00:00:03
this program is about unsolved mysteries
00:00:07
whenever possible the actual family
00:00:09
members and police officials have
00:00:10
participated in recreating the events
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what you are about to see is not a news
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broadcast tonight on the season premiere
00:00:22
of unsolved mysteries 25 years ago
00:00:25
something odd fell from the sky and
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crashed in the remote woods near
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Kecksburg Pennsylvania the official Air
00:00:32
Force report states that nothing was
00:00:33
found
00:00:34
but eyewitnesses claimed a strange
00:00:36
cone-shaped object was secretly removed
00:00:38
was it their imagination or a government
00:00:42
cover-up in California an unknown arson
00:00:46
set this house on fire then callously
00:00:48
videotaped the blaze and left the tape
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near a highway for authorities to find
00:00:53
last season we interviewed Lamar Bates a
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co-worker of a suspect captured thanks
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to one of our viewers incredibly that
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chance interview led to a reunion
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between Vivar and the daughter he never
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knew existed watch closely you may be
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able to help solve illustrate
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[Music]
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Twilight December 9th 1965 a brilliant
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light streaked through the skies over
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Canada in the northeastern United States
00:02:15
thousands of eyewitnesses reported
00:02:17
seeing its train which was visible for
00:02:19
hundreds of miles of every direction
00:02:24
near the village of Kecksburg
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Pennsylvania 40 miles southeast of
00:02:28
Pittsburgh Rob Landy and his brother Ray
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were out riding their bicycles we were
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riding up the road we just happened to
00:02:37
look up into the sky and we saw this
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thing coming over to talk to the trees
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just glided right across the sky like
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across the horizon of the trees we can
00:02:48
see and disappeared behind the trees it
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scared us we didn't know what it was or
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didn't know what to think about it just
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like dumb father us we were just like in
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awe you know as we watched it then it
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disappeared and we ran you knew what an
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airplane looked like you knew what a
00:03:09
helicopter looked like and that didn't
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look like anything we had ever seen
00:03:13
before
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and the angle that it was that was
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coming in I mean you knew that it was it
00:03:18
had to hit the ground
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[Music]
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three miles away another local boy Randy
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over he also saw the object I was
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planned by a creek at the time and heard
00:03:36
of deep hissing woods and I looked up in
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the sky and saw an object coming at me
00:03:41
from a pretty good distance away it flew
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right over top of me no higher in the
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air than 200 feet and was going there
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faster than a small airplane would go
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near by 11 an 18 Cal were playing
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outside when the object flew overhead
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and apparently crashed on a wooded
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ravine half a mile away this ball like
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fire come through it's something I've
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never seen before and never seen since
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and seeing the smoke pen at that time
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down in the hollow there
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or the strange options that ravine was
00:04:29
the end of a long and highly visible
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trajectory but for the residents of
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Kecksburg Pennsylvania mystery was just
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beginning
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the next 25 years the Taos people would
00:04:42
grapple with a perplexing question what
00:04:45
fell from the sky that December night
00:04:47
dozens of people most of them still
00:04:49
alive today we're eyewitnesses for the
00:04:52
first time ten of them have agreed to
00:04:54
come together make their identities
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public and tell the story of a night
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that they will never forget
00:05:06
after Neven an 18 count returned home
