Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 8, Episode 4 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries Socorro New Mexico 1964 it began as a routine police pursuit just a wild teenager
tooling through town and ended with one of the most remarkable UFO episodes in history a Close Encounters still
impossible to ignore welcome to Valley Hill Kentucky where thousands of people from these teenage girls to skeptical
adults say they have witnessed miraculous visions a case of mass hallucination or as Valley Hill truly
touched by God in Dallas Texas an attorney named David Mara Fields schedules a pre breakfast meeting with a
mysterious new client an hour later two women make the horrifying discovery who murdered David Marathi and you'll
see how your calls reunited a family with a guardian angels who rescued them after a terrifying accident
join me perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery [Music] we didn't [Music]
April 24th 1964 the little town of Socorro New Mexico was quiet police officer Lonnie Zamora was not surprised
during the five years he'd been on the force Sakura had almost always been quiet Milani spotted local teenagers
speeding through town he figured writing him up might be the biggest excitement of the day
[Music] [Applause] the juice proceeded to the edge of town and beyond out into the desert Lonnie
Zamora had no warning he was about to leave a safe secure world and enter the realm of the unexplained
[Music] Roswell Gulf Breeze area 51 to anyone with even a passing knowledge of UFO
history these names instantly conjure images of bizarre lights spaceships and strange visitors from another world on
that day in 1964 Lonnie Zamora had no idea that Sakura was about to become another landmark the location of what
some believe is one of the most significant UFO sightings ever made Lonnie had no idea what was waiting for
him just down the road Sakura Sakura well going up to halfway so I could see a white object to my left there I
thought it was a turnover car when I got up on top of the Miss out there I looked
down and I seen this big white object on the ground [Music] [Music] I thought I could see something around
the crafter I could see some figures look like they were walking around the craft
[Music] [Music] Sakura - Sakura according to Lani he saw red markings on the hull a
vertical arrow with a horizontal line beneath it and the crescent-shaped line above it
Lani made several attempts to contact police headquarters he was never able to break through the heavy static after he
heard two metallic sounds like doors clanging shut he realized the small figures had vanished
so this flame come out from underneath it and I ran back behind the car and it went up to 2030 feet up in the air
[Music] till you just stayed there for a while and then finally just took off slowly to
the west [Music] yes ma'am at first you know what after I got to my senses I said did I see it or didn't I
you know Oh what happened you know and that's it Lonnie radio to an old friend sergeant Sam Chavez of the New Mexico
State Police he told Sam to come fast and to come alone estas haciendo Blair are you okay
what happened out here I saw I saw it I mean you know I could tell the Lonnie was excited and probably scared I lost
my glasses that's where they are I'll get him for you okay relax take a deep breath Lonnie Zamora
he's a very dependable honest type of person he's not one to create or make stories or or build things up the to
make exciting anything like that he he's he's a very well liked type of a person
I saw two of them two of them what people the little ones that were in and there the uniforms white let's go take a
look huh no no no I'm not going down there come on you don't have to be afraid of anything come on hoppy I'll be
right behind you [Music] what the hell is this we found some indentation on the ground
where this thing had landed and the the marks into the ground were 9 inches deep
8 inches long and 9 inches wide that's where the blaster [ __ ] it locked me right over the car I started looking for
tracks human track it's the only thing I found was impressions on the ground they
were made by a perfect circle but I found no human tracks no shoe prints within 90 minutes US army officials at
nearby White Sands Missile Range said Captain Richard T holder to investigate this is the first time holder has ever
talked publicly about what he saw well my first impression was that it was something from the range that needed
possible health you know first aid attention are at best security the more I got into it the less convinced I was
that that was a case holder also noticed the unusual impressions left in the sand
on the edge of the landing area he found a bush burned to a crisp on only one side as those seared by a blowtorch
gentlemen this area is now officially designated sensitive its entire area needs to be quadrant on back officers
please take charge of these folks we need to secure this gentleman's camera state trooper Ted Jordan was
taking pictures his camera and film were confiscated on the spot I do recall that
