00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:04
Next on Unsolved
00:00:06
Mysteries, a college sophomore tries to
00:00:09
expose an alleged rape at a fraternity
00:00:11
house. Did it lead to her
00:00:15
murder? While on a secret mission, an
00:00:17
American pilot is taken prisoner in
00:00:19
Laos. The military says he's dead, but
00:00:23
his family is convinced that he
00:00:26
survived. After placing an ad for a
00:00:29
roommate, a woman disappears. One week
00:00:32
later, her mutilated body is found in a
00:00:35
drainage
00:00:37
canal. And the calculated deceptions of
00:00:41
a romantic con man leave a string of
00:00:43
victims across the
00:00:45
country. These are stories you won't
00:00:48
want to miss. I'm Dennis Fina and this
00:00:51
is Unsolved Mysteries.
00:01:04
[Music]
00:01:13
[Music]
00:01:29
Vincens's
00:01:31
Indiana. Brooke Baker, a college
00:01:33
sophomore, is stabbed to death in her
00:01:35
own bed just a half a block from campus.
00:01:39
There are signs of a struggle and
00:01:41
massive amounts of blood.
00:01:43
The bathtub is full and the water is
00:01:46
running. Police start their
00:01:48
investigation certain that the case will
00:01:51
be solved easily. Okay, they're wrong.
00:01:54
The right shoulder
00:01:56
1635.
00:01:58
To me, the real key in solving this case
00:02:00
is going to be when we answer the
00:02:01
question, who was Brooke Baker? And what
00:02:04
was there about her life in the last few
00:02:07
years of her life that led up to this
00:02:09
extraordinary conclusion?
00:02:13
As they began their investigation,
00:02:15
police looked at several suspects. Was
00:02:18
it angry fraternity brothers out for
00:02:20
revenge? Or a killer posing as a
00:02:23
potential roommate? Some thought it
00:02:25
might be Brook's landlord who she said
00:02:27
was spying on her. Or maybe there was
00:02:30
someone else who wanted Brooke Baker
00:02:32
dead.
00:02:35
Brooke Baker had her sight set on a
00:02:38
career as a topflight investigative
00:02:40
journalist. I need the photographs. So
00:02:43
at Vincent University, she became very
00:02:46
active on the school paper. I think one
00:02:48
of the things Brooke really enjoyed was
00:02:50
the power that came from being reported
00:02:52
on the paper. Uh gave her certainly
00:02:55
recognition and v visibility on campus
00:02:57
and I think she enjoyed the attention.
00:03:00
Few 19-year-olds make deadly enemies,
00:03:03
but Brooke may have been an exception.
00:03:06
She had heard rumors about a date rape
00:03:08
at a fraternity party, and she went
00:03:11
after the story aggressively. Are you in
00:03:14
a sority? Right. So, would you describe
00:03:18
some of the incidences that happened to
00:03:19
you? It would have been very easy to
00:03:21
work on the story and have nobody know
00:03:23
about it but members of the staff. But
00:03:24
the word was out everywhere, and I think
00:03:26
the word was generated from Brooke. I
00:03:28
think she wanted people to know what she
00:03:30
was doing. Come on, guys. Brook's
00:03:34
investigation was not welcome at the
00:03:35
fraternity where the alleged rape had
00:03:38
taken place. You better not write
00:03:40
anything about us. You better watch your
00:03:42
back. She didn't worry about who she
00:03:44
offended or whose toe she stepped on. If
00:03:47
it was the truth, it was the truth.
00:03:50
Fraternity members allegedly started
00:03:52
sending Brooke emails threatening her if
00:03:55
she ran the rape story. She was
00:03:57
unconcerned, but her mother was worried.
00:04:01
I feared for Brook's safety all the
00:04:03
time, and I'd question her on it, and
00:04:05
she'd she'd say if it could save one
00:04:08
girl from being raped or abused, she was
00:04:10
willing to write the story, investigate
00:04:13
the fraternity.
00:04:17
Then one night, a truckload of
00:04:18
fraternity brothers allegedly confronted
00:04:21
Brooke at a friend's house.
00:04:24
You guys Get out of here.
00:04:29
Was it conflict between Brooke Baker and
00:04:32
the fraternity that led to her murder?
00:04:36
[Applause]
00:04:39
Brooke moved into a new house where she
00:04:41
thought she would be safe. The landlord
00:04:44
was a campus police officer. Um, do you
00:04:46
need any help with the boxes? Oh, no. I
00:04:48
got it. Thank you.
00:04:51
Thank you. Sure. She told her parents
00:04:53
that she had found him in her house at
00:04:55
all hours of the day and night.
00:04:59
What are you doing in my house? No, I'm
00:05:02
sorry. You can't just come into my
00:05:03
house. You think I'd have to You have If
00:05:06
you're going to If you need to come in
00:05:07
here, you would have to call. You can't
00:05:09
come into my house.
00:05:11
[Applause]
00:05:13
Brooke also said that one time the
00:05:14
landlord shined a light through the
00:05:16
windows. Another day, Brook said he came
00:05:19
in while she was in the shower.