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their mother heard an emergency appeal
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on the local radio station the radio
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said something had been sighted and they
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were calling all around trying to find
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out if anyone had an airplane or
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something missing so I called in and
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told them it was no airplane it was just
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a small piece that had fallen off an
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airplane because smoke had came up from
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the area where it landed and I said it
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burned up landed right out here near my
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farm yes I did the radio announcer
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thanked Frank's account for the
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information
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she hung up and put the matter out of
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mind
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hello within a matter of two or three
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minutes I got a call from a man from the
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US Navy and he told me that I was to
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watch the area should anything strange
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develop to call this number
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I said well shouldn't I call the fire
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company and he said no you call us we'll
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call them so I hung up from talking to
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him and went to call a girlfriend of
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mine and I didn't get about two
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sentences out to her when an operator
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come on and cleared the line with an
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emergency call okay operator that turned
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out to be the state police Pennsylvania
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State Troopers were on the scene within
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15 minutes they were accompanied by two
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men in civilian clothes who never
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identified themselves I went down over
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there by now there was no smoke and the
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fading light made it difficult to pin
00:07:13
down the crash site at this point two of
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the men took a box and went walking
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towards those trees and I said to his
00:07:24
date trooper that was there I said what
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are all these people coming for and he
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said well they think they're gonna see
00:07:32
something but when this goes out of here
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nobody's gonna see it
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and ice well maybe it isn't in here he
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said it's here and I asked him how he
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knew and a sickness in radiation located
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less than a mile from Kecksburg village
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the ravine runs east to west for 800
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yards cutting across several farms the
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object appeared a crash here more than a
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half mile from the kelps hole as
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darkness fell several other search teams
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left Kecksburg also try to locate the
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crash site just keep going straight you
00:08:10
get to that road make a right volunteer
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fireman Jim Mayes led one team of state
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troopers to a promontory overlooking the
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ravine we went up this road and came to
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brow the hill can stop and down to the
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right in the Halla were these blue
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flashing lights
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what is that
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it wasn't Searchers down in the woods
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was flashlights reading it was a real
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bright blue real bright like a lek
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tricked welder the the flashes seemed to
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be timed at what intervals I don't know
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but it was a time thing it it wasn't
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like flashbulbs or anything like that at
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that point the troopers decided to close
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the area closed the roads off so he
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brought the two of us that was with him
