Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 7, Episode 12 - Updated Full Episode | Forensic Files

this program is about unsolved mysteries whenever possible the actual family members and police officials have
participated in recreating the events what you're about to see is not a news broadcast
to millions of devout catholics he was known as padre pio when he was 31 this humble priest was
said to have had an extraordinary vision of jesus christ which many believe left
him blessed with the power to heal the sick tonight you will meet two people who are
convinced that they were cured by miracles miracles they attribute to god through
the intercession of padre pio in a remote campground area an off-road enthusiast had a surreal
encounter with a beautiful blonde woman and three angry strangers little did he know that this curious
episode would later make him a key witness in a murder mystery during world war ii the lazarus family
of baltimore maryland was told that their eldest son sylvan had died in a plane crash in north africa
however three months later they identified him in this photograph of captured american airman
today his relatives are still determined to find out what happened to sylvan lazarus
join me for these intriguing and fascinating cases of tonight's edition of unsaw mysteries
[Music] [Music] in 1987 pope john paul ii traveled to the italian city of san giovanni rotondo
to pay homage at the tomb of one of the most renowned and controversial figures in the history of the catholic church
[Music] to millions of devout followers around the world he was known as padre pio
he had been born francesco forgione in 1887 the son of farmers you're about to hear the uplifting
stories of two people who believe their lives were saved by the miraculous powers of padre pio
[Music] this is paul walsh of ridley park pennsylvania in 1983 during his senior year in high
school paul was so badly injured in an automobile accident the doctors gave him almost no hope of survival
today paul attends college and is recovered completely when vera marie calandra was two years
old her parents were told she only had a few weeks to live 26 years later vera marie is perfectly
healthy and has no traces of the illness that almost killed her vera marie calandra and paul walsh
believe they are alive today because they reach blessed by a miracle miracles they attribute to god through
the intercession of padre pio how did this unassuming priest become known worldwide as a great healer
the remarkable saga padre pio begins in 1903 when he decided to enter the priesthood and dedicate his life to god
seven years later in 1910 padre pio was ordained at the age of 23 even then his extraordinary
righteousness and piety distinguished him from the other priests in the friary but no one anticipated the remarkable
events that took place on september 20th 1918. [Music] that morning padre pio is deep in prayer
when he experienced what is known in the faith as an ecstasy a profound vision that many believe left
tangible evidence that padre pio had been touched by the hand of god [Music] me [Music]
when the ecstasy was ended he noticed that his hands and feet and side were bleeding
[Music] and he had to drag himself to his cell and there he cleaned his wounds and he
um uh began to sing hymns of praise to god you know because of the vision these are photographs of the wounds on
padre pio's hands along with those on his feet and side they are said to generally correspond to
the wound suffered by jesus on the cross they are commonly referred to as the stigmata
[Music] from the start some church officials doubted the validity of padre pio's
claim they suspected that the wounds had been self-inflicted and called in doctors to
examine them [Music] one of the doctors decided to conduct an experiment [Music]
he directed the friars bandage and the wounds and seal them for eight days so that nobody could uh open
the bandage without being detected he felt that after eight days you would see uh the beginning of healing in the
wounds and after eight days the wounds were undressed and they were still the way
they were before there was no sign of healing [Music] as words spread about padre pio's divine
revelation pilgrims began flocking to san giovanni rotunda anxious to be blessed by padre pio and
bear witness to the miracle of the stigmata [Music] you had almost like a carnival
atmosphere there at san giovanni rotondo people were hawking pictures of padre pio
they were dipping pieces of cloth and chicken blood or rabbit blood and selling them as sandy
just soaked with the blood of the padre pio stigmata that became a problem for the superiors
the church took drastic action padre pia was sentenced to a sort of internal exile forbidden to venture into
public or conduct any of his priestly duties the exile lasted three years ultimately the vatican relented padre
pio was restored to his former position with one exception he was prohibited from showing the
stigmata in public by his own choice padre pio wore gloves to hide the wounds as the years passed and padre pio's fame
blossomed he developed an international reputation as a man of miracles the faithful turned to him in drones seeking
divine intervention for their earthly afflictions [Music] among them were vera and harry calandra
of barto pennsylvania their fifth child vera marie had been born in 1966 with congenital defects of
the kidneys and urinary tract two years and four operations later the doctor delivered the worst possible news
want my advice take your daughter home make her comfortable what are you saying you want us to just give up on vera
