Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 8, Episode 6 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries just before Christmas 1955 a newborn baby girl was abandoned in a New York City
subway car forty years later Jean Martin still dreams of finding her birth mother
perhaps someone watching make her dream come true if you think sea monsters are nothing more than fanciful legend you
probably never visited Canada's Kepler Bay you probably never heard the incredible eyewitness accounts of a
mysterious creature known as cadborosaurus in North Carolina a night of drinking and joyriding suddenly turns
vicious a young mother is thrown to her death also a rare glimpse into the mind of a criminal Franklin Floyd is serving
52 years for kidnapping but his victim 7 year old Michael Hughes was never found
incredibly Floyd claims a kidnap boy is alive and well but refuses to say where he is stay ones perhaps you hold the key
perhaps your call can help solve on a tonight's unsolved mysteries [Music] immediately immediately dignity
[Music] for centuries the stories have fascinated us in Scotland is the Loch Ness monster in New York's Lake
Champlain is chimp there's all go Pogo at Lake Okanagan and British Columbia Canada
and finally nearby Cadbury Bay is the legendary caddy the thing I noticed most about it was its eyes that they were big
and they were serpent like the odor from it was just incredible it would permeate
it it made you want to vomit it went down and Hum came up and then it went down and another hump came up and
it was like it was moving [Music] they called it cadborosaurus caddy for short the sea monster of Cadbury Bay
many people believe this is the carcass of just such a creature computer enhancement gives us an idea of what it
might have looked like when alive like the biblical joke it came from the belly of a whale
[Music] in 1937 there was a whaling station in the north part of British Columbia and
one of the whale boats our poom this big sperm whale about six hours run from the
whaling station towed it back and the flenders got to it fairly quickly cleansers are the workers of butcher the
whales once they are brought to shore amazingly a sperm whale has three enormous stomachs inside one of them the
flenders made an astonishing find instead of bringing out a book ten foot shark or a giant squid or a rack rag
fish or something like that they came across this incredible snake-like thing none of them had ever seen it before in
years of whaling and flensing they knew it was something different the Whalers took this photograph that very day James
wakeland then a 24-year old blacksmith's assistant is the only witness still alive who saw the creature with his own
eyes I don't know I got no idea what it is I haven't never seen anything like it
and I guess somebody thought that's a queer-looking affair there we better get the manager or go and see him but I'm
bought it and he got it brought down and he took the pictures laid out the creature measured some 12 feet long it
had a head shaped like a horse or a camel in a thin snake-like body approximately 16 inches in circumference
[Music] Norma's detail is visible especially in the tail region which shows us that the
it has a pair of hind flippers that were webbed together with the tail to form this whale Lake fluke which undoubtedly
provided the main driving force for this animal the Whalers cent part of the specimen to
the provincial Museum and Victoria British Columbia there the museum director Frances Kermode dismissed it as
a fetus of a baleen whale and tossed it out even to untrained eyes a baleen whale fetus bears little resemblance to
the carcass examined by the museum director if he just stopped in thought would these men send down a fetal baleen
whale i dissected hundreds of these things out of dead whale uterus is every week a new one if fetal baleen well so
that was really not complimentary to these professional whalers if the Whalers weren't wrong
maybe the creature was a fake one of the most famous photos of the Loch Ness monster eventually proved to be a hoax
[Music] skeptics claim the cadborosaurus photo is no different but that hardly explains
all the people in the sixty years since who insist they've seen a caddy like sea
monster in 1968 William Hagglund was sailing in a remote cold as evening fell he and his sons netted what he now
believes was a baby cadborosaurus look back a little garter snake but it was a little bit more husky than that but it
wasn't much longer about 16 inches long maybe the thickness of my thumb but it had a little shoulders with little
flippers on its shoulders or and a bit of a neck not much but an a head on it there with two bright brown eyes looking
at us Peggle and sketched the animal in detail he decided to take the oddity to the
nearest biology station but he was at least a day's sail away through the evening I could hear this
little thing making quite a fuss in the bucket that we'd put it into but when I Shawn the light down Adam he just opened
his mouth and hissed at me and you could see that he was quite terrified and quite put out with all of this I felt
that maybe if we tried to held him overnight that he might perish I just the great deal of soul-searching decided
to put it back in the water and leave it be it was another opportunity lost for the second time but was thought to be a
caddy was thrown back in the bay in consultation with a paleontologist we applied computer animation techniques to
one of the original cadborosaurus photographs the skeletal structure is similar to that of a snake a caddy seven
metres long would probably have at least 360 vertebrae that would give the creature enough flexibility to form the
