Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 17 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] 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 recently strange unexplained lights have been spotted and photographed on the
night sky some aviation researchers believe these amateur videos contain evidence that the Air Force has
developed a new generation sophisticated aircraft but the Air Force says they are
not ours in Ohio de box vanished while working the night shift at a plant that processed high grade uranium for nuclear
weapons several days later unidentifiable human remains were found in one of the plant
furnaces Dave box's family believes he was murdered to prevent him from blowing the whistle on safety violations and
illegal radioactive dumping and a fascinating look at one of the mysteries of the animal world
we will follow to ordinary house pets a captain a dog he became lost and then traveled more than a hundred miles
through unknown terrain to somehow find their owners join me for these intriguing news
stories and more another edition of on songs [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] remember the old lassie films with a
loyal resourceful collie would miraculously make her way across mountains and through forests to find
her way home well it might not be as implausible as you think we've heard of a number of
animals common household pets who somehow traveled incredible distances guided by their own mysterious radar to
be reunited with their owners there is no scientific explanation for this remarkable phenomenon
it is truly one of nature's most baffling mysteries [Music] sue Anderson of Baltimore Maryland has
been an animal lover for as long as she can remember in the spring of 1992 suit packed her belongings for a
cross-country moved to Modesto California the last thing she loaded up in the van were her most valued
possessions her 5 beloved cats I had puss and Cinderella and wooly bugger and Nova and Stardust they're
like children to me in a way and I feel when I take on the responsibilities of a
pet then that responsibility is mine until the pet dies sooo caravanned with her brother who was
also moving west the two of them along with the five cats set off in tandem for California pursues feline family who
were all house cats it was the first time they had been further from home than the local vet sue felt a special
affinity for Noland a black Shorthair I gotten over about four years ago she was
left outside of my apartment she was cold and frightened and hungry and knew that she was being deserted she just
kind of clung to me and got very attached to me and ever since then it's been a very very close relationship near
the end of the trip sue says lava began acting strangely she would climb up on the seat behind me and she would talk in
my ear she would get up on the dash and I would have to pull her down so I could
see around her she would sit in my lap and get very affectionate want to be petted animals that have left that I've
had that have run away or got separated from me and passed always acted extremely affectionate it's like they
were saying one final farewell after 10 days on the road Sue and her brother finally made it to California
how you doing exhausted they pulled into a rest stop south of Bakersfield 200 miles from
Modesto their final destination they plan to sleep until daybreak before pushing on
[Music] oh no I felt devastated she was in a strange place I'd never been here before
and excuse me I was worried about her survival Sue's premonition about Nova had apparently come true
she and her brother searched for an hour but in the end Sue had to leave Nova behind I was very very anxious about her
very very frightened for her and very upset about the whole incident during the next few weeks
sue started a job in San Jose and made new friends but Nova was never far from her thoughts a sympathetic co-worker
gave Sue a picture of a black cat as a memento every day when she got to work sue would
take a few minutes to gaze at the picture and pray that Nova would somehow find her people would stop by they would
always stop and say ah get real she's never gonna come back you know how you're just dreaming I said well maybe
one day she will so I kept it up there the entire time I was working there a [Music]
full year passed then on July 16th 1993 sue came across two stray cats outside of work to Sue's amazement and against
all odds Nova had journeyed some 250 miles through completely foreign territory to
find her way too soon she had a mole inside her ear she had five or six distinguishing white hairs
on her chest and she let me look at her claws and I could identify her claws all
these things were adding up that this was indeed my cat [Music] how can we explain
Nova's incredible journey loaded animal behaviorist Miriam Yard theorizes at owners and their pets can form a bond
strong enough to develop a kind of mental telepathy she told me that she spent ten to twelve hours at her place
of work and by thinking of the cat than seeing her own surroundings subconsciously she was sending the
visual images to the cat come to this area come to this place this is where I am can I prove it no anyone can disprove
it probably not we don't know that's half the fun in this particular case that we can theorize I like to think
that there is enough of a bonding that if you really believe in your capacity to love
