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DENNIS FARINA: Next on "Unsolved Mysteries," when a woman falls
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to her death from a hotel balcony,
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police must decide if it was an accident or murder.
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Lisa!
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DENNIS FARINA: A small town in New England
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is shocked when a popular schoolteacher is murdered.
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Meet an eight-year-old boy who is preparing for college.
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What determines who will be born a genius?
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And a young mother disappears before testifying in court.
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Could these letters help find her?
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These are stories, believe me, you won't want to miss.
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I'm Dennis Farina, and this is "Unsolved Mysteries."
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[THEME MUSIC]
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Agawam, Massachusetts-- a small town
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near the western Connecticut border,
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at the Agawam middle school under a dogwood tree
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in the courtyard is a memorial to one of the town's
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most beloved teachers.
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The tragic death of Lisa Ziegert changed Agawam forever.
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DEE ZIEGERT: Lisa was a very special person.
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She was bubbly, outgoing, full of fun.
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With the kids, she always had a special rapport.
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They knew that she really liked them.
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I mean, and-- and that she treated them like people.
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Now, this happens to be a model of an apple blossom.
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DENNIS FARINA: Lisa Ziegert had grown up in Agawam.
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After college, she returned home to teach special needs
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students at the middle school.
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Petals would dry up, and this would become an apple.
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DICK COWLES: I think of Lisa as a gifted teacher.
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The gifted teacher is the one into whose eyes
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a child can look and see a reflection of value.
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And you can't fake it.
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You either have it, or you don't.
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It's a gift.
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And I think Lisa had it.
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What are you guys supposed to read for biology?
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Do you remember? BOTH: Chapter five.
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All right.
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DENNIS FARINA: On a typical Wednesday afternoon in April,
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Lisa Left school and drove to the store
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where she worked from 5:00 to 9:00 PM.
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At 5:30, Lisa's sister dropped by.
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Are you going to frame this one?
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LYNNE ZIEGERT: It was easy talk.
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It was sister talk.
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It was a little after 6 o'clock when I left.
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And then I went home, and she was fine when I-- you know,
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she was fine when I left.
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DENNIS FARINA: At 8:45 the next morning,
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Sophia Maynard arrived as usual to open up the store.
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She was surprised to see that Lisa's
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car was parked out front.
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SOPHIA MAYNARD: I saw her car, and then I remembered that it
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was Easter weekend coming up.
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And we had planned to stuff some balloons,
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and that's what she was doing there.
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So I really didn't think much of anything
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until I walked inside the store, you know?
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Lisa?
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Lisa?
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SOPHIA MAYNARD: I called her name a couple of times,
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and I figured she'd just pop her head out.
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She didn't.
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I came behind the counter.
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All of her things were there-- her drawings, and
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her pocketbook, her car keys.
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Lisa?
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SOPHIA MAYNARD: And then I just kind of freaked out.
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I knew that something was wrong, so I ran out,
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ran across the street to a restaurant across the street,
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and asked them to call the police.
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Watch your step in here.
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DENNIS FARINA: Police found signs
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of a struggle in the back storeroom
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and a few scattered traces of blood.
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Immediately, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police
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launched a massive search for Lisa Ziegert.
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You wait to hear something good, but at that point,
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you start feeling that, you know,
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possibly it isn't going to be a good answer to what's going on.
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I couldn't let myself believe that everything
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wasn't going to be OK--
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that she would be found, and no matter what had
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had happened, that we would be able to have her back.
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You might want to use that manhole cover.
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DENNIS FARINA: On Easter Sunday, four days after Lisa
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disappeared, her body was found in a wooded area
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on the edge of town.
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CAPT. ROBERT CAMPBELL: She had multiple knife wounds
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around her shoulders and throat, and a-- later on an examination
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by the county medical examiner indicated that she
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had been sexually assaulted.
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DENNIS FARINA: The outpouring of love and shared grief
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was overwhelming.
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At Lisa's wake, more than 1,000 people stood for five hours
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in the rain to pay her tribute.
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GEORGE ZIEGERT: It was just beyond anything
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I've ever experienced.
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It just-- it showed us what kind of a person Lisa was.
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We're not a political family or anything,
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so there would be no reason they would come out for us.
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It was for her.
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DENNIS FARINA: As the town mourned,
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authorities pursued their investigation.
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Three critical phone tips came in that helped establish
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a time frame for the murder.
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CAPT. ROBERT CAMPBELL: The first call
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was from a person who had been in the store at 8:20,
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and had made a purchase, and actually
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had a timestamped receipt.
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CUSTOMER: Excuse me, do you know the price on this?
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Oh, it should be marked.
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CAPT. ROBERT CAMPBELL: There was nothing that was unusual.
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There was nothing that was out of line, nothing
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that perked their attention to say that they
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should call the police.
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The second person was a customer of the store
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who had gone in at 9 o'clock.
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Is anybody here?
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CAPT. ROBERT CAMPBELL: She found it open, lights on,
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but nobody was around.
