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this program is about Unsolved Mysteries
00:00:07
whenever possible the actual family
00:00:09
members and police officials have
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participated in recreating the events
00:00:13
what you about to see is not a news
00:00:20
broadcast when Chad Langford a
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20-year-old Army MP was found mortally
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wounded a cap was stuffed in his mouth a
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cord wrapped around his neck and his
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ankles were bound the Army believes
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Lankford did these things to himself as
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a Prelude to Suicide his family is
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convinced he was murdered when new
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sessions of Thermopolis wyom agreed to
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store an old Foot Locker for a friend he
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got more than he bargained for an
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unidentified human skeleton and a
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perplexing Unsolved
00:00:49
Mystery in 1978 a police chief in
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Oklahoma was mortally wounded during a
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shootout with two armed robbers 7 years
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later his killer David Gordon Smith
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escaped from prison and
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vanished for nearly 8 years David Smith
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lived on the Run successfully eluding
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capture until he was recognized by one
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of our viewers join me for this dramatic
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update and more on tonight's unol
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Mysteries
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[Music]
00:02:13
March 12th 1992 7:40
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p.m. along the deserted perimeter of
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Redstone Arsenal army base in Huntsville
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Alabama 20-year-old military policeman
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Chad Langford was completing what should
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have been a routine Patrol
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this is 30 minutes later Langford radio
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his base station informing them he was
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stopping to investigate an abandoned car
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I'm on patent South Roger Sor
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28 21 Papa 21 say
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again 21 this is redstone say
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again get a unit all available units
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proceed the South Patton Road locate
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Papa 21
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all Gates locked down secure the
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post approximately 10 m from MP
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headquarters a backup officer found
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unsettling evidence that Langford was in
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Jeopardy close to the entrance of a
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civilian recreation area that is part of
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the base he found langford's military ID
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tag his armband and his portable police
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radio they had been deliberately
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arranged in the middle of the
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street a quarter of a mile away the
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patrolling officer made the discovery he
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had been dreading Redstone this is Papa
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Sierra I've located Papa 21 at Bunker
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8745 officer is down I request ambulance
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and back up
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immediately the officer was stunned by
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langford's condition the MP was bleeding
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from a head wound and breathing faintly
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his cap had been stuffed into his mouth
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and the cord from his radar unit had
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been wrapped around his neck
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his pistol strap was tied around his
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ankles langford's handcuffs were clamped
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on his left wrist and on his left hand
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was a cryptic message written in Black
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Ink March 3 and what looked like the
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name
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Robert but he's still alive let me get a
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shirt off careful
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careful let's roll him over check the
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wounds okay odley langford's 45 caliber
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pistol was found under his left shoulder
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get that out of here later examination
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would show Two Rounds had been fired
00:04:34
although it could not be determined