they told me that they would develop them and send me copies of them it never occurred and when I asked later about it
they told me that the film was no good it had been ruined by radiation gentlemen what we're looking for is
anything metallic metallic could be shiny could be dulled object will do a magnetic scan later we looked around to
try to find out if we could see any evidence of anything it would make us think it was a hoax we found nothing
everything we saw seemed to support the story that officers are moral recounting
my impression of talking to him was that he was mystified he wanted an explanation nothing that I heard of
later gave me the slightest hint that he did this as a hoax or cooked it up for fame or fortune
whatever loan he saw he apparently was not the only one just a few minutes after Lonnie drove into the Arroyo a
motorist who has never been identified pulled into a gas station on the north side of Socorro we were south the town
headed north something flew right across the hood of the car doing about 150 miles an hour a white oval shaped object
scared to death Jimmy grindr was only 13 but he remembers the incident vividly do folks
call the police no there was a cop looked like he was chasing it going the same way the craft was headed west when
his lights on his siren and everything I believe Lonnie saw something same as the
tourists saw something that they have never seen or encountered before you know it did not meet a helicopter type
scenario definitely wasn't an airplane type scenario and so you drool those two things out in 1964 what do you have it
definitely wasn't a weather balloon by the next morning newspapers and wire services all over the country had picked
up the story around Sakura rumors ran rampant wild stories of flying saucers and funny little people
everyone wanted details they stopped me all over town and wanted to know this too wanted to know that and then I got
phone calls from all over the world and I was getting you know disgusted with it
then the air force followed up the army investigation with its own team after a cursory once-over the air force agreed
that Alani saw something they insisted however that it must have been a secret military test device are you getting
anything of course not yeah they never were able to find any such evidence that any such
thing was being tested at the time and in fact even today not an iota of evidence has emerged to support that
claim nonetheless the Air Force lying on the case is that this is a credible witness he clearly saw some kind of
structured flying vehicle and that it must have been something that we built even if we can't find it anywhere while
the military investigated the UFO fever continued unabated since the 1950s the Air Force had been criticized by
Congress for his handling of UFO reports the Sakura sighting threatened to add more pressure
finally Air Force officials summon dr. J Allen Hynek a respected astronomer dr. Hynek was a most prestigious consultant
on project Bluebook the official Air Force study of the UFO phenomenon dr. Hynek went to Socorro he talked to
Lonnie studied the landing site and examined the photographs he found the physical evidence extremely compelling
but the most persuasive argument for a genuine UFO sighting with Lonnie Zamora himself ok Lonnie now these depressions
you said we're actually from the outriggers they held up the craft dr. Hynek was enormous ly impressed by
Lonnie Zamora he thought there was virtually no possibility of hoaxes and on May 20th he wrote a private
memorandum which he kept in his files in which I discovered years after his death
in which he expressed huge disdain for the Blue Book handling of the report and he said that it was clear that the story
that Bluebook had cooked up about this possibly being some kind of experimental aircraft was a story that even Bluebook
knew to be untrue but which was invented to keep Congress from harassing the Air
Force today some 30 years later the question remains how do we explain what Lonnie
Zamora saw no matter what others believe Lonnie has no doubt that what he witnessed was not of this earth I still
think that something not from here if I could find that part it actually was okay I'm satisfied I just didn't want to
go through it again you know if they want to believe me good if they don't believe me all right - I believe Lonnie
Zamora was a good policeman and an honest man who reported as he felt proper something well beyond his
experience was that something terrestrial of extraterrestrial I have no idea coming up a grateful family is reunited
with the unknown good Samaritans who save their lives [Music] [Music] recently your phone calls brought about
one of our most unusual and gratifying reunions ever the people involved were not related had never been formally
introduced and in fact only learned each other's names on the night of our broadcast it began in December 1983 the
Dover family of Atlanta Georgia was traveling to Mexico to celebrate the holidays with relatives on the second
day out just after crossing the border the weather suddenly changed and the Dover's found themselves caught in a