marie there comes a time he came back to us immediately and said she's in recovery
and we did remove her urinary bladder i thought i would pass out i said but how will she live without a bladder
he said she's not going to live vera marie was fitted with a catheter but her condition continued to
deteriorate her parents sought comfort in the church mrs calandra sent a telegram to padre
piel then 80 years old asking for his blessings a few weeks later she says she received
a sign that her prayers had been heard i was sitting in the living room of my home
with vera marie sitting on the floor and suddenly i experienced a most unusual fragrance
of fresh roses something i never experienced before i had no flowers in my home yet all around my head
was an overwhelming powerful fragrance of roses and then suddenly padre pio spoke to me
he said i want you to bring your little girl to me here in italy but do not delay
come immediately on september 1st 1968 with a railing daughter vera marie and a newborn infant
in town vera calandra arrived in italy and made her way to the church of san giovanni
rotunda excuse me father i need to see padre pio padre pio is very weak and they're sick oh please i
need to see him right now what is the reason what makes you special my daughter is dying he told me
to come i need to see him please please i call it a visit actually it was a fleeting moment
he was in a wheelchair we were in the sacristy he was brought forth in his wheelchair
we knelt before him as we were told to do he touched my sick daughter on the top
of the head and he didn't even look at me [Music] i was crushed because i thought
here is an expensive trip came a great distance my daughter could die and i have not the chance to speak with
him and explain to him the problems that we have at this time and how we're asking him to help us
the next day vera returned and was granted a rare private audience with padre pio
there he was right in front of me in the wheelchair and he put out his hand and touched my
sick daughter on the top of the head i spoke to him through my heart please god make a miracle
so that all the people will believe doctor two weeks later back in america it began
to appear that a miracle had indeed occurred in her condition is there anything we can hope for this may have
no significance whatsoever but we found what appears to be the remains of a bladder here well i hit the ceiling and
said but doctor you removed her bladder before we left on our trip and he said well
it's there i don't know what it is but we'll leave it alone i was very very happy because i figured
well something did happen you know and the doctor says whatever you're doing continue to do it
pedro pio has affected my life in many different ways he's brought me closer to god
he has he's made me survive when i should have been dead and in a lot of ways he's always there
for me and my whole family on september 23 1968 just weeks after he blessed vera marine padre pio passed
away curiously after half a century the stigmata were said to have completely healed during the final days of his life
[Music] that same year to honor their own personal miracle the calandra family established the national center for
padre pio the center has worked with thousands who claim to have been healed by padre pio's
miraculous powers even in the years after his death one of the most dramatic cases is that
of paul walsh in december of 1983 paul was rushed to the hospital after a serious car
accident he had crushed his skull and broken every bone in his face paul's mother betty remembers vividly
mrs wallace where are they taking him surgery how long is that gonna take we have to
prep him we have three there really wasn't anything i could do and i think that there's shock in a case like that where
you kind of are in a daze that you can't believe it's happening all they really said that night was
massive facial and head injuries and the outlook was not good i frankly had basically written
him off as possibly even living let alone living normally and i my prognosis for paul's normal
survival was practically zero eventually paul developed hydrocephalus and spinal meningitis
lapsed into a deep cola at this time paul was totally unconscious burning up with fever the sweat was just
pouring off him a woman at church gave me a prayer to padre pio when i came to the padre pio prayer i
started to say the prayer paul's hand came up from his side very shakely he reached toward his forehead
i was shocked i could not believe it his hand didn't make his forehead all the way but he had made the sign of the
cross [Music] with renewed hope betty contacted the padre pio center harry kalam agreed to visit paul in his
hospital there's been some improvement let's pray harry began reciting a prayer to padre pio
and covered paul's head with a glove that had actually been worn by padre pio to conceal the stigmata
grant us the grace we ask of you it was to me as if an electric shock went through paul i i knew something
happened it was like a sudden jolt he shook it only lasted for a second but he opened his eyes and he looked at me so
with such clear eyes as he had not done for a long time but i knew something had happened even
though it didn't seem outwardly we left he was still comatose we left the room that was great the next day i waited
purposely till in the afternoon but i knew something would be different a good kid
oh hi mom [Music] hey scrawns how you doing buddy this is our miracle what are you doing
i'm just drawing one of you guys where you've been have the doctors been here no the nurse
just gave me this to draw i couldn't believe it one of the nurses came running into the room she was so excited
