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this program is about unsolved mysteries
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whenever possible the actual family
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members and police officials have
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participated in recreating the events
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what you're about to see is not a news
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broadcast
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[Music]
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one rainy night in upstate new york 16
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year old carrie lynn nixon ran an errand
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to a nearby store
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only 200 yards from her front door she
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mysteriously vanished that same summer
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carrie lynn was spotted in south
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carolina but by the time her parents
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arrived she was gone
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in 1937 a man named doc nas explored
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secret underground caverns in a new
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mexico mountain called victoria peak he
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claimed to have found 79 skeletons and a
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vast treasure of gold rare coins and
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jewels
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many believe that the treasure still
00:00:53
exists and today may be worth nearly two
00:00:55
billion dollars in the winter of 1985
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dexter stefanik embarked on a long trip
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from his son's farm in oregon to his
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home in wisconsin at a desolate montana
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rest stop police discovered dexter's car
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torched by an arsonist dexter had
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vanished
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the nice cases feature ordinary people
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thrust into a vortex of mystery
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heartbreak and intrigue
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each one is searching for that vital
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clue to end a story that so far has no
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ending
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perhaps you can help
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join me
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you may be able to help solve a mystery
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[Music]
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buried treasure
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the very words of a mythic ring
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and such cases are usually a fascinating
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mixture of truth and fiction fantasy and
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reality
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tonight the legend of a vast treasure
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buried in underground cameras beneath a
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new mexico mountain
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today that treasure may be worth nearly
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two billion dollars
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people say it was discovered more than
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50 years ago by a man named doc nas and
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his wife babe
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who stood by him even though some
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thought he was a con man
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babe died in 1979 but part of our story
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tonight is a previously untelevised
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interview with her graciously made
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available by her family
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is it treasure that babe and dachnas
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discovered an elaborate scam
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or is it real you
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be the judge
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white sands new mexico 100 000 acres in
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the desolate embryo basin
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it is an inhospitable environment home
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only to rattlesnakes and sagebrush
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vultures and mule deer
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in november of 1937 a man named doc nas
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was deer hunting there he hiked to the
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top of a hill known as victoria peak
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the women stayed at camp and the men
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went out for deer
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and so in that first day hunt
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doc
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was up on a mountain to see where if he
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could find any springs or anything
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and he discovered an entrance to
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something
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[Music]
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he lifted up a rock that was a covering
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this and there was a big puff of air hit
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him right in the face
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that he found something somebody's uh
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old mine or something there but he
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didn't know what it was
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inside the opening was a crude ladder
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when darkness inched his way down step
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by step into the mountain he uncovered a
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vast unexplored labyrinth
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he went deeper and deeper
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narrow winding tunnels led into a
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vaulted cabin
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in one chamber of the cavern doc found
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an old chest
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on the lid were the words sealed silver
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written an old english script
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this chest was only the tip of an
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iceberg the entire treasure is today
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estimated to be worth 1.7 billion
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dollars
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even now more than 50 years later it may
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still be hidden beneath the craggy
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slopes of victoria peak
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had been a traveling medicine show man
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in 1933 he married over beckwith whom he
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nicknamed babe
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they settled down and opened a foot
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clinic in hot springs new mexico
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doc was my grandfather
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and i've heard incredible stories about
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him all of my life
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he loved adventure and
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was fascinated with history babe was
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very strong-willed
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ardent might be a word to describe her
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she was
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loving
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very generous
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and
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absolutely um
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enamored with doc
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there it is
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yeah from the moment doc discovered the
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treasure at victoria peak he and babe
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spent every free moment exploring the
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tunnels that led deep inside the
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mountain here you be careful down in
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there yeah i'm going down in and and you
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keep
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a close eye out here
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doc found that the passageways in the
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mountain led to several caverns and in
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one of them he found 79 human skeletons
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stacked in a small enclosure
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in another cave doc found amazing riches
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jewels coins and priceless artifacts
