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next on unsolved mysteries
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a popular teenager breaks up a fight and
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then he's found fatally injured on a
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lonely road was it a random hit-and-run
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or was it cold-blooded murder
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a mother and her son both died
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mysteriously more than 20 years apart
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could there be a
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connection when a woman vanishes her
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husband tells two completely different
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stories about his wife's disappearance
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what really happened
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to pam page
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a man and his two sons steal millions of
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dollars through an elaborate medicaid
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fraud when he's finally caught
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he disappears
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five compelling cases i'm dennis farina
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and this
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is unsolved mysteries
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join us won't you
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[Music]
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spokane washington
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105 am
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two friends on their way home are
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startled when their headlights reveal a
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body stretched out in the road
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thirteen-year-old russell evans has
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apparently been struck by a card he is
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barely alive
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brian
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russell is admitted to sacred heart
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hospital at 1 30 a.m
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as his parents stand by
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doctors struggle through the night to
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save his life
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when i got there i just wanted to see
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him and so i went right to the trauma
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room and he was unconscious
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mom's here
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i just knew he wasn't gonna make it
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the emergency team works frantically but
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by morning russell evans
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is dead
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i'm really grateful that i had those
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eight hours because
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even though he didn't talk to me i knew
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he was knew i was there
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and um
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that was really important to me
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the mangled body of a teenage boy lies
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in the street
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perhaps the victim of a careless driver
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or perhaps the target of a deliberate
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murderous attack
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in the case of russell evans his parents
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and local police have drawn opposite
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conclusions from the same set of
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evidence
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russell was an active and popular eighth
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grader at libby middle school in spokane
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by the age of 13 he was already six feet
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three inches tall
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he did everything together he's at my
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house every day and
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he was very well-liked had a good sense
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of humor
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and he got along with pretty much
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everybody he had no problems
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in the hours before russell died
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he was with aaron and other friends
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hanging out at a local park it was a
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typical summer evening until they were
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approached by two other teenagers
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hey man come here real quick
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and what's your name aaron aren't you
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yeah let me tell you something man
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hey hey you guys better take off before
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there's some real trouble and you don't
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even know what trouble is oh really
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he said you better watch out because
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of my homeboys
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but i didn't really think much of it you
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know
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so i just
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turned around and we left and he got in
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his car with his friend and took off
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after leaving the park russell spent the
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rest of the evening at a friend's house
