Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - 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're about to see is not a news
broadcast tonight join me for a special two-hour edition of unsolved mysteries some legends get better with time others
become more and more real many people believe that the untamed forests of the pacific northwest harbor
a mysterious creature known as bigfoot now a team of researchers bolstered by credible eyewitness accounts has set out
to prove that the fabled beast does exist since 1984 bill and dorothy wacker claimed they have been targeted in a
vicious campaign of harassment anonymous phone calls threatening notes burglaries and even violent assaults
in this most bizarre case everyone is suspect even the whackers themselves christine reinhardt needs your help to
find her husband he disappeared from a colorado motel on august 31 1993 two weeks later he was apparently
spotted on an amtrak train disheveled and disoriented christine is convinced that he is
suffering from amnesia that he has no idea who he is or where he lives are there angels here on earth watching
over us you'll see the compelling accounts of the two women who came face to face with
death and miraculously survived join me for this very special edition of unsolved mysteries
[Music] [Applause] [Music] mount hood oregon april 19 1994 the peaceful beauty of an alpine spring
is shattered by a manhunt copy contact team i understand your latest coordinates
25 volunteers are on the ground in the air is a helicopter equipped with a sophisticated thermal imaging system
called fleer forward-looking infrared but this manhunt is different it's a training exercise
even the fugitive is a volunteer a stand-in as it were for the elusive legendary creature known as bigfoot
bigfoot yeti sasquatch no matter what this beast is called many believe that if he exists he is a
missing link between ape and human [Music] ground the training exercise was sponsored by
an oregon based group the bigfoot research project peter byrne noted adventure and world
explorer heads the project we don't want to capture it we don't want to shoot it
the ultimate find you know as far as we're concerned would be to do something like what jane goodall did in other
words to find one see we can communicate have it lead us to others and then bring in
the right people totally responsible people bring in scientists and show them what we've found
and document the whole thing of course attempts to document bigfoot has so far been sketchy
there are several crude home movies and videos purporting to show the creature in the wild
and there are dozens of plaster casts and photographs showing large humanoid footprints
yet for every person who believes bigfoot exists you'll find at least two who say that the films and the
footprints alike are merely the handiwork of pranksters in fur suits is bigfoot real
an elaborate ongoing hoax well even hoaxes are usually based on something through the years eyewitness accounts
have consistently described a very human-like animal he walks upright with an almost comical
gate and steers clear people unless they happen to invade his turf but even those who claim they've run
across bigfoot say he's a harmless if somewhat scary-looking giant [Music] todd niece is a sergeant in the army
national guard once a month he returns to the oregon coastal range where he had an unusual
sighting but on maneuvers in 1993. across a ravine i could distinctly see three large black
figures i would estimate the largest one to be between eight and nine feet the two that flanked it were a full head
shorter i tried to think if they were bare or if they were elk and then when i saw them shuffling back
and forth i could very plainly see they were upright on two legs and during that
entire time they were all three of them were standing on two legs i don't think i would have ever told
this to anybody had something very unusual not happen i was approached by another
sergeant who had uh walked up to me and and said cernice did you see what i saw down at that
second rock quarry and not to be made a fool i said well i don't know what you see
he followed with well for lack of a better word what i saw were three large hair covered big feet
it's one of our theories is that they are nocturnal and when they're seen in the daytime it's a result of disturbance
of some kind in this in this case there was a national guard exercise with explosions and immediately after the
explosion three of these things were seen they were seen by him seen by another man and um
he gave us a description and a very credible story one month after todnese's sighting two
women were driving on a remote country road 100 miles away when they had a much closer encounter
the driver agreed to speak with us in silhouette we had just come around a bend in the
road when i saw movement and i slowed down for the anticipation of something crossing in front of me
and that's when it stood up and moved across the road without once looking at us and
disappeared we couldn't make any sense of what we saw it was very close to a human but yet
it wasn't there was no visible signs of of clothing shoes jacket hat there was no neck
the arms were very long and swinging with the movement we had the opportunity of interviewing
both of the ladies and we found the story very credible we saw some signs where something had
crossed the road and about 300 yards into the forest there was a dead steer and the few footprints that
we saw were very faint we're going directly towards that dead stair possibly with the intention of eating it
so do you guys want to come along with me up there you're going ahead okay perhaps the most amazing bigfoot
sighting in recent years occurred when elmer frambach of seattle washington took his family on an outing near the
canadian border elmer an electrician and part-time prospector set off to stake a claim
nearby i had a four by four seater post that i was using to mark the claim and of course i had all of the normal
things like surveyors ribbon and a compass and different items which would be used to
lay out the claim boundaries as i traveled into the upper areas i was now about 1500 feet
and i noticed that the trails in this area were somewhat isolated with trees being snapped off and laid over the
trail in certain spots which looked as though they were strategically placed to block the trail off
so i laid the cedar posts down on the ground and went up the hillside to where i could walk on the trails
easily again elmer had just started to take a few more samples when he suddenly realized
he was not alone [Music] as i walked around the hillside the pounding seemed to cease for a short
period of time and then it resumed again and i thought maybe the boys are up here
playing a trick on me [Music] all right you guys it isn't funny [Music] hey are you on the hill
i thought at first i had triggered an avalanche of some type until i saw a big black hairy mass right
behind all of those rocks and twigs and then i began to wonder is this a bear that i'm seeing
or is it something else [Applause] and at that time i kept thinking in my mind i've got to find a way to scare it
and i fired a shot above its head and it turned just slightly and then proceeded to walk down the
trail as though i wasn't even there and as it walked away from me it took perfect human-like strides down the
trail only like a giant man at that point in time i thought the thing was probably gone
but this thing had crouched down at the end of the trail and it picked up a rock the size of a
basketball and was using it to bang against the other rocks they again made a slight sideways turn just enough to
see me out of the corner of its eye i was scared and i wanted to get out of there i kept running down the hillside
and the thing was in hot pursuit the whole way i was absolutely terrified and i had a hard time figuring out how
that thing could cover so much area or if there were actually more than one of them
never been more scared in my life [Music] the creature could have very easily have
caught me if it would have wanted to why it didn't is still a mystery to me i still can't understand
with something that would move that fast cover that much territory wyatt had such
