Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 8, Episode 2 - Updated Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] tonight on unsolved mysteries dr michael swango's career began with great promise only to be derailed by
allegations of poisoning and murder what happened to michael swango did an angel of mercy choose to become
an angel of death some 30 years have passed as a young woman from texas and a jordanian airman
fell in love only to be torn apart by the uncertainties of war now a heartbroken father needs your help
to find the son he has never met little logan carroll was born with no heartbeat and no vital signs doctors
could do nothing to save him but as logan's family gathered to grieve something truly extraordinary happened
something that can only be called a miracle join me perhaps you hold the key perhaps you may be able to solve one of
tonight's unsolved mysteries [Music] february 7th 1984 columbus ohio an intern at the state university
hospital checked on a 69 year old woman recovering from routine back surgery no one knows why dr michael swango was
in the room perhaps just to say hello when he left rena cooper seemed to be doing fine
[Music] [Music] let's check as she was being stabilized rena struggled to tell the doctors what
happened she wrote the doctor put something in my iv that was dr when i was over there i was
taking some notes while this is going on we know that another nurse decided to walk down the hall to calm
the other patients since there was a great deal of commotion and four rooms down within minutes sees dr swango
exiting another room with a very funny grin on his face and those are her words not mine the nurse goes into that room
and finds a large hypodermic needle with the plunger down sitting on the sink which is not very unusual you wouldn't
expect that in a hospital hypodermics aren't left lying around oh mike good glad you're here
i need to talk to you for a second three different doctors confronted michael swango about what had happened in rena
cooper's room swango allegedly told three different stories at one point he claimed he had never
even been in the room just kind of surgery it's coming for patients just out of surgery to be delusional
most of us tend to hold doctors to a higher standard and perhaps that's fair after all we are sometimes compelled to
trust them implicitly depending on their knowledge and expertise to save our lives
did michael swango betray that trust for his own sadistic pleasure if you ask swango he'd probably tell you
he was a victim of bad luck and circumstance but unfortunately the question cannot be
posed no one can find michael swango michael swango came to ohio as a recent graduate of the medical school at
southern illinois university he projected charm and confidence despite a lackluster med school record
it came back normal normal michael swango became more and more withdrawn as he proceeded through his college classes
and eventually got into medical school and though academically he did very well the more the classes became advanced and
the more he needed to do hands-on patient work the more he pulled away from that to the point where he was um
held back a year take a look at one of these appraisals and you can see what i'm talking about
swango's poor performance continued through the first six months of his internship
dr swango the end result is unless you have a significant improvement you will not be allowed to take sam you may not
recommend me for residency i've been working my entire life to be a doctor swango's lifelong goal was now
jeopardized it could mean he would never become a full-fledged doctor [Music] it was shortly after swangy was put on
probation that rina cooper suffered her mysterious seizure it was one of a series of puzzling
events at the hospital that spring rina cooper survived but at least five other patients died
the five mysterious respiratory arrests in the last month the neurosurgery wing has caused quite an alarm among all of
us i'm aware of that i've decided to see if there's some sort of pattern to this situation and i've
developed a chart the upshot of it is that uh whenever these incidents occurred uh swango is always there
a black cloud seems to follow michael swango wherever swango was there was an unexplained respiratory arrest and it
didn't happen once or twice it happened five six seven times though some evidence appeared to point
to swango hospital officials chose not to call the police they decided to watch him closely and
quietly wait out the last months of his internship i think the kid was great i think i was
better but i think chicken food thank you thank you so much swango did not appear disturbed by the
hospital's decision to let him go or the whispered allegations against him in fact on several occasions during the
last months of his internship he treated staff members to what he called extra spicy chicken
you weren't kidding that really is spicy we know that from interviews with three
doctors they became violently ill within hours of eating the spicy chicken so ill
in fact that they needed treatment for their eyes from ruptured blood vessels from the vomiting
