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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 on unsolved mysteries san
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quentin prison
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once you enter it is unlikely you will
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leave
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the convicted murderer mark adams
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fashioned an improbable escape
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you may be able to help catch him
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the story of a young housewife who
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vanished from her home in gothenburg
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nebraska
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her husband wants her back but he must
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answer allegations that he
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is the one responsible for her
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disappearance
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stephen cox was a small town hero
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handsome
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popular successful stephen cox may also
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have been a con man
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who built over three million dollars out
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of his unsuspecting neighbors
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the people of medford oregon want their
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money back
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[Music]
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a young housewife who disappeared a
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local hero turned back
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an escaped convict three people whose
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fate remains a question mark
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perhaps tonight we'll find some answers
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also a special appeal from the police in
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philadelphia
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who will ask for your help in tracking
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down a murder join me
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you may be able to help solve a mystery
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[Music]
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the town of gothenburg is located in the
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heart of nebraska's farm belt
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there is a strong sense of community
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among its three thousand inhabitants
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and when a neighbor is in trouble it
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becomes everybody's business
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on december 11th 1987 a housewife named
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christy nichol
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vanished her disappearance turned into a
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controversy that continues to this day
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christy married mark nichols when she
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was 19.
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soon after their marriage a daughter was
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born
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and in april of 1986 a son
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those who knew christie well felt her
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life centered around her family
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christy was a very good student and
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nice looking girl and people liked her
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but
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she always had kind of a negative
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self-image and i think
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christy never felt she did anything
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until she had her children
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and there was something she could look
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at and say hey i did this pretty well
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nobody can do this any better because
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she was just so proud of her children
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she
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she loved him i would have never thought
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that christy would
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would run away she never she would have
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never left her children i
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would have never believed that
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christie's husband mark nichols works at
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a local gas station
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he was the last person to see her alive
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there are rumors in gothenburg that say
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he is responsible for her disappearance
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people in small towns they talk a lot
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and a lot of these rumors tend to get
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pretty vicious
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there's been a couple rumors that i'd
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chopped her
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up and put her in garbage bags and
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buried her at the dump
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that's one of the first ones i heard and
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that one
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really got to me because i guess they
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were actually up there digging
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digging around mark nichols claims he is
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innocent of all wrongdoing
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he wants his wife to come home but until
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christy returns to gothenburg he remains
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under a cloud of suspicion
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the police investigation of this case
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has raised some disturbing questions
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about the events surrounding his wife's
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disappearance
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since christie vanished 11 months ago no
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one
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family members or friends have had any
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contact with her for this reason
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the nebraska state patrol has been
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called in
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officer terry aarons is in charge of the
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case
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as the investigation has proceeded it's
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starting to look more and more like a
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foul play situation there's just a lot
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of things
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that aren't ringing true that
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don't appear like your normal missing
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person situation
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police began to uncover evidence the
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nichols marriage was in trouble
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mark could you just wait out here they
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learned that christie had been seeing
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another man
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ten days before her disappearance she
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had gone to a local hospital for
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treatment of an injury she received
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during a fight with
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the marks and it doesn't look like your
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thumb is broken
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however it's the only bad fight i can
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remember
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is when i was trying to get her to stay
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home
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from going out and she was getting so
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upset
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at me she started to try to
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hit and kick me and that's when she
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burned the side of my neck with a
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cigarette she was holding
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and i tossed her onto the water bed
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and she landed wrong and kind of twisted
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up her thumb
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underneath her finger tonight i saw
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christy on the friday after thanksgiving
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she came to the emergency room
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complaining of a sore thumb
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she was acting like a scared rabbit if
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you will
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she's never been one for great eye
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contact or
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been very verbal she obviously wasn't
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telling me everything either
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mark was in the hallway nearby
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and i couldn't looking back really tell
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if
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it was reassuring for her to have mark
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there or not
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[Music]
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christy also told her cousin debbie
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frederiksen that she had been abused by
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mark
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when i went to see christy she was
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working at the bar
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and she was having problems with her
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husband
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she would tell me that her husband would
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beat her when we left the bar
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christy showed me a bruise on her side
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and it really scared me i told her she
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needed to go get help from somebody
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and i asked her how it had happened
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and she said her and mark had gotten
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argument and he had thrown her around
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and she just acted like it wasn't a big
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deal it was something that happened
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a lot as far as a violent argument
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which there seemed there seemed to be a
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lot of rumors going around that i was
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always beating up on her
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that's that's just totally wrong
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oh hi on december 9th two days before
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her disappearance
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christy went to an attorney to begin
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divorce proceedings what can i do for
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you christy
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well i need some help what's your
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problem
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i need someone to help me get through
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christy was frightened that mark would
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find out
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and for this reason went to an
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out-of-town lawyer well just
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relax we do a lot of divorce work i've
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handled hundreds of divorces but she had
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to rank up in the top five of
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being very distressed and upset and
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nervous and needed help
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and when she explained certain uh
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abuses that she had been subjected to
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we decided to make some telephone calls
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to call the authorities and to report
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certain crimes that had taken place
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christie i feel that she was very
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sincere and honest in what she was
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telling me
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i don't know what motive she would
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possibly have had to
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conjure up a story about being abused by
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her husband
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if it didn't in fact happen i was
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convinced and i am still convinced that
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it happened
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what was christy's state of mind when
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she left the lawyer's office
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was she preparing to run away as mark
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claims or was she planning on fighting
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for the custody of her children
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as her mother believes
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[Music]
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i can say that the day that christie was
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in my office on december 9th she was not
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panic-stricken to the point that she
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would run
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or leave and in fact she had
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planned to come back when she left she