a hard time locating me i don't think it was a chase i think possibly it was what we call a
demonstration charge if it truly was a bigfoot that he saw and it was simply saint and get out of here this is my
territory accounts like elmer frombacks are invaluable to the bigfoot research project the project correlates all
eyewitness data in an attempt to predict where and when a bigfoot will show up next
based on this data special infrared cameras are set up in hopes of photographing the elusive beast
but even credible photographs might not convince the skeptics noted anthropologist darris swindler
wants to see tangible proof and i'm amazed through all the years and the various people that have been
hunting sasquatch through the years have not really found any what we call bone or dental evidence of
the creature that to me would be very satisfying you can talk to people who lived out here 50
years never found a dead bear and never found a dead cougar a dead deer maybe but when something dies it's eaten just
as in east africa when a eight-ton elephant dies in 72 hours it completely disappears this is nature's way
i would still like to see some what we call teeth and bones i would think it would be only logical to
suspect this that we might by this time would have found some more concrete evidence of
their existence does the lost species roam the pacific northwest if so there are a lot of people who are
very interested some like peter bernwater find a bigfoot alive others want a specimen dead or
alive the eyewitnesses we interview hope that the scientific community takes notice
before it's too late it's not just to validate what i saw but i think it's important if these
creatures are still out there that they need to be protected in some way that they need
to be understood and studied there was no aggression at all in the animal and i believe that
it is up to us to protect it learn all we can about it and leave it alone what i saw there was a living creature
and not some figment in my imagination modern science hasn't absolutely proven by a dead object
that this thing exists but i tell you quite frankly i've seen one i know it exists and there is no
doubt in my mind [Music] next a determined wife crisscrosses a country in search of her missing husband
perhaps you can help imagine that you were a woman whose husband has gone away on a business trip
you speak to him the night before he is due to come back home and you never see or hear from him again
what are your choices do you sit at home waiting for police in distant cities to call you back
or do you try to do something yourself christine reinhart of clintonville wisconsin did something
today christine's search for her husband has become an all-consuming quest hello
hi uh my name's christine and i'm out here searching for my husband who's been missing for quite some time
his name is craig williamson i've reason to believe that he's suffering from amnesia and may have been on this
interstate corridor and perhaps caught a ride with a trucker and i'd like to put
this up in your window if that's possible someone might see it sure oh i really appreciate that thank you very much
[Music] christine's quest began on september 14 1993 in colorado springs colorado at the
motel where craig williamson was last seen okay miss reinhart uh this is where your husband
stayed in room 112. this is the washroom here all the stuff was in here and he had a book here on
the sink okay this is the room he stayed in over there on the chair was his luggage
was unpacked and open the bed was made looked like it was not slept in had there been any um like signs of
struggle in the room no sign of struggle at all it looked like uh someone just left and walked out
[Music] it is now my pleasure as an ordained minister and by the power vested in me by the
state of nevada craig williamson was nearly 46 and christine reinhardt 41 when they married at lake tahoe
it was a second marriage for both [Music] craig and christine had known each other
for only a month but it was definitely a love match christine still speaks of their marriage
in the present tense being married to craig is it may be a cliche to say it's like a
honeymoon but it really is because he's the most sincere caring loving person i think the thing about craig that is
most endearing is his caring and nurturing attitude toward me he's just wonderfully supportive
and very loving craig and christine bought a farm in wisconsin christine's home state and
undertook an immediate renovation they added onto the barn install large tanks and began to raise an exotic and
tasty african fish called tilapia craig specially rigged an old school bus to transport the fish
on august 28 1993 craig williamson loaded up and set off for colorado even though he was still experiencing
headaches and blurred vision due to a concussion he had suffered four weeks earlier
if i tried to rub his head he said honey don't do that it hurts and so i know he was still suffering from it
because he would still um i'd say do you have a headache and he'd say yes you know but he wouldn't admit it but i'd
catch him taking aspirin all the time [Music] in colorado springs craig rented a car
to use for business appointments at 9 00 pm on august 30th the night before he was to return home he and
christine spoke for the last time craig was a thousand miles away from the farm in wisconsin when he disappeared in
colorado springs the next day his credit cards were discovered at a market in el paso texas
675 miles south two weeks later in juarez mexico just across the border from el paso craig's
rental car was found abandoned once again there were no signs of foul play detective robert johnson headed the
investigation in colorado this is the area where we found bus still park when we come out the day of the search and
what i wanted to show you is some of the things that we found when we got here the bus that craig had
driven down here was still parked kind of along this line here about three or four feet from the dumpster okay i
truly believe that craig walked up to his rental car and that someone came up behind him and hit him on the head
and this is completely in keeping in character with craig is that he'd get up and wouldn't go in and say
i'm hurt help me he'd think i have to get on with things i you know i have to be doing something i'm supposed to go
somewhere i have to get back and he would wander toward the bright lights of the
parking lot and then the interchange and he wandered off from there over the past week williamson's wife
christine television stations in wisconsin and colorado covered christine's story
within days a retired nurse from montana came forward when i saw him on tv you know i
recognized him and i said that man was on the train that i was on and my son said are you sure about that
i said yeah i recognize him judy inman believes she saw craig williamson looking dazed and disheveled two weeks
after he disappeared judy was on a train traveling from montana through washington state where
craig and christine had first met when he first got on the train these two drunks they just kept harassing him
i was just wishing they'd all three shut up you know so we could get some sleep well when he walked up the aisle he
didn't say anything but there was something that he wanted i gotta get back to the fish
he kept talking about this fish that he had to go pick up and uh he was talking about this big building
that had these big huge tanks in it where they kept the fish how are you gonna catch this fish these
two drunk guys asked him well where do you have to go to catch that fish you know he said well you wouldn't find a
fish like that around here he said in fact you wouldn't find a fish like that in the united states
hey it's my jacket [Music] i gotta get back to the fish that man definitely had something wrong with him
he was absolutely not drunk and i knew he was not mentally [ __ ] there's a difference between someone
that's mentally [ __ ] and someone that's drunk and someone that has a head injury
and i knew that he definitely had some type of a head injury because i've taken care of patients like
that i knew that that was craig i knew it and the fact that it was on amtrak and it