signature hoops so frequently mentioned by eyewitnesses unlike a snake but Canole wiggle from side to side but
cadborosaurus could propel itself forward with his tail fluke and steer with us for fin something like a sea
lion if this is truly an accurate depiction of a caddy imagine seeing one in the wild
that's what a Pyrus spotted while flying a seaplane over a cat burrow Bay two college boys saw just 20 yards from
shore and a homemaker surprised the sea monster right on the beach I was walking
my dog lady and as we were coming down the path to the beach she was struggling to get away from me she just didn't want
to go to the beach come on Lady finally I pulled her and pulled her and she got closer and as I turned to look
down I saw this face looking at me and it was shaped like a horse face and there were eyes that were like a snake
and as that I looked at it it looked at me and then it dropped his head below the cliff sort of took my breath away
when I saw it and I just was thinking to myself did I really see what I thought I
saw you know what is it I heard a sound thought it was probably a whale or something looked out didn't see much and
heard it again and saw like a strange head out of the water 50 60 feet away I had the definite snout with a big
large head really rocky looking a really greeny black color almost like a garbage
bag color was a very odd-looking looking thing it was a hoof like a creature it had two vertical loops as we
were on approach and landing we could see that it was moving very quickly through the water and I would estimate
to be about 40 miles per hour and we could actually see through the two hoops we could see you know what was on the
other side of the hoop so that was very strange it was the most unique thing I've ever
seen in the in the waters around here I've seen lots of different things but I've never seen something like that it's
our view that the animal does exist because of the total mass of evidence if these people who act independently over
a century time and 3,000 miles of coastline were in collusion it would be the biggest con game in the history of
science there's no way that happened these people are totally I've known to each other
skeptics abound outnumbered perhaps only by believers doubters claim caddy eyewitnesses are mistaken but they
really saw a humpback whales elephant seals basking sharks are perhaps a herd of sea lions hopefully the next person
to get hold of a caddy managed to resist the urge to dump it back in the bay perhaps then this mystery will finally
be solved we'll be back in a moment with an urgent appeal from the authorities in
North Carolina they need your help to track down an accused killer [Music] [Music]
most teenagers would do anything to avoid being with their parents but a 17 year old April heart nothing would be
more precious of spending a few moments with her mother savagely murdered when April was 6 I just want to go back to
being sick so that she will be there was something to play with me and I'll have
her let her know and she's there with me not going what she is now April's mother
sherry was last seen alive on a January night in 1984 a 24 year old divorcee was
supposed to meet a date outside a local restaurant sherry Hart did not come home
that night or the next police located several friends who had seen her that evening however they found no evidence
of foul play no explanation for Sherry's sudden disappearance four months afterwards April heard rumors that her
mother had run off to Florida with a lover I just thought she hated me and didn't want to come back because she had
me and she didn't feel like she was responsible for me and I just didn't that she loved him anymore sure what he
got dogs female she's been here a while yeah she's pretty well decomposed the truth was worse far worse 11 months
after sherry vanished an unrelated investigation led police down a two thousand foot cliff locals call it the
jumping-off place it was there that authorities found the body of sherry Lyle Hart
investigators immediately reopened the case they doing well I was supposed to have a day just about a half hour ago
but they located a witness who had seen sherée on the night she vanished with two highschool friends
Jeffrey Burgess and Richard bear where were you going nowhere particular just out cruising around no Elise
interrogated Bear and Burgess separately Richard Bears brother had once dated sherry Hart what time would that have
been nine nine o'clock you sure about that no I'm not sure could have been 905 it
could have been two 855 I don't I don't keep a watch on me and check in every minute okay we have witnesses that saw
you together after nine o'clock and Burgess gave us a different time as well so are you sure it was nine o'clock okay
look let me tell you something it was dark it was cold we dropped her off by her car I don't know what time it was
but stores were open they were opened okay Richard bear volunteered little information so detectives pushed forward
with other leads we interviewed a great deal of people many people and as a result of those interviews we feel that
we have developed a scenario as to what occurred that evening I feel we go cruising first a couple
buddies minor down there meet up with them and then made me go to the toilet club afterwards
sounds good at some point in time this riding around led them to an area possibly in the vicinity of a high club
or a party and during this riding around Shea Hart asked to make a arrest op authorities allege that sherry and the
two men pulled off the highway about 1/4 of a mile from the jumping off place I think the woods are a dangerous place
for a little girl that night Richard bear was apparently carrying a handgun [Music]