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had made an appointment to come back to
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my office
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the day after this meeting december 10th
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christy and mark went christmas shopping
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with her children
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this was the last afternoon she would
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spend with her family
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i felt real uncomfortable the day before
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she left
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because uh i felt a lot of anger
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coming from her that evening
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the couple hired a babysitter and went
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to the local bar where christy worked
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[Music]
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when i babysat the night that she
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disappeared i was surprised that
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those two were going out the both of
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them were going out
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because i knew they weren't getting
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along
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when we were at the bar things seemed to
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be going
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real well i felt there was a good
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attitude about
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herself and myself and a lot of laughing
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and carrying on
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mark and christy left the bar around
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midnight and drove to an all-night
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convenience store at 12 30 they headed
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for home
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according to the babysitter mark arrived
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home between 12
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30 and 1 o'clock in the morning
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the babysitter was doing her homework in
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front of the television
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and doesn't remember seeing christy tom
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banks is an electrician that says for
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the time being
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i was about five six yards behind her
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when she reached the door
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and she walked right by
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the living room where the babysitter was
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at
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back towards the kids bedroom and
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went into the main bathroom
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it seems strange because mark had paid
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me with cash when christian
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pays me with a check it was unusual for
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mark to pay me
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said enough yeah that's fine thanks that
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was everything
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i really can't believe that i didn't see
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her because
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i would have heard footsteps and i would
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have heard
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her go into the bathroom because i was
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there
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i mean what five between five and ten
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minutes so that i would have been able
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to hear
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christy somehow but i didn't hear or see
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christy
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according to mark christie went to bed
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immediately after the babysitter left
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the last time he says he saw her was at
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2 am
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when he went to sleep beside her
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and that's the last thing i remember
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that my kids woke me up the next morning
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and the first thing i noticed was she
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wasn't in the bed
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mark claims he searched the house and
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noticed christy had taken a suitcase
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full of belongings with her
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but both family cars were still sitting
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in the front yard
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at 9 30 in the morning mark received a
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phone call from christie's mother who
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lived 100 miles away
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even though he knew his wife was gone
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mark told her mother
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that christy was still in bed asleep
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didn't want to worry her at the time
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because i didn't know where she was
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so i told her that she was still in bed
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sleeping because i didn't think she felt
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real good
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at 11 30 a.m mark took his children over
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to christy's grandmother's
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and asked if she could take care of them
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as he was planning to search for his
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wife
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you take the kids well i didn't think
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much about at the time but like i say
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later
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he never asked me at all or telephoned
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me you know to take care of the kids
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where they always did before that was
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really about strangest thing
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yes can i help you he never asked if
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christy was at my house or if i'd seen
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christy
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i just said that christy was missing
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and he acted like he was shook up
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i spent approximately two hours just
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riding around town trying to spot her
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maybe coming out of the store
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or i drove some residential streets
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where we knew some people
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when we checked out mark's story about
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driving around looking for christy
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we could find nobody in in the city of
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gothenburg that had
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seen him driving around at 1 37
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p.m mark filed a missing persons report
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with the gothenburg police department
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what time did you see her last i saw her
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last when i went to bed about 2am this
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morning i was
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i was real upset because there was no
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indication whatsoever that she would
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just pack up a suitcase and just leave
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during their investigation
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the state patrol discovered that mark
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moved out of the house the day
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after his wife's disappearance a few
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weeks later
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he boxed up all of her clothes and sold
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both of their
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it looks like we got cars spot on the
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plastic in march of 1988
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three months after she disappeared
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christy's suitcase was discovered in a
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roadside rest area 30 miles west of
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gothenburg
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police found it surprising that earlier
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mark had precisely detailed
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all of its contents
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it appeared to everybody present that
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the suitcase had been placed there
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instead of just thrown out
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the items were neatly laying around
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it was like the person that put them
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there wanted them to be found
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if my wife had left me
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i wouldn't be able to look through the
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closet
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and tell you what she had taken i
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probably would be able to tell you maybe
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what suitcase she had taken
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but he was listing items of clothing
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right down the line
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and knew what she had taken
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the area surrounding gothenburg has been
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searched extensively
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no other trace of christy nichols has
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ever been found
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today the case is stalled
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[Music]
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it is difficult without locating christy
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nichols
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or her body to determine what if any
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charges would be appropriate
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we basically are concerned about the way
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she disappeared
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the fact that she has not contacted her
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children she hasn't contacted her family
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she uh did not take one of the family
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vehicles and
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basically the continued long absence all
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point to that perhaps
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foul play in some form is involved i'd
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have never done anything to hurt my wife
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i just that's just the person i
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am i'm a lot of people think i'm a
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violent person
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i'm not i'm not i'm not a violent person
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i hope i hoped and prayed that she was
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alive but if she isn't
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i'd still want to find a solution to
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this case
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i'd like to have her buried someplace
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forward no
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she was i want very much
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for christy to come home that
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uh if for some reason she doesn't want
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to come home
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you know christy at least call somebody
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you know let us know where you are
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whether you're all right
00:16:40
by all accounts christy nichols was
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trapped in a marriage gone wrong
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nobody can say for certain if this is
00:16:45
what motivated her disappearance
00:16:48
all we know is that christy nichols has
00:16:50
vanished without a trace
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and her family and friends would like to
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know why
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in a moment the story of a remarkable
00:16:57
escape from san quentin prison
00:17:05
last october we examined the mysterious
00:17:08
disappearance of gail delano
00:17:09
a 35-year-old mother of two who vanished
00:17:12
from her hometown of wiscasset maine
00:17:16
after her second divorce gail delano
00:17:18
sought companionship by placing personal
00:17:20
ads in a local newspaper
00:17:24
on june 21 1986 gale drove to a
00:17:27
restaurant in the nearby town of
00:17:28
brunswick
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she had told her two teenage sons as she
00:17:31
was meeting a man named john
00:17:33
who responded to one of her ads
00:17:36
gail delano's family never saw her again
00:17:40
two days later police found her car
00:17:43
abandoned in the restaurant's parking
00:17:44
lot
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later that day a restaurant worker found
00:17:48
gail's keys in the same spot where her
00:17:50
car had been parked
00:17:52
[Music]
00:17:53
two weeks later gail's purse was found
00:17:56
though it seemed untouched
00:17:57
it contained no money for two and a half
00:18:01
years
00:18:01
investigators and gayle's family were
00:18:03
baffled
00:18:07
update mobile alabama the two and a half
00:18:10
year search for guild delano has come to
00:18:11
an end
00:18:12
tragically she took her own life shortly
00:18:15
after she disappeared
00:18:18
a forensic administrator in mobile
00:18:20
watched our program
00:18:22
recognized gail's photo as a woman who
00:18:24
had died in a local hotel room in 1986.