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whether one of them had hit Langford
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here ASAP go just hang in there L come
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on buddy Chad Langford was rushed to
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Huntsville Hospital where he died 2
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hours later Langford was 4 months shy of
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his 21st
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birthday Chad langford's family had
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assumed he was killed in the line of
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duty they were shocked to learn that the
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Army apparently believed Chad had taken
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his own
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life when I when I heard that I was very
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upset about the whole thing I I know
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that my boy did not kill himself there's
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no
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way I feel that he
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uh someone is covering something up
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here Chad Langford was raised by his
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father and grandmother in the small
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Northern California community of Elk
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[Music]
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Creek Chad joined the army right out of
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high school and soon found himself with
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US forces stationed in South Korea there
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he earned several Good Conduct
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medals at the conclusion of that tour of
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Duty he joined the military police At
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Redstone Arsenal in Alabama according to
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his family Chad loved Army life and
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planned to
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reinlist however early in 1992 Chad's
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attitude suddenly
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changed in January he called me and told
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me that uh he'd been asked to uh do some
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you undercover work he called me three
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or four different times and uh each time
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he give me a little bit about his still
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working undercover and uh sounded quite
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frustrated if you had said
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sometimes hi Dad how you
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doing yeah okay I guess listen remember
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what I told you a few weeks ago about my
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new
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assignment well it's getting pretty
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intense
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I had asked him and just exactly what he
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was working on and he said with guns and
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drugs um and numerous times he told me
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uh probably two or three times he told
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me that uh if he was found out that uh
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he was a dead
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man I've been getting threats you know
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phone calls and
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letters no I don't know who's sending
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them I I don't recognize his voice I
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mean it it it might be nothing but I'm
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starting to get worried I don't know
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what to do that time I told him I can't
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I can't call told him Chad you got to
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get out of this for 2 weeks and that he
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came back with I can't get out of it
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know what I'm doing I can't get out of
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it dead and I said well you got to get
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out of it if it's listen I got to call
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do you right now okay I
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will give my love to
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Grandma
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bye when Jim Langford urged his son to
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talk to his undercover Superior Chad
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said he would not be able to for another
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14 days but in 14 days Chad Langford was
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found bleeding from a fatal bullet wound
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to the
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Head the Army's criminal investigation
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division or C reviewed Chad langford's
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death for 4
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months their report stated that Langford
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had not been involved in any undercover
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narcotics work the C finding echoed the
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Army's preliminary judgment Chad
