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Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode

May 23, 2019 / 01:32:48

This episode of Unsolved Mysteries covers topics including Bigfoot sightings, the search for missing husband Craig Williamson, and the harassment faced by Bill and Dorothy Wacker.

The episode begins with a focus on Bigfoot, featuring a training exercise led by Peter Byrne and eyewitness accounts from Todd Niece and two women who encountered the creature in Oregon. The segment discusses various sightings and the ongoing debate about Bigfoot's existence.

Next, Christine Reinhardt shares her desperate search for her husband, Craig Williamson, who disappeared in Colorado Springs in 1993. The episode details her efforts to find him, including a sighting on an Amtrak train in Washington state, and her determination to continue searching despite the challenges.

The episode also highlights the bizarre case of Bill and Dorothy Wacker, who have been subjected to years of harassment by an unknown assailant. The Wackers recount their experiences, including threatening notes and mysterious phone calls, as they seek answers to their torment.

Finally, the episode concludes with a brief mention of other unsolved cases, including a deadly arson and the search for a witness in the murder of a deputy sheriff.

TL;DR

This episode features Bigfoot sightings, a wife's search for her missing husband, and the Wackers' ongoing harassment case.

Episode

1:32:48
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[Music]
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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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tonight
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join me for a special two-hour edition
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of unsolved mysteries
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some legends get better with time others
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become more and more real
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many people believe that the untamed
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forests of the pacific northwest harbor
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a mysterious creature known as bigfoot
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now a team of researchers bolstered by
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credible eyewitness accounts has set out
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to prove that the fabled beast does
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exist
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since 1984 bill and dorothy wacker
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claimed they have been targeted in a
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vicious campaign of harassment
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anonymous phone calls threatening notes
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burglaries and even violent assaults
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in this most bizarre case everyone is
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suspect even the whackers themselves
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christine reinhardt needs your help to
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find her husband
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he disappeared from a colorado motel on
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august 31 1993
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two weeks later he was apparently
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spotted on an amtrak train disheveled
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and disoriented
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christine is convinced that he is
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suffering from amnesia that he has no
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idea who he is or where he lives
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are there angels here on earth watching
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over us
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you'll see the compelling accounts of
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the two women who came face to face with
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death and miraculously survived
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join me for this very special edition of
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unsolved mysteries
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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mount hood oregon april 19 1994
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the peaceful beauty of an alpine spring
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is shattered by a manhunt
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copy contact team i understand your
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latest coordinates
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25 volunteers are on the ground
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in the air is a helicopter equipped with
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a sophisticated thermal imaging system
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called fleer forward-looking infrared
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but this manhunt is different it's a
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training exercise
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even the fugitive is a volunteer a
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stand-in as it were for the elusive
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legendary creature known as bigfoot
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bigfoot
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yeti
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sasquatch
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no matter what this beast is called many
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believe that if he exists he is a
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missing link between ape and human
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[Music]
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ground
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the training exercise was sponsored by
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an oregon based group the bigfoot
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research project
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peter byrne noted adventure and world
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explorer heads the project
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we don't want to capture it we don't
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want to shoot it
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the ultimate find you know as far as
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we're concerned would be to do something
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like what jane goodall did in other
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words to find one
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see we can communicate have it lead us
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to others and then bring in
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the right people totally responsible
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people bring in scientists and show them
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what we've found
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and
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document the whole thing of course
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attempts to document bigfoot has so far
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been sketchy
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there are several crude home movies and
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videos purporting to show the creature
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in the wild
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and there are dozens of plaster casts
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and photographs showing large humanoid
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footprints
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yet for every person who believes
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bigfoot exists you'll find at least two
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who say that the films and the
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footprints alike are merely the
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handiwork of pranksters in fur suits
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is bigfoot real
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an elaborate ongoing hoax
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well even hoaxes are usually based on
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something
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through the years eyewitness accounts
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have consistently described a very
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human-like animal
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he walks upright with an almost comical
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gate and steers clear people unless they
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happen to invade his turf
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but even those who claim they've run
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across bigfoot say he's a harmless if
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somewhat scary-looking giant
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[Music]
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todd niece is a sergeant in the army
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national guard
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once a month he returns to the oregon
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coastal range where he had an unusual
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sighting but on maneuvers in 1993.
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across a ravine i could distinctly see
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three
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large black
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figures
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i would estimate the largest one to be
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between eight and nine feet
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the two that flanked it were a full head
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shorter
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i tried to
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think if they were bare or if they were
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elk
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and then when i saw them shuffling back
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and forth i could very plainly see they
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were upright on two legs and during that
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entire time they were all three of them
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were standing on two legs
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i don't think i would have ever told
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this to anybody had something very
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unusual not happen
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i was approached by another
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sergeant
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who had uh
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walked up to me and and said
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cernice
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did you see what i saw down at that
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second rock quarry
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and not to be made a fool i said well i
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don't know what you see
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he followed with
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well
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for lack of a better word what i saw
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were three large hair covered big feet
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it's one of our theories is that they
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are nocturnal and when they're seen in
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the daytime it's a result of disturbance
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of some kind in this in this case there
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was a national guard exercise with
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explosions and immediately after the
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explosion three of these things were