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he described three huge
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oval top chests that he opened he
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brought a couple of swords and knives
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out
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he brought out a crown
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and i cleaned it up in my sink in in
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town
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it was 243 diamonds and one pigeon blood
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ruby
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in this crown
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[Music]
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in a deeper cavern doc found what
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appeared to be a stack of worthless iron
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bars
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this must have been in the spring of 39
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i asked him to
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bring out a bar that pig iron that he
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was telling me about and
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he said that he's too heavy he hit it
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too hard to get out there
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but he found a small one and he brought
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it out
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and he said this the last one of them
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babies i'm gonna bring out
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[Music]
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there it is baby
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watch it it's heavy heavy
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pig
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well doc that is heavy
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when i rolled it over i seen it was
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shiny where it hit the gravel i said
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well doc this is yellow look at it
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and he looked at that and the sun was
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right at the right arrow to shine right
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down on it
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rubbed his head and he said
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well babe
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if that's gold and all that other is
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gold like it we can call john d
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rockefeller a [ __ ]
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doc told babe that inside the cavern
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there were as many as 16 000 bars of
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gold
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how had this enormous treasure come to
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be deep inside the caverns of victoria
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peak
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there are four theories
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it could have belonged to juan onyate
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the man who founded new mexico as a
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spanish colony reportedly onyate had
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amassed an aztec treasure of gold silver
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and jewels
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another theory is that a catholic
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missionary named father leroux operated
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gold mines near victoria peak in 1797
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and stored his gold in a cavern there
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doc's treasure could have belonged to
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max million the emperor of mexico in the
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1860s he attempted to get his wealth out
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of mexico when he learned of an
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assassination plot and legend says he
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set a palace full of valuables to the
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united states
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a final theory is that the treasure
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belonged to an apache tribe which had
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raided stagecoaches carrying california
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mine gold
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in the spring of 1938 six months after
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dachnas had made his discovery he and
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babe went to santa fe to establish legal
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ownership of his find
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good afternoon could i help sir
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yeah we need some information on filing
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a claim
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just what type of claim
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uh mining mining okay now just
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whereabouts do you need this claim
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located
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they filed a lease with the state of new
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mexico for the entire section of land
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surrounding victoria peak
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subsequent to that they filed mining
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claims
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on and around victoria peak we'll have
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that surveyed for you you can have it
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surveyed and we'll determine the exact
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location of your claim
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we'll uh take care of that survey we'll
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get somebody up there to survey that
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they then filed a treasure trove claim
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which has become the historic nos family
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claim
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to the treasure in victoria peak
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[Music]
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over a period of two years doc mined the
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peak
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witnesses say he took more than 200 gold
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bars out of the cavern
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he then proceeded to hide the bars from
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everyone including his own family
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not only because he feared theft but
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also because back then it was illegal to
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own gold that was not in the form of
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jewelry
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they were rehidden in a variety of
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locations all over the desert some right
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by the county roads by
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a certain marked telephone pole some
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were dropped in horse tanks at the
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nearby ranches some were just buried in
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the sand
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and doc would put a different colored
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rock over the top of it
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than was natural to that surrounding
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there was a lot of fear and probably
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some increasing paranoia
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in both doc and babe
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because as they solicited more help from
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more friends and neighbors and
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supporters they started to become afraid
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that some of these people might try to
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steal some of the bullion that they had
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re-hidden around the peak
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finally in the fall of 1939 doc decided
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to try opening a larger passageway into
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victoria peak
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so he hired a mining engineer
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by the name of montgomery
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to go with him and help him dynamite
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out of the way a particularly huge
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boulder that was just sort of hanging in
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the lower portion of the shaft
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montgomery was
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arguing very
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viciously
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about the charge to be put in there doc
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said that the mountain was rotten