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Langford had taken his own
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life the report included what the C
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called a psychological autopsy a
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postmortem evaluation of mental health
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it described Lankford as having serious
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lifelong emotional
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problems the report that they sent me
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the psychological autopsy they sent me
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no that's so far out of whack it's
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unbelievable I'm sorry I just can't
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believe that any of that I mean I mean I
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raised the boy for 20 years I know himin
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better than that and uh the military has
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psychologists out to talk to you for or
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call you over the phone and talk to you
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for 10 minutes and then they have the
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complete live story of everybody and uh
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there so far off a base it's
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unbelievable the report claimed that a
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deterioration in Chad's relationship
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with his girlfriend had triggered his
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final suicidal
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depression the CID report said that Chad
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committed suicide for the distraught
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over my breaking up with him but that
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wasn't
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true um I didn't break up with Chad Chad
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broke up with me I don't know what I
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should ma in January of 1992 6 weeks
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before his death sh had had abruptly
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broken up with roxan I don't know I me
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I've got to make up my mind soon because
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after we get married
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roxan we need to
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talk
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what
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listen we're going to have to put off
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getting married I don't I don't
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understand I mean
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why it's my
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work this new assignment has taken a lot
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of my time and it just wouldn't be fair
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to you I mean you deserve to have a lot
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of my attention you still love me don't
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you I'm involved in things you don't
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even understand I can't even talk about
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them but why I mean I mean why do we
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have to break up is there another person
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is that it that's it isn't I there why
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why do we have to break up can't you
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understand
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[Music]
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English just get
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out I left I don't want to be with you
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anymore in a rage crying
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[Music]
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I had a feeling that someone was telling
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him to break it off with me and I think
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Chad did it to protect me or
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something roxan saw Chad for the last
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time 5 days before his death at the Bas
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nightclub he seemed to have changed
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dramatically Chad was dressed all in
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black gang style clothing he now sported
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nearing and and was hanging out with
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several roughl looking men roxan had not
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seen
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before langford's Lifestyle Changes tie
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in with another shocking CID allegation
00:10:39
that he had been The Mastermind of an
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aborted robbery plan targeting base PX
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funds the C report included interviews
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with three soldiers who identified Chad
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as the ring leader one of you guys will
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have to shoot me sh yeah but I'll be
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wearing a bulletproof Fest that way
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it'll look like I put up a fight I'll
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probably have to fire off a couple of
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rounds so I don't look like like a punk
00:11:00
