Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 9, Episode 7 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries it was a blueprint for tragedy in Coke Ville Wyoming a vengeful ex-cop armed with a
powerful homemade bomb commandeered an entire elementary school as a crisis escalated it seemed that only a miracle
could save the lives of more than a hundred innocent children by all accounts Michael showed us a man
with a red-hot temper and an affection for guns what as miss D slandered him in prison
short masterminded a daring escape with the help of his 20 year old girlfriend Yonkers New York sometimes you need more
than luck to win the lottery just ask Sam's Ellickson who says he hit the jackpot after an eerie visit from
beyond the grave in Washington DC the aftermath of a fatal house fire use the unmistakable signs of arson launches a
manhunt for the killer of a young businesswoman join me perhaps you could help solve one
of tonight's unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music] seventeen-year-old melody woods was not
the kind of teenager anyone ever expected to get into trouble she enjoyed school didn't stay out late that barely
begun to carnate then in June of 1994 melody fell in love his name was Michael short melody had met him during a summer
session at her High School in Fort Worth Texas short was 19 years old and he made a very good first impression
but that first impression evaporated quickly Melody's parents never guessed that the man their daughter loved had a
criminal record and a nasty reputation Michael's not afraid to use a handgun or a weapon statements from some of his
acquaintances indicated that his favorite pastime was dressing up in black and shooting at cars and trains
six months before he met melody Michael short and a friend came up behind a couple driving down the highway they
were in the fast lane moving too slow to suit short person by if he wants to he's
right on my tail I starting to bug me I just got ticking me off this guy's a lunatic short dog the
couple's art empires getting wilder by the minute he's got a contrived do something that's freaking
out of his mind but I'm gonna speed up and I'm gonna break real hard all right the driver was struck once in the
shoulder but survived police tracked short by his license plate number and charged him with attempted murder a few
months later while he was out on bail he met melody woods she fell head-over-heels for my calling me from
the very first day she came home he was so excited about him telling me about him and just thought that he was
everything that she had ever wanted Melody's Paras believe that by the time melody learned about Michael's past
she was already under his spell she became real secretive and always away from home and didn't spend a lot of time
with us and she never wanted Michael around us very much I want you to have this
it's a beeper duh I know what a beeper looks like when I call you I'll punch in 9-1-1 drop what have you doing give me a
call right away I don't have to worry about you deal deal I had to talk with her and I told her I
said I'm afraid that you know he's being a little bit too possessive and she was
like well you know we just really enjoy being together and there's really nothing to it and he's not possessive
and you know every time I would try to say anything about the situation she didn't want to talk about it in March of
1995 Michael short was found guilty on the highway shooting incident he was sentenced to eight years in prison on a
reduced charge aggravated assault with a deadly weapon Melody's parents hoped that would end the affair to their
dismay melody refused to give up on Short after the impact wore off she started talking about I can get through
this you know I'll make it it may just be four years you may not spend out there so we will do the best we can I
can make it through this by all accounts short was just a determined to remain a
part of Melody's life he had access to a jail phone from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
use it to barrage melody and her parents with collect calls he called us day and
night night and day he was relentless with the phone calls I mean they just never would stop she had to be at a
specific phone at a specific time for him to call and if she wasn't there then he was very angry and when he did
finally get ahold of her it would always be a screaming match over the telephones
finally we just had our phones blocked from any collect calls because that's the only way they could call was collect
and he figured out a way around that by calling his parents and getting his parents to call us on the three-way
the phone calls at first were a blessing for melody I mean any contact that she could have with him she was thrilled to
death mom let it ring but as time went along she started to get a little irritated because she couldn't do
anything this has got to stop melody I'm gonna have to change this number again it's not my fault he keeps calling me
she started to pull away from it a little bit but then the calls would intensify and Michael would say you just
don't understand how horrible it is for me here you're the only thing I've got you know you can't you can't forsake me
now you're my soul mate you know and just really would make her feel bad so then she would go back to accepting all
the phone calls from jail short controlled melodies every move for more than a year even as fellow inmates call
him the little bully on June 7th 1996 authorities learn the full extent of his power over melody that morning melody
and a girlfriend waited in a borrowed van outside the prison walls maybe we should go it's 7:45 he says gym ends at
7:30 Chrissie just hang on a few more minutes okay he's gonna be here [Music] before anyone could react short made a