00:05:23
She felt uncomfortable enough that she
00:05:24
told a number of people that she just uh
00:05:28
was just generally uncomfortable of the
00:05:29
whole situation.
00:05:31
Could an unwanted invasion by Brook's
00:05:34
landlord have led to an argument and
00:05:42
murder? Vincens's police also had a
00:05:45
third theory. A few days before her
00:05:48
death, Brooke had advertised for a
00:05:50
roommate in the campus newspaper.
00:05:53
Someone who wants to come over to
00:05:54
Brook's house and knock on the door and
00:05:56
say, "Hey, I'm here about your room. I
00:05:59
want to be a
00:06:01
roommate." What's Brook's natural
00:06:02
reaction going to be in that?
00:06:05
Hi. Open the door and let them in.
00:06:12
There was no evidence of forced entry.
00:06:14
No sign of a struggle.
00:06:16
Perhaps Brooks and led to her
00:06:20
murder. The most promising clues were
00:06:22
several samples of DNA. Police
00:06:25
interviewed 400 people and tested 52
00:06:28
against those samples, but no match was
00:06:33
found. Brook's parents are left knowing
00:06:36
only that their daughter's killer
00:06:37
remains
00:06:40
free. I'm obsessed with it. I can't live
00:06:43
without justice.
00:06:46
for
00:06:47
Brooke. I can't go on with my own life.
00:06:51
That's all I can
00:06:53
think. I want
00:06:58
justice.
00:07:00
Update. 2 years after Brook's murder,
00:07:03
police got their first break in the
00:07:05
case. However, it came at the cost of
00:07:08
another life. When investigators
00:07:11
searched the apartment of a missing
00:07:13
Vincens's college student, Erica Norman,
00:07:16
they found a crime scene disturbingly
00:07:18
similar to Brooks. There was water
00:07:22
running the bathtub, and I knew right
00:07:23
then that it was the same person who had
00:07:25
committed the the murder of Brooke
00:07:27
Baker.
00:07:29
Erica had last been seen leaving a
00:07:31
restaurant with a man named Brian Jones.
00:07:34
He was immediately brought in for
00:07:36
questioning.
00:07:38
When we interviewed Brian Jones, it
00:07:40
turned out that he was a roommate of an
00:07:42
individual that was uh seeing Brook
00:07:44
Baker at within the last couple weeks of
00:07:47
her death.
00:07:48
A DNA match tied Jones to the murder of
00:07:52
Brooke Baker. When Erica Norman's body
00:07:55
was found 2 weeks later, Jones struck a
00:07:58
plea bargain. He admitted to killing
00:08:00
Erica and in exchange prosecutors agreed
00:08:03
not to seek the death penalty in the
00:08:06
Brook Baker
00:08:07
trial. Brian presented himself to me as
00:08:10
someone that would have not
00:08:12
stopped that case stopped a serial
00:08:15
killer in my opinion.
00:08:18
Brian Jones was convicted of both
00:08:21
murders. He was sentenced to 60 years
00:08:23
for killing Erica Norman.
00:08:26
Jones was given an additional 20 years
00:08:29
for the rape of Brooke Baker and a life
00:08:32
sentence for killing
00:08:34
[Music]
00:08:39
her. Next, a woman battles for decades
00:08:42
to prove that her husband isn't dead.
00:08:44
He's the last American still a prisoner
00:08:47
of the Vietnam War.
00:09:02
On a chilly October morning, the family
00:09:04
of Air Force pilot Charles E. Shelton
00:09:07
was joined by friends and dignitaries at
00:09:10
Arlington National Cemetery. They were
00:09:13
gathered to mourn the death of a true
00:09:15
American hero. But it was not Colonel
00:09:18
Shelton who was laid to rest that day.
00:09:21
It was his wife,
00:09:23
Marianne. Maryannne Shelton had spent
00:09:25
the last 25 years of her life fighting
00:09:28
what may be the final battle of the
00:09:30
Vietnam War. The battle for the truth
00:09:33
about her husband and more than 2,000
00:09:36
other American servicemen missing and
00:09:39
unaccounted for since the war
00:09:41
ended. Colonel Shelton was shot down
00:09:44
over Laos in the spring of 1965.
00:09:48
[Music]
00:09:51
For more than 20 years, he was the only
00:09:54
missing serviceman still officially
00:09:56
listed as a prisoner of
00:10:00
war. According to Charles Shelton's
00:10:02
family, very little effort was made by
00:10:05
the US government to actually find
00:10:07
Colonel Shelton and bring him home. They
00:10:10
say strong evidence proves that he was
00:10:12
still being kept prisoner years after
00:10:14
the war came to an end.
00:10:17
Charles Shelton and Maryanne Bulman were
00:10:19
high school sweethearts. They were
00:10:21
married in 1951 and their family quickly
00:10:25
grew to include five children.
00:10:28
[Applause]
00:10:30
Now look at the camera. My father and my
00:10:32
mother's relationship, they were very
00:10:34
much in love with each other. They were
00:10:36
each other's first loves.
00:10:39
Girl, even after 10 years of marriage,
00:10:42
it was just real intense. and and he
00:10:45
often said that he that she was his
00:10:48
first love and only love and last love.