freak snowstorm we're trying to be extremely cautious because the road conditions were really getting pretty
bad and my father had just told me to even be extremely careful and just moments after he had told me that
suddenly lost control [Applause] tragically all four people in the other car were killed but miraculously the six
members of the Dover party were still alive if only barely by some incredible stroke of fortune an American couple one
of whom was a doctor happened upon the crash scene thanks largely to their efforts the Dover's were pulled from the
wreckage and received urgent medical care Linda Dover credits the two good Samaritans was saving the lives of her
entire family I feel like it is a miracle many times it's an accident and you know we just drive by an accident
but and they could have done that that day but they didn't they stopped and through their staffing they saved the
lives of our family and we just wanna say thank you other night we are this story the Dover's waited nervously back
in Georgia to hear whether the case would be solved let's go to cutie Shea Smith for more Bob one of our viewers in
Houston Texas saw the story and realized that she heard that very same story from
her friends dr. Nancy Neff Hannon and her husband John later that night the Hannan's called us here at our phone
center and provided agents with a detailed description of the rescue it was clear from the start that the
Hannan's were in fact the Dover's guardian angels later that evening the Hanan spoke to van Stover who
immediately passed on the exciting news to the rest of his family Vance said well we found them that was it
we found them they've called and so it's like you know you could hear a pin drop
on the floor it's like you know we can believe it after 11 years we've we found that these angels were real human beings
a few weeks later some 30 members of the Dover family gathered to meet the Hannan's and compare memories of that
fateful Christmas Eve there there was a lady in the front seat which had turned sideways so had to lift her up because
the front seat had broken off its pedestal sort of supported that kind of wedged myself in there supported that
with my shoulder as I tried to get him get David out I remember the pain of somebody pulling me out because I guess
it may be as for i woked up my leg hurt really bad I guess as a physician that was one of the most helpless feelings
I've ever had I mean to have the knowledge and everything but not the tools to do anything it was just really
frustrating coming to us you were like an angel from God both of you that you would right there at the time and had
you not been there the whole family you know could have possibly died and you were so instrumental and so we just want
to say thank you for the Dover's the gathering was a chance to finally close this dramatic chapter of their lives
thank you every Christmas from now on when the Dover's make their annual pilgrimage to
Mexico they plan to stop in Houston to visit with their new lifelong friends their guardian angels the heavens
when we return incredible claims of miraculous visions on a hillside in Kentucky hundreds of pilgrims believed
to you [Music] in the past unsolved mysteries has taken you around the world to visit sacred
locales said to have been graced with miraculous visions of the Virgin Mary Lourdes France Fatima Portugal medgie
gorya in what is now Bosnia tonight we feature what may be another such holy spot much closer to home twice a month
on the second and twenty-third people flocked to a small hillside in Kentucky where visions of the Blessed Mother have
been reported we asked newscaster Jackie Hayes from our NBC affiliate wav TV and
Louisville to investigate this phenomenon this is Springfield Kentucky route 55 about an hour's drive southwest of
Louisville a sign proudly proclaims that the site is now dedicated to Our Lady of
Valley Hill during the past year thousands of people from teenagers to senior citizens have crossed this creek
bed headed up valley Hill some of them have come here hoping to be healed of serious illnesses and others have sought
spiritual healing all of them have come here hoping to witness a miracle to date
no fewer than a thousand people claim to have had visions from random bursts of color to showers of golden flakes the
visions first appeared to this woman I own a write who owns the land on which Valley Hill is located I've been seeing
this vision for years and years long time just seem just seeing as if I was looking at a movie on the day we filmed
at Valley Hill I was one of three hundred visitors I saw nothing unusual however at least a third of those
present 100 people claimed that they indeed had visions inspired by God [Music] see there's like a little rosary right
there and then there's a gateway to heaven there is a gold on the I'm the old man down there and they're looking
at the concern his whole face is going with me that you don't say I do now had you been looking at this we thought that