and let that love be a kind of a guiding light that they will use that love to get back to us when they want to and
that that's the sort of communication in his own way [Music] Mother's Day weekend 1992 John and Susan
Riesgraf of Duluth Minnesota and had three children arrived at a cabin on the edge of bear head Lake State Park 100
miles from their home the Reese grafts have brought along their dogs lady Akali and wolf code a Belgian Shepherd
it was springtime ice was coming off the lake green leaves are starting to butt out and it was just a good time to take
a break and we were real excited to be there and go for hikes and take the dogs out the Reese graphs had been to the
cabin on several occasions and felt perfectly comfortable letting the dogs out on their own
normally lady and wolf cub returned within an hour but this time was different we called for them to come in
and they didn't show and we thought well there may be chasing a rabbit or something they recalled continuing
through the morning and they didn't show up and so we were concerned and we were
looking for them on the trails calling for him and we thought they would show up and they didn't
the next day a forest fire erupted - just a few miles southwest to the reefs crafts cabin the flames were headed in
their direction they had to evacuate immediately leaving without the dogs was especially difficult for seven-year-old
Hannah who had literally grown up with lady and wolf Kerr I was scared because I didn't know where they'd go and wish
we could have stayed when my mom told me that we were good leaving I felt sad and
I wish we didn't have to leave the fire was devastating it burned out of control
for three days and consumed more than nine thousand acres of timberland from their home in Duluth 100 miles away
the Ries graphs could do little more than wait and hope for the best we had called Susan's father and I had asked
him to go back to the cabin a few times because I thought they would come back to the cabin I thought that would be our
best hope but and he had done that and had not seen anything okay honey what do you want to pray for
tonight Hannah however refused to give in to the unthinkable especially in the case of lady her favorite please help
lady find her way home please protect her and keep her safe please pick her home very soon eight
every night in my bed I would pray because I knew that the Lord if it was his will that she would come home and I
felt that she would almost two weeks after lady disappeared a hungry bedraggled colleague wandered
up to a house on the outskirts of Duluth incredibly Hanna's prayers and mm-hmm yes this is a Ries craft family
you found lady out of the blue and some folks that were about 15 miles from her house Colin said your dog is in our yard
and he said wiped it and they said your dog's a collar your name is lady is this
you know the telephone number I said yes and I said do you realize you know this
dog has traveled a long way to get to your yard [Music] finally after 13 days apart lady was
reunited with her family I felt really happy that she was back that she would be with our family again happy lady's
amazing adventure made headlines in Duluth before long several people contacted the Ries graphs and they
learned just how far lady had travelled to make her way back home a few days after lady's disappearance a
railroad worker spotted a collie 30 miles from the cabin the dog was following a set of tracks leading east
[Music] [Applause] the eyewitness said that when he tried to approach the dog she avoided him and
remained steadfast on her course [Music] about a week later another eyewitness spotted a collie near an old logging
trail approximately 15 miles from Duluth ladies incredible journey had begun here
at the cabin the Ries graphs now believe that is a fire spread she may have traveled east
into the Superior National Forest she then swung south towards a city of Isabela over the next few days lady was
spotted by the railroad worker and later along the old logging trail eventually lady ended up on the outskirts of Duluth
altogether she had traveled more than 150 miles the Reese grafts have no doubt that lady would have made her way to
their house if she had not been taken in by the kindly company she's found her home and she's there to stay since this
long walk home she stays home it's like she realized - this is my family and we just appreciate her whole lot more
unfortunately the Reese grafts still do not know what happened to their other dog wolf kheh they can only hope that he
is safe perhaps adopted by a caring stranger while ad was successful in her journey
and Wilco was not is one of life's mysteries perhaps just perhaps ladies success can be attributed to the
powerful force she had guiding her the love of a small child but Lee returned strange lights in the night sky UFOs or
secret aircraft developed by our military at one time or another we have all looked up at the night sky and seen
something which you just cannot explain recently there's been a rash of such sightings unidentifiable lights and
objects it seemed to move like nothing known to man some say they are UFOs others speculate that they are a new
generation of sophisticated military aircraft this video was shot by a camera crew hired by Aviation Week magazine
eyewitnesses say it shows a pencil-thin aircraft trailing balls of golden light some believe it is evidence of an exotic