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seen they were seen by him seen by
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another man and um
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he gave us a description
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and a very credible story
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one month after todnese's sighting two
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women were driving on a remote country
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road 100 miles away when they had a much
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closer encounter
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the driver agreed to speak with us in
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silhouette
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we had just come around a bend in the
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road when i
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saw movement
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and i slowed down for the anticipation
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of something crossing in front of me
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and that's when it stood up
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and
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moved across the road
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without once looking at us and
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disappeared
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we couldn't
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make any sense of what we saw
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it was very close to a human but yet
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it wasn't there was no
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visible signs of of clothing shoes
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jacket hat
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there was no neck
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the arms were very long
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and swinging with the movement
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we had the opportunity of interviewing
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both of the ladies
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and we found the story very credible
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we saw some signs where something had
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crossed the road and
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about
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300 yards into the forest there was a
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dead steer and the few footprints that
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we saw were very faint we're going
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directly towards that dead stair
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possibly with the intention of eating it
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so do you guys want to come along with
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me up there
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you're going ahead okay
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perhaps the most amazing bigfoot
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sighting in recent years occurred when
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elmer frambach of seattle washington
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took his family on an outing near the
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canadian border
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elmer an electrician and part-time
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prospector set off to stake a claim
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nearby
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i had a
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four by four seater post that i was
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using to mark the claim
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and of course i had all of the normal
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things like surveyors ribbon and a
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compass and
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different items which would be used to
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lay out the claim boundaries
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as i traveled into the upper areas i was
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now about 1500 feet
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and i noticed that the trails in this
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area were somewhat isolated with trees
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being snapped off and laid over the
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trail in certain spots which looked as
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though they were strategically placed to
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block the trail off
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so i laid the cedar posts down on the
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ground and went up the hillside
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to where i could walk on the trails
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easily again
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elmer had just started to take a few
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more samples when he suddenly realized
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he was not alone
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[Music]
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as i walked around the hillside
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the pounding seemed to cease for a short
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period of time and then it resumed again
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and i thought maybe the boys are up here
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playing a trick on me
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[Music]
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all right you guys it isn't funny
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[Music]
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hey are you on the hill
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i thought at first i had triggered an
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avalanche of some type until
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i saw a big black hairy mass right
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behind all of those rocks and twigs
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and then i began to wonder is this a
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bear that i'm seeing
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or is it something else
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[Applause]
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and at that time i kept thinking in my
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mind i've got to find a way to scare it
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and i fired a shot above its head and it
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turned just slightly
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and then proceeded to walk down the
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trail as though i wasn't even there
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and as it walked away from me it took
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perfect human-like strides down the
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trail only like a giant man
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at that point in time i thought the
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thing was probably gone
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but this thing had crouched down
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at the end of the trail
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and it picked up a rock the size of a
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basketball and was using it to bang
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against the other rocks they again made
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a slight sideways turn just enough to
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see me out of the corner of its eye
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i was scared and i wanted to get out of
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there i kept running down the hillside
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and the thing was in hot pursuit the
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whole way
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i was absolutely terrified
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and i had a hard time figuring out how
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that thing could cover so much area or
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if there were actually more than one of
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them
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never been more scared in my life
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[Music]
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the creature could have very easily have
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caught me if it would have wanted to why
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it didn't is still a mystery to me i
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still can't understand
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with something that would move that fast
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cover that much territory wyatt had such
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a hard time locating me
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i don't think it was a chase i think
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possibly it was what we call a
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demonstration charge if it truly was a
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bigfoot that he saw and it was simply
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saint and get out of here this is my
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territory
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accounts like elmer frombacks are
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invaluable to the bigfoot research
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project the project correlates all
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eyewitness data in an attempt to predict
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where and when a bigfoot will show up
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next
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based on this data special infrared
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cameras are set up in hopes of
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photographing the elusive beast
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but even credible photographs might not
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convince the skeptics
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noted anthropologist darris swindler
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wants to see tangible proof
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and i'm amazed through all the years and
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the various people that have been
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hunting sasquatch through the years have
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not really found any
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what we call bone or dental evidence of
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the creature
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that to me would be very satisfying you
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can talk to people who lived out here 50
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years never found a dead bear and never
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found a dead cougar a dead deer maybe
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but when something dies it's eaten just
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as in east africa when a eight-ton
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elephant dies in 72 hours it completely
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disappears this is nature's way
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i would still like to see some
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what we call teeth and bones i would
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think it would be only logical to
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suspect this
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that we might by this time would have
