Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 7, Episode 9 - 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 it's known as the girden light for more than 60 years the same eerie luminous
apparition has been described by hundreds of is eyewitnesses summer's yet unexplained
natural phenomenon or is it as many say the restless ghost of a long-dead railroad man
doomed to wander the tracks for eternity [Music] this man stuart heaton was convicted of
murdering a 16 year old girl largely on the strength of dna test results but all along heaton has claimed that he
is innocent that the dna tests were flawed and some prominent scientific experts
agree with him call them the real-life thelma and louise on the road and on the run
a middle-class wife and mother and her best friend who allegedly thrilled in seducing terrorizing and then robbing
men they met through the personals also tonight a heartwarming reunion brought about by your calls
join me for another edition of unsolved mysteries so [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome to girden arkansas population
2700 a typical small town apparently no different from hundreds of other communities that dot the railroad
between st louis and dallas but as darkness descends an air of expectancy settles over gertie
most nights the locals anticipate the arrival of their very own unsolved mystery
for decades on the tracks just outside of town an eerie unexplained light of unknown
origin has been magically appearing this time lapse photograph was taken in november by an unsolved mystery's
photographer it is apparently the first time with the strange phenomenon known locally as the girden light has
been captured on film a few days later the photographer returned to the railroad tracks
he waited until nightfall and recorded this mysterious light on videotape this is an enlargement of the image the
same image seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses over the years i'd say that i've seen it where i
couldn't write it off as being anything else probably 20 25 times at least and i'm a very skeptical person over the
years i have personally seen it hundreds of times with my father and my family i've seen a
lot at least 60 or 70 times and of course usually when you see it one time in that evening you can see it several
times in succession what is the good and light a natural phenomenon a long-running prank or perhaps
something that cannot be explained not surprisingly that possibility inevitably prompts a retelling of the
legend that goes along with a girden light [Music] it all began on a chilly december
evening in 1931 around midnight will mclean a section foreman for the railroad confronted one of his workers louis
mcbride something i need to tell you don't you it's not concerning you boys now go on
clock out the day before a freight trainer derailed just outside girden mclean suspected that mcbride had
sabotaged a section of the track it's your last night mcbride you just pay get on out of here
why i think you know why i need this job well you should have thought about that
before you pull that crazy little stunt but i haven't i don't want to hear anymore about just pick up your pay and
get off the yard i need this job stay in the matter [Music] when mclean failed to return home a
search party was hastily assembled they came upon a trail of blood and followed it along the tracks to the edge
of town what is that it's mclean let's look off down yonder at the end of the blood trail lay the
body of will mclean [Music] by dawn lewis mcbride had confessed to the murder in february of 1932 he was executed at
the state penitentiary [Music] it wasn't long before people began seeing the gerdan light on a regular
basis local lore said it was the ghost of will maclean doomed to spend eternity walking the
tracks with his lantern [Applause] one of the earliest sightings is one of the most memorable
as a train approached town an elderly conductor named john stepped onto the back of the caboose and
was startled by what he saw they say that uh john went out on the back platform to investigate and the light was
real far off and kind of faint that it seemed to be traveling the same speed they were and then
all of a sudden it just shot up and he's just like paralyzed and just hanging on to the
grab barn and just transfix staring right into the light according to john the light followed the
train for more than a mile finally it veered off in the direction of the cemetery
ever since looking for the girden light has become something of a local pastime if you go down there with some
regularity you're definitely going to see it after a while you may go a few days
you know where you get frustrated and you don't see it but with a little time and a little concentration you most
definitely will see the light [Music] my friends and i always went down there with the hopes of seeing the light and
walking down the tracks just in the total darkness always left you with a little eerie feeling
[Music] i've seen it come on in a quick flash and seen it fade in and then fade back
out sometimes we've gotten pretty scared down there seeing the light together with maybe
some noises in the woods have sent us running out of there quite often the descriptions of the lighter for the
most part consistent it seems to float one to three feet above the tracks and often changes
colors the light is rarely visible for more than 10 seconds at a time [Music] there are many times when i walk down
the tracks by myself and and spent several hours out there and during the course of that time
you can be observing the light and move toward it and it'll disappear and you'll turn
around it'll be behind you almost everybody has had that kind of experience from time to time with the
local legend is if it gets behind you you can't get back to your car the whole town has seen it at some point
in time and it's it's not a figment of anybody's imagination it does exist it is there
what is it that's the question that is indeed the question is the gerd and light as some believe