00:18:28
and when i saw the photograph
00:18:31
i immediately saw the resemblance
00:18:34
between ms delano
00:18:37
and an unidentified body
00:18:40
that we had in our laboratory in mobile
00:18:45
after two weeks of forensic tests
00:18:47
positive identification was made
00:18:50
police now theorize that gail delano
00:18:52
orchestrated her own disappearance
00:18:55
they believe that after she drove to the
00:18:56
restaurant she hid her keys somewhere on
00:18:58
the car
00:19:00
removed all the money from her purse
00:19:02
discarded it
00:19:03
and then flew to alabama that evening
00:19:06
she checked into a hotel in mobile where
00:19:08
she registered under the name jackie
00:19:10
stafford
00:19:11
three days later police discovered her
00:19:13
body
00:19:14
she had died from a drug overdose
00:19:18
on november 11th gail's family held a
00:19:21
memorial service for her
00:19:23
in brunswick maine
00:19:26
gail's family showed remarkable courage
00:19:29
as for two long years they searched for
00:19:30
the truth
00:19:31
her loss saddens us all and to her
00:19:34
parents and sons we send our deepest
00:19:36
sympathy
00:19:42
california's san quentin prison is
00:19:44
justly known as one of the country's
00:19:45
most secure
00:19:46
maximum security prisons few cameras are
00:19:49
permitted behind its walls
00:19:52
but recently unsolved mysteries was
00:19:54
allowed inside
00:19:55
so he might document one of the few
00:19:56
times a system failed
00:19:58
and help recapture an escaped prisoner
00:20:01
in the summer of 1986 an inmate named
00:20:03
mark adams mysteriously vanished the
00:20:06
events leading up to his escape began on
00:20:07
a summer night
00:20:08
in august of 1979
00:20:13
on that evening three high school
00:20:15
students entered a municipal baseball
00:20:17
park
00:20:17
located in the quiet community of
00:20:19
modesto california
00:20:21
hey you know who's over to mark's house
00:20:26
they gathered in the dugout to drink
00:20:27
some beers to chat about school and
00:20:30
their friends
00:20:37
[Music]
00:20:40
three figures appeared out of the
00:20:46
darkness
00:20:49
over the previous few weeks there have
00:20:51
been other robberies by these ski-masked
00:20:53
individuals
00:20:54
give me your wallets in the earlier
00:20:55
attempts nobody had been injured
00:20:57
give me your wallets why don't you guys
00:21:00
just leave us
00:21:01
alone
00:21:08
[Music]
00:21:20
one boy mike ridenour was dead another
00:21:23
wounded an eyewitness description of an
00:21:27
automobile spotted at the scene
00:21:29
led to the arrest of three robbers the
00:21:32
trigger man
00:21:33
16-year-old mark adams was tried
00:21:35
convicted
00:21:36
and sentenced to 25 years to life
00:21:42
located on san francisco bay san quentin
00:21:45
is an impenetrable fortress
00:21:48
21-armed posts around the three-foot
00:21:50
thick prison walls
00:21:52
lined with razor-sharp barbed wire
00:21:56
today over three thousand hardened
00:21:58
criminals call the prison home
00:22:01
charles manson is only one of its
00:22:02
infamous residents
00:22:04
in his 136 year history other criminals
00:22:08
such as siran siran
00:22:09
carol chesman
00:22:12
[Applause]
00:22:13
massive cell blocks a major portion of
00:22:16
the san quentin's current population
00:22:19
are repeat offenders it is the end of
00:22:22
the line
00:22:23
of a hardened criminal
00:22:27
san quentin prison is different from
00:22:29
other prisons because of its
00:22:31
design there are armed officers inside
00:22:34
the institution
00:22:35
they're in gun walks and manned areas
00:22:38
where there's weapons inside the
00:22:39
institution
00:22:40
mark adams was here because of the
00:22:43
physical plant
00:22:44
and security that san quentin can
00:22:46
provide
00:22:47
inmates like mark adams
00:22:54
when adams entered san quentin he was 19
00:22:56
years old
00:22:57
he would have been eligible for parole
00:22:59
in the year 2007
00:23:02
he began his sentence under close
00:23:03
scrutiny but after six months
00:23:05
restrictions were relaxed his privileges
00:23:09
included a job working with computers as
00:23:11
a clerk in the prison's academic
00:23:13
department
00:23:15
mark adams was essentially a model
00:23:17
prisoner
00:23:18
he worked very well with people he
00:23:21
obeyed the rules
00:23:23
and he would seize any opportunity he
00:23:25
could to stay out of his cell
00:23:27
when we had special projects where he'd
00:23:28
have to work some overtime he was only
00:23:30
too happy to assist
00:23:39
i'm sure that mark adams took advantage
00:23:42
of his position
00:23:43
he probably checked schedules he
00:23:44
probably checked timing
00:23:46
he wanted to leave no margin for error
00:23:51
on june 10 1986 four years to the day
00:23:55
after he was put behind bars
00:23:57
adam secured an authorized pass allowing
00:23:59
him to leave work early
00:24:01
i'll see you later where are you going
00:24:04
i'm going to the dentist office
00:24:06
okay i'll see you tomorrow
00:24:12