new propulsion system in this footage a conventional airplane seen here was being filmed when a
mysterious object suddenly appeared the object traveled at a high rate of speed and exhibited pinpoint maneuverability
in this haunting image several eyewitnesses observed an unusual light source possibly an aircraft hovering
over the Nevada desert [Music] and here an unknown wedge-shaped object which made no noise
flies over Roswell New Mexico the footage was shot by a man named Stephen Douglas of Amarillo Texas
people have been sighting and witnessing aircraft that can do fantastic amazing things I mean high speed stop on a dime
turn like a ballet dancer or move incredibly slow the mystery behind this is there seems to be some aircraft that
have some fantastic flying abilities that seem to be a quantum leap over anything that's previously known Stephen
Douglas spends much of his time trying to unravel the mystery of these unidentified aircraft Douglass is an
aviation enthusiast and journalist who publishes a newsletter called intercepts Douglas believes that the mysterious
lights are in fact experimental military jets which are being kept under wraps just as a legendary stealth fighter was
for nearly a decade until he was publicly unveiled in 1988 the air force for national security
reasons would not confirm rumors that the stealth was being tested recently there's been similar speculation about a
new spy plane reputed to travel at speeds exceeding Mach 6 in 1992 Stephen Douglas obtained what he
believes as evidence that the plane may actually exist it's probably bad 11:00 a.m. and the house began to rattle let
me call you back this house just really shook I'm gonna find out what it is and I'll need to call that it was more of a
vibration that was felt so I went outside and there was this aircraft flying by or the house
incredibly fast I seen a lot of the aircraft crisscross the skies around here but this thing I couldn't believe
how fast it was murder and behind it it left a contrail that wood was unique what they call it doughnuts on a rope
contra Stephen Douglas took this photograph of the contrail some aviation researchers believe it might have been
made by what is known as a pulse detonation wave engine an experimental technology allegedly used in the spy
plane the Air Force was unable to identify the source of the contrail in the photograph which raises an
intriguing question if it is not one of our planes whose is it a year later Douglas had another unusual
sighting he and his father-in-law Elwood were in Roswell New Mexico to videotape military airplanes that were
participating in mock war games shortly after a group of b1 bombers took off an unidentified aircraft entered the area
can you tell what that is Elwood noticed an aircraft coming towards us from the southwest as soon as
I started shooting tape the battery light and the camera told me that the batteries were about exhausted
I got possibly seven to ten seconds before the batteries in the camera we couldn't hear any sound at all this
aircraft made no sound at all it was just super quiet it looked like like a flying triangle and immediately I knew
hitmen must have been tr3 a Black Manta the tr3 a black matter is another high-tech aircraft that is widely
rumored to exist the matter is thought to be a reconnaissance plane which operates in tandem with a stealth
fighter but in a statement issued to unsolved mysteries the Air Force said of the matter quote it has no basis in
reality when the Air Force analyzed Douglass's footage they believe the aircraft might be a navy ea-6b Prowler
however the Navy could not identify the plane citing the poor quality of the videotape a computer enhancement of a
frame from the videotape appears to show a triangular shaped wedge Douglass claims the object was virtually silent
and moves slower than conventional military aircraft but if the aircraft does not belong to the Air Force and
cannot be identified by the Navy the same question remains whose is it one of the intriguing aspects of this story is
that the airport where douglas shot is footage is in the same area or one of the most controversial UFO episodes took
place more than 40 years ago in 1947 army investigators from Roswell Air Base went public with the shocking
news that a flying saucer had crashed on a ranch in rural New Mexico a few days later the army reversed itself and
claimed that what had actually been found was a downed weather balloon nevertheless many people are convinced
that the army did recover the wreckage of a craft from somewhere other than Earth and that now even more incredibly
the military has somehow managed to glean the secrets of the UFO to achieve a breakthrough in aviation technology
these aircraft are doing things which a lot of physicists you have generally said are not possible you know they were
maneuvers sir why they fly how fast they are and the real mysteries is how they made late
there are some that speculate that maybe this technology was gleaned from alien technology that somehow either we have
Harvard or it has been here for a while UFO technology to power the next generation of military aircraft at best
it is difficult to accept Stephen Douglas believes that planes he has seen were developed by our military using
conventional technology yet the military says such aircraft do not exist is there