was heading toward the pacific northwest i mean i knew that that was craig there
was no way anyone could make up the type of things that judy hinman said craig was talking about
i packed up everything that i would need packed up a suitcase for craig in the outside chance i would find him
and went to look for him christine set off on a six-week odyssey paralleling judy inman's train route
from whitefish montana to portland oregon she photographed every train station along the way
on december 26 1993 christine met judy inman in person for the first time and showed her the photographs
this is another one of the train yard there's really nothing much around there it's pretty empty
then there's this one there you think this is the one that's the one where he got off because it was a small building
yeah it was small and it was this color this is the one where he got off judy had identified wish from washington
near the oregon border christine believes craig might have mistaken wishroom for washougal a town where he
had lived in the 1980s craig's son plastered the area with this poster but no new clues surfaced
[Music] it was absolutely terrible to drive back here after looking for craig for the six weeks that i did
this place was so cold and empty and everywhere i look there things remind me of craig all the time
[Music] today christine reinhart has no choice but to sit at home and wait the farm is closed
the fish tanks are empty but christine will never abandon her quest i can't give up i will never give up
i will just constantly look for him until i die or he's found i mean those are the
only two options i know he's alive and i know someday i'll find him the trouble is i don't know when and i just
have to keep hanging on the hardest part is hanging on craig williamson is 49 years old 5 feet
10 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds he has gray hair and blue eyes this is television footage shot in
wisconsin in february of 1993. fish some of these will be filleted out in our processing plants some will be
delivered to the east coast as live whole fish to the oriental market [Music] when we return
a fugitive is captured thanks to your calls and the bizarre case of a couple targeted for terror by an unknown
assailant [Music] this is 36 year old david vieira he is charged with a murder of his wife
on april 16 1994 vieira was arrested in montreal canada the 108th fugitive captured thanks to your calls
his long troubling odyssey began some 20 years ago on a small island in the atlantic ocean
david vieira grew up on saint michael one of a group of irons west of portugal known as the azores
[Music] it was there in 1974 that vieira married his 17-year-old cousin alice who lived
in new bedford massachusetts [Music] david and alice eventually settled in new bedford within a year alice was
dream mavic pregnant off pretty good like maybe i'd say about the first couple of months
and then uh you know already he was already starting with her you know she couldn't wear makeup
she couldn't do anything you know he was very jealous very possessed of my sister
by 1981 alice and david had three children as the years went by david reportedly
became abusive to the point of violence they used to always say uh there's no other woman in my you know for my life
like you are and he always had threatened her that if she ever decided to leave him for
anybody that he would kill her but we never took it seriously you know alice and david finally separated in the
summer of 1988 alice enrolled in nursing school and began to see another man but david vieira would not let her go
he allegedly began to stalk alice at work and at home night and day on july 25th 1988 alice was at home with
her boyfriend when david apparently snapped [Music] by the time police arrived at the scene
alice was dead bludgeoned and stabbed 24 times with a butcher knife david vieira had vanished and for nearly
six years he could not be found until the night of our broadcast our particular segment on that show
aired our time here in new bedford massachusetts at approximately 8 50 p.m by 9 03 pm i was receiving telephone
calls from canada right here into my office with very good leads as to his whereabouts
the first phone call that i received saying that they knew where he was i just jumped up with joy and told my
husband i think we got him you know and i couldn't believe it took less than 48 hours to apprehend him
vieira had lived in montreal for at least two years and was well known in the portuguese community he belonged to
a neighborhood soccer team and was employed at a local fish market vieira's co-workers were stunned to
learn about his secret past for me it's a dream i don't believe the guy do that i don't believe
you know that guy is so nice too because we see the picture yeah if we don't see the
picture it's exactly the man if we don't see we never trust i've seen them apprehended and with
handcuffs and to me that was a sign of saying thank god i can rest and my sister can also be at peace now that
he's caught [Music] dorothy and bill wacker have lived in a small town in ohio for most of their 48
years together what time's kathy coming over the wackers are quiet unassuming people
who tend to mind their own business yeah hardly the type to draw the wrath of an
unseen enemy oh my not again all right that's it i've had enough i'm calling the sheriff
on january 16 1985 the wacker's home was ransacked it was a third incident in a campaign of terror that began in 1984
and continues unabated to this day the sheriff's department after nearly 10 years dorothy and bill
wacker still wonder who and why well as far as all this harassment is going on which to me it looks like it's
trying to force us to move why should i move why should we move why should we be forced out
by a kook to me that's what it is is a kook uh i'll not do it i'll stay there protect our own
[Music] july of 1985 after six months of peace another incident dorothy was home by herself recovering
from heart surgery yeah i'm really sorry to bother you ma'am uh my car broke down and i just
wonder if i could use your phone well where's your car oh it's just down the street here i i would really appreciate
it well okay i guess it'll be all right come on did anybody come to the door we didn't believe the worst of them so we
did what we had to do if they wanted to help or anything well we always helped them right here nice please chef here
you need me i'll be uh in the kitchen thanks a lot really appreciate it he was very polite
so i had no qualms about leaving him in yeah i need to get a tow truck right uh right off south theory
he was talking on the phone but i like i say i didn't pay no attention to him i don't listen to people's conversations
when they use the phone thanks and he said thanks very much and thanks that's the reason i thought he'd left
you're welcome [Music] the next thing i remember i woke up on the floor tied up you know it hit me in the head and he
hit me alongside the jaw and finally wagged got over towards the kitchen wind in
there and it was open and i got the neighbors to hear me over there and they come over
[Applause] bill returned home to find his house swarming with police fortunately dorothy was not seriously
injured bill did discover that some personal possessions were missing a 22-caliber revolver an antique watch a
movie camera and a radio scanner in the dining room the assailant had left a cryptic message scrawled in
crayon the words were cheaper but will do there's no connotation there's no rational
rationale behind that message that we can understand [Music] this sketch drawn from dorothy's
description was widely distributed after the attack the suspect never surfaced but
inexplicably most of the whacker's missing possessions did [Music] bill says it about four months after
dorothy was assaulted the revolver turned up on the front porch one by one the other items also
reappeared i couldn't figure it out i still can't figure it out why it was brought back if
somebody was stealing something normally they're going to if they don't have any use for
it they're going to sell it to somebody else and it just looked like this stuff was
laid around till it was brought back this is extremely unusual if not very rare in all my years in in law enforcement i