the ghost of will maclean or is there a rational scientific explanation for years dr charles lemming a physics
professor at henderson state university took his classes to girden in search of an answer
when i first went out to see the garden light and studied the area maps i was pretty confident that the light
always originated from car headlights on an interstate bridge a few miles away the light is usually seen in this area
just outside girden the highway lies to the southwest four miles away the problem with the headlight theory is
that we're sure people were going out before the interstate opened in 1970 we could find
reliable accounts of people that went out to see the garden light and reported the garden light
well before the interstate bridge that we thought was the origin of the headlights was opened
the second theory is that the light is in fact swamp gas a spontaneous combustion of the gases
produced when dense vegetation decomposes down that way too the theory of it being
swamp gas that doesn't hold up to me just because i've seen it on a windy night so that would eliminate any sort of
swamp gas out there the closest theory that i've come to for explaining the gerding light is the
piezoelectric effect and piezoelectricity is a simple phenomena where if you squeeze
crystals such as quartz or rochelle salt you get an electric current out of them
gurdon sits atop an abundant deposit of quartz crystals and an active fault line known as the
new madrid fault michael klingon believes that when the plates shift an electric charge is
released from the crystals and seen above ground as the girden light people tend to to say that the light
appeared after the murder of will mclean and looking back that also coincides with a
major earthquake on the new madrid fault line so that tends to support my piezoelectric theory
klingon acknowledges that there is one large hole in his theory he cannot explain how the charge
migrates to the surface or why it is concentrated in a ball like shape i don't think if they came forth with a
logical explanation i would truly believe it it is too mysterious and i don't think it can be explained do we
really want to know that it what it is because that would take all the mystery out of it and all the fun and
and and i would like to see my children's children take their children down there just like our parents took us
down there it's a perfect setting for a ghost story what is the secret of the girden light
if there is a scientific explanation it has certainly eluded everyone for the past 60 years
until something better comes along we're left with a legend of pearl will mclean's ghost
wandering the railroad tracks forevermore perhaps in search of the man who killed him
when we return a controversial case of stuart heaton did 40 dna evidence put the wrong man in
prison for murder in recent months most of us have at least heard of the legal debate over the
use of dna evidence and criminal cases many experts believe dna can identify a suspect as reliably as a fingerprint
others strongly disagree tonight that debate has a special resonance for a young man named stuart heaton
he is serving a life sentence for murder even though many believe there is compelling evidence
that another man committed the crime stuart insists that he is innocent and the crucial dna evidence which some
say is deeply flawed helped put him behind bars ramzi illinois in the south central part
of the state is a peaceful rural community but on july 23 1991 a brutal murder shocked its citizens
sixteen-year-old crystal nab a high school sophomore had been stabbed 81 times in the living
room of her family's trailer [Music] hey brian what do you got there well i think i have your murder weapon
looks like a pair of uh sewing scissors and i'll tell you the person who did this can't stab somebody that many times
without getting cuts on your hands look for somebody with cuts either on the outside of their fingers or on their
palm i wonder if you uh happen to see anything uh suspicious several neighbors told police they had
noticed a white pickup truck most probably a dodge parked outside the nab's trailer earlier that day
from around 10 a.m to 3 p.m like a dodge pickup truck do you know anybody that has a truck like that
next the police talked with crystal's brother curtis knapp a friend of mine i haven't seen him for
like two or three years though stuart heaton stuart hayden do you uh happen to know where the stewart heaton
lives he used to live about three miles up the road uh-huh is he married i don't know okay you haven't seen him
in that long though two or three years it's been at least two three years okay [Music]
police located stuart heaton in nearby bluff city illinois where he worked as a carpenter and roofer
he did in fact own a white dodge pickup and had married two years earlier several months after he lost touch with
curtis nam mr heaton if you'd step out on the porch just for a second what do you want to ask me
mr hayden would you put your hands behind your back what for what are you doing i just want to ask
you a couple of questions what about i haven't done anything wrong we're just going to take you down to the
station and ask you a few questions that's all yeah karen karen call my mom where are
they taking you the police station where'd you get these cuts on your hands and flashing i'm laying a roof you
sometimes bang your hands when you're working construction it's real still for me okay both on the uh
outer and on the palms too what about this one on your forehead did you uh it's not a girl it's a pimple yeah
take a shot of that tom can i put my hands down now just to set him down nose dude just hold him still
still we got to know a little bit about what you did today what was your day like
when did you wake up where'd you go i left my house at nine i am i gave an estimate for a roofing job
where did you give the estimate stewart stu look why am i answering these questions i haven't done anything wrong
what are you really two crime scene technicians came back and told me this guy has the cuts