michael swango left osu hospital in june of 1984 without being formally investigated
no charges have ever been filed one month later swango had a new job not as a doctor but as a paramedic
on september 14th he brought donuts for the whole crew i grabbed a donut started eating the
donut but i noticed there was something different about the donut it didn't spring back up like most donuts do
you already know 45 minutes later brent and several others became very ill they wanted to test the leftover donuts
but they had disappeared only an empty box remained no one had any suspicions of mike at all
at that time they figured that that was food poisoning since the donuts were gone and they couldn't analyze it they
just more or less thought that that's what it was and let it go by that well the next night i worked with mike
at a football game a local football game at halftime he offered to buy me a soda
i started sipping the soda at halftime and about the start of the third quarter i
became deathly sick yet another mysterious illness made swango's co-workers increasingly
suspicious they also couldn't help noticing swango's grisly fascination with accidents and death
the gorier the better is she breathing he would describe his ultimate calls as a paramedic
and that would be a busload of children hitting head on with the tanker truck and
igniting and as he's approaching the scene he would see charred bodies out of the out of the windows of the buses
bodies that are up up against the barbed wire fins caught in the car caught in the barbed wire fences i mean this is to
me i thought was really strange just you know to want to see death no no just stay calm man finally the
paramedics decided to fake a call to get swango out of the building they wanted him away long enough to
search his locker in michael swango's gym bag his co-workers found two bottles of ant
poison one full one empty poison michael swango yes i am detective reynolds these are
officers dewitt rogers we have a warrant search premises paul wants to start a living in swango's apartment police
discovered more incriminating evidence dozens of bottles of poisons books on poisons recipe cars for making poisons
and an assortment of syringes one syringe was full of ant poison the evidence was overwhelming
swanger was convicted of six counts of aggravated battery and sentenced to five years in prison
after serving half his sentence he was given time off for good behavior amazingly swango again found work in the
healthcare field he was apparently able to convince employers that he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice
in newport news virginia he turned up at a medical vocational school there three of his colleagues reportedly
fell ill swango then talked his way into the university of south dakota hospital
again he was shadowed by his past and dismissed finally in august of 1993 swango
resurfaced to stony brook university in new york he was assigned to a veterans administration hospital on long island
while there he changed his name to michael kirk he was accepted into the stony brook
program and they never bothered to check him with a central registry for medical
residents which apparently had a file that was an inch thick on him there were 180 people who applied for 12 slots
and he managed to get one of those 12 slots despite these clouds of questionable activity
that followed him in at least four states on september 29 1993 michael swango's path crossed out of lc and baron harris
baron harris was a 60 year old cabinet maker from long island hi mr harris he had a fever of 104 degrees and a slight
case of pneumonia i'm going home tomorrow well we'll see if we can't accommodate you my first
impressions of dr kirk he seemed very professional he seemed to be very concerned he seemed to know what he was
doing a very pleasant man okay if you say so okay all right yes he will okay thank you see you in the
morning yes swango told elsie to go home there was nothing more she could do i'll
see you in the morning sweetheart don't you forget to come back and get me no you'll be all right
i love you love you too elsie harris claims that sometime during the night dr michael swango alias
michael kirk gave her husband a sedative by the next morning baron had been moved
to intensive care he had lapsed into a coma doesn't make any sense to me he was coughing he had a little fever i
don't get it i don't understand mrs harris sometimes people have allergic reactions to certain drugs now that may
have happened in your husband's case why a coma i just hope it wasn't anything that we
did he had a very smirky attitude like a half cocked smile on his face like a little kid with his hand in the cookie
jars this is what he reminded me of even though he had a terrific bedside manner
he there was just something sneaky about him once the uh story hit the wires and uh
reporters started uh converging on the northport va hospital and on his dorm room he very hastily
packed up and disappeared before michael swango vanished elsie harris says he told her that baron would
never come out of his coma swango apparently knew what he was talking about baron harris died on november 9th 1993.
