00:00:04
this program is about
00:00:06
unsolved mysteries whenever possible the
00:00:08
actual family members and police
00:00:10
officials
00:00:10
have participated in recreating the
00:00:12
events what you're about to see is not a
00:00:14
news broadcast
00:00:18
[Music]
00:00:20
tonight's cases feature ordinary people
00:00:22
thrust into a vortex of mystery
00:00:24
heartbreak and intrigue
00:00:26
each one is searching for that vital
00:00:27
clue to end a story that so far has
00:00:30
no ending perhaps you can help
00:00:33
join me you may be able to help solve a
00:00:37
[Music]
00:00:42
mystery
00:00:46
[Music]
00:01:01
[Applause]
00:01:06
[Music]
00:01:19
tonight a special report on one of the
00:01:20
most fascinating mysteries of this
00:01:22
century
00:01:22
the case of rudolph hess adolf hitler's
00:01:24
second in command
00:01:26
has shocked the world in 1941 by flying
00:01:28
to britain on a secret peace mission
00:01:30
this special segment takes us to
00:01:32
scotland and germany where experts claim
00:01:34
that it was not hess who made that
00:01:35
momentous flight
00:01:36
but a double impersonating him also two
00:01:39
other
00:01:40
intriguing mysteries needing but one
00:01:41
final clue to solve them
00:01:43
someone watching tonight may know the
00:01:47
[Music]
00:01:52
truth
00:01:54
[Music]
00:02:06
1933 adolf hitler sees his total power
00:02:10
in germany
00:02:11
by his side deputy reichsfielder rudolph
00:02:13
hess his closest content
00:02:16
pess would come to figure in one of the
00:02:18
most remarkable mysteries of world war
00:02:20
ii east hitler hitler our history
00:02:36
hess is in britain in a messerschmitt he
00:02:38
flew from bavaria street to scotland
00:02:40
landing by parachute near glasgow 1941.
00:02:44
the world is astounded to learn that
00:02:45
rudolph hess has been captured in
00:02:47
scotland while attempting to deliver a
00:02:49
peace proposal to secret contacts in the
00:02:51
british government
00:02:53
defendant rudolph hess on the counts of
00:02:56
the indictment
00:02:58
on which you have been convicted the
00:03:00
tribunal sentences you
00:03:02
to imprisonment for life 1946 nuremberg
00:03:06
rudolf hess is sentenced to life in west
00:03:08
berlin's spandau prison
00:03:13
1987 rudolf hess is found dead in
00:03:16
spandau's prison garden
00:03:18
though the cause of death is officially
00:03:19
declared as suicide
00:03:21
his family and experts are convinced
00:03:23
that he was murdered
00:03:26
i have no sympathy for the nazi past or
00:03:28
any crimes that
00:03:30
hess may have committed but he was a
00:03:32
human being
00:03:33
and he deserves a dignity at least to
00:03:36
find out
00:03:37
if he was murdered who did it
00:03:40
the story of rudolf hess is a mystery
00:03:42
that spans almost 50 years
00:03:45
not only do some experts believe he was
00:03:47
murdered in prison
00:03:48
but startling evidence suggested a man
00:03:50
of spandau was not the real rudolph hess
00:03:53
what ties these events together is a
00:03:55
global conspiracy that began at the
00:03:57
start of world war ii
00:03:58
it may still be going on today
00:04:02
[Music]
00:04:05
rudolph hess was incarcerated in
00:04:06
berlin's spandau prison from 1947 until
00:04:09
his death
00:04:11
he was aloof keeping his distance from
00:04:13
fellow prisoners
00:04:14
and his warriors x-rays are fine doctor
00:04:18
in september 1973 a british surgeon
00:04:21
named hugh thomas made a detailed
00:04:23
physical examination of hess
00:04:26
thomas had earlier studied hess's
00:04:27
medical records and expected to find
00:04:29
scars from bullet wounds hess had
00:04:31
received in the first world war
00:04:33
[Music]
00:04:39
there were no skulls no bullet rooms
00:04:42
nor was there any evidence of an
00:04:45
operation
00:04:47
they're not things that you can miss
00:04:53
at west germany's berlin document center
00:04:56
thomas uncovered the original world war
00:04:58
one military records of rudolf hess
00:05:03
for the first time i became very very
00:05:05
seriously concerned
00:05:07
about the identity of the man in spanda
00:05:10
the record showed that he'd sustained it
00:05:13
through shot
00:05:14
through the lung in the first world war
00:05:17
so i'm left with a situation whereby
00:05:21
a man has total evidence
00:05:25
in surgical terms of no wounding
00:05:29
and total evidence in documentary terms
00:05:32
of such wounding it can't be the same
00:05:36
man if the man dr thomas examined its
00:05:39
panda was not rudolf hess
00:05:41
then who was he the answer may lie in a
00:05:44
series of events that took place in may
00:05:46
of 1941
00:05:53
on may 10th of that year rudolf has told
00:05:56
his wife that he planned to fly to
00:05:57
berlin for an important meeting
00:05:59
and that he would be home in three days
00:06:03
they would not see one another again for
00:06:05
28 years
00:06:17
the facts are that at 17 45 hours
00:06:20
the real rudolph test took off from
00:06:22
augsburg
