Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 8, Episode 9 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries she was sensuous charismatic and talented one of the bright lights of
Seattle's rock music scene everyone sent me as a Potter was destined for greatness then in July 1993 Lea took a
lonely stroll through the dark streets of Seattle and crossed paths with a vicious unknown killer
tonight we're in Seattle Washington to investigate the tragic case of this ill-fated young singer join me for a
dramatic profile of life and death of rock star Mia Zapata as well as these intriguing mysteries
Thomas David Dixon is a very definition of career criminal when he's not in prison he's doing what he does best
robbing banks and brazenly taunting the authorities Michelle Arkin was just a teenager when a late-night confrontation
confront but she had long suspected her mother and father were not her biological parents now Michelle needs
your help to find the family she never knew meet Philip Polly if you think he looks like an average eight-year-old
think again Philips favorite subjects are geometry and cellular biology he prefers museums and archaeological digs
to playgrounds and ball fields Philip you see as a genius whose extraordinary abilities make for a fascinating mystery
of the mind stay with us for these fascinating stories in our special report on Mia
Zapata perhaps you may be able to help solve on the street [Music] dispatched a unit father dispatch to
unit 4 8 miles south gate abandoned me for a sheriff's deputy influence County South Carolina it was a routine call
until he uncovered the getaway car from a recent string of bank robberies [Music]
Polaroid's left in the car showed off a formidable arsenal a rambling message filled seven pages of a small notebook
it was signed Tom Dixon I know the feds are closing in on me but they need an informant so need to really him watch
who I trust I will not go back to prison under no conditions ever for any length
of time it is hardly surprising at Thomas Dixon vowed never to be taken alive during the last 22 years he'd been
out of prison escaped teen months when he wasn't doing hard time Dixon was robbing banks
the FBI pegged him for at least 12 and they were probably more in 1984 after a 10-year stretch in
prison Dixon in a series of accomplices terrorized banks across North Carolina Dixon's partners may have changed but
his MO never varied a Dixon was what we would call a takeover robbery and law enforcement jargon means that they
control everything inside the bank which means when he came into a bank usually he or his partner would hold somebody at
bay with the weapon make announcements [Music] mister get up get up kick the keys to where I can see them do
it now just keep [Music] come on buddy [Applause] [Music] after a string of seven robberies Dixon
went underground he holed up with a girlfriend in a remote cabin in North Carolina
federal agents got wind of the hideout and moved in they weren't taking any chances with Thomas Dixon we were able
to gather enough information about Dixon to know that he had certain patterns that they might play in our favor and
trying to make an apprehension we knew that he was a jogger Dixon has always been in excellent shape takes good care
of himself when the SWAT team wanted to make the search of the cabin in addition
to his female companion there was seven long barreled guns seven handguns of various size and
caliber 25 sticks of dynamite and we were absolutely shocked at the the amount of weaponry he had inside the
apartment Thomas Dixon was on his way to another decade behind bars when Dixon was paroled around Christmas of 1994 he
picked up right where he had left off but now Dixon always worked alone morning I'll be right with you that's
all right this is a holdup I got a police scanner so don't do anything funny just be cool and put the money in
the bag he doesn't come in as a flashy guy he comes in prepared he's methodical he thinks about things before he does
them during the summer of 1995 Dixon showed up in one bank surveillance tape after
another five robberies in a seven week period have you FBI ever heard of Thomas Dixon man is one badass bank robber
tomorrow he's gonna rob a bank in North Carolina during the summer robbery spree
Dixon began to taut the FBI with advance notice of his bank jobs in one call Dixon targeted a bank in Matthews North
Carolina instead he turned up in Columbia South Carolina 80 miles away as put it in the bag who's that in the back
you be cooled Dixon's last known heist with September 11th 1995 you all have a nice day you can turn on that alarm now
if you like excuse me FBI agency Dixon's flip and self-confidence as a mask for an
unstable personality coming apart at the scenes investigators now believe that Dixon
deliberately left the photos notebook and getaway car for them to find three weeks after Dixon's last robbery they
got the message a deliberate talk on a credible eco running line now I need a really good score so I can go
underground for a few months get myself back together I got myself a bulletproof vest
so maybe it'll save my ass long enough to drop a couple of them before I die [Applause]
yes you keep looking and I'll keep working we meet up some day and we'll see if it's you or is it me I don't
think there's any question the diction has become a walking time bomb Dixon was alerting us to the fact that he is
