Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 9, Episode 14 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries September 7th 1996 gunfire erupts along the famous Las Vegas Strip taking the
life of rap music star Tupac Shakur today disturbing questions haunt the investigation why wish occurs trusted
bodyguards unarmed why did the killer seem to target only Shakur and why was almost no one willing to talk
they are snapshots have a different time and place Virginia burns always thought she was
the baby in the pictures then Virginia learned about her father's secret life and now she needs your help to find her
long-lost sister it is a phenomenon so bizarre that it defies belief ordinary people suddenly and
inexplicably bursting into flame mainstream science says it can't happen but independent researchers insist that
the evidence doesn't lie spontaneous human combustion is real in Ohio the quiet calm of a small community is
shattered when Becky wood and her grandchildren are terrorized by a pair of vicious armed robbers now the
intruders have been unmasked and authorities need your help to track them down join me for another intriguing edition
unsolved mysteries [Music] do-do-do-do-do-do [Music] becky wood doesn't need this police
photograph to remember the terror the choking fear of being bound assaulted absolutely convinced that she and her
four grandchildren were going to die it happened in February of 1996 two men disguise and masks invaded her home
it was 7 a.m. Becky's husband had just left for work the intruders seemed to know exactly
what they were looking for when I first opened my eyes I saw a man with blood on
the head in the eye and I thought oh my god I'm having this bad dream and then when he said it again I knew it was for
real Becky's granddaughter was sleeping beside her and Becky thought to hide her
with a blanket three other children were asleep in different bedrooms I never felt so helpless
I was afraid for my grandchildren and I kept praying to God you know please let the children sleep through this don't
want them awake the whole time he's screaming where's the combination where's the combination
[Music] and I tried to explain to them that I didn't know what I didn't have it with
me could I please call my daughter he kicked me in the head and he kept telling me that they would take the
children I'd never see them again and I kept trying I swear I don't have the combination I swear I would open
that I give it to you I don't have it sounds of ransacking came from upstairs where the second intruder was looting
Becky's dresser of jewelry that's what 9 year old Matthew wandered out of his room I don't really know how to explain
what I felt like my heart just fell like it was just gonna be perfect it was pounding real hard and all
because I didn't know what it was he threw Matthew on the floor and put his hands behind him and tied him up
I saw the man's feet coming around in front of me and he took a trash bag and put it over my grandson's hat
I thought they were gonna take me out in this rug and kill me wrong and they were
gonna smother Matthew before you move us we'll be back to kill you [Music] Becky would heard the safe dragged
across the floor she heard her car stone then silence as it was driven away one of the other children awoken cut Becky
and Matthew free Becky then discovered if the intruders have sliced all the alarm and phone lines neighbors summoned
police in addition to stealing Becky's car robbers have made off the twenty thousand dollars worth of jewelry and
the locks safe containing the woods life savings another eighteen thousand in cash well why they stole a lot of our
possessions that I'll never be able to replace I'm thankful were alive that afternoon police found Becky's 91
Lincoln at a nearby car wash the safe turned up a week later emptied of cash but yielding evidence that could help
convict the robbers once they were identified as police began to review the case the facts pointed to one conclusion
the assailants had known exactly where to find the wires for the home alarm system they knew just where the safe was
kept they knew just where to look for Becky's jewelry they had known too much to be total strangers I'd met back up
again with Becky and her husband woody we asked him to do something that was kind of difficult for them we asked them
to sit down and start thinking about people they knew and people that they've dealt with and people that have worked
for them and put a list together for us it would prove to be a solid hunch on the jewelry showed up at pawn shops in
Pittsburgh 100 miles away police there believed it had been sold by a man named Larry juster state computers yielded
this photograph the information was relayed to Ohio Becky and her husband had left town to recover some peace of