at approximately 2 30 p.m adams left his
00:24:16
job and walked to the security
00:24:17
checkpoint
00:24:18
showing his pass he was observed heading
00:24:22
to the dentist's office
00:24:24
that was the last time anyone remembers
00:24:27
seeing him
00:24:36
at 4 15 p.m the inmates return to the
00:24:39
cells for the afternoon head count
00:24:45
the 415 count when there's no hitches
00:24:48
will take approximately 45 minutes to
00:24:50
clear inmate let me see some skin
00:24:56
if something is wrong with a clown if
00:24:58
there's one person
00:24:59
that cannot be accounted for most often
00:25:02
there's a simple explanation for that
00:25:05
miscount
00:25:07
you can't find any error then you go
00:25:09
sell by cell
00:25:11
bed by bed with an officer and a picture
00:25:13
of those people assigned
00:25:15
to those cell blocks in that particular
00:25:17
cell
00:25:19
good 2a11 id
00:25:24
2a12 negative nah showing adam's in here
00:25:29
at approximately 4 45 adams was
00:25:32
confirmed missing
00:25:35
immediately san quentin locked down all
00:25:38
access to the prison
00:25:39
inside and out was sealed tight
00:25:43
every prisoner was confined to his cell
00:25:45
their few privileges revolt
00:25:53
an intensive search by correctional
00:25:55
officers was fruitless
00:25:56
no trace of mark or the method of his
00:25:59
escape was found
00:26:00
[Music]
00:26:07
authorities have three theories as to
00:26:08
how he escaped
00:26:11
the first suggests that adams put on
00:26:13
civilian clothes
00:26:14
and walked out with the regular visitors
00:26:17
passing through three different armed
00:26:22
gates
00:26:24
in order to accomplish this adams would
00:26:26
have had to show a photo id of the first
00:26:29
two gates
00:26:34
[Music]
00:26:36
a second theory proposes that adam
00:26:38
simply went over the 25-foot prison wall
00:26:42
when an inmate has to make that move
00:26:44
from a blind spot
00:26:46
over the wall he has to go from an area
00:26:48
of concealment
00:26:50
to one of his ability it can happen
00:26:53
in a matter of seconds but in those few
00:26:57
moments
00:26:57
that it took to hit the wall and scale
00:26:59
it the officer's looking in another
00:27:01
direction
00:27:02
an escape is perpetrated
00:27:06
the chances that adams could have made
00:27:08
the climb are extremely slim
00:27:11
shortly after his escape three inmates
00:27:13
attempted to scale the wall
00:27:16
all three were immediately captured and
00:27:18
one was injured in a struggle with
00:27:20
officers we considered also
00:27:23
in our investigation of the possible
00:27:25
ways of escape
00:27:27
is could he have gained access to a
00:27:29
vehicle
00:27:30
it's possible that mark adams could have
00:27:33
studied
00:27:34
vehicles which do pass in front of his
00:27:37
area of assignment
00:27:40
[Music]
00:27:45
every day approximately 225 service
00:27:48
vehicles enter and exit the prison
00:27:50
each must pass through a guarded
00:27:52
inspection area for a thorough search
00:27:54
[Music]
00:27:57
there is a remote chance adams could
00:27:58
have found a place to hide
00:28:01
and then when the search ended he would
00:28:03
have been driven straight to freedom
00:28:17
[Music]
00:28:24
if there were a mistake in the security
00:28:26
system
00:28:28
adams would have been the type to look
00:28:30
for he would have been the type to find
00:28:32
it
00:28:33
and he would have made plans to exploit
00:28:35
it
00:28:36
and as a result that's precisely what he
00:28:39
did
00:28:41
it's been two years since mark adams has
00:28:43
escaped from san quentin prison
00:28:46
and in those two years we have not found
00:28:48
any
00:28:50
concluding or convincing evidence to
00:28:52
tell us how
00:28:53
mark adams escaped
00:29:00
[Music]
00:29:13
in a moment you'll meet eugene richmond
00:29:15
he vanished after defrauding his friends
00:29:17
and neighbors at three and a half
00:29:18
million dollars
00:29:19
came back to face the music his alleged
00:29:21
accomplice stephen cox
00:29:23
is still at large
00:29:27
[Music]
00:29:39
in 1981 lorraine ronda was 68 years old
00:29:43
and newly widowed
00:29:43
[Music]
00:29:46
her husband had left her 100 000
00:29:49
it was all lorraine had she invested it
00:29:52
with a man named stephen cox
00:29:57
in 1976 a drunk driver left michelle wit
00:30:01
crippled for life
00:30:03
the insurance company awarded her 75
00:30:05
thousand dollars
00:30:07
michelle invested her money with the
00:30:09
same man stephen cox
00:30:13
on september the 24th 1984 stephen cox
00:30:17
disappeared
00:30:18
he has not been seen since
00:30:22
is there anyone in this room has
00:30:24
anything to offer in this case at this
00:30:25
time
00:30:26
if so please step forward at bankruptcy
00:30:29
court in medford oregon
00:30:31
a packed audience of more than 200 angry
00:30:33
investors came forward
00:30:35
and i am one of the investors who
00:30:37
invested with
00:30:38
uh steve cox in excess of one hundred
00:30:40
thousand dollars
00:30:42
they told authorities that they had