have never known of a gun being returned after it was stolen meanwhile the unseen tormentor had
launched a new pattern of harassment hello sometimes he wouldn't say anything he'd
just breathe real deep and then the next time i he says i'll knock you in the head and lay out and do
this to you and do that to you i was angry and i was scared they've changed their telephone number
several times and whoever this is that's harassing them has come up with the number how they found it i have no idea
according to bill and dorothy the phone calls never let up and the mysterious assailant soon escalated his campaign
i would be sitting here watching tv or reading or whatever and always after dark
you know in the driveway side of the house is where it first started they would bang five six times real hard
what's that i don't know what i'm done you're gonna find out phil what about all this guy go
to dog i don't want you going out there bill bill god rush outside ever see a thing never hear a thing
never hear a car never hear a noise whatsoever we got to the point that we figured that
we needed some kind of security light outside in the front which we put up it wasn't too long after that
that we had a note on the front porch it says your lights are a laugh periodically other notes have shown up
on the wacker's front porch some are crudely threatening others simply mocking it was a disturbing onslaught but at
least the wackers had tangible evidence to present to the authorities bill would appear that the person that wrote
these notes may have been using the opposite hand from what they're normally used to writing with
uh whoever printed them went to some paints to try to conceal their normal handwriting or printing
techniques to date we have found no latent fingerprints or any other form material
on the evidence that's been submitted with the investigation stalled dorothy and bill were seemingly at the mercy of
their unknown enemy he struck again on october 27 1993 [Music] this time dorothy was raced to the
hospital with skull lacerations desperate for a witness police once again canvassed the neighborhood
have you had anybody around your residence prowling around your wrestling looking in the windows in the last few
months sir do you have any idea who may be crawling around the wacker residence we've
interviewed the neighbors on numerous occasions and none of the neighbors have yet been
able to provide us with any information which would lead us to believe that there was a person there
nobody has ever seen anybody which is that's very frustrating to us in our efforts
with no suspects and no clues the lead detective presented dorothy with an unthinkable scenario
he says i'm going to ask you a question but he said i don't want you to take it the wrong way he says do you think your
husband could have done this and i said no way i said he wouldn't do something like
that he says we've got to explore all possibilities she says no which why should i do something like that
after being married 48 years you know in any type of criminal activity usually you can identify pretty much up front
what the motive is it's pretty simple uh the problem with this is you cannot identify the motive you can't
identify the reasons behind the activity that's going on out there there seems to be there seems to be a
pattern of activity yes but what is the underlying reason that this activity is taking place the other
thing is it's sporadic it's not constant you'll have months go by with absolutely
nothing happen and then you'll have a flurry of activity for maybe a period of a month and then it become it becomes
dormant again this has thrown us into a quandary because we can't figure out exactly
what's going on we know what's going on they're filing the complaints and they're filing reports we're going out
there but yet we can find nothing [Music] in november of 1993 bill and dorothy took matters into their own hands
with the help of family members the wackers staked out their own house bill was holed up in a trailer parked in
the driveway across the street his sons-in-law dan and clay watched from a van clay's wife kathy stayed with dorothy in
the house the family was linked by walkie-talkie yeah it's all quiet in here for almost four hours they waited
around 10 30 p.m they decided to call it a night and uh all of a sudden i we heard bum
bum bum bump [Music] i said there's something on the front porch no i can't see anything
[Music] inevitably perhaps even predictably the intruder had found a blind spot in the
wackers steakhouse i never saw it come from anywhere the scroll was all too familiar the note
read simply get the message oh my [Music] yeah ah come on let's go in a house violent assaults
threatening notes unnerving calls nearly 10 years of harassment who is behind the plague on the wacker
household could it be an embittered neighbor a family member a total stranger the wackers remain as mystified today as
when their troubles first began the sooner he's caught the better off a lot of people are going to be
because if he's not harassing us or threatening us he'll probably be doing it to somebody
else to get his kicks i think that's what it boils down to he gets a heck of a big kick out of it
[Music] next authorities need your help to find a deadly arsonist [Music] september 29 1988 arson investigators
sift through the ashes of a burned-out home in south oakcliff a section of dallas texas
five children had died as a result of the fire and the authorities wanted to know why
[Music] the house belonged to a woman named molly jordan the victims were her great-granddaughter
two-year-old jasmine and four of her grandchildren jamal 6 erica 9 bernard 16 and 18 year old demetra jasmine's mother
september 28 seemed at first like any other day in the jordan household by 3 30 that afternoon the kids were all
home from school their grandmother molly jordan was about to leave molly worked back-to-back eight-hour
shifts as a nurse to support the six children molly's jobs would keep her away for
some 16 hours until seven the next morning but she carried a beeper so the kids could reach her directly at any
time around 3 a.m kettering jordan then 10 years old awakened to the sound of his
brother bernard talking to someone bernard had apparently become deeply involved with a local drug dealer
i was walking to the refrigerator and i saw him i saw the drug deal and bernard talking about
where's my money and bernard said i don't know what you're talking about [Music]
the brief exchange left catrick shaken afraid to go back to his own bedroom so i went into my sister's room
and i went to bed it seemed like i didn't sleep that long but seemed like about five minutes later
he came he was he busted into the door until my the house was on fire the house is on fire the house is on
fire everybody got get up the house is on fire [Music] [Applause] he told me to start busting out windows
and stuff to try to you know get air coming through the house because we couldn't go
through the front door the only hope of escape was through the windows but the safety releases for the
burglar bars inexplicably jammed and refused to budge i saw my sister erica laying on the bed crying
and i tried to savor it so she can get air but she was in such a panic and then my sister she was busting all the
windows and she cut herself real bad and she got into a panic and i looked i looked over to my little
brother jamal and he was already dead and i looked over to my my niece jazz she was already
dead by the time firemen arrived flames had engulfed much of the house all six children were trapped
repeated attempts to break down the front door failed inside a couch had been propped against the door holding it
closed [Music] the burglar bars doomed any chance of a quick rescue and precious menace
dribbled away as firefighters fought their way through the iron ten minutes later the bars gave way
firemen didn't know if anyone was still alive inside while parts of the house continued to burn they began searching
for survivors they found kentrick jordan first katric was burned over more than 75
percent of his body demetra jordan was also pulled out alive but she would die the next day at the hospital