might be what was causing it those tricks on your eyes but what we saw is away from I would never look at the Sun
when it started just pulsating turning colors there everything is ending after a while see colors around different
colors primarily read many of the eyewitnesses say that the visions have had a profound effect upon their lives
perhaps the most dramatic episode involved a Sunday school teacher and eight young girls who came to Valley
Hill on April 6th 1995 the first girl to notice something unusual was Mandy Mattingly I said look y'all the Sun it's
moving it had like a little disc around it like green good luck to the Sun there's like three rings around the
stars like shape in his bench like the outer part would change colors and the inner would change these different
colors what's happening and why is this happening test I turned around to take a
picture right of the Sun because the girl said look at the Sun the Sun is pulsating and I took my polaroid and
took pictures did you see the Sun pulsating oh yes yes I saw it too and then when I turned
around well everybody was saying oh look at the gold look at the gold on you look
at here I was like oh my gosh look at me it's like sports good all over me and then she snapped a picture
and that's like like that and then I looked at the picture and there was like angels on each side of me like the
angel's wings just take another picture of the Sun it's like coming out like no stars like according to the girls the
Virgin Mary appears on the left wearing a veil they believe that the blurred image on the right is Jesus another
Polaroid was perhaps more unusual and one of them had had a tombstone it looks like in a head my cousin's name on it
tape out when she she died when she was born and we haven't found any explanation for it but I think it was
her name they were hugging each other they were hugging me there were tears they were crying to see that experience
I knew that these girls were deeply affected it was a profound experience we asked paranormal investigator Joe
Nickell to comment on the photographs these angel wings are flame effects are due to light leakage into the cartridge
when you put the cartridge into the camera if your thumb cracks that open just a little bit and lets light leak in
now what about this picture we don't have angel wings but we have some shape of a form at the bottom the girls say
they see the Virgin Mary and Jesus it's possible to see faces and pictures in the clouds it's a well-known phenomenon
the human the human mind wants to make pictures out of random patterns and so we can
we see pictures all the time what would about in fact well again this cartridge has been mishandled and this this part
of the film you can actually see is not in focus you can see it's blurred this last picture seemed to be words here a
couple of the girls were saying it rang a bell that there was a family member's name in that picture and maybe this was
a sign what do you see right when we put a film pack in it automatically horrors
and ejects this card which is meant to keep the light away from the picture and when I turned it over I really had to
laugh because here is the chart with the wording on it only it's backwards and so
the light has gone in there and bounced off of that white card and left a reverse imprint as a sort of technically
a double exposure rational explanations may satisfy some people but not the mothers of two of the girls who came to
Valley Hill to see for themselves I was skeptical at first I thought you know maybe maybe this did happen but I was
kind of scared and then about that time when I started looking at the tree with words shows how to say the wrong switch
tree where's this right over in behind the grotto okay and I looked behind there and then I started seeing spots
they were just they kept flickering like they were flickering on that one place I
yelled out at wreaths treats my god you've got gold all over you it was like go dust just you would sit on her feet
and this plate was just going up her body and then just leaving and here would come lower up her body and Lee had
you been looking at the Sun for a long now I never even looked at the Sun I thought if you look at the sound long
enough it could you know do something to your ass so you did not look at the side
of the Sun but you saw I saw the throat spots how does that make you feel when others are really singing is that sort
of confirmed to you all that what you saw was real yeah it was real well we know it was
whether or not anybody else sees it yeah we've seen it and that's all that counts
is Valley Hill a sacred spot destined to join Lourdes and Fatima as a holy shrine
only time will tell but for now there is no denying that this remote Kentucky hillside has become a house of worship a
church in the woods for the faithful are the miraculous visions and Kentucky real
those who've experienced the sightings are convinced to their authenticity our vid is interesting to note that the
local Catholic Church is declined to recognize Valley Hill as anything out of the ordinary the rest of us will have to