00:30:43
given cox in excess of three and a half
00:30:45
million dollars
00:30:47
every penny was gone can be done
00:30:50
so that we can get our money back how
00:30:53
did stephen cox get three and a half
00:30:55
million dollars from the people of
00:30:56
medford
00:30:57
well cox was a hometown boy the people
00:31:00
of medford knew him and trusted him
00:31:02
they hope that if he's watching tonight
00:31:04
he'll return and deal with them
00:31:05
honorably face to face
00:31:10
in high school stephen cox was a popular
00:31:12
student and an all-around athlete
00:31:15
he was captain of the football team
00:31:17
letterman on the basketball team
00:31:18
named oregon's all-state baseball team
00:31:22
he went to college in oregon and after
00:31:25
he graduated married his college
00:31:26
sweetheart deborah
00:31:28
they settled in medford
00:31:31
didn't believe it no in 1982 he started
00:31:35
his own company
00:31:36
s d cox investments that's what i'm
00:31:38
talking about let me get it hold on a
00:31:39
second let me get it up on the screen
00:31:40
here
00:31:41
when he first began all the indications
00:31:44
we have are that
00:31:45
his intentions were good he had had some
00:31:48
luck
00:31:48
uh with commodities with other
00:31:50
investments gold and silver
00:31:52
and other things and he really wanted to
00:31:55
make money for other people
00:31:56
at the same time he made money for
00:31:58
himself
00:32:00
stephen cox attracted investors by
00:32:02
offering a rate of return as high as 25
00:32:04
percent
00:32:06
good morning michelle hi how are you i'm
00:32:08
fine how are you good to see you both
00:32:09
there was only one catch in exchange
00:32:12
they received nothing more than
00:32:14
cox's iou in the form of a promissory
00:32:16
note
00:32:17
michelle whit needed twelve hundred
00:32:19
dollars a month to pay for her
00:32:20
round-the-clock nursing care
00:32:23
despite the lack of security she decided
00:32:25
cox's high return was worth the risk
00:32:28
and that 20 24 ballpark that we were
00:32:31
talking about is something
00:32:33
we're definitely going to be able to get
00:32:34
for you the 75 000
00:32:36
was invested and for three and a half
00:32:39
years
00:32:40
i got a monthly payment of 1250.
00:32:43
he seemed to know what he was doing
00:32:47
and i'm sure he did know what he was
00:32:49
doing
00:32:52
hey hey gene good to see you thank you
00:32:56
cox's business doubled then tripled
00:32:59
eugene richmond an old friend was
00:33:01
brought in as a partner
00:33:02
well it'll work it'll work good good um
00:33:05
well you know i've known steve since you
00:33:07
know we were in grade school together i
00:33:08
mean
00:33:08
he was always somebody i looked up to
00:33:10
you know he was the
00:33:12
you know the high school quarterback of
00:33:14
the football team and you know just
00:33:15
just that typical guy that everybody
00:33:17
wanted to know and be around
00:33:19
you know the way i look at it mortgage
00:33:20
papers basically whatever steve cox
00:33:23
asked me to do i did and i just
00:33:26
trusted him unequivocally eugene richman
00:33:31
was the forceful personality in the
00:33:34
partnership
00:33:35
there's a nice house you have here oh
00:33:37
thank you
00:33:38
eugene richmond was the one that went
00:33:40
out and got people to invest their money
00:33:43
ms rondo i'm uh sorry i have to bother
00:33:46
you at a time like this
00:33:47
when eugene richmond made his sales
00:33:49
presentation to lorraine rondeaux
00:33:51
she gave him all the money her husband
00:33:53
had left her i
00:33:54
know that your husband has left you some
00:33:55
money i'm confident that i told
00:33:58
every investor that their money is at
00:33:59
risk i would have investors ask me what
00:34:02
happens if st cox goes
00:34:03
belly up and i would sit right in my
00:34:06
chair and look him straight in the face
00:34:07
and i'd say
00:34:08
you're gonna lose your money well eugene
00:34:11
richman is a liar then because he never
00:34:13
did
00:34:15
never told us not me never told me that
00:34:19
if she was not aware that her money was
00:34:21
at risk then either i failed
00:34:23
in my job to tell her that or
00:34:27
like a lot of people didn't want to hear
00:34:29
it
00:34:30
eugene richmond never told me that that
00:34:33
my money was unsafe in any way that
00:34:35
everything was secured that they had
00:34:37
money
00:34:38
if i wanted all that money right now
00:34:42
they had money laid aside that they
00:34:43
could pay off any one of
00:34:47
first by us s decox investments was
00:34:50
flourishing
00:34:52
the firm bought a restaurant a
00:34:54
neighborhood bar
00:34:56
a video arcade two jewelry stores
00:35:00
and an inventory of gems worth hundreds
00:35:02
of thousands of dollars
00:35:07
when you have a situation where a local
00:35:10
businessman looks successful and other
00:35:12
people are going to the bank with the
00:35:13
checks and making the deposits
00:35:16
that will get around that facade works
00:35:19