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Hello?
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CAPT. ROBERT CAMPBELL: This person
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told us that they did hear some noise in the back room.
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She described it as a banging noise.
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She waited a minute, and nobody came out, so she left.
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This suggested to us that Lisa was in the store around 9
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o'clock and in the back room.
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Further investigation revealed that she had been horizontal
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on the floor, and there were two kick marks from her shoes
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on the bottom of the door.
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DENNIS FARINA: The third tip came
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from a witness who was on her way home from work at 9:15 PM.
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This witness saw what police believe could
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have been the killer's car.
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She also said that a man and woman seemed to be
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struggling in the back seat.
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The car pulled off the road, heading towards the area where
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Lisa's body was later found.
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At the time, the woman thought it was just a car
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load of teenagers and drove on.
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Today, the simple plaque in the courtyard
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preserves the memory of Lisa Ziegert for a new generation
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of students.
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DEE ZIEGERT: I think children always feel that nothing can
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happen to them, and when something happens to someone
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that so many of them knew, it brought it home
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that life isn't always fair and that you
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have to be extra careful.
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And even sometimes when you're extra careful,
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it doesn't matter.
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This cannot go unpunished.
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It can't be something where this person gets away,
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and the children have got to know this.
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If it's important for us, it's even more important for them.
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DENNIS FARINA: Update-- there are
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new developments in this case.
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Here's one of our staff with details.
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STAFF: Thanks to DNA testing, Gary Schara
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was arrested for the murder of Lisa Ziegert
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after his ex-wife told police she believed he was a suspect.
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Schara pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
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DENNIS FARINA: Next, five people vanish, and all
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the clues point to one man.
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Cedar springs, Michigan--
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On a summer night, 18-year-old Rachel Timmerman
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left a party with 43-year-old Marvin
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Gabrion and two other men.
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I want you out of the car.
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DENNIS FARINA: Some considered Gabrion the town bully,
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but he was friendly with Rachel's family and well aware
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that life had been tough for her.
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She had come from a broken home, and when she was just 17,
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Rachel gave birth to a daughter.
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I said get out of the car.
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Hey, no way, man. I'm not getting out here.
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It's the middle of nowhere.
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Get out of the car!
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Do it!
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Do it! Get!
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No, not you! - What?
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MARVIN GABRION: No! - Guys?
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Guys?
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Guys?
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Marvin!
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DENNIS FARINA: Rachel later told police that Gabrion
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beat her, then raped her.
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After a six month investigation, Gabrion
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was arrested and then released on bail two weeks later.
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That rape was so brutal, and it took a long time
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at the hospital, and-- and the scarring I don't think
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would've ever went away.
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It got to where she didn't really hardly trust anybody
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unless she already knew them, because she didn't
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know who could hurt her again.
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DENNIS FARINA: Rachel took a job at a local restaurant
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to support her 11-month-old daughter, Shannon.
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Nearly a year passed, but as the date for Gabrion's hearing
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got closer, Rachel began to worry about testifying.
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TIM TIMMERMAN: She had told me that he'd
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threatened her numerous times.
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She was a little scared to go to trial,
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but I had talked to her about it,
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and I told her it's OK, honey.
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I'll go with you.
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I'll help you, and we'll do it.
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She would have reoccurring nightmares.
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She was totally convinced that this man would kill her.
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DENNIS FARINA: Two days before the rape hearing,
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Rachel took Shannon and went out for the evening.
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It was some guy.
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Yeah, actually.
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TIM TIMMERMAN: She came out to see me
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and told me that she had a dinner date with some boy.
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She was going to take Shannon with her and have dinner.
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She'd be home in a few hours.
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Love ya.
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DENNIS FARINA: A few hours passed.
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Rachel and Shannon did not come home.
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The next day, less than 24 hours after Rachel disappeared,
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her father received a letter.
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TIM TIMMERMAN: This letter was from Rachel
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and basically said that she was going on vacation.
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We didn't know what to make of it.
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We were worried that it was kind of a goofy thing to do,
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that it just didn't make sense.
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Here you just got a job at the restaurant.
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You're earning money.
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Why would you need to go on a vacation now?
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June 5 we had a pretrial hearing scheduled for Marvin
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Gabrion on the rape charge against Rachel Timmerman,
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and on that date, Rachel failed to show
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up for that pretrial hearing.
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DENNIS FARINA: Because rape cases without witnesses
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are extremely difficult to prosecute,
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the charges against Marvin Gabrion were dropped.
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11 days passed, then prosecutor Chrystal Roach received
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a letter signed by Rachel.
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It was sent from Little Rock, Arkansas,
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more than 1,500 miles away.
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CHRYSTAL ROACH (VOICEOVER): Dear Chrystal Roach,
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Marvin Gabrion did not rape me.
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When he wouldn't have intercourse with me,
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I decided to teach him a lesson.
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A short time later, we made up, and I
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can't bear the thought of trying to lock up an innocent man.