another explanation if the Pentagon has the answer they are not saying and perhaps just perhaps it is better that
way [Music] on a prior broadcast we explored one of the great mysteries of religion the
Shroud of Turin according to the Bible after Jesus was crucified he was wrapped in a linen shroud more than 1,000 years
later a three and a half by 14-foot linen cloth mysteriously turned up in France it showed the faint image of a
man's body front and back ever since believers have hailed this cloth as a marvelous relic they claim
that Christ was buried in the shroud and that his image was miraculously imprinted on the cloth at the moment of
resurrection when I first began to study the Shroud of Turin I was convinced it was a crock and that it would take me
probably less than two hours to put away this pious fraud after all anyone with an IQ of a hundred or over knows that
all relics by definition are frauds but I must admit here I am some 17 years later I who came to scoff have stayed to
pray my own personal belief is that the Shroud is probably authentic skeptics regard the shroud as a
masterful painting a work of an unknown Renaissance artist however those who believe the Shroud was painted were
hard-pressed to explain two distinct attributes first the total absence of brushstrokes also when the shrouds image
is analyzed by computer it projects a remarkable three-dimensional picture almost like a sculpture virtually no
other work of art has this characteristic what all was said and done it seemed like the Shroud would
remain a tantalizing mystery a source of endless speculation it was certainly the
last story we ever expected to update but for every mystery there is someone somewhere who never gives up trying to
find a solution dr. Emily Craig a forensic anthropologist and medical illustrator
claims that she is figured out the secret using dry paint pigments ground into a fine powder dr. Craig has created
an image on cloth that she believes replicates the distinct qualities of the Shroud it is an ancient technique known
as destroy I think it goes back to cave paintings it goes back thousands of years they've used carbon dust and
ochres and different natural occurring pigments for centuries working first on paper dr. Craig applies the dust more
heavily for the raised features of the face the forehead nose lips and chin the lower areas receive less pigment once
it's done to my satisfaction I want to take a piece of linen you lay the linen down and then taking a wooden spoon or
any flat flexible object we're just going to rub the entire image and make a direct transfer the image now on linen
satisfies one of the shrouds main attributes there are no brush strokes [Music] dr. Randy Brizzy a textile scientist is
dr. Craig's partner he put the dust drawing to his most important test the same computer analysis that revealed the
shrouds hidden 3d properties the tests showed that dr. Craig's method can produce the singular 3d attribute of the
Shroud what we have accomplished I believe is that we have demonstrated that a miracle is not required to
produce the image on the Shroud of Turin and it can be drawn on there in a simple
straightforward manner for half a millennium the image on the Shroud of Turin has challenged believers and
skeptics alike have its secrets finally been revealed Emily Craig and Randy Brizzy believeth
they have discovered how the Shroud was created however not everyone in the art world or the religious community is
convinced perhaps a mystery of the Shroud will and should remain forever unsolved the small community at Fernald
Ohio lies in the midst of farm country 20 miles from Cincinnati for many years the town's main employer was this
factory the feed materials production center also known as M L o the casual observer would never guess that NL o was
in fact owned by the Department of Energy from 1953 to 1989 it was one of the few plants in the United States
which processed high grade uranium for use in nuclear weapons when I was hired in there they said that was a low-level
radiation plant and that you'd have anything to worry about there was nothing back here that would bother you
and just you know go on about your business not to tell anybody what you were doing and everything would be fine
however conditions in the factory or anything but fine in the fall of 1984 NLO was rocked by a scandal of major
proportions when an accident allowed a massive dose of radioactive smoke to escape into the atmosphere
an investigation played a reveal that over the years NLO had released more than 200 tons of radioactive dust
particles into the air and local water sources some said that nlogn was in essence a third largest nuclear waste
dump in the country the effect that it has on the environment is one thing we have an environmental disaster but I
think if you did a survey around the phenom community you will find very few people who trust the government now for
the people of fernand the disastrous accident followed on the heels of another disturbing controversy involving
nlogn a few months earlier in June of 1984 an employee named Dave box had disappeared while on the job though his
body was never found some of his personal effects were and box was presumed dead after the accident the
case of de box took on a sinister new dimension de box worked at NLO for three years and
all evidence indicates that he died a horrible gruesome death inside the factory the official ruling was that no