all right now what about the other
00:11:01
escort won't he be able to identify us
00:11:04
well I guess we'll just have to kill him
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unless we want
00:11:09
Witnesses it seems very strange to me
00:11:12
that somebody would come
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forward to the criminal investigation
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division after someone was killed and
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said yeah we're planning on Rob we were
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planning on robbing a px fan for x
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amount of thousand doar I I just can't
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imagine anybody coming forward with that
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kind of information
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uh it's really tough that he you know
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he's not here now to be able to tell us
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what really happened now the plan is
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you'll be one of the escorts you re a
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bulletproof vest chaz's father believes
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there is a legitimate explanation for
00:11:43
any contact his son may have had with
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criminal elements on the
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base maybe they were trying to recruit
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him maybe this was right in in his what
00:11:52
he was doing uh with the informant or
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undercover
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work hours before his death Chad left
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phone messages for several friends but
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not for his family the C interpreted
00:12:04
Chad's calls as goodbye messages to
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those he cared for
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most when I got off work my mother told
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me that there was a message on the
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machine from Chad that had been erased
00:12:15
but she heard it it was him calling to
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say hi and how was I doing was I taking
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care of myself and that he would see me
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soon sorry I missed you um give me a
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call bye it didn't seem like a goodbye
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to
00:12:36
me Chad would have called uh me I know
00:12:41
he would have he would have called me if
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uh if something was to the point where
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you know he was going to commit suicide
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I know he would have but he didn't call
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me and he didn't call his
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grandmother uh so there weren't weren't
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goodbye calls as far as I'm concerned I
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mean uh I know he would have called me
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the psychological autopsy claimed that
00:13:03
Chad Langford had a profound lack of
00:13:05
self-esteem and was desperate to create
00:13:07
a new image even at the cost of his own
00:13:10
[Music]
00:13:12
life according to the report Chad felt
00:13:15
that the glory eluding him in life would
00:13:17
finally be his if he appeared to have
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died in a heroic Last
00:13:24
Stand psychological autopsy more or less
00:13:27
uh told us that
00:13:30
he was doing this to make us feel good
00:13:32
about him
00:13:34
because we wanted him to shine and and
00:13:37
uh he was doing this to to please us and
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that he wanted to go out in glory so
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this is why he set this whole thing up
00:13:48
this is why he drove out there and
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handcuffed himself he didn't want to
00:13:51
just to go out in and go around the car
00:13:53
and do away with yourself you know he
00:13:55
just he wanted to make it uh make it
00:13:57
special
00:14:00
the official inquiry concluded that
00:14:02
every aspect of Chad's death was
00:14:04
methodically staged by Chad himself from
00:14:07
his accounts of undercover assignments
00:14:09
to The Peculiar circumstances of his
00:14:11
[Music]
00:14:24
shooting Redstone this is Papa 21 have a
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stranded vehicle
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I'm on pattent
00:14:30
South 21 what's your
00:14:33
location I'm on pattent South Roger send
00:14:36
you
00:14:40
28 21 say
00:14:43
again one this is redstone say
00:14:48
again all available units seed to South
00:14:51
Paton Road locate Papa
00:14:53
21 all Gates locked down secure the post
00:15:01
to start with it was very bizarre even
00:15:04
from the night that it happened because
00:15:06
um the Huntsville police department and
00:15:08
the other law enforcement agencies never
00:15:10
heard a word from the Army about any of
00:15:12
it and generally when there's a a police
00:15:14
officer that's shot I mean there'll be a
00:15:16
Manhunt you know everywhere and
00:15:18
everybody was really baffled because
00:15:19
they weren't getting any information
00:15:20
about it uh you take into consideration
00:15:23
that he was tied with his own equipment
00:15:25
uh that it happened in a very remote
00:15:27
area that with easy access to the
00:15:29
Recreation Area um anybody could have
00:15:31
gotten in and out there very very easily
00:15:34
and then even before the Army ruled that
00:15:36
it was suicide there was just wild
00:15:38
speculation as to what could have
00:15:39
happened to him people were saying
00:15:40
Espionage drug deals all kinds of things
00:15:43
then it perpetuated itself as it went
00:15:46
with the c
00:15:49
reports according to langford's family
00:15:52
even some of the evidence gathered from
00:15:54