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back to the fire station
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[Music]
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meanwhile a call went out to all the
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local fire departments soon more than 30
00:09:24
volunteer firemen had gathered at the
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Kecksburg station ok guys listen up
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there's a plane down over the hill we're
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gonna split up into quadrants we'll have
00:09:36
teams of three men all right man ski
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bill you come with me
00:09:39
Presi you get you man get out of here
00:09:41
Tom take your unit now I'm not sure but
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I think we all gather them at the fire
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station and report was we had an
00:09:50
aircraft that was down in the Kecksburg
00:09:51
area yeah I thought as I was driving
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over whatever it is it's burning yeah
00:09:55
and after we got our assignment and
00:09:58
everybody knew what they were doing they
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took her some pickup trucks off the road
00:10:01
up here and they dropped us off at
00:10:03
certain points going up the hill as we
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were proceeding through our grid we
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heard the first team which was down in
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front of us radio back we found the
00:10:15
aircraft where is it
00:10:21
search on their head for well man we
00:10:27
booked out of ours and down through over
00:10:30
the fence II went down into woods and we
00:10:34
got there
00:10:35
[Music]
00:10:48
I don't know
00:10:50
there was this humongous metal object
00:10:53
half buried in the ground about six
00:10:56
seven eight foot around and it was every
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bit of 8 10 12 foot long and to me the
00:11:04
object looked exactly like a fresh egg
00:11:08
corn that you pick off the tree
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there was no wings there was no motors
00:11:12
there was no propellers there was no
00:11:16
identification whatsoever that were
00:11:17
identified as a aircraft that I would
00:11:20
know there was a bumper on the bottom
00:11:24
part of it on that bumper there was what
00:11:27
I call it looked to me like the ancient
00:11:30
Egyptian hieroglyphics
00:11:32
it was markings like stars and shapes
00:11:35
and figures and circles and lines of
00:11:38
what it was I don't know to this day
00:11:41
I've never seen anything like it I've
00:11:44
studied the ancient Incas I've studied
00:11:46
the ancient Aztec Indians I've studied
00:11:48
the Egyptians I've looked at pictures of
00:11:51
Russian running I've looked at pictures
00:11:53
of Polish riding I've looked at pictures
00:11:55
of Hebrew riding nothing nothing that
00:11:59
resembles it
00:12:01
Chinese writing no so we're all standing
00:12:07
around this thing looking around
00:12:10
checking and everything wondering what
00:12:12
in the heck it could be and finally here
00:12:16
come two men down through the woods
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gentlemen you must leave the area
00:12:20
the site is quarantine and they took one
00:12:24
look at the object and immediately told
00:12:27
us to leave they said this area is not
00:12:30
quarantined we are in charge we're
00:12:33
taking command get out of here so we
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start walking out of there and down
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through the woods here comes military
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[Music]
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so we left there by the time we got back
00:12:53
down here to the fire hall I mean this
00:12:54
place was growl to wall military
00:13:01
within three hours of the crash military
00:13:03
personnel had set up a command center in
00:13:06
the Kecksburg fire station they promptly
00:13:08
restricted civilian movement in the area
00:13:18
it seems like it they were they were on
00:13:20
a scene immediately I would imagine
00:13:22
there was in a neighborhood of 2530
00:13:25
military at the time it seemed like it
00:13:29
they that they were really anxious to
00:13:32
get into the scene of whatever may have
00:13:35
been an hour later the military
00:13:41
authorities also commandeered a
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farmhouse near the ravine
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[Music]
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Lillian Hays and her family had been
00:13:56
living in the house for just a month
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while the military was coming in and out
00:14:02
of my house all evening they were making
00:14:05
a lot of phone calls and they were
00:14:07
standing around in groups talking within
00:14:14
ten minutes I have no idea who who they
00:14:18
telephoned there was no calls turned up
00:14:20
on my bill
00:14:20
NASA put them on standby and let the
00:14:24
Pentagon know let's call the village of
00:14:26
Kecksburg with a population of just 250
00:14:28
appeared to have been invaded first from
00:14:31
the sky and then by the United States
00:14:33
military
00:14:39
soon hundreds of curious spectators
00:14:41
gathered on nearby roads to try and get
00:14:44
a glimpse of the mysterious object 19
00:14:47
year old bill Weber was a London I
00:14:50
happened to come down through Kecksburg
00:14:52
and I heard in the radio that an object
00:14:55
had landed saying some people and some
00:14:57
cars alongside the road I pulled in
00:15:00
there was a pretty good crowd of people
00:15:02
gathered in that field and they were
00:15:05
looking down in the small ravine some
00:15:08
trees I look down in there myself I seen
00:15:12