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Thank you, Rachel Timmerman.
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I didn't believe it.
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It didn't make sense to me, and--
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and I-- I got angry, because she was very serious about pressing
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these charges.
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I was concerned that something had happened to her.
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DENNIS FARINA: That same day, Rachel's father
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received another letter.
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It was also postmarked in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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RACHEL TIMMERMAN (VOICEOVER): Dear dad,
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Shannon is doing great.
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She misses you guys, but she's adjusting
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to life out here really well.
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I don't know for sure yet--
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TIM TIMMERMAN: The letter that I received was reassuring.
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It said she was OK, that her and Shannon were fine.
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They had a method of earning money,
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and they were getting by OK, and that they would
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be in touch with me later.
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DENNIS FARINA: More than two weeks went by without any word
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from Rachel.
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And then on the morning of July 5,
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the decomposed body of a young woman was found in Oxford Lake,
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outside Cedar Springs.
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It was Rachel Timmerman.
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Underneath here, it's attached--
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She had been wrapped in chains with cement cinder blocks
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padlocked to the chains, and duct tape
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around the eyes and mouth, and then placed into the lake.
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The autopsy revealed that Rachel Timmerman did
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die as a result of drowning.
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She had been placed in the lake alive.
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DENNIS FARINA: Police believe that Rachel Timmerman was
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murdered soon after she disappeared,
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but what happened to her 11-month-old daughter Shannon.
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She was still missing and had not been seen in a month.
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Investigators called in a team of divers to search the lake,
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but they found no trace of Shannon.
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Though her fate was still a mystery,
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there was no doubt that Rachel had been murdered.
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I am fine.
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DENNIS FARINA: Authorities developed a theory.
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Whoever killed Rachel forced her to write the letters almost
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immediately after she was kidnapped,
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then mailed them after throwing her body into the lake.
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One suspect immediately came to mind--
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Marvin Gabrion.
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LT. CURT SCHRAM: We decided to go over
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to Mr. Gabrion's residence.
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Mr. Gabrion was not there, but cinder blocks
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were noticed that appeared to be the same as what was found
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with Rachel Timmerman when her body
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was recovered from Oxford Lake.
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DENNIS FARINA: But Gabrion had fled Cedar Springs,
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and he wasn't the only one who couldn't be found.
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It seems to be anybody that knows Marvin, has
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any information that could be damaging to Marv
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comes up as a missing person.
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DENNIS FARINA: Missing person number one, Wayne Davis.
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He had been in the car the night that Rachel
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was raped and agreed to testify against Gabrion.
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Davis was last seen days after Gabrion was released from jail.
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[KNOCKING]
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Missing person number two, John Weeks,
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an acquaintance of Gabrion's.
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Weeks had asked Rachel out on a date a few weeks
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before her death.
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His name came up when we were attempting to identify
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the individual that might have picked Rachel up on June
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3 from the Timmerman residence.
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In our efforts to locate him, we've
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come up against a stone wall and found out that he
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also was a missing person.
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DENNIS FARINA: The FBI learned that Gabrion had been
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using an alias, Robert Allen.
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Authorities discovered that the real Robert
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Allen had also disappeared.
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He was missing person number three.
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Update-- Marvin Gabrion was eventually arrested by the FBI
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in upstate New York.
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He had been cashing pension checks payable to Robert Allen.
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Gabrion was convicted of Rachel's murder
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and sentenced to death.
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Four months later, the body of Wayne Davis
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was found in the same National Forest
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where Rachel's body had been discovered.
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Gabrion has not been charged in his death.
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Rachel's child, Shannon, has never been found.
00:17:06
Next, police in California pick up a young woman
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who has no idea who she is.
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Port Hueneme, California.
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OK, a small airplane with the propeller in the front.
00:17:29
The propeller's in the front.
00:17:30
DENNIS FARINA: This young woman was
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found wandering through the streets
00:17:33
of this small coastal town.
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She was unable to speak or hear and carried no identification.
00:17:39
This is the baby.
00:17:41
Although social workers have been counseling her,
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they have been able to learn very little about her.
00:17:49
The story begins on an otherwise typical fall afternoon.
00:17:53
A passing driver saw the young woman
00:17:55
acting strangely on the median strip of a busy street.
00:18:00
You don't hear what I'm saying?
00:18:02
Do you live around here?
00:18:04
DENNIS FARINA: The driver quickly
00:18:05
determined that this woman could not hear or speak.
00:18:09
Fearing for her safety, he took her
00:18:11
to the local police station.
00:18:14
Hi.
00:18:15
What's your name?
00:18:17
DENNIS FARINA: Although police tried to question the woman,
00:18:19
they too were unable to communicate with her.
00:18:22
The only clue to her identity was a receipt from a bank
00:18:25
in San Diego 200 miles away.
00:18:31
Police found no grounds to hold the young woman,
00:18:34
and a short time later, she left.
00:18:38
[RADIO CHATTER]
00:18:39
I'm 10-6 with the subject.