00:06:24
in bavaria southern part of germany
00:06:26
flying north in a messerschmitt 110d
00:06:30
we know the aircraft had the serial
00:06:32
number 1545
00:06:34
and the letters njc11 on the side
00:06:38
he was tracked by german radar and
00:06:40
defense
00:06:41
controllers right across germany and
00:06:42
across occupied europe
00:06:44
and just after half past seven that
00:06:46
evening was lost to german radar going
00:06:48
north over the north sea
00:06:53
[Music]
00:06:55
four and a half hours after rudolph has
00:06:57
left germany a lone messerschmitt was
00:06:59
picked up on british radar
00:07:00
heading towards scotland
00:07:05
[Music]
00:07:09
at approximately 11 pm a scottish farmer
00:07:12
caught sight of an aircraft descending
00:07:14
rapidly
00:07:30
great pile hands up
00:07:33
you chairman you've all i'm hopping
00:07:36
alfred horn
00:07:38
pilot gave his name as alfred horn he
00:07:41
asked for a meeting with a duke of
00:07:42
hamilton
00:07:43
a member of the british parliament who
00:07:45
lived in the area
00:07:53
hands on the table t-shirt t-shirt
00:07:58
surprisingly the man calling himself
00:07:59
alfred horn carried no identification
00:08:02
but he was wearing the uniform of a
00:08:04
luftwava officer
00:08:09
[Music]
00:08:10
the next morning a meeting was arranged
00:08:12
with a duke of hamilton who was at the
00:08:14
time serving as an officer in the royal
00:08:16
air force
00:08:25
as you were gentlemen
00:08:26
[Music]
00:08:28
so you captain horn and i believe you
00:08:31
want to see me
00:08:34
sir i am not captain horn i am
00:08:37
deputy reich fuhrer rudolph
00:08:44
i don't recognize you sir i'm here on
00:08:47
a mission of humanity from the fuhrer
00:08:50
the fuhrer
00:08:51
feels that hamilton ultimately was
00:08:54
convinced that the prisoner was
00:08:55
rudolf hess but winston churchill
00:08:58
remained suspicious
00:09:00
he sent yvonne kirkpatrick a diplomat
00:09:02
who knew hess personally to meet with a
00:09:04
prisoner
00:09:05
kirkpatrick thought the man was indeed
00:09:06
rudolph hess
00:09:08
hugh thomas disagrees the mistakes made
00:09:12
by the man when he arrived were
00:09:14
incredible he
00:09:15
claimed that he was born in 1899
00:09:18
and when he first landed said 1897
00:09:21
when in actual fact real the real hess's
00:09:23
age as you know was 1894.
00:09:25
so there's a discrepancy there
00:09:31
it is thought that hitler and other
00:09:32
members of the nazi elite used doubles
00:09:34
for security reasons
00:09:36
thomas believes that a double was
00:09:37
recruited to impersonate hess on the
00:09:39
flight to scotland
00:09:43
photographs taken upon hess's departure
00:09:45
support this theory
00:09:46
as they appear to show a different plane
00:09:48
from the one that crash landed in
00:09:50
scotland
00:09:56
the plane that took off in germany
00:10:00
was marked njc 11. now
00:10:04
the reason we know that is that it was
00:10:06
photographed taking off
00:10:08
and also helmut kardon one of the
00:10:11
airport assistants there at the time
00:10:14
logged it in his book
00:10:15
whereby he denoted njc11
00:10:19
was the plane that took off the plane
00:10:22
that landed
00:10:24
in scotland was marked on the side of
00:10:27
the fuselage
00:10:29
v j or nj oq
00:10:32
a totally different plane
00:10:36
the first people to get to the wreckage
00:10:38
found an aircraft that was almost intact
00:10:41
the machine guns in the nose were still
00:10:43
packed with grease they'd never been
00:10:44
used
00:10:45
this was obviously an aircraft that was
00:10:46
so new it hadn't yet been devoted to
00:10:48
operational work
00:10:50
british researchers know that that
00:10:51
aircraft was based at a fighter airfield
00:10:54
in northern denmark called alborg
00:10:56
it was tracked in from that direction
00:10:58
and there really seems no reason to
00:11:00
to doubt that it came from denmark
00:11:02
rather than germany
00:11:05
there is more evidence that a double had
00:11:07
replaced the real hess
00:11:09
hesse was a skilled pilot yet the man
00:11:11
who flew to scotland made a number of
00:11:13
elementary mistakes
00:11:15
the man who approached britain and flew
00:11:17
over scotland
00:11:18
was an amateur in every sense of the
00:11:19
word he did everything wrong
00:11:22
he approached the british coast at the
00:11:23
ideal height to be intercepted by radar
00:11:25
instead of under it
00:11:26
then he power dived using far too much
00:11:28
fuel and then he flew at only 50 feet
00:11:31
across the scottish borders
00:11:33
now that meant that people on the ground
00:11:35
could observe the aircraft and track it
00:11:37
every step of the way
00:11:38
but the pilot was too low to even pick
00:11:40
up his landmarks
00:11:41
so whoever he was he was an amateur
00:11:43
pilot
00:11:45
if the man who landed in scotland was a
00:11:47
double how and why
00:11:49
was this deception engineered
00:11:53
the answer may lie with the only man in
00:11:55