wherever michael swango is today authorities believe that he is most likely working in the medical field
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] every parent hears of these stories that
it's your worst nightmare it's worse than that the person that hurt amy and took amy
has no idea what they've done i mean she was such an integral vital part of life
that um it's very hard very very hard i guess the biggest question in anybody's mind is why did the person
choose amy [Music] she had no enemies no secret habits no taste for danger she was a world-class athlete who kept
her mind focused and her body primed there was no reason for her to die the circumstances of amy willard's death
would lead some to conclude that the killer was well-versed in police procedure during the investigation three men with
just such knowledge came forward to offer eyewitness accounts each reportedly placed himself at the
crime scene it each told a different story some believe all three were merely publicity seekers
but until a suspect is actually charged with amy's murder their true motives will remain the subject of intense
scrutiny [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1992 george mason university in
fairfax virginia offered amy a full athletic scholarship [Music] by her junior year amy was ranked among
the top 25 female lacrosse players in the united states [Music] she had talent and she loved it aim
always said whether they won or lost she had a good day she played well the team
did well she felt good it didn't matter what the outcome was like they didn't have to win all the time as long as
everybody enjoyed what they were doing as much as she did in june of 1996 amy returned to her home
in philadelphia for the summer she enrolled in classes at a local school on wednesday night june 19th amy met up
with friends at smokey joe's tavern a well-known college hangout she stayed for about three hours
yeah i've gone on a couple of dates lately but you know nothing serious really amy's friends say that she drank less
than one beer and left the bar before they did somewhere between 1 30 and 1 40 a.m
bye guys at 203 am amy's car was discovered by off-duty paramedics it was parked on the
shoulder of a highway transition road engine running headlights ablaze car radio plane
amy however was gone and fresh blood stains on the pavement suggested that she hadn't gone willingly
within the hour state police would be scouring the area for clues they found some blood along the right
side of the car on the guard rail they found a palm print on the car and the next morning about 10 a.m at the
top of the ramp they found her underwear and her tennis shoes with daylight the search had expanded to
include helicopters canine teams and legions of volunteers around noon as police were searching for
amy willard's body essentially police say a guy showed up at the ramp and told them he had been on the ramp
the night before and had seen a car you were out here last night yeah i was driving by and i saw the car
did you see anyone near the car no i just saw the car they took his name and an address and said they'd get back
in touch with him and in the interim they checked him out and found out that he used to work in the area of 16th and
indiana where amy's body was found amy's unclothed body was found the afternoon of her disappearance by
children playing in a vacant lot in philadelphia she had been dumped 20 miles from her
car and five blocks from where the young man had once worked there was no conclusive evidence of
sexual assault three momentous blows to the head had crushed amy's skull the investigation quickly focused on the
would-be eyewitness initially he willingly answered questions and cooperated with the
authorities police searched his car and they found handcuffs they found a flashlight that
is the type used by police and when they searched his house they found some police paraphernalia and they
also found a magazine that you could be used to order police equipment [Music] prior to the search authorities learned
that the young man had once been charged with impersonating a police officer without warning he stopped cooperating
then he lawyered up he says through his lawyer he didn't do it but he also denies coming to the ramp
that day and police are steadfast saying he did come to the ramp the now reluctant eyewitness remains a
potential suspect but police have been unable to find any evidence that links him directly to the murder
meanwhile a second witness had come forward to say that he too was on the highway transition road the night amy
was abducted an off-duty pennsylvania state trooper who has since resigned claimed that not
only had he seen the car but he has spoken to a uniform policeman sitting in a squad car parked behind it
the police are very adamant that this trooper was elsewhere when he said he was on the ramp but the trooper is just
as adamant that he saw what he saw and he has always stood by his story that he saw this cop car behind amy's
in a stunning turn around one week later newspapers reported that a local policeman did come forward to admit he
had been at amy's car are you okay here yeah i already called the local pd they're on their way
however the officer made no mention of the state trooper though he did say that he had talked to the ambulance driver on
the scene [Music] the police re-interviewed the ambulance crew and they said that absolutely they
had not talked to this officer that night he agreed to resign from the force and