mind after the robbery their daughter offered to review the pawnshop leads for local police listen
there's a photograph I need you to take a look if you would have recognized oh it's Gary
Gary Nolan Gary Noble it's not Larry jester that's what the name says but that's
Gary Noble and his brother Ted Noble worked for my dad a couple months ago Ted Noble had briefly worked for the
wood family 8 months prior to the robbery when Ted and his brother Gary found that detectives were closing in
they fled Ohio and are still on the run we were given information that they had made statements that they had no tension
of being taken alive if confronted by law enforcement the way we entered our warrants is with extreme caution on the
two of them the robbery has done something to us that you don't really understand unless you go through it
yourself angry what they did to my grandchildren and I'm angry I am angry at the mountains
[Music] [Music] coming up he was one of rap music's most popular and controversial stars then he
was gunned down by an unknown assailant who killed Tupac Shakur but first Virginia burns always thought
she was an only child then she learned that her father had gone to his grave with a secret of an ill-fated romance
and a long-lost daughter and the heartwarming reunion of a young man and the anonymous Good Samaritan who saved
his life [Music] [Music] August 27th 1995 began as a joyous day for Steve and Sharon Newton of Immokalee
Florida that morning their first child Virginia was born Steve had come to the hospital straight
from work at around 2 p.m. he headed home on his motorcycle to pick up the family car he had no way of knowing he
was on a collision course with disaster [Music] [Music] I just remember coming straight down on
my head as I hit I saw poof this big bright light and that was it then I was just completely out first Steve Newton
death was just a heartbeat away then a gift from heaven [Music] a passing motorist had turned Steve over
in the water and saved him from drowning she remained at the seat until Steve was
transported to a hospital then she disappeared the Steve never learned her name if she could just see my daughter
she'll know that she did me the greatest favor or gift that anybody can give and
that's to give me back my life and I'd like to say thank you for that with the help of our viewers Steve
Newton recently had a chance to do just that here's Keeley Shea Smith with the details
Bob a woman in Florida recognized the story is one she had heard from a co-worker named Tammy Dodson after the
broadcast Tammy's boyfriend discussed the case with one of his co-workers who happened to be Steve Newton's
father-in-law it soon became perfectly clear that Steve's mysterious Good Samaritan was in fact Tammy Dodson On
January 31st 1997 Steve and Tammy met face to face for the first time since the near-fatal accident as a special
treat Steve brought along Virginia now one and a half years old nobody's ever gone that far to come to thank me and he
kept saying that I was his angel I've never been called an angel before far from it but it just I mean it made me
feel good inside to know that I've done I've done something that's helped somebody so much Steve and his wife
Sharon now expecting their second child were finally able to express their gratitude to the woman who had saved
Steve's life IOR everything you know - this thing right through here it started for the
day was out Tammy and Steve returned to the scene of the accident all too aware that Tammy's simple act of kindness had
changed both of them forever it makes me want to do more for other people now you know if someone's in
trouble I would go that extra mile you know today that extra just to help that person I just wanted to hug him I
was so glad to see that he was okay and the baby and everything I was just just thrilled that he was fine
[Music] the images are from another place and another time a proud young father cradles his newborn daughter her gentle
smile captured in dozens of photographs Virginia burns of Aurora Colorado always
thought there were pictures of her she learned the truth when she was in her early 30s
my father said oh no those aren't you and I asked my mother well who are they and she says oh that's just a friend's
baby how you feel it years would pass before Virginia finally learned the entire truth in 1991 a year after
Virginia's father died her mother confided that he had been previously married then she made an even more
startling revelation something I have to tell you you have a sister what do you mean I I have a sister you know the baby
pictures that you always thought were you and we told you they were the daughter of a friend of ours if she's
your sister my mother admitted that she didn't tell me to protect me she had no way of knowing where my