00:18:40
I'll bring her into the station.
00:18:43
DENNIS FARINA: The next day, a patrolman
00:18:44
came upon the same young woman, once again
00:18:47
in the middle of a busy street.
00:18:49
This time, she was sent to a homeless shelter
00:18:52
where she could receive help.
00:18:54
It's OK.
00:18:55
It's OK.
00:18:56
MARTI RUBLE: When she first came to the shelter,
00:18:58
she had no means of formal communication with anyone.
00:19:01
And so a lot of it was pantomiming,
00:19:02
and mimicking, and--
00:19:03
and what is known as home sign language.
00:19:06
So this is a picture of you?
00:19:08
DENNIS FARINA: Chris Barrows tried
00:19:09
to break through the wall of silence that surrounded
00:19:12
this unique Jane Doe.
00:19:15
CHRIS BARROWS: One of the first things that we tried to do
00:19:18
was we wanted to get a name and an age
00:19:20
so that we could find out if we were dealing with a juvenile,
00:19:22
or whether we were dealing with an adult.
00:19:24
We sat down with paper and pen, and we tried communicating
00:19:27
with her that way.
00:19:27
Let me try my name.
00:19:29
All right.
00:19:30
CHRIS BARROWS: We wrote our names,
00:19:31
Marti and I. I wrote my name, gestured
00:19:33
to myself several times.
00:19:34
Marti wrote her name, gestured to herself several times.
00:19:37
Who are you?
00:19:38
You try.
00:19:40
CHRIS BARROWS: And then we ask her to write
00:19:42
her name if she could write.
00:19:44
Your name.
00:19:45
MARTI RUBLE: This is me.
00:19:46
CHRIS BARROWS: OK, I think she got it here.
00:19:48
L?
00:19:49
L.
00:19:50
DENNIS FARINA: In the end, the young woman
00:19:51
was able to spell out her name using simple hand gestures.
00:19:56
CHRIS BARROWS: And when I copied it onto the paper,
00:19:59
it was instant recognition.
00:20:01
And in our field, instant recognition means
00:20:03
this has got to be the truth.
00:20:06
DENNIS FARINA: The name she spelled out
00:20:07
was Lucxi, which may be a Spanish first name.
00:20:11
CHRIS BARROWS: She got very excited
00:20:13
when she found that someone finally had known her name
00:20:16
and had gotten it.
00:20:18
We did the same thing with her age.
00:20:19
How old are you?
00:20:21
10, 20, 2, 1.
00:20:25
23.
00:20:26
23?
00:20:27
You're 23.
00:20:28
You're 23.
00:20:29
OK.
00:20:30
DENNIS FARINA: It seemed easy to determine the woman's age.
00:20:32
It wasn't so easy to find a friend or relative.
00:20:38
You draw the baby.
00:20:40
DENNIS FARINA: These scenes were filmed with Lucxi
00:20:42
while she was at the shelter.
00:20:44
Chris and Marti called her Lucy for short.
00:20:47
CHRIS BARROWS: Inside the swaddling.
00:20:48
This is-- although the genuine concern is
00:20:50
for her immediate safety and her immediate protection,
00:20:54
there are people out there who know
00:20:56
Lucy, who have loved her in the past, who
00:20:58
have taken care of her.
00:21:00
And she needs to be with those people.
00:21:05
DENNIS FARINA: Soon after we aired this story,
00:21:07
Lucy left the homeless shelter, and she
00:21:09
has not been seen since.
00:21:11
Authorities have no idea what happened to her.
00:21:14
Hopefully she has found her way home,
00:21:17
where she is safe and well.
00:21:24
In a startling experiment, Los Angeles County sheriffs toss
00:21:28
a dummy off a hotel balcony.
00:21:31
Nine days earlier, a woman had fallen to her death
00:21:34
from the same spot.
00:21:36
Investigators were trying to determine
00:21:39
if her death was an accident, if she jumped,
00:21:41
or if she was murdered.
00:21:45
The deceased was Sandra Orellana.
00:21:48
She had arrived in California on a business
00:21:50
trip with this man, her, boss 33-year-old Robert Salazar.
00:21:56
They both worked for Skillmaster,
00:21:58
a national employment agency based in Houston, Texas.
00:22:02
Sandra, a claims specialist at the company,
00:22:05
was engaged to be married.
00:22:07
Robert Salazar was the general manager of operations.
00:22:12
He had a wife and two children.
00:22:15
On the morning of November 12, Sandra and Salazar
00:22:18
checked into adjacent rooms on the eighth floor
00:22:21
of the Sheraton Hotel.
00:22:23
At 6:30 the next morning, another hotel guest
00:22:27
spotted Sandra's crumpled body on the ground below.
00:22:31
Police immediately questioned Salazar.
00:22:35
He told them that he had escorted Sandra to her room
00:22:37
around midnight.
00:22:39
He stayed for only a moment, and when he left,
00:22:42
Sandra was alive and well.