bold break for freedom stop worship [Music] coming start to finish the entire escape took
less than one minute at a nearby motel short changed clothes and switched from the van de Melody's
car hey be careful okay I'll call you I'll ring once when he left he took melody with it possibly
against her will based on my conversation with her friend she indicated to me that melody had every
intention of coming home that night and that she would get in touch with her when she got home I
personally don't believe that Mellie had any intentions on leaving with him there's a lot of things she didn't take
with her it was clothes and girl things like rollers and hair dryers and just a bunch of stuff I just don't believe she
had any intentions on leaving the only thing that we've received from melody since her disappearance was one postcard
from Chattanooga Tennessee and the only thing that that postcard said was I'm okay
I'm sorry and I love you very much that was about a week after her disappearance
and there's been nothing since what concerns me the most about Melody's disappearance is that just that she's
disappeared and we've had three unconfirmed sightings of Michael nobody has ever seen melody and one would have
to wonder has she already become a liability team [Music] in a moment when a madman takes an
elementary-school hostage the residents of a small town can only pray for a miracle but first was a young
businesswoman murdered to keep her from blowing the whistle on illegal banking activities
[Music] December 11th 1995 3:30 a.m. fire units raced to a blaze in the fashionable
Georgetown District of Washington DC a resident had been awakened by a fire alarm and phone 911 to report seeing
flames in a neighboring town house [Music] once inside firefighters discover that
the blaze was restricted to the upstairs bedroom in fact it was confined to the bed itself
initially it appeared that nobody was home but as a smoke began to clear the firefighters were stunned to discover
that the bed was occupied by a woman barely breathing but incredibly still alive 38 year-old Lynn Amos was a
financial analyst who'd been living in Washington for just five months she was rushed to Washington Hospital Center
with third-degree burns over 80% of her body one of the nurses who saw her when she first was taken to the hospital told
us later on that she asked Lin when she was brought in as she knew what happened
and when she shook her head no at first investigators believed it was an accident
Lin's blood alcohol content was 0.25 two and a half times a legal limit for driving in Washington DC that fact
coupled with the discovery of a cigarette butt seemed to indicate that Lin Amos had been smoking in bed but
Glenn's friends and family rejected that scenario well Lin didn't smoke I smoked until
recently if you're a closet smoker you certainly smoke with your friends who smoke there were no dirty ashtrays in
the house there were no matches there were no cigarette packs there was no evidence that she was smoking and bad
[Music] within a few days the police had to rethink their initial assumption what
insurance investigators came to the house they found the presence of accelerants on the mattress floor and
pillow they concluded that the fire had been deliberately set insurance investigators report showed that there
was a combination of kerosene gasoline and turpentine and the doctor has told me that her burns were consistent with
those from a fire that was accelerated he told me at the hospital that he couldn't believe that only she and the
bed burned he said she looked like the result of a house having been burned around her Lynn
Amos hung on for ten days barely conscious and unable to speak on December 21st 1995 she passed away a
month later the cause of death was officially listed as homicide but who would want Lynn Amos dead and why she
seemed an unlikely target friendly outgoing with no known enemies but Len Amos apparently did have her secrets in
the weeks before she died she abruptly stopped talking to her friends about her job when pressed she refused to
elaborate to those who knew her best a motive for Lynn's murder began to emerge Linnaeus had moved to Washington in
August of 1995 to take a position with a management consulting firm as part of her job she made frequent trips to
Mexico to assess the lending practices of several large Mexican banks less than a month before the fire Lynne had lunch
with her close friend Emily Smith and offered the first indication that she was sitting on top of a bombshell I
realized when we were having lunch that I didn't know what she was working on and that was unusual because we talked
about work a lot we did sort of similar types things so tell me about work well I've been working on this project for
the Mexican equivalent of the Federal Reserve what are you doing I'm in charge of examining credit issues and I've seen
some very bad lending practices I waited and it was clear she wasn't going to say
more so I said well is your report going to be ugly and she said yes it's gonna be really ugly and that was all she
would say on a Sunday December 10th the day before the fire Linn once again hinted to friends as she was privy to
some explosive information to have a things at the office are you still in that project with the banks yeah
I've seen some dangerous things in Mexico he at the time thought it was their starting to comment to make it
wasn't the kind of dangerous the way she said it in other words she didn't mean I'm feeling a little dangerous and
uncomfortable where I'm living I'm living on a safe neighborhood it wasn't that kind of dangerous she definitely
meant to mean that she had seen literally some dangerous things and what she was working on I'm purely