there was a something down in there that
00:15:14
had bright lights on it but I couldn't
00:15:16
see the object itself some time later I
00:15:21
seen a box truck a van type truck pull
00:15:27
up there there was some men come around
00:15:29
the side of it they were dressed in moon
00:15:33
suits we called them at the time and
00:15:34
they had a light colored box
00:15:37
I'm guessing roughly five foot square
00:15:41
they carried it down into the ravine
00:15:44
[Music]
00:15:46
the bucks bill Weaver saw seemed too
00:15:48
small to hold the object itself was
00:15:51
there someone or something inside the
00:15:54
object that the military wanted to
00:15:56
remove an army officer appeared on the
00:16:03
scene here he ordered the crowd to
00:16:05
dispersed
00:16:05
thank you but you'll have to leave the
00:16:07
area now hey hey what's going on down
00:16:16
there you'll have to leave the area now
00:16:19
they told me unless I move my car and
00:16:23
got out of there that they would
00:16:24
confiscate my car
00:16:31
[Music]
00:16:37
[Music]
00:16:38
back in Kecksburg Jim romansky and the
00:16:41
other firemen had still not been allowed
00:16:43
inside the firehouse the military
00:16:46
continued to occupy it as a control
00:16:48
center we locked up here comes his Jeep
00:16:52
down over the hill with its red light on
00:16:53
and right behind the Jeep was a large
00:16:56
flatbed truck and on the back of the
00:16:59
flatbed was this covered object they
00:17:04
come down here so fast
00:17:06
that I know if you'd have walked out in
00:17:08
front of it that I ran you over
00:17:09
they'd have never stopped and on the
00:17:12
road they went where they went I have no
00:17:14
idea whatever came down in Kecksburg
00:17:19
that night is of high importance to the
00:17:22
military agencies the most mysterious
00:17:24
thing about the whole case is the fact
00:17:26
that after 25 years the government still
00:17:28
refuses to give us any actual
00:17:30
information on what occurred Stan Gordon
00:17:35
is a local researcher who has spent more
00:17:37
than 10 years interviewing dozens of
00:17:39
Kecksburg eyewitnesses he has explored
00:17:41
several theories trying to answer the
00:17:43
questions raised on that December night
00:17:45
in 1965 astronomers who looked into the
00:17:50
case at the time basically felt that the
00:17:53
object in question was a bolide which
00:17:55
was a very bright fireball type meteor
00:17:57
and they in fact eliminated reports that
00:18:01
it could have been some type of manmade
00:18:02
device that we entered the Earth's
00:18:04
atmosphere but we now know the thing
00:18:06
basically was coming down from the tip
00:18:08
of Ontario and was passing down
00:18:11
basically in a Northwest to southeast
00:18:14
trajectory the object appeared to mate
00:18:17
about a 25 degree turn toward the east
00:18:19
near Cleveland Ohio and it came in on a
00:18:22
straight path over the Pittsburgh area
00:18:25
and the interesting thing is now that
00:18:27
the new data suggests that the object
00:18:28
made a turn towards the south and then
00:18:31
the object made another turn towards the
00:18:34
village of Kecksburg Worlds proceeding
00:18:36
into there towards the Northeast the
00:18:39
interesting thing is the fact that
00:18:40
within several miles of the crash site
00:18:43
multiple witness tell us that this
00:18:45
object was coming in out of
00:18:46
very very slow speed of descent meteors
00:18:50
do not make controlled turns they do not
00:18:53
come in at a slow speed like this and
00:18:55
they in fact do not glide in which this
00:18:58
thing apparently did my personal opinion
00:19:02
what landed in Kecksburg at night was a
00:19:04
capsule of some kind from where whether
00:19:08
it was one of ours or a foreign I have
00:19:11
no idea the military wouldn't let us get
00:19:15
to the scene so I have no idea but I
00:19:20
know it wasn't a meteor another theory
00:19:25
is that the object was space debris in
00:19:27
1965 NASA was involved in the Gemini
00:19:30
program then as now it was our
00:19:33
government's policy to monitor not only
00:19:34
u.s. space activity but also launches
00:19:37
from the Soviet Union and all other
00:19:39
countries going back into the records we
00:19:44
have from NASA and documents we have
00:19:46
from other agencies they apparently have
00:19:49
no logins for any type of space debris
00:19:51
on that date and the time of this
00:19:53
observation so we also have to look to
00:19:56
the other possibility could this indeed
00:19:58
have been and an extraterrestrial
00:19:59
spacecraft
00:20:04
space debris meteor a fallen settler or
00:20:08
a genuine extraterrestrial craft a final
00:20:13
answer what was found in the ravine may
00:20:15
only be known by the military personnel
00:20:17
he worked in the Kecksburg recovery
00:20:19
operation this is a copy of the official
00:20:23
Air Force record of the Kecksburg
00:20:24
incident which Stan Gordon obtained
00:20:27
through the Freedom of Information Act
00:20:29
the report indicated that there was
00:20:31
quite a lot of interest by government
00:20:33
agencies as to what the object may have
00:20:36
been there were members there and
00:20:38
requests for information from Houston
00:20:40
Space Center from NORAD from the Air
00:20:43
Force command post the Pentagon even the
00:20:46
chairman of the office of emergency
00:20:47
planning requested information
00:20:49
the official Air Force explanation was
00:20:52
that it was likely a meteor and
00:20:54
basically what it goes on to say is the
00:20:56
fact that the search was called off
00:20:57
around 2:00 a.m. and that nothing was
00:20:59
found but evidence indicates that
00:21:02
something indeed was found at the site
00:21:04
the military's idea of finding nothing
00:21:07
is completely false there was something
00:21:10
down in that ravine that night there was
00:21:12
something that glowed an awful bright
00:21:13
light and they took something out of
00:21:16
there
00:21:18
[Applause]
00:21:19
another eyewitness reported seeing a
00:21:22
military convoy coming out of the ravine
00:21:25
at the end of the convoy was a flatbed
00:21:28
truck a large covered object on the back
00:21:31