people see the porsche drive by and
00:35:20
their heads turn people see their
00:35:22
mercedes drive by and they think that
00:35:23
guy's successful
00:35:24
they don't realize that maybe that guy
00:35:26
is is not making ends meet and he's two
00:35:29
payments behind on the porsche
00:35:34
by 1984 many of stephen cox's
00:35:37
investments began to go sour
00:35:41
in my opinion steve was not a good
00:35:43
businessman
00:35:44
in steve's case he made some wrong
00:35:46
decisions well i'll talk to you tomorrow
00:35:48
about that that deals
00:35:49
that's a whole separate thing now i
00:35:50
don't you know there's some real estate
00:35:52
that wasn't panning out the way it was
00:35:53
supposed to pan out and you had to feed
00:35:55
it
00:35:55
he had a restaurant he was feeding and
00:35:57
instead of just cutting it off
00:35:59
he wanted to hang on so that's the
00:36:00
important part you know he was
00:36:01
competitive he didn't want
00:36:03
to lose every thousand dollars fifty
00:36:06
thousand dollars you heard me the first
00:36:07
time
00:36:08
what happened is steve cox uh had
00:36:11
some luck at the very beginning he had
00:36:13
some good fortune he made some money
00:36:18
and as he continued to pay 22 or 25
00:36:21
interest he had to get more and more
00:36:23
people involved at the bottom
00:36:25
in order to be able to do that it's like
00:36:27
a pyramid scheme
00:36:28
there's nothing to back up his promises
00:36:31
to pay back this money
00:36:32
that's a house of cards eventually it
00:36:34
has to fall well look what do we need to
00:36:36
do to turn this thing around
00:36:38
you know what we need to do we need to
00:36:39
turn those numbers around the way you're
00:36:40
going to turn those numbers around is
00:36:41
getting more clients
00:36:43
all right i see you've got my flowers
00:36:45
yes i did eugene and thank you so much
00:36:47
as a last resort eugene went back to
00:36:50
lorraine rondeau
00:36:51
and asked for her last five thousand
00:36:53
dollars do you have some savings to
00:36:55
cover them with
00:36:56
well i've been in the hospital and
00:36:57
eugene came over to the house to see how
00:37:00
i was doing and he said do you have
00:37:02
money enough and i said i have some in
00:37:03
savings
00:37:04
so he suggested that i take the five
00:37:08
thousand and put in so that i would be
00:37:10
getting some interest
00:37:12
so i wrote him a check for five thousand
00:37:15
i couldn't even tell you right now
00:37:17
whether she invested any money or not i
00:37:19
do not recall
00:37:20
at that time when i saw her i had no
00:37:23
idea that i was going to be going or
00:37:24
steve was going to be going
00:37:26
i mean i didn't even know i was going to
00:37:27
leave with steve until the day that i
00:37:28
left we have a problem
00:37:30
i've got to leave the area it came to a
00:37:32
point where steve just said
00:37:33
i'm leaving town and i'm going wait a
00:37:36
minute you're going to leave and
00:37:37
and i'm going to stay here and face this
00:37:38
entire thing by myself
00:37:40
what am i going to do everybody's going
00:37:42
to come knocking on my door and say
00:37:43
where's my money
00:37:44
and i felt like i was going to get
00:37:46
lynched important thing is deborah and i
00:37:48
are leaving town now are you going with
00:37:49
us or not
00:37:52
can you make a choice was to stay here
00:37:54
or go with him are you with us
00:37:56
and um i ended up by leaving with steve
00:37:58
and his family
00:38:00
i'm going with you steve okay all right
00:38:04
definitely there was a premeditated
00:38:05
decision on the part of
00:38:07
steve cox and eugene richmond to
00:38:10
fold up and leave town let's quit
00:38:13
beating around the bush
00:38:14
they planned to leave for at least a
00:38:17
month
00:38:17
before they just didn't show up one
00:38:19
morning
00:38:22
thanks for sticking around you guys i
00:38:23
realize it's your weekend i'll make it
00:38:25
short
00:38:25
on friday september the 21st 1984
00:38:28
eugene richmond told his employees that
00:38:30
he and cox would be out of town on
00:38:32
business through monday usual we'll be
00:38:34
back on tuesday
00:38:36
so unless you've got any questions uh
00:38:39
see you tuesday
00:38:47
that weekend according to eugene
00:38:49
richmond
00:38:50
stephen cox cleaned out their office
00:38:52
safe taking over two hundred thousand
00:38:54
dollars in gold silver
00:38:55
jewelry and cash cox also took their
00:38:59
financial records which were stored on
00:39:01
computer disks
00:39:07
he and his wife deborah emptied their
00:39:09
house and packed their belongings into a
00:39:11
rented truck
00:39:14
[Applause]
00:39:16
[Music]
00:39:17
along with eugene richmond they
00:39:18
furtively departed medford
00:39:21
their final destination hawaii
00:39:26
stephen cox deborah cox and eugene
00:39:28
richmond dropped completely out of sight
00:39:30
and the people of medford oregon had
00:39:32
lost three and a half million dollars
00:39:34
but the story of the missing medford
00:39:36