sister was and why tell me if there was no way I could meet her three months later Virginia's mother
also passed away with both of her parents gone Virginia launched a search for the
sister she had never known I was looking through the pictures and I I found written on the back of one in my
father's handwriting and said Susan and I and Hugo and I had no idea where Hugo was so I asked my husband and he said
well that's a little town out on the eastern plains of Colorado Hugo Colorado is where Virginia's father
jewel coram lived in 1942 he was a dishwasher and busboy in a small cafe that's where Joe met a young woman named
Diana I just wanted to know maybe Friday night do you want to go to the picture show
with me oh I'd love to but I didn't think my mother will let me go okay how about a walk just for an hour
Diana's mother Clara ran the cafe Diana come here I don't like you talking to that boy
mother he's perfectly nice person it could be a nice person but honey he's a drifter he just came in here Clara
didn't prove with my father because he was poor and he had no future he she didn't see what he could really you know
go anywhere [Music] despite Clara's objection was a romance blossomed Joe and Diana decided to get
married a year later Susan was born but the tensions between Joe and his mother-in-law apparently escalated and
eventually drove Joe and Diana apart in 1946 they divorced and Joe left town for
good daddy's gonna miss you Diana I need joinings I I think it was probably one of those most heartbreaking things he
ever went through I'm sorry Joe to leave Susan and Diana I really don't think he
would have left unless there was just horrendous pressure hunting Joe coram apparently never saw his wife or his
daughter again after the separation he moved to Greeley Colorado where he fell in love with Virginia's mother dolly
they eloped and Virginia was born a year later Joe was happy with his new family
but he apparently never forgot the daughter he had left behind now looking back some 40 years
Virginia understands a poignant of one memorable incident from her childhood it was Virginia's sixth birthday four
months she had covered it a doll in the window of a local store she was just like an unreachable dream I open that
box and there was that doll and it was just like time stopped I was so excited to get that doll so what are you
thinking about sweetie beautiful what's her name I don't know what do you think I should
call her he says why don't you call her sweet sue about sweet sue and ideas not realizing that that was the name of my
sister Jenny why don't you go inside and play with your dolly okay [Music] sweets ooh I know I know it's okay you
must really miss her yeah let's clean up I know I missed her a lot of times when I was growing up he
would search faces we would go out and there would be a lot of little girls around you know and he would search
faces Virginia learned that her father tried to find Diana and Susan several times but it was never successful he
died in 1990 without ever learning their fate Virginia now hopes to succeed where
her father failed and find the sister whose memory lingers on in the sweet innocence of a young girls dog this is
important to me for two reasons number one here is a little girl who has gone her whole life without knowing that
she had a father who cared about her my sister does not know that her father cared about her that he looked for her
then he wanted to find her she needs to know she has a father who loved her and secondly I have a sister out there and
I'm more than ready to be a sister [Music] when we return from mainstream science
it is too incredible to believe but some researchers are convinced that spontaneous human combustion is very
very real and later last September dozens of eyewitnesses watched in horror as rap music star Tupac Shakur was
gunned down on the crowded Las Vegas Strip six months later the killer remains at large
[Music] good morning morning coffee at kn Mike Fletcher's hardly ranked as an unsolved mystery
until the peculiar events of February 11th 1996 it happened just after 9 a.m. [Music]
Mike the fletcher's say that smoke suddenly began to billow from Kay's body [Music]
I had Michael take a look at my back I said take a look at my back so I'm thinking do I have blisters or what and
he says no it's just red we really were frantically looking through the clothing
you know I was like arm and back and just looking it over very carefully and we found absolutely no discoloration we
found no sight of any kind of fire damage yeah I mean it was actually coming off of her skin but there was no
flame the smoke was so thick that we did have to turn on the fan and open the window just to get the smoke out of
there now earlier in my life I had worked at a Crematory and it the smell was that of burnt flesh I there was no