00:22:46
When Mr. Salazar first told that story,
00:22:49
it was a believable story.
00:22:51
It was only after the homicide detectives
00:22:53
began looking inside the room and determined
00:22:56
that his underwear was in the room
00:23:00
that we did not believe him.
00:23:03
DENNIS FARINA: When police questioned Salazar again,
00:23:05
he told a very different story.
00:23:09
LT. RAYMOND PEAVY: He said that he had, in fact, gone
00:23:10
into the room with Sandra, and that they had engaged in sex,
00:23:15
and that, at one point, they were on the balcony.
00:23:19
Sandra had positioned herself on the railing of the balcony
00:23:23
in such a way that she threw one of her legs
00:23:26
over the top of the balcony, and lost her balance,
00:23:29
and had fallen.
00:23:33
DENNIS FARINA: Sandra's family was outraged
00:23:35
by Salazar's allegations.
00:23:37
MICHAEL SYDOW: The family believes that Sandra would
00:23:39
never have engaged in any consensual relationship
00:23:43
with Robert Salazar.
00:23:45
First, she was very devoted to her fiance.
00:23:49
Secondly, she didn't believe in romantic relationships at work.
00:23:56
DENNIS FARINA: Salazar says that he
00:23:57
and Sandra had not been romantically
00:23:59
involved until that evening.
00:24:02
Several witnesses confirm that the couple
00:24:05
was seen in the hotel bar drinking,
00:24:07
holding hands, and kissing.
00:24:10
After that, Salazar told police they went up
00:24:12
to Sandra's eighth floor room.
00:24:15
A short time later, Sandra fell off the balcony.
00:24:20
Salazar told no one about the accident.
00:24:23
Instead, he simply went back to his room.
00:24:26
The next morning, he was seen in the hotel lobby pretending
00:24:30
to be waiting for Sandra.
00:24:32
He even left a message on her woman's voicemail
00:24:36
asking where she was.
00:24:40
Authorities used a dummy to test Salazar's
00:24:43
account of how and where Sandra went over the railing.
00:24:48
LT. RAYMOND PEAVY: The dummy landed a number of feet
00:24:51
from where Sandra actually landed,
00:24:53
close to 15 feet at one dropping.
00:24:56
And another time, I believe it was 12 feet.
00:24:59
So it was never even close to where she actually landed.
00:25:04
We tried it several times, and we actually ended up
00:25:07
trying to make it land where she landed,
00:25:09
and we had to basically throw the dummy in that direction
00:25:14
to make it land there.
00:25:17
DENNIS FARINA: Police also noted that Sandra was just 18 inches
00:25:20
taller than the railing.
00:25:22
That made simply falling off the balcony very unlikely.
00:25:27
LT. RAYMOND PEAVY: I don't believe
00:25:28
that it's possible that she could
00:25:30
have fallen off the balcony.
00:25:32
I think that something else caused
00:25:34
her to fall off the balcony that Mr.
00:25:38
Salazar has not yet revealed.
00:25:42
We want to get to the truth so that we can
00:25:45
explain away all the questions.
00:25:48
Whether we ever will or not remains to be seen.
00:25:55
DENNIS FARINA: Update-- nearly five years after Sandra
00:25:59
Orellana fell to her death, the Los Angeles
00:26:02
district attorney filed murder charges against Robert Salazar.
00:26:06
At the trial's conclusion, the jury found
00:26:09
Salazar not guilty of murder.
00:26:12
Jurors said the prosecution failed
00:26:14
to make their case because no sign of a struggle
00:26:17
was found in the hotel room.
00:26:24
Next, two infants are stolen by a nurse in Texas.
00:26:28
20 years later, they are still searching
00:26:31
for their birth parents.
00:26:42
San Antonio, Texas-- these three infants
00:26:47
were all born in San Antonio between 1959 and 1966,
00:26:52
but they all have something else in common.
00:26:55
All three were kidnapped by a nurse named Ethel Nation, who
00:26:59
then provided the infants to unsuspecting adoptive parents
00:27:04
for a fee.
00:27:05
The shady business first came to light
00:27:08
when the mother of this infant began looking for her.
00:27:11
Good grief.
00:27:12
I don't--
00:27:13
DENNIS FARINA: In November 1959, 18-year-old
00:27:16
Dylene Zolikoff was alone, scared,
00:27:19
and seven months pregnant.
00:27:21
She was taken in by a nurse in San Antonio--
00:27:24
a nurse named Ethel Nation.
00:27:28
Darlene gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
00:27:31
While she was still in the hospital,
00:27:34
Ethel took the infant away.
00:27:37
DYLENE ZOLIKOFF: Ethel stole my baby, and I searched.
00:27:43
I searched.
00:27:43
I tried everything.
00:27:46
I talked to a lawyer.
00:27:48
Ethel wouldn't help me.
00:27:51
I just couldn't find my baby.