the bodies of the other four children were found huddled together lifeless at the foot of the barred window
at that very moment molly jordan was rushing home from the hospital she had been called by a relative who said only
the children are all gone when i got about a mile or something from the house one amulet's passed me and they were
just screaming and going then i started feeling sick in the stomach then i was thinking well it
didn't have to come from my house there's a lot of houses up but when i got within a few blocks it was another
one passed me screaming hollering and i just got real sick of the stomach heart with the beating fast and all this
it seemed like i couldn't breathe i couldn't walk i couldn't stop i couldn't talk
just everything left my body singing once the flames were extinguished arson investigators easily determined that the
deadly fire had been deliberately set in the main living room we found a gasoline can that had been there during
the fire and later on during the investigation we actually did find samples of flammable liquids that had
been poured on the floor and set on fire investigators soon pieced together what
they believe are the events that led up to the fire the drug people had come to seek payment
from menard want him to come outside he did not come outside they set the house on fire to get him to
come outside but unfortunately the whole family got caught in the burger bars and
didn't come out so we have an act of arson that resulted in five murders and one severe injury
police now believe bernard piled up furniture in a desperate attempt to keep the assailants out of the house
instead both the couch jammed against the front door and a love seat wedged behind the hallway door trapped the
children in the house the arsonist probably entered through this window one of two not equipped with
bars we worked quite hard to try to find who was responsible for the fire we did come
up with one name one of the individuals that was supplying the drugs to menard his name was curly the nickname
curly he was a black male about 5 10 in height made about 160 pounds we never have
found curly or any of his friends but curly is known to have bragged about setting the fire
three days after the tragedy some two thousand people gathered at carver heights baptist church to mourn the loss
of the five jordan children in the five years since kentrick jordan the lone survivor has endured a dozen
operations including the amputation of both legs ketrick is now 16 prosthetic limbs have allowed him to
walk again after the fire an outpouring of contributions from the community enabled
ketrik and his grandmother to move to a new home in a different part of dallas [Music]
do you believe in angels hear the incredible stories of two women who believe celestial intervention saved
them from certain death in california police are searching for an unknown witness who may have vital
information about the murder of a deputy sheriff and two poignant stories of lost love
in one a woman battling a fatal illness hopes to find her long-lost sister in the other brenda abby's search for
her birth parents has taken her into the unfamiliar world of the traveling carnival
[Music] do angels dwell among us more than a thousand years ago saint augustine wrote that every visible thing
in this world is put in the charge of an angel even today most of us hope those words
are true you're about to meet two women both of whom are certain that they were placed in the charge of a guardian angel
just when they needed it most consider first the case of janie shamow her story begins in 1976.
janie had just turned 14 when her brother and sister-in-law took her on a western vacation
they traveled in a camper with another family and visited all the usual tourist attractions
however one stop stands out in the painted desert something amazing happened something jamie who is now 31 will never
forget [Music] i had gotten a new camera for the trip and i was curious to get some good
photographs and i can remember leaning up against the guardrail focusing the camera
and thinking you know if i just got another side of this guardrail down there a little bit it would be a much
better photograph [Music] as nearly as anyone can figure just at that same moment janie's mother shirley
who had stayed home in michigan was sitting down to read her bible as she did every day
i really felt that i was led by the holy spirit to read psalm 91 and i began sobbing just
sobbing because i knew janie was gonna die i didn't know why or how but i knew she was going to die
she's gone over the edge where where did she go right over the railing i can't see her anymore
[Music] suddenly i just stopped i just stopped and i can remember thinking i'm so glad i stopped and
thinking what stopped me i was afraid i was scared that there was no way i was going to get back up to the
top i could not see the top i couldn't hear my family yelling for me i knew i had to be very careful or i
would start falling again [Music] as soon as i uh had this feeling that janey was going
to die i began pleading with the lord to please don't let her die and there will be more than what i could
bear i continued to read psalm 91 it said and he shall give his angels charge over
thee to keep thee in all thy ways and they shall bear thee up in their hands lest your foot dash against a stone
and then a peace just came over me because i believed it [Music] janie alfred it's janie she's bad look jamie
you're all right oh janie what happened i don't know i fell a long ways i don't even remember
coming back up oh well at least you're all right oh no i was afraid i was gonna have to call i know i did not
climb up myself something strange had happened but i just kind of was glad i was back up there and
we had talked among ourselves about calling her mother and we decided that she could call her mother but not to say
anything about her fall mainly because we didn't want to upset shirley and we were so far away from
home tell me all about your trip mommy should have been there and seen all these
things but inevitably once janey was back home in michigan with her mother the truth came out
and here's what that looked like and here's where i stepped over the guard rail and i fell down the slope you what
well i just wanted to get a better pitcher so i climbed over the rail and i slept and i
said what are you talking about and she said oh uh she wasn't supposed to tell well when did this happen
when we were in arizona you remember that night i called to tell you everything was okay
well it happened that morning when janie was telling her story i really realized the whole magnitude
of what had happened to me then i knew that verses 11 and 12 that the angels should
bear thee up in their hands lest your foot dash against the stone that they were the ones that brought her
back to the top when i heard my mother's story of what had happened that day and her feelings
that i was going to die i realized then that it was her prayers that had sent the angels
that had made me stop and had brought me to the top of the canyon how do you explain what happened to
janie shamble even though janie neither saw nor heard anything to confirm it she is thoroughly
convinced that she was rescued by an angel estella vera riverside california reports an even more dramatic experience
estella believes not only that an angel saved her but that she actually saw him do it
on saturday march 30th 1991 estella and her two grown children were on their way
home when they spotted an ice cream truck being robbed estella's daughter ran to call the
police while her son rushed to help the ice cream truck owner he and another man were already
grappling with a large muscle-bound [Music] i knew there was absolutely nothing i
could do and i saw my mother in the path of his van i knew she was in between the two
so i think instantly i thought she was dead estella's left leg had been severed below the knee and she had suffered
cardiac arrest at the hospital bingo and his father kept vigil what did the doctor say
the first time i saw my mother after the incident i could not recognize her her face was
completely swollen and we were just waiting for any word whether or not she would even survive
the stellar drifted in and out of consciousness for the next several days finally she awoke