the third reich more fear than adolf
00:11:56
hitler
00:11:58
the master of the dreaded ss heinrich
00:12:00
himmler
00:12:01
in a moment we will examine a theory
00:12:03
that himmler may have been at the center
00:12:04
of a conspiracy that reached from
00:12:06
hitler's inner circle
00:12:07
to england's house of parliament
00:12:11
[Music]
00:12:23
rudolf hess had been hitler's closest
00:12:25
confidant but at the beginning of world
00:12:27
war
00:12:27
ii his influence began to wane part of
00:12:30
the reason can be traced to ss
00:12:32
reichsphere heinrich himmler
00:12:39
hess had come to power purely by being
00:12:42
one of the first of hitler's loyal
00:12:45
supporters
00:12:47
in such a position he was obviously a
00:12:49
threat to himmler who aspired to gain
00:12:51
control of all of them
00:12:53
and from that point of view he was hated
00:12:57
so in essence he was part of a power
00:13:04
struggle
00:13:09
1941 hitler's inner circle including
00:13:12
himmler
00:13:13
were planning for the invasion of the
00:13:14
soviet union
00:13:33
argued that peace with england must be
00:13:35
secured before this attack
00:13:37
and had secretly attempted to contact
00:13:39
members of british parliament
00:13:42
himmler may have sensed an opportunity
00:13:44
to eliminate his rivals
00:13:51
and he used this double in conjunction
00:13:54
with germain
00:13:56
to actually supplant hess get rid of his
00:13:59
kill off his
00:14:00
and put the double into england to
00:14:02
contain to carry over
00:14:04
peace proposals to the english hierarchy
00:14:08
according to this theory if the double's
00:14:10
initial peace overtures had been
00:14:12
successful
00:14:12
himmler would have stepped in finished
00:14:14
the negotiations and
00:14:16
claimed the credit hugh thomas believes
00:14:19
that adolf hitler was unaware that
00:14:21
himmler was secretly in contact with a
00:14:23
clique of highly placed nazi
00:14:25
sympathizers in britain
00:14:27
according to thomas some were members of
00:14:29
parliament
00:14:30
and they plotted to depose churchill and
00:14:32
make their own separate peace with
00:14:34
germany
00:14:35
[Music]
00:14:36
during the war both franklin roosevelt
00:14:39
and joseph stalin were suspicious of the
00:14:40
official british account of the hess
00:14:42
affair
00:14:44
stalin was convinced that the british
00:14:45
were plotting a separate peace with
00:14:47
germany
00:14:48
dr thomas believes that he was correct
00:14:51
the hess affair
00:14:54
is the key to the understanding of the
00:14:56
whole plot
00:14:58
that was hatched by 30 or so
00:15:02
of the top-ranking british hierarchical
00:15:06
figures in the country
00:15:08
designed to unite nazi germany
00:15:12
and britain against soviet russia
00:15:16
and stop the war so that expansion
00:15:20
into russia by germany could exist
00:15:26
no question that had the hess affair
00:15:29
gone to fruition had himmler's plan
00:15:32
gone right the result would have been a
00:15:35
nazi
00:15:36
anglo-bloc which would have ruled the
00:15:39
world
00:15:41
but the plan didn't work churchill
00:15:44
refused to meet with hess and his peace
00:15:45
overture was rejected
00:15:47
despondent has attempted suicide a few
00:15:49
days later
00:15:51
intelligence officers and psychiatrists
00:15:53
continually interrogated the prisoner
00:15:56
he claimed amnesia and refused to answer
00:15:58
the questions
00:15:59
in 1945 hess was brought home to germany
00:16:02
for the beginning of the nuremberg trial
00:16:09
during this trial hess was forced to
00:16:11
meet with two of his former secretaries
00:16:14
officials hoped this confrontation would
00:16:16
jog his memory
00:16:17
couldn't die crawling kinetic involved
00:16:38
the prisoner's most significant lack of
00:16:40
recognition
00:16:42
is that of his secretaries and these
00:16:45
women were greatly disturbed and greatly
00:16:48
upset
00:16:49
and kept on at the old man to try and
00:16:51
recognize them
00:16:59
one of them showed him a picture of his
00:17:01
son whom he didn't recognize
00:17:03
that he'd carried a picture of that son
00:17:05
with him supposedly on his flight to
00:17:07
england
00:17:09
so the man was behaving in a very
00:17:11
bizarre fashion
00:17:15
he fought them
00:17:20
the two secretaries left upset but still
00:17:23
certain that the man they had met
00:17:25
was rudolf hess
00:17:30
hess was sentenced to life imprisonment
00:17:32
in the converted fortress in west berlin
00:17:34
known as spandau prison
00:17:36
hesse's new home was to be jointly
00:17:38
administered by the united states
00:17:40
britain france and the soviet union
00:17:43
one by one spanned out six other nazi
00:17:45
prisoners had died or had been released
00:17:47
but rudolf hess had his freedom blocked
00:17:50
by a soviet veto
00:17:52
in 1966 he was spandau's only prisoner
00:17:55
at a cost of over one million dollars
00:17:57
per year
00:18:00
[Music]
00:18:04
[Applause]
00:18:07
[Music]
00:18:09
rudolf has loved to walk in the garden