mistake of that because I you know it's it's an unmistakable smell but Kay and Mike Fletcher it was frightening Lee
real yet at the same time almost impossible to believe only later did they learn the such mysterious episodes
have been reported for well over 500 years students of the paranormal called a spontaneous human combustion her shc
on a perfectly normal person burst into flame without warning and without a pair
cause mainstream scientists dismissed such accounts still the reports of persisted since a 15th century and show
no signs of letting up now at the dawn of the 21st if there is indeed such a thing as s HC K Fletcher is one of the
few who lived to tell about it most of the others aren't so lucky March 26 1986 Kendall Mott was worried his father
George a retired fireman had serious lung problems an air pump and facemask helped keep him breathing but on that
day George hadn't answered repeated phone calls a quick look around convinced Kendall
that something was wrong the windows were all brown and I noticed that the door handle was born when I grabbed it
yeah it was real dark inside the house and this Mulligan member yeah Kendall was confronted by a ghastly sight fire
had reduced his father to a scattering of ashes a few splinters of bone and a fragment of skull
[Music] it's scary to find somebody like that to walk in and find something that she
loved you know all burnt like that it with no explanation as to why or what happened the case of George Mott in the
spring of 1986 has all the hallmarks of classic spontaneous human combustion there is incredible localized damage
done to the body George Mont was incinerated to an extent that we have been told by forensic
experts could only be replicated inside a crematorium operating at 3,000 degrees
Fahrenheit or more for 12 long hours the searing heat had melted a television in
the room yet curiously it had left much of the bedding unscathed in addition scarcely two feet away a box
of wooden matches had failed to ignite and air was still pumping through George's facemask
skeptics however insist that behind the bizarre scene why as a rational explanation
now do I know exactly what happened I don't but let me reconstruct a little bit we're told that mr. Mont was a
former a drinker and a former smoker but that he had reformed he was supposed to
be depressed just suppose that he said what the heck I think I'm a cigarette this would explain him taking off the
oxygen mask while the unit would still be left running and it would explain why the matches were there now if that's the
case then this is just another case of smoking in bed and is not mysterious and as a rather mundane case but not even
skeptics use a word mundane to describe what Don Gosnell found in December of 1966 a gas company meter man encounter
sport Pennsylvania Gosnell called on Irving Bentley a 92 year old retired physician that day dr. Bentley was
apparently away from home Gosnell let himself into the basement well I got to the bottom of the steps
there was a pile of ashes on the floor and there was an odor something I'd never encountered before is kind of a
sickening sweet odor and then I looked up and here there was a hole birthed through the floor right
above me and I stood there and I looked at that hole and there was little red embers all around the hole yet and all I
could think was they got dr. Bentley out of here but why didn't somebody call the fire company
and get this taken care of so I went running upstairs and it went in to the bathroom and that's when I found her
remains of dr. Bentley and what was left all there was was part of one leg and was so discolored I couldn't tell it was
a human being or a mannequin till I got right down close and looked at it and when I got the picture I left right then
[Music] what is so amazing and so profoundly perplexing to mainstream science about
the scene that dr. Bentley left behind is the incredibly intense fire that consumed his body quite literally to
powder leaving behind only his head a knee bone and a lower left leg as mute testimony this had once been a human
being the rest of his body was ash in the basement below we believe that dr. Bentley answered a call of nature to be
polite or standing in front of the toilet suddenly spontaneously he became a human fireball
the nature of the fire and we kind of use fire in quotes here failed to produce enough thermal energy to melt
aluminum Walker failed to produce enough heat to blister paint on the bathtub inches away and it was quite capable of
directing its energy downward through the oak beams through the flooring and into the sub floor beneath into the
basement the case of someone like dr. Bentley is very understandable in the sense of him being infirm he had a
history of setting his clothes on fire from his pipe his clothing was pockmarked with burns from his pipe dr.