millions was not over
00:39:37
the authorities learned that stephen cox
00:39:39
might have disappeared from medford
00:39:41
because he feared for his life
00:39:44
[Music]
00:39:47
ten months after stephen cox his wife
00:39:49
and eugene richmond vanished
00:39:50
leaving nothing but a bankrupt company
00:39:52
that owed the people a medford three and
00:39:54
a half million dollars
00:39:56
the authorities had a surprise visitor
00:40:03
debbie we appreciate you coming in for
00:40:05
this interview today
00:40:06
and in july of 1985 stephen cox's wife
00:40:10
deborah
00:40:11
returned to medford and through her
00:40:13
attorney agreed to cooperate with the
00:40:15
authorities
00:40:16
what was your position with s d cox
00:40:18
investment she wasn't actually wanted
00:40:20
as far as being a fugitive we did want
00:40:23
to talk to her
00:40:24
but there were no criminal charges
00:40:26
pending then within a week
00:40:28
eugene richmond also wanted to surrender
00:40:31
himself
00:40:32
and so arrangements were made for him to
00:40:36
surrender himself in the company of his
00:40:37
attorney and to be interviewed
00:40:40
and then to be processed on the fugitive
00:40:42
warrants that were outstanding for him
00:40:44
at the time
00:40:45
but for the most part the information
00:40:47
that we did glean from these interviews
00:40:50
was really not helpful to us how much
00:40:52
money did you have to live on and how
00:40:54
much did you take with you
00:40:57
sergeant sweeney concerning that matter
00:40:58
we're not answering those questions
00:41:00
today
00:41:01
you accept any responsibility eugene
00:41:02
richman wouldn't make any statements
00:41:04
that could be used to incriminate him
00:41:07
and he couldn't really say anything
00:41:08
about stephen cox without incriminating
00:41:10
himself
00:41:11
as a result of that we're still looking
00:41:12
for sd cox or stephen cox
00:41:17
one thing richmond did tell the police
00:41:19
was that in 1983
00:41:20
cox had become involved with a
00:41:22
mysterious investor every day on those
00:41:24
rocks was fantastic
00:41:25
all right i'm glad to hear that he
00:41:27
should be i just want to remind you
00:41:29
stephen i'm not a man who likes to lose
00:41:31
money
00:41:31
there was an investor that invested
00:41:34
hundreds of thousands of dollars
00:41:35
with sd cox investments and as security
00:41:39
for his investment
00:41:41
he had taken out a life insurance policy
00:41:44
on
00:41:44
stephen cox before steve and i left
00:41:48
town okay and i went to him and said
00:41:51
let's shut this thing down
00:41:52
bring in a judge and just do a chapter
00:41:54
11 and you know just
00:41:56
close it down you know you know steve
00:41:59
said i can't
00:42:00
and it was because of this fella because
00:42:03
he owed him money
00:42:04
and steve just felt like
00:42:08
if he didn't pay this guy back he would
00:42:10
just
00:42:11
hurt steve or his wife or his kids or
00:42:14
something
00:42:15
since especially since we know of the
00:42:16
threat we know who the individual is
00:42:19
the individual would have to be a fool
00:42:21
to come back and
00:42:23
kill stephen cox because he didn't get
00:42:25
his money back
00:42:28
eugene richmond pled guilty to charges
00:42:30
of racketeering and served two years in
00:42:32
prison
00:42:33
stephen cox is still at large
00:42:36
the message i'd like to send stephen cox
00:42:39
is that he should come in
00:42:41
turn himself in and face up to the
00:42:43
people that he's really
00:42:44
really hurt short of
00:42:50
steve cox winning the lottery and coming
00:42:53
back and paying back all of his
00:42:54
investors
00:42:56
i don't foresee them ever being able to
00:42:58
recoup any of their losses
00:43:00
steve cox is the one who's in prison
00:43:03
right now
00:43:04
he's the one who's doing time right now
00:43:08
and he will continue to do time until he
00:43:10
turns around and faces the situation
00:43:13
until he lives up to his
00:43:14
responsibilities
00:43:17
because steve every day has to wonder
00:43:21
if somebody's going to walk in to where
00:43:23
he's working or if he's going to be at
00:43:24
the market
00:43:26
and somebody's gonna see him it's a
00:43:29
small world
00:43:33
stephen cox is six feet two inches tall
00:43:35
has blonde hair and blue eyes
00:43:37
and weighs over 200 pounds
00:43:42
he is now 38 years old and he may be
00:43:44
wearing a toupee
00:43:45
as well as a beard or mustache
00:43:48
[Music]
00:43:51
update stephen cox has been arrested in
00:43:54
lake mead nevada
00:43:55
25 miles southeast of las vegas
00:43:58
five days after he fled from boise cox
00:44:01
checked into the lake mead lodge motel
00:44:03
he registered under the name john
00:44:05
stroups enlisted in arizona address
00:44:08
[Music]
00:44:09
he was not the normal guest he stayed in
00:44:12
his room all day long
00:44:14
he would only leave at night very seldom
00:44:16
did he leave in the daytime
00:44:19
and we noticed that the license plates
00:44:21
were not the same as he had
