Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 8, Episode 20 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries a 14 year old girl awakens hogtied in her own bedroom with her entire home viciously
ransacked she tells police she has no memory of an attack or even of her own identity what happened to Sarah Powell
her Harvey McLeod life as a cab driver was routine and uneventful until the day he was hijacked by one of his fares
turned into a human time bomb and ordered to rob a bank and we'll take you to Egypt an ancient land of mystery and
intrigue for centuries the immense treasures of the Pharaohs lay buried in the valley of the kings but when the
tomb of King Tut was opened in 1922 was a deadly curse unleashed on those who trespassed upon his grave join me for
this intriguing and compelling edition unsolved mysteries [Music] Egypt the cradle of long-lost
civilizations home to the Magnificent pyramids the inscrutable Great Sphinx giant statues of wants powerful
Pharaoh's truly a land of intrigue and mystery buried beneath the shifting sands in the Valley of the Kings lay
secrets the hidden tombs of ancient rulers their bodies mummified and surrounded by the golden treasures meant
to accompany them to the afterlife treasures that have proven irresistible by the end of the 19th century nearly
every tomb in the Valley of the Kings have been picked clean riches carried away by both
archaeologists and thieves nevertheless Howard Carter a self-taught British Egyptologist was sure there was one more
tomb that of a little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun he had no idea the discovery of King Tut's final resting
place would unleash one of the most sensational legends of the 20th century The Legend of the Mummy's curse by the
fall of 1922 Howard Carter had been searching for the tomb of King Tutankhamun for five years
his financial doctor was george herbert the 5th Earl of Carnarvon an avid amateur archaeologist Lord Carnarvon had
already spent the modern equivalent of half a million dollars and was about to give up
Carter begged him to give it one last chance you and the workers are digging furiously carnival longtime devotee of
the occult sought the advice of a noted psychic horse who are deeply disturbed I
see a hurricane of lightning a new Lord carnival are standing alone given what I
have seen I suggest you make your excuses to the public and cancel the dig but that's impossible
I must despite the warning the dig continued with spectacular results on November 26 1922 Howard Carter Lord
Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn Herbert Karn Arvin's daughter descended next cavaties staircase and stepped into history they
came to a doorway sealed by the priests of the Dead long before Christ was born or Rome was built
the first thing is this unbelievable feeling of smelling and feeling in a woman how comes this air of what how
many thousands of years right and then he puts up this the light my god marvelous let me have a look who
could possibly describe what he sees you know this helter-skelter go don't go go
go fantastic and one after the other look in and everybody's trying and there's no longer your lordship and you
know let me have a look I'd pay for this you know who kept me in there and then of course they go in they went probably
bananas they're suddenly in a place the last person had been in there was a 3,600 whatever years before I and spooky
things went on they began to feel I mean they were no different in thieves it was
the ultimate treasure trove a jumble of King Tut's favorite and most precious possessions a toys yet played with as a
baby the throne he had ruled from as a king the golden jars had held his heart and lungs
the Egyptians literally believed you could take it with you since the next world was gonna be a continuation of
this world you would want your possessions you would want a bed you would want your utensils you would want
your game boards that you could play your games that you enjoyed so the priests upon death and your family would
prepare it would be a group activity would put whatever they thought you would need for the big journey word of
the incredible fine flew around the world crowds watched in astonishment as Howard
Carter brought each prize into the light dignitaries and reporters from dozens of
countries converge on the Valley of the Kings hungry for every detail Carter and
Carnarvon became household names international celebrities then slowly a shadow began to eclipse their limelight
it began with Howard Carter's pet bird in the days after the tomb was opened a Cobra
the royal symbol of the Pharaohs attacked and killed the bird the Sun the meeting was cleared the
king's serpent had struck a blow of vengeance against the man who had desecrated Tutankhamun's grave
the natives said before winter was out someone would die that someone was Lord Carnarvon five months after the opening
of the tomb Carnarvon died of blood poisoning in Cairo legend has it that at that very
moment in England carvings dog howled in anguish fell dead [Music] in Cairo all the lights went out
punching the city into blackness as dark as the tomb of Tutankhamen then a newspaper broke word of a curse written
in hieroglyphs in King Tut's tomb they who enter this sacred tomb shall Swift be visited by wings of death they didn't
have a concept of Hell so you didn't go to a bad place if you die but if you went out of existence that was the worst
thing that could happen and that's why the tomb was so crucial to assure that you wouldn't go out of existence that
all the necessary parts would be there intact ready to go again in the next world and this is why we see sometimes
what we call the cursor descriptions I discovered here at Giza a tool with the first cursor in a scripture never
happened and listen what the man is saying in this tomb if anyone will disturb my tomb he will be eaten by