this is our man from the beginning and for a while though that was all we had connecting him to the crime scene were
the cuts it was just too big of a coincidence for them to say that the guy we're looking for is going
to have this and the suspect they picked up immediately had exactly what they said we'd find
i know for a fact that i'm innocent nobody else may know for a fact but i know for a fact
if they were half the investigator that he would lead the public to believe then he would have checked and found out
that i'll always have cuts on my hand you know there wasn't nothing abnormal a carpenter without cuts on his hands
is not a carpenter he's an observer and i'm a carpenter we were told that he had been picked up
stuart heaton had been picked up for her murder and afterwards we learned that there was a possibility because he had
cuts on his hands his forehead he had a mark on his leg and they started doing some investigation and
people had seen his truck step inside stuart heaton was indicted on september 11
1991. he voluntarily waived his right to a speedy trial after a search warrant was obtained
police took a blood sample from stewart for dna testing an autopsy had been performed on crystal
nab she was three months pregnant and a trace of dried yellow material which contained semen was found on her pubic
hair crystal's boyfriend had been eliminated as a suspect the authorities wanted to find out if
the seamen matched stuart heaton's dna for more than four months stewart languished in jail awaiting the dna test
results which he felt would exonerate him once and for all eaton yes sir you got a delivery thank you
however when his lawyer forwarded the test results they were not what stewart heaton had hoped for
there was a chance the stewart's dna did match the semen sample found on crystal's body
in spite of this stewart remained optimistic i didn't know as much about dna and
kinetic testing then as i do now but when i read that i looked at that and i hung under that and i said uh
there's only a chance you know this this test isn't exact they can't say oh it matches i mean they said there was
a chance in my mind reasonable doubt i had read all that i knew there was no way and when i looked at it i thought
it's not him besides all the other forensic evidence that 25 pages of hair skin tissue blood fingerprints and
not a one with stewards you couldn't be it's an impossibility to be in a place from 10 in the morning to three in the
afternoon and not leave something and there's nobody smart enough to clean up theirs
just theirs and leave everybody else's uh it's it's impossible it can't be done the dodge pickup and the cuts on
stewart's hands notwithstanding he and his family were confident going into the trial
but they would be sorely disappointed curtis knabb crystal's brother gave damaging testimony
he claimed that one night between two and three years earlier he had found stewart in the nab's trailer with his
older sister melody now when you say he was talking to your sister where was he located in the trailer at that time in
the bedroom and where was your sister in the bedroom of course his testimony was completely different from his mom's
on that he said he answered the door and uh that i came in he asked me to leave and
uh all this and that uh i think even at one point he uh said that he woke up and i was there but
that night when i uh stopped by his mom answered the door i asked for curtis she went and got curtis
and we sat down at the kitchen table and uh i drank a couple of beers and talked
they asked me three times stuart's wife was called by the prosecution as a hostile witness as was his mother
their testimony indicated the steward might have changed clothes on the day of the murder
i can tell you that in the morning get a t-shirt on but as far as you know pants and stuff i'd have to say
sweatpants because he couldn't fit in his jeans why all of a sudden now do you just say
sweatpants because i the prosecution theorized that stewart had hidden a pair of blue jeans
bloody during the murder of crystal nab no further questions your honor [Music] two witnesses one woman and one man took
the stand to establish an alibi for stewart between 10 a.m and 3 p.m on the day of the murder
but the prosecutors shot holes in their testimony against his family's advice steward
decided not to testify on his own behalf he says his court-appointed lawyer had not prepared him to take the stand
stewart also says his religion teaches that faith must be put in god rather than any individual including
oneself with regard to the semen samples as the capstone of the prosecution's case
an expert witness testified that there was a probability that stuart heaton's dna matched the semen sample
the dna profile found in this case that matches the dna profile of mr heaton would be expected to be found once
out of every 52 600 non-related caucasians tested those odds relative to other cases where
dna has been used as evidence are not in fact very impressive the odds needed before many experts feel
comfortable or more in the neighborhood of a million to one nevertheless the jury found the prosecution's expert
convincing the jury has returned two signed verdicts first signed verdict we the jury find
the defendant stuart heaton guilty of first-degree murder count one [Music] i was expecting a not guilty verdict we
the jury and after i left the courtroom i got across to the county jail in there with a family and friends and
at that point i cried held on to my wife and i cried and we decided we'd go on and keep
fighting it i don't quit i feel for the family that lost their child i you know i i am not that kind of person
i know i know what it is to lose a child and and they had to hurt bad but the worst thing that could have
happened was put the wrong man in prison for it stuart heaton was sentenced to life in
prison at the menard correctional center in chester illinois the judge ruled that stewart would never
be eligible for parole [Music] i am convinced that the dna evidence in this case