00:10:52
Charles Shelton joined the Air Force in
00:10:56
1954. 8 years later, he was sent to
00:10:58
Saigon to train South Vietnamese
00:11:01
pilots. 3 years later, he began flying
00:11:04
top secret missions over Laos. In 1965,
00:11:08
Dad was definitely at the peak of his
00:11:10
career. He was just about finished with
00:11:13
his tour of duty in the secret part of
00:11:15
the war in Indochina. He had been at
00:11:18
that time the senior tactical
00:11:20
reconnaissance United States Air Force
00:11:22
pilot involved in uh the war in
00:11:26
Laos. Laos borders Vietnam on the west.
00:11:30
Although Laos was officially neutral
00:11:32
during the war, the North Vietnamese
00:11:34
used Laos Oceanian territory as a
00:11:36
military staging area. The United States
00:11:40
secretly bombed targets there in
00:11:42
numerous missions.
00:11:46
In 1965, Charles was stationed in
00:11:49
Okinawa, Japan with his wife and five
00:11:51
children, but he was off and gone for
00:11:53
weeks at a time.
00:11:56
I'll wait right here till you get back.
00:11:59
You better.
00:12:01
On April 20th, he said goodbye to Marian
00:12:04
and returned to duty. She never saw him
00:12:07
again.
00:12:10
This is Grasshopper 32. Come in, Whiskey
00:12:12
Angel. 9 days later, Charles plane was
00:12:15
shot down over northern Laos. American
00:12:18
planes had made visual and radio
00:12:20
contact, but a change in the weather
00:12:22
delayed the rescue.
00:12:25
There was a low cloud coverage which
00:12:27
made it impossible for anybody to get in
00:12:30
really close and maneuver without a
00:12:33
tremendous amount of danger.
00:12:35
There was just no organized rescue in
00:12:38
those days. That was 1965. He was shot
00:12:41
down. If he was shot down in 1968, at
00:12:44
the place he was shot down at, uh, I
00:12:46
think he'd been out of there in uh, an
00:12:48
hour and a half.
00:12:51
After avoiding capture for 3 days,
00:12:54
Charles luck ran out.
00:13:06
Instead of cooperating, Charles let his
00:13:09
body go limp, forcing his captors to
00:13:12
carry him. Charles Shelton's defiant
00:13:14
resistance would become legendary. He
00:13:18
was tough and he was tenacious, and he
00:13:20
just didn't let go. I think that if
00:13:22
anyone could survive over there, it'd be
00:13:24
Charlie Shelton. No doubt in my mind.
00:13:29
The Air Force officially told Marian
00:13:31
Shelton that her husband was a prisoner
00:13:33
of war and returned his personal
00:13:35
effects. Inside his foot locker, she
00:13:38
found his dog tags and military ID,
00:13:41
which are normally carried by Air Force
00:13:43
personnel at all times. Marian also
00:13:46
found her husband's camera. The roll of
00:13:48
film inside included this picture shot
00:13:51
just before Charles last flight. He was
00:13:55
wearing what is known as a sanitized
00:13:57
uniform, devoid of any official
00:14:01
insignas. Many years would pass before
00:14:03
the Shelton family understood its tragic
00:14:07
implications. If you were captured in
00:14:09
Laos, you were never going to come out.
00:14:12
The war in Laos was that sensitive that
00:14:14
uh the government was not going to
00:14:16
bother with politicizing our presence
00:14:19
there by looking for the return of PS or
00:14:21
hostages. And to this date, I don't
00:14:24
believe our our government has ever
00:14:25
admitted to having troops present in
00:14:28
Laos uh officially. And we've never
00:14:31
negotiated for the men in Laos
00:14:33
officially. After Marian was told that
00:14:36
her husband had become a prisoner of
00:14:38
war, she and the children returned home
00:14:41
to Kentucky. While the war dragged on
00:14:44
for eight more years, secondhand news
00:14:46
about Charles made its way back to
00:14:48
Marian through the military grape vine.
00:14:52
From time to time, pilots would come
00:14:54
through from Indochina, and they would
00:14:57
come with some news by word of mouth
00:14:59
about dad's situation, tell mom that dad
00:15:02
was sick or healthy, uh if he'd been
00:15:05
wounded or if he'd escaped again or this
00:15:08
type of thing. Mama kept a lot of that
00:15:12
information away from us cuz again, she
00:15:15
was afraid that that would hurt us.
00:15:18
And when mama started telling me stories
00:15:20
about what had happened to dad, I heard
00:15:23
about him being kept in a shallow grave
00:15:26
with bars over it and they poked him
00:15:29
trying to keep him awake.
00:15:31
And I couldn't stand to hear about stuff
00:15:33
about torture.
00:15:36
I have asked for this radio and
00:15:38
television at time tonight for the
00:15:41
purpose of announcing that we today have
00:15:44
concluded an agreement to end the war
00:15:47
and bring peace with honor in Vietnam.
00:15:51
The war in Vietnam officially ended on
00:15:53
January 23rd, 1973.
00:15:57
Within 60 days from this Saturday, all
00:15:59
Americans held prisoners of war
00:16:02
throughout Indochina will be released.