cooperate fully with them and in exchange he would not be prosecuted for lying to them
well one alleged police impersonator and two bona fide officers was there an ounce of truth in anything
they said each had reportedly thrust himself into the limelight with an eyewitness account
each in turn was questioned as a potential suspect there are a lot of coincidences here on
the first suspect worked in the area of where amy's body was found the trooper lived around the corner very near where
amy lived with her mom the the officer used to take his drunk drivers for blood tests to the hospital
where amy's mom works are they coincidences or are they all linked i mean that's for the police to
find out to date authorities have not amassed enough proof to charge anyone with a
crime however some of the evidence does suggest that whoever killed amy willard approached her under the guise of
authority [Music] a woman like amy according to her family would not have stopped for just anyone
it's nearly 2 am in the morning she's in a car she's alone so a police impersonator or police
officer seems to be the most likely reason she would have pulled over take a step out of the car please
i don't understand what they're doing i don't understand what the problem is listen
on the road i think amy realized she was in trouble and was on a run and took off and that
she was moving they hit her and aim was gone that's what i would like to think happened that she
only had fear for a couple seconds and that she didn't know anything else that happened to her
we loved amy we loved her more than anything in this world and we are thankful to god for giving her to us
and the way that he chose to end her life that's something that we try to deal with but we're not going to dwell on
our job is making sure that amy is remembered for the wonderful person that she was instead of the way that her life
was ended that's for the police to handle amy willard was last seen alive at smokey joe's tavern in wayne
pennsylvania just outside philadelphia on june 20th 1996 around 1 30 a.m amy's car was found here on the
transition road leading from interstate 476 to route 1. amy willard's body was discovered in
this vacant lot at 16th in indiana in north philadelphia [Music] [Music] in a moment
the tragic death of an infant is followed by a miraculous rebirth [Music] perhaps the only time we welcome a visit
to the hospital is for the birth of a child but even this special moment can be marred by sudden disaster
just ask an indiana couple named todd and tammy carroll their second child megan was still born
after an eight-month pregnancy naturally megan was very much on their minds when the carols arrived at the
hospital for the birth of their third child the son named logan they had no idea how close they would
come to another tragedy this is my sister ruthie she's going to be with us today hi ruthie nice to meet
you nice to meet you well tammy everything looks great after we lost megan i was real anxious
it was real stressful um i was worried is anything going to be wrong with this baby is you know everything going to be
all right and after the ultrasound and everything looked good on it and then we ran some other tests that looked fine
that eased my mind i really tried to look at it as a separate incident okay here comes the next one
tammy's obstetrician dr diana oaken induced labor at around 8 45 a.m the contractions grew stronger and more
frequent through the day the baby's vital signs were consistently stable and positive
4 30 p.m birth was imminent tammy's sister ruthie stationed herself near the fetal heartbeat monitor
the red numbers showed a normal rate 120 to 140 beats per minute another deep breath
and push while tammy was pushing trying to push the baby out i noticed that the heart monitor like would drop way down
and that really kind of alarmed me and they had her take some slow breaths and it recovered back up
one more push deep breath and push 4 42 p.m at the moment logan carroll was born his
heart rate plunged to zero a fragile life in mortal danger i knew something was wrong as soon as he
delivered because he didn't have any tone when i felt his umbilical cord i didn't feel any pulse at all
and that's when we started cpr why isn't he crying why's he crying relax it's all right
[Music] call a code [Music] for 15 minutes the emergency team tried desperately to revive logan
[Music] 4 57 dr mary valentine the carol's pediatrician joined the emergency team
what's the history here an eventful pregnancy we lost the heart rate immediately before delivery logan still
had no vital signs no heartbeat no breathing no heart rate [Music] stop compression
no heart rate flat line continue resuscitation we continued doing cpr throughout that
time again with no response for approximately another 15 minutes after my arrival
and i began inserting a line into his umbilical cord to try to administer some drugs to help revive him
they had put ekg monitor on him and the tracing was not showing any electrical activity so i
i knew oh it didn't look good at all well i was still hoping but that he was there so long
i don't know how many five or six doctors there working on him at one time trying to
do get him revive and he still ain't doing nothing i i just couldn't lose this baby i just could not believe this
could happen again at some point you know you always have to just say we've done what we can do
this baby is not going to respond and we finally called it and pronounced him dead at that time i'm sorry
i don't think there's any lower feeling than holding your dead child it's supposed to be such a time of joy