heavily armed and he has every intention of using those arms in a confrontation with law enforcement
[Music] [Music] next when a young woman is found dead floating in the Chesapeake Bay two old
boyfriends emerges suspects [Music] Maryland's natural resource police routinely monitor the state's coastal
areas tracking down poachers and enforcing game regulations but on the 30th of August 1993 an NRP patrol pulled
the body of an attractive brunette from the Chesapeake Bay the woman was identified as Nancy Manni one of the few
female members of the seafarers international union Nancy had made a career setting the world as a ship
steward but now at the age of 33 Nancy was dead drowned and possibly murdered who could have killed Nancy Manni the
investigation quickly narrowed in on an ex-boyfriend named Billy Mesmer a self-styled poet whose dark rhymes
hinted at a dangerous obsession it looked like a rock-solid theory until rumors seemed to implicate another
boyfriend and some of his associates in the seafarers Union and overshadowing all was a second murder victim a young
woman identical to Nancy in almost every way almost last time you saw Nancy Wednesday Billy Mesmer was questioned
two days after Nancy's body was found poems Billie had written to Nancy while they were lovers aroused suspicion
perhaps most notable were these lines excited breath escapes his lips while he waits without the light no one will ever
hear your screams as a predator begins to bite the poem assigned sweet dreams Billy the title Night Stalker I've had
experts look at it trying to analyze it and they concur did you know he did have
an obsession with Nancy at this time I can understand where they would come up with the word obsessive Nancy was the
love of my life I'm a poet I wrote her poetry constantly which is a very obsessive things full of feelings and
emotion during the 17 months of their relationship Billy had written Nancy more than 200 poems many were sent to
her at seaports around the world Nancy had sailed to Brazil Greece Iceland and often worked the giant freighters at
ferried natural gas from Indonesia to Japan she often said she liked to play with
the boys toys she liked to drive the forklifts and do that kind of work she was very feminine she's very
attractive and fun she can all had a lot of boyfriends but she hadn't really found a person that she was destined to
spend the rest of her life with she left you for someone else I don't understand
why you keep accusing me of things I really felt that the investigation was going in the wrong direction obviously
they were crawling all over me with a microscope and I was terribly frustrated that the person who actually did this
was going to get away Billy Mesmer had a plausible alibi he also had a suggestion
for the police take a look at certain members of the seafarers international union at the time of her death Nancy had
been studying at this union run training center the hairy London burg school of seamanship and piney Point Maryland she
was dating a union member who was connected to the school Billy says if Nancy came to his apartment a few days
before her death [Music] are you okay Nancy had a very very bad falling out with her boyfriend he had
told her that if she didn't do things as he wanted he would make things very difficult for within the Union she
simply said if you do this then I will expose you for what you are according to Billy Mesmer the secret Nancy threatened
to reveal may have had something to do with illegal drugs it's been rumored for years that certain members of the union
and of the school down in piney point have been involved in international drug trafficking not only that but possible
disappearances within the Union and within a local community I've had several people come clandestinely to me
to report that they suspected the legal activity at the school was the cause of Nancy's death again it's been
unsubstantiated and they they fear for their lives or their jobs which is why they don't want to be known after her
death I had received some telephone calls from friends of hers that were also union members who had told us that
they felt that her death was not accidental and that it was possibly linked with the Union and with the
school for Nancy's sister Linda the unsettling rumors seemed even more credible when
she received Nancy's personal effects from the school in going through Nancy's things I had noticed that a lot of
things were missing particularly pictures of her Union boyfriend and his family and I know that she wouldn't have
thrown them away she would have kept those there was more Nancy's camera was empty in its internal
mechanism jammed so someone had forcibly ripped out a roll of film I feel that someone had tampered with her camera and
so that led me to be more suspicious that someone in the school had obviously entered her room
there are also suspicions about Nancy's final work assignment before entering the school
Nancy sailed on the SS Mya quiz a ship which employed many union members she died in August in June I got the slider
from her when she was working on the SS Mya quest one paragraph says things are so bad on this ship that I'm getting
death threats now and I let that go and I regretted every day that I didn't demand to know who exactly said that and