John Hayes was only 10 years old
00:21:34
and the truck rumbled by his bedroom
00:21:35
window what was on the back of it I have
00:21:39
no idea it was about the size of a
00:21:41
Volkswagen Beetle from the distance I
00:21:44
was at according to Stan Gordon by
00:21:51
witness has identified the military unit
00:21:53
as Air Force's 660 second radar squadron
00:21:56
based in Pittsburgh Gordon believes a
00:21:59
unit was part of a top-secret operation
00:22:01
investigating UFOs there is no entry at
00:22:06
all for December 9th of 1965 in the
00:22:09
december of log of all activities for
00:22:11
that squadron that tells us that
00:22:13
somebody apparently want to keep all
00:22:16
information associated with the unit's
00:22:18
involvement in that site away from
00:22:21
public information I think that we can
00:22:25
very plainly see the fact that the
00:22:27
government has not told us everything
00:22:28
they know
00:22:29
about the Kecksburg case
00:22:33
official reports at the military and the
00:22:36
government put out as far as I'm
00:22:38
concerned a bunch of poll if this thing
00:22:41
was a meteorite then why didn't they
00:22:44
just bring it out and say here it is let
00:22:46
the reporters take pictures of it let
00:22:49
the firemen see it let the people in
00:22:51
this area see it why the big mystery I
00:22:55
think when we could down to illuminating
00:22:58
everything we've known about the object
00:23:00
we have two possibilities we're dealing
00:23:01
with here either one that we're dealing
00:23:03
with some highly advanced space probe
00:23:05
probably of a foreign nation that
00:23:08
appears to be very highly technical for
00:23:10
what we knew about 1965 or the
00:23:14
possibility exists we may indeed be
00:23:16
dealing with an extraterrestrial
00:23:17
spacecraft what happened on the fields
00:23:22
outside of Kecksburg Pennsylvania on
00:23:24
December 9th 1965 25 years after the
00:23:29
fiery object was seen streaking through
00:23:30
the skies the answers to the mystery
00:23:33
remain as elusive as the object itself
00:23:38
the air force has declined our request
00:23:40
to comment on this story their official
00:23:43
report still states that they were
00:23:44
investigating a meteorite the report
00:23:47
concludes that nothing was found some
00:23:50
people in Kecksburg Pennsylvania
00:23:52
disagree when we returned last summer
00:23:57
one of our updates inadvertently solved
00:23:59
a mystery of lost love and help the
00:24:01
daughter meet her father for the very
00:24:03
first time last July we featured an
00:24:15
update on the capture of convicted
00:24:17
murderer John moody during the segment
00:24:20
we interviewed several of Muniz
00:24:21
unsuspecting cult leaders including 53
00:24:24
year-old of our baits what Lavar didn't
00:24:27
tell him in time was that he was a
00:24:28
center to his own unsolved mystery over
00:24:34
the past three years we have featured
00:24:35
more than 20 stories of lost love more
00:24:38
than half of them resulted in
00:24:39
heartwarming reunions tonight we present
00:24:42
an unusual update about lost love and
00:24:45
how a chance interview helped a father
00:24:46
and his 31 year old daughter meet for
00:24:48
the first time
00:24:50
[Music]
00:24:55
18:58 Ike was president Elvis was king
00:24:59
sock cops and hula hoops with latest
00:25:01
craze that summer in Amarillo Texas 22
00:25:05
year old bar Bates fell in love with 18
00:25:07
year old Peggy up here we met at a place
00:25:12
called the pinion warnings they were
00:25:15
playing a dance called appalled Chuck
00:25:18
it's worth you dance with someone and
00:25:21
then they blow up whistling you change
00:25:22
partners
00:25:24
well when time came for us to change
00:25:26
partners and he turned around and
00:25:28
grabbed me I just I was swept off my
00:25:31
feet I just thought he was the most
00:25:32
handsome man at that time I'd ever seen
00:25:36
Lavar was employed by a construction of
00:25:39
it was working temporarily in Amarillo
00:25:42
Peggy lived in pampus Texas a small town
00:25:45
60 miles away every weekend Marv would
00:25:50
make the hour drive to Peggy's home so
00:25:52
they could be together over his sholder
00:26:00
list cranking up the radio and
00:26:02
just like all teenagers you know just
00:26:05
making the drag way the stuff that was
00:26:07
the grandest
00:26:10
[Music]
00:26:15
several months after they first met
00:26:17
Peggy drove to Amarillo and paid a
00:26:19
surprise visit to the man of her dreams
00:26:29
honey let me finish up in the bathroom
00:26:31
okay okay sure all right when I went in
00:26:35
to see Navarre in his hotel room he just
00:26:37
got now the charm was putting his stuff
00:26:39
I was sure we were fixing to go out
00:26:41
I thought maybe then we could go over
00:26:43
the hills and there was a picture of
00:26:46
this girl on his dresser yeah I think so
00:26:50
of course being a teen I just throw to
00:26:53
fit it's good to see you who the hell is
00:26:57
Fifi she's just a friend of mine I met
00:27:00
her at the coffee shop the other day
00:27:01
friend yeah just a friend of mine it's
00:27:04
nothing he kept telling me that he had
00:27:06
only known her for a couple of times you
00:27:07
know he went out with a couple times do
00:27:09
anything serious between my nan Chou
00:27:11
didn't believe me listen to Tom and me
00:27:14
levar Peggy I am NOT two-timing you
00:27:17
listen to me okay even listening to me
00:27:19
and then I got real man left and that
00:27:23
was the last time I saw him I heard from
00:27:25
him when Peggy stormed out of Lamar's
00:27:31
life she had no idea that she was
00:27:33
pregnant with his child
00:27:34
the next day lavars company transferred
00:27:37
him to Colorado he never saw or heard
00:27:40
from Peggy again
00:27:42
eight months later Peggy gave birth to a
00:27:45
daughter whom she named Kimber when she
00:27:49
was older
00:27:50
Kimber learned the truth about her
00:27:52
father my mother had told me as much as
00:27:57
she could about him but she didn't know
00:27:59
where he was that or where he went to or
00:28:01
anything like that
00:28:02
I wondered a lot of what he would he'd
00:28:05
be like what he'd look like or just