he's okay he's right here it's good to hear your voice mama did you see the men by the truck
don't worry mama he's in jail no the other man surrounded by light in front of the truck
was this some dreamer there no he was standing by the truck my father and i looked at each other
kind of puzzled and possibly looking at her as if she may have dreamt something within the time of she was in the
hospital but estella insisted she had not been dreaming the story she tells is truly astonishing
[Music] all i remember is looking at a truck coming so fast and just with all my heart i say to god god
please don't let me die and then i started reciting songs that i know i said the angel of the lord
takes care of those that loves him then i look again and the truck is right in front of me
and i could see the robber's face he looked so angry you could see those eyes he was
desperate i look again and now in front of the truck there is this beautiful person
he looks so peaceful so beautiful he has the most beautiful smile you could see him like in slow motion
immediately i forgot about the ice cream truck i forgot about everything that was
happening all i remember was this beautiful face and then i grabbed his hand i put my face over his hand and i would
go like this and i remember a couple of times i opened my eyes to look at his face to be
sure that he was there and i could see him right over here looking at me with a big smile
i believed her she was very sincere very excited very sure of the fact that she the angel
was there i felt possibly a little doubtful myself because nobody else saw anything
but you can see it in her eyes that it was true i cannot really explain this beautiful experience
i have no doubt in my heart that god sent an angel to save me i asked everyone if they saw this
beautiful person pulling me to the side and helping me nobody knew what i was talking about
but i knew that it was true that god sent an angel to save me [Music] [Applause]
remarkably estellavera feels no bitterness about the accident and with the aid of a prosthesis estella has
already been able to walk again are there angels among us no matter what anyone else may think
estela vera firmly believes she is alive today because she was visited by a guardian
angel when we return a woman fighting a deadly disease needs your help to find her long-lost sister
and police believe a mystery witness holds the key to identifying a cold-blooded killer
[Music] for diane handline of block crescent of california every day is a race against
time the rare and often fatal blood disease she has been fighting since 1986 has
finally reached the crisis point hello diane how are you doing hi doc this procedure is going to take about
five or ten minutes you may be a little uncomfortable uh before the biopsy is done
how uncomfortable it's going to hurt but it won't take long diane has a relatively unusual blood
disorder normally considered to be an incurable illness now potentially could be cured
by the utilization of a bone marrow transplantation fraught with a lot of dangers though a
lot of potential complications so not not something to be taken lightly in all the world this woman diane's
younger sister marilyn is the only potential bone marrow donor who offers any chance of success
but diane has no idea where marilyn is today she hasn't even talked to her sister in
more than 20 years i feel i'm asking a lot of my sister to do this bone marrow for me but even if
she doesn't agree to a transplant if she doesn't says i don't want to do this i would still like to make peace with her
she's my sister diane is three years older than maryland they grew up in los angeles during the
1940s we were post-war babies and we came from a lot of property there wasn't any money
and our mother and father had to work you know a lot of long hours we were like most children we fought and
bickered and didn't want to do the housework you know you do that no you do that and
i don't think it hurt us but i think that it she resented that all right come on baby let's go okay
diane and marilyn's parents separated in 1954 yeah ready i'm ready ultimately marilyn went to live with her
father bye bye [Music] girl after my sister moved in with my dad i saw my sister maybe like once a
month but as time went on it became more infrequent and i just think because she went with dad
and i went with mom that we we separated i mean we just lost our we didn't do our activities or anything
together anymore years passed with little contact in 1965 diane visited her sister at the
restaurant where she worked place never stops tits are okay though so how you doing
well met a new guy yeah marilyn said she was in love she planned to marry a man who had several children
from a previous marriage yeah crazy about him neither sister realized the brief visit
would be the last time they would see each other face to face eight years later they did speak briefly
on the phone michael marilyn told diane that she had a little boy named billy joe
billy joe it's good the sisters talked about getting together but time drifted by and they
never spoke again bye-bye in january of 1994 diane hired private investigator marilyn gannell to find her
sister well it's like a needle in a haystack because without a name you have nothing
to pin your investigation on we have tried certain things with the use of her maiden name and her first
married name and of course her maiden name is jones which makes it extremely difficult
there's no paucity of jones available hello how are you fine how are you doctor pretty good with every passing
day diane's treatments become less and less effective yes her search more and more vital in the
morning any bleeding easy bruising i'm having more bruising now diane is a an unusual person she has a
very strong will she's very optimistic she's really so to speak already beaten the odds by
getting this far i think i'm still here after all these years is because i don't
think that my life should be over with yet you know i have a i had a daughter to finish raising
to go to college and i'd like to see her get married and have babies and i just don't feel like
checking out of here yet but i think i'm going to pretty soon if i don't do something fast
when we broadcast diane's story a private investigator from denver colorado robin lee was watching
she was touched by diane's plight but assumed we would get the clues we needed we didn't
as luck would have it robin was also watching when the segment re-ran in june this time she decided to volunteer her
help in tracking marilyn down the result was one of our most unusual solves ever
i contacted the show got a little more information started out with the sister's name
marilyn jones was her maiden name started with that and a date of birth and went on from there
and it took me about three days to find her three working days if you don't count the fourth of july holiday
in between and i think it's great that they're back together [Music] on august 13 1994 marilyn and diane met
face to face for the first time in 30 years [Music] it's so good to see you once we hugged it was like it hadn't
been 30 years it had been you know just a short time i i guess maybe that's why i feel
comfortable is because i can feel the love and when you feel that love you feel comfortable get over you haven't changed
a bit oh no [Laughter] no i'm just i get cuter with ages yes you do i think i'm still in shock
you know it's still like i you know i'm not here yet it's just it's just a dream
you know but it's it's a great dream and we have a lot of catching up to do and i
will be together forever now we're gonna have a lot of fun together enjoy the time we have
that beautiful coincidentally the day of the reunion was diane's 53rd birthday and marilyn had not forgotten
is my name is spelled right this is the best gift i've ever had in my whole life this is the best gift ever
is to have my sister and to have my family for my birthday it'll be the best birthday i've ever had
my whole life we drive 60 miles to go on the day of the reunion marilla's fondest wish was
to prove a compatible bone marrow donor for her sister drive to go to the movies out to the
movies we have to go all the way to canada [Laughter] i want more than anything to have this