the death scene conflicts with a suicide
00:15:57
finding investigators recovered 2 45
00:16:00
caliber casings but they found no
00:16:02
bullets of any kind in or near the body
00:16:05
without bullets authorities were unable
00:16:07
to determine what type of gun killed
00:16:09
Langford radio was in addition lab test
00:16:13
did not conclusively pro Langford had
00:16:16
even fired a weapon and there was never
00:16:18
an explanation of how he came to be
00:16:20
lying on top of his own
00:16:23
gun uh there also said there wasn't a
00:16:26
struggle but there was a struggle I mean
00:16:27
I mean there's no doubt about it they
00:16:30
found two buttons in the front front
00:16:31
seat of the
00:16:33
car and those two buttons were
00:16:36
supposedly pulled off his uniform when
00:16:38
the Medics got there this was their
00:16:41
explanation to me that when they ripped
00:16:42
open his shirt both buttons flew in the
00:16:45
front seat of the car and uh that's
00:16:48
completely impossible cuz I've reset
00:16:50
that up and there's no
00:16:52
way uh from where he was laying and uh
00:16:56
the side his buttons were on his buttons
00:16:59
went the other way they wouldn't have
00:16:59
went in the
00:17:03
car Jim Langford also believes that MP's
00:17:06
responding to his son's distress call
00:17:08
squandered opportunities to question
00:17:11
possible
00:17:12
suspects within a mile of where Chad was
00:17:15
found MP stopped two different cars
00:17:19
however contrary to military regulations
00:17:21
no record was made of the dri names or
00:17:24
of either car's make model or license
00:17:26
number the drivers were never questioned
00:17:29
about langford's
00:17:31
death just letting him go I mean uh it's
00:17:35
it's absolutely crazy uh you're talking
00:17:38
about a a murder here and it appears to
00:17:41
me that anybody within uh three or four
00:17:44
mile radius of that place should have
00:17:46
been stopped and held for some for some
00:17:48
time they didn't do that they let the
00:17:50
man
00:17:52
go a source close to the investigation
00:17:55
has said that one of the drivers was
00:17:57
named Robert the name team found
00:17:59
scrawled on langford's
00:18:05
hand those who believed Chad Langford
00:18:08
was working undercover are convinced his
00:18:10
sudden violent death was nothing less
00:18:13
than
00:18:15
murder I feel that he went down there on
00:18:19
that part of Base because he was
00:18:21
supposed to meet somebody down there and
00:18:23
when I talked to him on the first part
00:18:24
of
00:18:25
March he told me he couldn't talk to his
00:18:28
contact for at least two more weeks now
00:18:30
just about the same time he was supposed
00:18:31
to talk to his contact and he drove down
00:18:34
at the end of that road down there and
00:18:35
there was a vehicle there but he knew
00:18:36
who was in that
00:18:38
vehicle and he phoned
00:18:40
in just to get away from his radioone
00:18:43
this is Papa 21 I'm checking out a
00:18:46
stranded vehicle I'm on patent South
00:18:50
Roger s
00:18:52
28 it would have taken more than one
00:18:54
person to to uh to handle Chad he uh was
00:18:59
very strong very agile uh and then again
00:19:04
he knew these people I know he knew
00:19:06
these
00:19:14
people Redstone this is Papa 21 I need
00:19:16
backup now this is
00:19:19
[Music]
00:19:23
Papa I think Shad was involved in um
00:19:27
involved what he was telling me he was
00:19:28
involved involved in he was an in
00:19:29
between person with some drug
00:19:32
dealing um I think he was put in that
00:19:34
position by somebody on that base
00:19:36
whether military or civilian he put
00:19:38
somebody put him
00:19:39
there and I think he was a middle man
00:19:42
and I think he was set
00:19:43
up I really feel he was set
00:19:46
up and uh I'm going to find
00:19:50
[Music]
00:19:52
out Chad langford's Final hours remain
00:19:55
shrouded in mystery did he invent a tale
00:19:58
of under cover Intrigue and then stage a
00:20:00
heroic death or did Chad Langford truly
00:20:03
die a hero gunned down in the line of
00:20:07
[Music]
00:20:09
duty next thanks to our viewers a
00:20:12
convicted killer has been captured
00:20:13
nearly 8 years after he escaped from
00:20:16
[Music]
00:20:27
prison just after 8: a.m. on September
00:20:29
1st
00:20:31
1978 in katusa Oklahoma police chief JB
00:20:35
Hami responded to an emergency call from
00:20:37
an autol licensed tag agency B get out
00:20:40
of
00:20:47
here 20 rounds ricocheted through the
00:20:50
small store in a matter of
00:20:52
seconds one Robber was killed the other
00:20:54
was hit twice but somehow managed to
00:20:56
escape
00:21:04
less than 5 minutes later Chief Hami
00:21:06
died from gunshot wounds he was a
00:21:08
24-year veteran of law enforcement and
00:21:10
the only police officer in
00:21:16
katusa on June 15th 1979 the surviving
00:21:20
gunman 25-year-old David Gordon Smith
00:21:22
began serving a life sentence for the
00:21:24
murder of JB
00:21:26
Hami open 43
00:21:30
Smith became a model prisoner and
00:21:32
eventually achieved trustee status 7
00:21:35
years after he murdered Chief Hami David
00:21:37
Gordon Smith took advantage of his
00:21:39
status to escape and to
00:21:42
disappear when we first he this story
00:21:45
last October we received more than 75
00:21:47
leads but none of them panned out
00:21:50
however one thing we have learned on
00:21:51
Unsolved Mysteries over the years is
00:21:53
never to give up the story aired again
00:21:56
in March and this time in a small South
00:21:58
Dakota town the right viewer was
00:22:00
watching he called the local authorities
00:22:02
and they immediately contacted the
00:22:06
FBI one day following the Airing of the
00:22:09
David Gordon Smith case on Unsolved
00:22:11
Mysteries an anonymous tip was received
00:22:14
giving us his
00:22:17
location he was working as a service
00:22:21
manager at an automobile dealership in
00:22:23
Spearfish South Dakota agents of the FBI
00:22:28
local authorities in South Dakota went
00:22:30
to his place of employment he was
00:22:32
arrested without incident and he readily
00:22:36
admitted his identity and upon question
00:22:39
him when David Gordon Smith is brought
00:22:42
back to Oklahoma he'll go immediately
00:22:45
into our our system it'd be classified
00:22:48
as a maximum security inmate and uh
00:22:53
because of his Escape uh he will be in
00:22:56
our Maximum Security Prison for a long
00:23:01
time there's a tremendous amount of
00:23:04
relief uh it was equivalent to a a
00:23:09
long-term gigantic debt being paid off
00:23:13
[Music]
00:23:24
[Music]
00:23:34
there we go on February 9th 1988 the
00:23:37
owners of a storage facility in Northern
00:23:39
California opened a Locker on which the