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found some more concrete evidence of
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their existence
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does the lost species roam the pacific
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northwest
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if so there are a lot of people who are
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very interested
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some like peter bernwater find a bigfoot
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alive others want a specimen dead or
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alive
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the eyewitnesses we interview hope that
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the scientific community takes notice
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before it's too late
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it's not just to validate what i saw but
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i think it's important if these
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creatures are still out there that they
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need to
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be protected in some way that they need
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to be
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understood and studied
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there was no aggression at all in the
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animal and i believe that
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it is up to us to protect it
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learn all we can about it
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and
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leave it alone
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what i saw there was a living creature
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and not some figment in my imagination
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modern science hasn't absolutely proven
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by a dead object
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that this thing exists
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but i tell you quite frankly i've seen
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one i know it exists and there is no
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doubt in my mind
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[Music]
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next a determined wife crisscrosses a
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country in search of her missing husband
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perhaps you can help
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imagine that you were a woman whose
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husband has gone away on a business trip
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you speak to him the night before he is
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due to come back home
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and you never see or hear from him again
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what are your choices
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do you sit at home waiting for police in
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distant cities to call you back
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or do you try to do something yourself
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christine reinhart of clintonville
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wisconsin did something
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today christine's search for her husband
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has become an all-consuming quest
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hello
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hi
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uh my name's christine and i'm out here
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searching for my husband who's been
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missing for quite some time
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his name is craig williamson i've reason
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to believe that he's suffering from
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amnesia and may have been on this
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interstate corridor and perhaps caught a
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ride with a trucker and i'd like to put
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this up in your window if that's
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possible
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someone might see it sure oh i really
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appreciate that thank you very much
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[Music]
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christine's quest began on september 14
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1993 in colorado springs colorado at the
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motel where craig williamson was last
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seen okay miss reinhart uh this is where
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your husband
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stayed in room 112.
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this is the washroom here
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all the stuff
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was in here and he had a book here on
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the sink
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okay this is the room he stayed in over
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there on the chair was his luggage
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was unpacked and open
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the bed was made
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looked like it was not slept in
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had there been any um like signs of
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struggle in the room no sign of struggle
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at all it looked like uh
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someone just left and walked out
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[Music]
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it is now my pleasure
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as an ordained minister
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and by the power vested in me by the
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state of nevada craig williamson was
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nearly 46 and christine reinhardt 41
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when they married at lake tahoe
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it was a second marriage for both
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[Music]
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craig and christine had known each other
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for only a month but it was definitely a
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love match
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christine still speaks of their marriage
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in the present tense
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being married to craig is
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it may be a cliche to say it's like a
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honeymoon but it really is because
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he's the most sincere caring loving
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person
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i think the thing about craig that is
00:17:52
most endearing is his
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caring and
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nurturing attitude toward me he's just
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wonderfully supportive
00:18:01
and very loving
00:18:06
craig and christine bought a farm in
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wisconsin christine's home state and
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undertook an immediate renovation
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they added onto the barn install large
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tanks and began to raise an exotic and
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tasty african fish called tilapia
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craig specially rigged an old school bus
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to transport the fish
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on august 28 1993 craig williamson
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loaded up and set off for colorado
00:18:34
even though he was still experiencing
00:18:36
headaches and blurred vision due to a
00:18:38
concussion he had suffered four weeks
00:18:40
earlier
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if i tried to rub his head
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he said honey don't do that it hurts and
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so i know he was still suffering from it
00:18:48
because he would still um i'd say do you
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have a headache and he'd say yes you
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know but he wouldn't admit it but i'd
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catch him taking aspirin all the time
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[Music]
00:18:59
in colorado springs craig rented a car
00:19:01
to use for business appointments
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at 9 00 pm on august 30th the night
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before he was to return home he and
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christine spoke for the last time
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craig was a thousand miles away from the
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farm in wisconsin when he disappeared in
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colorado springs
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the next day his credit cards were
00:19:20
discovered at a market in el paso texas
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675 miles south
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two weeks later in juarez mexico just
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across the border from el paso craig's
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rental car was found abandoned once
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again there were no signs of foul play
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detective robert johnson headed the
00:19:45
investigation in colorado this is the
00:19:47
area where we found bus still park when
00:19:50
we come out the day of the search and
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what i wanted to show you is some of the
00:19:53
things that we found
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when we got here the bus that craig had
00:19:59
driven down here was still parked
00:20:01
kind of along this line here about three
00:20:03
or four feet from the dumpster okay i
00:20:06
truly believe that craig walked up to
00:20:08
his rental car and that someone came up
00:20:12
behind him and hit him on the head
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and
00:20:16
this
00:20:16
is completely in keeping in character
00:20:19
with craig is that
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he'd get up and wouldn't go in and say
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i'm hurt help me he'd think i have to
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get on with things i you know i have to
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be doing something i'm supposed to go
00:20:31
somewhere i have to get back and he
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would wander toward the bright lights of
00:20:37
the
00:20:38
parking lot and then the interchange and
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he wandered off from there
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over the past week williamson's wife
00:20:45
christine television stations in
00:20:47
wisconsin and colorado covered
00:20:49
christine's story
00:20:50
within days a retired nurse from montana
00:20:53
came forward
00:20:56
when i saw him on tv you know i
00:20:58
recognized him
00:20:59
and i said that man was on the train
00:21:01
that i was on
00:21:03
and my son said are you sure about that
00:21:05
i said yeah i recognize him judy inman
00:21:08
believes she saw craig williamson
00:21:10
looking dazed and disheveled two weeks
00:21:12
after he disappeared
00:21:14
judy was on a train traveling from
00:21:16