are you doing shut up and stay in the car richard bear' and jeffrey burgess were charged with a murder of Sherri
Hart our DUI conviction could have led straight to the gas chamber however four months after his arrest Richard Baer
managed to escape from the County Jail Jeffrey Burgess was released on bail pending his friends recaptured more than
10 years later the trial has yet to begin we let those people down we let the victim down and we certainly like to
have an opportunity to get him back to let them know that we wants to see we want to see justice done this is
probably his brutal of crime as you will ever encounter because the horror the fear and the fried that that victim had
to feel for several minutes before she went over that clip because she would have in my opinion known enough
to know where she was she was a outgoing person she liked people she liked to have fun she was the mother that lived
her daughter very much she thought more of April than anybody or anything it won't never get behind me I can't
actually from that power grade knowing she's down there and I want her to be here with me so I can just give her a
hug and just have her in my life for Jenna [Music] [Music] [Music] recently we profiled a pair of cunning
criminals two women who in some circles that achieve near folk hero status the police knew them as a real-life Thelma
and Louise if you passed them on the road you would think they were just best friends out for a joyride but over a
three-month period nearly 1995 roaster Fred and Carolyn Stevens told more than a quarter of a million dollars from at
least ten men their mo was simple yet devious frozen Carolyn lured their victims to hotel so the promise of an
adventurous date rose and Carolyn from the onset wanted to be the real life that woman Louise it they wanted to
experience that thrill and the spontaneity and the only thing is I don't believe they ever considered what
they were going to do to their families in March of 1995 rose and Carolyn were finally arrested in Houston Texas their
families put up almost everything they owned a post a $500,000 bail the Thelma and Louise bandits were released and
promptly disappeared as it turned out our broadcast was a catalyst for a full-scale media blitz aimed at tracking
down the two women here's Keeley che Smith with the details Bob the story of the Thelma and Louise
bandits appeared everywhere in newspapers magazines and on television but it was a t-shirt just like this one
which led to their capture in Toronto Canada less than five months after they had vanished the gentlemen that gave us
the tip saw the pictures in the Maclean's magazine of me holding the t-shirt and call the number on the
t-shirt the tipster knew the whereabouts of rose turf 'red she was working at a telemarketing firm in Toronto within 24
hours both of the fugitives were in custody probably the weirdest thing in this whole chase was watching those two
smile going to jail looking at all the time that they're looking at they smile for
the camera terr furred and Stephens were extradited to Texas and are currently being held here at the Harris County
Jail in Houston I think that anyone who does a series of aggravated robberies are nothing more than criminals they're
not anything special they're not anything to admire they're not anything to emulate
they're just robbers [Music] [Music] [Music] next a provocative case study of a criminal mind meet kidnapper franklin
delano floyd and later the poignant tale of a baby girl abandoned on a subway as
a grown woman she dreams of a Christmas reunion with her birth mother [Music] this is Michael Hughes is seven years
old and has been missing for more than 14 months in 1994 Michael was living with foster parents when he was abducted
by a man who claims to be his father you're acting like I walked up to the McDonald's and took a strange boy and
walked off with and that's where you're wrong this is Franklin Delano Floyd in fact he is not the father of Michael
Hughes today Ford is serving a 52 year prison sentence for kidnapping Michael Floyd insists the boys alive and safe
but he refuses to tell anyone where Michael is or who is sheltering him the case of Franklin Floyd Michael Hughes is
one of the most bizarre we have ever profiled a twisted tale of deception and deceit that truly defies rational
thinking we now joined Kevin ogle from our NBC affiliate kfo our TV in Oklahoma City this is Indian Meridian elementary
school just outside of Oklahoma City on September 12 1994 Franklin Delano Floyd walked into the office of principal
James Davis Floyd said he was the father of six year old Michael Hughes and then
Floyd said he had a gun he came in he was acting rather nervous he said what I'm doing is very difficult he's I think
I should tell you I've got a gun in my pocket at that time he was sitting right here he reached his pocket he pulled the
gun partway out of his pocket enough that I could see the handle in the palm of his hand and then he put it back in
his pocket he said I'm ready to die if you don't help me you won't live either principal Davis led Floyd down this
hallway to Michael's classroom Floyd then forced both of them into Davis's pickup truck and ordered Davis
to drive out into the country and when we got down here aways he told me to to stop and he had meeting you down the
truck and go into the woods he left Michael and in the truck and he followed me into the woods he said sit down with
that tree and put your arm between those two trees so I couldn't see it so I just
did like yes and put my hands behind me and he handcuffed my hands behind me like this five hours later principal
Davis was rescued for the next two months there was no sign of either Franklin Floyd or Michael Hughes police