00:18:12
this long
00:18:13
trail about 267 places around
00:18:18
to me he lived in a world by himself
00:18:22
for the first two years in my talking
00:18:24
with hess i never got beyond
00:18:26
food health and weather and everything
00:18:29
was bad
00:18:30
it took me two years to even talk to him
00:18:33
about anything political
00:18:35
he lived in this eggshell time seemed to
00:18:38
have
00:18:39
stood still for him since 1941 since his
00:18:42
flight
00:18:44
by the late 1960s hesse's health had
00:18:46
greatly deteriorated
00:18:48
even so he refused all visits with his
00:18:51
family
00:18:53
the reason why he didn't accept visits
00:18:54
beforehand was simply that the
00:18:56
surrounding and the circumstances under
00:18:58
which these visits take place in japan
00:19:01
were so bad that he said it's better not
00:19:03
to see each other and to
00:19:05
write and after having paid these visits
00:19:08
after 1969 i can only completely agree
00:19:11
with him
00:19:14
in december 1969 when hess's health
00:19:17
became critical
00:19:18
he finally agreed to meet with his
00:19:19
family it had been 28 years since
00:19:22
frauhes had seen her husband
00:19:24
her son wolff had last seen his father
00:19:26
at the age of three
00:19:29
during this reunion the family was not
00:19:31
allowed to touch one another
00:19:33
or to discuss anything pertaining to
00:19:35
hess's past
00:19:50
despite the fact that she felt his voice
00:19:52
was lower in pitch
00:19:54
frau has still felt the man at spandau
00:19:56
was her husband
00:19:57
it's very difficult for me in prison
00:20:00
he's depressing here it's
00:20:02
cold vampire i didn't want you to be
00:20:04
upset
00:20:05
the embassy is bad i didn't i was
00:20:07
expecting a very
00:20:09
difficult situation with all the borders
00:20:11
and the directors sitting around
00:20:13
and they knew that under the
00:20:15
circumstances the possibilities to
00:20:17
really learn to know him were limited
00:20:20
so much i can't be helped my son
00:20:25
i have the impression that my father was
00:20:27
keeping some secret which
00:20:29
he was not able to relieve to anybody
00:20:32
this is the reason why he was kept so
00:20:34
long in prison and finally was murdered
00:20:35
in prison
00:20:39
[Music]
00:20:41
august 17th 1987 at approximately 2 30
00:20:44
in the afternoon
00:20:45
93 year old rudolf hess went out for his
00:20:48
daily walk in his beloved prison garden
00:20:53
soviet authorities had indicated to
00:20:55
hess's son the general secretary
00:20:57
gorbachev was on the verge of allowing
00:20:59
his father's release
00:21:04
hess was accompanied by an american
00:21:06
guard and as he continued his stroll a
00:21:08
guard became distracted
00:21:16
several minutes later the guard looked
00:21:18
for his prisoner
00:21:19
[Music]
00:21:28
he soon found him
00:21:33
rudolph hess was lying on the floor of a
00:21:35
garden shed
00:21:37
electrical cord wrapped around his neck
00:21:45
the official inquiry declared that
00:21:46
rudolph has had committed suicide
00:21:48
but almost immediately charges surfaced
00:21:50
that hess had been murdered
00:21:57
now there are so many things against him
00:22:00
committing suicide
00:22:02
he could hardly open his hands because
00:22:06
of arthritis that he was suffering under
00:22:09
and he couldn't raise his arms above
00:22:12
shoulder level
00:22:14
now the final report came out it said
00:22:15
that he'd hung himself
00:22:17
from that little lean to in the garden
00:22:20
that he was sitting under where he was
00:22:21
found dead
00:22:22
well to do that he's going to have to
00:22:25
raise those hands isn't he
00:22:27
above his head to put that cord
00:22:30
around something to hang himself he
00:22:33
wasn't capable of doing that
00:22:36
i think he was murdered i don't know who
00:22:39
did it
00:22:40
but that's my true conviction there is
00:22:43
every evidence
00:22:44
that he was murdered but further than
00:22:46
that
00:22:47
disturbingly the cable that was actually
00:22:50
used
00:22:50
to murder him was the first thing to be
00:22:53
destroyed
00:22:54
on the specific orders of the british
00:22:56
military government
00:22:58
and the british military governor also
00:23:00
ordered
00:23:01
the shed burnt down
00:23:04
as well as that they refused all
00:23:08
measures of identification of the
00:23:10
prisoner
00:23:12
hesse's family insisted on conducting
00:23:14
their own autopsy
00:23:15
and secured the services of a dr spahn a
00:23:17
noted german forensic pathologist
00:23:20
his report showed bruises inconsistent
00:23:22
with the official verdict of suicide
00:23:24
deep bruising on the neck and especially
00:23:28
the final autopsy by dr shows quite
00:23:31
clearly
00:23:31
that the man was strangled and the
00:23:34
degree of deep bruising
00:23:36
and fracturing of the bones in the neck
00:23:39
also indicates
00:23:40
that he was strangled very forcibly
00:23:44
dr thomas is convinced that the prisoner