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and then he called his father to say
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that he was heading home
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it was then about 12 30 a.m
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based on evidence found at the scene
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police constructed a hit and run
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scenario
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[Applause]
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on the impact with the vehicle he was
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separated from his shoes and shoelaces
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and other debris he finally came to rest
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about 75 feet from where we think he was
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struck
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from the bruises uh president russell i
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think the most prominent possibility
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here is that we're dealing with a motor
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vehicle accident the russell was struck
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in the back by a bumper and an ornament
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we looked at him after he died
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and i thought he'd been in a fight
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later on when the police started talking
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about hit and run
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his mom mom and i just couldn't buy that
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i mean
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the injuries weren't there
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john and sue evans obtained copies of
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the official police report complete with
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photographs
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they noted that russell's shoes didn't
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have their laces on somehow they had
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been torn out
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to russell's parents it seemed like an
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important clue the evans returned to the
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scene of the accident with sandy ferris
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the woman who had found russell
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there is blood on the shoelace now tell
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me how do you get blood on the shoelace
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if you're struck and driven out of your
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shoes and throwing 50 feet down the hill
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he was about right up there john and sue
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became convinced that their son had been
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struck by something other than a
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hit-and-run driver
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and they hired their own pathologists to
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investigate
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while he concluded that russell had been
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hit by a car he also found evidence of a
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struggle
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he's right about up in here this
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pathologist came back
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with the findings that russell had been
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in a physical altercation prior to his
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death
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if a body flies through the air when
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that body hits the pavement there would
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be some massive scraping
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russell did not have this
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well this isn't making a lot of sense
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i'll tell you
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based on their research russell's
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parents reconstructed their son's final
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moments
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i think it was a fight going back up the
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hill according to his hands he got his
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licks in he had finger bruises on his
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face on the side of the nose
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finger bruising on his upper fore upper
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arms
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as though he were being held
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the people that were allegedly involved
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in the argument with this friend of
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justice
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were polygraphed
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because other people were making
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allegations about them
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they passed a polygraph of flying cars
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when i first got there first thing i
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asked him
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was what happened and he started calling
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for brian hold me up
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brian help me out
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he said it more like a person was in
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listening distance that his friend
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should have been there
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uh
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like he thought his friend was close by
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after the police had gotten there and
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they started to put russell in the