crocodile loin and the hippo in his wife lifted the same inscription and she added more and the scorpions and the
snakes would eat you fear of the Mummy's curse tweeted a panic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator
of Sherlock Holmes fuelled the hysteria when he stated it was probable that Lord
Carnarvon had been killed by a malevolent spirit hundreds of tourists who had bought Egyptian antiquities as
souvenirs rushed to ship them back including in one case a mummy's severed arm the United States Congress even
debated passing a law banning Egyptian antiquities from American museums nevertheless Howard Carter continued
clearing out the tomb of Tutankhamun one exquisite piece after another even the boy Kings mummified body was carried out
his wrappings removed his bones laid bare some say King Tut took his revenge Carn Arvin's death was only the
beginning over the next two decades the Mummy's curse was blamed for more than 20 deaths including that of Howard
Carter himself most Egyptologists however don't buy it this whole curse think is total Buncombe
Lord Carnarvon gets this infection he goes to the hospital he dies all the lights go out in Cairo now today in your
your modern hotels is a candle in every bathroom the lights go out in Cairo all the time sporadically right and the fact
that the dog howl rules at the moment you know distant in England of the death give me a break
[Music] historians scoff but the legend of the Mummy's curse refuses to go away believe
it or not modern science has revealed that in fact the curse may be real though not supernatural in his diary
Howard Carter noted that the tomb walls were covered with an odd pink film perhaps a fungus though the ancient
Egyptians probably didn't know it they're sealed tombs may have harbored a variety of bacteria and fungi parks eat
killers more deadly than any curse history records as circumstances made Lord Carnarvon a perfect target for
these mysterious mycotoxins not long after the tomb was opened Carvin was bitten by a mosquito the bite became
infected perhaps by the mycotoxins and Caernarfon nicked himself shaving the infection became worse Carn Arbenz fate
was sealed this why I advise my assistants and my excavations I tell them do not shave why we are excavating
because if you shave you have an open your beer is ready to take a measure and this is what happened in my opinion
though most of the cases that happened during the excavations and people said the curse of the fairs the treasures of
Tutankhamen have been exhibited and studied all over the world to say Egypt is to think King Tut
if the Egyptians did in fact place a curse on their tools perhaps they were wrong in doing so for a king tut at
least being discovered may have been the greatest possible blessing a guarantee of eternal life the Egyptians had a
phrase to say the name of the dead is to make him live again and through the discovery of his tomb he is the most
famous of all fairs and everybody is saying his name so in a sense the discovery by Carter and Kenard van
assures Tutankhamen's immortality even in the Egyptian sense in the ancient Egyptian sense of to say his names to
make him live again coming up what our home is ransacked by intruders a young girl is stricken by a bizarre case of
amnesia but first a cab driver is wired with explosives and forced to participate in a wild robbery scheme
[Music] 65 year old Harvey McLeod has been driving a cab in Modesto California for
some 10 years he's seen just about everything there is to see so last January Harvey wasn't the least bit
surprised while a man in a turban with a phony looking beard and mustache and flagged him down was just a normal fare
he did have a turban but we have several of those in Modesto so I never thought anything about it Jamestown the
passenger spoke in a coarse stage whisper he only had about half the fare but he said he could pick up the rest of
his brothers house which was along the way to stop by my brother's place and pick up the rest
[Music] better fear lit road that's right he said his brother lived on that road
so I didn't think too much about it until he told me to stop after a couple of blocks and so I stopped the car and
turned around and hear that gun was staring me right in the nose exactly what I tell you cut the wires to the
radio transmitter and get out that door so I just basically thought it was was a
robbery but this was no ordinary robbery Harvey McCloud was about to be turned into a human time law
a gunman chained a black metal box with a numeric keypad on to Harvey's party he
ran a wire lead around Harvey's neck and clipped it shut then he activated the black box
you do exactly what I say you screw up at all die Mama's remote-controlled I have to do is dial a number and my
cell phone you're gone I was terrified mine was going 100 miles an hour and I was trying to figure out how am I going
to get out of this ten minutes late Harvey was on his way back to Modesto [Music]
they're gonna rob a bank you want you to listen to me very carefully in this box I want you to take this
briefcase at the bottom into the bank I want you to leave the bomb in the bank when
you're done you understand me yeah the gunman got out of the cab across the street from his intended target
Glendale Federal Bank we kept reminding me that he could set this bomb off by his cellular telephone and me I don't
know that much about electronics but what you see you know on papers and TV you can do about anything with
electronics nowadays so I believe we need to see the bank manager I need to see the bank manager now it's important
please wait I understand that of course how did you see the manager how to use the manager I am may I help you and I
thought I was dealing with an irate customer because he was agitated overseed him to read the letter and
about midway through it shocked me and it upset me did you read this look what he did to me I'm just a poor cab driver