00:27:55
DENNIS FARINA: Ethel denied she had anything
00:27:57
to do with the abduction of Dylene's baby,
00:28:00
but in 1968, Dylene found a photograph of her daughter
00:28:04
in Ethel's house.
00:28:06
It took another 15 years of searching
00:28:09
before Dylene and her daughter were reunited
00:28:12
on national television.
00:28:13
She's so beautiful.
00:28:15
Isn't she beautiful?
00:28:15
WOMAN: She is.
00:28:16
DYLENE ZOLIKOFF: When I first saw my daughter,
00:28:19
she smiled, and I was just overjoyed to finally,
00:28:23
after all these years--
00:28:26
we finally-- I finally found her.
00:28:30
DENNIS FARINA: While the story of Dylene and her daughter
00:28:33
has a happy ending, the stories of two
00:28:36
other young people who were sold by Ethel Nation
00:28:39
are far from over.
00:28:42
Scott Merz was born in San Antonio in 1965.
00:28:46
His adoptive parents were unable to have children,
00:28:49
and paid Ethel Nation a fee of $1,200 for Scott.
00:28:55
Scott grew up knowing that he had been adopted,
00:28:58
but when he was 10, he began to have a strange recurring dream.
00:29:03
It seemed to be about the mother he never knew
00:29:06
and just maybe the place where he was born.
00:29:11
SCOTT MERZ: I remember walking through the main doorway
00:29:14
feeling very cold.
00:29:17
I felt like very, very horrible things went on there.
00:29:23
Beside this table, there was a man in a green robe
00:29:28
and a lady dressed in white.
00:29:31
I don't know what they were doing there.
00:29:34
When I woke up, I woke up almost screaming.
00:29:37
I mean, I was really, really scared.
00:29:41
DENNIS FARINA: When Scott was 18, he and his adoptive mother,
00:29:45
Mary, began to search for his birth mother.
00:29:48
They started with a visit to Ethel Nation.
00:29:52
SCOTT MERZ: She seemed really nice.
00:29:54
It seemed like she wanted to help.
00:29:57
Then, as the times grew on, it got
00:30:02
worse, and worse, and worse.
00:30:04
Ms. Nation, I just need to ask you a few more questions.
00:30:07
DENNIS FARINA: Scott and Mary met with Ethel six times.
00:30:10
With each new visit, she changed her story.
00:30:14
At various times, she told Scott that he had been born
00:30:17
in three different hospitals, but none of them
00:30:20
had his birth records.
00:30:22
They have no record of my being born there.
00:30:24
Who said anything about Santa Rosa?
00:30:26
You did.
00:30:27
DENNIS FARINA: On the final visit, Ethel lost her temper
00:30:30
and revealed what she said was the bitter truth
00:30:34
about Scott's mother.
00:30:35
Your mother didn't want you.
00:30:36
SCOTT MERZ: She told me that I was a bastard child, that all
00:30:40
my mother was was a slut, a whore,
00:30:43
and that I should have no right to even look for her.
00:30:48
So for me to go home, and for me to stop looking for her.
00:30:53
DENNIS FARINA: Scott and Mary wouldn't give up.
00:30:55
They visited the Woodlawn Clinic, another place where
00:30:58
Ethel said Scott had been born.
00:31:02
SCOTT MERZ: The very minute that we walked
00:31:04
in, I was completely stunned.
00:31:06
I couldn't even talk.
00:31:09
This is it.
00:31:09
SCOTT MERZ: The feelings that I got from this
00:31:11
were just incredible.
00:31:12
I mean, it was a morbid type feeling,
00:31:15
but yet I felt like I had been there before.
00:31:18
And everything in this dream that I had back when I was 10--
00:31:24
it was coming true before my eyes.
00:31:27
I was so happy that it made sense with the dream
00:31:31
that I had from many years ago.
00:31:35
DENNIS FARINA: But that was all he got.
00:31:37
Although Scott didn't find his birth mother,
00:31:39
he did meet a young woman who had a remarkably similar
00:31:42
experience with Ethel Nation.
00:31:47
Dawnette Barker was adopted in July of 1966
00:31:51
by a childless couple from San Antonio.
00:31:55
They approached Ethel after years of trying to adopt
00:31:58
through state agencies.
00:32:00
ETHEL NATION: We have these two little boys here
00:32:01
that are twins, and this little girl over here.
00:32:05
DAWNETTE BARKER-LUSSIER: Because my parents didn't expect
00:32:07
that things would happen so quickly,
00:32:09
they just thought they were going to go to see the baby,
00:32:11
but at that point, Mrs. Nations told
00:32:14
my parents that they could go ahead
00:32:17
and take me home that night.
00:32:18
We can?
00:32:19
ETHEL NATION: Yes, absolutely.
00:32:20
Honey?
00:32:22
Is there a problem?
00:32:23
DENNIS FARINA: Thinking that they were only
00:32:25
going to see the baby, Dawnette's parents
00:32:27
hadn't brought the $1,700 in cash
00:32:30
that Ethel Nation demanded as payment.