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ambulance we saw a boy in white shorts
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up in the bushes and he was running up
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the hill
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and i tried to tell the policeman this a
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couple of times and he kept telling me
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to get on the sidewalk
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i thought maybe that probably could have
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been the boy that he was calling for
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brian
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one of russell's friends
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was named brian
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and i asked brian what he was wearing
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that night he said well i was wearing
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white white shorts and white t-shirt but
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i was nowhere around
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later down the line when the police
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questioned him he denied owning that
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kind of outfit
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we've asked for him and talked with
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everyone that we could possibly think of
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and our assumption is it was just
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somebody
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that was curious that heard the
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commotion that heard the sirens and went
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out to take a look
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when sue evans arrived at the hospital
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someone named brian had just called the
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emergency ward to ask about russell i
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don't want any information given out
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about him now someone by the name of
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brian's already called concerning his
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condition
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that's odd who would have known about
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this
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unless somebody named brian was at that
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scene that he was calling for
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there may be one or two that know
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more than they're telling
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and the reason they're probably not
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telling is that they are afraid for
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their lives
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evidence from the scene totally
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convinced russell's parents that he had
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been attacked and murdered
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the police still believe that russell
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was the victim of a hit and run driver
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however
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officially the case still remains
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unsolved
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if you have any information about the
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death of russell evans please log on to
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our website at unsolved.com
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when we come back two mysterious and
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violent deaths in the same family
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20 years apart
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the small town of hooksett new hampshire
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like most of new england it springs to
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life when the winter snows have melted
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away long days and warmer temperatures
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promise better days to come
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[Music]
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but one year the retreating snow
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revealed the body of a missing teenager
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the second local girl to be found
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tortured
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and murdered
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one of the victims was a 15 year old
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high school student named pamela mason
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[Music]
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it was rumored that her killer lived in
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the area
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and neighbors began looking at each
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other with suspicion
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47 year old rina paquette told her
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friends and family that she knew who had
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killed the two teenage girls
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at the time
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nobody took her seriously
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but 10 days after the second body was
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found
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rena's son 13 year old danny paquette
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mom came down for breakfast
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and found that his mother was gone
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to charlie this is danny speaking yeah i
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can't find my mom
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well she said she was gonna take me to
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dennis today
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when danny got up that morning he