00:16:05
There will be the full all PS would be
00:16:07
included on one of two lists. Those who
00:16:11
were coming home and those who had died
00:16:13
in
00:16:18
captivity. Late that evening, the phone
00:16:21
finally rang. Perhaps Charles Shton
00:16:24
would be on the list of PS returning to
00:16:27
their families.
00:16:29
Hello. Yes, I
00:16:32
am. Thank you.
00:16:39
She began to cry and of course I knew
00:16:41
what that meant. Dad's name wasn't on
00:16:43
the
00:16:44
list. We naturally concluded that
00:16:46
therefore we would be told soon just how
00:16:49
he died in captivity and his body
00:16:51
returned and that was the end of the
00:16:54
story. Instead, the story took a new
00:16:58
turn. The list of soldiers who had died
00:17:01
didn't contain Charles name either. It
00:17:04
seemed that the true status of Colonel
00:17:06
Charles Shelton had yet to be
00:17:08
[Music]
00:17:12
revealed. When we return, reports of a
00:17:15
daring escape attempt. Could Charles Sh
00:17:19
still be
00:17:28
alive. By April of
00:17:31
1973, 591 PS had returned home to their
00:17:35
families, but Colonel Charles Shelton
00:17:38
was not among them. 4 months later, the
00:17:42
Pentagon issued a statement saying that
00:17:44
there was no indication that any
00:17:46
Americans were still held
00:17:48
captive. But Maryanne Shel continued to
00:17:52
receive secondhand information that her
00:17:54
husband and other Americans were still
00:17:57
being held as prisoners.
00:18:00
Mom realized, I think, more and more
00:18:02
that if dad would ever come home or if
00:18:05
any of the prisoners would come home,
00:18:06
that it really depended on the efforts
00:18:08
of the families. And she seemed
00:18:10
convinced to that early on. You know, so
00:18:12
much so that she ventured into Southeast
00:18:16
Asia. Desperate for answers, Marian went
00:18:19
to Laos just a few months after the war
00:18:21
ended in search of proof that Charles
00:18:24
was still alive.
00:18:28
We met with villagers where he was
00:18:30
supposed to have been or was held alive
00:18:32
in a cave. There were sightings of him
00:18:34
in the cave and some of the villagers
00:18:36
had actually visited some of these caves
00:18:38
and had seen prisoners. My husband,
00:18:41
she'd hoped that she would get some
00:18:42
positive proof that her husband was
00:18:44
still alive. She got no positive proof.
00:18:48
Thank you. Congratulations.
00:18:50
Mary and Shelton returned home
00:18:52
empty-handed and disheartened. But two
00:18:55
years later, events in Southeast Asia
00:18:58
brought new
00:19:00
information. 10 years to the day after
00:19:03
Charles Shelton was shot down, Saigon
00:19:06
fell to communist forces and thousands
00:19:08
of refugees fled Vietnam.
00:19:12
Hundreds and then thousands told of
00:19:15
seeing American pilots, American
00:19:18
prisoners still in chains, gaunt,
00:19:20
starving, begging for food, in prison,
00:19:23
in captivity, uh on work gangs. Uh this
00:19:27
is how we knew for sure that our men
00:19:31
were left behind.
00:19:33
For reasons that are still
00:19:35
controversial, the US government kept
00:19:37
the refugees accounts a secret.
00:19:42
The stories are overwhelming in their
00:19:45
specificity, in their clarity, and in
00:19:47
their numbers. But if you mark it secret
00:19:50
and you keep it locked up in the safes,
00:19:52
behind locked doors, behind guarded
00:19:54
doors, then we don't know it's there.
00:19:58
Eventually, through the Freedom of
00:20:00
Information Act, Marian obtained
00:20:02
hundreds of classified documents
00:20:05
pertaining to her husband. Credible
00:20:07
sources, many of them working for the
00:20:10
CIA, reported that Charles was still
00:20:12
alive as late as
00:20:14
1983, 18 years after he parachuted into
00:20:18
Laos. There were so many documents that
00:20:22
said uh Colonel Shelton and other men
00:20:24
were alive. It was apparent that there
00:20:27
was just such a gigantic amount of
00:20:29
evidence. There are reports in his file
00:20:31
that he was shot in the legs because
00:20:33
they were so tired of him escaping and
00:20:35
more reports that he just kept trying to
00:20:37
escape afterwards.
00:20:40
A particular report that was picked up
00:20:42
off of the radio, it indicated that in
00:20:45
1968 the path at Lao turned over to the
00:20:48
North Vietnamese and they decided to
00:20:50
interrogate him.
00:21:05
When the North Vietnamese returned with
00:21:08
more personnel to control Dad, he had
00:21:11
already killed the other guards that
00:21:13
were present during the interrogation.
00:21:15
The report finished with the
00:21:16
recommendation that this prisoner be
00:21:18
moved north. Whether that meant to China
00:21:22
or Vietnam, we can't be sure, but it it
00:21:24
commented that he was
00:21:28
incorraable. The more that Marian dug
00:21:31
through the official records, the more
00:21:33
she believed that her husband was still
00:21:36
alive. In October of 1980, she set out
00:21:40
to convince a military panel.