Bentley also had a habit of keeping matches in his bathrobe pockets Joe Nickell believes that burning ashes from
Bentley's pipe dropped near them and they ignited and there was plenty of fuel to feed the flames in many of the
cases the person's own body fat can contribute to the fire if we imagine dr. Bentley with his body on fire he falls
to the floor there is linoleum on that floor and linoleum once it catches fire is a very powerful of flammable material
the flooring burned the subflooring burned and beams there's beams underneath there's a tremendous amount
of wood underneath his body to act as a funeral pyre mysterious not really not scientifically mysterious unusual yes
the debunkers of spontaneous human combustion could conduct a very simple experiment take a cadaver put it on a
tar base linoleum flooring put an aluminum Walker over top of it and drop a cigarette on it if it burns to powder
we're going to be real impressed and that person deserves a Nobel Prize in Physics but I'll wager your money that
experiments going to fail Larry Arnold theorizes to some cases of spontaneous human combustion maybe an
explosive aberration of the electrical current flows naturally present in the body we have the potential of hundreds
of thousands of volts of electricity coursing through the body instantaneously if the amperage is
sufficiently high then the body would literally become its own electrocution mechanism it would pry itself out from
the inside electrically this is crack pottery of a very high order there is not a single
reasonable theory for spontaneous human combustion there is no convincing scientific
evidence of it and so the mystery mongers ought to shut up and get a life Larry Arnold is unfazed by such
criticism he claims to have researched over 400 cases of spontaneous human combustion some dating back to the 1400s
and many documented by photographs the naysayers the PhDs who are phenomena hating debunkers choose not to face the
facts this is a mystery that's crying out for study that's crying out for recognition this is a mystery that is to
this day unsolved next the poetic music of rap star Tupac Shakur glorified gang coach and seemed to predict his own
violent demise now the investigation at a Shakur's murder has become a tangle of
chilling speculation and conflicting theories [Music] tupac shakur one of rap music's most
popular and enigmatic artists his autobiographical songs reflected a dark treacherous world he knew all too well
ultimately described as a street thug and a charismatic poet - park won the adoration of millions by the age of 25
he had cut four platinum albums and starred in five feature films I thought he was a brilliant man thought he had a
lot of vision without a foresight he may he was very creative he was an artist you know and at the same time he was a
revolutionist he was a great person he's extremely charismatic he was very intelligent very business smart very
funny very warm intelligent caring that was the Tupac that I knew despite his success to puck could never resist the
lure of the streets between 1991 and 1995 he was arrested eight times in 1994 he was shot five times and left for dead
in the lobby of a New York City recording studio in 1995 he served eight months in prison for rape within a year
of his release two pucks explosive past finally caught up with him he was cut down in a hail of gunfire just off the
Las Vegas Strip his killer is still unidentified still at large a coating of those who knew him best
tupac shakur never expected to reach his twenty-fifth birthday he was wrong but only by three months Shakur's untimely
death has raised a host of questions and given rise to three distinct theories about his murder a murder that occurred
as Tupac Shakur relaxed with friends in America's playground Las Vegas Nevada it was September 7th 1996 Las Vegas was
operating at full capacity thousands had gathered for the heavyweight boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce
Seldon held at the world-famous MGM Grand Hotel Tupac Shakur was one of the many celebrities who attended the fight
he is accompanied by Marion Suge Knight CEO of Death Row Records Shakur's recording company this photograph of
Tupac and Suge was taken after the fight at around 1055 p.m. they were headed for
shug's dance club followed by an entourage of musicians and bodyguards Tupac who normally was known to pack a
weapon as was should and and many people in the entourage they weren't armed that
night and everybody said they felt safe reporter Kathy Scott is writing a book about the murder so it was a very
festive mood they were obviously they're paying that playing the music loud so they were in a partying mood they were
flirting with women at 11:10 Tupac and Suge pulled up to an intersection I spoke with two unidentified women the
two were looking at the girls in talking to them that's what the witnesses have told police and that's when a white
Cadillac drove up on the passenger side next to Tupac and opened fire Tupac tried to climb into the backseat
and didn't make it as the attackers sped away Suge Knight took off in the opposite direction he finally stopped in
front of a casino one mile away Tupac Shakur was in critical condition shot in the chest in the hip and in the hand
Suge Knight had escaped with a slight bullet graze in the temple despite the presence of thousands of potential
witnesses police say only one person offered a glimmer of hope ER fool fool one of two parks backup
singers was riding in the car directly behind Suge and Tupac he told police at night that he could do a photo lineup
pick out the gunmen from a photo lineup police interviewed him briefly apparently not extensively took his
number and he went on his way for six long days fans gathered outside the Las Vegas hospital where to park clung to