were on a warrant for kidnapping finally Floyd is arrested in Louisville Kentucky
but Michael was nowhere to be found the authorities began to probe into Floyd's background they discovered a
past remarkable for his demented behavior in 1975 Floyd then 32 had turned up in Oklahoma
City going by the name Trenton B Davis with him was a young girl floyd claims she was his daughter Suzanne over the
next decade Suzanne and Floyd moved from town to town using a variety of aliases in 1988
Suzanne then seventeen gave birth to his son Michael incredibly Floyd claimed to
be the boy's father even more incredibly he then turned around and married the woman he claimed was his daughter
then in 1990 when Michael was 2 Suzanne was killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident a prime suspect though he was
never charged was none other than Franklin Floyd Floyd vanished but only after he had left Michael with foster
care Michaels foster parents remember him as a child with many difficulties he was not up to grade for his age he was
he didn't have muscle control like he should have he did not talk at all he was very hysterical so he just
wouldn't he was once a mighty Trish ain't the right word he was delayed that so severely that he was in an infant
stim class and he tested out at nine months when he was 2 when he was 2 six months after abandoning Michael
Franklin Floyd was arrested on a parole violation at that time a routine blood test delivered a stunning revelation
Floyd was not Michael Hughes his biological father after all when Floyd got out of jail he requested that
custody of Michael be returned to his request was denied six months later Floyd would abduct Michael Hughes from
this first-grade classroom Michael has not been seen since we would like to have some information from the
public indicating that this child is either has been seen out there is out there somewhere or they may know
something about him being a solid or possibly murdered that's what our interest is well you know what people
say the reason you won't tell where he is yeah because they think he's dead that's right well they just have no
evidence of that Michael is not dead why won't you tell us where he is it's none
of your damn business where he said you don't have a right to love him care for him in church cuz he ain't yours
from the start the case of young Michael Hughes had been marked by disturbing unexpected twists and now there is one
more only recently the police learned that Michael's mother Suzanne was not Franklin Floyd's biological daughter in
fact she may also have been kidnapped by Floyd how did she come into your life as
a little girl I very bluntly say and she was abandoned to me and I raised her if
I actually told you and you believed it or I could prove it to you you know what
you do you try to pin a medal on me for taking her where'd you go you really would I can't tell you that I was good
but I'm gonna tell you right now I did her a favor that's one of the biggest mysteries that we have in this case as
to who this girl is we have absolutely no idea we know that she is not the biological daughter of mr. Floyd and we
feel that there's a very good possibility that this young girl may have been abducted or kidnapped when she
was probably 3 4 years of age and we would like to find out her true identity we don't know that
[Music] [Music] in a moment two armed robbers hit a small-town post office and terrorized
the postmaster [Music] epps Alabama of the population of just 300 is a very definition of
off-the-beaten-path the local post office as much like the town itself small quiet and friendly a most unlikely
target for robbery October 30th 1987 began like any other day for opal Johnson the postmaster in
UPS everyone that came into office was people that I knew almost except hunting season and then there were strangers who
came into post office quite often so that's why I did not really notice this guy when he came to the window because I
thought he was someone there hunting at around 11 a.m. to strangers one white and one black came in for stamps after
the blackmailer jump told the county he immediately began to give orders he seemed to be real familiar with the
operation of a postal service the black mail gave all the orders he would he told the white male everything to do and
he did it I never took money to work with me I had a dollar in 38 cents killa and the white
male sis man let's don't do that sister said she did everything we told her to he says okay we'll take her with us the
thieves made off with about 700 dollars in cash and stamps one of the men forced
opal into her car and followed the other out into the country it would turn out to be just a 10-minute ride for opal the
most frightening ten minutes of her life when a white ball got into the car he put his gun across his lap with this
thing are still on the trigger and it was poking me in the side and he was extremely nervous don't do anything
stupid or they'll be all right [Music] finally the tiny convoy pulled into a remote clearing near Goggins lake three
miles from town whatever you do don't make you mad I can't control when he's mad okay don't talk
he said give me your rings I like those rings and as I was taking my rings off I
looked at him in his eyes looked as if he hated the world they were just piercing he was just angry it's like he
was angry with everyone in the world I was sure that they were gonna kill me let's go when he took the car and I
thought well it'll drown Mike off into the lake [Music] they got in their car and they left and
I could not hear it anymore I began to feel around in the corner you could see if I could go into the coffee through
the back seat and it's metal across there no posh boy so then I found a tattoo and