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couldn't find my mother
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dan couldn't understand where she was
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because her purse and her winter coat
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were there
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and it was extremely
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bitterly cold and it was highly unlikely
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that she went anywhere without her coat
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charlie
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danny and his uncle searched the
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property for over an hour but rena was
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nowhere to be found
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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authorities recovered her charred body
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they concluded that she had deliberately
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set herself
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on fire
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reena's death was ruled a suicide
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however her family remains convinced
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that someone
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had killed her
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[Music]
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i don't really believe my mother
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committed suicide because of the
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tremendous amount of fear and panic in
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the community because of the
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two earlier
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brutal murders
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i think it was just kind of like kept on
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a very low profile
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not to create more
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public hysteria i feel at the time of my
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mother's death person that was found to
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be the person responsible for killing
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the young pamela mason girl was the same
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person that was responsible for my
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mother's death
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within weeks of rena's death a local man
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was arrested convicted and sentenced to
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life in prison for the murder of pamela
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mason
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nearly 20 years would pass before danny
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paquette discovered a possible link
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between the murder of his mother
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and the killing of the two girls
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it was danny paquette who had discovered
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his mother's charred body
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perhaps that's why of rina's five
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children
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danny was the most impacted by her death
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i think everybody's mom is a little
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security blanket
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and from there you lose that
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emotionally it leads to a lot of
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problems
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danny grew from a troubled teenager into
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a troubled adult
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i'm gonna take you back
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to february the third
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danny was ordered to undergo a
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psychiatric examination at a mental
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hospital
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his treatment there led to some
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unexpected revelations about the past
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under hypnosis danny recalled details of
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the morning that his mother was killed
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i woke up because i heard it down
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[Music]
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danny became convinced that he had
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actually seen the person who had killed
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his mother
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he was certain it was the same delivery
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man who had murdered pamela mason but
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there was never any evidence to support
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his belief
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danny returned home after five months
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and tried to pick up the pieces of his
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life
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he and his brother victor spent many
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afternoons together motorcycling through
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the countryside if it was a real turning
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point for him we spent time together and
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we started to enjoy life
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one saturday morning danny was repairing
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a bulldozer in his yard while two of his
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friends worked on a car in the garage
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at 11 am
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danny's friends heard a loud
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pop
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[Applause]
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i ran up