speculating here but it's possible that she bumped into alone having to do with drug money or a fraudulent loan that's
the sort of thing you might bump into when you're reviewing credit portfolios the last time anyone spoke to Lin Amos
was at ten o'clock that night we do know that she called her office to confirm that she was going to be late for work
the next day so we know Lin was at home lucid completely fine had a 30-minute conversation at 10 o'clock at night at
10:30 she then we then don't know what happened when we first told our attorney Hallion was killed his first statement
was that's a professional hit the fire detective who came to the scene said that it had all the indications that
this was a controlled fire that somebody was there making sure that this fire didn't do more than it needed to do
[Music] Lyn's friends and family believe that sometime after midnight the killer broke
into the townhouse because there were no signs of forced entry he may have had a
key do I tell you how to use this the intruder may have then forced Blinn to swallow enough alcohol to render her
unconscious to achieve the level of alcohol that she was found with it takes between nine and fourteen glass drinks
in an hour for a woman her size which is almost impossible to consume that means
you have a new drink every 4 to 7 minutes according to the scenario the intruder then set about making Lynne's
death look like an accident [Music] what was done to Len Amos was so horrible I really do not have the words
to describe it Elaine was just a great friend she was really fun she loved life and people
should not be allowed to get away with that it's interesting to note the Loon Amos never completed her report on the
Mexican banks Lynn's former employer declined to appear on camera for this segment in a letter to one saw mysteries
he wrote we are troubled by the same questions being asked by investigators we can only hope that forensic science
will provide some answers in a moment the remarkable story of Sam's Ellickson who says he hit the lottery jackpot with
help from an unlikely source the spirit of his deceased son and later a small-town faces unspeakable tragedy
when a deranged ex-cop and his wife seized control of the local elementary school
[Music] meet Sam's Ellickson of Yonkers New York devoted father loving grandfather
doubter were self-made businessman Sam it had been through just about everything a man could go through until
the morning January 16 1991 [Music] offering ambulance here Gary no one who witnessed the accident could have
imagined this Sam survived but Sam proved them wrong above all else Sam's Ellickson is a survivor the very
definition of resilience it was nineteen forty years Sam was 12 years old when the German
army marched into his homeland of London as elux about Jews were sent to a given
later a concentration camp Sam was one of the lucky ones he survived the Holocaust but tragically by
the time he was liberated Sam had lost his entire family after the war Sam moved to New York City married and had
five children then in 1986 he suffered another devastating blow his only son bury the pride of the family died of
cancer a week short of his 27th birthday for Sam and his wife jealous the heartbreak of losing their only son was
almost too much to bear let's go he was wonderful he loved the family he was worried by the younger sisters he was
protective and he loved us very much and we loved him very much my brother was the the good sheep the spirit of my
family my brother was always trying to make everybody happy although berry was gone his spirit and
memory served to hold a family together by 1991 it seemed the worst was behind me then came the day of Sam's accident
[Applause] [Music] all things considered Sam came through in pretty good shape sprained neck two broken ribs something
single cut on his forehead after two weeks in the hospital Sam was ready to go home you look a hundred percent
better than when you came in here yeah you're right I was a general will be laying in bed
and saying my prey of quietly but this time I saw freaking arm touched me and I stand at the moment and as I
looked I saw a side of my son like he he was in Strout I couldn't believe it I thought he came back to me I thought God
give a new life Sam just stared what can a profound silent exchange with the spirit of his deceased son the spell was
abruptly broken another patient began to jabber about the state lottery then Barry disappeared a touch there was a
sign and I had to play the ladder because he moved me towards it he told me to play in a certain way that
afternoon Sam came home from the hospital his wife and daughters tried to keep him calm but all Sam cared about
was buying his lottery tickets thank you first of all do me a favor the first thing you do I want you to go
up to my room the top drawers my Buer there's money in it take it out and bring it down here I
want you to buy lottery tickets with it lottery tickets for what yes because Barry came to me in the hospital and he
said buy tickets to the lottery it's a 90 million dollar lottery when my dad came home from the hospital he was
really insistent that we played a lotto he had this feeling that my brother was pushing him to buy a lotto ticket and he
kept telling us you know let's play lotto we have to play lotto Barry was there this was a sign from heaven that
we need to play lotto so do you know what numbers you want to play that the Saxons bought 16 tickets $1 apiece
16 different combinations of $6 for a chance to win 90 million Doug Sam's overwhelming confidence slowly
spread to the rest of the family when we went to buy the lottery tickets there was a feeling of buying it to please my
father and then there was this other feeling that well maybe something might come so you never know anything in life