00:23:46
shpanda was murdered before his release
00:23:48
to keep him from revealing the
00:23:50
treasonous conduct of his secret british
00:23:52
contacts during the war
00:23:55
if the prisoner had ever
00:23:58
revealed his part in these negotiations
00:24:03
it would have led to the discovery of
00:24:06
the whole plot it would have led to the
00:24:09
exposure
00:24:11
of 30 extremely powerful personages
00:24:16
whose relatives even if they don't still
00:24:19
exist themselves
00:24:21
are still in control in hierarchical
00:24:24
control
00:24:24
of much of british finance and
00:24:26
government
00:24:28
and that would be
00:24:31
totally and utterly unacceptable to any
00:24:34
british government
00:24:41
if the prisoner spanned out was rudolf
00:24:43
hess as his family in the authorities
00:24:45
claim
00:24:45
then why were there no scars on his
00:24:47
chest from his world war one bullet
00:24:49
wounds
00:24:50
why did his plane take off from germany
00:24:52
with one set of serial numbers
00:24:54
and land in scotland with another
00:24:57
but if the prisoner spanner was an
00:24:59
imposter
00:25:00
why did he remain silent for 46 years
00:25:07
the remains of prisoner number 7 rest in
00:25:09
this small bavarian cemetery
00:25:11
but who really lies in this grave
00:25:14
rudolph hess
00:25:15
or an imposter a willing participant in
00:25:18
a global conspiracy of vast proportions
00:25:22
the only man who could answer these
00:25:23
questions was silas before he could
00:25:25
speak
00:25:26
the inscription on his grave reads
00:25:27
simply it was worth the risk
00:25:30
history may never know what truly lies
00:25:33
behind those words
00:25:38
one final footnote to this story the
00:25:41
official
00:25:42
british file on the hess affair was
00:25:43
scheduled to be made public in 1971
00:25:47
but that year only selected portions
00:25:48
were released the rest remaining
00:25:50
classified as the owner of the british
00:25:52
government
00:25:53
it was further stipulated that this
00:25:55
sensitive material remained locked up
00:25:57
until the year 2016.
00:26:01
next the story of a woman who walked
00:26:03
away from a terrible car crash in rural
00:26:05
montana and has not been
00:26:06
seen since her family believes she may
00:26:08
be suffering from amnesia
00:26:13
[Music]
00:26:20
april 20th 1989 a lonely country road
00:26:23
near circle montana
00:26:27
at approximately 8 15 in the evening
00:26:29
peggy bueller was driving towards nearby
00:26:31
great falls to visit her sister
00:26:33
peggy's mother and father were with her
00:26:38
[Applause]
00:26:40
behind her was another car driven by
00:26:42
carol heitz an off-duty police
00:26:44
dispatcher
00:26:47
carol could see peggy's car clearly then
00:26:49
she saw a car approaching in the wrong
00:26:51
lane
00:26:52
[Applause]
00:26:55
euless car narrowly missed a head-on
00:26:56
collision
00:26:58
carol pulled over the side of the road
00:27:00
but it was too late
00:27:08
peggy's father took the wheel from his
00:27:09
shaken daughter and headed back down the
00:27:11
river
00:27:13
carol had emerged from the wreckage
00:27:15
dazed but not seriously injured
00:27:20
then a woman emerged out of the darkness
00:27:22
it was the driver of the car that had
00:27:24
hit her
00:27:25
[Music]
00:27:27
she just stared never said anything
00:27:31
nothing just stared at me i will never
00:27:34
forget her
00:27:39
then the viewers arrived
00:27:44
peggy's father went to assist the
00:27:45
victims and she began to go for help
00:27:48
but before peggy drove off she too saw
00:27:50
the mysterious woman
00:27:53
as i looked out across the accident
00:27:56
i noticed someone on the other side of
00:27:58
the fence standing there
00:27:59
like a spectator not like that that it
00:28:01
had happened to her
00:28:03
[Music]
00:28:09
the woman vanished into the night
00:28:11
[Music]
00:28:12
but within half an hour police had
00:28:14
traced the car to its owner
00:28:15
thirty-eight-year-old patricia mien they
00:28:17
immediately began to search for her
00:28:21
we didn't know what was out there we
00:28:22
didn't know whether we're looking for a
00:28:24
hurt person sick person or a fugitive
00:28:28
four officers and myself proceeded in
00:28:32
and we proceeded in
00:28:33
behind the dog and approximately three
00:28:36
quarters of a mile from the scene we
00:28:38
picked up some tennis shoe tracks
00:28:40
about a size six that appeared to be
00:28:42
fairly narrow belonging either to a
00:28:44
young
00:28:45
boy or probably a woman at 3am
00:28:48
patricia's tracks disappeared and the
00:28:50
search was suspended until the following
00:28:52
morning
00:28:53
[Music]
00:28:57
for five days this intensive search
00:28:59
continued on land
00:29:00
and from the air
00:29:04
all that was ever found were patricia's
00:29:06
original tracks
00:29:11
two theories were developed to explain
00:29:12
how she eluded her trackers
00:29:15
the first is that she may have stowed
00:29:17