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and that it wouldn't take a charge like
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that and this montgomery kept yelling at
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wood
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by the way you got eight bars for doing
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it
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[Applause]
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the blast caused a cave-in which
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collapsed the fragile shaft
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doc had shut himself out of his own mind
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forever
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now instead of having
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thousands of gold bars to draw from he
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only had those few
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dozen or 100 or so that he had brought
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to the surface
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and he became very protective of those
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bars
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for nine years dachnas attempted
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illegally to sell his gold bars on the
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black market
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in 1948 he met a man named charlie ryan
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struck a deal to sell him 51 of the bars
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i could go for that could take me a
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couple days to get my cash together but
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uh
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how about a week from today
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at the last minute doc feared that
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charlie ryan would double cross him
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he asked an acquaintance tony jolly to
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help him rebury the gold in a new hiding
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place
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we got in the pickup and
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we went out across the desert
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a long ways and we started digging in we
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dug 20 bars of gold out of the ground
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right there
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i said doc what's going on and he said
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well
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i there's a fellow coming tomorrow
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that's gonna fly in here and he said he
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was supposed to take this gold and sell
00:13:55
it
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and split with me and he said i
00:14:00
got word that he's gonna sell it and
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keep right on going with the money
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and we reburied those bars of gold
00:14:08
it turned out to be 90 more
00:14:10
i handled and i saw 110 bars of gold
00:14:16
the next day doc and charlie ryan got
00:14:18
into an argument and ryan pulled a gun
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on him
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ryan accosted him and said they better
00:14:24
discuss this problem of what had
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happened to the gold
00:14:28
ryan was actually telling him if you
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don't tell me where the bars are
00:14:32
you won't leave this room alive you're
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just trying to jack up the price on me
00:14:36
this is just a hoax there's no gold i
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told you we couldn't trust him charlie i
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told you that's a comment
00:14:45
shoot
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[Music]
00:14:58
doc died instantly and was photographed
00:15:00
by police where he lay
00:15:02
the date was march the 5th 1949
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[Music]
00:15:14
for three years babe nas and her
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children struggled to clear the
00:15:16
passageway to the treasure
00:15:19
in 1952 when they were less than 12
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yards from the opening to the central
00:15:24
cavern disasters struck again
00:15:31
the state of new mexico was forced to
00:15:32
relinquish victoria peak and the land
00:15:34
surrounding it so the united states army
00:15:36
could expand the white sands missile
00:15:38
range
00:15:41
babe and her family were forced off
00:15:43
their claim by the army
00:15:46
what are you all doing on our climb
00:15:48
mr north this is a missile range it's
00:15:51
unsafe for you to be up here she was
00:15:53
eventually escorted off the site by
00:15:56
military police and federal marshals but
00:15:58
i sure don't like it
00:16:01
protesting all the time that she did not
00:16:03
want to abandon her claim she wanted to
00:16:05
continue her excavation work
00:16:09
she was assured that she would be able
00:16:12
to return to the site
00:16:14
as soon as it was convenient and not an
00:16:16
interference to national security
00:16:21
[Music]
00:16:28
my grandmother continued to petition the
00:16:31
department of the army at white sands
00:16:33
missile range level and pentagon level
00:16:36
asking for permission to go back and
00:16:37
conduct a proper excavation to reopen
00:16:40
the treasure cavern she was repeatedly
00:16:42
continually and consistently denied
00:16:45
access to the peak
00:16:48
interestingly some of the personnel from
00:16:51
holloman air force base and white sands
00:16:53
missile range inadvertently stumbled
00:16:56
into a cavern on victoria peak and
00:16:59
reported finding a room
00:17:02
stacked full of gold bullion
00:17:06
the area of the victoria peak is located
00:17:09
in
00:17:10
was 100 off limits
00:17:12
to everybody in those days
00:17:16
using hunting
00:17:19
as a
00:17:20
excuse
00:17:21
we wandered into the area quite
00:17:23
regularly
00:17:25
after spending a lot of time a lot of
00:17:27
weekends in this area
00:17:30
we found the entrance
00:17:31
lower on the mountain that we suspected
00:17:34
was there
00:17:35
we started digging we spent august and
00:17:38
september
00:17:39
in this hole and a large blockage was a
00:17:42
very large boulder that we had to tunnel
00:17:44
under
00:17:45
that led into the first
00:17:47
room that we discovered
00:17:50
in the middle of this room was two
00:17:52
stacks
00:17:53
of material
00:17:55
and they were bars of something and as
00:17:58
we scratched it we knew right away that
00:18:00
it was actually gold
00:18:02
[Music]
00:18:05
we marked and identified
00:18:08
one of the bricks inside with my
00:18:11
initials on it and we stood it on end
00:18:14
on the large piles
00:18:16
we then discovered another small room
00:18:19
that was off
00:18:21
to the side of the room we were in it
00:18:24
was a bit smaller in size
00:18:26
in the middle of this room was a pile
00:18:29
in a pyramid shape
00:18:33
the reason that we didn't bring anything
00:18:34
out of the mountain on our first visit
00:18:36
to the cavern
00:18:38
was simply because
00:18:40
we were military we were in the middle
00:18:42
of a top-secret missile range
00:18:45
that was forbidden to everybody to be in
00:18:49
the last thing in the world we wanted to
00:18:51
do was to jeopardize our position in our
00:18:53
find by removing something prematurely
00:18:57
[Music]
00:19:00
eventually the airmen informed their
00:19:01
superiors about the gold he had found at
00:19:03
victoria peak
00:19:05
they were denied permission to explore
00:19:07
further so they took steps to ensure
00:19:09
that no one else could salvage the
00:19:11
treasure
00:19:14
the following weekend we returned to the
00:19:17
entrance
00:19:18
and we dynamited it in four different
00:19:20
places and blasted the whole thing shut
00:19:25
over a year later the secretary of the
00:19:27
army created a top-secret classified
00:19:30
military operation at victoria peak
00:19:34
in 1961 babe nas along with the state of
00:19:37
new mexico found an injunction against
00:19:39
the army to stop them from excavating at
00:19:42
victoria peak
00:19:44
she was protesting vehemently that the
00:19:46
army would be excavating on her claim
00:19:49
while they were denying her access to do
00:19:51
the same thing
00:19:54
in 1963 the army sought exclusive rights
00:19:57
to victoria peak including mineral
00:19:59
rights
00:20:00
the state of new mexico denied the
00:20:02
army's request
00:20:03
even so aerial photographs showed a
00:20:06
proliferation of roads crisscrossing the
00:20:08
peak
00:20:11
word of doc's hidden goal leaked to
00:20:12
other treasure hunters
00:20:14
an anonymous group hired boston attorney
00:20:16
f lee bailey they were seeking
00:20:18
permission from attorney general john
00:20:20
mitchell both who excavated victoria
00:20:22
peak and to sell gold bars
00:20:26
the secret of the goal became public at
00:20:28
the watergate hearings when john dean
00:20:30
testified about f lee bailey's client's
00:20:33
requests mr mitchell raised the fact
00:20:35
that f lee bailey had a problem
00:20:38
that he would like to bring up he said
00:20:40
that mr bailey had a client who had an
00:20:42
enormous amount of gold in his
00:20:43
possession he would like to make an
00:20:45
arrangement with the government whereby
00:20:46
the gold could be turned over to the
00:20:48
government without the individual being
00:20:50
prosecuted for holding the gold mr
00:20:52
mitchell raised the fact f lee bailey
00:20:54
and his group
00:20:55
which consisted of a number of military
00:20:58
and ex-military people had a vast
00:21:01
treasure in gold bars located somewhere
00:21:04
out in the southwest in fact in an area
00:21:07
very closely if not exactly where the
00:21:10
late milton nos
00:21:12
had made allegedly his find
00:21:15
because of the enormous publicity the
00:21:17
army finally allowed a group of private
00:21:19
claimants including babe nas effly
00:21:21
bailey's clients an airman burlet's
00:21:23
partner as well as representatives of
00:21:26
the apache nation and the alleged heirs
00:21:27
of jesse james to undertake a 10-day
00:21:30
expedition in 1977.