I looked around the lobby saw how busy we were saw how many customers were in the bank and saw my staff just doing
what they're supposed to be doing and it it was very scary that if I didn't do the right thing that all of us could be
blown up as a result of that Denise Hutchison decided to comply with a gunman's orders she and another Bank
employee filled the briefcase with the exact amount of money demanded in the letter the robbery had gone according to
plan with one exception Harvey performed a quiet act of heroism I didn't want to see innocent people get
killed well I couldn't do much about me but I could least take the bomb with me and to protect the other people in the
bank and and the bank itself too so I walked out the door with it in the back of the cab Harvey found a neatly typed
set of instructions first he drove to a hardware store 15 minutes away he parked
the cab leaving behind the cash and the car keys then Harvey walked half a mile to a payphone
I was terrified because note on the instruction was that don't try to flag down an office or
anything because we've got people watching you all the time know every step you make we've got people watching
you the instructions have specified that the gunman would phone with directions for dismantling the bomb when and I
waited about 5-10 minutes and no call came in so I went over happen look at the telephone and said no incoming calls
so then I knew if something was up so then that's when I called my dispatcher and told her what happened within
minutes police were on the scene and the area was being evacuated Harvey McLeod sat alone in the eye of
the storm and they say I looked calm but I wasn't very calm inside I was shaken and my
stomach was rolling and then I had all these things going through my mind and I just wondering how long I was gonna be
there in this old world eventually a County bomb squad arrived and released Harvey from the device x-rays later
determined that it was a fake as was the second robbery had been perfectly executed the gunman got away undetected
almost when the gunman was dropped off across the street from the bank there were two witnesses that observed a male
adult that was unusually dressed they thought at first that since there was a bank in close proximity that possibly
someone was having a a birthday party and they hired this person to do some type of gig for them inside of the bank
and the secondary thought that the male witness had was maybe this person had just robbed a bank when this person
reached the van he took off a turban as well as dark sunglasses and a fake beard
mustache as well as his sweater which contained padding to make this person look 25 to 30 pounds heavier
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] next a teenage girl is found hogtied and
hysterical in her bedroom the apparent victim of a horrifying home invasion but the police wonder how much is truth
and how much is fiction [Music] November 16 1993 the middle-class home in Clear Lake Texas a suburb of Houston
approximately 9:30 a.m. I remember this little dog was licking my face and that's what woke me up I tried to move
and I realized that I was tied up I had no recollection of who I was or why I was tied up I tried to remember things
but as soon as I started asking myself who I was and what I was doing there it upset me more
I grabbed the phone cord with my teeth and pulled it off the bed and that knocked the phone off the hook and then
I thought Who am I gonna call I don't know anybody I don't even know where I'm at and then I looked down I saw that
there's a redial button hello I need some help when she hit the redial button or their tongue the girl reached the
local post office one of the employees was a woman named Deborah Powell they had a child on the phone the child said
that everything in the room was pink and there were teddy bears everywhere and I knew at that point that there if
there was no doubt in my mind it was Sarah Sarah was Deborah's 14 year old daughter she has stayed home sick from
school by the time Deborah got to her house police were already on the scene [Music]
when we went into the house and I saw it was ransacked I knew she was in big trouble I was scared I was frightened I
didn't know what I was gonna find [Music] Sara honey it's mommy it's what's wrong
it's mommy don't know me Sara its mommy it's mommy I didn't know what to think what to do the more I tried to go toward
her and help her she began to panic it's all right Sara I'm a policeman just let
me get you out of this just take a minute or two you know where you are do it where am I
you're at home and you're safe now can you give me a description of the people did this to you
were they friends of yours I don't know can't remember anything no my first impression was she was a teenager that
was up to something and probably did not want her parents to find out what had happened that day the police had good
reason to be suspicious crime-scene experts combed every inch of the house but found no evidence of forced entry
and no fingerprints to catch most puzzling of all it was a rainy day and there was not a single wet or muddy
footprint and we later learned that nothing was taken so these sort of things make us think that she's going to
be able to tell us what went on and she will know who it is and we'll solve this
as as soon as Sarah's ready to deal with it what about before you were tight enough
to remember anything that happened earlier no Sarah did you get yourself into some trouble here
is that why you're afraid to say anything to me I can't remember anything that happened I just know that I woke up
all tied up I could tell that they thought I was holding something back I was trying as hard as I could there
was show me pictures and asked me if I remembered my parents and I couldn't remember anything my first impression
was that she perhaps had been threatened and she was afraid to say anything we had always been very close and I felt