life it was a losing battle on the afternoon of September 13th 1996 Tupac Shakur took his last breath and died
[Music] initially conventional wisdom headed that Tupac fell victim to a spontaneous
burst of gang violence supporting that scenario was this videotape recorded by a security camera at the MGM Grand
just three hours before the shooting members of tooth park's entourage can be seen in the lobby engaged in a brutal
scuffle both Suge Knight and Tupac were present moments later Tupac followed by shook can be seen hurrying through the
casino the target of the assault was 22 year-old Orlando Anderson an alleged member of a Los Angeles Street gang the
South Side Crips it has long been rumored that Suge Knight is affiliated with a rival gang
the Compton Bloods was this confrontation the spark that led to Tupac's murder any time someone as
popular as Tupac Shakur can be killed in front of thousands of people after one of the biggest events in the world and
one of the most popular cities of Las Vegas in the world there is something more to it than just some random
shooting by some idiot who decided to pick up a gun and point at Tupac Shakur it has to be some organization or some
movement behind that killing some say this music video by Tupac offers a clue to a second scenario in
the months preceding his death Tupac was at the center of a heated dispute between East Coast and West Coast rap
music factions there was a rivalry that started between Tupac Shakur and artist Biggie Smalls
and puffy combs who is the CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment that rivalry between them existed because when Tupac was shot
at quad Studios he felt not that big E and puffy set him up but that they knew that it was coming and didn't warn him
in a dramatized portion of the video Tupac publicly blamed puffy combs and Biggie Smalls for the attack that nearly
killed him in 1994 no one has ever been arrested in that shooting Ikon kid who was all boys why speak once we all boys
we always all boys just weeks before his death Tupac appeared on radio station KMEL in San Francisco and candidly
discussed his feelings towards his East Coast rivals [Music] just last weekend biggie smalls aka a
notorious b.i.g was himself gunned down shortly after leaving a party in Los Angeles at this time there is no known
connection between his murder and Shakur's in addition there is no proof that the East Coast West Coast rivalry
had anything to do with Tupac's death leading to intense speculation about a third possibility
perhaps the murder was an inside job orchestrated by someone close to Tupac Shakur this scenario was populated by
unanswered questions in the midst of the jam-packed Vegas strip how did the gunman know where to
park would be why did he seem to target only to park why wartooth parks bodyguards armed at the time of the
shooting when they had been armed earlier in the evening and why were the strip swarming with people including the
two unidentified women just a few feet from the shooting was no one apparently willing to cooperate with police what I
was told by one homicide detective was that everybody went deaf dumb and blind they were surprised because they said
these are professional bodyguards they're paid to guard you know Tupac he hired them for this purpose yet they
didn't see anything the only person who reportedly did see something yahhh fufu never had the opportunity to
view a photo lineup of possible suspects within a week of the shooting he returned to his home in New Jersey
two months later fula was gunned down in the stairwell of a housing project a random act of violence or a premeditated
murder to keep fuller from talking to the authorities he was their best bet he was right behind the car when it
happened Annie said he could identify he believed he could identify the gunman and now full is dead and they don't have
that anymore authorities have always maintained that fula was the only eyewitness willing to
talk however just two weeks ago two other members of two parks aren't jurors claimed they told police from the
beginning that they had a clear view of the shooter they say police never asked him to view a photo lineup the police
say the men initially denied seeing the shooter but have now reinter viewed them
[Music] ironically in one of two parks final videos he seemed to foretell his own
violent demise cut down in a hail of gunfire by a shadowy unknown assassin [Applause]
I don't know if we'll ever know who killed Tupac Shakur but I do know that there's millions of people that are
devastated by his loss things people might consider bad about Tupac whether there was a lot of good things about
Tupac in we had yet to see all the good things and I believe that it came out of
Tupac Shakur join me next to four more unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

The episode covers Tupac Shakur's murder, a home invasion, and spontaneous human combustion mysteries.

Key points

The Home Invasion of Becky Wood. In February 1996, Becky Wood and her grandchildren faced a terrifying home invasion by armed robbers.
The Mysterious Good Samaritan. Steve Newton meets the woman who saved his life after a near-fatal motorcycle accident.
Virginia's Search for Her Sister. Virginia Burns discovers she has a long-lost sister and is determined to find her.
Dr. Bentley's Mysterious Death. Dr. Bentley's body was found with only his lower leg intact, raising questions about spontaneous human combustion.
Tupac Shakur's Untimely Death. Tupac was shot in Las Vegas, leading to numerous theories about his murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I thought they were gonna take me out in this rug and kill me.

Becky Wood recalls her terror during the robbery.

5:14WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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