00:21:33
led by professional treasure hunter
00:21:35
norman scott his purpose was to
00:21:37
determine once and for all if treasuries
00:21:39
did exist at victoria peak
00:21:42
it's sort of the department army policy
00:21:44
that there's been a lot of searching up
00:21:46
here and we've found nothing yet or
00:21:48
they've found nothing yet so i don't
00:21:50
really expect
00:21:52
any particular
00:21:54
gold treasure to be found but
00:21:56
i might be quoted incorrectly too if
00:21:58
they find something
00:21:59
there's no question that gold like bars
00:22:02
came out of this mountain no question
00:22:04
about it and in behind there's paintings
00:22:07
down there behind this shaft we came
00:22:10
here based on legend research
00:22:14
we are verifying or refuting
00:22:17
same
00:22:18
by electronic
00:22:20
and
00:22:21
personal observation
00:22:24
during the expedition a scientist from
00:22:26
the stanford research institute lambert
00:22:28
dolphin conducted ground radar tests to
00:22:30
determine if there was an underground
00:22:32
chamber deep inside the mountain
00:22:36
but i noticed on the radar screen some
00:22:38
echoes quite frequently at a very great
00:22:41
depth 300 400 feet deep and that led me
00:22:44
to the conclusion that there was indeed
00:22:45
a large cavern at the base of the
00:22:47
mountain
00:22:48
about where doc knoss had said there
00:22:50
would was a cavern
00:22:52
then they came over here and went this
00:22:53
and this is the one that breaks through
00:22:55
uh
00:23:00
and we're gonna take you up to the
00:23:01
chimney entrance now
00:23:05
the 1977 expedition was the last
00:23:07
official attempt to find the treasure
00:23:10
inside victoria peak
00:23:13
the crown dock found lies buried along
00:23:15
with other parts of the treasure
00:23:17
somewhere in the new mexico desert
00:23:19
after doc's death gizers never recovered
00:23:22
any of the gold bars
00:23:24
but tony jolly the man who helped him
00:23:26
hide the bars in the desert went back
00:23:28
years later and retrieved ten of them
00:23:32
after more than fifty years of legend
00:23:34
controversy and intrigue the heirs of
00:23:37
doc and babe nas are still fighting for
00:23:39
their rights
00:23:40
[Music]
00:23:42
and we have decided that we will finish
00:23:44
the work
00:23:45
that dachna started that ovinas tried to
00:23:48
finish
00:23:49
we will eventually get victoria peak
00:23:52
open so that the mystery of what's
00:23:54
inside the peak
00:23:55
can be solved
00:23:57
my point of view as governor of new
00:23:58
mexico is this is a solvable mystery
00:24:00
it's always been exciting for us to talk
00:24:02
about it
00:24:03
let's do it right now it would be
00:24:05
interesting to the state certainly would
00:24:06
be interesting to our economy and we'd
00:24:08
have an opportunity to tax these people
00:24:10
if they were fortuitous enough to find
00:24:11
the gold
00:24:13
if the mountain has not been penetrated
00:24:16
and materials removed from this mountain
00:24:19
this will be the biggest thing that this
00:24:20
country's ever seen
00:24:24
babe nas died in 1979
00:24:27
and every year herrera petitioned the
00:24:29
white sands missile base to allow them
00:24:30
to dig at victoria peak
00:24:33
every year the request has been refused
00:24:35
recently terry delonas took his case to
00:24:37
washington
00:24:38
the army finally agreed in principle to
00:24:40
allow the excavation but claimed that
00:24:43
because of technicalities an act of
00:24:44
congress would be necessary
00:24:47
this year a bill will be introduced by
00:24:48
new mexico congressman which may finally
00:24:51
give the green light
00:24:52
if so an expedition could take place by
00:24:54
the end of the year
00:24:56
and if it does unsolved mysteries will
00:24:58
be there
00:24:59
perhaps we'll find only an empty cavern
00:25:01
with evidence of riches long ago removed
00:25:04
but perhaps just perhaps
00:25:06
we will find the greatest treasure the
00:25:08
modern world has ever known
00:25:12
in a moment the story of a 16 year old
00:25:14
girl who vanished one evening just over
00:25:16
200 yards from her home
00:25:18
what happened to carrie lynn nixon
00:25:30
osable forks population 3000
00:25:34
located in the shadows of new york's
00:25:35
adirondack mountains osable forks is a
00:25:38
friendly family-oriented community
00:25:41
violent crimes are extremely rare
00:25:44
indeed anything out of the ordinary is
00:25:46
likely to attract attention
00:25:48
but in 1987 usable forks was stunned by
00:25:52
the mysterious disappearance of a
00:25:53
sixteen-year-old girl named carrie lynn
00:25:55
nixon
00:25:58
kerry was an above average student
00:26:00
the pitcher on her high school softball
00:26:02
team
00:26:03
hardly the type of girl who would
00:26:04
willingly invite trouble
00:26:06
[Music]
00:26:09
on the evening of june 22 1987 at
00:26:12
approximately 9 30 p.m carrie left her
00:26:14
home to run an errand for her father
00:26:17
she headed for a neighborhood market a
00:26:19
few blocks away
00:26:26
kerry left the market and headed towards
00:26:28
her home
00:26:29
the time was 9 55
00:26:36
as kerry took the familiar path along
00:26:38
palmer street to her house she exchanged
00:26:40
greetings with a neighbor oh [ __ ] here
00:26:42
how are you
00:26:44
the time was now 10.05
00:26:54
at 10 10 a group of boys walked by but
00:26:56
saw only an empty street
00:26:59
somehow in the five minutes between 1005
00:27:02
and 10 10 and just 700 feet from her
00:27:05
home carrie lynn nixon had disappeared
00:27:11
she was innocently walking down the
00:27:12
street
00:27:15
in a neighborhood that she was born and
00:27:16
brought up with that i was born and
00:27:18
brought up on
00:27:20
and something happened