00:28:07
things like that but I just couldn't
00:28:10
imagine you know with no information at
00:28:12
all I just couldn't imagine what what
00:28:15
he'd be like levar Bates had no way of
00:28:19
knowing that he was a father over the
00:28:22
years Peggy and Kimber often discussed
00:28:23
trying to locate levar but with so
00:28:25
little information to go on they
00:28:27
eventually gave up hope of finding him
00:28:29
all that changed on Wednesday night July
00:28:32
the 4th 1990
00:28:33
[Music]
00:28:36
that evening Peggy Atwood was watching
00:28:38
the rebroadcast of our third anniversary
00:28:40
special when she suddenly recognized a
00:28:43
familiar face just disbelief I can
00:28:46
really believe it you know he he'd be
00:28:48
the last one I believe was involved in
00:28:51
something like that I didn't know what
00:28:53
to do
00:28:54
I didn't know whether to try to call him
00:28:57
and try to find out or to call Kimber
00:29:01
and tell her but then I decided not to
00:29:04
not to call her at all until I found out
00:29:07
for sure what anyone to meet her
00:29:10
at Peggy's request we contacted levar
00:29:13
who now lives in Phoenix Arizona
00:29:16
levar is married and has two children
00:29:19
when the guy from unsolved mysteries
00:29:22
called me said that Peggy had seen me on
00:29:25
television same name I was wondering if
00:29:28
I was interested in talking to her about
00:29:33
a daughter we had that was 31 years old
00:29:37
and I sit down and I chuck a little and
00:29:44
scared me I was so nervous because I was
00:29:47
afraid he wouldn't call and I wanted to
00:29:51
tell Kimber so bad about her daddy and
00:29:53
those four days not being able to pick
00:29:56
up the phone and call her and tell her
00:29:58
that I had found her daddy you know it
00:30:00
was probably the hardest thing I've ever
00:30:02
went through in my life oh the day she
00:30:05
called and told me that she had found
00:30:07
him it was just I was excited I was
00:30:11
scared I was all just all the emotions
00:30:14
just went crazy I didn't really know
00:30:17
what today because I was kind of in
00:30:19
shock I think I wanted to see him I
00:30:22
wanted to know him and I was just hoping
00:30:26
that he would want to know me too
00:30:29
[Music]
00:30:32
on August 10th unsolved mysteries flew
00:30:35
Lavar to Amarillo to meet his daughter
00:30:37
for the first time
00:30:42
/ Kimber the chance to meet her father
00:30:45
was a dream come true when I actually
00:30:54
seen him for the first time yes it was
00:30:57
great it was exciting and nerve-wracking
00:31:02
and but once I actually met him it was
00:31:04
it was all right oh I really would like
00:31:11
to know a lot better and I hope we have
00:31:13
time together to get to do that 30 years
00:31:22
is a long time when you think but we
00:31:26
seem to hit it off pretty good like
00:31:28
we've known each other quite a while I
00:31:30
don't know why that is but it just
00:31:33
seemed to be real easy to actually find
00:31:38
my father it means to me that now I can
00:31:42
get all the questions answered that I've
00:31:44
wondered about and in the future I hope
00:31:49
more than anything that he stays part of
00:31:53
our family
00:31:54
we can we can make up for all the years
00:31:56
that we didn't get to feel thing
00:31:58
[Music]
00:32:05
next an unsettling look into the mind of
00:32:08
a deranged arsonist who videotaped the
00:32:10
fire he set and filled the tape with his
00:32:13
alarming and possibly satanic commentary
00:32:15
I call help I've never run across
00:32:20
anything as eerie as this tape it was it
00:32:25
frightened me as a matter of fact I
00:32:28
thought about it that night when I went
00:32:30
to bed each year in the United States
00:32:40
more than 200,000 people become the
00:32:42
victims of arsonists each fire is an
00:32:45
individual tragedy in many cases victims
00:32:48
are left not only homeless but injured
00:32:50
or dead you're about to have the rare
00:32:52
and disturbing opportunity to go inside
00:32:55
the mind of an arsonist an arsonist who
00:32:57
police believe made a videotape of the
00:32:59
fire he said the story starts with an
00:33:02
innocent discovery
00:33:09
August 15th 1989 near Stockton
00:33:12
California a car overheated in the
00:33:15
scorching summer temperatures will call
00:33:17
the car's owner Joseph Vito
00:33:21
[Music]
00:33:30
Joseph inspected the damage while his
00:33:33
wife and son looked on Joseph decided
00:33:36
that he and his son should walk to the
00:33:38
nearest California on the way the boy
00:33:44
noticed a camouflage jacket on the
00:33:45
ground wrapped in the jacket or a
00:33:48
videotape with no label and several
00:33:50
audio cassettes of heavy-metal music
00:33:52
they decided to take the video tape home
00:34:01
this is the actual video tape found by
00:34:04
the vias
00:34:05
and police are convinced that the person
00:34:07
holding the camera set the fire himself
00:34:10
the via family was stunned when they
00:34:13
realized what they were watching the
00:34:15
disturbing voice on the tape seemed to
00:34:17
belong to the arsonist the police have
00:34:20
since enhanced the voice for clarity Oh
00:34:39
Sofia decided to turn the tape over to
00:34:41
the authorities
00:34:43
I've never run across anything as eerie
00:34:46
as this tape it was it frightened me as
00:34:51
a matter of fact I thought about it that
00:34:54
night when I went to bed unable to
00:34:57
pinpoint the location of the fire
00:34:59
investigators began an in-depth study of
00:35:02
the videotape itself
00:35:08
look at it Omar look at it Omar laughs
00:35:15
when we listen to the tape it was hard
00:35:18
to understand certain words that this
00:35:21
person was saying so we sat down and we
00:35:24
actually went through this tape I mean
00:35:26
hundreds of times and came up with a
00:35:28
script I saddle dog he says I told you I
00:35:47
do it Omar is Omar the property owner
00:35:52
it's uh it's a revenge type burn is Omar
00:35:55
the construction person that maybe hired
00:35:58
this person and fired them and made that
00:36:00
a revenge motive for the fire don't
00:36:03
really don't know we don't we really
00:36:04
don't know who omar is okay is this the