work with diane but even if it doesn't we're going to take full advantage of however long
we do have together we can make a week seem like an eternity [Music] as it turned out a series of tests
showed maryland's bone marrow would not work for diane but there is a ray of hope
doctors are now moving on to a new experimental therapy for diane's blood disorder
in the meantime she and marilyn are making the most of their precious newly kindled relationship
[Music] january 24 1987 a deputy sheriff named charlie anderson was gunned down on his
burbank california home the next day an anonymous witness phoned the burbank police claiming to know the
identity of the killer but the caller obviously nervous hung up before revealing any information he
never called back authorities hope that tonight seven years later this mystery witness will
finally come forward and solve the murder of charlie anderson charlie anderson was a 14-year veteran
of the los angeles county sheriff's department he distinguished himself as a highly
skilled driver teaching hundreds of officers how to handle themselves and their vehicles in dangerous situations
[Applause] charlie was probably one of the most talented drivers that i've ever met
it was a natural town for him charlie was able to get along with everybody he um
was serious on the job made a good sense of humor when he was around the rest of the staff
by all accounts charlie anderson was also a dedicated father never too busy to spend evenings and weekends with his
two sons charlie didn't seem to have an enemy in the world until the early hours of january 24th
1987. charlie's wife beth told police that around midnight she charlie and their
two young sons return home from a visit to her parents [Music] oh yeah well i'll go ahead and bring him
upstairs and then i'll come back for you and maybe okay thanks they arrived home
and because mrs anderson was suffering from a back injury her husband offered to go inside the
house with her oldest boy first he asked her to wait in the car and she did so charlie anderson went in the house
with the oldest son and we believe took him upstairs a few moments later mrs anderson heard
what sounded like backfires from where she was parked in the driveway she was still seated in the car
because the sound was unusual she walked to the house and called in to see if there was anything wrong
[Music] charlie [Music] charlie [Music] honey are you up here charlie honey charlie can you hear me
[Music] she ran downstairs picked up her younger son and random next door neighbor's house
[Music] initially the detectives believe that it was the house was being burglarized and
that mr anderson had interrupted the burglary and it confronted the suspects one of the things that was not
consistent with the burglary was the suspect had very carefully moved items normally in a burglary these suspects or
the burglars are working very quickly they'll pull out a drawer and dump the entire drawer just to examine all the
contents at once what the investigators found was that the drawers had been either pulled out
partially or carefully pulled out and maybe one item removed and when they felt that that was
inconsistent with most burglary scenes that they had seen there were other telltale signs that the
burglary had been staged [Music] while they had selected certain items and placed them together to be taken
from the house they had overlooked other items that were much more valuable that were in
plain sight this led to a second theory that this might have been someone that perhaps knew deputy anderson that
confronted him shot him charlie's sister trish believes that is exactly what happened
she was at the scene that night called by a neighbor but what really surprised me was the
look on his face he had to look a wide-eyed look as if he'd been shocked or betrayed
it's something that lingers with me today was charlie anderson ambushed by someone
he knew someone who dressed up a cold-blooded murder to look like a random burglary
gone wrong in the end evidence that the crime scene was ambiguous the only identifiable fingerprints were
all from members of the family police were left with a murder victim and virtually no leads
until the mysterious phone call one day later what you were about to hear is a reenactment of that conversation taken
directly from police transcripts burbank police department may help you uh yes may i speak to the officer in
charge please uh sure we're regarding what type of incident this is some information that might lead to the
killer that uh shot the deputy sheriff okay wait a minute hang on just a second at that time the investigator handling
the case was in the station and he was called to the dispatch area so he could speak with the person that
had called in i know who did the shooting okay the watch commander's on his way down here
to answer the phone okay i can't wait too long okay here's the detective handling the
case right now hang on just a second hi there what can i do for you is this being
recorded yes it is i i can't speak to you if this is recorded okay why don't i give you the number of my office where
it is not recorded i'm not gonna lie to you okay i don't like recordings the man
on the line was very very nervous he was very concerned about his voice being taped about him being the call being
traced or in any way the police identifying who he was i'm not playing around the call could not be routed to an
unrecorded line the detective had to ask the witness to hang up and call again okay well as i
said you're gonna have to give me about two minutes to get back to my office all
right okay the man readily agreed but the phone call never came on january 31st 1987 charlie anderson
was laid to rest with a full honors reserve for officers killed in the line of duty
since then lack of evidence has dragged the investigation to a standstill seven years after the murder of charlie
anderson authorities are still searching for the unidentified caller we feel it's very very important to
locate this caller because he was concerned enough to call us right at the beginning of the
investigation he has never been identified and we're very very interested in speaking to him to find
out what he does know about this case [Music] next a woman's search for her birth
parents draws her into the exotic world of the traveling carnival [Music] for most of us a night at the carnival
offers thrills chills and an old-fashioned good time [Music] but for brenda abbey a 45 year old
mother of three from chester virginia this frenzied magic promises much more the solution to her own personal
unsolved mystery brenda was adopted as an infant she knows little about her biological
parents except their names and that they worked for the settlement and wilson traveling carnival almost 50 years ago
every time i hear over the news that there's a carnival i will go and i go up to every booth
every concession i go up to every person that's employed by that carnival and i look
at them just to see if i can find somebody that looks like me in april of 1949 brenda was adopted by
sulein and thelma ziemer of petersburg virginia when she was 16 brenda found out that
her birth parents had been with a settlement and wilson carnival in 1983 brenda developed a serious
health problem because of her acute need for a family medical history virginia officials
released a copy of brenda's birth certificate [Music] her biological parents were elizabeth
hansen and walter dean perry brenda was stunned to learn she had two siblings but for brenda's search the most
important clue was her birth father's occupation my father was a representative of the
[ __ ] review [Music] possibly my father was a barker where he goes out there and he tries to get
people to come in to see the midgets in their show tonight you're gonna regret it tomorrow this show
starts the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place brenda set out to find everything she
could on the settlin at wilson carnival i looked in the newspapers back in 1948 and i did come across the announcements
of setlin and wilson and i found a group of midgets that were called singers midgets
and i know the whole library heard me because i said i found them i found them [Music]