and renewed life giving birth that when they they hand you this child that's no longer living
i just can't begin to tell you how low that that feeling is and sitting there holding him and looking in
his face i just i just wanted him to be alive so bad logan james carroll was officially
pronounced dead at 5 15 pm he was 33 minutes old in accordance with hospital policy the
carols were allowed time to say their goodbyes swaddled in a blanket logan was cradled
by each grieving family member in the midst of their anguish tammy and todd agreed to an autopsy hoping for
some explanation [Music] tammy todd i don't mean to sound crass or anything but we usually take pictures of the baby
for the family you never know how people are going to take that when you come in and say
i'd like to take pictures of you and the baby but they were very receptive because they said they didn't get enough
pictures the last time that this had happened to them these photos were taken that afternoon
stark portraits meant to commemorate the end of a young life instead they would mark the beginning of
a miracle what was that what was what he just made a noise that was just a reflex action
tammy are you sure i'm sorry while i was holding logan he made the gasping sound
it was a very eerie feeling but we had been told that that was normal it is called agonal gasping and
it can happen because of the medication it can go on for quite a while so i wanted to let them know because every
time he would do that he did a couple times for tammy they would they would just their eyes
would light up and then they would be really let down when he wouldn't do it again
as the minutes went by i was slowly becoming unaware of what even was going on in the room i just wanted to
completely detach myself and float away somewhere and be somewhere where it wasn't hurting so bad i wanted to get
away from the pain some 40 minutes had passed since logan was pronounced dead a time for his autopsy was close at hand
however as tammy's stepmother held the infant she was beginning to think that an autopsy would not be such a good idea
this color looks so good ruthie's getting warmer bailey i'll get the nurse just look
[Music] i'll be right back what's going on ruthie there's no reason for this to happen dr o'conn i
understand about agonal breathing but is there such a thing as an agonal heart rate susan he has a heart rate please
come and take a look at him i thought she was nuts you know if you keep this up you're going to give me a
heart attack i just i think i was afraid that she was reacting in a way that was going to
upset the family even more because i mean the baby was dead [Music] [Music] this baby's alive let's get him nursery
what it was total unbelief and i wanted to touch him i can't i had an uncontrollable urge i needed to touch
him and i don't know how soon it was but it was real soon they came in took my iv out
and i had monitors on me and i had a blood pressure cuff i mean they were taking wires and just pulling them off
of me and put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me into the nursery and i reached in and i held his arm and i i
was talking to him telling him that he had to hang in there and that i loved him and that i was proud of him for
being so strong i was still in a different type of shock because it was so unbelievable
[Music] unbelievable indeed at least six physicians and eight registered nurses all certain that logan
carroll had died high-tech meters and monitors had confirmed that judgment i figured god's hand hadn't been in it
but that's not in the medical literature to account for the miraculous as an explanation but um
yeah it's amazing i mean we're all trained to do something as doctors and here we did
nothing and he came back words spread through the hospital very quickly you know people from the lab
people from other nursing units came up just to look at him to say that they could have seen this miracle baby it was
it was incredible the emergency room doctor came up and was totally amazed it was
it was something you know something logan's metamorphosis from the lifeless infant in this photo the squirming
marvel videotaped just one day later was simply astonishing he would remain in the hospital for the
next five weeks his vital signs never faltered though logan remains healthy doctors
fear he may have sustained some degree of permanent neurological damage during the time he had no oxygen
only time will tell [Music] my feelings for him will stay the same whether he has an iq of 180 or 50. he's
here he's alive i've held the alternative and holding him no matter how he's going to develop in
the future we try to live for today and we're keeping [Music] it is impossible for most of us to fully
appreciate the carroll family's experience today logan's extraordinary revival continues to baffle any expert who
studies the case however those who were in the delivery room that day when despair turned to wonder
are certain that they witnessed nothing less than a modern day miracle next a poignant tale of love denied and a son
lost [Music] you're about to meet a man named fawzi mahmud almost 30 years ago a single moment
changed his life forever it was the spring of 1967 in san antonio texas the event
nothing less than love at first sight [Music] fauzi mahmoud was a trainee in the
jordanian air force he was in the united states to learn american flying techniques he was not interested in
anything else or so he thought how are you doing do you remember barbara hi hello