was the linchpin of the prosecution's case that without it the prosecution had a
weak circumstantial case jurors were wowed by the scientific evidence of fifty two thousand to one odds
against stuart heaton and that did it in the end of the day a weak case was made a strong
one based on this evidence that i believe is phony evidence david protess is an investigative
journalist and professor at northwestern university in evanston illinois his research has led him to conclude
that the real criminal is still at large and the stewart heaton was railroaded if he hadn't owned a white truck he
wouldn't have even been a suspect in this case i did a search through department of
motor vehicle records for the state of illinois that found that in fayette county alone
there were more than a hundred white trucks that were similar to the kind that stewart heaton drove
and in fact narrowing that search down i identified 12 white dodge dakotas including stuart
heaton's one of those dodge dakotas belonged to a man with a lengthy criminal history
who knew the murder victim crystal knapp could the dna sample found on krystalnab's body it belonged to someone
other than stuart heaton according to the statistical method used in stewart's trial
there are more than 4 800 people in the united states whose dna would have matched the sample
and when a new statistical method widely used today is applied that number rises from 4 800 to around
48 thousand there's no dispute that dna evidence to exclude somebody is generally accepted if we look just at
one place on a gene and they don't match then we know that those people don't match
the problem is when you try to include people we can prove for example that somebody isn't the father of a child by
dna tests and we can prove that to a hundred percent scientific acceptability but when we try
to prove who is the father who is the murderer that's where we run into difficulties
bob byron and his associate shelly malinowski have taken on the stuart heaton case pro bono
for no fee they believe not only the steward is innocent but the dr robert allen the dna expert
for the prosecution used a controversial method of calculating the odds against stewart
two years after he testified in the stewart heaton case robert allen published an article with
several other renowned scientists that rejected the statistical assumptions that he himself
had used in the stuart heaton evidence and i think that the main reason that he was convicted was that
the jurors were completely overwhelmed by the complexity of the dna evidence and they they saw it as as infallible
when in fact it's it's not do across the board deny the use of dna evidence because it's low
i i believe it is not fair i think that it should in fact be admissible and here
that's what a jury is for as the try or the fact let them determine whether the odds are
low in relation to everything else and all the other evidence in the case or whether they're significant
this probe here represents the the single most important issue in the dna testimony of stuart
heaton's trial was interpretation of the evidence this is an autoradiogram or autorad of
dna taken from the murder victim crystal nail the two distinct bands represent dna from a region in which
individuals are very likely to be different genetically juxtapose another dna sample taken from
a different area on kristalnab's body and the two bands also show up clearly a perfect match
because both samples come from the same person [Music] the trial boiled down to a debate
between two expert witnesses over whether bands were present in the semen sample found on krystalnab's body
and if they were did they match the bands in stuart heaton's dna profile this autorad compares stuart heaton's
dna with dna from the semen sample the small pen point dots on the left borders marked the places where dr allen
said he saw bands which link stuart heaton to the semen based upon your examination of the auto
radiographs the defense expert dr gary litman said he was unable to detect those critical
bands as i said there's no band there simply is no band there the sample itself was old crusty material that was minute
in quantity it probably did not provide an adequate basis for even conducting a dna test and certainly not
the type of dna test that was done here we unearthed a letter in which prior to his reaching conclusions
dr robert allen said that he hoped he hoped that the dna test would end up implicating stuart heaton now that is
scientific subjectivity that should disqualify him as an expert in this case i'm certain that dr alan did the best
that he could with what was available to him but that material simply wasn't in the best condition
and it didn't lead then to very clear-cut results there was a lot of smudges it's it's difficult to say unambiguously
that a band is present and a band is not present dr dan crane has co-authored articles on dna testing with dr robert
allen yet in the case of stewart heaton dr crane disputes the conclusions of his
colleague based on the dna evidence alone i would feel very uncomfortable sending a man to prison on that evidence
alone now there may well have been other compelling evidence of which i'm not aware but the dna evidence
by itself certainly would leave a large area of doubt in my mind as to whether or not that he was in fact the person
who was at that crime scene i mean it wasn't just dna that convicted him it was people that saw him saw the
truck and people had testified to you know where they saw him at the times and i mean people that saw
the truck at the home that's what i think helped convict him that plus the dna there's no doubt in my mind no doubt
whatsoever that he killed her he killed her an extremely vicious sick manner he's extremely dangerous he has to be
locked up if he is released i do believe that he will kill again he has to be locked up and the court
system worked and it worked right i did not kill crystal net i don't know the girl i don't have any
reason to have any grudge against her or her family or anything i didn't know her