decide for ourselves next what a loving family is split apart a young girl embarks on a 20-year search
[Music] our orphaned or abandoned children foster homes are often the temporary salvation sometimes unfortunately they
turn out to be impersonal places that only a bureaucrat could call home to the four children in our next story however
a foster home became the first chance to be part of a real family in December 1968 Dorothea and Robert Reese of Napa
California welcome to five-year-olds into their home as foster children mark and Tammy Gardner were fraternal twins
who'd been severely abused emotionally and physically both were developmentally disabled Tammy
had trouble walking and talking normally for the Reese's five-year-old daughter Debra none of that mattered she had a
new brother and sister when they came to us I remember feeling wonderful that there
was someone my age I can finally have someone that I can relate to there were people too little people like
me and I thought it was fabulous you will find Tammy and Mark that mom makes the best fried chicken you've ever had
and Tammy was very very scared had a very frightful look and Mark was the total opposite in fact he spoke for
Tammy every time my parents would ask her a question she aptana me if you want some butter for your card you're gonna
have to ask for it so what did you like some butter for your corn he's like the best you can do
in the supportive atmosphere of the Reese home Tammy and Mark began to heal a year later the family grew to include
two more foster children six-year-old kelly clay and his four year old sister teri before long it seemed as if none of
them had ever known another home theirs was a kinship far beyond blood we were our best friends most of the time it was
the five of us kids swimming or the five of us kids picking apples or the five of
us kids getting into trouble because of the abuse Tammy and Marquette experienced they were placed in special
education classes that made them a frequent target for cruel teasing as the oldest Debra was a natural leader at
school she often confronted the bullies who tormented Marc and Tammy Tammy I think thrived on the fact that she had
brothers and sisters that would really stick up for her no matter what accepted her for who she was by 1974 the Reese
clan had been together for six years Dorothy and Robert plan to adopt all four foster children then the Reese's
got into a nasty dispute with the adoption agency as a result the children would have to leave doctor last week to
ease the blow Robert Reese blamed the bad news on his heart condition did your mom would be all alone and so the folks
from Child Protective Services are going to us are gonna have to just split us up
where are we gonna go they will probably put you with another foster fair or family we have to stay together that's
right I just figured they'd never leave they're my brothers and sisters forever [Music]
few weeks later the reality hit when they weren't around there was a big empty house and there wasn't mark and
Kelly talking and my mom saying quiet boys go to sleep and there wasn't me yackin with Tami and Terry and it was
just silence a year passed Deborah didn't see her foster sisters or brothers at all she began to think she
would never see them again then out of the blue mark surprised Deborah at the stable where she boarded
her horse seeing him we were overwhelmed with each other we cried but what he had
to tell me I hurt terribly a shaken mark made some disturbing allegations my mother and father did try to find out
what was going on but they ran into people who told them never mind it's none of your business they're not your
children that day in 1975 was the last time Deborah saw mark ever since her heart is eight for the loss of mark
Tammy Kelly and Terry I felt like someone came in the middle of the night and stole them out of my room my four
best friends they stole out of my room and they and I don't know what happened to him as
soon as she was old enough deborah started searching 20 years went by but she never gave up finally
just last September she walked into the open arms of teri and Kelly clay reunited at last but Deborah's quest is
not over unfortunately she has yet to find any trace of Tammy or mark but we returned in Dallas respected attorney
has gunned down in his office building [Music] Dallas Texas Thursday February 9th 1995
at 7:00 a.m. attorney Clint Blackmon arrived at his office building he bypassed the
notoriously slow elevator and took the stairs to the third floor at 7:30 a.m. juanita Lackey arrived Roxann Lederman a
secretary let Juanita into the building Oxana knew Anita were about to receive the shock of
their lives [Music] I heard a lot of screaming and hollering it was Roxanne Juanita Juanita said that
she were thought that there was a man in the elevator but all they'd really seen
was legs and and weren't really sure what was there so I told her okay I will go down and check this out
it's David Stephen Muirfield David Muirfield was gonna Clint Black Miss colleagues and
the law firm of Smith's mirror field and Richards he had been shot in the back of