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towards where danny was working
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it appeared to me that he'd been
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electrocuted
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we noticed the air escaping from a hole
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in the middle of his chest
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and i thought that it was a welding
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probe that he fell on when he hit the
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ground
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i the time i didn't know it was a bullet
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wound
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danny paquette had been shot through the
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heart with a single bullet he died
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instantly
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a surge of the area revealed about
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50 to 80 yards away
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footprints
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heading toward the woods where it was
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coincidental or in fact
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someone's footprint that was fleeing the
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scene
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is speculative at this time
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local phone service had stopped at the
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same time that danny was killed and
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police later pulled a slug from the
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telephone line
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it was the bullet that killed danny
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paquette
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the day danny was shot was the beginning
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of hunting season and police thought
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that he might have been accidentally hit
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by a straight bullet
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we were able to ascertain that there
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were hunters in a gravel pit
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approximately a mile away that was
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sighting their weapons and at the time
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if danny was shot accidentally the fatal
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bullet may have come from this gravel
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pit for this to happen the bullet had to
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travel nearly a mile climb one thousand
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feet pass through danny and then
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penetrate the telephone cable
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ballistics expert rj gregorio was
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brought in from new york city to
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determine if such a shot was even
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possible
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greg leo's conclusion
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no way
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i would rule out the possibility that
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there was an accident that the gun was
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fired from a mile or more away
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rather
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it was a shot
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fired in the vicinity
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deliberately
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summoned had deliberately targeted danny
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and killed him with a single shot
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but who
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update
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20 years after danny paquette was killed
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police arrested 38-year-old eric
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windhurst for the murder
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windhurst was a high school friend of
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danny's stepdaughter melanie cooper
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she claimed that danny had sexually
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abused her she later admitted that she
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was with wynhurst when he shot danny
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windhurst pleaded guilty and received
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the sentence of 15 to 36 years in prison
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he served his time and has been released
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for her role in the crime melanie cooper
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received the sentence of three to five
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years she has since been released
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the death of rina paquette is still
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classified
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as a suicide
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next when a woman in arizona disappears
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police suspect that her husband knows
00:18:58
much more than he's saying
00:19:11
peoria arizona is a comfortable suburb
00:19:14
just outside of phoenix
00:19:16
pam and rob page were among those who
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lived in peoria and by all accounts
00:19:21
their marriage was solid
00:19:23
one day however pam page disappeared
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without a trace
00:19:30
rob would later explain that he came
00:19:32
home to an empty house and a letter from
00:19:35
pam
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rob by the time you read this i'll be a
00:19:39
long way from here i have thought this
00:19:41
thing out and i've been planning this
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for several months
00:19:45
the letter said that pam had left town
00:19:47
with a woman named sarah
00:19:49
rob claimed that he was embarrassed
00:19:52