she said he's been talking all day i asked the one neurosurgery assistant who the day before had shown me all the
dead brain cells on the cat scan what could have happened i said you know this was a miracle
and he said yes i know other patients i've had that had the same extent of injuries that paul had
are either still in rehabilitation homes or are dead i've frankly not any scientific basis for uh
explaining why he survived when i did come out of the coma i uh i was wondering what uh everybody was
making such fuss over me for at uh i guess at the beginning before i was told what happened to me
i didn't understand what the big deal was for betty walsh it was clear that padre
pio was responsible for paul's sudden improvement two weeks later paul told his doctor an
odd story that seemed to confirm it he described him being having a visitor whom he thought was his uncle
but he stated that his uncle was dressed up in a brown robe and i i just thought this might be some kind
of hallucination but was it hallucination not only paul but also his roommate reported seeing the mysterious visitor
uncle charlie paul continued to believe the man was his uncle until his mother showed him a folded
leaflet that featured a photograph of padre pio and i brought the picture in and
said to paul is this who visited you on easter sunday i mean i said yes was had his uncle charlie right
and she had folded the paper down and showed me that it was party pill and at the time i i i i was
i was laughing at that how could it be potter pill potiphar was dead after they had told me what had happened
and all i i believe it was butterfield here was a man who lived in the 20th century who did the same thing as the
apostles did whose ministry confirms the truth of the new testament if you asked him he would say that he
didn't believe in miracles he would say that he didn't work miracles because everything is a miracle
everything is the work of god [Music] next a strange encounter in the forest may have been a predate to murder
[Music] the angelus national forest nearly 700 000 acres of wilderness recreation area
just 30 minutes outside los angeles for city dwellers the angelus forest is a perfect weekend getaway with plenty of
space to be alone on saturday february 29 1992 a dedicated off-road enthusiast named jeff was
exploring a campground area when his curiosity led him into a mystery i've been back in there before and it
was the first time i'd noticed this one little road off to the side and i was proceeding god maybe a hundred
yards back if that and i saw somebody that set up a camp there [Music] as i pulled up
directly in front of me there was a old panel van to the left of that was a tent
to the left of the tent there was a very attractive girl sitting there by herself
her hair was done up it was curly and long she appeared to have makeup on she was looking down and she
very slowly raised her head and we had eye contact [Music] jeff's side trip has suddenly taken a
frightening turn what's your problem [Music] i never thought about calling the police
nor did i think that these guys were really dangerous to anybody i thought they were being protective of their camp
[Applause] march 3rd 1993 just over a year later the los angeles county coroner was
called to investigate a possible murder site in the angelus forest the partial set of skeletal remains had
been found approximately 50 yards from the spot where jeff had seen the young blonde woman
when the coroner checked dental records of missing persons in the los angeles area he found a match
the remains were identified as those of twenty-year-old kimberly pandelius who had disappeared a year before
it was a tragic end to a promising young life [Music] kimberly and her parents had immigrated
from cuba when she was eight they settled in pennsylvania where at the age of 19 kimberly married
in 1991 she and her husband along with her infant son moved to northridge california
kimberly started taking business courses and worked part-time as a model kimberly was a
beautiful human being she was loved by everybody in the family and she was so sweet
so kind the very end of her life i i don't want even to think about it kimberly after the remains are
identified kimberly's story was covered extensively on the local news by coincidence jeff the off-road
enthusiast was watching last friday tv was on and i said that's the girl that's the
girl i saw sitting there in my mind there was no doubt that the girl on tv was the same i saw in the
camp same girl [Music] jeff immediately contacted the los angeles county sheriff's department and
accompanied two deputies to the spot where he had seen kimberly but far too much time had
passed there was not a single clue to the strange disappearance and death of kimberly pandillos
[Music] how would kimberly come to be in that remote area of the angelus national
forest who were the three men jeff had seen with her even though the coroner could not
determine the exact cause of kimberly's death law enforcement now had no choice would had begun a year earlier as a
missing persons case had become a probable murder investigation [Music] february 28 1992
the day before jeff saw kimberly in the makeshift camp a burned-out car was found near the monte cristo campground
section of the angelus national forest from the sun the fire was started in the passenger
compartment on the passenger side of the front seat we were able to determine that the front
seat was pulled forward in a position that would be as if she drove to that location
investigators found the charred remains of a spiral notebook in the car but little else