assured that when the police left that this child was going to tell me what really happened however even after the
police left Sarah's story did not change I even tried to trick Sarah to prove that she really could remember and after
three days of watching her a mother knows her child her movements her characteristics everything about her
after three days I knew something was wrong how about this your first portrait you
remember that green dress Deborah and her other daughter Helen tried to jog Sarah's memory with family photos that's
you and me in front of the house it was after church we changed clothes and we were gardening
I was extremely hurt that my child didn't remember me and didn't connect with me and I tried very hard not to
take it personally [Music] you know honey it's okay if you don't feel like having me
you're obviously my mother you have all my baby stuff I mean you've got to be my
mother but I have no feelings for you it was like someone kidnapped my child her
body was there but she was not her mind was not there I want you to write Sarah Powell for me I'll spell it for you s a
are a H at first Sarah couldn't remember how to write her name tie her shoes or even brush her teeth after two months
however she had relearned most basic skills Sarah school agreed to help set up a home study program
[Music] I was scared to death I didn't know what was happening I thought what in the
world this looks like a seizure I didn't with the moon and the only words out of her mouth was I didn't let
him in and I remember thinking maybe this is the memory coming back but I couldn't be sure
in fact the memories had returned in a terrifying rush it was 8:30 in the morning of the attack Sara had just
taken her medicine and put her dog in the laundry room I remembered walking up the stairs when I heard a loud noise so
I started running up the stairs and I heard a second loud I had rounded the corner and I could see
straight into my room and that's when I saw people trying to break in the window
I saw the phone sitting on the bed so I just don't want to my bed and call my mom at work
the front door was locked with a double deadbolt and Sarah couldn't find her keys and suddenly it was quiet
I started sneaking up the stairs and stood up slowly and I looked in my room and nobody was there
[Music] shut up okay go downstairs and get the job done if you just push my head down the bed
and put a pillow on my head I believe he was trying to kill me I was at the point
where I just couldn't hold my breath anymore so I just went limp and pretended like I believed her passed out
or dead when he realized that I had seen them he got mad I just had to get a look didn't
you are you doing this last thing I remembered we were passing out and that's what I remembered in my first
seizure and I thought that was all at the time but it turned out that it wasn't I was angry I was shocked I
couldn't believe that she had suffered such an ordeal and I had no idea at that time that I hadn't even heard the worst
of it those memories broke through during a second flashback I remembered waking up and nobody was in
the room except for the smaller guy why are you doing this to me but just got to be quiet okay and I tie
you up but to be alright bigger guys that's when he walked in and saw us talking
you're not gonna get that guy the bigger guy he had to guard for such good friends now he had it to my head I
know what I'm doing tie her up you do a good job cuz I'll be back to check on it I know that they
were downstairs ransacking the house because I could hear things falling to the floor
I knew that there were girls because they were talking to each other [Music] a smaller guy unraveled the phone cord
once and plugged film back in and set it on the bed I think you felt sorry for me
[Applause] Sarah was literally in a life-threatening situation and then two things happened that probably insulted
her brain one was that she got hit in the head and the other one was that she was
suffocated so that the combination of terror and a psychological heaven Asian component and then the physical insults
I think combined and to result in this unique amnesia presentation to date sarah has had nine apparent seizures
including this one documented on videotape at her grandparents house with each episode she appeared to recover
more shards of her shattered memory can you describe those people to me the police however were still skeptical once
you see they put Sarah under hypnosis to see if her story would hold up there's a
big muscles she told the same story that she had always told and at that time the
hypnotist told me in his opinion she was being truthful [Music] but the police are still not sure too
many questions remain who are the intruders why did they ransack the house get steal nothing why did they leave no
evidence behind but even a fingerprint or a footprint and finally does Sarah have any of the crucial answers we're
not saying that she's being untruthful we're saying we believe that she believes she's telling the truth
but we're searching for more facts we want to verify details and we want to see if she's still repressing something
I believe that I remember detect accurately I don't think there's anything else to remember it's always
possible but I really feel like everything is here and I'm ready to maybe see if I can get some answers and
find out why this all happened over the last three years sara has gradually recovered the precious
memories that connect her to her family once again Sara knows and loves her mother her father and her sister but she
will never be the same I think I'm completely recovered but there still a few things just like
having nightmares I still have nightmares you know there's a few things like that but I think I'm I'm to where I
can at least handle it now based on Sarah's description a police sketch artist created a composite of the taller
male intruder as he might appear without the stocking mask as several remembers he is Caucasian approximately 5 feet 10