away on a hay truck that was parked
00:29:18
about a half a mile from the accident
00:29:27
the other theory is that patricia simply
00:29:29
hitched a ride out of the area
00:29:32
she was a very caring individual
00:29:36
never wanted to hurt anyone in here she
00:29:38
had a
00:29:39
very traumatic accident where she
00:29:42
may have thought instantly that she hurt
00:29:45
or killed another person
00:29:47
and her mind blocked that out
00:29:51
she had walked away from the scene of
00:29:53
that accident
00:29:54
and has not been found since
00:29:58
[Music]
00:30:00
since her disappearance patricia meehan
00:30:02
has been spotted throughout the united
00:30:04
states but has made no attempt to
00:30:05
contact her family and friends
00:30:08
at first it was thought that her fight
00:30:09
was an attempt to evade prosecution for
00:30:11
leaving the scene of an accident
00:30:13
but eyewitness reports that patricia's
00:30:15
increasingly strange behavior
00:30:17
had given police and psychiatrists good
00:30:19
reason to believe that she is no
00:30:20
fugitive
00:30:21
patricia mean may be suffering from a
00:30:23
rare and dangerous form of amnesia
00:30:28
born in pennsylvania patricia moved to
00:30:30
oklahoma to attend college in
00:30:31
preparation for a career in day care
00:30:34
she worked in that field until 1985 and
00:30:37
then due to her love of animals moved to
00:30:39
montana to work on a ranch
00:30:41
before her disappearance family and
00:30:42
friends noticed that patricia had become
00:30:44
depressed
00:30:45
withdrawn she was i guess
00:30:49
taking all her own life
00:30:52
what had she accomplished i think she
00:30:55
missed having children
00:30:56
because i think now she found out she
00:30:58
really does
00:31:00
love them after patricia disappeared her
00:31:02
family found a role of undeveloped film
00:31:04
still in her camera
00:31:06
in this haunting self-portrait she looks
00:31:08
out at a world
00:31:09
that she may have decided to abandon
00:31:14
it appears that pat
00:31:17
was experiencing a very difficult time
00:31:20
in her life and was involved in a rather
00:31:24
dramatic accident which may have
00:31:27
involved
00:31:28
a head injury the combination of these
00:31:31
factors
00:31:32
may have caused amnesia she does not
00:31:35
know
00:31:35
who she is has lost memories of the past
00:31:39
and is out searching for herself
00:31:43
throughout the country
00:31:46
[Music]
00:31:48
since her accident patricia has been
00:31:49
spotted at least 100 times between
00:31:51
montana and seattle mainly at truck
00:31:53
stops
00:31:54
but patricia has managed to hitchhike
00:31:56
out of the area before authorities and
00:31:58
her family were able to intercept her
00:32:08
i don't know how she's eating i don't
00:32:10
know where she's sleeping
00:32:12
from the sightings uh quite a few of
00:32:15
them
00:32:16
she was seen crying and that really
00:32:19
hurts
00:32:20
when i hear this
00:32:25
any mother would be afraid for her child
00:32:27
i don't care what age she is
00:32:29
and it seems like she needs help more
00:32:31
than ever now
00:32:34
one of the confirmed sightings of
00:32:36
patricia occurred in may of 1989 in
00:32:38
bozeman montana
00:32:39
ironically this was only a few miles
00:32:41
from her home
00:32:42
[Music]
00:32:46
good morning one today can i get in and
00:32:49
down here fast
00:32:50
patty came in the door and wanted to be
00:32:52
sat quickly and served quickly
00:32:55
she asked me um if she would be able to
00:32:57
be out of there in rather a hurry and i
00:32:58
said well we
00:32:59
do breakfast in 10 minutes you'll be out
00:33:01
very quickly and then i made a
00:33:03
commentary that she must have to be back
00:33:04
to work
00:33:04
at nine o'clock since it was almost nine
00:33:06
it was about 8 30 20 till
00:33:08
she said no i'm just going shopping i
00:33:11
couldn't understand what it was so
00:33:12
important for her to be there right at
00:33:13
nine o'clock
00:33:14
go shopping you know she was in such a
00:33:16
huge hurry how are you this morning
00:33:19
waitress brenda clements also noticed
00:33:21
that patricia was acting strangely
00:33:24
what stood out in my mind is that she
00:33:26
seemed really disoriented really spacey
00:33:28
just looking off into space and
00:33:30
and i heard her like talking to herself
00:33:31
but i really didn't hear what she was
00:33:33
saying
00:33:34
because i had other people and other
00:33:36
customers take care of she sat at that
00:33:38
table for an hour and a half or more
00:33:39
easily she was just you know looking out
00:33:42
the window looking people walking by
00:33:44
that's when i walked up to her and i
00:33:45
asked her are you okay
00:33:48
are you are okay sure
00:33:52
i was just wondering if there's anything
00:33:53
i could do you know because she was just
00:33:55
like
00:33:55
lost i felt like she didn't know where
00:33:57
she was or who she was
00:34:01
from all the evidence patricia's
00:34:03