can happen nobody knows that better than Sam's Erickson that evening he made sure
his entire family was gathered around growing of the winning number is 46 1946 the years Sam left the refugee camp
after World War two tonight the second winning number is 50 the year Sam came to America
the third winning number is 35 the number of years Sam and Janice had been married
tonight's fourth winning number is five the number of children Anna's Ellickson family the fifth winning number for
tonight is 30 daughter Denise's age and the six winning Super Lotto number two winner's share 90 million dollars is 15
son Berry's birthday July 15 1959 [Applause] when we won my dad smiled like an angel
It was as if he know that he really did see my brother he was so happy and I've never seen him glow like that it was
just an inner glow the odds of Sam special numbers winning the lottery were thirteen million to one
Sam is convinced that the loving spirit of his son improved his odds considerably my son Barry definitely was
responsible for finding Dallara he definitely gave me the gift you know God works in mysterious way he takes
away the best thing in your life but they give you back a little in return I felt it was like a gift it was a gift
from Barry for my son and that's how I felt Barry wanted his father is Mehra and his
sisters should have a happy life and to help other people they cannot be helped because he was that kind of person
as it turned out the cell exists were not the only winners at night eight other people also hit the jackpot making
each ticket were slightly more than ten million dollars Sam and his family will continue to receive annual payments of
roughly four hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars until the year 2011 to honor the memory of their son Barry they
have donated a significant portion of the proceeds to charity a tradition they plan to uphold with each coming year
next a powerful homemade bomb demolishes a crowded school classroom yet not a single child is seriously injured an
extraordinary piece of luck for a case of divine intervention [Music] they wheeled it into the school just
after the lunch hour recess a homemade bomb packing the brute force of 25 sticks of dynamite they herded everyone
at the school 136 students and 17 adults in one small room shut up Sam his name was David
Young and he was no stranger to Cookeville Wyoming he had served briefly as a town policeman before he was fired
for misconduct Young's resentment had mushroomed into a full-blown messianic tirade it's a scenario that is now
chillingly familiar innocent lives hanging by a thread at the whim of a suicidal madman but ten years ago when
David Young and his wife Doris stormed the elementary school in Cookeville Wyoming such horrors were still fresh
and incomprehensible to the people of coke bill has seemed only a miracle could save their loved ones
[Music] you are all part of a great revolution when that began many years ago the
government and its schools have filled your mind with lies David Young made it clear that he was prepared to kill
himself and everyone in the room reading virtually every child in Cookeville between the ages of 5 and 12 was at his
mercy among them not only Chadwick then eight years old I didn't really realize what was happening because I remember
one of my friends older brother Kevin 8 his older brother Brian he's like well we're being held hostage and I remember
Kevin saying or what does hostage mean you know we didn't we were really young and we didn't realize what what was
happening and when the time comes you will fully understand the plan I have for you now so far you've been pretty
good but if any of you tries to escape we're going to have to shoot you David told the kids that he would shoot
them in the legs so that they couldn't run away he said we don't want to hurt you but if you try to run away we will
you do the principal okay you'll be my spokesman you tell them I want two million dollars a piece for each of
these kids and you tell them I'm attached to this bomb if I go down and this wedge pulls out the school blows
sky-high we're about half an inch from death news of the crisis flushed through Cookeville and beyond police converged
on the scene distraught parents confronted the sheriff determined to take matters into their own hands
I got my boys in there if you can't get him out I will David Young was a veritable human fuse one tug of his
wrist can destroy the schoolroom and everyone in it okay at one time one of the children jostle for mr. young and he
became quite upset I guess he didn't want to set the bomb off and either mr. Mitchell or mr. Morse suggested that
they put tape in an area about a nine foot square on the floor but they called a magic square so that the youngsters
would not step inside that Square and would not jostle mr. Young's arm there was at one point we kept thinking well
maybe someone can shoot him you know from the outside and you know I'd say no at the time amy bagosa was 10 years old
I remember thinking oh my gosh I am gonna die you know I'm not gonna see my family how am i can't-- this isn't I'm
not gonna be able to grow up I'm not gonna be able to get my driver's license I'm not gonna be able to do anything
may we please opens the doors and windows unless the fumes are making the kids sick there
are a lot of children getting ill from you know throwing up and so forth from the smell of the gasoline fumes as the
time went on and the fumes got stronger most of us felt pretty nauseated we prayed a lot I remember just sitting
there with my hands clenched so tight you know just praying Heavenly Father that to let something happen you know
many of those in the classroom believe that the praying heralded a coming miracle first David young became
agitated appeared to lose confidence [Music] moments later he had a control of the