00:27:23
and she was near bed at six in the
00:27:25
morning and my immediate reaction was
00:27:28
terror and it's been a nightmare ever
00:27:30
since
00:27:37
we began a large air and ground search
00:27:40
of the about a 50 mile radius area of
00:27:43
around ausable forks new york
00:27:45
we had many volunteers from the local
00:27:47
fire departments in the air force base
00:27:49
came over
00:27:50
the results of all these searches and
00:27:52
all the leads and everything we've done
00:27:55
in the last year and a half
00:27:56
nothing has been found not one thing
00:27:59
she's walked off the face of the earth
00:28:01
as far as we're concerned
00:28:03
kerry wrote some letters to a friend and
00:28:05
in these letters she indicated she would
00:28:08
like to live in hawaii live move to
00:28:10
florida possibly california and in fact
00:28:14
leave the town of osable forks when she
00:28:16
turned 18. uh she expressed this fact
00:28:19
two or three times
00:28:22
my theory on this case is carolyn nixon
00:28:24
was abducted
00:28:26
and she was dressed in sweats her father
00:28:28
gave her 20 for groceries she went to
00:28:30
thomas's store for her father paid three
00:28:32
dollars
00:28:33
for the groceries left thomas the store
00:28:35
with the bag of groceries if she was a
00:28:38
runaway she would have done none of
00:28:39
those things she would have been dressed
00:28:41
better she would have taken money with
00:28:42
her that she had in her bedroom after we
00:28:44
searched her bedroom
00:28:46
she is a victim of a kidnapping
00:28:55
there was other evidence that the young
00:28:56
girl had not run away
00:28:58
kerry was close to her family and they
00:29:00
often bowled together everything pointed
00:29:02
to a happy stable relationship with her
00:29:04
mother and father
00:29:06
[Music]
00:29:09
i'm 100 positive she didn't run away
00:29:12
as far as i'm concerned somebody pulled
00:29:15
up alongside her
00:29:18
whether it was somebody she knew
00:29:21
or not necessarily somebody she knew but
00:29:23
one way or the other somebody picked her
00:29:25
up
00:29:29
[Music]
00:29:36
was carrie abducted or did she run away
00:29:40
by the winter of 1987 the investigation
00:29:42
had reached a dead end
00:29:44
but in november new york state police
00:29:46
received this letter from an anonymous
00:29:48
writer in flint michigan
00:29:50
the letter reads
00:29:51
look for carrie lynn nixon in the
00:29:53
utahville south carolina area
00:29:56
despite the tenuous nature of this lead
00:29:58
kerry's family traveled to utahville
00:30:00
they blanketed the small town with
00:30:02
flyers
00:30:03
the family was a surprises of police and
00:30:05
a local resident remembered having
00:30:07
spoken with a sixteen-year-old who had
00:30:08
shyly given her name
00:30:10
it was carrie lynn nixon
00:30:18
shirley kanapple is a utaville resident
00:30:20
who reported this encounter
00:30:22
she had seen carrie's picture on one of
00:30:24
the flyers posted by the nixon family
00:30:27
i recognized her immediately from
00:30:30
the way she looked because i'd just seen
00:30:31
her just about three weeks before that
00:30:34
and her hair her earrings and the name
00:30:37
it was the same girl that had been
00:30:39
introduced to me carolyn nixon
00:30:42
there's been numerous towns people
00:30:43
around the utah valley that said they've
00:30:45
seen this young lady and like ms
00:30:46
kanapple she's seen her she was even
00:30:48
introduced to her and i i just actually
00:30:51
believe 100 that she is still alive
00:30:54
all right what i want you to do shirley
00:30:55
is to relax your body as much as
00:30:57
possible but concentrate on the sound of
00:30:59
my voice
00:31:01
shirley was unable to remember many
00:31:03
details of her sighting so at the
00:31:04
request of the new york state police she
00:31:06
underwent hypnosis
00:31:08
they hoped that her memory might be john
00:31:10
should be feeling very warm secure and
00:31:13
relaxed
00:31:16
shirley i want you to go back to the day
00:31:19
that you saw the young girl we talked
00:31:21
about before
00:31:22
[Music]
00:31:24
it's a hot day
00:31:26
a little red-headed girl comes up and
00:31:29
asks
00:31:30
me to meet a new friend of hers
00:31:33
carrie nixon
00:31:34
carolyn nixon
00:31:36
nixon where are you from
00:31:38
new york you down here to stay yeah
00:31:41
[Music]
00:31:43
can you describe her to me
00:31:46
she's got long
00:31:48
brown hair
00:31:51
hey yup where are you staying at
00:31:54
across the lake
00:31:56
we're at probably
00:31:57
[Music]
00:32:02
unwilling to offer much conversation
00:32:04
beyond her name
00:32:06
um what was your first name again
00:32:08
and i said well carolyn nixon that is a
00:32:10
pretty name
00:32:12
and i walked away from the group
00:32:16
i had worked
00:32:18
for about four and a half years in a
00:32:20
program where
00:32:22
some of our clients were runaways and
00:32:26
you
00:32:26
you pick up on things
00:32:28
and
00:32:29
the way she evaded the questions
00:32:31
i i thought then she was run away
00:32:35
after the session authorities
00:32:36
investigated the circumstances of
00:32:38
shirley sighting
00:32:40
they found the girl who was allegedly
00:32:41
with carrie but were disappointed to
00:32:43
discover that she suffered from a memory
00:32:45
lapse and couldn't recall the incident
00:32:47
[Music]
00:32:49
after failing to find any other
00:32:51
confirmed sightings of kerry the
00:32:52
investigation once again reached a dead
00:32:55
end
00:32:57
over a year and a half has passed as
00:32:59
carrie lynn nixon vanished
00:33:01
police have investigated 70 sightings
00:33:04
conducted over 1500 interviews and
00:33:06
examined over 200 unidentified bodies
00:33:09