00:21:43
When I was in Vietnam in Laos in 1973, I
00:21:47
met with a delegation of the North
00:21:49
Vietnamese. When they set up and decided
00:21:51
to hold these status review hearings, I
00:21:53
don't think they had any idea about
00:21:55
burden of proof. Burden of proof is a
00:21:57
legal concept.
00:21:59
What they were going to do was make the
00:22:02
service members family come in and prove
00:22:04
he was still alive when the only
00:22:06
information about whether he was really
00:22:08
alive was in the hands of the
00:22:09
government. That seemed quite unfair.
00:22:14
We argued that instead it should be the
00:22:16
services duty to prove that he should be
00:22:19
changed to killed an action. In other
00:22:21
words, what evidence do they have that
00:22:22
he was dead? They do have evidence he
00:22:25
was alive. Now, what evidence do they
00:22:26
have to change that? The board finds
00:22:29
that by a prepoundonderance of the
00:22:32
evidence, Colonel Charles E. Shelton can
00:22:36
reasonably be presumed dead. Despite
00:22:39
Marian's police, the board maintained
00:22:41
that Charles had been killed in action.
00:22:44
But none other than Vernon Orur,
00:22:47
Secretary of the Air Force, refused to
00:22:49
accept the board's
00:22:51
recommendation. In 1984, he upheld
00:22:54
Charles Shelton status as a prisoner of
00:22:57
war, making him the only one of more
00:23:00
than 2,000 missing servicemen not listed
00:23:04
as presumed dead.
00:23:07
You think your husband's alive? I think
00:23:09
he very well can be and probably is.
00:23:13
During the 1980s, Marian became a fire
00:23:16
brand for the P MIA movement. They know
00:23:21
there's prisoners over there and I think
00:23:24
they know that my husband's over there.
00:23:26
Slowly her heart started to break. the
00:23:29
United States government, what my dad
00:23:31
fought for, was not going to bring him
00:23:34
home or was not trying hard enough. So,
00:23:38
it it devastated her.
00:23:41
Overwhelmed with grief, Marian Shelton
00:23:44
committed suicide in October of 1990.
00:23:49
Marian Shelton was the P movement. She's
00:23:52
done more, did more while she was alive
00:23:55
than just about any other person uh to
00:23:57
try to bring those men home.
00:24:01
Charles was my childhood
00:24:04
sweetheart, my best
00:24:06
friend, my
00:24:09
protector. I prepared myself, as did my
00:24:12
husband, for him to be wounded,
00:24:15
captured, or killed.
00:24:18
But we were never prepared for him to be
00:24:20
abandoned by his own country.
00:24:26
In 1994, at the request of his children,
00:24:29
the Air Force officially changed Charles
00:24:32
Shelton status from prisoner of war to
00:24:35
killed in action. A memorial service in
00:24:37
his honor was held at Arlington National
00:24:40
Cemetery on the same spot where Marian
00:24:42
had been buried four years earlier.
00:24:45
[Music]
00:24:48
Next, a woman meets a mysterious
00:24:50
stranger named Alice and then
00:24:58
[Music]
00:25:03
disappears. On an otherwise ordinary
00:25:05
summer day, Florida resident Jane
00:25:07
McGawan received a disturbing letter
00:25:10
from her 34year-old sister, Beverly. The
00:25:13
handwritten note had been postmarked a
00:25:16
day earlier.
00:25:18
I've got to make some major changes in
00:25:20
my life. I quit my job, sold the condo
00:25:23
and furniture, and I'm leaving for a
00:25:25
while. The next day, Beverly's brother,
00:25:28
Steve, received a similar letter.
00:25:32
Something bothered me because that's not
00:25:34
the type of person that that Bev was.
00:25:37
She was not the kind of person after
00:25:38
spending all her money to try to get
00:25:40
that condo and try to, you know, land
00:25:42
the job at the bank, which she would
00:25:43
seemed to be happy with. It was not her
00:25:46
nature to just give give up on
00:25:48
everything and just walk away from it.
00:25:51
That evening, Steve and Jane went to
00:25:53
Beverly's condo.
00:25:56
Her car was gone and her phone
00:25:59
disconnected. Beverly had not been at
00:26:01
work for 2 days. Yet, some things seemed
00:26:05
normal. There was her night gown laying
00:26:07
next to the bed. The bed wasn't made. I
00:26:09
mean, it just looked like, you know,
00:26:10
she'd gone out for the day and had every
00:26:12
intention of coming back that night.
00:26:15
However, Steve and Jane did discover
00:26:18
that their sister's address book, birth
00:26:20
certificate, and passport were
00:26:24
missing. The day Beverly McGawan left
00:26:27
town, she sent a telegram to her
00:26:29
mortgage company. She instructed them to
00:26:31
foreclose on her condo and dispose of
00:26:34
all of her belongings. Attention would
00:26:37
soon shift to a new friend at Beverly's,
00:26:40
a woman named
00:26:43
Alice. Beverly worked at a bank and had
00:26:46
purchased a modest condo in Pmpo Beach.
00:26:49
The week before her disappearance, she
00:26:51
began advertising for a roommate.