00:23:41
rent had not been paid everything inside
00:23:45
they found thousands of dollars of
00:23:46
stolen Telephone Company
00:23:49
equipment the locker had been red by
00:23:51
Kevin pson a 22-year-old computer whiz
00:23:54
and accomplished hacker
00:23:58
an investigation revealed that for more
00:24:00
than a year pson was apparently
00:24:02
accessing sensitive government and
00:24:04
Military computer
00:24:07
[Music]
00:24:08
programs when authorities searched
00:24:10
Paulson's home they found an
00:24:12
unauthorized phone tapping device stolen
00:24:14
from a northern California phone company
00:24:17
facility incredibly Poston had taken
00:24:20
photographs of himself breaking into and
00:24:22
using equipment at a phone company
00:24:24
transmitting station
00:24:28
among the items found inside poon's
00:24:30
rented storage locker were computer
00:24:32
printouts containing classified military
00:24:34
information and the unlisted telephone
00:24:37
number of the Soviet Embassy in San
00:24:41
Francisco his penetration of the United
00:24:43
States Army government computer his
00:24:46
obtaining of a non-published number the
00:24:48
Soviet consulate gave his grave concern
00:24:51
as to how far pson was going with these
00:24:56
criminal Acts
00:24:58
Kevin pson was indicted on 18 felony
00:25:01
counts of computer related crimes but
00:25:03
before he could stand trial pson jumped
00:25:06
bail and
00:25:11
disappeared update shortly after our
00:25:13
broadcast the FBI received information
00:25:16
that Kevin pson was living near Los
00:25:18
Angeles
00:25:20
California our San Francisco office had
00:25:23
advised us that pson had some
00:25:25
acquaintances in the Los Angeles area
00:25:27
and we went out near interviewed those
00:25:28
acquaintances and one of them advised us
00:25:31
that he had been seen in the not too
00:25:33
distant past at Hughes Market we then
00:25:36
went out and interviewed all the
00:25:37
employees at Hughes market and displayed
00:25:38
his
00:25:39
photograph 3 weeks later pson returned
00:25:42
to the
00:25:45
supermarket I walked past
00:25:48
Kevin and um it dawned on me that that's
00:25:52
the person in the photo and adrenaline
00:25:55
was pumping in me I felt really nervous
00:25:58
and uh didn't want to be let let any
00:26:01
suspicion on to uh Kevin that we were on
00:26:04
to
00:26:05
him Brian immediately notified the
00:26:08
FBI however pson was able to leave the
00:26:11
store before agents could
00:26:14
respond the FBI informed me that Kevin
00:26:17
pson had been seen at the van I Hughes
00:26:19
Market at about 10 or 10:30 in the
00:26:22
evening I decided to surveil the market
00:26:25
thinking Kevin may show up again
00:26:29
at about 10 minutes till midnight Kevin
00:26:33
pson arrived uh drove up and parked
00:26:35
immediately in front of the
00:26:41
market once Kevin was in the store I
00:26:44
took a position uh near the front door
00:26:46
and asked the security guard to go find
00:26:49
Brian Bridges the evening manager and
00:26:51
bring him to my location so I could tell
00:26:53
him that Kevin pson was in the store
00:26:58
believing that pson would again elude
00:27:00
capture two St clerks made a daring
00:27:03
[Music]
00:27:07
move
00:27:10
security a security guard escorted pson
00:27:13
to a store room where he was held until
00:27:15
FBI agents arrived and placed him under
00:27:20
arrest during the uh search of Mr pson
00:27:24
we found some handcuffed keys in his
00:27:26
eyeglass cases during the time that he
00:27:29
was in custody he claimed that his
00:27:31
contact lenses were drying out and he
00:27:33
had asked for his eyeglass cases to be
00:27:35
sent to him so I'm assuming that he was
00:27:37
looking for the Handcuff keys
00:27:51
[Music]
00:28:01
Philadelphia police emergency in a city
00:28:03
as large as Philadelphia police
00:28:05
operators receive literally thousands of
00:28:07
reports every day regarding possible
00:28:09
criminal activity most of the calls are
00:28:12
routine but some are so unbelievable
00:28:15
that even the most World weary
00:28:17
detectives can be taken by
00:28:21
surprise Brennan on September 10th 1991
00:28:25
Detective Pat Brennan was stunned to
00:28:27
receive not one but three telephone
00:28:30
calls from a convicted rapist named
00:28:32
Julius Patterson those calls would
00:28:35
launch one of the most bizarre and
00:28:36
disturbing murder investigations the
00:28:38
city has ever
00:28:40
known we'll find a body who's body out
00:28:44
of the blue Patterson confessed to a
00:28:46
shock Brennan that he and his girlfriend
00:28:49
Paul at height had killed two people one
00:28:51
in 1986 and the other in 1988 p a t t e
00:28:56
r s o n
00:28:58
and when did poad H kill your sister
00:29:02
incredibly Patterson admitted that one
00:29:04
of the victims was his own sister even
00:29:07
revealed where her body could be found
00:29:09
need a little bit more information from
00:29:11
you I'm going to need a date of birth a
00:29:12
social security number where you're
00:29:14
living he was like a man on a mission he
00:29:16
was out to convince me and anyone else
00:29:18
that would listen to him that what he
00:29:20
had to say was real and he was out to
00:29:23
make the police act on it with this
00:29:25
urgency in his voice and and the detail
00:29:27
to what he was saying to us just made me
00:29:30
feel that everything he he was saying
00:29:32
was a truth and would be found
00:29:36
it detectives were immediately
00:29:38
dispatched to the address Patterson had
00:29:40
given yeah hi ma'am I'm sorry to bother
00:29:43
we're from the police department the
00:29:44
current resident had lived there for
00:29:46
several months and had a difficult time
00:29:48
believing there might be a body in the
00:29:51
basement how do you know he was telling
00:29:53
the truth well we have to check it out
00:29:55
man' it's probably just a crank call
00:29:57
hopefully don't want to be here all
00:29:58
night are you sure this is the right
00:30:00
house yes it is man Patterson had told
00:30:03
detectives to look for a discolored
00:30:05
patch of cement what are you going to do
00:30:07
if you find anything we probably won't
00:30:10
we have to check it out there's the
00:30:11
carpet okay at the foot of the steps
00:30:14
under an old tattered carpet they found
00:30:16
an area which fit the
00:30:18
description but it remained to be seen
00:30:21
what if anything might be buried beneath
00:30:23
the
00:30:26
floor it all almost that same moment
00:30:29
detective Brennan received another call
00:30:31
from Julius Patterson jul earlier he had
00:30:34
said that his girlfriend Paul at height
00:30:37
could be found at a motel in New Jersey