they ran a dmv check on the plates but could not reach kimberly's husband by the time they did locate him he had
reported kimberly missing but a search of the area turned up no further clues three weeks later however a second
notebook this one kimberly's day runner was found under a bridge two miles away from the car
the two hikers who stumbled on it turned it into authorities but the day runner yielded neither fingerprints nor other
clues rita did you talk to kimberly on thursday apparently a third notebook is still unaccounted for
the day after kimberly was reported missing her son's babysitter told investigators that a man named paul a
telephone for kimberly the day she disappeared do you know paul no but this paul called about two
o'clock in the afternoon he said he had an appointment with kimberly and he wanted to confirm it do you leave a
phone number with you no what happened after that well this paul called again about 7pm
kimberly still wasn't home he said she left her appointment book when she met with him
the notebook that paul has is probably the most valuable notebook that might have
her appointments or contacts for later that day there's a possibility that kimberly went
up into the mountains to meet someone and that appointment might be in her book kimberly had told her husband that she
was scheduled to do an outdoor photo shoot authorities believe she responded to an
ad in a local newspaper a theory is that she drove to that location by herself and met someone to do an outdoor shoot
and that once she was there she was taken off the road back into the area that she was ultimately found
i think she was there for at least a day and a half from thursday late afternoon
all day friday and at least through noon on saturday [Music] it was just past noon on saturday when
jeff happened upon the makeshift campsite [Music] in retrospect she might have been
drugged but just had no idea if she would have cried out if she would have said something you
know she would have given me an indication she was in trouble of course i would have done
something but i didn't know it just gets to me that i didn't do something right then and there to help
her this person basically died because of my inaction or my ignorance we can't bring the girl back
but i would like justice to be done of course [Music] [Music] [Music] when we return
a rare behind-the-scenes look at the unsung heroes of law enforcement coroner's investigators
[Music] this is a story about the unheralded heroes of law enforcement when an accident or homicide victim goes
unidentified it falls to investigators from the coroner's office to find out who the john and jane does are and how
they died more often than not these investigators are successful solving unsolvable cases through a
combination of medical expertise ingenuity and compassion [Music] october 5th 1983 seal beach california
at dawn two lifeguards discovered the body of a young boy floating in a channel near the ocean
the body was so badly decomposed that it made identification impossible coroner's investigator joe lucky was
dispatched to the scene he found no evidence of foul play in fact an autopsy would later determine that the cause of
death was accidental drowning but who the boy was and where he had come from posed a baffling mystery
it looked like one of those cases that might never be solved it takes a while sometimes to get over
the fact that you can't identify these people um you you tend to think about your own families and know
that there's somebody out there who's missing a relative somebody but we don't know who
joe lucky was used to long odds and this case would challenge all of his skills joe sent a description of the boy to
every law enforcement agency in the immediate area only one possible match turned up
a boy who had disappeared from fullerton california but fullerton was 16 miles from where
the body was discovered [Music] joe lucky met with the boy's parents they told him that their son had
vanished shortly after leaving for a neighborhood park i went over to the park and i found that there was a flood
control channel right adjacent to the park i also discovered that because of the
rainfall the day is missing that the flood control district had opened a local dam which is above that
area and allowed the overflow to come through that channel raising it approximately six feet higher
than normal the mystery had been solved tragically the young boy had fallen into
the flood channel and been swept 16 miles to the ocean blood samples would later provide a
positive identification [Music] a corner is probably a good mixture of being a surgeon a detective and an
attorney every day is a challenge that's new that's a little bit of detective work uh
all the time cullen ellenberg has worked on literally thousands of cases some take months of painstaking research
and legwork others are solved solely on the basis of one small piece of evidence
that was a case with an unidentified murder victim in 1985 checking his clothing items for possibly
a name inside we came upon a buckle that was unique and had the name of a company
that manufactures drill bits in alaska for oil wells on this buckle [Music] yes the phone number for the anchorage
drill bit company we were able to call this company determined that the buckle in fact was a
award given to the employee of the year only given out for about five years and with that information we were able
to identify the deceased individual [Music] but some cases remain unsung even after
years of investigation one in particular has haunted colin ellenburg since may 18 1987.