and they still have no idea where carrie
00:33:12
lynn might be today
00:33:14
i love
00:33:16
carrie very much
00:33:18
we just want her back we just need to
00:33:20
know that she's
00:33:22
all right if she has decided
00:33:25
that something else is better for her
00:33:28
we she will have our total support
00:33:31
i just need to know that she's not hurt
00:33:36
i am a hundred percent convinced that i
00:33:38
have met you carrie
00:33:41
and if i had any message at all to give
00:33:43
to you would be just call home call your
00:33:45
mom and dad let them know you're alive
00:33:47
you don't have to go home
00:33:49
just call and let them know your life
00:33:54
today carolyn nixon would be almost 18
00:33:56
years old
00:33:57
at the time of her disappearance two
00:33:59
years ago she was 5 feet 3 inches tall
00:34:01
and weighed 105 pounds her eyes are blue
00:34:04
and her hair is brown she was known to
00:34:06
wear two earrings on her left ear and
00:34:08
four on her right
00:34:10
[Music]
00:34:14
as the years in the investigation
00:34:16
dragged on carrie's parents began to
00:34:18
give up hope of ever finding their
00:34:19
daughter
00:34:20
but all that changed in march of this
00:34:22
year when they saw a videotape of a
00:34:24
concert given by the popular singing
00:34:26
group new kids on the block
00:34:31
on june 5th 1989 the group filmed their
00:34:34
hanging tough live concert in los
00:34:36
angeles california
00:34:39
[Music]
00:34:45
among the crowd of teenage fans kathy
00:34:47
and gary nixon saw a familiar face
00:34:51
[Music]
00:34:53
we couldn't believe how much that he's
00:34:55
gonna look like our daughter
00:34:57
so we just kept rewinding it and going
00:34:59
over and over and over and we just
00:35:02
couldn't believe it because
00:35:04
we
00:35:05
never really had any hope that she was
00:35:06
alive and then this there's this girl
00:35:08
that looks so much like her i'm not 100
00:35:11
convinced but
00:35:13
it looks like our carry
00:35:16
upon viewing the tape i picked the girl
00:35:18
out immediately the first time it ran
00:35:20
through which is obvious to me
00:35:22
that this girl did look like terry nixon
00:35:24
and appeared to be her
00:35:26
this detail-enhanced photograph was made
00:35:28
from the videotape and compared with a
00:35:30
picture of carrie taken shortly before
00:35:32
she disappeared
00:35:34
there's obviously many similarities the
00:35:37
hair length the hair color the shape of
00:35:40
the face
00:35:41
the chin the mouth
00:35:43
and it displayed a
00:35:45
multiple of earrings in the right ear in
00:35:47
which carrie nixon
00:35:49
has four earrings in her right ear and
00:35:51
two on her left
00:35:52
so the photo enhanced finished product
00:35:56
further convinced the nixons that this
00:35:59
could be their daughter
00:36:01
members of the new kids on the block did
00:36:03
not recognize the girl in the crowd but
00:36:06
after hearing kerry's story wanted to
00:36:08
make a personal appeal
00:36:11
well i just like to say to carrie that
00:36:13
if you're out there
00:36:14
the best thing to do would just be to
00:36:16
call somebody and
00:36:18
you know even if you go to your local
00:36:19
police and just just tell them your
00:36:21
situation that maybe they can help you
00:36:23
out or if any of you viewers out there
00:36:25
who have seen her
00:36:26
at a new kids show or just seen her on
00:36:28
the street
00:36:29
if you could contact someone
00:36:31
you know to to let them know where she
00:36:33
is if she's all right or anything that
00:36:36
would be a big help
00:36:38
we need to find this girl find out who
00:36:41
she is
00:36:42
whether it's carrie or not just so that
00:36:44
if it's not we can go on
00:36:45
to something else to try and find her
00:36:49
i love you gary
00:36:50
[Music]
00:36:51
and i need to talk to you
00:36:55
[Music]
00:37:08
[Music]
00:37:16
many of us have driven along a lonely
00:37:17
stretch of highway it's an unsettling
00:37:20
feeling when you go for miles without
00:37:21
seeing other people when you know that a
00:37:23
cry for help would not be heard
00:37:25
we're about to see the story of a man
00:37:27
whose worst fears came true
00:37:29
it all began innocently when he said
00:37:31
goodbye to his son and set out to drive
00:37:33
alone across five sparsely populated
00:37:36
states
00:37:39
in the winter of 1985 68 year old dexter
00:37:43
stefanik prepared to drive from his
00:37:45
son's oregon farm to his home in
00:37:47
wisconsin
00:37:51
six years earlier dexter had retired
00:37:53
from a wisconsin paper mill
00:37:55
he had been married for 44 years but in
00:37:58
1984 his wife vivian died
00:38:00
[Music]
00:38:02
a few months later dexter went to visit
00:38:04
his grandchildren and his son in corbett
00:38:06
oregon but as the first anniversary of
00:38:09
vivian's death approached dexter wanted
00:38:12
to go back home
00:38:13
he came out and we thought that he'd
00:38:16
probably spend the winter with us
00:38:18
and then uh it got to be
00:38:21
a difficult time of year for him
00:38:23
and i tried to convince him to not leave
00:38:26
then now with your mother gone you know
00:38:27
i'm gonna be out here to see as often as
00:38:29
possible
00:38:31
i had a good time but i i've got to go
00:38:33
back winter was already set in there was
00:38:35
really nothing he needed to go back to
00:38:36
wisconsin for the kids
00:38:38
we discussed that even if he got part
00:38:41
way home and decided to come back out
00:38:42
that was fine turn around and come back
00:38:44
out again
00:38:46
he was anxious to get home
00:38:52
and he drove away
00:38:53
that's the last i saw him
00:38:56
[Music]
00:38:59
dexter stefanik left his son's home in
00:39:01
oregon on the morning of november the
00:39:03
18th 1985.