the head execution-style he left behind two children than a new bride of only three months the murder of David Mara
field as a cannabis our case at every cop dreads there was no obvious motive a 42 year old attorney specialized in real
estate law over the years he had been a profitable but prosaic practice his clients were not at all the criminal
type David Mara Fields seemed to be the last person anyone would water murder ladies what time did you get to work the
most likely scenario was robbery but Dallas police quickly ruled that out mr. Murphy's wallet was recovered a few
miles from the crime location and in the wallet was still a small amount of money
and all of his credit cards so I believe had robbery been a motive that stuff would not have been recovered police
next turned their attention to David Muirfield himself piecing together the details of his last hours the day before
he was murdered David received four phone calls from a mysterious stranger who identified
himself as Sam Jones he's on the other line right now can't take a message he asked if he could hold
on he told me his name was Sam Jones but he wouldn't tell me who he was with or what it was concerning and so I took
that to be kind of a solicitation type call because that's usually what solicitors would say mr. Sam Jones on
the other line he's very insistent he wants to talk to you right now David hi mr. Jones David spoke to him for I guess
a little under ten minutes I went up and kind of joked with Dave and I said what
was he trying to sell you in Davis says well he's not trying to sell me anything
yet he says he says he wants to do something for me David Murphy we discovered during the investigation had
a notepad on his desk which had a calendar on and on February night he had a marking there for a name and an
appointment that he had at 6:30 a.m. with Sam Jones due to the common nature the name it's my guess is possibly a
fictitious name police also keyed in on the unusual hour set for the appointment by own accounts
David would never have suggested such an early meeting yeah I had known David and
worked with him for years and no David's habit and that was he never liked to get
to work early in fact to see him at work before 9:00 was just unusually he was he
was not an early riser you like to work later for him to make a meeting that early in the morning I mean he would do
it for someone if someone really needed it I've since heard that apparently the guy's told him he was leaving on a fly
and absolutely had to see him David would do it in a case like that if it was something he felt was really
important so but otherwise it was not like David to be anywhere at 6:30 in the morning except asleep
police theorized that the killer insisted on an early meeting in order to get David alone finally mention that's
good get a cup of coffee and look over the papers we think that mr. Mehra filled the intern elevator with another
person whoever Sam Jones is it's obvious from our investigations lured him to this location to do exactly what he did
to take his life on the elevator no one ever heard from this man again the Sam Jones we all kind of felt like
if the man had really come to try to meet David then he would have probably found him would have called later to say
we I wasn't able to get in the building and mr. Romero field never showed up I mean this man just disappeared what we
need in this case is a independent witness to come forward if that person has heard any person boasting about
being involved in this crime if that person happened to be in in this look at this location or near this location on
the morning of the crime and might have seen suspicious activity that's the type
of information we need we need to know who Sound Jones is I think the thing that's most disturbing to me is the loss
of David Murphy he was a very fine attorney and everyone here liked and enjoyed working with him
so that's probably the most upsetting thing it's also very upsetting that there is a criminal out there who knows
he's out there he or she and knows that they committed this crime and has not been brought to justice
join me next time for another fascinating edition unsolved mysteries [Music]

Brief Summary

The episode covers a UFO sighting, miraculous visions, a murder mystery, and a family reunion after a tragic accident.

Key points

The Socorro UFO Sighting. In 1964, police officer Lonnie Zamora witnessed a UFO in Socorro, New Mexico, leading to one of the most significant UFO sightings in history.
A Grateful Reunion. The Dover family, saved by two good Samaritans after a car crash, reunites with their rescuers.
Valley Hill: A Sacred Spot?. Is Valley Hill destined to become a holy shrine like Lourdes?
A Foster Family's Love. The Reese family provides a loving home for abused twins.
The Mysterious Murder of David Murphy. Attorney David Murphy is found murdered in his office, but why?

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was getting you know disgusted with it.

Lonnie Zamora describes the media frenzy after his sighting.

11:47WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.