00:26:55
Bev came in one morning and said that
00:26:58
she had advertised for a roommate and
00:27:00
that this woman Alice was going to be
00:27:02
moving in and approximately I think it
00:27:03
was the following
00:27:05
Friday and she just thought this woman
00:27:08
was incredibly nice. It was going to be
00:27:10
great. Oh, thanks. They clicked. That's
00:27:13
the way she felt. Now, as I was
00:27:15
explaining to you, your life path number
00:27:18
is your birth date. Beverly said that
00:27:20
Alice was English. She drove a nice car
00:27:23
and seemed to be a successful career
00:27:26
woman. And they shared a common interest
00:27:29
in the new age movement, especially
00:27:32
numerology. Number is four. That shows
00:27:35
that you are at a crossroads in your
00:27:37
life. She had asked Bev for some numbers
00:27:39
that pertain to her life so that she
00:27:41
could do a chart for her. And Bev gave
00:27:44
her some numbers, not anything real
00:27:46
personal. and she did an initial chart
00:27:48
and then came back and said, "I need
00:27:50
more information." At which point Bev
00:27:52
volunteered her passport numbers numbers
00:27:54
on her birth certificate. Well, the
00:27:57
first adjustment I see is a long trip. I
00:28:00
don't Alice told Beverly that she would
00:28:03
find a lasting relationship and become
00:28:05
wealthy.
00:28:07
She also warned that she would be
00:28:09
deceived by a couple who was very close
00:28:11
to her. I just need to be aware of it. 2
00:28:15
days after Beverly was last seen, a
00:28:18
woman's mutilated body was found in a
00:28:21
drainage canal 100 miles from Pompo
00:28:25
Beach. The victim's head had been
00:28:27
crudely
00:28:29
decapitated. Only a portion of the lower
00:28:31
jaw and five teeth remained. Her hands
00:28:34
had been severed, her throat slit, and a
00:28:37
part of her abdomen cut away, apparently
00:28:40
to remove a tattoo.
00:28:42
We assume that whoever committed the
00:28:45
murder was trying to conceal her
00:28:47
identity. It was probably one of the
00:28:51
most gruesome homicides that our agency
00:28:54
has investigated in recent years. The
00:28:57
killer overlooked only one clue to the
00:28:59
victim's identity. A small tattoo of a
00:29:02
yellow rose on her right ankle. Beverly
00:29:06
had just that tattoo. 4 days later,
00:29:10
dental records provided positive
00:29:12
identification. The dead woman was
00:29:15
Beverly and McGawan.
00:29:19
We found nothing in her background that
00:29:21
would indicate that uh she was any type
00:29:24
in any type of trouble or was involved
00:29:26
in anything illegal.
00:29:28
Authorities and Beverly's family were
00:29:30
especially puzzled by her letters. They
00:29:33
were all in her handwriting, and there
00:29:35
was no indication that she had been
00:29:37
forced to send them. Investigators
00:29:40
immediately searched Beverly's condo,
00:29:42
looking for something that might tie
00:29:44
Beverly's decision to leave with her
00:29:47
murder. They found a notepad with names
00:29:49
and phone numbers of people who had
00:29:51
called about the roommate ad. The last
00:29:54
notation read, "Alice, Tuesday,
00:29:58
6:30." No last name, no phone number.
00:30:02
Alice was supposed to be on loan to the
00:30:04
United States from England working for
00:30:07
IBM in in South
00:30:09
Florida. Upon checking with uh the IBM
00:30:13
Corporation, we learned that they had
00:30:15
nobody on loan to South Florida from
00:30:18
England and that the office that Alice
00:30:20
said she worked for in Fort Lauderdale
00:30:22
that they didn't even have an office in
00:30:24
Fort Lauderdale.
00:30:26
Will it pass a charge? Going to be a
00:30:28
charge. Investigators discovered that on
00:30:30
the day that Beverly's body was found, a
00:30:32
woman fitting Alice's description used
00:30:35
Beverly's Visa card at several shops in
00:30:38
the
00:30:39
area. Someone had also used the card to
00:30:42
withdraw $300 from a local
00:30:47
ATM. On Friday, the day after the body
00:30:51
was discovered, the mysterious
00:30:53
transactions continued. At a Miami
00:30:56
travel agency, a person using Beverly's
00:30:59
name and credit card reserved a rental
00:31:01
car at London's Heathro airport. The
00:31:04
travel agent described this person as a
00:31:08
very masculine looking female that to
00:31:11
them appeared to be a male wearing a
00:31:14
cheap black Cleopatra wig.
00:31:18
Taxes in London these days are so
00:31:20
expensive. Yes, sir. She also described
00:31:22
her as having a British accent and a
00:31:24
person that appeared to be very familiar
00:31:27
with the Heathro area in London,
00:31:30
England. The customer claimed to be
00:31:32
leaving for London on British Airways
00:31:34
flight 292. It was scheduled to depart 2
00:31:38
days later on Sunday evening at 6:30.
00:31:43
We checked the manifest for that
00:31:45
particular flight and other airlines
00:31:47
that were traveling to London on that
00:31:49
particular day. Nowhere on any of the
00:31:52
manifest did we see the name of Beverly
00:31:55
and McGowan.