why and what exactly was said one more disturbing question hangs over this case is a relinquish and the 1988 murder of a
young woman named Elizabeth greenberg Elizabeth and Nancy had the same hair color same eye color were nearly
identical in height and weight blake nancy elizabeth was a ship steward a member of the seafarers union Elizabeth
worked the same Indonesia to Japan trade route that Nancy sailed a few years later both women were attending the
union's training school when they died although Elizabeth was killed by a blow to the head she too was found floating
in the Chesapeake Bay it's eerie we look at both cases to similarities in their life and their lifestyles as yet we
haven't found a common denominator between the two as far as boyfriends or close friends but somewhere along the
line there's got to be a thread I fear that Nancy's death is gonna be simply written off as unsolved and even though
everyone in the county knows that something wrong unlawful cloak and dagger is going on
they're terrified to talk about it with the information that has been given to me on an anonymous basis over the past
two years since Nancy's death I'm beginning to fear for my own life [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] it's been said that the human brain is one of the last great frontiers despite
years of research we have only a few hints about why some people become Einsteins and others Forrest Gump the
source of genius remains secret a true unsolved mystery this is Phillip Paul II of Denver Colorado he may look like an
average eight-year-old but Phillip is quite literally 1 in 10 million Philips abilities are practically immeasurable
Philip is a genius in fact Philip is so smart that he is too smart for school these days his
mother teaches him at home because even programs for gifted students couldn't keep up with Philips insatiable demand
for knowledge well I'm studying algebra and geometry and the Middle Ages and cellular biology and in the Middle Ages
I'm working on the castles defenses how do I explain Phil's gifts that to me is a mystery to be perfectly honest I mean
it's it's not that Phillip Phillips dad or I are dumb but we do we neither of us
have the IQs to match Phil so it to me it was a gift to have a son like Phillip from the very beginning it was clear
that Philip was brighter and more alert than most babies as six months he started to talk and had enough manual
dexterity to remove the bolts from his crib at nine months Philip displayed a highly mature emotional sensibility
during an experiment use asked to spank a doll three times the show he understood counting Philip refused to
strike the doll finally when the examiner thought he couldn't understand what was going on he patted the doll
three times and then held it and hugged it and protected it from the examiner and tries tried to soothe the dolls
feelings this is not something his mother taught him to do because any mother would have
a hard time trying to teach something like that to a nine month old at 18 months Philip could already read for a
second birthday he asked for a violin within days he was playing simple tunes he had composed himself Philip was
lightyears ahead of his peers one particular time we took him to to church and we put him in and at the
two-year-old level and we put we picked him up and after school the first thing he says to me is mom they don't talk and
he was too and he didn't realize that other kids his own age weren't doing those kind of the same kind of skills a
three Philip was studying astronomy he had little use for Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh his hero was astronaut
Buzz Aldrin [Music] by the time Philip was for the Denver Museum of Natural History was his
favorite playground one day he even spotted a mistake in a museum mural that had gone unnoticed by
the curators for 30 years [Music] incredibly Philip had been able to detect the subtle differences between a
medieval French helmet and that of a Spanish conquistador on another visit to the museum in that same year Philip as
the curator why a dinosaur skeleton was missing several vertebrae in his tail section and the curator explained at the
time that the dinosaur was too large for the area that they had had designated for it so but with the new exhibit they
were gonna get it correct and not to worry about it but he was far ago so he says you're the only person that's
noticed research indicates that along with heightened mental abilities child geniuses often show a hyper sensitivity
to humanitarian issues he carries the weight of the world on him he's worried about the economy within the United
States and and the government structure as well as what's going on around the world and how it affects how what we do
affects other nations there's times that he gets so consumed with these worries that he'll stop eating he bites his
nails he loses sleep I mean these are things that we have to talk about what he can actually do on a personal level
to help mankind it makes me feel sad that America does not value education and America is becoming more like a
Roman Empire than the great nation it was and here's a few reasons because like one is that that we're going the
gladiators like in our movies and we're going to have a worse fate than the Roman Empire
just know it so where would you expect a child like Phillip to play a baseball diamond not on your lives