00:30:39
a couple Jersey now I need you to come
00:30:41
in and give us a statement now he was
00:30:43
demanding to know if she had been
00:30:45
arrested I don't know they haven't
00:30:47
called us back yet but we need once I
00:30:49
confirmed for him that detectives were
00:30:51
at the crime scene and that there were
00:30:53
detectives in to South Jersey he stated
00:30:56
he would call back he hung up the phone
00:30:58
and he never called
00:31:01
back using sledgehammers and shovels the
00:31:04
anxious investigators began to
00:31:07
excavate gloves soon their worst fears
00:31:10
were confirmed you yeah you get a
00:31:15
body Julius Patterson had been telling
00:31:18
the truth up over here let me get a shot
00:31:20
yeah we already get shot about SC Julius
00:31:22
Patterson has to be the worst type of
00:31:23
person
00:31:25
possible uh for somebody to to want to
00:31:27
kill your sister it's just
00:31:30
mindboggling like I said I've never seen
00:31:32
that in my entire police career
00:31:34
something that tragic
00:31:38
especially police soon learned that from
00:31:40
1984 to 1986 Julius Patterson Paul at
00:31:44
height and julius's Sister Jesse had
00:31:46
lived together in the house does look
00:31:51
like other members of the Patterson
00:31:53
family confirm that Jesse had
00:31:55
mysteriously vanished in July of 19
00:31:59
[Music]
00:32:04
1986 testing leader confirmed that the
00:32:06
bones were the remains of Julius
00:32:08
Patterson's 26-year-old Sister
00:32:10
Jesse she had been born blind deaf and
00:32:14
mute it is almost too horrible to
00:32:16
imagine that her brother who'd been
00:32:17
entrusted with her care had murdered her
00:32:20
apparently as part of a devious scheme
00:32:22
to cash in on her social security
00:32:24
benefits but the investigation was just
00:32:27
heating up
00:32:28
Julius Patterson had confessed to a
00:32:30
second murder and had identified the
00:32:32
victim as
00:32:36
Gordy police eventually learned that
00:32:38
during the 1980s a man named Hall Luther
00:32:41
Gordon who suffered from Alzheimer's
00:32:43
disease had also been under the care of
00:32:46
Julius Patterson and Paul at
00:32:49
height the unlicensed height made her
00:32:51
living by providing home care for the
00:32:53
elderly she had met Gordon at a local
00:32:56
boarding house he was was last seen in
00:32:58
July of
00:32:59
1986 around the same time his two
00:33:02
caretakers moved away from the
00:33:06
neighborhood if you look at both of the
00:33:09
individuals uh Hall Luther Gordon and
00:33:11
Jesse Patterson uh both of these people
00:33:15
um for totally different reasons were
00:33:18
incapable of taking care of themselves
00:33:20
and were completely at the mercy of the
00:33:23
people that were entrusted with their
00:33:24
care um because someone took advantage
00:33:27
of that situation and that in itself is
00:33:30
not that unusual unfortunately but the
00:33:32
fact that they actually went on to kill
00:33:34
them uh for no other reason than to to
00:33:37
increase their own wealth um yes that
00:33:40
did take a special significance for
00:33:43
us these pictures of Julius Patterson
00:33:45
and Paul Ed height were taken by a bank
00:33:48
ATM camera in August and September of
00:33:51
1991 authorities believe that over a
00:33:54
10-year period the pair may have stolen
00:33:56
as much as $100 $50,000 from their
00:34:02
victims yeah I'm coming FBI agent
00:34:05
Richard Kane and detective duac traced
00:34:07
the missing fugitives to a motel in
00:34:09
South New Jersey got a photograph just
00:34:12
mean anything they arrived only to
00:34:14
discover that Patterson and height had
00:34:16
moved out the week before was here
00:34:18
almost a year uh we were able to track
00:34:22
poette to
00:34:24
another hotel down the road and found
00:34:28
that she had stayed there for a night or
00:34:30
two under an assumed name and had left
00:34:33
there hurriedly abandoning
00:34:37
possessions Julius Patterson and Paul at
00:34:39
height were last seen in Philadelphia in
00:34:41
September of
00:34:43
1991 the couple robbed an old friend of
00:34:45
the Patterson family at gunpoint and
00:34:48
then promptly dropped from
00:34:51
sight Julius Patterson is 38 years old
00:34:55
he is 5' 11 in tall and weighs
00:34:58
50b he is wanted for questioning
00:35:00
regarding the death of his sister Jesse
00:35:02
and The Disappearance of Hall Luther
00:35:04
Gordon he is also wanted for armed
00:35:07
robbery assault and parole
00:35:11
violations Paul at height is 44 years
00:35:13
old she's 5' 3 in tall and weighs 190 lb
00:35:18
she uses Elias's colet hoop or poeta
00:35:21
Price she's wanted on charges of armed
00:35:24
robbery and fraudulent receipt of Social
00:35:26
Security payments she is also wanted for
00:35:29
questioning regarding Jesse Patterson
00:35:31
and Hall Luther
00:35:33
Gordon following our most recent
00:35:35
broadcast of the story a former employer
00:35:38
Paul at height called our phone center
00:35:40
to report that height had been working
00:35:41
in a fast food restaurant in Cliffside
00:35:43
Park New Jersey under an assumed name
00:35:47
here's what happened next according to
00:35:48
Philadelphia police Lieutenant Joseph
00:35:51
witty gave us a social security number
00:35:53
she used and the FBI tracked that social
00:35:55
security number to a Ware recipient in
00:35:58
New York City uh FBI agents in New York
00:36:01
City Police Department staked out the
00:36:03
location where she was to pick up her
00:36:05
checks at that time both Julius
00:36:07
Patterson and Paul Ed height were
00:36:10
apprehended after the arrest Julius
00:36:12
Patterson LED police to this empty
00:36:14
Warehouse in North Philadelphia where he
00:36:17
said he had left the partial remains of
00:36:19
Hall Luther
00:36:20
Gordon police records confirmed that
00:36:23
some human bones had been found there in
00:36:25
1989 the police now believe that they
00:36:28
were the remains of Hall Luther
00:36:31
Gordon 3 weeks later Patterson LED
00:36:33
police back to the same area claiming
00:36:36
that he had buried yet another victim
00:36:38
there during the search the unexpected
00:36:41
happened while it behind the factory he
00:36:44
assaulted one of the detectives knocking
00:36:47
him down and then ran down the railroad
00:36:50
adjacent railroad tracks and jumped off
00:36:51
a railroad trussle was about 10 ft tall
00:36:53
onto a street and then made his Escape
00:36:59
3 Days Later Julius Patterson was
00:37:02
captured at an intersection of North
00:37:04
Philadelphia one he was apprehended
00:37:06
Patterson was standing at a bus stop
00:37:08
wearing severed handcuffs concealed
00:37:10
under a coat
00:37:25
[Music]
00:37:30