because he thought that his wife had
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left him for another woman
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he did not notify pam's family in
00:19:59
arkansas that she was gone
00:20:04
four days later however pam's oldest
00:20:06
sister trina
00:20:09
i was calling to see how pam was doing
00:20:11
she's gone
00:20:12
what do you mean she's gone
00:20:14
well i came home on saturday and and she
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left me a letter
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it seemed out of character to me uh for
00:20:20
her not to let anyone know that where
00:20:22
she was where she was at
00:20:24
but i didn't think about that at first i
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just
00:20:28
had one thing on mine was getting my
00:20:29
word to somebody that she was missing
00:20:32
the time you read this i will be a long
00:20:33
way from here
00:20:35
pam's father asked to see the letter and
00:20:37
rob fax them a copy
00:20:39
when i received that fax
00:20:41
letter i knew that something was bad
00:20:43
wrong
00:20:45
one thing i looked at signature i had
00:20:48
birthday cards and
00:20:50
letters from pam and the the signature
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wasn't
00:20:53
her signature
00:20:55
rob told pam's family that a missing
00:20:57
person's report had already been filed
00:21:00
but when one of pam's sisters called the
00:21:02
local police she discovered that they
00:21:05
had never even heard of the case
00:21:09
detectives began their investigation by
00:21:12
questioning rob
00:21:14
he told them that on the day of pam's
00:21:16
disappearance he had gone to several
00:21:18
auto park stores
00:21:19
at one his truck wouldn't start
00:21:26
rob said he called home and got no
00:21:28
answer so he phoned for a taxi
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rob told police that he never went into
00:21:35
the house only the garage he got a part
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for his truck and rode his bike back to
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the store
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when the truck finally started he drove
00:21:45
home and that's when he found the letter
00:21:49
the letter said that pam had taken all
00:21:51
of their money
00:21:53
sixty thousand dollars in cash out of
00:21:55
the safe at the video store rob said he
00:21:58
went to the store and confirmed that the
00:22:00
cash was gone
00:22:04
the letter also said that pam had left
00:22:06
the couple's corvette at a local donut
00:22:08
shop
00:22:09
rob claimed that he found it the next
00:22:11
day
00:22:12
soon police began to question the
00:22:14
details of rob's story
00:22:18
none of the employees at the last auto
00:22:20
parts store remembered rob asking about
00:22:23
an ignition switch
00:22:26
robert said that his truck which was
00:22:28
very distinctive was parked at the store
00:22:30
for nearly four hours that afternoon
00:22:33
none of the employees ever recall seeing
00:22:35
that truck being out from the store or
00:22:38
anyone ever working on it and one
00:22:40
particular employee stated if that truck
00:22:42
had been out in front of his business he
00:22:44
would have known it
00:22:46
finally three weeks after pam
00:22:48
disappeared the arizona state crime lab
00:22:50
confirmed that the signature on the
00:22:52
letter was almost certainly not
00:22:55
dance
00:22:56
mr page uh refused to believe me and was
00:22:59
adamant that his wife had in fact signed
00:23:01
the letter after continuing to question
00:23:04
mr page about the signature on the
00:23:05
letter he admitted to me that he in fact
00:23:08
did sign that letter
00:23:11
it was a stunning turnaround enough to
00:23:13
make rob page a suspect
00:23:16
suddenly he began to tell a completely
00:23:19
different story
00:23:20
now rob insisted that he had actually
00:23:23
found the letter in the family computer
00:23:25
a few days before pam disappeared
00:23:29
mr page stated that while he was on the
00:23:32
family's home computer he discovered a
00:23:34
letter that he claims his wife had
00:23:36
authored in which in essence that she
00:23:38
was going to be leaving him
00:23:40
i was working on the computer just now
00:23:42
and i found something very interesting
00:23:44
mr page stated um he confronted his wife
00:23:47
about that letter i'm sorry you found
00:23:49
this i wrote this a long time ago oh
00:23:51
then you weren't planning to leave me
00:23:52
huh no i wasn't i wrote this one i was
00:23:55
upset well then you're not gonna take
00:23:57
our money and run off why do you have to
00:23:59
blow everything out of proportion
00:24:02
according to rob's new story a few days
00:24:05
after the confrontation he came home to
00:24:07
find a house in a mess
00:24:09
[Music]
00:24:11
rob told police that most of pam's
00:24:13
clothes were gone along with the family
00:24:16
pictures and one of their dogs
00:24:18
pam's credit cards and house keys were
00:24:20
on the kitchen table but rob could not
00:24:23
find her driver's license rob claims
00:24:26
that after making these discoveries he
00:24:28
decided to act
00:24:30
he went downstairs and added four
00:24:32
sentences to the letter in the computer
00:24:36
printed it out and signed pam's name
00:24:38
he then drove her corvette to the donut
00:24:41
shop went to the pay phone across the
00:24:43
street and called a taxi mr page stated
00:24:47
that he fabricated some of the things he
00:24:49
did
00:24:50
because no one would ever believe him
00:24:52
that his wife had in fact left him had
00:24:54
he not done this
00:24:56
due to mr page's inconsistent statements
00:24:59
throughout this investigation as well as
00:25:01
the suspicious circumstances surrounding
00:25:03
the disappearance of his wife he was
00:25:05
offered a polygraph examination on
00:25:07
several occasions and he declined to
00:25:10
take a polygraph on each occasion that
00:25:11
it was offered
00:25:14
despite the suspicions about rob page
00:25:17
police found no evidence that he had
00:25:18
done anything wrong except change his
00:25:21
story no charges were filed and the
00:25:24
investigation ground to a halt
00:25:28
this is a picture of your sister pam as
00:25:31
a last resort pam's sister jimmy rice
00:25:34
consulted carol pate a psychic in little
00:25:37
rock arkansas
00:25:38
pate had worked with the little rock
00:25:40
police for 10 years
00:25:42
working only from a photo of pam the
00:25:45
psychic recounted a disturbing scenario
00:25:48
thank you
00:25:50
i saw her
00:25:52
with a man in what appeared to be her
00:25:54
house
00:25:55
and she was arguing with him
00:25:58
he knocks her to the floor he's trying
00:26:00
to strangle her
00:26:02
he grabs a pillow
00:26:06
and all of a sudden she's she's quiet
00:26:09
[Music]
00:26:10
then a female comes
00:26:13
she assists him
00:26:15
on placing her in the trunk
00:26:20
now i'm seeing them pull out of the
00:26:22
garage
00:26:24
and they're driving
00:26:28
then i'm seeing a factory
00:26:31
and it's gray in color
00:26:33
and there's a railroad track parallel
00:26:37