I took that tattoo and I began to work on that lock and when I broke the locking up the trunk popped up and I
come all that trunk running within an hour Opel had provided police with a detailed
description of the two men the first suspect would now be in his late 20s he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed
approximately 130 pounds he had brown hair and green eyes and was probably not from the south the second suspect was
about 6 feet tall and slender he would now be in his late 30s yet long heavy sideburns greasy hair and dark eyes
authorities believe he may have had family in the EPs area that he may have previously worked in the mail service
[Music] when we return 40 years ago a baby girl was abandoned on the subway in New York
City can you help turn a Christmas mystery into a Christmas miracle [Music] forty years ago the approach of
Christmas brought no joy to a lonely young woman in Brooklyn New York on the afternoon of December 11th 1955 she
boarded a subway train rode four stops and exited without a word for reasons unknown she left behind a tiny baby girl
by the next day the infant was something of a celebrity dubbed miss Subway's by the local press despite the publicity
no one ever claimed the baby and a year later she was adopted Christmas means different things of different people
brigene Martin of Long Island New York the holiday season is a time of reflection and hope genius II is Miss
Subway's and the mysterious woman on the train was her birth mother perhaps tonight someone watching can help jeans
Christmas dream of a reunion come true Jean grew up in a happy loving home from an early age he knew she had been
adopted but through the years geez questions about her past fell on deaf ears almost as if her parents were
protecting her as her own children grew Jean became more and more curious finally in July of 1992 Jean once again
pressed her mother for answers you know ma this may not be the best time to bring this up again oh no gee but I
really feel I need to for the kids sake for medical reasons you're gonna hate me
no you're gonna hate me you were abandoned abandoned on assembly I was shocked at
her reaction which threw me it was basically the driving home that day it was a total identity crisis cuz nothing
belonged to me there was no name there was a name on the adoption papers which I thought to be my birth name but that
wasn't mine I had no birth date my religion wasn't mine there was nothing just nothing once
she got over the initial shock gene began the search at the local library she spent hours in front of the
microfilm viewer sifting through newspapers from 1955 the year of her birth I was letting the the microfilm
roll and I saw the top of the policeman's hat and it said Miss Subway's and I saw this baby and I was
devastated I just felt like all the blood had just drained out of my face and my fingers I went numb
I was nauseous I felt faint it was incredible the newspaper account gave Gina tantalizing glimpse into her unknown
past a past which began when the lonely young woman entered the subway station at Coney Island
she walked slowly and carried an old battered suitcase the woman took a seat off to herself in the lead car several
passengers recalled that the woman opened her suitcase shielding it from view and took something out she exited
the train at the band's sickliness Street Station seconds later it was gene no more than five days old
and wrapped in a blanket with a full bottle of milk tucked inside hey tell the motor not to leave the station so
the baby was just left on the train the passengers are able to provide police with a vague description of the young
mother but no one had any idea who she was or why she had abandoned her baby the next day the saga of Miss Subway's
are splashed across the front pages this photograph of baby gene was seen by thousands but jeans mother never came
forward now some 40 years later Jean Martin is convinced that her birth mother had her best interests at heart
choosing to leave her in a place where she was certain to be quickly found and turned over to the authorities my
feelings are desperate people do desperate things I need information I need somebody who remembers something
somebody who remembers a neighbor maybe even someone who was on the train who saw her or maybe even recognized her but
at the time was afraid to come forward I'm ready to meet her anytime anywhere [Music]
from all of us at unsolved mysteries to all of you our best wishes for a safe and joyous holiday season may peace be
with you and may all your mysteries be solved [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

A woman searches for her birth mother, while sea monsters and a murder case unfold in this episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

Key points

The Mystery of Cadborosaurus. Eyewitness accounts of a mysterious sea creature known as Cadborosaurus captivate many.
April Hart's Heartbreaking Story. April Hart longs for her mother, who was murdered when she was just six.
Franklin Floyd's Twisted Tale. Franklin Floyd, a kidnapper, insists that his victim Michael Hughes is alive.
The Abduction of Michael Hughes. Michael Hughes was abducted from his classroom and has not been seen since.
Shocking Family Revelations. Suzanne, Michael's mother, was not Floyd's biological daughter and may have been kidnapped.
The Mystery of Miss Subway. A baby girl was abandoned on a subway in New York, sparking a decades-long search.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don't know I got no idea what it is.

James Wakeland describes the creature he saw.

4:09WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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