00:44:22
put down on his registration card
00:44:26
and that made us a little suspicious but
00:44:28
yet nothing we could put a finger on
00:44:31
two weeks later edna reed made a
00:44:33
startling discovery
00:44:35
one day when i was out on the grounds i
00:44:38
saw the
00:44:38
guests come out of his room instead of
00:44:41
putting his trash in the bin
00:44:42
in front of his room he took it up to
00:44:44
number 35 which was several doors away
00:44:47
and when i went to empty the trash out
00:44:48
of that bin i found the
00:44:50
crumpled up letter and like any curious
00:44:53
female i read the letter
00:44:56
when i read the letter i saw the part
00:44:58
that said something about the
00:44:59
unsolved mystery show being a bombshell
00:45:02
i showed the letter to my husband harold
00:45:05
and between the two of us we decided it
00:45:06
was time definitely to call the rangers
00:45:09
and tell them about the guest lake me
00:45:12
park rangers immediately ran a computer
00:45:14
check and discovered that the car
00:45:16
belonged to someone other than john
00:45:18
strauss
00:45:20
on the morning of the 14th we began to
00:45:21
look for the person by going to the lake
00:45:24
mead lodge to see if we could identify
00:45:25
in fact who he really was
00:45:27
when we got there the vehicle was gone
00:45:28
and the person was gone and had been
00:45:30
gone for 15 or 20 minutes
00:45:33
the next morning park rangers spotted
00:45:35
cox's car
00:45:36
and pulled him over in the parking lot
00:45:38
of the gold strike casino
00:45:40
after we made the traffic stop he
00:45:42
produced identification a driver's
00:45:43
license issued to a robert davis
00:45:46
and we checked that name and date of
00:45:49
birth through the ncic computer
00:45:51
and found that it was an alias used by
00:45:53
one stephen cox and that there was a
00:45:54
warrant
00:45:55
for mr cox at that point we placed him
00:45:58
under arrest
00:46:00
during a search of cox's car park
00:46:02
rangers uncovered a small
00:46:04
fortune when we looked in the passenger
00:46:08
compartment of the vehicle in a trunk we
00:46:10
found suitcases and
00:46:12
other luggage type bags filled with uh
00:46:16
jewelry rings necklaces um collector
00:46:19
type baseball cards some gold coins
00:46:22
silver coins
00:46:24
and i was uh really very curious to know
00:46:27
why he had it in the vehicle and if in
00:46:29
fact this was the stuff that he was
00:46:30
wanted for taking in the first place
00:46:45
[Music]
00:46:50
every parent's worst nightmare is loss
00:46:52
of a child to a violent stranger
00:46:55
tonight the philadelphia police
00:46:56
department needs your help in solving
00:46:58
the brutal murder of a four-year-old
00:47:00
girl
00:47:01
we have with us lieutenant arthur durant
00:47:03
investigating officer in the case
00:47:05
lieutenant durant could you tell us a
00:47:06
little something about barbara jean and
00:47:08
her family
00:47:09
barbara jean was four and a half years
00:47:11
old she was the only child of
00:47:13
sharon and john fay she lived with her
00:47:16
parents in the northeast section of
00:47:17
philadelphia which is a
00:47:18
relatively crime-free middle-class
00:47:20
section
00:47:22
what are the circumstances of a murder
00:47:25
on july 12
00:47:25
1988 approximately 3 p.m in the
00:47:28
afternoon
00:47:29
while our mother was at work barbra jean
00:47:31
was out front of her house playing
00:47:34
her father went to check on her and was
00:47:36
unable to find her
00:47:37
he became frantic started searching the
00:47:39
area for he
00:47:40
checked with the neighbors he called
00:47:42
police the police came and they searched
00:47:44
the area
00:47:45
approximately two hours later barbra
00:47:47
jean was found stuffed inside a
00:47:48
cardboard box
00:47:49
approximately two blocks from her home
00:47:51
she'd been bludgeoned to death
00:47:53
what clues do you have to the identity
00:47:55
of the killer
00:47:57
four eyewitnesses observed the man at st
00:47:59
vincent and castor
00:48:00
carrying a cardboard box the man has
00:48:03
been described as
00:48:05
approximately 25 to 35 years old
00:48:08
white male 5 foot 8 180 pounds
00:48:12
sandy brown hair with a little bit of
00:48:13
blonde up front at the time he was
00:48:15
wearing a white t-shirt
00:48:16
cut off jeans and he was carrying a
00:48:19
cardboard box
00:48:20
that previously contained a 13-inch
00:48:21
color hitachi television set
00:48:24
how can our audience help solve this
00:48:25
tragic crime
00:48:27
we feel there's somebody out there
00:48:28
tonight that might have seen this male
00:48:31
on january 12 1988 or might know
00:48:33
somebody to engage in this type of
00:48:35
criminal activity
00:48:36
that might have been in a philadelphia
00:48:37
area and fits its description
00:48:50
[Music]
00:49:04
for every mystery there is someone
00:49:06
somewhere who knows the truth
00:49:08
perhaps that someone was watching
00:49:10
perhaps it's you
00:49:15
[Music]
00:49:38
[Applause]
00:49:41
[Music]
00:50:02
you