00:39:06
dexter had made the 2000 mile trip from
00:39:09
oregon to wisconsin many times before
00:39:12
because he wanted to finish the drive as
00:39:14
quickly as possible he told his son he
00:39:16
would not stop at motels but would pull
00:39:18
into rest areas instead
00:39:25
november the 19th
00:39:26
1985 on a bleak stretch of montana
00:39:29
highway at the bad route rest area a
00:39:32
burning car was found
00:39:37
when i arrived at the rest area
00:39:39
and pulled in behind the vehicle
00:39:42
the inside was completely engulfed in
00:39:44
flames
00:39:49
i went over and talked to the state
00:39:52
highway department
00:39:54
they formed me they didn't see any
00:39:55
person inside the vehicle
00:39:59
a computer check of the license plates
00:40:01
revealed that the car belonged to dexter
00:40:03
stefanik of rhinelander wisconsin
00:40:05
it was only 26 hours after dexter had
00:40:08
left his son's home in oregon
00:40:10
[Music]
00:40:12
the sheriff's department immediately
00:40:14
searched the area worried the dexter
00:40:16
might have begun walking for help and
00:40:18
been overcome by the bitter cold
00:40:21
they found nothing
00:40:25
yeah we're getting some uh
00:40:27
good indications
00:40:28
sheriff jim george had an arson expert
00:40:31
examine the car
00:40:32
he found that the fire had been set
00:40:34
deliberately using gasoline
00:40:37
sheriff george also noticed that the
00:40:39
driver's seat was pushed all the way
00:40:40
back
00:40:42
dexter stefan
00:40:43
being a short man
00:40:45
would have had to have the seat all the
00:40:46
way up to the front to drive it so it
00:40:49
had to be a larger man driving that
00:40:50
vehicle six feet or larger
00:40:54
law enforcement officials were stiped
00:40:57
who was the six foot tall man who had
00:40:58
driven dexter stefanik's car
00:41:01
could this person have set fire to the
00:41:03
car
00:41:04
finally where was dexter
00:41:06
had he been killed or he simply
00:41:08
disappeared into the harsh montana
00:41:10
winter
00:41:11
sheriff george attempted to establish
00:41:13
the chronology of events from the
00:41:15
morning the dexter's car had been burned
00:41:19
his car had been discovered just after
00:41:21
10 a.m
00:41:23
nearly three hours earlier fred sigley
00:41:26
custodian of the bad route rest area had
00:41:28
arrived for work as usual
00:41:31
i got to the rest area between 8 and 8
00:41:34
30.
00:41:35
there was a pickup part there
00:41:37
and there was nobody around
00:41:40
i really didn't pay no attention to it
00:41:44
about 15 minutes later at 8 45 a.m clyde
00:41:48
mitchell a montana highway maintenance
00:41:50
supervisor made a stop at the rest area
00:41:54
fred's pickup was there
00:41:56
and a white chevy pickup facing
00:41:58
southeast
00:41:59
went into the utility room and talked to
00:42:01
fred and asked for it if he
00:42:03
had seen anybody or how long the pickup
00:42:05
had been there
00:42:06
and he didn't know how long had been
00:42:07
there
00:42:08
so then i took a closer look of it
00:42:11
i saw arizona plates in the back
00:42:14
walked around the complete outfit and
00:42:16
noticed it was a four-wheel drive chevy
00:42:18
with blue trim and a
00:42:20
cow catcher on the front
00:42:21
at the time i didn't think there was
00:42:23
anything suspicious about it
00:42:25
[Music]
00:42:27
at approximately 9 15 a.m clyde left to
00:42:30
complete his regular rounds
00:42:35
15 minutes later at 9 30 a.m as fred
00:42:38
sigley was leaving the rest area dexter
00:42:41
stefanik's brown plymouth horizon pulled
00:42:43
in the driver got out carrying two large
00:42:46
plastic containers
00:42:48
are you having any problems no i just
00:42:51
run out of gas and i had to go get some
00:42:53
yeah he was around six feet tall
00:42:56
between 35 and 40 years old
00:42:59
the real light complected
00:43:01
and his clean shaved
00:43:04
no sign anything wrong with him
00:43:06
no there was nothing unusual about him
00:43:08
he didn't seem to be excited or nothing
00:43:14
the authorities had no idea who the man
00:43:16
was or what had happened to dexter
00:43:19
less than a half hour after fred sigley
00:43:22
saw the man at the rest area dexter's
00:43:24
car was discovered there in flames
00:43:32
nearly four months later a local couple
00:43:34
bill and cindy shaw went to a remote
00:43:37
landfill 17 miles from the bad route
00:43:39
rest area
00:43:41
my husband and i came out to dump some
00:43:42
garbage and there was a wallet laying on
00:43:44
the ground and it still had the driver's
00:43:46
license in it was current
00:43:48
found a wallet so i handed it to bill
00:43:50
and and he looked at it and he wondered