her name was zoyla maldonado she was just 20 years old in fauzi's eyes she was dazzling
what i mean she looked so beautiful to me and she got this green dress and just she was a knockout and i was
knocked out i fell in love with her i mean i felt madly in love with her this is beautiful
it is pretty i like it like you very beautiful for both fawzi and zoiler this was her
first taste of true love but for fawzi it was also much more i liked that [Music]
actually zoella was not only the first love it was the first woman i ever talked to in my life because we came
from a very very strict family and strict people and a strict government you know
but she was my first ever thing oh mom he's waiting zoila's parents were very conservative
and she was their only child they did not like the idea of zoyla dating anyone the fact that fauzi was a foreigner who
spoke little english did not help he's a nice boy well what does it matter and i guess
even though her parents were conservative and strict we managed to go out almost daily
we went dancing we went to the lake we went to the mountains we went everywhere together
six months later zoil and fauzi found themselves at a turning point [Music] bowsey i think i'm pregnant
to zoyla's great relief fauzi was ecstatic you are yes i want to marry you [Music]
but the marriage would never take place several months earlier the six-day war had erupted between jordan and israel
tension between the two countries remained high in late november 1967 fousey was ordered
home i back i promise rosie we talked and we promised and we vowed that we will always be together no
matter what happens when i come back i can't raise baby by myself i can't you and baby come to jordan i
just felt so helpless i come back very soon come on kids we need to get going i felt my life should be like that i
mean we're having so good time together we're happy why the happiness have to go
[Applause] [Music] [Music] sometimes i miss you so much i think i'll go crazy but then i receive your
letters and i feel better zoiling files he continued the love affair by letter the jordanian air force refused to
release fawzi so zoyla planned to go to jordan please take care of yourself and stay
safe i will close now i'm tired but the baby's fine it still kicks all the time if he's a
boy he'll probably be a football player in late june 1968 zarla gave birth to a healthy baby boy
she named him amadeo marcelo i mean i was thrilled i was very happy i was jumping
but i also was very unpleased because of the fact that i cannot be there to see him and be with
her and be of help to her i was very frustrated even on duty fauzi's thoughts were with
zoyla and his infant son he could not wait to bring his new family to jordan zoyla kept writing to fawzi but the tone
of her letters soon changed pozzi i'm writing to say i'm sorry to hear of your problem
i want us together more than ever i will always believe my love is strong but the war
i refuse to take that chance with marcelo's life zoyla made a difficult decision
she needed a father for her baby she wrote fousey that she had married someone else
fawzi could not bring himself to right to zoyla again but he could never forget his son
in 1970 fawzi returned to the united states he claims he tried to call zoyler by
phone but her mother hung up on it then had the number changed she apparently blamed fauzi for her
daughter's out of wedlock child and was understandably upset to hear from him again
in desperation fauzi went to zoiler's house hello i like cinzoyla please nobody wants to
talk to you my son i like seeing my son you ruined my daughter's life no no i love your daughter you know what
you are three years too late [Applause] if you don't get out of here i'm gonna call the police no please wait
i just want to see my son please wait fauzi had no choice he could not risk being arrested and
possibly deported that moment was as close as fauzi mahmoud has ever gotten to meeting his
son today fauzi lives in enid oklahoma with his wife robin they have a young son and
fauzi has three grown children from a previous marriage but thoughts of his firstborn still
haught him there is one thing missing all the time i would like to see my son i would like
to see how he looks like i want to hug him i want to tell him i love him i mean there's a lot of things that we
did not do together maybe we can do it now even at this age [Music] do [Music] join me again next week perhaps you may
be able to help solve a mystery [Music] [Music] [Music] you

This episode includes: Deadly Doses & UD, Missing Bird People, Baby's Breath and Fawzi's Son & UD.

Brief Summary

Dr. Michael Swango's dark medical past, Logan Carroll's miraculous revival, and Fawzi Mahmoud's lost love story are featured in this episode.

Key points

The Mysterious Case of Michael Swango. Dr. Michael Swango's career was marred by allegations of poisoning and murder.
The Tragic Death of Amy Willard. Amy Willard, a promising athlete, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
A Mother's Heartbreak. Tammy Carroll reflects on the pain of losing her child during a supposed joyful moment.
A Miracle at Birth. Logan Carroll is born lifeless but miraculously revives after being pronounced dead.
Longing for Connection. Fawzi Mahmoud expresses his deep desire to meet his son after years of separation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was a victim of bad luck and circumstance.

4:19WatchJul 18, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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