try an archaeological dig I think Phillip working at the site here has fun he knows it's important he understands
the value of what he's doing it's intellectually stimulating but he's digging in the dirt Phillip has a
lifetime of enthusiasm for each of his favorite subjects so much so that when we asked him what he wants to be when he
grows up he had a tough time picking just one job a paleontologist an archaeologist conservationist and
hopefully I'll be the commander to the mission to Mars and the chief curator of the Denver Museum of Natural History and
if if all of the other jobs fail I would really want to be a great composer on the line of baroque um baroque classical
and romantic eras in the music stage and the list goes on number 23 but what makes a genius is it nature or nurture
scientists truly don't know but one of the wilder explanations is a geniuses possess knowledge and skills acquired in
other lifetimes he told me one time that he had having an open and he could he get looked down and he had chose me as
his mom because I would be the right one for him it's clear to me that many many
gifted children come in knowing more than it would be explainable by scientific standards where they get that
knowledge from I don't know but I would not discount any possibility including reincarnation that there's something
evolutionarily different about them that the brain structure is different or the
function of the brain is different or that they are visiting us from more evolved cultures
anything is possible Philip doesn't have much time left for childhood in two years he'll be old enough to take the
college entrance exams he plans to enroll at the University of Denver after that the sky's the limit
do I think the Phillips a genius I think that the definition that society gives the IQ test says yes I think whether he
will be a genius or not will be if he uses and utilizes did the intellect and the abilities that he has to help
mankind then I think he would be a genius people used to believe genius was a rarest of gifts but children like
Philip can crop up anywhere the danger is at the talents of these special kids often go unrecognized experts tell us
that even children with learning disabilities may be hidden geniuses if your child seems smarter or more
talented than average he or she should be tested who knows you may be nurturing the next Einstein when we return an
unexpected death splits a young family apart perhaps someone watching can bring them together again
[Music] Michelle Arkin was 16 when she almost discovered the family secret her mother Laverne had to improvise in
order to preserve it a while longer I didn't get the job personnel officer said that my birth
certificate was phony phony what do you mean he said that it had been amended a bit for me I don't know what they're
talking about there is nothing wrong with your birth certificate Dana said that my birth certificate
wasn't legal that they had things on there that it shouldn't be and I was very shocked I mean as far as I knew
that was my birth certificate that was what I grew up with that was correct sheera Laverne Neal have dreaded this
moment for years Michelle was not her biological child to tell or not to tell than if you tell
when like thousands of couples who adopt Laverne Neal and her husband Wilburn confronted these difficult questions
there are no right or wrong answers however parents who decide against revealing the facts law most certainly
face years of fancy footwork to keep their secret secret Laverne and Woburn Neal will always remember the day in
September of 1965 when they first set eyes on Michelle the Neal's have been married for four years they are eager to
start a family but had been unsuccessful [Music] out of the blue their friends Raleigh
and Juanita Gore had offered the Neal's a chance to adopt a baby girl the child's mother a friend of the Gores was
unable to care for the infant herself she had entrusted Raleigh and Juanita with finding a loving home she's
gorgeous I loved her and ratoff that didn't hesitate didn't handle doubts we just
looked at each other says what we know about raising a baby and me the one I was didn't and so she said we can learn
fast for Wilburn and Laverne Michele was a dream come true two weeks paid by then Patricia Bonner
Michele's birth mother called she wanted to see her baby I knew that pet was Michele's mother and
if she wanted to keep her even though it broke my heart I knew you know I'd have
no choice but to let her Patricia Boehner had been widowed while she was pregnant with Michele she
already had three young children to raise by herself so she had reluctantly given up Michele for adoption well I
just don't know what else to do different if Jonny was still here but I can't afford to put shoes on my three
children died I can barely feed them how I'm not gonna keep her oh maybe things will get better and
I know you and Wilbur and won't give her a good home and care for her can I just
hold her one more time please uh of course I knew that lady had to be hurting bad and I hurt for her because I
knew I could I could feel how hell she was hurting we'd like to draw up some papers to make the adoption legal but
when the nails return two weeks later Patricia Bonner and her children were gone the apartment was empty she had
moved and she left no forwarding address nobody knew where she went the absence of formal adoption papers didn't prevent