then he pulls over on the side of the
00:26:38
road
00:26:40
and removes
00:26:42
the body
00:26:44
and begins to dig
00:26:46
the name coolidge
00:26:48
comes into my mind
00:26:50
and
00:26:51
two four one
00:26:56
jana thorson an arizona newspaper
00:26:58
reporter covering pam's disappearance
00:27:01
followed up the clues
00:27:04
thorson did find a gray factory building
00:27:07
near some railroad tracks in peoria
00:27:11
nearby she found a sign with the numbers
00:27:14
2-4-1
00:27:16
a route that ran from bob and pam's
00:27:18
house to the home of a friend passed
00:27:20
both these sites and ended at a street
00:27:23
named
00:27:24
coolidge
00:27:26
there is no way to evaluate carol pate's
00:27:29
information until it is known whether
00:27:32
pam page met with foul play or chose to
00:27:35
disappear
00:27:37
as for rob page he still insists that
00:27:39
his wife is alive
00:27:43
rob page declined our request for an
00:27:45
interview and has since divorced his
00:27:48
missing wife
00:27:49
police say that he is no longer a
00:27:51
suspect in this case
00:27:53
and they still have no idea what
00:27:55
happened
00:27:56
to pam page
00:27:59
pam has red hair and brown eyes and is
00:28:01
five feet eight inches tall
00:28:05
if you have any information about the
00:28:07
disappearance of pam page please log on
00:28:10
to our website at
00:28:14
unsolved.com coming up how did sheldon
00:28:18
weinberg manage to steal 16 million
00:28:21
dollars from new york's medicaid program
00:28:33
we recently profiled the disturbing
00:28:35
story of a new york businessman named
00:28:37
sheldon weinberg along with his two sons
00:28:40
weinberg stole an estimated 16 million
00:28:43
dollars of taxpayers money funds
00:28:45
allocated to medical care for the poor
00:28:53
sheldon weinberg and his sons operate at
00:28:55
the bedstuy health clerk clinic in one
00:28:57
of brooklyn new york's poorest
00:28:59
neighborhoods they employed over 25
00:29:01
physicians and catered primarily to
00:29:04
medicaid recipients
00:29:08
but their real specialty was fraud
00:29:10
they were submitting up to thirty
00:29:12
thousand dollars a week in false
00:29:13
spellings to the government
00:29:16
they began small
00:29:18
manually writing up uh phony records and
00:29:21
phony bills
00:29:22
but once they started getting away with
00:29:24
it they realized the scam was working
00:29:26
the weinberg started using a computer to
00:29:29
create bills and medical records for
00:29:31
non-existent charges their profits
00:29:34
soared from thousands to millions of
00:29:37
dollars
00:29:38
we bring these numbers up why not
00:29:41
hey it looks good they used medicaid
00:29:44
like it was a private bank account for
00:29:45
them and from that bank account the
00:29:48
weinberg's led the high life on the
00:29:50
backs of poor people
00:29:52
i think their appetite for
00:29:55
conspicuous living for fancy clothes and
00:29:58
especially shoes
00:29:59
was only
00:30:01
outdone by imelda marcos
00:30:05
for seven years the money rolled in
00:30:07
but the weinberg's elaborate scheme
00:30:09
started to unravel when authorities
00:30:11
investigated their billing practices
00:30:19
auditors spent weeks carefully searching
00:30:21
through the clinic's records and tracing
00:30:24
the phony billings
00:30:26
if you look at the medical charts you'll
00:30:27
see that a four-year-old boy
00:30:30
was uh shown as having smoked four packs
00:30:32
of cigarettes a day and haven't drank a
00:30:34
quarter of booze a day you found men
00:30:36
with gynecological problems
00:30:39
and that's the type of things that
00:30:41
jumped out off the paper ratchet
00:30:44
sheldon weinberg and his two sons ronald
00:30:46
and jay were convicted of grand larceny
00:30:49
conspiracy
00:30:50
and 63 other counts relating to their
00:30:53
fraud scheme
00:30:55
ronald weinberg was sentenced to five to
00:30:58
15 years in prison
00:31:01
jay weinberg received an eight to 25
00:31:03
year sentence with additional time for
00:31:05
tax evasion they served their time and
00:31:08
have been released
00:31:10
sheldon weinberg faced a 7 to 21-year
00:31:13
prison term but just before sentencing
00:31:17
he and his wife
00:31:19
disappeared
00:31:22
update
00:31:25
within three hours of our broadcast
00:31:27
sheldon weinberg was arrested by fbi
00:31:30
agents in scottsdale arizona where he
00:31:33
and his wife were living under assumed
00:31:36
names
00:31:37
right after the show aired we got
00:31:39
specific information from callers who
00:31:41
had seen them all over the scottsdale
00:31:43
area
00:31:44
and one of the callers told us that the
00:31:47
weinbergs were using the alias davita
00:31:49
and this corresponded with information
00:31:51
we previously had back here in new york
00:31:53
they were traveling under that name so
00:31:55
when the caller told us that
00:31:57
he had seen people that looked like the
00:31:59
weinberg's using the name davida in
00:32:01
scottsdale we knew we had our man
00:32:04
weinberg was brought back to new york
00:32:06
and three days later appeared before new
00:32:08
york state supreme court justice ruth
00:32:11
moskovitz who reimposed the seven to 21
00:32:15
years sentence
00:32:16
i do not regard this as a white-collar
00:32:18
crime
00:32:19
this is a crime of violence to all of
00:32:23
the people of new york city this is a
00:32:25
crime of violence to the
00:32:28
medicaid recipients
00:32:30
medicaid state funds should not go so
00:32:33
that people could live in trump towers
00:32:36
so that people could live in luxury on
00:32:39
florida
00:32:40
estates authorities have recovered less
00:32:43
than six million of the estimated 16
00:32:46
million dollars that weinberg and his
00:32:48
son stole from taxpayers
00:32:52
after serving 16 years in a new york
00:32:54
prison sheldon weinberg was released
00:32:57
his son ronald has also been released
00:33:00
and his son jay served its time and has
00:33:03
been released
00:33:11
you find yourself in a strange and alien
00:33:13
place
00:33:14
you scan your surroundings for clues
00:33:16
even your own possessions are
00:33:18
unrecognizable
00:33:20
finally the terrifying realization you
00:33:23
don't know where you are you don't even
00:33:24
know who you are you are suffering from
00:33:27
amnesia
00:33:29
that's exactly what happened to a woman
00:33:31
who one day woke up in a park
00:33:33
in new orleans
00:33:37
it's horrible
00:33:38
and it's it's so sudden like you're not
00:33:41
prepared for it you don't expect things
00:33:42
like that to happen to you i didn't know
00:33:44
what to do
00:33:46
i know i had to go get help somewhere
00:33:48
the woman thought her name might be gigi
00:33:52
she carried a strange assortment of
00:33:54
things
00:33:55
four pairs of scissors
00:33:57
a gold-plated table setting
00:34:00
ups forms used only by company employees
00:34:04
and deposit envelopes from banks across
00:34:07
the northeastern united states
00:34:10
she was also carrying 26 tubes of
00:34:13
lipstick
00:34:15
24 lip liner pencils
00:34:17
and lots of other cosmetics
00:34:21
police reviewed hundreds of missing
00:34:23
persons files
00:34:24
doctors probed and tested even sodium