[Music] when we return two sisters are joyfully reunited after more than 20 years apart
[Music] in june of 1994 we brought you the poignant story of diane handline of la
crescenta california since 1986 diana's battled a rare and often fatal blood disease
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 not not something to be taken lightly
[Music] only one person diane's younger sister marilyn was a potential bone marrow
donor but diane had no idea where to find marilyn bye bye the sisters have been split up
in 1954 when their parents separated marilyn went to live with her father diane stayed with her mother
over the next few years contact was sporadic and for reasons long since forgotten the sisters became estranged
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 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 maryland 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
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 yes maybe that's why i feel comfortable is because i can feel the love
and when you feel that love you feel comfortable 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 going to have a lot of fun together enjoy the time we have isn't that beautiful coincidentally the
day of the reunion was diane's 53rd birthday and maryland had not forgotten is my name
[Laughter] 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
maryland'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] you would think they were just out for a joyride best friends without a care in
the world but like everything else about rose turfer and carolyn stevens looks can be
deceiving [Music] to the police these two women are nothing less than the real life
thelma and louise today turfford and stevens are armed dangerous and on the run wanted on multiple charges of aggravated
robbery [Music] carolyn yeah okay we're running a little late they met in 1992 both were nurses at a
psychiatric hospital in houston texas eventually rose invited carolyn to move in with her and her family
by january of 1995 the two women had embarked on a vicious game rose turfer was by all accounts a loving
wife devoted mother and dedicated professional but at night she took on a whole new
persona here we are got the wine the key great the room's right here oh good rose began soliciting men
through the personals thank you then she would lure her dates to out of the way motel rooms
a little soft music a good bottle of wine and the stage was set for carolyn's entrance
sit down on the bed the feldman louise bandits move [Music] [Music] while rose ran out to use a victim's
bank and credit cards rose and carolyn from the onset wanted to be the real life thelma louise
they wanted to experience that thrill and the spontaneity and the only thing is i
don't believe they ever considered what they were going to do to their families over a three-month period rose and
carolyn reportedly robbed at least 10 men of more than a quarter of a million dollars but eventually
their luck ran out in march of 1995 rose and carolyn were arrested bail was set at 250 000 each
it seems as though prior to both rose and carolyn going to jail and being arrested
they had this pack that if one got out they both got out or they both stayed in and
uh rose's parents were just going to get rose out of jail look i'm sorry i have to keep calling you
but avery is putting pressure on me in an attempt to cajole rose's family into posting bail for both of them
carolyn phoned rosa's parents repeatedly to hurt the kids she claimed that a mysterious
international private investigator named avery was threatening rosa's children but rose
and i know what he's capable of and we should all take him seriously probably the weirdest part of this whole
scenario was the man named avery i never bought that he was real it was just too far-fetched
rosa's family however believed avery was real even her in-laws were moved to act they
put up their house and restaurant as partial collateral i tried to convince the parents don't
make both bonds and it's not often that you sit and try to speak to someone about not giving
you 25 000 but i just knew it was a problem and i knew it wasn't going to work and it didn't
sure enough on may 22nd 1995 rose turford and carolyn stevens took flight left behind was a letter which alleged
that they had been kidnapped by the mysterious avery [Music] in reality the thelma and louise bandus
were on the run leaving rosa's involves in danger of losing their home and business we wanted to help
in any way we could i never once once entered my mind that they would disappear never i really hope that
and rose and carolyn to stop and think they're going to basically throw really really good honest hard-working people
out in the streets and if they have to go to jail well that's just kind of the price you
pay for making a mistake but it's a lot better to pay price once than to pay it all your life
and take your and make your kids and your family suffer for a lifetime [Music] [Music]
[Music] join me next time for another intriguing edition of unsolved mysteries [Music]
[Applause] [Music] you

Brief Summary

The episode covers the Girden Light, Stuart Heaton's wrongful conviction, and a heartwarming sister reunion.

Key points

The Girden Light Mystery. For over 60 years, locals have reported sightings of an eerie light in Girden, Arkansas. Is it a ghost or something else?
Stuart Heaton's Controversial Case. Stuart Heaton claims he is innocent of murder, despite DNA evidence suggesting otherwise. Can he prove his innocence?
The Wrong Man in Prison. Stuart Heaton was sentenced to life in prison based on questionable DNA evidence.
DNA Evidence Controversy. Investigative journalist David Protess argues that the DNA evidence against Heaton is flawed.
Sisters Reunited. Diane and Marilyn reunite after 30 years apart, hoping for a bone marrow match.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What is it? That's the question.

9:46WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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