foul play was involved the representatives from the Department of Energy in the current Hamilton County
Sheriff's Administration have refused to speak with us de box friends and family
are convinced that he was murdered and they will not rest until they learn how he died and who was responsible
David box grew up in Staten Island New York in 1981 he was hired at NLO was a pipe fitter and quickly earned the trust
and respect of his co-workers bux was a father of two sons and a daughter in 1979 he divorced yet he remained
devoted to his ex-wife and children he was great he would do anything for us kindness can be loved his children you
know did his job it was just very kind of person Sunday June 18th 1984 began like any other evening for date bucks he
worked the graveyard shift at nlogn at 11:00 p.m. bucks met his rideshare partner Harry
easterly in a local restaurant parking lot Dave got into my truck we left had a little conversation on the way to work
he had talked about vacation with his kids and bought a new lunchbox for work and everything seemed to be normal day
box's primary responsibilities at NLO were to inspect and maintain equipment all of the plants throughout the factory
this included making sure that the safety pumps and dust collectors used in the Iranian processing were in proper
working order dave was a fairly quiet guy but if you worked on a job and say it was high radiation level Dave would
tell you say you know that particular dust collector is fairly radioactive so watch yourself for that pump has a
certain kind of acid in it so be careful when you work on it but he would you know try to help you out as much as you
could because been there longer and I had only the maintenance crew and security personnel
were on duty during the graveyard shift the production lines were shut down at midnight box reported to the maintenance
room for his work assignment yeah need you to look at the pump build an eighth which Bob herb knows which one see him
all right it was sort of just like any other night he would open this toolbox leave his keys in his lock and lay the
lock in the keys in the top of it Dave went to one Aryan and I worked on a job in another plant at around 4:00 a.m. box
and a supervisor was seen in a parked pickup truck by an NLO employee the witness spoke to unsolved mysteries on
the phone but declined to appear on camera the witness said that box appeared to be having a serious
discussion with a supervisor but he could not determine what they were talking about
oddly the windows of the truck rolled up despite the fact that it was a hot humid
night an hour later at 5:00 a.m. the same witness ran into a box on the factory grounds let's put my tools away
[Music] the witness was struck by the fact that box is walking towards plant four not
plant eight where he had been assigned it was the last time Dave box was seen alive later that morning his friend and
fellow employee Harry easterly became suspicious about Dave's absence approximately seven o'clock that morning
we had a safety meeting in conference room in plant four we showed up for the meeting but Dave wasn't there walked
back over to the maintenance building put my tools away and notice that Dave's toolbox was still
open so I thought well he's probably working overtime [Music] [Applause] so when it made a few phone calls but I
couldn't locate him so I went back out and told the security guard at the desk that Dave hadn't come out I was going
home and I would meet him that the next night at the restaurant at around 7:30 that morning a furnace
operator in plant six notified his supervisor that the casings in his oven were covered with a strange sticky
residue they lack the worker also detected an unusual odor that what's up then something strange in here this
there's all kind of big firm crust all over the salt crust yeah I'm dipped a couple of ingots
saying they've got a slick film all over that's okay just go ahead and keep Larry
yeah what this man won't be the one starts a problem but there's something in there kind of like a leg a leg
take a look the supervisor apparently found nothing wrong and told the furnace operator to
go back to work at 11:00 that night Harry Eastern and arrived at the restaurant to meet Dave
box as usual he had not heard about what happened in plant six it was days turn to drive and his car was already there
wasn't anything out of the ordinary because he would pull his car in and go get something to eat and then come back
to the car or get something to take for lunch and I leaned up against Dave's car and I
noticed the fender was still cold so I reached over touched the hood and hood was still cold Harry began to suspect
that something was wrong when he arrived at the factory he reported date box missing and had a security guard pry
open boxes Locker are these the clothes he was wearing that's what he was wearing and you
haven't seen him since you left No [Music] on Sunday night he was missing we were
informed of the fact on Tuesday on Wednesday my mother tried to contact the plant to find out more information they
told her they couldn't give her any information they didn't know anything and that was that
but inside the plant an investigation was confirming the worst it was learned that at 5:15 on the morning of day box's
disappearance the temperature in the furnace and plant 6 which was kept at a constant 1,300 degree temperature at