montana through washington state where
00:21:18
craig and christine had first met
00:21:23
when he first got on the train these two
00:21:25
drunks they just kept harassing him
00:21:28
i was just wishing they'd all three shut
00:21:30
up you know so we could get some sleep
00:21:42
well when he walked up the aisle he
00:21:44
didn't say anything
00:21:47
but there was something that he wanted
00:21:51
i gotta get back to the fish
00:21:57
he kept talking about this fish that he
00:21:59
had to go pick up
00:22:02
and uh
00:22:04
he was talking about this big building
00:22:06
that had these big huge tanks in it
00:22:08
where they kept the fish
00:22:10
how are you gonna catch this fish these
00:22:12
two drunk guys asked him well where do
00:22:14
you have to go to catch that fish you
00:22:16
know he said well you wouldn't find a
00:22:18
fish like that around here
00:22:20
he said in fact you wouldn't find a fish
00:22:22
like that in the united states
00:22:24
hey it's my jacket
00:22:29
[Music]
00:22:32
i gotta get back to the fish that man
00:22:35
definitely had something wrong with him
00:22:40
he was absolutely not drunk
00:22:43
and i knew he was not mentally [ __ ]
00:22:47
there's a difference between someone
00:22:50
that's mentally [ __ ] and someone
00:22:51
that's drunk
00:22:53
and someone that has a head injury
00:22:56
and i knew that he definitely had some
00:22:58
type of a head injury
00:23:00
because i've taken care of patients like
00:23:02
that
00:23:04
i knew that that was craig i knew it and
00:23:08
the fact that it was on amtrak and it
00:23:10
was heading toward the pacific northwest
00:23:12
i mean i knew that that was craig there
00:23:14
was no way
00:23:16
anyone could make up the type of things
00:23:18
that judy hinman said craig
00:23:20
was talking about
00:23:23
i packed up everything that i would need
00:23:26
packed up a suitcase for craig
00:23:29
in the outside chance i would find him
00:23:31
and
00:23:32
went to look for him
00:23:35
christine set off on a six-week odyssey
00:23:37
paralleling judy inman's train route
00:23:39
from whitefish montana to portland
00:23:41
oregon
00:23:43
she photographed every train station
00:23:45
along the way
00:23:48
on december 26 1993 christine met judy
00:23:52
inman in person for the first time and
00:23:54
showed her the photographs
00:23:56
this is another one of the train yard
00:23:58
there's really nothing much around there
00:23:59
it's pretty empty
00:24:01
then there's this one there you think
00:24:03
this is the one that's the one where he
00:24:05
got off because it was a small building
00:24:07
yeah it was small and it was this color
00:24:10
this is the one where he got off
00:24:13
judy had identified wish from washington
00:24:16
near the oregon border christine
00:24:18
believes craig might have mistaken
00:24:20
wishroom for washougal a town where he
00:24:22
had lived in the 1980s
00:24:25
craig's son plastered the area with this
00:24:27
poster but no new clues surfaced
00:24:30
[Music]
00:24:35
it was absolutely terrible to drive back
00:24:38
here after
00:24:40
looking for craig
00:24:41
for the six weeks that i did
00:24:44
this place was so cold and empty
00:24:48
and everywhere i look
00:24:52
there
00:24:53
things remind me of craig all the time
00:24:57
[Music]
00:25:01
today christine reinhart has no choice
00:25:03
but to sit at home and wait
00:25:07
the farm is closed
00:25:08
the fish tanks are empty
00:25:10
but christine will never abandon her
00:25:12
quest
00:25:15
i can't give up i will never give up
00:25:18
i will just
00:25:20
constantly look for him until
00:25:24
i die or he's found i mean those are the
00:25:26
only two options
00:25:30
i know he's alive
00:25:32
and i know someday i'll find him the
00:25:34
trouble is i don't know when and i just
00:25:36
have to keep hanging on the hardest part
00:25:39
is hanging on
00:25:42
craig williamson is 49 years old 5 feet
00:25:45
10 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds he
00:25:49
has gray hair and blue eyes
00:25:52
this is television footage shot in
00:25:53
wisconsin in february of 1993.
00:25:57
fish
00:25:58
some of these will be filleted out in
00:25:59
our processing plants some will be
00:26:01
delivered to the east coast as live
00:26:03
whole fish to the oriental market
00:26:14
[Music]
00:26:26
when we return
00:26:27
a fugitive is captured thanks to your
00:26:29
calls
00:26:30
and the bizarre case of a couple
00:26:32
targeted for terror by an unknown
00:26:34
assailant
00:26:37
[Music]
00:26:45
this is 36 year old david vieira he is
00:26:48
charged with a murder of his wife
00:26:51
on april 16 1994 vieira was arrested in
00:26:54
montreal canada the 108th fugitive
00:26:57
captured thanks to your calls
00:27:00
his long troubling odyssey began some 20
00:27:02
years ago on a small island in the
00:27:04
atlantic ocean
00:27:08
david vieira grew up on saint michael
00:27:10
one of a group of irons west of portugal
00:27:12
known as the azores
00:27:14
[Music]
00:27:16
it was there in 1974 that vieira married
00:27:19
his 17-year-old cousin alice who lived
00:27:21
in new bedford massachusetts
00:27:23
[Music]
00:27:26
david and alice eventually settled in
00:27:27
new bedford within a year alice was
00:27:33
dream mavic pregnant off pretty good
00:27:34
like maybe i'd say about the first
00:27:36
couple of months
00:27:37
and then uh you know already he was
00:27:39
already starting with her you know she
00:27:40
couldn't wear makeup
00:27:42
she couldn't do anything you know he was
00:27:44
very jealous very possessed of my sister
00:27:47
by 1981 alice and david had three
00:27:49
children
00:27:51
as the years went by david reportedly
00:27:53
became abusive to the point of violence
00:27:58
they used to always say uh there's no
00:28:00
other woman in my you know for my life
00:28:03
like you are
00:28:04
and he always had threatened her that if
00:28:06
she ever decided to leave him for
00:28:07
anybody that he would kill her but we
00:28:09
never took it seriously
00:28:11
you know
00:28:14
alice and david finally separated in the
00:28:16
summer of 1988
00:28:17
alice enrolled in nursing school and
00:28:19
began to see another man
00:28:21
but david vieira would not let her go
00:28:27
he allegedly began to stalk alice at
00:28:29
work and at home
00:28:30
night and day
00:28:34
on july 25th 1988 alice was at home with
00:28:37
her boyfriend when david apparently
00:28:39
snapped
00:28:41
[Music]
00:28:45
by the time police arrived at the scene
00:28:47
alice was dead
00:28:48
bludgeoned and stabbed 24 times with a
00:28:51
butcher knife
00:28:54
david vieira had vanished and for nearly
00:28:56
six years he could not be found
00:28:59
until the night of our broadcast
00:29:03
our particular segment on that show
00:29:05
aired our time here in new bedford
00:29:07
massachusetts at approximately 8 50 p.m
00:29:12
by 9 03 pm i was receiving telephone
00:29:15
calls from canada right here into my
00:29:17
office
00:29:18
with very good leads as to his
00:29:20
whereabouts
00:29:21
the first phone call that i received
00:29:23
saying that they knew where he was
00:29:25
i just jumped up with joy and told my
00:29:27
husband i think we got him you know and
00:29:29
i couldn't believe it took less than 48
00:29:30
hours to apprehend him
00:29:34
vieira had lived in montreal for at
00:29:36
least two years and was well known in
00:29:38
the portuguese community he belonged to
00:29:41
a neighborhood soccer team and was
00:29:42
employed at a local fish market
00:29:45
vieira's co-workers were stunned to
00:29:47
learn about his secret past
00:29:49
for me it's a dream i don't believe the
00:29:51
guy do that i don't believe
00:29:52
you know
00:29:54
that guy is so nice too because we see
00:29:56
the picture yeah if we don't see the
00:29:58
picture it's exactly the
00:30:00
man if we don't see
00:30:02
we never trust
00:30:05
i've seen them apprehended and with
00:30:07
handcuffs and to me that was a sign of
00:30:09
saying thank god i can rest and my
00:30:11
sister can also be at peace now that
00:30:13
he's caught
00:30:26
[Music]
00:30:40
dorothy and bill wacker have lived in a
00:30:42
small town in ohio for most of their 48
00:30:44
years together
00:30:46
what time's kathy coming over
00:30:52
the wackers are quiet unassuming people
00:30:54
who tend to mind their own business yeah
00:30:56
hardly the type to draw the wrath of an
00:30:59
unseen enemy
00:31:02
oh my not again
00:31:06
all right
00:31:07
that's it i've had enough i'm calling
00:31:09
the sheriff
00:31:11
on january 16 1985 the wacker's home was
00:31:15
ransacked it was a third incident in a
00:31:18
campaign of terror that began in 1984
00:31:21
and continues unabated to this day
00:31:24
the sheriff's department
00:31:27
after nearly 10 years dorothy and bill
00:31:29
wacker still wonder who and why
00:31:35
well as far as all this harassment is
00:31:37
going on which to me it looks like it's
00:31:39
trying to force us to move
00:31:42
why should i move why should we move why
00:31:45
should we be forced out
00:31:47
by a kook
00:31:48
to me that's what it is is a kook
00:31:52
uh
00:31:53
i'll not do it
00:31:55
i'll stay there protect our own
00:31:58
[Music]
00:32:01
july of 1985 after six months of peace
00:32:05
another incident
00:32:07
dorothy was home by herself recovering
00:32:09
from heart surgery
00:32:12
yeah i'm really sorry to bother you
00:32:14
ma'am uh my car broke down and i just
00:32:16
wonder if i could use your phone well
00:32:18
where's your car oh it's just down the
00:32:19
street here i i would really appreciate
00:32:21
it
00:32:22
well okay i guess it'll be all right
00:32:24
come on did anybody come to the door we
00:32:26
didn't believe the worst of them so we
00:32:28
did what we had to do if they wanted to
00:32:31
help or anything well we always helped
00:32:32
them right here nice please chef here
00:32:34
you need me i'll be uh in the kitchen
00:32:36
thanks a lot
00:32:37
really appreciate it
00:32:39
he was very polite
00:32:41
so i had no
00:32:43
qualms about leaving him in yeah i need
00:32:44
to get a tow truck
00:32:47
right
00:32:48
uh right off south theory
00:32:51
he was talking on the phone but i like i
00:32:53
say i didn't pay no attention to him i
00:32:55
don't listen to people's conversations
00:32:56
when they use the phone thanks
00:33:02
and he said thanks very much and thanks
00:33:04
that's the reason i thought he'd left
00:33:06
you're welcome
00:33:07
[Music]
00:33:24
the next thing i remember i woke up on
00:33:25
the floor
00:33:26
tied up
00:33:29
you know it hit me in the head and he
00:33:30
hit me alongside the jaw
00:33:35
and finally wagged
00:33:37
got over towards the kitchen wind in
00:33:39
there and it was open and i got the
00:33:40
neighbors to
00:33:42
hear me over there and they come over
00:33:44
[Applause]
00:33:47
bill returned home to find his house
00:33:50
swarming with police
00:33:52
fortunately dorothy was not seriously
00:33:54
injured
00:33:57
bill did discover that some personal
00:33:59
possessions were missing
00:34:01
a 22-caliber revolver an antique watch a
00:34:04
movie camera and a radio scanner
00:34:08
in the dining room the assailant had
00:34:10
left a cryptic message scrawled in
00:34:12
crayon
00:34:16
the words were cheaper
00:34:17
but will do
00:34:20
there's no connotation there's no
00:34:21
rational
00:34:22
rationale behind that message that we
00:34:24
can understand
00:34:26
[Music]
00:34:28
this sketch drawn from dorothy's
00:34:30
description was widely distributed after
00:34:32
the attack
00:34:33
the suspect never surfaced but
00:34:35
inexplicably most of the whacker's
00:34:37
missing possessions did
00:34:42
[Music]
00:34:45
bill says it about four months after
00:34:47
dorothy was assaulted the revolver
00:34:49
turned up on the front porch
00:34:53
one by one the other items also
00:34:55
reappeared
00:34:58
i couldn't figure it out i still can't
00:35:00
figure it out why it was brought back if
00:35:02
somebody was
00:35:04
stealing something normally they're
00:35:05
going to if they don't have any use for
00:35:07
it they're going to sell it to somebody
00:35:09
else
00:35:10
and it just looked like this stuff was
00:35:13
laid around till it was brought back
00:35:16
this is extremely unusual if not very
00:35:18
rare
00:35:19
in all my years in in law enforcement i
00:35:21
have never known of a gun being returned
00:35:23
after it was stolen
00:35:28
meanwhile the unseen tormentor had
00:35:30
launched a new pattern of harassment
00:35:33
hello
00:35:34
sometimes he wouldn't say anything he'd
00:35:36
just breathe real deep
00:35:39
and then the next time i he says i'll
00:35:41
knock you in the head and lay out and do
00:35:44
this to you and do that to you
00:35:47
i was angry and i was scared
00:35:52
they've changed their telephone number
00:35:54
several times and whoever this is that's
00:35:57
harassing them has come up with the
00:35:58
number how they found it i have no idea
00:36:05
according to bill and dorothy the phone
00:36:07
calls never let up and the mysterious
00:36:09
assailant soon escalated his campaign
00:36:12
i would be sitting here watching tv or
00:36:14
reading or whatever and always after
00:36:16
dark
00:36:18
you know in the driveway side of the
00:36:20
house is where it first started they
00:36:22
would bang five six times real hard
00:36:27
what's that
00:36:28
i don't know what i'm done you're gonna
00:36:30
find out phil what about all this guy go
00:36:32
to dog i don't want you going out there
00:36:34
bill bill
00:36:36
god rush outside
00:36:38
ever see a thing never hear a thing
00:36:42
never hear a car
00:36:45
never hear a noise whatsoever
00:36:51