00:31:58
On Monday, July 23rd, a person wearing a
00:32:01
cheap looking wig and posing as Beverly
00:32:04
did pick up a car at Heathrow
00:32:07
Airport. Back in the United States,
00:32:10
Beverly's car was found at a motel near
00:32:12
Miami International Airport. It had been
00:32:15
there for at least 5 days. Investigators
00:32:18
found only one significant clue. Hey,
00:32:23
take a look at this. Four strands of
00:32:25
black synthetic wig
00:32:28
hair. It was clear to police that
00:32:30
Beverly was the victim of a scam. But
00:32:33
the killer or killers got away with only
00:32:36
$1,000.
00:32:38
The most puzzling part about it is the
00:32:41
lack of
00:32:42
motive. The savage nature in which the
00:32:45
body was
00:32:46
decapitated and the pains that they went
00:32:50
through trying to conceal her identity
00:32:54
isn't that of your normal uh everyday um
00:33:00
domestic killing. I try to think about
00:33:03
the people that Bev worked for. Uh her
00:33:06
friends, her relationships.
00:33:09
What kind of person would would be
00:33:10
involved with a with a murder like this?
00:33:13
Why somebody would come into my sister's
00:33:15
life and for a measly $1,000 just take
00:33:18
it? It doesn't make any sense to me.
00:33:25
Update. Several years after Beverly
00:33:28
McGawan's murder, investigators
00:33:30
identified the woman who called herself
00:33:32
Alice as Elaine Antuinette Parent. She
00:33:36
had been born in the Bronx, but had
00:33:38
perfected a fake English accent. She
00:33:41
also had a habit of stealing the
00:33:44
identities of other women. They knew of
00:33:46
at least 20 that she had used. Police
00:33:49
dubbed her the chameleon killer. Acting
00:33:53
on a tip, police showed up at the
00:33:55
apartment. Elaine Parent was renting in
00:33:57
Panama City, Florida. She agreed to go
00:34:00
to the police station for questioning,
00:34:02
but while changing clothes in her
00:34:04
bedroom, Parent shot and killed
00:34:07
herself. Officials are convinced that
00:34:10
Elaine Parent was responsible for
00:34:12
Beverly McGawan's death. But to this
00:34:14
day, they do not understand her motive.
00:34:22
Next, a charming con artist known as the
00:34:25
Sweetheart Swindler is finally behind
00:34:28
bars. And a surprising update on our
00:34:32
story of
00:34:33
reincarnation. Can two lovers who died
00:34:36
years ago be reunited in this lifetime?
00:34:48
On a previous broadcast, we profiled a
00:34:51
con man who seduces lonely middle-aged
00:34:54
women with promises of wealth and
00:34:56
romance and then skips town with their
00:34:59
money. Police call him the sweetheart
00:35:02
swindler. A woman who asked that we call
00:35:05
her Sarah met a man named Jerry Gable.
00:35:09
He told her that he was a successful
00:35:11
traveling jewelry salesman and that she
00:35:14
was just the type of woman he wanted to
00:35:16
share his life with. In less than two
00:35:19
days, Jerry asked Sarah to marry him. It
00:35:23
was really nice to think that I'm be
00:35:25
able to relax, to travel, to have all
00:35:27
these nice things and I wouldn't have to
00:35:29
work. To me, this was um very appealing.
00:35:33
Only a few days later, Gable asked Sarah
00:35:36
to deposit a check from out of state and
00:35:38
to withdraw $3,000 in cash for him. That
00:35:43
afternoon, Gable disappeared and Sarah
00:35:46
never saw him or her $3,000 again. I was
00:35:50
angry. Truly, I was angry. It's a very
00:35:54
devastating feeling. I'd like to see him
00:35:56
pay for it.
00:35:59
Update. The sweetheart swindler has been
00:36:03
captured. Police in Kenosha, Wisconsin,
00:36:06
arrested a man calling himself Robert
00:36:08
Cook after he romanced another victim
00:36:11
and then took her for
00:36:14
$10,000. Police recovered a dozen false
00:36:17
identification cards, all with different
00:36:19
aliases from various states. They also
00:36:22
found blank checks apparently stolen
00:36:25
from previous victims.
00:36:27
The sweetheart's swindler tried to
00:36:29
prevent police from identifying him by
00:36:32
filing off his fingerprints. However,
00:36:34
authorities persisted, eventually
00:36:37
learning that his real name was Alfred
00:36:39
Barerette, a Canadian
00:36:42
national. In the end, Barerette was
00:36:45
convicted in three states for crimes
00:36:47
related to his romance swindles. He
00:36:50
served his time and has been released.
00:36:53
[Music]
00:36:58
The idea of reincarnation has intrigued
00:37:01
people and cultures all over the world
00:37:03
for centuries. Previously, we presented
00:37:07
the case of a woman who was convinced
00:37:09
that she is the reincarnation of a girl
00:37:12
who lived more than a hundred years ago.
00:37:14
And now there's a surprising update to
00:37:17
this unusual story.