inches tall and very muscular he had a tattoo of a cobra inked in blue on his right bicep or shoulder
in a moment the sabotage of an Amtrak passenger train last October evokes haunting memories of a similar tragedy
that occurred nearly 60 years ago [Music] October 9th 1995 by now the disturbing
images are familiar a twisted wreckage of Amtrak Sunset Limited passenger train strewn across the Arizona desert the
trainer jumped the track 60 miles southwest of fields four cars plunged more than 30 feet off a trestle
into a dry riverbed one person was killed scores were injured cause of the tragedy sabotage
when we arrived at the scene it was apparent that someone had tampered with the rails the investigation determined
that 29 spikes were removed purposely removed and not only were the spikes removed but someone had pushed the rail
inside so that the two rails were not connected the tampering was simple but deadly in a typical section of track the
rails are connected at a joint or the spikes remove one rail was shifted a mere four inches just enough to cause
the crash another piece of evidence convinced authorities that the saboteur or saboteurs had a working knowledge of
railroads despite the break in the range the signal circuits electrical wires that
run through the track remained intact consequently the train crew had no warning
the FBI believes that they picked that particular spot in order to create the most damage and possibly the most
injuries or death the train was going about 50 miles an hour it's on a curve and it occurred right before trestle hoe
derailed the Sunset Limited was it a violent political statement by domestic terrorists or an isolated act of revenge
by a describe a railroad employee investigators soon discovered frightening parallels to another act of
sabotage more than a half century ago in 1939 24 people were killed and 117 injured in a suspicious train wreck in
the Nevada desert the most mysterious connection between both accidents the 1939 wreckin and the Sunset Limited
wreck of last year is the fact that the sabotage was done ahead of a bridge in a
desert country of remote location there was definitely care in advanced you know
that the wires were intact at all times merely moving one piece of metal in this
case one rail a matter of less than four inches allowed both trains to careen off
on the curve as they crossed the river and the damage occurred curiously the 1939 crash had been profiled in a
journal for railroad buffs shortly before the Amtrak accident the author John Sigmund rejects the notion that his
article may have inspired the would-be saboteur I see absolutely no connection there my magazine was released only the
week of the derailment it was still being distributed I didn't even receive mine until five
days after the derailment in the mail there's been a whole book published on it there's been numerous articles on
that over the years it's it's widely known the railroad Journal has a short subscriber list federal authorities have
questioned many of the readers and come up empty-handed leaving investigators with just one other concrete clue in the
immediate vicinity of the accident site FBI agents found four copies of a computer written diatribe against the
United States government it was signed sons of the Gestapo we have not been able to determine the existence of such
a group but we're still trying to investigate to determine whether or not that is a red herring
to try to throw us off the investigation or whether or not that particular group
exists [Music] the note was entitled indictment of the ATF and the FBI and seemed to espouse an
extreme right-wing viewpoint it denounced the federal sieges at Waco Texas and Ruby Ridge Idaho but also
posed the question who is policing the ATF FBI state troopers County Sheriff's and local police but the no specific
reference to the shooting of a police officer's wife who quote knows too much about drug kickbacks may ultimately hold
the key to the author's identity based upon that particular statement if we can pinpoint that police officer or that
police department that might give us an investigative leave to help us solve this sabotage in Arizona people have to
feel safe when they take public transportation and it's important to solve this case so that we can show the
motive behind this particular sabotage that this person is going to jail as a result of this sabotage for an extremely
long time and that'll send a message to anybody who might think about committing
sabotage in our rail system the one person killed in the crash of the Sunset Limited was a sleeping car
attendant named Mitchell Bates because of his death the individual or individuals responsible will be charged
with murder as well as sabotage join me next Friday for the dramatic season finale unsolved mysteries
[Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

A girl suffers amnesia after a home invasion, a cab driver is forced to rob a bank, and King Tut's tomb sparks curse legends.

Key points

The Mystery of Sarah Powell. A 14-year-old girl wakes up tied up in her bedroom with no memory of the attack.
Harvey McLeod's Harrowing Experience. A cab driver is forced into a robbery scheme with a bomb strapped to him.
Sarah's Struggle to Remember. After a traumatic experience, Sarah struggles to relearn basic skills and memories.
The Attack Unfolds. Sarah recalls the terrifying moments of an attempted break-in at her home.
The Search for Answers. Authorities remain skeptical about Sarah's memories and seek more evidence.
The Sabotage of Sunset Limited. A train derailment caused by sabotage leads to one death and many injuries.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happened to Sarah Powell?

Opening question about the mystery surrounding Sarah's case.

0:19WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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