bomb over to his wife and left the road by then the children had been immobile for nearly two hours they were Restless
here could you please do something about the noise and how do we get these kids quiet right now
eyewitnesses remember Dora's young gesturing carelessly even though one false move would trigger
a catastrophic explosion [Music] I had 5th grade a third grader in the first grade when I seen that smoke
coming out of the windows I expected to see this school going a million pieces a
few children stumbled from the smoke within seconds of the blast others were trapped in the classroom children out of
the windows and I could feel flames still hot on my back and didn't realize that I was on fire and I saw flames
coming from the corner of my eye on my right shoulder and started to burn so I dropped and rolled and as I looked up I
could see all these little faint just scurrying out into the hallway how these kids were just stepping over me and
spitting on me and jumping over here out of nowhere I felt big hands just picked me up and I
looked up and saw mr. Moore and Jack Mitchell and they were feeding the fire off of me and and they picked me up and
they shoved me to safety [Music] ambience brushed injured children to area hospitals some of those who emerged
unharmed were taken home by their parents no one knew how many youngsters had survived how many might lay lifeless in
the ashes just inside the classroom police found the body of Doris young David young had also died but not from
the explosion he had killed himself with a single gunshot to the head a grim search for Koch VLEs children
commenced after an hour Dredd turned to hope then hope to joy not a single child had
perished in the flames it seemed that cokeman had been blessed with a nerd there's many things that point to
something happening and higher power to step in and help in this case at the very least extraordinary road of luck
helped the children survive by staying outside the so-called magic square they were away from the bomb that exploded
with the doors and windows open much of the bombs force blew harmlessly out of the classroom
and then there was the bomb itself remnants sifted from the rubble told the incredible story this is a fully intact
blasting cap this bomb didn't even completely detonate the potential of this explosive device could have and
should have and destroyed that whole end of the of the class of the school building headed a function the way it
was supposed to police learned that young had built and exploded several bombs exactly like the one he brought to
coke villa yet in the classroom Young's bomb at unexpected problems a container of blasting powder and
become thoroughly soaked rendering it a useless paste detonation wires to weather tubs of powder had been cut no
reason no explanation there should have been a hundred and sixty-two people dead
in their room we should have been in there just picking up bodies the people of cokeman came to their own conclusion
about the improbable turn of events the hostages must have been saved by a modern-day miracle I just had this
overwhelming feeling that Heavenly Father was there that he was watching out over us to me I knew that the Lord
was there with me and I knew that he would make it all right and that we'd make it through it a few students were
adamant about seeing what they called a presence how bring above the rule the moments before the bomb ignited
[Music] some of the youngsters said that the mysterious presence actually directed
them to move advice that may have helped save their lives in my mind the only way out of that
thing would have been divine intervention I we've always said guardian angels you know to to help
people out and I believe and there is people that that have went on before us it helped us out Sheriff Debra Lee says
that outside the schoolroom he too felt the touch of heavenly guidance remember very clearly thinking in my mind what am
I gonna do here's a man in here with a bomb wants to blow our kids up how am I gonna handle that I know I know that
without a shadow doubt that I the God in heaven that answered my prayers my voice said to me everything will be
okay [Music] one final discovery this ghostly image singed into the north wall of the
classroom led some to conclude that an angel had been in school that day protecting innocent lives
[Music] [Music] ten years have come and gone since a crazed gunman named David Young nearly
wiped out an entire generation in Cookeville Wyoming since then the town has resumed as quiet ways but most folks
there still believe it only a divine miracle stood between themselves and unspeakable tragedy join me next time
for another fascinating edition solve mysteries [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

A former cop takes a school hostage, a woman is murdered in D.C., and a man wins the lottery with help from his deceased son.

Key points

Blueprint for Tragedy in Coke Ville. A vengeful ex-cop armed with a bomb takes an entire elementary school hostage.
Melody Woods and Michael Short. A seemingly innocent teenager falls for a man with a criminal past.
Lynn Amos's Mysterious Death. A financial analyst dies in a suspicious fire, raising questions about her secrets.
Sam's Lottery Win. Sam Ellickson believes his deceased son helped him win the lottery.
David Young's Hostage Crisis. A former policeman turned madman took a classroom hostage, threatening lives with a bomb.
Miraculous Survival. In a shocking turn of events, all hostages survived a bomb threat at a school.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sometimes you need more than luck to win the lottery.

0:41WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

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