condition is not improving
00:34:05
if she is not treated soon the damage
00:34:07
could be irreparable
00:34:08
for when and if patricia's memories
00:34:11
return
00:34:12
the shock could threaten her sanity
00:34:15
well more than anything else in the
00:34:16
world i want her back with us
00:34:19
when we would then know that she'd be
00:34:23
safe
00:34:24
not knowing who she's going to get a
00:34:26
ride from and
00:34:27
that's my biggest worry i think just
00:34:30
praise on your mind day in and day out
00:34:32
and you pray to god and hope that she's
00:34:36
with some good people
00:34:49
in a moment the story of a woman found
00:34:51
murdered after she was seen with a man
00:34:52
at a local supermarket
00:34:54
was he a friend or an unknown killer
00:35:04
[Music]
00:35:08
arlington virginia may 11 1988 3 am
00:35:13
police arrive at a local schoolyard
00:35:15
where the body of a young woman has been
00:35:16
found
00:35:18
she has been raped and shot once at
00:35:19
point-blank range
00:35:22
homicide detectives bob carrigan gay
00:35:25
mercer set about examining the physical
00:35:27
evidence
00:35:28
i think when you arrive at a crime scene
00:35:30
at three o'clock in the morning
00:35:31
and you find a young woman shot to death
00:35:35
she was sexually assaulted and then
00:35:37
murdered i think you start out with kind
00:35:39
of a sick feeling in your stomach
00:35:41
um kind of a disgust for for crime in
00:35:45
general
00:35:52
the condition of veronica's clothing
00:35:54
indicates that the rape was not a random
00:35:56
act of violence
00:35:58
in most rape cases there's some signs of
00:36:01
force
00:36:02
maybe there are tears in the clothing
00:36:04
which
00:36:05
there were not any on the scene it may
00:36:08
have been more like a date rape
00:36:10
someone that she knew and it went too
00:36:13
far
00:36:15
later that day the victim was identified
00:36:18
as veronica jefferson
00:36:19
a 24 year old government accountant
00:36:21
recently moved to the washington dc area
00:36:24
from oklahoma
00:36:27
veronica had recently become a cpa and
00:36:29
at the time of her death she was working
00:36:31
as a finance officer for the cia
00:36:34
nothing in her background suggested any
00:36:36
motive for her murder the day after the
00:36:40
murder veronica's red camaro with his
00:36:42
distinctive personal place reading ms
00:36:45
vlj was discovered parked at a
00:36:47
supermarket just two blocks from her
00:36:49
apartment
00:36:50
the vehicle was unlocked the keys
00:36:52
missing
00:36:55
the vehicle was examined for
00:36:56
fingerprints using a portable argon
00:36:58
laser
00:37:00
the car appeared to have been wiped
00:37:02
clean
00:37:04
the interior of the vehicle was also
00:37:06
examined john looks like we
00:37:08
have a receipt inside time and date
00:37:11
stamped
00:37:12
this receipt showed that veronica had
00:37:14
left the market at 9
00:37:15
30 p.m purse on a
00:37:18
left rear seat surprisingly veronica's
00:37:21
cash and credit cards were found intact
00:37:23
a box cutter this box cutter and the
00:37:26
location of the car
00:37:27
focused the investigation on workers at
00:37:30
the supermarket
00:37:33
detectives kerrigan mercer began to
00:37:35
question the store's 186 employees
00:37:39
and you agreed to cooperate okay
00:37:43
i'll take you too won't you follow me
00:37:45
how about this gentleman
00:37:47
one good suspect admitted that he had
00:37:49
seen her the day that she was killed
00:37:51
in the supermarket and he was able to
00:37:54
describe her all the way down to her red
00:37:56
shoes
00:37:57
uh did you ever talk to her yeah i
00:37:58
talked to a few times i sort of
00:38:00
had a thing for her but she wasn't
00:38:02
interested in me when we were able to
00:38:03
narrow the field down
00:38:04
from 186 down to six it was my job to
00:38:08
get
00:38:08
a sample of their blood to either
00:38:11
eliminate them
00:38:12
and go on then to other investigative
00:38:15
leads
00:38:16
or possibly to to find the individual
00:38:18
that committed this crime
00:38:21
these tests were important as body fluid
00:38:23
found at the crime scene showed a rare
00:38:25
blood type common to only four percent
00:38:27
of the population
00:38:29
the suspect could definitively be
00:38:31
identified by cross-checking this blood
00:38:33
type with a dna sample
00:38:35
also taken from the body fluid
00:38:38
however in this instance there were no
00:38:40
match-ups all six suspects were cleared
00:38:46
four days after veronica's murder
00:38:48
dramatic new evidence surfaced when an
00:38:50
off-duty police officer claimed he had
00:38:52
seen veronica the night she was killed
00:38:54
and the company of a man who was at the
00:38:56
wheel of her car
00:38:58
that evening i was on my way to work it
00:39:01
was approximately a quarter of 10
00:39:03
in the evening while i was waiting to
00:39:05
make a left
00:39:06
there was a car approaching me from the
00:39:08
opposite direction
00:39:09