we got to the point that we figured that
00:36:55
we needed some kind of security light
00:36:57
outside in the front
00:37:00
which we put up
00:37:05
it wasn't too long after that
00:37:08
that we had a note
00:37:10
on the front porch it says your lights
00:37:12
are a laugh
00:37:17
periodically other notes have shown up
00:37:19
on the wacker's front porch
00:37:22
some are crudely threatening
00:37:24
others simply mocking
00:37:27
it was a disturbing onslaught but at
00:37:30
least the wackers had tangible evidence
00:37:32
to present to the authorities
00:37:34
bill
00:37:36
would appear that the person that wrote
00:37:39
these notes may have been using the
00:37:40
opposite hand from what they're normally
00:37:42
used to writing with
00:37:43
uh whoever printed them
00:37:46
went to some paints to try to conceal
00:37:48
their normal handwriting or printing
00:37:49
techniques
00:37:53
to date we have found no latent
00:37:55
fingerprints or any other form material
00:37:56
on the evidence that's been submitted
00:38:03
with the investigation stalled dorothy
00:38:05
and bill were seemingly at the mercy of
00:38:07
their unknown enemy
00:38:10
he struck again on october 27 1993
00:38:14
[Music]
00:38:26
this time dorothy was raced to the
00:38:27
hospital with skull lacerations
00:38:30
desperate for a witness police once
00:38:32
again canvassed the neighborhood
00:38:34
have you had anybody around your
00:38:35
residence prowling around your wrestling
00:38:37
looking in the windows in the last few
00:38:38
months sir
00:38:41
do you have any idea who may be crawling
00:38:43
around the wacker residence we've
00:38:44
interviewed the neighbors on numerous
00:38:46
occasions
00:38:47
and none of the neighbors have yet been
00:38:49
able to provide us with any information
00:38:51
which would lead us to believe that
00:38:53
there was a person there
00:38:55
nobody has ever seen anybody
00:38:58
which is
00:38:59
that's very frustrating to us in our
00:39:00
efforts
00:39:05
with no suspects and no clues the lead
00:39:08
detective presented dorothy with an
00:39:10
unthinkable scenario
00:39:13
he says i'm going to ask you a question
00:39:15
but he said i don't want you to take it
00:39:17
the wrong way he says do you think your
00:39:19
husband could have done this and i said
00:39:21
no way
00:39:23
i said he wouldn't do something like
00:39:24
that
00:39:27
he says we've got to explore all
00:39:28
possibilities
00:39:31
she says no
00:39:33
which
00:39:34
why should i do something like that
00:39:36
after being married 48 years you know
00:39:41
in any type of criminal activity usually
00:39:43
you can identify pretty much up front
00:39:44
what the motive is it's pretty simple
00:39:47
uh
00:39:50
the problem with this is
00:39:51
you cannot identify the motive you can't
00:39:54
identify the reasons behind the activity
00:39:56
that's going on out there
00:39:58
there seems to be there seems to be a
00:39:59
pattern of activity yes
00:40:01
but what is the underlying reason that
00:40:03
this activity is taking place the other
00:40:05
thing is it's sporadic it's not constant
00:40:08
you'll have months go by with absolutely
00:40:10
nothing happen and then you'll have a
00:40:12
flurry of activity for maybe a period of
00:40:14
a month and then it become it becomes
00:40:16
dormant again
00:40:18
this has thrown us into a quandary
00:40:20
because we can't figure out exactly
00:40:22
what's going on we know what's going on
00:40:25
they're filing the complaints and
00:40:26
they're filing reports we're going out
00:40:28
there but yet we can find nothing
00:40:31
[Music]
00:40:33
in november of 1993 bill and dorothy
00:40:36
took matters into their own hands
00:40:39
with the help of family members the
00:40:41
wackers staked out their own house
00:40:45
bill was holed up in a trailer parked in
00:40:47
the driveway
00:40:49
across the street his sons-in-law dan
00:40:51
and clay watched from a van
00:40:55
clay's wife kathy stayed with dorothy in
00:40:57
the house the family was linked by
00:41:00
walkie-talkie
00:41:02
yeah it's all quiet in here
00:41:06
for almost four hours they waited
00:41:09
around 10 30 p.m they decided to call it
00:41:11
a night
00:41:14
and uh all of a sudden i we heard bum
00:41:16
bum bum bump
00:41:18
[Music]
00:41:19
i said there's something on the front
00:41:20
porch no i can't see anything
00:41:23
[Music]
00:41:24
inevitably perhaps even predictably the
00:41:27
intruder had found a blind spot in the
00:41:29
wackers steakhouse
00:41:32
i never saw it come from anywhere the
00:41:34
scroll was all too familiar the note
00:41:36
read simply
00:41:38
get the message oh my
00:41:39
[Music]
00:41:41
yeah
00:41:42
ah come on let's go in a house
00:41:47
violent assaults
00:41:49
threatening notes
00:41:51
unnerving calls
00:41:52
nearly 10 years of harassment
00:41:55
who is behind the plague on the wacker
00:41:57
household
00:42:01
could it be an embittered neighbor a
00:42:03
family member
00:42:04
a total stranger
00:42:06
the wackers remain as mystified today as
00:42:09
when their troubles first began
00:42:13
the sooner he's caught the better off
00:42:18
a lot of people are going to be
00:42:22
because if he's not harassing us
00:42:25
or threatening us
00:42:27
he'll probably be doing it to somebody
00:42:29
else to get his kicks
00:42:31
i think that's what it boils down to he
00:42:33
gets a heck of a big kick out of it
00:42:36
[Music]
00:42:38
next
00:42:39
authorities need your help to find a
00:42:41
deadly arsonist
00:42:42
[Music]
00:42:55
september 29 1988 arson investigators
00:42:59
sift through the ashes of a burned-out
00:43:01
home in south oakcliff a section of
00:43:03
dallas texas
00:43:09
five children had died as a result of
00:43:11
the fire and the authorities wanted to
00:43:13
know why
00:43:14
[Music]
00:43:17
the house belonged to a woman named
00:43:18
molly jordan
00:43:20
the victims were her great-granddaughter
00:43:22
two-year-old jasmine and four of her
00:43:24
grandchildren jamal 6 erica 9 bernard 16
00:43:28
and 18 year old demetra jasmine's mother
00:43:36
september 28 seemed at first like any
00:43:38
other day in the jordan household
00:43:40
by 3 30 that afternoon the kids were all
00:43:43
home from school
00:43:44
their grandmother molly jordan was about
00:43:46
to leave
00:43:48
molly worked back-to-back eight-hour
00:43:49
shifts as a nurse to support the six
00:43:51
children
00:43:54
molly's jobs would keep her away for
00:43:56
some 16 hours until seven the next
00:43:58
morning but she carried a beeper so the
00:44:00
kids could reach her directly at any
00:44:02
time
00:44:08
around 3 a.m kettering jordan then 10
00:44:10
years old awakened to the sound of his
00:44:12
brother bernard talking to someone
00:44:15
bernard had apparently become deeply
00:44:17
involved with a local drug dealer
00:44:22
i was walking to the refrigerator
00:44:25
and i saw him i saw the drug deal and
00:44:27
bernard talking about
00:44:30
where's my money and bernard said i
00:44:32
don't know what you're talking about
00:44:35
[Music]
00:44:47
the brief exchange left catrick shaken
00:44:49
afraid to go back to his own bedroom
00:44:54
so i went into my sister's room
00:44:56
and i went to bed
00:45:00
it seemed like i didn't sleep that long
00:45:03
but seemed like about five minutes later
00:45:05
he came he was he busted into the door
00:45:08
until my the house was on fire
00:45:12
the house is on fire the house is on
00:45:13
fire everybody got get up the house is
00:45:15
on fire
00:45:18
[Music]
00:45:19
[Applause]
00:45:22
he told me to start busting out windows
00:45:25
and
00:45:25
stuff to try to you know get air coming
00:45:27
through the house because we couldn't go
00:45:29
through the front door
00:45:35
the only hope of escape was through the
00:45:36
windows but the safety releases for the
00:45:39
burglar bars inexplicably jammed and
00:45:41
refused to budge
00:45:43
i saw my sister
00:45:45
erica laying on the bed crying
00:45:48
and i tried to savor it so she can get
00:45:49
air but she was in such a panic
00:45:52
and
00:45:54
then my sister she was busting all the
00:45:56
windows and she cut herself real bad and
00:45:59
she got into a panic
00:46:01
and i looked i looked over to my little
00:46:03
brother jamal
00:46:04
and he was already
00:46:06
dead and i looked over to my
00:46:08
my niece jazz she was already
00:46:12
dead by the time firemen arrived flames
00:46:15
had engulfed much of the house all six
00:46:18
children were trapped
00:46:22
repeated attempts to break down the
00:46:24
front door failed inside a couch had
00:46:26
been propped against the door holding it
00:46:28
closed
00:46:30
[Music]
00:46:36
the burglar bars doomed any chance of a
00:46:38
quick rescue and precious menace
00:46:40
dribbled away as firefighters fought
00:46:42
their way through the iron
00:46:50
ten minutes later the bars gave way
00:46:52
firemen didn't know if anyone was still
00:46:54
alive inside while parts of the house
00:46:57
continued to burn they began searching
00:46:59
for survivors they found kentrick jordan
00:47:01
first
00:47:05
katric was burned over more than 75
00:47:07
percent of his body demetra jordan was
00:47:10
also pulled out alive but she would die
00:47:12
the next day at the hospital
00:47:14
the bodies of the other four children
00:47:16
were found huddled together lifeless at
00:47:19
the foot of the barred window
00:47:25
at that very moment molly jordan was
00:47:27
rushing home from the hospital she had
00:47:29
been called by a relative who said only
00:47:31
the children are all gone
00:47:35
when i got
00:47:36
about a mile or something from the house
00:47:39
one amulet's passed me and they were
00:47:40
just screaming and going
00:47:42
then i started feeling sick in the
00:47:43
stomach then i was thinking well it
00:47:45
didn't have to come from my house
00:47:46
there's a lot of houses up but when i
00:47:48
got within a few blocks it was another
00:47:51
one passed me screaming hollering and i
00:47:53
just got real sick of the stomach
00:47:55
heart with the beating fast and all this
00:47:58
it seemed like i couldn't breathe i
00:48:00
couldn't walk i couldn't stop
00:48:02
i couldn't talk
00:48:04
just everything left my body singing
00:48:09
once the flames were extinguished arson
00:48:11
investigators easily determined that the
00:48:13
deadly fire had been deliberately set
00:48:17
in the main living room we found a
00:48:20
gasoline can that had been there during
00:48:22
the fire and later on during the
00:48:24
investigation we actually did find
00:48:26
samples of flammable liquids that had
00:48:28
been poured on the floor and set on fire
00:48:33
investigators soon pieced together what
00:48:35
they believe are the events that led up
00:48:37
to the fire
00:48:41
the drug people had come to seek payment
00:48:43
from menard want him to come outside
00:48:46
he did not come outside
00:48:49
they set the house on fire to get him to
00:48:51
come outside but unfortunately the whole
00:48:53
family got caught in the burger bars and
00:48:55
didn't come out so we have an act of
00:48:57
arson that resulted in five murders and
00:48:59
one severe injury
00:49:03
police now believe bernard piled up
00:49:04
furniture in a desperate attempt to keep
00:49:06
the assailants out of the house
00:49:08
instead both the couch jammed against
00:49:11
the front door and a love seat wedged
00:49:13
behind the hallway door trapped the
00:49:15
children in the house
00:49:17
the arsonist probably entered through
00:49:19
this window one of two not equipped with
00:49:21
bars
00:49:24
we worked quite hard to try to find who
00:49:26
was responsible for the fire we did come
00:49:30
up with one name
00:49:31
one of the individuals that was
00:49:32
supplying the drugs to
00:49:34
menard his name was curly the nickname
00:49:37
curly
00:49:38
he was a black male about 5 10 in height
00:49:41
made about 160 pounds we never have
00:49:44
found curly or any of his friends but
00:49:46
curly is known to have bragged about
00:49:48
setting the fire
00:49:54
three days after the tragedy some two
00:49:56
thousand people gathered at carver
00:49:58
heights baptist church to mourn the loss
00:50:01
of the five jordan children
00:50:04
in the five years since kentrick jordan
00:50:07
the lone survivor has endured a dozen
00:50:09
operations including the amputation of
00:50:12
both legs
00:50:15
ketrick is now 16
00:50:17
prosthetic limbs have allowed him to
00:50:18
walk again
00:50:20
after the fire an outpouring of
00:50:22
contributions from the community enabled
00:50:24
ketrik and his grandmother to move to a
00:50:26
new home in a different part of dallas
00:50:39
[Music]
00:50:48
do you believe in angels
00:50:50
hear the incredible stories of two women
00:50:52
who believe celestial intervention saved
00:50:54
them from certain death
00:50:57
in california police are searching for
00:50:59
an unknown witness who may have vital
00:51:01
information about the murder of a deputy
00:51:04
sheriff
00:51:06
and two poignant stories of lost love
00:51:08
in one a woman battling a fatal illness
00:51:11
hopes to find her long-lost sister
00:51:14
in the other brenda abby's search for
00:51:16
her birth parents has taken her into the
00:51:18
unfamiliar world of the traveling
00:51:20
carnival
00:51:23
[Music]
00:51:30
do angels dwell among us
00:51:33
more than a thousand years ago saint
00:51:35
augustine wrote that every visible thing
00:51:37
in this world is put in the charge of an
00:51:39
angel
00:51:40
even today most of us hope those words
00:51:43
are true
00:51:46
you're about to meet two women
00:51:48
both of whom are certain that they were
00:51:50