Michelle from enjoying a typical childhood by the age of five she had a brother named Stephen a Neels biological
child Michels background was never discussed me and Laverne we talked about it many
at times should we go ahead and tell her we've figured Michelle would feel like she was left out she wouldn't be called
to Stephen if she's not involved with us and we just decided it would be better to wait as she was over the family
secret was safe for a while but Michelle began school the Neil's had to submit a birth certificate with the
help of a relative in Kentucky they obtained this one listing themselves as Michelle's biological parents by the
time Michelle entered high school the family secret had started to fray Michelle began to ask your parents if
she had been adopted the answer was always no there's nothing wrong with your birth certificate I felt very bad
because I never did like to say anything that wasn't true and here I was doing just the opposite of what I was teaching
my children and it really bothered it it hurt me quite a bit finally the burden became too heavy for
Michelle's parents finally they were ready to talk I know I'm late I'm sorry it won't happen again no it's not about
that Michel sit down please she said I've heard from too many sources that I was adopted and she said
you got to tell me the truth and so I told her the truth Betty you see you are sort of adopted what do
you mean sort of adopted you remember Rowley and Juanita remember I was talking about them I felt that
they had betrayed me only because they've always told me the truth when I asked it it was always you know bottom
line this is the way it is and I just felt that they lied to me and that's why I was so upset I moved out two weeks
later I got an apartment with my girlfriend which my girlfriend they could not stand so maybe that was a
little bit more of my rubella you know reverse uh act on my part but I mean eventually I came around I came back to
mom and dad today Michelle is herself a parent the mother of a boy and a girl with her
Paris blessing michelle has begun to search for her birth mother and the three siblings she has never met hi
Arthur [Music] I can understand what she did back then I would just feel better just knowing
where I came from what my relatives but you know just simple basic questions any
person would have [Music] in a moment we'll come back to Seattle to investigate the tragic murder of rock
and roll singer Mia Zapata [Music] since 1991 the hottest spot in rock'n'roll has been Seattle Washington
they're fun Pearl Jam and Allison chains all came out of the local music scene many people thought the next
breakthrough band would be the gits a punk rock group funded by Mia Zapata a charismatic 27 year old with a tragic
destiny [Music] I went through many shows where afterwards people didn't even know I was
up on stage because their eyes were so transfixed on Mia [Music] she was someone who had something to say
and uh she was very very compassionate and big-hearted person and she brought that into into the bad but on July 7th
1993 the good times were abruptly snuffed out around 2:00 a.m. Mia Zapata left a friend's apartment an hour later
her body was found two miles away reportedly laying face-up in an almost christ-like pose
Mia had been beaten and strangled Mia Zapatas death set shockwaves of the tight-knit music community here in
Seattle why at this promising a popular young singer been killed was an obsessed
fan a jealous enemy or a complete stranger in an eerie coincidence me alluded to her own violent death and one
of the last songs she recorded the haunting lyrics spoke of someone slashing her and hinted that someone
might never be found you might say Mia Zapata was born to be a star she grew up in Louisville
Kentucky the daughter of two television executives after high school Mia went on
to Antioch College in Ohio there she met the other three members of the gits after five years together that gets her
attracting interest for major record companies the first full-scale US tour was in the works and Mia had a new look
for the little girl from Louisville it was like a dream come true I don't think I can ever remember my daughter looking
so satisfied so content so at ease with herself it was all coming together July 6 1993 the evening began at one of Mia's
favorite bars she met friends there about 10 Mia was in town only briefly she and that gets have been on the road
for three weeks and the tour was starting in a matter of days when Mia left the comic talent she walked a block
east of Pike Street to local rehearsal studio [Music] she then visited a friend who lived in
an apartment three floors up in the same building about 2:00 a.m. Leah left telling her friend she planned to take a
cab home she could have gone anywhere from there she could have gone out the front entrance gone down to the corner
and hailed a cab as she told her friend she was going to do hey where you going because Mia didn't
have a driver's license she took taxis often and knew many of the local cabbies this led police and
private investigator Leigh Hearon II to one of their first scenarios perhaps Mia
was murdered by a cab driver Mia did not have difficulty expressing her opinion and sometimes this gutted her to enter