momentarily dipped 28 degrees suggesting that something foreign had been dumped into it
a worker it also found what appeared to be a piece of bone on the lip of the furnace the Hamilton County Sheriff's
Department was called in and the furnace was shut down investigators had to wait three days for
the molten liquid inside the furnace to cool then employees sifted through the waste material searching for some kind
of evidence my god those keys belong to the victim's car they also belong to three padlocks
of his and a one key we believed went into his residence but we couldn't prove that because was bent
and in I'm not very good shape the conclusion was inescapable de box was almost certainly dead but the news
left Harry Easterling dumbfounded he claims that Dave's keys were still in his toolbox at 7:30 a.m. more than two
hours after the gage in plant six registered the temperature crop when I left the plant to go over to the
maintenance shop his keys were in the box when I left there to go home they were
still in the box I went home when I came back that night his keys were still in the top of his toolbox the supervisor
closed his box put the lock on his toolbox and took his keys out of the lock and from there on I do not know
what happened to the keys in addition to the keys investigators uncovered a steel
toad from a boot part of what they thought was an eyeglass frame fragments of what they believed was date boxes
walkie talkie and a piece of stainless steel wire that was looped together in three oddly connecting circles also
recovered were several pieces of human bone the official police investigation was unable to determine conclusively how
de box died however suicide was a distinct possibility box had a history of psychological problems that around
the time of his divorce he had apparently tried to take his own life I know my father did not commit suicide
there was no reason for him to commit suicide he had purchased groceries for the week he was planning a vacation with
me and my younger brother for the following summer to Florida he paid all of his bills for the month there was no
reason for him to commit suicide from what everything I know about the circumstances of what occurred back then
I would have to say that he was probably lowered into the furnace that he was probably murdered I can't think of any
other way that it could have happened I don't believe that it could have been suicide or that I could have in an
accident on the night the day brock Stein he had been working in plant a plant and had
released four times one radioactive contaminants into the environment than any other plant at the plant site why he
was killed I think he knew something and I think they had to deal with plant eight I
think they had to deal with their releases the threat to the public alchemy environment and it's possible he
was a whistleblower or was going to be a whistleblower [Music] I believe that they could have been a
shining or they kind of hit him with something dr. moon conscious took the body back to plant sex with
eternal says question I have is whether or not Dave box was alive at the time that they
threw him into that cornice I would hate to think that he was conscious I can't imagine a more horrible death than that
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we never developed any information indicating foul play we had that in the
back of our minds but no one ever gave us any indication or reason to believe that foul play may have occurred there
are probably people out there that know what happened and there may not be people that know what happened either
because you know if they knew I doubt that anybody would tell you you know fear maybe fear of their life
I still have days where I can't believe he's gone I am very angry I mean we loved him he loved us and there was no
reason for this to happen we just want somebody to please come forward and tell us any information
anything at all there's a final bitter footnote to the death of Dave box nine years after the fact his family is
still waiting to lay him to rest in 1989 an Ella was shut down and boxes remains
a few bone fragments are presently in a sealed drum on the clothes plant site too toxic to be buried in the ground
[Music] join me next time for another intriguing edition unsolved mysteries [Music]
[Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

This episode discusses UFO sightings, Dave Box's mysterious death, and pets' incredible journeys home.

Key points

Unexplained Lights in the Sky. Recent sightings of strange lights have sparked theories about UFOs and military aircraft.
The Mystery of Nova's Journey. Nova traveled 250 miles to reunite with her owner, defying all odds.
Lady's Incredible Adventure. After 13 days apart, Lady the dog was reunited with her family, showcasing loyalty and love.
The Shroud of Turin Mystery. The Shroud of Turin continues to intrigue believers and skeptics alike, with new theories emerging.
The Shroud of Turin's Secrets Revealed. Dr. Craig and Dr. Brizzy demonstrate how the Shroud's image can be created without miracles.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Dave Box. Dave Box vanished from a nuclear plant, leading to a chilling investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It is truly one of nature's most baffling mysteries.

2:38WatchMay 23, 2019

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