00:36:07
jacket okay did you see anything else
00:36:11
around here a County arson investigator
00:36:13
accompanied Joseph vias brother to the
00:36:15
spot where the tape had been discovered
00:36:17
amazingly the jacket was still there in
00:36:21
it was a wooden pestle the type
00:36:23
sometimes used to grind herbs for
00:36:25
satanic rituals nearby the two men found
00:36:30
a glove that matched the jacket and a
00:36:32
ceramic skull the pistol and the skull
00:36:35
suggests Satanism as these certain
00:36:37
portions of the arsonist monologue I
00:36:41
call hell
00:37:07
those are basically the clues all we
00:37:09
have on the video and that's why we need
00:37:13
to find out where this went down where
00:37:16
is this home
00:37:19
the fire department ape we realized that
00:37:29
there was fire suppression equipment
00:37:31
that had responded to the incident and
00:37:34
we thought if we can enhance the tape
00:37:36
bring those shots in a little bit closer
00:37:38
to us we may be able to get a door mark
00:37:41
or a house number or maybe even a fire
00:37:44
department insignia on the door despite
00:37:47
a frame-by-frame analysis the
00:37:49
photographic and hence must did not
00:37:50
reveal any new details investigators
00:37:53
were still unable to match the tape with
00:37:55
any reported fires in the state of
00:37:57
California the tape was found by the via
00:38:01
family here just a few yards from
00:38:03
interstate 205 near Stockton 205 fees
00:38:07
into several major highways so
00:38:09
authorities believe the fire could have
00:38:11
happened anywhere in the United States
00:38:12
and that the arsonist might have been
00:38:14
only traveling through California I
00:38:17
think the person who made this videotape
00:38:20
and is responsible for the fire will
00:38:22
without a doubt in my mind continue to
00:38:25
set fires and the person needs to be
00:38:28
apprehended and stopped before as fires
00:38:30
become more destructive
00:38:32
and there's a few of these type of
00:38:34
serial arsonists that will move into
00:38:36
another criminal area you may recall the
00:38:39
Son of Sam back east who killed six
00:38:42
people at 44 Magnum he was responsible
00:38:46
for about 2,000 fires in the city of New
00:38:48
York and then he stopped setting fires
00:38:50
and started killing people look at the
00:38:52
flames listen to the crowd gel ha ha ha
00:39:00
good night
00:39:13
our house appears to be a one-story
00:39:15
ranch house with two chimneys there is
00:39:19
another house on the left side of the
00:39:21
picture partially hidden by a white
00:39:23
trailer the trailer may indicate that
00:39:26
the burning house was under construction
00:39:28
the setting is uncluttered perhaps rural
00:39:32
the arsonist gives the date as 1988 the
00:39:35
TV commercials were caught it onto
00:39:37
another part of the tape verify that
00:39:39
date because fire engines do arrive it
00:39:43
seems fairly certain that somewhere the
00:39:46
report of this fire is on fire update
00:39:51
Redwood City California 60 miles west of
00:39:54
Stockton within minutes of our broadcast
00:39:57
several viewers Redwood City called our
00:39:59
telecentres identify the location of the
00:40:01
house seen burning on the videotape as
00:40:05
we were sitting here and would looked at
00:40:07
the film on the TV we realize with utter
00:40:10
shock that it was the house behind us
00:40:11
that was on TV and our family was scared
00:40:14
to say the least cuz we didn't realize
00:40:16
that the film even existed and was those
00:40:18
minutes taken my mind of all that that
00:40:20
was the house that was behind us by
00:40:22
watching the videotape on TV
00:40:23
we called him it's on solvus trees and
00:40:25
gave all the information the arson
00:40:28
occurred on August 15th 1988 a house
00:40:31
that was destroyed was under
00:40:33
construction at the time the day it has
00:40:35
been rebuilt incredibly in the night of
00:40:38
the blaze Woodside fire captain Don
00:40:40
Dillinger's also videotaped the fire
00:40:44
while I was setting up the command post
00:40:47
directing companies and to extinguish
00:40:49
the fire I had set up by video camera to
00:40:53
film the fire for training investigation
00:40:56
purposes
00:40:58
by comparing captain Dillon gist tape
00:41:01
with a video shot by the arsonist
00:41:02
investigators were able to confirm
00:41:04
beyond a doubt
00:41:06
fires location some of the calls
00:41:10
received led us to a 17 year old
00:41:12
Woodside youth we interviewed that youth
00:41:16
through that interview it led us to a 19
00:41:19
year old Redwood City youth he was
00:41:21
arrested and interviewed and
00:41:23
subsequently admitted burning the house
00:41:26
taking the video and was the one who
00:41:29
talked on the videotape our biggest hope
00:41:32
was that maybe we would find an area or
00:41:34
location on the fire we never dreamed
00:41:38
that we get the results that we did
00:41:40
[Music]
00:42:04
every October 18th Francesca and Thomas
00:42:07
Santana commemorate their daughter
00:42:09
Marlene's birthday but every October
00:42:13
18th is also a time of sorrow for the
00:42:15
Santana family for their daughter has
00:42:17
been missing since 1985 3 days after
00:42:21
Marlene Santana was born she was
00:42:23
kidnapped on a Brooklyn Street no trace
00:42:26
of her has ever been found on October
00:42:31
18th 1985 Francesca gave birth to a
00:42:34
little girl she named her Marlene when
00:42:37
my baby was born she was pretty she was
00:42:40
very beautiful she was the most
00:42:42
beautiful baby in the in the nursery
00:42:45
three days later the 21st of October
00:42:48
Francesca was preparing to take her baby
00:42:50
daughter home when she met a woman
00:42:52
outside the nursery that your baby yes
00:42:55
he's so beautiful I was my baby
00:43:01
I saw warming in the window that she
00:43:04
told me my baby was the most quiet one
00:43:08
the prettiest one and I was glad that
00:43:12
she told me that because I thought she
00:43:15
liked my baby a few hours later
00:43:20
Francesca checked out of the hospital
00:43:22
her two sisters-in-law came to take her
00:43:25
home
00:43:28
the time was 9 p.m.