i had his bright lights on me that's
00:39:11
what first drew my attention to the car
00:39:14
as this car turned the corner he
00:39:17
ran over the curb and i don't mean just
00:39:19
bumped it but really ran over the curb
00:39:22
as the car turned i noticed a license
00:39:26
plate on the car they were personalized
00:39:27
tags
00:39:28
and they read ms vlj i figured the car
00:39:32
belonged to the girl
00:39:33
in the passenger seat the driver was
00:39:36
apparently very involved in conversation
00:39:38
as he was
00:39:38
driving slow and weaving up up the road
00:39:41
it did not seem like there was any
00:39:43
trouble in the car um it seemed like
00:39:45
they were engaged in a very in-depth
00:39:47
conversation
00:39:49
the woman got out of the car she bent
00:39:51
down and they had
00:39:53
words for 15-20 seconds
00:39:57
she um wasn't in any distress
00:40:00
she wasn't frantic they just seemed to
00:40:01
be friends and he was saying goodbye
00:40:03
i got tired of watching and went around
00:40:06
the car
00:40:07
and on my way the more and more i
00:40:10
thought about it the more i wish that
00:40:12
i could have pulled this person over at
00:40:14
this time
00:40:15
and in some way maybe that would have
00:40:18
prevented
00:40:18
the death of miss jefferson after doug
00:40:22
taylor's account on what he saw and who
00:40:24
was driving
00:40:25
we felt that it had to have been someone
00:40:28
that veronka was familiar with a friend
00:40:30
an old friend someone she really felt
00:40:33
comfortable with
00:40:34
in order to let her let them drive her
00:40:36
car
00:40:37
from veronica's roommates and family
00:40:40
we were able to get a list of
00:40:44
male friends and acquaintances of
00:40:46
veronica's
00:40:47
all her male friends that we know of to
00:40:49
this point
00:40:50
have been interviewed blood has been
00:40:52
taken and all have been eliminated
00:40:54
as suspects after veronica's friends
00:40:57
were cleared the investigation reached a
00:40:59
complete standstill
00:41:02
but in may of 1989 a year after the
00:41:05
murder
00:41:06
two eyewitnesses came forward they
00:41:08
remember seeing veronica in the
00:41:10
supermarket less than two hours before
00:41:12
she was killed
00:41:13
on the night in question my wife and i
00:41:16
both went to the supermarket
00:41:18
to pick up a few items on arriving at
00:41:21
the deli counter i noticed this very
00:41:24
attractive
00:41:25
i would say beautiful girl hello
00:41:29
hi yes a man
00:41:32
approached her and started a
00:41:35
conversation with her
00:41:37
solid right no come on i know it's got
00:41:41
to be sound with you looking that good
00:41:44
i had the distinct impression that he
00:41:46
was trying to pick her up
00:41:48
because i generally had the feeling that
00:41:51
he did not
00:41:52
know her or had not been in any previous
00:41:56
company of hers
00:41:59
a few minutes later mrs flanagan saw
00:42:02
veronica outside the market talking with
00:42:04
the same man
00:42:06
i couldn't hear what they were saying
00:42:10
but i could watch the body language and
00:42:13
i
00:42:14
had the feeling that something was wrong
00:42:16
she continually looked around the
00:42:18
parking lot
00:42:19
she looked as if she was searching for
00:42:21
someone who knew her
00:42:23
or someone to get her out of this
00:42:25
situation
00:42:26
but she did smile at him she did laugh
00:42:30
and i had an uneasy feeling about it
00:42:33
but it wasn't that dramatic enough
00:42:37
that would have made me push ahead
00:42:41
to say do you need help
00:42:45
[Music]
00:42:47
according to the flanigan's testimony
00:42:49
veronica was approached by a stranger
00:42:51
who later may have killed her
00:42:53
but doug taylor saw her with what
00:42:54
appeared to be a friend at the wheel of
00:42:56
her car
00:42:59
there's a possibility that the suspect
00:43:02
was once involved with veronica and no
00:43:05
one else knew that
00:43:06
he feels that his identity will never be
00:43:08
known because of that fact
00:43:12
the man described by the flanagans was a
00:43:14
black male approximately six feet three
00:43:16
inches in height and weighed about 170
00:43:18
pounds
00:43:19
he was described as a clean-cut
00:43:21
bodybuilder type
00:43:25
we continue to investigate unsolved
00:43:28
homicides
00:43:29
until the end they may not be solved but
00:43:32
they're never forgotten
00:43:34
i think it's important that
00:43:37
the killer understand that we will not
00:43:41
stop
00:43:41
looking for him and it's important for
00:43:43
him to know that
00:43:44
so he doesn't think that because a year
00:43:46
has passed
00:43:47
that he's gotten away with this crime
00:43:49
because he has not we are still looking
00:43:51
and we will find him
00:43:54
[Music]
00:44:15
for every mystery there is someone
00:44:17
somewhere
00:44:18
who knows the truth perhaps that someone
00:44:21
is watching
00:44:22
perhaps it's you
00:44:36
[Music]
00:44:43
[Applause]
00:44:47
[Music]
00:45:08
you