trouble and other people liked it she could have said something to a cab driver that she knew that just made that
person angry that night significantly no cabbie reported picking Mia up that night about the same time
the bars were closing and some of her friends were healing cabs of their own no one saw me scenario number two she
also could have gone into the opposite direction a friend had asked her to spend the night she lived about five
blocks away she could have gone down 11th passed a reservoir and something could have occurred there in fact
something did occur whether it had anything to do with Mia Zapatas death remains a mystery
one of the earliest clues that the police received was from a man who had heard a scream a terrifying scream that
night he was so distraught by it that he actually rushed to see what was going on
but he saw nothing he lived however very close to the reservoir on 11th where Mia could have
gone if she had gone to visit her friend [Music] scenario number three perhaps me and
never left the building where she was last seen the next day one of Mia's friends stopped by the studio there and
discovered that gets demo tape and Mia's personal microphone this is something that she would have been carrying on her
at all times we don't know whether she left it there after the practice at night or whether she went back to the
studio after visiting her friend something happened there and this was simply left Mia's body was found about
two miles from the studio and about three miles from the street where the man heard screams despite a thorough
search of the area police found little forensic evidence [Music] this particular investigation has been
difficult because we're faced with a situation where we don't know where the actual crime scene was where the murder
took place we obviously only know where we found me at which we don't believe is the same
[Music] without a crime scene or witnesses leads quickly faded however the pain that
Mia's death did not people really were mad they were angered they were hurt they were shocked or pissed off and
people wanted justice and people wanted to to know what had happened as a police
investigation stoned the Romanian gets decided they needed a private investigator and hired Leigh Hearon to
raise the necessary funds they staged benefit concerts the response was overwhelming Seattle's best musicians
took up the cause including Nirvana in one of Kurt Cobain's final performances and rocker Joan Jett
in their first collaboration jet performia songs with the gits for a special benefit recording I want
more than anything for them to be able to find out what happened and so so there can be some resolution for
everybody because everyone's been working real hard trying to find this person who did this who killed Mia
Zapata and why the police believe it was a random murder investigator Leigh Hearon
believes otherwise she has convinced at me anew her killer and that the killer may not have acted alone I think it's
entirely likely that a second person was involved in transporting Mia's body if not in the actual homicide I basis on
the fact that Mia's body was found with her arms out and her legs crossed as if two people have been carrying her and
laid her down also she had been beaten in the course of her attack but her face was not touched and I believe that this
is more of the modus operandi of somebody who knows a person and does not want to attack their face but attacks
their body [Music] I'm gonna use it I just remembered the look on her face of contentment and of accomplishment
that last day you finished the tour and how happy she was and how she was smiling and she smiled at me with a look
of a real sense of accomplishment and like we had a future [Music] [Applause] [Music]
the surviving gets have gone on with their music forming a new band a dancing French liberals of 48 it is they believe
what Mia would have wanted but it will never be the same playing music without Mia it is very
difficult the chemistry that we shared as a band having that gone forever is a hard reality to face every day
[Music] I remember her as as a best friend and the sister one of the warmest most caring I've ever
met in my life [Music] [Music] [Music] join me next Friday for another intriguing edition of unsolved mysteries
[Music] you [Music]

Brief Summary

Mia Zapata's murder, Thomas Dixon's crimes, and Michelle Arkin's search for her birth family are featured in this episode.

Key points

The Tragic Case of Mia Zapata. Explore the life and untimely death of rock star Mia Zapata.
Thomas Dixon: The Badass Bank Robber. Thomas Dixon's criminal career is marked by audacity and a relentless pursuit of freedom.
The Mysterious Death of Nancy Manni. The investigation into Nancy Manni's death reveals dark secrets and potential drug trafficking.
The Genius of Philip Polly. Meet Philip Polly, a child prodigy whose extraordinary abilities raise questions about genius.
The Family Secret Unveiled. Michelle discovers her adoption and confronts her parents about the truth.
Mia Zapata's Tragic Death. The shocking murder of Mia Zapata sends shockwaves through the Seattle music scene.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He doesn't come in as a flashy guy; he's methodical.

Describing Thomas Dixon's approach to bank robberies

6:48WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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