that morning the body of a woman in her early 20s was found at the base of a steep cliff in dana point california
what do you got got a girl apparently fell off the cliff any id on her got a unit up top but we don't have much
more than that the woman had apparently plunged to her death sometime during the
night we weren't sure at that point if it was an accident or intentional or if she had been pushed
i went to the top of the cliff and there i found a small purse a half-consumed soda and a map of
southern california oddly the purse had no other contents but the map held a clue which would lead
cullen to the person who may have last seen the young woman alive there was a phone number on the map
the phone number was that of a cab company and the cab company was contacted and they indicated they had a
fair picked up from the area and dropped off at the area of the dana point cliffs
at about three or four that morning when cullen interviewed the cab driver he described a woman who fit the dana
point jane doe to a tee you the lady called for a cab yeah can you take me to ross towers in laguna
beach sure no problem can you tell me how much that's going to be uh that'll be uh 20 bucks
i only have 18. [Applause] can you take me as far as that'll go yeah sure get in the back
the only thing the taxi driver said was that she had very little to say other than that she was very quiet and he
didn't notice anything really unusual about her [Music] the meter says 18 bucks man that's the
best i can do thank you good night goodbye [Music] the next morning the young woman's body
would be found at the base of the cliff she was five feet eight inches tall and weighed 127 pounds
she had light brown hair brown eyes and was wearing what appeared to be second-hand clothing
at the time of her death in 1987 she would have been approximately 20 years old this is the first jane doe that i've had
that i was unable to identify and i've continued to work this case to today and occasionally a new lead will come in and
i'll follow up but all to this date have been unsuccessful there isn't a week that i don't go by
the point without thinking about this lady i want to identify her and find out who she is
and who she belongs to [Music] despite the sophisticated missing persons computer systems available today
thousands of john and jane does across the country remain unidentified here are three of them
[Music] this is a composite drawing of a young woman who in 1990 was struck by a car
and killed along the pacific coast highway in huntington beach california she was in her early twenties
five feet four inches tall and weighed approximately 125 pounds she had dark brown hair brown eyes and
severe acne scars among the objects found in the woman's possession were a hotel key and a ring
made of human hair [Music] in 1976 a young couple was found shot to death on a remote road in sumter county
south carolina the man was approximately 20 years old six feet tall and weighed around 150
pounds he had had extensive dental work which included bridges and crowns he was wearing an expensive bulova
accutron watch and a ring inscribed with the initials jpf the woman appeared to be in her late
teens she was five feet five inches tall approximately 100 pounds with two distinct moles on the left side of her
face she was wearing three handmade mexican or indian style rings [Music] next the family's 50-year search for a young
airman lost during world war ii [Music] in 1943 at the height of world war ii an
american b-24 bomber and a non-combat mission went down over north africa the entire crew was lost
among the victims were these three men sylvan lazarus carl cobb and bernard brady
for some 50 years they have been the focus of a perplexing unsolved mystery three months after the crash the
baltimore newspaper ran this photograph of four american prisoners of war being interrogated by a german officer
inexplicably three of the prisoners were positively identified by their families
as lazarus cobb and brady perhaps someone watching can help the families of these men
finally put their sons to rest christmas of 1943 was a time of sorrow for the lazarus family of baltimore
maryland on december 14 they learned that their eldest son sylvan an american airman was
missing in action three weeks later the family's worst nightmare came true [Music]
dad it's your brother he's dead sylvan's brother arnold was 17 years old at the time
we were devastated absolutely devastated i mean my brother was such a great guy he was loved by everybody very very
outgoing family oriented and to lose somebody like that is devastating there's no other word i could use
according to government records on december 8th 1943 sylvan and 13 other men boarded a b-24
liberator bomber in the eastern coast of africa the plane was bound for casablanca
morocco when it reportedly crashed in the atlas mountains near the city of tarudan
military officials reported that sylvan lazarus and the other victims were later