00:34:27
amitav a so-called truth serum was given
00:34:30
to gigi
00:34:32
nothing worked
00:34:33
her past remained a secret that no one
00:34:36
could unlock
00:34:38
she has made a conscious effort to
00:34:40
assist me on every phase of trying to
00:34:44
find out who she is through the
00:34:46
law enforcement agencies through the
00:34:47
media if she was in fact trying to
00:34:50
conceal her
00:34:51
identity
00:34:53
she would not have signed the releases
00:34:55
that allow us to do this
00:34:57
doyle mcgee was puzzled by the total
00:35:00
absence of anything personal in gigi's
00:35:03
wallet or handbag he feared that this
00:35:06
was no accident
00:35:08
somebody has gone to great pains to make
00:35:11
sure that we don't know who she is
00:35:13
the wallets are fairly new
00:35:16
they had absolutely nothing personal in
00:35:18
them no personal photos no credit cards
00:35:21
no checks
00:35:23
what could have triggered gigi's amnesia
00:35:26
experts believe that she experienced
00:35:28
something so horrible that in her own
00:35:31
defense her memory simply
00:35:34
shut down
00:35:37
update
00:35:39
during the broadcast of this story
00:35:41
several viewers called our phone center
00:35:44
saying that they did recognize gigi
00:35:47
she was identified as belinda lynn from
00:35:50
wilmington delaware however none of the
00:35:53
callers could tell us how she got to new
00:35:55
orleans
00:35:56
or why she lost her memory
00:35:59
[Music]
00:36:01
next the reunion of a young woman and
00:36:03
her mother launches a new search for two
00:36:07
long lost sisters
00:36:18
in san francisco california
00:36:21
jackie dragon grew up in a typical
00:36:23
middle class home
00:36:26
she knew she had been adopted but had no
00:36:28
information about her birth parents
00:36:30
but for some reason jackie had an
00:36:33
extraordinary interest in films and
00:36:36
television shows about women in prisons
00:36:41
there was some strange sense of security
00:36:43
that i felt in watching the stories and
00:36:45
you know the women interacting in these
00:36:48
in their lives in their relationships in
00:36:50
prison
00:36:52
at the age of 12 years old jackie made a
00:36:55
surprising discovery
00:36:57
i was sneaking around in my father's
00:36:59
closet and looking through a box of
00:37:01
papers
00:37:03
and what i found were legal papers and
00:37:06
as i read through them i realized they
00:37:08
were my adoption papers
00:37:11
jacqueline stark
00:37:13
it was a big thing it was a turning
00:37:15
point it was something that i knew from
00:37:16
that point on that someday i would find
00:37:20
those people in that paper
00:37:24
i searched you know off and on
00:37:26
for a number of years when i got the
00:37:29
information that i wasn't born in some
00:37:31
hospital somewhere but that i was born
00:37:33
in prison
00:37:37
[Music]
00:37:39
jackie learned that she was born at a
00:37:41
women's prison in chicago
00:37:45
her mother marge ryder was serving a
00:37:47
one-year sentence for her part in an
00:37:50
armed robbery
00:37:55
after more than nine years of searching
00:37:58
jackie finally located her birth mother
00:38:01
hi may i speak with marge ryder please
00:38:04
speaking
00:38:05
and what i realized was that in a way
00:38:07
i was setting myself up to feel rejected
00:38:09
all over again
00:38:11
does the date february 16th 1964 mean
00:38:14
anything to you
00:38:17
what did you say your name was again
00:38:18
well my name is jackie
00:38:22
i can't believe you're calling me
00:38:25
not for a second did she hesitate she
00:38:27
was happy that i called and i felt so
00:38:29
relieved and so lucky
00:38:32
well do you have time to talk right now
00:38:35
i've got all the time in the world to
00:38:36
talk now yes
00:38:39
marge talked about the agonizing
00:38:41
decision to give jackie up for adoption
00:38:45
i convinced myself that the best thing
00:38:47
to do for jackie was to give her a home
00:38:50
that i assumed
00:38:52
had two
00:38:53
upstanding parents that there was
00:38:56
security in that home that she could be
00:38:58
guaranteed an education all the things
00:39:01
that i knew at that time in my life
00:39:03
there was no way i could possibly give
00:39:06
her any of that
00:39:09
after she had left
00:39:11
they came and told me that jackie had
00:39:13
gone to her new home in some other state
00:39:16
and
00:39:17
it hurt
00:39:20
same as it's certain now
00:39:23
that's one memory i didn't lose
00:39:29
a few weeks after saying goodbye to
00:39:31
jackie marge completed her sentence and
00:39:34
was released she never again got in
00:39:36
trouble with the law she married and
00:39:38
lived a conventional life
00:39:40
but when she talked to jackie years
00:39:42
later marge did have some dramatic news
00:39:47
one of the first things she said was i
00:39:49
never thought any of you girls would be
00:39:51
calling me
00:39:52
and then she let me know that there were
00:39:54
two other sisters
00:39:56
it was very exciting i couldn't believe
00:39:57
it was like there's more you're kidding
00:39:58
there's something more that i didn't
00:39:59
know
00:40:01
marge's first daughter laura may was
00:40:04
just 18 months old when marge went to
00:40:07
prison
00:40:08
she was left in the care of marge's
00:40:10
grandmother
00:40:11
the courts just stepped in because she
00:40:13
was too old a woman to raise a infant
00:40:16
child
00:40:17
and i think i think they lost her as
00:40:19
well as i did
00:40:21
laura may was ultimately taken by the
00:40:24
cook county welfare department and
00:40:26
became a ward of the state
00:40:28
marge never saw laura may again
00:40:33
after her prison term marge gave birth
00:40:36
to a third daughter dawn marie
00:40:39
she too
00:40:40
was given up for adoption i had often
00:40:43
gone over in my mind what if they come
00:40:45
looking for me
00:40:47
i felt i was giving each child
00:40:50
the very best that i could give them
00:40:54
[Music]
00:40:55
marge ryder flew to california and met
00:40:58
her daughter jackie for the first time
00:41:02
[Music]
00:41:04
this is laura may and this is you of
00:41:06
course
00:41:07
wow you can definitely tell it's family
00:41:09
she really looks the same look at all
00:41:11
those knees i guess
00:41:14
thanks to our viewers jackie dragon and
00:41:17
marge rider's dreams of reuniting their
00:41:20
family
00:41:21
finally came true
00:41:23
after we first broadcast the story they
00:41:25
were contacted by laura may now called
00:41:28
susan and by dawn marie whose adoptive
00:41:31
name is carlin
00:41:35
three months later they all got together
00:41:37
at jackie's home in glendale california
00:41:43
hi susan
00:41:45
oh it's good to meet you
00:41:47
i think when i first started feeling
00:41:48
really comfortable is when we went out
00:41:50
and took some polaroids
00:41:52
it's a very
00:41:53
once in a lifetime kind of a thing to
00:41:55
find
00:41:56
a sister that you've never met
00:41:58
everybody smile
00:42:01
each one is totally individual
00:42:04
they're all strong i've found out
00:42:06
[Music]
00:42:10
and they've done good with their lives
00:42:13
i'm probably
00:42:15
[Music]
00:42:47
[Music]
00:42:56
you