00:43:52
if it belonged to the man whose car
00:43:53
burned up at the rest area a few months
00:43:55
before
00:43:56
and
00:43:57
later we just started looking around and
00:43:59
there was a bunch of stuff in the dump
00:44:00
that didn't belong there that hadn't
00:44:01
been there when we were there before
00:44:03
and we each kind of went our own
00:44:04
direction trying to see if there's
00:44:06
anything else that didn't quite belong
00:44:07
in the dump quiet shaving kit
00:44:11
the suitcase the boot over here is
00:44:13
practically new both cindy and her
00:44:15
husband bill found several pieces of
00:44:17
men's clothing
00:44:19
bill picked up a boot and when he stood
00:44:21
up saw a man's foot partially hidden
00:44:23
beneath a mattress
00:44:26
[Music]
00:44:29
bill and cindy called the authorities
00:44:32
the coroner positively identified the
00:44:34
body as dexter stefanik and said that he
00:44:36
had been shot twice in the head
00:44:42
there were marks on his hands there was
00:44:44
damage done to his neck and throat area
00:44:47
and he had a bruise or damaged area on
00:44:49
the frontal part of his skull that was
00:44:51
probably caused by a beating or
00:44:53
some type of injury of that sort
00:44:57
sheriff's investigators discovered that
00:44:59
there was money in dexter's suitcase so
00:45:01
robbery seemed an unlikely motor
00:45:04
also the clothing which had been
00:45:05
conspicuously placed around the landfill
00:45:08
belonged to dexter and appeared to have
00:45:10
been placed there just days before it
00:45:12
was found
00:45:13
the things that we found
00:45:15
that day were just not
00:45:17
things that had been here before and it
00:45:19
really bothered me that the week before
00:45:22
everything was normal and seven days
00:45:24
later all of this stuff
00:45:27
appeared
00:45:27
[Music]
00:45:30
strangely dexter stefanik's body seemed
00:45:32
to have been in the landfill for several
00:45:34
months
00:45:36
the condition of the body would indicate
00:45:38
that it had had probably been in the
00:45:40
dump site
00:45:41
from the time
00:45:42
that the car was found burning until the
00:45:45
time it was discovered i have no reason
00:45:46
to believe that it wasn't
00:45:49
let's look around and see if we can find
00:45:51
anything
00:45:52
one week later the authorities found one
00:45:54
final clue
00:45:56
a small line of graffiti written in
00:45:58
pencil in the bad route rest area men's
00:46:00
room hey tim look at this it began with
00:46:03
the words hot jock
00:46:05
and other key words seem to refer to
00:46:07
dexter stefanik's murder hot jock from
00:46:10
wisconsin 1185 my own theory is that
00:46:13
someone wanted us to see it
00:46:15
hot jock could be a cb handle
00:46:19
it referred to
00:46:20
shot
00:46:21
it had the wisconsin written in the
00:46:24
graffiti and a date indicating november
00:46:30
sheriff george believes the graffiti was
00:46:32
written by the killer
00:46:34
i think he was telling law enforcement
00:46:36
something
00:46:37
i think he was taunting law enforcement
00:46:39
or bragging
00:46:42
to law enforcement about committing a
00:46:43
homicide
00:46:48
the sheriff has attempted to reconstruct
00:46:51
dexter stefanik's last hours
00:46:54
he believes that dexter arrived at the
00:46:56
bad route rest area soon after 7 a.m on
00:46:59
november the 19th
00:47:00
and that his murderer was already there
00:47:12
dexter was hard of hearing
00:47:14
it is a sheriff's theory that the killer
00:47:16
tried to get his attention and failed
00:47:18
sir could you help me
00:47:20
i've run out of gas did you take me time
00:47:21
to get some gas
00:47:23
what's your problem
00:47:25
get out of the car
00:47:27
get out of the car it is unclear at what
00:47:29
point dexter stefanik was actually
00:47:31
killed but the authorities are convinced
00:47:33
that the mysterious murderer abducted
00:47:36
dexter and after killing him hid his
00:47:38
body in the landfill
00:47:43
[Music]
00:47:47
sheriff george believes that the
00:47:48
murderer returned to the rest area
00:47:50
doused next car with gasoline and set it
00:47:53
on fire
00:47:54
both to destroy evidence and to distract
00:47:57
officials so he would have time to
00:47:59
escape
00:48:05
[Music]
00:48:13
dexter stefanik's killer is still at
00:48:15
large only two clues exist
00:48:18
the description of the suspect's vehicle
00:48:20
and the sketchy description of the
00:48:22
suspect himself
00:48:32
for every mystery there is someone
00:48:34
somewhere who knows the truth
00:48:36
perhaps that someone is watching
00:48:38
perhaps it's you
00:48:43
[Music]
00:49:05
[Applause]
00:49:09
[Music]
00:49:29
you