placed in the charge of a guardian angel
00:51:52
just when they needed it most
00:51:54
consider first the case of janie shamow
00:51:57
her story begins in 1976.
00:52:00
janie had just turned 14 when her
00:52:02
brother and sister-in-law took her on a
00:52:04
western vacation
00:52:08
they traveled in a camper with another
00:52:10
family and visited all the usual tourist
00:52:13
attractions
00:52:15
however one stop stands out
00:52:17
in the painted desert something amazing
00:52:19
happened
00:52:20
something jamie who is now 31 will never
00:52:23
forget
00:52:24
[Music]
00:52:26
i had gotten a new camera for the trip
00:52:29
and i was curious to get some good
00:52:32
photographs and
00:52:35
i can remember
00:52:36
leaning up against the guardrail
00:52:38
focusing the camera
00:52:40
and thinking you know if i just got
00:52:42
another side of this guardrail down
00:52:43
there a little bit it would be a much
00:52:45
better photograph
00:52:47
[Music]
00:52:49
as nearly as anyone can figure just at
00:52:51
that same moment janie's mother shirley
00:52:54
who had stayed home in michigan was
00:52:56
sitting down to read her bible as she
00:52:58
did every day
00:53:00
i really felt that i was led by the holy
00:53:03
spirit to read
00:53:04
psalm 91
00:53:08
and i began sobbing just
00:53:10
sobbing because i knew
00:53:12
janie was gonna die
00:53:14
i didn't know why
00:53:16
or how
00:53:18
but i knew she was going to die
00:53:26
she's gone over the edge where where did
00:53:28
she go right over the railing i can't
00:53:30
see her anymore
00:53:31
[Music]
00:53:36
suddenly i just stopped i just stopped
00:53:39
and i can remember thinking
00:53:42
i'm so glad i stopped and
00:53:44
thinking what stopped me
00:53:49
i was afraid i was scared that there was
00:53:51
no way i was going to get back up to the
00:53:53
top
00:53:54
i could not see the top i couldn't hear
00:53:58
my family yelling for me
00:54:02
i knew i had to be very careful or i
00:54:03
would
00:54:05
start falling again
00:54:07
[Music]
00:54:12
as soon as i
00:54:14
uh had this feeling that janey was going
00:54:16
to die i began pleading with the lord
00:54:20
to
00:54:21
please don't let her die
00:54:24
and there will be more than what i could
00:54:26
bear
00:54:28
i
00:54:28
continued to read psalm
00:54:31
91
00:54:32
it said
00:54:34
and he shall give his angels charge over
00:54:36
thee
00:54:37
to keep thee in all thy ways
00:54:40
and they shall bear thee up in their
00:54:42
hands
00:54:43
lest your foot dash against a stone
00:54:47
and then a peace just came over me
00:54:51
because i
00:54:52
believed it
00:54:54
[Music]
00:54:58
janie
00:54:59
alfred it's janie she's bad look jamie
00:55:03
you're all right
00:55:06
oh janie what happened i don't know
00:55:09
i fell a long ways i don't even remember
00:55:10
coming back up oh well at least you're
00:55:12
all right oh no i was afraid i was gonna
00:55:14
have to call i know i did not
00:55:16
climb
00:55:17
up myself
00:55:20
something strange had happened but i
00:55:22
just kind of
00:55:24
was glad i was back up there and
00:55:27
we had talked among ourselves about
00:55:30
calling her mother
00:55:31
and we decided that
00:55:33
she could call her mother but not to say
00:55:36
anything about her fall
00:55:38
mainly because we didn't want to upset
00:55:40
shirley and we were so far away from
00:55:42
home
00:55:44
tell me all about your trip mommy should
00:55:46
have been there and seen all these
00:55:47
things but inevitably once janey was
00:55:49
back home in michigan with her mother
00:55:51
the truth came out
00:55:53
and here's what that looked like and
00:55:54
here's where i stepped over the guard
00:55:56
rail and i fell down the slope you what
00:55:59
well i just wanted to get a better
00:56:00
pitcher so i climbed over the rail and i
00:56:02
slept and i
00:56:04
said what are you talking about
00:56:08
and she said
00:56:10
oh
00:56:11
uh
00:56:12
she wasn't supposed to tell
00:56:14
well when did this happen
00:56:17
when we were in arizona you remember
00:56:19
that night i called to tell you
00:56:20
everything was okay
00:56:22
well it happened that morning
00:56:24
when janie was telling her story
00:56:27
i really realized the whole magnitude
00:56:31
of what had happened
00:56:33
to me
00:56:35
then i knew
00:56:37
that
00:56:38
verses 11 and 12 that the angels should
00:56:41
bear thee up in their hands
00:56:44
lest your foot dash against the stone
00:56:48
that they were the ones that brought her
00:56:50
back to the top
00:56:53
when i heard my mother's story of what
00:56:55
had happened that day and her feelings
00:56:57
that i was going to die
00:56:59
i realized then that it was her prayers
00:57:01
that had sent the angels
00:57:03
that had made me stop and had brought me
00:57:06
to the top of the canyon
00:57:10
how do you explain what happened to
00:57:11
janie shamble
00:57:13
even though janie neither saw nor heard
00:57:15
anything to confirm it she is thoroughly
00:57:17
convinced that she was rescued by an
00:57:19
angel
00:57:21
estella vera riverside california
00:57:23
reports an even more dramatic experience
00:57:26
estella believes not only that an angel
00:57:28
saved her but that she actually saw him
00:57:31
do it
00:57:34
on saturday march 30th 1991 estella and
00:57:37
her two grown children were on their way
00:57:39
home when they spotted an ice cream
00:57:41
truck being robbed
00:57:43
estella's daughter ran to call the
00:57:45
police while her son rushed to help the
00:57:47
ice cream truck owner
00:57:50
he and another man were already
00:57:51
grappling with a large muscle-bound
00:57:59
[Music]
00:58:03
i knew there was absolutely nothing i
00:58:04
could do and i saw my mother in the path
00:58:06
of his van
00:58:13
i knew she was in between the two
00:58:15
so
00:58:17
i think instantly i thought she was
00:58:20
dead estella's left leg had been severed
00:58:23
below the knee and she had suffered
00:58:25
cardiac arrest
00:58:27
at the hospital bingo and his father
00:58:29
kept vigil what did the doctor say
00:58:32
the first time i saw my mother
00:58:35
after the incident i could not recognize
00:58:37
her
00:58:38
her face was
00:58:39
completely swollen
00:58:41
and we were just waiting for any word
00:58:44
whether or not she would even survive
00:58:48
the stellar drifted in and out of
00:58:49
consciousness for the next several days
00:58:52
finally she awoke
00:58:54
he's okay he's right here it's good to
00:58:56
hear your voice mama
00:58:58
did you see the men by the truck
00:59:00
don't worry mama he's in jail
00:59:03
no
00:59:04
the other man
00:59:06
surrounded by light
00:59:08
in front of the truck
00:59:10
was this some dreamer there
00:59:12
no
00:59:14
he was standing by the truck
00:59:17
my father and i looked at each other
00:59:19
kind of puzzled
00:59:21
and possibly looking at her
00:59:23
as if she may have dreamt something
00:59:25
within the time of she was in the
00:59:27
hospital
00:59:30
but estella insisted she had not been
00:59:32
dreaming
00:59:33
the story she tells is truly astonishing
00:59:36
[Music]
00:59:43
all i remember is looking at a truck
00:59:45
coming so fast
00:59:48
and
00:59:51
just with all my heart i say to god god
00:59:55
please don't let me die
00:59:57
and then i started reciting songs that i
01:00:00
know i said the angel of the lord
01:00:04
takes care of those that loves him
01:00:07
then i look again
01:00:09
and the truck is right in front of me
01:00:12
and i could see the robber's face
01:00:16
he looked so angry
01:00:18
you could see those eyes he was
01:00:21
desperate
01:00:22
i look again
01:00:24
and
01:00:25
now
01:00:26
in front of the truck
01:00:28
there is this beautiful person
01:00:33
he looks so peaceful so beautiful he has
01:00:36
the most beautiful smile
01:00:40
you could see him like in slow motion
01:00:46
immediately i forgot about the ice cream
01:00:49
truck i forgot about everything that was
01:00:52
happening
01:00:53
all i remember was this beautiful face
01:00:57
and then i grabbed his hand
01:01:01
i put my face over his hand and i would
01:01:04
go like this
01:01:06
and i remember a couple of times i
01:01:08
opened my eyes to look at his face to be
01:01:11
sure that he was there and i could see
01:01:14
him right over here looking at me with a
01:01:16
big smile
01:01:18
i believed her she was very sincere very
01:01:20
excited
01:01:22
very sure of the fact that she the angel
01:01:24
was there
01:01:28
i felt
01:01:29
possibly a little
01:01:31
doubtful myself
01:01:33
because nobody else saw anything
01:01:36
but
01:01:37
you can see it in her eyes that it was
01:01:39
true
01:01:41
i cannot
01:01:43
really explain this beautiful experience
01:01:46
i have no doubt in my heart that god
01:01:48
sent an angel to save me
01:01:51
i asked everyone if they saw this
01:01:53
beautiful person
01:01:55
pulling me to the side and helping me
01:01:57
nobody knew what i was talking about
01:02:02
but i knew that it was true
01:02:04
that god sent an angel to save me
01:02:06
[Music]
01:02:07
[Applause]
01:02:14
remarkably estellavera feels no
01:02:16
bitterness about the accident and with
01:02:18
the aid of a prosthesis estella has
01:02:20
already been able to walk again
01:02:23
are there angels among us
01:02:25
no matter what anyone else may think
01:02:27
estela vera firmly believes she is alive
01:02:30
today
01:02:30
because she was visited by a guardian
01:02:32
angel
01:02:36
when we return
01:02:38
a woman fighting a deadly disease needs
01:02:40
your help to find her long-lost sister
01:02:43
and police believe a mystery witness
01:02:45
holds the key to identifying a
01:02:47
cold-blooded killer
01:02:51
[Music]
01:03:00
for diane handline of block crescent of
01:03:02
california every day is a race against
01:03:04
time
01:03:07
the rare and often fatal blood disease
01:03:09
she has been fighting since 1986 has
01:03:11
finally reached the crisis point
01:03:15
hello diane how are you doing hi doc
01:03:18
this procedure is going to take about
01:03:20
five or ten minutes you may be a little
01:03:22
uncomfortable uh before the biopsy is
01:03:24
done
01:03:25
how uncomfortable
01:03:27
it's going to hurt but it won't take
01:03:28
long
01:03:29
diane has a relatively unusual blood
01:03:32
disorder normally
01:03:34
considered to be an incurable illness
01:03:36
now potentially
01:03:38
could be cured
01:03:40
by the utilization of a bone marrow
01:03:42
transplantation
01:03:44
fraught with a lot of dangers though a
01:03:45
lot of potential complications so not
01:03:48
not something to be taken lightly
01:03:52
in all the world this woman diane's
01:03:54
younger sister marilyn is the only
01:03:56
potential bone marrow donor who offers
01:03:59
any chance of success
01:04:01
but diane has no idea where marilyn is
01:04:03
today
01:04:04
she hasn't even talked to her sister in
01:04:06
more than 20 years
01:04:09
i feel i'm asking a lot of my sister to
01:04:11
do this bone marrow for me but even if
01:04:14
she doesn't agree to a transplant if she
01:04:17
doesn't says i don't want to do this i
01:04:19
would still like to make peace with her
01:04:22
she's my sister
01:04:27
diane is three years older than maryland
01:04:30
they grew up in los angeles during the
01:04:32
1940s
01:04:35
we were post-war babies and we came from
01:04:37
a lot of property there wasn't any money
01:04:40
and our mother and father had to work
01:04:41
you know a lot of long hours
01:04:44
we were like most children we fought and
01:04:46
bickered and
01:04:48
didn't want to do the housework
01:04:50
you know you do that no you do that and
01:04:52
i don't think it hurt us but i think
01:04:54
that it she resented that
01:04:58
all right
01:05:00
come on baby let's go okay
01:05:02
diane and marilyn's parents separated in
01:05:04
1954
01:05:06
yeah ready i'm ready
01:05:09
ultimately marilyn went to live with her
01:05:11
father
01:05:12
bye bye
01:05:14
[Music]
01:05:18
girl after my sister moved in with my
01:05:20
dad i saw my sister maybe like once a
01:05:23
month
01:05:25
but as time went on it became more
01:05:26
infrequent
01:05:28
and
01:05:29
i just think because she went with dad
01:05:31
and i went with mom that we
01:05:33
we separated i mean we just lost our we
01:05:36
didn't do our activities or anything
01:05:37
together anymore
01:05:43
years passed with little contact
01:05:46
in 1965 diane visited her sister at the
01:05:49
restaurant where she worked place never
01:05:51
stops
01:05:52
tits are okay though so how you doing
01:05:55
well
01:05:56
met a new guy yeah
01:05:58
marilyn said she was in love she planned
01:06:01
to marry a man who had several children
01:06:03
from a previous marriage
01:06:05
yeah
01:06:06
crazy about him
01:06:11
neither sister realized the brief visit
01:06:14
would be the last time they would see
01:06:15
each other face to face
01:06:18
eight years later they did speak briefly
01:06:20
on the phone michael marilyn told diane
01:06:23
that she had a little boy named billy
01:06:25
joe
01:06:25
billy joe
01:06:27
it's good
01:06:28
the sisters talked about getting
01:06:30
together but time drifted by and they
01:06:32
never spoke again
01:06:35
bye-bye
01:06:41
in january of 1994 diane hired private
01:06:44
investigator marilyn gannell to find her
01:06:46
sister
01:06:48
well it's like a needle in a haystack
01:06:50
because without a name you have nothing
01:06:52
to pin your investigation on
01:06:55
we have tried certain things with the
01:06:58
use of her maiden name and her first
01:07:00
married name
01:07:02
and of course her maiden name is jones
01:07:04
which makes it extremely difficult
01:07:06
there's no paucity of jones available
