not be taken with Nair is extremely dangerous
next a mysterious witness reports a brutal murder in Florida or the police nothing is more frustrating than a case
where they're virtually positive they know who committed a murder but have no way of proving it Florida authorities
are caught in just such a dilemma their only hope of closing the case is to locate an unknown eyewitness a man who
called the Miami Police Department on May 1st 1991 then we will do some fire the caller
told a police operator that he had witnessed a horrible crime in Belle Glade 80 miles north of Miami the
[Applause] [Music] operator could not fully understand the caller so she connected him to Detective
Burt Blanco in a rush nervous voice the caller began to describe a grisly scene which she had witnessed several days
earlier he said he was hunting illegally in a sugarcane field when he heard a vehicle in the distance the man stated
that as he ran to hide a blue Ford Bronco pulled up nearby a man and a woman got out she called him ricardito
what you're about to hear is a translation of the eyewitnesses phone call to the police they started to argue
the girl in him it appeared to be a drug problem he was telling her to give him the money she told she could not give
him the money yet there were two of them the young man appeared to be Cuban and the other Mexican by the way he spoke
she was shining ricardito don't kill me ricardito after he killed her he dragged
her away so I got down on my knees because I thought if this person sees me they're going to kill me too then the
Bronco pulled away I saw a seven and a two on the license plate then I left because I was scared but later I thought
it's a crime the mysterious caller had said that the sugarcane field was behind a building
shaped like an ice-cream cone detective Frank Mayo the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department and Belle Glade was
assigned to investigate I left the station and went down to the area to twisty tree and once I was there I'd
looked around and I saw a set of tree line - about a mile south of twisty tree I decided to drive to that arrogant
start searching the tree line as I was passing along the tree line in my vehicle I saw like a small brown object
over in the tall grass area not only at that time when it was stopped the car and I got out and I walked over to the
bushes and after I got there I realized it will say yellow the body of a female at that time but the body was in a state
at which at that time I couldn't determine what race it was detective Mayo notified headquarters a team of
homicide investigators was immediately dispatched to the scene there's a very heinous crime it was very violent that I
believed that the suspect had a lot of disregard for a human life a lot of disregard she had been laying there for
approximately a week maybe a few days longer she had passed the decomposition stage and she started to get into
mummification how we identified her was her right thumbprint was the only print left the majority of her fingers had
already turned to skeleton and with that right thumbprint we were able to to make
an identification and prove that she was in fact Rebecca Young Rebecca Young was
a 21 year old resident of Belle Glade in a terrible irony Rebecca's mother had also been murdered
Rebecca was 12 years old at the time and went to live with her aunt Lucille we had a very close relationship we was
friends we were sisters we was mother than daughter we was grandparents too you know and you know and it's the way I
raised her and her brother Rebecca was a very quiet shy girl and she was the type
she would do anything she possibly could for anybody she was the type of child I
would give anything to have Oh Virginia police began to dig into Rebecca Young's
background looking for a murder suspect they soon discovered that after high school Rebecca had become involved with
a man known to be a petty criminal she had gotten hooked up with the person locally who had gotten her into a
different type of life than she was the custom - he started introducing her to the drug scene in prostitution and
things of this nature he had beat her up on more than one occasion and had intimidated her and threatened her into
this type of lifestyle while police have determined that the man is not a suspect in Rebecca's murder
they do believe that his petty thievery may have led to her death this person may have robbed the client and without
Rebecca's knowledge that he was going to do this Rebecca may have suffered the consequences as a result of his actions
on May 14th 1991 three weeks after Rebecca Young's murder the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department detained a
possible suspect he was a local man who had reportedly told a prostitute that he
killed a black woman when the man has pulled over police suspected that he was drunk before I could interview when he
told me that I wanted to talk to him about a murder and when I told him no I want to talk to him about the prostitute
he would Ben out what he said I don't want to talk to you I want an attorney and at that point where we didn't have
any further evidence that he was involved in this had to release him even though the suspect would eventually be
released police feel certain that he was involved in Rebecca Young's murder they
are now engaged in an all-out search for the elusive eyewitness would originally
telephone them to report the crime little is known about the man except that his first name is Antonio he said
he called from a pay phone because he did not have a telephone at home judging from Antonio's accent police believe he
was born in Cuba this is a portion of the actual tape recording of Antonio's telephone call
[Music] [Applause] police in Florida as well as a friends and family of Rebecca young water were
Jan Tonio to come forward it should be emphasized that he is not wanted for any crime
but our next unsolved mysteries you'll meet George Anderson whose apparent psychic abilities of amazed
believers of baffle skeptics he says he can help grieving families by communicating with their lost loved ones
from beyond the grave it sounds unbelievable but you can judge for yourselves as we take you to an actual
session with this intriguing man join me next time for another edition unsolved mysteries
[Music] you [Music]

Brief Summary

Colonel Charles Shelton's wife fought for 25 years to find him after he was shot down in Laos, while a murder case in Florida remains unsolved.

Key points

The Last POWs. The saga of America's last POWs, Colonel Charles Shelton and his wife Marian's fight for truth.
A Mother's Heartbreak. Marian Shelton's struggle to find her husband leads to tragedy.
Vick Webb's First Shootout. Officer Vick Webb faces a life-threatening situation during a routine arrest.
The Escape of Richard McNair. Richard McNair's elaborate prison escape reveals his cunning nature.
The Mysterious Murder in Florida. Authorities seek an eyewitness to a brutal murder that remains unsolved.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think that if anyone could survive over there it’d be Charlie Shelton.

A family member reflects on Colonel Shelton's resilience.

9:32WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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