00:32:32
It-- it's all right.
00:32:33
We'll work something out.
00:32:35
DENNIS FARINA: In the end, Ethel accepted a 14 foot ski
00:32:38
boat in exchange for the baby.
00:32:41
You can go ahead and take your baby home.
00:32:43
DENNIS FARINA: When she turned 18,
00:32:44
Dawnette began to search for her birth parents.
00:32:47
She found that her mother's name was listed as Gloria Cantu.
00:32:52
The adoption papers had been notarized by Ethel Nation.
00:32:57
Dawnette Barker's birthday is listed as July 21, 1966,
00:33:02
but she may have been born weeks earlier.
00:33:05
Her mother, Gloria Cantu, may have been 23 years
00:33:09
old when Dawnette was born.
00:33:12
You know, maybe it's something she's never told anyone,
00:33:15
or who she's currently married to, if she's married,
00:33:18
but I don't want anything.
00:33:19
No strings attached.
00:33:20
I just want to know what happened and how it happened.
00:33:24
I would never in any way want to hurt her.
00:33:29
DENNIS FARINA: Scott Merz was born on August 5, 1965
00:33:33
in San Antonio, Texas.
00:33:35
His mother's name was listed as Joyce Koehier.
00:33:39
She may have been 22 years old.
00:33:41
Scott's adoptive mother, Mary, met her once,
00:33:44
and recalls that she was thin with dark hair
00:33:47
and an olive complexion.
00:33:49
Is Ethel Nation here?
00:33:50
No.
00:33:50
SCOTT MERZ: It's important for me to find her,
00:33:53
because there's a certain gap, a certain hole that's
00:33:56
inside me that I want to fill.
00:34:01
And finding my birth mother will do that.
00:34:08
DENNIS FARINA: Update-- on the night this story first aired,
00:34:12
several viewers called on behalf of Dawnette's birth
00:34:15
mother, Gloria Cantu Martinez.
00:34:18
A short time later, Dawnette spoke to her mother
00:34:21
for the very first time.
00:34:23
She learned that Gloria had never wanted to give her up
00:34:26
for adoption and that Ethel Nation had tricked
00:34:29
her into signing the papers.
00:34:31
So Dawnette and Gloria made plans
00:34:34
for a long overdue reunion.
00:34:38
Within a few days, Gloria flew to see
00:34:40
her daughter in Washington DC.
00:34:43
Their meeting ended 26 years of separation.
00:34:50
DAWNETTE BARKER-LUSSIER: When I was waiting
00:34:52
for her to come out, a million things
00:34:54
were going through my mind.
00:34:56
Just relief that it was over and that I
00:35:01
was finally where I wanted to be after a long time of looking.
00:35:08
GLORIA CANTU MARTINEZ: I just couldn't believe it.
00:35:10
I've always wanted to find her and wondered
00:35:13
what she was like, if she was married, if she
00:35:18
had any children.
00:35:22
DENNIS FARINA: The reunion was made even more
00:35:24
special when Gloria met her four grandchildren
00:35:27
for the first time.
00:35:29
Hi, baby.
00:35:31
DENNIS FARINA: Dawnette's dream of having her entire family
00:35:34
together had finally come true.
00:35:36
Hi, baby.
00:35:37
DAWNETTE BARKER-LUSSIER: This is Michael.
00:35:39
How are you?
00:35:40
DAWNETTE BARKER-LUSSIER: This is Tyler.
00:35:41
Tyler.
00:35:44
DENNIS FARINA: If you have any information that you might help
00:35:46
Scott Merz find his birth mother,
00:35:48
or if you know someone who had a similar experience
00:35:51
with Ethel Nation, please log on to our website at unsolved.com.
00:36:00
Next, meet Phillip Pauli an eight-year-old genius.
00:36:04
His amazing intelligence makes for a fascinating mystery.
00:36:19
Denver, Colorado-- home to Philip Pauli.
00:36:24
He may look like an average 8-year-old,
00:36:26
but Philip is quite literally 1 in 10 million.
00:36:31
Philip is a genius.
00:36:33
In fact, he is so smart that he's too smart for school.
00:36:37
If you need any help, let me know, OK?
00:36:40
Thanks.
00:36:41
You're welcome.
00:36:42
Philip's mother teaches him at home,
00:36:44
because even programs for gifted students
00:36:47
can't keep up with his insatiable
00:36:49
demand for knowledge.
00:36:52
PHILIP PAULI: Well, I'm studying algebra,
00:36:53
and geometry, and the Middle Ages, and cellular biology.
00:37:00
And in the Middle Ages, I'm working on the--
00:37:05
the castle defenses.
00:37:09
It's not that Philip--
00:37:11
Philip's dad or I are dumb, but we do--
00:37:15
we-- neither of us have the IQs to match Phil.
00:37:20
So to me, it was a gift to have a son like Philip.
00:37:26
DENNIS FARINA: From the very beginning,
00:37:27
it was clear that Philip was brighter and more alert
00:37:30
than most babies.