00:43:31
when we're going to us there woman come
00:43:35
to me the same woman that I saw in the
00:43:37
north were you going wait all night she
00:43:41
was waiting for me all day I'm going
00:43:43
home now
00:43:44
goodbye this isn't a game I'm not joking
00:43:48
around
00:43:52
Juan Pablo head up so teacher was to
00:44:04
come and she told us to work what she
00:44:07
gonna blow up the head and we work keep
00:44:15
going they walked over six blocks at
00:44:17
gunpoint finally they stopped near a
00:44:23
deserted junkyard I said stop the first
00:44:29
Francesca thought that they were being
00:44:31
wrong give me the baby
00:44:34
give me the baby I said give me the baby
00:44:46
keep walking walk nobody got in a car
00:44:52
driven by an accomplice over
00:44:57
[Music]
00:44:59
when she took the baby I wasn't Chuck I
00:45:02
don't know what to do I was crying I
00:45:05
started stopped the car there and nobody
00:45:09
nobody help us after francesca and ER
00:45:15
companies' went to the police detectives
00:45:17
were assigned to the case
00:45:18
[Applause]
00:45:21
Francesca was able to describe the car
00:45:23
that had driven away with her baby
00:45:25
it was a white 1976 Chevy Malibu with
00:45:29
red lettering on its door that the
00:45:34
hospital police tried to gather
00:45:35
descriptions of the mysterious woman
00:45:37
some believe that she was not a
00:45:39
professional criminal
00:45:40
but rather an emotionally disturbed
00:45:42
woman unable to have a child of her own
00:45:45
based on eyewitness descriptions a
00:45:48
composite was created showing the
00:45:50
abductor she was white with Hispanic
00:45:52
features and no accent she had dyed
00:45:54
reddish-blond hair and appeared to be in
00:45:57
her late twenties today three years
00:46:00
later the Santana family still search
00:46:02
for their missing child a composite
00:46:04
artist sketch Marlene as she might look
00:46:06
today she would be three years of age
00:46:08
and may celebrate her birthday around
00:46:10
Halloween she might have been put up for
00:46:12
an illegal adoption in late 1985 or 1986
00:46:16
maybe one day a person who no where is
00:46:19
my baby
00:46:20
they must say something they must do it
00:46:22
I don't think I could've died without
00:46:26
seeing my baby again
00:46:35
next week on unsolved mysteries December
00:46:39
1945 a squadron of Navy torpedo planes
00:46:42
took off from Florida and literally
00:46:44
disappeared from the face of the earth
00:46:46
during a routine training exercise in an
00:46:48
area we now call the Bermuda Triangle
00:46:51
since then the mysterious powers of the
00:46:53
Bermuda Triangle are said to have caused
00:46:55
hundreds of ships and planes to vanish
00:46:57
now dramatic new evidence suggests that
00:47:00
the legend of the Bermuda Triangle is
00:47:02
just that only allegedly and in northern
00:47:08
california one woman takes a brave stand
00:47:11
against drug dealers in her neighborhood
00:47:13
an unexpected barrage of gunfire left
00:47:15
her wounded but more determined than
00:47:17
ever her attackers fled and the main
00:47:20
unidentified they'll also tell you the
00:47:23
poignant story of six brothers and
00:47:25
sisters who were uprooted from their
00:47:26
homes and placed in orphanages today
00:47:29
five of them are still searching for the
00:47:30
missing brother join me next week for
00:47:33
another edition of unsolved mysteries
00:47:36
[Music]
00:48:06
[Applause]
00:48:09
[Music]