[Music]
00:37:39
sometimes from the most unlikely
00:37:40
elements comes a tantalizing mystery and
00:37:43
confirmation that the truth is Stranger
00:37:45
Than
00:37:46
Fiction the mystery might start say with
00:37:49
this broken down Foot
00:37:51
Locker who can guess what the old trunk
00:37:53
might contain or where it might lead
00:37:58
perhaps to a small town in Wyoming
00:38:00
called
00:38:03
theopolis in 1986 a longtime resident
00:38:07
and we will call Gabby moved away from
00:38:09
theopolis he left some of his belongings
00:38:12
including the old lock trunk in a shed
00:38:15
he left the shed with a friend newal
00:38:19
sessions 6 years crept
00:38:24
[Music]
00:38:26
by finally n couldn't stand the suspense
00:38:29
another
00:38:30
minute let's just see what's in
00:38:33
here no telling what we'll find no doubt
00:38:36
if you'll find much of anything uhoh my
00:38:39
goodness that's a
00:38:41
skeleton it's it's
00:38:43
human see what do you think about
00:38:48
that it's been in there a long time
00:38:51
nobody could believe that we had
00:38:53
uncovered a human
00:38:55
skeleton and they wasn't too much said
00:38:58
at that
00:39:00
time I think it was my wife asked me
00:39:02
what we was going to do with it and I
00:39:04
said I think that the best thing we
00:39:06
could do with it would be to take it out
00:39:07
here and take a hole and give it a
00:39:08
proper burial new's wife put her foot
00:39:11
down she told him he had to call the
00:39:14
Sheriff before he did though n felt
00:39:17
obliged to contact Gabby and the kid oh
00:39:20
they're just fine so what's up well uh
00:39:24
you remember that shed you left up here
00:39:26
I sure do
00:39:28
uh you remember the Foot Locker that was
00:39:30
in the
00:39:31
shed yes I was going to Gabby told new
00:39:34
that he'd never even open the Foot
00:39:35
Locker he thought he'd bought it at a
00:39:37
garage sale but when it came to the time
00:39:40
and the place Gabby's memory failed him
00:39:44
when I cut the lock off I found a human
00:39:46
skeleton in the trunk you're uh not
00:39:50
serious about this are you he act uh
00:39:54
probably as surprised as I did when I
00:39:56
when I opened the drunk that he couldn't
00:39:59
believe it he thought I was kidding you
00:40:01
and I told him no I'm not kidding you
00:40:03
there is a human skeleton in
00:40:05
[Music]
00:40:07
there new sessions contacted John Lumley
00:40:10
the sheriff of Hot Springs
00:40:12
County right from the start Sheriff
00:40:14
lumbley smelled a
00:40:16
rat doesn't know much he said Gabby
00:40:18
doesn't know much I've talked to a lot
00:40:21
of people about this case and
00:40:22
everybody's said almost
00:40:25
99.99% or more that they would have
00:40:27
opened it immediately upon purchasing it
00:40:30
they said if they went to a yard sale or
00:40:31
garage sale bought a trunk that's half
00:40:33
the excitement it's like a Christmas
00:40:35
present can't wait to get home to open
00:40:36
it I don't think my curiosity is a less
00:40:39
than the others although it apparently
00:40:41
has a tendency to
00:40:43
atrophy um because I I know I took the
00:40:46
thing home I didn't have a hacksaw I was
00:40:48
going to cut the lock
00:40:50
off and that's a lot of
00:40:53
work 2 Days Later another bombshell
00:40:56
x-ray revealed a bullet lodged in the
00:40:59
skull now Sheriff Lumley thought he
00:41:01
might have a murder case on his hands he
00:41:04
decided he'd better have a chat with
00:41:06
Gabby where did you buy the trunk at
00:41:09
Gabby oh I guess was uh 73 Gabby was
00:41:13
awfully vague about the details he said
00:41:15
he might have bought the trunk in
00:41:16
Wyoming or in Iowa Illinois or maybe
00:41:21
Oklahoma it might have been as early as
00:41:24
1973 but it might not have been Gabby
00:41:27
couldn't be sure was trying to find
00:41:29
furniture for the new place well my
00:41:31
being a suspect I first off I I wasn't
00:41:35
the least bit worried about why what do
00:41:37
I have to worry about I mean really you
00:41:40
know I know I didn't do the guy you know
00:41:42
I didn't shoot this dude
00:41:45
um I'm barely in fact I'm not I'm not
00:41:48
even as old as the gun that shot him
00:41:52
Gabby is is in his
00:41:55
mid-40s the Foot Locker and the lock
00:41:58
were made back in the 30s time period I
00:42:01
don't believe that Gabby was was the
00:42:03
person that caused the death to this
00:42:06
person but my thoughts have always been
00:42:09
that he has knowledge of who the person
00:42:12
in the trunk is or where they came
00:42:15
from to put tools in for the record
00:42:19
Gabby says he doesn't know one single
00:42:21
thing about the bones in the foot locker
00:42:23
and at this point he's a little irked by
00:42:25
the whole mess
00:42:30
on March 31st 1992 Sheriff Lumley turned
00:42:33
the skeleton over to the Wyoming State
00:42:35
Crime Lab in Cheyenne maybe the bones
00:42:38
could tell him what Gabby
00:42:40
[Music]
00:42:42
couldn't boy it sure doesn't look like
00:42:44
there's any organization to these bones
00:42:46
are they not really okay well let's
00:42:48
start laying it
00:42:51
[Music]
00:42:53
out he was in his 50s to uh mid 60s
00:42:59
probably stood about 58 plus or minus an
00:43:02
inch and a half um was a Caucasian
00:43:06
male the bullet was then turned over to
00:43:09
our Firearms examiner who was able to
00:43:12
identify it as uh coming from a 25
00:43:15
caliber um weapon that was produced in
00:43:19
the uh early 1900s 1904 and then
00:43:23
available in the United States about
00:43:25
1908
00:43:30
oh here's a plastic bag also in the
00:43:33
trunk was a rotted plastic bag from a
00:43:35
supermarket chain called hiy the bag
00:43:38
with that particular logo was not
00:43:40
manufactured until the early
00:43:43
1950s it's like a potato
00:43:47
sack investigators figured that the
00:43:50
skeleton had been buried once only to be
00:43:53
dug up and crammed unceremoniously into
00:43:55
the Foot Locker
00:43:59
in an effort to identify the victim
00:44:01
Sandra Maye fashioned a
00:44:03
three-dimensional reconstruction in
00:44:08
clay the result is uncanny only the eyes
00:44:12
and hair are guesswork otherwise this
00:44:14
should be a good likeness of the man who
00:44:16
somehow got a bullet in his head
00:44:18
sometime after
00:44:20
1908 strangely both of his lower leg
00:44:23
bones and one hand were missing on his
00:44:25
rib cage there were several necks which
00:44:27
might have been made by
00:44:29
[Music]
00:44:48
bullets for every mystery there is
00:44:50
someone somewhere who knows the truth
00:44:53
join me next week for another edition of
00:44:56
UN solve Mysteries
00:45:00
[Music]
00:45:21
[Applause]
00:45:25
[Music]