00:37:21
Since she was a child, Georgia Rudolph
00:37:23
has had reoccurring dreams and memories
00:37:25
of the past, of horses and carriages, a
00:37:28
river, and old-fashioned sternwheelers.
00:37:32
There is often a young man dressed in a
00:37:34
brown suit and derby hat and the image
00:37:36
of a dark-haired girl.
00:37:39
My whole childhood I thought I was crazy
00:37:42
because I don't think there was a month
00:37:45
that went by that I didn't have either
00:37:49
memories or dreams.
00:37:53
As a grown adult, Georgia tried therapy
00:37:56
in the form of regressive hypnosis. Some
00:37:58
of the things that you've been dreaming
00:38:00
about and thinking about. When Georgia
00:38:01
first contacted me, I felt it might be
00:38:04
something like an early traumatic
00:38:06
childhood memory that she was trying to
00:38:08
remember. Or possibly it could be an
00:38:10
aspect of a multiple personality. Other
00:38:13
than that, the reincarnation was
00:38:15
probably the last thing in my mind about
00:38:17
what had happened to her. While under
00:38:19
hypnosis, Georgia said the girl's name
00:38:22
was Sandra Jean Jenkins. The young man
00:38:25
in the derby hat was her fianceé, Tommy
00:38:28
Hicks. According to George's visions, in
00:38:32
1914, Tommy drowned in the Ohio River.
00:38:36
His body was never found. Sandra Jean
00:38:39
Jenkins was left unmarried and pregnant
00:38:42
with Tommy's
00:38:44
child. Distraught over the death of her
00:38:46
fianceé and unable to face the pregnancy
00:38:49
alone, she took her own
00:38:52
life. Georgia began searching for the
00:38:55
people and places that she saw in her
00:38:57
dreams. She traveled to Marietta, Ohio,
00:39:00
where she met with journalists Ted
00:39:03
Bower. A lifelong resident of Marietta,
00:39:06
Ted had worked for the local newspaper
00:39:08
for more than 30 years. When George
00:39:11
arrived in Marietta, I said, "I'll take
00:39:13
you around and show you some of the
00:39:15
places that you talked about over the
00:39:17
phone." And she says, "No, I'll show you
00:39:19
where to go." I couldn't believe her
00:39:22
knowledge of Marietta. I can't buy the
00:39:25
reincarnation bit, but she has some kind
00:39:28
of power, some way of knowing what
00:39:31
happened in the
00:39:33
past. In a nearby town, Georgia located
00:39:36
a house that she says matches the house
00:39:39
in her visions. Relatives of the former
00:39:42
owner gave Georgia what she feels is
00:39:45
evidence that Sandra Jean Jenkins did
00:39:48
exist. They brought out a picture taken
00:39:51
in 1908.
00:39:54
And the girl that I call Sandra is
00:39:58
standing in that
00:39:59
picture. There was a statement made by a
00:40:03
member of the family. I don't know this
00:40:06
girl's
00:40:07
name, but I know she drowned out back of
00:40:10
the house.
00:40:14
Update. After our broadcast, we were
00:40:17
contacted by a college professor who had
00:40:19
never met Georgia. He claimed that two
00:40:22
years before he saw our story, he had
00:40:25
visions that he lived in Ohio at the
00:40:28
turn of the century. His name was Tommy
00:40:32
Hicks. When I saw the original segment
00:40:34
with Georgia Rudolph, I could just feel
00:40:36
the anxiety building in myself cuz there
00:40:38
was almost instant recognition and my
00:40:41
wife was watching me and thinking,
00:40:43
"What's wrong with him?" And I was
00:40:45
gripping the arm of the couch tighter
00:40:46
and tighter and tighter as it went
00:40:47
through. And then when Georgia finally
00:40:49
said that his name was Tom Hicks, I
00:40:51
almost fell off the couch. I think
00:40:53
Jennifer. Two years before our story
00:40:56
aired, Jack underwent regressive
00:40:58
hypnosis in Jacksonville, Florida.
00:41:02
The particular session that I went
00:41:04
through, I was taken back to turn of the
00:41:08
century Ohio and I told the interviewer
00:41:11
that my name was Tom Hicks.
00:41:14
While under hypnosis, Jack said that a
00:41:17
river seemed to play a large part in the
00:41:19
life of Tommy Hicks and that Tommy's
00:41:21
younger brother had drowned. Jack also
00:41:24
recalled that Tommy had a girlfriend
00:41:27
with long dark hair. I still remain
00:41:31
somewhat skeptical. I need more proof,
00:41:34
but we're getting closer and closer to
00:41:35
the point where we cannot excuse it on
00:41:37
the basis of chance or probability.
00:41:42
boat was stuck. I was skeptical before
00:41:45
the two regression sessions that I've
00:41:47
had, but if they're not true, then
00:41:50
there's an awful lot of very odd
00:41:52
coincidences going
00:41:55
on. Something very definite is going on,
00:41:59
but we have no rational explanation that
00:42:01
science can provide as to what's
00:42:04
happening. I suggest we keep an open
00:42:08
mind.
00:42:23
[Music]
00:42:36
Heat. Heat.
00:42:38
[Music]