01:07:10
hello how are you fine how are you
01:07:12
doctor pretty good with every passing
01:07:14
day diane's treatments become less and
01:07:16
less effective
01:07:18
yes
01:07:19
her search more and more vital in the
01:07:22
morning
01:07:23
any bleeding easy bruising
01:07:26
i'm having more bruising now
01:07:28
diane is a an unusual person she has a
01:07:31
very strong will
01:07:33
she's very optimistic
01:07:35
she's really
01:07:36
so to speak already beaten the odds by
01:07:38
getting this far
01:07:40
i think i'm still here
01:07:42
after all these years is because i don't
01:07:45
think that my life should be over with
01:07:47
yet you know i have a i had a daughter
01:07:49
to finish raising
01:07:50
to go to college
01:07:52
and i'd like to see her get married and
01:07:54
have babies and i just don't feel like
01:07:56
checking out of here yet but i think i'm
01:07:57
going to pretty soon if i don't do
01:07:59
something fast
01:08:02
when we broadcast diane's story a
01:08:04
private investigator from denver
01:08:06
colorado robin lee was watching
01:08:08
she was touched by diane's plight but
01:08:10
assumed we would get the clues we needed
01:08:12
we didn't
01:08:14
as luck would have it robin was also
01:08:15
watching when the segment re-ran in june
01:08:18
this time she decided to volunteer her
01:08:20
help in tracking marilyn down
01:08:22
the result was one of our most unusual
01:08:25
solves ever
01:08:26
i contacted the show
01:08:28
got a little more information
01:08:31
started out with the sister's name
01:08:33
marilyn jones was her maiden name
01:08:35
started with that and a date of birth
01:08:37
and went on from there
01:08:40
and it took me about three days to find
01:08:42
her three working days if you don't
01:08:43
count the fourth of july holiday
01:08:45
in between
01:08:47
and i think it's great that they're back
01:08:49
together
01:08:49
[Music]
01:08:51
on august 13 1994 marilyn and diane met
01:08:55
face to face for the first time in 30
01:08:57
years
01:08:58
[Music]
01:09:01
it's so good to see you
01:09:04
once we hugged it was like it hadn't
01:09:07
been 30 years it had been
01:09:09
you know just a short time
01:09:12
i
01:09:14
i guess maybe that's why i feel
01:09:15
comfortable is because
01:09:16
i can feel the love
01:09:19
and when you feel that love you feel
01:09:20
comfortable get over you haven't changed
01:09:22
a bit oh no
01:09:23
[Laughter]
01:09:25
no i'm just i get cuter with ages
01:09:28
yes you do i think i'm still in shock
01:09:31
you know it's still like i you know i'm
01:09:32
not here yet it's just it's just a dream
01:09:35
you know but it's it's a great dream and
01:09:38
we have a lot of catching up to do and i
01:09:40
will be together forever now
01:09:42
we're gonna have a lot of fun together
01:09:44
enjoy the time we have
01:09:48
that beautiful
01:09:50
coincidentally the day of the reunion
01:09:52
was diane's 53rd birthday
01:09:54
and marilyn had not forgotten
01:09:58
is my name is spelled right
01:10:05
this is the best gift i've ever had in
01:10:07
my whole life this is the best gift ever
01:10:10
is to have my sister and to have my
01:10:12
family
01:10:13
for my birthday
01:10:15
it'll be the best birthday i've ever had
01:10:16
my whole life
01:10:19
we drive 60 miles to go on the day of
01:10:22
the reunion marilla's fondest wish was
01:10:24
to prove a compatible bone marrow donor
01:10:27
for her sister
01:10:28
drive to go to the movies out to the
01:10:30
movies we have to go all the way to
01:10:31
canada
01:10:32
[Laughter]
01:10:35
i want more than anything to have this
01:10:37
work with diane
01:10:40
but even if it doesn't we're going to
01:10:43
take full advantage of
01:10:45
however long
01:10:47
we do have together
01:10:49
we can make a week seem like an eternity
01:10:53
[Music]
01:10:59
as it turned out a series of tests
01:11:00
showed maryland's bone marrow would not
01:11:02
work for diane
01:11:03
but there is a ray of hope
01:11:05
doctors are now moving on to a new
01:11:07
experimental therapy for diane's blood
01:11:09
disorder
01:11:10
in the meantime she and marilyn are
01:11:12
making the most of their precious newly
01:11:14
kindled relationship
01:11:16
[Music]
01:11:29
january 24 1987 a deputy sheriff named
01:11:33
charlie anderson was gunned down on his
01:11:34
burbank california home
01:11:37
the next day an anonymous witness phoned
01:11:39
the burbank police claiming to know the
01:11:41
identity of the killer
01:11:42
but the caller obviously nervous hung up
01:11:45
before revealing any information he
01:11:47
never called back
01:11:49
authorities hope that tonight seven
01:11:51
years later this mystery witness will
01:11:53
finally come forward and solve the
01:11:55
murder of charlie anderson
01:12:00
charlie anderson was a 14-year veteran
01:12:02
of the los angeles county sheriff's
01:12:04
department
01:12:08
he distinguished himself as a highly
01:12:10
skilled driver teaching hundreds of
01:12:12
officers how to handle themselves and
01:12:14
their vehicles in dangerous situations
01:12:17
[Applause]
01:12:18
charlie was probably one of the most
01:12:21
talented drivers that i've ever met
01:12:24
it was a natural town for him
01:12:28
charlie was able to get along with
01:12:29
everybody
01:12:30
he um
01:12:31
was serious on the job made a good sense
01:12:33
of humor when he was around
01:12:35
the rest of the staff
01:12:39
by all accounts charlie anderson was
01:12:41
also a dedicated father never too busy
01:12:44
to spend evenings and weekends with his
01:12:46
two sons
01:12:47
charlie didn't seem to have an enemy in
01:12:49
the world
01:12:50
until the early hours of january 24th
01:12:53
1987.
01:12:57
charlie's wife beth told police that
01:12:59
around midnight she charlie and their
01:13:01
two young sons return home from a visit
01:13:04
to her parents
01:13:05
[Music]
01:13:08
oh yeah well i'll go ahead and bring him
01:13:10
upstairs and then i'll come back for you
01:13:11
and maybe okay thanks
01:13:14
they arrived home
01:13:15
and because mrs anderson was suffering
01:13:17
from a back injury
01:13:19
her husband offered to go inside the
01:13:21
house with her oldest boy first
01:13:24
he asked her to wait in the car
01:13:26
and she did so
01:13:28
charlie anderson went in the house
01:13:31
with the oldest son
01:13:33
and we believe took him upstairs
01:13:37
a few moments later mrs anderson heard
01:13:39
what sounded like backfires from where
01:13:42
she was parked in the driveway she was
01:13:43
still seated in the car
01:13:47
because the sound was unusual she walked
01:13:49
to the house and called in to see if
01:13:50
there was anything wrong
01:13:52
[Music]
01:13:58
charlie
01:14:00
[Music]
01:14:04
charlie
01:14:07
[Music]
01:14:09
honey are you up here
01:14:14
charlie
01:14:16
honey
01:14:17
charlie can you hear me
01:14:18
[Music]
01:14:23
she ran downstairs
01:14:25
picked up her younger son
01:14:27
and random next door neighbor's house
01:14:28
[Music]
01:14:38
initially the detectives believe that it
01:14:40
was the house was being burglarized and
01:14:42
that mr anderson had interrupted the
01:14:44
burglary and it confronted the suspects
01:14:49
one of the things that was not
01:14:50
consistent with the burglary was the
01:14:52
suspect had very carefully moved items
01:14:55
normally in a burglary these suspects or
01:14:58
the burglars are working very quickly
01:15:00
they'll pull out a drawer and dump the
01:15:01
entire drawer just to examine all the
01:15:03
contents at once
01:15:04
what
01:15:05
the investigators found was that
01:15:08
the drawers had been either pulled out
01:15:10
partially or carefully pulled out and
01:15:12
maybe one item removed
01:15:14
and when they felt that that was
01:15:16
inconsistent with most burglary scenes
01:15:18
that they had seen
01:15:22
there were other telltale signs that the
01:15:24
burglary had been staged
01:15:26
[Music]
01:15:29
while they had selected certain items
01:15:31
and placed them together to be taken
01:15:33
from the house
01:15:34
they had overlooked other items that
01:15:36
were much more valuable that were in
01:15:37
plain sight
01:15:39
this led to a second theory that this
01:15:41
might have been someone that
01:15:43
perhaps knew deputy anderson that
01:15:45
confronted him shot him
01:15:49
charlie's sister trish believes that is
01:15:51
exactly what happened
01:15:52
she was at the scene that night called
01:15:54
by a neighbor
01:15:56
but what really surprised me was the
01:15:58
look on his face
01:16:00
he had to look
01:16:01
a wide-eyed look as if he'd been shocked
01:16:05
or betrayed
01:16:07
it's something that
01:16:08
lingers with me today
01:16:12
was charlie anderson ambushed by someone
01:16:14
he knew
01:16:15
someone who dressed up a cold-blooded
01:16:17
murder to look like a random burglary
01:16:19
gone wrong
01:16:21
in the end evidence that the crime scene
01:16:23
was ambiguous
01:16:25
the only identifiable fingerprints were
01:16:27
all from members of the family
01:16:30
police were left with a murder victim
01:16:32
and virtually no leads
01:16:33
until the mysterious phone call one day
01:16:36
later
01:16:37
what you were about to hear is a
01:16:38
reenactment of that conversation taken
01:16:41
directly from police transcripts
01:16:44
burbank police department may help you
01:16:46
uh yes may i speak to the officer in
01:16:48
charge please uh sure we're regarding
01:16:51
what type of incident
01:16:52
this is some
01:16:54
information that might lead to the
01:16:56
killer that uh shot the deputy sheriff
01:17:00
okay wait a minute hang on just a second
01:17:03
at that time the investigator handling
01:17:06
the case was in the station
01:17:08
and he was called to the dispatch area
01:17:11
so he could speak with the person that
01:17:12
had called in
01:17:13
i know who did the shooting okay the
01:17:16
watch commander's on his way down here
01:17:18
to answer the phone okay i can't wait
01:17:20
too long
01:17:21
okay here's the detective handling the
01:17:23
case right now hang on just a second
01:17:26
hi there
01:17:27
what can i do for you is this being
01:17:28
recorded yes it is i i can't speak to
01:17:32
you if this is recorded okay why don't i
01:17:34
give you the number of my office where
01:17:36
it is not recorded i'm not gonna lie to
01:17:38
you okay i don't like recordings the man
01:17:40
on the line was very very nervous he was
01:17:42
very concerned about his voice being
01:17:43
taped about him being the call being
01:17:46
traced or in any way
01:17:48
the police identifying who he was
01:17:50
i'm not playing around
01:17:52
the call could not be routed to an
01:17:54
unrecorded line
01:17:55
the detective had to ask the witness to
01:17:57
hang up and call again okay well as i
01:18:00
said you're gonna have to give me about
01:18:01
two minutes to get back to my office all
01:18:03
right okay the man readily agreed
01:18:06
but the phone call never came
01:18:13
on january 31st 1987 charlie anderson
01:18:17
was laid to rest with a full honors
01:18:19
reserve for officers killed in the line
01:18:21
of duty
01:18:22
since then lack of evidence has dragged
01:18:24
the investigation to a standstill
01:18:28
seven years after the murder of charlie
01:18:30
anderson authorities are still searching
01:18:32
for the unidentified caller
01:18:39
we feel it's very very important to
01:18:40
locate this caller
01:18:42
because he was concerned enough to call
01:18:44
us right at the beginning of the
01:18:45
investigation he has never been
01:18:47
identified and we're very very
01:18:49
interested in speaking to him to find
01:18:51
out what he does know about this case
01:18:53
[Music]
01:19:07
next a woman's search for her birth
01:19:09
parents draws her into the exotic world
01:19:11
of the traveling carnival
01:19:13
[Music]
01:19:23
for most of us a night at the carnival
01:19:26
offers thrills chills and an
01:19:28
old-fashioned good time
01:19:29
[Music]
01:19:32
but for brenda abbey a 45 year old
01:19:34
mother of three from chester virginia
01:19:36
this frenzied magic promises much more
01:19:39
the solution to her own personal
01:19:42
unsolved mystery
01:19:45
brenda was adopted as an infant she
01:19:47
knows little about her biological
01:19:49
parents except their names and that they
01:19:51
worked for the settlement and wilson
01:19:53
traveling carnival almost 50 years ago
01:19:57
every time i hear over the news that
01:19:59
there's a carnival
01:20:00
i will go
01:20:02
and i go up to every booth
01:20:05
every concession
01:20:07
i go up to every person that's employed
01:20:09
by that carnival and i look
01:20:12
at them just to see if i can find
01:20:13
somebody that looks like me
01:20:16
in april of 1949 brenda was adopted by
01:20:20
sulein and thelma ziemer of petersburg
01:20:22
virginia
01:20:24
when she was 16 brenda found out that
01:20:26
her birth parents had been with a
01:20:28
settlement and wilson carnival
01:20:31
in 1983 brenda developed a serious
01:20:34
health problem
01:20:35
because of her acute need for a family
01:20:37
medical history virginia officials
01:20:39
released a copy of brenda's birth
01:20:41
certificate
01:20:42
[Music]
01:20:44
her biological parents were elizabeth
01:20:46
hansen and walter dean perry
01:20:49
brenda was stunned to learn she had two
01:20:51
siblings
01:20:52
but for brenda's search the most
01:20:54
important clue was her birth father's
01:20:56
occupation
01:20:58
my father was a representative of the
01:21:00
[ __ ] review
01:21:02
[Music]
01:21:04
possibly my father was a barker where he
01:21:07
goes out there and he tries to get
01:21:08
people to come in to see the