finally brenda abbey had a tangible clue that led straight to the carnival circuit
last month we joined brenda in virginia to experience her search hand the excitement of each promising lead
and the heartache of near misses and dead ends how long have you been he went to
carnival [Music] brenda visits every carnival that passes within 200 miles of her hometown
are they with the carnival nope no nobody is but me i'm the black sheep old-timers like joe stevenson a 60-year
veteran of the carnival offer rare glimpses into a strange and exotic world that's right uh do you have to remember
if this woman had been pregnant at the time we made a language like just vowels switched around
like you got here light lives light kia zambra camera joe g.o g zone i could say leo zuki is that d is that
me as ann you don't know what i'm speaking i said look at that man we're speaking what is known as connie
well i worked as uh sometimes as the alligator girl i worked as the world's strangest mother
and i had to go up on a stage and talk to the public a lot of them had to live in wagons
underneath wagons and things like that in the old days they don't do that today but they used
to have to do it because they didn't make enough hopefully i'm going to ring a bell one
day with one of these people and they're going to know my parents simply by what i tell them about the
[ __ ] review they might remember somebody but this is what i do i keep hoping that
somebody in the carnival that's old enough to remember will remember they're the original singer midgets yeah
before chess calls yeah i remember him he was the tuba player in the band they had the smallest [ __ ] in the
world what was her name remember they never bought out on the front they paid that extra yeah
she's right there that was margie mom got margie that's you this is the group i'll tell you about
that had to cook uh-huh and she remembered the lady's name like i do but the only thing we know for a brief
instant brenda thought joe and the others had actually known her birth mother well
was she 20 four no more she's a young second woman then wasn't she she was just old lady he doesn't feel
that she could have been my mother because her age would have made her he said he was just joking said two
thousand years old by now so it definitely could not have been my mother my mother was supposedly 24
when she had me so but joe said that quite possibly it might be mamalee's daughter
but there again who knows when it's another avenue i'll have to travel it was a singer's
first what year were you born that would have been okay 1949 brenda did uncover one exciting lead
the phone number for a man named ward hall a prominent booking agent for east coast carnival side shows
we were there when brenda called him ward hall knew carnival people going back some 50 years
but he had never heard of brenda's birth parents i really thought he was my answer i
really did i had a lot of faith in that phone call and i'm a little disappointed
i really am not because he couldn't give me the answer i wanted but just because he didn't have it
we're going over to the department of social services uh in richmond and over there they have uh
identifying information the just before we traveled to virginia a judge had granted brenda access to her
sealed adoption papers we were not allowed to film in the archives but our cameras were on hand
when brenda emerged the documents finally revealed where her birth parents had gone after the
adoption i got it alaska and it's all the identifying information building everything
and there's two different names [Music] i've got a w.l parry then i have a wd pairing
they said it could be a typographical era but maybe not they're just not sure [Music]
despite the information in the adoption records it turns out that the settlement
and wilson carnival never once traveled to alaska nor has brenda found any evidence that
her biological parents moved to alaska on their own perhaps the next carnival will yield the
clue that finally leads brenda to her birth parents i want to find my parents and my
siblings more than anything in the world i want to tell my mother before she dies
i don't think she did anything wrong i think she did what she had to do and i really can understand it
i have a heart big enough to understand that [Music] update during a search has spanned 30
years brenda talked with countless old-timers are they with the carnival nope no
each had a story to tell and some even offered suggestions but not one claimed to know elizabeth hansen or walter perry
[Music] inevitably as each carnival was packing up and hitting the road brenda abbey was
left behind no closer to finding her birth parents it seems she might finally be out of
options until the night of our broadcast [Music] the response was far greater than even
brenda had hoped for not only did her birth mother call our phone center but so did a sister and a
brother then another sister additional calls were logged in from friends of still more siblings
brenda abbey was saddened to learn that her birth father had died in 1959 but she was thrilled to discover a total
of 11 brothers and sisters one of them martha oak of saint claire shores michigan hosted a reunion in
august of 1994. although brenda's birth mother was unable to attend brenda finally met four
of her long-lost brothers and sisters face to face [Music] as hostess for the celebration martha
was the first to welcome brenda hi brandon a brother thomas chillock flew in from
louisiana 1 000 miles away another sister susan donner came in from port clinton ohio
[Music] brenda's brother frank smith grew up in greenwood mississippi like brenda he
never imagined he had so many siblings [Music] i did my own search and kept running into dead ends and
finally gave up and uh when i found out about this it was incredible it's amazing it's unbelievable
totally unbelievable it's funny to actually walk up to people and touch their skin and know that they're
related the get-together in michigan promises to be just the first of many and and
plans are already underway for the next reunion these are my flesh and blood and it's
something nobody can take away from me that's right and it's such a great feeling
it was worth the 30 years that it took me to do this [Music] in just a few weeks an exciting new
season of unsolved mysteries will begin here's a sampling in the late 1960s thousands of curiosity
seekers flocked to see the iceman was it a hoax or perhaps a prehistoric cousin of man
novelist agatha christie was a queen of mystery but how many of us know that in 1926 agatha took center stage in her own
real-life mystery twenty-one-year-old tommy burkett died in 1991 an apparent suicide
now his parents have pieced together a shocking scenario of murder and intrigue from the realm of the unexplained
a bold of lightning sends a young man on an incredible journey to the brink of death and back
and follow a team of real-life ghostbusters as they track down an elusive spirit at a haunted hotel in
santa fe new mexico [Music] join me starting later in september for four special sunday broadcasts
and then in october during our new time period fridays at 8. [Music] [Applause] [Music]
you

Brief Summary

This episode features Bigfoot sightings, a missing husband case, and a couple's decade-long harassment ordeal.

Key points

The Search for Bigfoot. A team of researchers aims to prove the existence of Bigfoot, fueled by eyewitness accounts.
Christine's Quest for Craig. Christine Reinhart embarks on a desperate search for her missing husband, Craig.
Christine's Relentless Search. Christine vows to never give up on finding her loved one, no matter the cost.
David Vieira's Capture. David Vieira, a fugitive for nearly six years, is apprehended thanks to viewer tips.
The Wacker's Ongoing Terror. Dorothy and Bill Wacker face a decade-long campaign of harassment and threats.
The Tragic Jordan Fire. A devastating fire claims the lives of five children, leaving one survivor.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was scared and I wanted to get out of there.

Elmer's encounter with Bigfoot

11:23WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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