buried in a mass grave [Music] three months passed the lazarus family tried to cope with the loss of silver
they never received any of his personal effects not even his dog tags then on march 17 1944 the mysterious
photograph appeared in the baltimore mirror anna anna the family's grief turned first to
confusion then to hope oh my samuel what does it say as prisoners of germany captured after their planes were shot
down over the third reich during recent obliteration bombing raids we were shocked
uh i mean there was no question about it that one of the airmen was definitely my
brother his eyes his posture the way he stood at a certain certain way was definitely him definitely
was it possible the sylvan lazarus had survived if so it made no sense for him to be
interrogated by a nazi officer in north africa the germans had been driven from the
area more than seven months before the crash sylvan's father was convinced that there
was much more to the story he obtained the names of the 13 other crewmen killed in the accident and sent
each of their families a copy of the photograph incredibly bernard brady of new york
and carl cobb of cynthiana kentucky were identified my father wanted more answers
and he uh he wrote back and forth to the government my father even contacted the red cross
trying to get answers but it was all in vain anything no no they were first told that
the uh the crew men were uh all buried in a common grave at the casablanca european cemetery
uh later on they were told that the men their remains were dug up and reburied in al anon cemetery
uh in i believe algeria there was never any explanation given to my knowledge as to why
the government did this i am not really sure whether the government or the military knows
exactly what happened i have my own theories unfortunately i don't have proof [Music]
the lazarus family now believes that sylvan's plane may have been shot down during a secret mission behind german
lines in europe not in africa they also believe that some of the crewmen managed to parachute to safety
only to be taken prisoner by the nazis sylvan and the others are most likely photographed of being interrogated about
their mission the lazarus is fear that sylvan may have been singled out because of his religion
my theory is great possibility that the germans found out that my brother was jewish
and i believe that they violated the geneva convention by rights he should have been put into a pow camp
but i don't believe that that happened i believe that he was put into a concentration camp instead
see dad this is from the war department the adjutant general's office dated january 24th
1944. although it has been 50 years and sylvan lazarus was last seen alive his family continues a search for clues to
his fate in 1990 under the freedom of information act the lazarus has obtained the
original crew list from the national archives there were 14 names my uncle sylvan
carl cobb and bernard brady were among those names and next to those three names were check
marks and the numbers one two and three i've never gotten an explanation as to what those check marks and numbers meant
i feel very very sad about one thing that my parents went to their graves without knowing exactly what happened to
my brother having seen the photograph we cannot help but wonder what really happened to him
couldn't have been killed in a crash so what happened to him that's what we want to find out
[Music] do our minds possess untapped psychic powers can we move objects without touching
them can we communicate clairvoyantly with the dead new premonitions come true join me two weeks from tonight as we
explore these intriguing questions on a special unsolved mysteries report mysteries of the psychic mind
[Music] you

This episode includes: Padre Pio, Pts. 1 & 2, Model's Third Notebook & UD, Calculating Coroners & UD and Nazi's Lazarus.

Brief Summary

Miraculous healings, a murder mystery, and a WWII disappearance intertwine in this episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

Key points

The Miraculous Powers of Padre Pio. Two individuals share their miraculous recoveries attributed to Padre Pio's intercession.
A Mother's Desperation. Vera Calandra's mother seeks Padre Pio's help for her dying daughter.
A Shocking Recovery. Paul Walsh's miraculous recovery from a devastating car accident defies medical expectations.
The Mystery of Kimberly Pandilus. A young woman's remains are discovered in a forest, leading to a murder investigation.
The Search for Kimberly. Authorities believe Kimberly may have gone into the mountains for a photo shoot.
The Unidentified Boy. A coroner's investigator faces the challenge of identifying a young boy found dead.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How did this unassuming priest become known worldwide as a great healer?

3:39WatchMar 16, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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