01:21:10
midgets in their show tonight you're
01:21:12
gonna regret it tomorrow this show
01:21:14
starts the pieces of the puzzle were
01:21:15
falling into place
01:21:18
brenda set out to find everything she
01:21:19
could on the settlin at wilson carnival
01:21:24
i looked in the newspapers
01:21:26
back in 1948
01:21:29
and i did come across the announcements
01:21:31
of setlin and wilson
01:21:33
and i found a group of midgets that were
01:21:36
called singers midgets
01:21:38
and i know the whole library heard me
01:21:40
because i said i found them i found them
01:21:43
[Music]
01:21:45
finally brenda abbey had a tangible clue
01:21:48
that led straight to the carnival
01:21:50
circuit
01:21:51
last month we joined brenda in virginia
01:21:53
to experience her search hand
01:21:56
the excitement of each promising lead
01:21:58
and the heartache of near misses and
01:22:00
dead ends
01:22:03
how long have you been he went to
01:22:04
carnival
01:22:06
[Music]
01:22:07
brenda visits every carnival that passes
01:22:09
within 200 miles of her hometown
01:22:12
are they with the carnival nope no
01:22:15
nobody is but me i'm the black sheep
01:22:18
old-timers like joe stevenson a 60-year
01:22:21
veteran of the carnival offer rare
01:22:23
glimpses into a strange and exotic world
01:22:25
that's right uh do you have to remember
01:22:28
if this woman had been pregnant at the
01:22:29
time we made a language
01:22:32
like just vowels switched around
01:22:35
like you got here light lives light
01:22:38
kia zambra camera joe g.o g zone
01:22:43
i could say leo zuki is that d is that
01:22:45
me as ann you don't know what i'm
01:22:47
speaking i said look at that man
01:22:49
we're speaking what is known as connie
01:22:52
well i worked as uh sometimes as the
01:22:55
alligator girl i worked as the world's
01:22:57
strangest mother
01:23:00
and i had to go up on a stage and talk
01:23:02
to the public
01:23:04
a lot of them had to live in wagons
01:23:06
underneath wagons and things like that
01:23:08
in the old days
01:23:10
they don't do that today but they used
01:23:12
to have to do it
01:23:14
because they didn't make enough
01:23:16
hopefully i'm going to ring a bell one
01:23:18
day with one of these people and they're
01:23:20
going to know my parents
01:23:23
simply by
01:23:24
what i tell them about the
01:23:26
[ __ ] review they might remember
01:23:29
somebody
01:23:30
but this is what i do i keep hoping that
01:23:32
somebody in the carnival that's old
01:23:34
enough to remember will remember
01:23:38
they're the original singer midgets yeah
01:23:40
before chess calls yeah i remember him
01:23:43
he was the tuba player in the band
01:23:46
they had the smallest [ __ ] in the
01:23:48
world what was her name remember
01:23:50
they never bought out on the front they
01:23:52
paid that extra yeah
01:23:53
she's right there that was margie mom
01:23:55
got margie
01:23:57
that's you
01:23:58
this is the group i'll tell you about
01:24:00
that had to cook uh-huh and she
01:24:02
remembered the lady's name like i do but
01:24:04
the only thing we know for a brief
01:24:06
instant brenda thought joe and the
01:24:08
others had actually known her birth
01:24:10
mother
01:24:12
well
01:24:13
was she
01:24:14
20
01:24:15
four no more she's a young second woman
01:24:17
then wasn't she
01:24:19
she was just old lady he doesn't feel
01:24:21
that she could have been my mother
01:24:23
because her age would have made her he
01:24:24
said he was just joking said two
01:24:26
thousand years old by now so it
01:24:28
definitely could not have been my mother
01:24:29
my mother was supposedly 24
01:24:32
when she had me
01:24:34
so
01:24:35
but joe said that
01:24:37
quite possibly it might be
01:24:39
mamalee's daughter
01:24:42
but there again who knows when it's
01:24:44
another avenue i'll have to travel
01:24:49
it was a singer's
01:24:51
first what year were you born that would
01:24:53
have been
01:24:55
okay 1949
01:24:58
brenda did uncover one exciting lead
01:25:01
the phone number for a man named ward
01:25:03
hall a prominent booking agent for east
01:25:06
coast carnival side shows
01:25:08
we were there when brenda called him
01:25:12
ward hall knew carnival people going
01:25:15
back some 50 years
01:25:16
but he had never heard of brenda's birth
01:25:18
parents
01:25:21
i really thought he was my answer i
01:25:23
really did i had a lot of faith in that
01:25:25
phone call
01:25:27
and i'm a little disappointed
01:25:29
i really am not because he couldn't give
01:25:31
me the answer i wanted
01:25:33
but just because he didn't have it
01:25:36
we're going over to the department of
01:25:38
social services uh
01:25:41
in richmond
01:25:42
and over there they have uh
01:25:46
identifying information
01:25:48
the
01:25:49
just before we traveled to virginia a
01:25:51
judge had granted brenda access to her
01:25:54
sealed adoption papers
01:25:57
we were not allowed to film in the
01:25:59
archives but our cameras were on hand
01:26:01
when brenda emerged
01:26:03
the documents finally revealed where her
01:26:05
birth parents had gone after the
01:26:07
adoption
01:26:08
i got it
01:26:10
alaska
01:26:12
and it's all the identifying information
01:26:14
building
01:26:15
everything
01:26:19
and there's two different names
01:26:21
[Music]
01:26:23
i've got a w.l parry then i have a wd
01:26:26
pairing
01:26:27
they said it could be a typographical
01:26:29
era but maybe not
01:26:31
they're just not sure
01:26:35
[Music]
01:26:39
despite the information in the adoption
01:26:41
records it turns out that the settlement
01:26:43
and wilson carnival never once traveled
01:26:45
to alaska
01:26:47
nor has brenda found any evidence that
01:26:49
her biological parents moved to alaska
01:26:52
on their own
01:26:54
perhaps the next carnival will yield the
01:26:56
clue that finally leads brenda to her
01:26:58
birth parents
01:27:02
i want to find my parents and my
01:27:04
siblings
01:27:06
more than anything in the world
01:27:09
i want to tell my mother before she dies
01:27:13
i don't think she did anything wrong
01:27:17
i think she did what she had to do
01:27:20
and i really can understand it
01:27:22
i have a heart big enough to understand
01:27:24
that
01:27:27
[Music]
01:27:30
update during a search has spanned 30
01:27:32
years brenda talked with countless
01:27:34
old-timers are they with the carnival
01:27:37
nope no
01:27:39
each had a story to tell and some even
01:27:41
offered suggestions but not one claimed
01:27:44
to know elizabeth hansen or walter perry
01:27:46
[Music]
01:27:48
inevitably as each carnival was packing
01:27:50
up and hitting the road brenda abbey was
01:27:53
left behind no closer to finding her
01:27:55
birth parents
01:27:58
it seems she might finally be out of
01:28:00
options until the night of our broadcast
01:28:04
[Music]
01:28:07
the response was far greater than even
01:28:09
brenda had hoped for
01:28:11
not only did her birth mother call our
01:28:13
phone center but so did a sister and a
01:28:15
brother then another sister
01:28:18
additional calls were logged in from
01:28:20
friends of still more siblings
01:28:25
brenda abbey was saddened to learn that
01:28:26
her birth father had died in 1959
01:28:30
but she was thrilled to discover a total
01:28:31
of 11 brothers and sisters
01:28:34
one of them martha oak of saint claire
01:28:36
shores michigan hosted a reunion in
01:28:38
august of 1994.
01:28:40
although brenda's birth mother was
01:28:42
unable to attend brenda finally met four
01:28:44
of her long-lost brothers and sisters
01:28:46
face to face
01:28:51
[Music]
01:28:53
as hostess for the celebration martha
01:28:56
was the first to welcome brenda
01:28:58
hi brandon
01:29:03
a brother thomas chillock flew in from
01:29:06
louisiana 1 000 miles away
01:29:13
another sister susan donner came in from
01:29:16
port clinton ohio
01:29:19
[Music]
01:29:24
brenda's brother frank smith grew up in
01:29:26
greenwood mississippi like brenda he
01:29:29
never imagined he had so many siblings
01:29:31
[Music]
01:29:33
i did my own search
01:29:36
and kept running into dead ends and
01:29:39
finally gave up and uh
01:29:42
when i found out about this it was
01:29:43
incredible
01:29:45
it's amazing it's unbelievable
01:29:47
totally unbelievable
01:29:49
it's funny to actually walk up to people
01:29:51
and
01:29:52
touch their skin and know that they're
01:29:55
related
01:29:57
the get-together in michigan promises to
01:29:59
be just the first of many and and
01:30:06
plans are already underway for the next
01:30:08
reunion
01:30:10
these are my flesh and blood and it's
01:30:12
something nobody can take away from me
01:30:14
that's right
01:30:15
and it's such a great feeling
01:30:19
it was worth
01:30:20
the 30 years
01:30:22
that it took me to do this
01:30:25
[Music]
01:30:48
in just a few weeks an exciting new
01:30:50
season of unsolved mysteries will begin
01:30:53
here's a sampling
01:30:56
in the late 1960s thousands of curiosity
01:30:59
seekers flocked to see the iceman was it
01:31:02
a hoax or perhaps a prehistoric cousin
01:31:05
of man
01:31:07
novelist agatha christie was a queen of
01:31:09
mystery but how many of us know that in
01:31:12
1926 agatha took center stage in her own
01:31:16
real-life mystery
01:31:19
twenty-one-year-old tommy burkett died
01:31:21
in 1991 an apparent suicide
01:31:24
now his parents have pieced together a
01:31:26
shocking scenario of murder and intrigue
01:31:30
from the realm of the unexplained
01:31:32
a bold of lightning sends a young man on
01:31:35
an incredible journey to the brink of
01:31:37
death and back
01:31:40
and follow a team of real-life
01:31:41
ghostbusters as they track down an
01:31:43
elusive spirit at a haunted hotel in
01:31:46
santa fe new mexico
01:31:47
[Music]
01:31:49
join me starting later in september for
01:31:52
four special sunday broadcasts
01:31:54
and then in october during our new time
01:31:57
period fridays at 8.
01:32:02
[Music]
01:32:25
[Applause]
01:32:29
[Music]
01:32:47
you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 75
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most emotional
  • 65
    Most heartwarming
  • 60
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • The Search for Bigfoot
    A team of researchers investigates the existence of Bigfoot, fueled by eyewitness accounts.
    “Many people believe that the untamed forests harbor a mysterious creature known as Bigfoot.”
    @ 00m 32s
    May 23, 2019
  • Eyewitness Accounts
    Witnesses share their chilling encounters with Bigfoot, adding to the legend.
    “I was scared and I wanted to get out of there.”
    @ 11m 23s
    May 23, 2019
  • Christine's Quest for Craig
    Christine Reinhart embarks on a relentless search for her missing husband, Craig.
    “Today Christine's search for her husband has become an all-consuming quest.”
    @ 15m 38s
    May 23, 2019
  • Christine's Relentless Quest
    Christine vows to search for her loved one until the end, embodying hope and determination.
    “I can't give up, I will never give up.”
    @ 25m 15s
    May 23, 2019
  • Fugitive Captured
    David Vieira, a fugitive wanted for murder, is apprehended thanks to viewer tips.
    “I couldn't believe it took less than 48 hours to apprehend him.”
    @ 29m 30s
    May 23, 2019
  • The Wacker's Ongoing Nightmare
    Dorothy and Bill Wacker face nearly a decade of harassment from an unseen enemy.
    “Why should we be forced out by a kook?”
    @ 31m 45s
    May 23, 2019
  • Ketrick's Journey
    After enduring numerous operations, Ketrick, now 16, walks again with prosthetic limbs.
    “Prosthetic limbs have allowed him to walk again.”
    @ 50m 17s
    May 23, 2019
  • Angelic Interventions
    Two women share incredible stories of how they believe angels saved their lives.
    “Do you believe in angels?”
    @ 50m 48s
    May 23, 2019
  • A Mother's Intuition
    Shirley sobs as she feels her daughter Janie is in danger, leading to a miraculous moment.
    “I knew she was gonna die.”
    @ 53m 12s
    May 23, 2019
  • A Miraculous Reunion
    Diane and Marilyn reunite after 30 years apart, bringing joy and hope.
    “It’s so good to see you.”
    @ 01h 09m 04s
    May 23, 2019
  • Brenda's Emotional Search
    Brenda Abbey embarks on a decades-long quest to find her birth parents and siblings.
    “I want to find my parents and my siblings more than anything in the world”
    @ 01h 27m 02s
    May 23, 2019
  • Family Reunion
    After years of searching, Brenda finally meets her siblings, discovering a total of 11.
    “These are my flesh and blood and it’s something nobody can take away from me”
    @ 01h 30m 12s
    May 23, 2019

Episode Quotes

  • I was scared and I wanted to get out of there.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode
  • I knew that was Craig.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode
  • He gets a heck of a big kick out of it.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode
  • I really felt that I was led by the holy spirit to read psalm 91.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode
  • This is the best gift I've ever had in my whole life.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode
  • I want to find my parents and my siblings more than anything in the world.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 6, Episode 23 - Full Episode

Key Moments

  • Unsolved Mysteries00:04
  • Bigfoot Legend00:36
  • Witness Testimonies06:54
  • Violent Assault28:41
  • Community Support50:20
  • Life-Saving Encounter1:01:48
  • Sisterly Reunion1:08:55
  • 30-Year Journey1:30:20

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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