00:37:32
At six months, he started to talk
00:37:34
and had enough manual dexterity to remove
00:37:37
the bolts from his crib.
00:37:39
At nine months, Philip displayed a highly
00:37:41
mature emotional sensibility.
00:37:44
At 18 months, Philip could already read.
00:37:48
For his second birthday, he asked for a violin.
00:37:54
Within days, he was playing simple tunes
00:37:56
that he had composed himself.
00:37:59
At the age of three, Philip was studying astronomy.
00:38:04
His hero was astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
00:38:08
Hey mom, let's go over here.
00:38:09
There's more stuff. - OK.
00:38:10
DENNIS FARINA: By the time Philip was four,
00:38:12
the Denver Museum of Natural History
00:38:14
was his favorite playground.
00:38:17
On one visit, Philip asked a curator
00:38:19
why a dinosaur skeleton was missing several vertebrae
00:38:24
in its tail section.
00:38:26
PEPPERANNE PAULI: And the curator explained at the time
00:38:28
that the dinosaur was too large for the area
00:38:31
that they had designated for it, but with the new exhibit
00:38:34
they were going to get it correct
00:38:35
and not to worry about it.
00:38:36
But he was flabbergasted.
00:38:37
He said it's-- you're the only person that's noticed.
00:38:41
DENNIS FARINA: Research indicates
00:38:43
that, along with heightened mental abilities,
00:38:45
child geniuses often show acute sensitivity
00:38:49
to humanitarian issues.
00:38:51
PEPPERANNE PAULI: He carries the weight of the world.
00:38:53
He's worried about the economy within the United States
00:38:57
and the government's structure, as well as
00:38:59
what's going on around the world and how it affects--
00:39:03
how what we do affects other nations.
00:39:07
There's times that he gets so consumed with these worries
00:39:12
that he'll stop eating.
00:39:13
He-- he bites his nails.
00:39:15
He loses sleep.
00:39:16
I mean, these are things that we have
00:39:17
to talk about what he can actually do on a personal level
00:39:20
to help mankind.
00:39:23
DENNIS FARINA: So where would you expect a child like Philip
00:39:25
to play?
00:39:26
On a basketball court?
00:39:29
Not on your life.
00:39:30
Try an archaeological dig.
00:39:34
OK.
00:39:35
There you go.
00:39:37
I think Philip working at the site here has fun.
00:39:40
He knows it's important.
00:39:42
He understands the value of what he's doing.
00:39:47
It's intellectually stimulating, but he's digging in the dirt.
00:39:51
DENNIS FARINA: Philip enjoys a variety of subjects,
00:39:54
and tackles each one with passion.
00:39:56
When we asked what he wants to be,
00:39:58
he had a tough time picking just one job.
00:40:02
Paleontologist, an archaeologist,
00:40:05
a conservationist, and hopefully I'll
00:40:07
be the commander to the mission to Mars, and if--
00:40:10
and the chief curator of the Denver Museum
00:40:14
of Natural History.
00:40:16
Artifact number 23.
00:40:19
DENNIS FARINA: But what makes a genius?
00:40:21
Is it nature or nurture?
00:40:23
Scientists truly don't know, but some people
00:40:26
believe that geniuses may possess knowledge and skills
00:40:29
acquired in other lifetimes.
00:40:32
PEPPERANNE PAULI: He told me one time that heaven had opened,
00:40:34
and he had looked down, and he had
00:40:36
chose me as his mom, because I would be the right one for him.
00:40:42
It's clear to me that many, many gifted children come
00:40:46
in knowing more than it would be explainable
00:40:51
by scientific standards.
00:40:53
Where they get that knowledge from, I don't know,
00:40:56
but I would not discount any possibility, including
00:40:59
reincarnation, that they are visiting
00:41:02
us from more evolved cultures.
00:41:05
Anything is possible.
00:41:07
- Push me. - Push?
00:41:09
No.
00:41:10
DENNIS FARINA: Philip doesn't have
00:41:11
much time left for childhood.
00:41:13
In two years, he'll be old enough to take
00:41:15
the college entrance exams.
00:41:17
He plans to enroll at the University of Denver.
00:41:21
After that, the sky's the limit.
00:41:24
So what are we going to go see today?
00:41:26
The hall of life, science of sports, and--
00:41:28
DENNIS FARINA: Exceptional intelligence like Philip's is
00:41:31
a rare and special gift.
00:41:33
The danger is that the talents of these remarkable kids
00:41:37
often go unrecognized.
00:41:43
Since this story aired, Philip Pauli has continued
00:41:46
his remarkable journey.
00:41:48
At the age of 11, he completed a three
00:41:51
year internship at the Denver Museum of Natural History.
00:41:55
At the age of 19, he became the youngest person
00:41:58
to ever attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy.
00:42:02
Currently, Philip is studying theology
00:42:05
and philosophy at England's prestigious Oxford University.
00:42:11
[THEME MUSIC]
